onetrack

My apologies, I confused Adelaide Bank with BankSA, who were bought up by Westpac.

He's just an arrogant rich prick who thinks he's been elected to run the world by virtue of acquiring the title of the Richest Man in the World. Did you see him trying to arrange for the British politicians he doesn't like, to resign?? He makes Trump look tame by comparison.

Facebook - The Home of Scammers, and also owned by one of the worlds biggest scammers.

That's pretty clever, it caught me out. It's amazing how your brain and eye co-ordinate to readjust things as you expect them to be.

I'm a big user today of customer-owned banks. They are normally former Building Societies that have got a banking licence, and they are generally excellent. I use CFCU (now Community First Bank) and Defence Bank (formerly Defence Force Credit Union), and I do my daily banking with Bendigo, because I'm a shareholder in the local Bendigo Bank branch. Bendigo are generally slightly better overall than the Big Four banks. One of the things that really sh**** me, is the fact that the Big Four have bought up every second small bank around, and they'd buy the whole lot if they could. So people go to the "smaller" banks (such as the Bank of Melbourne or the Bank of Adelaide), thinking they're going to get away from the Big Four - with many not realising that the Big Four own the small bank they've moved to. SWMBO and I have a holiday savings account with ME Bank, which was established by the Australian Council of Trade Unions in 1994, and which started life as Super Member Home Loans. It changed its name to Members Equity Bank in 1999, before eventually shortening this to ME Bank in 2009, and it was fully owned by 26 industry super funds from 2002. However, the industry super funds sold ME Bank to the Bank of Queensland in 2021, saying it had never paid a dividend to shareholders in its entire life. But I'll wager they made good money in selling it to the Bank of Qld.

I've got a better story than that. I bought a good used lathe at a Grays auction in S.A. about 10 years ago. It was bought for my stepdaughters boyfriend, she paid me in cash, and I used my credit card to purchase it - because you need a credit card to buy anything from auction houses. Grays contacted me a week later and told me their operator had dropped the lathe in the process of loading it onto my arranged transport - and it was beyond repair, and they would refund the money. So they refunded my credit card. But I'd already paid the card down, and their refund put the card into credit. So I went to a teller to draw out the surplus cash to return it to my SD - and the bank (it was HSBC) charged me a "cash advance fee" of $25!! - to get my OWN cash out of the account!! I wasn't going into debit with the cash withdrawal, the balance was zero, after the cash withdrawal! So went into HSBC and tore a new one for the teller, and closed the credit card account, telling them I would NEVER deal with HSBC again, as long as I live! - and I haven't. She was quite apologetic and upset when I told her what had happened, and why I was closing the account - but made NO attempt to call any manager, nor did anyone ever offer to refund the (totally illegal) $25 charge. HSBC is the bank that got fined US$1.9B (plus US$665M in civil penalties) in the U.S. courts, for money laundering for Mexican drug cartels - Got fined 57.3 million POUNDS ($73M) for "serious failings" in customers deposit protection in the U.K. - Got fined 6.2 million POUNDS ($7.9M)over treatment of customers in financial difficulty in the U.K. - And, is currently being sued by ASIC for failing to stop Australian HSBC customers accounts being stripped by scammers. My conclusion is that HSBC is amongst the biggest scammers in the world.

Yes, a total lack of competition. I've got a little (6Kva) Kubota genset (GL6000 Lowboy) for single phase, and for running small tools. It's a little pearler, I paid $250 for it at auction, and $250 to get it back to Perth from Karratha. It was powering work caravans, it's a 2019 model, and has done 6,900 hrs. It's an analog model, no electronic interface, which is good, those electronic controls crap themselves regularly. It's just got a starter-heater switch, and the engine is protected by low water and low oil switches. It was sold as "non-operational". When I got it, it had an out-of-service tag on it, saying "possible blown head gasket". I tried starting it, and it kicked over compression and the starter kicked out of engagement. I tried it several more times, and it kept doing the same. So, I suspected a faulty solenoid, thinking it was lacking power to keep the starter pinion engaged. But I installed the new solenoid, and it still did the same thing. So I pulled the starter off and found the pinion fork ("lever" in the book) was made from cheap nylon, and it had worn out completely on one side, and was failing to keep the starter pinion in mesh. I went down to the local scrappers and rummaged though a big cut-open IBC of scrapped starters, and found a couple of likely-looking candidates as a donor for a good pinion lever. The scrapper wanted $20 for the 2 buggered starters, a bit of a ripoff, but I paid it. You can buy new starter levers off AliExpress for about $8, but I didn't want to wait. The starter is a Mitsubishi, and the basic starter fits about 50 models of cars and engines, they just modify the nose for different applications. I pulled apart the first scrapped starter, and the lever was buggered. I pulled apart the second scrap starter, and the lever was perfect - so I installed it in my Kubota starter. I reassembled it all, and the engine fired up second kick over compression, and ran like a dream, producing the full 240V without a problem. So much for their mechanics poor diagnosis. I changed the oil and filters (all supposed to have been done recently, but looked like they hadn't been done for at least 500 hours), pressure-washed the whole unit, and it looks a million dollars and performs faultlessly at all times. It only uses about 1.2 litres of diesel an hour. You can't beat genuine Japanese gensets - the Chinese ones are a real lucky dip, they're a dime a dozen, secondhand - usually suffering from blown engines or fried electrics. I'm looking for a good 3 phase genset now, about 15-20Kva, but they're in high demand, and all bringing good money, so I just have wait for the right one.

