I am not a fan of Donald Trump, I don’t like his abrasive style of presidency, hostile attitude, narcissism, or personal integrity. I certainly do not like his lack of transparency and the high turn-over of senior staff is worrisome.

Whilst I don’t necessarily believe the trade war with China is a negative, the way Trump personally conducts himself is concerning. However, the threats to ban TikTok and WeChat are pretty decent decisions. The great firewall of China has banned websites like Google, Twitter and Facebook – it is not limited to these sites. WhatsApp, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Quora, Reddit, Viber, Messenger, Amazon, Hangouts, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, YouTube and Wikipedia are all banned.

The better question is, well, what isn’t banned? It isn’t much, but Chinese websites can operate on open democracies with immunity. WeChat, TikTok and Alibaba have no issues connecting China to the world through state censored filters. So, if Trump were to ban WeChat from the US, the very act will cause not only concern but further isolation. An effective ban would threaten conversations between Chinese individuals contacting families, business associates and friends. While this would be a huge inconvenience, what would be the ramifications?

The Chinese authorities then have a quandary, they cannot reciprocate in banning US websites in China in a repeat of the tit-for-tat closure of the US consulate in Chengdu after the Chinese consulate in Houston was closed. Chinese security forces regularly use WeChat to intimidate and coerce Chinese nationals living abroad in acts of diaspora. This will certainly curb Chinese influence in the US, this also affects US businesses conducting relations with the parent company, Tencent.

This is actually a very strategic move by the Trump administration, this smacks of Peter Navarro influences. Now, a full ban of Chinese websites including Alibaba will require the CCP to reflect on the Great Firewall of China, they may indeed allow US firms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter to operate in China in a reciprocal manner.

With the technology sector a leading disruptor for many traditional industries, the top business schools are fostering entrepreneurial labs to create skill-sets aligned to start-up business concepts. It is entirely foreseeable that the business education sector was developing a technology aligned MBA certification. The technology industry is heavily invested in start-ups and cash intensive research based projects.

The entrepreneurial labs at the leading universities are designing strategies to create value for the concepts they generate. I would suggest the standard strategy course be upgraded to include tech outcomes, finance is still important and this may include modifications to marketing. Naturally, entrepreneurship would be a required unit, the need to generate a concept, foster the the idea, create a business plan, market the plan to investors to finance the start-up is the core skill-set. Whilst MBA education has become more generalist, the requirements of a specialist degree are obvious.

Ok, so these aren’t my words but they do present an interesting explanation of what is occurring right now as I ask the question, what is virtue signaling? Where does this moral outrage come from, where is this actually applied?

Virtue signaling is defined as ‘Advocating a political or philosophical position, and/or taking up a public cause, from a position of vanity, for the primary purpose of demonstrating your conformity with fashionable pop culture values’. Ok, so what does that mean? Like so many others, I have social media accounts and this tends to be the forum to virtue signal. When the BLM protests took off, the white virtue signallers were busy. There was the #Me Too movement, immigration, police brutality, poverty, climate change and colonisation.

I am not interested in empty acts, if you truly believe in your cause, the question is, what have you done this month to improve the lives of those affected? Where have you volunteered? Have you put some of your own income to fund an initiative? People get on their mobile phones to complain about emissions and waste, yet their mobile phones add to the worldwide waste. They only last a couple of years, their batteries are made from rare minerals that are commonly mined using unsustainable methods and the phones are not disposed of properly that actually damage the environment.

I was sitting in the departure lounge at Johannesburg OR Tambo Airport waiting for my flight watching the ground support staff move the aircraft to the departure gates. The people next to me talking and trying to work out how they did it.

To me the answer was simple, the pushback tractor releases the brakes of the aircraft and tows the aircraft around. There was no crew in the aircraft that we could see, clearly ground support staff have to gain access to the flight deck to release the brakes, but the rest isn’t difficult to comprehend.

They could not see how such a small tractor is able to pull an Airbus A340 around but it isn’t too much of a mystery. It is all about torque and not size and the tractor develops plenty of wheel torque. A diesel engine, powershift transmission and torque converter assembly coupled to low range transmission develops substantial torque.

It is not unreasonable to incorporate a 9:1 reduction in the low gears of the transmission. The torque converter is basically a fluid clutch that can increase output torque by a factor of 2:1 depending on design and application.

However, this isn’t enough so a single reduction differential carrier increases torque approximately by a factor of 4:1 before dividing torque to the wheel ends. The hub reduction gearing increases torque again at the wheels by a factor of 10:1 so the torque developed at the engine flywheel is increased proportionally at each stage.

The aircraft isn’t running, there is no pilot available to crank up the turbines and taxi the aircraft around under its own power, the movement is all the work of the pushback tractor. For me, listening to people chat is very interesting, I had imagined people knew all this and no explanations were required.

Clive Palmer is an enemy of the state, that is the state of Western Australia. We are Covid-19 free in Western Australia, we have achieved eradication and all it takes is one person to end all the hard won gains. We are currently living in a bubble, an island within an island. With state borders closed, all the infections of the east coast cannot get in and wreck the economy of Western Australia, overwhelm the hospital system, make people sick and ultimately take lives.

Clive Palmer is a narcissist, he cares little about the people in this state, this is all about him and the business and political meetings he wants to have. Well, use Zoom or Webex like everyone else. We don’t want you here, we support the Premier in closing the borders and our economy is motoring along nicely at the moment. So, to polite as we can, fuck off, we don’t want you here and we refuse to open our borders to you or anyone else until it is safe to do so.

