onetrack

It's photoshopped, but a good one. The image of Hitler is correct, someone has added the woman, bending over and holding him. These genuine photos offer a good un-photoshopped comparison.

What kind of EV planning stupidity results in so many EV's having different charging plug requirements? That's enough to put you off EV's, right up front. Imagine pulling into a servo to refuel your petrol car and finding the bowser handpiece won't fit into your fuel filler? This is the kind of stupidity that kills new technology.

Because it's fun and pleasurable - and the fundamentalist Christians believe that every minute of the day, someone, somewhere, is having pleasure and fun, and it must be stopped.

I caught up with the BIL (retired ex-copper) last Friday, haven't seen him for a while. He's right into betting on cryptocurrencies. He's got about a dozen on the go, he watches them like stocks and shares. He claims he never gambles big on them, just watches them and when they sink, he buys some. Then they come back, and he's made a gain. He's up about $1000 on his original (small) investment. He says he only does it for fun and doesn't care if he wins or not. He's always been a bit of a gambler, I think this is his alternative to the casino (which he used to go to regularly, but which he never seems to go to, now). He also raved on about Hivemapper, he loves it. He bought a Hivemapper camera and fitted it to his Hilux, and runs the camera all the time he's driving. He says you drive through the back streets to your destination and it earns you more, as Hivemapper doesn't pay so much for well-travelled routes. Hivemapper show the routes that are less travelled, and which they want mapped. They pay in Hivemapper "Honey" tokens, which can be converted into cash. He's earnt about $1000 in 6 mths of driving around with the Hivemapper camera. But he also said the camera cost him $1000! - so not a lot of gain at this point. However, he'll start to see more financial gain soon, especially if he travels the "roads less travelled". Hivemapper brag that they're out to beat Google Mapping, and they've certainly picked a winning method, harnessing the power of everyday motorists.

The NBN stands for the National Broadband Network, it is a stand-alone Govt-owned business enterprise that set out in 2009 to establish a wholesale fibre-optic network across all of Australia. It was deemed to be necessary to bring Australia into the 21st century with high speed electronic communications - and because the copper network was over 120 years old and in poor condition. The NBN cost around AU$75B (about double what was originally estimated) and the entire process was stuffed up by fights between Labor and Liberal Govts over the cost of the project. Originally, the NBN was going to provide fibre to every premises. But the Liberals stuffed that by limiting the NBN to "Nodes" - community points where copper was run "the last mile" to premises. This became known as "Fibre To The Node" (FTTN) and it was a dead loss, because the benefit of fibre optic speed was seriously impacted by returning the signal to copper to the final delivery point. Labor got back in and returned the NBN to "Fibre To The Curb" (FTTC), whereby the NBN service ran down every street, past the premises, and it was up to the property owner to decide whether they used fibre optic to connect their premises, ot stayed with copper if they already had copper installed. In some places with difficult terrain, or in remote regions, the NBN had had major difficulty installing fibre - or because of remoteness and low population in the area, the cost of installing the fibre over long distances was deemed too costly, and the NBN installed a satellite service. As a result, some areas are not getting the service they were promised, and service problems abound. But around 95% of the population appears to be happy with the NBN fibre. We live in a 67 yr old house and we have FTTC running past the house, and we left the copper line into the house in place. Our NBN service is extremely reliable, and the speed is excellent. I haven't checked the speed recently, but I never have any download problems, no matter how large the file. We're with TPG (originally Iiinet, but TPG bought them out), we pay $79.90 a month, and we have no restrictions on the service. https://www.nbnco.com.au/ https://www.nbnco.com.au/corporate-information/about-nbn-co

A local EV club held an EV car show only a year or two after the Tesla appeared for sale here, it must have been 8 or 9 years ago. One woman there, who was a diehard EV promoter, and who owned a Tesla, told us she and her partner had already done Perth-Sydney and return in the Tesla. I did a road trip from Echuca (Vic) to Perth in May this year, and I passed several Tesla's on the Nullarbor, a couple even passed me! (I was in a small truck).

He didn't really need a pole! He's got one of his own, he could've used!!

You boozed, smoked like a chimney, rode motorbikes like a madman, and even flew flimsy light aircraft, Spacey?? How did you ever get to 82, do you have a dozen guardian angels?? 😛

Never seen a spider eat an ant, but I've seen plenty of ants eating spiders!

