text:
AlkaVitae, The Original Alka® Company
AlkaVitae® International is an internationally operating company, specialized in the development and commercialization of products in the field of body de-acidification.
The unique Alka® products help people to de-acidify the body on a daily basis in a pleasant and comfortable way. This increases the body's self-healing ability.
AlkaVitae® International is an independent organization and its main activities are located in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. This includes all sales, marketing and distribution activities to different European countries and other continents.
The Alka® products are supplied in Germany by AlkaVitae Deutschland GmbH. The products are further distributed in Europe through the Alka web shop and through a network of distributors, retailers, reform stores, independent drug stores, therapists and naturopathic physicians.
AlkaVitae® focuses directly and indirectly on its consumers and divided its sales market in three different target groups:
1. People who are working on a renewed health and vitality by de-acidifying
2. (Top) Athletes
3. People who are healthy, but realize the risks of acidification and want to remain healthy now and in the longer term
AlkaVitae® delivers the only original and patented Alka® products that have been used all over the world since 1996.
The original Alka® Company


text:
For whatever reason, forecasting statistics which accurately measure most of today's college football teams, and UGA squads under old coaching regimes, have had little relevance during the Richt era. |
By the way, Steele certainly has Georgia pointing upward compared to a year ago, picking the Bulldogs to win the SEC East and finish ranked 7th in the nation, while declaring they are his No. 1 "Surprise Team" of all those belonging to the power conferences. However, I'm hoping Steele based these favorable prognostications on much more than his statistical indicators. As I've shown before, and then again, there are certain stats which evidently do a fine job of gauging the success of seemingly every other college football team except, for whatever reason, Georgia. But, let's see how the three new "indicators" have done.
Stock Market: Perhaps the best way to explain Steele's Stock Market Indicator is if a team had an over- or underachieving season in year 3, it should have similar success in year 4 as it did in year 1 and 2. For Georgia, it won 10 games in 2011, 12 in 2012, and then a disappointing 8 a year ago. For year 4, if the win total of year 3 is subtracted from the average of year 1 and 2, a +3.0 indicator is calculated for the Bulldogs, a "Bull Market" team entering 2014. On the contrary, Auburn, which won 8, 3, and 12 games respectively the last three years, is a "Bear Market" team in 2014 with an indicator of -6.5 ((8+3)/2-12), or the lowest/worst in all of FBS football.
According to Steele, of all teams since 1990 entering a season with a +1.5 Stock Market Indicator or higher, 65 percent wound up with a better record, or the exact same mark at worst, than they had the season before (+3.0 indicator or higher is 74% better/same record). As for Georgia, I went all the way back to the beginning of the Vince Dooley era, and found 14 of the 50 teams entering the 1964 through 2013 seasons with a +1.5 indicator or higher. Similarly to college football on the whole since 1990, 9 of those 14 Georgia teams, or 64 percent, finished with a better/same record as the year before. Notably, of the 9 of 14 teams winding up with a better/same record, the Dooley-Goff-Donnan era was a stellar 8 of 11, Richt just 1 of 3.
Turnovers: According to Steele, another indication of a team improving is if it had a significantly low turnover margin, like Georgia's -7 in 2013, the season before. From 1964 to 2013, 10 Bulldog teams entered their season having a TO margin of -2 or worse the year before, and just four improved their record; however, all four were during the Dooley-Goff-Donnan era (4 of 7), while Richt is 0 of 3 under the same circumstances.
Net Upsets: The final indicator is the number of net upsets, or the number of wins by a team as an underdog minus its number of losses as a favorite. As mentioned, Georgia had a minus-4 in net upsets in 2013. The Bulldogs didn't win any games as an underdog last season, but lost four games as a favorite; therefore, according to Steele, Georgia should seemingly rebound in 2014. For what it's worth, 2013 was the third season in the Bulldogs' last seven the team was minus-2 or worse in net upsets, which immediately followed a remarkable 11-year run (1997-2007) of not having a single minus-2 or worse campaign. Entering the 50 seasons, 15 Georgia teams were minus-2 or worse in net upsets the season before and 11, or 73 percent, wound up having a better/same record (Dooley-Goff-Donnan 10 of 13, Richt 1 of 2).
In summary, a high Stock Market Indicator entering a season, and lowly turnover margin and net upsets the previous year are all indeed indicators of pointing upward for the vast majority of college football programs, including Georgia's—that is, prior to the mid-2000s. If all three indicators above are combined, the Bulldogs wound up with a better/same record in 22 of 31 instances (71%) during the Dooley-Goff-Donnan era, but just 2 of 8 (25%) under Coach Richt.
Simply based on past victory totals, turnover margins, and net upsets, Georgia isn't necessarily pointing downward in 2014 and heading for a worse record than a year ago. Personally, I think the Bulldogs are at least two wins better this upcoming season. I also think very highly of the hard-working Phil Steele, and his forecasting statistics. There's good reason why he has been the most accurate prognosticator in the sport for years.
But, when it comes to those forecasting statistics, they may accurately measure the fates of most college football teams, and for roughly 40 years, such stats were a legitimate gauge for the Bulldogs, as well. However, during the Coach Richt era, for whatever reason, they've proven to curiously be just a bunch of meaningless numbers.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
From the United Kingdom
Editor's note: This article first appeared in Midwifery Today, Issue 61, Spring 2002.
Subscribe to Midwifery Today Magazine
As I prepare this article for the exchange between Midwifery Today and The Practising Midwife, I am conscious of two major reports that have been released here in the U.K. in recent months. As I have been reflecting on them I know their message is pertinent to women and midwives all over the world and it felt appropriate to draw your attention to them. The first was a major audit on Caesarean Section (Thomas & Paranjothy 2001) and the second is the triennial Enquiry into Maternal Death in the U.K. (Lewis 2001).
Caesarean Section
Since the 1970s the trend for caesareans has been consistently rising, also accompanied by a rise in assisted deliveries. Following concerns about this rise in the U.K. and what appeared to be variation in rates between maternity units and regions, the Government Department of Health commissioned the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Clinical Effectiveness Support Unit, in collaboration with the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the National Childbirth Trust to investigate why this was happening. They subsequently audited every maternity unit (including private ones) in England, Northern Ireland, Wales and the Channel Islands. Following development of audit standards, data was collected on all births that took place during a three-month period. They evaluated the demographic, clinical and organisational factors associated with variations in caesareans, and assessed the quality of clinical care against the agreed standards. The next phase involved a survey of maternal views and attitudes with exploration of the views of the obstetricians. Interestingly, they didn't ask for the midwives' views, though midwives were asked to keep a log of midwifery activities on the labour wards, as were the anaesthetists. A total of 350 local facilitators (many of whom were midwives) were appointed to collect the data. This was a massive undertaking, the first of its kind in the U.K., and the high level of completion is to be applauded. What the statistics showed may be very applicable to the U.S. and to any other developed country in the world.
Overall the main reasons for caesareans are emergencies and repeat caesareans. For the latter figures (67 percent in England) the key to this must be the lowering of the initial caesarean rate. Other key issues are induction (19 percent) and breech presentations (88 percent). The older the woman the more likely she will have a caesarean. The highest rates were in the 40–44 year old group. Fetal compromise and failure to progress in labour were the most common reasons for caesarean. The more overweight a woman is the more likely she is to have caesarean, and she is also more likely to have a thrombosis afterwards. When ethnic groups were identified, African women had the highest caesarean rates and Bangladeshi women had the lowest in this group.
There were large variations in rates between regional Trusts as well as regions. Those who are viewed as the "standard" primips (white, cephalic presentation, first baby, fit and healthy) had much lower caesarean rates, but there remained variation between units (seven percent to 12 percent).
Only three percent of women requested a caesarean and obstetricians agreed to about half of these with no clinical indication. However, seven percent of reasons given were recorded as maternal request.
A total of 162 consultants responded to the questionnaire. Of these, 80 percent agreed that "birth was a natural process that should not be interfered with unless necessary." Fifty-one percent thought that their unit's caesarean rate was too high (the median was 23.3 percent), but those consultants who did not think that the rate was too high had a median rate of 19 percent.
Too few midwives are looking after too many women. The standard of 1.5 midwives to one woman, which was achieved 60 percent of the time, was challenged as being set far too low, and that it should be achieved 90 percent of the time. The research also suggested that the target appeared to have been met because of the mechanisms midwives use when the labour wards are busy, i.e., midwives are pulled in from the wards and the community to ensure the labour ward is covered.
Following the results of this audit each unit concerned has been contacted with their local results. The expectation is that they will then examine themselves and their local practises to make changes that will bring down the caesarean rates nationally. The cynical view could be that no differences will be made and the rates will continue to rise. But we shall see. The fact that this audit has been carried out at all is heartening, but it will take time to see if any impact has been made. How do these statistics compare with your unit practise? Are there ways that caesarean rates could be lowered in your locality?
Maternal Death
Once more the report of the triennial Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths (CEMD) in the U.K. (Lewis 2001) is painful reading. Though it covers a very small percentage of the births that take place in our countries, it is apparent that about half of the deaths may have been prevented with better care. We must be aware, too, that for every woman who dies, there are a number of near-misses, the ones who could have been in this report but ended up with morbidity rather than mortality statistics (Waterstone, Bewley, Wolfe 2001). As in previous reports the causes of the highest direct death rates remain consistent: Thrombophlebitis, hypertension and haemorrhage are issues to be very aware of in the women we care for. However, many of these deaths took place before midwifery care generally came into play. In the U.K. the pregnant woman generally goes to her general practitioner, who then tends to refer her on to hospitals and a local midwife for subsequent care. Perhaps we could help matters by ensuring women book for midwifery care as the first point of contact as soon as they are pregnant? Rather than cutting down antenatal visits in those early weeks, midwives could be there, supporting and educating.
