#Diesel Power Additive

[bluechemaustralia]

Revving Up Your Ride: Unleashing Peak Performance with Diesel Power Additives

Diesel engines are renowned for their workhorse capabilities, powering trucks, machinery, and even some high-performance vehicles. However, like any machine, diesel engines can experience a decline in performance over time. This can manifest as decreased power, reduced fuel efficiency, and increased emissions. Here at Bluchem, we understand the importance of keeping your diesel engine running smoothly. That's why we offer a range of high-quality diesel power additives in Australia, designed to optimize performance and keep your engine purring like new.

Beyond the Pump: Unveiling the Challenges Faced by Diesel Engines

Several factors can contribute to a decline in diesel engine performance:

Low Cetane Levels: Cetane rating indicates a diesel fuel's ability to ignite. Lower cetane levels lead to rough idling, increased engine noise, and incomplete combustion, resulting in wasted fuel and higher emissions.

Fuel Impurities: Contaminants like water and dirt in your fuel system can clog injectors, hinder proper combustion, and even lead to corrosion.

Carbon Buildup: Over time, carbon deposits can accumulate on injectors and valves, reducing fuel flow and efficiency.

Bluchem Diesel Power Additives: The Solution for Optimal Performance

Bluchem's range of diesel power additives addresses these challenges head-on, helping you restore and maintain peak engine performance:

Cetane Boosters: These additives elevate the cetane rating of your diesel fuel, promoting cleaner and more complete combustion. This translates to smoother starts, reduced engine noise, and improved fuel efficiency.

Fuel System Cleaners: Our additives act as detergents, removing harmful contaminants and preventing future buildup in your fuel system. This ensures optimal fuel flow and injector performance.

Lubricity Enhancers: Modern diesel fuels often lack the lubricating properties of traditional diesel. Bluchem's additives act as lubricity enhancers, protecting your engine components from wear and tear.

Water Dispersants: These additives help disperse water droplets present in your fuel tank, preventing corrosion and ensuring smooth engine operation.

Beyond Additives: The Bluchem Advantage

Choosing Bluchem for your diesel power additives in Australia goes beyond just the product itself. Here's what sets us apart:

High-Quality Formulations: We use only premium ingredients in our additives, ensuring their effectiveness and safety for your engine.

Performance Enhancement: Our additives are rigorously tested to deliver measurable improvements in engine performance, fuel efficiency, and emissions reduction.

Easy Application: Our diesel power additives are designed for user-friendly application, allowing you to easily maintain your engine's health.

Variety of Options: We offer a range of diesel power additives tailored to address specific engine needs and challenges.

Imagine a Restored and Optimized Engine

Investing in Bluchem's diesel power additives empowers you to breathe new life into your diesel engine. Imagine regaining lost power, maximizing fuel efficiency, and reducing harmful emissions. Our additives not only enhance performance but also contribute to a cleaner and more environmentally friendly operation.

Contact Bluchem Today!

Explore Bluchem's range of high-quality diesel power additives in Australia today! We have the perfect solution to keep your engine running smoothly and efficiently. Contact us and discover how our additives can help you achieve optimal diesel engine performance.

Contact- Web - https://www.bluechemaustralia.com.au/diesel-power-additive/ Mail - info@bluechemaustralia.com.au Ph - 0498 880 115 Address - UNIT 4, 63 Brunel Rd, Seaford VIC 3198, AU

[batboyblog]

Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #38

Oct 11-18 2024

President Biden announced that this Administration had forgiven the student loan debt of 1 million public sector workers. The cancellation of the student loan debts of 60,000 teachers, firefighters, EMTs, nurses and other public sector workers brings the total number of people who's debts have been erased by the Biden-Harris Administration using the Public Service Loan Forgiveness to 1 million. the PSLF was passed in 2007 but before President Biden took office only 7,000 people had ever had their debts forgiven through it. The Biden-Harris team have through different programs managed to bring debt relief to 5 million Americans and counting despite on going legal fights against Republican state Attorneys General.

The Federal Trade Commission finalizes its "one-click to cancel" rule. The new rule requires businesses to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up for it. It also requires more up front information to be shared before offering billing information.

The Department of Transportation announced that since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration there are 1.7 million more construction and manufacturing jobs and 700,000 more jobs in the transportation sector. There are now 400,000 more union workers than in 2021. 60,000 Infrastructure projects across the nation have been funded by the Biden-Harris Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Under this Administration 16 million jobs have been added, including 1.7 construction and manufacturing jobs, construction employment is the highest ever recorded since records started in 1939. 172,000 manufacturing jobs were lost during the Trump administration.

The Department of Energy announced $2 billion to protect the U.S. power grid against growing threats of extreme weather. This money will go to 38 projects across 42 states and Washington DC. It'll upgrade nearly 1,000 miles worth of transmission lines. The upgrades will allow 7.5 gigawatts of new grid capacity while also generating new union jobs across the country.

The EPA announced $125 million to help upgrade older diesel engines to low or zero-emission solutions. The EPA has selected 70 projects to use the funds on. They range from replacing school buses, to port equipment, to construction equipment. More than half of the selected projects will be replacing equipment with zero-emissions, such as all electric school buses.

The Department of The Interior and State of California broke ground on the Salton Sea Species Conservation Habitat Project. The Salton Sea is California's largest lake at over 300 miles of Surface area. An earlier project worked to conserve and restore shallow water habitats in over 4,000 acres on the southern end of the lake, this week over 700 acres were added bring the total to 5,000 acres of protected land. The Biden-Harris Administration is investing $250 million in the project along side California's $500 million. Part of the Administration's effort to restore wild life habitat and protect water resources.

The Department of Energy announced $900 Million in investment in next generation nuclear power. The money will help the development of Generation III+ Light-Water Small Modular Reactors, smaller lighter reactors which in theory should be easier to deploy. DoE estimates the U.S. will need approximately 700-900 GW of additional clean, firm power generation capacity to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Currently half of America's clean energy comes from nuclear power, so lengthening the life space of current nuclear reactors and exploring the next generation is key to fighting climate change.

The federal government took two big steps to increase the rights of Alaska natives. The Departments of The Interior and Agricultural finalized an agreement to strengthen Alaska Tribal representation on the Federal Subsistence Board. The FSB oversees fish and wildlife resources for subsistence purposes on federal lands and waters in Alaska. The changes add 3 new members to the board appointed by the Alaska Native Tribes, as well as requiring the board's chair to have experience with Alaska rural subsistence. The Department of The Interior also signed 3 landmark co-stewardship agreements with Alaska Native Tribes.

The Department of Energy announced $860 million to help support solar energy in Puerto Rico. The project will remove 2.7 million tons of CO2 per year, or about the same as taking 533,000 cars off the road. It serves as an important step on the path to getting Puerto Rico to 100% renewable by 2050.

The Department of the Interior announced a major step forward in geothermal energy on public lands. The DoI announced it had approved the Fervo Cape Geothermal Power Project in Beaver County, Utah. When finished it'll generate 2 gigawatts of power, enough for 2 million homes. The BLM has now green lit 32 gigawatts of clean energy projects on public lands. A major step toward the Biden-Harris Administration's goal of a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035.

Bonus: President Biden meets with a Kindergarten Teacher who's student loans were forgiven this week

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Seth Mandel

Electricity has been one of the main challenges in Gaza, because Hamas refuses to do the one thing that would solve the problem almost overnight: stop its forever war against Israel. Now, it’s possible that HTS is planning to launch semiannual wars against Jordan and sabotage its own power supply, but I consider the possibility unlikely. That is, however, what Hamas does daily.

Here’s how the electricity in Gaza works. Israel provides 50 percent of the enclave’s power—and I do mean “provides.” Technically, Israel is selling electricity to Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority is supposed to pick up the tab. But they very often don’t, and certainly Hamas doesn’t pay, and every so often Israel threatens to cut off electricity for lack of payment—the debt is usually somewhere in the neighborhood of half a billion dollars. But Israel always backs down or accepts low partial payments.

