onetrack

I've always known the saying to be the plural. You wouldn't have just one seat as the best, it's always a group of seats, such as a balcony, or a section of a row of seats.

Best seats in the house?

You're not wrong there, Nev. Never come across a place so cold. What is it about the town that makes it so cold? Alpine winds? The altitude?

I was quite surprised to see "Ballaarat" written multiple times on the Salter Bros website. I've never seen this spelling before, but apparently it was the original spelling of Ballarat, and used right up until recent times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Ballaarat

The original drummer for the Bee Gees, Colin "Smiley" Peterson, has died, aged 78. There's only one of the Gibb brothers left alive now - Barry - he's the last surviving member of the Bee Gees. Colin Petersen was drumming at public performances, as recently as last Saturday. He gained the nickname "Smiley", because he was the child actor of that name in the 1956 film, which also starred Chips Rafferty. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-19/bee-gees-drummer-colin-smiley-petersen-dead-at-78/104618874 Amazingly, Dennis Bryon, who was also a Bee Gees drummer after Petersen left, also died just five days ago, on the 14th November 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/18/arts/music/bee-gees-drummers-dead.html

A recipe for success.

I never knew that Villiers set up in Ballarat, either - but the website below gives us the entire history of the operation. Villiers moved into Ballarat because the Australian Govt placed tariffs on imported engines to protect local manufacturers. So Frank Farrer, the head of Villiers, decided it was viable to set up in Australia and not only meet the sizeable Australian demand for their products, but to export their products to NZ, the Pacific, and SE Asia. Interestingly, "New Australians" (European refugees from the devastation of WW2) made up a sizeable proportion of the Ballarat workforce. https://salterbros.com.au/villiers-australia/ Stationary engines appear to be their mainstay in the 1950's, it looks like motorbikes were a secondary product. I love the photo of the old semi with 1300 Villiers engines on board, being pulled by the Dodge Power Giant - get a look at the 44 gallon drum for a fuel tank! The old Dodge petrol V8's weren't exactly fuel misers! I owned a '62 Inter R190, it was powered by the (Red Diamond) RD-406 engine. Despite being only a 6 cyl, it did 2mpg empty, and 1mpg loaded, pulling my low-loader and Cat D6C's around! Most trucks of this era had a fuel drum tray behind the cabin - you always carried 2 or 3 drums of super petrol with you! I think the original IH fuel tank was 20 gallons, what were IH engineers thinking?

I'd love to see Ukraine bomb a NK ship. Hopefully, one with 10,000 NK troops on board. There wouldn't be any reprisals.

I've got a keyboard where about a third of the keys have the letters worn off them! That makes for interesting typing!! Yes, I definitely need a new keyboard!

Can't beat a good dose of rain to freshen everything up. But I guess the mozzies will be building up again, soon?

I have found Tagtik to be a pro-Russian news site. Treat their information with a diligent approach. They are very obtuse as to their ownership.

Of course you expect others to work for nothing when you're worth $300B. That's part of how he got so rich - as well as rorting people with his corporate charges. I like this comment I saw on Bluesky - "Free speech is a beautiful thing, but when a billionaire thinks his voice is more valuable than yours, and steps on your opinion using their vast wealth, it creates an inequality that we really need to address."

This is possibly news to all the East Coasters, and other forumites overseas - but a HK based consortium is proposing the worlds largest Green Energy Hub on the Nullarbor Plain. The project is located NW of Eucla. The projected planning is for 25,000,000 solar panels and 3000 massive wind turbines generating at least 50 gigawatts and potentially 70 gigawatts. The electricity will be used to produce green hydrogen and ammonia. The company is reportedly going to outlay $100M, but the EPA is yet to approve the project, and it looks like it's still got a way to go - although they're forecasting it will be in production next year. "In your dreams" is my opinion. The major driver of the project is a gent who appears to be a British whizz kid who operates out of HK, running a company called Intercontinental Energy. He has other partners in the project as well. He's got Chinese money on board, as well as Singapore Govt funding and Middle Eastern money from Oman. He seems to be able to pull in the big money. South Korea is lined up to take the majority of the hydrogen and ammonia. Nowhere do I see any logistics or plans on how to get the ammonia and hydrogen out of what is a remote region. They talk of "offshore shiploading", but the coastal region is a Marine Park of global importance, on a par with the Barrier Reef. Good luck as regards getting any infrastructure built along the Great Australian Bight! Another interesting angle is the Indigenes have climbed on board (with company insistence) and the Indigenous Corporation is getting a 10% free-carried share in the project. They can either sell their 10% share, or have to find $$$'s to contribute. I can well imagine what their choice will be, when it comes to selling free shares and getting a whole pile of $$$'s!! https://www.ecoticias.com/en/the-western-green-energy-hub/8555/ https://wgeh.com.au/ https://intercontinentalenergy.com/ https://wgeh.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Project-Information-Update-July-2024.pdf https://www.firstnationscleanenergy.org.au/western_green_energy_hub

