onetrack

The Taipans destruction is just the BS defence-use agreements by the military industrial complex, all designed to make more work for them, producing replacement equipment. The Taipans would have been just fine for the Ukrainians. It seems that the complex technology in the Taipan night vision technology is where they fell down. I'll wager the cause of the last Taipan crash into the sea at night was related to the machines night vision equipment. https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/air/13487-senate-probes-safety-of-mrh90-taipan-night-flying-equipment The availability of the Taipans was low, but this was due to poor logistics on the part of the Defence Dept, and especially their parts procurement programme. https://asiapacificdefencereporter.com/helicopters-there-is-nothing-wrong-with-tiger-and-taipan-the-problem-is-defence-logistics/

You can also do away with wheels altogether, and just utilise a length of wood tied to the bodywork, and going under the axle! There's a few "only in 3rd world countries" videos showing that system in operation! You wouldn't want to drive too far on grass stuffing, the heat buildup would more than likely set fire to it! I have done some innovative repairs to major wall damage, such as wiring (stitching) torn walls together. When we were doing exploration lease gridding around '70-'72, cutting access lines with dozers, the peggers were using old Landrovers and 3-speed Landcruisers to drive straight through the bush to mark the gridlines. They would invariably incur up to 10 or 20 stakes a day, which meant a lot of tyre changing work. They probably would have loved Tweels. As it was, they would buy used bald tyres and fit them, and pump them up to 45-50psi. Their theory was that bald tyres pumped up hard, resisted stakes better - at the price of the ride, of course. The theory seemed to work O.K. for them, they ended up with less tyre stakes.

No, you don't weigh what a vehicle "sits on". The definition of kerb weight is the total mass of an unladen vehicle, filled with necessary oils, coolant, and fuel that is required for operation. Wheels are needed for the vehicle to be able to operate. A driver is not normally included in the weight, but the Europeans use an EC directive that states a driver must be included in the kerb weight. When you get weighed by Transport Dept inspectors, the scales go under the tyres, not between the axles and wheels! Wheels are actually quite heavy, unless they use alloy rims, in which case there's a major weight saving. What Spacey is probably referring to is "axle loading capacity", which is a figure provided by all vehicle manufacturers for both front and rear axles in the specs - in which case, he is technically correct, in that wheels shouldn't count in "axle loading capacity, as the wheels are technically not loading up the axle directly. But in vehicle operation, the wheel is not static, it's rotating, and bouncing up and down, and adding forces to the axle structure. An out of balance wheel can add a lot of unnecessary forces acting on an axle or suspension. So the engineers include the wheels into the total mass of the vehicle.

The only good news for this week is that the dementia-afflicted Mitch McConnell is stepping down from the position of Republican Party president. The bad news is, he reckons he's going to stay on as a politician. It's obviously this scheming scumbag won't let go of the political steering wheel until they carry him out in a box. The man has done untold damage to America's political and legal systems in his Machiavellian evil as he sought to indulge in as much political and legal manipulation as he could, to ensure that hard right wing policies and adherents remained in place against democratic wishes. He's the major architect of the divided, twisted and warped American political and legal systems, all stacked with his adherents and sycophants. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/28/mitch-mcconnell-senate-sad-machiavellian

I use Chrome as my preferred browser, and therefore Google is my preferred search engine. But Windows 11 tries everything to make me revert to MS Edge as the preferred browser.

The Tweels are very expensive as compared to ordinary tyres, and they fill a niche market for off-road vehicles, forklifts and other industrial uses - but I don't think we're going to see them in widespread highway use, anytime soon.

The Royal DeLuxe giant marionettes came to Perth in 2015 as part of the Perth Arts Festival. They were great, we got right up next to them, and I have a heap of photos somewhere of them.

The Orcs are claiming they blew up a Ukrainian M1 Abrams tank, but the true story may be that the damage is repairable, as the ammunition storage compartment on the Abrams is designed to blow outwards, and save the crew, and not blow the turret off, as it does with Russian tanks. https://essanews.com/ukrainian-abrams-tank-survives-dramatic-explosion-demonstrating-exceptional-design-safety,6999956675769985a

They're called Tweels (combining the words Tire and Wheel) and they've been available since 2012. Scroll down the page below to the FAQ's. Michelin actually invented them in 1990, but it took a lot of work to perfect them. https://business.michelinman.com/by-technology/michelin-airless-tires#:~:text=The term “TWEEL” is the,center in Greenville%2C South Carolina.

It looks like a very youthful Johnny Cash, probably taken during WW2?

