Musing's of a Gardener

The Issue The Camera (Panasonic Lumix HDC TZ10) developed a fault displaying the error as shown in the photograph below – “system error (focus)”.  When turned on and off, the lens would not retract, and it showed the error message. What was uncertain was where the problem was – for instance was the problem in the cams of the zoom lens (there are three sets of lens that slide in and out on cams) or was it within the focusing element which focuses the light on the light capture device – a CCD in the case of the Panasonic? It turned out to be grit on drive of the 4th focus lens which jammed it. I found a service manual for the camera at http://www.scribd.com/doc/96821254/DMC-TZ10-ZS7-Service-Manual (assessed 29 March 2013) which made repairing the camera very much easier. Other models might be found on http://www.statmyweb.com/s/repair-guide-tz10 Dave Baar has a detail description of his ordeal at the link below, for a slightly different  camera - Panasonic L...

“When asked about the purpose of medical research most people would hopefully reply: to advance knowledge for the good of society; to improve the health of people worldwide; or to find better ways to treat and prevent disease. The reality is different. The research environment, with its different players, is now much less conducive to thinking about such noble goals. Funders have often adopted long-drawn-out bureaucratic processes for their grant giving, and yet rarely ask for a systematic assessment of the need for the proposed research. Full costing is often demanded at first submission with enormous waste of time and resources. Funders operate within political frameworks that emphasise short-term successes and outcomes. Decisions are dependent on opaque peers' and experts' assessments within each field and take many months. Pharmaceutical companies and industry-sponsored research seek a maximum profitable return on their investment. And academic institutions, which are mor...

“Nudging” the public to get them to change their extraordinary bad behaviour – the UK is apparently moving from nudge to nag: “use every contact with patients and the public to help them maintain and improve their physical and mental health and wellbeing”. Public health in England: from nudge to nag The Lancet,Volume 379, Issue 9812, Page 194, 21 January 2012 doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60082-8

Just spent the last few days cleaning up my garden after a very dry summer, although we did not have any major heatwaves. The BOM says we had a hot summer, but on the whole I found it rather mild - no endless nights above 30 °C, although we did have a few very very hot days (I was in Port Pirie for day of 48 °C). For SA: February 2013 was 0.9 °C above the long-term average, the warmest February for the state since 2009.In comparison, February 2012 was 0.9 °C below average. The tomatoes are still bearing and the strawberries are putting out lots of runners (in the hydroponics). However, something large is eating both the tomatoes and capsicum - perhaps a possum as the animal ate one half of a capsicum - very neatly!  I put some broccoli seeds into perlite in the hydroponics, so hopefully they will be ready to plant out in mid-Autumn (I'm a wee bit late). Also very late I removed the heads of the Agapanthus, which did suffer during the >40 °C days, with the outer leaves burnin...