I think you can still buy yellow light globes that repel (or don't attract) insects.

I can recall doing some contract work for a farming family named Hoare. I always thought how unfortunate it must have been for the Hoare women - introducing yourself as Mrs Hoare, or even worse, the offspring being referred to as "the Hoares sons (or daughters)".

My brother and Dad decided to go visit a favourite Auntie (Mums sister) in Townsville in 1964. It's a long, long way to Townsville from Perth, and back again, and it would have been a pretty gruelling trip in 1964 in an FB Holden station wagon. However, they did it, and seemed to enjoy it, although Dad got carsick quite a bit. One evening in the boondocks out in the backblocks of NSW or Qld, they'd been driving for about 15 hrs and decided about 10:00PM, it was time to pull up somewhere for a spot to camp for the night. They found a nice track leading off the road into some thick bush, with a clearing not far off the road, and decided to bunk down. About 2:00AM, they were woken with a huge bright light shining into their back window. The light got brighter and brighter, and it was soon accompanied by a loud roaring noise. They sat bolt upright in the wagon, only to suddenly realise they were only about 10M away from a rail line with a curve in it, and the headlight of the loco was shining directly into their back window!!

They were written as Nick O'Teen, and Al K. Hole, when I was young. Fortunately, I had no inclination to indulge in either, and never have. Both of them seriously affect the length of your lifespan.

$14. They got given $3.50 for every leg they had.

Really bright lighting buggers up the likes of owls, too - who rely on low light to hunt. I get annoyed at people stringing rope lights or fairy lights around the street trees outside their house, or in their yard. Where are the diurnal birds going to roost? We had an owl turn up in our carob tree out front, it's a big bushy, thick foliage tree, and we have no lighting in the front yard. We only turn on the garage motion sensor light once in a while. I reckon the owl chose the spot to perch in the carob, because it was nice and dark.

Spacey, if there's an abandoned aircraft near Lightning Ridge, the 4 wheel drivers would know about it and have it marked down for regular investigation. Goldfields Air Services crashed a Cessna 310 twin in the desert about 300kms N of Forrest, way back in 1993. GAS went and stripped the engines from the wreck and left the remains to rot. A bushfire went through the area a few years ago, and I believe there's only a burnt shell left now. https://www.exploroz.com/places/816/wa+light-plane-wreckage https://www.exploroz.com/forum/136698/goldfields-air-services-reg-no-vh-fyz-crash-abh https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/1993/aair/asor_199300002

Willie, that's the annual bill, we can pay it in one lump sum, monthly, or quarterly, or half-yearly, according to what we choose - with no extra costs such as interest added. We pay monthly, it works out fine for us.

Re the farmer getting a worker on the NDIS - I didn't see the original programme, so I can only comment on what Willie has outlined. But the problem I see, is that the farmer has chosen to undertake a business operation in running a farm. I don't believe the NDIS should be supporting business operations - even if they are run by disabled people. Conducting a business is a risk-taking operation and businesses fail regularly. I don't see where the Govt should be supporting the farmers decision to run a business. That's a personal decision that shouldn't involve Govt money. As a matter for comparison, if you're a War veteran and declared disabled - to the extent you get the Special Rate pension (formerly known as the TPI), then you cannot be a director of a company, or indulge in any business pursuit. Formerly, the TPI was only handed out to those soldiers who had lost numbers of limbs or sight or who were unable to work due to shell shock, major hearing loss, etc. The conditions to be met to get a TPI pension are now relaxed, as compared to earlier decades, where you had to prove you were unable to hold down a job or make a living. Around 30,000 veterans now get the TPI and many appear to be relatively normal-looking - but many suffer from PTSD, skin complaints, hearing loss and other relatively hidden medical complaints. DVA add up all the medical complaints until you reach a score that entitles you to the TPI. As to the farmer, if he needed regular daily care to do basic stuff, such as getting around, washing, eating, even interaction for shopping - then yes, I'd say he's entitled to the NDIS assistance. But as to assistance that's required for farming operations, I'd say that should be outside any NDIS remit.

