onetrack

I hired a Toyota Corolla Hybrid for 12 days in Broome in July. It didn't use a great deal less fuel than a regular petrol-powered car. One of the most alarming events I had with it, was - I was driving along, chatting to SWMBO and resting my hand on the gear shift lever (as I often do), and accidentally moved the lever into Neutral, whilst doing about 60kmh. The cars reaction was to apply full emergency braking immediately, nearly throwing us through the windscreen! I was quite shocked that any car maker would install a system that operates like this - especially Toyota. If we had been in heavy traffic, my inadvertent gear lever movement possibly would've caused a chain-reaction pile-up. This setup is making me shy away from Hybrids even more than I previously was unenthusiastic about them. I can't stomach the idea of major increased complexity in a car that comprises a combined petrol engine, electric motor, and a drive system battery, with all its attendant increased amounts of wiring and electronics.

He's probably sleeping with the fishes, now.

In rural W.A., the State Govt electricity system provider and maintainer, Western Power, has been pulling out long rural power lines to distant farms, and installing stand-alone, off-grid power plants to the farms. The stand-alone power plants are a combination of solar, battery and backup diesel power. WP says the stand-alone systems are cheaper than the cost of installing and maintaining long power lines with only a handful of customers. With this change, there's also the benefits that less trees are required to be cut down for poles, farming operations are easier when they don't have to work around poles, blackouts from storm damage to poles and wiring is reduced, and fire outbreaks from fallen power lines are eliminated. A farmer friend in the W.A. wheatbelt accidently bumped a pole in his paddock with a seeding unit, and the pole promptly fell over - and it took 6 other poles down with it! The holes for the poles are oversized and the dirt refilled around the pole is not compacted, so it doesn't take a lot to make them fall over, especially when the ground is wet. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-02/thousands-of-renewable-standalone-power-systems-to-be-rolled-out/101479136 However, the changeover is not without its problems, and primarily, the problems relate to WP inflexibility and faulty planning. Some farmer customers are not happy with the standalone systems, due to limitations, rules about resetting circuit breakers, and what may happen when the stand-alone systems are worn out and a future cash-strapped State Govt refuses to replace them. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-12/farmers-question-western-power-push-standalone-regional-units/103549708

Which day in January in Southern Tassie, is Summer, nomadpete? 😄 My Scottish mother (from Dunfermline) told us her brother always quipped, that "Summer was on Wednesday last year, wasn't it?" 😄

There's always been a disparity and dislike between rural/outback Australians, and city Australians. Even A.B. Paterson and Henry Lawson wrote about the disparities between the Australian "bush" and "city" cultures, in the late 1800's. Rural/outback dwellers constantly harp on about "city slickers", and how they wouldn't know the first thing about where their food and minerals come from. The gulf has only widened with so many recent inventions that make life easy, and which further detach city people from life "on the farm" or "in the mines". Add in immigration, where new cultures have no understanding, no historical links, and no education about what earlier Australians did to make life easy for them (including wartime sacrifices), and the gulf becomes bigger. However, I am heartened at Anzac Day marches to see many Asians, and other cultures that fought alongside us in many wars, also showing respect and admiration for our sacrifices.

We'll send you Summer with a Vengeance, shortly. 39° here on the Left Coast today, a record for the first official day of Summer. It's a bit of a shock after a long, cool Spring.

Trump would love to have millions not vote - then only his MAGA supporters would vote - and then, he'd become KING of America, FOREVER!!

I'm quite surprised at the number of Teslas I see on the road, that have all their badging removed. Every single piece of script or logo indicating the vehicle is a Tesla is gone. It makes me wonder if there's some underground movement of Tesla owners that likes the Tesla design, but hates the CEO of the company - so they "rebel" against the CEO's attitude, statements, beliefs and ethics, to effectively shove it up Elon, by removing all the Tesla identifying badges and logos. It appears quite a few American Tesla owners have even taken it one step further, by re-badging their Teslas to other car makes, and even specific models. https://electrek.co/2025/03/03/tesla-owners-get-creative-to-distance-themselves-from-elon-with-new-car-logos-projectors/

As you age, it is very important to cultivate new, younger friends - because all your lifelong friends die when you get old, and you end up suffering from loneliness. Plus, having younger friends keeps you in touch with current culture and trends. Dick van Dyke makes some good observations about living to 100. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/dick-van-dyke-age-birthday-health-diet-b2875237.html

The gentleman below, who is a political strategist who previously worked on G.W. Bush's election campaign, has written a thought-provoking article, slamming Trump and the MAGA mob, over their warmongering without reference to Congress or the American people. The article is the one titled, "'Kill them all', is a confession to murder under American law". https://steveschmidt.substack.com/

I must be old school. I still always say "G'Day" to everyone. I can recall a neighbour in the country telling me a story about a visiting Yank, who spotted a few T-shirts with "G'Day" on them, and was continually perplexed. Finally he asked one of the Aussies, "Hey buddy, what does this "GEE - Day" stand for, (that) I see on your T-shirts??" He thought it was some kind of special commemorative Australian day.

