kgwilson

The only things Trump remembers are his own self praise and anything anyone says that criticises him.

No they wouldn't (privately). Trump is just dictating terms of the worlds largest economy (soon to be overtaken) & supplier of most of our defence equipment & just wants our rare earth minerals so we are selling some to him at a better price than we would have got before.

This is easier. Rain tomorrow? Nah Sunny Maybe a few Spits, nuthin to worry about A bit likely accordin to the metolg, metereolger metologist, Rain PREDICTOR BLOKE. Keep the brolly handy Probably coz it's gettin cloudy & windy but it might not. Yeah it's gunna piss down. Take the day off.

We just bought a new property. It had a big gas cooker in the kitchen which we promptly threw out. We are renovating and the house will be all electric, well it is now except for the solar hot water. Our average daily power consumption is 9-10 kWh. There is a 20 year old 1kW solar system with 8 x 125 watt panels which I am replacing with a new 8.8 kW system with 20 x 440 watt bifacial v panels, a 10kW hybrid inverter and an 18.64 kWh battery. In theory I should be able to go off grid. Total cost $11,600.00. The battery is made up of 4 x 4.66 kWh modules which is scalable to 41.93 kWh by just adding modules on top. It is free standing & will live in my big shed. The house is 20 years old and unbelievably the ceiling is uninsulated. Part of the renos is insulation and draught proofing as even efficient air conditioning is quite power hungry. Charging my EV is power hungry but I have a plan that gives me 3 hours of free power a day (11:00 to 14:00) so that is when it is scheduled to charge. I also get power for 8c/kWh from midnight to 6am. There is now so much power produced by rooftop solar that the spot price is often negative in the middle of the day. New solar farms now going in have to include batteries. Early solar farms without them either have to switch off or invest in batteries as they have to pay to put their power in to the grid when the price is negative. Electricity retailers now have plans for home battery owners. Solar feed in tariffs are very low now. I was getting just 0.5 cents/kWh, now 2.8 cents/kWh. A friend who has just added a 30kWh battery gets 15 cents/kWh feed in tariff during peak usage which will come from his battery.

Three were killed on 15 December 2023 by the IDF after they emerged from a building shirtless and visibly unarmed carrying a makeshift white flag and calling out "Help" in Hebrew. The IDF acknowledged that the three hostages, who were kidnapped by Hamas during the 7 October attacks, had been killed after they were "mistakenly identified as a threat," prompting renewed protests in Israel against the incumbent Netanyahu-led government. "Mistakenly identified as a threat", Yeah right! The bombing undoubtedly collapsed some Hamas tunnels and could have been responsible for some of the deaths but there is no way of corroborating this. The fact that Hamas can't find some of the bodies of those unaccounted for would suggest this is the case.

You can cherry pick events to suit your narrative but Netanyahu and his ultra right wing cronies are "War Criminals" as determined by the UN after 2 years of merciless killing of over 68,000 Palestinians over the original Hamas attack which saw about 1200 Innocent Israelis killed and 251 hostages taken. The USA has supplied most of the equipment and munitions and provided support for Israel over the last 2 years and they still can't defeat Hamas even after destroying most of Gazas housing and infrastructure. So Hamas has come out of the woodwork and assassinated some Israeli collaborators. Hark back to WW2 when Germany was close to defeat & even after surrender, many collaborators were summarily shot. A couple of rogue Hamas gunmen target a couple of Israeli soldiers & Netanyahus response is to once again bomb civilians and then say the ceasefire is holding after 47 violations and 45 dead Palestinians.

Humanity has never learned the lessons of the past. Bomber Harris advocated systematic bombing of German cities in an attempt to break the German morale. It didn't work as it hadn't when the Germans were bombing the UK in the Blitz. In Germany it was also an attempt to reduce labour and industrial output. Didn't work either as the Nazis just got slave labour to resolve this. Netanyahu is being propped up by his ultra right wing. If he is ousted he is gone & will be prosecuted & jailed. More likely he will be given asylum by Trump like Assad was by Putin. The majority of Israelis wanted negotiations more than a year ago & the protests since have been growing all the time. Before the war Israel had systematically been taking over the West Bank, detaining and killing Palestinians so it is little wonder that Hamas came in to existence, then power & started to fight back, the wall went up & rockets started flying & eventually the catastrophic events of 2 years ago. This gave Netanyahu & his cronies their opportunity, their aim being to get rid of ALL Palestinians once & for all. Will Trumps declaration of Peace last. Not on your Nellie.