What was once one of the leading retailers in Australia, Myer has been on a downward trajectory for a long time. Heritage, prestige and history count for nothing in the new retail environment, in the US, Bloomingdale’s has filed for bankruptcy protection along with Chicago based Sears.

So, what’s going on at Myer? You walk into their stores and you cannot find a sales assistant that can help you, if you do they are staff for another brand. It is difficult to locate sales staff, it is up to you to track them down. If you are able to track down a sales assistant, they will look into the computer system so ad to inform you they don’t hold this in this store, you will have to go to another store at another location if that is what you want.

I am told their inventory is all old, that I am unsure about as I don’t really know the latest fashion trends, nor would I want to sometimes. That being said, my customer service experience has been different. Recently I was in their store asking for something they did not stock, the sales assistant was using the computer to my locate retailers in the general area where I could purchase this item so I would never complain about their customer service.

The Omega Flightmaster for me built on a contradiction. Omega first produced the Speedmaster in 1957 for motor racing but quickly became the official timepiece of choice for pilots and astronauts. Introduced in 1969, the Flightmaster was squarely aimed at pilots, ironically the year Buzz Aldrin donned his Speedmaster over his spacesuit during his moonwalk. Neil Armstrong was rumoured to have left his Speedmaster in the lunar module as the mission timer failed.

The iconic case is large, enormously large for the late 60s and early 70s but was designed to be legible to pilots under all conditions. The case design is unusual insofar as it is machined from a single block of stainless steel that is pressed and tempered for maximum strength. Unusually, the large case does not have exposed lugs instead opting for hidden lugs to form an elliptical shape to fit the contour of the wrist. An enclosed movable bezel, seven hands and five dials allows the pilot to set the chronograph.

The dial is set by colour coded auxiliary crowns on the left and pushers on the right controlling the chronograph and rotating bezel making the Flightmaster a GMT. Interestingly, the calibre 910 is based on the legendary Lemania manufactured calibre 861 movement as found in the Speedmaster. For my views, the Flightmaster is very much late 60s and early 70s style and whilst I like retro, I don’t think the Flightmaster is the style for me. The classic  styled Speedmaster remained the timepiece of choice for aviators despite being specifically designed for flight.

How good is Buzz Aldrin? Not only is Buzz a highly credentialed MIT graduate in astronautics, Aldrin is also a mechanical engineer and fighter pilot downing two Migs in the Korean war. His right is pretty decent for an old guy.

Calling Aldrin a thief, liar and coward – Sibrel demanded Buzz swear on the bible. Instead, 72 year old Aldrin reacted by punching Sibrel in the jaw. It could be claimed Sibrel is the liar, he was the one who lured Aldrin to the Beverly Hills hotel on the pretext of a Japanese TV interview – he got exactly what he deserved.

Perth used to have a local butcher in every suburb, maybe a couple of independent butcher shops in each area until about the early 1980s when the large supermarket chains forced them out of business.

We are now seeing a revival of the independent Butcher, at the very least, the supermarkets are being forced to lift their game and provide better options. Consumers are demanding more choice, better quality, a more extensive range and higher levels of service. With more competition, the supermarkets are under pressure to meet consumer expectations and are investing heavily to maintain market share. Forgetting about the convenience of purchasing all their goods from a single retailer, consumers are avoiding the large shopping centers for more frequent smaller purchases.

No longer are consumers engaging in large weekly shopping habits, they now quickly drop down the local shops for small purchases on the way home from work. They want fresh and healthy and shops providing pre-prepared ingredients are winning back consumers. This is where the local butcher is able to gain business, excellent cuts of meat, pre-prepared and marinated options that are ready to cook are gaining customers. Fast to react, quality products and personal service are making a comeback – great news.

I was sitting in a vehicle driving from Ubud to Kuta with Simon and his wife Sophie discussing current projects and future work, Simon was due in the recording studio to convert one of his publications into an audio book when one of his earlier works became a topic of discussion.

I have hard copies of a number of his books and asked why Scuba Physiological was not available in hard copy; for me, the answer was intriguing. Initially, the book was written by scientists and based on their research into decompression theory. As scientists, they had written their publication based on their scientific principles and publishing requirements.

For anyone who has been required to read through a scientific publication, usually due to study knows these publications can be very arduous. Although technically correct, working through the calculations, formatting style and descriptions might not officially be classified as torture by the Geneva Convention, it is closer than one thinks.

As was explained to me by Simon, he was discussing dive publishing with co-authors Professor Costantino Balestra and Dr. Peter Germonpre who was a little miffed as to why the book was a poor seller. He requested Simon take a look at it for him and Simon came up with a number of poignant observations In essence, whilst the research was sound and the findings no doubt valid but the book was just unreadable for anyone who isn’t a scientist.

As Simon was asked to critique the book as to determine why it was not selling, he not only came up with a bunch of issues, he also offered a solution. As a technical diving instructor, he found the work important as peer reviewed decompression theory is imperative for technical diving, he felt this research should be brought to a wider audience.

There were issues though, this book already had a publisher and there are naturally copyright issues. Simon’s solution was simple, he would simply take the existing publication, reorganise and restructure along with rewriting in a manner that the layperson would understand so now we have a research based book that is readable.