Posts filed under 'General News'
I suppose it has something to do with today being Sunday, and the likelihood of me seeing many people on a Sunday being rather low, but April Fools Day is almost over and it hasn’t been overly noticeable.
That being said, there were a few good jokes today. Harold Borton from London (who wrote the only Letter To The Editor to date…you can write one too letters@samuelgordonstewart.com) tricked 2UE’s John Kerr this morning. He claimed that a London radio station near the bottom of the FM dial was rebroadcasting the 2UE webstream, that John should add London to the list of cities he does weather forecasts for, and offered to give details of the station in case 2UE wanted to follow it up and have the illegal rebroadcasting shut down. John put the email aside so that he could find out from the engineering staff if such a thing was possible.
Harold later sent in another email to inform John that he had been fooled, but that he would like to see a 2UE relay station in London.
Over at The Spin Starts Here, Caz has announced that she is quitting blogging (again), that the site will be turned in to a forum (screenshots available of the forum as “evidence”) and that she will start another blog in a few months with a different focus. Unfortunately Caz, I don’t believe a word of it, although the week long lead-up of having “The Hack” post instead of you to make you appear distant and uninterested was a nice touch.
Correction: I was overly cynical and fooled myself. Caz and The Hack are actually leaving The Spin Starts Here and it seems that my words touched a nerve. I apologise to Caz and The Hack for any undue stress or concern that my cynicism may have caused, I especially wish Caz all the best with her health problems, and I hope their next venture works out the way they want it to.
Slashdot have got news (via german tech-site heise.de) of Mozilla Foundation suing Microsoft over the introduction of tabbed browsing in Internet Explorer Seven. Makes a good headline, but it falls apart in the detail. Mozilla didn’t invent tabbed browsing, and people working for companies don’t usually get the intellectual property rights to their work, which completely destroys the notion of an ex-Opera developer now working for Mozilla giving Mozilla the patent.
One that did catch me out was Gmail Paper…Google printing your emails and photos for you, sticking ads on the back in big red letters, and delivering them. I started to become sceptical when I couldn’t find any answers to my questions about whether or not Australia is part of the print-and-deliver program, or where I need to enter my address. It became very flimsy when I discovered that there was only one page of information…Google love to spread everything out over pages and pages and pages…and the Beta User Testimonials (since when do Google run Beta programs without telling anyone?) absolutely gave it away, especially this one from Mayumi M., Associate:
“Now that I have Gmail Paper, I understand the difference between labels and folders. I had one message with two labels, but when I tried to stick the paper version into two filing cabinets at the same time, it just wouldn’t go.”
Still, they tricked me at first, and well done to them for it.
Of course Mike Frame had a good one last year on 2CC’s Saturday morning show when he announced that the government were going to have a $1000 handout to the long term unemployed so that they could enjoy life a bit (or something to that effect). The great thing about radio is that even if the majority of people realise it is April Fools Day, you will still get a flood of callers who want to scream their lungs out over the silly idea…Mike played with the first caller for a while before getting him to check the calendar.
So, did you play any good tricks on people or have some tricks played on you? If so, I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.
Samuel
April 1st, 2007 at 10:05pm
I don’t think that anybody other than the deluded would be surprised that David Hicks pleaded guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organisation earlier today…it hardly matters whether he did it or not, all that matters is that he has more chance of seeing Australia as a free man again by pleading guilty than pleading not guilty.
He has, however, entered a not guilty plea to the charge of providing support to a specific terrorist act.
All that is left now is for him to explain what he did to the military court, and then for him to be sentenced. A deal is in place for him to serve any jail time here in Australia, and seeing as he has already served about five years in Guantanamo Bay, it’s not inconceivable that he could be a free man very soon.
It’s quite interesting to look at the results of the following poll, which finished on the 11th of March.
How long do you think it will be until David Hicks is back in Australia?
-
Less than a month
-
One to three months
-
Three months and a day to six months
-
Six months and a day to a year
-
More than a year
-
Never
Total Votes: 25
Started: March 3, 2007
I do have to wonder how different the results would be if I was to hold the poll right now.
