onetrack

Here's an interesting article from Politico, showing how the Chinese are not total fools, they're targeting MAGA homelands with total blockages of U.S. imports, thanks to clever manipulation of health and food safety rulings. These people are shrewd traders and they have 5000 years of trading experience, Trump and his MAGA idiots have only a few dozen decades of global trading experience, and the Chinese aren't about to let their economy suffer by the actions of one U.S. Presidents chaotic decision-making. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/12/china-trade-war-exports-00287123

Yes, I second that, a great musician with some great hits. "Girls on the Avenue" is a favourite of mine.

The greatest bearings I've ever encountered were in the rear axle of a German Magirus-Deutz truck I owned from 1967 to 1975. Magirus-Deutz was a fire-engine manufacturer from 1899, and they went on to produce a long line of road trucks. The company was absorbed into Iveco Trucks when Iveco was formed by Fiat. They built the cab and chassis, and used air-cooled Deutz engines with ZF gearboxes and rear axles. The ZF rear axle in my truck was only single drive, but it was rated at 12 tonnes load capacity, unlike the normal 8-9 tonnes of most truck axles. This axle contained barrel roller bearings, and these bearings are a heavy duty bearing that can cope with major deflection in load angles and high shock loadings. Thus, the axle was designed to cope with bending of the axle housing under severe overload conditions. The rollers in barrel roller bearings are essentially an oval shape.

Oh, how appropriate! "Snouts in the trough"?

That's a good article, but in my personal opinion, there are at least three things that have led to America's problems. The problems, as Trump sees them (and he's largely correct there), are that; 1. America is carrying a huge level of debt. 2. American manufacturing has been in decline for many years. 3. China is becoming the worlds most threatening power economically, and posing a real threat to American global dominance. Problem No 1, can initially be sheeted home to Ronnie Reagan. He promised Americans he'd make them rich (same as Trump is doing). What Ronnie Reagan did was make an exclusive cabal of already wealthy Americans a lot richer, at the expense of ordinary Americans. He reduced taxes on the rich, and tore down barriers that stopped the wealthy from becoming unbelievably rich. He spent Govt money like water and trebled the size of the American economy - and all on borrowed money. Those borrowings have never been effectively repaid, the standard U.S. economic theory is, it's O.K. to just keep paying interest on debts, without paying down the capital, has ruled for decades in the U.S. The debt continues to keep climbing, and no-one is addressing it. Problem No 2, is American businesses flocked to purchase goods from low-cost countries, and even set up manufacturing facilities in those countries. It was much more profitable to do that, than set up manufacturing in America or to buy American-made goods. The countrys laws and economic incentives made it easy to do that. The rich got richer, once again, because the greatest way to acquire huge amounts of wealth is to buy low and sell high. The rich "shared" their wealth by offering cheaper products to consumers. It was a pretty poor deal, as most of the imported goods were lower quality. Trade deficits soared as a result of this policy. Trade deficits have to be funded by borrowings, thus American indebtness increased. Problem No 3 is simply due to the American rush to buy cheap goods, or make lots of money selling goods at good prices, that were bought for very low prices. It's a global problem, and one that is not going to go away with increased tariffs. Then there's the problem that over several years in the late "twenty-teens", America Govt printed vast amounts of paper money with no asset backing - the so-called "quantative easing". It is a fallacy that you can do this without eventually seriously devaluing your currency. The chickens have yet to come home to roost, but I can see them coming. Trump is effectively trying to make people from other countries pay down the U.S. Govt debt with his tariffs scheme. It won't work, because the people who will be paying the bulk of the tariffs, are the ordinary American people, but it will take quite some time for ordinary Americans to realise that.