There is much that could be questioned on all the issues that were identified. For example, we should question why the rates for deaths from sepsis continue to rise. Only one of these was related to caesarean section, and we need to recognise the insidious nature of these infections. Time and the right treatment are of the essence. This report also identified that those with the greatest social need and deprivation are at highest risk of maternal death, (20 times more likely to die than those in the highest social groups). Domestic violence and poor communication of English are also issues that should not be ignored. What does this mean in practise? That services should be changed to ensure that the marginalized and underprivileged receive the same, if not better, standards of care than those who are well educated and able to shout the loudest. We must listen hard beneath these cries and reach those who are being pushed from pillar to post and take responsibility to shout for them. It means ensuring more cash is available to serve those most in need, providing translators as required and working cross-disciplines to create a welcoming, safe environment for everyone. It means educating staff in effective communication and understanding these communities' needs. The high proportion of deaths within the travelling community means this group, as well as the Asian and African ethnic groups and the very young, needs specific targeting. These are some of the target areas of Sure Start projects set up in localities in the U.K., and time will tell if these projects are effective in preventing further deaths in the future.
It is most disturbing that this is the first report to identify the potential risk to life of severely depressed women, leading to high rates of violent suicide within the first year after birth. This was the only category where it didn't matter which social group women were in—the rates for suicide were cross-group. Thus, midwives must be involved in better screening of those potentially at risk for severe depression. There must be more appropriate diagnosis of those with postnatal depression, identification of those with psychotic tendencies and aims to improve care in specific mother and baby units in psychiatric hospitals. It is in those early days of postnatal care where we have so much responsibility. I can't help feeling that with all the busyness and rushing to the next case that we are missing a great deal, and maybe even exacerbating the problem. Women need time to talk, and we must give them that space. Listen with all that we are, not just our ears. Obviously the way midwives work in the postnatal period in the U.K. is different from other countries, but it is right to be aware of this potential for suicidal tendencies in postnatal women and reflect on ways midwives could help in better preparing women in the antenatal days. There is no doubt that the birth of a first baby can be a major shock to women as they have to adjust to so many new things in their lives. Better preparation by midwives may help to reduce the shock and protect a little from some of the triggers of major depression. Better support services after the birth of the baby may also be a key, but until further research is carried out with psychiatrists we are not going to know what help these desperate women really need. What is important is to recognise the problem and to dialogue about it.
For the majority of these identified deaths we must remember there is a man without a partner and sometimes also without a child; grandparents without a daughter; work places without workers; communities without women. The impact is far-reaching and should not be ignored. What should also be clear is that a large number of these deaths could have been avoided with better care. If we believe something is wrong we have a responsibility to act quickly and get the right people dealing with the emergency, for the sake of the women in our care.
- Lewis, G. (2001). Why Mothers Die: 1997–1999 The 5th report of the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom, RCOG press.
- Sure Start https://www.gov.uk/sure-start-maternity-grant/overview
- Thomas, J., S. Paranjothy. Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Clinical Effectiveness Support Unit, The National Sentinel Caesarean Section Audit Report, London: RCOG Press, 2001.
- Waterstone, M., Bewley, S., Wolfe, C., (2001). Incidence and predictors of severe obstetric morbidity: case-control study BMJ 322: 1089–94.


text:
Salome (Opera)
Music: | Richard Strauss |
Libretto: | translation by Hedwig Lachmann of Oscar Wilde's stage poem |
Premiere: | Dresden, December 9, 1905 |
Salome shocked early audiences with its gory portrayal of lust and obsession, and was withdrawn from The Metropolitan Opera stage after one production. Sultry Salome is the virgin daughter of wicked Herodias, who murdered her husband to marry Herod, Tetrarch of Judea. Smitten with desire for his stepdaughter, Herod begs her to dance, and Salome agrees when Herod promises to grant her one wish. After performing the enticing dance of the seven veils, Salome demands in return the life of Jokanaan, or John the Baptist, for whom she has developed a single-minded, unrequited lust. Though he protests fearfully, Herod orders Jokanaan executed, and the bloody head is offered to Salome on a silver plate. When Salome steals a frenzied, ghoulish kiss from the dead man's lips, a horrified Herod orders his guards to kill her.


text:
Page tools: Print Page |
AUSTRALIA'S CLIMATE One area where topography does have a major influence on rainfall is in Tasmania. Westerly winds are intercepted by the island's mountains, causing heavy rainfall on the western (windward) side, and leaving eastern and central Tasmania in a much drier so-called 'rain-shadow'. The interaction of topography with westerly winds in winter also plays a role in locally enhancing rainfall in regions such as the Australian Alps and the Adelaide Hills. The Great Dividing Range and associated ranges in eastern Australia enhance rainfall over the east coast hinterland during periods of easterly flow, and partially block moisture from penetrating further inland. Episodic weather events Tropical cyclones are the most dramatic episodic weather events to affect Australia. Tropical cyclones are strong, well-organised low pressure systems that form poleward of about 5° of the Equator, over water that is warmer than approximately 26°C. (The weak Coriolis force near the Equator, which is important in inducing the rotation required for the development of a tropical cyclone, accounts for the lack of cyclones in that region.) Tropical cyclones can vary significantly in size, and once formed are classified as category 1 (weakest) to 5 (strongest) according to their intensity at any given time. Category 4 and 5 cyclones have wind gusts exceeding 225 kilometres/hour (km/h) and can be exceptionally damaging, as in the near-total destruction of Darwin by Tropical Cyclone Tracy on 25 December 1974. The strongest wind gust instrumentally measured in a tropical cyclone on the Australian mainland is 267 km/h, at Learmonth (Western Australia) during Tropical Cyclone Vance on 22 March 1999, but it is believed that gusts in excess of 320 km/h have occurred away from instruments. The zone of most destructive winds associated with tropical cyclones is normally quite narrow, only about 50 km wide in the case of Tracy, and rarely more than 300 km. Tropical cyclones bring heavy rain as well as strong winds, and are the cause of most of Australia's highest-recorded daily rainfalls (table 1.8). Warm water acts as the cyclone's energy source, and hence is required to maintain the strength of the winds. As a result, tropical cyclones rapidly lose their intensity on moving over land, although the rainfall with former cyclones often persists well after the destructive winds have eased, occasionally bringing heavy rains deep into the inland and causing widespread flooding. (Such flooding can also occur from tropical depressions that never reach sufficient intensity to be classified as cyclones.) Parts of inland Western Australia receive 30-40% of their average annual rainfall from these systems, and it is not unheard of for places to receive their average annual rainfall within a one or two-day period as a tropical cyclone (or ex-cyclone) passes by. On average, about three tropical cyclones directly approach the Queensland coast during the season between November and May, and three affect the north and north-west coasts, but the number and location of cyclones vary greatly from year to year. The most susceptible areas are north of Carnarvon on the west coast and north of Rockhampton on the east, but on occasions tropical cyclones have reached as far south as Perth and northern New South Wales. The most intense cyclones (categories 4 and 5) are most common off the north-west coast, but can also occur off the northern and eastern coasts. Tropical Cyclone Monica (category 5), in April 2006, was the most intense cyclone ever recorded off the Northern Territory coast, while Larry (category 4 at landfall), in March 2006, was the most intense cyclone to make landfall in Queensland since 1918. Away from the tropics, 'heatwaves' can occur over many parts of Australia. In southern Australia, they are normally associated with slow-moving anticyclones. A large anti-cyclone remaining stationary ('blocking') over the Tasman Sea will result in northerly or north-westerly flow on its western flank, bringing hot air from the centre of the continent over the south-east coastal regions (and sometimes to Tasmania). In south-western Australia, summer heatwaves are more commonly associated with the characteristic north-south trough of low pressure along the west coast moving offshore, suppressing sea breezes and causing hot north-easterly winds to blow from the interior to the coast. 'Cold outbreaks' can occur over southern Australia when intense south to south-west flow associated with strong cold fronts or large depressions directs cold air from the Southern Ocean over the continent. These outbreaks are most common in the south-east of the country and can result in low temperatures and snow falling to low elevations. While principally a winter and early spring phenomenon, cold outbreaks can occur at other times of year, and the fact that the air originates over the Southern Ocean (where there is only about a 4°C change in temperature from winter to summer) means that they can also bring cold air and 'unseasonable' snowfalls at high elevations at any other time of year. Intense low pressure systems can also form outside the tropics, most commonly off the east coast where they are known as 'east coast lows'. These systems can bring very strong winds and heavy rain, particularly where they direct moist easterly winds on their southern flank onto the coastal ranges of southern Queensland, New South Wales, eastern Victoria and north-eastern Tasmania. Examples of systems of this type include two, a fortnight apart, in June 1967 off southern Queensland which caused major flooding and severe beach erosion in the Gold Coast region, an intense low in Bass Strait that sank or damaged many yachts in the 1998 Sydney-Hobart race, and a June 2007 system which brought flooding to the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and drove a large ship aground at Newcastle. Interannual and interdecadal variability The major driver of interannual climate variability in Australia, particularly eastern Australia, is the El Nińo-Southern Oscillation phenomenon. El Nińo is an anomalous large warming of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, while La Nińa, the reverse phase of the system, is an anomalous