Not literally every scene, obviously. It is a Steven Spielberg movie. I assumed conversations had been invented, timelines compressed and events rearranged to make a better film.

But underneath all of that, I thought Frank Abagnale had actually done the extraordinary things the story was built around.

He had posed as a Pan Am pilot.

He had flown around the world.

He had forged millions of dollars in cheques.

He had pretended to be a doctor.

He had passed the Louisiana bar and worked as a lawyer.

And eventually the FBI caught him and turned his unusual talents towards fighting fraud.

That was the story I had absorbed.

I don’t remember consciously deciding that I believed it.

I just did.

And that distinction has been bothering me ever since I discovered how questionable much of the story actually is.

The Story Behind the Story

Frank Abagnale certainly existed, and he certainly committed fraud.

The FBI’s own historical material describes him passing bad cheques, eventually being arrested in France and later serving time in a United States federal prison.

So this isn’t a case where Hollywood invented a completely fictional man.

The strange part is what happens when we start examining the more spectacular claims.

Researcher Alan C. Logan went back through public records, prison records and contemporary newspaper reporting and found a version of Abagnale’s life that appears considerably less glamorous.

According to Logan’s research, Abagnale was incarcerated for significant portions of the period during which he later claimed to have been travelling around carrying out extraordinary international cons.

There was a real episode where he dressed as a TWA pilot. But Logan’s reconstruction suggests it lasted weeks rather than years. During that period he became involved with a flight attendant named Paula Parks and her family, eventually stealing cheques from the family that had welcomed him into their home.

That’s a very different Frank Abagnale.

Less Leonardo DiCaprio gliding through airports surrounded by flight attendants.

More small-time fraudster who was repeatedly caught and imprisoned.

What surprised me even more was that these doubts aren’t entirely new.

In 1978, journalists were already investigating Abagnale’s claims. They contacted banks, hospitals, universities and other institutions connected with stories he was telling publicly and struggled to verify them.

Then in December 2002, around the release of Spielberg’s film, the Los Angeles Times investigated the story again and described much of the source material behind the movie as unverifiable.

The filmmakers themselves weren’t claiming to have produced a documentary. The movie changed significant parts of the story for dramatic purposes.

So perhaps Hollywood didn’t exactly tell me:

“Everything you are about to see happened.”

But somehow I still walked away believing that the important parts had.

And that’s where this stopped being a story about Frank Abagnale for me.

I Never Remember Choosing to Believe It

What fascinated me was how little conscious thought seemed to be involved in establishing something in my mind as true.

There was a book.

There were television appearances.

There were newspapers talking about him.

There was a major Hollywood production.

Steven Spielberg directed it.

Leonardo DiCaprio played Frank.

Tom Hanks played the FBI agent chasing him.

The story had all the signals of something that had already passed through several layers of verification.

And somewhere along that chain, I think I unconsciously assumed:

Someone must have checked this.

That’s the part I keep returning to.

We tend to imagine believing something as an individual decision.

Someone presents a claim. We examine the evidence. We decide whether we accept it.

But much of what we believe doesn’t happen like that at all.

Instead, trust can move through institutions.

One person tells a story.

A television programme repeats it.

A newspaper describes it.

A publisher turns it into a book.

Other journalists refer to the book.

Hollywood adapts it.

Audiences watch the movie.

Eventually millions of people know the story.

But each new appearance of the claim can look like another piece of evidence, even when everyone may ultimately be drawing from the same original source.

I started thinking of this as a kind of cascade of truth.

Although perhaps cascade of belief would be more accurate.

The story moves from one trusted place to another until the fact that it is widely repeated starts to feel like evidence that it must be true.

Eventually we forget to ask where the chain began.

When Repetition Starts Looking Like Verification

This reminded me of the old telephone game.

A message moves from person to person and changes as it travels.

But what happened with Frank Abagnale seems even more interesting because the problem wasn’t necessarily that every person substantially changed the story.

The repetition itself gave the story authority.

