Happy New Year! I’m still waiting for it. You guys have still have some money, so you might as well through a party,
Yes, rain in the summer is a very good thing. It scrubs the crap out of the air, if nothing else, and lightning can certainly be a dazzling display on the water.
]]>We got some rain last night (a pretty decent thunder storm actually! I think Mother Nature was just peeved that we humans were trying to show off with pitiful fireworks displays. Hard to beat a serious lightning display covering a couple hundred sq kilometers!) 😆
According to the ABC, Australia brings in 2010 with a bang
Crowds around Australia have welcomed the new decade, with organisers hailing the party around Sydney Harbour as the biggest New Year’s Eve show in the world.
A crowd of around 1.5 million revellers saw the Sydney skyline silhouetted against hundreds of thousands of fireworks launched from barges and rooftops.
…
The Sydney crowd began gathering in the morning, packing out the harbour foreshore.They were treated to several hours of pyrotechnic wizardry, including new microchip technology which allows the fireworks to remain visible for up to 15 seconds longer.
I suspect it was the qtr-million $ spent on the high-tech stuff in Melb that had Mother Nature say “Oh yeah? Watch this!” 😀
In Melbourne organisers had expected a simlar turnout for fireworks in Yarra Park, but bad weather kept many at home and by midnight, Federation Square was a sea of umbrellas.
Still… I don’t care what anyone say’s! The rain was most welcome here. 🙂
Sydney spent over $600k as the storm hit. But still there was about 1.5million around Sydney Harbor watching, and over 1billion viewers globally watched the show!! Amazing.
Video: Sydney fireworks watched by one billion (ABC News Breakfast)
HAPPY NEW YEAR
I hope 2010 proves to better for all!
]]>As I was watching the news, the reporter was one I hadn’t seen before, but looked somehow familiar. Turns out, she’s Iranian (and as I’d spent some time in the ME, I guess I recognized some facial features. 🙂 She has an impressive bio actually for one so young! 🙂 Even played divisional soccer and played in two premiership sides! And a published author…
Reporter: Soraya Lennie
So… you think she’d get a job as a news anchor in the USA? 😛 😆
]]>The local utility uses coal and natural gas to generate electricity. Both have gone down in price, but the electric bill “fuel charge” has increased, and people aren’t supposed to notice. There isn’t much in the way of oversight on the fuel charge, so they use it to rip us off while claiming there has been no “rate” increase. Wonderful people, the utility companies.
The whole community went downhill when the bosses became totally political after the fall of the Soviet Union. The moves to protect budgets really undermined the reliability of the product. While they were watching Iran do nothing in particular, they get stabbed by Yemen. Yemen has been “an area of concern” for more than 50 years. The Arab governments have never managed to do anything meaningful about Yemen, so I fail to see how the US can improve the situation. The Saudis and UAE should be fronting the money for the mess that is Yemen, not the US.
Other than state prisoners, most of the US wildfire crews are paid, but not enough in my book. The smaller towns and rural areas in the US do use volunteer firefighters, but the state and Federal governments will move in paid crews to help. We have the population density for a tax base to support the paid firefighters. Your rural is only found in a few areas of the US. The standard US homestead was 160 acres [65 hectares], and I assume yours were much larger, which translates to fewer people.
]]>Ehhh… I’m sick and tired of the whole Intel biz! So glad I got out when I did! Hell, even when I worked there in the 80’s, we always joked (even the Director) that calling the org DIO (Defense Intelligence Organization) when they decided on a new name, was truly ironic and proved that Governments had a sense of humor! 😆 But it’s far worse today, and no longer funny. If it were up to me, I’d scrap all the intel services, send everyone involved to Africa to live, and start from scratch!
@ Jill: Thanks Jill! It’s appreciated by us all, and we are well aware of our kindred spirits in CA! I guess the only *good* thing is that our respective fire seasons are different so we can send each other help as/when needed. Keeps both our fire crews in peak condition I suppose. You know, they *really* don’t get paid enough! Well… our’s (and I think yours also) are mostly volunteers and don’t get paid at all. What a wonderful system.
]]>All it takes is one lawyer/solicitor looking for a lot of money, and one really PO’ed landowner to bring the house of cards down. The insurance corporations might stay out of it due to solidarity among the criminal class, but one annoyed person with enough funds to bring suit, can change the dynamics.
If they can find a child in distress over a lost pet and get the media involved, a lot of people are in for a very bad time, at least they would be in the US. People hate the utility companies, as a general rule, so the power company has a problem. I would assume they will settle quickly if the case is presented properly, rather than face a jury of customers.
The system is dependent on the first point of contact. The scanners might have caught it if they can detect PETN, which isn’t certain. He apparently tried to detonate it with a strong acid, but that sounds a bit weird. They need a good chemist.
Of course, they could just use the drug smugglers tactic of body cavities, and then the scanners. et al. would be ineffective. Criminal investigation techniques are the best method to combat terrorism, so they will never be used. They are still trying to fight this from the turret of a tank, and the downloads from a satellite. Stupid.
]]>Western Australian electricity provider Western Power has conceded its infrastructure may have set off a destructive bushfire.
Between the words “has” and “conceded”, insert the words “extremely reluctantly”! Lawsuits at 10 paces!
But… No. They have been saved by the WA Premier! *phew*! Nice to have friends in high places, hey?
Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett has declared a fire that destroyed more than 37 homes at Toodyay, 80km north-east of Perth, a natural disaster.
So, just to get this right… Fires caused by faulty and piss-poor infrastructure (because, you know, executive pay and bonuses are soooooooo much more worthy of the money) is now a *natural disaster*! I see.
Riiiiiight…
Just a question…I wonder how the folks at Toodyay feel about that? And, dare I mention… the Insurance companies? 😆 Actually… The insurance companies will no doubt love it. they will now have a reason to increase premiums, and the WA Premier wouldn’t dare say no! So, the only real losers are, as always, the little people.
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