Initially, I was under the impression that the Omega Speedmaster Professional was the only timepiece certified by NASA for spaceflight. Whilst some research proved that to be technically correct, the Bulova chronograph made an outing on the wrist of David Scott during the third Apollo 15 moonwalk without being NASA flight certified.

Apparently, Mission Commander David Scott wore his Speedmaster on the lunar surface during his first and second moonwalks but during the second moonwalk before the crystal mysteriously popped off forcing him to wear his personal backup Bulova chronograph for the third moonwalk. It just happened to be a coincidence that Scott’s Speedmaster failed, but fortunately a he bought his personal and specifically designed one-of-a-kind Bulova so was able to wear that as a replacement. There was a suggestion that the contract should be awarded to an American manufacturer and not a Swiss company.

Bulova allegedly attempted to utilise their White House contacts to seek favourable concessions to allow the contract to be awarded to their timepiece. However, Omega was the only timepiece to pass the tests, Bulova was not even considered in the initial selection so the Bulova timepiece could be considered a stowaway not meeting test criteria. As Scott’s Bulova chronograph timepiece was private property and not the government issued Speedmaster and property of the US government, he was able to retain his moonwatch as official timepieces had been donated to the Smithsonian Institute for display. As private property, Scott was able to sell his Bulova chronograph at private auction in 2015 for $1.6 million – that’s a pretty tidy sum.

An absolutely ruthless weapon has appeared in Ukraine, a drone that dispenses molten metal onto Russian positions. Known as dragon drones, the drones are attacking established Russian positions in wooded areas forcing them to flee. If the molten metal does not get you, there is still the fire caused by the material.

The thermite drone is flown over Russian positions and the thermite is dropped on the forested areas and through open tank hatches. This is a white hot mixture of aluminium powder and iron oxide burning at around 2200 degrees Celsius – nasty stuff. Firebombing is not new, Dresden and Hamburg in Germany, Tokyo was firebombed by napalm and Vietnam had napalm used extensively.

Thermite is not banned in warfare, whilst the use of thermite is banned on civilian targets, legitimate military targets are accepted. Other forms of incendiary weapons include napalm and white phosphorus. The psychological factors, thermite burns through most materials, if you get burned with thermite it can burn through skin, muscles, tendons, ligaments and even into bone. The rehabilitation is long and painful lasting months leaving huge physical and psychological scars.

The Ukrainian push into Russian territory continues, no one is really sure of the strategic goals, sure, we all speculate but no one knows for sure. I am seeing a trend, this will be much longer than anticipated incursion. I initially thought this would be a foray into Russia to shake them up, then a strategic pullback, this is not the case, as we are learning – this is way bigger.

What we do know is Ukraine has pulled defensive troops and equipment out of the Donbas region to engage in this spectacular offensive. As a consequence, Russians have been forced to flee the Kurst region, some are headed north to the major cities Moscow and St Petersburg, Putin cannot hide this from the population any longer.

I suspect with winter approaching, this offensive has been brilliantly timed to cause Russian refugees fleeing the fighting into temporary accommodation just as the Russian winter approaches. As Ukraine drives deeper into Russian territory with drones targeting energy resources, the loss of energy transmission decreases. This will force the western Russian population into energy shortages in winter. No longer can troops or equipment mass on the border with any degree of safety, Russian airfields are being hit deep into Russian territory – they are no longer safe.

Putin ordered the special military operation, aka the Ukrainian war without provocation and turned a 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine into a 2024 Ukrainian invasion of Russia. In the four weeks of the defense of Russia, Putin has been unable to stop or turn back the Ukrainian invasion forces. What Putin did was launch missiles, troops and aircraft into Ukraine from behind the safety of the Russian borders.

The NATO aligned countries had prevented Ukraine from using supplied weapons directly against Russian territory. Another red line had been crossed, Putin was bluffing and NATO countries must now be emboldened, all the posturing that prevented NATO from acting decisively has now vanished. Had NATO acted properly, this war would now be fought on Ukrainian terms if it was still going at all. The NATO mistakes has cost the brave Ukrainian forces dearly in terms of lives lost, wounded and incapacitated and equipment.

I can’t really explain why old style watches are so popular today, it may be because many online kickstarter businesses are popping up with internet stores with watchmakers wanting to show that they have been there for the journey. It may be because people believe the style back in the early to mid twentieth century was superior, fashion does reinvent itself. It may even be because people feel greater workmanship was built into these timepieces. I suggest watchmakers are happy to manufacture re-editions of a popular line because that is what the watch community wants. They are responding to the customer’s needs, I am sure market research is leading them to this conclusion.

