An evening with Michael Bublé

I just haven't met him yet, terrible cliché, but unfortunately true until now - Sunday night, the second of the Perth shows was my chance to redeem myself. Full-time entertainer and part-time comedian - the showman oozed personality. 

Plenty of laughs and an entertaining evening was had by all - it was great. The band sound kicked off with a flash of flame shooting from the stage, the brass section played hard and tight, a change of sound a little later saw the brass retire backstage for a while and the strings arrived to accompany the piano, guitar, percussion and double bass.

I had tickets to his outdoor concert at the luscious Sandalford winery in 2011, but a mix up saw me miss this incredible concert because I had set the concert date in the calendar section of MS Outlook months ahead. The reminder popped up on Sunday telling me the appointment was 12 hours overdue - I was livid.

What I learned is, I never will never get that moment back. I knew I missed an excellent show at Sandalford that Saturday evening drinking wine under the stars entertained by one Mr M Bublé. Sunday night should have been a whole new entertainment experience, instead of the attempt to resurrect the experience that I missed - oh well.

Reef hooks - a great idea or environmental damage?

On a recent dive trip, I was discussing diving in currents with a local instructor and he was totally against reef hooks. I was surprised, my experience told me they saved reefs from careless divers, he however felt otherwise. This got me thinking, what is the real value of reef hooks?

Strong currents are detrimental to novice divers and weak swimmers, it is not always possible for all dives to be drift (drift in the same direction as the current) and divers may need to either swim into the current or hold position. The reef hook is perfect for underwater photographers; unfortunately, the damage I have seen from photographers to get that perfect shot is disturbing.A home made reef hook is generally fabricated from a large fishing hook with the barb ground down and a length of line to hold onto, a loop for the hand is tied or snap clip attached. The diver secures the hook under a section of the reef and clips or holds on in the current whilst hovering above the reef causing no damage to the environment.

Of course, the diver has to show some discretion to where they place their hook, careful not to attach to a coral mount or allow their line to contact corals. Common sense, I thought, nonetheless, reef hook attachment should be covered in the briefing. I have seen new and novice divers hang onto delicate corals in a not so delicate manner causing untold damage to the reef when faced with strong currents. Little care or concern is considered in such circumstances, the reef hook followed with instructions for use has the ability to prevent reef damage.

These days, you can purchase a commercially made reef hook from your local dive store for a very reasonable cost - of course, the cost to the underwater environment of not using a reef hook is so much more than a couple of dollars. The counter argument is reef hooks poorly attached causes reef damage by uprooting parts of the reef is a strong argument, I counter however with, these same divers normally hold onto coral heads causing significant damage.

Properly trained, suitably equipped and correctly supervised divers makes the reef hook an invaluable environmentally sustainable tool. I'm all for it.

Philippines mini-MBA

I have had the opportunity to take a look at the mini-MBA presented by the Chartered Association of Business Administrators in the Philippines after viewing their course materials in 2012. The Canadian not-for-profit professional association states its mission is to raise the standard of management competency to raise the status of business administration as a profession.

Based on the knowledge development materials I viewed; their program includes human resources management, marketing management, accounting and finance management, information technology management, organisational management and leadership. That's a fairly rounded program with the main disciplines represented; the delivery is fairly condensed over an eight week period with face-to-face tutorials, presentations, case studies and written examinations.

The certificates awarded at the end of the program carries weight; successful completion allows advanced standing at affiliated international universities including but not limited to Edinburgh Business School, Edith Cowan Business School, the University of Liverpool and Charles Sturt University.

Its all very good gaining qualifications, however, implementing your newly acquired knowledge and skills in the workplace is the true test of graduate competency. As the majority of the student cohort are employed professionals; one can assume knowledge and skills are transferred to the working environment.

Shark fin soup

The environmental destruction caused by shark fin soup is not limited to the main culinary regions of Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China. The devastation of the oceans is not regionally confined; sustenance fishing in poor communities offered large sums is a worldwide problem fueled by Chinese demand.    

Shark fin soup, a Chinese style soup made with the fin of a shark and flavoured with chicken and other stock, I have no idea of the taste as I have never and will never will eat a plate of shark fin soup. The fin itself, I am informed, ironically has minimal flavour; is used as a primary ingredient to add texture to the dish - as such, it is seen as a delicacy.

A plate of shark fin soup is not cheap; this ensures a steady supply of fins at high prices for fishermen, wholesalers and merchants wantonly slaughtering sharks in large and unsustainable numbers to satisfy the market demand. With rapidly increasing prosperity and the growth of a middle class in the South East Asia; shark fin soup is now consumed in vast quantities placing crippling and unsustainable pressure on shark populations.

