Just a quick thought on this nuttery of putting GST on foreign online purchases…the only way that I can see that the government could implement such a tax is by levying it on everything which is bought overseas and imported, regardless of how it was bought. Otherwise anybody could claim that they ordered the items on the phone or by mail and avoid the tax. As such, the tax would also apply to goods which the retailers are importing, which would increase their costs and they would pass those costs on to us, the customers, which would completely negate the advantage which they are trying to claim through this tax.
The retailers clearly didn’t think this through and are simply trying to be lazy by inventing a “problem” for the government to sort out, rather than putting in the effort to be more competitive and appealing to Australian customers.
Arkansas Game & Fish is trying to figure out why 100,000 fish in Northwest Arkansas turned up dead. They were found along a 20-mile stretch between the Ozark Dam and Highway 109 Bridge in Franklin County.
[..]
Investigators from local and state agencies took samples from the affected area. [Keith Stephens with Game and Fish] says fish kills occur every year, but the magnitude of this one is unusual, and disease could be the cause.
A pollutant would have affected cross species. Stephens says, “Ninety-nine percent of them were Drum, which is a bottom feeder. It’s not a game fish in Arkansas.”
Some fish collected were alive and visibly sick. They have been taken to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff for testing.
The affected area was never closed and fishing is encouraged. “Right now it’s fine to fish. If you go out there you can still fish for bass and crappie, catfish, it will be fine. Obviously don’t’ eat the dead fish.”
As for clean up, nature is taking its course. “We’ll have raccoon and birds and things like that will take care of it so there is really no clean up, it’s really too big. It’s contained along the river channel.”
The whole story is weird, but I find the official reaction a tad odd as well. In the same breath that they tell people not to eat the dead fish for fear of toxins, they also say that it’s wonderful that various animals are eating the potentially toxic dead fish as it means the officials won’t have to clean up the mess. Don’t they care that more animals could die as a result of eating toxic fish?
So here’s a theory for you. The drum fish died, why I don’t know, but they died late last week. The blackbirds came along, being the helpful citizens that they are, and decided to save the government money by eating the dead fish. The birds did this as a collective effort, dining at roughly the same time, and then flew off to their new year’s eve haunt over downtown Beebe, AR. Whatever killed the fish then took hold effect on the birds, causing them to plummet from the sky, scaring residents and creating an even bigger bill for the Game & Fish department for whom the birds had eaten the fish in the first place.
Well it’s a theory…and it makes more sense than Game & Fish’s theory that the birds were all struck by lightning or high altitude hail, both of which would have affected a wider range of birds than the rather limited range of birds which were affected.
“The fish kill only affected one species of fish,” he said. “If it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish.”
I’m just waiting for CNN to dig up some kook who will try and link this all with “global warming”. Oops, sorry, it’s already been predicted for both birds (blackbirds in particular) and fish. Hey CNN, check the articles and contact the rent-a-professors cited therein, that should keep you excited and entertained for a few days. You can probably get a week out of it if you make them debate the people who say global warming will cause bigger fish and that birds know how to adapt.
Away from the global warming nonsense and back to the news though. This is a story which I will continue to watch. It’s quite fascinating and I’ll be interested to see what conclusions the tests on the birds and fish reach.
Update: A person going by the alias “Sapper” over at The Blaze has come up with the most sensible possible cause for the mass fish death so far:
Looking on google earth, there is a wastewater treatment plant just upstream from where the fish kill is…….gee I wonder if anyone is checking out a possible spill from that place as raw sewasge will cause exactly this kind of kill. I saw it happen once when I was a health inspector after a major storm caused sewer system to overflow and drain into a bayou. Next day hundreds of bottom feeding fish were floating dead. City was fined $100 per dead fish by the TWC/TNRCC which was the state regulatory agancy. I would bet this wastewater treatment plant that sits on tributary less than a mile from the river and not far upstream from the fish kill is probably a good candidate for being responsible.
Of course we’re still no closer to knowing what happened to the birds, but I note from the other comments on The Blaze that I’m not the only one giving some consideration to the idea of the birds eating the fish and getting sick as a result. End Update
Dry cleaning was discovered by accident. On December 28, 1849, a tailor by the name of M. Jolly-Bellin, knocked over a lamp containing turpentine and oil. Some spilled on his clothes and he noticed that it had a cleaning effect.
I can’t think of many other industrial liquid combinations which could not only be safely spilled on a person’s clothes, but result in cleaner clothes.
2011 is off to a strange start with this story from Arkansas which reminds of last year’s TV series FlashForward, minus the blackout. (h/t THV 11 News)
Just before folks in Beebe rang in the New Year, many witnessed an uncanny resemblance to the Hitchcock movie “The Birds.” About 2,000 black birds fell from the sky off Windwood Drive, leaving quite the mess to clean up.