cooling. The Southern Oscillation refers to a see-sawing of atmospheric pressure between the northern Australian-Indonesian region and the central Pacific Ocean. El Nińo events are strongly associated with abnormally high pressures in the northern Australian-Indonesian region and abnormally low pressures over the central Pacific, while the reverse is true during La Nińa events. The Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) is an index of the pressure differences between Darwin and Tahiti and has traditionally been used as an indicator of El Nińo events (which are very often, but not always, associated with a strongly negative SOI). However, with modern satellite and floating buoy observations developed over the last 30 years, ocean temperature anomalies, both at and below the surface, can be monitored directly and hence proxy measurements, such as the SOI, are less important than they once were. El Nińo events characteristically develop during the southern autumn, and continue for about 9-12 months until the following autumn. The 2002-03 El Nińo followed this pattern, developing in May-June 2002 and dissipating in February-March 2003. In contrast, the 2006-07 event developed unusually late in August-September 2006 (although dry conditions were well established in many areas by then), before breaking down in February-March 2007. On occasions El Nińo events are followed immediately by La Nińa events (or vice versa), but it is more common for them to be followed by near-normal (neutral) ocean conditions. Events lasting for more than one year are rare, but not unknown. There are typically two to three El Nińo events per decade, but there is large variation from decade to decade in their frequency and the balance of El Nińo and La Nińa events; since 1980, El Nińo events have been predominant, whereas La Nińa events were frequent in the 1950's and 1970's. The most significant La Nińa event, in terms of ocean temperatures, since 1988 occurred in late 2007 and early 2008, with some redevelopment over the summer of 2008-09, although its effect on rainfall in many parts of Australia was modest. El Nińo events are generally associated with a reduction in winter and spring rainfall across much of eastern, northern and southern Australia. This can lead to widespread and severe drought, particularly in eastern Australia, as well as increased daytime temperatures and bushfire risk. Conversely, La Nińa events are generally associated with wetter-than-normal conditions and have contributed to many of Australia's most notable floods. There is considerable variation, however, in the way each El Nińo and La Nińa event affects rainfall patterns from the time of onset through its developmental stages to eventual decay. Temperatures in the tropical Indian Ocean also have an influence on Australia's climate, particularly in the south-west of Western Australia, where the influences of El Nińo and La Nina events are more limited. Indian Ocean conditions also have a bearing on winter rainfall in south-eastern Australia through their effects on the frequency of northwest cloud bands (see earlier section). Many parts of Australia also have a high level of rainfall variability on decadal timescales. The drivers for this are unclear, although at least some of the variability is linked with variations on decadal timescales in the relative frequency of El Nińo and La Nina events. Interdecadal variability is particularly high in the more arid areas of Australia. As an example, the 11-year average annual rainfall at Marree (South Australia) has fluctuated from around 100 mm in the 1960s to 250 mm in the 1970s. The wide range of rainfall variability in Australia has had many consequences. Perhaps the most famous occurred on the southern fringe of the South Australian desert, in the Flinders Ranges region, in the 1870s. In 1865, a boundary ('Goyder's Line'), based on surveys of native vegetation, had been defined by the Surveyor-General, G.W. Goyder, as the northern limit of the region where cropping was feasible. The years immediately following were particularly wet and many farms were established north of Goyder's Line. They prospered for a few years, but when rainfall returned to more normal levels, the farms became unviable and were largely abandoned. Many of the ruined homesteads are still visible today. The article Climate variability and El Nińo in the Geography and climate chapter of Year Book Australia 1998 provides further details. Climate change Temperatures in Australia were relatively stable from 1910 until 1950, and since then have followed an increasing trend, with an overall increase during 1910 to 2009 of approximately 0.8°C. Overnight minimum temperatures have warmed more quickly than daytime maximum temperatures, but both have increased over almost the entire continent, with the largest increases occurring in north-eastern Australia. In conjunction with this trend, the frequencies of frosts and other extreme low temperatures have decreased, while the frequency of extreme high temperatures has increased, although at a slower rate. Over Australia the observed warming has accelerated in recent years, and the warming from the late-20th century has been largely attributed to the enhanced greenhouse effect. Over the continent as a whole, rainfall has increased over the 1900-2009 period, with the largest increases occurring over northern and north-western Australia. Since 1960, however, there have been substantial decreases in rainfall over three relatively small, but economically and agriculturally important, regions: south-western Western Australia; Victoria (particularly southern Victoria), and the eastern coastal fringe (particularly south-eastern Queensland). Table 1.5 shows temperatures and rainfall averaged over Australia since the commencement of comprehensive national records. The article A hundred years of science and service - Australian meteorology through the twentieth century in Year Book Australia 2001 provides further details, including maps of temperature and rainfall trends to 1999. While some temperature and rainfall data exist prior to the starting dates used in table 1.5, they have not been used in analyses of climate change. This is because large parts of the Australian continent had no observations before that time. In the case of temperatures, most pre-1910 data is also not comparable with post-1910 data, because the louvred, white-painted screen (the 'Stevenson screen') which is used for sheltering thermometers from direct solar radiation was only introduced as a national standard around that time. Many pre-1910 temperatures were measured in locations such as underneath tin verandahs or even indoors, and cannot be validly compared with more recent data (see the article Temperature measurement and the Stevenson screen in Year Book Australia 2005 for further details).
Rainfall and other precipitation Annual Map 1.6 shows average annual rainfall over the Australian continent. The driest section of Australia, with an average of less than 200 mm per year, extends over a large area from the west coast near Shark Bay, across the interior of Western Australia and northern South Australia into south-western Queensland and north-western New South Wales. The driest part of this region is in the vicinity of Lake Eyre in South Australia, where average annual rainfall is below 150 mm. This region is not normally exposed to moist air masses and rainfall is irregular, averaging rain on only around 20 days per year. Very occasionally, favourable synoptic situations (usually, but not always, disturbances of tropical origin) can bring heavy rains to many parts of this normally arid to semi-arid region, with falls of up to 400 mm over a few days being recorded in the most extreme cases. Such heavy rainfalls often lead to widespread flooding and a subsequent short-lived 'blooming' of the desert regions. Whilst such rain events are uncommon, the environment in Australia (both the lack of topographic barriers to moist air moving southwards from the tropics, and the presence of warm, rather than cold, waters as a potential source of moist air off the west coast) is more favourable to their occurrence than it is in some other arid zones. Rainfall in Australia's deserts is consequently higher than in some other deserts; the Atacama Desert on the west coast of South America has locations where no rain has fallen for centuries, whilst large parts of the Sahara and Arabian deserts, and parts of central Asia, have average annual rainfall of 25 mm or lower. There is only one recorded instance, at Mulyie (about 100 kilometres east of Port Hedland, WA) in 1924, of an Australian station being rainless for a complete calendar year. The region with the highest average annual rainfall is the east coast of Queensland between Cairns and Cardwell, where mountains are very close to the tropical coast. The summit of Bellenden Ker has an average of 8,012 mm over 36 years of records, while at lower elevations, Topaz has an average of 4,405 mm over 29 years, and Babinda 4,243 mm over 98 years. The mountainous region of western Tasmania also has a high annual rainfall, with Lake Margaret having an average of 2,949 mm over 64 years, and short-term records suggest that other parts of the region have an average near 3,500 mm. The Snowy Mountains area in New South Wales also has a particularly high rainfall. While there are no official rain gauges in the wettest areas on the western slopes above 1,800 metres elevation, runoff data suggests that the average annual rainfall in parts of this region exceeds 3,000 mm. Small pockets with averages exceeding 2,500 mm also occur in the north-east Victorian highlands and some parts of the east coastal slopes. 1.6 Mean Annual Rainfall for Australia (a) Seasonal Australia's rainfall pattern is strongly seasonal in character, with a winter rainfall regime in parts of the south, a summer regime in the north and generally more uniform or erratic throughout the year elsewhere. Major rainfall zones include:
The frequency of rain days (defined as days when 0.2 mm or more of rainfall is recorded in a 24-hour period) is greatest near the southern Australian coast, exceeding 150 per year in much of Tasmania, southern Victoria and the far south-west of Western Australia, peaking at over 250 per year in western Tasmania. Values exceeding 150 per year also occur along parts of the north Queensland coast. At the other extreme, a large part of inland western and central Australia has fewer than 25 rain days per year, and most of the continent away from the coasts has fewer than 50 per year. In the high rainfall areas of northern Australia away from the east coast the number of rain days is typically about 80 to 120 per year, but rainfall events are typically heavier in this region than in southern Australia. The highest daily rainfalls have occurred in the northern half of Australia and along the east coast, most of them arising from tropical cyclones, or further south east coast lows, near the coast in mountainous areas. Daily falls in excess of 500 mm have occurred at scattered locations near the east coast as far south as the Illawarra, south of Sydney, and falls exceeding 300 mm have occurred in north-eastern Tasmania, and the Otway Ranges and parts of Gippsland in southern Victoria. Most locations in temperate Australia away from the east coast have highest recorded daily rainfalls in the 75-150 mm range, although some locations have exceeded 200 mm. In these regions, extreme daily rainfalls are often associated with thunderstorms, for which rainfall recordings can vary dramatically over short distances. The highest daily and annual rainfalls for each state and territory are listed in tables 1.8 and 1.9.
