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 !

With the Omicron CoVid variant that has hit the news comes a bit of an understanding about the Greek alphabet. The strains so far have been called after Greek letters - the biggest up until now being the Delta variant. A new strain coming out of South Africa was originally called NU... until it was decided that was confusing ... so they went to the next letter in the Greek alphabet - XI... and decided that wouldn't do because it was such a common surname in China. They went to the next letter ... Omicron. But this presents a bit of a puzzle for those who have gone to have a look at the Greek alphabet because Xu does not follow immediately after Delta... that would be Epsilon. So why didn't the folk who decide such things choose Epsilon or any of the other letters between that and Nu. It would have been clearer ... Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda or Mu would have done ... maybe.

Oops, just as well there is this thing called the internet.  Another look at the Greek alphabet naming convention shows that there are indeed CoVid variants named after the letters between (and including) Epsilon and Mu - but nothing much seems to have come of those (mentioned an article I read).

 It was reassuring that others were also noting the link between CoVid and the Greek alphabet ...

Test subjects

If you were starting human trials on a new drug ... how would you choose your subjects? There are sure to be ethical guidelines around this type of thing and probably whole areas of study but where do you tap into these fields if you aren't in them? The question came up while I was watching Venom - when "off the book" experiments are being conducted on folk who have either not come along voluntarily or have been promised a way out of their current (not so good) life predicament. So, if you were trying to get a positive result, would you pick the very best subjects you could or just who you could find?

Thoughts on a theme

Oops. I have been watching a new series Invasion, and in it a couple have a Tesla vehicle ... which the male partner cannot get going - admittedly he is a bit flustered as they are under attack and, necessarily, in a hurry - the female partner takes his mobile phone from him and then uses an app on the phone to start the car. He seems to have forgotten that step. Hmmm. So what happens if there is a problem with the app. Lots of Tesla drivers found out recently when they were locked out of their cars after an outage struck the Tesla app. Some of them posted about the outage on social media - and none other than the Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk personally responded to one saying, on Twitter, "Checking". He later tweeted "Apologies, we will take measures to ensure this doesn't happen again."

This is not the first time Tesla has been in the news lately. One has been about a staff member who sued the company and was awarded over $137 million. According to his attorneys, the case was only able to move forward because Diaz had not signed one of Tesla’s mandatory arbitration agreements which the company uses to force employees to resolve disputes without a public trial. The claims of racial abuse apparently date back to 2016 - since which time Tesla has made numerous HR changes to improve the workplace. Tesla has countered suggesting $600,000 would be a fairer compensation.

And two more instances of Tesla in the news, both emails:

• A response to a colleague who queried about using headphones on the plant floor - with one in one out - no problem;
• An email telling managerial colleagues that there were three courses of action if they received an email from Elon about doing something: provide information about why they thought it was wrong; seek further clarification; do it. If they didn't do any of these, the suggestion was that they could be asked to resign.

Yes, there is little doubt that Elon Musk is the boss.

Have you had enough?

If you are fortunate enough to score an invitation to Christmas at Queen Elizabeth II's estate chances are you will need to take part in a 120-year-old tradition. According to an article by Melanie A. Davis (on suggest.com) a habit now tradition of weighing guests when they arrive dates back to Queen Elizabeth's great-grandfather Edward VII; he wanted to "ensure his guests ate well". Attendees were "expected" to gain at least three pounds during their stay. If you want to see the practice portrayed on film, watch the new Pablo Larrain film Spencer. During the 1990's, the weighing of guests included family members including Princess Diana who was asked to weigh herself on the antique scales; she was struggling with an eating disorder at the time - something which was not unknown to the Royals. Some traditions are perhaps best not followed religiously. Also, as noted by Melanie A. Davis in the last sentence of her article: Apparently being a princess isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Not 100 per cent

It's a hard thing to know ... when is 100 per cent not 100 per cent.  I saw on the news this morning that a dam is currently at 104%.  Does that mean its' overflowing?  It didn't sound like it was ... and if it isn't full (to overflowing) then why is it over 100% capacity?  

