Big Fires!
 

Hope no one here lives in the southern Victoria area. It's pretty big though they have to interupt a program with 'breaking news' each time the death toll goes up by another ten. Even the Queens pretending to feel simpathetic.

BTW: what is the actual death toll last time I checked it was 140. All the news sites on the internet have the toll out by a couple of days/hours.

Yeah, Australia's arse is on fire.

Yup. It's pretty bad. I've got a friend who lives in the worse affected area (Kinglake) but he, his family and their property are thus far unscathed.

I've donated money and clothing but realised yesterday that I'm not allowed to donate blood. Which is a bitch. On the plus side, the good people of Kinglake will be receiving a wonderful assortment of baggy circa-2003 fashion.

I'm more concerned about Arson reports, really.

I heard that it's mostly due to the high-oil content of the trees that really helps the fires, actually, but I woulda thought it was the wind that did it.

How much of a retarded lunatic do you have to be to intentionally start a fire like that? Are people really this dense to not be able to oversee an action as big as starting a fucking forest fire. I don't get the point! *reaches back to death penalty topic*.

I imagine it's one massive grab for attention. They probably get off on all the fuss made in the news and having politicians and even the Queen mention their handiwork.

Which is fucked up.

How do they know it was arson? The place is about as disposed to catching fire as any natural landscape can be.

I've always wondered how arson forensics teams are able to determine how fires were lit, but given Australia's climate I'd say we've built up world-class knowledge and practices.

Alcar...

I remember similarly years ago the big Sydney fires.... IIRC it was about 2000 or 2001 when the Blue Mountains were ablaze and Sydney was commenting on how the smoke was making his eyes water.

Nate, what's the deal with not being able to donate blood?

*EDIT*

That's confusing... I'm talking about forum-founder Sydney commenting about the fires.... which were around Sydney. DUH... okay still confusing.

My brain aches.

I *think* it's because they rule out other causes. They can tell when lightning strikes the ground, so they can rule that out. It's not on the road, so it's not people flicking cigarettes out car windows (which happens, stupid as it may be). And it's not near campsites or houses or anywhere that people might be lighting fires, though that might count as arson anyway on a fire ban day. I think they just assume if it's none of the above then it has to be arson. In some cases, there were witnesses that people were loitering about right before the fire started.

You're not allowed to donate if you've had male-to-male sex in the last 12 months.

Which was stricter than I expected; I thought they'd specify unprotected. But it's more lenient than some places in the USA who ban anyone who's gay irrespective of sexual experience.

Still, better safe than sorry.

It doesn't help that Sydney was flaming and if the firefighters don't get this Melbourne fire under control we might set Sydney ablaze once again.... Then he'll/she'll be mad because again with the watering eyes etc, etc, etc...

Wait... now hold on which Queen are we talking about? Queen Sydney?

EDIT (Noticed you posted while I was replying)

Okay I see. But what shoots that to hell is 'how do they know'? I mean really, what's to stop someone from lying? Good conscience?

Honestly I didn't know about that because the last time I gave blood was in high school. No worries then and they didn't ask.

I'm not allowed to give blood almost everywhere outside of the United Kingdom. Because I'm British, see?

Yup. You and your insane bovines are banned here too. High-five for banning!

I was watching the news on BBC America yesterday and they threw a really strange statistic out. They were saying that something like 2,000 wild fires in Australia are started by arsonists every year. Either you have a lot of fucked up people or they were just making these numbers up.

With that many wildfires, there'd be no tinder left to burn now.

We do have a lot of fucked up people. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/s...1-3102,00.html

175 as of 3:30 2 days ago.

You're out dated 'smoring it was 181.

Every news outlet has a different number for some reason.

Different classifications of dead?

It's the phenomenon that emerges in the media in its rush to get the news out first. Facts and figures spring up from seemingly nowhere. I don't think it's deliberate, but how precisely it occurs would make for a fascinating study (as would the laxity in quality control).

this is so tragic >< i'm sorry for anyone there or anyone who knows anyone who is/was!

This was the view I had above my house tonight:

http://www.oddworldforums.net/attach...1&d=1234533195

That's some mighty fine air you've got there, Lou.

Today would have been a nice, sunny day but the smoke is thicker than fog. It's not all that pleasant to walk outside.

Over here, you can’t give blood if you are a man who has ever had sex with another man. If you are a woman who has sex with a man who has had sex with another man, you can give blood after 12 months. I know several people who are entitled to give blood but don’t: they boycott the National Blood Service because of their discrimination. Strikes me as a ruling that’s not only unscientific but flatly not in line with the national blood shortage.[/QUOTE]

The moon here was that same colour on Tuesday night.

No, that one was crap. It was only prenumbral.

Roughly a kilometer from my house there's about 150m of charred earth and burnt trees.
Sadface.

Australian wilderness is adapted to periodic razings. Some trees actually require being burned in order to reproduce.

The concept that wildfires are universally bad is an incorrect one forced upon the natural world, and fire prevention measures simply end up causing the fires, when they inevitably occur, to be far worse than they would have been under more natural circumstances.