The Random thought thread

[onetrack]

Aspartame is toxic, it's been found to cause cancer by researchers. I hate the taste of the stuff, and go out of my way to ensure it's not in any food or drink that I consume. "Diet" drinks always contain it.

[red750]

Aspartame is not used in the No Added Sugar cordials, but the ones used may be as bad or worse They are 952  Cyclamate, 950 Acesulphame K and 955 Sucralose.

 

Concerns around artificial sweeteners tend to focus on whether they can cause cancer, weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular problems. 

 

But government food regulators have repeatedly found artificial sweeteners to be safe, and the Cancer Council says there's no clear evidence that artificial sweeteners cause cancer in humans. 

 

A 2019 review concluded there is no strong evidence linking artificial sweeteners to any positive or negative health outcomes – although the authors did note that there's not enough evidence to rule out potential harm from long-term use, and further studies are needed.

[onetrack]

Aspartame is a manufactured chemical, and it's a huge money spinner for a lot of big American companies. I see no need to add manufactured chemicals to my foods and drinks.

 

https://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Aspartame.html

[red750]

In the 1960's I was a teller with the Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd. At one branch I was posted to, one of the customers was a licenced grocery store. One Christmas they gave me a bottle of Cutty Sark whiskey. It sat in a cupboard for about 5 years until finally I gave it to my brother in law as a Christmas gift.

[Marty_d]

3 hours ago, red750 said:

In the 1960's I was a teller with the Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd. At one branch I was posted to, one of the customers was a licenced grocery store. One Christmas they gave me a bottle of Cutty Sark whiskey. It sat in a cupboard for about 5 years until finally I gave it to my brother in law as a Christmas gift.

At least that's not as bad as what a mate's teetotaler parents did.

When clearing out a dead relative's house they found a bottle of red wine in a cupboard. As they didn't drink, they used it in a big Bolognese sauce.

Label was "Grange Hermitage".

[nomadpete]

Random thought about past aero engines.... I found this on a different forum & randomly thought some here might be interested....

 

"Another funny one..... is to pass the engine-turbo exhaust through a mechanically coupled 'turbo' (200 : 1 or so) to the flywheel . . .
The last generation of piston aeroplane engines used this, referred to as "turbo-compounding". The most successful of these was the Wright R3350 eighteen cylinder radial, which used three exhaust turbines coupled to the crankshaft via fluid couplings to raise power from 2800HP to 3500HP and at the same time reduce specific fuel consumption. More ambitious was the Napier Nomad, which was a twelve cylinder turbo compounded two stroke diesel of similar power, but much better figures for power/weight and specific fuel economy, as well as lower frontal area. 70% of the power came from the turbine. However, by the time it came on the scene, aircraft manufacturers and buyers were only interested in turbines, and it never got beyond a prototype. "

 

I presume it is factual, and my mind got tied in knots trying to visualise the mechanics of those motors.

[old man emu]

31 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

my mind got tied in knots trying to visualise the mechanics of those motors.

The description of the Napier Nomad brought to my mind the ditty:

"How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck would chuck wood?"

[facthunter]

 You call people who get airsick easily, "Chucky".  Nev

[old man emu]

I don't have a flight bag. I have a barf bag.

[red750]

We got something interesting in the letterbox the other day. We have doubtless all received fridge magnets for various services such as plumbers, gutter cleaning, etc., but this one was a bit different. It was for an electrician, and the word ELECTRICIAN and the phone number were flourescent, so that when the lights go out these details glow in the dark. Interesting idea.

[spacesailor]

But ! .

As usual they don't work when needed .

 just check their glow ' in the early mornings hours ' . Not a sign of life .

Even my old ' radioactive luminous ' watch didn't glow at 3 AM.

And the same ' luminous letters ' ( N,S,E,W ) on my expensive compass dropped off , then sank under the dial . But they still glow if given a little sunlight .

spacesailor

 

[Marty_d]

Who calls a sparky at 3am? Good luck with that!

[spacesailor]

Yesterday it was fairly dark at 1700 hrs. 

so , if that " sparky " was needed,  so would a flashlight .

My early wee small hour walkabout is usually,  to the toilet. 

pitch-black without a little light .

spacesailor

[old man emu]

I'm still amazed how bright it is away from city lights. It's only around the time of the New Moon when it really gets dark. If there is any part of the Moon showing, you don't need a light.