Imagine hearing an extraordinary claim from one man standing on a street corner.

You might be sceptical.

Now imagine hearing essentially the same claim on national television.

Then reading it in a book.

Then hearing the man interviewed again.

Then seeing respectable organisations refer to him as a famous former conman.

Then watching an expensive Steven Spielberg movie about his life.

At some point, the question quietly changes from:

“Is this true?”

to:

“How could this possibly not be true?”

That’s a remarkable transformation.

And charisma seems to matter enormously.

Abagnale wasn’t merely presenting information. He was telling a wonderful story.

He was intelligent, articulate and apparently very convincing in front of an audience.

That makes me think about how easily humans can confuse the qualities of the messenger with the quality of the evidence.

Confidence feels like knowledge.

Specific detail feels like evidence.

Charisma feels like credibility.

And a compelling narrative makes us want to hear what happens next.

None of those things actually establish whether something happened.

Then I Started Thinking About Artificial Intelligence

At first I thought this was largely a story about an earlier information age.

Abagnale was telling these stories during the 1970s.

There was no internet.

Nobody sitting in the audience could pull a phone out of their pocket and immediately start checking prison records while he was speaking.

There was an obvious technological disadvantage.

My first reaction was almost:

Well, this couldn’t happen quite the same way now.

Then I reconsidered it.

We have vastly greater access to information today.

But access to information isn’t the same thing as access to truth.

In fact, the Frank Abagnale story made me wonder whether some of the underlying problem remains exactly the same.

Artificial intelligence makes this particularly interesting.

Language models aren’t simply counting how often a sentence appears on the internet and declaring the most repeated version true. The technology is more complicated than that.

But generative AI can still produce information that sounds convincing while being wrong.

That creates an uncomfortable connection with the Abagnale story.

Suppose an incorrect claim becomes deeply embedded in our information ecosystem.

Books repeat it.

Newspapers repeat it.

Websites repeat it.

People repeat it to one another.

Eventually those sources become part of the enormous body of human information from which future systems learn.

We tend to imagine AI as something standing outside human knowledge, checking it for us.

But AI inherits our information environment.

If that environment contains myths, misunderstandings and confidently repeated half-truths, then technology does not automatically make those problems disappear.

Sometimes it can help expose them.

Sometimes it can repeat them.

Which means the responsibility hasn’t disappeared.

The tools changed.

The human problem didn’t.

Nothing New Under the Sun

That’s when an old expression came back to me:

“There is nothing new under the sun.”

The phrase comes from Ecclesiastes and reflects on recurring patterns in human life.

I’m not taking that to literally mean nothing genuinely new ever happens.

Obviously technology changes.

The internet is new.

Artificial intelligence is new.

The speed at which information travels is extraordinary compared with the 1970s.

But the underlying human behaviour feels strangely familiar.

We tell stories.

We trust people.

We trust institutions.

We are persuaded by confidence.

We repeat things we believe other people have already verified.

We prefer memorable stories to messy collections of uncertain facts.

And eventually something can become so familiar that asking whether it is true begins to feel unnecessary.

Frank Abagnale didn’t need artificial intelligence to create that effect.

He needed a good story.

He needed charisma.

He needed people willing to repeat it.

And he needed each new audience to assume that somebody further back in the chain must have checked.

Technology has changed enormously since then.

Human nature hasn’t changed nearly as much.

The Part I Want to Remember

I don’t think the lesson I took from Catch Me If You Can is simply:

Don’t believe movies based on true stories.

That’s useful advice, but it isn’t really what stayed with me.

What stayed with me was something more unsettling.

A surprisingly small amount of uncertain information can acquire an enormous amount of authority once enough people and institutions begin repeating it.

Eventually the history of the claim becomes invisible.

We see only its familiarity.

And familiarity starts feeling like truth.

That’s what changed for me.

I had never investigated Frank Abagnale.

I hadn’t examined his prison records.

I hadn’t checked newspaper archives.

I hadn’t compared the timelines.

