kapulakieli

Here in Finland kapulakieli is an interesting term .. a kapula is a stick or a card which (for example) kids put into their bicycle frames to rattle along when they ride their bikes.

Kieli means language.

so when combined into a word it means something like language, that is seemingly Finnish, but written in such a way that one has to read it over and over again to try and see what it's trying to say. Bureaucratical forms, instructions etc are a common source for this fine art of language.

So in other words ... "flapping your gums"

It seems that Australian politicians are also versed in this linguistic as I read this gem:

Ms Bligh said the latest forecasts indicated the chance of exceeding median summer rainfall over much of the state was only slightly higher than normal.

Anna ... come on ... don't you have anything meaningful to say?

Then there's this:

Some areas such as Jondaryan, Cambooya and Clifton have been drought declared since October 2000.

for the curious that area is here


View Larger Map

gosh ... west of the ranges, west of Toowoomba ... out in classic dry country. Lets look at the last hundred or so years shall we ...



hmm ... median rainfall is not real good at the best of times with barely enough to wash down your roof ... the standard deviation is between 80% and 100% of the median meaning you'll stand as much chance of getting nothing as getting nearly double the values. To pick a high rainfall month it will mean you'll stand as good a chance of getting 160mm in December as you do of getting 30mm in December.

Either way its not much.

I'm surprised noone's planing to build a dam out there ...

You know, we keep wanting to apply the same strategy to solve our problem. There is little evidence that its worked so far.

It takes guts to admit you've made a mistake ... when was the last time you saw that in politics?

Well anyway ... I promise my next post will be about cameras not politics!