Break in eastern drought expected within months

End in sight: Climatologists believe the drought may soon be over. (ABC TV )

Can It Be True?

The ABC ran this story today on their on-line service. If true it will save a lot of political consternation in the comming years/months and weeks as the South-east corner of Queensland gets to critically low water levels. The only question is, will it be in the right areas to fill those desperatly dry catchments?

Climatologists are optimistic about a break in the drought across eastern Australia over the next couple of months.

A National Climate Centre report says the drought-producing El Nino event is weakening.

It says a switch to average or wetter-than-average rainfall patterns is likely in late summer or autumn.

The prediction is backed by computer modelling.

Sea temperatures have been cooling over the equatorial Pacific since early December, pointing to the end of the current El Nino weather pattern.

The climate centre says the recent southerly extension of tropical moisture to produce heavy rain through parts of the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland is a further sign that patterns are turning.

Notes for sharing

I am experimenting with a new Google service called Notebook... I will use it to post cut out excerpts from interesting web pages. If it works ok I will use this and my blog-log to share others content, and limit my blog to my opinions and comments. (Especially if my back ever stops hurting- and driving me nuts!!) I will just post a quick note describing the content and existence of new links in either!

Have a happy new year.

Daily Reader and Surfin links

Well away we go. I am surfing through my Google reader backlog, which is in the hundreds today. I will also later post some interesting illusions. This will be a good idea to get some interest going early on.

The first site I visited today was from a Google alert, and I found Bruce's Blog, which contained this little gem.

So what do you have to do to find happiness?

Are we wired up to be cheerful, or are some of us destined to languish in abject misery? Dorothy Wade reports on the new science of feeling good... But ordinary people believe they are happier than average (an obvious impossibility) and that they'll be even happier in 10 years' time. If true, it would be good news because research shows that happier people are healthier, more successful, harder-working, caring and more socially engaged. Misery makes people self-obsessed and inactive.

The article from the Sunday Times newspaper in the UK asks some interesting questions, Albeit with a lack of supporting evidence. Dorothy has interviewed some eminent experts, and waded through epiphany's, nimbus clouds in the soul and 5-year old inspirations to follow the story of what it means to be happy, and the scientific theories behind modern research in explaining it, all the way from the Pleistocene period! This well written and entertaining article goes on to pull together the "pieces of the jigsaw" to develop a stunning conclusion.

It's difficult to resist the logic of the happiness doctors. Stay in your Eeyore-ish bubble of existentialist angst and have a life that's short, sickly, friendless and self-obsessed. Or find a way to get happy, and long life, good health, job satisfaction and social success will be yours. You'd better start writing that gratitude letter now.

But best of all is this little gem.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

Men often complain about their wives' volatility. Now research confirms that women really are both happier and sadder. Positive and negative emotions are not polar opposites — you can have both in your life. Women experience more of all emotions except anger. First it was found that women experience twice as much depression as men. Next, researchers found that women report more positive emotion than men, more frequently and more intensely. It all points to men and women having a different emotional make-up. Cognitive psychologists say that men and women have different skills related to sending and receiving emotion. Women are expressive; men conceal or control their emotions. Women convey emotion through facial expression and communication; men express emotion through aggressive or distracting behavior. Does the difference lie in biology, social roles or just women's willingness to report emotion? That's up for debate.

Gotta love it. Anyway, I enjoyed having it all "summarized and structured". It makes you think a little...

My Ramblings

Racefan's Rambling at Last:

After years of using the internet, and search constantly for new and interesting info to absorb, I have finally decided to join the Blogosphere, and share some of the stuff I do and find. Searching for interesting and informative blogs has been, without a doubt, the single most effective method of trolling the net for interesting subjects. No-one can possibly "see" more than the tiniest fraction of the massive scale of the internet, (so few years into what I am sure will be a long history), so in a few years we will have no chance! When a Google search gives you millions or results, you will only ever have time to investigate a portion. Blogging is one way of finding like-minded people, and using the work they have done!

So, here I am with my small contribution. I am still getting organized, so will leave for now, but I will return with my first few thoughts and links REAL SOON.