(Pause for research.)

The full supply level of a dam, when it is at 100 per cent capacity, is the approved water storage level of the dam for drinking or irrigation purposes.  But a dam can hold much more or much less than that.  According to a report in the ABC News in 2019, the Ross River Dam reached a capacity of 244.8 per cent. 

Who knew that dams could be gated or ungated.  The report went on to say that if a dam has a gated spillway, it can be opened to release water; for un-gated dams, operators have no control over the water that flows over the spillway once the dam's water level surpasses the full supply level.

A big find

 We were going for a drive this afternoon before meeting back at Monty's (microbrewery) and ended up at the Highfields Pioneer Village. In all the years we have been going to Toowoomba, we had no idea it was there. And certainly none of the others really had any idea about the rather large cow that has moved in. We will go there another day to "visit" but today it was just about finding out about the site and what they had (besides the ginormous cow). The volunteers on duty referred us to their website (www.highfieldspioneervillage.com.au) and told us that it would have details of upcoming events and special days - and if/what additional activites would be available eg blacksmith demonstrations, music, tea and damper and Model T bus rides around the village. The rest of the time, there is loads to see with each of the buildings on site housing a museum to "something" ranging from an old school building to the fire service and Southern Cross windmills. There is also a Heritage Chapel on site which is available for weddings and christenings. It's just a shame that lack of patronage during CoVid-19 last year has meant the folk who ran the cafe on site had to take up other jobs, so the on-site cafe is no longer running.

But at least we know where to look for it now - the signage to the site is not good and the volunteers were telling us that it is difficult and expensive to have the signage upgraded or moved - I think they mentioned the not-insignificant figure of $15,000 per sign. It's just a shame the Big Cow (one of Australia's many "big things") is not visible from the road.

Freedom ... ?

The suspense is palpable for those of us who have been wearing face masks as required throughout SE Queensland. We have been told that as soon as Queensland reaches 80% first-dose vaccinations the masks can come off. We had just 0.2% to go at 10:30 on Wednesday (or so I was assured by the wait-person where I picked up a coffee). Of course, you can still wear them if you wish, and I think we may still in some situations. There are heaps of people who seem to have given up wearing masks some time ago ... part of that at least I think is the unclear messages about masks, and mask-wearing, and restrictions.
An example: when we go to Trivia on a Monday night. We don't have to wear a mask until we are at the front door and signing in... and once we have signed in, we take the masks off... and don't wear them again for the two or so hours we are there, until we put them back on to walk the three steps through the foyer and out the front door. I can see why people think there is no reason to wear masks.
What puzzles me is how businesses are supposed to police this. Lots have a sign saying no face mask: no entry, but that doesn't stop people from entering bare-faced. What legal right or responsibility does a business have to prevent non-masked folk from entering - and how would they stop them? Similarly, come the point where 80 per cent of Queensland's (eligible) population is double-dosed and only those who are fully-vaccinated will be able to attend cafes, restaurants, clubs, sporting venues etc, who will be monitoring that? If it's so important, surely there needs to be a system in place to encourage compliance.

Hard sell ...

What the ...? I rang to cancel my subscription to the Gold Coast Bulletin and the Australian's Mind Games this morning and when I finally made it through to the operator, he asked me for a reason for the cancellation. I said I'd rather not say, but I just wanted to cancel. Then started a rather intensive session of him trying to extract a reason: he needed to put something down, he'd get in trouble if he didn't, it would affect him, you had a reason for joining - you must have a reason for cancelling. I suggested he just tick the box that said the customer declined to say: you're assuming there is something like that he replied, and again "it will affect me if you don't give me a reason". Well, I said, you read out the reasons you have and I'll see which of them I like. I don't want you to make up a fake reason he said, well, I told him, just put down that the customer declined to say. And I think there was one more round "You're a person, I'm a person and it will affect me if you don't say" before he would start processing my request.
Now, I don't know if it was just me, but the rest of the call did seem to take a while as he located my subscriptions and then cancelled them. Hmmm .. and why was it that the short survey at the end of the call I had been promised as I was on hold waiting to speak with an operator wasn't offered? I really wanted to help them improve their service! I must say though, that I'm used to getting a hard sell when folk are looking to sell me something ... not when I'm cancelling something ... although, to be fair, I know it's that he was looking for a way to have me continue the subscription/s so I guess he was on for the "sell".

