onetrack

Well, we've had our "Virgin experience" this afternoon, and it reflects the current state of Virgins (and Qantas') planes. We were due to depart at 2:35PM for a 5:20PM arrival into Perth. However, as we were having lunch, a check showed the flight was delayed. Got to the airport, and found our aircraft had broken down and a replacement had to be sourced, so it was over half an hour late. That delay extended into a 3:05PM departure, with passengers dragging their feet, a bloke turning up late with 2 kids that he claimed were his (they bore no resemblance), and saying they all needed to be seated together, as that was the airline laws. But he'd booked the three of them at different times and from different places, as the steward pointed out. Nonetheless, the bloke claimed they were legit, so the steward, under great pressure, but acting with speed and professionalism, re-arranged seating in a virtually full aircraft, by extracting a Virgin employee from a rear seat and placing him in the sole empty business-class seat, and shifting a couple of other people around. With everything settled, we barrelled off into a gusty headwind (my God, it was windy in Broome today, never knew it could blow there like that, in the Dry season), and we rotated very rapidly, and got to great altitude very quickly it seemed. The flight was pretty smooth, a few bumps, lots and lots of cloud of all sorts and types, lots of haze, and difficult to see any terrain in detail. We got a nice feed of chicken with potatoes in business, nice comfy seat in a late-model (2013) B737-8FE (VH-YQR), which must be one of Virgins better aircraft - and we landed very smoothly in Perth at 5:48PM - to bitterly cold weather (13° and a promise of 2° tomorrow morning!) Oh, how we'd loved to have stayed another month in Broome! I was studying up on the history of VH-YQR, and discovered it featured in an ATSB incident report, where a similarity to Air India Flight 171 is logged. The incident was a major flight upset caused by an incorrect control selection! I'll post it in the Air India thread, just to add some thought to the AI crash considerations.

He was a Pole and his family fled the Nazis during WW2. He had a terribly rough, fractured upbringing - but he and his parents made good in Australia after the War, as "refo's". This article is 5 years old and needs updating, but it outlines the tough times he had, before he made good in acting. https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/henris-story/#:~:text=Henri Szeps is one of,and separate from his family.

It's not going to be "rough quarters" ahead for Tesla, the Chinese are going to rip a new and much larger cloaca for Tesla, with their massive range of technically superior EV's - that are available in HUGE numbers. Within 6-8 years, Tesla will be an "also-ran" in the EV stakes. I can see parallels in the dockside crane industry. As a typical example, Esperance (W.A.) Port, about 10 years ago, wanted a number of new wharf cranes. They got a quote from established Western wharf crane manufacturers, and the quoted prices made the port operators eyes water, and they had to sit down - Oh, and there was only a 2 yr warranty at best from these suppliers. So the Esperance Port asked the Chinese to tender for the cranes. The Chinese cranes came in at under half the price of the other quotes - AND their price included DELIVERY to Esperance Port, with their dedicated crane-carrying ship. The Chinese ship has a flat deck, they sit the cranes on the ships deck, and when they get to the Port, they ballast the ship to the level of the wharf, and simply drive the cranes off, and they can put them straight to work. So then came the Esperance Port operators question. Do the Chinese cranes come with any kind of warranty? "Oh, certainly", says the Chinese. "We give TWENTY YEARS warranty on all our wharf cranes!! Is it any wonder that virtually every port now, runs Chinese wharf cranes? Musk is on a hiding to nothing, the Chinese play the long game, and they play hard ball.

I get porterhouse steak on special from Aldi for $22.50 a kg, and it's just as good as Colesworth porterhouse at $45 a kg. I wouldn't touch American beef, it's all lot-feed rubbish.

A.

Boat

Chump won't pull the plug on AUKUS, he's smart enough to see it means a lot of money being transferred to the U.S. from Australia - and I'm sure he's currently working out a way to personally benefit from that $368B we're going to apparently have to cough up - just to get a few nuclear subs that will be obsolete by the time we get them.