How much does Hamas value that electricity? Well, it is not uncommon for their own rockets to hit the power lines and cut off parts of the grid. Usually, Israel just fixes the lines when Hamas destroys them. (Israel is terrible at doing genocide.) But on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas knocked down more than half of their own power lines and Israel did not fix them; it had, if you remember, a few other priorities.

The other half of Gaza’s electricity is split into two main categories: 25 percent comes from Gaza’s diesel-run power plant and the other 25 percent comes from the sun. Gaza has a high concentration of solar cells, because there are lots and lots of roofs and lots of sun. Some of the solar power comes from Israeli companies, much of it from EU and UN projects (meaning, in part, the American taxpayer).

Some Gazans with solar-power systems sell electricity to their neighbors. Some who have their own diesel generators do the same. And the hospitals have been known to set up diesel generators in their bottom floors for public use.

What this means is that about a quarter of Gazan power doesn’t, in general, require the main grid. There’s a problem, however: in addition to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad rockets knocking down power lines, the fact that these groups operate from private homes means that the return fire from Israel knocks out solar roof panels. Hamas fires from civilian homes with the intent of getting those civilians killed, but doing so also kills the lights. Hamas is indescribably evil.

[railfangxy]

The Embodiment of Streamline Moderne

Most steam streamliners have shrouds to bring the engine into a Moderne style. Be that styling the engine to look as new as its consist does on the inside, OR embracing a look that borrows from contemporary diesel power.

Seems the Pennsylvania Railroad T1's were the exact opposite, at least at first. A futuristic design concept by Raymond Loewy was adapted to fit the outline of a steam engine

Just look between these two and the resemblance is clear

The T1's are already fairly modern machines as far as steam locomotives go. True, they are reciprocating machines so they still use cylinders and rods compared to individual steam motors, or a steam turbine drive. However, there's two or three aspects about them to complement their forward styling.

First is the duplex drive. The concept was to create a locomotive that was easier on the track at higher speeds by splitting up the driving wheels. More cylinders are needed, but the actual reciprocating mass is reduced. The T1's weren't the first iterations of this, on or off their home railroad, but they came with something else.

Second is poppet valves; more familiar with stationary steam engines, and persist today in internal combustion engines. Compared to piston valves, poppets allow for more precise timing of admission and exhaust to the cylinder, thus more power can be obtained. Poppet valves were tried a few times in the US in the 20s, and saw use elsewhere, but almost nothing like what the T1's had

Lastly is the Franklin System of Steam Distribution. This is a form of valve gear, large based on Lentz gear as it uses oscillation cams and has valves positions more like a piston. However, there's multiple sets of these valves, and the actual reciporicating mass is miniaturized and housed in a gearbox casing. In addition to the slight power boost offered by poppet valves, this further reduction of weight means the engine puts less energy into moving itself compared to its train. In addition, this protected the motion and meant maintenance requirements were actually lower compared to conventional valve gear.

If you know anything about the T1 that last part may sound odd, but the first engine to use the Franklin system did indeed require less maintenance than others in its division. The streamlining made access tricky, but it was really a problem when it came to making repairs not general maintenance.

All this and more set the T1 apart from anything that came before, or really since. It's only fitting they look the part of being a vision of the future. Just had no idea where the styling originated for them to look so much more modern on the outside, when they were already steps forward on the inside.

The best part about the iconic profile is that it never really left. I don't just mean the later T1's or the similar looking diesels. The prototype T1's kept the Loewy influence up front right til the end. Just iconic

[reasonsforhope]

"India’s announcement that it aims to reach net zero emissions by 2070 and to meet fifty percent of its electricity requirements from renewable energy sources by 2030 is a hugely significant moment for the global fight against climate change. India is pioneering a new model of economic development that could avoid the carbon-intensive approaches that many countries have pursued in the past – and provide a blueprint for other developing economies.

The scale of transformation in India is stunning. Its economic growth has been among the highest in the world over the past two decades, lifting of millions of people out of poverty. Every year, India adds a city the size of London to its urban population, involving vast construction of new buildings, factories and transportation networks. Coal and oil have so far served as bedrocks of India’s industrial growth and modernisation, giving a rising number of Indian people access to modern energy services. This includes adding new electricity connections for 50 million citizens each year over the past decade. 

The rapid growth in fossil energy consumption has also meant India’s annual CO2 emissions have risen to become the third highest in the world. However, India’s CO2 emissions per person put it near the bottom of the world’s emitters, and they are lower still if you consider historical emissions per person. The same is true of energy consumption: the average household in India consumes a tenth as much electricity as the average household in the United States.  

India’s sheer size and its huge scope for growth means that its energy demand is set to grow by more than that of any other country in the coming decades. In a pathway to net zero emissions by 2070, we estimate that most of the growth in energy demand this decade would already have to be met with low-carbon energy sources. It therefore makes sense that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced more ambitious targets for 2030, including installing 500 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, reducing the emissions intensity of its economy by 45%, and reducing a billion tonnes of CO2. 

These targets are formidable, but the good news is that the clean energy transition in India is already well underway. It has overachieved its commitment made at COP 21- Paris Summit [a.k.a. 2015, at the same conference that produced the Paris Agreement] by already meeting 40% of its power capacity from non-fossil fuels- almost nine years ahead of its commitment, and the share of solar and wind in India’s energy mix have grown phenomenally. Owing to technological developments, steady policy support, and a vibrant private sector, solar power plants are cheaper to build than coal ones. Renewable electricity is growing at a faster rate in India than any other major economy, with new capacity additions on track to double by 2026...

Subsidies for petrol and diesel were removed in the early 2010s, and subsidies for electric vehicles were introduced in 2019. India’s robust energy efficiency programme has been successful in reducing energy use and emissions from buildings, transport and major industries. Government efforts to provide millions of households with fuel gas for cooking and heating are enabling a steady transition away from the use of traditional biomass such as burning wood. India is also laying the groundwork to scale up important emerging technologies such as hydrogen, battery storage, and low-carbon steel, cement and fertilisers..."

-via IEA (International Energy Agency), January 10, 2022

Note: And since that's a little old, here's an update to show that progress is still going strong:

-via Economic Times: EnergyWorld, March 10, 2023

[bluechemaustralia]

Enhance Engine Performance with BLUECHEM Diesel Power Additives

In the world of diesel engines, performance is paramount. Whether you're powering through long-haul journeys or tackling tough terrain, you need your engine to deliver optimal power and efficiency every time. That's where BLUECHEM Diesel Power Additives come in - specially formulated to elevate your engine's performance to new heights.

Unlocking the Potential:

BLUECHEM Diesel Power Additives are engineered to unleash the full potential of your diesel engine. Designed with cutting-edge technology and decades of expertise, these additives target key areas of engine performance to ensure smoother operation, increased power, and improved fuel efficiency.

Boosting Cetane Levels:

One of the primary functions of BLUECHEM Diesel Power Additives is to boost cetane levels in your fuel. Cetane is a measure of a diesel fuel's ignition quality, with higher cetane numbers indicating better combustion efficiency. By increasing cetane levels, these additives promote quicker and more complete fuel ignition, resulting in improved engine performance, reduced emissions, and smoother starts, especially in cold weather conditions.

Cleaning and Protecting Critical Components:

In addition to enhancing combustion efficiency, BLUECHEM Diesel Power Additives also clean and protect critical engine components. Over time, diesel engines can accumulate deposits of carbon, varnish, and other contaminants, which can hinder performance and lead to costly repairs. These additives work to dissolve and remove these deposits, restoring engine cleanliness and efficiency while providing ongoing protection against future buildup.

Achieving Peak Performance:

Whether you're a fleet manager looking to optimize fuel economy across your vehicles or a diesel enthusiast seeking to maximize performance in your personal vehicle, BLUECHEM Diesel Power Additives offer a simple and effective solution. With regular use, you can achieve peak engine performance, prolong engine life, and enjoy a smoother, more responsive driving experience mile after mile.

