old man emu

I'm happy with just the one bike. According to my insurer, my bike increases in value each year. That Prince would sell OK in the USA, but there are not many aficionados of the early USA bikes in Australia. The fact that it is complete and looks pretty good should sell, but below $20K. Hand change/foot clutch is really easy to use, especially when you have a gate to move the gear lever through. I couldn't jump on a hand clutch/foot change bike and ride it. I'd never know what gear I was in. One thing you have to discipline yourself to do is to take things steadily. You'll never pop a mono with one of these biles.

You'd be surprised how much these pre-WWII Yankee bikes are bringing. Can't send a picture because it wa on FB marketplace and I don't know how to download pix from FB. From the pix it looks complete and has been undercover for a long time. Said to have last run 20 years ago.

Looks like it wasn't an accident after all, but is being treated as a terrorist incident. It seems that the contents of the cabin were ignited by a remote device. Musk was quick to Tweet that the fire had nothing to do with the battery. I'll accept that, given my interpretation of the flames and the after incident photos of the material in the cabin. OMG! I agreed with Elon. I think I'd better have a Bex and a good lay down.

Just saw a 1926 Indian Prince 350 cc for $25,000. Located in the next town to me. I'll dribble the water out of it.

I forgot about that. Maybe Albo should have yelled a bit louder. Australian imports from Israel was US$547.01 Million during 2023. That's not a lot. Maybe we could place an embargo on all foodstuffs coming from there. More importantly we stop this: In February 2024 alone Australia directly exported over $1.5 million in ‘arms and ammunition’ to Israel. Greens Senator and Defence Spokesperson David Shoebridge said: “Make no mistake the Albanese Labor Government by permitting these exports to Israel is complicit in the genocide that is occurring. Each of these exports requires the express consent of the Australian government. Once again, the dollar is mightier than morality.

Who knows what that means. Those Tesla trucks never had a good reputation for build quality.

Woosy boy!

I usually listen to the 7:00 am ABC news on the radio when I get up in the morning. I've had enough of every morning hearing that the Israelis have attacked a site which is allegedly (on their word) harboring terrorists, but inevitably the attacks result in the deaths of non-combatants. Worse still is the continued devastation of the non-combatants in Gaza, culminating in the deaths of newborn babies from hypothermia - freezing to death - due to lack of shelter and heating. The Allies strung up hundreds of Germans after WWII for crimes against humanity, especially against Jews. Now the descendants of those Jews are inflicting the same or worse on another ethnic group. The behaviour of the Israeli Government and its military wing might end one day, but the memory will never fade. However, there is not one of those former Allies who is prepared to cry, "Enough!". Where is the social conscience of our Government and Opposition leaders. I agree that terrorists and their mode d'emploi must be quashed, but what does Israel hold over the heads of the rest of the World that prevents nations from speaking out? The silence can only indicate that the lack of moral fibre in our government. So much for teaching our children that bullying is unacceptable!

No. I pulled the picture from a video which also showed a view of the car taken from inside the building. Definitely a passenger compartment fire, caused by the fireworks, and as onetrack said, an accident. I didn't want to knock EVs. The ironic twist is in the juxtaposition of a Tesla and the Trump building.

Well, my 2025 has got off to a great start! My bike has been sitting, unused, since last July when I rode it in after getting it pink slip. I was afraid to ride it because over the years I have had breakdowns that left me in the poo. So there it sat, covered up to protect it from the elements. For the past week or so, I have been telling myself that I have to get it started. But I kept making excuses. This morning, I procrastinated a while, then dragged my sorry arse out to it. I had to refill the oil since what had been in it had drained out because a check valve wasn't seated properly. I was amazed that the battery had held a charge for so long. I drained the remnants of the old fuel out of the tank. I pulled the spark plugs out and squirted some RP-7 into the cylinders. Then, with the plugs out so that there was no compression, I kicked the engine over about 20 times to get the oil circulating. Then I put some fuel in and refitted the spark plugs. I looked to the heavens and made my plea to my late wife to remove her curse from the bike. I went through the sacred starting ritual, known only to owners of WLA Harleys, and designed to prevent the uninitiated from starting the bile and riding off. To my great joy, and amazement, the engine fired at the first kick. I was expecting to see clouds of white smoke coming from the exhaust as any oil film burned off, but there was none. Encouraged by the situation, I mounted the bike and rode from my place the couple of hundred yards to my sister's place where she was able to share my happiness. I've parked the bike now, and will wait until things cool towards evening when I will get the hose out and wash the dust and spider webs from it. Tomorrow morning, early, I'll take it for a few short runs, back and forth on the highway for a km or so to settle things in and to see if there are any gremlins lurking within.

Comparing the flames to those in pictures of other EV on fire, and with the information about the fireworks, I support the theory that the fire was caused by the fireworks and at the time the fire started, the battery was intact and not involved. But the picture makes a great basis for a great meme.

He was a product of his times. His songs were comedic. He used his physical attributes to the fullest, and was held in very high regard within the Australian Country Music fraternity. He was recognised by the Nation with an OAM on Australia Day (26 January) in 2004 for "service to country music." In January 2023 Morgan was still touring, his career having spanned over 70 years

Vale, The Sheik of Scrubby Creek, Chad Morgan.

The State of the Bromance.

