The Random thought thread

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

 IF any Place is close to sea level, A  baro above 1013.2   by much will push it to below AMSL  pressure height. Nev

I agree with that. 

 

What caused me to pose the question was how would a pilot know how high the aircraft actually was aove ground if the DA gave a calculated location that was below ground level.

 

[rgmwa]

By setting 1040HPa on the altimeter assuming ground is effectively sea level (and temp =15 deg).

[facthunter]

You always need to know Ground Height and your actual height to determine Height above ground. Putting in the Local area QNH, OR setting your altimeter to read the Aerodrome Height when you are on the ground will achieve that, and separate you from other traffic referencing the same Info. Nev.

[willedoo]

How times have changed. I found this old photo taken of the welcome to Cairns sign on a road trip in 1976. Population 33,000, it's around 180,000 now. Cairns was a nice place in 1976 with a lot of character. I was also there in 1983 and it was much the same. The next time was 1998 and it was unrecognisable.

 

[willedoo]

In 1983 in Cairns I stayed at the Barrier Reef Hotel in the old Barbary Coast waterfront area. Accommodation was $12 per day, bed and breakfast. By that stage the Barrier Reef Hotel was mainly accommodation and a public bar where old blokes would drink. Most of the action and business was down the street at the Oceanic Hotel, or the Big O as it was known. It was a funny place back then, the local bikies were like unofficial bouncers and probably saved the publican a lot of money on security. It was also where most of the fishermen hung out.

Edited Sunday at 09:11 AM by willedoo

[nomadpete]

Oh, the good ole daze of $12 rooms.

 Iremrmber it well. Back then every country pub had a couple of old diggers (ptsd for sure) permanently bolted to the bar. The poor bastids were (still are) forgotten by the populace.

 

Even after decades, the vets still suffered.

[willedoo]

I can remember it was fairly common for old blokes to live permanently at a pub in one of the rooms. Often WW1 vets. When I was growing up we had one old fella living permanently in our local pub. He had the nickname Woody as he used to chop the pub's firewood and do odd jobs for his board and lodging. He didn't drink, just lived at the pub. Woody was a lovely old bloke, a real gentleman. I got to know him quite well as he used to come out to the farm and stay and look after us if my dad had to go away for a couple of days. In those days the adults would go to the pub and take all the kids with them. Us kids would play around in the pub's backyard and climb the big tree there and at some stage we'd always end up going to see Woody in his room and have a yarn with him. After I'd moved away as a late teenager/early adult, whenever I was back visiting my dad I'd often drop in and see old Woody at the pub. Eventually he got so old and frail he ended up in a home.

 

 

[facthunter]

With Many Years of flying into Cairns I can honestly say I've never encountered RAIN as Heavy in any other Place. You just marvel at How a Plane can even fly in it. And there's that Great Hill just to the west. Everything goes Mouldy. Gekko's on the roof upside down. The only place to be is in an airconditioned Bar. Humidity is 100%. Shorts worn half way down the Backside is De Riguere(sp). Nev 

[willedoo]

I don't know what the world's coming to. Just waiting for a movie to come on and caught the tail end of a show where they show film footage of little kids having accidents and hurting themselves and everybody is kacking themselves laughing at it.

[red750]

Two items on the news I invite you to comment on.

 

1. Bob Katter's renewed call for north Queensland to break away at the Tropic of Capricorn and form a new state.

 

2. A call for people 16 and over to be permitted to purchase and carry pepper spray.

 

 

 

[Marty_d]

Can't see either of those stories on ABC.

[red750]

Yesterday I had a calibration appointment for my Cochlear implant.

 

It started with the audiologist connecting the device to her computer and playing a range of beeps at various frequencies, starting too low to hear, and increasing them until they were at a comfortable volume.

 

She then read out a number of words from a printed list of about 30, with her face obscured, and I had to locate the word on the list and repeat it without being able to lip-read. Passed that without problem.

 

Next, she placed a page of 12 half sentences in front of me. Again, obscuring her face, she read out the full sentence which I had to repeat back to her. The example I recall was:  

Printed:   She cleaned the floor....

The spoken sentence:    She cleaned the floor with a mop and broom.

 

I passed all 12 sentences at the first attempt. She said she normally doesn't get to pulling that page out until the second month. I've had the device for 9 days.

 

I can now hold conversations, watch the TV, and talk on the phone without the hearing aid in the other ear.

[red750]

3 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

Can't see either of those stories on ABC.

Both on Sunrise this morning with video interviews with various people. No.2 was on the Ch 7 News last night. Apparently it is already law in WA and NT.

[old man emu]

Regarding Katter's idea. How would the government for a State in that area firstly establish the structures necessary to run things like health, education, law? Secondly, how would it obtain the money to do these things?