I have no power connected to my industrial block in a small country town in W.A. It's only 130kms out of town. But a 3 phase powerline runs past the street corner, only 50M away. However - to try and get the power connected to my block is the biggest rort of all time. I have to submit an extensive plan of what equipment I have, how often it is used, and its location. This is pretty difficult to do, given I don't even have a shed on the block yet. Then I have to submit my power request application, along with a substantial fee - it's $497 just for the application fee, and $1320 for a "small commercial connection". You then get an invoice for the estimated total installation cost, after you've forked out all this money. But if you decide their total installation cost is not economic to proceed with, you forfeit $550 of your fee money. In addition, it can take up to 14 months to get the power connected. It's a bloody joke. Lots of people, myself included, have just bought diesel generators. The only cost is a bit of diesel when the genset is running. If I go away, there's no ongoing monthly costs to be sucked out of my account. https://www.westernpower.com.au/products-services/install-something-new/connect-my-home-or-business/new-business-commercial-connections/small-commercial-connection/#:~:text=Other fees&text=The cost of an electricity,Distribution Low Voltage Connection Scheme.&text=The type of connection provided,a stand-alone power system.

The most interesting part about Nuclear power stations, is that when a failure occurs, NO-ONE can actually physically inspect the core to see what has happened! The scientists can only use instruments and second guess what actually happened in any meltdown. In Chernobyl, it is believed the reactor core melted right through the containment vessel and into the Earth itself - but no-one really has any idea of what happened in there exactly. With Reactor No. 2 at Three Mile Island, it took the operators and scientists FIVE days to even try and get a handle on what happened, and what was likely to result - and even then, there was much uncertainty as to what had actually happened inside the reactor. https://americanhistory.si.edu/tmi/tmi03.htm

Well, that's a pretty dumb set of regulations. What kind of idiocy allowed that system to be introduced into NSW? Energy provider lobbyists hold the most sway over NSW politicians? In W.A., there's nothing to stop you from having a stand-alone solar or battery system, you simply have to request power disconnection from Western Power, our energy supplier. Of course, WP will try and dissuade you from having a stand-alone system, they hate losing customers. https://www.westernpower.com.au/news/myths-about-solar-and-batteries/