Floods Heavy rainfall conducive to widespread flooding can occur anywhere in Australia, but is most common in the north and in the eastern coastal areas. There are three main flood types:
Droughts Drought, in general terms, refers to an acute deficit of water supply to meet a specified demand. The best single measure of water availability in Australia is rainfall, although factors such as evaporation and soil moisture are also significant and can be dominant in some situations. Demands for water are very diverse, and droughts therefore can be considered on a variety of timescales. Rainfall in a single year is important for unirrigated crop and pasture growth, while for large water storages and irrigation variations on a multi-year timescale are more important, and a succession of relatively dry years that are not exceptional individually can cause severe water storages when aggregated over an extended period. While droughts can occur in all parts of Australia, they are most economically damaging in south-eastern Australia (southern Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the settled parts of South Australia), an area encompassing about 75% of Australia's population and much of its agriculture. In south-western Western Australia, another economically and agriculturally significant area, interannual variability of rainfall is smaller than it is in the south-east and severe widespread droughts in individual years are a less important issue, although, in recent decades, this area has experienced a general decline in rainfall (see Climate change). In terms of rainfall deficits over a 1-2 year period, the most severe droughts on record for eastern Australia have been those of 1901-02, 1982-83, 1994-95, 2002-03 and 2006-07, all of which were associated with El Nińo. Occasionally, severe droughts are embedded within more extensive dry periods; the 1901-02 drought was contained within a persistently dry period from 1895-1903 (the so-called 'Federation Drought'). Droughts can have a severe economic impact; for example. the direct effect of the 2002-03 drought on agricultural production is that it had a downward impact on gross domestic product growth of almost one percentage point between 2001-02 and 2002-03 (see the article in the National Accounts chapter in Year Book Australia 2005), while the 2006-07 drought had a downward impact of 0.6%. Other notable droughts on the 1-2 year timescale include those of 1888, 1914, 1919-20, 1940-41, 1944, 1946, 1965, 1967 and 1972. Longer-term periods of persistent below-average rainfall are also often loosely referred to as 'droughts', and apart from that of 1895-1903, have generally been more regional in nature. A typical example of such a long-term drought has occurred over large parts of eastern Australia since 2001, and in some areas, such as southern Victoria (including Melbourne), since 1997. The Sydney region and eastern Queensland have been affected since 1999-2000, although with some moderation from mid-2007 onwards. The south-west of Western Australia has also experienced a marked downturn in rainfall since 1970. Other extended dry periods of this type affected much of inland Australia between 1958 and 1968, the south-east from 1937-45, and Queensland from 1991-95. Typically, these multi-year dry episodes are not ones of continuous below-normal rainfall, but rather periods of near-normal rainfall over several months, alternating with drier periods, and few, if any, times of sustained above-normal rainfall to offset the dry periods. Large water storages are particularly susceptible to such events, as they typically rely on a relatively small number of wet years to offset losses during drier periods. The Sydney water supply catchments provide an example of this, with about 40% of the total inflows into the Warragamba catchment since 1910 occurring in the wettest 10% of years. The period since 2001 has been the driest on record over parts of eastern Australia, meaning that many large water storages did not fully recover from the 2002-03 drought prior to the onset of the 2006-07 drought. While rainfall returned to near-normal levels in the second half of 2003 following the severe drought of 2002-03, there have been no periods of sustained above-average rainfall in most of the region since early 2001. For eastern Australia as a whole (defined as the combined areas of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania), the four-year period from June 2001 to May 2005 was the driest June to May four-year period on record, whilst the six-year period from June 2001 to May 2007 ranks second behind 1900-06; heavy rains in the summers of 2007-08 and 2008-09 eased the situation somewhat in tropical Queensland and on parts of the east coast. For Australia's cropping regions the eight-year period from June 2000 to May 2008 was the driest on record, and for southeastern Australia a similar record was set by the period from June 2001 to May 2009. Conditions in the period 2001-09 are generally comparable to those of the lengthy drought of the 1940s. 1.10 Australian Rainfall Deciles - 1 June 2001 to 31 May 2009 Adding to the impact of recent dry conditions has been the accompanying increase in temperature. The period from July 2001 to June 2009 was clearly the warmest such period on record for eastern Australia. Maximum temperatures averaged over Australia were 0.86°C above the 1961-90 normal. In contrast, temperatures averaged through the driest periods of the 1940s were near the 1961-90 normal. Drought definitions, and the area of coverage and length of droughts to that time, together with related information, may be obtained from the article Drought in Australia in Year Book Australia 1988. Thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes Thunderstorms are most frequent over northern Australia. Thunder is heard at least once on 80 days or more per year near Darwin, largely as a result of convectional processes during the summer wet season. High frequencies (30 to 50 per year) also occur over the eastern uplands of New South Wales as a result of orographic uplift of moist air streams. Some parts of southern Australia receive fewer than ten thunderstorms per year, with eastern Tasmania receiving fewer than five. Through most of Australia thunderstorms are more common during the warmer half of the year, but along the southern fringe they also occur in winter as a result of low-level instability in cold air masses of Southern Ocean origin. Thunderstorms are also relatively common over many parts of inland Australia, with most of the arid zone having at least 15 thunder days per year, and parts of interior Western Australia having 40 or more. These storms are often 'dry' with most or all rain evaporating before it reaches the ground - indeed, in a few locations there are more days of thunder per year than there are days of rain. Some thunderstorms can become severe, with flash flooding, large hail and damaging winds. These storms can be very destructive. The Sydney hailstorm of 14 April 1999, in which hailstones up to nine centimetres (cm) in diameter were observed, was Australia's most costly natural disaster, with losses estimated at $1.7b. Flash flooding associated with severe thunderstorms has caused loss of life, notably when seven deaths occurred in Canberra on 26 January 1971, and thunderstorms have also been implicated in numerous air crashes, such as when a plane crashed into Botany Bay on 30 November 1961 with the loss of 15 lives. Wind gusts exceeding 170 km/h have been measured during severe thunderstorms, with one notable reading being 185 km/h at Brisbane Airport on 18 January 1985. While thunderstorms in general are most common in northern Australia, the most damaging thunderstorms, in terms of hail and wind gusts, occur in the eastern halves of New South Wales and southern Queensland. Smaller hail (less than 1 cm in diameter) commonly occurs in southern coastal Australia in cold unstable air in the wake of cold frontal passages. Tornadoes are also associated with severe thunderstorms, although they do not occur with the same frequency or severity as can occur in the United States of America. As tornado paths are narrow it is rare, but not unknown, for them to strike major population centres, with notable examples occurring in Brighton (Melbourne) in February 1918, the southern suburbs of Brisbane in November 1973, and several Perth suburbs in May 2005. Snow During most years, snow covers much of the Australian Alps above 1,500 metres for varying periods from late autumn to early spring. Similarly, in Tasmania, the mountains are covered fairly frequently above 1,000 metres in those seasons. The area, depth and duration of snow cover are highly variable from year to year. These areas can experience light snowfalls at any time of year. Small patches of snow can occasionally persist through summer in sheltered areas near the highest peaks, but there are no permanent snowfields. Snowfalls at lower elevations are more irregular, although areas above 600 metres in Victoria and Tasmania, and above 1,000 metres in the New South Wales highlands, receive snow at least once in most winters, as do the highest peaks of Western Australia's Stirling Ranges. In most cases snow cover is light and short-lived. In extreme cases, snow has fallen to sea level in Tasmania and parts of Victoria, most recently in August 2005, and to 200 metres in other parts of southern Australia, but this is very rare. The only major Australian cities to have received a significant snow cover at any time in the last century are Canberra and Hobart, although Melbourne experienced a heavy snowfall in 1849, and there are anecdotal reports of snowflakes in Sydney in 1836. The heaviest snowfall in Australian history outside the alpine areas was that of 4-5 July 1900, when 50-100 cm fell around Bathurst and in the Blue Mountains, and 25 cm as far west as Forbes (only 240 metres above sea level). Other major widespread low-elevation snow events include those of July 1901, July 1949 and July 1984. Temperature Average Temperatures Average annual air temperatures range from 28°C along the Kimberley coast in the extreme north of Western Australia to 4°C in the alpine areas of south-eastern Australia. Although annual temperatures can be used for broad comparisons, monthly temperatures are required for detailed analyses. July is the month with the lowest average temperature in all parts of the continent. In the south, the months with the highest average temperature are January or February. Due to the increase in cloudiness during the wet season, the month of highest average temperature in the north of the continent is December or, in the extreme north and north-west, November. Temperature differences between winter and summer are least in tropical Australia. They are greatest in the southern inland, with seasonal differences along the coast being moderated by the ocean's proximity. Maps 1.11 to 1.14 show average monthly maximum and minimum temperatures for January and July. Average monthly maxima In January, average maximum temperatures exceed 35°C over a vast area of the interior and exceed 40°C over parts of the north-west. The highest summer maxima occur in the Pilbara and Gascoyne regions of north-western Western Australia, where average January maxima are around 41°C; in some years daily maxima exceed 40°C for several weeks at a time. Marble Bar experienced 160 consecutive days above 37.8°C (100° Fahrenheit) in 1923-24, and had an average monthly maximum of 44.9°C in February 2007, an Australian record. At the other extreme, average January maxima are near 15°C on the highest peaks of the south-east ranges and near 20°C in much of Tasmania. In July, a more regular latitudinal distribution of average maxima is evident, ranging from 30°C near the north coast to below 3°C in the alpine areas of the south-east. 1.11 AVERAGE MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE (a) - January 1.12 AVERAGE MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE (a) - July Average monthly minima Average minimum temperatures in all seasons are highest in northern Australia and near the coasts, and are lowest in the mountainous areas of the south-east. The highest average January minimum temperatures (near 27°C) are found near the north-west coast, while in winter they exceed 20°C at some coastal locations in northern Australia and on the Torres Strait and Tiwi Islands. Low minimum temperatures are highly sensitive to local topography, with the lowest minimum temperatures occurring in high-elevation valleys, as cold air drains from hills to valleys overnight, making hilltops and ridges warmer overnight, even in areas with local relief of only a few tens of metres. In the most favoured locations in the mountains of New South Wales average minimum temperatures are below 5°C in January and -5°C in July, while most inland areas south of the tropics have average July minima between 0° and 6°C. 1.13 AVERAGE MINIMUM TEMPERATURE (a) - January 1.14 AVERAGE MINIMUM TEMPERATURE (a) - July Extreme maxima The highest extreme maxima in Australia are recorded in two regions; the Pilbara and Gascoyne regions of north-western Western Australia, and a broad belt extending from south-western Queensland across South Australia into south-eastern Western Australia. Many locations in this region have recorded temperatures exceeding 48°C. Extreme temperatures in this southern belt are higher than those further north, due to the long trajectory over land of hot north-west winds from northern Australia, the lower moisture levels in summer compared with northern Australia, and the generally lower elevation (when compared with areas such as the southern Northern Territory and east-central Western Australia, both of which are largely more than 500 metres above sea level). Most other locations in mainland Australia, except those near parts of the Queensland and Northern Territory coasts or above 500 metres elevation, have extreme maxima between 43° and 48°C. Most Tasmanian sites away from the north coast have extreme maxima between 35° and 42°C. The lowest extreme maxima are found along the north coast of Tasmania (e.g. 29.5°C at Low Head) and at high elevations (e.g. 27.8°C at Thredbo (Top Station)). While extreme high temperatures are more common inland than they are near the coast, the highest temperatures recorded differ little between the two, except in Queensland, the Northern Territory and northern Tasmania. Notable extreme maxima observed near the coast include 50.5°C at Mardie and 49.1°C at Roebourne in Western Australia, 49.4°C at Whyalla and 47.9°C at Ceduna in South Australia, and 47.9°C at Avalon Airport in Victoria.. Extreme maximum temperatures recorded at selected locations, including the highest recorded in each state/territory, are shown in table 1.15. Prolonged heat waves, with a number of successive days over 40°C, are relatively common in summer over much of inland Australia, as well as parts of the north-west coast. Many inland locations have recorded ten or more successive days of such conditions, increasing to 20 or more days in parts of western Queensland and northern South Australia, and 50 or more days in north-western Western Australia. These heat waves can be accompanied by oppressively warm nights, with Oodnadatta (South Australia) recording an Australian record nine successive nights above 30°C in February 2004. Such prolonged heatwaves are rare in coastal regions, except in Western Australia. The record number of consecutive days in Melbourne over 40°C, for example, is five, with Brisbane and Sydney each registering two. The coastal areas, though, can be affected by extreme heat over a period of one or two days. The then most extreme heatwave in the recorded history of south-eastern Australia occurred in January 1939. Adelaide (46.1°C on the 12th), Melbourne (45.6°C on the 13th) and Sydney (45.3°C on the 14th) all set record high temperatures during this period, as did many other centres in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. This extreme heat contributed to the 'Black Friday' bushfires, in which almost two million hectares were burnt and 71 lives lost (see the Bushfires section in the Environment chapter in Year Book Australia 2004). More recently, extreme heat affected south-eastern Australia in late January and early February 2009, with state records broken in Victoria and Tasmania (see table below and box) and a record high of 46.4°C in Melbourne on 7 February. The peak of this heatwave also coincided with the 'Black Saturday' bushfires.