Samuel
March 27th, 2007 at 05:05pm
A few quick thoughts…
Reverend Fred Nile of the Christian Democratic Party has gone off his rocker again…this time calling for an immediate moratorium on Muslim immigration for ten years, so that we can bring more “oppressed Christians” in to the nation. I have no problem with either group, but I think any move to allow or disallow immigration solely on the basis of a person’s religion is not only offensive, but an incredibly big step backwards. Thankfully Reverend Nile is in the New South Wales parliament and has no chance of changing federal immigration policies.
New South Wales police minister John Watkins has made a big error, promising that Sunday’s closure of the Sydney Harbour Bridge so that people can walk on it for its 75th birthday won’t cause traffic gridlock, as experienced when the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liners visited the harbour a few weeks ago. Mr. Watkins claims to have a plan to avoid traffic gridlock during the 4.30am to 11pm closure…but as fas as I can tell, that plan involves people leaving their car at home.
Two weeks out from the election and he make a stupid promise about Sydney’s volatile traffic…silly silly man.
In other Sydney traffic news, the Lane Cove Tunnel’s operators claim that the air quality in it has been verified to be good, but there won’t be any cars in their until after the election. A vehicle-free tunnel probably would have clean air in it.
There’s a storm cloud gathering over the validity of a claim from federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd that his family was evicted from their house when he was a child…what that has to do with how Mr. Rudd plans to run the nation is beyond me…back to the issues please. Even another ramble about how bad Labor thinks WorkChoices is would be more interesting than this nonsense.
The idiots at the top end of Telstra’s corporate ladder are threatening the federal government with the “mother of all class actions” if their competitors are allowed to build their own $3.6 billion national high speed broadband network…perhaps Telstra’s daft CEO Sol Trujillo has forgotten that he had a temper tantrum and decided to blame the government for his decision to not build his own broadband network. If, as one of Telstra’s annoying internal mottos claims, “anything.possible”, is it not therefore possible that Mr. Trujillo isn’t the right person to provide essential telecommunication services to the country, and should quit and take his bunch of executive crazies with him “done.now”? (to quote another internal motto).
That pretty much sums up what’s on my mind right now.
Samuel
March 12th, 2007 at 01:05am
Would anybody care to explain to me why ACT Chief Turnip Jon Stanhope’s verbal attack on former opposition leader Brendan Smyth in question time today has received so little media coverage?
The lead story on 2CC news for most of the afternoon was Jon Stanhope calling Brendan Smyth a slime ball who enjoys being in the gutter and subsequently being reprimanded by the speaker of the assembly Wayne Berry MLA. 2CC reported that Brendan Smyth was disgusted by the outburst.
This was question time, and all of the news outlets had reporters at the assembly today, so why has there been no mention of this outburst on the television news bulletins? I’m not sure about ABC Local Radio but as there is so far nothing on their news website about it I don’t think they’ve covered the story, and I’m almost certain that RiotACT would have covered it if the story had appeared on ABC Local Radio’s news bulletins…so what’s going on? Why has such an unusual (for the Legislative Assembly at least) and newsworthy event gone unnoticed by so much of the local media?
Here is a copy of the transcript from proof hansard, the PDF will be replaced with the final version of weekly hansard at the end of the week.
MR STEFANIAK: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, where were you on the night of 17 January 2003 when the head of the Emergency Services Bureau was trying to get in touch with you, and what were you doing?
MR STANHOPE: I have to say that I was interested in the contribution that the member for Tuggeranong, Mr Smyth, made to the no-confidence motion last week, in which he dwelt very much on this subject, comfortable as Mr Smyth is with the selling of innuendo, of scuttlebutt and of slime.
MR STEFANIAK: Answer the question.
MR STANHOPE: Well, it is not that simple, actually. It is a question in relation to which one really should provide some context around the degree of comfort that Mr Smyth has in getting into the gutter, the slime— Mr Slime Ball from Tuggeranong. He loves it down there in the gutter.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Refer to the member by his name, please. Withdraw that and refer to the member by his name.
