onetrack

The deer must be big and solid in his neck of the woods! I can always recall a "Truckin 'Toon" from years ago, where a couple of tough-looking truckies in a cabover Kenworth that's sporting a MASSIVE bullbar, are stopped on a road in the Outback, after clobbering a huge bull. They're full of smiles, and one bloke's saying to the other, "Would ya look at THAT!! The bullbar isn't even buckled!" But the cartoonist has drawn the KW cab, and the rest of the rig, looking like a concertinaed corrugated iron roof!!

Great camouflage.

Spacey, you still had ration books in the late 1950's and early 1960's? Rationing started ending in the U.K during the early 1950's, and rationing ended completely in 1954, according to the site below. https://merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2022/05/everything-you-wanted-to-know-ration-books/#:~:text=The end of rationing,war to stop rationing food.

And make votes for him appear by the tens of thousands, out of thin air!

Modern cars do rust more quickly if the metal is exposed - but modern cars have superior coatings on the panels that vastly improve their protection against corrosion. HT steels contain a higher level of carbon content than lower grade steels, so this facilitates corrosion. Try leaving a bare (uncoated) mild steel bolt out in the rain along with an uncoated HT bolt, and see the difference in the corrosion levels after a week or two. https://blog.thepipingmart.com/metals/difference-between-high-tensile-steel-and-normal-steel/#:~:text=The trade-off for this,fencing or marine structures%2C etc.

Agreed. However, the newest steel sheeting is also high tensile, which allows them to make it thinner. Against that, HT steel corrodes a lot more rapidly than lower grades of steel or iron.

I'd consider none of the above to rate as "movies" in the true sense of the word. More like art wank, specifically created to set a particular record, and massage the film makers ego, with no other worthwhile value. I'd consider worthy, entertaining films from genuine film makers, as proper entrants to the "longest movie" record. I would've thought one of the Cecil B. DeMille biblical movies would rate in the "longest movie" stakes, thinking perhaps "The Ten Commandments" (3 hrs 45 mins) - or "Cleopatra" at 3 hrs and 53 mins - but it appears "Gods and Generals" at 4 hrs and 31 mins would be the longest.

Some bloke with Italian ancestry, his face is familiar, but I can't place him yet.

But just how OLD was the old sheet? They've been making CGI since 1829, when it was first patented. It was in use in Australia from the 1830's. An old prospector showed me sheets of old CGI he'd hoarded, and he carried on about how strong it was, "compared to this new sh**!" That was in the mid 1970's.

I employed up 102 people at one time over more than 30 years in the business of earthmoving and mining contracting. In an industry littered with major personal injuries and fatalities (as most industries where powered equipment is in use), the only fatality incurred in my business, in that period of more than 30 years of operation, was a 20 yr old operator who rolled a company dual cab Hilux in the middle of the day, on a superb straight section of highway in the W.A. Goldfields. He was told as part of his training that seatbelts were to be worn at all times - yet he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. For some reason (inattention or carelessness), he drifted off the bitumen at 110kmh, and hit a wooden guide post. It appears hitting the guidepost startled him and he swerved back on the bitumen. But in an incredible one-in-10,000 chance, as he hit the guidepost, it broke in two. The bottom piece of the guidepost was laid out flat by the front tyre as it ran over it - but as it came out from under the front tyre, it stood up at about a 30°-40° angle - and it hit the centre of the tread of the LHR tyre, straight on at 90° to the tread, and it punched straight through the tyres tread, effectively guillotining the rear tyre across the tread, and flattening the tyre instantly. As he swerved right, back onto the bitumen, the LHR wheel, now effectively just running on the rim, and going nearly sideways, dug into the shoulder like a brake. The effect of the now-tyreless rim also lowered that side of the Hilux, facilitating a rollover. The Hilux rolled 2.5 times (still doing around 100kmh) and the driver was ejected from the vehicle via a broken window, and he broke his neck instantly upon contact with the road. It was a very sad day when this happened, he was the only boy in a family of 6 - but the essence of the accident was, it was all totally preventable, just caused by carelessness and inattention. As to rockbolting or installing supports to the roof of shafts or drives whilst standing underneath - well, mining lost a lot of blokes in W.A. doing that up to about 35 years ago, when they worked under unsupported roofs. "Barring down" was the most dangerous job of all - prying loose rocks out of roofs, after a blast. So they stopped blokes from doing all that in company operations, and made sure they operated from machines with reinforced cages that operate mechanical arms to remove loose rocks and install rock bolts. There's no need for anyone to stand under newly blasted unsupported roofs in mining today, faults in the ground trick even the best geologists. The biggest mine collapse event we had in W.A. was the Scotia Nickel Mine cave-in. Hundreds of thousands of tonnes fell in the Scotia Nickel Mine when underground workings collapsed. It was pure luck that no-one was underground at the time. But a bloke on the surface saw clouds of dust rising from the mine shaft, and jumped in his Holden ute to go and alert management. But he inadvertantly drove across the ground that fell in, and he and his ute were sucked down into the mine in the massive collapse. Neither he nor his ute were ever recovered from the collapse as it was was deemed too dangerous to go near the fallen ground. https://www.wavmm.com/2023/02/19/scotia-nickel-mine-tragedy/

And you can also order it in 0.42mm thickness. Some imported cladding is only 0.3mm thickness. I've never actually measured the old late 1800's Lysaght Custom Orb CGI, but I'll wager it was at least 1.5mm thick.