Claimed to possess health benefits; kidneys, lungs, bones and appetite, however, there is absolutely no evidence to support such claims. Taking 7 to 20 years to reach maturity; shark populations take extended time frames to recover. Current demand for fins makes it impossible for populations to recover to previous levels. Sharks are apex predators – when populations are placed under such severe fishing pressure - the entire eco-system suffers.

I ran dive tours within Western Australia, shark fin soup is not illegal here but we as consumers have choices. While I personally would never purchase a plate of shark fin soup, our clients on tour would request this from the menu. Education is the key, we had a policy of never purchasing shark fin soup for our clients, we would then follow up with the reasons why this policy is enacted and not one client ever argued once suitably informed.

I feel it is our duty as scuba divers and eco-tourists to provide reasoned arguments why consumers should boycott shark fin soup. Once the demand has been negated, the supply chain no longer has a market seeking big profits.

UNE's Future Campus

The future of tertiary education is eLearning for certain aspects of knowledge dissemination, how that is achieved is the challenge of instructional designers and practitioners. Of course, not every course is suited to an online paradigm, face-to-face is going to be around for a long time yet.

The collaboration between learning institutes around the world will increase; strategic alliances enhancing, not cannibalising client bases and student cohorts will be an important issue with the globalisation of learning and higher education. No longer will employers, businesses and public sector enterprises immediately liaise with local education providers; collaboration with the most proficient provider no matter where they are located worldwide is already the preferred option, this looks likely to increase in the future.

     

I view with interest the University of New England and their Future Campus model, this student-centred paradigm ideally suits highly motivated individuals with open plan learning spaces, online conferencing, video-walls, virtual meet-ups and live-cast presentations. It would appear younger students seeking the university social experience may soon be the minority. It begs the question, is the traditional university lecture dead?

VR Technology closed for business

I am a big fan of VR Technology computers; I own an older VR3 dive computer hoping to upgrade to the VRx when the time came, that being said, my VR3 has a lot of life left. VR Technology is now no longer trading, this is, of course, an unfortunate turn of events for technical diving in general.

I currently have the opportunity to purchase a near new computer; I might well now take up the offer now, computers in this condition won't come up for sale too often. It wasn't the time frame I was looking at, but I will now have to accelerate my purchase.

VR Technology was at the forefront of technical diving from its infancy to present day; well known for their dive computers, their range of rebreathers was and still is cutting edge. It appears Vobster Marine Systems in the United Kingdom will supply PINs and some limited servicing capability to dive computers. Their main role will be to manufacture, support and service the range of Sentinel rebreathers as per their licence agreement.

It would appear the Ouroboros rebreather will no longer be supported to any great degree, even though the unit ceased production in 2010, I believe a strong community dives the units with approximately 120 sold overall. However, it appears Vobster Marine Systems is willing to support these rebreathers where possible when viable orders for parts are received.

I first met VR Technology owner, Kevin Gurr at Professional Sports Divers of Guam when guys like Kevin, Captain Billy Deans and other IANTD personnel were out searching for a Spanish galleon presumed sunk in the area with a supposed load of Inca gold and silver on board. Since then, I have met Kevin at a number of dive shows and technical diving conferences. I didn't know it at the time, but this was one of a number of proving grounds for technical equipment and procedures in a fledgling industry. Kevin's tireless work has significantly progressed closed circuit rebreather and computing technology benefiting the technical and wider diving community. I am neither a friend or colleague of Kevin, I seriously doubt he would even recognise me despite the fact I have met him on numerous occasions - I certainly acknowledge Kevin's service to the industry.

I was busy undertaking my IANTD Technical Nitrox (extended range) course with Simon Pridmore, owner of Professional Sports Divers of Guam. Simon was performing a large number of exploratory dives with trimix at the time, Simon was the IANTD franchisee for Micronesia at the time and now a regional training director. Simon is a leading dive author publishing a number of dive books and is regularly published in dive magazines and journals. The pioneering of the technical diving community was taking place in Guam as well as Florida, Maine, Red Sea and the United Kingdom. For me, it was a great time to be involved in the technical diving community, a chapter of the evolution of technical diving has now closed.

Manila Police - probably not doing roadworthy checks

Out and about in Manila, I came across this police vehicle near Rizal Park, viewing the state of the police vehicles in Manila, I am guessing they are not actively patrolling and pulling vehicles over for roadworthy checks.

I'm guessing when their vehicle is back road worthy, that is, after they pull the tyre off, repair the puncture to get the police car back out patrolling, they will probably find it can only be used during daylight hours as headlights are damaged. I wonder if their indicators are working? I would probably run a licence check on their vehicle too.