Shuff's General Chat Thread ... #73 - Talk about anything and everything...  

considering how they said he was trying to overtake another car.. going by the fishtail skids he obviously nailed it, looked
to be alot of tyer smoke. or from the engine..but looks more like a burnout.

you gotta think, self inflicted stupidity, killed himself with his right foot. but i'd guess that the police would investigate to determine that that's the case and that it wasn't a mechanical issue.

Ben Cousins arrested after police pursuit

Former Eagles footballer Ben Cousins has been arrested following a police pursuit.

Cousins was allegedly driving recklessly along Preston Point road in Bicton around 10.30pm last night when police attempted to pull the car over.

It’s alleged Cousins continued to drive, running red lights, at very slow speeds.

It’s understood Cousins told police over the phone it was a family emergency and he couldn’t stop.

He was arrested at the corner of Gill and Solomon streets in Mosman Park.

He’s been charged with reckless driving, failing to stop and failing to give a sample of breath.

He’s been released on bail and will appear in court on April 8.

Houses hot off the 3D printer


Would you live in a 3D-printed home?

Robotic building by Contour Crafting won the grand prize in a NASA magazine's Create the Future contest.
In the not-too-distant future, building a new home may be as simple as printing it out.

The process of wielding 3D printers to make homes is in its infancy today, but someday soon you may look out your window at a large-scale printer, swiftly spitting out a whole home under the instruction of just one operator.

"Generally, they'll be much cheaper, much faster, much safer and with much nicer architectural features [than traditional homes]," says Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis, creator of and lead researcher for Contour Crafting, one of the leading companies working on scaling 3D-printed homes for the masses.

It's really not as crazy as it sounds.

There are 3D printers making dishes, building furniture and repairing appliances right now. But a home needs a much bigger printer.

On any scale, 3D printing works like this: Someone creates a three-dimensional digital design and sends it to the printer, where it's translated into something called a "G-code" file that slices a 3D design into thin layers.

The printer also contains the building material, which in the case of large-scale printing can be plastic or cement – any sturdy material that can go from solid to liquid and back again.

The material is melted or liquefied within the printer, and layer by layer the printer follows a path until the object in the 3D digital design is completely constructed.

The layers build upon one another and solidify as they cool.

Using this kind of technology for home construction may be a few years out, but it's already in use in a few select projects around the world, from an artistic, design-driven canal house in Amsterdam to a utilitarian operation that can churn out a house in just one day in China.

Still, a lot of details have to be worked out before this technology is launched on a large scale. Factors like fireproofing, insulation and waterproofing are still in testing stages for many projects.

And in most cases, no building codes regulate the materials and construction processes used to print buildings, nor are there industry standards or best practices yet that builders can rely on. Every element -- printers, software, building materials -- is evolving.

Here are some of the more notable projects.

3D Print Canal House

When DUS Architects in Amsterdam was looking for new ways to make home design interesting, the firm decided to craft an experimental 3D printer.

They wanted to build something grand, so they selected a spot along the Buiksloterkanaal to build a traditional canal house, mimicking the iconic traditionally-built canal homes throughout the city.

The group came up with the KamerMaker (or room-builder in English). It works exactly like a small-scale 3D printer, with a digital design being translated into a G-code.

The printer moves along the designated path and spits out the material – in this case a special bioplastics granulate.

Although the technology is a work in progress, DUS has designed a house that will use the KamerMaker to print rooms using the recycled bioplastic materials. The 13 rooms will form a nearly 50-foot-high, 20-foot-wide, plastic house when they are stacked on top of each other.

Construction on the actual house began in March and is expected to last for about three years – not a quick process. But the process is a vehicle for learning, DUS says.

According to Tosja Backer, who manages the project for DUS, people started coming by to watch and offer advice before construction on the house even began. That's when the project became a "co-creation platform."

"We are a platform much more than we are just a firm building a house," Backer says.

"We don't know all the answers yet, but we now have lots of people to help us with that. The key to it is research by doing. It's really a research project. We find solutions we couldn't have found if we didn't print it."


A rendering of what DUS Architects hopes to create with its 3D Print Canal House.
In the end, Backer says, the idea is to be able to create an adequate living space fairly quickly using reusable plastics.

That way, the technology could be used to help people, particularly after disasters. In that case, the homes could be built quickly and cheaply and then melted down when they're no longer useful.

The very same plastic that was used to build those temporary homes could be used to build more homes after another disaster.

Total Kustom's cement castle

Though not technically a home, contractor Andrey Rudenko built this DIY small castle using a 3D printer he designed.
A contractor in Shorewood, Minnesota, had an interest in 3D printers and decided to go out and design one of his own using a computer, steel rails, motors and chains.

The printer – invented by contractor Andrey Rudenko, who calls it an "extruder" – spits out a special, very viscous blend of concrete and sand.

The printer currently fits inside a two-car garage, although Rudenko is looking to make it smaller as he improves on the design.

Rudenko can program this self-made printer to print layers of concrete in patterns he designs.

Recently, he used his printer to create a large-scale, 12-foot-tall, 3D castle in his backyard, which, while technically not a home, operates on the same principles as 3D-printed homes and is the most notable example of how 3D-printed structures could become DIY projects.