Pandemics ...

Where did they find the resources to deal with the casualties? The Covid-19 pandemic this week reached a global death toll of 5 million ... although there are some suggestions that this figure is grossly under-reported. Given the media reports over the last (almost) two years since CoVid-19 first hit the global media, that is entirely possible. The question is whether the vaccination programs and measures being put in place will be able to counter the spread and contain it. But even at the conservative figure of 5 million deaths, CoVid-19 seems to not be the worst pandemic the world has seen. The actual figures may not be exact - because how would they keep an accurate track of the casualties over a number of years and locales. The reported totals - highest death toll first:
1347 - 1351   The Black Death         75-200 million
1520 - 1980   Small Pox                    56 million
1918 - 1919   Spanish Flu                 50 million
1981 -             Aids                              35 million
  541 - 750     Plague of Justinian    25-30 million.

So how did these people over the ages have the resources to deal with the casualties? And to record the numbers?

All a bit trivial ...

All the Trivia we do has to pay off sometime. In today's quiz in the Sydney Morning Herald, we came across two questions we definitely knew - which came first, the fruit or the colour orange ... and what was Colonel Sanders given name.*

I was also happy at Trivia on Thursday night when the question was "how many points is the Green worth in snooker?". The mnemonic I had endeavoured to remember had stuck - in part at least. 3 is/was the answer! Really, you go (red, yellow, green: 1,2,3) ... and there is more but I can't remember it now. It was just as well the question was about the green ball because I have no idea about any of the others with scores above three! I may have to have another look at that.  We have been listening to an Audible book "3,666 Facts" and some of the facts are interesting and I think it's those that we comment on and talk about that have a chance of making it into memory. One of those facts was that a "tower" is the collective noun for a group of giraffes. It was good we remembered it because that was one of the questions at tonight's Trivia.

I think we are starting to play much better as a team - we were seven tonight and it certainly didn't feel like the incredibly hard work it has been. We tried a new seating arrangement and I think that helped a little ... but it could just be that we knew more answers this time. We managed equal 2nd, together with about three other teams. The winning team had one more point, so we were fairly encouraged by that.

* Fruit; Harland

VIPs ...

Big Brother VIP - who are these people? I think I am definitely out of the loop as far as VIPs go. The VIP being interviewed on a morning show (not sure if it was The Morning Show) was someone called Jessika Power - and I am probably the only one in the world not to have heard of her. She was beaming in from Manchester England (England, across the Atlantic Sea) and she was obviously a very happy person because she seemed to be smiling all the time, although that may have had something to do with what may have been previous substance injections into her lips. What is it about people helping nature give them fuller lips ... and eyelash extensions?

Mistaken identity ...

Following the recent abduction and return of Cleo Smith in WA, one of the media outlets published the name and photograph of the suspect before he was formally charged. I'm not sure what the legal ramifications are in these instances especially as the person identified was someone else completely and not the person who was charged.  The wrongly-identified person will reportedly sue.  As well as civil proceedings, does this warrant investigation and/or action by the judicial system not because of the false accusation but because of possible interference with the abduction case? 