Well, we tried to get them to have a drink with us, but it seems there's multiple barriers. Language difficulties, a lack of ability to hold a can, and a known disposition to avoid drinking anything at all, for extremely long periods, seemed to doom our attempts to get them to be more sociable. https://differentville.com/john-forrest-tavern-kangaroo-pub-perth/

Below is a good outline of what could happen under Trump's chaotic and self-serving economic policies, in the next 4 years. What staggers me, is the Republicans rage on about the level of U.S. Govt debt, but it will only get worse under Trumps leadership. It's a real elephant in the room, that will have to be addressed before it creates havoc with the U.S. economy - and a lower standard of living for all Americans. https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/rampant-us-dollar-sends-a-threatening-message-to-the-rest-of-the-world-20241114-p5kqi2.html https://www.pgpf.org/national-debt-clock#:~:text=The %2435 trillion gross federal,to measure our national debt.

Didn't anyone miss the irony, that Kangaroos can't drink beer?

The new BMW iX3 EV prototype is on show, it's coming in 2025. It looks pretty sharp, as one would expect from BMW. But the lack of switches buttons and controls in the dashboard area, is one complaint area, that is being raised regularly by new car owners. They want the familiarity of switches and buttons, not to have to take ones eyes off the road, to look for a screen icon to touch. The interesting part is BMW is partnering with the Chinese for battery technology, is using cylindrical battery technology, not prismatic cells, and has developed a dedicated, stand-alone EV vehicle platform, (BMW call it "Neue Classe"), which platform is not shared with any other BMW IC-engined vehicle. The new iX3 EV will use batteries from CATL, Eve, and Envision AESC, runs an 800V architecture, and has a reported range of 600kms. Article - https://uk.motor1.com/news/741208/bmw-ix3-2025-patent-photos-leaked/ Photos - https://uk.motor1.com/photos/879224/bmw-vision-neue-klasse-x-2024/#7702468_bmw-vision-new-class-x-2024

I don't think too many pilots would have, they're a relatively rare engine - although I was surprised to see how many twins used them. The crop dusters love them, plenty of grunt with 400HP.

Jerry, why not an IO720? They sound great! Pity about the fuel consumption, though!

Russian criminal gangs have been scamming people with fake tractor sales. They are exceptionally good at it, and operate a professional website with people you can call and speak to, and they use a very similar company name and ABN, as a registered Australian company name and ABN, who ARE trading. But the Australian company doesn't sell tractors. The scammers show superb photos of nice low-hour tractors at very reasonable prices and the suckers pay the money into a Bendigo Bank account. However, the funds are transferred out of the Bendigo Bank account within minutes of being paid and used to purchase cryptocurrencies that can't be traced or recovered. Part of the problem appears to be idiots here who are "renting" their local bank account for the scammers to use. The scammers use photos stolen from U.S. tractor websites, and this should be enough warning if you're perceptive. Two things that I do, that has never failed me, is to look at the vegetation and surroundings in the photos to determine if the scenery is American or Australian (Australian shrubbery and scenery is distinctive as compared to the U.S. Then I go looking for similar photos in U.S. or Australian sites, using Google image search. Google image search is so powerful, it will pick up virtually anything that has ever been photographed. I regularly pick up the scammers on the aviation ads by using this technique. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-15/tractor-scam-fleecing-australian-farmers-out-of-thousands/104586900

So ... it looks like the wheels just fell off the Porsche bandwagon? Oooohh, Look!! I just found the new Porsche company song!!

There are dozens of Straight 8's. Isotta-Fraschini was first, followed by Leyland, Duesenberg, Bentley, Bugatti, Marmon, Pontiac, Buick, Studebaker, Packard, Rolls-Royce, Alfa-Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, Miller, just to name a few. The Studebaker Straight 8's ran in the Indianapolis 500 in the 1930's and gained an excellent reputation for durability and power. The Straight 8's suffered mostly from crankshaft torsional problems, due to the crankshaft length. A crankshaft vibrational/torsional damper is critical to the success of a Straight 8. The Buick 8's were buggers for running bearings if you hammered them at high speed for an extended period. The lack of pressure feed to the GM engines bottom ends in that era, didn't help. By far the most stunning Straight 8 car I've ever seen locally was a 1929 Marmon Roosevelt sedan. It came with a factory radio, and fully silver-plated doorhandles and dash panel, and a huge recessed dash, that was stunning for the era. Incredibly, the Marmon Roosevelt sold for under US$1000, probably a major part of the reason Marmon stopped manufacturing cars in May 1933. https://www.justcars.com.au/cars-for-sale/1929-marmon-roosevelt-collapsible-coupe-roadster/JACFD5245961#&gid=1&pid=6

I think Ozzy can rightfully be described as a "cooker" when it comes to drug use.

Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne before they went punk.

He'll pop the other one in, when he feels a bout of dementia coming on.