The castle stands mostly on its own, but Rudenko did place steel bars throughout the structure as extra support for the cement-printed parts. He also added some tower details on top of the castle after the fact, which were printed separately and then lifted onto the main structure.

The castle was finished in late August.

Rudenko says his next project will be a two-story, 32-foot-by-50-foot, 3D-printed house.

Fine-tuning architectural features is also one of the main focuses of the 3D Print Canal House project, Backer says.

"With the technique that we use, you can create lots of different forms that you can't get when you use a cast or mold. … Different structures that we've printed, you can integrate into your design," she says. "The cool thing is you totally bridge the gap between design and production. You can make each design unique again."

Win Sun's printed-overnight homes

A Win Sun home can be printed in 24 hours.
Arguably the project with the most real-world results is one by Win Sun, a company in China that has already printed 10 houses in Shanghai.

All 10 houses were printed in less than 24 hours at a cost of about $5,000 each.

Unlike Rudenko's castle project, Win Sun created building blocks instead of layering the base of the whole home at once. Using a cement and glass mixture in diagonally reinforced patterns, the huge printer (about 22 feet tall and 33 feet wide) can very rapidly put out these building blocks.

The company used its large-scale 3D printer in a factory, then transported the fabricated blocks to the housing site where they were assembled into actual homes.

Win Sun hopes to use the technology for cheap, fast, low-income housing. According to Runji Shen, a marketer for the Win Sun project, 3D-printed homes of the future will be constructed in weeks – and for far less money than homes cost to build now.

The company says it's in talks with several construction companies in the U.S. about potentially exporting printers and technology.

Contour Crafting's robotic construction system

A rendering of how the Contour Crafting construction process would happen on site.
With research based at the University of Southern California, Viterbi School of Engineering professor Khoshnevis hopes to combine 3D printing with other technologies to create houses on a large scale.

He says he's within two to three years of being able to share his technology commercially. He'd also like to use his technology to create habitable environments in outer space.

The homebuilding process uses hand-held tools, robotics and rapidly-fabricated, large-scale 3D objects, according to the Contour Crafting website. In Khoshnevis' plan, workers would lay down two rails.

The printer/robot designed by his team would glide along the rails and lay cement in layers from above to build the framework of the house, based on the G-code programmed into the printer. Workers would be needed again at the end of the process to install windows and doors.

Khoshnevis says the technology would allow for a home to be built in 24 hours for far less money than traditional building methods, although the process hasn't yet been used to build a full-scale house.

He says he hopes to master a system that can spit out a home in less time than it takes now to collect materials for a building, and include better architectural features than are available using traditional building methods.

WASP's mud houses

The WASProject 3D printer in action, building a small-scale model of the homes that the company intends to build.
An Italian firm called the WASProject (for "World's Advanced Saving Project") is hoping to use its 3D printers to fight homelessness, particularly in the wake of natural disasters, by swiftly making homes from mud.

The company would utilize a mud-extruding 3D printer, which stands 20 feet tall and can build structures as tall as 10 feet. Taking a little from Win Sun's speed and a little from Contour Crafting's scale, WASP's printer can be assembled on site by two people in a few hours. It would use materials found on site, limiting the cost drastically.

So far the company has produced the bare bones of a prototype at the Maker Faire in Rome, using a smaller printer called the Big Delta Wasp. The company plans to print a full-size home this year.

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Plus-size models sell more lingerie than slim models – and brunettes sell more than blondes

The New York-based lingerie brand Adore Me has revealed plus-size brunette models are likely to sell more underwear than slimmer blonde models.

adoreme.com: Plus-size lingerie collection from Adore Me © adoreme.com Plus-size lingerie collection from Adore Me
The research was based on three TV adverts launched in January: one featuring blonde models, another brunette models and the third one a plus-size brunette model. Then they applied a common marketing strategy, A/B testing, in which consumers are shown different ads in order to measure their buying habits and preferences.

The unexpected result was that the plus-size brunette model generated four times as many sales as the ad featuring blonde models.

“There’s an overall mentality that you have to be super skinny… We are showing that we offer lingerie for everyone,” Morgan Hermand-Waiche, founder of Adore Me, told CNN.

The three-year-old start up offers bra sizes ranging between 30A to 44G -far wider than other lingerie giants such as Victoria’s Secret and La Senza, which both only offer up to 38DD. But more than just the size of the model, it’s the hair colour that also influences the product sales, as the research also revealed that bodacious brunettes do generate more sales than blondes.

“Brunettes overall sell better than blondes… Our customers — and women in general — prefer brunettes when it comes to purchasing lingerie. It’s what we’ve seen,” Hermand-Waiche added.

According to Adore Me, retouched photos of fit lingerie models actually don’t translate into sales, as many brands believe so. It is actually the opposite – shoppers prefer realistic curvy figures.

And in the world of bras it seems that bigger is better.

Thredbo landslide survivor Stuart Diver loses second wife Rosanna to breast cancer

Stuart Diver, the man who spent 65 hours trapped after a landslide, has lost his wife Rosanna to breast cancer, according to reports.

