Mayor4Unley

Mountain biking is the recreation side of cycling, not the grudge ride to work in traffic and car fumes. Here's a link to the ultimate in mountain bike riding ... YouTube video  

In The Advertiser today there was an article on how to tell if you have a male brain or a female brain. It said ... You have a male brain if you: Like to make to do lists Answer honestly when asked 'does my bum look big in this?' Prefer to read non-fiction Notice grammatical errors Find maps easy to read You have a female brain if you:K Find it easy to chat to someone you have just met Can sense when you are intruding Lack interest in the technical details of a new computer, camera or other gadget Focus on the beauty of a painting rather than the artist's technique Have little interest in the dates of historical events Interesting, but not surprising. By the above criteria I definitely have a male brain with bit of a female brain as a bonus. BTW I did notice and fixed a grammatical error in the newspaper's article.

What annoys me, really annoys me is the discriminate use of sub-titles on TV when people are being interviewed. There should be a clear rule, a mandatory rule of when someone can not be clearly understood, then use sub-titles. If they are Aboriginal, Pacific Islander, PNG, Middle East then sub-titles seem to always be used even if there is reasonable clarity. However they don't seem to get used when people are from Britain (inc. Wales, Scotland), SE Asia, China, India ... when often there is no clarity. There should be no offence to the person being interviewed. If the interview is in English then the communication (to us) should be in English. If sub-titles will help, then use them.

Getting software for free is a bonus. Here are a few that I recommend. XMind.  Is a free, open source, mind mapping and brainstorming tool. This comprehensive mind mapping tool helps you to express, structure and organise your ideas, then present them in attractive, professional diagrams.  http://www.xmind.net/ Wunderlist  is the easiest way to get stuff done. Whether you’re planning a holiday, sharing a shopping list with a partner or managing multiple work projects, Wunderlist is here to help you tick off all your personal and professional to-dos.  https://www.wunderlist.com/ GanttProject:   This software allows you to easily organise tasks and time frames. GanttProject is an industrial-strength cross-platform (Windows, OS X, Linux) project manager that provides everything you need to stay in control. Create and organise tasks, add milestones, set priorities and costs, allocate resources, monitor your colleague's workload: it's all here. ...

I’ve just read an article by Jason Murphy @ the newdaily.com.au about the probable growth of cars imported from China. Past attempts have been dismal and there have been serious concern and reservations about the lower quality of these imports. I think it will take many years for China to seriously penetrate the Aussie market. It needs to address the high rate of product recalls. Jason Murphy explained that China is famous for product quality scandals. In 2008 there was the milk quality scandal that sickened thousands of Chinese children and killed at least six is only the most famous. The history of poor product quality can be seen in The Diplomat . It says:  “There are insecticides in dumplings, eggs repeatedly tainted with melamine, urea in bean sprouts, 40-year-old meats, hepatitis A in frozen berries, plastic rice, formaldehyde in beer, sewage used as cooking oil and tofu marinated in human feces. This brief list hardly runs the gamut, because for every scandal that bre...

Biryani is an easy to make rice dish. It is light and spicy. Usually the meat used is mutton; but you can use whatever eg. beef, chicken, fish and prawns; whatever. Typically the spices are star anise, cinnamon, cardamon and cloves. The rice is initially cooked separately. Here is my mutton (or chicken) biryani recipe for 4 people. Ingredients: 300g basmati rice (1.5 cups) 25g butter, prefer ghee (2tbsp) a large onion, slice finely a bay leaf 3 cardamom pods a teaspoon of turmeric some cinnamon and star anise if you wish ½ cup of raisins (prefer sultanas) 750ml of chicken stock 4 generous tbsp curry paste 0.5kg mutton, lamb or chicken thighs; dice coarsely Chopped coriander and toasted almond slices when serving Soak the rice in warm (not hot) water for 5 minutes. Rinse, drain and repeat ie. rinse and drain twice. Heat butter in large saucepan, gently cook onions and the spices for 7 minutes Add the turmeric, meat and curry paste. Cook for 3 minutes...

Dogs are so good about conning their human companions (aka. owners). They make maximum use of sad and guilty faces when the human gets upset by some dastardly doggy behaviour. The human is convinced that the dog is genuinely remorseful. However, Dr Ljerka Ostojic, a psychologist (for dogs or humans?) at the University of Cambridge, has studied the matter and he suggests that ‘the downcast face is just a human-pleasing facade’. He did a study as follows: He asked volunteer humans to train their dogs to not eat a biscuit A biscuit was placed within reach of the dog After the human left the room the biscuit was either fed to the dog or removed When the owner returned, he/she could not discern from the dog’s face if the dog had eaten it The psychologist believes that the guilty look on dogs stems from distress and not conscience. In the case of multiple dogs in a household, often it was the most timid dog that looked guilty; it simply got more frightened. In...