Experience the Difference Today:

Ready to take your diesel engine to the next level? Experience the difference with BLUECHEM Diesel Power Additives. With their proven track record of excellence and commitment to innovation, you can trust BLUECHEM to deliver results you can rely on. Unlock the full potential of your diesel engine and enjoy a smoother, more efficient ride with BLUECHEM Diesel Power Additives.

Contact- Web - https://www.bluechemaustralia.com.au/diesel-power-additive/ Mail - info@bluechemaustralia.com.au Ph - 0498 880 115 Address - UNIT 4, 63 Brunel Rd, Seaford VIC 3198, AU

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #20

May 24-31 2024

The EPA awards $900 million to school districts across the country to replace diesel fueled school buses with cleaner alternatives. The money will go to 530 school districts across nearly every state, DC, tribal community, and US territory. The funds will help replace 3,400 buses with cleaner alternatives, 92% of the new buses will be 100% green electric. This adds to the $3 billion the Biden administration has already spent to replace 8,500 school buses across 1,000 school districts in the last 2 years.

For the first time the federal government released guidelines for Voluntary Carbon Markets. Voluntary Carbon Markets are a system by which companies off set their carbon emissions by funding project to fight climate change like investing in wind or solar power. Critics have changed that companies are using them just for PR and their funding often goes to projects that would happen any ways thus not offsetting emissions. The new guidelines seek to insure integrity in the Carbon Markets and make sure they make a meaningful impact. It also pushes companies to address emissions first and use offsets only as a last resort.

The IRS announced it'll take its direct file program nationwide in 2025. In 2024 140,000 tax payers in 12 states used the direct file pilot program and the IRS now plans to bring it to all Americans next tax season. Right now the program is only for simple W-2 returns with no side income but the IRS has plans to expand it to more complex filings in the future. This is one of the many projects at the IRS being funded through President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.

The White House announced steps to boost nuclear energy in America. Nuclear power in the single largest green energy source in the country accounting for 19% of America's total energy. Boosting Nuclear energy is a key part of the Biden administration's strategy to reach a carbon free electricity sector by 2035. The administration has invested in bring the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan back on-line, and extending the life of Diablo Canyon in California. In addition the Military will be deploying new small modular nuclear reactors and microreactors to power its installations. The Administration is setting up a task force to help combat the delays and cost overruns that have often derailed new nuclear projects and the Administration is supporting two Gen III+ SMR demonstration projects to highlight the safety and efficiency of the next generation of nuclear power.

The Department of Agriculture announced $824 million in new funding to protect livestock health and combat H5N1. The funding will go toward early detection, vaccine research, and supporting farmers impacted. The USDA is also launching a nation wide Dairy Herd Status Pilot Program, hopefully this program will give us a live look at the health of America's dairy herd and help with early detection. The Biden Administration has reacted quickly and proactively to the early cases of H5N1 to make sure it doesn't spread to the human population and become another pandemic situation.

The White House announced a partnership with 21 states to help supercharge America's aging energy grid. Years of little to no investment in America's Infrastructure has left our energy grid lagging behind the 21st century tech. This partnership aims to squeeze all the energy we can out of our current system while we rush to update and modernize. Last month the administration announced a plan to lay 100,000 miles of new transmission lines over the next five years. The 21 states all with Democratic governors are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The Department of Transportation announced $343 million to update 8 of America's oldest and busiest transportation stations for disability accessibility. These include the MBTA's the Green Line's light-rail B and C branches in Boston,  Cleveland's Blue Line, New Orleans'  St. Charles Streetcar route, and projects in San Francisco and New York City and other locations

The Department of interior announced two projects for water in Western states. $179 million for drought resilience projects in California and Utah and $242 million for expanding water access in California, Colorado and Washington. The projects should help support drinking water for 6.4 million people every year.

HUD announced $150 million for affordable housing for tribal communities. This adds to the over $1 billion dollars for tribal housing announced earlier in the month. Neil Whitegull of the Ho-Chunk Nation said at the announcement "I know a lot of times as Native Americans we've been here and we've seen people that have said, ‘Oh yeah, we'd like to help Indians.’ And they take a picture and they go away. We never see it, But there's been a commitment here, with the increase in funding, grants, and this administration that is bringing their folks out. And there's a real commitment, I think, to Native American tribes that we've never seen before."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged $135 million to help Moldavia. Since the outbreak of Russia's war against neighboring Ukraine the US has given $774 million in aid to tiny Moldavia. Moldavia has long been dependent on Russian energy but thanks to US investment in the countries energy security Moldavia is breaking away from Russia and moving forward with EU membership.

The US and Guatemala launched the "Youth With Purpose” initiative. The initiative will be run through the Central America Service Corps, launched in 2022 by Vice President Harris the CASC is part of the Biden Administration's efforts to improve life in Central America. The Youth With Purpose program will train 25,000 young Guatemalans and connect with with service projects throughout the country.

Bonus: Today, May 31st 2024, is the last day of the Affordable Connectivity Program. The program helped 23 million Americans connect to the internet while saving them $30 to $75 dollars every month. Despite repeated calls from President Biden Republicans in Congress have refused to act to renew the program. The White House has worked with private companies to get them to agree to extend the savings to the end of 2024. The Biden Administration has invested $90 Billion high-speed internet investments. Such as $42.45 billion for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment, $1 billion for the The Middle Mile program laying 12,000 miles of regional fiber networks, and distributed nearly 30,000 connected devices to students and communities, including more than 3,600 through the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program

[bwat5-blog]

Caitlyn Kiramman's Trauma Leading Up To Becoming Commander: Quick Reference Guide

(A Dear Stupid People Publication)

**Spoiler Warning For Arcane**

In today's busy world it is tough to keep with the responsibilities and demands of our daily lives. We here at Dear Stupid People understand that. Sometimes you just want to hop online and run your mouth without having seen the material, or even better without being smart enough to understand it. You know what we say?

AS. YOU. SHOULD!

So today, we are proud to unveil our first of possibly many reference guides to help those of you who want to discuss Arcane without the effort of having watched it or the ability to comprehend it! And even better, we are doing this for.............................

TOTALLY FREE!

So the next time you feel the urge to log in, put your booger covered fingers on the keyboard, and let the diarrhea you pass off as intellectual discourse flow, have this guide at the ready so you can attack Caitlyn Kiramman with all the detail you need.

Lured into burning building by Jinx using child's voice then blown up. Explosion kills several of her peers and injures her

2. Has to shoot Sevika to save Vi's life

3. Survived encounter with Silco and shimmer addicts

4. Survived meeting Jinx/Fight with Firelights

5. Head of her organization shoots Ekko and is going to kill her while other Enforcers do nothing

6. Survives Jinx's attack on the bridge

7. Abducted by Jinx from childhood bathroom, while nude, forced to dress in Enforcer uniform, held for at least a day, possibly tortured

8. Forced to listen to Jinx try to convince Vi to murder her while bound and gagged

9. Spares Jinx at Vi's pleading and is violently knocked out (sorry couldn't find the gif)

10. Jinx kills Caitlyn's mother, 2 other councilors, maims 2 others, and blows up the council chamber when Caitlyn could have stopped it

11. Caitlyn survives memorial attack carried out by Chem Baron and her foot soldiers

12. Survives Strike Team Mission In Zaun

13. Survives brutal fight with Sevika

14. She held her shot for Vi the first time, Vi promised she would end it this time, then Vi (no matter how good her reasons) stopped her

We here at Dear Stupid People hope you can make use of this reference guide the next time the urge strikes you to use any variation of the following statement:

"Caitlyn lost her mom and goes full dictator!"

Be on the lookout for our forthcoming exciting new additions!

Being rich isn't a magic shield against suffering!

Yes of course Ambess's manipulation mattered you diesel drinking paint eater!

Experimenting on your own people with a dangerous drug for money and power is a bad way to fight for them!

And More!

[mariacallous]

If the Silicon Valley of the 2000s and 2010s prided itself on an anti-fashion ethos—the hoodie, the New Balance trainer, the uniform of studied indifference to material possessions—then today’s tech billionaires have flipped the script.