To elaborate, Three Mile Island consists of two separate Reactors. The one that had the nuclear meltdown accident in 1979 is Reactor No. 2. Reactor No. 1 continued to operate until 2019, when it was shut down. Constellation Energy owns Reactor No. 1 on Three Mile Island, and says it will cost US$1.6B to bring Reactor No. 1 back on line by 2028. Reactor No. 2 is to be dismantled. The devil is in the detail though. Constellation is seeking a U.S. Govt loan guarantee for the $1.6B, to reduce their borrowing costs. This essentially means taxpayers are on the hook for all the debt, if Constellation go tits up. The proponents of the loan guarantee say that's not right and Constellation is responsible for all the debt. That works fine while Constellation is solvent, but the proponents seem to forget that companies become insolvent every day of the week, and can't even pay their rent or employees wages. Constellation is no different. Then there's the "greenwashing" by MS. The power to be produced by the refurbished Three Mile Island reactor is simply being fed into the grid - it's not going directly and exclusively into MS servers and data processing operations. The deal is simply "creative accounting" to ensure that MS meets its green power targets - on paper. There's a good article about the deal in the linked site below. https://cleantechnica.com/2024/10/04/refurbished-three-mile-island-payment-structure-is-not-quite-what-it-seems/ What makes me leery of the whole deal, is refurbishing a nuclear reactor that was built using 1960's technology and which ran from 1974. That means ALL the infrastructure in the reactor is over 50 years old. The reactor is a "pressurised water" design, same as the 100 other U.S. nuclear reactors. The system is extremely complex and using water in the entire system means constant corrosion problems - even when using stainless steel. Even stainless will start to corrode after 50 years or more - and lots of equipment in the reactor will be made of less durable materials than stainless steel. Concrete starts to decompose and deteriorate after 60 years. The reinforcing in concrete is the major component that starts to corrode, and this reinforcement corrosion is what starts cracking in concrete. https://americanhistory.si.edu/tmi/tmi02.htm#:~:text=Metropolitan Edison%2C a subsidiary of,and continues in operation today. I wouldn't like to see what those 50 year old structural components in the reactor are looking like, after 50+ years of service (and neglect). Companies are notorious for ignoring danger signs in refurbishments, and continuing with them against educated advice. We had an excellent example here in W.A., where a major coal-fired power station was refurbished at massive cost, despite huge levels of corrosion, which kept being discovered, the more they repaired it - and which kept adding to the refurbishment costs. After it was refurbished, the power station only operated for a short time before a boiler exploded, and the Govt mothballed the station. The fiasco (a Liberal Govt one) cost the W.A. taxpayers around $266M - and we still ended up without the extra power station. Govts take advice from "experts", but the "experts" are usually swayed by economic reasons to pursue refurbishments that should never be carried out. https://thewest.com.au/news/australia/botched-power-station-fix-to-cost-taxpayers-250m-ng-ya-274023

Phosphoric acid is a substantial acid ingredient in carbonated drinks, and is by far, the most destructive acid on teeth. I have to confess, I was a Coke addict from a young age, and no-one gave me advice to avoid drinking it. As a result, my teeth suffered severe decay, and I had to have a large number of teeth removed and have dentures fitted, when I was still in my late teens. Even then, no-one told me to stop drinking Coke. I didn't stop drinking it until I was about 40, and I rarely touch carbonated drinks today. You're lucky if you can reach 70 and still have all your teeth, simply because of the level of acidic additives in our food today. Some people simply have good teeth, I don't think our family have good teeth genes. I'm jealous of those who have near-perfect teeth, the young lass who is my dentist, has a perfect stunning set of teeth, she's obviously obsessed with good oral care.

In a somewhat staggering piece of news, Microsoft is launching full-on into AI. They need so much additional computing power, MS is going to invest US$80B (yes, that's BILLION) just this financial year alone (U.S. businesses FY is Jan 1 to Dec 31), to increase the number of AI data centres (worldwide - but half of that expenditure will be in the U.S.), specifically for training AI models and launching AI-based features worldwide. The staggering part about this development, is that this massive upsurge in data processing and AI development, is going to require so much electrical energy, that the U.S. is going to restart the mothballed (in 1997) Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, in 2028 - and MS has contracted to take ALL the energy that the Three Mile Island plant can produce, for the next TWENTY years!! 🤯 https://www.perthnow.com.au/business/microsoft-to-invest-129-billion-in-ai-data-centres-c-17281410

Oh, I forgot to mention - the front axle on the Brush was made of wood, too! Oak, Hickory and Ash featured large in the car's build. To add even more oddity to the design, the engine ran anti-clockwise! This was an idea thought up by the designer, who figured that it was less dangerous for right-handers to crank an engine that ran anti-clockwise. Kickbacks from clockwise-running engines when hand-cranking, often led to broken thumbs, and even broken arms!

Ya wooden want to park around termite-infested areas with Henry Fords 1904 race car! In 1912, Francis Birtles and his driver, Syd Ferguson, made the first trans-Australia trip from Perth to Sydney in a 1911 Brush car (which arrived in Sydney in early 1912). The Brush featured a wooden chassis. On their Trans-Australia trip, 73 miles out of Broken Hill, the LHS chassis rail broke in half! In a most fortunate event, Birtles and Syd Ferguson had just passed a bloke sawing wood! They drove back and acquired a length of freshly-sawn 4" x 2" timber (102mm x 51mm for the inch-measure challenged). Birtles and Ferguson jacked up the broken chassis rail until it was straight again, hand-drilled two holes in the chassis rail, and using fencing wire they carried, they wired the 4 x 2 timber in place, and continued on merrily to the completion of their trip in Sydney! Here is a photo of the Brush on the trip, driver Sid Ferguson is in the drivers seat. Interestingly, Birtles couldn't drive a car! He took all the photos and navigated the route, as he'd previously done the trip by bicycle! Surprisingly, the car is LHD.

