onetrack

Johnny Carson.

I always like Billy Connellys comment about toilets. "Once you reach 65, never, ever, go past any toilet".

I find the Farmonline Weather website more user-friendly, having a better layout, and with more usable features, than the new BOM website. I guess the BOM will get something right eventually, after multiple ham-fisted and poor attempts at producing what people actually want. https://www.farmonlineweather.com.au/place/wa/perth/6000/maps I especially like the options under "layers" when viewing the forecast map, to be able to select "hourly rainfall", rather than the default 10:00PM daily conditions. https://www.farmonlineweather.com.au/place/wa/perth/6000/maps/forecast

Yes Jerry, it pisses me off, too, the utter grubbiness of people using public toilets. The blokes who are too lazy to even lift the seat and who piss all over it. The blokes who don't even bother to clean the bowl, even though a toilet brush is provided. And the number of blokes who piss all over the floor is unbelievable. It makes you wonder what their home is like, and who always cleans up after them.

It's certainly an interesting name, and one does wonder where it originated. I've never heard it used anywhere, but I've certainly come across some weird christian names in recent years. Possibly the saddest part of Prunella Scales life was, she spent the last 12 years suffering from dementia. A truly dreadful disease, and one that is afflicting more and more older people. I was recently looking up old military workmates and associates, and I was saddened to find the bloke who had the bed in our hut, adjacent to mine, when we were in Vietnam, died last month - and it appears he'd had dementia for quite a number of years. He contracted hepatitis when we were in 'Nam, and it appears contracting hepatitis seriously increases your risk of developing dementia.

The Lincoln-Kennedy similarities are not all true. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln–Kennedy_coincidences_urban_legend

My father told me a story many years ago, about he got caught in open station country, in a huge thunderstorm, about 1931, on Doolgunna Station, N of Meekatharra. Doolgunna Station was owned by G. J. ("Jimmy") Howard and my father worked for him during the Great Depression. Dad was doing boundary riding on a horse when the storm blew up. He was fortunate that there was a rare stand of fairly big trees not far away, and he galloped for it as the hail came down. As he made it to the trees, he said the hail turned into jagged chunks of ice, some of them around 4" (102mm) long. He said his horse went crazy and he struggled to keep hold of it. He said the hail stripped all the bark off the trees on the windward side, and shredded all the leaves on the stand of trees. He said it was the most frightening weather event he had ever endured, and he'd never seen a hailstorm like it again. Here in Perth, we endured a monstrous hailstorm in 2010 that damaged thousands of cars, with many of them being write-offs, it damaged hundreds of buildings, caravans, signs, awnings and patios, and caused multiple millions in storm damage. I was at a mates workshop and saw the storm coming, and we struggled to get the roller door shut, and keep it shut, the hail was piling up outside the door, about 200mm high.

OME, you're obviously not going to Church enough. We'll send you some sackcloth and ashes, so you can do proper penance for your sins, and make it rain again for you. 😄

Many years ago, in the W.A. wheatbelt, in the days of party-line phones, there was a local farming family with the surname of Klug. Mrs Klug regularly took great pains to insist that their name was pronounced "Kloog". One night on the local telephone exchange, one of the girls was taking a call from Mrs Klug and after Mrs Klug asked for the other partys number, the exchange girl said, "O.K. Mrs Klug, I'll just connect you now". Mrs Klug snapped back, "It's Mrs KLOOG, thank you!". The girl, quick as flash, came back with, "O.K., I'll just PLOOG you in then, now!" 😄 And then there was the local hardware shop owner, one Mr Handcock, who always insisted his name was pronounced "Hand-Co". 😄

This is stupidity at the highest level of Govt. It's putting all your eggs in the one basket. When the power goes out (as it surely does on regular occasions), you have no cooking ability, no refrigeration, and no hot water. I have gas and electric and solar, a proper balance against all your eggs in one basket. And I have a backup genset and a portable gas BBQ. In addition, what happens if you decide to disobey the Allan Govt mandate and install gas as well as electric? Do you go to jail? Who keeps checking on whether your home is still all-electric? The Energy Nazi stormtroopers?? The Vic Govt mentality is astounding. If imbecilic political leaders had stopped Australian Gas being sold for a pittance to other countries (who then use that cheap energy to compete unfairly with our industries), and had ensured that proper levels of cheap gas were reserved for local consumption, then you wouldn't have this fiasco you have now. Previous W.A. politicians at least had some working brain cells, they ensured 15% of W.A.'s gas reserves were kept available for W.A. industry and consumer consumption.