The landslide at NSW snow resort Thredbo in August 1997 killed 18 people, including Mr Diver’s first wife Sally. His second wife Rosanna reportedly passed away on the weekend following a long battle with breast cancer, .

The 45-year-old ski instructor was hailed as a national hero after he continued to work at the resort following the accident, and met Rosanna Cossettini two years later.

Rosanna was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002, just three weeks after their wedding. After some years in remission, the cancer returned in July 2013.

The couple also welcomed a daughter, Alessia, in 2011 despite being told they were unable to conceive.

“Obviously, secondary breast cancers are not nice, there’s never a good outcome at the end,” Mr Diver told News Corp last year.

“But we’re doing everything we can, throwing everything at it, with Alessia being three-and-a-half, we’re trying to stay as positive as we can.’’

A funeral for Mrs Diver will be held later this week at a chapel in Thredbo.

“With Rosanna, I found myself loving again,” he wrote in his autobiography.

Seriously considering a road bike over a sports car, but scared that i'll be surrounded by hopeless car drivers on the road

Seriously considering a road bike over a sports car, but scared that i'll be surrounded by hopeless car drivers on the road

March 24 -- An Airbus A320 single-aisle aircraft crashed in southern France, with French President Francois Hollande saying there are unlikely to be any survivors among the 148 people on board. Hans Nichols reports on “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

MOTHER OF GOD.

Still deciding what package I'm going to get...

drav's an example of someone who's gotten out of bikes after having had a number of accidents. can understand why when it doesn't matter who's at fault, you're always going to come of second best.

i had bikes before graduating to motor vehicles. rose coloured glasses / nostalgia regarding bikes, but got sick of being rained on, and had a couple of close calls with knobs that can't drive / failed to give way etc that put paid to my riding days. always liked riding up the scrub out the back of our farm, than on bitumen.

Unfortunately everyone that rides noes the risk and the possibility of being rained on,i learnt to ride in all weather which included heading up to Nebo/Glorious in pissing down rain and learnt how the weather conditions can change at the drop of a hat and how the conditions can turn to shit.

2015 season starts tomorrow

Report claims BBC will fire Jeremy Clarkson Wednesday

Jeremy Clarkson's career with the BBC is expected to end tomorrow, as a new report indicates that BBC Director-General Tony Hall will fire the host.Wednesday appears to be Judgment Day for Jeremy Clarkson, and the pending verdict isn't looking to be in the embattled Top Gear host's favor.

The Telegraph is claiming that Lord Tony Hall, the director-general of the BBC, will announce that Clarkson's relationship with the broadcaster will be terminated in the wake of his assault of producer Oisin Tymon and the ensuing internal investigation.

Lord Hall is expected to thank Clarkson for his service in building one of the Beeb's biggest and most profitable properties, calling him a "brilliant broadcaster," and according to The Telegraph, defending his on-air style. He'll add, though, that his behavior in this most recent case will not be tolerated at the government-owned network.

According to the investigation, Clarkson verbally abused Tymon for 20 minutes before attacking him. Apparently, the incident was set off after the 54-year-old host was told the hotel they were staying in had stopped serving hot food, meaning he couldn't enjoy a steak and chips (French fries, American readers) after a day of filming.

This development throws the future of Top Gear into doubt. According to The Telegraph report, BBC bosses are trying to sway Radio 2 host and Ferrari connoisseur Chris Evans to take the slot, although he's apparently been defiant so far. Replacing Clarkson may be the least of the BBC's worries, though, as both James May and Richard Hammond have said they wouldn't present the show without Clarkson.

That's doubly bad news for the BBC, as all three Top Gear hosts are facing expiring contracts, meaning that wherever Clarkson lands, it's reasonable to expect The Small One and The Slow One to follow. As for that landing place, The Telegraph seems to think Netflix could become the new home of the TG trio.

What do you think? Is the BBC making a mistake letting Clarkson go? Does he deserve his fate? Will he jump ship to another British broadcaster, like ITV, or would you like to see a Top Gear successor on the no-holds-barred medium that is Netflix? Have your say in Comments.

$US 3.4Million Lykan Hypersport

At US$3.4 million, the Lykan HyperSport is the third most expensive car to ever be made, behind the very limited (four created, three sold) Lamborghini Veneno (US$4.5 million)[4] and the one-off Maybach Exelero (US$8 million).[5] As reference, the Lykan Hypersport is over US$1 million more expensive than the Bugatti Veyron Supersport, which holds the title of most expensive production car in the world.

The cause of the car’s expensive price tag is due to its included options. It is the first car to have diamonds in its headlights. The front lights are made up of titanium LED blades with 420 diamonds (15cts).[6] The buyer can choose which rubies and diamonds they want embedded in the headlights. In addition, the client can choose between a selection of rubies, diamonds, yellow diamonds, or sapphires to be integrated into the vehicle at purchase.

The engine is a twin turbo flat-six 3.7L engine and produces 740hp and 960nm. The Lykan can do 0 to 100kph in 2.8s with a top speed of 386kph.