Trolls

Are some people just argumentative by nature?  Down at the Broadwater on Sunday morning, the Ian Dipple Lagoon had been closed off to the public - as folk from SeaWorld and the Council looked to see if the sea snake sighted the previous day was still in the Lagoon.  As it turned out they weren't looking to see if it was there, they were looking to make sure it wasn't there.  Fun fact:  sea snakes are usually underwater but come up for air every half hour to an hour to breathe ... and then they look like a rope floating on top of the water.  Another not so fun fact - sea snakes are incredibly venomous but - and this is more fun - they have an incredibly small bite so they can really only get purchase on smaller areas, like the webbing area between people's fingers. 

I put a photograph of the lagoon, without any swimmers or children playing in it, onto Facebook and mentioned the search for the sea snakes.  There were then some comments about sea snakes - and then one from someone suggesting that there were NO SEA SNAKES.  It was obviously someone who hadn't been there or hadn't talked to one of the folk around the lagoon. In the great scheme of things it wasn't that much ... but still I was pleased when a couple of the other members of the group pointed out his "error". 

I can't imagine what it must be like to have serious trolls following you online.  They can be quite nasty. ... and persistent... like those badgering Cleo Smith's family after her abduction last month.  It would be interesting to see if the trolling has stopped since Cleo has been found and returned to her family. 

Who's listening?

We sometimes joke - and certainly it is the stuff of memes - that our electronic devices are listening to us - or watching us.  Sooz was telling me the other day that she had been watching videos on families with Tourettes Syndrome.  I'm not sure where she found them but she doesn't have any trouble finding them now because they keep coming up on her Facebook page.  I'm still getting videos and ads about MDC Caravans - I had looked at some of the videos from their site and now they're just not going away.  Most folk have a story about how Siri or Alexa or Cortana "eavesdrop" on their Google searches and they start getting related content soon after.  I can understand that ... what I don't understand is how they can pick up cues from conversations you've had with someone when you're not actually searching on the internet. 

Tribute (?) tattoos

A married couple from Niagra Falls ("fans") were recently tattooed with red and black ink infused with Charles Manson's ashes. They are calling them "tribute tattoos" and the husband is reported in a TMZ report as saying he followed the example of his wife Deanne who wanted to become the first woman to sport a tattoo featuring Manson's ashes. This seems odd, as the husband reportedly already had a "Helter Skelter" tattoo on his forehead using Manson's ashes.
I can't help wondering how much murderabilia can physically be extracted from one person's ashes. After his death in 2017, and following a court case involving several interested parties, Manson's remains were awarded to his grandson. Since then, the ashes have seemingly been used in at least one painting, two masks and now at least three tattoos.

The Last Supper

There was a recent story in the Washington Post abut Julie Green, renowned painter and art professor with Oregon State University, who died earlier this month. They (Julie preferred the gender-neutral pronoun) were "a wide ranging artist whose paintings ... examined gender roles, wrongful conviction, animal abuse and their own colourful life". They were particularly known for The Last Supper project - nearly 1,000 white plates with cobalt blue artwork that depicted the last meal of prisoners destined to the death chamber and which spurred debate over capital punishment and, some suggested, allowed a window into the life of a prisoner. Many of the works are currently on display at the Bellevue Arts Museum.
Julie had also been working on a series called First Meal depicting the first meal of those who were released after a wrongful conviction.

Photo of some of the "Last Supper" works from the media.npr.org website

Gender bias

I would like to say that sexism is so subtle that it isn't always noticed but that's not always the case. The Star Casino has an app where you can play table games or slot machines and it's good for relaxation - especially since you don't have to outlay any money but you can earn vouchers you can use at The Star's food and other outlets.
A new slot game dropped for Halloween and I had been playing it for a short while before I realised a glaring inconsistency ... the paylines with male characters paid far more than the paylines with female characters. Others could see this as inconsequential but it really does seem to reinforce that gender inequality is alive and well ... even in gambling.

