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Australian Bush Fires

Started by Hog, January 02, 2020, 01:39:03 PM


Lilith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht6tu4Gc3ag

Live Coverage

ABC is an Australian Public Broadcast Service.

Juan

Has anyone decided if this is climate catastrophe or weather? My prayers to the people.

Dr. MD MD

Quote from: Juan on January 02, 2020, 04:33:59 PM
Has anyone decided if this is climate catastrophe or weather? My prayers to the people.

Climate change and obviously just another sign of the end times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRQXIOw7B0g

Jackstar

Put me down for twenty on arson.

Taaroa

Quote from: Juan on January 02, 2020, 04:33:59 PM
Has anyone decided if this is climate catastrophe or weather? My prayers to the people.

The Australian media and opposition parties have decided it's climate change and that the current PM (who has been in office for slightly over 12months) is very very evil and personally responsible.

It's not like bushfires are a yearly thing with preparations seemingly underfunded and/or not having been carried out properly or anything...

Quote from: Jackstar on January 02, 2020, 05:16:16 PM
Put me down for twenty on arson.
This and lightning strikes.





Taaroa

This is the live emergency map for the state where most of the fires are happening at the moment (they're also north across the border in NSW):

https://www.emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/

Some geography context for those who don't know - Melbourne is the big city in this area and has a population of ~5mil, Canberra is the capital of Australia but is basically an oversized town, the east of the state is 'alps' (where it snows in winter) and a lot of bushland but relatively not much population.

Air quality monitor: https://www.epa.vic.gov.au/EPAAirWatch
Govt meteorology agency: bom.gov.au




Quote from: aldousburbank on January 02, 2020, 08:38:13 PM



starrmtn001

Quote from: Jackstar on January 02, 2020, 05:16:16 PM
Put me down for twenty on arson.

Nearly 200 People Arrested Across Australia For Deliberately Starting Bushfires

Authorities in Australia have arrested close to 200 people for deliberately starting the bushfires that have devastated the country, yet the media and celebrities continue to blame “climate change” for the disaster.

https://summit.news/2020/01/06/nearly-200-people-arrested-across-australia-for-deliberately-starting-bushfires/

Hog

Auckland New Zealand  Jan 5th




Distance =over 3 hours to fly between Sydney and Auckland


peace
Hog

Appendix

The Origins of the ‘Isle of the Dead’ Benchmark

by John L. Daly

In the attached article, the main focus on the 1841 Ross-Lempriere sea level benchmark was to demonstrate how sea levels had scarcely moved since 1888 when it was first investigated and its exact height measured by Capt. Shortt [39]. But where the mark was struck originally and the circumstances surrounding it is still the subject of some dispute and makes a fascinating story in its own right.

The benchmark is engraved on a rocky natural cliff on a small isle (the Isle of the Dead) within the harbor of Port Arthur in southeastern Tasmania, an undeveloped harbor which opens directly to the Southern Ocean. The idea for the benchmark came from Capt. Sir James Clark Ross, the renowned British Antarctic explorer and marine scientist, acting in collaboration with Thomas Lempriere, an official of the convict colony at Port Arthur.

Here again is what Ross said about the benchmark in his 1847 book.

The fixing of solid and well secured marks for the purpose of showing the mean level of the ocean at a given epoch, was suggested by Baron von Humboldt, in a letter to Lord Minto, subsequent to the sailing of the expedition (Ross' own expedition of the `Terror' and `Erebus'), and of which I did not receive any account until our return (to Tasmania) from the Antarctic seas, which is the reason of my not having established a similar mark on the rocks of Kerguelen Island, or some part of the shores of Victoria Land (in Antarctica).

Having missed that opportunity, he went with Governor Franklin to Port Arthur in 1841 to see Thomas Lempriere who had observed and recorded tidal, astronomical, and meteorological observations over several years. Ross goes on -

My principal object in visiting Port Arthur was to afford a comparison of our standard barometer with that which had been employed for several years by Mr. Lempriere, the Deputy Assistant Commissary General, in accordance with my instructions, and also to establish a permanent mark at the zero point, or general mean level of the sea as determined by the tidal observations which Mr. Lempriere had conducted with perseverance and exactness for some time: by which means any secular variation in the relative level of the land and sea, which is known to occur on some coasts, might at any future period be detected, and its amount determined.

The point chosen for this purpose was the perpendicular cliff of the small islet off Point Puer [the Isle of the Dead], which, being near to the tide register, rendered the operation more simple and exact. The Governor [Sir John Franklin - a naval man], whom I had accompanied on an official visit to the settlement, gave directions to afford Mr. Lempriere every assistance of labourers he required, to have the mark cut deeply in the rock in the exact spot which his tidal observations indicated as the mean level of the ocean.

