Poor fellow, my country

North of where I live, up Tully way, two men are missing, swept away in raging floods. North Queensland floods Further North, at the Daintree, a five year old boy has been taken by crocodile as his father plunges into the flooded river to try and save him. The crocodiles are moving to mangrove areas to get away from the fast flowing cold flooded waters. The town of Marysville, Victoria has been wiped from the map. South of me, in Victoria, the country suffers its worst ever fire disaster as Firefighters have worked through the night to battle 31 fires across scorched Victoria. The current front page of the Australian has the full story with links to articles, videos and pictorials
At least 750 homes have been destroyed and more than 330,000ha burnt out, while authorities said some fires – the worst in the nation’s histiry – could take weeks to contain.
The death toll is currently 108 people and there is talk of arsonists being responsible for some of the fires. How you can help from The Australian
THERE are several ways you can help the victims of Victoria’s worst ever bushfires. This morning Victoria Police and the Red Cross have requested people wanting to donate should not use any numbers listed for emergency use only. To donate to the Red Cross State Government Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund: Visit www.redcross.org.au Phone 1800 811 700 Go to any NAB, ANZ, Westpac or Commonwealth Bank branch Go to any Bunnings store Make a direct deposit to the Victorian Bushfire Relief Fund BSB 082-001, Account number 860-046-797 Another appeal set up is the Myer Bushfire Appeal. All proceeds will go to the Salvation Army. Donate at any Victorian Myer store.
Have just spoken to an old friend who lives in Wantirna, a suburb of Melbourne. He is in the Emergency Services and was just about to take off to the disaster area with the forensic team. He has house guests, refugees from the fires who have lost everything but their lives. These people are in shock and need help! Amongst all this death and tragedy there are some good stories. In South Australia where the temperatures exceeded 45 degrees celcius last week comes this pic of a Koala in stress Two points; First; Koalas don’t normally drink water as they gain all their hydration from the eucalypt leaves they eat. I have never seen a Koal drinking water like this one. Secondly, if its 45 degrees C what the hell are bicycle riders doing pedaling up a mountain? The Koala comes out looking the smartest of the lot.

Another shoe tosser

BRITISH police said they have charged a protester who hurled a shoe at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao as he gave a speech at Britain’s Cambridge University. What’s the bet that’s the last you hear of this little incident. The target, after all, is only the Chinese premier, leader of Communist China with all it’s imperfections and human rights abuse. It is not George Bush who is, y’know..a moron (read conservative)and subject to public ridicule. It wont be on a constant loop at Letterman’s or TV news. The video I saw doesn’t show but I wonder if the Premier was as agile as Bush. I doubt it

Bother the spider

I find the graphics on this amazing. BOTHER THE SPIDER…….. Poke and prod the spider with your mouse, also ‘grab’ one of its legs with your mouse and drag it around the screen — tell me it’s not alive! Also anywhere on the map hit the space bar and it leaves little bugs. Lots of ’em! Watch the spider go after them…. Go and have a play and be impressed with the graphics from Bob Buick

I’m back!

Missed the ‘pay me or your website is dead’ email and it all happened while I was enroute to Perth and then tied up in Albany totally involved with my Mother’s 89th birthday and three daughters, three sisters and a wife all talking at me. Its a wonder I could get my head together sufficiently to resolve the problem particularly as I didn’t bring passwords for domain name hosting with me. Something is wrong with Qantas.  Due to depart Brisbane airport at 1320 – got on board and buckled up to then be fed a line by the Captain…Skid brakes faulty..safety hazard and fair enough…then 20 minutes later…hand brake faulty….new problem or extension of original never said…then…you’ll have to disembark. An hour goes by waiting in the terminal to be told engineers are now stripping wire looking for problem….another hour and …we’ve given up and are waiting for a replacement aircraft coming in from…wait for it…DARWIN! Adjusted departure time now 1800.  During the course  of this debacle another Qantas plane at Brisbane goes off line. I’ll admit its the first time it has happened to me but then I seldom fly these days so I’m less than impressed and glad I’m flying back home with Virgin. I say that now but I bet I’ll find something to complain about on that trip with cabin staff acting like they’re being paid commission for selling Home brand muffins and John Wayne coffee. Bloody airlines…I’m driving next time. (my wife says I’ll be doing it by myself….hard decision that one!)