It's Jason Starkey, Ringo's son.

The worry is that Trump will utilise U.S. Troops to do his bidding, and "drain the Swamp" on his orders. Armies firing on protestors and killing them, is where civil war usually starts.

The more things changes .... the more they stay the same. Here's an article from the Guardian, dated Aug 2022. It brings up eerie similarities with what is going on in the Ukraine today. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/aug/21/russia-ukraine-five-lessons-crimean-war-ted-widmer The primary photo is one of the earliest war photos of combat devastation. What looks like rocks laying everywhere, is actually cannonballs. https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/104GXR

The Gubbmint. Anyone with Govt-authorised authoritarian powers. Police, the hated ATF, the "bureaucrats" that run the "Swamp". Anyone who wants to tell them what to do. "Cos they is FREE men, and no-one tells 'em what to do, and no-ones gonna take their GUNS offa them!!"

I didn't want to appear to have superior knowledge by claiming the answer within 30 seconds - but IMO, it's 12 days.

There's a U.S. bloke named Tom Nichols, he taught U.S. Constitutional Law at Military colleges, he explains in this podcast just how frighteningly easy it could be for Trump to manipulate the U.S. Military into giving him loyalty, instead of the Military staying non-political, and being loyal to the Constitution. Shades of Hitler corruption and criminality, right there. Corrupt the countrys military to get their allegiance to you as the countrys figurehead by inserting loyal followers into prime military positions, and you're home and hosed as a dictator. https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2023/12/how-trump-could-manipulate-military/676341/

I wonder what that huge black part was, that fell off the aircraft while it was still airborne? Seemed to be very large and solid, didn't look like a complete engine, but maybe it was?

If there is any one factor that is a fundamental and fatal weakness in Russia's military, it is the over-arching, continuous and rampant corruption and theft, which is carried out at every level in the Russian military - from the Defence Minister on down through officers, right through to the everyday Russian infantry soldier. They will sell anything of military origin that they can make a dollar out of, if they think they can get away with it. Bribery and corruption is just the everyday norm in the Russian military. This corruption ranges from kickbacks from suppliers for senior officials and officers, through to stolen military fuel sales on the blackmarket, new tyres on military equipment being pulled off and sold, and the new tyres replaced by worn-out aged tyres - through to soldiers selling their arms and telling commanders they lost them. Officers take kickbacks from troops to avoid punishment for military charges, or to avoid being sent to dangerous areas. The officers take kickbacks to issues qualification certificates, where soldiers haven't properly earned them. The officers demand kickbacks for privately bought cars from Russian soldiers. The soldiers steal copper wiring and components from military items, and sell them for scrap. The list of types of thefts would fill hundreds of pages. Every now and then, news of a court-martial over military theft or corruption escapes from Russia, probably designed to frighten those indulging in it. It will never work, because corruption and theft is entrenched in Russia, and especially in the Russian military, where they see massive waste every day - while they, as ordinary citizens, are deprived of many basic items - so they think it's O.K. to help themselves to that endless supply of military wealth and materials. The most prominent military crim caught so far is a Russian Colonel, who blatantly stole 7 new tank engines destined for the premium-level T-90 tanks, valued at $200K each. He's been linked to the theft of 14 more different tank engines. It just makes you wonder how much more he stole, before he was caught. I've no doubt he tried to buy his way out of this charge, but it doesn't look like it worked. After being arrested in April 2023, he's still in detention awaiting trial. https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-colonel-accused-stealing-engines-prized-t-90-tanks-2023-4

There's no CGT on your family home - but this idea has passed it's use-by date, as people now buy $1M-$2M homes, spend hundreds of thousands on extending them, then sell them for $2M-$3M and pocket all the capital gain, tax-free. I believe that one day the Govt will be forced to apply CGT on family homes over a reasonable value.

The Ford system for reducing emissions is exceptionally complicated and is unlikely to reach commercial viability. One of the factors that is starting to impact IC-engine design and production is that in the future, the production levels of IC engines will be seriously crimped, as IC engines struggle to keep up their dominance of the automotive industry. No longer will they be able to work on selling tens of millions of one particular engine, it will be a half or a third of what they could plan on, before the EV era.