onetrack

Aaah, but you also have your EV listening, watching and recording everything you do in it! Then, when the Chinese want to get nasty, they'll blow it up on you! 😄

My Dad brought a sundial back from one of his holiday trips to the U.K. (where he was born). But I think he failed to realise a Northern Hemisphere sundial is useless in the Southern Hemisphere. I wondered why it was amongst his collection of possessions after he died, and not being used. But when I set it up, I realised why that was the case.

It's the end of an era for the Kalgoorlie region, as the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter, containing one of the biggest nickel smelting, flash furnaces in the world, shuts down, due to an onslaught of cheap Asian nickel. Only last year, an expansion of the KNS was planned as demand for nickel from EV's and lithium batteries was thought to be increasing - along with good prices for nickel. In that short space of time, China and Indonesia have flooded the market with cheap nickel, nickel prices have tanked, and these factors combined, have delivered a body blow to the KNS, putting it out of business in record time. I have fond memories of the KNS, I can remember it opening, and spent many years driving past it constantly, although I never worked there. It was a major feature of the W.A. Goldfields for over 50 years, and I made money working as a contractor on numerous nickel mines and leases in the W.A. Goldfields in the 1970's. However, nothing lasts forever, and the nickel landscape has changed dramatically. Luckily for the W.A. Goldfields, there's plenty of mining alternatives, with gold going gangbusters, price-wise, and plenty of gold still being found. Lithium and rare-earth metals mining have also come into prominence in the region, so there are still employment choices and stability for the W.A. Goldfields. The EV and battery development world is turning a lot of established industries on their head. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-06/closure-of-bhp-kalgoorlie-nickel-smelter-after-51-years/104307662

"Thermal power" is a bit misleading. I was thinking geothermal power, but the definition "Thermal power" largely refers to gas-powered power plants, although coal is also called "Thermal". Large areas of Asia, including Taiwan, are highly dependent on Australian LNG and coal, and will be, for a long time yet.

I don't know about that. In my neck of the woods, a country drive often turns into a snarl as you run into a major oversize movement going on. And when a big load comes to a bridge or overpass, all the traffic is stopped, as the road engineers instructions are that no more than the one oversize/overmass load is allowed on the bridge or overpass at the one time, and the heavy load has to transit the bridge/overpass at no more than 10-15kmh. This instruction is to prevent bridge/overpass pylon displacement, which can happen if a heavy load transits a bridge/overpass at speed. The load pressure is transferred in a longitudinal manner to the bridge/overpass structure with high speed, and this can make the bridge/overpass structure move longitudinally, and displace it on its pylons. I went to the country yesterday, up the Gt Northern Hwy, and it's a route constantly full of oversize/overmass equipment being moved to and from the North of W.A. I ran up behind 3 of the biggest (new) dump trucks I've seen in recent weeks, heading North to the Iron ore country, and got slowed to a crawl as they went over an overpass. But at the next overpass, I managed to get past them by exiting left before the overpass, and then rejoining the highway from the road under the overpass, while they were crawling over the overpass. Then, I got about another 20kms up the highway and crested the hill just before the Chittering Roadhouse, and sighted another two massive dump trucks preparing to pull out of the roadhouse! The road was full of pilot and escort cars, but I managed to squeak through as the last vehicle in a line, and all the escorts blocked the highway as the trucks pulled out behind me! It would have been a slow trip for people stuck behind them, the loads are anywhere between 8 and 10 metres wide and the cover more than two full lanes - and even when there's a passing lane, you're often still blocked from overtaking by pilot vehicles. It's a PIA, and it really slows up your trip time.