Clearly dive watches can’t really go back to the early twentieth century, scuba diving really became popular based on the adventures of Frenchman Jacques Cousteau and his crew on board the Calypso. Maybe you feel like you are part of the discovery of the oceans, vintage watches are big business now, many people are purchasing second hand watches on online platforms such as ebay, Chrono24 or even auctions. All of a sudden, your grandfather’s watch was valuable, who would have known the watch the old guy wore daily was now a collector’s item – was the old guy really that cool?

The 42 mm Heritage Diver is a re-edition of the 1960s model, the advantage of a re-edition is a sapphire crystal may be fitted such as in the case of the Heritage Diver providing scratch resistance for the crystal. The watch doesn’t have 40 or more years of wear and you don’t expose large sums of money to potential fraudsters if you are purchasing online. I love vintage watches but I don’t want to part with my cash hoping that the person will send what I paid for; or worse, the watch is a fake or frankenwatch. This is a watch that has been either modified or serviced with non-standard components.

Once watches become vintage, you don’t want to take them diving because if they flood you have just destroyed a perfect vintage timepiece. After I had a 1967 timepiece refurbished at a watchmaker, he informed me that watches over 40 years of age shouldn’t be immersed anymore as they do not rate the water resistance anymore. The powerplant is the L633 self-winding automatic movement vibrating at 28,800 VPH providing 38 hours of power reserve. The three hand model shows hours minutes and seconds, the dial is a little busy with long minute markers; however, this is what people want and this is a popular rerelease.

I think the carelessness of smokers is causing pollution to our oceans; whilst the issue of plastics in the ocean has gained widespread media attention, cigarette butt pollution is much less documented.

I recall a conversation with an American guy I was diving with Indonesia; whilst this was some time ago the principles remain undiminished. He had previously been diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, he explained the strict rules to me. He had been smoking on the boat and flicked his cigarette butt into the water, much to his surprise he was made to jump in the water and retrieve the rubbish he had just thrown into the ocean.

He told me he thought it was fair enough after he had time to think about it. Here he was diving in a pristine destination and the potential to spoil it had just been averted. He hadn’t really thought about the consequences of his actions and I am guessing the manner in that he was asked to retrieve his rubbish had a large bearing on his new attitude. I think that was fantastic, he now holds a greater awareness of ocean pollution and he did spreading the word.

I sometimes laugh when people start listing individuals who do not hold university degrees who have succeeded in business. Yeah, sure there have been individuals that have been successful in business such as Richard Branson, whilst Richard has a well documented case of dyslexia, Richard hires top notch people to run his businesses when he is piloting a speedboat across the Atlantic Ocean or taking a balloon trip.

Tech entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerburg and Steve Jobs all dropped out of university and succeeded in business – true. These are guys who attended some pretty major American universities; successfully applying to these institutions indicates high level intelligence and academic application, they were already at the top of their game.

The question is, how many engineers, management majors, marketing majors and accountants do these entrepreneurs employ? Guys like David Karp of Tumblr, who sold the company to Yahoo Inc for $1.1 billion. Bill Gates may not have completed his college degree, he was however admitted to the prestigious Harvard University. So too was Mark Zuckerburg, his company now employs over 7000 people – you can bet he employs suitably qualified people.

So while Mark Zuckerburg may not have completed his studies at Harvard, you know he is employing people from these institutions. Not only that, he has now joined the board of China\’s Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management. This could only mean, these guys rate university education highly; after all, they are employing graduates from these very schools they attended themselves.

IWC gained a reputation for pilot’s watches in the 1940s, the pilot watch was manufactured for the Luffwaffe in World War II. The 1950s saw the rebuilding of Europe, engineers working in labs were exposed to magnetic fields, the rebuilding of industries in the post WWII era saw advances in technology. The anti-magnetic capabilities of this watch prevented magnetism of the movement when exposed to excessive magnetic fields in engineering labs and workshops.

The Ingenieur predated the Rolex Milgauss that released in 1956 and the Omega Railmaster released in 1957, the Ingenieur was released a couple of years ahead of both of these engineers watches. The Ingenieur Reference 666 was released in 1955 followed by the Reference 766, the Reference 866 was released in 1967, one with a date and a no-date model.

