Radschool

Newsletter

Vol 4

Page 7

The good old days??

The three photos on this page were sent to us by Ed Ward who was on 18 Sigs Course at Laverton in 1963. You can clearly see the fantastic amenities that the RAAF used at the time to train its front line personnel. Remember the old Bell & Howell 16mm projectors and the Moody Institute tech movies much loved by the instructors and those wonderfully comfortable seats, and the modern desks, and those silly little fans on the wall (only two though) that desperately tried to warm the place in the winter, and move some air around and keep the room cool in the summer.

These class room photos had to be taken during a Melbourne summer as the blokes are in drabs, so the inside temp of that tin hut at the time was probably close to damn hot. This explains the enthusiasm shown on the faces of the trainees (below).

Another ever engrossing “Harvey White” movie with “Grob” evident on several classroom desks. The trainees from 18 Signallers Course eagerly take it all in. A front view reveals most are still awake.

Evident too are the aircraft recognition silhouettes (just in case the hoards come flying in), ABO’s hanging on the notice board (they were everywhere) and some model aircraft hanging from the ceiling just to remind everyone this really is the RAAF - not the Army.

Thanks Ed - they bring back a lot of memories. If anyone else has photos similar to these, or photos of other parts of Radschool, we would love to see them. If you post them to us we will of course return them.

This photo was taken the day President Kennedy was assassinated - 22 Nov, 1963 and shows a mixed bunch of trainees, including some brats, enjoying a Laverton “sporty”. Fourth from the left (in white socks) is Geoff Barnes. Can anyone put some names to the other faces. Apparently, there’s no truth in the rumour that this is the photo that inspired the movie - Chariots of Fire.

The Beer and Ice Cream Diet.

As we all know, it takes 1 calorie to heat 1 gram of water 1 degree C. Translated into meaningful terms, this means that if you eat a very cold dessert (generally consisting of water), the natural processes which raise the consumed dessert to body temperature during the digestive cycle literally sucks the calories out of the only available source, your body fat.

For example, a dessert served and eaten at near 0 degrees C (32 deg. F) will in a short time be raised to the normal body temperature of 37 degrees C (98.4 deg. F). For each gram of dessert eaten, that process uses up 37 calories as shown above. The average dessert portion is 6 oz, or 168 grams. Therefore, by operation of thermodynamic law, 6,216 calories (1 cal./gm/deg. x 37 deg. x 168 gms) are extracted from body fat as the dessert's temperature is normalised. Allowing for the 1,200 fat making calories in the dessert, the net calorie loss is approximately 5,000 calories. WOW!!

Obviously, therefore, the more cold dessert you eat, the better off you are and the faster you will lose weight. This process can be applied equally well to drinking very cold beer. Each ounce of beer contains 16 fat making calories, but extracts 1,036 calories (10,360 cal. per middy) in the temperature normalising process. Thus the net calorie loss per ounce of beer is 1,020 calories. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to calculate that  13,260 calories (13 oz. x 1,020 cal./oz.) are extracted from the body in the process of drinking a cold can of beer.

Frozen desserts, e.g., ice cream, are even more beneficial, since it takes 83 cal./gm to melt them (i.e., raise them to 0 deg. C) and an additional 37 cal./gm to further raise them to body temperature. The results here are really remarkable, and it beats running hands down.

Unfortunately, for those (of us) who eat pizza as an excuse to drink beer, pizza (loaded with fat making calories and served above body temperature) induces an opposite effect. But, thankfully, as you should have already worked out, the obvious solution is to drink a lot of beer with pizza and follow it up immediately with large bowls of ice cream. We could all be thin if only we were to adhere religiously to a pizza, beer, and ice cream diet.

Happy dieting!

Always pays to keep at least one eye on the road.