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I’ve heard of electric trucks. I’ve heard of electric RVs. But I’ve never seen anything quite as cool or as silly as this electric house on wheels. And you know what that means! This electric mobile home is a perfect entry for my Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week!

First of all, let’s get an idea of what we’re looking at here.

I’m not sure I can really call this a mobile home. It’s more of a mobile box shaped like a home.

But when it comes to being almost a house, there are some decent arguments to be made here. It’s got a pitched roof, back porch, picture windows, and even a front (side?) door. Scoring more points in the mobile home column is the fact that the doors have real doorknobs, not just car door handles.

It looks like you even get three keys, so don’t say they don’t spoil you!

When it comes to living space, we’re looking at a full 8.6 square meters (92 sq feet), meaning it’s about a quarter the size of my and my wife’s first apartment.

But just like us in our first apartment, don’t expect to live too glamorously in there. A cursory glance inside this oversized rolling dollhouse shows what appears to be an empty box. It’s an echo chamber of nothingness. Well, perhaps not nothing. There’s a steering wheel, a desk fan, and a water bottle. It’s unclear whether the water bottle is included as standard equipment or is an optional add-on. There’s also no bathroom, so don’t hit that water bottle too hard. Or if you do, you better finish it — if you catch my drift.

It’s also unclear how you actually drive the thing as there is no driver’s seat. You know how sometimes you drop something under the sink and have to fish it out with your foot? That appears to be how you work the pedals.

My advice is to bring a folding chair. You can use it as the driver’s seat, and then once you park, you can drag it out onto the back porch to relax. Two birds, one folding chair.

The decorative handrail might also be doing double duty as a safety rail if your partner decides to change addresses while you’re still enjoying the balcony view.

As far as car components, our storage unit on wheels seems essentially half-complete with headlights, taillights, and mirrors. There’s either a stud to install a wiper or the remnants of a wiper that fell off a few miles ago — I’m not quite sure on that one.

It looks like we’re rolling on four spare tires and that our little wheels get powered up by a 3,000W (4 hp) motor. A top speed of 40 km/h (25 mph) isn’t going to get us anywhere in a hurry, but it’s a heck of a lot faster than my current apartment. That thing doesn’t even move at all, so now I’m not really sure why I’m paying so much each month.

To be honest, I don’t know how it even gets up to that top speed with the aerodynamic profile of a barn door, but I assume they’ve got it worked out by now. You could probably sit on a little red wagon and draft this thing at 25 mph — it’d be sucking that much air down the road.

Through the back door of our little home on the prairie pavement, I can just make out the battery bank on the floor. They outfit it with a 60V lead acid battery system, which is a bit old school for me.

I’d rather rock a lithium-ion battery pack. You could pop in a few 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 batteries and be all set up, though five of those packs would add up to the same $2,500 purchase price of the entire house!

While you’re doing upgrades, that roof looks like it’d be the perfect place to throw a few cheap $80 solar panels, or maybe you could convince Tesla to put a solar roof up there.

Personally, I don’t think I’ll be standing in line to put down a deposit on one of these mobile houses. I’m sure it’s got some value in it – probably more so when used for its actual intended purpose, which appears to be as a food truck? And I can even see this making a really cool man-cave or she-shed on wheels. But I’m still waiting on my last Alibaba purchase (a $2,000 mini electric pickup truck that turned out to be a biiiiiit more expensive than that). So I’m going to sit this one out, if that’s alright with you guys.

Not that you should let that stop you from purchasing the electric mobile home of your dreams. I’ll be the first to show up with a housewarming gift. I’ve got a great set of fuzzy dice picked out.

electric mobile home

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Kate Nash says selling photos of her bum on OnlyFans paid for an extra tour crew member

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Kate Nash says selling photos of her bum on OnlyFans paid for an extra tour crew member

Kate Nash says selling photos of her bottom on the X-rated site OnlyFans has allowed her to add an extra crew member to her tour staff.

The 37-year-old singer says the fact she is having to subsidise her shows in this way shows that the music industry is “completely broken”.

She announced she was launching her OnlyFans account last week as she began the UK leg of her tour, and has previously said on Instagram that, “touring makes losses not profits”.

Speaking about her new venture to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she said it was “very funny” and “fun to do,” adding, “My industry is completely broken, I don’t think it’s sustainable, and I think it’s a complete failure, I think it will collapse as well”.

Going on to talk about “people finding solutions to fund their art,” she said: “I think it’s quite empowering, and I’m also creating jobs with my bum now.

“For example, I couldn’t bring a crew member that’s on tour with me in the UK to Europe, but now I can, because of my OnlyFans website.”

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She has previously described the career move as a “punk protest,” containing “lots of comedy”.

Speaking to LBC last week, she said: “The cost of touring has gone up. Just like the cost of living crisis, there’s a cost-of-touring crisis – where the cost of travel, accommodation, crew wages, bus rental, all the things that you need to pay for when you go on tour, everything’s gone up.

“But a lot of bands’ and artists’ fees for gigs have not gone up, whereas ticket prices have gone up.”

Nash also said music was an “exploitative industry,” adding, “I have had lots of experience of being exploited”.

She said it could “learn a lot from the sex industry”.

