Cinema - and lots of it ...

In 1895, December 28, Auguste and Louise Lumiere staged the first commercial movie screening at the Grand Cafe in Paris.  There were ten short films on the program, each one about 50 seconds in length.  (Take a moment to compare that with the recently-released Don't Look Up - which comes in at 2hr 25m.)
To commemorate all those years of moving pictures, Moon Film (known for reediting popular films so folk can watch them backwards - and who even suspected that that was a thing) have compiled Cinema - 120 years in 120 seconds. It's definitely worth the 2 minutes to see how many of the films you recognise - and how many you don't. I wonder what films they will use when they update it next.

Drink anyone?

I must admit I wonder about the cost of drinks at the Club - and they're subsidised - and I can't really imagine paying more than $20 for a drink, regardless of how special it is. So I wouldn't fare well at The Ritz-Carlton Tokyo where, according to Travel + Leisure, they sell the world's most expensive cocktail - at $22,600. It's called Diamonds Are Forever and as well as Grey Goose vodka and lime, it comes with a $16,000 one-karat diamond in the bottom of the glass. The drink is (or was definitely before CoVid) served tableside and was accompanied by a live band performing Diamonds Are Forever. The drink sans diamond would set you back $6,600 - so the Greygoose must be spectacular - and the band. It's not for me ... nor is the Ono at Las Vegas' XS Nightclub. It comes with a pair of silver cufflinks and an 18-karat white gold chain ... and no change from $10,000. Question: how much would you tip for a $10,000 drink ... or two?

Omicron ... timing ...

I admit to being confused over the timing. Omicron hit the news in mid-November but already in the UK they're finding that booster protection against Omicron drops at 10 weeks. How can they possibly know that unless Omicron has been around for longer than we've been led to believe? According to an article by Hannah Seo at popsci.com, the UK health agency making the booster findings said there were some caveats to the data - like there not being many Omicron cases in the UK relative to other variants, and their working with a small and perhaps not representative sample size. It did "confirm" that Omicron is not as severe as Delta, but that it would need to be 90% less severe than Delta for hospitalisations not to reach previous levels. Hmmm. But still how can they know this after the Omicron variant only made the news 6 or so weeks ago?

Great work Santa!

Top Marks to my Secret Santa. 

The wrapping was an absolute masterpiece - from the ransom demand lettering to the misdirect on the box. The presents from under the tree were carried out to the area where all of us were sitting, enjoying nibbles and each other's company. We were 14 in all - not too big a group so we could all delight in the unwrapping. When Santa's Helper handed mine over - after we worked out that Santa had a tiny issue with spelling my name - I was delighted to see the cut-out letters and the effort that had gone into keeping Santa secret. Off with the wrapping and all over the box were hand-drawn arrows "Top". I was a bit concerned - because that box had not been pointing "Top" - so hopefully there was nothing that needed to be kept upright in there. Opening the box (from the Top), there were lots of little boxes in there. I unwrapped one and it had a light bulb in it; the same with the next one. Okay, so it looked like the light bulbs fitted into something - and sure enough, after taking the rest of the boxes out, there was a false bottom - and more cut out letters - OPEN OTHER END. I did - and there was one of my favourite things - a hot/cold sippy mug. Thank you Secret Santa! 

So, if the gift wasn't something you put light bulbs in - what was in those boxes? It took a bit to get in to them - how much sticky tape had Santa used!?! Lots - is the answer. And I have to say, it's the hardest I've ever had to work for lollies - just the one in each box. 

Thanks heaps Santa!  (PS  I know who your helper was!)

 

Artistic pursuits ...