These days, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a jiujitsu-practicing, Richard Mille–wearing, powerlifting tycoon whose aesthetic suggests something between a Bond villain and a UFC champion. Elon Musk, the self-styled messiah of Mars and free-speech absolutism, oscillates between Belstaff leather flight jackets that scream “aging rock star managing his seventh divorce” and all-black Tom Ford suits that suggest ��billionaire villain in a sci-fi movie who insists he’s the hero.”

Then there’s Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, once a dorky, fleece-vested book salesman, who has since undergone a biceps-first metamorphosis into a Vin Diesel–adjacent yacht lord. These days, he’s a fixture at Milan Fashion Week, turning up at Dolce & Gabbana shows in impeccably tailored trousers and a D&G leather bomber jacket. The New York Times has gone as far as to label him a style icon. It’s a stark contrast to 1999 when he revealed to WIRED his love for shirts with “hidden snaps” under the collar points for easy tie removal.

The new tech oligarchy, forged in the crucible of Trump-era chaos, has moved beyond the faux humility of Patagonia vests and Allbirds. They are dressing like titans, strongmen, and emperors because, in their minds, that’s exactly what they are. Their outfits do not merely say I have wealth. They declare “I have power, and I intend to wield it.”

Parable of Power

In many ways, this aesthetic evolution tells a larger story about the consolidation of power in the tech industry. There was a time when tech billionaires maintained a carefully curated image of modesty—Elon Musk, for instance, once claimed to live in a tiny house on his sprawling estate. When asked why he wore the same thing every day, Zuckerberg responded: “I’m in this really lucky position where I get to wake up every day and help serve more than a billion people. I feel like I’m not doing my job if I spend any of my energy on things that are silly or frivolous about my life.”

But now, that mindset has shifted. “They’re openly embracing their status as modern-day oligarchs, fully leaning into wealth, power, and influence. And they’re celebrating it with some seriously big watch purchases,” says WIRED’s watch expert, Tim Barber. Nowhere is this shift more apparent than in figures like Zuckerberg, who, while systematically dismantling fact-checking protections across Meta platforms, is doing so with an exceptionally rare $895,000 Greubel Forsey Hand Made 1 timepiece strapped to his wrist.

Luxury watches have long been markers of power, but Silicon Valley initially distanced itself from that tradition. Jobs wore a humble Seiko. Bill Gates has never been one for flash. Zuckerberg, for years, followed suit—until he didn’t. The shift was caught on video. At a pre-wedding party for Anant Ambani, heir to one of India’s wealthiest families, Zuckerberg was seen marveling at a sapphire-crystal Richard Mille watch—a brand synonymous with extreme wealth, with entry prices from $365,000.

“I never really wanted to get a watch,” Zuckerberg is heard saying. “But after seeing that … watches are so cool!” Within weeks, Zuckerberg had embraced horology with zeal. Notable additions include a $783,000 rose-gold Patek Philippe Ref. 5303R-001, a $90,000 De Bethune DB25 Starry Varius featuring a blue dial with a depiction of the Milky Way, and a €40,910 FP Journe Chronomètre Souverain Havana. Musk's watch collection is also high-end but more pedestrian, more predictable (Rolex, Omega, TAG).

“This evolution in tech culture mirrors the robber barons of the past. Today’s billionaires, like those of 100 or 150 years ago, appear largely indifferent to public perception,” continues Barber. He notes that collecting watches, in itself, isn’t an indicator of morality. It’s simply that high-end watches have become part of the new uniform. “The equivalent of the understated Apple Watch once worn by the ‘thoughtful, responsible’ tech leader. Now, intricate, ultra-expensive timepieces have become the accessory of the ‘I don’t care’ billionaire.”

The tech billionaires have long been aligning themselves with mythmaking, macho masculinity narratives. In 2018, Musk began working with designer Emily Dawn Long on his new look, supposedly looking to channel macho male icons such as Harrison Ford, Paul Newman, and Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. As a result, Musk reportedly dropped six figures on a vintage Paul Newman Rolex Daytona, a watch synonymous with masculine cool. He also added a Tesla-branded black cowboy hat to his rotation, a symbol of frontier bravado and lone-wolf individualism, evoking the mythos of the self-made pioneer—whether wrangling AI, space travel, or the X algorithm.

It’s not just watches. Zuckerberg’s wardrobe now includes custom T-shirts emblazoned with historical mottos: “Pathei Mathos” (Greek for “learning through suffering”), “Carthago delenda est” (Latin for “Carthage must be destroyed”), and “Aut Zuck aut nihil” (Latin for “Zuck or nothing”). These phrases, steeped in imperialistic and warrior-like rhetoric, suggest a new, more aggressive self-styling that asserts power.

It’s a far cry from his 2018 Senate hearings, where he appeared in an ill-fitting suit that made him look more like a teenager at his first job interview than a formidable tech CEO. “Part of his rebrand seems to be about rehabilitating his standing within Meta and corporate America, through alignment with dominant trends that prioritize charisma over contemplation, machismo over moderation,” says Benjamin Wild, cultural historian and fashion communication lead at the UK’s Manchester Fashion Institute.

However, one of the most striking things about Zuckerberg’s style transformation is how public, deliberate, and immediate it has been, he says. The first sign arrived back in April 2024, when an AI image of a bearded Mark Zuckerberg went viral on social media. After that fake image, Zuckerberg began to embrace a more fashion-forward and assertive style, even prompting Meta's own AI to suggest a new look for himself. He was seen wearing gold chains and designer clothing and sporting a more muscular physique, reflecting his interest in mixed martial arts (MMA) training.

“We cannot lose sight of the fact that this tech billionaire used the AI feature on his own platform to reimagine his look, then committed to it once the image went viral. That speaks to how external validation still fuels self-presentation, regardless of status,” says Jesica Wagstaff, the fashion commentator and author of A Sunday Journal Substack, who adds that it also signals just how much conservative aesthetics have seeped into the American cultural bloodstream.

“Granted, Zuckerberg initially asked for an AI rendering of himself as a ‘streetwear designer in LA.’ But he didn’t just adopt the look; he distorted it with personal signifiers��status symbols, combat-ready aesthetics, and a sliver of dystopian machismo. The effect is an uber-wealthy MMA fighter," continues Wagstaff. “And that’s very much the point. Zuckerberg is no longer just the nerd who created Facebook. He’s a jiujitsu-practicing, watch-collecting, gaming dad who loves his wife and kids—and still finds time to strip online protections from vulnerable users of his platform. We’re meant to see him glow up and ask ourselves, ‘What can’t Mark Zuckerberg do?’”

The answer to that question, of course, depends on who is asking. To his elite peers, Zuckerberg’s latest image signals strength, power, and cultural awareness. To the rest of the world, it may be another reminder that those who claim to lead us are increasingly operating in a world entirely their own.

When Did This New Dress Code Drop?

Personal style has long been a tool in the arsenal of the tech elite. Steve Jobs famously rejected traditional status symbols in favor of a self-imposed uniform: The infamous black Issey Miyake turtleneck, Levi’s jeans, and New Balance trainers. Many of Silicon Valley’s most prominent figures followed suit, embracing a lux-tinted version of understated, utilitarian dressing—embodied in 2017 by $500 Lanvin low-top sneakers favored by the likes of Satya Nadella and Larry Page. Of course, this stripped-down approach to fashion wasn’t an abdication of style; it was a strategic choice.

In an industry that prides itself on disruption, dressing down became its own kind of dominance, while also reflecting the tech ideology of the time: Innovation over tradition, efficiency over excess, and—at least in its early days—a belief that technology existed to serve people, not just profit from them.

Indeed, in the early 2000s and 2010s, tech’s biggest names presented themselves as visionaries on a mission to democratize access, improve lives, and build a better future. The industry positioned itself as an antidote to Wall Street’s greed, and the seemingly casual uniform of T-shirts, hoodies, and sneakers reinforced that distinction. Tech leaders weren’t flashy bankers in tailored suits; they were problem solvers, engineers, and idealists, working toward a utopian vision of progress.

