Leaderboard

Many years ago I use to follow F1 quit heavily however having nearly all races in the middle of the night whilst also going to work I lost interest as I became sleep deprived however last year I renewed my interest in F1 being able to watch all races, through Kayo, and not being able to work. The other thing is having a great Australian kid in Oscar Piastri representing Australia to the world driving a Mclaren has been great to watch, becoming an Australian hero to all of us that are into F1. Anyway I imagined what it would be like to Australia if Oscar's car in the Melbourne Grand Prix was painted in the iconic Australian Green and Gold. What a marketing success it would be. So I created a mock up of one:

Oh that we should do the same.

Great news! Norway has a solution to the present international jitters. But it might not be welcomed by the major media industry. (Due to stealing a lot of media hysteria.)

It's too late! The e-Horse has volted.

been talking about it for as long as the Epstein files have been in the headlines

The main problem with recycling EV batteries in Australia is that there have not been enough of them to warrant the creation of a recycling plant. This will of course change as more EVs are added to the Australian vehicle fleet. The early recycling plants in the US (there are a number of good You tube videos) have proven that almost all of the critical minerals are recyclable. We just do not have the volume at this stage & that is all lithium based batteries able to be recycled. At this stage old EV batteries are still quite valuable for use as home or commercial energy storage but there are few available & mostly they are from early BMW or Nissan Leaf EVs as well as those recovered from crashed EVs. I imagine the federal and state governments battery subsidies will have the effect of reducing the value of these as well. Once an EV battery gets to about 70% of its original storage capacity, it still has many years of home storage left even though no longer useful in the EV. Add to that the fact that EV batteries are lasting considerably longer than original predictions. I have done just over 35,000km in my 2023 MG4 & battery health is still showing 100% The good thing about all of this is that batteries have a circular life with 96% of materials being recovered during recycling. Compare that to fossil fuels which are used once & then they are gone.

Venezuela's current production is only about one million barrels per day, which is a drop in the bucket and certainly won't bother China very much. Estimates are that to get it up to even 1.5m bpd would cost about $7 billion and take 2 years. Chevron is the only major US producer with a significant footprint in the country, and Trump can't simply order other US producers to move into a politically unstable country and spend billions of dollars ramping up production as he claims, even if they are led by his cronies. At the end of the day they have turn a profit for their shareholders, and even if Venezuela is sitting on 303 billion barrels of oil, which the US doesn't own anyway, time is not on Donald's side in getting his hands on it in his political lifetime. At the end of the day, they may have Maduro in jail but not much else to show for their efforts.

