The Lounge 2

[Grier]

White. Does it have something to do with the bear living in the Arctic Circle?

Well done Craig!

White indeed as it's a Polar Bear walking from the North pole 10km south on a slowy bending meridian of longitude, 10km east along a tightly curling circle of latitude and back to the North Pole along another slowly bending great circle meridian 10km north back to the North Pole.
A triangle of sorts on a curved surface where only the North Pole is the possible location, given there's no Polar Bears in Antarctica and also the directions given are illogical for the South Pole. How can you initially travel further south when you're already the most south , .... at the south pole?
Only a White Polar Bear would be on the melting ice cap of the North Pole.

Anyone remember what colour the skin of a Polar Bear is underneath its two layers of white hair? Think thermo dynamics.




Life adapts sometimes, sometimes not ...

 

[Grier]

BTW, for the first time in 20 years, if not longer, I was able to watch the Australian Open live and for free! Would you believe it? Great stuff!

I loved watching it too Thomas, It was indeed great stuff.
I thought Alcaraz deserved the win over Dojovic whose bad sleep the night before and his age let him down. Even fresh I think Alcaraz would still have won. He was brilliant and I thought Dojovic made too many unforced errors, being tired as he was. Still, it was nice to see him get to the 4th set.
I've warmed to him as a decent gentleman who has become open, self effacing and extols and congratulates opponents.

Many tennis players seem to mellow with age. I like that.

 

[looker-on]

Equivalent to, say a middle manager executive once established and if on the back bench or tier two of politics. More for cabinet ministers of course.

Different settings make comparisons difficult. Did some rough calculations.

I read that Australian MPs receive a base salary of AUD 240,000 which would be AUD 20,000 or 11,000€ a month, pretty much the same as our MPs get.

On average middle managers in AUS are said to earn between AUD 130,000 and 165,000 which would be $11,000 - 13,000 or 6400-8300 € a month, respectively, compared to 11,000€ our MPs get. The big question is whether parliamentarians would be willing to make the move if they were paid roughly 3-4,000€ less? Younger ones perhaps but it would not be attractive to middle-aged people. If MP salaries were reduced, you might still get people for the job but presumably not those wanted and needed. Starting on a local level, quite a number of municipalities are having difficulty recruiting suitable personnel or even none at all.

What about Oz? Would your MPs accept a reduction of $5-6,000 a month in your country which you're proposing? Do communities have staffing problems ?

 

[looker-on]

Well done Craig!

White indeed as it's a Polar Bear walking from the North pole 10km south on a slowy bending meridian of longitude, 10km east along a tightly curling circle of latitude and back to the North Pole along another slowly bending great circle meridian 10km north back to the North Pole.
A triangle of sorts on a curved surface where only the North Pole is the possible location, given there's no Polar Bears in Antarctica and also the directions given are illogical for the South Pole. How can you initially travel further south when you're already the most south , .... at the south pole?
Only a White Polar Bear would be on the melting ice cap of the North Pole.

Anyone remember what colour the skin of a Polar Bear is underneath its two layers of white hair? Think thermo dynamics.

View attachment 3706

View attachment 3707
Life adapts sometimes, sometimes not ...

Cute pics. Your explanation is plausible - in hindsight as so often.

 

[looker-on]

I loved watching it too Thomas, It was indeed great stuff.
I thought Alcaraz deserved the win over Dojovic whose bad sleep the night before and his age let him down. Even fresh I think Alcaraz would still have won. He was brilliant and I thought Dojovic made too many unforced errors, being tired as he was. Still, it was nice to see him get to the 4th set.
I've warmed to him as a decent gentleman who has become open, self effacing and extols and congratulates opponents.

Many tennis players seem to mellow with age. I like that.

My thoughts exactly. Spot-on how you describe Djokovic. Admit that I didn't like him when he was younger , his behaviour during the pandemic being the low point. He reminds me of Ivan Lendl's stoic demeanour a bit although I liked his style of playing. Some top players just can't cope with the pressure it seems, like McEnroe, Tsitsipas.

 

[looker-on]

I also watched the women's final in which two tall ladies were competing both being 182/183 cm tall. I was thinking that it could be bad news for up and coming females that shorter girls won't make it to the final in future...

 

[Richie]

I also watched the women's final in which two tall ladies were competing both being 1,82/1,83 cm tall. I was thinking that it could be bad news for up and coming females that shorter girls won't make it to the final in future...

