The Random thought thread

[Bruce Tuncks]

Ever been to World's End? It's in SA, not far from Kapunda.

[nomadpete]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

Wouldn't Taswegia be better than Tas MANIA? 

You might change your mind if you meet some of the folk down this way.

[nomadpete]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

You'll be getting some rain soon.  Nev

We say that just about every day. Especially if the sun momentarily comes out.

[onetrack]

Does this mean we really should be referring to them as Tasmaniacs?

[facthunter]

I've met lots of Tasmanians.  It's all part of the service. Nev

[red750]

In northern Tasmania...

 

[red750]

I reckon the RBA is a one trick pony. I'm no economist, so can someone please explain how jacking up the interest rate on people's mortgages is going to  solve the situations in Ukraine and Gaza? These seem to be the basis for the increasing inflation rate, so they say.

 

To my simple mind, interest rates go up, things cost more, people clamour for higher wages to keep up with costs, higher wages causes employers have to put up prices, so interest is put up again, and this is supposed to reduce inflation? I don't understand.

[facthunter]

Higher Interest rates put up the cost of living one way and another for all of us, so it's a very blunt Instrument.   People also take on unmanageable levels of debt too easily . Easy to borrow, hard to pay off. Nev

[spenaroo]

Because its all they have....
its a hammer for sure. but its the only tool they have.

 

I remember an economist at the last Morrison budget talking about how opposite the RBA and Government was.

with the RBA saying that the economy needed to slow.
and the government boosting it with more grants and benefits.

you would think there would be some sort of endorsement or checks process between the two... but nope.

Edited October 27, 2023 by spenaroo

[old man emu]

3 minutes ago, spenaroo said:

I remember an economist at the last Morrison budget talking about how opposite the RBA and Government was. with the RBA saying that the economy needed to slow. and the government boosting it with more grants and benefits.

How to stay in power - bread and circuses. 

 

The problem is that if the RBA threw up its hands and said, "Bugger you, then. The interest rate is 1%", Big Business would not drop its current prices by a cent. 

 

[spacesailor]

RBA 

NEEDS to get Balls .

Make All tax hit All people the same .

No ' offshore ' tax havens. For anyone .

spacesailor

[spenaroo]

except that comes under the ATO and government...

[willedoo]

Here's a random question: let's say you had a small brick outbuilding that you wanted to limewash, and you wanted a tint in the limewash and not pure white. I know there are very expensive mortar dyes but I've only seen them in black and brown. The colour I was thinking of is a light green, similar to the colourbond colour pale eucalypt. You can get paint tinted to those colours, so I was wondering how water based acrylic paint would go mixed with the limewash. The economy of it would be ok as whitewash is normally mixed to a brushable slurry.

 

The biggest challenge would be to determine a set mix ratio so the finished job was a consistent colour.

 

Edited October 27, 2023 by willedoo

[facthunter]

IF it's already white and covers the surface and water thinned a water miscible dye or Tinter colour will work fine. Some will fade quicker than others.   Nev

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

so I was wondering how water based acrylic paint would go mixed with the limewash.

I was looking at recipes for whitewash and found this old-timer one:

Add two cups of salt to a gallon of warm water and mix well. Add 6 to 8 cups of hydrated lime to the saltwater mix and stir. More lime will give a thicker limewash and a heavier coating, but whitewash is always much thinner than conventional paint.

 

Looking further I found the modern recipe which now uses acrylic paint in a 1:3 paint to water ratio. So get the white paint and have it tinted the colour you want. So you would get the coverage of four litres for every litre of undiluted paint.

[willedoo]

5 hours ago, old man emu said:

Looking further I found the modern recipe which now uses acrylic paint in a 1:3 paint to water ratio. So get the white paint and have it tinted the colour you want. So you would get the coverage of four litres for every litre of undiluted paint.

The problem with painting brickwork is that once it's painted, you're stuck with it. Although that 1:3 mix is fairly dilute. Just referring to the old pioneer, rustic style here. Whitewash has to be applied more often, but it has a nice old look and is as cheap as chips. I've done 19th. century chimneys with limewash. It looks more original than acrylic paint and after a couple of years, bits start to flake off making it look like it's been there for a hundred years. It's got a good look about it for old stuff, but if you want a modern look, paint would be the go.

 

I've had varying success putting whitewash on timber. I think it depends on the type of timber a bit. I remember at my father's place in what used to be the old dairy, you could still see traces of the old whitewash on hoop pine boards, and they wouldn't have milked cows there since before WW2. In the old days it was a government regulation that the inside of the dairy had to be painted or whitewashed.

6 hours ago, old man emu said:

I was looking at recipes for whitewash and found this old-timer one:

Add two cups of salt to a gallon of warm water and mix well. Add 6 to 8 cups of hydrated lime to the saltwater mix and stir. More lime will give a thicker limewash and a heavier coating, but whitewash is always much thinner than conventional paint.

ome, I wonder what the salt is for. Perhaps it makes it bond to the brickwork better.

[onetrack]

I tell you what, I've painted our house with Dulux Weathershield (an exterior acrylic), and the stuff is the most durable paint I've ever put on. It's like a plastic coating.

I always believed you had to have an oil-based paint for long term exterior durability - but not any more. This Weathershield outlasts any oil-based paint, even lead-based paint!

[old man emu]

Two things:

You should not paint brick because although a brick appears solid at a macro level, it is actually porous at a micro level. That porosity allows the brick to "breathe" and to sweat. If it can't do either, especially sweat, you'll get damp problems like Jerry has.

 

Salt? 

Whitewash is an antibacterial surface coating. It was commonly used on the interiors of sailing ships to control mould and other microbes that would weaken the wood. Not that people of those time would know about microbes. They just knew that whitewash was useful. 

 

I suspect that the salt i a boost to the antibacterial performance of the whitewash.

[willedoo]

Salt water kills dry rot in wooden boats and ships; the rot is caused by rainwater making it's way in as far as I remember.

[facthunter]

"making it's way in as far as I remember"? How far is that.? Salt kills things by osmosis Sucks water out of them. So does honey, sugar and pectin The higher the concentration, the better the result.  Nev

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

"making it's way in as far as I remember"? How far is that.?

What I mean is making it's way into the boat, not making it's way into the timber. Usually through any spot where the integrity of the deck or superstructure is compromised, like holes in the deck or hatches, engine box cover etc..

[facthunter]

My dumb attempt at Humour.  Low salt concentrations are not lethal. There's a lot of horrible things (parasites) live in seawater.  Consider the anti fouling treatments that have to be used.  Nev

[willedoo]

I thought Copper Naphthenate had been banned as carcinogenic, but I must have been thinking of something else as it's still used. There was something they used to use on the wooden trawlers in the slipway that was fairly bad for the health.

[red750]

Talk about child labour! Here's where your oil filter comes from.

 

 

 

[onetrack]

Yeah, they're the "Brand X" oil filters that are available for sale at half the price of the "recognised Brand Names" - and the ones you get warned about, that you risk major engine damage, if you buy them.

 

The Brand Name filters are all produced in major automated factories, with regular QC checks.

 

I often wonder how those Pakistani backyard factories manage to keep going, seeing as their power supplies are often highly irregular.

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by onetrack