onetrack

Oh, I forgot to mention - the front axle on the Brush was made of wood, too! Oak, Hickory and Ash featured large in the car's build. To add even more oddity to the design, the engine ran anti-clockwise! This was an idea thought up by the designer, who figured that it was less dangerous for right-handers to crank an engine that ran anti-clockwise. Kickbacks from clockwise-running engines when hand-cranking, often led to broken thumbs, and even broken arms!

Ya wooden want to park around termite-infested areas with Henry Fords 1904 race car! In 1912, Francis Birtles and his driver, Syd Ferguson, made the first trans-Australia trip from Perth to Sydney in a 1911 Brush car (which arrived in Sydney in early 1912). The Brush featured a wooden chassis. On their Trans-Australia trip, 73 miles out of Broken Hill, the LHS chassis rail broke in half! In a most fortunate event, Birtles and Syd Ferguson had just passed a bloke sawing wood! They drove back and acquired a length of freshly-sawn 4" x 2" timber (102mm x 51mm for the inch-measure challenged). Birtles and Ferguson jacked up the broken chassis rail until it was straight again, hand-drilled two holes in the chassis rail, and using fencing wire they carried, they wired the 4 x 2 timber in place, and continued on merrily to the completion of their trip in Sydney! Here is a photo of the Brush on the trip, driver Sid Ferguson is in the drivers seat. Interestingly, Birtles couldn't drive a car! He took all the photos and navigated the route, as he'd previously done the trip by bicycle! Surprisingly, the car is LHD.

An optical illusion. A tree at the far end of a grassed area, and a wall behind the tree.

I was quite surprised to see a 1987 Bentley Mulsanne at Albany W.A., advertised on FB Marketplace for just $25,000. In immaculate condition, with only 78,000kms, too. That's a cheap Bentley Mulsanne. I wondered if it was originally Paul Terrys personal transport - he was a whizz-kid in finance and sold his business "Monitor Money" in 1987 for around $50M (when $50M was really big money), just prior to the 1987 stockmarket crash, which he predicted. He retired to Albany W.A., and lived in extreme luxury and became a bit of a philanthropist, but killed himself in a helicopter crash in Hawaii on his first solo. He would've been better off staying in the finance business, he obviously wasn't cut out for a flying career. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/terry-paul-27662 https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/491449117238739

You NEED a gun in America, because the place is full of nutters who will kill you just for trespassing on their lawn.

The "Godfather" of the EV, one Andy Palmer, who was responsible for the Nissan Leaf EV, is telling anyone who'll listen, that hybrids are a "fools errand", and that the Chinese will undoubtedly end up winning the EV "race", and that Western car manufacturing companies need to get their act into gear on EV's, and make like Chinese car manufacturers, or they won't survive. I believe Andy Palmer is spot on with his assessment that increased tariffs only made the local manufacturers lazy and make them fail to innovate. And so many countries are bringing in tariffs on Chinese EV's, fearful of what is happening to their local car manufacturing. It's like King Canute trying to hold back the tide. https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/the-godfather-of-evs-explains-why-china-is-winning-the-race-to-go-electric-and-why-hybrids-are-a-fool-s-errand/ar-AA1wt9nj?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=dee145dfafd24b2c8f309730b002c2e1&ei=27

I can't believe they'd sell all that stuff without the mandatory safety warning labels!!

Let's get back to the basic problem. Islam is a form of Cancer. Radical Islam is the worst form of Cancer. Radical Islam believes it is O.K. to kidnap innocent civilians, hold them hostage, torture them, and even murder them - all in the name of advancing the Islamic religion. Remember Islam is politics and religion rolled up into one, and constant murder of innocents is their forte. The radical Islamics will utilise any ideology to advance Islam, including Marxism, Leninism, and any other radical, anti-establishment grouping that supports terrorism to overthrow established civilisations. The Islamic God, Allah, is a murderer, he tells them to kill people in the name of advancing Islam. They even kill other Islamic adherents when they consider they're being heretical, by starting a new division of Islam. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was a warmongerer and a murder. Muhammad was involved in no less than 86 warmongering campaigns. We can perhaps more accurately pronounce the name Muhammad, by accenting the last three letters of his name. Doctors try their best to cure patients with Cancer. They cut out tumours and treat Cancer patients with highly dangerous drugs to try and save their lives. Despite their best efforts, the Doctors often kill good cells, good tissues - and even sometimes kill the patients trying to cure the Cancer. This happens because the Cancer is ingrained in the body, in the cells, and despite the best and cleverest medical research and innovation, Cancer continues to persist and return on a regular basis. Benjamin Netanyahu believes Islam is a Cancer. He lost his brother Yonatan at Entebbe, where Yonatan led Israeli Special Forces that rescued civilian hostages on a hijacked civilian aircraft, from Islamic militants. The Sayeret Matkal saved 102 civilian hostages lives from Islamic murderers, with 4 hostages killed. The greatest number of hijacked aircraft have been hijacked by Islamic militants. Benjamin Netanyahu is a crusader against terrorism - and especially Islamic terrorism. He is a Cancer Doctor, trying to destroy as much of the Islamic Cancer as he can. Unfortunately, innocents are being killed in his attempt to root out that Cancer. I believe Benjamin Netanyahu should be supported and encouraged to continue his drive to root out the Cancer of Islam, because it is rearing its ugly head again, in many places on this planet, and 2025 is already starting off as a year of increased Islamic terrorism. https://answering-islam.org/BehindVeil/btv2.html

This is the one? It's been on FB Marketplace for 21 weeks, so he might still be waiting a while for a buyer. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1002280831392625

Always remember that 90% of the Harleys ever built, are still on the road. The other 10% actually made it home. 😄

I suspect that was either a terrorist attack, or a simple accident, the Cybertruck was reported to be full of fireworks.

