onetrack

The indicator side problem is directly related to cost-cutting by car manufacturers. They refuse to manufacture a "mirror-image steering column" with the indicators on the RH side of the column, for RHD vehicles, they simply fit steering columns from LHD vehicles, so the indicators and wiper controls end up being reversed to normal RHD layout. It's good enough for the manufacturers to keep the A-B-C of the foot controls in the right order, in the switch from LHD to RHD, so the other controls need to be mirrored as well. Imagine trying to drive a RHD car with the accelerator on the transmission hump side, needing to use your left foot to alter speed! 🙄

Willie, that's a great aviation start there! - you just need to hunt down the rest of the AN-124! 😄

It's a PIA, and standardisation of internal layout is sorely needed. If someone driving becomes immobilised (medical event, for example), and you have to jump in and move their vehicle, it should be easy to do - not become a 5 minute exercise in frustration, trying to find out all the control positions, while traffic is banking up. The worst piece of automotive designing is moving all the controls to a bloody great touch screen in the centre of the dash!! FFS!! LED screens crap themselves on a regular basis. So, you're driving down the road and the whole screen goes black, and you have to try and stop, indicate, and activate warning flashers! What do you do when the screen is black or blank? I see where more than one car manufacturer has admitted they "went too far" in putting all the vehicle controls into touchscreens - and they have stated they will return to basic buttons, knobs and levers. There is action being taken by licencing authorities in other countries around banning touchscreens for the major vehicle controls, and making manufacturers install buttons, switches and levers. https://www.autonext.co/news/europe-and-china-push-back-against-touchscreen-overload-in-cars-the-return-of-physical-buttons NEWS QUOTE: "The most notable admissions (to design failures) and rollbacks from major manufacturers include: Volkswagen: VW design executives publicly admitted their touchscreen-only push was a mistake. They confirmed that physical buttons are returning for the "big five" functions - volume, heating on each side, fans, and hazard lights - as well as on the steering wheel. As Design Head Andreas Midt bluntly put it: "Honestly, it's a car. It's not a phone, it's a car." Mercedes-Benz: After rolling out massive, dash-spanning displays, Mercedes acknowledged that consumers prefer tactile feedback. The company has been gradually reintroducing physical dials and rollers (such as in their latest GLC and CLA models) after executives admitted they sometimes needed to, "take one step back to take two steps forward." Porsche & Audi: Both luxury German marques admitted that removing essential controls in favor of touch-sensitive panels and sliders was overly frustrating, and have reintroduced more tactile, clicky buttons. Hyundai & Genesis: These brands admitted that their previous push for buttonless center stacks was a case of "style overrode safety". They have been reincorporating conventional hardware, as seen in newer models like the updated Tucson, Santa Fe, and Santa Cruz." https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/why-car-makers-are-ditching-touch-controls-in-favour-of-buttons/ The simple fact that you see so many car drivers driving around at night with headlights off, is indicative that current vehicle controls and dash indications are inadequate, and they need serious levels of modification to ensure that basic controls are visible, immediately identifiable, usable without referring to operating manuals, and have clear indications of what that controls position is in. In recent times, I went to pick up an item of machinery that I purchased from a Shire Council via a Pickles Auction. After going to the Shire reception, and organising pickup and entry to their yard, I was told a young man would go with me to oversee the pickup. Said young man rolled up to the yard in his car, we went and found the item - only to find another Shire worker had parked a 5 tonne Hino truck directly in front of my item, at right angles to it. I said to the young bloke, "You'll have to shift that Hino for me so I can get my item out". He looked a little embarrassed and said, "I don't know how to drive a truck!" FFS! The Hino was nothing more than a big car! Luckily, having a heavy articulated licence and decades of experience with machines, it was easy enough to find the master switch, turn it on and start and drive the truck forward, so I could extract my purchased item. I often wonder about the future abilities of our nation.

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".

I still don't understand why wind turbines only last 20 years when turbine power stations last 50 or 60 years. There must be some way to extend their life. Each wind turbine is a massive investment and the foundations are huge and costly, but it's all scrapped in 20 years? This is idiocy to me.

Keating spent years talking up the sale of the CBA, it was his baby, all the way. The champagne glasses are still clinking in the boardrooms of the private banks over their "coup" in getting rid of the CBA - the only bastion still in place to stop private banks from making excessive profits. I have seen an article about how much this banking greed cost all everyday Australians.

Batchelor party.

I tawt I taw a puddy tat.

Sorry Nev, your memory is faulty today. It was Paul Keating who sold off the Commonwealth Bank - largely to the other big Australian private banks. QUOTE: The Commonwealth Bank was privatised in stages under the Labor government of Prime Minister Paul Keating. The sell-off process occurred in three tranches: 1991: The Keating government floated the initial 30% of the bank's shares to the public. 1993: The government sold another tranche, reducing its stake to just over 50%. 1996: The remaining government shareholding was fully sold off to investors, completing the privatisation.

And the ticky-tacky little boxes have come about via property investor greed that has pushed house prices up 700% in 3 decades. That's unsustainable, and is setting the country up for a majpr recession, perhaps even a Depression. House prices go up 3% annually over the long-term, normally. Only in the last 3 decades has this outlandish property pricing occurred - so we need to look at what has driven that - and it's the taxation system generously favouring property investors. So Labor is now trying to address that major imbalance.

"Two all-beef patties". The first line of the original MacDonalds advertising jingle for their Big Mac. The whole line is, "Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun". Just makes you wonder what the other choice was, besides an "all beef" pattie? An "All roadkill pattie"? A pattie with only 5% beef and the remainder, all mystery ingredients? I reckon I've eaten a few pies that met the last description.