What does it take to get someone to take up "creativity"? A friend we visited recently has just taken up art - something which she really had little interest before - not surprising really as she was told by a teacher when she was 7 that she couldn't draw. She didn't contest that notion until earlier this year - at least 50 years later. And, who would have thought? That teacher was wrong ... very wrong. Ja is now working with an art teacher - starting out with pencil, then colour pencils (who knew you had to be taught how to use them), then water colour paints ... and she's about to branch out to acrylics ... and she is talented! I was amazed at what she's been able to produced - especially the apple she did in pencil on her first attempt - and the flowers in water colour! I don't think there will be any stopping her now.
I was speaking with Sa today and as well as drawing, she too is about to branch into something else creative ... writing. She has some books from the Library which she is studying so she can learn more about it and she was saying that she hadn't ever really thought about whose point of view a story was being told from ... she does now.
So what takes someone down a creative road? What makes them wake up one day and say - I'm going to do art, or I'm going to write? And what keeps fuelling that passion/desire?

A little light on ...

There was a post on FaceBook today or maybe it was yesterday saying something like there are still 364 days until Christmas and some people already have their lights up. We have loved the Christmas lights this year - and we have seen a few - on the Gold Coast, in Lismore and in Toowoomba. We know for next year that we need to get to some lights earlier in the night - we had a few that went "click-click" on us - which is our shorthand for saying that the creative and well-meaning house-holders turned off their lights just as we approached. With a couple we actually saw the lights go off - with others we didn't and that started what was then a mystery for us because we didn't know what had happened - in Lismore especially ... we saw a house not far from us which we missed on the first go around the block - and then we couldn't find it again ... what the? ... and the what is because they had turned the lights off. I would like to say we worked it out then and there but it wasn't until the next morning that it dawned on us. And what a relief that was ... you know how it is when you think you have a good sense of direction ... and then it seems like you really don't?

Mmm ... coffee

Well, I finally did it ... after much consideration and deliberation I have purchased a coffee machine. It was on special at Aldi and came highly recommended - but would we use it? Would it make the coffee well enough? Would we like the coffee? Would we pick the right pods? The right strength coffee? First World problems to be sure ... but still important to folk who have never had a coffee machine before .. but have considered it many many times.
I tried the machine this afternoon and I quite liked it ... the prepared beverage was hot enough, and I didn't mind the strength of the pod I had chosen - but S said she wouldn't mind her coffee a bit stronger. There are two settings on the machine - short cup and long cup - so I will try short cup for her next time - and maybe a smaller cup. Hours of fun coming up as I try to perfect the beverage.  Then, maybe it will be time to upgrade ... but that won't be for years yet!

Coffee machine on the left.

Testing ... testing ...

You would think that it would be reasonable for all States of Australia to have similar restrictions/requirements when it comes to CoVid-19. We were recently over the border in New South Wales (from Queensland) where they are currently recording over 3,000 new cases a day of CoVid and were quite surprised to realise that it wasn't mandatory for people to check-in to venues or businesses, and it also wasn't mandatory for people to wear face masks. Apparently, according to the NSW Premier, they are relying on folk to be responsible "adults" - which is a nice thought but hardly practical in application given that a good percentage of the population seems to think they have no reason to take notice of the "adulting" suggestion.
Being from Queensland, we are used to checking-in and we are currently having to wear facemasks in indoor retail and other settings - so of course, when I visited OfficeWorks in Lismore, I did both. And it's a good thing I did because not long after we arrived back in Queensland, I received an alert letting me know that someone who has tested positive to CoVid had been at OfficeWorks in the same timeframe. I blame myself of course, because while I had checked in, I had not checked out - so it looked as though I had been hanging around OfficeWorks all day ... not an unlikely proposition mind you, but just not what had happened this time.
So, being an adult, I wanted to check what the story was ... and went to the NSW Health CoVid website - only to find out that they don't provide similar contact tracing information to that provided on the Queensland Health site; in Queensland they tell you where, what time, and an idea of what type of contact it could have been. Hmmm ... so nothing I could look up; okay so not ideal ... but I thought, there's another way ... give OfficeWorks a call and see what time the contact had been in their store. No, sorry, they said, when I called, we can't tell you that, because NSW Health doesn't tell us.
No wonder the test facilities in NSW are being slammed - especially if people have no real way of knowing if they are/were in danger of actually being in close contact with someone who has tested CoVid positive. My contact alert said I didn't need to get CoVid tested unless I started displaying symptoms .. so I'll be watching out for that.