Perfect timing

It's good when there are kids at the table next to you when you're out having breakfast. We have been known to "engage" with them, usually making them laugh or smile - waving, pretending to play "hide and seek" that type of thing especially if they seem to want to "engage". There was one lad this morning who kept looking at us and try as we might, we couldn't get a smile out of him ... he was just watching us ... and just as my partner said "he scares me" he turned around in his chair and then looked back over his other shoulder ... and it looked as though he was going to do an Exorcist 360° head rotation. The timing was impeccable ... and we laughed so much I'm sure everyone thought we had lost it.

Mascara ... in space?

I have a question. If you were a female astronaut lifting off to the International Space Station (ISS) - would you wear your usual makeup - including mascara? Or would you think that, for the duration of the flight, stay and return, you might just give it a miss? How do you take off makeup in space? I was pondering this as I watched the first episode of Apple TV's new series "Invasion" where the female astronaut does appear to be have thick long lashes, perhaps false, perhaps extensions (a very profitable business I hear) but at the very least, mascara! If you were off to the ISS for a year, would you bother? And why do most boys not have this issue?

Halloween colours ...

We drove past the local park today where folk were setting up for a party ... we were fairly sure it was a Halloween event (even though it is a bit early) because they were putting up orange and black balloons and crepe paper. How did orange and black come to be seen as Halloween colours? Black we get because of the "sinister" component but what about the orange ... the colour of pumpkins we decided. Because Halloween comes so quickly after the Americans' Thanksgiving, we figured there would be lots of pumpkins left over to use as decorations ... and then slowly rot away to nothing.
Well, we were close but not close enough. Black is "sad" rather than sinister - at that time of year the veil between the living and dead is said to be thinner and folk would offer tributes to the departed and wear black to honour them. Orange is not to do so much with pumpkins as the change of seasons with the trees turning orange ... that and the fires that would be lit to sustain folk during winter. Hmmmm ... practical.
Next time: why red and green are the colours of Christmas. (Just joking.)

Dolphin

What is it about dolphins? They always fill us with such pleasure - especially if we see them in the "wild" - and up close and personal. There was one this morning down at the Ian Dipple Lagoon - actually in the lagoon. They have been doing dredging there and deepening and widening the lagoon mouth which is how the dolphin could swim in. Everyone was delighted to see it - especially the folk who were swimming there at the time, and the people (like me) who were busy filming with their mobile phones.
We were so pleased we had gone down to the Broadwater this morning ... we were later than usual and had thought about not going ... but being later had its benefits - because if we hadn't been later we wouldn't have seen the dolphin. It was in the lagoon for no more than a few minutes before it found its way out again.

Science fiction ... science fact

Which came first ... the one on the left - the stylised robot killer "dog" from Howard Overman's War of the Worlds - definitely something you would not want to run in to OR the stylised robot killer "dog" on the right - the Vision 60 Quadruped equipped with SPUR (Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle) which is designed to help armed forces get (safely) closer to enemy targets and can shoot a target from three-quarters of a mile away ... and its thermal camera with 30x optical zoom means it can spot living, breathing targets at night - making it also something you definitely would not want to run into.
So is it life imitating art or art imitating life?

Kindness of strangers ...

Trivia was a bit difficult last night ... we were not at our usual table; we thought we would be on the couches down the front but there was a cancellation so we ended up sitting at one of the "high tables" - the one right under one of the speakers.  So, as well as being on high stools (there is something quite comforting in not having to remember you are at height and are stepping down when you are standing up) we were six on a round table where we couldn't really confer properly even if we had been able to hear each other.  There was a bumper crowd last night as well - 90 folk were expected, with 19 teams - although one of the teams were a "no show".  It was painfully loud and I don't know about the others but it was so loud I could hardly concentrate on the game or the game play.  Pe seemed to be having a hard time hearing the team's input and working the buzzer ... especially in the "Fastest Finger" round.  Ah well, it's not as though we were last at the end of the game ... we were 12th ... so imagine our surprise when Adam told us not to go anywhere.  The winners, Ramsay Street, had decided to gift their first place voucher ($50) to us ... what the?  They said they had won the last three weeks and decided to share it ... we thanked them profusely ... and would have offered them our leftover scones had we not already promised them to Adam.  Yes, Wa is staying with us at the moment, had come along to Trivia, and made scones for the occasion.  I watched him this time and feeling that it wouldn't be wasted (now) he texted me his recipe.  I'll have to do a test run before I take a batch ... but I will.  The only difference will be that I won't be whipping up the cream in the car park with a whisk attachment on the Ryobi drill ... yes, he really did that ... and the scones were wonderful for it.