McConnell is the biggest mealy-mouthed scumbag in the Republican Party. He's previously promoted every single thing that Trump said, did or stood for. But when he saw Liz Cheney savage Trump and a few other Republicans supported her, he promptly changed his tune on Trump. He's a bigger work of art than Trump himself. It's a crying shame that Liz Cheney can't stop the Trump cultists, she's got real guts, and knows exactly where Trump is leading the Republicans - into a massive internal division - and Trump delights in division and chaos. It can only go downhill from here. She's resisted the vicious abuse, invective, and scorn that Trump has poured on her - the only thing he's good at.

I've already done the dog scenario. Whilst visiting a farmer canvassing for contract work, multiple numbers of his dogs came tearing out to greet my ute, as I slowed down coming up to the house, all barking and running everywhere. Unfortunately, one of them thought he'd bite my wheel or something - and he went straight under my front wheel! - and I killed it on the spot!! Not exactly a great way to garner a positive impression, when you were trying to obtain contract work! Fortunately, it turned out that it wasn't his favourite dog, and he took it in his stride, and didn't seem too put out by the dogs death. I suspected he might've already accidentally killed some of his own dogs himself. He had plenty of them, so I guess one of the dumber ones getting wiped out, wasn't such a great loss.

The message there from the linguist is pretty clear. Trump is the ultimate "BS-artist", to coin the vernacular. He relies on self-obsessed statements such as, "Believe me!", and "I'm the one that's needed to drain the swamp", and "very corrupt, very, very corrupt, Democrat Govt" - without ever providing a shred of solid evidence for the statements he's making. In every court deposition he's made, evidence is totally lacking - and the judges don't take long to reject his claims, that are simply all BS, supposition, conspiracy theories, and straight-out lies. And the sad part is, a sizeable percentage of the American population hang on every word he comes out with, as if he's Jesus Christ delivering a sermon. The part that gets me is, the vast majority of U.S. Presidents, have at some stage of their careers, delivered speeches that resound, or are quoted for their outstanding statements of truth, compassion, encouragement, and inspiration. Trumps political career has not a single speech worthy of repeating. His speech record is hollow and worthless, just like the Man.

Where's the signage stating, "stand clear of engine intake"?

He's obviously making furniture for the leprechauns at the bottom of his garden??

God doesn't need US$15M by Tuesday - but Donald Trump sure needs US$454M, RIGHT NOW - plus, US$87,502 a day in interest! I wouldn't be surprised to see one of his hard-right-wing billionaire backers lend him the money pretty soon.

I didn't see any crosswind?? The wind was a headwind virtually straight down the runway, according to what I could see of the windsock.

Mussolini and Obama were both born under the star sign Leo. These people like to rule large groups, and they always have a "royalty" type of disposition. And they're buggers for being "gangmeisters". You know that kid at school who formed his own private gang, and made sure you were excluded? Almost certainly a Leo.

The rain that came off the low that was supposed to reform into Cyclone Lincoln (but it didn't), went through the State in a fairly narrow strip, starting from just N of Carnarvon. Carnarvon got 78mm and the localised flooding did a bit of damage to vegie crops there. The heat last week cooked their remaining mangoes and their avocadoes, so the poor buggers can't win. A lot of parched stations in the Gascoyne missed out, one station SE of Carnarvon got 103mm, but at Gascoyne Junction, 175kms East of Carnarvon, they only got 5mm. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-25/ex-tc-lincoln-impacts-gascoyne-drought-breaking-rain-crop-damage/103509686

Yes, thank goodness, the temperatures have dropped back to good levels in the 20's. There was an interesting event just after lunch, I was sure all the moisture had gone to the S.E. and the skies were clearing - but a big high pressure system working its way in from the S.W., swung the wind around to the S.E. - and it picked up some of the thunderstorm moisture, and dropped it over the city. We got 3.2mm in half an hour out of a sharp shower, best rain we've had for nearly 4 months.

At 35,000 to 40,000 feet, with a very large jet, at 800kmh? I wouldn't have thought so - and especially right over the top of Perth city.

His latest rant to his dopey followers is a "Messiah" rant, picturing himself as oppressed, and a victim of conspirators, portraying himself as the equivalent of Navalny - and demonising every immigrant to America. He's reading right off the Il Duce speeches - the only thing missing is the glittery military outfit, and the raised hand salutes. The scary part is how Trump is PROMISING to jail journalists, and fire every person in Govt legal depts who has opposed him, once he gets re-elected. He's the ultimate narcissist dictator and no doubt he'll suspend parts of the Constitution that don't suit him. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/24/donald-trump-cpac-speech

I reckon Janus have the electric truck largely sorted - apart from the disastrous recent fire. But they seem to be on top of that now, too. https://www.januselectric.com.au/ https://bigrigs.com.au/2023/12/18/why-electric-truck-caught-fire-on-the-west-gate-freeway/

If you use Python, can you expect to get any eggs at all?

1mm was all we got in total yesterday. The thunderstorms are drifting away to the S.E. and breaking up.