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Elecric Cars are a Mistake

Adopting battery powered cars is the worst thing societies can do. It is just a transfer from dirty oil engines to dirty oil power station. Removal of carbon at power stations is talked about a lot. However, nothing has been achieved. Experiments have largely failed.

The distance barrier is still a problem for battery cars. To go more than two hundred miles requires an enormous battery, far to heavy to put in vehicles. Price is still an issue: there is little hope of a reduction even with mass production. Weak demand continues.

Planners are saying that the lack of battery "charge" centers is the main barrier. This is only secondary. Where does the capital come from to build them? Battery swap stations were established by the Electric Light Company to service a fleet of electric trucks a century ago. Buses in China get new batteries en route. The trucks disappeared and Chinese buses are government run.

Changing to a recharged battery is not cost effective. If you have to do this you may as well keep the petrol car. A charge-up at home is the only way to go. Long distance truckers will never adopt battery power. There is little torque in the powertrain, certainly not enough to transport heavy goods.

✴ Transport Transport by Ty Buchanan ✴

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Dream Cat

"Just dreaming I'm being driven along a highway."

Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan

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Human Like Dog

"They say I look like you Maud."

"You do Sam."

Funny Animal Pictures by Ty Buchanan

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Blue-Green Algae Causes Motor Neuron Disease

Motor Neuron Disease (MND) in not something that just happens to certain people with no hope of recovery. There is new hope about the cause and future treatment. It seems that the marine pest blue-green algae which grows in freshwater and saltwater is the cause. Apparently, it is more widespread than previously thought.

It can be present in marine food that we consume and even in plant seeds. Like other toxins it moves through the food chain becoming more concentrated in species at the top of the line of consumption. It drastically changes the human body interfering with the way proteins function.

The Australian research was based in Guam the place where motor neurone disease is the highest. People there have a taste for bats. When the food chain of these bats was followed it lead to the seeds of a cycad tree. Blue-green algae was found growing around the tree particularly on its roots.

If a drug can be developed that can stop the toxin's action on the body's proteins this would at least be a treatment for Motor Neuron Disease. If you want to lessen the chances of getting MND then stop eating sea food. However, flavoring from marine species is added to pre-prepared meals. Health products like vitamin B and iron supplements have blue-green algae added because it is a source of protein.

Science by Ty Buchanan

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The Prime Minister Who Killed Holden

Tony Abbot said that he would like to be known as the "development" prime minister. With the deficit that the Australian Coalition government aims to reduce as soon as possible, this simply cannot happen. Investment on roads, schools and hospitals takes cash that Australia does not have. Just how he planned to invest and save is a mystery.

Legacies cannot be planned. They happen due to one's behavior and circumstances that cannot be controlled. Planning the future particularly your own is difficult. Of course he stopped the boats by being ruthless and taking action that has infuriated our neighbor, Indonesia. This always was a dangerous course of action. Diplomatically it is an absolute mess with future repercussions unknown.

What is certain is that he will be known as the prime minister who killed the Australian automotive industry. Blaming labor costs is tunnel vision on his part. Other input costs are high: a strong currency, power costs, transport, storage, rents, council rates and many other expensive variables. Sadly, he ended production of the Australian car - the Holden. Many may not forgive him for this.

First made in the middle of the last century from an American design, the car truly was an Australian icon that people were proud of. Racing events involved the struggle between the two giants of the motor industry: General Motors Holden and Ford. People were fanatical about it.

Unfortunately, skills will be lost forever as Australian manufacturing downsizes into short run production which is uneconomical. Prime Minister Tony Abbott should understand the truth. An input of money could have saved the Australian motor industry. Furthermore, immediate spending cutbacks can only lead to one thing - recession. As spending power decreases, so does GNP.

Economics by Ty Buchanan

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Keeping Australia's Car Industry Afloat Is Not Economically Rational

There are calls from many quarters for keeping Australia's car industry alive. I am not so sure that a country needs its own motor industry anymore. Times have changed. No vehicle is made entirely in one country today. The days of getting prestige from it are long gone.

Propping up a floundering car sector is against all practical economic and social theory. It doesn't make sense to spend taxpayers money in such a wasteful way. Holden and Ford continue to take handouts while still not making any profit. Ford has already gone. The days for Holden are numbered. Holden was never a truly Australian car. It was an old General Motors design left in a drawer collecting dust until it was thrown on the table at a meeting in Australia.

Australia has never been a manufacturing country. It is not like Britain which has very in the way of natural resources so must generate income somehow from industry. Large businesses have only been in the primary sector. Exporting what comes out of the ground has always been the way Australia survives.

Those who hang on to so called Australian icons are sentimentalists. Things do change and old things fall away. Vegemite and Billy Tea are foreign owned. This doesn't stop us from claiming these icons. If Holden dies in this country that will be it. The car is not composed completely of Australian parts anyway. We can always rebadge an American designed car and race it at Bathurst.

Economics by Ty Buchanan

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Society by Ty Buchanan

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Australian Headset Slows a Car During Driver Inattention

Every car manufacturer in the world is working on a self-drive vehicle, but is this the way of the future? How is it possible to have self-driven and human-driven cars on the same road at the same time in the "change-over" period? Auto-drive vehicles tend to be small, though there is no real need for this. It seems designers are trying to force us to accept tiny cars that get around on their own. Most elderly people use their cars to do the weekly shopping. with no boot/trunk this is impossible.

Accidents are caused by drivers not cars. It is human error, particularly not paying attention that is to blame. If human concentration can be improved there will be no need for auto-driven vehicles.

Researchers in Australia are working on a "headset" that monitors brain activity during driving. As brain activity changes when a driver is distracted the cars automatic braking system comes into action.

At the moment the headset is quite large - it has 14 sensors. This is only the beginning of the program though. Several different types of distraction were used: switching radio stations, using mobile phones, drinking water and reading maps.

Gaze rate, blink rate, blink duration and dwelling on a fixed point were also measured by the headset. A great deal of data is collected. This is not difficult to analyse with modern computers. Reducing accidents by making a car slow down then speed up again is paramount to lessen the 46 per cent of fatal accidents caused by inattention.

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Technology by Ty Buchanan