I had simply inherited a story.

And because that story had travelled through enough places I trusted, I didn’t realise I was trusting it.

That distinction matters.

Because perhaps the most dangerous beliefs aren’t always the ones somebody aggressively convinces us to accept.

Sometimes they’re the ones that arrive so quietly that we never remember deciding to believe them in the first place.

And that may be as true in the age of artificial intelligence as it was when Frank Abagnale first stepped onto a television stage.

There really may be nothing new under the sun.

Only new ways for an old human tendency to express itself.

Sources and Further Reading

• FBI — “Investigating Financial Crime”
  Background on Abagnale’s cheque fraud, arrest and imprisonment.
  https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/investigating-financial-crime
• WHYY / The Pulse — “Could this famous conman be lying about his story?”
  A useful overview of Alan C. Logan’s investigation into Abagnale’s claims and the documentary evidence challenging his famous story.
  https://whyy.org/segments/the-greatest-hoax-on-earth/
• Los Angeles Times — “The truth? Just try to catch it if you can” — December 28, 2002
  Contemporary reporting examining the difficulty of verifying many of Abagnale’s claims around the time Spielberg’s movie was released.
  https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-dec-28-et-baker28-story.html
• NIST — Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework: Generative AI Profile
  Discussion of generative AI producing confidently stated but false information.
  https://www.nist.gov/itl/ai-risk-management-framework
• OpenAI — “Why Language Models Hallucinate”
  Background on why language models can sometimes generate plausible but incorrect answers.
  https://openai.com/index/why-language-models-hallucinate/
• Ecclesiastes 1:9
  Source of the phrase “nothing new under the sun.”

The post When a Story Becomes Belief appeared first on My Random Tips.

Last week, the demolition of two old buildings unexpectedly uncovered a pair of beautifully preserved painted advertisements — classic “ghost signs” that had been hidden for decades. One promotes the iconic South Australian brand Amscol Ice Cream, while the other advertises British Paints Glossmasta and Nu-Plastik.

These hand-painted murals are wonderful windows into mid-20th-century Australian commercial life. Here’s the story behind each discovery.

The Amscol Ice Cream Sign

The first mural features the familiar diamond-shaped Amscol logo, bold red lettering spelling out “AMSCOL”, an ice-cream cone, and the word “Delicatessen”. It is a classic example of the colourful advertising that once covered many Adelaide walls.

Amscol (Adelaide Milk Supply Co-Operative Limited) was founded in 1922 by local dairy farmers who took over the Beauchamp Bros milk business. From its factory on Carrington Street in the city, the cooperative became a household name across South Australia.

While it produced bottled milk, cream, butter and cheese, Amscol is best remembered for its ice cream. Popular products included the famous ice-cream “bricks” that fitted neatly into early refrigerator freezers, Dandies (small cups), Twin Chocs, Eskimo Pies, Berry Bars, and later decorative tins with flavours such as Dutch Treat chocolate. The company’s slogan was the memorable line: “It’s a food, not a fad.”

In 1978 the business was acquired by Farmers Union and Dairy Vale. In 1982 the remaining operations, including the ice-cream side, were sold to Streets (Unilever). The Carrington Street factory closed soon after and was later demolished for housing.

The brand rights were later purchased by South Australian businessman Stewart Kay, who briefly revived Amscol ice cream at the retro diner Cherry Burger at Colonnades Shopping Centre around 2019. That revival was short-lived, and the brand has remained largely quiet since.

Finding a well-preserved Amscol mural is a rare treat for anyone who grew up in Adelaide during the mid-20th century.

The British Paints Glossmasta & Nu-Plastik Sign

The second mural is equally striking. Painted against a yellow and light-blue background, it features the Union Jack logo of British Paints Ltd., the large red word GLOSSMASTA, the slogan “One coat covers any colour”, and below it NU-PLASTIK — described as “The acrylic wall & ceiling finish!”

