onetrack

The Express is extremely alarmist, and nothing sells news like saying WW3 is upon us. Putin is too smart to confront the U.S. directly, and he'll find a way to undermine the Americans efforts in Venezuela.

Yes, manuals are virtually disappearing in Australia, the gurus are saying it will soon be hard to buy a new manual car here. A lot of the manual transmission manufacturers are either cutting right back, or even preparing to shut up shop, as their market shrinks massively due to EV's and hybrids not needing manual transmissions, and the general preference amongst new car buyers, for automatics.

Here's another reason to be wary of Chinese EV's - there will be a major "consolidation" of Chinese EV brands in the next year or two. That means up to 50 Chinese EV brands will vanish. Some will be allowed to go broke, the others will merge into the bigger Chinese brand names, and those lesser brand names will disappear. https://www.drive.com.au/news/chinese-electric-car-brands-could-face-closure-amid-a-massive-market-realignment-in-2026/ The problem is simply the rush to electrification was too sudden and the desire to provide lots of "gimmicky" features burnt up a lot of Chinese EV companys money. I believe, eventually, that EV's will become a major part of the motoring environment, but I can't see IC-engine vehicles ever disappearing totally, or disappearing overnight. I'm looking ahead to find a replacement for SMWBO's 2012 Camry Atara. The Camry is a great car, drives beautifully, and rides and handles like it's on rails - and for a 2.5L engine, it has exceptional fuel economy, as well as more than adequate power. On long smooth highway runs, it's not uncommon to see it running at 6.5L/100kms. The problem is, every vehicle I look at, that is a current model hybrid or IC-engine replacement, doesn't have any better fuel economy than the Camry, no matter what they claim. And from numerous reports I've read, the claimed fuel economy of many hybrids, doesn't match the company claims, in real-life use. Plus, I'm very wary of the complexity of hybrids. I don't need to replace the Camry soon, because it's only done 113,000 kays and it's still in perfect condition. But I'd like to move up to a medium-size SUV, as we both find the Camry is too low now, as far as climbing into and out of it goes. SWMBO in particular is griping about this aspect. Unlike your partner, SWMBO would be happy with an EV, provided it wasn't too gimmicky - but the problem is finding the right balance between running costs, "user-friendliness" of the vehicle, purchase cost, resalability, and reliability. We've been Toyota owners for over 33 years, and worn out a fair number of Toyotas, and every one of them has provided astounding reliability and low running costs, along with high resale value and ease of reselling the vehicle after we finished with it. But Toyota are lagging a bit with their inbuilt conservativeness and a lack of models that don't appeal. We hired a hybrid Corolla last July and we're weren't impressed with it - especially when it came to refuelling it when we returned it. The fuel savings were nowhere near what I had expected. Add in the "features" complexity, such as the annoying "lane correction", the problem with the seatbelt sensors in the back seat, that went off when we placed a suitcase on the seat (and we struggled to identify what the warning was about), and the fact that the one time I was driving along about 70 kmh, resting my hand on the gearshift - and I accidentally bumped it into neutral - whereby it immediately slammed on full emergency braking, nearly throwing us through the windscreen!! It was lucky there was no-one behind us, or we probably would worn them up the bum. All these things make me think that our next car will need a lot more "features" investigation prior to purchase, than our past purchases. One of the things that annoys me is the propensity to fit sunroofs, black interiors, heated steering wheels, and heated seats to nearly all the current models on offer - and I want none of those features, because we live in a warm climate - which point seems to evade a lot of car manufacturers.

Those kind of bike owners usually have a very fast and very short life. We call them "temporary Australians".

Trump has invaded Venezuela simply because Chavez nationalised multiple billions of U.S. oil companies assets when he was in control. These billionaires running the oil companies are Trumps main backers, and they want their oil assets back (and the oil output and revenues of course), and everything else is just incidental. Trump and his lackeys will simply install a puppet who supports Trump and the U.S. oil companies, and the puppet will ensure the armed forces of Venezuela will keep the civil protests under control - because they're "the enemies of the countrys democracy". We're right back to the "good ol' boys" 1950's style of world domination! And don't forget, we've got a World War going with all those Christian-hating Muzzies, too! One can only hope Russia moves a heap of war materials and armed support to Venezuela, thus hampering their current efforts in the Ukraine. Zelinskyy supports the Trump move into Venezuela, now I know why.

