I frequently ask myself, what is a cognitive bias? For me, a cognitive bias is a preconceived notion that is based on incomplete information. This bias is a systematic flaw in thinking based upon individual perception, point of view or observation. Since my blog is named Observations in an Undemocratic World, this irony is not lost on me.

This is based on my personal observations, perception and way of thinking and is [naturally] not without bias or flaws. That being said, this blog is based on my personal observations and beliefs that may vary with readers. For me, this isn’t bad or incorrect, we all have differing viewpoints and perceptions and I frequently review cognitive bias to ensure I am not going too hard on one specific bias.

I started writing this post at the beginning of covid, it didn’t relay what I wanted to say so I relegated to the back of the draft file. Then, I picked this post up towards the end of 2022, so plenty had changed and I had a different perspective. I was pretty critical of the Chinese government and their inability to contain the virus within the borders of mainland China.

So, this is where we find ourselves, the pandemic is over and we have returned to our normal lives. There are no longer covid restrictions, we are living our lives as we did before. So what did we learn? Well, we should have learnt what jobs are critical to an economy, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison put it succinctly “If you stiĺl have a job, then you are a critical worker.”

What we do know is covid-19 originated from China, despite the best efforts of the wuamo, they were unable to grain any real traction in blaming Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom or indeed the US armed forces.what we all know is the corona virus exploded in the Wuhan wet markets before spreading through all of China and then the world.

This is where I am critical of the CCP, they allowed the mass movement of their citizens around the world during Chinese new year. Had the CCP curtailed travel, the corona virus would have remained a Chinese issue, this is not what the CCP wanted. The CCP were too slow to act, despite warnings of medical professionals in the city of Wuhan who tried to warn the population, corrupt party officials shut down dissent.

What is likely to be a more sinister motive, the CCP were happy to release the corona virus to the world so they could not only deflect blame from their shortcomings, they could unleash their wuamo on various social media platforms to plant dissent on conspiracy theory websites to create confusion and deflect blame.

Do you really need to blast your tank cap with full air pressure without going through your regulator? Probably not – oh well. Yet many divers do, this is a pretty widespread practice, I am meaning worldwide, everywhere I dive I see this. I have been known to use air to dry the dust cap, that is usually unusual circumstances though, I prefer to use my shirt or towel to dry the cap when I can.

Naturally it can be done, but it should be done at low-pressure, there are better ways to do it though. What really happens is you get an ear splitting crack as the valve is opened too far and excess air blasts out. I find it annoying, it really isn’t required, there are options that people don’t seem to consider. This is usually the result of poor instruction from instructors and learning content creators.

There has been the discussion of potential air embolism, but I do not know of actual cases, as a health and safety practitioner, I follow safety incidents in Western Australia and the other states. I don’t see incidents of air impregnation of the skin. In industrial workshops, we warn against compressed air safety, once again, we do not see a lot of statistics to warrant corrective actions.

Is there a better way? Well, yes there is, I get out of my wetsuit before dismantling my equipment so I have a shirt on so I use my shirt to wipe dry the cap. Between dives and a quick surface interval? Still use my shirt, even if I am not wearing it, that will be in my dry bag. People have towels in their bags and overhead storage bins, it is not hard to carry a small shammy in their kit or some other wipe – so yes, there are other ways.

I am glad to see Vacheron Constantin is beginning to gain some love by watch collectors online. As one third of the holy trinity of haute horology, Vacheron Constantin has been viewed as the poor cousin of Patek Philippe and Audermars Piguet. I could never understand this, sure Patek Philippe is high-end, it could be claimed Audemars Piguet has built its reputation on the Royal Oak and the Royal Oak Offshore. Yes, Patek Philippe has the Nautilus and Aquanaut, but they have so much more.

Off the top of my head, I cannot think of another Audemars Piguet timepiece despite looking around their boutiques in Hong Kong and Europe. There is the Code 11.59, released in 2019, it is certainly not the most popular Audemars Piguet offering. What I have seen looking through boutique windows is that Vacheron Constantin is a magnificent timepiece collection. The steel sports watch with integrated bracelet is the Overseas Automatic, this is the timepiece receiving the most love at the moment, collectors are now finding the Overseas desirable after the Royal Oak and Nautilus are mostly unattainable.