The lowest recorded temperatures in Australia have been in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, where Charlotte Pass recorded -23.0°C on 28 June 1994 (table 1.16), with a number of other locations recording temperatures below -15°C. It is likely that comparably low temperatures occur in similarly sheltered locations in the Victorian highlands, but no observing stations away from the exposed peaks exist in this area. Away from the Snowy Mountains, the lowest extreme minima in Australia are found above 500 metres elevation on the tablelands and ranges of New South Wales, eastern Victoria and southern Queensland, as well as in central Tasmania. Many locations in this region have recorded -10°C or lower, including Gudgenby, Australian Capital Territory (-14.6°C) and Woolbrook, New South Wales (-14.5°C). At lower elevations, most inland places south of the tropics have extreme minima between -3°C and -7°C, and such low temperatures have also occurred in favoured locations within a few kilometres of southern and eastern coasts, such as Sale, Victoria (-5.6°C), Bega, New South Wales (-8.1°C), Grove, Tasmania (-7.5°C), Eyre, Western Australia (-7.2°C) and Taree, New South Wales (-5.0°C). In the tropics, extreme minima near or below 0°C have occurred at many places away from the coast, as far north as Herberton, Queensland (-5.0°C). Some locations near tropical coasts, such as Mackay (-0.8°C), Townsville (0.1°C) and Kalumburu, Western Australia (0.3°C) have also recorded temperatures near 0°C. In contrast, some exposed near-coastal locations, such as Darwin, have never fallen below 10°C, and Thursday Island, in the Torres Strait, has an extreme minimum of 16.1°C. The parts of Australia with the lowest extreme minimum temperatures are also the most subject to frost. The eastern uplands from southern Queensland to eastern Victoria experience ten or more frosts per month in each month from May to September, as do Tasmania's Central Plateau and a few susceptible locations in south-western Western Australia and the Flinders Ranges region of South Australia. At lower elevations frost is less frequent and the season is shorter, although only the immediate coastal margins and the far north can be considered totally frost-free. Frosts can occur at any time of year over most of Tasmania, much of inland Victoria and south-eastern South Australia, and the higher parts of the tablelands of New South Wales. In these regions the median frost period generally exceeds 200 days, extending out to 300 days in central Tasmania.
Other aspects of climate Humidity In terms of the average water vapour content or humidity of the air, Australia is a dry continent. The amount of moisture in the atmosphere can be expressed in several ways, the most common being relative humidity. This measure can be thought of as the relative evaporating power of the air. When humidity is low, moisture on an exposed wet surface, like our skin, can evaporate freely. When it is high, evaporation is retarded. If the temperature is also high, people will feel discomfort or even stress as the body's ability to cool through the evaporation of perspiration is diminished. The combination of high temperature and high humidity is potentially dangerous for people who are not adapted or acclimatised to such conditions. The main features of the relative humidity pattern are:
By way of a historical note, it is interesting that, as late as 1927, Griffith Taylor, from the Department of Physical Geography, University of Sydney, was asserting that tropical Australia was an unhealthy place to live, at least for women, because of its climate. However in recent decades the introduction of air conditioning, more appropriate building design, and improved health measures such as proper sanitation, have greatly increased the comfort levels of those living in the tropics. Global radiation Incoming global radiation includes radiant energy reaching the ground directly from the sun and radiation received indirectly from the sky that is reflected and scattered downwards by clouds, dust and other airborne particles. While there is a high correlation between daily global radiation and daily hours of sunshine, the latter is more dependent on variations in cloud coverage. Daily global radiation is at its strongest, all other things being equal, when the sun is closest to overhead south of the tropics (21-22 December), or directly overhead in the tropics. On the north-west coast around Port Hedland, Western Australia, where average daily global radiation is the highest for Australia (22-24 megajoules per square metre), average daily sunshine is also highest, being approximately ten hours. By way of contrast, in Darwin the global radiation values for the dry month of July and cloudy month of January are comparable, yet the number of sunshine hours for July approaches twice that for January. Sunshine Sunshine here refers to bright or direct sunshine. Australia receives relatively large amounts of sunshine although seasonal cloud formations affect spatial and temporal distribution. Cloud cover reduces both incoming solar radiation and outgoing radiation from the earth's surface, and thus affects sunshine, air temperature and other measures of climate. Most of the continent receives more than 3,000 hours of sunshine a year, or nearly 70% of the total possible. In central Australia and the mid-west coast of Western Australia, totals slightly in excess of 3,500 hours occur. Totals of less than 1,750 hours occur on the west coast and highlands of Tasmania, which is the equivalent of only 40% of the total possible per year. In southern Australia, the duration of sunshine is greatest about December when the sun is at its highest elevation, and lowest in June when the sun is lowest. In northern Australia, sunshine is generally greatest over the period August to October prior to the wet season, and least over the period January to March during the wet season. Evaporation Average annual pan evaporation exceeds rainfall over most of Australia. It is highest in the northern interior of Western Australia, reaching over 4,000 mm near Telfer, and exceeds 3,000 mm over most of tropical Western Australia, northern South Australia, the central Northern Territory and western Queensland. It is lower in tropical areas with higher rainfall and cloud cover, such as the Top End of the Northern Territory, and eastern Queensland. At the other end of the scale, Australia's lowest pan evaporation occurs in Tasmania, ranging from well under 1000 mm per year in the west to close to 1,200 mm in the east. Over the mainland it is below 1,200 mm in the far south-west of Western Australia and in most of southern Victoria from Melbourne eastwards, and less than 1,400 mm over southern Victoria and adjacent parts of South Australia and New South Wales.. Over most of Australia evaporation is greatest in summer and least in winter, due to higher temperatures and solar radiation. In the far north, in contrast, the seasonal cycle is dominated by the effect of increased cloud cover during the tropical wet season. In this region evaporation peaks in spring, with a secondary peak in autumn in some places, and is lowest in late summer. Cloud Seasonal distribution of cloudiness varies predominantly in line with seasonal variations in rainfall. In the southern parts of the continent, particularly in the coastal and low-lying areas, the winter months are generally cloudier than the summer months. This is due to the formation of extensive areas of stratiform cloud and fog during the colder months, when the structure of the lower layers of the atmosphere and higher levels of humidity favour the formation of this type of cloud. Particularly strong seasonal variability of cloud cover exists in northern Australia where skies are cloudy during the summer wet season and mainly cloudless during the winter dry season. Cloud cover is greater near coasts and on the windward slopes of the eastern uplands of Australia and less over the dry interior. Fog The formation of radiation fogs, in which air near the ground is cooled by overnight radiation from the ground, is determined by the occurrence of a favourable blend of temperature, humidity, wind and overlying cloud cover. The nature of the local terrain can also be important for the development of fog, and there is a tendency for it to be particularly prevalent and persistent in valleys and hollows. The incidence of such fogs can vary significantly over short distances. Other types of fogs occur when low cloud covers high ground ('hill fog'), particularly where highlands are close to the coast, and more rarely, near some coastlines when warm moist air moves over relatively cool waters near the shore ('sea fog'). Fog in Australia tends to be more common in the south than the north, although parts of the east coastal areas are relatively fog-prone even in the tropics. Fog is more likely to occur in the colder months, particularly in the eastern uplands. Radiation fogs normally develop overnight and dissipate during the morning or early afternoon, although on rare occasions they persist through the day, particularly in inland Tasmania. The highest fog incidence at a capital city is at Canberra which has an average of 47 days per year on which fog occurs, 29 of which are between May and August. Brisbane averages 20 days of fog per year. Darwin averages only two days per year, mostly in July and August.Winds The mid-latitude anticyclone belt is the chief determinant of Australia's two main prevailing wind streams. These streams tend to be easterly to the north of this belt and westerly to the south. The cycles of development, motion and decay of low-pressure systems that form to the north and south of the anticyclone belt and also intersperse between individual anticyclones result in a great diversity of wind flow patterns. Wind variations are greatest around the coasts where diurnal land and sea-breeze effects also come into play. Sea breezes play a prominent role in modifying coastal climates in many parts of Australia, particularly along the west coast of Western Australia where they are a major feature of the summer climate. In Perth the sea breeze is known as the 'Fremantle Doctor'. Orography affects the prevailing wind pattern in various ways, such as the channelling of winds through valleys, deflection by mountains and cold air drainage from highland areas. The high frequency of north-west winds at Hobart, for example, is caused by the north-west to south-east orientation of the Derwent River valley, while wave effects on the lee side of the Adelaide Hills can lead to very strong local winds ('gully winds') in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide during periods of general easterly flow. Perth is the windiest capital with an average wind speed of 15.6 km/h; Canberra is the least windy with an average wind speed of 5.4 km/h. The highest wind speeds and wind gusts measured in Australia have been associated with tropical cyclones. The highest recorded gust was 267 km/h at Learmonth (Western Australia) on 22 March 1999 (with Tropical Cyclone Vance), while gusts reaching 200 km/h have been recorded on several occasions in northern Australia with cyclone visitations. The highest gusts recorded at Australian capitals have been 217 km/h at Darwin (during Tropical Cyclone Tracy), 185 km/h at Brisbane Airport and 156 km/h at Perth. Dust Storms Dust storms are a regular occurrence on windy days in many of the arid zones of Australia. During drought years, they can extend to the more densely settled areas of the south-east, particularly when strong north- to north-westerly winds occur in advance of an approaching cold front. Well-known examples include those of February 1983, which plunged central Melbourne into darkness, and September 2009, which covered a vast area of eastern Queensland and New South Wales, including Brisbane and Sydney. The first of these occurred in the later part of the severe El Nińo-related drought of 1982-83, while the second has accompanied the prolonged dry conditions of the post-2001 period. Fire weather While bushfires are not strictly a climatic phenomenon, both weather and climate are strong determinants in their occurrence and intensity. Provided vegetation is sufficiently abundant and dry, the spread of bushfires is most rapid in windy conditions with low humidity. In southern Australia such conditions are also normally associated with high temperatures. A Fire Danger Index, which combines expected wind speed, humidity, temperature and a measure of vegetation dryness, is frequently used to assess the risk of rapid fire spread on any given day. The most favoured season for bushfires varies in different parts of Australia. In south-eastern Australia (including Tasmania) the most favoured season is summer and early autumn; in coastal New South Wales and southern Queensland it is spring and early summer; and in much of northern Australia it is winter and spring (or the later part of the 'dry' season). In the arid zones of Australia large fires most commonly occur in the months following an abnormally wet season, when there is enough vegetation to provide fuel. The southeast Australian bushfires which occurred at the end of 2002 and the beginning of 2003 were among the most protracted and extensive of the last century. The 2002-03 bushfire season and its impact was discussed in the Environment chapter in Year Book Australia 2004. There were also protracted and extensive fires, particularly in Victoria, in 2006-07, while more recently the 'Black Saturday' fires caused major loss of life and destruction of property in Victoria in February 2009.