I've actually been looking at a 2022-2024 Nissan Leaf as a trial used EV. They're very reliable and well built, but their battery technology is now obsolete, as they don't use inbuilt battery cooling to deal with heat buildup in the battery, which shortens range and battery life. In addition, they use the CHAdeMO charging protocol, which is also becoming obsolete (primarily due to the inability to handle large amperage, as I understand). The Leafs resale is relatively poor, making them a bit a bargain, IMO. Of course, that poor resale is aided by the fact the Leaf is now obsolete, and no longer produced, but every report from Leaf owners that I've perused, says they have spent virtually nothing on Leaf repairs, often after having travelled high kms. I'd rather buy a used Japanese-built EV than a new Chinese EV, as I'm not convinced the Chinese EV build quality is up to scratch yet - and the worst part of Chinese EV's is the lack of parts, and the even lower level of factory backup and support. The Chinese essentially regard their EV's as toasters - it craps itself, don't fix it, go buy a new one. There's a quite a few people making a killing here, buying low km wrecked Chinese cars and selling parts, panels and components off them, because people with Chinese EV's that have been pranged or have developed faults, are finding out they have long waits for parts, there's a multitude of confusing models, language difficulties, a lack of properly-written manuals, and a general "couldn't care less" attitude from the major Chinese manufacturers. BYD, here's looking at you!

Someone told me John Revolta was a hard charger in Greased Lightning.

I've eaten BBQ'ed wild goat and donkey sausages, that were knocked up by a bunch of truckies in Kalgoorlie, back in the mid-1980's. These blokes were keen feral animal hunters and butchers, and they made these sausages with chunks of meat about 6mm square, not minced meat. They weren't too bad at all. That "spiced flesh of a donkey" looks a lot like sliced donkey tongue. My parents would cook and dish up beef tongue when I was young, and it was quite edible and tasty. We used to eat it cold with salad.

Did he get the "wild bacteria chicken soup, the "spiced flesh of a donkey", or the "hand tore the rabbit leg", too?

Yep, what a great move. A special military operation to remove a threat to stable Govt - which Govt, only the invader can provide. Straight out of his best mates playbook. The only thing missing is the Nazis that were threatening the countrys democratic stability.

I knew and have read about the life and achievements of the WW1 sniper Billy Sing, he certainly was poorly treated by many overtly racist people at the time. Wikipedia has a good informative page on him, and books have been written about him. The writer of the article above, appears to be American, as all the wording uses U.S. English spelling.

I'm sure that Trump will be able to quickly and blithely explain to the MAGA doting adherents, that he had no choice but to bomb the crap out of Venezuela and capture Maduro, because Venezuela had declared war on America, due to all those Venezuelan drugs bombarding the U.S. - and the MAGA doting adherents will lap it up, and cheer him on.

There's nothing like a good war-move distraction to reduce the heat level being applied to one arse.

That's no guarantee the photo is correct, plenty of websites simply use the same photo without doing "due diligence" checks. Age doesn't affect the essential shape of ones face, the paintings and portraits show a long thin face with a pointed chin, not the very round face of the gent in the photo. Plus the gent in the photo is definitely a man, whereas the paintings and portraits show a definite femineness.

Well, there goes the Trump Nobel Peace Prize, out the window!! But I'll wager Putin is grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

Interesting story, but I'm of the opinion, the man in the photo is not Dr Barry - because the face in the photo is a totally different-shaped face to the paintings and portraits of Barry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Barry_(surgeon)#/media/File:James_Barry.jpg https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/how-history-keeps-ignoring-james-barry/

The Chinese have set as their goal, world domination of the EV market - and I cannot see anything stopping them from taking that crown.

Not sure what he did, rgm - but I would expect he checked all those load-bearing capacities and sizes, and he seems to be a pretty switched-on bloke who understands the loads that sheds have to withstand.

I got some plans drawn up for a shed, using a modified shed frame I already had. I contacted the gent via email, we corresponded via email as regards what I wanted. But I had to sketch out dimensions of what I had, and what I wanted done. Then I had to scan my sketches and email them to him. He then visited me in person to make our acquaintance, and have a general "shed engineering" discussion. He then went home and drew up the plans, and emailed them to me. But then he delivered plans on paper with his signature and company stamp on them - which is what councils require to be supplied to them, when making application for a building permit!