“Zuckerberg’s style shift says something about a specific group of American billionaires who are aligning themselves with what looks to be a new political order within the United States,” Wild says. “These moguls control multinationals, which include Meta, Google, Amazon and Uber, that have an extraordinary capacity to influence people’s decisionmaking, and who are consequently prime figures for politicians to moderate.” While the Biden administration did this via the judicial arm of government and legal courts, it appears President Trump seems inclined to handle these men through his personal court, where they are required to seek his approval.

“We saw this at Trump’s presidential inauguration,” says Wild, “where the invitees constituted a who’s who of American tech billionaires. For me, there are strong parallels with medieval royal courts, where members of the aristocracy competed among themselves, often in what they wore and how they consumed, for the attention and patronage of the ruler. Within America today, these men seem less concerned about their perception among the public, and far more concerned about how they appear to one another, and Trump.”

For now, some tech bros—Sam Altman included—are still clinging to their tees and action slacks, but how long before their look evolves to match the growing power they wield? OpenAI, after all, seems to be getting darker by the day. And then there’s Sundar Pichai, the quiet architect of Google’s AI empire, whose fashion may not be making headlines (yet) but whose policies certainly are. Under his watch, Alphabet just scrapped its long-standing promise not to develop AI for weapons or surveillance.

So what’s next? A titanium Richard Mille built for billionaires with defense contracts? A bespoke Brunello Cucinelli cashmere sweater emblazoned with “In AI We Trust”? Pichai has already ditched the New Balance memo for those Lanvin sneakers, with hype footwear a previous gateway drug for billionaires. (Zuck famously has a penchant for Adidas 4DFWD x Strung trainers.) If the new tech dress code is all about signaling dominance, surely it won’t be long before Pichai and Altman follow suit. Because in Silicon Valley, power isn’t just wielded—now it’s worn.

The Impunity of Reinvention

The curious thing? Few are questioning Mark Zuckerberg’s transformation. Most commentary fixates on the what and how—his sculpted physique, designer accessories, and combat-ready aesthetic—rather than the why. “This emphasizes the persistence of gender inequalities. When Kamala Harris was running for office, her aesthetic choices were scrutinised relentlessly. Yet Zuckerberg’s evolution is met with curiosity rather than critique. It highlights the impunity with which powerful men can reinvent themselves,” says Wild.

For Zuckerberg, the shift from awkward tech nerd to combat-trained, physically imposing leader mirrors the broader trajectory of Silicon Valley itself. The archetype of the hoodie-clad disruptor has been replaced by something more militarized, more overtly aggressive. The new tech oligarchy isn’t just about controlling perception; it’s about controlling entire industries—perhaps even countries. And increasingly, it operates beyond the reach of traditional accountability.

Zuckerberg’s aesthetic evolution coincides with Meta’s rollbacks on content moderation, a move that aligns him with the political right. His embrace of high-status signifiers (luxury mechanical watches, gold chains, a hardened MMA physique) signals alignment with a particular brand of alpha masculinity that is scarily rife among the elite. Moreover, his media appointed “tech bro glow-up” reflects a deeper truth about power: The extraordinary privilege of wealthy men to rewrite their own narratives, shedding past identities at will. Reinvention, in this context, isn’t just self-expression, it’s an assertion of dominance.

Just watch the reaction as a beaming Musk appears as a surprise guest, streamed in on huge video screens to the far-right Alternative for Germany national election campaign launch in January. “You have to make a decision," said the AfD's Maximilian Krah. "Do you want to have the party of [Chancellor] Olaf Scholz and all those eunuchs? Or are you on our side, with Elon Musk and Donald Trump? Which side has more sex appeal?”

If history teaches us anything, it’s this: When the richest men in the world start dressing like emperors, the rest of us should pay attention. Because power, when it rebrands itself, is rarely just about aesthetics. It’s a warning.

[aboxfullofnonsense]

Walking With Dinosaurs 2025 is bad, and here's why

I was so excited for Walking With Dinosaurs 2025. So Excited. I called up some friends, I ranted and raved online, I rewatched the originals, (all of them (yes all of them)) I made up a cheese platter and got myself prepared to have a good time.

I did not have a good time.

It’s bad, it’s really, truly, horrendously bad. Not only is it a bad documentary on its own merits, it has managed to completely miss the point of what made the originals special! When I ranted to my Father on this topic, him, knowing my childhood obsession with this series, said to me “well, it’s a bit naff, but you’re not twelve anymore, they aren’t making it for you,” and I am here thinking, bi-eloved Father, if they aren’t making it for me then who the fuck are they making it for? Certainly not anyone who liked the original series! And if the original series didn’t hold up then, you know, maybe it wouldn’t have been viewed by tens of millions of people, and kicked off a revolution in paleontological documentary making, and spawned three additional tv specials, a sequel series, a prequel series, another sequel series, another worse sequel series, a feature length film that I am Not going to acknowledge ever again, another entire series of mockumentaries that were only tangentially related, a sequel to that, a fictionalised drama spin-off of THOSE mockumentaries, then a Canadian spin-off/adaptation of THAT series, a video game, and a multimillion dollar Live Arena Spectacular with diesel powered lifesize sauropod puppets? The Walking With- franchise did not become what it is because it’s audience was twelve, it was because it was good, and they endure because they were well made, and did something bold and interesting that no one else had done, and this new spin off has just, shat all over that, and because I have a blog now I guess I’m gonna rant into the void about it until I feel better.  

To start with I’ll get down to the biggest issue of all, the format. The defining thing of the Walking With’s was that they presented themselves as a “live” documentary. Instead of showing us fossils, and talking about what could have been, they showed us an animal, and say this is what is. This is a dinosaur, here is its life. It was all framed as if made about something “alive.” It did not waste time with quibbles about how arrived at their interpretation of the fossils, or justify their decisions, they never broke the illusion that these animals alive, hence “Walking With-” were walking with them, in their footsteps, following their lives. They expected you to use your critical thinking skills to know that it is supposition (and they released a comprehensive book detailing why they made the decisions they made and the science behind them if you cared that much.) WWD 2025 takes all of that and throws it in the bin.

It opens on silhouette of a cow person in Montana, not a great start, and then finally moves to a dig site. In what formation? Not important, apparently. What geological era? Who cares? It’s not like anyone watching a documentary about dinosaurs will care about something as trivial as that, right? Then a pair of mysteriously made up and sweat free paleontologist dig up a bone that has been mysteriously cleaned and prepared ahead of time. We are told it is an infant triceratops that they have named Clover, and she is on her own. They could have told us this by just showing the “live” dinosaur, but, they get to the point pretty quickly so I could have lived with that. Oh, if only I had known what was to come.

This is how you get fossils out of the ground right? Just pick them up? So nice of them to glue themselves together in situ.

We finally see Clover and, she looks terrible. Don’t get me wrong, the model and texturing is very good, she looks beautifully scaly and her body is plump and fat as you’d expect a young dinosaur to look, but the movement is just terrible. All the dinosaurs, outside of a few key scenes, have this incredibly stiff, rigid movement, they turn their head, stop, blink, flinch back to the first position, then repeat. They look and move like animatronics, almost more so than the animatronics of the original did at times when the camera decides to focus inexplicably on the same sequence of short looping movements. Her nostrils do not flare when she investigates the nest of eggs, her pupils do not pin when she is playing, her plump, fat belly does not sway or jiggle as she frolics, she leaves no footprints in the sand, no ripples in the water, she does not pant or cry or emote in any way beyond jerking her head back and forth and leaping with her feet out of frame to save money on animation. She is stiff, and unyielding, and unalive. Then, after a whole three (3!) minutes with her, we’re back at the digsite digging up another fossil that was definitely prepared earlier.

Get prepared to see this lifeless head bobbling a lot.

