onetrack

Tesla is on the cusp of another revolution in EV manufacturing - reducing the number of cast components in the Tesla chassis to just one large aluminium die casting. If successful, this will further reduce the cost of manufacturing Teslas, and give them another technological leading edge. Musk is driving this development, but he's not doing it personally, just bringing together all the expert companies in their respective fields to gain the upper hand in manufacturing. I fear however, this new process, if successful, will make Teslas unrepairable, and on a par with a consumer toaster. https://www.reuters.com/technology/gigacasting-20-tesla-reinvents-carmaking-with-quiet-breakthrough-2023-09-14/

Cars - even heavy cars - do little damage to roads with their weight. It's trucks that do the damage - and it's tandem and triaxle setups that do the most damage. You can legally put 16.5 tonnes on a tandem axle arrangement (driven or trailed), so that's 8 tyres, in duals, closely spaced, each carrying over 2 tonnes per tyre. But the load on the road pavement (as with all pavements, including runways) is designated to be shown as a triangle in cross-section under each axle. The load is intense at the road surface, at the apex of the triangle, and spreads out at depth, at the bottom of the triangle. However, with closely spaced axles, as in tandems and tri's, the intersection of the triangle load areas at depth, where they overlap, is a load concentration area at depth in the pavement, and this is what destroys roads, overloading of the lower part of the road structure, the bottom of the road base material. Potholes appear when the bond between the bitumen or asphalt breaks and the bitumen lifts, exposing the road base underneath. This road base is not designed to be exposed to the weather for extended periods, so it starts to break up when exposed by bitumen lifting. The bitumen can lift when it has been improperly applied, when it has been subject to excessive axle loads when very hot, or when it has been under water for a prolonged period.

The bottom line is, industry rarely changes basic design to a radical new power source unless it is forced to - either by legislation, or by major competition from an outsider. We only got better safety features in cars and better fuel economy, because of constant tightening Govt legislation. We'd still be driving overweight gas-guzzlers with no safety features, if the manufacturers were left to their own self-interest aims.

He's dead set on a life of crime and a short life, that ends with a violent death. Just like that Stanley Turvey dropkick, good riddance to an oxygen thief.

This is for when you tell people you're just going to buzz off for a while .......

Did the shopkeeper actually mean to write, "shop now, before the Dago's"?

The W.A. Govt is stepping up to the plate, tightening laws around political donations, making them more transparent, and more importantly, making the donations appear publically within 24 hrs of being made. They're small steps towards political accountability and disclosure, but they're useful ones. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-20/wa-political-donation-laws-to-get-overhaul-donation-disclosure/102877636

AFAIC, anything we can do to get away the ever-greedy grasp of the rapacious OPEC mob, can only be a good thing. I look forward to our energy sources coming from multiple choices. The fact that they're still building new fossil fuel servos by the dozen every week, indicates to me it's one of the most profitable forms of investment you can make. Around my neck of the woods, within about 10kms of home, I reckon I've seen at least 20 brand new servos installed in the last 5 years. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-19/powerful-cartel-still-controlling-the-world-oil-petrol-prices/102871402

I've seen higher quotes to replace blown IC engines. $28,000 quoted to supply a new Jeep engine.

At first glance, I would've said that was a Photoshop effort - but apparently, it is genuine. He cut up 3 Studebakers to make the one unit. Can't say the styling grabs me - but hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder (or the fabricator), isn't it?