The Patrimony Minute Repeater Ultrathin is an elegant timepiece with a minimalist dial, this is my choice. The off-set petite minute hand at the 8 o’clock position is a decent style. I could never afford the precious metals that they use for this outstanding timepiece, but I can still enjoy the styling. The Patrimony Ultrathin Perpetual Calendar is a pretty decent complication, the Patrimony Retrograde Day-Date is interesting. There are self-winding and manual-winding options, I think I would prefer the manual-wind model.

The Traditionnelle has a Twin-Beat Perpetual Calendar, tourbillon, Calendar Chronograph, Day-Date, Complete Calendar, Self-Winding, Manual-Winding, and Ultra-Thin models. The Fiftysix has a Tourbillon, Complete Calendar, Self-Winding, Hand-Winding models, or one could argue movements and complications. The Historiques is probably the collection most suited to my tastes, when people discuss Vacheron Constantin, they nearly only discuss the Overseas Automatic. The Overseas Automatic is the steel sports watch that is the poor cousin of the PP Nautilus or AP Royal Oak. It is starting to get some love but I just love the simplicity of the Patrimony with the petite seconde.

The problems with HR departments are they are filled with unimaginative clueless people who are unaware that they are actually clueless. HR professionals are not as professional as their self endorsed titles, they get paid to perform a task, but they lack the real skills to recruit, select and train genuine candidates. HR lackies overlook so many potential employees, yet complain they cannot find suitably qualified and experienced people.

HR departments have a well earned reputation for being lackluster and frivolous, they hire uni grads on their first job with no on-the-job experience. Just as bad is the old HR staff who carry on their old outdated habits for decades without improvement or upgrades. Their substandard performance is well known, they will likely know where to locate a substandard performance form, but have no idea they should be listing their names on the very substandard performance forms they distribute.

There is a HR agency, but not one individual requires a qualification for HR endorsement. Notably, HR departments are staffed by juniors on minimum pay with minimum skills and knowledge. The Australian Human Resources Institute does offer professional development, just as their institute of Company Directors or the Institute of Management. The HR Institute does offer graded professional membership, training programs and endorsements.

As a professional trainer, I require a minimum qualification of a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. The qualifications must be issued by a Registered Training Organisation meeting significant regulatory requirements, the trainers and assessors working in a HR departments must be suitably experienced and qualified. Yet the rest of the HR lackies require no such qualifications, they require no ongoing professional development nor skills and knowledge currency.

So I received a call from the wine merchant, they ring on a regular basis and they put me in the draw for an all expenses paid visit to a wine region. I was not going to purchase at this time, but when I heard the specials, I thought I might purchase a pretty decent six pack of wine.

So when they offered the Yarra Yerling Dry Red No. 3 at a discounted price, I was interested. Based on our discussion I had previously purchased the Dry Red No. 1 and the Dry Red No. 2, but not the No 3. So ok, I was mistaken and a little excited, could I get a night going with my brother where we open and drink all three varieties in sync, that would be pretty good.

So first I need to distinguish between the No 1, the No. 2 and now the third wine in the Dry Red series. I imagine this will begin with a review of the Yarra Yerling tasting notes This will be a pretty interesting tasting session, albeit a little on the expensive side. In what could be considered a pretty decent tasting list, I will be primed for an outstanding evening. Although, I will not be looking forward to waking up after that tasting event.

The best place to begin is Dry Red No. 1, we have tried that already so we have a baseline of sorts. At time of writing, I have never experienced the No. 3 so that will make a robust tasting session. Maybe I might open a bottle before, just to get an idea of what I am expected to experience, a pre-tasting session of sorts.