Trump has been in the war since he took office. Israel wouldn't have any chance of defeating anyone without support from the US and the supply of munitions and equipment. They haven't been able to get rid of Hamas after 2 years of bombing and destruction of most of Gaza and the loss of some 67,000 and counting Palestinian lives while all the while illegally taking over the West bank and getting rid of as many Palestinians as possible there. I used to support Israel especially after the atrocities of the Nazis, the 6 day war and other events, but the hard line right wing factions in Netanyahu's government have gone well beyond the pale. The latest cease fire is highly likely to fail as well. Trump will of course claim victory no matter what happens. This is supposed to be the first peace in 3000 years according to his complete lack of knowledge about anything real.

The dinosaurs used to walk from Antarctica to Australia before Tasmania existed as an island but then this was a few years ago. Well quite a few actually.

Yea these shows were excellent. The Poms love to laugh at themselves. Mrs Bucket ahem Mrs Bouquet. Also the Good Life. Richard Briers, Peter Bowles & Penelope Keith & Paul Eddington (Yes Minister) were all great from the same era.

Trump thinks his tariffs will bring manufacturing back to the US. It disappeared years ago and the factories are either derelict or gone along with all the knowledge and expertise. Plus of course he is deporting all the people who would work in these manufacturing industries.

All you have to do is copy something and change it a bit to improve something and you can throw the patent out the window. The Chinese make some of the worst cheap stuff you can buy but also some of the very best high quality products that are competitively priced. Xaiomis first electric car was so good even the CEO of Ford bought one on a trip to China and uses it as his daily drive. https://www.drive.com.au/news/ford-ceo-drives-chinese-electric-car-for-six-months-and-i-dont-want-to-give-it-up/

I'd change the title to "Stupid men and ladders don't mix". I train people to erect, secure and climb ladders. These were all examples of exactly how NOT to erect, secure and climb a ladder with predictable results. Some of the injuries looked pretty bad as well.

Trump claims to have stopped wars in Thailand/Cambodia (bit of a border dispute & still going on), Kosovo/Serbia (no war, no deaths no shots fired), Congo/Rwanda (they've been fighting for decades & no change so far), Pakistan/India (4 days of arguments over Kashmir & a couple of aircraft lost & artillery shells fired. Been going on since 1947 & no change), Israel/Iran (12 days. Trump helped start it & then illegally bombed Iran so he participated in the war), Egypt/Ethiopia ( long standing dispute over a dam, no shots fired, no fighting, no war to begin with) Armenia/Azerbaijan (been going on for decades. Trump got them to sign a peace deal but neither side ratified it so no change) What a f^%@*in tosser. https://zeteo.com/p/mehdi-hasan-debunks-trump-claim-ended-7-wars

Charging infrastructure is only an issue if you are going somewhere in the middle of nowhere. 90% or more of EV owners charge at home like me. Many have solar power & and EV plans with their energy retailer that provides them with cheap & some free power like me. I get free energy every day between 12:00 & 14:00 which is good as I am retired. For those who drive to work most get cheap energy from midnight till 4 am at around 5 cents a kWh. The average Australian who drives to work travels less than 30km a day. This is probably fairly similar to UK drivers. That is because 73% of us live in major cities, 25% live in regional cities & towns & only 1.9% live in remote areas. I live in the country near Maclean & Yamba NSW, population 2800 & 7400 respectively. There are 2 Supercharger sites (350kW) 1 Fast Charger (75kW) within 15km & a number of slower & destination chargers. Charging infrastructure is improving all the time. I get emails from a number of charging companies every month telling me of new sites that have been added. Most people who work travel distances only 2 to 4 times a year like Christmas, Easter & school holidays. This is when you need to plan your charging stops as you will find them pretty busy. Accommodation has to be booked months and sometimes more than 12 months in advance. Petrol stations can run out of fuel at these times as well though it is not common. I talk to other EV owners all the time & the only people who seem to have concerns about the charging infrastructure are those who don't own EVs.