Al-Kasani was a 12th Century jurist (legal expert). who wrote the manual. entitled Bada'i' al-Sana'i' fi Tartib al-Shara'i' (Marvellous artistry in the arrangement of the religious-legal regulations), which is one of the most important Islamic legal manuals of the Hanafi tradition. The Hanafi school or Hanafism is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. Were you thinking of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi who was a Persian polymath living in the 8th Century, and who produced vastly influential Arabic-language works in mathematics, astronomy, and geography? Both men were brilliant in their fields, but I sense from your question that you are referring to al-Khwarizmi, whom Westerners would be more likely to label as being "clever". It's, as Einstein said, "all Relativity". al-Khwarizmi lived in a time of the Islamic Golden Age. The Islamic Golden Age refers to a period in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century, during which much of the historically Islamic world was ruled by various caliphates and science, economic development, and cultural works flourished. At the same time, Western Europe was a shambolic homeland of warring groups through which Christendom was spreading like the mycelium of a fungus and creating links. Christendom was in its missionary stage, so there was little opportunity for its evangelist to sit and ponder the Arts and Sciences. So one would be correct in saying that al-Khwarizmi and his contemporaries were "clever". It wasn't until the Renaissance, from the 14th to the 17th centuries, when cultural, artistic, political, and economic rebirth in Europe took place. It was a time when the ideas and achievements of classical antiquity were revived and surpassed. Getting back to Al-Kasani, his field of expertise was in the interpretation of the laws of the Quran. Since the Quran is a theological text, the Word of Allah, the source material is considered to be fixed. Therefore, once the laws arising from the text have been settled, there is nothing further to do. One can study the laws and the interpretations, but those ancient interpretations are set in stone. Saying that Arabs are no longer clever because they live by these ancient laws and interpretations fails to separate the Spiritual from the Secular. Arabs whose field of expertise is elsewhere than in religion are as equally a clever and any other mob. For proof, just pop into your local public hospital. The cleverness of Arabs in general seems to be stifled in many countries by the power of the religious. Just as the cleverness of Western Europeans was stifled in the Middle Ages by the Church.

You don't have to go back that far. This is a picture from a World Series game played in Mildura in 1977. Look at all teh thin bodies.

They are a crutch. The thing that you are trying to do when on a weight loss regime is to train yourself into adopting new eating habits. Your excess weight is simply due to getting your intake to output ratio too far to the intake side. In our modern society, that's mainly due to overconsumption of valueless energy in the form of the various carbohydrates and fats. The real purpose of a weight loss regime is to train yourself mainly to realise that you don't need to eat in bulk. If you struggle through the "boot camp" of learning correct serving sizes, then, if you settle down with those sizes, and have patience, then over time the weight will come off, probably at the same rate that it went on. You only get success by playing the long game. Using "weight loss" drugs will get the weight off quickly, but most of that weight initially is water (the Warnie diet) and will come back on at the first drink. It seems that the best accelerant for weight loss is movement. It appears that light exercise, mainly simply walking, is much better for the body as a whole that stringent workouts. Studies seem to indicate that walking is also a great way to slow the degeneration of knee joints which comes naturally with the years, but is worsened by requiring the knees to handle the extra loads created by the extra body weight. While exercise is an important element in a weight-loss regime, you have to also consider what it does to the skeleton in those early stages when the weight is still high.

It is somewhat ironic that he was a strong advocate for civil rights, but came from Georgia, a State not known for its racial equality during his governorship and presidency.

Former US President, Jimmy Carter has passed away at the age of 100.

All this aircraft stuff is very interesting, but the movement of the thread away from it original intention is more like the tide flow at Derby WA than the gentle flow of a babbling brook.

I was peeling potatoes to cook them and noticed that they hardly had any eyes at all. Not like the ones I peeled as a kid where there were eyes all over them. I wonder if they have bred new varieties that can only be grown from cloned stock. That might be correct since the potatoes are all of a very similar shape.

Maybe the YouTube algorithm is taking over and suggesting certain types of videos (which seem to be anti-Trump), but I'm beginning to get the feeling that the Trump Presidency, based on his agitation of the Masses, is degenerating before it even begins. It seems that the MAGA mob whom he conned into voting for him with false promises is waking up to itself and starting to devour itself like a snake. All the Democrats have to do is buy a box of popcorn and sit in the bleachers to watch the disaster unfold.

That is what resulted in the French Revolution. I don't know if those were the exact factors that resulted in the recent Syrian overthrow. If Trump and his cohorts can't lower the price of groceries in the USA, and maintain their "if there is no bread, let them eat cake" attitude, I wonder if a revolution could occur there. There is a difference between the French and USA situations in that the USA has a large group of people (Democrats) who didn't swallow Trumps crap. That group is not likely to join in a revolution, but would sit back and let the MAGA mob destroy the Republicans.

Actually, Hitler himself had nothing to do with the burning of the books. Beginning on May 10, 1933, Nazi-dominated student groups carried out public burnings of books they claimed were “un-German.” The book burnings took place in 34 university towns and cities after the Nazi university student association created blacklists of works by literary and political figures such as Bertolt Brecht, Erich Maria Remarque, and Ernest Hemingway that were to be thrown into the flames. Works of prominent Jewish, liberal, and leftist writers ended up in the bonfires.

Of course! I see it as a subtle (maybe not so subtle) warning to Musk to not go too far in trying to control Trump. It also is an assurance to the Country that despite what the media is saying about the influence of Musk on Trump, Trump still holds the winning hand.