The Reference IW3227 was designed by legendary watch designer Gérald Genta, the 42 mm case and integrated bracelet was big for the time. The IW3239 was 40 mm in diameter and thinner in thickness. Both the IW3227 and IW3239 featured a winged crown guard, both models had screws in the bezel.

The 500,000 A/M was released in 1989, the balance spring was manufactured from niobium-zirconium alloy. This alloy has a melting point of 2399℃, a density of 8.59 g/cm3 , a Vickers Hardness of 65 – 140 and tensile strength of 330 – 620 MPa. This is pretty serious material for a balance spring, the rotor had ruby ball bearings, other anti-magnetic materials were used for the pallet fork.

The 500,000 A/M was a commercial failure, the balance spring used innovative materials, however, the balance spring was affected by temperature changes, these temperature changes were more disruptive than the magnetic fields. There is a risk in innovation, the watch was produced, but was really not viable in a commercial sense. The movement was based on an ETA base 2892, the modifications for the ebauche were a good try, now the 500,000 A/M is seen as a collectable.

I find it unusually strange to stand outside a building that is cordoned off to the public to snap photographs, yet alas I do. But oh no, we are not allowed in to view the goings on from the inside. This pretty much sums it up, like minions, we are all affected in our lives by the decisions made inside this building; but we are not made privy to the goings on inside the walls of the New York Stock Exchange.

The fact that this building is located on Wall Street is not lost on me, they have erected a wall around the NYSE to keep the great unwashed at bay. This might be viewed as a monument to insider trading, corporate fraud and white collar corruption. Undoubtedly, we need stock exchanges to provide capital to build an economy, but not exchanges run like this one.

The Ukrainian foray into the Kursk region of Russia is a brave move, pulling off this surprise attack was one of the great strategic moves of the war. This offensive is also one of the great tactical moves of the war for Ukraine. This is a bold move, this is a shock attack and I am suitably impressed.

Ukraine was getting pushed back in the Donbas region, they were slowly losing ground and losing limited resources. I was so surprised when I woke one morning to see Facebook messages from my brother who is a couple of hours ahead in Sydney, he informed me of the bold offensive and we attempted to work out what Russia was doing. I was listening to Professor Michael Clarke on Sky News UK along with segments from Sean Bell.

So what we know is Ukraine has put battle hardened troops into this offensive, they have ensured they are well resourced and equipped. What we saw was Ukraine pushing hard and fast, they gained a fair amount of ground in the early stages. I was speculating if they would make a lightning raid and then withdraw, a few weeks in and this does not seem to be the case, they look like they are planning to hold and occupy the land.

Ukrainian forces pushed hard and fast, whilst they may have extended their supply lines, they have not exceeded logistics. This has put a natural brake on their advance, they could have been wiped out in a counter-attack with failed logistics. We only have to look at the failed Russian offensive to take Kiev in three days, this was a tactical defeat and strategic disaster. So whilst there might not be the thunder runs the Ukrainian troops employed to over-run the Russian forces early in the war, we might see something special soon.

So it appears the Northern Territory to Singapore solar generated electrical generation plant and undersea cable is stalled again. The project has great potential, it is great to see high-level collaboration between the two nations. The Northern Territory offers both the expanse to house solar panels and ample sunlight to power the solar cells.

An undersea cable is required to transport the electrical output of the project to Singapore, this is likely to be a major engineering feat, an undersea cable of 4200 km is a major undertaking. What Singapore requires is both efficient and reliable energy, this project has the potential to meet the energy needs of Singaporeans.

This is a great example of nations coming together with differing requirements but mutual interests. There is no doubt Australia has plenty of sunshine and space. The island nation of Singapore on the other hand has limited space and although located close to the equator, is overcast and tropical.

Sure, based on the close proximity to the equator, Singapore really doesn’t have defined seasons like many of the Southeast Asian nations of the region. What they lack is space on their island nation that is characterised in a constant rainy season. This cloud cover and lack of usable space is a real issue. The Northern Territory has plenty of space to erect solar panels and year round sun.

The real issue is the technological requirements of transmitting electricity to Singapore via undersea cable. The solar generation capability is existing technology, but it appears the transmission capability is the limiting factor and I would be interested how they transmit electrical energy over such vast distances., so given the operational constraints, the power generation should be sufficient if the project can get secure funding.