What about the Stolen Generations of British children? Kids sent halfway around the world, simply because a Govt decided their parents were incapable of caring for them - or simply because they were orphans? On top of that, large numbers of them were sexually abused and used as forced labour. These kids endured vastly worse treatment than any Indigenous "stolen child". At the very least, the removal of Aboriginal children from their families was done with the well-intentioned aim of trying to ensure they didn't end up aimless, drunken deadbeats, like their parents. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39078652

When I was about 14, I sighted an FJ Holden sedan locally that had had the rear upper body of an FJ Panel Van carefully crafted onto it, to make a 4 door FJ Holden Station Wagon! I was stunned when I saw it, and couldn't figure out how it had come about - I thought it was a rare FJ Station Wagon prototype. I even wrote to Modern Motor about it, asking if any FJ Station Wagons had ever been built, because I'd seen one! I got poo-pooed by the Editor, he reckon I'd just seen an FJ Panel Van. Strangely enough, I never saw that car ever again, never saw any article about anyone coming across it, and I often wondered if it was totalled somehow, not long after it was built. It was a real work of art, and a masterpiece of panel-beating/body modification. You'd swear it was factory built.

I dunno - one U.S. oil company CEO collected a US$400M bonus on retirement in 2006! https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/PainAtThePump/story?id=1841989#:~:text=Exxon is giving Lee Raymond,corporate jet for professional purposes.

It's not hard to launch a vehicle over obstructions with a little speed and the right humps. The bus collided with a car in Tirana, Albania, and ran straight down the bank of the River Lana. At bottom of the slope, the levelled portion provided a ramp (against the downslope) to bounce the front of the bus across the gap, and the front of the bus landed perfectly on the far bank. https://www.newsflare.com/video/493077/bus-balancing-above-river-after-accident-in-tirana-to-serve-as-warning-to-motorists?origin=erjon

Those photos could be of anything. Why pixellate everything but the sub? Could you imagine anyone besides Russian Naval personnel, getting anywhere near that close to a Russian sub??

Nev's right! We need a VOICE for Pilots! Plus a VOICE for Truckdrivers! Plus a VOICE for under-recognised and under-appreciated Road Workers, especially the Lolly-Pop sign holders! Every single under-represented mob in the Nation should have a specific VOICE, so they can be heard, and their opinions assume a much larger impact, than the current state of just VOICES in the WILDERNESS!

What supposedly happened to Kadyrov? Did he get a cupful of polonium tea, because he was starting to look like he might replace Prigozhin? Kadyrov has posted a YooTube video in recent hours, stating he's alive and well and showed him strolling around. Maybe the Ukrainian news about him was a little premature, and the bomb hasn't actually gone off yet?

The sepia photo IS of Irene Hervey. She has signed her name on the lower RH corner. If the sepia photo comes up on a number of sites as Irene Ryan, then those sites have the wrong photo for a younger Irene Ryan. IMDb (Internet Movie Database) is your best source for this stuff. The older lady IS Irene Ryan. https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0381154/mediaviewer/rm1424405761

It wasn't Howard who said, "Maintain the Rage" - it was Gough Whitlam, expressing his rage over his dismissal.

That's simply a pizza of a Maths equation.

Gee, we're going back multiple decades now, into the entertainment mob! I believe that's Irene Hervey, she's a bit of a stunner, with near perfect facial features. Her acting career spanned a vast number of films (some of which you may have heard of, or even watched!) - and she also went into TV in the early days. She was very badly injured in a car accident in 1943 and took 5 years off acting to recover - although she did act in one stage play during 1944. Her last acting part was playing the elderly radio station owner Madge, in Clint Eastwoods "Play Misty for Me", in 1971. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Hervey https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0381154/

I can still remember an employee cracking a joke about Ron Barassi in the early 1970's. It went like this .... A couple of blokes were looking at a flooded MCG after a really heavy downpour. The water covered the ground. Suddenly, a figure appeared in the distance, carrying a football, and walking on the water. One bloke says, "Whoa! Is that Jesus Christ that's walking on the water out there?" And the other bloke replies, "No, it's just Ron Barassi - he just thinks he's Jesus Christ!"

You can acquire the last few bottles of the discontinued Pledge floor polish, from the QLD site below, if you're quick. https://polishup.com.au/product/pledge-floor-care-multi-surface-floor-finish-798ml/

Shanah tovah!