British Paints established a strong presence in Australia after the Second World War. By the 1950s and 1960s the company was operating modern factories (including a major plant at Padstow in New South Wales) and producing a wide range of paints under several brand names.

Glossmasta was marketed as a high-coverage gloss paint that could cover any colour in a single coat. Nu-Plastik (also advertised as Nu-Plastic) was one of the new generation of quick-drying acrylic finishes that arrived in Australia in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A 1961 television commercial for the product emphasised that it dried in just 15 minutes, required no undercoat, and left no lingering paint smell — revolutionary claims at the time.

British Paints later became part of the Berger group and is now owned by DuluxGroup (itself part of Nippon Paint Holdings). The British Paints brand continues to be sold in Australia today, mainly through Bunnings, though the specific mid-century product names Glossmasta and Nu-Plastik belong to a bygone era of paint marketing.

Why These Signs Matter

Ghost signs like these are more than just old advertisements. They are pieces of visual history that capture the design styles, brand names and everyday products of earlier decades. When a building is demolished and a long-hidden mural suddenly reappears, it offers a brief moment to reconnect with that past before the wall itself disappears.

Both of these signs appear to date from roughly the 1950s to 1970s — a golden age of hand-painted outdoor advertising in Australia. Their survival in such good condition is fortunate, and photographing them while they are still visible helps preserve their memory.

Have you spotted any other ghost signs around Adelaide or South Australia recently? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.

AI Fun

I though ill make a before and after ChatGPT 5.6 Sol making a before and after the restore the image with some photoshop post processing for alignment.

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Macronutrient Extremes Buffer Weight Gain During Caloric Excess:
Insights from Overfeeding Studies, Historical Dietary Frameworks, and Personal Observations

Authors: My Random Tips (Conceptualization, Data Curation, Personal Observations); Collaborative Assistance (Methodology, Literature Synthesis).
Independent Researcher, Adelaide, South Australia.

Introduction

Caloric surplus is conventionally expected to drive weight gain proportionally, per the first law of thermodynamics. However, interindividual variability in overfeeding responses suggests macronutrient composition modulates energy partitioning—how surplus calories are oxidized, stored, or expended. Personal patterns show no gain despite months at ~3000 kcal (vs. ~1700 kcal baseline) in low-fat/higher-carb or high-fat/low-carb modes (moderate protein ~20%), but gain when mixing high-fat/high-carb above baseline. This mirrors vegan leanness on high-carb/low-fat and carnivore stability on high-fat/low-carb despite “excess,” vs. mixed diets’ easier storage.

Historical frameworks support: Keys’ Minnesota Starvation Experiment (1944–45) used controlled refeeding to prevent disproportionate gain post-deprivation, emphasizing macro roles. Page’s Fundamental Food Plan normalized blood chemistry in thousands via no refined carbs/mixing (Phase I: low-carb veggies/proteins/fats; Phase II: adds mild carbs/fruits). Food-combining (Hay/Goodheart/Berardi) warns against fat-carb pairing for digestive/insulin efficiency.

This review hypothesizes extremes enable excess tolerance via satiety/EE/oxidation, while mixing traps energy (Randle cycle, insulin loops, ectopic fat if expandability limited).

Group photo of the participants in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment (1944-1945). Source: Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons.

Keys’ recruitment brochure cover: “Will you starve that they be better fed?” Source: NCBI/PMC (Figure image hosted by NIH).

Proposed Framework for Macronutrient Partitioning

From personal testing and Page’s no-mixing/refined-carb avoidance:

• Safe Zone Metabolically: Higher Carb + Lower Fat + Moderate Protein (~20%) — GM (Glucose Meal Low Fat)/GS (Glucose Snack), e.g., steamed potatoes + lean fish.
• Safe Zone Metabolically: Higher Fat + Lower Carbs + Moderate Protein (~20%) — FM (Fat Meal Low Carb)/FS (Fat Snack), e.g., steak + butter/cabbage.
• Danger Zone: Higher Fat + High Carb + Moderate Protein (~20%) — mixed excess drives fat gain; limited expandability → ectopic fat (liver/muscle), elevated basal glucose, insulin resistance loop (insulin ramps ineffectively).
• LM (Veg + Lean Meat) supports neutrally.