Obama is Lord

QUEENSLAND parliament’s Speaker Mike Reynolds will provide a character reference in a Townsville court today for convicted Palm Island rioter Lex Wotton, who is due to be sentenced for his role in riots on Palm Island a week after Mulrunji Doomadgee died. Wotton’s lawyer Stewart Levitt said yesterday his client would appeal against his conviction, regardless of today’s sentence. He also said; “In the new age of Obama, it will be interesting to see how this trial will be viewed given the changing political landscape.” The Messiah is here, a new millennium has dawned before it’s time! Uh-uh!

Hummer catching up

Hummer Found this modified Hummer at Popular Science. This is a 2008 model and the article says;
In case fuel consumption on your Hummer wasn’t spiting Prius drivers everywhere enough, engineers have pooled their talents to add aftermarket tracked belts in place of the “nothing wrong with ’em” wheels.
I wonder if the engineers thought it was a new idea. Hope not Land Rover
Around 1958, this strange looking vehicle conversion was launched by James A Cuthbertson & Sons, of Biggar, in Scotland. It was designed to go further in adverse off-road conditions than the conventional Land Rover. A standard Series II long wheelbase Land Rover minus its wheels was dropped onto a sub-frame, and a track fixed around bogeys at each corner with a sprocket that replaces the Land Rover’s road wheels. The front tracks are steerable in the conventional way, the tracks turn as a whole for steering – aided by substantial power steering driven from the engine crankshaft pulley.
Not to mention it would have been a lot of fun to drive.

Aviation writing

You might think writing about flying a commercial jet would be boring. You would be wrong, particularly when the Pilot who owns Flight Level 390 (an aviation blog) has a refreshing command of the language. Some lines;
I feed the flight management computers a few left electrons which tells the auto-pilot the “boss wants 10 degrees left” and left we go.
and;
The thrust management lobe behind my right ear takes over… Much better The uh-oh lobe behind my left ear is thinking, “OK, if this happens we will do this and if that happens we’ll do this and if that happens…” and on it goes in a constant stream of what-ifs. This is independent of the thrust management lobe behind my right ear. There is probably not much in between to connect the two halves.
His post on landing at Philadelphia during Hurricane Hanna is well worth the read

Melbourne Cup

I noticed an item on the news last night about a horse called Septimus running in today’s Melbourne Cup. That’ll do me I thought, Septimus, latin for seven, could reflect my Vietnam alma mater (7RAR) and I recalled, in a painful flashback, the first army mascot I met was a Shetland Pony called Septimus at 1 RAR at Holsworthy. The painful flashback refers to a moment in my youth when as a very young soldier I was blissfully sleeping off the effects of a night at the Railway Hotel, Liverpool, when pain in my right foot permeated though the fog. Septimus had got out of his coral, wandered though the lines and settled on investigating the hut I was sleeping in. He had a nasty habit of doing this (so I was told) and latching onto any unclad foot poking out from under the blankets. He got me and from then on we had a stand off type of relationship. Septimus had cause to go about inflicting pain on diggers, I might add, as we gave him some. He lived in a coral and paddock situated between the lines and the canteen in an area equal to that used to accommodate 1400 soldiers, and many a drunk soldier would take it upon himself to get some use out of the useless critter and ride him. Septimus was less than happy about being kicked in the guts and mounted at 2230hrs while a mob of drunken diggers, acting like at a rodeo, wooped it up and competed to see who could last the seven seconds. I don’t think any did but I do recall being on guard and having to drive a guy to hospital with a broken leg. Pig trotting bastard, he said. Wiped me off on the fence! When I went to the TAB to place my annual patriotic contribution to alleviate the poverty of the racing industry I was disappointed to see Septimus was favourite. Never was when I first met him, I thought, but I still had $5.00 each way and on the spot decided to back C’est La Guerre for the same money just in case Septimus can still inflict pain. What else would an old soldier do? On such science do I part with my money. My wife took half the field for a dollar each way and I just dread tonight – she may well bring home more money than me. She usually does. Update: She did this time too. She had Viewed for a dollar each way and I had C’est La Guerre for $5.00. $47.00 to her and $40.00 to me. The last of the great punters, the pair of us.

Brisbane Airport crackdown on illegal parking

DRIVERS who are trying to avoid the hefty parking fees at Brisbane Airport by waiting at the popular Sir Charles Kingsford Smith Memorial are being hit with fines. The idea is to duck into the Memorial car park and wait on a phone call from the person you are picking up saying they have their baggage and are ready for pick up. The alternative is to park and pay and that can be costly. Maybe the Airport Corporation would have a point if it wasn’t for these figures;
Corporation figures show that parking is profitable. Last year it returned $57 million compared with aeronautical revenue of $87 million.
Parking station or airport? If they try hard and fine a lot of people they may beat the aeronautical revenue.
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