Folks Today’s THV spoke with initially thought the birds were poisoned because they are what they call a nuisance around this time every year, but they are surprised to hear it is more of a mystery.
Stephen Bryant recalls, “Millions, millions fly over every night. You look up at the sky and it’s just black and then last night at about 10:30 I came out here and saw a bird drop.”
In a matter of hours on New Years Eve thousands of birds fell from the sky to their death.
Melissa Weatherly says, “I immediately called mom because I had to go to work, I said you have to come get the kids and get the dog because I don’t know what’s going on.” She continues, “It was horrible; you could not even get down the road without running over hundreds. It was that bad.”
The mystery is unraveling like scenes from a movie, dozens of U.S. Environmental Services crews spent the day picking up the birds, walking between homes and climbing on roofs with protective hazmat suits and breathing masks,.
[..]
Officials with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission flew over the area and determined it’s a one mile stretch. There are a variety of dead black birds, mostly red winged and a duck was also found.
No one has been evacuated because the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) air test came back clean for toxins.
Weatherly is skeptical, “They’re walking around in masks and I’m wondering do we need the same thing because what makes that happen for them to drop out of the sky like that.”
Katherina Yancy with Today’s THV found one bird still living. It was confused, injured, continuously walked in circles and didn’t make a sound or attempt to fly.
Officials will confirm their findings when they get the test results, until then they are giving these possible scenarios: lightning, stress, high altitude hail or startled by fireworks, but neighbors just want answers.
This takes the cake for the strangeness as far as I’m concerned, and really this is the sort of story that, no matter what the officials eventually decide to blame (if they ever do decide to blame anything) there will be a dozen conspiracy theories which will seem more feasible.
I’m not going to pretend to have the faintest clue what actually caused this bizarre localised bird death, but I will say that I’m not in the least bit convinced that any of the officially speculated reasons are the cause.
I’m with you to an extent on the public holidays. For people who work Monday to Friday I can see a point in having the public holidays held over to the next weekday, but for people like me who work on a seven-day rotating roster, I think it’s nuts.
Case in point, the Christmas weekend. I was rostered on from the Tuesday before Christmas until the Thursday after Christmas, meaning that I worked on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and the two weekday versions of the public holidays on the Monday and Tuesday. I get public holiday rates for all four days…this makes no sense to me whatsoever. I don’t mind the extra pay, but I really can’t see any logic in paying me for four public holidays when there were only two public holidays.
Surely the extra public holidays should only be there for the people who didn’t have to work on the real public holidays.
I was reminded of this song almost two weeks ago (it really doesn’t seem that long ago, but it was in the week before Christmas so I suppose it is) when Casey Hendrickson filled in on KCMO is Kansas City. The producer over there goes by the name “Lefty”, which reminded me of this song, not exclusively by Willie and Merle, but I think their version is the best of the bunch. Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard singing Pancho and Lefty.
Livin’ on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
And now you wear your skin like iron
And your breath is hard as kerosene
Weren’t you mamma’s only boy?
But her favorite one it seemed
She began to cry when you said
Good-bye, sank to your dream
Pancho was a bandit boy
His horse was fast as polished steel
He wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Well Pancho met his match, you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dyin’ word
Oh, but that’s the way it goes
All the Federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose
Lefty he can’t sing the blues
All night long like he used to
The dust that Pancho bit down South
Ended up in Lefty’s mouth
The day they lay poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
There ain’t nobody knows
All the Federales say
They could have had him any day
We only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose
The poets tell how Pancho fell
And Lefty’s livin’ in cheap hotels
The desert’s quiet, Cleveland’s cold
And so the story ends we’re told
Pancho needs your prayers, it’s true
Save a few for Lefty too
He only did what he had to do
And now he’s growin’ old
All the Federales say
We could have had him any day
Only let him go so long
Out of kindness I suppose
A few grey Federales say
Could have had him any day
We only let him go so long
Out of kindness I suppose
Good evening. When a new year greeting starts like that, you know that it’s late. Let me start by wishing you a happy new year. I hope that 2011 is good to you.
I’m not usually one for New Year’s Resolutions, however this year is different as I do have a couple resolutions for the year. Firstly though, on the subject of new year greetings, I was quite amused by the greeting offered up by Spring Valley Hospital Medical Centre, Las Vegas, Nevada. This cute little jingle encapsulates a wish which I also have for you.
We wish you a happy heartbeat
We wish you a low cholesterol
We wish you a good blood pressure
And a happy new year
[..]
