BREEZES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 4 September 1936, Page 4

BREEZES

Boomerang. Son; “Do you remember telling me about the time you were expelled from school?” Father: “Yes, my boy, I do.” Son: “Well, I’m telling you.” * * » * Glass Bricks. Glass, bricks, which a few months ago were regarded as a curio or a freakish invention, are already beginning to make their way in Victoria, states a Melbourne writer, v Mrs John Grimwade is using them in the laundry of the new home she and Mr Grimwade are to build in St. George’s Road, Toorak. They are also being used for the entrance doors in the Freemason’s Hospital, and a new,.hosiery factory is trying out the idea. Architects who recommend sun rooms of these bricks, quote Hew York, where many beautiful homes have their glass sun rooms.

Ski-ing on Water. Ski-ing on water is the latest German sport. A device invented by Fritz Ernest Neumann, which consists of two tubeshaped struts of light material, measuring from six to nine feet each, and weighing some thirteen pounds, enables the wearer to skim over the surface of the water like a ski-er over snow. A distance of fourteen miles on the Baltic Sea was recently covered by a man wearing water skis, in four hours. Pioneers of the new sport have opened the first water ski station at the popular Baltic seaside resort, Swinemunde.

It is prophesied that water hockey will be the next development.

Ether Echoes,

A radio engineer, listening to short wave signals, heard two echoes, one the ordinary echo of the signal circling the earth, and the other three seconds later. This led to experiments, which revealed that echoes were heard at times varying from three to fifteen seconds after the original, the average time being 8 seconds.

As the speed of the electric wave is 186,000 miles a second, this suggested that an echo heard after eight seconds had travelled about 1,500,000 miles', or nearly seven times the distance from the earth to the moon. The conclusion now reached is that the signals are reflect ed by swarms'"of electrons in space, the electrons issuing from the sun and being the cause of magnetic storms on the earth. On this basis, according to “Popular Mechanics,” it would appear that there is no insuperable bar to sending short-wave signals to other planets, if there were anyone there to receive them, and if they could be understood.

Modem Youth’s Delusions.

“Parents with grown children have a very difficult relationship,” remarked the famous novelist, Warwick Deeping, when interviewed recently in London. “They arc in a most tantalising position —they see their children making the same mistakes they did, and it is useless to warn them. Coercion is not effective. Advice, is no good, for youth, never heeds it. Opposition is a most fatal thing; it usually drives them further in the other direction. Yet, youth must know the value of self-restraint. We need faith and religion in ordinary working life. The old Decalogue seems to be dead.

“I find that love, like life, comes to you as you sit still,” he went on philosophically. “Wait, and it comes to you. Rush after it, and it eludes you. To achieve things by patience and sitting still; to take more pleasure in the quiet, simple things, is what the world will learn. Then one will stop tearing about seeking excitement. Cities have much to do with it. City-dwellers have, not the countryside in which to lose themselves, so that they can only walk the, streets and visit the cinemas. The speed; of modern life makes it hard for them to Sit still. So many people always seem to be rushing to get somewhere, then dashing back again—and at the end of the day have nothing but a headache.

“I often wonder what all this haste is about. Is there a treasure at the end of the journey? They may rush past, it!

“Is that characteristic of voting people, too?” He nods. “They rush too eagerly at life.” “And love—?”. I venture.

“They refuse to put love on a pedestal. . The girls are so extremely boyish and ‘matey,’ that all romance is gone. ’ ’