I doubt whether there could be another Chad Morgan. Definitely a cultural cringe for many Australians.

Sorry Jerry, I don't know if it's just me or what, but the joke is over my head?

I'm amazed at how you get anything to dry in your current weather. At least, in our climate, we can still have days in Winter where it's warm enough to dry. However, I can remember several bitterly cold cloudy days in past late Junes, where I had a struggle getting paint to dry.

The gloom here is the State road death toll, it's close to exceeding our worst road toll year, in 2016. They keep wiping themselves out. A lot of it is just plain simple stupidity behind the wheel - Darwinism in action generally, but also resulting in the deaths of innocents as well. I don't see things changing much, just more road cameras, more fines, and more infringement notices for the rest of the population. I thought 2024 was a tumultuous year, I personally think 2025 will be a lot worse. A narcissistic, totally chaotic sociopath, in control of the worlds largest economy - an emboldened Putin who will "win" the Ukraine War as Trump slices support for Ukraine - because Ukraine doesn't contribute to his personal coffers - an emboldened Kim Jong-il who will gain great military assistance from Russia, and up-to-date combat experience for his troops (just what he wanted), and a devious China ever-ready to bend the world to what it wants for itself. Here's hoping more dictatorships fail though, in 2025 - although sometimes it's hard to see what will bring them down. We have to look for the rays of sunshine in the gloom. Happy New Year, everyone!

The Arabs have become dumber and dumber because they murder all their intellectuals with their Stone-Age interpretation of Islamic beliefs - which have become their form of Govt and rule. There is no separation of State, Judiciary and Religion, as we in the West have developed. The Islamic religion is Law, Govt, and State Rule all rolled up into one, and unelected Imams hold all the power - including the power to rule moral behaviour, and dish out death sentences for Islamic Law infringements that are regarded as only deserving custodial sentences in our Western societies. As a result, democracy doesn't exist in Islamic Law-ruled countries. The Islamic rulers behave like rock apes in the Stone Age, and I'm surprised there's not more revolt against the Imams and their ruthless dictatorial behaviour.

I'm still around 75kgs and still in good shape, body-wise. I've always been careful about what I eat. A lot of people might call me a "picky eater", but I think it pays in the long run. I've always avoided eating heavy, tallow-like fats. I cut most of the fat off any meat I eat (and I love red meat). I've never eaten much pork and I only eat an occasional bit of bacon today. Once again, I prefer lean bacon, not the American-style "streaky" bacon, which is more fat than anything else. I believe if you have a fat (or oil) that doesn't dissolve rapidly in warm water, then the body is going to have problems processing it. It will take longer, and the body will not utilise it for energy production, but decide that it needs to be stored in the fat cells. Vast amounts of processed and fast foods are manufactured using heavy tallow-type fats that we often wouldn't even eat if offered up in their original form. All animal carcasses are fat-trimmed to make the product more presentable and more tasty. But the "lean trimmings" as they are called, run into hundreds of thousands of tonnes, even millions of tonnes in places such as America - and believe it or not, they're no longer discarded and regarded as a money maker, and re-processed to make manufactured/highly processed food. There is actually a futures market in lean trimmings, such is the volume of them. Lean trimmings are ground to a paste, the so-called "pink slime", and often treated with industrial chemicals ("hydrogenated"), chemical additives added ("to improve flavour" - i.e. - make the product more addictive). This product is then added to many processed foods, primarily hamburger patties, and a hundred other highly processed foods. In this manner, heavy tallow-type fats (and chemicals) are consumed by food buyers without any knowledge or understanding of what went into their food. So many Americans are grossly obese due to their addiction to these heavy tallow-type fats, particularly pork fat, and they consume vast amounts of them in their poor diets. Add in the dozens of addictive industrial chemicals added to processed foods, and you can soon why Western nations suffer such an obesity problem. Go back 100 years, where highly processed foods were minimal, and look at the people in photos and films of that era, and you'll see a lot less obese people.

We have indeed, but Christmas 2024 has gone, and thread direction is always a difficult thing to control.

I think Jimmy was one of the last U.S. Presidents to be an honest, upright, caring individual. But his Presidency was ruined by OPEC's vicious and greedy increase in oil prices, the ensuing steep inflation, and the Iranian hostage crisis.