And if one episode of passing it forward for the week wasn't enough, when we were down at the Broadwater this morning, when we went to pay for our coffees, Ruth told us one of them was free because someone had paid for an extra one and said to "pass it forward".  

And did I mention our Trivia team managed a second at Monday night's game?  Yes, I know I could mention that the two top-performing teams had given the game a miss this week because of the storms that swept through the Coast that afternoon, dumping loads of rain and some hail on its way through ... but I won't.  :) 

Places not to live ...

... might have to include places like Midsomer.  So far there have been 95 episodes of this crime drama set in and around the fictional Midsomer - and at a minimum of two murders per episode of Midsomer Murders (there are often more) that makes a body count of about 200 since the show was launched in 1997.   It may not be a safe place to live (a bit like Murder She Wrote featuring novelist Jessica Fletcher and her hometown Cabot Cove) but filming location Buckinghamshire hopes it makes for a good place to visit - post-CoVid lockdowns there will be three Midsomer tours in the area:  The Midsomer Marlow Trail, Midsomer on the Misbourne, and Step into Midsomer - featuring various locations where the show has been filmed. 

Too early?

I am calling it as way too early on 20 October to have seen Christmas banners on light poles.  Seasons Greetings!  What?  We haven't even had Halloween yet - not that we're in America but there will be children going around the neighbourhood in their costumes in 11 days who do not even want to start thinking about Christmas yet ... or will they?   All this would be moot if we were all like pigs ... who are physically unable to lift their heads high enough to be able to look into the sky.  How sad would that be ... no Christmas banners, no clouds that look like anything, no moonrises ... no International Space Station - which is now the most expensive thing ever built at US$150 billion ... mind you, that was the 2010 total cost and they have kept spending on it since then!

Windfall

Windfall.  That's what was waiting for me when I went out to the backyard the other day and three of the neighbour's lemons had fallen off their tree and on to our lawn.  I'd just thought "free lemons" while I scooped them up and took then inside. But they were a "windfall" - because the wind had made them fall off the neighbour's tree and on to the ground on our side of the fence ... which, as well as picking them, had also made them (legally?) ours.  I'm not sure when the term went from windfall (an apple or other fruit blown down from a tree or bush by the wind) to windfall (a large amount of money that is won or received unexpectedly) but you can see how they are essentially the same - a reward for.little or no effort.

Popularity contest ...

What makes an establishment - I am thinking cafe in this particular instance - popular? When we stopped in to get a hot beverage at one of the local cafes on (Public Holiday) Monday morning it was busier than I have ever seen it. The joint was positively jumping with almost every table taken and a serious line-up for takeaways. Why so busy ? And was the only other cafe open in the area doing a similar-sized trade?

We have a system for rating cafes based on (in no particular order): how close to home are they, is there adequate parking, are the amenities close by and well-maintained, is the coffee good, is the food good, is the service good? You would think it would be easy to find (most of) these in more than a couple of nearby establishments but it is harder than you'd think. Still this helps us go further afield in search of a good breakfast ... unless we are keen on having fruit salad which so far we've found at only one cafe. It's not easy to find boiled eggs on a menu either!

Look up!