Explaining why he chose Port Arthur for a mean sea level mark instead of in the Derwent estuary closer to Hobart Town, where his ships `Erebus' and `Terror' were moored, he wrote -

The tides in the Derwent were too irregular, being influenced greatly by the prevalence of winds outside and the freshes from the interior, so that we could not ascertain with the required degree of exactness the point of mean level.

The emphases have been added to highlight key points. Ross refers to the intended mark as being "mean sea level" or "zero point", no less than 5 times in these short extracts. His intention in respect of the benchmark is therefore clear and unmistakable. The mark was intended as a mean sea level mark, not a mere tide mark which would only be of use in Port Arthur, nowhere else. The CSIRO did not mention any of Ross' words in a lecture they gave to the Hobart Royal Society in April 2000, and repeatedly used the expression `tide mark' instead of `sea level mark' throughout the lecture.

The exact date on which the Ross-Lempriere benchmark was struck is known - July 1st 1841, because a small stone tablet was placed above it on the clifftop. The tablet went missing around 1913 [28], but there are two witnesses who reported what was inscribed on it. The first, a Mr Mason [39] acting for Capt. Shortt, complained the tablet was badly eroded and difficult to read. He quoted its words in 1888 as follows -

On the rock fronting this stone a line denoting the height of the tide now struck on the 1st July, 1841, mean time, 4h. 44m. p.m.; moon's age, 12 days; height of water in tide gauge 6 ft. 1 in.

Three years later in 1891, a second witness, a yachtsman cruising aboard the yacht Wanderer wrote an account of his voyage in a Melbourne magazine under the pen name ‘Eight Bells’ [16]. He visited the Isle of the Dead and was interested in the numerous gravestones, one of which he sketched and quoted (the gravestone he quoted from is still there today, bearing the exact words he reported) [28]. Then he noticed that -

...a few yards away, on the rocks fringing the shore and facing the east, was a curious little stone, erected it is said, by Captain Ross, of the ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror’ Antarctic expedition, during the interval between the visits to the south polar regions. It bears the following inscription:-

On the rock fronting this stone a line, denoting the height of the tide, was struck on the 1st July, 1841. Mean time, 2.44 p.m. Moon's age, 12 days. Height of water in the tide gauge, 6 ft 1 in.

Both quotes from the tablet are presented above exactly as published, word for word, comma for comma. The differences between the two versions are clearly evident. The grammar is different (Mason's "now struck" versus the yachtsman's "was struck"), the time formatting is different (Mason's "4h. 44m. p.m." versus the yachtsman's "2.44 p.m.") and as is now obvious, the big 2-hour disagreement over the time. Lempriere's tide gauge data for 1841 and 1842, has only recently been discovered in the Royal Society archives in London, and here is a section from his tide log in his own handwriting for July 1841, including July 1st. [27].




Figure 21: Lempriere's tide entries for July 1841. Note the similarity of 5's and 6's.

From the data shown here for July 1st 1841, low tide was at 11.28 a.m. with a height of 3 ft 10 in. High tide was at 5.58 pm with a height of 6 ft 4 in. It was sometime between these two tides that the benchmark was struck.

We can infer that mid-tide for that day occurred at exactly 2.43 p.m. with a tide height of 5 ft 1 in. These are the exact mid-points between the two times and the two tide heights logged. The reported tide gauge height of 6 ft. 1 in. is only 3 inches short of high tide and could not possibly represent MSL. However, 5ft 1in certainly could be Ross' "zero point of the sea", as this height was not only the mid-tide height for that day, but is also the MSL average for the preceding month of June just prior to the striking of the mark on July 1st. If the yachtsman was right about the time, he merely misread the "6’"' in the "6 ft 1 in" entry on an eroded tablet when it should have been a "5" to give 5 ft 1 in.

Mistaking a 6 for a 5 and vice-versa is a common mistake we all make even today, especially when reading poorly reproduced photocopies and faxes. A 50-year old tablet exposed to the elements would be just as difficult to read as any bad fax copy. In the unlikely event of Mr Mason being right about the time being 4.44 p.m. that would have coincided with a tide of 6 ft 2 in, not 6 ft 1 in. - close, but not exact.




Figure 22: High and Low tides for Port Arthur in June/July 1841, with a two-tide smoothing (in red).

http://web.archive.org/web/20050221093319/http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/Articles/2000/sea.htm

http://pirireismap.tripod.com



Taaroa

Radio stations pull potentially 'insensitive' songs amid bushfire crisis
QuoteBosses at the Hit Network, which broadcasts Sydney's 2DayFM and Melbourne's Fox FM along with a string of other stations, made the decision to censor any potentially "insensitive" material given the scale of the fires burning across Australia. Sister network Triple M, which focuses on sport and classic rock, has also pulled a number of songs from its playlists.