Sometimes I do wonder about people's ability to think logically. We have yet to buy a replacement for the written off mini. It is really my partner's car and she flatly refuses to drive a manual. Which is a pain in the UK, because most cars - even luxury ones - that are sold are manual. So, after fruitlessly searching for a replacement for her that was in budget and auto, I took a look at some EV cars - as they are all "autos". Used car sellers here work a bit dfifferently to Aus (at least when I last purchased a used car in Aus, which was admittedly about 20 years ago). If you know what you want, you can buy online unseen from a reputable seller and if you're not entirely happy with it whtin 2 weeks or something like 1000 miles, they will refund you in full and take the car back. In addition, most offer 12 month warranties under similar terms to new car warranties. And of course, if the car they sell you has a balance of a new car warranty, that transfers to you (as long as the previous owner/s have kept to the terms of the warranty) and they will make up the difference if the balance of the new car warranty is less than the 12 months. There is also statutory protections as well that the larger used car dealers adhere to without resistance because they work on a model to stack them high and kiss them good bye. They don't make much on the sale of a car, but on the finance. They don't much like cash buyers, but to ensure they get the volume, they do a lot to preserve their reputation. Some of these are not venturing into making the used EV purchase a virtually risk free proces as they see a big market of better value cars and better demand. So I was looking at autotrader.co.uk for cars with bettter than 250 mile range. I selected a few, of which the MG ZS 72.x KW was one, and checked out the ads. The reputable dealers have RAC or AA battery tests performed. Fore about £9K, I was looking at 2021 - 2023 models of varying mileage, but averaging arount 30k miles (50k kms). So much for 10% degradation per year of the battery - most were showing 98 - 99% of life left in them, and the lowest was about 96%. I did some research and, ironically, apart from the mini, the real world ranges were not far off the claimed range - probably on average 10% less than claimed range. The batter checks also stated claimed range and provided estimated real world ranges at 0 degrees c ambient temperature and 25 degrees C ambient temperatures. At zero degrees, it was about 25% less range than at 25 degrees. OK, for the cars I was looking at, and taking into account the decreased range at motorway speeds, I should still be able to get to London without needing a charge and have some in reserve. Sticking it on a charger overnight would have me right tor the trip home and assuming it would be 0 - 100% charge. cost me about £35 - half that of the Volvo and about 2/3 that of the now dead mini. Not to mention the generally lower servicing costs, less to go wrong and therfore more reliability, etc. it sounds like a no-brainer - especialliy when you consider partner's driving - glorified shopping trolley and occasional run to pick up the daughter - on A roads as she doesn't do motorways/highways. So, even then, her range will normally be longer than the average. So, I decided to broach with her the subject of getting an EV. I was met with a resounding "no" at every turn. But no logical argument to say why not. Just "I want a petrol car..." I was flabbergasted.. Why? Eve3rything she read was about EV fires and lack of infrastructure. Also, when we sell this house, she may end up in a mid-terrace house with no guarantee she can park outside to connect the car to charge. OK.. the infrastrcutre down here is not what it is in London. But there is good infrastructure. First the chances she won'[t have a driveway are pretty low. But even on that assumption, I explained the area she was looking at has a public charging point and there is no petrol station for about 10 miles or so heading towards Exeter. So, it would be easier for her if she was low on fuel to get the battery topped up than petrol in her car. Then she said she would use it only hopefully once evry couple of weeks and the battery woudl discharge.. I could have put any number of stats in front of her to say that it would take anything from 6 months to a year to discharge a 72kw/h battery not in use.. and that she could expect the lead acid battery to discharge enough to make the car unuseable loing before that. Still she wasn't having a bar of it. Oh well, she will have to live with it and the costs. But the research I did made EVs even more compelling to me than they were beforehand. [Edit] I forgot to mention, most of the batteries still have 5 years of warranty left and a lot of the cars still had 2 - 3 years of warranty left, too.. Don't get that with the petrol cars of the same age.

The ironic thing about what Trump has done is that the majority of Venezualians are celebrating the arrest of Maduro. But remember that a lot of Sudeten Germans celebrated when Hitler annexed the Sudatenland.

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of drug trafficking, was pardoned by President Donald Trump on December 1, 2025. Hernández had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for his role in a scheme that imported over 400 tonnes of cocaine into the United States.

The E-horse was a marketing failure. Owners had difficulty plugging in a charger.

I simply pointed out that the recycling industry is tooling up to provide recycling. There have been lots of doomsday sadsacks claiming that EV's are a pollution problem. It looks like the EV has a more profitable recycling lifecycle than piston powered vehicles.

Philosophy for beginners....

This morning, my little son said, "My ear hurts, Dad." Concerned, I asked, "Inside or out?" He walked away, then returned through the back door. "Both, Dad." I think I'll cash in his university savings account.

Piss off to the USA then, if it's not to your liking here. We have fair elections. He did say, If she wasn't MY daughter, I'd be dating her. A bit ODD to my way of thinking . He free's Crooks IF their Mother donates enough to him. He's a Perve Himself. Calls under age young Females "the Merchandise" and recommends Grabbing Women by the pussy. . Nev

I think there is a misspelling in that sentence. 'Own mortality' looks more like it.

The latest executive order is commanding the US secretary of defence to build up the national guard. The purpose is to have a larger readily available force for rapid deployment anywhere within the country. Why? Recently the national guard has been used to suppress political dissent. Some are comparing this to the SS.

What the USA is doing is proving that the US style of democracy is a failure. In other countries with true democracies, Trump would have been ousted from power by now.

I would try to keep a stiff upper lip.

His reason for pardoning Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández? "He reminded me of myself."

You lusty Lethario!