It’s her jawbone. It’s a very beautifully prepared jawbone too. They’re so proud of this find that the narrator introduces us to the palaeontologist who prepared it, all this only six minutes after they picked up the perfectly prepared femur out of the ground like it was just like that, right in front of her. Why? Do, do you think our memories are so short that we’d forget? Either you’re pretending it came out of the ground that way, or this lady prepared it, you can’t have it both ways because the only way to have that is to excavate it, send it away to be cleaned and prepared, then bury it again, and that’s just a stupid thing to do (so of course they did that) and why did they do this? To show us that her teeth weren’t worn down yet, so we can tell that she is definitely babby :) This is all after showing us her femur that already confirmed her size, showing us the animated model contrasted against insects and plants for scale, and stating, in the narration, that she is a youngster the size of a dog. It’s just pointless filler. If you wanted to show off her teeth that bad, maybe tell us about her diet? Just a thought.

Yeah, you totally cleaned and prepared that fossil onsite with that immaculate, never used hand tool.

The show goes on like this for a while, three minutes of babby dinosaur jumping around, not doing much of anything, four minutes of freshly showered, not-sunburnt paleontologists digging up preprepared fossils and padding the run time by talking about things we already know, because the show just showed it to us (hence why we call them shows) but they have no faith in us to remember things for more than three minutes.

Then the T-Rex shows up for the second time (the first encounter with the infernodrakon was so silly and jerkily animated I’d rather just forget it) and you can get a tiny glimmer of the spirit of the original. Its shot at night, so the pain points of the animation are hidden by the dramatic, shadowy lighting, and it sets up an interesting premise, T Rex has excellent night vision, triceratops does not, so now we get to see one of the most famous and beloved predators of all time in their natural element, lets go!

They do look so lovely in the moonlight.

She steps on a stick immediately, and Clover sees her in the dark, despite the narrator telling us that she can see extremely little, and manages to outrun a bloody T-Rex without any apparent struggle at all, then she runs into a convenient hole in the ground (without being able to see it, somehow) and we spend the next two minutes watching the T-Rex ram it’s face into a hole it can’t fit it’s body through and snapping on air while its legs kick uselessly behind it. This isn’t Walking With Dinosaurs, this is the one good scene from Meet the Robinson's, only we aren’t supposed to be laughing.

At this point I have officially checked out, and the paleontologist decides to whip out their 3d printer and print up a brain case of a T-Rex, and tell us about how they aren’t very smart and how their senses are very sharp and yada yada, just rehashing and justifying the decisions they made three minutes ago because they have less faith in their audience’s intelligence than I do in the Trump administration’s and they need to pad the runtime. It continues in this manner, three minutes of dinosaurs, four minutes padding, and I begin to daydream of fossilisation.

Finally Clover finds a small group of Edmontosaurus and herds up with them for a while, mixed herds are pretty accepted science at this point so I don’t see any reason to be surprised, but then the animation gets really, really bad. The trees the Edmontosaurus are eating are clearly animated over the top of the environment, and as they graze these branches squash and stretch in a way that is really obviously unnatural to the eye, and as they tear leaves off there’s no refuse, no needles fall, no dust flies up into the light. In the original, they would make a point to film the environmental interactions they needed in the actual environment, they’d wear dinosaur foot shaped boots to kick up dust and make footprints in the sand that would be animated over later, use poles to splash the water as their dinosaurs drank, they’d dress men up in black bin bags and send them into the swamps to jump about and make ripples and splashes, they’d tie fishing line to branches and pull and shake them to make the trees move and shed needles as they were eaten, but fishing line wasn’t in the budget apparently, nor particle effects.

If any gif makers out there want to rip and gif this I would appreciate it. The sheer levels of ps2 on display here cannot be captured in screenshots.

Thankfully they don’t dwell on it for more than a few seconds, because all that money they saved went toward making a baby edmontosaurus model! One conveniently just Clovers size in the herd that is her playmate and after interacting for ten seconds they nuzzle like this:

No, no fuck off. They did not do this. I refuse to believe it. Not because I don’t think dinosaurs could have nurturing and complex social relationships, but because this fucking show has put in none of the work. We don’t see any other pair of dinosaurs interact in this way. When Clover meets another Triceratops she head-butts it with her face and bleats, the adult edmontosaurus almost never interact with the baby at all, and this is by far the smoothest and most natural motion I’ve seen two dinosaurs make in this entire episode, and it’s a meaningless, baseless contrivance they made so they could put a cutesy clip in the trailer. The playmate gets eaten in the next three-minute segment, and the edmontosaurus “move on” and Clover just doesn’t go with them for some reason. They don’t bother explaining why, it’s a thing that needs to happen so it happens. What a joke. Then the paleontologists are back with a huge coprolite and talk about how they know that T-Rex must have eaten small infant dinosaurs because of the bone fragments in the coprolite, as if we can’t intuit that from what we were just shown, when the T-Rex avoided the large, strong adults to attack the weaker young, or, from the fact that that’s how almost every living predator behaves. What a load of coprolite.

When the Edmontosaurus “move on” and Clover does not, she is once again alone and vulnerable, how sad! But, we're running out of time, so they decide to throw everything they just set up in the bin by contriving a confrontation between the T-Rex and a bull Triceratops to end the show on a bang, and the T-Rex just, does this. It's not trapped, its not in some sort of hormonal cycle or injured and unable to chase down prey, they just decide to make this animal, which they just took great pains to show to be intelligent enough not to pick a fight with a healthy adult dinosaur when there were other options, stand its ground and fight this Triceratops, just, because. So there is a painstakingly slow, awkwardly animated, gunslinger style stand-off with the Triceratops (which they interrupt twice to explain that Triceratops have these frill things, ya see, like we haven't been looking at one for fourty minutes,) and then it just stops, and stands there, and the triceratops skewers it to death, because that’s what we wanted right? The good herbivores to triumph over the evil carnivore? That’s how nature documentary’s work, right? White hat vs black hat? Is that not how you wanted this to end?

God I wish this were me.

Then they wander into the distance, with the narrator comfortingly telling us that while we don’t know what happened to Clover, we know that she wasn’t eaten by a T-Rex because if she had been she wouldn’t be a fossil. No, she’s just going to slip down a muddy river bank in the next few minutes and drown to death on a nice bed of alluvial sediments. They already told us she died very young, they showed us her bones! Bones that were the same size as her animated model. This is not a happy ending, because we are capable of remembering the things we are told, for long periods of time, even! The only thing that’s changed is that we have two dead dinosaurs now, along with any joy that was left in my soul.

It’s just bad, so very, very bad. It’s bad at everything it tries to do and those elements combine to make a whole that is uniquely worse than the sum of it’s parts! It insults the original series by using its name for a product that has none of its soul in it at all, and it insults the intelligence of its audience by wasting their time, explaining and explaining the same obvious fun-facts over and over, and trying to stretch a twenty-minute experience into fifty minutes of runtime and hoping we won’t notice that they have nothing to say.

What really gets me is that the whole “digsite to recreation” style of dinosaur documentary is already a thing, and a popular thing! When done well it’s very, very interesting, because the practice of paleontology is interesting! The first one that comes to mind is Dinosaurs: The Final Day as presented by the treasure that is David Attenborough. It shows us a dig site, a real dig site, the tedious, and difficult art of excavating it, the joy and wonder of the paleontologists as the splendor within is revealed, and then goes into detail about what these finds are, what we can learn from them, and then, and only then does it show us what that might have looked like with a recreation. This order of operations is important! By showing us the evidence first we are better able to understand what we’re being shown to us in the recreation, and it builds the tension, we wonder what does this mean, what can this tell us, what was it like? and then the show answers our questions in a big, climactic, and satisfying way. By showing the recreation first, then breaking the flow of the story to show us their contrived reasoning behind it, not only does it erode any ability I had to care about the story being told by the recreation with the constant interruptions, it’s no longer answering a question, because we don’t have the time to really ask any! We are showed a narrative, and then we’re pulled out of the narrative so that the author can show us his citations and talk about how very hard he worked and how smart he is and how good his movie is, because it is correct as well as cute, and it does this every three minutes. Imagine if you were watching The Godfather, and every five minutes That Guy who is sitting next to you pauses it to mansplain about the symbolism in the background that you absolutely must understand if you want to enjoy this movie properly, because it’s so deep you know, here have you done the reading? Oh you should watch this video essay first so you can understand the subtext here, just let me…  

They just, do everything wrong. If they only had the budget for twenty minute episodes, then make twenty minute episodes! It would have been easier to swallow than this. Maybe its excessive to spend more than two thousand words rambling about this thing, but damn it, I care about this franchise and I know I’m not the only one! I’m almost curious about the second episode. They’re doing Spinosaurus, a dinosaur with a famously controversial and divisive history, and I’m curious if they’re going to go digging up any other prepared fossils when the Spinos only type specimen was famously blown to smithereens in WW2, it would be quite a feat, that. Though, if I’m honest with myself, I think I’d rather watch Nigel Marvin drive his ute through time again. He treated his audience with so much more respect than this show does.

