Category: learning curve

Finnished…

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I learned a new word today. It’s not a word that I’m going to use very often, because it’s a Finnish word and Finland is a long, long way from here. But it is a great word, and it may come in useful for times when you have a few hours alone. This actually makes it even less likely for me to be using it, given that “a few hours alone” is  generally an alien concept to most parents of young children.

Still, it’s a word worth knowing, just in case.

The word is kalsarikännit. Say it with me:

Kalsarikännit

And it means “getting drunk alone at home, while wearing your underwear”.

Mitä aiot tehdä perjantai?
Luultavasti vain saada kalsarikännit.

Well, obviously. Friday’s going to be the main night for this sort of thing to happen.

Look, I have no plans to go to Finland anytime soon, but I can already tell you what I’ll be doing for at least one evening of my stay, should I ever end up in Helsinki or Jyväskylä.

The opportunity to practice at some point in the near future would be much appreciated too.

ISS pass tonight

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My ISS Detector app has detected that the ISS will be passing over tonight. Over Cape Town, that is.
It’ll be passing over a lot of the rest of the world as well of course, but it’s the Cape Town bit that I’m going to be looking out for.

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Here’s a quick screenshot from my phone, showing a few details.

As you will note, the pass begins near Uranus just before… I’m sorry? Is there something you find amusing about that? Honestly, grow up.
Anyway, you’ll need to look North West towards Uranus at… STOP SNIGGERING AT THE BACK!

You’ll need to look North West at 7:58 this evening, and you should see a bright white dot racing South East across the sky. You won’t need a telescope, binoculars or a magnifying glass. You won’t miss it: it’ll be the brightest object up there. And the only one that’s moving at 8km/second.
Take your kids out and show them before bedtime, and let’s hold thumbs for a cloudless evening.

For the nerds out there, I use RunaR’s ISS Detector app (actually, I have the Pro version at R29, but the free version does most everything you need), and it’s really good for alerting you to interesting stuff in the sky.

How LCHF works

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It doesn’t. Or rather… well… it might, but there’s actually no scientific evidence that it does half the stuff that those seemingly blinkered individuals who are happily gripped in its greasy claws claim it does.

There’s evidence that it probably doesn’t do at least some what it claims to do though, but Ross Tucker, Professor of Exercise Physiology at the University of the Free State, hits the nail on the head with these two tweets detailing how that news will be handled by those in the Cult of Noakes™:

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Here’s that study: link / PDF by the way.

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Just a reminder. It’s simply not scientific to only quote the studies whose outcomes support your agenda or narrative.

Scary animals ruin Waterfront

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Not quite. But almost.

Incoming from the Two Oceans Aquarium (where we’re going on Saturday) – there’s been an invasion of isopods.

Isopods refer to a group of crustaceans that include terrestrial and aquatic species like woodlice and rock lice. Some isopods eat decaying plant and animal matter, others graze on food particles from the water around them, a few are predators, and some are internal or external parasites.

Also, my dodgy Latin says they all have the same number of feet. Or something.

Nice.

You can go and have a look at the photos of this rather extraordinary “bloom” on the link above. there are an awful lot of them (Isopods, not photos). It’s fascinating, but apparently it does cause some issues for the aquarium:

Much of the water for our exhibits is from the harbour surrounding our building, and we’ve had to shut down our intake pipes. Once all the isopods die off – also as a result of oxygen deprivation – they will sink to the bottom. Then, once oxygen levels go back up (because there are fewer organisms in the water using this oxygen now) the dead isopod bodies will start decomposing like mad. This will cause an ammonia spike in the water, making the water toxic to the animals in our exhibits and so still not suitable for our use. We will be keeping the Aquarium’s life-support system on a closed system until the water quality returns to normal.

I’m not sure how long the aquarium can keep their life-support systems off, but if it’s anything like the Starship Enterprise (spoiler: it’s not), then I don’t think it’s very long at all before the guy in the red shirt suffocates. Hopefully this won’t be the case at the aquarium, because it would be nice to not have to step over dead bodies as we’re having a look round on the weekend.

Good advice

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Last night, I was booking some stuff for our (brief) stay in Bergen in May. This line was in the confirmation email (but not, as you will note, the final confirmation email) they sent back to me:

Please note that regional trains and the Hurtigruten can be fully booked, especially in high season and weekends. We therefore recommend you to not make any further reservations before you have received the final confirmation e-mail.

That’s very good advice. Everyone knows about the problems regarding the regional trains, but people nearly always overlook the fact that the Hurtigruten can be fully booked.

I, for one, had never even considered a fully booked Hurtigruten.

Rookie error.