MR STANHOPE: I refer to Mr Smyth as Mr Smyth and—
MRS DUNNE: Mr Speaker, he still hasn’t withdrawn.
MR SPEAKER: Withdraw it.
MR STANHOPE: I withdraw it; I was withdrawing it. But it of course does not change my opinion of the member at all, and he knows it.
MRS DUNNE: Mr Speaker, this is entirely disorderly. When a member is asked to withdraw, they have to withdraw, and that’s it— simpliciter, without embellishment.
MR SPEAKER: He has withdrawn.
MR STANHOPE: Mr Smyth is comfortable down there in the gutter. He likes it there, down with the cigarette butts and the dog turds and the wasted life. That is where he is comfortable, and of course it is one of the reasons that his colleagues tipped him out a few months ago— because he really does not have the maturity or the standing or the quality that befits a leader.
MR SPEAKER: Come to the subject of the question, Chief Minister.
MR STANHOPE: I spent that evening with my wife, Robyn, in company with two other people, the reputations of whom or the professions of whom some of course might have a particular issue with. I think it was to these particular points that Mr Smyth was going, of course— the quality, the calibre and the nature of the people and who it was that I might have spent that particular evening with. I spent it with my wife and with a magistrate of the ACT Magistrates Court, and his wife, and— forgive me my sins— with a Catholic priest, the parish priest of St Matthew’s, Page. Mr Smyth, of course, was not looking for an answer that bowled me as actually spending an evening with a magistrate of the Magistrates Court of the ACT or with the parish priest of St Matthew’s, Page. Mr Smyth had other ideas. Mr Smyth has been out there spreading innuendo and slime and slurs and outrageous suggestions— as he did when he put in an FOI request for all of my wife’s travel documents on the one and only occasion when my wife has accompanied me on a spouse-accompanied trip. This is the man who thinks it is appropriate behaviour for a Leader of the Opposition to requisition all of my wife’s travel documents. This is the man that the other Liberals are comfortable with on their back bench.
MR STEFANIAK: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker, under standing order 118A.
MR STANHOPE: Who among you thinks that is appropriate behaviour—
MR STEFANIAK: Pull him in, would you?
MR SPEAKER: Come back to the subject matter of the question.
MR STANHOPE: of a member of your particular party? This is the scuttlebutt. This is the innuendo. This is the slime—
MR SPEAKER: Come back to the subject matter, Chief Minister.
MR STANHOPE: that your colleagues engage in. Which one of you has suffered your spouse or partner having all of their private documents FOIed in relation to any travel involving you in your official capacity— who of you? It is the most shameful behaviour by a despicable little man!
MR STEFANIAK: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. Chief Minister, thank you for that explanation— in the 30 seconds that you gave it; I will disregard the rest. Why until now have you been so reluctant to advise the people of Canberra what you were doing when you should have been following the fires closely? Why did you not advise us before now?
MR STANHOPE: Because it was none of your business.
MR STEFANIAK: It has taken you four years.
MR STANHOPE: Because it was none of your business, and it is still none of your business. I only answer today because of the slime that is being perpetrated and spread around Canberra by this colleague of yours— the innuendoes, the doublespeak, the slime, the attacks on my wife and the requisitioning of her travel documents: freedom of information requests in relation to every document associated with her private life and her behaviour. This is what the Liberal Party in this place has reduced itself to. He kept it up last week in the no-confidence motion. You all sat around, all relaxed: “Funny; chuff, chuff; let’s be part of this innuendo”— this slur, this campaign against my wife and my marriage, this suggestion that there was something untoward about my behaviour, which you have gone on and on with.
MR SMYTH: You refused to answer the question.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Smyth!
MR STANHOPE: Because I have a private life that is absolutely none of your business. You have run a four-year campaign about my private life. The questions that you have pursued in relation to my whereabouts on that particular night, on that evening, and the persons in whose company I spent the evening have had a single purpose. It is absolutely and utterly despicable— utterly despicable. Of course, then it was followed up by Mr Smyth and his freedom of information requests— that he has requisitioned: his demand for tabled documents— in relation to my wife’s private life and business.
