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Taitung

Taitung is the third largest city and the largest on the eastern shore.  The hotel that called itself a resort but was bizarrely placed adjacent to the sizeable regional jail.  We could see into the exercise area from our window. 

A local club, like a Taiwanese RSL club, gave our group a private room for dinner, we suspected to keep us out of view of the regular patrons.  But they had Italian wine at a very modest price.

 

 

The night markets were nearby and I had a shot at archery but they only had right-handed bows and from childhood I’ve used a bow or a catapult left-handed so I had to make do.

 

 

On my last two shots I hit a couple of balloons and won Wendy a toy.  Good fun.

 

 

 

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Travel

Cruising to PNG

 

 

 

 

On the 17th February 2020 Wendy and I set sail on Queen Elizabeth on a two week cruise up to Papua New Guinea, returning to Sydney on 2nd March. 

Read more: Cruising to PNG

Fiction, Recollections & News

The First Man on the Moon

 

 

 

 

At 12.56 pm on 21 July 1969 Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) Neil Armstrong became the first man to step down onto the Moon.  I was at work that day but it was lunchtime.  Workplaces did not generally run to television sets and I initially saw it in 'real time' in a shop window in the city.  

Later that evening I would watch a full replay at my parents' home.  They had a 'big' 26" TV - black and white of course.  I had a new job in Sydney having just abandoned Canberra to get married later that year.  My future in-laws, being of a more academic bent, did not have TV that was still regarded by many as mindless.

Given the early failures, and a few deaths, the decision to televise the event in 'real time' to the international public was taking a risk.  But the whole space program was controversial in the US and sceptics needed to be persuaded.

Read more: The First Man on the Moon

Opinions and Philosophy

Discovery of the Higgs boson

 

 

Perhaps the most important physics discovery of my lifetime has finally been announced.  I say 'finally' as its existence has been predicted by the 'Standard Model' for a long time and I have already mentioned this possibility/probability in an earlier article on this website (link).

Its confirmation is important to everyone, not just to physicists working in the field of quantum mechanics.  Like the confirmation of the predictions of Einstein's Theory of Relativity we are now confronted with a new model of reality that has moved beyond an esoteric theory to the understanding that this is how the Universe actually is; at least as far as the Standard Model goes.

Read more: Discovery of the Higgs boson

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