An optical illusion. A tree at the far end of a grassed area, and a wall behind the tree.

I was quite surprised to see a 1987 Bentley Mulsanne at Albany W.A., advertised on FB Marketplace for just $25,000. In immaculate condition, with only 78,000kms, too. That's a cheap Bentley Mulsanne. I wondered if it was originally Paul Terrys personal transport - he was a whizz-kid in finance and sold his business "Monitor Money" in 1987 for around $50M (when $50M was really big money), just prior to the 1987 stockmarket crash, which he predicted. He retired to Albany W.A., and lived in extreme luxury and became a bit of a philanthropist, but killed himself in a helicopter crash in Hawaii on his first solo. He would've been better off staying in the finance business, he obviously wasn't cut out for a flying career. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/terry-paul-27662 https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/491449117238739

You NEED a gun in America, because the place is full of nutters who will kill you just for trespassing on their lawn.

The "Godfather" of the EV, one Andy Palmer, who was responsible for the Nissan Leaf EV, is telling anyone who'll listen, that hybrids are a "fools errand", and that the Chinese will undoubtedly end up winning the EV "race", and that Western car manufacturing companies need to get their act into gear on EV's, and make like Chinese car manufacturers, or they won't survive. I believe Andy Palmer is spot on with his assessment that increased tariffs only made the local manufacturers lazy and make them fail to innovate. And so many countries are bringing in tariffs on Chinese EV's, fearful of what is happening to their local car manufacturing. It's like King Canute trying to hold back the tide. https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/the-godfather-of-evs-explains-why-china-is-winning-the-race-to-go-electric-and-why-hybrids-are-a-fool-s-errand/ar-AA1wt9nj?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=dee145dfafd24b2c8f309730b002c2e1&ei=27

I can't believe they'd sell all that stuff without the mandatory safety warning labels!!

Let's get back to the basic problem. Islam is a form of Cancer. Radical Islam is the worst form of Cancer. Radical Islam believes it is O.K. to kidnap innocent civilians, hold them hostage, torture them, and even murder them - all in the name of advancing the Islamic religion. Remember Islam is politics and religion rolled up into one, and constant murder of innocents is their forte. The radical Islamics will utilise any ideology to advance Islam, including Marxism, Leninism, and any other radical, anti-establishment grouping that supports terrorism to overthrow established civilisations. The Islamic God, Allah, is a murderer, he tells them to kill people in the name of advancing Islam. They even kill other Islamic adherents when they consider they're being heretical, by starting a new division of Islam. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was a warmongerer and a murder. Muhammad was involved in no less than 86 warmongering campaigns. We can perhaps more accurately pronounce the name Muhammad, by accenting the last three letters of his name. Doctors try their best to cure patients with Cancer. They cut out tumours and treat Cancer patients with highly dangerous drugs to try and save their lives. Despite their best efforts, the Doctors often kill good cells, good tissues - and even sometimes kill the patients trying to cure the Cancer. This happens because the Cancer is ingrained in the body, in the cells, and despite the best and cleverest medical research and innovation, Cancer continues to persist and return on a regular basis. Benjamin Netanyahu believes Islam is a Cancer. He lost his brother Yonatan at Entebbe, where Yonatan led Israeli Special Forces that rescued civilian hostages on a hijacked civilian aircraft, from Islamic militants. The Sayeret Matkal saved 102 civilian hostages lives from Islamic murderers, with 4 hostages killed. The greatest number of hijacked aircraft have been hijacked by Islamic militants. Benjamin Netanyahu is a crusader against terrorism - and especially Islamic terrorism. He is a Cancer Doctor, trying to destroy as much of the Islamic Cancer as he can. Unfortunately, innocents are being killed in his attempt to root out that Cancer. I believe Benjamin Netanyahu should be supported and encouraged to continue his drive to root out the Cancer of Islam, because it is rearing its ugly head again, in many places on this planet, and 2025 is already starting off as a year of increased Islamic terrorism. https://answering-islam.org/BehindVeil/btv2.html

This is the one? It's been on FB Marketplace for 21 weeks, so he might still be waiting a while for a buyer. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1002280831392625

Always remember that 90% of the Harleys ever built, are still on the road. The other 10% actually made it home. 😄