I was reading about the Violet Town rail disaster last month, it must have been terrifying for the freight train driver watching the Southern Aurora barrelling towards him at full speed. https://mx-schroeder.medium.com/dead-man-driving-the-1969-violet-town-australia-train-collision-b7e5e25ea437

Back to the EV subject. It appears the long-held belief that EV's are virtually free to run, is taking a good hit to the nuts. The cost of recharging at privately-owned recharging stations is rocketing and becoming a constant cost burden. In places such as the U.K., it can cost more to recharge an EV than to refuel an IC car! Australian charging rates are rocketing at unreasonable levels, and of course, the charging companies can always someone to blame, in the form of the energy generators. Naturally, the EV aficionados point out that you always recharge at home, so the cost is much lower. However, that's not always something you can do - if you're moving around quite a bit, this means you have to plan all your driving around your home location being readily within reach. https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/motoring-news/public-ev-charging-costs-rise-to-rival-petrol/news-story/f1767b47bd8013fb66ed0511ebd50173 Meantimes, the EV sales are showing some curious features. One, is the staggering (and unsustainable) number of EV brands and models on offer. This can only end in tears as many of them disappear, leaving owners of the defunct models out on a limb. The second interesting feature is the staggering discrepancy in month to month sales figures. Sales were slow but gradually increasing in the early part of the year, then there was a massive jump in May and June sales. I would expect this was due to the ending of some EV concessions, but I'll wager a lot of if was driven by end-of-year tax breaks. But the sales then slumped badly in July and August, and only show signs of minor recovery in September, despite the fact that many EV manufacturers reduced prices by substantial amounts last month. I saw an article that outlined how the majority of EV buyers were in families that had at least $200K of combined household income. This indicates to me that tax breaks and novated leases for the wealthy, have been driving the "EV boom", and it's a false boom. Only when families of modest income start buying EV's, will there be a total and final turn in the EV market against IC-engine vehicles. In another article, I saw where there has been a 17% increase in diesel-fuelled vehicle purchases, as the desire to stay with diesel, continues to be a market driver for many. https://thedriven.io/2024/10/04/australian-electric-vehicle-sales-by-month-and-by-model-in-2024/

What is it about rail networks that makes them the fertile breeding ground for graffiti vandals? I detest riding Eastern States trains simply because of the graffiti eyesores one is assailed with on a constant basis when travelling on them. Furthermore, I am absolutely puzzled by the track locations in the video? I always thought Australian trains ran on the left - but the Victorian train network is obviously run by the Asians, where you just drive anywhere there's a gap! I see the train in the video bouncing from driving on the right, to driving on the left, then in to the centre, and all over the place in general? This must be pretty unnerving for train drivers?

This King is making a welter out of his birthday celebrations. Our Kings Birthday holiday was on 23rd September 2024, so tomorrow's a normal workday here on the Left Coast - no doubt complete with the regular morning peak hour crashes on the Freeways, that snarl traffic up for kms, and making everyone that's caught up in it, grouchy.

I think you'll find the dismantling of the 3G network is all to do with freeing up another big slice of the 3G bandwidth spectrum, so the Govt can auction those bandwidths off to other users. There's a huge pent-up demand for those bandwidths, and the last time the Govt had a bandwidth auction, they raked in billions from the Telcos that bought them. I STR Telstra paid around $1.8B just for a small handful of frequencies that they plan to utilize in the near future.

As always, the Pommy masters named Derby W.A. after a Pommy toff mate! QUOTE: named after Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby, the British secretary of state for the colonies

Stubble burning has gone out of fashion because the burning consumes nitrogen, adds to air pollution, and denudes the topsoil, allowing an increase in erosion. Stubble burning also detrimentally affects the soil microbiome, stressing it out with high temperatures. As a result, many are trying alternative means to deal with stubble. The major aim with stubble burning was to prevent tyned seeding machine blockages, this is a major hassle with heavy stubble, and some machines. Seeding machine design has developed into designs aimed at working better in heavy stubble. However, when heavy stubble is buried, the breakdown of the stubble can also consume soil nutrients. Baling stubble for manufacturing use or for feed additives is a desirable aim, but one that is not always readily available, especially in more remote locations. https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/crops-and-horticulture/grains-pulses-and-cereals/crop-production/general-agronomy/stubble-burning https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/crops-and-horticulture/grains-pulses-and-cereals/crop-production/general-agronomy/stubble-burning

I reckon Jerry has a constant craven for Tim-Tams, and just the sight of a packet must start the craven.