There were over 150 Chinese EV manufacturers a year or so back and now there are less than 100. Some of these to be fair produced EVs that were little more than electric rickshaws. Costs to produce the ever more complex safety and comfort systems and long warranty periods demanded by the buying public are increasing dramatically and the only way to keep prices competitive is by sales volume. Current predictions are there will be only 15 manufacturers left by 2030. Some will only survive by merging with other manufacturers. Geely that produces the Zeekr also owns European brands Volvo, Lotus & Polestar. SAIC owns MG & has joint ventures with VW & GM. My MG4 has Audi components in it. SAIC is the first manufacturer to build cars with robot technology only. Toyota, the world largest car producer has lost a huge %age of market share in its biggest market, China and given its reluctance to enter the EV market has seen declining sales world wide. GM once the biggest car maker is only a shadow of its former self & continues to produce many poorly designed vehicles in the US. Ford is also struggling but is embracing the EV world and innovating. Fords CEO drives a Xaiomi EV. Pretty much all of the original Chrysler, Jeep & other US brands are owned by Stellantis based in Holland. The next 5 years is looking like there will be some major turbulence in the worlds car manufacturing companies. Trumps dumb policies won't help the US based manufacturers either. The Chinese are already 5 to 10 years ahead of the US.

EVs are 20 to 80 times less likely to catch fire than ICE vehicles. There are numerous studies and facts around this and a lot of false claims from the anti EV lobby. The real issue is how to deal with thermal runaway when it happens. An Australian organisation https://www.evfiresafe.com/ has very comprehensive information. The problem is present in every lithium battery & these are everywhere especially in phones and battery powered gadgets. People keep throwing them in the rubbish & then fires start when they short circuit. E-bikes and scooters are a far bigger problem as idiots use the wrong charger and buy cheap poorly manufactured ones on line.

ICE, the new brownshirts.

Like Jerry I spent time in the US on business in the 80s & 90s & had very similar experiences. Entry was super simple and customs were friendly & accommodating. Met lots of very nice people & also some super pig ignorant ones. Heard gunfire most nights in LA but was never really concerned. I have no desire to return now though. Of about 200 countries it is about 190 on the list just above North Korea, Israel, Russia, Iran and a few others.

Those of us on this forum won't be around to see the demise of humanity. We are only able to watch the beginnings of it with virtually no ability to effect any change. It won't take a nuclear holocaust to destroy everything. The worlds political masters are doing a great job of this right now.

When we were on holiday in Tasmania last year almost every local we met with an opinion about building a new stadium in Hobart was against it. Mostly they couldn't understand what was wrong with the existing one. It looked pretty good to me as well.

Most new ICE cars don't have a spare wheel these days. Usually it is large 4WD & SUVs that still have a spare. Also most spares if they are supplied are smaller in diameter as well as quite thin & are called space saver tyres. My EV does not come with a spare. It has a tyre pump & a can of goo. If that doesn't work, included in the 10 year warranty is a free breakdown service Australia wide. I don't know what models have poor fitting panels etc. The build quality of my MG4 is the best of any new car I've owned. So far 27,000 km and not a single rattle. Everything fits together without gaps etc. The Japanese originally raised the bar when it came to build quality but the Chinese have now surpassed them. Robots virtually build the entire car without human intervention & do it better. All I can say about reliability is that my MG4 has not had any problems at all.

Xaiomi is now the 2nd largest phone manufacturer in the world after Samsung. They produce all sorts of electronics, appliances etc and their new EV is one of the best available. So good that the President of Ford in the US drives one. I chose an Xaiomi phone to replace my old 2017 LG G6 flagship model over everything else. iPhones have become boring and look the same from the iPhone 11 up to the iPhone 16. The Xaiomi has features never seen on any iPhone with better cameras etc at 1/3 the cost (purchased direct)

Also it is a finite resource and can only be used once creating toxic by products like carbon monoxide and greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide among the many pollutants from the exhaust.

Australia is always slow to get on board with new technologies but finally we get to a point of critical mass & things take off. No-one is going to set up an EV battery recycling plant until there is enough stock to make it viable. Virtually all old EV batteries and those from car write offs after a crash are repurposed for use in houses and businesses. A typical house battery is 10-15 kWh whereas old EV batteries can be 30 to 80 kWh and cost less. They have many years left in them even when they have degraded to 80% or less of their original capacity. Already in the EU, US & China & probably many more countries lithium batteries are being recycled in recycling plants shown in the video posted by Octave. Black Mass, the name for the ground up components recycles 95% of all the lithium, cobalt, Nickel and other rare earths. So as the world electrifies much of the minerals needed to manufacture new batteries will come from recycled old ones.