Beginning her career in 2005, Nash has had one UK top 10 single – 2007’s Foundations – and two UK top 10 albums.

She has just finished a three-week US tour and is now touring the UK before moving on to Europe. Her London gig later this week is sold out.

And Nash isn’t the only one branching out to bring in cash. Lily Allen said earlier this year that she had joined OnlyFans to sell photographs of her feet.

The 39-year-old Smile singer, who moved to the US in 2020, says she has “very strict guidelines” and is charging subscribers $10 (£8) a month to view images of her feet on the platform.

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Davina McCall says she has short-term memory problems after brain tumour surgery

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Davina McCall says she has short-term memory problems after brain tumour surgery

Davina McCall has said her short-term memory is “a bit remiss” as she recovers from brain tumour surgery.

Speaking from her bed, the visibly emotional TV presenter posted a short video updating her Instagram followers on her condition, saying it had been a “mad” time.

She expressed an “enormous heartfelt thank you” to people who had messaged her after she revealed this month she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.

Looking bright, but with a visibly bruised left eye, McCall said: “My short-term memory is a bit remiss.

“But that is something I can work on, so I’m really happy about that. I’m writing everything down, to keep myself feeling safe.”

She added: “It’s been mad, and it’s just really nice to be back home, I’m on the other side.”

In a message posted with the video, she reiterated her thanks for all the support she has received, adding: “Had a great night’s sleep in my own bed. Have a couple of sleeps during the day which keeps my brain clear… Slowly, slowly…”

When she first shared her diagnosis, she said chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.

The 57-year-old star said support from her fans had “meant the world”.

She said she was being “brilliantly looked after” by her partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and her stepmother, Gabby, who she calls mum.

Becoming tearful, the presenter said: “I’d quickly like to say big up the stepmums. I don’t really say thank you to Gabby enough. She’s been an amazing rock my whole life.”

McCall was estranged from her birth mother, Florence McCall, who died in 2008.

Kate coming out of the Big Brother house in 2002
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McCall with 2002 Big Brother winner Kate Lawler. Pic: Rex Features

With a catch in her voice, McCall went on: “I’ve got a massive dose of vitamin G – I’m just really grateful. I’ve always been really lucky in my life, but I feel unbelievably grateful right now. So, thanks for everything, all of you.

“I’m on the mend, I’m resting and sleeping loads and I feel really good. I’m just very lucky.”

Stars including presenter Alison Hammond, singer Craig David and radio host Zoe Ball quickly shared their delight at the positive update.

McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.

Davina McCall  with her partner Michael Douglas and her daughter Holly Robertson after being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire
Pic: PA
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McCall with her MBE, alongside her partner Michael Douglas and her daughter Holly Robertson. Pic: PA

She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, the most recent being ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.

Last year, McCall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.

Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.

She has lived with Douglas since 2022, and they present a weekly lifestyle podcast together, Making The Cut.

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Barbara Taylor Bradford, the ‘grand dame of blockbusters’, dies aged 91

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Barbara Taylor Bradford, the 'grand dame of blockbusters', dies aged 91

Barbara Taylor Bradford, the bestselling novelist who wrote A Woman Of Substance, has died at the age of 91.

The Leeds-born author, who sold more than 90 million books, died peacefully at her home on Sunday after a short illness and was “surrounded by loved ones to the very end”, a spokeswoman said.

Taylor Bradford, who was often labelled “the grand dame of blockbusters”, hit the big time when A Woman Of Substance was published in 1979, making her an overnight success.

The story sold millions of copies and traced the journey of Emma Harte from life as a servant in rural Yorkshire to heading a business empire.

The rags to riches story was followed by many other successful books with the author’s works being published in more than 40 languages across 90 countries.

Barbara Taylor Bradford,.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
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Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA

Barbara Taylor Bradford on her 21st birthday.
Pic: Bradford Enterprises/PA
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The author on her 21st birthday. Pic: Bradford Enterprises/PA

Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of publisher HarperCollins, said the author was a “natural storyteller”, adding: “Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first book, the international bestseller A Woman Of Substance, changed the lives of so many who read it – and still does to this day.”

Taylor Bradford, who was made an OBE in 2007 for services to literature, wrote a total of 40 novels during her career – her most recent was The Wonder Of It All, published last year.

Barbara Taylor Bradford.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
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Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA

File photo dated 01/06/93 of Barbara Taylor Bradford with her husband Robert at Claridges Hotel, London, during a visit to launch her new blockbuster book "Angels". Bestselling novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, who wrote A Woman of Substance, has died at the age of 91, it has been announced. Issue date: Monday November 25, 2024.
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Taylor Bradford with her husband Robert in 1993. Pic: PA

Born in May 1933 as the only child of Winston and Freda Taylor, she worked as a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post before becoming a reporter and then the paper’s first woman’s editor.

At the age of 20, she moved to London and worked in Fleet Street for Woman’s Own and the London Evening News.

She met her husband, American film producer Robert Bradford, in 1961 and they married in London on Christmas Eve in 1963 before moving to New York the following year.

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The couple were married for 55 years until he died from a stroke in 2019.

Following a private funeral in New York, the author will be buried alongside her late husband at the city’s Westchester Hills Cemetery.

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