onetrack

The BOM has good advice as regards setting up weather stations and recording equipment, giving useful advice as to location and placement. A rain gauge needs to be positioned between 0.3M and 1.0M from ground level to prevent splashback, and must be well clear of obstructions such as overhangs and buildings, to give good accuracy. 10M is the recommended clearance to buildings. A good rain gauge has a wide metal funnel on top of a tubular metal support, with a graduated glass collector directly below the funnel. These are durable units and the funnel provides greater accuracy in catching rainfall. Yes, there can be a wide variation in rainfall over relatiely small areas. The topography plays a big part in whether clouds drop their moisture, and often, the topography shape and effect is subtle.

"Could" is not "will". Future projections are highly variable at the best of times.

When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie....... (it's Amore!) Our local rural AM radio station in the 1960's and early 1970's (6NA) only had this one Dean Martin single, and they played it, ad infinitum, until it was seared into my brain, forever. I reckon they played it at least 100 times a day!

Personally, I think we've only just started in that journey of weaning ourselves off fossil fuels. There will be lots more developments as regards battery chemistry, leading to a wide range of newer and better and longer-lasting batteries - and the methods of renewable power generation can only increase, especially when AI is put to work to find where improvements can be made and where new sources of renewable energy can be acquired.

So, does this mean the Great Gilgandra Drought is over? I thought you said previously, you didn't have a rain gauge? Did you go out and buy one? Here on the Left coast, we are due for steady rain from Wednesday afternoon right through to Monday. A strong cold front is coming through the lower part of the State on Wednesday night, and it will be followed by a decent rain-bearing depression with another sizeable cold front, on Sunday.

Hiding in plain sight.

Or the disturbed footings caused the embankment landslip? There must be a lot of steel in that building framework, for it to lay there relatively intact, with big bends in it.

It's good to see Jerry back and posting. It's that darned AI that has been keeping him away from the forum.

Have you seen the size of the foundations in high rise buildings, and done any rough calculations on the tonnage in those foundations? They are huge. The primary aim of high rise foundation calculations is determining the soil type and stability. Any unstable soils require lengthy pilings. The Chinese have made some serious errors in soil stability calculations for a number of their high rise buildings.

From MSN news - QUOTE: "Something unsettling is happening with AI robot dogs - and experts are worried. Scientists and engineers developing AI-powered robot dogs are creating machines that appear increasingly autonomous, adaptive, and unpredictable. The deeper researchers push artificial intelligence into robotic systems, the more unsettling the technology begins to feel. Advanced movement, decision-making systems, and environmental awareness are allowing robot dogs to operate in ways that once seemed impossible. Some experts are now questioning how far autonomous robotics should evolve before the risks become difficult to control. And the rapid advancement of AI robot dogs is beginning to raise serious concerns about the future of intelligent machines....." (the video is 33 mins, so you may prefer to watch it when you have that available time) https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/something-unsettling-is-happening-with-ai-robot-dogs-and-experts-are-worried

It's standard U.S. armed forces and police techniques to let loose with multiple magazines just in the general direction of the threat, with the hope that something hits the offender. It's not helped by the fact that most short-barrelled pistols and revolvers aren't particularly accurate after about 25 to 30 metres - and even more so if you're moving, trying to find cover.

I notice Jerry hasn't posted in over a month, with a sudden end to his postings a few days before Anzac Day. I also see he looks in every day, but doesn't post anything. What has happened to our normally voluble contributor? Has he been threatened with zero computer access, if he continues to spend too much time on this forum? Did his managers find some of his posts and warn him his postings may soon result in job termination? Even worse, did Trumps active MAGA gorillas track him down, and threaten him with extradition to the U.S., with added corporal punishment? Or was it Hamas operatives that found his pro-Israel postings, and put out a Fatwa on him?? Or is it just a self-imposed computer-and-forum-time restriction, that keeps him from adding his regular 2 cents daily?? Inquiring minds need to know - and we especially need to know if he's not running in fear, looking over his shoulder, since he noticed the surveillance and tracking! 😄

Larrikinism was rife amongst the Diggers, in both WW1 and WW2. The WW2 army magazine, "Salt" provides a good insight into the WW2 outlook and vernacular - but it never published unacceptable swear words. Everything in it was sanitised and censored for "general use". I think I've got every copy of the Salt magazine, it provides some interesting reading.

The line was related to me in 1970 in South Vietnam, by a fellow soldier. He told me it was a story retold to him by a WW2 POW veteran. The Japanese camp commandant had lined up all the Aussies and was berating them in his best Japinglish. He was told by the POW that the commandant came out with, "You Ostalians think Japanese stupid. You think Japanese know f**k-nothing! We soon show you, that Japanese know f**k-all!!" Of course, the Australian POW's apparently broke out in fits of laughter, which only made the little Jap officer go apoplectic, and scream more abuse at them, and told guards to hand out beatings. So the basic line goes back a long way, but I wouldn't imagine much more before WW2, as the F-word wasn't used a great deal back then, and it was regarded as a particularly vile word in the 1920's and 1930's. This article on the origins of the F-word is quite interesting. The word has been in use for centuries, but almost never in publications, as it was deemed obscene when in print. https://bigthink.com/the-past/history-of-the-f-word/

An old Slav prospector I knew used to say "I'm doubt", whenever he should have said, "I doubt it".