text:
With regard to a lantern which was burning the whole day [of the Sabbath],1 at the conclusion of the Sabbath it is extinguished and then [re-]lit.2 Now, it is well if you say that the kindling constitutes the precept: then it is correct. But if you say that the placing constitutes the precept, is this [merely] extinguished and [re-]lit: surely it should [have stated], It must be extinguished, lifted up, replaced and then relit? Moreover, since we pronounce a benediction, 'Who sanctified us by His commandments and commanded us to kindle the lamp of Hanukkah,' it proves that the kindling constitutes the precept. This proves it. And now that we say that the kindling constitutes the precept, if a deaf-mute, idiot, or minor3 lights it, he does nothing. But a woman may certainly light [it], for R. Joshua b. Levi said: The [precept of the] Hanukkah lamp is obligatory upon women, for they too were concerned in that miracle.4 R. Shesheth said: The [precept of the] Hanukkah lamp is incumbent upon a guest.5 R. Zera said: Originally, when I was at the academy, I shared the cost6 with mine host;7 but after I took a wife I said, Now I certainly do not need it, because they kindle [the lamp] on my behalf at my home.8 R. Joshua b. Levi said: All oils are fit for the Hanukkah lamp, but olive oil is of the best. Abaye observed: At first the Master [Rabbah] used to seek poppy-seed oil, saying, The light of this is more lasting;9 but when he heard this [dictum] of R. Joshua b. Levi, he was particular for olive oil, saying, This yields a clearer light. R. Joshua b. Levi also said: All oils are fit10 for ink, and olive oil is of the best. The scholars propounded: for kneading or for smoking?11 — Come and hear: For R. Samuel b. Zutra recited: All oils are fit for ink, and olive oil is of the best, both for kneading and for smoking. R. Samuel b. Zutra recited it thus: All soots are fit for ink: and olive oil is the best. R. Huna said: All gums are good for ink, but balsam gum is the best of all. R. Hiyya b. Ashi said: He who lights the Hanukkah lamp must pronounce a blessing; while R. Jeremiah said He who sees the Hanukkah lamp must pronounce a blessing. Rab Judah said: On the first day, he who sees must pronounce two, and he who lights must pronounce three blessings;12 thereafter, he who lights pronounces two, and he who sees pronounces one. What is omitted?13 — The 'season' is omitted.14 Yet let the 'miracle' be omitted?15 The miracle holds good for every day.16 What benediction is uttered?17 — This: Who sanctified us by His commandments and commanded us to kindle the light of Hanukkah.18 And where did He command us?19 — R. Awia said: [It follows] from, thou shalt not turn aside [from the sentence Which they shall shew thee].20 R. Nehemiah quoted: Ask thy father, and he will shew thee; Thine elders, and they will tell thee.21 R. Amram objected: Dem'ai22 can be employed for an 'erub22 and for a joint ownership;23 a benediction is pronounced over it, and grace in common is recited after it,24 and it25 may be separated by a naked person, and at twilight.26 But if you say that every Rabbinical [precept] requires a benediction, here, when one stands naked, how can he pronounce a benediction: lo! we require, therefore shall thy camp be holy [that he see no unclean thing in thee],27 which is absent? — Said Abaye, A certain Rabbinical law28 requires a benediction, whereas a doubtful Rabbinical law does not.29 But what of the second day of Festivals, which is a Rabbinical [institution] based on doubt,30 and yet it requires a benediction?31 — There it [was instituted] in order that it should not be treated slightingly.32 Raba said: The majority of the 'amme ha-arez tithe33 [their produce].34 R. Huna said: If a courtyard has two doors, it requires two [Hanukkah] lamps. Said Raba, That was said only [if they are situated] at two [different] sides; but [if] on the same side, it is unnecessary. What is the reason?35 Shall we say, because of suspicion?36 Whose suspicion? Shall we say, that of strangers:37 then let it be necessary even on the same side?38 Whilst if the suspicion of townspeople, then even [if] on two different sides it is still unnecessary?39 — After all, it is on account of the suspicion of the townspeople, yet perchance they may pass one [door] and not the other, and say, 'just as it [the lamp] has not been lit at this door, so has it not been lit at the other.' And whence do you know40 that we pay regard to suspicions? Because it was taught, R. Simeon said: On account of four considerations the Torah ordered pe'ah41 to be left at the end of the field:42 [as a precaution] against the robbing of the poor, against wasting the time of the poor, against suspicion, and against [transgressing], thou shalt not finish off [the corners of thy field].43 [As a precaution] against the robbing of the poor: lest the owner see a free hour44 and say to his poor relations, 'This is pe'ah;'45
Shabbath 23band against wasting the time of the poor: that the poor should not have to sit and watch out, 'now the owner will leave pe'ah'; and against suspicion: that passers-by may not say, 'cursed be the man who has not left pe'ah in his field'; and against [transgressing] thou shalt not finish off: are not all these on account of, 'thou shalt not finish off'?1 — Said Raba, [It means, as a precaution] against cheats.2 R. Isaac b. Redifah said in R. Huna's name: A lamp with two spouts is credited to two people.3 Raba said: If one fills a dish with oil and surrounds it with wicks, and places a vessel over it,4 it is credited to many people; if he does not place a vessel over it, he turns it into a kind of fire,5 and is not credited even to one. Raba said: It is obvious to me [that if one must choose between] the house light and the Hanukkah light,6 the former is preferable, on account [of the importance] of the peace of the home;7 [between] the house light and [wine for] the Sanctification of the Day,8 the house light is preferable, on account of the peace of the home. Raba propounded: What [if the choice lies between] the Hanukkah lamp and the Sanctification of the Day: is the latter more important, because it is permanent;9 or perhaps the Hanukkah lamp is preferable, on account of advertising the miracle? After propounding, he himself solved it: The Hanukkah lamp is preferable, on account of advertising the miracle. R. Huna said: He who habitually practises [the lighting of] the lamp will possess scholarly sons; he who is observant of [the precept of] mezuzah10 will merit a beautiful dwelling; he who is observant of fringes11 will merit a beautiful garment; he who is observant of the Sanctification of the Day will be privileged to fill barrels of wine.12 R. Huna was accustomed frequently to pass the door of R. Abin the carpenter.13 Seeing that he habitually lit many lights, he remarked, Two great men will issue hence. R. Idi b. Abin and R. Hiyya b. Abin issued thence. R. Hisda was accustomed frequently to pass the house of R. Shizbi's father.14 Seeing that he habitually lit many lights, he remarked, A great man will issue hence. R. Shizbi issued thence. R. Joseph's wife used to kindle [the Sabbath lights] late.15 [Thereupon] R. Joseph said to her, It was taught: He took not away the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night:16 this teaches that the pillar of cloud overlapped17 the pillar of fire, and the pillar of fire overlapped the pillar of cloud. Thereupon she thought of doing it very early. Said an old man to her: It was taught: Providing that one is not too early18 or too late. Raba said: He who loves the Rabbis will have sons who are Rabbis; he who honours the Rabbis will have Rabbis for sons-in-law; he who stands in awe of the Rabbis will himself be a Rabbinical scholar. But if he is not fit for this, his words will be heeded like those of a Rabbinical scholar.19 NOR WITH OIL OF BURNING. What is OIL OF BURNING? Said Rabbah, Oil of terumah which was defiled; and why is it called OIL OF BURNING? Because it stands to be burnt. And why is this forbidden on the Sabbath? — Since it is one's duty to destroy it, we fear lest he tilt [the lamp].20 Abaye objected: if so, let it be permitted on Festivals.21 Why did we learn: One must not kindle [the lamp] on Festivals with oil of burning!-Festivals are forbidden on account of the Sabbath.22 R. Hisda said: We have no fear lest he tilt [it], but here the reference is to a Festival which falls on the eve of the Sabbath, and as for the prohibition, [the reason is] because sacred food23 must not be burnt on Festivals.24 But since the second clause25 states, One must not light on Festivals with oil of burning, it follows that the first clause does not refer to Festivals? — R. Hanina of Sura answered: This [the second clause] states, 'What is the reason': what is the reason that one must not light [the lamp] on Festivals with oil of burning? Because sacred food must not be burnt on Festivals.26 - To Next Folio -


text:
A woman alleges her job depended on performing sex acts on Joseph Rogers Jr.