Spacey is right to be cautious on these solar scammers. Unsolicited Solar System telemarketing is the bane of our country today. I would get at least 4 or 5 calls a week from Victorian and NSW numbers, and I immediately become suspicious, as I have little to do with Eastern States businesses today. Every one of the calls I bothered to answer was a Solar System telemarketer, and the ones my phone bounced were marked as "Spam". Looking up the numbers on Reverse Australia nearly always sees people saying, "This number is telemarketers". The number of calls I've received has increased since both Federal and State Labor have announced schemes for batteries (and the potential for an increased number of solar panels). Nothing like free Govt money on offer to see the scammers, and get-rich-quick merchants, appear out of nowhere. The ACCC is looking into banning solar telemarketing. https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/unsolicited-solar-sales-complaint-mb3157/

Hold on! Doesn't the U.S. Constitution GUARANTEE the right to bear arms to EVERY adult person born in America!? What are they doing, trampling on his GUN RIGHTS, by refusing him access to firearms?? 🙄

I was talking to a former farmer client some years ago after not seeing him for quite a while. I asked how many kids he had now. He replied, "Four". I said, "Gee, you're breeding like rabbits out there!" He shot back, "It's O.K. We found out after a while, what was causing it, and stopped it straightaway!" 😄

If the screw is surrounded by plastic, then an impact driver should work O.K. Monitors are pretty durable.

Bobby Rydell died in 2022, this is 3 year old news.

Heat the screw with a small gas flame, heat destroys the loctite strength, it liquifies the loctite.

You wouldn't acquire any decent scrap steel cheaply today, Spacey, they sell little offcuts for near new price. I occasionally get small offcuts from laser cutting from my local steel supplier, they charge $1.50kg, but it's hard to find any decent-size pieces. Any tubing or SHS or RHS offcuts are sold at high prices, per metre.

The chances of steel prices dropping are pretty high on the cards, as steel manufacturers seek out new markets, instead of America, with Trumps exorbitant tariffs squeezing their volumes.

What a total crock of sh*t. These imbeciles wouldn't know sh*t from clay. Trying to say items were shipped mislabelled, and shippers were using Heard and Macquarie Islands as the origin point - when they don't even have commercial port facilities!! A shipping label like that would be stopped at the border, it wouldn't even be in any computerised recording system - and all shipping and port handling is fully computerised today. You have enough trouble trying to ship items when you're not a regular shipper - even using a shipping agent on a one-off basis brings about a host of questions.

Putin is simply continuing his relentless attacks on Ukraine and inexorably gaining more ground in Ukraine each day. In the meantime, the Trump administration is trying to force Zelenskyy and the Ukraine into a minerals deal that obviously benefits the U.S. far more than it benefits Ukraine. However, Zelenskyy isn't signing anything yet, the Ukrainians obviously want to examine the fine print. However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, one of Trumps original bum-lickers, says that Ukrainians with vested interests are holding up the deal. That's double speak for the Ukrainians not immediately kow-towing to Trumps scheming. It will be interesting to see the next moves, the American administration is simply sitting on its hands, it doesn't want to upset Putin too much, for fear of ruining the beautiful Trump-Putin relationship. https://kyivindependent.com/minerals-deal-disrupted-by-those-with-their-hand-in-the-till-us-official-claims/

The Ukraine war is raging back and forth. The Russians have come up with drones that run on a reel of thin optic fibre cable that unwinds off a drum on the drone, and these have had devastating effect on the Ukrainians, because they can't jam their waveforms that normally control drones. The optic fibre cable can be up to 10kms long and virtually invisible. But the Ukrainians have devised countermeasures that utilise sound geo-location, so they pick up the sounds of the drones coming their way. The problem is the Ukrainians need a lot of operators and sound-gathering equipment, which is not possible at present, so their countermeasures to the optic-fibre drones are limited to small areas.

Perri Cutten, the fashion clothes designer, has died aged 73. What is it, about all these people dying so young? I've got to live another 30 years, so I can finish all my projects! https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-06/victoria-fashion-designer-perri-cutten-dies/105143426

Spacey, I've already got a massive collection, I just need the sheds to put it all in!! 😄

Those burgers must be a bugger to try and eat, all in one go.