MR STEFANIAK: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order, again under standing order 118A.
MR SPEAKER: I think the question was “why haven’t you told us up until now?” I think the Chief Minister is trying to tell you.
MR STANHOPE: To the point where I have to say this. I am loath to involve my wife in this; she will be appalled, and perhaps disappointed, that I have breached her privacy in relation to this. But since Mr Smyth conducted his campaign against my wife and her travel, my wife refuses to travel with me. She is not prepared to have her private life and her private affairs submitted to the political point scoring and nastiness of Brendan Smyth. My wife will no longer travel with me because of Mr Smyth’s requisitioning of her personal travel documents, her personal affairs and
her expenditures when she travels on official business with me. That is what Mr Smyth has done. I apologise to my wife for breaching her privacy in this way. It is appalling. I am absolutely appalled that this paragon of virtue— this citizen of Tuggeranong, this pillar of society— thinks that that is appropriate behaviour. It is not. On the night before the fire, I was with my wife, with a magistrate of the ACT Magistrates Court and with a Catholic priest.
MR STEFANIAK: Why didn’t you tell us before now?
MR STANHOPE: Because it is none of your business— because it is none of your business. It is none of your business what I was doing.
MR STEFANIAK: No-one is going to blame you for being with your wife, for goodness sake.
MR STANHOPE: I explained at the time. I said, “I was in my electorate at dinner.”
MRS BURKE: You did not.
MR STANHOPE: Yes, I did.
MS GALLAGHER: Yes, on the north side of Canberra.
MR STANHOPE: My colleagues remember. I was in my electorate on the north side of Canberra at dinner. But that was not sufficient! That was not sufficient! It just excited the dirty mind of Mr Smyth. That just excited the dirty mind, because I would not say I was at dinner with my wife— because it was none of your business. It was not relevant that I involve my wife in this place. Oh, no— a four-year campaign of innuendo, scuttlebutt, doublespeak and plain gossip. Of course it all gets repeated back to me. It is a small town. It is a small place, this. It all gets reported back to me— everything that Mr Smyth says as he goes around town: the destruction of my reputation and that of my marriage and my wife. It is all out there. He is out there talking about it. He is talking it up. I can go and get statutory declarations and affidavits from those to whom Mr Smyth has told this story. That is what we have come to. It was a matter of principle. It is none of your business. My wife is not part of this job.
MRS BURKE: It’s the community’s business.
MR STANHOPE: It is not. Mrs Burke, tell us more about the sexual harassment matter. Come on.
MR STEFANIAK: Oh, here we go. Let’s get grubby, Jon.
MR STANHOPE: Let’s get grubby? Let’s get grubby!
MR STEFANIAK: You are accusing him of it and now you are doing it.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR STANHOPE: I am respecting Mrs Burke’s privacy. Give us the lurid details, Mrs Burke. (Time expired.)
It even continued in to the next question…
MR GENTLEMAN: My question is directed to the Minister for Territory and Municipal Services. I understand that recent criticism of ACTION is misguided, as patronage levels are through the roof. Can you inform the Assembly how many passengers have voted in favour of ACTION by using the new network?
MR SMYTH interjecting—
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Smyth, I challenge you to tell in public what you told your Liberal Party branch about me. I challenge you in public because I would like you to give me a photocopy of your house because I will have it for you.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Hargreaves, come back to the subject matter.
MR HARGREAVES: I certainly will. You just do it and I will take you on.
Considering that the “answer” provided by Jon Stanhope actually answers a question about his whereabouts prior to the 2003 Bushfire, one does have to wonder why at least that bit was of no interest to the local media, if the name calling of Brendan Smyth wasn’t of interest to them.
I am still perplexed as to why Jon Stanhope doesn’t think his whereabouts is the business of his constituents, and I can only assume that, had he been forthcoming with these details, Brendan Smyth would never have tried to work it out by using Freedom Of Information…in fact I’m sure that Mr. Smyth and the Liberal Party would have tried many other ways of working it out before FOIing travel documents of Mr. Stanhope’s wife.