We wish you strong blood vessels
We wish you a happy heartbeat
And choose Spring Valley Hospital
For a happy new year
Unfortunately I do have to add a sad note to this audio. The ad came from a Thursday recording of Fox News 1280 AM and 102.3 FM KDOX in Las Vegas which is where Casey Hendrickson and Heather Kydd resurfaced back in August. Unfortunately KDOX have decided to change format and have become an oldies music station, meaning that Casey and Heather once again find themselves out of work. Not a great start to the new year, but there are other prospects for this talented pair, and I wish them every success in the future. I’m sure that they won’t be out of work for long.
Anyway, on to resolutions, and this year I have a couple. Firstly, I intend on finding some sort of useful therapy. Long-term readers would be well aware of my battles with depression and, more recently, anxiety. There are a few things which I either haven’t been able to get over, or haven’t been able to manage properly, and these are causing ongoing issues for me, especially in the form of anxiety. I have decided that I should seek out some sort of therapy to help me deal with these issues, and get back on top of my game.
My other resolution is to bring this blog back to its former glory…in other words I’m resolving to blog more. This probably goes hand in hand with the other resolution though, as the primary reason for my lack of blogging in my lack of enthusiasm, which is tied to everything else.
It just occurred to me that I opened this post with “good evening” and it is now morning. I suppose that’s what happens when one gets excited and sidetracked by a series of thunderstorms.
A large storm is making its way through Canberra at the moment. It appears to be affecting southern Canberra more severely than northern Canberra. The weather bureau cancelled their severe storm warning at 9:40pm which was a silly thing to do. The storm is bring some pretty heavy falls.
The storm appears to have caused a power surge, which occurred while it was still a fair way out of Canberra so I suspect that lightning has struck a power line somewhere. When this happened, it killed off transmissions from Telstra Tower and, presumably, the transmissions for surrounding areas which generally feed off the tower.
The storm is moving fairly quickly, so it should move out of the area soon. If you need help in the storm, call the SES on 131 500.
With TV and FM radio broadcasts currently off-air due to the issues up at Telstra Tower, my little hobby transmitter on 99.9FM at home is the only FM station still on air in the area. I suppose I can take some pride from that. It also carries a responsibility and I’m breaking in to programming with storm updates. I don’t expect that anyone is listening, but I’m there just in case somebody has checked the dial for a signal.
Update 1:14am: That storms seems to have passed, but there’s another concerning storm about to pass through Canberra. This one appears to be travelling slightly north of the last one. Again, I’d suggest being prepared…it sounds angry. End Update
Update 1:23am: TV and radio services on Telstra Tower have mostly been restored. Main radio stations are back, some smaller stations not on the main antenna still don’t have carrier, but some of the bigger stations seem to be transmitting dead air which could be studio or link related. On the bright side, at least Telstra Tower is back.
Bad news is the second storm cell is just about upon us. North Canberra and suburbs nearish to the lake take care. End Update
Update 1:34am:It’s here. Baton down the hatches NOW! Reminder that the SES can be contacted on 132 500. End Update
Update 1:55am: That should be it for Canberra. The storm is just about out of our hair now, but Queanbeyan residents should probably keep an eye on it for another 10-20 minutes. Another reminder that the SES can be contacted on 132 500 if you need help cleaning up from the storm. I took a couple video clips of the storm passing over my area…I’ll upload them shortly. End Update
Update 2:03am: Actually, I’m seeing another small storm cell which should pass to the south of Tuggeranong, maybe scraping the edges of civilisation down there in about the next 20-30 minutes. Tharwa and Michelago residents should be on alert for this one, but it looks like problematic than the two bigger cells which have already passed through the region. End Update
Final Update: Here are a couple videos of the view of the second storm cell from my place.
This first video is from the height of the storm. The window is closed in this video but the rain is still clearly audible. Note the frequency of the lightning…the last time I saw lightning that frequent was in the lead-up to the great hail storm of 2007…thankfully we didn’t have hail like that this time.
I shot this second video a tad later on when the storm had died down a bit and I had finished talking with 2UE’s John Kerr (the end of the call is audible in the background as I had the 2UE webstream on which has about a 45 second delay on it). The highlight of this one is that a lightning bolt is directly visible, rather than just a series of flashing clouds.
And speaking of that call to John Kerr, I ran a tape (tape? OK, maybe I just fired up Cool Edit Pro, which reminds me that I’ve been meaning to upgrade to Audition for yonks) over the 4BC webstream because I wanted to hear how loud the rain sounded in the background…not as loud as I thought, but loud enough.
Certainly an interesting night in the nation’s capital. End Update
Another update…Monday January 3: For the record books, the reason the TV and radio signals from Telstra Tower vanished is that the generator did not kick in. Apart from the power surge, Telstra Tower was one of the parts of Canberra to also suffer from a power failure. Unfortunately their backup generator did not start, and so the entire tower, including the transmission equipment lost power. End Update