There were two other factors in the British wartime aircraft performance that assisted them - 100 octane fuel, and variable-pitch propellors. The Germans never got beyond 87 octane fuel, and this definitely inhibited their performance - although they compensated with higher engine power, and higher top speed in the likes of the Bf-109. The Bf-109 of the BoB had 1,175HP, and the Spitfire MKIII of the BoB produced 1,030HP - but the use of "emergency boost" to 12psi (for no longer than 5 mins) in the Spitfires, enabled them to produce 1,310HP. This was only possible due to 100 octane fuel. On the other side of the ledger, the Bf-109 had fuel injection, a vastly superior fuel system to the Spitfires carburettor, which produced engine hesitation under negative G's. The Luftwaffe pilots knew of this Spitfire flaw and the aces tried to ensure the Spitfire was drawn into negative G's in dogfights. There's stories that abound that state the Americans came riding to the rescue of the British with a delivery of 100 octane fuel, just in time for the Battle of Britain - and the fuel made the difference between winning and losing the BoB. The true story is vastly different. Yes, the Americans can take the kudos for producing 100 octane fuel first (in 1936) - but the British were well abreast of the development, and set about producing the fuel themselves, and ensuring supplies were available from places as far distant as Abadan (Iraq), the Netherlands East Indies, and Trinidad. In addition, the British Govt set the standard in 1937 that all defence aircraft engine deliveries in future, were to be capable of using 100 octane fuel. Adequate supplies of 100 octane were not available until early 1940, and the complete changeover to 100 octane was made in May 1940, just in time for it to used in the retreat from Dunkirk. But the use of 100 octane fuel is also tied in with the fitment of variable pitch propellers to the Spitfires at approximately the same time (June 1940). Thus the two developments combined to substantially improve Spitfire performance. The supply of 100 octane fuel during this period was overwhelmingly from the British sources within the country, and from Abadan, the East Indies, and Trinidad. The Americans contributed less than a quarter of the 100 octane fuel requirements for the British, during this critical phase of WW2. There is an excellent historical review on these subjects below, and it points out that the variable pitch propeller was by far the greatest contributor to the improved performance of the Spitfires. http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/100-octane/Bailey_100-Octane_Fuel.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire_(early_Merlin-powered_variants)

South Korea is an interesting parallel to the U.S. in showing how fragile democracy is. Yoon Suk Yeol, the SK President just impeached, built a reputation as an aggressive State Prosecutor, rooting out corruption, and having great success in convicting the former female President, Park Geun-hye over corruption, whereby she allowed some of SK's top corporations to gain unfair financial advantages. But Yoon Suk Yeol, once elected President, went rabid right-wing, and started making a massive power grab and acting like a dictator. It's been revealed he told the Capital Defence Command chief to order his troops into Parliament, and to shoot anyone who opposed the troop entry to Parliament, after he declared Martial Law. It seems as if Yoon's moves were now all about protecting his wife from corruption charges. What is interesting is the arguments Yoon uses against his "enemies" - left wingers - saying elections were fraudulent, the Left is pandering to NK, and other classic MAGA/Trump conspiracy claims. However the SK politicians seemed to have regained control, and democracy has survived in SK. It looks like a close go, however - and this SK power grab is a pointer as to how Trump would act when threatened, or couldn't get his own way as regards continually using the U.S. Presidency to enrich himself and his mates. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-15/south-korea-president-yoon-suk-yeol-impeached-rise-and-fall/104726734

The Germans had better aircraft, but being led by a dictator and criminals, set them up for failure. The Nazis failed to understand the importance of keeping back about 10% of production for spare parts, they built as many aircraft as they could with the parts they produced, and when they broke down, the Luftwaffe had to cannibalise good aircraft to keep the others going. Add in the fact that they used forced labour in their military factories and you could well imagine how many Nazi aircraft failed due to substandard or sabotaged components and parts. The Allies had enough trouble with a willing workforce, and simple errors in manufacturing, imagine the dramas the Nazi war production factories had. We lost new aircraft from our factories such as Beaufighters, simply because of tools left inside wings, and the suchlike. This was due to a lack of safety procedures that are standard today - back at the start of WW2, we'd previously built very few aircraft, and aviation knowledge was sadly lacking.

Close, but no cigar. The gent is Noel Paul Stookey, the "Paul" in the Peter, Paul, and Mary band trio. Oddly enough, even though he was Paul in the band, he's known as Noel to family and friends and associates. He's 87 tomorrow - and Peter is still alive and well too, he's 86. Mary Travers died at age 72 in 2009, from leukaemia. https://www.google.com/search?q=Noel+Paul+Stookey L-R: Peter, Mary and Paul in their prime...

Trump has simply monetised the Presidency, and stands to financially benefit even more in his 2nd term, than he did in his 1st term - where it has been calculated, he enriched himself and his company businesses, by at least US$160M, by utilising the Presidency to direct funds towards himself and his businesses. It's standard practice for Trump to ensure that visiting foreign dignitaries and leaders are accommodated in his companies accommodation, and he rakes in the proceeds accordingly. According to Trump, he sees nothing wrong with that setup. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-business-empire-expanded-profit-second-term-rcna182613