At any point it seems that the world is surrounded by space junk … those bits of hardware that have boosted rockets and people into space that have not fallen back towards the earth and burned up in re-entry. They have to be small enough to burn up in re-entry though and there is apparently a piece of Chinese rocket is spiralling out of control towards earth – all 30-metres and 22.5 tonnes of it. Under international (should that be interplanetary) guidelines, rockets are supposed to return to earth in a controlled way. The Chinese rocket will not. A report on the ABC News site says no-one really knows where the Long March 5B will come down just that it will probably come down at lunchtime this coming Sunday – give or take a day. The last time this happened - yes, another rocket – the prototype of the one in question – fell to Earth in the Atlantic Ocean and dumped a 12-metre long piece of debris near an African village – luckily no-one was injured. You have to wonder if there’s a dollar or two to be made if you happen to be lucky enough to be near it when the Long March 5B falls to earth and lucky enough not to be damaged by it. The U.S. Skylab which had a “controlled” return to Earth in 1979 left a substantial debris field, including pelting Stan Thornton’s home in Esperance WA with bits of space station. He grabbed some and hopped the first plane from there to the offices of The San Francisco Examiner – it had offered a $10,000 prize to the first person to deliver a piece of debris to them within 72 hours of the crash. They paid up even though they may not have expected to get any takers on their offer especially from Australia!

Body parts ... with caps

The crossword clue had me stumped at first ... five letters ... body parts with caps ... who would have thought there were at least three possible answers ... heads, teeth, knees.  It was knees.  

Ice cream

We have been watching the new season of MasterChef and the other night two contestants used nitrogen to make ice cream for their dishes. It looked amazing with "mist" rolling out of the mixing bowl. Stunning stuff. We were lucky enough to see it done in real life today. We have a local shop - Nitrogen Ice Cream - which does just that. They have ten flavours or so - all starting from an Anglais base and then they add the different flavours to make the ice cream - and then the different components eg crumb on the Cheesecake for the different "flavours" as they "plate up".  The ones we had were delicious: dinner and a show. It was interesting speaking to the owner as well; she was saying that if you have ice cream at a fine dining restaurant, this is how it would be prepared - except they would mix it by hand rather than use a beater/mixer. 

Too many colours?

We all perceive the world differently but we'll never know quite how other folk see the world - particularly in relation to actual colours. Most folk have three receptors in their eyes for colour recognition but if you're born with just one extra cone cell in your eye you can see 100 million more colours. How amazing would that be - how many colours would you be able to see in a rainbow; more than the standard seven? And how would it be if your job was to look through the spectral whats-it to determine the chemical composition of planets. Who knew that's how it was done? Yes, those colours on the Periodic Table are there for a reason ... each element has a different colour and if there are numerous elements "together" then viewing then with the help of a spectral whats-it will allow the colours to be seen separately.

Dognostics

New research suggests that dogs are able to detect the presence of CoVid-19. At the moment the results are encouraging ... and at a hospital in Florida, Buffy (a two-year-old yellow Labrador) is trained to sniff out CoVid-19; she sniffs visitors to the hospital and if they are Covid-19 positive, she sits down. They are claiming a 95% accuracy rate for her. As well as the lab test, or dognostic test as some are calling it, visitors also have their temperatures checked but if Buffy gets a positive result, the person has to have a CoVid-19 test. In research elsewhere, nine previously untrained dogs have been first taught in general scent detection and then moved on to learning to distinguish between urine samples from Covid-positive and Covid-negative patients. The samples had first been "inactivated" so it was safe for the dogs (who can apparently catch Covid-19) to smell. Success rate:  96%.  The information I read suggested that the use of dognostics may not be implemented quickly for day-to-day screening ... this was supposed to be something to do with the costs involved in large-scale training/testing, but I'm wondering if it has more to do with the dogs being trained to detect the virus in urine ... it's going to take longer to screen people if they need to give that sample first!