This avoids Page’s “poor” combos and aligns with Keys’ macro control for recovery without excess gain.

Diagram version of Dr. Melvin Page’s Phase I vegetable “carb band” idea (for reliable display in browsers). Original PDF source: IFNH.org Page-Food-Plan.pdf

Cover-style placeholder graphic (so the page loads reliably). If you want the original document, link to: Scribd document page

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Something unusual is happening in the Australian used-car market. Ten-year-old SUVs, once written off as “just another used car,” are now selling at a premium. A 2010 Honda CR-V or a 2012 Toyota RAV4 is suddenly in hot demand, often commanding prices close to what they originally sold for.

Why? Because drivers are waking up to the reality: modern cars are harder, costlier, and more complicated to repair than ever before.

The Golden Age of Cars (And Why It Ended)

Around 2010, cars struck the perfect balance. They had modern comforts, safety features, and refinement — but they were still mechanically simple and easy to maintain. Local mechanics in Adelaide, Sydney, or Perth could fix them without expensive dealership tools.

As one car expert put it:

“Back in 2010, any sane person would have assumed the progression of cars would continue. But it didn’t. What happened instead was regression.”

What Went Wrong With Modern Cars

From 2015 onwards, the story changed:

• Wet timing belts and dual-clutch gearboxes reduced longevity.
• Small turbo engines powering heavy SUVs increased stress on components.
• Software and electronics locked behind dealer access limited independent repair.
• Over-the-air updates introduced new risks — even bricking cars overnight.

Even safety systems have become intrusive.

“I drove a Hyundai a couple of weeks ago and it told me, based on my facial expressions, that I should consider taking a break from driving.”

These features often frustrate drivers and cost thousands to repair when they fail.

EV Reality in Australia: Batteries With Expiry Dates

Electric vehicles are marketed as the future — but their batteries come with a built-in expiry date. In Australia:

• Most EV batteries last 8–10 years before noticeable range loss.
• A replacement Tesla Model 3 battery can run into tens of thousands of dollars.
• BYD and MG packs, popular in Australia, cost similar amounts to replace, often exceeding the resale value of the car.
• Australia’s hot summers, fast-charging, and running batteries too low all accelerate degradation.

As the expert bluntly put it:

“There’s no way anyone is going to pay $12,000 for a replacement battery on a car worth $10,000. That’s the irony of the EV shift — cars built for the environment with a built-in expiry date.”

Used Car Prices in Australia: Climbing Fast

Checking Carsales and Gumtree today shows the trend clearly:

In Sydney and Melbourne, a low-mileage 2014 RAV4 or CR-V can easily fetch $18,000–$22,000.

Even parts are going up. A CR-V gearbox that used to be ~$600 now costs $1,000–$1,200. Meanwhile, a single mirror on a 2023 Golf — loaded with cameras and sensors — can cost just as much.

Which Cars Still Make Sense in Australia

If you want reliability and repairability, stick to petrol-driven models from 2008–2015:

• Honda CR-V (3rd & 4th gen)
• Toyota RAV4 (pre-hybrid)
• Honda Accord
• Toyota Corolla / Yaris
• Mazda 3 (2.0L non-turbo)
• Subaru Forester (non-turbo)

These models balance comfort, safety, and simplicity — without the costly complexity of newer cars.

Independence and Freedom on the Road

This is the real appeal of older cars:

“With cars like this, you remain independent. You don’t need a dealership’s extortionate rates. You’re not tied to software updates or locked features. You keep your mobility.”

For Australians facing long distances, high fuel prices, and rising living costs, independence matters more than ever.

Final Word: Don’t Wait Too Long

The writing is on the wall. Reliable, repairable cars are disappearing from the market, and prices are climbing fast.

