Mastodawn

Alasdair Sep 5, 2023

@trib Nice that he's "retired" but with a very handsome bonus, and only a few weeks early anyway. He should have retired at least 5, and possibly 10, years ago. He's run a once excellent airline into the ground, and I can't think of a suitable punishment for him, except that it should be severe.

Alasdair Sep 5, 2023

I was looking at the mineral contents of mineral waters for sale in Woolies yesterday, trying to determine in particular the sodium levels. Mt Franklin had Sodium (and a few others) listed in mg/100ml; easy to read. Schweppes: nothing that I could find. Pellegrino seemed to be in Greek, however the chemical symbols could be read; Na for sodium. Perrier seemed to be in Russian, and here I gave up, although the symbol for Na was present, the units seemed also to be in Russian, and I had no idea what they meant. It struck me as being ridiculous, that a product sold in Australia for Australian consumers should not have clear English labelling on it. Surely such bottles, no matter their provenance, could be relabelled?

Alasdair Aug 8, 2023

@feather1952
Just lovely - many thanks - it did put a smile on my face.

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Alasdair Apr 19, 2023

@AmandaKnol Yes, I can do that for this one set of lights. But my question was more generic - why do traffic lights have pedestrian push buttons at all? They seem quite redundant to me, and also have the possibility of confusion, as I mentioned. Actually there's another set of lights which I cross as a pedestrian, and for which the pedestrian light is never green quite long enough for a crossing - and I'm not a slow, dawdly walker. I might write to that council!

Alasdair Apr 19, 2023

Does anybody know why, at intersections already controlled by traffic lights, there are push buttons for the pedestrian lights? Near me there's an intersection for which some cars get a right turning arrow. This means that when the forward traffic light is green, a pedestrian light will be red if either (a) the turning arrow is green, or (b) nobody has pressed the pedestrian button. Given this opportunity for confusion, I would have thought it to be much more simple and error-free simply to have automatic pedestrian lights and do away with the buttons completely. Why are they there at all?

#traffic #pedestrian

Alasdair Apr 14, 2023

When it comes to climate change and making a difference - what are you prepared to give up? I was thinking about this the other day - some things that are "give-up-able", at least for some people, include: meat and dairy; all non-local produce and goods; long-distance travel; car ownership; long luxurious showers ... But this is very hard. We live in a global world, and we use resources profligately. And who's to say you can't take that long-awaited overseas holiday? Maybe we all need to start tightening our belts, metaphorically speaking, and reducing our carbon footprints. But nobody wants to hear this. Nobody wants to give up what they have, or what they think they ought to have. I have given up meat and dairy, but I'm hanging on to my (non-electric!) car. In fact I don't know what's reasonable.

#climatechange #vegan #carbonfootprint

Alasdair Apr 14, 2023

@NaturaArtisMagistra @Pece @breadandcircuses I don't blame them in the sense that veganism is a direct threat to their livelihood, and indeed to their mindset. But there will have to come a time when the environmental costs of animal farming far outweigh the benefits (such as they might be). Some would say that time has come. But people being people, and of course trying to protect their own interests (as all of us do) will come to this realization at different times.

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Alasdair Apr 14, 2023

@Pece @breadandcircuses This has come into sharp focus just recently with videos being released about the slaughter of pigs: they are apparently dumped into a CO2 chamber and suffocated to death. This causes immense panic, screaming, and terror for the time it takes them to die. What price our morning bacon and eggs?

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Alasdair Apr 14, 2023

@dlakelan All I can think of is getting a large sheet of graph paper: A3 if possible, and drawing a big quarter circle on it, and counting the points in or on that quarter circle. with fine enough graph paper you may get a reasonable sort of approximation.

Alasdair Apr 14, 2023

I'm currently reading "1788", Tim Flannery's edition of the two journals of the earliest days of white settlement in Australia by Watkin Tench, a captain of the marines.

What's remarkable - given the European mind-set at the time - is Tench's open-mindedness and willingness to listen and learn. At first he sees the local Aboriginal peoples around the Sydney area as "savages"; then he gets to know them personally, takes the trouble to learn their language, and so sees them as individual people who he comes to greatly admire and respect.

We have gone backwards in huge leaps since then. And the biggest thing we've lost, it seems to me, is the ability to listen and learn. If we kept our mouths shut and our ears and minds open we may do a lot better.

#Australia #history #firstfleet #aboriginal #colonialism