The Soviet Union was winning the space race, the Soviets put the first satellite in space, Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space on Vostok I. So the Americans were playing catch up in what was an inherently dangerous business. The Russians were also leading the race to put a man on the moon, they had purposely crashed spacecraft on the moon’s surface to check the gravitational factors, lack of atmosphere and surface.

In what was ultimately communism v capitalism, it would initially appear the communist methodology was superior. Ironically, NASA was a government organisation; sure, they contracted out construction of modular components to aerospace corporations, but this was still led [and funded]. By a government organisation. As this was a competitive tender process, the astronauts could argue [they did] that they were riding on rockets built to the cheapest price and not the highest engineering standard.

We all know engineering design is influenced by factors such as functionality, weight, size and space considerations, conformity, minimum technical requirements and of course cost. Therefore, engineering design is a trade off between a number of conflicting factors. What we have seen with NASA’s Artamis program, the design is pretty close to the Saturn V rocket and Orion capsule is the four person equivalent to the Apollo command and service module. The engineers got it right in the 60s, their design influences still hold up today.

In the Mercury program, astronauts basically rode in a capsule mounted on top of a ballistic missile. These guys were pilots, they already had great experience pushing the limits of human endurance and the aircraft designs of the day. The Russians with their early ## rockets were impressive, this is 1950s technology, this would have been a wild ride on what was basically a converted missile as well. Plenty of bravery on both sides, there was mutual respect between astronauts and cosmonauts, they were both drawn from the same ##.

We all know of Yuri Gagarin in western nations and to my mind, whilst not as well known as American astronauts, this guy was a genuine hero. As we later found out, the Soviet space program was more advanced than the US program as far as achievements are concerned. However, their safety was non-existent, cosmonauts were basically expendable in pretty much the same way Laika the dog was. The Americans cannot judge, they were flying chimpanzees in their first missions.

The Soviet Union had some spectacular launch failures, either their rockets exploded on the launch pad or would get off the ground to explode after they cleared the launch tower. These cosmonauts were brave, they were risking their lives every mission, as we found out with Apollo 1, you could lose your life training in the capsule on the tower.

The Russian Space Agency has done a pretty good job, they are flying American astronauts to the International Space Station, since the Space Shuttle was retired, NASA had no vehicle to transport personnel into low orbit space. This has provided a boost to the cash strapped Russian Space Agency; they had previously resorted to taking ultra-high net-value space tourists into orbit with their payments supporting the agency.

Every Ukrainian life lost expelling the Russians from Ukraine is a tragedy, every Russian life lost is one step closer to victory. This is a terrible way to look at this human tragedy, but when overwhelming support exists in Russia to invade Ukraine and kill Ukrainians, you care little for their losses.

Vladimir Putin has publicly called for a Ukrainian genocide in his speeches and broadcasts, this is an existential war for Ukraine, they are fighting for their lives – they are truly fighting for their very existence. Their land, their resources and their freedom is at risk, this could last for generations, that would be until Russia collapses in a Soviet style implosion.

Look at the Russian aims, that was to push back NATO borders, to have a country between them and the NATO alliance. Ukraine was never a member of NATO and was refused entry into the alliance. So nothing has changed? Maybe, maybe not. Ukraine is still not a member of NATO, but what Ukraine has been able to do is secure weapons, training and economic support from NATO.

It gets better, Nordic countries Sweden and Finland are now NATO members with Finland bordering Russia. So Putin’s aim to have a country between NATO and Russia is an abject failure, Putin has drawn NATO closer to Russian borders. Furthermore, Putin has offered NATO members a common enemy to unite the alliance. Putin was right insofar as NATO was a loose alliance without a common purpose as Russia was no longer seen as a threat, unlike the former Soviet Union.

I received an email with a pre-release of the PRX Light Blue model, I get plenty of these so usually take a look and then move on. I really like what Tissot is doing, they are an entry level Swiss watch brand, yet they seem to have a knack of pulling out winners. The heritage line of Tissot has some great models, as I am really interested in their heritage line, the PRX in general grabs my attention and this light blue dial looks great.