• Buy now while good examples are still affordable.
• Maintain them well to keep them running for years.
• Don’t get locked into dealership dependence and expensive EV battery replacements.

Because in the near future, you may find yourself with fewer choices — and far higher costs.

The post Reliable Used Cars in Australia: Why Prices Are Rising appeared first on My Random Tips.

If you’ve been using JStock, the popular free stock market software supporting 28 countries, you might have encountered a frustrating issue recently detailed in

. Users, including the original reporter @feitnomore, have reported that their stock values are no longer updating, with all prices stuck at 0.00 across the watchlist, portfolio, and other sections. This problem suggests a breakdown in JStock’s ability to fetch real-time or historical stock data, likely due to changes or disruptions in its underlying data sources (e.g., Yahoo Finance, which has been unreliable since 2017) or a bug in the data retrieval and display logic. Despite the software’s robust features like stock watchlists, indicator editors, and portfolio management, this issue renders it ineffective for tracking current market values, leaving users in the dark about their investments.

The lack of assigned developers, labels, or active pull requests on this issue indicates it remains unresolved, with no official fix released as of the latest updates. This stagnation could stem from the open-source nature of the project, where development relies on volunteer contributors, or from challenges in maintaining compatibility with evolving APIs and platforms.

How the HTML Code Helps

To bridge the gap while awaiting a permanent fix, a simple webpage solution has been developed using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. This webpage, detailed in the provided code, offers a user-friendly way to manually update your stock prices and generate the correct JSON format needed for JStock’s portfolio-real-time-info.json file. Here’s how it helps:

• Dynamic Form Adjustment: Users can specify the number of stocks they want to update, and the form automatically generates the corresponding input fields for stock codes and prices. This flexibility accommodates any portfolio size, making it adaptable to your needs.
• Automated JSON Generation: Upon submitting the form, the page creates a single-line JSON string with the stockPrices and stockPricesTimestamp fields, matching JStock’s required format. This eliminates manual formatting errors and ensures compatibility.
• Clipboard Integration: The generated JSON is copied to your clipboard with a click, simplifying the process of transferring it to your JSON file.
• User Empowerment: Until the JStock issue is resolved, this tool puts you in control, allowing you to input current prices and maintain an accurate portfolio valuation.

This webpage doesn’t fix the root cause but provides a practical workaround, leveraging browser-based technology to streamline a manual process.

Steps to Update Your JSON File

Follow these steps to use the webpage and update your JStock JSON file with current stock prices:

1. Obtain Current Stock Prices:
   • Visit a reliable source like TradingView to get the latest prices for your stocks. For example, search for stocks like A200.AX, BOE.AX, or RDDT to find their current values (e.g., 137.67 AUD for A200.AX as of your last update).
   • Note down the prices for each stock in your portfolio and update the table below
   • Fill in each row with the stock code (e.g., A200.AX) and its current price (e.g., 137.67) based on your TradingView data.
   • Repeat for all stocks in your portfolio.
   • Click the “Generate Updated JSON” button. The page will display the JSON output (e.g., {“stockPrices”:[[{“code”:”A200.AX”},137.67],…],”stockPricesTimestamp”:1746169100000}) and copy it to your clipboard.
2. Update the JSON File:
   • Close any running jstock on your computer
   • Locate your portfolio-real-time-info.json file on Windows at C:\Users\PROFILE\.jstock\1.0.7\Australia\portfolios\My Portfolio\portfolio-real-time-info.json. (Note: Replace User with your actual Windows username, and Australia with your country code if different, e.g., usa for US stocks.)
   • Open the file in a text editor (e.g., Notepad or VS Code).
   • Replace the existing “stockPrices” and “stockPricesTimestamp” line with the generated JSON.
   • Save the file and close
   • Open JStock and youll see the current prices

Update Stock Prices JSON

ummary of the Workaround Until Fixed

Until the JStock team addresses Issue #190, this manual workaround using the HTML webpage offers a viable solution. By fetching current prices from TradingView or similar platforms and inputting them into the webpage, you can generate a properly formatted JSON string to update your portfolio-real-time-info.json file. This process, while not automated, ensures your portfolio valuations remain current, mitigating the impact of the 0.00 price bug. The webpage simplifies the task with its dynamic form and clipboard feature, but it requires periodic manual updates as stock prices change. Keep an eye on the

for any official fixes or community pull requests that might resolve this issue permanently. In the meantime, this approach empowers you to maintain accurate tracking of your investments despite the software’s current limitations.

