onetrack

I suspect that was either a terrorist attack, or a simple accident, the Cybertruck was reported to be full of fireworks.

I doubt whether there could be another Chad Morgan. Definitely a cultural cringe for many Australians.

Sorry Jerry, I don't know if it's just me or what, but the joke is over my head?

I'm amazed at how you get anything to dry in your current weather. At least, in our climate, we can still have days in Winter where it's warm enough to dry. However, I can remember several bitterly cold cloudy days in past late Junes, where I had a struggle getting paint to dry.

The gloom here is the State road death toll, it's close to exceeding our worst road toll year, in 2016. They keep wiping themselves out. A lot of it is just plain simple stupidity behind the wheel - Darwinism in action generally, but also resulting in the deaths of innocents as well. I don't see things changing much, just more road cameras, more fines, and more infringement notices for the rest of the population. I thought 2024 was a tumultuous year, I personally think 2025 will be a lot worse. A narcissistic, totally chaotic sociopath, in control of the worlds largest economy - an emboldened Putin who will "win" the Ukraine War as Trump slices support for Ukraine - because Ukraine doesn't contribute to his personal coffers - an emboldened Kim Jong-il who will gain great military assistance from Russia, and up-to-date combat experience for his troops (just what he wanted), and a devious China ever-ready to bend the world to what it wants for itself. Here's hoping more dictatorships fail though, in 2025 - although sometimes it's hard to see what will bring them down. We have to look for the rays of sunshine in the gloom. Happy New Year, everyone!

The Arabs have become dumber and dumber because they murder all their intellectuals with their Stone-Age interpretation of Islamic beliefs - which have become their form of Govt and rule. There is no separation of State, Judiciary and Religion, as we in the West have developed. The Islamic religion is Law, Govt, and State Rule all rolled up into one, and unelected Imams hold all the power - including the power to rule moral behaviour, and dish out death sentences for Islamic Law infringements that are regarded as only deserving custodial sentences in our Western societies. As a result, democracy doesn't exist in Islamic Law-ruled countries. The Islamic rulers behave like rock apes in the Stone Age, and I'm surprised there's not more revolt against the Imams and their ruthless dictatorial behaviour.

I'm still around 75kgs and still in good shape, body-wise. I've always been careful about what I eat. A lot of people might call me a "picky eater", but I think it pays in the long run. I've always avoided eating heavy, tallow-like fats. I cut most of the fat off any meat I eat (and I love red meat). I've never eaten much pork and I only eat an occasional bit of bacon today. Once again, I prefer lean bacon, not the American-style "streaky" bacon, which is more fat than anything else. I believe if you have a fat (or oil) that doesn't dissolve rapidly in warm water, then the body is going to have problems processing it. It will take longer, and the body will not utilise it for energy production, but decide that it needs to be stored in the fat cells. Vast amounts of processed and fast foods are manufactured using heavy tallow-type fats that we often wouldn't even eat if offered up in their original form. All animal carcasses are fat-trimmed to make the product more presentable and more tasty. But the "lean trimmings" as they are called, run into hundreds of thousands of tonnes, even millions of tonnes in places such as America - and believe it or not, they're no longer discarded and regarded as a money maker, and re-processed to make manufactured/highly processed food. There is actually a futures market in lean trimmings, such is the volume of them. Lean trimmings are ground to a paste, the so-called "pink slime", and often treated with industrial chemicals ("hydrogenated"), chemical additives added ("to improve flavour" - i.e. - make the product more addictive). This product is then added to many processed foods, primarily hamburger patties, and a hundred other highly processed foods. In this manner, heavy tallow-type fats (and chemicals) are consumed by food buyers without any knowledge or understanding of what went into their food. So many Americans are grossly obese due to their addiction to these heavy tallow-type fats, particularly pork fat, and they consume vast amounts of them in their poor diets. Add in the dozens of addictive industrial chemicals added to processed foods, and you can soon why Western nations suffer such an obesity problem. Go back 100 years, where highly processed foods were minimal, and look at the people in photos and films of that era, and you'll see a lot less obese people.

We have indeed, but Christmas 2024 has gone, and thread direction is always a difficult thing to control.

I think Jimmy was one of the last U.S. Presidents to be an honest, upright, caring individual. But his Presidency was ruined by OPEC's vicious and greedy increase in oil prices, the ensuing steep inflation, and the Iranian hostage crisis.

