Hi all,

I was wrong when I thought that stopping work was going to give me lots of free time. Trying to write a book is very rewarding but also challenging.

Before I became a geologist I aspired to become an industrial chemist. I have on my book shelves a ‘Sisler Vander Werf and Davidson’ (General Chemistry-second edition, eighth printing 1963) which I still consult on rare occasions and which I’m doing right now.

Acetic acid- CH3-COOH

Ethyl alcohol- C2H6-OH

When ethyl alcohol is exposed to oxygen it becomes acetic acid.

That is what happens when wine isn’t sealed properly and is exposed to air. The alcohol turns into vinegar.

In the 1970’s a group of Warlpiri men had gone drinking at Kirirdi waterhole south of Yuendumu. They fell ill and complained at the clinic that someone had put battery acid into their flagon of Four Crown Port -the drink of choice at the time. Those days any freelance journalist worth their salt would regularly monitor Police and Flying Doctor radio channels in case they’d chance on a newsworthy story. All communication between Yuendumu Clinic and Alice Springs Hospital was via the Flying Doctor radio. The resulting headline in Adelaide papers?

Aborigines in Yuendumu drink LSD laced grog

I haven’t discerned a marked improvement in reporting accuracy on Indigenous matters since back then.

Has anyone noticed that during the current electoral campaigns, Indigenous matters are virtually not mentioned by those aspiring to represent us.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart was summarily dismissed by Malcolm Turnbull. Mainstream Australia dismisses the Uluru Statement from the Heart at its peril. Look what happened to Malcolm Turnbull! He was dismissed.

Bryan Adams- Straight from the Heart.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ebtjgK8NNU 

Cheers,

Frank