A spokeswoman for parent company Southern Cross Austereo said the policy was being implemented across the country.
"Out of respect for the devastation impacting so much of our community, we have removed any songs that could be considered insensitive or in poor taste across both the Hit and Triple M networks nationally," the spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman did not elaborate on how songs would be temporarily black-listed. However, the Hit Network focuses on contemporary hits and a number of pop songs, such as Sia's Fire Meet Gasoline, have lyrics that mention fires, burning and being unable to breathe.
QuoteRing of Fire - Johnny Cash
Fire and Rain - James Taylor
We Didn't Start the Fire - Billy Joel
Light my Fire - The Doors
Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple
Beds are Burning - Midnight Oil
Paper in Fire - John Mellencamp
Great Balls of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis
The Flame - Cheap Trick
Girl on Fire - Alicia Keys
Burning Down The House - Talking Heads
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - The Platters
Fire - Jimi Hendrix
I’m burning up - Madonna
Burn for You by INXS
Flame Trees - Cold Chisel
Sex on Fire - Kings of Leon
Forest Fire - Lloyd Cole
Disco Inferno - the Trammps
Just Like Fire - Pink
I'm on fire - Bruce Springsteen
All fired up - Pat Benatar
Eternal flame - The Bangles
I Don't Want to set the World on Fire - The Inkspots
The Roof Is On Fire - Rock Master Scott and the Dynamic Three
Burn for You - John Farnham
FIRE - Justice
Fire - The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Play with Fire - The Rolling Stones
Firestarter - The Prodigy
Through the Fire and Flames - Dragonforce
Earth Wind & Fire
Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head - Gorillaz
Burning Flies - Looper
Burn Bitch Burn - Kiss

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/radio-stations-pull-potentially-insensitive-songs-amid-bushfire-crisis-20200108-p53pt5.html






Hog

Quote from: Taaroa on January 09, 2020, 08:53:49 AM
Radio stations pull potentially 'insensitive' songs amid bushfire crisis
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/radio-stations-pull-potentially-insensitive-songs-amid-bushfire-crisis-20200108-p53pt5.html
Similar happened post 9/11 and same happened post Katrina.  The Tragically Hips "New Orleans is Sinking" didnt see much airplay.

peace
Hog

Quote from: Hog on January 09, 2020, 05:18:56 PM
Similar happened post 9/11 and same happened post Katrina.  The Tragically Hips "New Orleans is Sinking" didnt see much airplay.

peace
Hog

Since we're all just kibitzing anyway, I think it's fine for broadcasters to be more sensitive than we are, provided that they're neither censored nor censoring.


Hog



Taken in Harrington Australia about 160 miles NE of Sydney:  Crazy.



peace
Hog

Hog



Smoke and flames in Australia

Ferocious bushfires have been sweeping across Australia since September, fuelled by record-breaking temperatures, drought and wind. The country has always experienced fires, but this season has been horrific. A staggering 10 million hectares of land have been burned, at least 24 people have been killed and it has been reported that almost half a billion animals have perished.

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission has been used to image the fires. The Sentinel-2 satellites each carry just one instrument â€" a high-resolution multispectral imager with 13 spectral bands. The smoke, flames and burn scars can be seen clearly in the image shown here, which was captured on 31 December 2019. The large brownish areas depict burned vegetation and provide an idea of the size of the area affected by the fires here â€" the brown ‘strip’ running through the image has a width of approximately 50 km and stretches for at least 100 km along the Australian east coast.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data



All that smoke, I suggest vaping.

peace
Hog


Hog


Taaroa

Quote from: Hog on January 11, 2020, 08:42:11 PM
It's Navy beer though.  All the saltpeter that they load into Navy beer, no thanks.  They are probably using that swill as fire retardant.
Seems it's been sent by the big brewery in Melbourne (but it reads like they still charged for it) that makes Fosters and other big brands like VB:

QuoteMallacoota Hotel Motel arranged a last-minute delivery of 3,000 litres of beer with Carlton & United Breweries, to be delivered on HMAS Choules.

[...]

Twenty kegs of Victoria Bitter and Carlton Draught, three pallets of VB stubbies, 36 slabs of Strongbow and Great Northern were loaded on Thursday.
CUB also threw in four kegs of beer on the house.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/victoria-bushfires-australian-navy-comes-to-the-rescue-of-the-pub-with-almost-no-beer

Not a great selection, but VB is an icon. Before you ask - Fosters isn't drunk often in Australia, and that's likely why it wasn't included.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA1h9h7-_Z4





albrecht

Quote from: Hog on January 11, 2020, 08:42:11 PM
It's Navy beer though.  All the saltpeter that they load into Navy beer, no thanks.  They are probably using that swill as fire retardant.

peace
Hog
During our latest hurricane/flood the big, global conglomerate sent out cans of water. Digging out muck, tearing out walls, rehabing the first floor and I'm greeted with canned WATER. Like Budlight isn't close enough to water for them to just send over pallets of that? It probably cost them $ to make water on the production line than just send over some more appreciated water-like beverage. Best to all in Australia....I blame environmentalists, immigrants, and the Chinese for the fires btw, but regardless of cause, horrible.

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