Brian has recently built this Barrel organ by hand. He informed us of problems with supply and other things which he overcame by his natural persistence. The Organ has an internal bellows which is manipulated by a crank handle and the notes are produced by air being forced into barrels which produce notes.
All in all, a very enjoyable show and tell.
In the second half we listened to Jeremy Clarkson give muted positive acclaim to a Telstra Electric Car. It could be said that he appeared to be speaking through gritted teeth. Clarkson has always spoken in derogatory terms about Electric cars but in this instance, he claimed to be impressed.
Unfortunately, the car's cost ($160,000) will probably limit the ownership to low numbers.
We then watched a video showing a large nuclear waste dump that exists quite near to Los Angeles. Nuclear waste is a problem that will not go away until some method of recycling spent fuel rods is developed. Surprisingly this miracle is claimed to be possible. Until this happens, we have the problem of where we store the waste. Australia is a large country with its own tectonic plates that do not normally allow earthquakes that could cause the waste to spill and consequently is often mentioned as a possible candidate as a world storage facility.
My contention is that the best solution would be to store the waste at the same site as the nuclear reactor and that the nuclear reactor should be located in the centre of our largest City. This would ensure we made it safe.
My suggestion did not generate a lot of discussion.
Neville Gibb