There were two other factors in the British wartime aircraft performance that assisted them - 100 octane fuel, and variable-pitch propellors. The Germans never got beyond 87 octane fuel, and this definitely inhibited their performance - although they compensated with higher engine power, and higher top speed in the likes of the Bf-109. The Bf-109 of the BoB had 1,175HP, and the Spitfire MKIII of the BoB produced 1,030HP - but the use of "emergency boost" to 12psi (for no longer than 5 mins) in the Spitfires, enabled them to produce 1,310HP. This was only possible due to 100 octane fuel. On the other side of the ledger, the Bf-109 had fuel injection, a vastly superior fuel system to the Spitfires carburettor, which produced engine hesitation under negative G's. The Luftwaffe pilots knew of this Spitfire flaw and the aces tried to ensure the Spitfire was drawn into negative G's in dogfights. There's stories that abound that state the Americans came riding to the rescue of the British with a delivery of 100 octane fuel, just in time for the Battle of Britain - and the fuel made the difference between winning and losing the BoB. The true story is vastly different. Yes, the Americans can take the kudos for producing 100 octane fuel first (in 1936) - but the British were well abreast of the development, and set about producing the fuel themselves, and ensuring supplies were available from places as far distant as Abadan (Iraq), the Netherlands East Indies, and Trinidad. In addition, the British Govt set the standard in 1937 that all defence aircraft engine deliveries in future, were to be capable of using 100 octane fuel. Adequate supplies of 100 octane were not available until early 1940, and the complete changeover to 100 octane was made in May 1940, just in time for it to used in the retreat from Dunkirk. But the use of 100 octane fuel is also tied in with the fitment of variable pitch propellers to the Spitfires at approximately the same time (June 1940). Thus the two developments combined to substantially improve Spitfire performance. The supply of 100 octane fuel during this period was overwhelmingly from the British sources within the country, and from Abadan, the East Indies, and Trinidad. The Americans contributed less than a quarter of the 100 octane fuel requirements for the British, during this critical phase of WW2. There is an excellent historical review on these subjects below, and it points out that the variable pitch propeller was by far the greatest contributor to the improved performance of the Spitfires. http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/100-octane/Bailey_100-Octane_Fuel.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire_(early_Merlin-powered_variants)

South Korea is an interesting parallel to the U.S. in showing how fragile democracy is. Yoon Suk Yeol, the SK President just impeached, built a reputation as an aggressive State Prosecutor, rooting out corruption, and having great success in convicting the former female President, Park Geun-hye over corruption, whereby she allowed some of SK's top corporations to gain unfair financial advantages. But Yoon Suk Yeol, once elected President, went rabid right-wing, and started making a massive power grab and acting like a dictator. It's been revealed he told the Capital Defence Command chief to order his troops into Parliament, and to shoot anyone who opposed the troop entry to Parliament, after he declared Martial Law. It seems as if Yoon's moves were now all about protecting his wife from corruption charges. What is interesting is the arguments Yoon uses against his "enemies" - left wingers - saying elections were fraudulent, the Left is pandering to NK, and other classic MAGA/Trump conspiracy claims. However the SK politicians seemed to have regained control, and democracy has survived in SK. It looks like a close go, however - and this SK power grab is a pointer as to how Trump would act when threatened, or couldn't get his own way as regards continually using the U.S. Presidency to enrich himself and his mates. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-15/south-korea-president-yoon-suk-yeol-impeached-rise-and-fall/104726734

The Germans had better aircraft, but being led by a dictator and criminals, set them up for failure. The Nazis failed to understand the importance of keeping back about 10% of production for spare parts, they built as many aircraft as they could with the parts they produced, and when they broke down, the Luftwaffe had to cannibalise good aircraft to keep the others going. Add in the fact that they used forced labour in their military factories and you could well imagine how many Nazi aircraft failed due to substandard or sabotaged components and parts. The Allies had enough trouble with a willing workforce, and simple errors in manufacturing, imagine the dramas the Nazi war production factories had. We lost new aircraft from our factories such as Beaufighters, simply because of tools left inside wings, and the suchlike. This was due to a lack of safety procedures that are standard today - back at the start of WW2, we'd previously built very few aircraft, and aviation knowledge was sadly lacking.