[hirocimacruiser]

Subaru Bighorn Irmscher. A rebadged Isuzu Trooper Irmscher.

SUBARU BIGHORN irmscher

2800 TURBO DIESEL

The individuality of this 4WD is quite different from passenger 4WDs, with specs tuned up through technical collaboration with Subaru Bighorn Irmscher and Nishi Irmscher, turbo diesel power that leaves no room for rivals, an intelligent body, high-quality equipment from RECARO, MOMO, MICHELIN, etc., and reinforced gas shock mounts that are well versed on the autobahn. The wild potential has been refined with a sense of the city. This is a European high-performance 4WD.

European high performance 4WD. Subaru Bighorn Irmscher

115ps/Intercooler turbo diesel

The flagship engine of the Ilm chassis series. A direct-injection 2771cc turbo diesel fitted with an air-to-air intercooler, it produces a maximum output of 115PS/3,600rpm (net), while also achieving the persistent torque and super response required at low speeds off-road.

Irmscher Tuned Suspension The suspension, tuned by Irmscher of West Germany, is a double wishbone type at the front and a highly durable leaf spring type at the rear. The suspension, thoroughly forged in Europe, gives the car the ability to easily handle both on- and off-road conditions. The tires are made by Michelin and the car is fitted with forged 3-piece aluminum wheels ((IRMSCHER-R)).

Center through drive 4WD with excellent driving balance. The transfer case is an integrated transmission with a center through life system that provides excellent power transmission. Approach angle: 43, departure angle: 33, maximum stable lean angle: 45 left and right, it boasts outstanding off-road driving ability.

West German Recaro seats and Italian MOMO steering wheel. Super equipment that further enhances the bold expression of the European silhouette. The seats are Recaro, a famous sports seat made in Germany, and the steering wheel with built-in heater is made of high-quality leather by MOMO. In addition, various equipment such as power steering and cassette stereo are also available.

[masterjarthub]

I feel like the time has come for you all to meet my main Chuggington OC:

Meet Astra, the new Chug Patroller!

Name: Astra

Created: May, 2020

Gender: Female ♀️

Age Range: 15-16

Home:

• Chuggington

• Tootington (formely)

Chugger Status: Full-fledged

Occupation:

• Chug Patroller

• Backup Equipment Carrier

Eye Color: Mauve

Main Color: Red

Gauge: Standard Gauge

Basis: Freelance Design

Power Type: Diesel-electric

Power Output: 1440 hp

Top Speed: 110 mph

Configuration: Bo-Bo

No. of Wheels: 8

Affiliation:

• Jackman

• Calley

• Asher

• Wilson

• Brewster

• Koko

• Zephie

About Astra:

Astra is a compartment engine who can carry extra Chug Patrol gear and equipment.

Personality:

She is relatively a kind-hearted, eager-to-please teenage girl; she is always happy to do whatever job she is given with a can-do attitude. While there are occasions once in a while when her excitable nature can get the better of her, she is still focused and very capable. Sweet, lively and encouraging, Astra is always ready to do her part, whether it's keeping the tracks safe as a Chug Patroller, or just making everyone smile as a friend.

Astra In Action:

Astra is fresh from completing training, and is the youngest full-time Chug Patrol member. (Wilson does not count; he is only a part-time member as he is still a trainee) She often tags along on emergency callouts with the rest of the squad.

She'll volunteer to do other jobs whenever the oppurtunity arises as she simply loves helping and enjoys a brief change, but in her spare time, she is hobby photojournalist (She has a retractable smartphone-like camera located and stored where her pop-up wingmirrors are; inside the hatch with the Chug Patrol emblem on the door to access her engine placed adjacent to her face, I will draw this in the future)

Ever since she was a trainee, she journals photos and sometimes videos of her everyday life and adventures, usually just cute selfies of herself or group photos. She shares them online with some of her old friends who also partake in this hobby. She also finds her camera useful for reporting track and trackside hazards to Chug Patrol.

Additional facts:

She was a Chug Patroller in Tootington quite some time before moving to Chuggington. She was a top student as a trainee and moved up so quickly, she had graduated while still in the chugger equivalent of teenage years. (Very rarely do chuggers become fully-fledged when they're young. Hodge, Zephie and Emery are the only canon chuggers in this scenario) She had a very close relationship with her old mentor before he suffered a tragic accident that permanently put him out of commission, but he would still be put back together and preserved by a museum. Astra had been invited to Chuggington around this same time and was sad to leave him behind, especially in the sorry state he was currently in, but he reminded her that he'd always be with Astra in her heart. She did manage to recover before she left for Chuggington, but didn't open up to the others about this situation until much later.

She also likes stargazing, and the Planetarium (A new location on the outskirts of Chuggington suburbs) is one of her favorite places.

She has a playful and adventurous relationship with Wilson, and is his best friend to be with whenever Brewster and Koko aren't around. She's usually the Chug Patroller Wilson is on patrol with if not with Jackman or by himself.

Like Wilson, she too would form a father-child-like relationship with Jackman.

She also has a bit of an aunt-like relationship with Calley and an uncle-like relationship with Asher.

Often while they're in CPHQ, Asher likes to listen to chill music on the radio and Astra in particular sways side-to-side or even full-on dances to the music on the turntable.

When she's not with Wilson, Brewster, Koko, or Chug Patrol, she also has a dynamic with Zephie cuz girl power lol

Astra's creation and design was inspired by the Plarail Disney Dream Railway Mickey Mouse Rescue Train by Takara Tomy:

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a perfect real-life resemblance of this locomotive no matter how hard I tried, however the main body does seem to loosely resemble a E6 series Akita Shinkansen:

Now, I'm under the impression that Mickey rescue train was a freelance design, but if by some crazy chance any of you know a better real-life resemblance, do comment below, I'd appreciate that. (^ー^)

Annnd I think that's that, everything you need to know about Astra! I'm hoping to make actual 3d orthos for her, but those are quite tedious and challenging, so for now, that side view and posed render I made back in 2022 will suffice. I wanted to get her revealed before any other Chuggington OCs before it gets too late into the year... and I still need to draw Margot The Monorail for @lomotunes2008 😅...

I was planning to get this released a bit earlier in the day, but additional editing and new content on Youtube kinda got in the way of that :P

But anyway, I hope you all enjoy and do stay tuned because there will be more of Astra, and more OCs in the near future!

[dosesofcommonsense]

The Green New Deal is a Utopia, a false reality just like communism. The GND doesn’t save the planet; it kills the planet and humanity at the same time.

—-

Batteries🔋 do not create electricity ⚡ but they store electricity produced elsewhere, especially through coal, uranium, natural power plants or diesel generators.

So the claim that an electric 🚗 is a zero-emission vehicle is not true at all, because the electricity produced comes from power plants and many of them burn coal or gas.

So 40% today ? some of electric cars on the road are carbon-based.

But that's not everything.

Those who are enthusiastic about electric cars and the green revolution should take a closer look at batteries, but also wind turbines and solar panels.

A typical electric car battery weighs 450 kg, about as big as a suitcase. It contains 11 kg of lithium, 27 kg of nickel, 20 kg of manganese, 14 kg of cobalt, 90 kg of copper and 180 kg of aluminum, steel and plastic. There are more than 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells inside.

