Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Cleaning up

"Blog re washing powder counterfeiting" ... this is definitely a reason not to procrastinate - or should have been because now I have no idea where I "filed" this report - and I can't remember the details of the story ... but it did sound intriguing, especially as there was so much - tonnes and tonnes - of the "stuff" involved - 40 to be exact. It turned out to be fake OMO "made in China", packaged in buckets for sale at convenience stores and market stalls throughout south-west Sydney. It was definitely not the real stuff, Unilever (owner of the OMO brand) assured consumers as real OMO doesn't come in buckets here in Australia. Who would ever have suspected that folk would try to clean up with fake laundry detergent? Obviously desperate times call for desperate measures!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

What price entertainment?

Illusionist Derren Brown likes to push the envelope - and he certainly seems to be doing it again if you can believe reports just out. In his latest series, the first two episodes are given over to the story of a young man who Brown induces to believe the ''world as we know it" has ended and he wakes into a Post-apocalyptic world where he may be the only survivor. I'm not sure if this is on it's way to Australia yet - but I hope it is because the concept is fascinating: that you can (cleverly) turn a person's life into a horror movie-and then say it's for his own good! The whole undertaking was very complex and complicated and it will be interesting to see how it was executed.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Changing laws

It is the law of diminishing returns or the law of marginal utility that determines whether your second cup of coffee is as good as the first? Of course, it's economics but sometimes it's just all about taste - and what you feel like at the time. And what was the name of our Economics teacher at Meadowbank Tech who taught us everything we needed to know (but not necessarily remember) about Economics using examples based on tomatoes and hi-fis (it was a little while ago)!!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Felix's freefall

Congratulations Felix Baumgartner- and well done for your fantastic freefall from the edge of space. As you stepped off the platform of the gondola over 35km above Earth, for just a moment I thought you might do a Buzz LightYear ... spreading wings and instead of falling you would soar upwards ... "to infinity and beyond". But you didn't ... but you did achieve the speed of sound on your fall to earth, making yours the fastest freefall on record. But not necessarily the longest - something to do with the fogging-up of your helmet visor and an early deployment of your parachute? But it was wonderful to see that the man who held (still holds) that record was on your support crew - Joe Kittinger (now 84) who back in 1960 did the freefall from a balloon 31km high. This is truly the stuff of legends - that leap of faith when you (and he) stepped out into space (well, almost space!) and fell to earth!

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Will power

It hardly seems fair - if it's true. According to research published a while ago, but currently being challenged, your level of will power is affected by the amount of glucose the frontal lobe of your brain ... meaning the more sugar you have on board the more will power you have ... and if your sugar levels drop - as they do when you are dieting - so does your will power. Anyone else see the problem here?