Close, but no cigar. The gent is Noel Paul Stookey, the "Paul" in the Peter, Paul, and Mary band trio. Oddly enough, even though he was Paul in the band, he's known as Noel to family and friends and associates. He's 87 tomorrow - and Peter is still alive and well too, he's 86. Mary Travers died at age 72 in 2009, from leukaemia. https://www.google.com/search?q=Noel+Paul+Stookey L-R: Peter, Mary and Paul in their prime...

Trump has simply monetised the Presidency, and stands to financially benefit even more in his 2nd term, than he did in his 1st term - where it has been calculated, he enriched himself and his company businesses, by at least US$160M, by utilising the Presidency to direct funds towards himself and his businesses. It's standard practice for Trump to ensure that visiting foreign dignitaries and leaders are accommodated in his companies accommodation, and he rakes in the proceeds accordingly. According to Trump, he sees nothing wrong with that setup. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-business-empire-expanded-profit-second-term-rcna182613

Sorry, Gareth, it's not Mick Fleetwood. However, he is a singer/songwriter, and he was part of a famous singing trio.

Re the gloomy prophecies and predictions for 2025, I personally believe we'll see an upsurge in assassinations of CEO's and other prominent corporate personalities in the near future - such as the assassination of Brian Thompson, the United Healthcare CEO in the U.S. A telling sign is the support for Luigi Mangione's murderous action amongst everyday Americans - and the interesting part is that Mangione came from a good family, and had no prior signs of criminality. He was obviously driven to this dreadful act by an increasing fury of his poor healthcare treatment - and many Americans obviously feel the same way. I can see many CEO's becoming fugitives like Putin, fearful of their safety and lives, especially where their corporate actions are seen as purely motivated by greed and self-interest. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/27/united-healthcare-brian-thompson-poll

Guess who this whiskery old bloke is ....

I doubt very much that the GOP will break apart with Trump antics and demands - there's way too many people in the GOP who will support him, no matter how outrageous he becomes. It's when his proclaimed plans for his new Govt (such as massively-increased tariffs) start to affect the income of his billionaire supporters, that the manure will hit the rotating blades. Musk is an interesting case, because he sucks up to China, and makes a large amount of money from Tesla sales in China. But when Trump wants to kick China in the goolies, Musk will be there telling him, it's a really bad idea. Whether he can convince Trump to drop his anti-China stance will be the $64 question.

The simple fact remains, that the engineers who designed the Comet fuselage had no knowledge or experience of the stresses produced on the hull by pressurising an aircraft. Fracture mechanics were a field yet to be developed in the early 1950's. It was the constant flexing from pressurisation and de-pressurisation that fractured the Comet fuselage - and it took 1,825 cycles of pressurisation and de-pressurisation in the water-filled pressure test tank, using G-ALYU, before the hull fractured, and gave the testers the clues. The knowledge gained in the pressure test tank was reinforced, when the British Navy recovered the fuselage of G-ALYP from the Mediterranean Sea, and the fuselage fractures of G-ALYP were examined. It was determined that the hull fractures around the windows propagated from tiny cracks in manufactured components used around the windows - less than 100 microns in size. The cracks all propagated from bolt and rivet holes, and the tiny cracks around the holes were there when the Comet was manufactured. In previously-manufactured aircraft, the tiny cracks were of no concern - but in the pressurised Comet, they were deadly. As Nev says, the frame of the Comet was of inadequate strength - but the design strength would've been quite adequate for an unpressurised aircraft. De Havilland did do a lot of testing on the Comet, but the testing was disorganised, as regards the order of the testing. The sad part is the Comet could've been a winner for Britain once the problems were sorted - but the Americans at Boeing were studying the Comet problem closely, and made sure the Boeing 707 didn't suffer from the same problem - thus ensuring the Boeing 707 dominated the start of the passenger jet aircraft age. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/de-havilland-comets

Take a chill pil, Nev, you know OME likes to grab a stated view and elaborate on it. But he is largely correct. Hitler may have approved of the book burning and whipped up the anti-Jewish frenzy in Germany in 1933 - but it was GOEBBELS who orchestrated the book burning, manipulating the Nazi-dominated student unions. Goebbels gave a rabid speech at the book burning, Hitler was nowhere to be seen at the bonfire. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/book-burning

