cow sounds that seem like whale sounds

The weekend gone I recorded some more bush sounds. Amid the recording I came across this sound. Which sounds rather like a whale ... but we were of course nowhere near the ocean
See what you think:

Its interesting, and makes me wonder how much of what we hear as recordings of whales is actually as much reverb and other sound recording artifacts of the environment (and all its reflections back).

This was recorded on a ridge top where the ridge curved around making a natural amphitheatre for the sounds.

the fine print

I have on other posts here made it clear that one of the reasons I don't use one of the more modern smartphones is I hate the insidious invasive software which is springing up more and more on these devices. Its getting to the stage where I am pulling back from technology and modern communications because its increasingly invasive.

Terms and conditions on Android (and iPhone) software often reminds me of the sort of thing I'd only want to install on a device where I could quarantine it in a virtual machine.

Recently there is talk of a Facebook phone ... makes me shudder. Like tonight I was about to click on a link a friend had posted and it took me to this:

Reading what I have to accept was a bit of a surprise:

This app may post on your behalf, including posts you voted on, answers you voted on and more.

Bloody what? As if its not bad enough that I give it permission to post as if it was me (hello!) what the hell is and more?

I reckon when the Facebook phones come out it won't even trouble you with these sorts of things, it'll just do it for you.

And people want to have a phone from these guys? As a herd, people are just amazingly stupid.

Wonder how long it'll be before things like Pizza start turning up at your door because your phone and Dominos is in kahoots and reckons (based on your GPS data) you haven't eaten yet and they have some specials to flog you.

Science Fiction has written about this sort of thing since I can recall, and of course dramatises it to make the entire thing have more audience appeal.

The reality is that its what you can't see that is getting into our systems and like they say... resistance is futile.

gotta tell ya, they're not taking me that easy, and certainly not with my permission.

pah, more reasons to keep my older Nokia.

talking turkey

one of my mates talking turkey

he's had experience with managment God these guys are funny

soundtrack for the financial world?

A fellow blogger (Bullion Barron) came up with an idea based on a comment I made. I really liked that theme ... anyway I reckon that I'd pick this one as the right soundtrack to the GFC and current world financial situation

some of the lyrics are spot on ... even if it wouldn't make a good sountrack in the modern american way

gold and cash - two graphs

I often say that there is not so much money to be made in gold rather the avoidance of losses.

first gold 'price' in US dollars (reasonably current from goldprice.org)

now over the same period the number of US$'s in circulation

note the similarity?

gold in the market context

I'm no economist or trader, but I was looking at some graphs today and wondering.

Looking at gold trends for available and worthwhile data I see some interesting historical matches



the first blue rectangle is where the USA phased out its relationship with gold.

• By 1971, the money supply had increased by 10%
• inflation-wary West Germany was the first member country to unilaterally leave the Bretton Woods system [the agreement to allow the USA to be the central money for world trade], unwilling to devalue the Deutsche Mark in order to prop up the dollar.
• Switzerland  redeemed $50 million of paper for gold in July.
• France, repeatedly made aggressive demands, and acquired $191 million in gold, further depleting the gold reserves of the U.S.
• By March 1976, the world's major currencies were floating

So this led to people purchasing gold (and increasing demand on a highly limited resource) pushing prices up.

The next area which is interesting to observe is the period between 1990 and 1999 when gold started to fall over a sustained period with no spikes. Interestingly this corresponds to the period of the dot com (.com) revolution where people were convinced you could make money from investing in software and communications. Its interesting to note that Microsoft did not register their own domain till 1991

By 2000 this had settled down and people were returning to examine other avenues of investment / money safe haven.

By 2004 it had become reasonably clear that the USA was in financial and military trouble and was not actually winning any wars on terror or gaining traction against those who attacked them on Sept 11 2001

Looking at the falls of the last 30 days in broader context it seems that the rise up to $1800 was just a spike. Its interesting to note that all spikes have eventually been met by the line of average growth in time.



The olde rule of thumb of "buy on the lows" would seem to be the best strategy still.