To make each BEV battery, you will need to process 11,000 kg of salt for lithium, 15,000 kg of cobalt mineral, 2.270 kg of resin for nickel and 11,000 kg of copper mineral.

In total, you have to extract 225,000 kilograms of soil for one battery.

The biggest problem with solar systems is the chemicals used to convert silicate into the gravel used for the panels.

To produce sufficient clean silicon, it must be treated with chloride, sulfuric acid, fluoride, trichloroethane and acetone.

In addition, gallium, arsenide, copper-indian-galium diselenuride and cadmium telluride are necessary, which are also highly toxic.

Silicone dust is a hazard to workers and tiles cannot be recycled.

Wind turbines are not plus-ultra in terms of cost and environmental destruction.

Each windmill weighs 1,688 tons (equivalent to the weight of 23 houses) and contains 1300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel, 48 tons of iron, 24 tons of fiberglass and rare lands that are hard-to-get Neodymium, Praseodymium and Dyprosium.

Each of the three shovels weighs 40,000 kg and has a lifespan of 15 to 20 years, after which they must be replaced. We cannot recycle used rotor blades.

Certainly these technologies can have their place, but we need to look beyond the myth of freedom of emission. Going Green may seem like a utopian ideal, but if you look at the hidden and embedded costs in a realistic and impartial way, you’ll find that “Going Green” is doing more damage to the Earth’s environment today than it seems.

Image credit: Jeff Spring Shu

[bluechemaustralia]

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[guerrerense]

L-R: TE2 diesel, the O, L and LV types of the steam engines on exposition in the Russian Railways museum at St Petersburg por Cetus13 Por Flickr: The "O" (О) class engine of Russian/Soviet railways was the first basic / standard (that mentioned in the name – Osnovnoy) 0-8-0 class locomotive designed in Russian Empire. It was was produced in great quantity by 12 plants of three countries (Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary) with 9129 produced from 1890 until 1928 yy. It was the first Russian engine that obtained perspective compaund steam machine (in variant of the cross compaund - note the difference of cilinders on each side). Surprisingly, the fuel consumption exceeded that of the previous type Ch of the same 0-8-0 class having simple steam machine so during all production time many attempts to reduce excessive fuel consumption were made. On the other side, the general simplicity, fuel versatility and low axle load (13-14 t) with strong frame made it great for any railways. In addition, the low weight with high power (550-720 hp) was good for armory so it was standard locomotive for armored trains of Red army. The L type of Soviet freight steam locomotives 2200 hp of 2-10-0 class with maximum speed 85 km/h (53 mph) and tractive effort 271.5 kN (61,040 lbf) were developed during WW2 on the Kolomna Locomotive works under supervision of famous designer L.C. Lebedyanski (P type were renamed to L in the honor of the constructor). They were produced from 1945 to 1955 yy in Russia by the Kolomna Locomotive Works (##0001-1000 and 1501-2385) and Bryansk Machine-Building Plant (##1001-1389), also in Soviet Ukraine on the Voroshilovgrad Locomotive works (##4001-5307) with total production 4199 ones. LV locomotive of the 2-10-2 class was the last and more powered variant of L class developed to 1949 y which boiler was increased and frame hardened - general frame elongation and increased weight needed addition of the trailing wheel. The fuel efficiency was the highest but the time of steam engines was going to end so only 522 was built from 1952 to 1956. Also the structural length of LV with original tender equipped with 3-axle bogies was excessive for many railways and turntables so some were used with shorter 8-wheel tender (as seen in the museum).

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #7

Feb 23-March 1 2024

The White House announced $1.7 Billion in new commitments from local governments, health care systems, charities, business and non-profits as part of the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities. The Challenge was launched with 8 billion dollars in 2022 with the goal of ending hunger in America by 2030. The Challenge also seeks to drastically reduce diet-related diseases (like type 2 diabetes). As part of the new commitments 16 city pledged to make plans to end hunger by 2030, the largest insurance company in North Carolina made nutrition coaching and a healthy food delivery program a standard benefit for members, and since the challenge launched the USDA's Summer EBT program has allowed 37 states to feed children over the summer, its expected 21 million low income kids will use the program this summer.

The US House passed a bill on Nuclear energy representing the first update in US nuclear energy policy in decades, it expands the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and reduces reducing licensing fees. Nuclear power represents America's single largest source of clean energy, with almost half of carbon-free electricity coming from it. This bill will boost the industry and make it easier to build new plants

Vice President Harris announced key changes to the Child Care & Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program. The CCDBG supports the families of a million American children every month to help afford child care. The new changes include capping the co-pay families pay to no more than 7% of their income. Studies show that high income families pay 6-8% of their income in childcare while low income families pay 31%. The cap will reduce or eliminate fees for 100,000 families saving them an average of over $200 a month. The changes also strength payments to childcare providers insuring prompt payment.

The House passed a bill making changes to the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program. The 8(a) is an intensive 9 year program that offers wide ranging training and support to small business owners who are socially and economically disadvantaged, predominantly native owned businesses. Under the current structure once a business reaches over 6.8 million in assets they're kicked off the program, even though the SBA counts anything under $10 million as a small business, many companies try to limit growth to stay on the program. The House also passed a bill to create an Office of Native American Affairs at the SBA, in order to support Native-owned small businesses.

The White House and HUD announced steps to boost the housing supply and lower costs plans include making permanent the Federal Financing Bank Risk Sharing program, the program has created 12,000 affordable housing units since 2021 with $2 billion and plans 38,000 additional units over ten years. As well as support for HUD's HOME program which has spent $4.35 billion since 2021 to build affordable rental homes and make home ownership a reality for Americans. For the first time an administration is making funds available specifically for investments in manufactured housing, $225 million. 20 million Americans live in manufactured housing, the largest form of unsubsidized affordable housing in the country, particularly the rural poor and people in tribal communities.

The Department of Energy announced $336 million in investments in rural and remote communities to lower energy costs and improve reliability. The projects represent communities in 20 states and across 30 Native tribes. 21% of Navajo Nation homes and 35% of Hopi Indian Tribe homes remain unelectrified, one of the projects hopes to bring that number to 0. Another project supports replacing a hydroelectric dam in Alaska replacing all the Chignik Bay Tribal Council's diesel power with clear hydro power. The DoE also announced $18 million for Transformative Energy projects lead by tribal or local governments and $25 million for Tribal clean energy projects, this comes on top of $75 million in Tribal clean energy projects in 2023

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg put forward new rules to ensure airline passengers who use wheelchairs can travel safely and with dignity. Under the planned rules mishandling a wheelchair would be a violation of the ACAA, airlines would be required to immediately notify the passenger of their rights. Airlines would be required to repair or replace the wheelchair at the preferred vendor of the passenger's choice as well as provide a loaner wheelchair that fits the passenger's needs/requirements

The EPA launched a $3 Billion dollar program to help ports become zero-emission. This investment in green tech and zero-emission will help important transportation hubs fight climate change and replace some of the largest concentrations of diesel powered heavy equipment in America.

the EPA announced $1 Billion dollars to help clean up toxic Superfund sites. This is the last of $3.5 billion the Biden administration has invested in cleaning up toxic waste sites known as Superfund sites. This investment will help finish clean up at 85 sites across the country as well as start clean up at 25 new sites. Many Superfund sites are contained and then left not cleaned for years even decades. Thanks to the Biden-Harris team's investment the EPA has been able to do more clean up of Superfund sites in the last 2 years than the 5 years before it. More than 25% of America's black and hispanic population live with-in 5 miles of a Superfund site.

Bonus: Sweden cleared the final major barrier to become NATO's 32nd member. The Swedish Foreign Minster is expected to fly to Washington to deposit the articles of accession at the US State Department. NATO membership for Sweden and its neighbor Finland (joined last year) has been a major foreign policy goal of President Biden in the face of Russian aggressive against Ukraine. Former President Trump has repeatedly attacked NATO and declared he wants to leave the 75 year old Alliance, even going so far as to tell Russia to "do whatever the hell they want" with European NATO allies