The Chairman of the NRMA was quoted today saying that we can expect petrol prices to drop to about 2020 levels simply because there is a it of a glut in the market. He did not atach the cause of that glut to Trump's latest actions. Perhaps EVs are causing a drop in demand, or maybe Trump's tariff attacks on oil producers are causing the producers to sell in other markets. If the USA cannot meet its own domestic demand for sour crude, then we might see lots of Yank tanks abandoned on the side of the road. Look out for the Amish to take over long haul transport!!

The Express is extremely alarmist, and nothing sells news like saying WW3 is upon us. Putin is too smart to confront the U.S. directly, and he'll find a way to undermine the Americans efforts in Venezuela.

Have these idiots not seen Avatar one, two, or three? Or Afghanistan, Vietnam, or Iraq? Foreign invaders seldom get along well with the invaded. Buy more popcorn folks! We all thought it was winding up, but the story has just begun.

I have found similar EV advantage here in AU, too. Our Mitzi is getting a bit wheezy, with 340,000k on it, and dropping a new (s/h) motor into it will cost more than she is worth. There are some nice new EV's coming onto market at last. But the market is not settled yet - who knows which brands will still be around in a few years? The S/H market looks quite good. And battery degradation (as you noted) doesn't look like being an issue. Next car will definitely be EV.

It's generally accepted that Maduro was every bit as bad as his reputation suggested and his demise is welcomed by most of the population. However, Trump is far more interested in getting his hands on Venezuela's oil than in restoring democracy. He will prop up whoever he thinks will facilitate access for American companies to get their hands on the oil reserves. Like Canada, Venezuela has the heavy crude that US refineries are set up to process. The US produces a lighter grade that doesn't suit their refineries and most of Venezuela's current limited output goes to China which is another reason he wants the oil. His biggest problem will be that US companies will be very wary of pouring a lot of infrastructure development money into a country that is politically unstable. Even if they did, it would take years to get a significant increase in production because the existing infrastructure is in such bad shape.

Anyone tell her she shouldn't play with her food?

Yep, what a great move. A special military operation to remove a threat to stable Govt - which Govt, only the invader can provide. Straight out of his best mates playbook. The only thing missing is the Nazis that were threatening the countrys democratic stability.

His prospects for a Nobel Peace prize are starting to look a bit bleak, but on the positive side his prospects for a referral to the International Criminal Court are looking much better.

Putanna and Xi would be very happy. Justifys anything they do if the US can do it, so can they.

A knight on a white charger did a lot of revolting things. Nev

Unfortunately such a list would require more bandwidth than this site has in order for that list to be posted.

There's nothing like a good war-move distraction to reduce the heat level being applied to one arse.

Why China Is Quietly Winning At EV Battery Recycling

More perverse than "I grab them by the pussy" More perverse than telling a very young girl (about 8 years old "I will be dating you in about 10 years. More perverse than being found civilly liable for sexual assault. More perverse than calling Epstein a terrific guy. I could go on and on.

I'm just imagining an AI untittingly trained on Jerry's posts.

The worrying part is Trump has a visceral hatred of the EU and is intent on breaking it up. He sees the world as having only two main power blocs - America and China. All others that pose credible power blocs that might oppose his will, need to be dismantled, in his view. He doesn't even see Russia as a major power bloc, he's realised now that Putin is actually piss-weak.

Council turns AJ Burkitt Oval into an aquatic centre. Saves ratepayers a fortune.

AKA...Organ donors.

The actions of the USA in South America have been empire building under the guise of protecting South American countries from becoming parts of the empires of European countries. It all stems back to what is caled the Munroe Doctrine of 1823. I am short of time this morning to post about the Monroe Doctrine and history arising from it. I'll post something tonight (5/1/26).

My son's partner is Chinese, although now a New Zealander. We met her for the first time when they visited a couple of years ago. We cooked a meal together. She taught us how to make traditional Chinese veges and this great spicy mashed potato and we showed her how to cook kangaroo correctly. Being her first time in Australia, she was keen to pet a kangaroo and eat one.

Nothing new here. The USofA take what they want, as usual. Please please do not let them save our country. It never ends well for the inhabitants.

I'm not sure this will go down all that well with the MAGA crowd, even if the only aim was to get Maduro (oh.. and all that oil of course). They thought they'd voted for a Nobel prize-winning Peace President.