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Designing a custom collectible is more than just a fun project—it’s a way to celebrate individuality and creativity. Our customization tool makes the process seamless, letting you craft everything from a sleek, professional action figure to a vibrant, fashionable doll or a colorful, blocky creation. With a few clicks, you can generate a detailed prompt to guide the creation of your dream figure. So why wait? Dive in, experiment with different styles, and create a collectible that’s as unique as you are. Your masterpiece is just a form away!

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Jack Price: A Child of the Sea

Born in 1880 to William Price and Emily (née Hepenstal), Jack entered a Port Noarlunga defined by its wild isolation. As early as age two, around 1882, he was fishing—hard to imagine today, but not uncommon for children in coastal communities back then. By eight, in 1888, he witnessed a defining moment: the partial collapse of a tunnel that linked the town to the beach. This tunnel, wide enough for a two-bullock team, cut through a towering sand hill that separated the settlement from the sea. Its collapse underscored the harsh natural forces that dominated life here.

Jack’s grandparents, among the town’s earliest settlers, had built Port Noarlunga’s first house near the Onkaparinga River. Floods soon forced them to higher ground, a sign of the environmental challenges Jack would grow up facing. Despite this, the community thrived in its own way—dances in barns, moonlight rides on bullock-drawn drags, and “ketches” (small sailing ships) at the river’s mouth brought residents together, forging a spirited bond Jack cherished.

The Sea’s Bounty and Wrath

Jack’s lifelong love for the sea deepened as he grew. He told The Seasider in 1961, “I love and respect the sea,” a sentiment earned through decades of fishing its unpredictable waters. One tale captures this duality: while reeling in a catch, his jumper snagged in the reel, hooking him alongside a massive fish that thrashed “like a crazed monster.” The line snapped, and Jack, chuckling years later, mused that the fish might still be out there, hook and all.

The sea’s destructive side hit hard in 1914, when Jack was 34. A ferocious storm washed away the first Port Noarlunga jetty, built in 1855 and extended in 1878. Jack vividly recalled his friend Frank Townsend’s face—the only mariner visible in the gulf after the chaos. Both had felt a tug on their lines, but Jack, jerking his, found “a lot of fish” he hadn’t expected. The jetty’s loss was a blow to the fishing community, though its remains linger south of today’s jetty, visible at low tide.

Jack Price in World War I

That same year, 1914, Jack’s resilience faced a new test: World War I. Enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force, he rose to Sergeant in the 27th Infantry Battalion. He served in Egypt—likely tied to the Suez Canal defense or Gallipoli preparations in 1915—before enduring the Western Front’s brutal trenches in France and Belgium. Battles like the Somme (1916) and Passchendaele (1917) demanded endurance honed by years battling Port Noarlunga’s elements. A photograph from the early 1900s, Jack Price of Port Noarlunga, S. Aust., shows him in uniform outside a local house, pride evident in his stance.

Returning in 1919, Jack turned to rebuilding his life. He’d acquired land at 11 Katharine Street in 1912, and around 1919, he constructed a house there—a modest yet sturdy home that would anchor his next chapter. That year, he married Adelaide May Maynard (1897–1981), daughter of Charles and Eleanor Maynard of Noarlunga. The house became their family hub, where Adelaide’s mother, Eleanor, later lived until her death in 1933. A 1979 photograph, 11 Katharine Street, Port Noarlunga, S. Aust., captures the home decades later—a testament to Jack’s post-war stability.

