Revolving restaurants

Over the years I have been to a few revolving restaurants and it has become almost a hobby with me. If there is a chance to visit one I will take that opportunity.





My first one was of course in my home city of Adelaide in the suburb of Glenelg. The building itself has a rather fascinating history. It was labelled a "white elephant" when its construction stopped for a number of years. There were also rumours of an intended death when a plane plunged into the sea with a couple of persons involved in the building. When it finally was completed the restaurants also had a chequered history with it being referred to as the "revolting" restaurant at times. However I must say that the few times we dined or lunched there we were always happy.





Canberra: Our capital city has a revolving restaurant atop telstra tower which is on top of Black Mountain. As one expects of Canberra it is very clean. We only had a desert there but that alone was rather impressive.





Hobart: A rather anaemic casino is topped by their revolving restaurant. It did have wonderful views, unfortunately I can only remember the strong voiced old biddy on the table next to us who kept talking about the cartoons of Leunig. As much as I liked his cartoons it spoiled our lunch there.





Blue mountains: Its a bit of a Clayton's revolving restaurant; but it does have a revolving platform even though it is hardly off the ground.





Gold coast: This one sits on top of one of Gold Coast better hotels and its views are spectactular even though we found that in the evening half the time you look out to the sea which of course was dark.





Perth: In the CBD it had plenty of good views and we liked the menu.





Sydney: On top of centrepoint tower I found this perhaps Australias most exiting revolving restaurant with brilliant views of a brilliant city.





Hong Kong: Amazingly Hong Kong has only the one revolving restaurant. It is on the island part of HK in the Hopewell building. The lunch Smorgasboard was very good and reasonably priced. It amazed me that we were 62 floors above the ground yet in the distance one can see buildings which tower way above us being built on the mountains inside.





Penang: This one was on top a ten year old building which was mainly empty due to a new centre having been built across the road. However the restaurant was still nice; it looked like some renovations were taking place when we visited some years ago.





Kuala Lumpur: KL tower houses this revolving restaurant. Another restaurant which offers a very good lunch smorgasboard at good prices. I was somewhat concerned when the platform came to a clunking stop, but I think they reverse direction every now and then. Beutiful views of the city and surrounds. Also nice grounds around the tower for those who wish to walk off the calories they just acquired.





Auckland: We'll be there early next year.

wikileaks bunker - any connection to the CIA?

Having seen pictures of Julian Assange's bunker one wonders how an individual can create such an underground palace. It makes me wonder whether he is bankrolled.

Could it be that an organisation such as the CIA is involved? One can imagine that such an institution may be aligned with the elements which are bot too happy with the Obama regime and are intend on discrediting them in any which way.

Epiphytic forest

Epiphytic forest - one of Adelaide's up and coming designarista produced this youtube video as part of his final subject http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxIGqGvO27c. Also the picture shows his award winning poster.

Australian Uranium companies

It has long been my belief that the price of uranium will start its climb upwards again. Hopefully its rise will be steady - rather than explosive and then end up in a burst bubble. This post and following comments will show companies which I have found or reasonably believe to be lookingfor uranium. Again - as in a previous post - THIS INFORMATION IS NOT ADVICE but rather intended as my mind jogger and for my family and close friends.

The big boys - BHP and RIO - are of course known to most people world over, have Uranium mines of significant sizes. Neither interest me as I am looking for the smaller producer/explorer. ERA falls in the same category as it is owned largely by RIO.

My main investment (atm intended as long term with the intention of building my holding is MEY. Marenica holds exploration licenses in Namibia. Its neighbours are the Rossing, Trekkopje and Langer Heinrich mines.

NTU A promising company with connections to AREVA the french uranium company. However when AREVA decided not to take up a recent issue in NTU I lost confidence and sold most my investment. Hence I found indications of HREE which had then become a market darling. My watch is on the above chart to see how the share price performs in the next couple of weeks. The company has options NTUOA and NTUOB. Both give good leverage if the sp rises.

Microcool's Banchetto 101

This would have to be the coolest computer case ever (pun intended).

I WANT ONE

Nokia N97 mini

It's now 2 months since I have had my new Nokia. I was actually looking to get a wireless internet account when I spotted "3"s bundled deal which allowed me to roll over my existing plan at the same rate but include 2G of wireless internet and upgrade my phone to the N97. My intention were to get an Iphone 4 but once I started using the N97 I really fell in love with it. Having always had phone which were sort of PDAs (O's Xda IIs and Nokias N95) I appreciate a bit more than just a phone and a camera; Even though my mind still boggles that this tiny thing can tell me where to go and keep my memories as well as tell me stories etc etc.

The whole unit feels solid and may be perhaps a tad too heavy for some people but I prefer the more solid and robust fell. Gives it a touch of class. The mechanism to reveal the keyboard is also class, even though my pudgy fingers still find it a stretch to navigate through the internet via the keyboard.

Would I recommend this phone - YES - it is value!

REE -rare earth elements

Having followed NTU - Northern Uranium for a number of years now and being mostly disappointed I was delighted that their foray into rare earth minerals is strating to pay dividends. Following is a list of rare earth minerals :

Symbol #, name, how the name was derived, uses
57 La Lanthanum from the Greek "lanthanon," meaning I am hidden. High refractive index glass, flint, hydrogen storage, battery-electrode, camera lens
58 Ce Cerium for the Roman deity of fertility Ceres. chemical oxidising agent, polishing powder, yellow colors in glass and ceramics, catalyst for Self-cleaning oven etc.
59 Pr Praseodymium from the Greek "praso," meaning leek-green, and "didymos," meaning twin. Rare-earth magnets, laser, green colors in glass and ceramics, flint
60 Nd Neodymium from the Greek "neo," meaning new-one, and "didymos," meaning twin. Rare-earth magnets, laser, violet colors in glass and ceramics, ceramic capacitor
61 Pm Promethium for the Titan Prometheus, who brought fire to mortals. Nuclear battery
62 Sm Samarium for Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets, who discovered the rare earth ore samarskite. Rare-earth magnets, Laser, neutron capture, maser
63 Eu Europium for the continent of Europe. Red and blue phosphors, laser, mercury-vapor lamp
64 Gd Gadolinium for Johan Gadolin (1760–1852), to honor his investigation of rare earths. Rare-earth magnets, high refractive index glass or garnets, laser, x-ray tube, computer memory, neutron capture
65 Tb Terbium for the village of Ytterby, Sweden, where the first rare earth ore was discovered. Green phosphors, laser, fluorescent lamp
66 Dy Dysprosium from the Greek "dysprositos," meaning hard to get. Rare-earth magnets, laser,
67 Ho Holmium for Stockholm (in Latin, "Holmia"), native city of one of its discoverers. Laser
68 Er Erbium for the village of Ytterby, Sweden. Laser, vanadium steel
69 Tm Thulium for the mythological land of Thule. Portable X-ray machine
70 Yb Ytterbium for the village of Ytterby, Sweden. Infrared Laser, chemical reducing agent, High-temperature superconductors (YBCO)
71 Lu Lutetium for Lutetia, the city which later became Paris.


The above information comes from an article in wikipedia