There's one in China. Type in "China's mind-bending mega bridge". Probably the second hit although the first one might be the same place. You would not want to use this in any way bearing in mind tofu construction.

We've got a big fire on the hills above Christchurch at the moment (or there was earlier this afternoon). We had another biggy a few years back in roughly the same location and this was mentioned in news reports. They said that enough energy was released in that fire to equal 4 atomic bombs (I don't think the current fire will equal the previous one). It might be quite amazing how much energy/emissions etc that mother nature can release.
This fire is still going, looking a lot bigger than originally thought. Fanned by hot winds and high temperatures.

I have always enjoyed my visits to the US although they are off now as long as a certain individual, who shall remain nameless, could end up as your leader thus demoting the US to a country that no longer demands respect.

Lead-acid batteries would never win. Apart from the points you mention lead-acid batteries do not last very long especially under heavier loads. I suppose you could class this as a maintenance issue however.
Because their output voltage is less for LiFePo you need more of them and I suspect they might be slightly heavier but they self drain less and can be charged more often. Also not so inclined to self immolate. Boils down to money I guess. Whether you are wiser may also be hard to tell. I believe that wiser can be related to the ability to deal with BS and recognizing it. You sound like a thinking man - check out mguy in Australia if you want more on EV BS.

Be very careful of only reading what you want to see.
99% of solar arrays are on roofs because that is the only place to put them unless you own several acres of uncommitted land. Plus my eyes tell me this as I drive around. Not talking about commercial arrays which are obviously NOT on roofs.
Installers giving 50 year warranties are either just hoping you, nor them, will be around to claim or respond or still in business. Or the roof is made from stainless steel or copper. Roofing materials ie paint just does not last that long. Tiles might but luck would have to pay a part in this.
Hertz are getting rid of their fleet of EVs (part of their EV fleet) because of -
1 insufficient charging stations
2. high depreciation
3. high repair costs
4. weak demand from customers
I see you somehow managed to miss reading about items 2, 3 and 4.
If I was looking at buying a used EV (which is what dictates depreciation) I would only take a 6-10 year old EV if it was GIVEN to me because I know that a bill for $10 grand is coming up (or more because this is making an assumption that the EV battery hasn't become obsolete). And lets see if you can guess what that will do to depreciation.
The frequency of fires you quote might be slightly more accurate but all I can tell you is that I won't park my car in any 10 story parking building if an EV is on the bottom floor. And the statistics DO NOT tell you how many other cars get damaged from a single EV fire. And I bet that boat that went up from an EV fire was counted as a single EV fire rather than the fact that they ALSO lost 5,000 other vehicles. Nor the fact that some ferry companies won't ferry EVs any longer. See what you can selectively pick out of that, with respect.
Your response is what a first time buyer (ie have bought the vehicle from new) makes knowing that all the coming hassles will have been successfully passed on to another sucker. Once again with respect.

You must be very old then because lithium ion batteries DO NOT last forever. Lithium iron phosphate batteries last a lot longer than lithium ion but they have a lower voltage (and various other issues) and are a better choice. EVs use lithium ion and they degrade with time which is why after a number of years they only have half their starting capacity. Maybe okay if as you age you go on shorter journeys.
I wonder if Tesla Powerwalls also suffer from being cold ? And how long do they last before degrading ?
And in passing climate change may or may not have been going on for donkeys years but in the future it will be an earth without lithium, copper and oil.

I think a really useful solar installation (if you aren't involving batteries which are of course a cost and will need replacing) is a smaller array (much lower costs) and a water heater with two heating elements and two thermostats (this as an option wouldn't actually add much to the cost and a replacement cylinder). One hooked up to normal mains and the other to the solar array. I guess you would need something to tell the mains supply to stop if power is coming from the array but the idea is to make sure that you are doing nothing that requires any interaction between the two so you don't upset your power company. If the water cylinder temp drops AND there is insufficient power coming from the array then it will carry on heating. It could be seamless and since your hot water is the largest user of power you should see a significant drop in power consumption without requiring a monstrous array.