Jack and Adelaide lived there for the rest of their lives—he until 1971 at age 91, she until 1981. Today, 11 Katharine Street remains a historical touchstone, possibly modernized but still echoing Jack’s legacy as a fisherman, soldier, and family man.

Jack in 1961: A Lifetime Reflected

By 1961, at 81, Jack was a local icon, cracking almonds on his verandah as he shared tales with The Seasider. The sand hill and tunnel were gone, leveled by development, and a new jetty, opened in 1921, had replaced the storm-ravaged original. Port Noarlunga was shifting, drawing visitors to its shores, yet Jack’s love for the sea held firm, undimmed by its past fury.

Port Noarlunga in 2025: A Coastal Gem

Today, in 2025, Port Noarlunga shines as a modern destination. The jetty stretches into the gulf, a hub for fishing and diving, while the offshore reef thrives as a protected marine wonder. The Onkaparinga River, once a flooding foe, now enhances the area with trails and parks. Community spirit endures in markets and festivals, a nod to the barn dances of Jack’s youth. The town’s charm persists, rooted in its coastal heritage.

John James Price’s Enduring Legacy

Sgt. John James Price M.M. passed away on March 25, 1971, followed by Adelaide on January 20, 1981. They rest together in the Cemetery on the Hill at St Philip & St James Anglican Church in Old Noarlunga, their gravestone inscribed: “Dearly loved parents of Douglas, Jean, Gladys, and Daphne. Forever in our hearts. In God’s loving care.” His stories, preserved in The Seasider, immortalize a man who shaped Port Noarlunga through a life of adventure and resilience.

Next time you visit, picture young Jack fishing at two or old Jack on his verandah at 81. His love for the sea still ripples through this community, a reminder of those who turned a rugged outpost into a coastal treasure. If you’re in Old Noarlunga, stop by the Church on the Hill to honor Sgt. John James Price and Adelaide—guardians of a legacy that endures.

Sources:

“Port Noarlunga’s Early Days Recalled,” The Seasider (Christies Beach, SA), April 1, 1961, p. 3, accessed March 20, 2025, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/276854182?searchTerm=noarlunga%20tunnel#.

“Old Noarlunga Historical Record,” Libraries SA, Walkerville Library, digital asset ID SD_ASSET:1386193, accessed March 20, 2025, https://www.libraries.sa.gov.au/client/en_AU/walkerville/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ASSET$002f0$002fSD_ASSET:1386193/ada?qu=Old+Noarlunga&d=ent%3A%2F%2FSD_ASSET%2F0%2FSD_ASSET%3A1386193%7EASSET%7E44&ps=300&h=8.

“Historical Record of Jack Williams (or Jack Price),” Libraries SA, Norwood Payneham St Peters Library, digital asset ID SD_ASSET:1383805, accessed March 20, 2025, https://libraries.sa.gov.au/client/en_AU/npsp/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ASSET$002f0$002fSD_ASSET:1383805/ada?qu=Williams%2C+Jack&d=ent%3A%2F%2FSD_ASSET%2F0%2FSD_ASSET%3A1383805%7EASSET%7E143&ps=300&h=8.

South Australian Libraries. “Grave of John James Price and Adelaide May Price, St Philip & St James Anglican Church, Old Noarlunga, S. Aust., 2019.” Accessed March 20, 2025. https://libraries.sa.gov.au/client/en_AU/search/asset/1430977/0

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If you’ve ever wondered why your Linux system seems to be gobbling up RAM—or if you’ve stumbled across the classic “Linux Ate My RAM” page at https://www.myrandomtips.com/linux/linux-ate-my-ram/—you’re not alone. That site brilliantly explains how Linux memory management works, debunking the myth that “used” memory is a bad thing by showing how buffers and cache play a role. Inspired by its insights, I’ve created a new, interactive online tool that lets you manually input your system’s memory stats and get a clear, visual breakdown of your memory health. No more guessing—just paste in your free -m numbers, and let my tool do the rest!

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