Not jarring

There are so many lifehacks on the internet that it's hard to know which ones are worth adopting ... and whether they could include some products which in themselves could be life hacks ... like our jar opener. I was looking for one that someone had recommended online - a plastic jar top popper when I found this one that not only pops those tops by breaking the vacuum seal but also acts as a ... is it fulcrum... to give the extra leverage to be able to open those stubborn jar tops? It works a treat as I realised today when I went to open the new jar of gherkins and realised I wasn't dreading it. Happiness is ... a jar opener that actually works. 

Image from amazon.com.au

Deck the halls with sprigs of flowers ...

We are on the lookout for Christmas trees this year - and there are certainly lots of them about. Top marks for this year though has to go to The Coffee Club at Harbour Town on the Gold Coast who stunned us with a tree that wasn't decorated with lights or tinsel. Instead, it was decorated with flowers - and yes, I know the pine tree and the flowers weren't real, but we loved the effect, especially when teamed with the small wooden animal cut-outs. Love it. I wonder if all the stores in the Franchise have done the same. 

Walking away ...

There was not one familiar face at the local bakery this afternoon - yes, it's been a couple of weeks but usually there's someone there I recognise ... but not today. I asked if they were under new management and they said no. So why none of the usual faces? We've just had a lot of the old staff quit, one of them said. l'm sure there's a story there but I'm not sure I'm going to get it from them.  
I doubt that any of them would have quit quite like one person we know. While the boss was out to lunch, they left them a note saying "I can't take this any more. I'm leaving", and she did, and didn't go back.  We have all had bosses like that I guess, but some of us (that would be me) have never had the wherewithall to just walk away.

Cheese wheels ...

I admit I was more than a little disappointed when watching an episode of Midsomer Murders today when the episode description started: A woman ends up being crushed to death with a giant wheel of Midsomer Blue cheese. How on earth were they going to manage this - and was it going to be anything like the other time I saw a giant wheel of cheese doing damage to life and limb? Disappointingly no ... the giant cheese wheel in Midsomer Murders was big enough to cause some real damage Debbie (she didn't make it)  - about the size of a ... hmmm cheese wheel - probably the size of one of those chiller bags you get from supermarkets these days. It was not, however, the giant cheese wheel as seen in Z Nation! 

Internet slow down ...

 

I don't know why they would call it internet speed in our area at the moment ... as we found out after a day and a half of struggling with our internet surfing and downloads, our service provider is currently working on the local mobile tower which has all but knocked out our internet - since we use our mobiles for our internet. At first we couldn't work out what was happening - I should have realised sooner but it's hard to search for an internet outage while you're having an internet outage.

What I find difficult thought is that there was no message saying that there was scheduled work - intended to go on until the end of next week. I don't think the phone service itself has been compromised but ... still not happy with the lack of communication generally. It's pretty frustrating when you go into their app and click on the Having Network Issues? Check Network Status icon and it keeps returning you to the same page ... there's only so many times you can do that without getting really quite cross at them - especially when the top of the page gives you the opportunity to Shop mobile plans. Grrrr.

I don't like to compare mobile service providers but I know that if you're on the Telstra network and even drive through an area where they are doing upgrades or other work, you get a text to let you know.

Team players

The psychology of teams is quite interesting - especially the formation of teams. There is a model we refer to, as proposed by Bruce Tuckman* in 1965, that says a group's development goes through four (at least) phases - forming, storming, norming and performing. It's quite interesting reading:  especially the storming phase where the group's members start to work with each other to learn about their individual working styles and what it's like to work with each other. There can be disagreements and personality clashes in the storming phase and their duration and intensity can vary. Tolerance of each team member and their differences is important because without this, the team will fail. This doesn't mean team members won't be able to hold differing opinions, they can - as long as the dissent is channelled through means acceptable to the team.
 