More questions, why is it that Mr. Stanhope can find enough money to erect a statue of the late disgraced Whitlam government minister Al Grassby, but needs to make businesses in Civic pay a levy for the general upkeep of the area…a job which would normally be considered a government responsibility? And why is this kind of levy going to be charged at a varying rate depending on the “rateable” value of their property…surely if this must happen then it should be charged at a flat rate and not be an addition to land tax by another name?
What a peculiar place that Legislative Assembly is.
Samuel
March 6th, 2007 at 08:28pm
The National Library of Australia announced that it has entered into a contract with Apex Publishing to support a major newspaper digitisation program which will commence later this year.
The Library will use Apex’s services to build a database covering the period 1803 to 1954 using one major newspaper from each state and territory. From early 2008 the Library expects to offer a new online service to enable full text searching of these newspapers and viewing of the content free of charge.
Sounds remarkably similar, but much less controversial than Google Books.
Samuel
March 5th, 2007 at 10:54am
I don’t know about you, but as far as I’m concerned, the notion that humans are the primary reason for global warming seems nuts to me. I don’t deny that humans may have had some impact on it, but it is my view that global warming is part of a larger warming and cooling cycle of the planet, one that has been going on for a lot longer than we have been recording weather phenomena.
Now it seems the sun may be responsible for global warming, as Mars is apparently experiencing a similar warming to Earth. It seems logical that the one object which prevents this planet from freezing would be responsible for it getting hotter and colder…there has to be a reason for the ice age, and one can only assume that the earth is warmer now than it was during that ice age, so it seems reasonable that it would continue to do so, and then eventually move back towards an ice age.
Perhaps it is time that we, as a race (or indeed a species), stop pretending that we are almighty and powerful and can cause things which have been happening for thousands, if not millions, of years. We may have some influence, but the majority of the issue is surely out of our control.
Samuel
March 5th, 2007 at 04:05am
The ACT Emergency Services Authority has issued a yellow warning on the back of a severe storm alert from the Bureau of Meteorology.
The Bureau advises the storm may produce large hailstones, damaging winds, very heavy rainfall and flash flooding over the next several hours.
The YELLOW LEVEL warning covers the period from 5pm to 7:30pm today (21st February 2007).
If you require assistance with storm damage, give the SES a call on 132 500.
Samuel
February 20th, 2007 at 05:24pm
In the wee hours of Monday morning there was a rather noisy storm with a fair bit of rain in Canberra. Nattie was not impressed and decided to take up residence under my bed.
The storm vaguely woke me up and I had half a dream about Paul Makin (who was on the radio at the time) getting out the buckets to save the water and being overrun by rabbits and dogs (he was talking about Chinese astrology on the radio) before an incredibly loud, nearby thunderclap woke me up, and got Nattie barking.
I invited Nattie up on to the bed and gave her a little cuddle and decided to let her sleep with me during the storm. She seemed quite pleased with that deal and slept with me for the rest of the night.
The rain, whilst very heavy, didn’t seem to last for long, which is a pity because we could really use some drenching rain. Storms and rain are predicted all week, hopefully at least one of them brings a good sustained downpour.
Samuel
February 20th, 2007 at 10:39am
We might need them in 2036…according to New Scientist magazine Apophis, a nasty alien that SG1 killed, has come back to life (I hate it when aliens manage that) as an asteroid, and is headed straight for earth…well there’s a 1 in 45,000 chance of him hitting earth and wiping out half the planet.
Thankfully SG1 have experience in diverting asteroids, so this should be pretty easy for them. On the off chance that they get it wrong, or they’re not around to help, “experts” want the UN to come up with a “protocol”…well, that should be more than enough make Apophis shake in his boots, turn around, and head back from whence he came.
If we let the UN make a multi-nation protocol of action, we’ll be buried in paperwork until the next time Apophis destroys a planet…that’s assuming that anybody bothers to listen to the UN in the first place…don’t we just throw money at them so that they’ll make bits of paper and be quiet in their corner while we pretend to be interested in the needs of every other nation?