June 17, 2013 — -- A former housekeeper violated the Waffle House chairman's privacy by recording sex tapes of the two in an attempt to show that he allegedly demanded sex acts from her, a Georgia judge ruled.
"The defendant's arguments that she was a victim of the crime of sexual battery and was permitted to record plaintiff's actions to gather evidence of a crime is extremely unpersuasive to the court," Cobb County Court Judge Robert Leonard II wrote in the order.
Joe Rogers Jr.'s former housekeeper accused him last year of demanding that she perform sex acts on him as part of her duties over an eight-year period.
Rogers has admitted to an affair with the woman but denied assault claims and said he was a victim of blackmail.
As part of the case, the judge seized sexual recordings of the two that included a video and about 15 audio recordings, according to court documents.
The videotape was viewed in a closed court hearing before the judge decided it was unlawfully recorded and did not show a sexual assault, court documents filed Friday June 14 show.
"The video recording makes it clear that defendant was a willing participant in the sexual encounter and is not the victim of sexual battery," the judge wrote.
The judge's order allows for Rogers' attorneys to take a deposition from the woman, whom ABC News is not identifying because of the sexual harassment claims, to ask her specifically about the recordings.
"It's not a conclusive or final ruling," David Cohen, one of the woman's attorneys, told ABCNews.com. "It's a preliminary ruling, and we will take a look at it and decide how to proceed forward."
"Our job as counsel is to fulfill our client's wishes to let her story be heard by a jury," he said.
For the first time, details of how the woman recorded the sexual encounter were revealed.
The court document says that the defendant's attorneys met with her in a private investigator's office where the investigator ordered her a "spy camera" -- a camera disguised as a cellphone -- that would be used for the recording.
The judge said that the court did not make any findings about the attorneys' involvement in making the recording but said the court might look into it.
Rogers' attorney, Robert Ingram, said he has been wary of the tape and "questionable conduct" from the beginning, which he said he expressed to the woman's attorneys.
"I warned them that they were on very shaky ground in what they were doing, and I pointed out to them that making a video where someone has an expectation of privacy is in itself a felony in the state of Georgia," Ingram told ABCNews.com.
The former housekeeper accused Rogers of forcing her to perform "various sexual acts on him as a condition of her employment," according to the police report filed Sept. 28, 2012.
Rogers said in a statement that over a nearly eight-year period in which he was "separated, single and remarried," he had a "series of infrequent consensual encounters" with the woman.
"That was wrong of me, and I am very sorry for the pain and embarrassment I've caused my wife and family," he said. "There is no excuse for what I have done."
Rogers said the housekeeper worked for him from 2003 until 2008, when she was let go. He said that she reapplied for her job and was rehired as his house manager in late 2009, working in that position until she resigned in June 2012.
Rogers said that in July 2012, he received a letter from the woman's attorney's "containing false allegations and strong threats," and wanting "millions of dollars" from him.
Rogers claimed that he shared a "threatening blackmail letter" with his wife and hired attorneys to investigate. He said he initiated court proceedings in September 2012 and that the housekeeper and her attorneys responded with false allegations and a false police report.
The Waffle House chain was started in the 1950s by Rogers' father, Joe Rogers Sr., in Decatur, Ga., and has more than 1,500 restaurants. It is privately held.


text:
Aug 22, 2010
Decker's Delight Links (22.Aug.10)
Aug 19, 2010
Gaming shows: la crème de la crème
Watching videos online has always (well, relatively speaking) been a pleasant and deeply unproductive way to spend ones time, but, let's face it, not all of them are worthy of our delicate attention and keen eyesight, whereas only a few of them come with the consistency of a show, that will guarantee regular breaks from work. This, dear friends and comrades, is why I can't help but suggest you follow, watch and enjoy these, uhm, following gaming shows. They are the ones I'm currently into, and the ones that will make sure you a) appreciate gaming a bit more, b) smile a bit, c) work less, d) play more.
When a smart, passionate and academically trained in the ways of gaming person approaches gaming history, this is what you get. An excellent retro-focused show showcasing classic games and interviewing legendary game creators.
Our dear Yahtzee remains brilliant and hilarious as ever. You know him and you know what his deranged ZP reviews are all about. Still thought I'd remind you.
The fact that bad movies and games deserve to be ridiculed (and, as a consequence, remembered) has apparently urged Spoony to, well, ridicule them, while also coming up with videos of a most varied nature. The humour is tops.
Not a regular channel of video goodness, but the episodes and features that are there are some of the best the web has ever spawned. Provided you are into adventures and oldish PC games, that is.
Another top quality MS-DOS, retro gaming video thingy, with great presentation, attention to detail, a taste for quirky game selections and pretty self explanatory title. Also, very entertaining.
Another pretty popular choice, as Bytejacker is the best known indie game show around; and it's been around for more than 100 episodes, which frankly is impressive. Sports some truly odd and generally funny sketches too.
Classic show, new format. Covers both retro and new games and is professionally produced. Uhm, watch it!
Aug 17, 2010
Not a review: Starcraft II
With Starcraft II: The Wings of Liberty being the popular behemoth all semi-popular behemoths would aspire to become and with this humblest of blogs being rather lackluster in its coverage of mainstream gaming, I really wouldn't suggest expecting this particular post to tell you whether you have to buy Starcraft II or not. I am, after all, far from the greatest admirer of real-time-strategy games you'll find online. And I'm not particularly good at them either.
Anyway. Thing is, I managed to rather easily finish the single-player campaign of the game, what with having opted for the medium difficulty setting, played a bit with the tutorials and custom maps, and can say that, yes, this is quite an impressive game indeed. But, really, you can read elsewhere about just how gorgeous, polished, perfectly balanced, well-designed, deep and enjoyable the thing is, as the internet seems to be filled with reviews praising the game and screaming about the subtlety with which it teaches you to be competent in multiplayer or the impressive variety of its mission. I wont argue with them. In fact I quite agree.
I really can't identify with this guy. Yes, despite the slightly similar beard. He's never heard of the Alabama Song.
I even agree with the more than a handful of people that find its storytelling -no matter how impressively presented- and characters deeply lacking. I simply don't feel I need to discuss such matters. They've been done to death. What I wanted to touch upon instead, is that, despite it being brilliant in so many ways and mightily addictive, Starcraft II failed to impress on quite a few levels, beside the storytelling one.
For starters the core gameplay feels incredibly archaic. I mean, I am quite aware of the fact that the original Starcraft was considered a masterpiece, but that was over a decade ago and certain game do, in fact, age. I do expect a modern RTS to at least allow my units to take cover and flank the enemy. I also want to actually think while playing and not keep trying to develop extra fingers, which seems to be SC II's main objective.
Click them, click them to DEATH!
Added to that and quite frankly shockingly the A.I. of the units is, at times, and bluntly put atrocious. Marines tend to get lost, SCVs stand and get murdered or simply do the wrong thing at the wrong time, making the amount of required micromanagement border on the unacceptable. Really, SC II does sometimes feel like a mouse-precision exercise, disguised as an action game, disguised as a strategy game featuring a banal yet captivating plot. Not particularly satisfying that.
As for the promised strategic element, well, it's quite laughable and not even close to the standards Medieval Total War set ages ago, which -once again- came as a disappointment. All strategic options, actually all two of them, barely matter and are there only to provide you with an incentive to spend some more quality time between missions and gawk at the exquisite and impressively detailed environments. Maybe even click a thing or two.
Oh, and I would have thought that rush techniques were so passé...
Related @ Gnome's Lair:Aug 16, 2010
A session of Chill
I hadn't played a proper roleplaying game for so long, I had almost forgotten what it feels like, which is kind of a shame as it feels pretty much brilliant; a fact of life I was reminded of a couple of days ago when I, the lady of the lair and my best friend went over to another friend's place for a few hours of Chill. A few hours that turned out to be, well, quite a bit more than a few and were even enjoyed by said lady who had -interestingly- never experienced an RPG before.
After all, we did get back home both slightly tipsy and at 4 o' clock in the morning, which made this feel like a most proper and mainstream of Saturday nights. Of course it wasn't. It was a night when we got recruited by SAVE (the Societas Argenti Viae Eternitata) to combat the Unknown somewhere in the snowy parts of northwestern USA, got to think, scheme, strategize, solve puzzles and combat a most disturbing entity with a taste for cannibals, while rolling dice, listening to atmospheric music, chatting (or, well, strongly disagreeing) about art and drinking a truly fine single malt whiskey. Yes, it was a fun, rewarding and most invigorating night, that reminded me that making time for the odd RPG session should become a priority. I was even reminded of what a great system and game world Chill has to offer.
Chill, you see, is a rather obscure, d100 based, tabletop RPG system that was published by Pacesetter and then Mayfair Games and has been out of print for over a decade. The game sports simple to learn core mechanics and focuses on what it does best: horror and intricate monsters, that each need to be killed in a particular nasty way, the discovery of which is always half the fun. A zombie for example has to be shot in the head, whereas a rakshasa can only be destroyed by any wound inflicted with an iron blowgun dart, that is fired from a blowgun made of bamboo that is at least 15 years old.
Intrigued? Good. You can (and frankly should) find out more about Chill via this RPGnet review, its Wikipedia page and this handy Chill FAQ. Better yet, why not grab the Chill books themselves? Mayfair Games is still selling a vastly discounted bundle of books and you can find everything you'll ever need to enjoy the game on either Amazon or eBay.
Related @ Gnome's Lair:Aug 11, 2010
10 minutes with the Mafia II demo
I can't for the life of me remember whether I finished the original Mafia or not, but I can still be sure I absolutely loved this game. It oozed atmosphere, looked brilliant and sported a plot that was on a par with a decent mob film. Mafia may not have been the Godfather of video games, but it was both interesting and great fun to play through. Also, it was way better than any GTA you'd care to mention, and now it's about to get a sequel; the aptly named Mafia II, the demo of which I just finished. Not that it was a particularly hefty one mind, but I did get to play through one mission and get to ride around the game's city for 10 minutes or so.