Comparison shopping

Internet shopping ... where would we be without it? Actually I think it would be better characterised as internet window shopping and/or price comparison. I had to buy a new camera battery the other day and I checked online to see what was available in the area and how much I would be paying. Consistently the price on the internet was around $100 (it sounds so much cheaper if it's only $99.95) so imagine my surprise when I went into the camera shop and they were selling it for $149. What the? So I asked if they would price-match (as I pulled out my phone) and they said yes - but not Amazon. Fair enough. So I pulled up the price for one of their local competitors - $99.95 - and to their credit (pun intended), they matched it. Mind you, had they not, there was no way I would have bought the battery from them. It is a huge price difference. So thank goodness for the internet because had I not done the research beforehand, I may well have spent the $50 (or so) extra.

Powers of observation - not

I would hate to have to pick someone out of a police line-up. Not because it would mean I had been in close proximity to a crime (although there would be a bit of that) but because I don't really recognise faces* and am sometimes not that observant. Take today: I was at one of the local coffee shops getting a takeaway coffee and I noticed they seem to have replaced one of their tables: where there was now an art deco black and white table and chairs set there had been an old school table and chairs. I must have been distracted then because I noticed the bottle on the counter - filled with water, some greenery and one of the tiniest coloured fish I've ever seen. As I watched it, the owner came over to ask if I could see it - yes - and then took me over to the art deco table to show me the other two fish "bottles" there. Truly I had not even seen them although I was looking straight at the table! What else do we miss seeing in everyday life?  I'm thinking there might be more than we could imagine.  

*This has a name - Prosopagnosia - it is also known as face blindness or facial agnosia.  

Meerkats under wraps

Meerkats in the wild would apparently breed like rabbits which is why any zoo in Australia only has single-sex populations just in case they stage a mass break-out. I had thought the person who told me this was pulling my leg but this is what the keeper explained during the talk at the meerkat enclosure at the Darling Downs Zoo when I was there the other week. So, where do the new/replacement meerkats come from? Are there special "breeding pairs" safely tucked (read: locked) away somewhere to boost the numbers when a replacement is needed (I was going to call it "natural attrition" but that would suggest they were leaving of their own volition - nope, we don't want that!)? Or do they come in from overseas? Or do they use AI for the job ... which would work in female populations, but not so much the male populations.

That's bananas ...

Where do we pull Trivia knowledge from? I was just thinking about East Egg and West Egg - from The

Great Gatsby. Who knew we knew this? Certainly not me -it's all I can do to remember the plot points let alone where the action takes place. But we all continue to "learn" (or is that "amass"?)

Trivia - like the fact that Cavendish bananas do not self-propagate. Or that the first monkey-human embryo has just been developed and while it survived only 20 days, it makes you wonder why they would even think to do it- haven't these folks seen Planet of The Apes? But if these chimeras did survive and gain world dominance they'd soon run out of Cavendish bananas as a ready food source if they didn't learn how to fertilise and farm them!

What's in a name?

Would it have been as successful a game if MOUSETRAP had been called RATTRAP? Would that group have been as big a hit if they were called Coleoptera instead of The Beatles?

Cosplay

As we were driving back from breakfast this morning we noticed there were folk in costumes around the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre - and it didn't take long to work out Supernova is in town.

It's a while since I've been to Supernova - and the last time was with our neice, nephew and two of their friends.  The bathroom was off-limits to us that morning as they primped and preened and applied buckets of pancake make-up and put the finishing touches on their quite elaborate costumes.

I was chatting with one of the Supernova crew members (SCM) later today about how the event has changed last year and this year - because of CoVid. One of the big changes is that there are no international stars - and they used to be a huge draw card. There are Australian stars of course but the SCM seemed to think that the cosplay, merchandise and panels were the reasons for folk coming along. The SCM said it was "packed" inside and I thought about buying a ticket ($37 - cheaper than I remember) and having a look for myself but I was very concerned I would be amongst many of those emerging from the Centre - laden down with merchandise! I just knew there would be something that wanted to come home with me - Star Trek, StarGate, Dr Who, Torchwood, Star Trek (did I say that already? There are so many different shows!).

I spent some time outside the entrance/ exit taking photographs of the cosplayers. Isn't it good that folk still play dress- up!