Our power bill is still in credit, thanks to Govt handouts. We have a 6.6Kw solar system and we use all our appliances mostly during peak sunny periods, so we use all the solar power we generate. Exporting power to the grid is a dead loss now, they give you bugger-all for it, so it makes sense to use what you generate. When the State and Federal Govts introduce battery subsidies in July, we'll probably go for a battery, and more solar panels.

No, I didn't see it, but Indonesia is Corruption Central, and we who have mining industry insights and knowledge, know full well that the Chinese are happy to ignore safety and health issues in other countries, as well as their own, when they set up mining or manufacturing arrangements. I was in partnership at one time with a bloke named Don Blaxell. Don was a boatbuilder and a couple of his sons were, too (Blaxell boats and surfboards). Don owned a property (a vacant city block) in a city in Indonesia, in which city he conducted other business from other premises. He told me one day, the local Police Chief visited him. He was chatty and friendly initially, then the Police Chief talk turned to this block of land that Don owned. "That's a nice block of land", he commented. Don agreed. Next thing the Police Chief says, "I think I should own it". Don, in all innocence, says, "So you want me to sell it to you?" "No, I'm not talking about you selling it to me", came the reply. "I think you need to give it to me. Otherwise, you could possibly end up in some kind of legal troubles". Don got the message fast, and took the next flight out of town, and never went back. He said he wasn't going to risk getting locked up on trumped-up charges, simply because he wouldn't play ball, Indonesian-Police style. They are utterly corrupt - and I also note some recent travel stories about Vietnamese and Thai Police corruption when visiting Vietnamese or Thai hotels and other tourist spots. The Police run the places, and if you give bad reviews, they'll charge you with offences, and lock you up until you remove the bad reviews. https://au.news.yahoo.com/aussie-tourist-warns-of-common-scam-at-popular-holiday-spot-thousands-of-dollars-per-day-024949201.html

I find it interesting that Elon is going to suffer some serious financial losses from his best buddies rampant, random and excessive tariffs. That must strain the friendship a bit. I wouldn't be in the least surprised to see Elon turn on his best buddy with a 180° about face, and start to denigrate him.

I don't have a huge amount of positives to report right now. I went up to my block in the Wheatbelt on Friday to do some constructive work, and it rained nearly all day! I was pretty disappointed as I got only about 20% done out of what I'd planned. I'm trying to construct more shelter for all my items, and I'm in the process of re-assembling a large garden shed for additional storage. A positive is I only paid $50 for the garden shed, and it has been built with a proper frame made from 25mm SHS tubing and 75x38 roof beams. It took me 5 hrs to dismantle it, but I think it's taken me around 5 weeks to reassemble it! Part of the problems has been multiple heatwaves, then I had to reconstruct the frame as the original builder stuffed it up with missing supports in some places and doubled up supports in other places. I also made it worse by electing to extend the frame from front to back by 20cm. It has ended up 3M x 3.4M and it's 2.14M high at the back and 2.24M high at the front (skillion roof). Working in the open is also a problem, and I'll be glad when I get some decent shelter built. The garden shed will be completed this week, and I'll be able to transfer lots of parts and other items that are currently under tarps, into it. Then I've also got a 6M x 6M roof, that I'm slinging between two 20 foot sea containers, in the early construction stages. That will then give me some covered "workshop" area to operate. But the good news is, my "main" shed is under way - a 12M x 8M x 4M gable-roof, concrete floor shed, which I have probably 50% constructed - and my building engineer has just finished the plans for it, which the council requires, and he has given me all the paperwork to submit to them as well. The only downside is he's charged me $3000 (plus GST) for drawing up the plans, which came in on the high side of his original cost estimate.

Ken Crew was killed by a 4M white pointer shark at North Cottesloe beach in early November, 2000. He was in waist-deep water when the shark swam in, and took his leg off. Esperance is a particularly bad place for big man-eaters, it holds the record for the highest number of shark victims in W.A., with four of the last seven W.A. shark victims being taken at Esperance. https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/nov/09/features11.g23

Well, what are doing, trying to play golf in the shower? Of course, you're going to have trouble keeping your balance in that situation!