What I Learnt Today

Why do I always seem to pick the wrong line at the Coles checkouts?

I’m into queueing theory, so was very happy to come across this video about Agner Erlang, the father of queueing theory, by Prof Bill Hammack. Prof Hammack is from the University of Illinois. He also goes by the title ‘The Engineer Guy’, http://engineerguy.com.

What I Learnt On 20th January in other years

20th January 2016 Neuwagen Nervosa – the irrational fear of damage to your new car

For many years we have intended to visit the Spirit House Restaurant, at Yandina on the Sunshine Coast.
Today we learnt that it was worth waiting for.

The Spirit House Restaurant was established in 1995 by Helen and Peter Brierty. The buildings are pavilion style, separated by walkways, which all open onto the exquisite tropical garden.

“We wanted to recreate tropical Asia. We created this land from nothing; it was just a very bare paddock when we moved here. We planted every tree, every flower and dug all the ponds,” says the owner, Helen.

As well as the restaurant, there is a popular cooking school on site. Helen and Annette Fear (the original chef) have published a number of cookbooks,. Some recipes from the school are available here.

The menu is innovative, contemporary Thai. The ingredients are delivered daily to the kitchen door by local growers – ginger, lemongrass, tumeric, chillies, kaffir lime are just a few of the Asian ingredients grown in the area.

The ‘signature’ dish is Whole Crispy Fish with Tamarind Chili Sauce. We also had 

Chargrilled Beef Ribs with Sweet Chili Dressing & Orange Mint Salad 
Lemon Grass Curry of Chicken with Kaffir Lime 
Pineapple Fried Rice in Egg Net with Cashews & Vietnamese Mint 
BBQ Tamarind Duck with Ginger Lychee Glaze & Crispy Egg Noodles 
and a Watermelon and Coconut Salad. 

The menu is available here.
http://www.spirithouse.com.au/restaurant/menu

It was a magnificent meal.

I think I’ve previously had two ‘real’ Thai meals – Sailor Thai at the Rocks and Jimmy Liks in Victoria St, Potts Point.
http://www.sailorsthai.com.au/
http://www.jimmyliks.com/

Cathy would also rate Longgrain, in Liittle Bourke St, Melbourne.
http://www.longrain.com.au/

We think the combination of food, atmosphere and setting at the Spirit House topped them all.

PS The Spirit House has an interesting blog at http://www.spirithouse.com.au/funstuff/

What I Learnt On 19th January in other years

19th January 2016 Which diet is best for your health?

Taking Surf Life Saving Australia’s App ‘Beachsafe’ for a spin.

Tropical Cyclone Zelda brought some big waves to the Sunshine Coast last weekend.
All five points from Noosa (heading east) were ‘working’ with their famous right hand rolling waves.
Each point was packed with hundreds of surfers.

The hot weather, after weeks of rain (and floods), brought thousands to the beaches.
The water rolling in with the big waves had to get out somehow, and so there were rapids sweeps and strong rips.

Lifesavers expected a big weekend, and it was. However, I doubt they were expecting to have to pull a catfish out of a dumped surfer’s back.
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2011/01/17/sunshine-coast-beaches-…

There are 12,000 beaches in Australia. Which gets us to the new app created by Surf Lifesaving Australia called Beachsaver.
It uses the nationwide database of all Australia’s surf clubs, and has detailed information on the beaches near where you are, when they are patrolled, the daily weather and surf conditions, and general information about each beach, how hazardous it is, and where to swim.

The app is easy to use, presents relevant information clearly, and is a excellent example of the power of networked databases.

The information in Beach Safety is also available from http://beachsafe.org.au
The app is a free download from the App Store

What I Learnt On 18th January in other years

18th January 2016 Apple Watch – Getting the band back together

Red Slurpee (RS) is a complicated molecular compound. It’s main purpose is to stain things.

It was therefore an unequal match when RS was found to have been in contact with a white laminated table in our unit today.

The large red stain was resistant to prolonged vigorous scrubbing and to detergent. Shannon Lush was not returning our call.

In desperation, we applied toothpaste to the stain. To our surprise, it had an immediate effect and with a little rubbing the table was pristine again.

Toothpaste contains three major ingredients – abrasives, fluoride and detergent. Whitening toothpaste will also contain peroxide. Most of the benefits from teeth cleaning are in fact attributable to the mechanical action of the brush, rather than the paste. Abrasives make up more than 50% of toothpaste, and a number of different agents are used. If you don’t have any toothpaste, salt or baking soda would make a good alternative.

Our Slurpee stain had a good outcome (unless you look at it from the Slurpee point of view). It is possible that salt or baking soda would have been as effective. I’m not game to do a double blind control study to find out.

What I Learnt On 17th January in other years

17th January 2016 I am the Barista and I am Supreme

The Australian company Nearmaps today released high resolution aerial photos of the Brisbane floods. The images were taken from two Cesna aircraft at the height of the flooding last Thursday, and were specially commissioned by the Qld state government and Brisbane council.

View the maps here

The SMH reports that the CEO of Nearmap, Simon Crowther, commented that “It’s super high resolution and you can zoom in and see a walnut on the ground without it pixelating.” I’m not sure why you would want to look at a walnut, but I see what he means.

As the News tonight details the heroic clean-up efforts, it is sobering to see the extent of the flooding.

What I Learnt On 16th January in other years

16th January 2016 50 Common Misconceptions

Have you ever had an urgent need for swim goggles to find something underwater, but none were available?

No? Well, neither have I. But if I ever do, the technique that Will taught me today will come in handy.

You can see clearly underwater by creating a ‘mask’ with your hands, and using it to trap bubbles of air.

This video by Will and Millie explains all

What I Learnt On 15th January in other years

15th January 2016 Hey Siri, What are twenty three useful discussions we can have?