I believe a vast amount of Chinese businesses and sales are supported with Govt largesse, it's all about dominating the manufacturing industry. Just look at their car production, the word is the Chinese Govt spent $350B in automotive manufacturer subsidies to ensure that Chinese cars become dominant around the globe. In most cases, the Chinese purchases are a no-brainer. I wanted a new radiator for my little Cat traxcavator, the genuine Cat radiator was around $7000. It took me ages to find a local radiator repairer who would recondition my radiator - they wanted $5,500 to do the job, and it would take weeks. I got a new radiator off a Chinese supplier, it was $2000 landed at my door. It's a properly made radiator - copper fins, brass tubes, and a stainless steel heat exchanger for transmission oil cooling, located in the bottom tank. It's not an exact copy of the original, the Chinese modified and improved the design.

That's a classic photo of Australian rural mailboxes, Octave. You must have been living "out beyond the Black Stump"? 😄

I don't know if anyone else has much dealings with Amazon, but I don't deal with them much, and now I think I know why. I cancelled my account with them a few years ago due to their scammy behaviour, signing me up to Amazon Prime without asking. So then I started an account with them again in 2023, after I sighted an item that was good value (a Chinese Greenworks 24V Li-ion electric drill - which I bought, and which has been good). Then, earlier in Dec 2025, I wanted a couple of sets of Whitco window friction slides. The Big Green Shed wanted $34 for them, but the seller was offering them on Amazon for $14 - so I bought 2 sets. Paid for them, and received them in late December, and I'm quite happy with them - genuine product, exactly as described. Then today, I get an email from Amazon saying the sale has been cancelled by the seller, and I wasn't charged for it! WTF?? I've got the slides and the money is recorded as being paid? I don't know what's going on here, maybe the seller suddenly realised that price was 5 years old, and they never changed it to keep up with the current price? - so now they're trying to can the deal?? I can't make head nor tail of this. The order record has disappeared from my Amazon account.

Oh, incidentally, the Chinese Year in 2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse - also known as the Year of the Golden Horse! I hope that means galloping wealth gain! 😄

Letter delivery services in most civilised countries were obliged to deliver letters at low cost when they started up. It was called the USO - Universal Service Obligation. This started with Britains Penny Post in 1840 and the system developed along similar lines in many other countries. When letter-writing ruled supreme and all documents were on paper, the system worked well. But when the electronic messaging system started to take over from the start of this century, and letter deliveries started dropping in sizeable volumes, the costs of keeping up the USO became unsustainable. The USPS incurred horrendous debts with continuing losses over many years, and they had to up their charges and revamp their delivery system. The problem is the number of older people in particular who can't accept the demise of letters and who aren't computer literate. My 94 yr old neighbour checks his letterbox about 5 times a day, a habit he can't break. He reckons computers are evil, the people with them have all the power, just like the Catholic Church did when he was a child! He said, if you didn't keep in with the priest when he was young, you didn't get a job! So now he reckon computers have taken over from the Catholic Church, because all the information is now held secret from you, on computers! Maybe he's right! 😄

Here's wishing everyone a great year in 2026. I had a good year in 2025, but it ended with a rash of bad news from friends. The wife of a good mate and former employee, has been found to have major breast cancer, and is going to undergo a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction at the end of January. She's about 64 I think, and mate is 67. If that wasn't enough, his sister had a 30 yr old son killed in a car crash on Dec 9th. She had 4 boys. The sad part is, the 30 yr old was getting driven home by a workmate, a 25 yr old woman. The woman must have gone a bit crazy at the wheel, she sped up like a mad thing down a suburban street in Kalgoorlie, lost control on a slight bend and hit a solid tree, tearing her little Honda into 3 pieces. The crash killed them both. Oddly enough, mates sister was always terrified this son was going to kill himself on a big bike, he had two very large and powerful Jap bikes - but he was simply taken out by another idiot driver. Then, I got news another long time former employees wife had a heart attack at 60. So it was a month of bad news, hopefully 2026 will start off a bit brighter. The good news is, myself and SWMBO are doing just fine, and looking forward to a great year.