Category: Earth versus World

Drones Own the Sky?

I remember a few years back when there was a small concern about the effect of drones on birds. That thinking seems to have gone away like it never existed. It seems like it’s full steam ahead everywhere with drones, no concern about the natural world at all.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/news/battlefield-medicos-to-get-drones-support/?utm_source=Cosmos+Master&utm_campaign=669fd4296f-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6828fba71f-669fd4296f-181485694&mc_cid=669fd4296f&mc_eid=9b6812d534

Can you believe it? There’s even bird-watching with drones, as well as tree-planting! As a tree-planter with Landcare for twenty years, I have my doubts that a drone can successfully stick a plant or seed in the ground, cover it (its roots) with soil, water it in and come back regularly to check on it. As for birdwatching, by drone, I have yet to be convinced.

This is the most recent study of drones around birds. https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/bird-watching-with-drones-might-want-to-watch-your-distance-study-says/ and its title says it all: Watch your (drone) distance around birds. (Another good newsletter!)

While I haven’t seen any deliveries by drones first-hand, and really have no desire for such, I hear that it is a real thrill to get a parcel delivered by a little robotic airplane.

I hear drones quite often, in parks generally, where people are practicing their new skills flying them. I saw a Youtube video just now of a person explaining all the ways he has to protect his drone from bird attack. His drone, he explained, is his livelihood. Which gives him a right to protect it from birds.

I suppose if termites took over the earth, they’d be just as uncaring of the rest of the natural world as humans are.

In Hospital

Anthony Roberts from Tony’s Bologna reminds me to talk about something I’m emotionaly responding to … not sure of the grammar there.

I’m not in the mood for grammar. I’m cold, hospital aircon is like the Antarctic. I’m standing swaying, with a blanket over my shoulders in my ED hutch (roomlet in the energency department) at the Mater (Hospital) in South Brisbane.

Been here for four and a half hours, had a canula put in that’ll give me the pip for weeks the bruise surrounding it is momentous.

Waiting for the results of the CT scan I had half an hour a go figuring if there’s a good/bad reason for the blockage in my gut. Waiting for the pain to be flushed out.

ED beds are the pits, as I’m sure everybody who has ever languished in ED knows. I’m too tall, my feet always flush against the footboard. How do really tall people manage?

Does it sound like I’m moaning? Does to me. Emotions are totally tied into physical sensations, you know? There is no brain body separation.

The time is 13.13 … one of those synergies I have with time. When I check the time, ther’s more often than not a little pattern to enjoy. Synergies might be the wrong word. I’m frazzled, frustrated and freaking!

OK, I can still do alliteration. Can still think. Discomfort is in overdrive. Now to find a pic that describes how I’m feeling …

The News and Where to Get It …

Out of My Gord’s thoughts on news and where to get it chime pretty well with mine, though I’m still looking for a dependable Australian news outlet that doesn’t cost too much for a subscription. I’ve been making do with COSMOS Science magazine and The Fifth Estate Magazine for topics I’m interested in, but haven’t yet found a nutritional news feed.

I want chewy, not pre-masticated news.

Strategies for Surviving the News

Cat Diary 33

Did I tell you I’ve been learning under? As in a kibble under a piece of paper. Too easy. Then a kibble under a little plastic dome. Not so easy.

Now it’s all about a kibble in a thing too small to get my nose into. Or my tongue.

See the kibble in that thing? It’s harder than it looks. Harder than the kibble under the little dome. That one you just shove along with your nose and eventually the kibble gets left behind and you can eat it.

The black thing took me ages to work out coz it isn’t slippery. It just sat there when I pushed it with my nose.

Did it!

Sedges

Out of sheer frustration trying to keep my fish pond/pot going, I intro’ed a couple of baby sedges after most of the so-called water plants died, and even the duckweed gave up.

Sedges will grow half in water, and in my past life, when I had a frog pond going for years, swamp plants were a strong feature. These often have their roots and soil substrate in the water, and their leaves above. s

I suspect they somehow condition the water, enabling other plants to grow. I certainly never had any problem keeping either Azolla water fern or duck weed alive and used to raise dozens of tadpoles to frog-dom.

If I knew anyone with karamat I’d go and beg a cutting but haven’t seen it since leaving the Byron Shire. Both these sedges are usually quite weedy though the little one at the back as far as I know is native to Australia.

‘Weeded’ them both from the local verges while out walking. One of them from the creek overflow. About ten days in their new position they don’t look like they’re dying.

The pebbles are to provide an island for bees and other insects to drink. (Though I need to top up the water.) And if I pour the water onto the pebbles there is hardly any disturbance in the water.

There’s one lone Pacific Blue Eye remaining of the seven fish I got for my birthday 10 months ago.

Algorithm Researches

Yesterday I ‘interacted’ with two sites by Liking them, sites that are apparently being used by Zberg’s AI bots to learn their trade on. So I get this in my Messages this morning … this is a screenshot, there are ‘six’ pages of it …

I didn’t ask for it and I resent the bot using my interaction, electricity, internet plan, adding to my carbon footprint unasked. those are my feelings about the matter. It’s good to have informed opinions, though.

These are the facts …

As well as the full instructions on how to solve a Rubrik cube, of about six pages, there were a further four pages with an explanation of an astronomical event I’d taken an interest in. Talk about information overload!

This is an example of a summary composed after ‘scraping’ knowledge requisite to the topic from around the internet. It’s not even the first time that we’ve been training bots. Remember teaching GoogleSpelling?

You have to accept this is a far more accurate process than the primitive efforts of the spelling bot.

But it is not yet a sentient bot. Doing a light edit, I discovered a lot of unnecessary repetitions, unseen by the bot. Lama 3.2 cannot think for itself.

Below the copy-and-paste about my comet inquiry. Interestingly, I googled my inquiry and this reply came by way of one of Zberg’s platforms.

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) has been visible in the Southern Hemisphere’s evening sky since early 2025, and its visibility has improved as it moves farther from the Sun. Although it’s currently dimmer than it was at perihelion on January 13, 2025, it’s still a great target for binoculars or cameras ¹.

Here are some key visibility dates for Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) and other comets in 2025:

  • Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS): Visible in the Southern Hemisphere’s evening sky since early 2025, with improved visibility as it moves farther from the Sun. Its brightness peaked at magnitude -3.4 on January 13, 2025 ¹.
  • 210P/Christensen: Expected to be visible via large binoculars in November 2025, with its closest approach to Earth on November 8, 2025 ².
  • 24P/Schaussman: Will reach its brightest point in early 2026, with its closest approach to Earth on January 4, 2026. It may be visible with large binoculars ².
  • C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos): May become visible through small telescopes or large binoculars in the autumn of 2025, with its closest approach to Earth on February 17, 2026 ².

Then there are the facts of what it all costs … more research needed.