Today we decided to go to Gembrook to do some 4wd with the family.  We drove from Maryknoll towards the forest and the first signs of trouble came up when the road the GPS said took us into a private property.  The GPS insisted that there was a road leading right through the house that was in front of me.

So after ignoring the GPS and wondering through 2 more such roads that should have been there but wasn’t we ended up in the state forest.  Driving a long Camp road we got to the first track only to find that it was closed due to the fires.  As we went further in we realised pretty soon that we were not going to have any luck today.  All the tracks were closed allowing only hikers and horses to go on them.

We roamed around for a little bit longer and decided to head back home.  Next time I should remember to call up Parks Vic before heading off…  Yeah I know, I’ve been told that I shuold ring them before I go, but hey, sometimes I’m lazy.

http://www.slhcaust.org/ocs_02.htm

Braniac’s dietery requirements:

Omega-3: Omega-3s are known to be particularly crucial constituents of the outer membrane of brain cells.  As learning and memory forge new connections between nerve cells, new membranes must be formed to sheathe them. All brain cell membranes continuously need to refresh themselves with a new supply of fatty acids.
Found in: Cold water fish contain beneficial omega-3 fatty acids: halibut, mackerel, salmon, trout and tuna.

Choline : Studies show that choline supplementation enhances memory and reaction time in animals, especially aging animals. It also enhances memory in people. Choline supplementation also minimizes fatigue.
Found in: Eggs

Carbohydrates: To maintain adequate levels of the brain fuel glucose, it’s important to eat often enough.

Protien: It is needed to manufacture brain tissue, enzymes, neurotransmitters, and myriad other brain chemicals.

References:

http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20031028-000010.html

http://www.fi.edu/brain/diet.htm

People seem to have quite a lot of spare time these days to go searching through every inch of this world to find various strange sights… Google maps certainly makes this easier, but still it would take a lot of time and patience to find these.

Here is some amazing sights found on google.

Suggested ways to get rid of an ant problem. This eHow link has a lot of comments of people.

Bay leaves:  Lot of talk about ants hating these and disapearing pretty quick.  I could only find the dried variety at the vegi shop I go to.  Tried it but ants didn’t seem to mind it.  Maybe the fresh ones work better?  OR they maybe different varieties of Bay leaves used in the US & Aust.

Baby powder:  Next to bay leaves people talk about having success with Baby powder.

Cinnamon: Say to sprinkle cinnamon around where ants come.

Chilli, paparika & black/white peper:  Ants are said to hate these.  I tried chilli and they just blinked and went back about their business as usual.

Eucaliptus oil:  This might be a good one.  I know its strong stuff and lots of animals hate it.

Tea tree oil:  Must be similar to Eucaliptus oil.

Chalk:  People seem to say that ants don’t cross chalk.

Cucumber: Cut slices and leave.  People say ants disappear for this.

Cornflour:

Lots of good info on VoIP, VoIP providers etc. from John Mann here

A pretty cool list of eye twisters known as Ambigrams.

A very interesting piece of work on Web 2.0

Srinivasa Ramanujan, was one of the greatest mathematicians in the world.  He derived over 100 years of Western mathematics all by himself and has explored areas of mathematics that no one has yet ventured.  80 years later people are still working on understanding the work he has done and discovering that he had worked on the mathematics that is required to solve modern day problems such as String theory etc.

In a tribute to Wikipedia there is a very comprehensive article on his obscure life.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanujan

I’ve watched the whole Myspace thing from a distance and experimented with it a little bit, but it never really appealed to me.  It looked like the next cool thing for people with too much time on their hands to play with or the teenagers to replace their IM and SMS with.  It never seemed to be the thing for a busy person to keep in touch with their friends.

Recently Sujja introduced me to Facebook as a way of social networking in the 21st century.   I wasn’t convinced about it at first but I trust Sujja so I thought I’ll give it a go.  So far I like what I see.  Also statistics seem to show that Facebook while smaller in userbase than Myspace it is actually gaining in popularity faster than Myspace.   Maybe Facebook has got the formula right for the 21st century social networking.