At risk of derailing the political trend of this thread, back to Lotto wins, the good news for today is ......... We've got our Business Class upgrade from Broome back to Perth, tomorrow! It cost us another $350 ($175 each, was my bid) - but because we'd already paid extra for exit-row seats with the additional legroom, Virgin have credited us the exit-row charge, so the upgrade only cost us $267 in total. The only downside is, we know we're going travelling on a tired old Virgin B737-800, so it's not exactly a class ride. However, we've found Virgin to be satisfactory to deal with, and the crew are normally cheerful, and the business seating is just fine. We stopped travelling on Qantas when the Leprechaun was running the operation like the miserable greedy turd he is. They regularly cancelled all my FF points because I never used them in the allotted time frame (which in itself, is a miserable, grubby corporate scam) - and Q fares were always much higher than Virgin, anytime we wanted to go anywhere. However, it seems Q has improved under its new CEO, because we flew up on Q, at a considerably reduced fare, compared to what Virgin wanted. However, to return to Perth, Virgin were much cheaper than Q - so figure that one out? The flight up with Q was very good, with Q crew cheerful and attentive, and the Airbus was only 21 yrs old! I looked up Q's fleet age and was staggered to see they're still running 32 yr old Fokkers!! Both Q and Virgin are in dire need of a heap of new aircraft, all their fleets are old and creaky, and run into the ground, and I see where Q has had to temporarily lease 4 "mid-life" B737's to fill in a delivery shortfall from Airbus. AB was supposed to deliver several new A321XLR aircraft to Q this year, but they're way behind schedule, and some of the planned 2025 deliveries will be pushed back into next year. https://australianaviation.com.au/2025/06/qantas-to-lease-4-midlife-737s-to-combat-delivery-delays/

Why aren't the women doing something to stop the robot! They're the most powerful weapon the blokes have on board!! 😄

Does it chuck a wobbly when it finds the replacement battery hasn't been charged, because the power went off, when the battery was supposed to be getting charged?

The greatest threat to America as regards Trumps idiotic decision-making, is his plans to hobble renewable energy and EV's, via the total removal of subsidies and grants, for both cheaper energy generation, and cheaper transportation. But while Trump does this, China forges ahead with massive renewable energy power generation and widespread adoption of EV's. The Chinese have installed more renewable energy generation in the last 12 mths, than the whole of the U.S. generates from all energy sources in the last 12 mths. So, the future for America is higher energy costs, as gas and other fossil fuels have to be used to generate power, due to a shortage of investment in renewable energy - while the Chinese economy is transitioning to a lower-cost model, thanks to cheaper renewable power sources. In effect, Trump has shot himself in the foot with his desire to turn the clock back to widespread fossil fuel use, as American industry will become uncompetitive with high energy costs in forthcoming years. This makes Trumps aims to revitalise American manufacturing and industry so much more difficult to achieve, and it means that China will continue to win the title as the worlds greatest manufacturing economy.

I think it'll be a long time before we see lottery winnings taxed or gambling losses made tax deductible. But I'll wager a few fraudsters have claimed their gambling losses via devious methods, the same as they stole their gambling funds via devious means. I must say, I'm staggered at the number of people who are caught stealing from employers - and the worst ones, AFAIC, are the public servants in management positions who get caught forging invoices and inventing schemes to defraud the Govt. What is even more galling, is that for every one of them caught and exposed, there must be at least twice that number again rorting their employers and the Govt. There's still one W.A. bloke wanted for ripping off Fremantle Ports for $5M. He realised they were closing in on him, so he skipped the country and is living it up in Europe, still managing to avoid being nailed. We need to set up squads to track these scumbags down, and to drag them back to face the music. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-03/three-men-jailed-over-corrupt-scheme-at-fremantle-ports/102152358

1.

1824

In his new line of work, repairing faulty airport signboards?

You'd only need the setup in cities. Out in rural or remote regions, the EV could burn itself out without much need to put it out immediately. Once a car starts to burn, even a small wiring fire, it's a write-off, anyway.

Jerry, unfortunately for the wine industry, neither SWMBO or myself drink wine any more. The after-effects of wine drinking, we've both found unattractive, as we age. It knocks us around too much. I have an occasional whiskey, but a bottle lasts me a long time. We will have a good high-quality meal together shortly, but I'm afraid it won't be in Broome, the culinary skills here, leave a bit to be desired. We've also put a bid on a business-class upgrade for our return flight, that sounds like a good use for win money, to us. Re the win amount, it was less than half an hour after I posted, that I remembered how we could win so much. I'd forgotten the Powerpik 7 is a Systems ticket, and to work out your win amount, you have to consult the Systems Tables. I didn't even think of looking at the Tables initially, as it's been quite a while since I bought a Systems ticket. So, we won Division 5, which was 5 numbers and the Powerball, which was $195.25 - but when I looked at the Tables, a Powerpik 7 win with 5 numbers also gives you 19 times the Division 7 prize, which was $49.95 - which adds $949.05 to your prize winnings - bringing our total win up to $1,144.30. https://www.lotterywest.wa.gov.au/assets/games/documents/systems-table/powerball-systems-table