It's interesting how everything in our world is dual. This jells with the numerous religions that tell us there's good and evil, sacred and profane, ying and yang, etc. The Asian religions reckon it's all about balance, and this balance is rooted in Nature, and in physics - Newtons Third Law of Motion. Dualism is a theme from the earliest ages of our Universe, and the general belief is that when one force increases, the opposing force will eventually respond. I'm fascinated by the fact that dualism extends to every facet of our existence. We see and read about good and evil at work in physical terms every day - but dualism extends further than that. We have a visible financial system - and a hidden financial system. None of us have any idea of the size of our hidden financial system, nor how it affects our everyday living. It has an effect, I'm convinced of that, and it's not a beneficial effect. The hidden financial system is aided by banking secrecy and powerful, rich people. We have dualism in our information systems. We have truth, and we have the mistruths and misinformation systems, some simply pathetic and see-through - but numerous ones that are carefully crafted and controlled by the rich and powerful. Murdoch and Putin come to mind. The Internet is the home of dualism. It thrives on secrecy and anonymity. It provides us with great and immediate communication and useful knowledge, but it also carries a lot of evil intent, misinformation, criminal activity, and attempts to control. We have leaders who tell us what they can do, and what they will do - but the duality is, they lie to their subjects/constituents constantly, while their decision making is continually corrupted by powerful, secret forces, who don't want to be exposed, and who are out to further their own interests only - at the expense of everyone else. We are facing an age when power and wealth will become even more concentrated than it is now, and with this comes more corruption of decision-making, and poorer outcomes for the average person. Strangely enough, a substantial number of people know that so many of our systems are wrong and perverted, but don't know what to do about it. They seek major change, and vote for people that present themselves as leaders and agents of chance - but as we know, nothing changes, regardless of who is leading the country. I expect at some stage, there will be a gathering of like-minded people who are totally fed up with our systems of leadership and decision-making, and they will join up to carry out major revolutionary change. I believe this gathering of like-minded people is the "stone cut without hands" mentioned in the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel in the Bible. I don't know what it will take to generate such a powerful gathering, but increasing distrust and hatred of many countrys deceitful leaders, and the perverting power of the super-rich, will surely gather pace in coming years to create major changes. The starting point must be a fairer taxation system, which is so perverted in favour of the rich today, it's a joke.

Yes, that's got to be an extremely rare reportable news event, Trump actually making a truthful statement.

Oh, yes, just subscribe to my YooToob channel and send me $100 and I'll tell you what is going to happen to change the World enormously! First off, on January 6, 2025, an Orange-tanned clown with fake hair is going to upset the World Order with idiotic decisions and orders, and from then, it will only get worse .....now don't forget to subscribe to me........ 🙂

Elon doesn't need to be President, he has a direct line to the puppet and controls his strings. Money rules the good ol' USA, and the more money you've got, the more you're worshipped, and the more power you have to direct changes in the countrys direction. Trump only admires Elon because he's been able to become the richest man in the world, and Trump really wanted that title, but he's too dumb to reach it.

Pete, the history of Australia is written large in the stories of exceptionally wealthy overseas investors being the only ones with enough money to develop the resources we have here, or to manufacture here. In the early days, it was British money that funded our railways development. Then came the gold boom of the 1890's to WW1, staggering British wealth was invested wholesale in Australian gold mining ventures and sometimes they made a lot of money and sometimes they lost a lot. Of course, they mostly didn't miss what they lost, such was their wealth. The same thing happened again in the 1930's, Claude De Bernales, a W.A. mining entrepreneur, born in London from an American mother and a Basque father, was a masterful promoter of W.A. mining and extracted vast investment sums from overseas investors, that was well-utilised to produce a lot of gold for Australia that helped us avoid even worse Great Depression poverty than we already endured. Insurance is another areas where foreign capital has always ruled in Australia. The global financiers do well out of insuring Australians, and have always done well, be it flood, fire, vehicle, or life insurance. Manufacturing in Australia has long been controlled by British, American and European investment. No car manufacturing of note would have ever taken place here unless the huge wealth of American and British and European car manufacturers was invested in Australia. It's unfortunate that their money has departed Australia in recent years, because when they dismantled their manufacturing investments here, Australia was worse off for it. The important factor is that a local Urea manufacturing plant is being built, and no matter who owns it, we have that facility here at all times, which ensures we can't be held to ransom by Chinese self interest.