I'm glad I live in W.A., it sounds like Qld rates are pretty vicious. We live on a 562 sq m block in the inner city, less than 5kms from the CBD. The block is a standard size for the subdivision that took place probably around the 1930's. The house was built in 1957, it was originally 2 bed, 1 bath and a sleepout, but the house had a 3rd bedroom added in the 1960's, where the sleepout had been. It's a nice house to live in, it was built by a builder and is double brick and tile with raised hardwood timber floors. It has high ceilings (2.7M) and ornately decorated ceilings. Apparently it's valued at around $1.2M on the open market - but we don't want to sell, we like living here, it's crime-free, has leafy treed streets and no social problems. We got this years rates just the other day, the council we're in, is one of the largest in Perth, Stirling City Council. They're well run and they keep an emphasis on cost control and low debt levels, and low rate increases. Our rate increase this year is 2.9% over last years rates. Residential properties here are rated on "Gross Rental Value" How this figure is arrived at is a mystery to me, it's kind of like the Pommy engine HP measurements of the mid-1900's. We can reportedly get $795 a week rent for this place if we decided to rent it (but we don't plan to) - but the Govt Valuer say the GRV is $18790 annually. The rates are struck on a rate of 1.4555c in the $ on the GRV, so the actual rates for this place are $989. We pay $272 in Emergency Services Levy, $45 for a Community Safety Service charge (Security patrols that mostly check on kids lighting fires in schools), and $395 for our Waste removal service (green waste, household waste and recyclables - we have 3 bins). The total comes to $1701 and we get $630 pensioner rebate from the State Govt, making our rates bill $1070. I feel this is very reasonable for what we get, and where we live. I have to agree with Willie, a lot of the outlying, rural/remote councils have some horrendous rates charges, and I guess a lot of this is due to the low numbers of people in those council regions.

As you get older, your taste buds decline in sensitivity, so salt and pepper become your favourite way of adding flavour to your food. I prefer white pepper to black, as it has a milder bite. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/004013.htm#:~:text=Each remaining taste bud also,affect your sense of taste.

The only vehicles I know of, that run the speedo off the front wheel hub are some later model VW's - and of course, motorcycles.

We on the left coast are fortunate enough to have a Govt that stills controls all the power generation in W.A. - and they're flush with funds, and are happy to dispense a $400 energy subsidy to us this FY, to help with power bills. Coupled with the $300 Federal subsidy, our power bill will be greatly reduced this FY. We installed a new 6.6kW solar system in 2021, and we use as much power as possible while the solar system is cranking. The solar power export rebates for power generated to the grid are certainly going down like the Titanic. Our solar power rebate is the same as the rest of Australia - although we did enjoy a State Govt subsidised solar power credit of 40c per kW/H for 10 years, from 2011 to 2021. I can see the export rebate declining to virtually nothing within a short space of time. Perhaps it will be then economic to install a home battery. At present, I cannot justify the cost of a battery, especially when their lifespan appears to be only around 10 years. https://www.wa.gov.au/government/publications/household-electricity-credit

It's Neil Diamond, the singer/songwriter. He's 83 and has had Parkinsons Disease since 2018. He's got good reason to look scared, life is all downhill for him now.

Back to EV's - the EV manufacturing projected output is slowing down so much, that LG are suspending construction of 3 new battery factories in the U.S. There is also concern about the high possibility of Donald Trump being elected President in November. Trump considers EV's a "scam" and will dismantle all subsidies and Govt encouragement for the manufacture of them. And to add to the EV manufacturers problems, 46% of current EV owners state they will likely purchase an IC-engine car next time around. The reasons given were inadequate charging facilities, their cost to repair, the need for dedicated EV repair shops, and the often-overstated range of EV's. https://batteriesnews.com/lg-energy-solution-gm-jv-suspends-construction-of-3-battery-plants-in-us/ https://gmauthority.com/blog/2024/07/gm-and-lg-slowing-down-construction-of-ultium-cells-lansing-plant/

There's a YouToob video showing the crashworthiness of a Smart car as it's run into an angled concrete block at 70mph (112kmh). The car is destroyed, but the cabin remains relatively intact. The kicker is - any occupants of the Smart car would have died anyway, because of the sheer abruptness of the stop, which tears major body organs from their critical connections.