Just in case you’re wondering, yes, the people who named this asteroid are Stargate SG1 fans…apparently.
Samuel
February 19th, 2007 at 02:41pm
John Kerr with some of his listeners in Terrigal
It’s John Kerr’s 65th birthday, in many ways this is a tough birthday as once you’re 65 you can’t really break out your favourite song of the last 365 days, “When I’m 64” by The Beatles, and you have reached the government sanctioned age of retirement. Thankfully though I can’t see John retiring just yet…he has been mentioning it every now and then for the last few years, and who knows, he may decide to retire at the end of the year…but I think it was radio historian Wayne Mac who said to me that people like John have radio in their blood…so if John Laws is still going at 71, and Bob Rogers is still going at 80, we may have a lot more of John Kerr to look forward to yet!
Happy 65th birthday John, I’m glad you’ve got the day off, and I hope it’s a great day filled with lots of happiness, joy, presents, cake and loved ones.
For the record, I, along with the other members of “The Questionable Trio”, Irene in Brisbane and Charity in Sydney, sent John a mystery thriller book titled “Gone” (Amazon has details) by Lisa Gardner, as well as a card with a picture of a lion on the front, with caption “You’re the mane man”. Inside the card we sent the message “Happy 65th Birthday John, best wishes for the next year, and another 65 to come!”
John got the present a few days early, and said to me on Friday that he is looking forward to reading the book.
While we’re on the subject of birthdays, it was Flash’s birthday on Tuesday last week (February 13)
Kate and Flash
Flash is the three-legged mascot of the John Stanley program on 2UE and 2CC, and lives with John’s executive producer Kate (pictured together).
From memory Flash (a Tenterfield Terrier) was the RSPCA’s “pet of the week” on the show, and Kate fell in love with him, and gave him a new home. He has been the mascot of the show ever since.
I’ve been a fan of flash for about the same amount of time, and have been wanting to get him a present for a while now, last week I did so not realising that it was his birthday. I got him some squeaky food shaped toys…apparently he really likes the hamburger!
Happy birthday Flash!
Samuel
February 19th, 2007 at 12:43am
It looks like the Bureau of Meteorology’s Canberra weather radar is offline, with the cryptic message:
IDR99940 CANBERRA RADAR IS U/S UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. ANY INCONVENIENCE IS REGRETTED. 17/1135Z
The good news is that it is only the web interface for it which is offline, the radar itself is working perfectly, and feeding images to the Weatherzone website. The radar image on the Canberra weather screen (the weather reports on the right of screen take you there) is quite abysmal, but their dedicated radar page is quite good…just turn on borders and it all makes sense. One small pointer though, their idea of “Canberra” is the airport, not the city. If you turn on roads, the city is located roughly at the intersection of the purple road leading west from the airport, and the thick purple road heading north/south.
Update 3:58pm: Upon further investigation, it looks like the Weatherzone site is just using the last data it had available, and that is from 8:20pm last night. Looks like the Sydney radar is about the best we have available, and its coverage of this area isn’t all that good. It can pick up rain in Canberra, but it can’t see it coming. End Update
Update 4:09pm: The Wagga Wagga radar has a pretty good view, but the New South Wales composite radar is arguably the best view. The combination of the Sydney, Wagga Wagga and any other radar that just happens to pick up Canberra on the outskirts of its view seems to handle the job that the Canberra radar did. End Update
Samuel
February 18th, 2007 at 03:49pm
Whoops, nearly forgot…Blue Warning for the ACT and a severe storm warning from the Bureau of Meteorology.
If you need assistance with storm damage, give the SES a call on their new number, 132 500.
Based on the weather radar, Canberra is only going to get light rain…Stuart Bocking, you missed again! The drenching rain is supposed to fall in Canberra please.
Samuel
February 16th, 2007 at 05:19pm
Direct from the Bureau of Meteorology…and if the thunderstorm hovering over my area outside the warning zone is anything to go by, follow the advice if you’re in the warning zone.