Guys I am seeing the emergence of Aussie female tennis. Do you see it too. Teenagers Emerson Jones, Maya Joint , Talia Gibson, Pricilla Hon, Kimberly Birrell are all starting to announce themselves to the tennis world. Australia boasts a rich history in male tennis, but other than only two, the great Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong there has been very little from our women.

 

[Richie]

Oleg Shuplyak Gallery

Oleg Shuplyak Gallery

www.shupliak.com

 

[Richie]

US: Technical issues force NASA to postpone moon mission

The US space agency has said an issue with fuel supply is the culprit, though the source of the problem has not yet been found. The scheduled flyby is to be the first manned mission to the moon in five decades.

www.dw.com

 

[Richie]

Terry, Zman watch Australia Food Exposed videos on YT and you will discover that some every day supermarket foods we buy should never be eaten or drunk again and that manufacturers and marketers deserve to be imprisoned for deceiving the consumer. This is outrageous. Thomas I expect this is also the case in Germany and Europe in general..

 

[Grier]

US: Technical issues force NASA to postpone moon mission

The US space agency has said an issue with fuel supply is the culprit, though the source of the problem has not yet been found. The scheduled flyby is to be the first manned mission to the moon in five decades.

www.dw.com

I just read the issue was about a leakage of helium in the fuel delivery system. I think it's good they are so careful given the risks and previous deadly outcomes.
It's an ambitious project to get back into space and I applaud NASA for that. A crew to fly around the Moon looking at its almost permanent Dark Side. It's tidal locked to Earth. Lots of nice pics and serious scientific hyperspectral stuff. That's where our Curious Space Aliens are hiding with their flying saucers .. ...they're on Facebook like 'Alien 4638''
Seriously, Artemis II is a prelude to bigger things like more moon landings and construction of a manned moon base.
The construction of such bases would be made easy by using refined Moon Soil and 3d printing machines to make the basic structures. Specialist Robots too, and other self replicating manufacturing machines. Other basic modern efficiencies like solar panels, electricity storage batteries, even small nuclear reactors, .. like in the US subs.

There's some interesting mining to be done too like an abundance of Thorium, a safe slightly radioactive material made powerfully radioactive when certain conditions can be created and able to be turned off easily. Earth has some Thorium too but it's more expensive to use in a reactor than Plutonium. India has one I think.

Or just good solar panels and storage batteries. Whatever.
The big idea is using our moon with a sixth the gravity of Earth as an efficient stepping stone to go to Mars and other planets, moons, asteroid belts, ... in our Milky Way Solar System. That's amply ambitious for now imo.

Living on the surface of the Moon exposes humans to a harsh, high-energy, and mostly unfiltered radiation environment. Because the Moon lacks a substantial atmosphere, and a global magnetic field to deflect particles, the surface is constantly bombarded by space radiation, with exposure levels measured at approximately 200 to 300 times higher than on Earth's.

However building an underground base would give radiation protection. Specialised Spacesuits too.

We're in a nice spot, not too close and not to far from our Sun, and very fortunate to have a moon like ours. It's a sweet spot for sure.

Travelling at the impossible speed of Light 100,000 light years would take 100,000 years to travel. That's like from our eldest times as humans til now. Strangely it might be experienced as say 100 years to a craqft travelling very close to the speed of light due to the time dilation factor Eienstien discovered.
Space is big and it's currently estimated there are 2 trillion galaxies in our observable Universe. A mystery is our unobservable Universe, and not really knowing if our universe is infinite or finite?

One thing we know is that the "space" in our Universe is expanding at faster than even the speed of light weird as it sounds, but like a rasin cake expanding in a hot oven, where the bread expands and the raisins are like Galaxies ) so what we see of the Observable Universe will contract with time, until our nearest stars will blink and fade away until only darkness remains. No worries, that's far, far into the future if that occurs, but considering that and realising how vast Space is and its rates of expansion, it's speculated that our physical Universe has a diameter of at least 72 billion light years, a radius of 36 billion light years. Tie that in with that the Big Bang just 13.8 billion years ago, ergo Space itself is currently expanding, but that eventually might stop and slowy reverse leading to a Big Crunch. Highly speculative stuff. Points of inflection like the rate of increase has just started to decline in a wobbling way ....
That's much simpler than Eienstien's thought experiments about Special Relativity and Time dilation. I confess difficulty internalising that, but just because I don't fully understand it doesn't mean it s not real.
I certainly know our GPS would be useless if Eienstiens equations weren't used. .... much more accurate than me with my old Theodolite, the stars and a good radio time signal followed by heavy calculations. ""We're in midst of the Amazon" I'd joke to my Chainman assistant.