In 1977, Tuckman, together with Mary Ann Jensen, added a fifth stage - adjourning - for when the team has completed what it was formed to do and breaks up.

I believe our Trivia team is still in the storming/forming phases. we're still feeling our way in terms of trusting each others' answers and special subject areas. 

I'm still reading up on group dynamics - looking for pointers. 

* Tuckman on Wikipedia

Donkey vote anyone?

It will be interesting to see what the powers that be make of this. Apparently, in the recent NSW Local Government elections, where it was illegal (I think that was the word that was used) for Parties to hand out "how to vote" cards within 100m of a polling place, there was apparently a huge increase in informal (aka donkey) votes. Usually it is around 3%-4% but apparently increased to 17% this time. Given that each of the elections (Local, State and Government) usually have a different system of marking preferred candidates on the ballot card, it will be interesting to see if there is any change to this rule when the Federal elections are held next year. Can the sitting Party stand to lose that many votes because people don't understand what is required of them ... or what is required of them to vote for the Candidate/Party they want.
If people aren't allowed to hand out physical "how to vote" cards, is it possible that the Parties will be allowed to - and work out how to - do virtual ones. This could be a challenge - I know younger folk have no problem with technology and this shouldn't be a problem for them - they can save a photo or a link to be accessed on the day - but it could be more challenging for older or non-technical or folk with learning or other disabilities. Of course, the Parties are still allowed to hand out "how to vote" cards at shopping centres or public transport stations or street corners as long as they're more than 100m from the polling booth - which works for those who want paper copies - but what about the other folk who say "no, I don't want paper" (and good for them).
The good news is ... and people who know me will be glad that I will no longer do long tirades about this - CoVid precautions mean that from now on we will be able to vote in pen - gone are the days of those thick pencils tied to the booths ... now the Electoral folk will make pens available, if we don't bring our own. Hurrah!

What's up? A treatment for Alzheimers?

News just in ... it appears they have found a medication that is currently in use that could also help people with Alzheimers. It's funny because I saw an article the other day about the same drug - and what happened if a woman took it. The drug in question? Viagra. Yes, the same Viagra that started out its pharmaceutical life as a heart medication.
So, it turns out that Viagra is not approved for use by women by the US Food and Drug Adminstration ... and one would think by other health agencies around the world. But that hasn't stopped studies from happening and it appears that Viagra may have a similar effect on women - and could be helpful in those who have issues with issues relating to sexual arousal as a result of using anti-depressants - but alas, it has no significant impact. Plus there are the side effects such as headaches, hot flushes, nausea, stuffy nose and visual disturbances.
The active ingredient in Viagra is Sildenafil and it has now been shown to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease by over two-thirds. The bad news is that the results are not in as to whether this will apply to women as well. Researchers who made the link had analysed a database of over seven million people over a 6 yar period and found that people using Sildenafil were less likely to develop Alzheimer's than those not using the drug.
And who knew how many things Sildenafil treats ... like mountain sickness, pulmonary hypertension (when high blood pressure affects the arteries in the lungs) as well as Raynaud's phenomenon where blood circulation is affect by coldness or stress.
Research into the use of Sildenafil as an Alzheimers medication - for men and women - will no doubt continue.
Sources: Frankie Goldie, LAD Bible; Tom Hale, IFL Science.

It's beginning to look a lot like ...

When is the best time to start putting up Christmas decorations? Some shops and stores seem to have jumped the gun and have already had their decorations and Christmas trappings out for some weeks already.

