Tim's Bits and Pieces: Oddities

Sting like a bee

TimP — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 23:03:54 +0200

Suspicious Fire is Suspicious

TimP — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 23:03:54 +0200

A fire has been extinguished on board the Navy's Armidale Class Patrol boat HMAS Bundaberg, alongside Darwin Naval base.

Wednesday morning:

HMAS Ararat, an Armidale Class Patrol Boat, suffered a fire on board whilst alongside Darwin Naval Base late on Wednesday morning.

This is downright odd; I've never heard of a single one catching on fire before, let alone two within a handful of days at the same base*, though they assure us that "[a]n initial assessment [of the fire on the Ararat] indicates there is unlikely to be a connection to the fire on board HMAS Bundaberg earlier this week."

* In fairness 10 of the 14 Armidale class boats are based in Darwin.

Astronauts' Insurance

TimP — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:03:53 +0200

This is rather interesting.

Hattip to Menzies' House

Mountain Lions

TimP — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 23:03:54 +0200

Look at the cute little Lion; isn't it adorable? :-)

Hattip

Irukandji Jellyfish

TimP — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:03:54 +0200

I finished my second day of the two day "Apply First Aid" course yesterday, and among the things we looked at was stings and bites. The Irukandji jellyfish has the normal "Headaches", "Back pain", "Nausea", etc symptoms, but then at the end of the list you have "Feeling of impending doom." I love Australian critters, not only will they put you in the hospital in agonising pain, but they will also give you feelings of impending doom. The treatment is fairly interesting too: "Anaesthesia and reassurance". Yep, the only thing they can do for you is give you some pain killers and tell you your not going to die (probably correct, it's only known to have killed a couple of people, but stings hundreds every year)

Selling Medibank Private

TimP — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:03:54 +0200

The Coalition claims it will sell Medibank Private:

[Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said,] "So I announce today that the Coalition will sell Medibank Private and use every dollar from the proceeds to help pay down Labor's debt."

Good idea. I can sort of understand the motives behind Government owned power or phone providers since these rely on a physical network, which in theory allows the establishment of localised monopolies more easily, but these do not apply to Health Care since you can provide it pretty much anywhere in the country without any need for a physical network. The most interesting thing about this news though is that most of the comments seem to express the belief that winning the popularity contest which is election to government makes you good and wise, while winning the similar popularity contest which is election to the board of directors of a company makes you stupid and/or evil. Yep, that makes sense. At least if a company sucks I can choose not to do business with it, but if the governments bad what option have I got?

The Lion's Mane

TimP — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:03:54 +0200

Just an interesting example of cultural differences I observed while reading The Lion's Mane, a Sherlock Holmes story. Basically the story goes that a man stumbles of the beach beside a lagoon in obvious agony, mumbles something about a "lion's mane", and then dies. When the body is examined it reveals a pattern of red welts across his back, which are described as similar to the wounds from a whip of some sort.

My immediate thought is "Poor man, from what I understand being stung to death by a jellyfish is a pretty painful way to go. Best remove it from the lagoon before someone else gets stung." Sherlock Holmes takes 15 or 16 pages and over a week to come to the same conclusion.

Unpopular decisions cause unpopularity

TimP — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:03:54 +0200

Rudd's explanation of poll dive:

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says a poll showing a drop in his approval rating reflects the unpopular decisions his Government is making.

[Rudd said,] "Some of those decisions will not be popular, but decisions in the national interest need to be taken for the future otherwise we place the future at risk."

In other news, "precipitation widely blamed for wet ground".

Solariums

TimP — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:03:54 +0200

Solariums ignoring new laws:

Under the amendments to the Radiation Control Act introduced [by the NSW government] in May, children under 18 and people with fair skin are prohibited from using solariums.

A government audit of solariums ... has found that 87 out of 89 solariums failed to comply with the new, stricter regulations.

Let's ignore the difficulties in defining what is "fair skin" and also why the government can say I can't do stupid things with my own body if I want to, and move right onto the statement from the Australasian Solarium Association:

I would say that the majority of the solariums out there are doing the right thing and that's why they're still operating. [Emphasis mine]

So that's why the government is cracking down on solariums; the radiation they emit obviously interferes with proper brain function, to such an extent that heavy exposure can result in the inability to distinguish between the majority and 2.5%. Heck, I don't say this lightly, but perhaps we should think about banning them entirely.

Meth Addicts as a Security Risk

TimP — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:03:54 +0200

Linux Magazine: Intrusion Stories:

...
Network intrusion isn't just for pranksters anymore. Spammers, credit pirates, meth addicts, and countless other n'er-do-wells are all looking for a way in.
...

"Wait, meth addicts?"

Which lead me to an interesting web search. For instance see msnbc's "The meth connection to identity theft". Huh, you learn something new every day.