 

[looker-on]

Terry, Zman watch Australia Food Exposed videos on YT and you will discover that some every day supermarket foods we buy should never be eaten or drunk again and that manufacturers and marketers deserve to be imprisoned for deceiving the consumer. This is outrageous. Thomas I expect this is also the case in Germany and Europe in general..

It is, Craig, but don't forget the food industry with all its ready-made stuff. We have a TV show exposing what dishes are offered which I have never brought myself to watch in full. It's so off-putting. I'm surprised that they manage to keep the show running for so long. Thought they must have run out of foods to analyse a long time ago.

 

[Richie]

I'm surprised that they manage to keep the show running for so long

Certainly is a wonder powerful food companies have not managed to have the show taken off air.

 

[looker-on]

Certainly is a wonder powerful food companies have not managed to have the show taken off air.

The show is presented by a public service broadcaster and is unlikely to be shown by a private channel.

 

[Richie]

I am referring to such staples as butter, cheese, milk even bread, but mostly tinned or bottled goods such as coffee, baked beans , jams, tomato puree, spices. etc etc. Watch the video and tell me if this is the same in Germany.

This is a disgrace as food marketers are only interested in attracting people to eat their product with fancy presentation and labeling. So the same people will ignore the ingredients.
The producers and marketers that put this food on our supermarket shelves should be prosecuted, hugely fined or if they continue, put out of business.

I am also reading that this has been going on for decades. as people in the 60, 70s were eating far healthier food than today.

Aussie Products Uncovered

Your Aussie source for product reviews, warnings, and trivia. We showcase the best—and especially the worst—products sold in the Australia to help you shop more safely and consciously.

www.youtube.com

 

[looker-on]

I am referring to such staples as butter, cheese, milk even bread, but mostly tinned or bottled goods such as coffee, baked beans , jams, tomato puree, spices. etc etc. Watch the video and tell me if this is the same in Germany. This is a disgrace as manufacturers are only interested in attracting people to eat their product with fancy presentation and labeling. So the same people will ignore the ingredients.
These producers and marketers that put this food on our supermarket shelves should be prosecuted, hugely fined or if they continue, put out of business.

I am also reading that this has been going on for decades. as people in the 60, 70s were eating far healthier food than today.

Aussie Products Uncovered

Your Aussie source for product reviews, warnings, and trivia. We showcase the best—and especially the worst—products sold in the Australia to help you shop more safely and consciously.

www.youtube.com

Which vid? When I click on it, a number of vids open.

 

[looker-on]

I am referring to such staples as butter, cheese, milk even bread, but mostly tinned or bottled goods such as coffee, baked beans , jams, tomato puree, spices. etc etc. Watch the video and tell me if this is the same in Germany.

This is a disgrace as food marketers are only interested in attracting people to eat their product with fancy presentation and labeling. So the same people will ignore the ingredients.
The producers and marketers that put this food on our supermarket shelves should be prosecuted, hugely fined or if they continue, put out of business.

I am also reading that this has been going on for decades. as people in the 60, 70s were eating far healthier food than today.

Aussie Products Uncovered

Your Aussie source for product reviews, warnings, and trivia. We showcase the best—and especially the worst—products sold in the Australia to help you shop more safely and consciously.

www.youtube.com

Not sure about the extent but we have the same problem. We, our bodies, are all permanent disposal sites of the waste we eat on a daily basis. In order to somehow limit the intake, people follow consumer protection mags testing all that rubbish. Just yesterday I asked my brother to try and track down the one brand of coffee pads tested with good results at least. Yet it's sold out in all Lidl supermarkets.

 

[Richie]

I am appalled by this but Food Standards Australia claims it operates a highly regarded, science-based, and robust testing system, ensuring a very safe food supply, often ranked among the best globally. If any product fails their test it is removed from the market.

I expect FSA accept that not all food is 100% healthy but also accept that artificial additives are below levels to harm human health. Why the need for these additives, which are supposedly to enhance shelf life, taste and flavor, when we ate natural ingredient foods growing up and were bloody healthier for it.

 

[Richie]

Which vid? When I click on it, a number of vids open.

It opens to the companies website for me. Anyway try to find the German equivalent. There is a UK one.

 

[Richie]

No worse time for my air con to go on the blink than when we are having a week of moist/humid weather to round out our summer. Do you guys become excessively angry in very humid weather. I do, hate humidity with a passion.