It's called "entrapment", plain and simple. About 30 years ago, I was walking up the Southern side of the Hay St Mall in Perth, heading East. It was about 7:00PM, and SWMBO was with me. I was a bit switched off, concentrating on something else, and didn't take a lot of notice of a crowd of people gathered in a bunch on the North side of the Mall, about 30M ahead of me. SWMBO must have been 110% alert though, because as we walked on, she moved out into the centre of the Mall - unbeknowns to me. She was a little behind, so I didn't notice. I was busy ogling the crowd at this point, trying to figure out why they'd gathered there, and they all seemed to be looking in my direction. I kept walking, totally oblivious. Suddenly, from behind the wall of a shop with a recessed facade, a bloke dressed in a ghoulish silvery outfit, standing on stilts about 600mm high (hidden by his long dark coat), jumped out at me!! To say there was a startle factor would be an understatement. The crowd roared with laughter as I jumped back in shock - leaving me feeling a little more than embarrassed. Of course, it was all street theatre, on a par with the video above, trying to trap unsuspecting victims. I played the unsuspecting victim part beautifully - but there was no way of knowing the ghoul was hiding behind the wall. I guess SWMBO suspected something was up, but she said nothing to me, possibly because she was still trying to figure out what the setup was. These people run the risk of frightening people with a weak ticker, and ending up with a completely unexpected result. I'd like to see someone pretend to drop dead in front of these street theatre jokers, and have the last laugh on them!!

Well, I'm definitely not a fuzzy icon type of person. Rather than trying to figure out what these dubious "international understanding" icons mean, at least they've given us the option of a "text only table" (on the RHS), which style of forecast, makes a lot more sense to me. https://www.bom.gov.au/location/australia/western-australia/lower-west/bwa_pt053-perth

GON, you've got a truly evil sense of humour! Just look at the fear on those faces!!

The MSLP charts are still located on the old website apparently, they can't be found on the new website. I don't know if they're planning to incorporate them into the new website. https://www.bom.gov.au/australia/charts/synoptic_col.shtml

I'm all in favour of drought-proofing, but I can't see how I can fit it to my external doors, windows and wall vents? 😕

Well, the outrage continues and especially amongst rural users. It's not like the story is a beatup in mainstream media, the dislike is coming from numerous sources. And the BOM is noted for making some pretty bad decisions - and not the least, related to weather forecasts! I can recall many years ago, the Weather Bureau, as it was then known, made a point of bragging about how they'd achieved a weather forecast result of 48% accuracy. Then some wag came out with the comment, that if they'd totally reversed their forecast each day of the preceding year (i.e., instead of forecasting rain, they forecast sunny and no rain - and vice versa) - then they would have been able to claim a 52% forecast accuracy rate! https://pulse.auctionsplus.com.au/news/public-frustration-grows-over-bureau-of-meteorologys-new-website-launch

Well, there aren't too many important female writers with the initials, "A. C." - so I took up Octaves hint.

I wouldn't say "too hard", it's just that the songs or sayings have no exposure here in Oz, they're purely American memories, so I certainly don't know them.

It loaded for me. Some of the star cluster photos are stunning, but the problem is, they're all "touched up" with color and contrast manipulation. The originals are pretty different to what we're presented with.

Agatha Christie.

This is the ENTERTAINMENT section of the Aviation site, Nev - lighten up. Yes, I know 90% of Facebook and social media is just a lot of time-wasting rubbish, but a fair percentage of the videos are genuine. I wouldn't be eating that bread that the cat kneaded, but it is funny to watch. The one of the 'roo hopping up onto the colorbond fence, and then onto the roof of the colorbond house, simply astounds me, and makes one realise, that when you think you've seen all the strange and unbelievable things that animals do, one more pops up to astound you!

I've found the radar map, but it's effectively hidden from the weather forecasting page, and it appears the only way to find it, is to search for "radar". https://www.bom.gov.au/weather-and-climate/rain-radar-and-weather-maps There's no loop controls on the radar images, unlike the old site, where a large range of controls on the radar imagery is possible. https://reg.bom.gov.au/products/IDR703.loop.shtml#skip

The site is deficient in many, many ways. There's no way to adjust the speed of the map timing when you click on the arrow. Most other sites give you the ability to slow down the speed. The radar map doesn't display the radar returns on actually cloud formations or cold fronts, it only shows colours indicating potential rainfall levels. Then you have to select what level of rain potential you want to see. It's clumsy, inefficient, and needs lots of clicking and scrolling to see in total, what just one page gave us previously.

The general opinion seems to be condemnation of the new site - but the Bureau head honcho puts his best "Yes Minister" face on, and tells everyone the site feedback is "overwhelmingly positive", and the users who can't abide the changes will soon see how brilliant the new site is, once they adapt to the massive site changes!! 🙄 https://www.perthnow.com.au/wa/weather/epic-fail-bureau-of-meteorology-website-update-sparks-fury-across-australia-c-20443509

Tears for fears.