One thing that seems obvious to me now is that people who install solar arrays and buy EVs are totally ignoring the initial purchase cost. They seem to think that once they have coughed up the money it suddenly becomes 'free'. This is not the case. And long term looming expenses like repainting their roof's, solar panel replacement, EV battery disposal, EV battery replacement are in the future and can therefore be ignored (or more to the point will have been passed on to some poor sucker who doesn't know any better - this is bad and irresponsible behaviour on your part).

99% of solar arrays are roof mounted so 99% of them are going to have issues down the track with maintenance. For the few people with a few clues maybe their experiences with the arrays will be positive but most of them will be up for some expensive surprises. Unfortunately most people don't know that Coloursteel (prepainted steel roofing) only has a life of 15 years (although some may last longer). And large solar arrays cost a lot of money and this has to be reflected into the cost of recharging the EV. It is NOT FREE power.
New ICEs that are maintained correctly have few negatives - note the use of 'maintained' and 'correctly'. They do use a few things like petrol and oil but I hope that you don't thing that because you now have an EV that you also won't have to maintain your brake fluid because I suspect a lot of ignorant people do.
The fact that ICEs use petrol and oil is mostly compensated in EVs by the fact that they incur some of their downsides during their manufacture. There is a reason why Hertz are flicking on 20,000 EVs - cost to maintain is much greater than ICEs and the depreciation is much greater.
And I hope that your EV is being charged inside your garage which is NOT part of your house otherwise you are taking a greater risk with your life and that of your family.

OK. Just whenever you thought you have caught someone out turns out to be a legitimate mistake which you had never thought of. I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it if I hadn't been reading the stories, which I am trying to give up. There is also MIL and FIL. MIL's appear to be the worst followed by SILs.

I estimate about 2 solid weeks to get my system back in the even of any sort of reinstall. Those people who have so little on their system that they offer the advice "oh just reinstall the OS" have never been through the pain.

SIL is short for Sister In Law and yet we have a "he" further along. So should we have had a BIL or 'she' ?
Only reason I raise this is I have been viewing 'stories' Revenge and Malicious and they make this mistake very often. It is attention to detail and why it pays to re-read anything/everything before posting.

There was a comment earlier about why do the EV haters (I am not one but think the current implementations of EVs is not the right one yet) only seem to pick on the negatives of EV. Apart from the fact that it is self evident why this is happening conversely it is also true that EV 'lovers' seem quite happy to forget all the negatives in their effort to justify their own purchase.
Most justify their purchase by ONLY comparing day to day costs ignoring all the negative costs to the environment and all the incidental costs which led up to a day to day cost. One cost not discussed much is the additional hassle in making sure that you do the right things to keep the vehicle going. I have picked a few random things from earlier comments and made my own comments on them.

........No they don’t, my whole small farm is electric. Not a gas powered anything except my tractor uses fossil fuel.The electricity that power my Leaf is totally covered by the 32 solar panels in my backyard, and I have never had an electric bill in excess of $200.........
Of course you have added in the capital costs of the solar installation ? And long term maintenance of the array ? And don't ignore the cost of removing the lot when it comes time to paint the roof.

………and I haven't put gas in it since June 2023. I have to run it on gas a few minutes a month to lubricate the engine and put stabilizer in the tank so the gas won't sour………..
And yet more task loading. You must not forget this because the average joe motorist is renowned for being as lazy as the next person when it comes to vehicle maintenance.

……….mining cobalt and whatever other materials are required for these large batteries
adding more load and spikes to the power grid…………
And don't forget the very large amounts of copper required for the motors and extra power distribution required for the charging networks.

Once again I apologize to those who can only read 2 sentences at a time.

Forgot to add that if Manfrotto at least you can buy spare locks. I have spares for both our heavy duty tripods for when they eventually fail.

Absolutely bloody nothing. However please please please READ the section title which I will repeat here - "General Chit-Chat (non-photography talk)". Please please please note the hyphenated word "non-photography".
If it upsets you then DON'T READ this section. Or now that I have pointed it out to you, you can avoid it in the future.
This query seems to crop up once a week or so which makes me think that some users are a tad slow on the uptake. Apologies if this upsets a few of you.