It was very cold overnight, 3°C (37°F) but we are blessed to have shore power here so we don't need to feel cold. The day was a beautiful clear, sunny day which was also a blessing.
I finished re-reading The Obesity Myth and have decided that my positive response to the book is not so much that the message is "comfortable" but rather that it is well founded. I can't check all the citations but I believe that they would sustain the message if they were checked. The message is a frightening one. The obesity industry has hijacked the organs of government in the developed world for its own venal ends and vast numbers of us are being classed as "sinners" because we don't strive to achieve the body image of the "beautifully thin person". Enormous amounts of public money are being spent to convince us that we will die early unless we get thin even though the truth is that almost all the population is in a cohort that has approximately the same life expectancy when factors other than body mass are taken into account and that the result of trying to get thin is often deleterious to health. The damage this does to those "sinners" is incalculable. It may be that the obesity myth is responsible for more deaths than it claims to have averted.
The "evidence" that "obesity" causes type 2 diabetes is, I believe, suspect. One recent study seemed to show that the increased incidence of type 2 diabetes might be caused by the uptake of pesticides in body fat. Perhaps our diabetes was caused by the failure to take adequate care in the deployment of toxic chemicals into our environment. It may not just be the birds who are suffering from "The Silent Spring". Of course, this may be just a "comfortable" view.
The weather turned good again with the overnight temperature 7°C (45°F) and the day clear and bright.
One of the "truths" about the modern world is that innumeracy is the norm with most journalists and propagandists demonstrating an abysmal lack of understanding of any mathematical process. Their example seems to be infesting the population at large and we risk having a society in which the only mathematical truth accepted by all is "one and one makes two". This would not be a problem if we didn't live in a technological world where numeracy is vital for the proper operation of most of our social processes. The most pernicious use of innumerate ideas is the constant delivery of messages about the risks we face. Almost always the risk of some outcome arising from some cause is expressed as a percentage increase without any reference to the absolute level of risk. In a recent example the increased risk of some disease arising from some genetic trait was 60%. A little research revealed that the risk had risen from 0.1% to 0.16% which is much less scary than the claimed 60% increase even though both statements are true. The other common error is not using the right units of measure when talking about physical phenomena. Often in the discussion of global warming we hear energy being expressed in Megawatts rather than Megawatt hours and carbon footprint being expressed in tonnes rather than tonnes per year.
I had another run in with water leaks in the kitchen cupboard. This time I was able to identify the source of the leak and isolated it so I shouldn't have more trouble. There is still a minor leak in the new water intake but I can cope with that since it will go away once we disconnect from shore the shore water supply.
Another beautiful day. I spent time futzing, the iBook has so much data that I need to spend a considerable amount of time keeping the files in order.
I got deeply immersed in the photo library. It contains several hundred photos of camp sites but the dates recorded in iPhoto are not all correct and the site numbers are mixed Camps2, Camps3 and Camps4 which need to be brought into line. I have databases with most of the relevant information but the update can only be done manually so the task will take some time.
I spent most of the day working on the photo library.
I finished the work on the photo library. I was amazed at the number of sites I was able to identify from memory. I suffer from poor short term memory as do many people of my age but to demonstrate the depth of the long term memory in this way was quite impressive and reassuring. I had to dig out the archive CD as I suspect there are some missing photos.
We plan to move on tomorrow to go to Bundaberg so I had some chores to do in preparation. The good weather made this a bit easier than it would have been if it had been cold or wet.
The new electric heater I bought yesterday only operated for a few minutes before failing. I suppose I could have opened it up and tried to mend it but the failure was probably in the electronics and, anyway, opening it up would void the warranty. Rather than take it to another branch of Retravision, I rescheduled our trip to Bundaberg so that I could take it back to the shop in Springsure tomorrow.
I took the opportunity to do a bit more laundry while we have the facilities to hand. Unfortunately the machine deposited some white soap scum on the clothes so what should have been a very easy job turned into a bit of a trial.
Apart from that I had an easy day. The caretaker came by to check that we were OK as I had said we would be leaving today. I explained the change of plan and offered to pay for for one more night but she insisted that the extra night was free and thanked us for our patronage.