[red750]

I have two small torches from Woolies which are each powered by two AA batteries. They give off a very bright light and the batteries last at least 6 months. They are 14cm long and 2 cm in diameter. They cost less than $10 each. They fit in the neck of a Daily Juice bottle which gives a solid base to bounce the light off the ceiling. One torch is sufficient to light a room enough to walk around safely without bumping in to things, and can easily be carried around. 

[onetrack]

I picked up several "Eveready Dolphin" torch Chinese copies from The Reject Shop - for $5 each on special. They're $10 normally. They have 13 LED globes in the lens, instead of the old Dolphin single incandescent globe.

I put in 4 "D" size "Heavy Duty" (Manganese dioxide style - NOT alkaline) batteries, they cost $2 each from the same shop. These torches are absolutely brilliant in every way, they throw a beam for 50 metres and are the cheapest and brightest torch for the money that I've found anywhere.

Strangely enough, The Reject Shop website doesn't show them - but here they are on eBay for $20! Some crowds are charging $34 for them!! Talk about get-rich-quick merchants!!

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/286488703817

[pmccarthy]

Where's your inner entrepreneur? Buy the lot and put them on eBay!

[onetrack]

Peter, it's not the first time I've done that! My local Bunnings threw out a pile of unwanted poly pipe fittings in large sizes, for a giveaway price, about 15 years ago. I grabbed the lot, as I knew it was typical sizes farmers and hobby farmers used, not city buyers. I put them on eBay and made a huge killing out of them - selling them all to Eastern States buyers, believe it or not!

[facthunter]

OLD poly is hard to unravel.  Nev

[Litespeed]

On 19/05/2025 at 8:32 PM, Marty_d said:

She could have been right if it was a carnivorous platypus...

Platypus are carnivores.

 

[Marty_d]

Sorry Litespeed.  I used the word incorrectly because I don't think there's one that means "duck eater".

[red750]

I got called in to watch a segment on the Channel 9 program Postcards. The Union Hotel in Ascot Vale was featured. Due to my deafness, I missed the discussion betwen my kids where he said he had to sell his share in the hotel when Dictator Dan screwed Victoria and banned hotel trading during his horrendous Covid lockdown. Craig was required to take his accrued long service leave and is now a permanent casual, often working seven days a week.

[onetrack]

The problem with the COVID lockdown in the Eastern States was the arbitrary and uncontrollable systems of selection and enforcement. The stories abound of unfairness and stupidity amongst the lockdowns rules and regulations.

Myself and SWMBO were locked up 3 times for 14 days at a time between 2020 and 2022, each time for a fortnight, simply because we had been in the vicinity of COVID carriers. We never had any infection each time we were locked up. The worst was being locked up over Christmas and New Year 2021/22. It totally ruined our Christmas and NY.

 

We'd gone to the Gold Coast in early Dec 2021 to have an early Christmas with SWMBO's son and wife. But a major outbreak that started in NSW and which was spreading to QLD alarmed us, and W.A. went into lockdown from Dec 20th.

Our return flight for Dec 28th was cancelled due to the number of flight cancellations - so we rebooked on a flight on Dec 18th, and just made it home, as the State locked down. BUT - there were 2 travellers, 8 seats behind us on the aircraft, who DID have COVID - despite QLD supposedly being free of COVID at that time. Obviously, they carried it from NSW.

 

Neither of us got COVID during the lockdowns, or during the main period of COVID - but we got COVID when we travelled to the Gold Coast in April 2023, to visit SWMBO's son and wife.

This was well after lockdowns ended - and neither of us have any idea of where we contracted it from. It was obviously a public venue we attended, and we suspect it was Robina Shopping Centre.

[facthunter]

WA isolated and it helped THEM. It's very contagious and still causes problems AFTER you've had it Lung disfunction as an example. Surely when it's new and scary CAUTION is justified where Lives are concerned. A Bot said it's mainly the OLD so let it run.  That's an ANTI Science mind for you.. Clive Palmer flew in tons of Draino or something hoping to make a killing. Isolation is a proven way of stopping transmission of diseases. Immunisation works too  but tell that to the anti-vaxxers.  Nev

[Marty_d]

US has now limited covid vaccines to specific cohorts (over 60, immunocompromised etc).

So if you're not in one of them and you want to get vaccinated, too bad, you can't.

 

I swear, everything that comes out of the Trump administration is the opposite of logical.