Here's an interesting article about a couple of blokes attempting to produce an Australian ChatGPT. Good luck to them, but it apparently takes a huge amount of effort and money to garner all the requisite data, and process it. https://www.watoday.com.au/technology/thongs-aren-t-underwear-the-case-for-an-australian-chatgpt-20251128-p5nj7p.html

The greatest impact that "Americanism" is having on Australia, is the transfer of violent and disruptive extremist right wing views and actions, to a small percentage of the population here. These views are polarising, divisive, and permanently angry views, that insist political opponents must be liquidated or removed from the political scene. Thus we have the increasingly violent and destructive political scene unfolding in America (perpetrated by an angry, narcissistic President, and further promoted by angry, obsessive American "patriots"), which has resulted in a major increase in politically-motivated assaults, murders and attacks in general, on politicians, and people in the public eye. Interestingly, Albo's wedding was kept low key, to avoid attacks, demonstrations, and threats/hoaxes, all designed to disrupt and promote more mayhem. The current American President only gains satisfaction from promoting discord and hatred and divisiveness. God forbid that we ever get to the same stage here, that American "civilisation" has currently descended into. Australian police have already nailed one individual who threatened to assassinate Albanese.

The miners in the W.A. Outback and remote regions are showing the way. https://reneweconomy.com.au/off-grid-gold-miner-achieves-record-renewables-with-101-consecutive-hours-with-engines-off/

Zorro?? Goodness me, I haven't heard of Zorro for at least 40 years, and I'm sure 90% of the population today would give you a blank look if you mentioned his name in conversation! Now, let's do the OME dissection on Zorro. 1. He was American - he was just getting his uni education in Spain when his father called him home to California, because a dictator had taken over California. 2. He was a fictional character invented by the American writer, Johnston McCulley. 3. His operational area was the Pueblo de Los Ángeles in Alta California - known today as the City of Los Angeles. 4. He gained his swordsmanship skills whilst at University in Spain. 5. The common people (who he represented and defended) called him "El Zorro" - "the fox". America needs a Zorro today to defend the common people from the current American dictator, who is running the country just for himself and his rich buddies.

A bloke taken by a shark at City Beach in Perth on 6 November 2000 (Ken Crew) was chewed up in waist deep water, not long after sunrise on a dull, overcast morning - a typical "high shark hazard" day.

Toni Lamond, the Australian actress, cabaret and TV star, has died aged 93. She was famous for starring in Annie Get Your Gun, My Fair Lady, and Oliver. Her TV appearances were in Number 96, The Unisexers and The Last Frontier. She was often a guest on variety and talk shows such as the Graham Kennedy Show, The Mike Walsh Show, The Bert Newton Show, and Good Morning Australia. Her sister was Helen Reddy. Toni's husband died suddenly in 1966 by committing suicide, an event that left her heartbroken for many years. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-29/australian-performer-toni-lamond-has-died-aged-93/106082102

I only like swimming where there's shark patrols. There's just too many of the buggers close inshore today - all a result of the Chinese stripping the oceans of fish. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-30/china-super-trawlers-overfishing-world-oceans/10317394

The Americans could never possibly accept the idea, that some other country - especially an Eastern European one - designed and built better military weapons, than they do.

Michelangelo's David returns to Italy after 3 years touring the U.S. ......

Hey, Babe - take a walk on the wild side!

Yes, the insidious American culture takeover is everywhere, even the Europeans and the Asian nations get annoyed about how pervasive it is. Fortunately, I think we still have enough Australians in the general public and Australia politicians who are prepared to say No to any more increased level of American influence. Luckily for us, Trump is doing his best to ensure that American culture is shown up for what it is - violent, self-absorbed, a xenophobic hatred of minorities or anyone who isn't Anglo-Saxon in ancestry, gun-fondlers, and bitterly divisive, politically. Welcome to the forum randomx, I'm sure you'll be able to express your opinion here without the rancor, divisiveness, and hatred that comes with American culture. I'm personally of the opinion a lot of Americans still bear deep bitterness and hatred against blacks, because they believe they still should be just slaves, and second-class citizens. P.S. - You get 15 mins to edit your posts here, so proof read, or correct them quickly. After that time, they're set in stone. The idea is to keep threads readable, because if people go back after hours and days and many further replies, and then edit their original post, the thread becomes unreadable and disjointed.

Keep on rockin' me baby!

Can you hear me now?

Frozen food will keep for 48 hrs in a full freezer with no power, if the freezer isn't opened. It will keep for 24 hrs in a partly-full freezer with no power. Frozen food kept at 5°C for more than 4 hours should be discarded or cooked immediately. The power company should compensate you for food losses due to power outages.