So with gold "falling" now in the short term the question in my mind is where is the bottom at the moment to pick the best time for buying before the next raise?

PS

Some other quick thoughts came to mind: first if you plot the changes in a LOG curve you get a much more stable looking thing from the early 70's till now

Now if we add to that the DOW in the same manner

It would seem that things have been pretty quiet over at the DOW house since about 2000. Strange that gold has 'gone up' a bit from about the time that the DOW has gone quiet.

The things people do

Just not sure if this is because it was cheaper than a scooter (and no rego)

or cos its actually faster than a scooter

I can confirm its noisier and would not seem to meet any emissions standards.

the old Railway Tunnel

Back when I was a kid we used to take our bikes out along the old railway track to the tunnel.

For those who didn't know it even existed here's a bit of background.

The old railway line used to run into Southport into Railway St back where the old sawmill was (and then Grand Motors and now some sort of used office furniture is). You can see the path in the disturbed path of real estate along the side of Nind St and along the back of St Hildas.

It then ran along the bottom of Jackman St and crossed Loders Ck and went up into the bush there on the right hand side of this picture.

There is a bicycle track from Wardoo St to Griffith Uni (you can see it in the red line on the right hand side of the above) which is also part of the railway track.

Since then the development in the area has mainly obliterated the rest track (making it impossible to bring trains into town anymore hence they go to Helensvale: wasn't that smart). So for anyone who ever went out there to explore the place (and the fun of going into the dark and drippy tunnel) years ago, here is something just for you



Been an amount of graffiti in there ...



and last the end which we approached from town ...



Some images from inside the tunnel

This one is from about 1/2 way through

 

Its interesting to see just how much paint tin rubbish is in the tunnel.

Interestingly there's nothing else (like no other rubbish) in there.

And the recent rains seem to have swept them all to one end ...

So, there ya go

Feral dogs (and their owners)

We were out on a walk through local bushlands this morning and came upon the grisly find of  this dead wallaby.

The poor thing had been killed most likely by a predator as we were nowhere near any road and since there was no sign of bullet or weapons marks it was not likely to be a person.

Examining the carcas (which was relatively untouched) seemed to show evidence that it was killed by dogs. The marks on the throat and the marks on the Achilles tendon indicates that to me.

Given the location here I'm inclined to believe it was just pets that aren't controlled and go out for a bit of fun now n then. This is in more or less one of the remaining nature reserves in the area.

Of course all the dog lovers hate the rules that enforce them being responsible, any suggestion that people obey the laws and control their dogs and you're turned into a "dog hater".

Its a nice area which is (sadly) being surrounded by the deluge of development (which has been on the go for some decades now).

The wallaby was quite small (thus young), so I'm guessing that the dogs ran it down and killed it more easilly than a larger adult.

Its lucky for the Koalas in the area that they happen to sleep up in the branches ....

gosh they're lovely, and sadly getting rare to see in the wild around here.

It was generally nice to be out walking in the area today (the wallaby find not withstanding) and it was lovely to see the Koala too.

emotional arguments

Twitter abounds with dribble. Its the nature of the media.

One thing for sure though is you can tell when an argument has nothing factual to offer when pictures of Kids are dragged into it for no real reason.

all that's really missing here (apart from knowledge of what those numbers mean) is a Teddy bear or a puppy.

For those who don't know what those numbers mean, 0.2µSv/ hour adds up to what an aniline professional would be exposed to. For reference Australian background radiation about 0.2µSv per year. The determined safe limits for workers are typically 20mSv/year which is about 2.2µSv/hour or ten times less than what was being portrayed as 'shocking'

sad that this has happened ... but Shocking pic?

I'm hardly even sure its a fact

old Wang

one of the things which I think encompasses the problems in our economic development model of growth growth growth is that the needs of the one are no longer profitable for the bigger companies to turn their attention to. A bit like the differences between the Foundation and Empire. I stumbled across this old WANG ad and thought it summed up what shits me about most companies offerings these days:

one can translate hungrier to be more interested in engaging with...

IKEA Digital Camera

quite simply:

I have to get one