Over

Unbridled enthusiasm

Modern Family

As I've mentioned in passing in a couple of other threads, SWMBO and myself are on holidays in Broome for 12 days. 6 days down, 6 to go, and it's very nice up here, although the place is overrun with rich tourists! SWMBO is always encouraging me to buy a Lotto ticket here and there - but I often resist, because I don't believe the mid-week or Saturday Lotto is good value any more, since they changed the systems so you generally need 3 numbers and at least one supplementary to win anything - and it's usually only $8 or $10, anyway. The only reason I buy Lotto here is because the W.A. Govt owns LotteryWest and all profits are ploughed back into worthy community events, structures, grants - and the RFDS, too, of course. This is far better than lining the pockets of already wealthy people who own shares in a corporate structure such as Tatts. I've bought quite a few mid-week and Saturday Lottos in recent months and years, with very little success. An occasional win of $20 or $30 or $50, and they were few and far between. I like buying Powerpik 7's because you get all the Powerball numbers with that ticket selection, and this system vastly improves your chances of winning something. So, yesterday, I went into the LotteryWest agency near the Town Beach, and bought a Powerpik 7 ticket. I didn't check it until nearly bedtime, and then found I had FIVE winning numbers! Woo-hoo! I looked up the prizes and saw where 5 numbers won $195.25. I said to SWMBO, "Oooh, we've won close on $200 in the Powerball draw! She was chuffed, it's the most we've won on Lotto in about 30-plus years. So, we went down to the Lotto place this morning, placed the ticket in the checking machine, and it came back with THIS!!! I nearly fell over, I had no idea we'd won that much, and it was because I'd missed a number and because I'd forgotten they pay out on all the other smaller winning number combinations, too!!

As the old saying goes, Spacey - "It's all good fun, until someone gets hurt!"

I personally think it's utter brainless stupidity to let kids ride powerful machines when they're 10 yrs old. It shows the parents fail to understand childhood brain development. They lack experience, motor skills, fast reflexes, and mature decision-making processes in their brains. Kids live in a fantasy world until they're about 8, how else can we adults fool them with Santa Claus stories up to that age? I get angry when I see stupid Yanks getting their children to drive farm machinery at age 5 or 6, or letting them drive high-powered quad bikes at age 7. It's a recipe for a multitude of child deaths and injuries - and over 300 kids are killed on American farms every year, thanks to farming parents brainlessness. Would you let your 10 yr old drive a V8 powered car on the highways? Of course not, and authorities intelligently ban such stupidity. We stopped child labour over 100 years ago because of the massive death toll of youngsters.

Well, I don't have any children of my own, but I helped raise 3 nephews via living with the brother and SIL in the same house, for around 17 years. Plus, I employed a lot of young people, 18 to 25 yr olds, and I spent a considerable amount of time "kicking arses", and berating them for idiotic juvenile behaviour - quite often combined with alcohol and teenage bravado in a group, of course. But they'd do utterly stupid things at work, too - high levels of risk taking, against their training and instructions, poor decision-making, where you had to pull them up and point out how stupid or wasteful the last decision they took, was. It was standard policy in interstate trucking to not hire truck drivers under the age of 25. It was always regarded in the industry that anyone under 25 lacked adequate responsibility and maturity to be let loose with a big semi-trailer, into outback and remote areas. I still opine that a move to allow 16 yr olds to vote is either stupidity, or a clever plan to manipulate youthful, malleable voters. My Dad had a saying he repeated regularly - "One boy is a good boy, Two boys is half a boy, and Three boys, is no boys at all!" In other words, juveniles in a group become even more brainless, than they are on their own.

I was under the impression tricycle-based vehicles were reasonably stable. I used to own a couple of tricycle Honda 185cc off-roaders (ATV's), they were quite good, but if you did stupid things with them, of course they would tip over, and turf you off. I never ever had a problem riding them, and I rode them extensively. I didn't go over about 70kmh with them, although they would do over 80kmh. But of course, a few idiots did stupid things on them, ended up being thrown off and injured, and even killed - so the authorities banned them, in another fit of equal stupidity. Of course, cunning, ambulance-chasing lawyers did their bit to get them banned, too. All I can think of with the Honda is the lack of protection from heavy highway vehicles. Roadtrains - in fact, even just many single trailer semi's, create huge levels of wind deflection - and they throw up road debris, rocks and sand - and they often lose parts of the load, or bolts from trailers, or even gluts and tie-downs of various types. I regularly see ratchet straps on the highways, that have fallen off. One of them mixed up with a motorcycle-based rig wouldn't be fun. And finally of course, following a semi in rainy conditions on a motorcycle-based rig is nothing less than highly dangerous. You'd certainly need to pick your riding conditions, and be extra alert at all times.