Truth be said, you too can grab said demo via Steam, though I guess I could let you know what I thought of it. Well, it was good. And looked spectacular, easily recapturing the mood of the original as far as visuals are concerned. The texture of the world felt alright -it really is too early to properly judge- and the story quite promising. Importantly, the demo seemed to be quite demanding from the player too, following the notorious spirit of the original's difficulty levels. As for them new bits, the only thing that really stuck out was the shiny new cover system ,which deeply impressed me. I have, after all, never played Gears of War etc you know and still live in the Dark Ages of the shooting stuff genre.
Related @ Gnome's Lair:Aug 9, 2010
XII Games: Infinity Bit
Vince Twelve of xii games has always been fond (also, capable) of weird, innovative and simultaneously excellent games like Anna and the impeccably named What Linus Bruckman Sees When His Eyes Are Closed. He's also developed a taste for what can roughly be described as point-and-click adventures, just like his upcoming, extremely promising and simply beautiful Resonance, and that is the reason why his latest creation, Infinity Bit, came as quite a surprise. It most obviously is not an adventure. Not by far.
What Infinity Bit actually is, can only loosely be described as a psychedelic, freeware, retro-esque platformer with flying, puzzle and exploration bits in it, that has been oddly crafted in AGS. In a blasphemous mood I'd even liken it to Manic Miner, though truth be said Infinity Bit could use better controls for the flying segments. Anyway. You can grab this fantastic little game here and then be smart and preorder a copy of Resonance.
Related @ Gnome's Lair:Aug 6, 2010
Decker's Delight Links (6.Aug.10)
Twitts? Nope, just some Quick Links:
- Facebook's ZX Spectrum Hub
- Adventure Lantern is back!
- And the Chamber of Horrors is open for visitors.
- As for Barts, well, he dug up some great demakes.
- Amiga: 25 years later
- A lot of King's Quest pics in one big, err, pic.
- Psygnosis: stunning game boxes 'r' us!
- Starcraft II is good; not perfect.
- Want perfection? Try Murder in a Wheel.
- What not to fear
- Also: Retro Treasures is growing retro-er.
- Also, also: Gaming on the Go.
Aug 5, 2010
Zombie Cow Studios' Privates
Venereal diseases are definitely not funny, though -admittedly- Privates, despite being a game about said nasty diseases, is absolutely hilarious. And educational too in a really interesting and possibly successful way, that should appeal to the young (and older) people who its audience. Anyway, I wont tire you anymore. Just grab it now for it is free and created by the brilliant team of the Zombie Cow Studios.
And no, in case you were wondering, Privates is actually not a point-and-click adventure. It's a run and gun shooter-platformer with excellent graphics, interesting mechanics, great voice acting and almost fanatical devotion to good humour. It even sports marines with condom-hats. Brilliant!
Related @ Gnome's Lair:Aug 4, 2010
Retroaction 4 - The End?
It's neither easy nor cheap putting an emag together, but apparently Nreive did it again, and we can all now, in our perpetual state of blissful ignorance, download the excellent fourth issue of retro gaming mag Retroaction. It comes in zip, pdf and issuu formats, looks stunning, is free as always and covers everything the retro scene has to offer with its interviews, news-bits, features, regular columns, and reviews of both classic games and new productions for retro machines. It even sports a review of Zaku for the Atari Lynx and a huge Super Fighter Team interview by yours truly. Oh, and the definitive look at the commercial PC remake of the classic C64 Armalyte shmup.
On a less happy note though, this will be the last issue of Retroaction. At least for a while that is, as actually producing it has apparently been an uphill struggle. Still, you can expect the spirit of the magazine to live on through the brilliant Retroaction site itself and maybe -just maybe- return in some other (magazine) form when the stars are right.
Related @ Gnome's Lair:Aug 3, 2010
How to drive traffic to your (quality, of course) gaming blog, site or even game
Admittedly Gnome's Lair isn't the biggest blog around as most of you may have noticed, but it does get some decent amounts of traffic, provided of course we all understand the importance of twelve individuals in their glorious and beautiful uniqueness. Anyway, thing is, I thought I might share a few of the ways I use to promote this very blog in order to help friends, fellow bloggers, game creators, dark collaborators and all sorts of lovely creative people drive more traffic to their gaming blogs, projects and/or games. Here goes:
First of all and besides google, I can't help but use twitter and facebook, which -to my shocked disgust- are actually fun little things in themselves. They also both make sure every time I post something someone will have a look and are also places where incredibly silly discussions can take place.
Then there's Stumble Upon. A handy link sharing web application that's incredibly easy to use and can at times herd the gaming masses to this humblest of lairs. And now for a tip: never just promote your stuff. Use Stumble Upon to share the links that you generally like and neither become nor behave like a spamer.
Same thing applies to Digg, which will either drive thousands of visitors to your site/blog/whatever or, well, two. Oh, and do ignore its obnoxious, mostly retarded community of adolescents.
As for N4G, this is a site that really demands you to invest time and actually contribute to it, but should one of your submitted stories get approved, you can expect a few hundred people clicking on your link. Besides, it's a great -if mostly mainstream- source of gaming news too.
Submitting stuff to delicious can also be helpful, as can be the more traditional techniques of guest-blogging and link exchanging, but those you know. Uhm, that's all really... Good luck everyone!
(Not) related @ Gnome's Lair:Tidalis Review
There really isn't much to say here. Give the Tidalis demo a go and you'll immediately know whether this little indie puzzler is for you. Simple as that, really. I simply don't feel I have to actually provide you with a review of the thing. Wait! Here's the link you'll be needing.
After all, were I to review Tidalis, I'd just let you know that it's a puzzle game with obvious arcade elements that requires both a quick mind and quick reflexes. I'd also probably mention that it plays like an inspired cross between Tetris, Columns and those laser reflection games of yore, while sporting some decent chip-tunes, a slick, polished but not spectacular presentation (despite them beautiful backgrounds), excellent controls, and a ton of available options. Oh, and I'd probably mention Tidalis features a frantic multiplayer mode, a weird co-op thingy and an impressive amount of single-player options that actually -drastically too- change its very nature.
As for the fact that it comes with a built-in editor (editors to be precise, as Tidalis does indeed let you create anything you'd think will improve or change it enough for your, err, creation to be properly interesting), well, I guess I might mention it, provided I weren't too tired of mentioning all the little features the thing comes packed with.
What matters and would have mattered most would be one thing though; my verdict. Here it is then: Tidalis is an excellent and very polished action-puzzler, that impressively lets you decide how to play it, and you really should play it! You'll probably be too addicted to do anything else -or review it- for quite some time.
Better yet, let me rephrase this: TIDALIS IS AMAZING. BRILLIANT TOO. Oh, and it's available for Windows and OS X via a lot of online outlets including Steam, D2D and its very own and pretty official website.
Related @ Gnome's Lair:


text:
Video. About 3 minutes.
The AC72s raced in the 34th America's Cup can go faster than the wind, which means they make their own wind. This changes all the conventional tactics surrounding a difficult to understand facet of sailing – apparent wind. This video helps break down the science involved with apparent wind, and then explains how the AC72s change the game.


text:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene, good morning.
Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have been fighting it out in Wisconsin for the past week. And tonight finally the results come in. Republicans will also cast votes today in Maryland and Washington, D.C. primaries, though the candidates have not spent a lot of time in those places. In all three contests, polls show Mitt Romney with a wide lead. But Rick Santorum continues to campaign as relentlessly as ever.
We have two reports now on the last full day of campaigning in Wisconsin, beginning with NPR's Ari Shapiro, who's traveling with the Romney campaign in Milwaukee.
So far Romney has been on a Great Lakes winning streak. He carried his birth state of Michigan, squeaked by in Ohio, and buried his opponents in Illinois.
At an oil company in Milwaukee yesterday, he urged Wisconsin voters to help him continue the pattern tonight.
MITT ROMNEY: You're a boisterous group, you know that? This is a...
ROMNEY: ...a lot of energy in Milwaukee, I'll tell you. This is great.
SHAPIRO: He stood in front of red, white and blue oil barrels.
ROMNEY: I'm not sure what's in those barrels, but don't smoke in here. OK, guys?
SHAPIRO: Romney did not mention Rick Santorum or the other Republicans in the race. Instead, he delivered a relentless economic message, attacking President Obama on every front.
ROMNEY: His economic strategy was a bust. And one of the reasons we're going to take over the White House is because he does not know how to make this economy work. And we do.
SHAPIRO: Romney also talked about his wife Ann and their 42 years together, more than he typically does.
ROMNEY: She's a fighter. She has MS, has done a great job overcoming that, and also battled breast cancer successfully. She's a champion and she cares about people who have real challenges.
SHAPIRO: This could be part an effort to win over female voters. A new poll shows women overwhelmingly leaning towards President Obama in the general election.
Here in Wisconsin, the presidential primary is hardly the only political drama in town. The state has certified a recall effort against Wisconsin's Republican Governor Scott Walker.
Romney supporter Mary Beth Gahn says she's been dividing her efforts between the contests.
MARY BETH GAHN: Well, I'm voting for Romney on Tuesday. And then the recall for Scott Walker, that election is in June. So when this is done, I'll start making my Walker phone calls and start promoting the cause I believe in there too.
SHAPIRO: And by the time that's over, it should be just about time for the general election to start heating up.
Ari Shapiro, NPR News, traveling with the Romney campaign in Milwaukee. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


text:
We are excited for Open Streets 2024! Please mark your calendars and join us Sunday, April 7th, 2024 from 12:00pm - 4:00pm. We will close East and West Weaver Street to automobiles and re-open this public space for recreation!
About Open Streets:
The Carrboro Bicycle Coalition started the Carrboro Open Streets Event in 2013. The main purpose of Carrboro Open Streets was to recreate the street and encourage community building through a variety of activities.
The event is held annually in April on Weaver Street. The community is invited to dance, do yoga, ride their bikes, climb a rock wall, make smoothies on a bike blender, and participate in many other activities in a public space that not many ever thought of as a place to partake in recreation.
Given the success of this inaugural event in 2013, the Carrboro Town Council approved the continuation of future Open Streets Events in Carrboro and it is now an annual event put on by the Carrboro Recreation, Parks, & Cultural Resources Department.
Contact Information:
Galen Poythress919-918-7392Email