NSW/ACT SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
for LARGE HAILSTONES, DAMAGING WIND, VERY HEAVY RAINFALL and FLASH FLOODING
For people in parts of the
Southern Tablelands Forecast District to the northeast of the ACT.
Issued at 6:13 PM Friday, 2 February 2007.
Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce large hailstones, damaging winds, very heavy rainfall and flash flooding in the warning area over the next several hours.
Major locations within the warning area include Goulburn.
The State Emergency Service advises that people should:
* Move your car under cover or away from trees.
* Secure or put away loose items around your house, yard and balcony.
* Keep clear of fallen power lines.
* Keep clear of creeks and storm drains.
* Don’t walk, ride your bike or drive through flood water.
* Unplug computers and appliances.
* Avoid using the phone during the storm.
* Stay indoors away from windows, and keep children and pets indoors as well.
* For emergency help in floods and storms, ring your local SES Unit on 13 2500.
* In the ACT, ring the ACT Emergency Service on 6207 8455
The next warning is due to be issued by 9:05 PM.
This warning is also available through TV and Radio broadcasts, the Bureau’s website at www.bom.gov.au or call 1300 659 218. The Bureau and State Emergency Service would appreciate this warning being broadcast regularly.
Click to enlarge
Samuel
February 2nd, 2007 at 06:37pm
Yesterday morning, after taking photos of buildings in an effort to make a point about the poor quality of journalism evident at City News/Ads, Nattie and I had a lengthy walk which included a visit to the lake. There were a few hot air balloons around and as we had the camera with us, I thought it would be a good idea to take some photos. All of the photos below can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Incidentally, if you’re just after the story in the headline, click here to scroll directly to the story.
At one stage down near the lake we had a bunch of hot air balloons more or less above us, but too scattered to fit into one photo, so I took a few.
First up is the Dawn Drifters balloon. Dawn Drifters and Balloons Aloft are the main hot air balloon businesses in Canberra.
Then the Prime Television balloon.
The next balloon was a trifle odd, it was a balloon for three credit unions, namely The Credit Union of Canberra, The Snowy Mountains Credit Union, and the Hospitals Credit Union. The reason it was odd is that these credit unions have merged to form Service One Members Banking.
All of these photos make the balloons look pretty close, but that was just a zoom effect, as you can see in this photo of the Prime Television balloon (left) and the Dawn Drifters balloon (right).
Next up is the Delfast balloon (top) and the Kamberra Wine Company balloon (bottom).
And the Questacon balloon.
After this I noticed that the Dawn Drifters Balloon was heading towards Civic, and was having immense trouble staying above various buildings, as we headed in towards where it was, it was descending on the Airservices Australia building.
This photo was taken while the balloon’s basket was behind the building, but parts of the balloon were still above it. Needless to say, a collision under those circumstances could easily be tragic.
Naturally enough, just when I was about to rapidly head around to the other side of the building with the camera in video mode, the batteries exhausted themselves. While I was quickly changing the batteries, the pilot of the balloon skillfully got out of the precarious position and floated away.
The balloon was just about to hover across the road when I took this photo.
I then took the following video of it flying away. If you look very carefully, just after the camera shakes a bit, you can see one of the passengers lean out and wave to the camera.
The original, slightly higher quality video, can be downloaded by clicking here.
I have produced this map with the aide of Google Earth to place the video in context.
My location is marked with a blue dot, the location of the balloon in the photo where it is partially behind the Airservices Australia building is marked with a red dot, and the approximate path taken by the escaping balloon is shown by the red line. Street names have been added for your reference.
Samuel
January 29th, 2007 at 02:37pm
Happy Australia Day!
Click here to download the Australian national anthem.
For those of you who are a bit bemused by all of this, Wikipedia is here to help:
26 January 1788 was the date on which the First Fleet, under Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Sydney Cove and set up the Colony of New South Wales. Formal possession, including the reading of Phillip’s Commission, took place on 7 February.
Samuel
January 26th, 2007 at 12:06am
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