The reference T137.407.11.351.00 is referenced as Ice Blue, this is a standard PRX with a light blue dial, but boy does this dial pop. This is a Gérald Genta inspired design with tonneau shaped dial and integrated link bracelet. The Powermatic 80 is a robust movement based on the ETA 2824-2 architecture that was modified by Tissot to offer product differentiation, this is a solid mechanical movement with 25 jewels, plenty of power reserve and a VPH of 25,500.

I have a number of Tissot watches in my collection from the Gentleman Silicum, the Everytime and the Visodate for my father. My first Tissot was the PR100 with a quartz movement that is also in my father’s collection. So I have some experience with Tissot, I really like my Petite Seconde with hand-wound 6498-1 movement. Generally a watch collector starts with cheaper models before learning more about watches and making an expensive purchase.

I want to make sure my collection is not overrun with dive watches, dress watches or one particular brand. This is the problem I now face, I have no shortage of Tissot’s watches and do I want to add another Tissot. I do not have a 1970s style integrated bracelet in my collection and the PRX is the best value integrated bracelet currently on the market. I am yet to strap a PRX to my wrist at time of writing so I am yet to experience the bracelet quality, the 40 mm dial is no issue for my wrist so I need to get down my local jeweller to see if the PRX feels right.

When I look at conflict in the world, I see hard line dictators, the world is watching the war crimes unfold in Ukraine brought about exclusively by Russian President and dictator Vladimir Putin. Whilst we see Putin retaining a tight grip on power, should further losses cause this megalomaniac to be toppled, there are plenty of other hardliners to replace him including PMC Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin.

If we review the disastrous invasion of Ukraine, the antics of Chechen leader Razan Kadyrov is beyond ridicule. As a token leader of Chechnya, the Putin installed puppet is making a first class laughing stock of himself, he is incapable of performing push-ups, runs around making ridiculous videos of himself firing weapons with vehicles circling – this must be a joke.

China’s Xi Jinping, sometimes ridiculed as Winnie the Pooh has openly stated he will retake Taiwan by any means necessary including by military action and has redrawn the Chinese constitution to become leader for life. Former US President claimed the election was stolen from him and was pivotal in inciting the insurrection on the Capital. Seeing the US insurrection, Brazilian supporters of Jair Bolsonaro staged their own insurrection on the Brazilian government and courts. Fortunately, just like the idiodic Trump supporters, their coup failed as well and all their ultra right-wing fascists were rounded up and the insurrection put down.

Supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Belarus dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko is sometimes credited as Europe’s last dictator. What we are seeing in Belarus is material support for Putin’s war, the Ukrainians have to divide their resources to protect their northern border. The invasion was launched from Belarus and Kyiv remains under constant threat due to the relatively close proximity to the border. Lukashenko is looking increasingly sick, his reign looks to be coming to an end and this can only be a good thing.

Likewise, although Hungary is a NATO member, they are obstructing NATO support for Ukraine by not allowing weapons to be transported through their territory. Poland on the other hand has been wholly supportive of Ukraine. Viktor Orban has been described as the weak link in NATO, amazingly Orban claimed only Donald Trump could stop this war with Ukraine when in reality, all the Republicans want to do is withdraw support for Ukraine and undermine NATO. For statements like this, one can only assume he is an idiot.

Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, India’s Narendra Modi, Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro have all been named as fascist style leaders of their respective countries by numerous think tanks. I agree with that list with the exception of Modi, I tend to think he is the right person for India who will stand up to Xi Jinping and their issues with China. India is a nation with a large population but still developing with huge disparities in wealth distribution that will hopefully be solved in my lifetime.

When I view flashpoints and conflict, I begin with the leadership, or lack lack thereof. My blog started back in 2013 when my Turkish friends asked me to use social media to broadcast the wrongs of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and so this blog was born. Donald Trump was a one term President, the world is a better place for this. He did more to undermine NATO than any other President and gave Russian President Vladimir Putin the confidence to attack Ukraine. Who could forget his recorded telephone conversation with Ukraine President Zelensky in 2019 threatening to withhold military support in return for information on Hunter Biden.