It's obvious, innit? - it's because the Fire Brigade has all the specialised tools for nut extraction!

There's more than enough nickel to around - but before long, nickel will likely fall out of fashion as a battery ingredient, as newer and "greener" materials are developed. The price of nickel has slumped badly, mostly due to oversupply, and many of the nickel operations in W.A. have been placed on care and maintenance - including the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter. China and Indonesia are producing vast amounts of nickel at lower cost than we can produce it, so it'll be a while before we have to worry about a nickel shortage.

One of the problems that is arising with DNA sequencing is if you find out that your gene mutuations make you predisposed to certain medical conditions that affect your quality of life, or which will lead to early death or disablement - then the life insurance companies can refuse to insure you, on the basis you're a bad risk, or have a much higher chance than the average person, of making a claim. And they may start to make a DNA test compulsory, before they insure you.

I'd be questioning the abilities and qualifications of the people who designed a shower chair that could easily trap ones testicles! I could well imagine that company won't get a second chance at the next shower chair tender for supply of same!

This comprehensive DNA study is one of the biggest ones carried out on any Asian nation, and it reveals some interesting things about Japanese ancestry, as well as discovering the sizeable number of Asians who have a predisposition to contracting and dying from COVID-19, due to a DNA weakness inherited via Neanderthal genes. https://scitechdaily.com/who-are-the-japanese-new-dna-study-shocks-scientists/

I'd be disappointed if I got to 99, and didn't make 100! I've known several people who did that, they died just a few months short of their 100th.

It's a compass direction trick question, and a very clever one at that. The picture descriptions of Thorn, Shout, and Stew, are anagrams of the three cardinal directions of the compass: North, South and West. So the answer is A, because Seat is an anagram of East.

In War, psychology plays just as big a part in winning, as the number of soldiers killed. Psychological warfare undermines enemy morale, and low morale leads to a defeatist attitude.

In my experience, high carbon steels rust more quickly than low carbon steels. Low alloy, high tensile steels in the likes of high grade fasteners, such as Grade 8 or metric Grade 10.9 bolts always rust rapidly. The modern high tensile steels in car body panels rust faster than the old car bodies, which used mild steels. But different irons and steels all possess substantially different properties, so nothing is guaranteed. The older steels may have more impurities such as small slag inclusions, which discourage rust, and sometimes there's a high copper content in older steels, and this inhibits corrosion. Steels produced to a standard have a very strict quantity range of copper, phosphorous, sulphur and carbon levels in the steel, and this wasn't the case in older steels that didn't have to meet specific steel standards, they just had to do the job they were produced for. Also, scrap content makes up a surprising amount of furnace feed - even in the old days. Scrap content can be 25%-30% of furnace feed and sometimes even more. It was known early on, that adding scrap of a known quality improved the steel/iron end result, as the scrap has already been refined at least once. But the quality control over the scrap being fed in, is the biggest factor in the quality of the end product.

You might have photographed Facthunter unwittingly?

They didn't make anything lightweight in the old days, and cast iron was always preferred to cast aluminium! - mostly because it was much cheaper!

Ha ha! Don't you just love the fan on the electric motor hanging out in space, with no shroud? - and they keep checking the motor to see if it's getting hot! Makes you wonder why they even left the fan on the shaft! When we had the Blokey Shed going, one of the Victorians on there (he was from out Gippsland way, I STR), had done a lot of slicing and dicing of timber and he reckoned he could never ever, get a good accurate cut with a bandsaw blade. He reckoned, no matter what you did to try and keep it true, it always wanted to woofle around and give you a wavy cut. He swore that steel disc sawblades were the only way to cut timber straight and true. But you need a darn big blade to cut any kind of decent width. I gotta laugh at the Americans referring to their "hardwood". They wouldn't know what a hardwood was! It never ceases to amaze me how fast their timber grows, though.