It's good to see more Christmas lights going up around the neighbourhood. It's amazing what folk can do with a few strings of coloured lights, an inflatable elf, mechanical reindeer and some "Santa stop here" sticks and signs. Which reminds me, I wanted to get some Christmas clobber for the car - reindeer antler, Santa hats, maybe even a Rudolph nose. There are plenty of options. Come to think of it, though, I haven't seen that many around this year so there may be fewer options than I think.

Spare a thought for the folk who live along the canals and who go to a lot of effort and may not have enough eyes on their Christmas exterior illuminations. We did a Canal Lights Tour last night and were not disappointed, even though the Deckie on board told us that there seemed to be fewer lights this year ... it’s already the 9th so we think anyone who was going to have decorations and lights up, have already attended to it. There were stretches where everyone had gone all out with their lights, and other stretches where it was not lit-up (except by the thunder from the storm in the distance) and their massive television sets!

Omission

I have been watching Midsomer Murders for the last little while - on Prime - and have reached the end of the seasons they currently have on offer. I was watching the last episode of their Season 13 and had fully been expecting Inspector Tom Barnaby to retire at his birthday party ... but come the end of the episode ... nothing, nada. I started a free trial of Britbox to be able to watch Season 14 and lo and behold - the first episode starts with Inspector Tom Barnaby having been replaced by his cousin. Hmmmm. Yes, yes, of course there is reference to Inspector Tom having retired but somewhere in the back of my brain, I did remember having actually seen it happen ... but not on Prime. Sure enough, on Britbox, Season 13 Episode 8 is complete .. .and shows the birthday party, Inspector Tom's "farewell speech" and the others including Cousin John Barnaby off to solve a vicar's murder while Inspector Tom is left behind, happy to have his cake and eat it with wife Joyce and daughter Cully. Fade to black.  And then, of course, after just a moment's pause, it was quickly back to Season 14 Episode 1. 

A CoVid thought

There is so much Covid-related news that it's hard to keep up with it all and know what is true and what could do with some fact-checking. There are some articles which are encouraging looking into markers for recorded side-effects from various "vaccines". More work needs to be done but that there is any research being done into side effects rather than just pure research into ... cure isn't the right word because it seems that the effort is going into finding a way to contain the effects of Covid rather than finding a cure. A cure could be difficult given how many different varieties there are of Covid now.

Forensic Pathology - new tests

A new Patricia Cornwall's Kay Scarpetta novel "Autopsy" has been released and it will be interesting to see what this forensic pathologist is up to this time.
In the real world, here in Australia, the Australian Federal Police have begun testing of unidentified human remains with new technology that will allow them to estimate an individual's year of birth and death, ancestral origin, hair and eye colour and even their facial appearance.
There are 2,600 long-term missing persons in Australia; there are just 850 sets of human remains in mortuary and other facilities throughout the country. Some of these remains will go through the new forensic testing in the hope they can be identified and that answers of what happened to their loved ones can finally be provided to their families.
The report I read on the ABC site can be found here.

Windows 11

I was very excited to get the notification that I could download the Windows 11 Update onto the laptop (Lennie the Lenovo that is ... I'm still waiting  for word for the Surface Pro).  It took a couple of goes but in the end it finally downloaded properly and I was stunned to see that it has instituted a taskbar along the bottom of the screen, not unlike that on a Mac computer.  Some of the features and settings are definitely different but not so much so that it's unusable without a deep dive into the new system.  I know there's heaps more there which I will find as we progress past Day 1.  Then, hopefully, when the Surface Pro is able to be upgraded, it will be an easy decision to make ... it isn't always. That's why I'm glad Lennie's upgrade came through first ... I use Lennie mainly for TAFE study so it is stripped right back and not running any extraneous software - it has only ever had the Edge browser on it ... which is good since they appear to have made it a much better browser ... although I'm not sure I agree with Edge apparently now warning users about the dangers of downloading Google Chrome.  Apparently it will give a pop-up when you try to download Chrome and so it does... but for some reason I couldn't do a screenshot on the computer ... but there is always a way ... or maybe not !