 

It is idealistic, but not practical to create a new State in an area that does not have the population to carry out teh necessary functions of government. I think that's why Western Australia shelved the idea. Besides, I don't think it would be permissable under the Constitution.

[Marty_d]

I guess northern QLD is the only place Katter has relevance, so he wants to make it a separate state so he's a big fish in a smaller pond?

Most of what comes out of his mouth is garbage so I wouldn't waste my life trying to decipher his gibberish.

[facthunter]

Bob's a bit of a Joke really. When he asks a Question in question time, He run's over the time and is almost unintelligible. Mt ISA now,  doesn't even have an RSL Club. It's NOT what it used to be. Nev

[willedoo]

3 hours ago, red750 said:

No.2 was on the Ch 7 News last night. Apparently it is already law in WA and NT.

In WA it's legal to buy pepper spray if over 18 but it's classed as a controlled weapon and can't be carried in public without reasonable grounds. General or routine self-defence is not accepted as a lawful excuse to carry it.

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, Marty_d said:

I guess northern QLD is the only place Katter has relevance, so he wants to make it a separate state so he's a big fish in a smaller pond?

Most of what comes out of his mouth is garbage so I wouldn't waste my life trying to decipher his gibberish.

Marty, putting aside Katter ridicule for a minute, the debate on the formation of a NQ state has been going on for decades, involving public groups, local government and business. It's not all about Katter, he's just one of many mesengers on the subject.

[willedoo]

3 hours ago, old man emu said:

Regarding Katter's idea. How would the government for a State in that area firstly establish the structures necessary to run things like health, education, law? Secondly, how would it obtain the money to do these things?

 

It is idealistic, but not practical to create a new State in an area that does not have the population to carry out teh necessary functions of government. I think that's why Western Australia shelved the idea. Besides, I don't think it would be permissable under the Constitution.

I've never done much research into the economics of it that's been put forward over the years. Regarding health, education and law - the schools, hospitals, police, police stations and courthouses are already there, but the government bureaucracy side of it is not and would have to be built and funded. As far as paying their way, they'd have their share of the GST carve up, plus state taxes and fees like any other states. They also have a big slab of our state's resources in the form of mining, agriculture and fishing, and tourism. 60% of Queensland's export industries are located above the Tropic of Capricorn. There's always been two sides to the argument. The north has always felt like they're the cash cow being neglected in return, and the south doesn't want to lose that cash.

 

As a comparison of populations below the millions level, NQ north of the Tropic is 800,000, Tasmania 580,000, Northern Territory 267,000. The GSP, Gross State Product of a North Queensland state is more than double that of Tasmania and equates to a GSP per capita of around $70,000 for Tasmania compared to $112,000 for NQ.

 

 

[willedoo]

If the above posts seem like I might be an advocate for NQ independence, I'm not. I'd much rather see our state remain as one, but I do understand the desire for some in the north to run their own show. It's a big state, 3,000 k's from bottom to top, and people up there often feel a lack of understanding from the pollies down in George Street, Brisbane. At the moment things are lot better in that department wiith a premier who is a North Queenslander.

[willedoo]

4 hours ago, old man emu said:

Besides, I don't think it would be permissable under the Constitution.

ome, it is permissable.

Section 121:   'The Parliament may admit to the Commonwealth or establish new States, and may upon such admission or establishment make or impose such terms and conditions, including the extent of representation in either House of the Parliament, as it thinks fit.'

Section 124:  'A new state may be formed by separating a piece of land from an existing state, only with the consent of that state's parliament.'

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

Q north of the Tropic is 800,000, Tasmania 580,000, Northern Territory 267,000.

Interesting figures which few Down-Southers would realise.

 

Re the Constitution Sections 121 and 124. Both have big hurdle words - 'may' and 'consent'. It takes a lot to get over them, especially when Sect 124 means that Lower Queensland would lose a motza in royalties etc.

[facthunter]

They would regret it. Not enough People to cover costs. Bit like Tassie. New Zealand and the NT. Geelong has about the same Population as Tassie.. Nev

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

Re the Constitution Sections 121 and 124. Both have big hurdle words - 'may' and 'consent'. It takes a lot to get over them, especially when Sect 124 means that Lower Queensland would lose a motza in royalties etc.

It would be a tricky one. They've been talking about a split since the 1890's but nothing has ever come of it. If Queensland had a referendum to split and the yes vote won, it would still have to be approved at a federal level. Because north Queensland is not a legal entity, any referendum would involve all Queenslanders, the majority of whom live south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Also, not all those north of it would vote yes, so a referendum would not have much chance of carrying. The best thing that ever happened to us was independence from NSW in 1859. If that didn't happen, we'd have no State of Origin series.