What Annoys You?

[Ian]

People.

[fish]

He sounds like one of those errr, people, who want Ian to finish a writing job "yesterday".

Give him heaps Snapsie.

[Juule]

I WILL reply to him when I have calmed down.

I'm sure your reply will quickly start sorting things out.

[fish]

Not so much annoyed as saddened and upset.

Been watching the news coverage of the floods in south east Queensland.
Appalling damage and loss of life.
And apparently it'll get worse until around Thurday.

Something like 100mm of rain every hour onto ground that was already saturated.
Fuck.

Trying to contact a friend who lives in Brisbane.
He should be OK where his place is.
Hope so, anyway.

[Juule]

Yeah. And hopefully things will be normalising soon.

[snaps]

How do you get floods in the middle of your Summer? Round this time of year it's usually news of rampant forest fires in Australia.

[Ian]

Hope your friend is okay, fish.

Madness.

[fish]

How do you get floods in the middle of your Summer? Round this time of year it's usually news of rampant forest fires in Australia.

At the risk of boring you...
...here's an education on Australia.

It's big. Bloody big.

Over 4,000 kms east to west and over 3,500 kms north to south. Sort of like a rectangle with the corners cut off.
Sixth largest country in the world with over 30,000 kms of coastline.

The far south is in the Roaring 40's winds of the Southern Ocean. The north, what's known as the "Top End", is all tropical with cyclones and "wet seasons" and all that. Although it's a bit to the south of the "real" The top end, Brisbane shares its weather patterns and is currently in its wet season.

Now, combine a little climatology. Around 8 years out of 10 there is an El Niño system in the eastern Pacific, floods in Peru, drought in Australia. This year we have a La Niña system, which is the opposite. Hence all the rain.

But what's happening this year is the worst in a generation, and may yet be the worst ever recorded. A number of suburbs of Brisbane, a city of round 2,000,000 people are being evacuated in anticipation of the peak of the floodwaters in the Brisbane River arriving at about 4:00 tomorrow morning. Towns in the mountains to the west have been devastated.

And yet...

In the south west, around Perth, there are a number of bushfires which appear to have been deliberately lit. Houses destroyed, people injured. WTF is that all about?

[snaps]

Not so much annoyed as deeply deeply saddened. I've only caught up with it in the last hour but todays ''Guardian'' showed that awful close up of the family on the roof of the car, in the floods, seen from the helicopter. Im guessing this must have gone out on live Australian TV. I don't know why this upsets me so much. We see photographs of dead people on a daily basis and become immured to it. This is a family ABOUT TO DIE. It's so close up you can see the desperation. Not only that but you know that going through their heads must be the thought ''rescue helicopter'' .

Apparently the helicopter was not equipped with winching gear. I'm not an expert, but couldn't it it have attempted some kind of rescue, close enough for them to hang on to the outriders till they could be landed on dry ground? Yes I know it's the stuff of film dramas and it probably wouldnt work. But at least it would have been something. If they knew they couldnt do it then at the very least I think they should have given the doomed family some dignity and NOT shown the close-up of their final moments.

Isn't it a bit of a sad comment when media money can be found to pay for a helicopter to film this grief, when it could have been put to better use actually rescuing people?

[Juule]

[fish]

...Isn't it a bit of a sad comment when media money can be found to pay for a helicopter to film this grief, when it could have been put to better use actually rescuing people?

A sad commentary on society indeed.

The flood peak in Brisbane was not as high as forecast but still caused major damage to sections of the city. I guess I'll catch up with the extent of the damage on the news tonight. Still haven't heard from my friend, but power was cut to around 65,000 homes, so I keep hoping for the best.

[Ian]

Fingers crossed, fish.

[snaps]

I registered for an account at Image Bank Sweden;

http://imagebank.sweden.se/section.asp?sectionID=3878

desperately hoping to find obscure virgin pics of u-know-who. well , at least pics anyway

Ta da! WTF! not that they are not nice pictures or even alot of them to sift through Some cool ones of the Astrid Lindgren theme park and loadzzz yup loadz of the Royal Opera House etc

But not an A or E in sight

OK, is it me or wot. I may want an image of, say ''children playing in snow'' to illustrate a poem, like I mean there aren't a few thousand out there anyway I could just download. I mean WTF makes some people think they, or their photographs are so f**king special that I have to complete on online agreement form with them before I download.

So, advice is. yes lots of nice images, but don't expect to be blown away

[Juule]

So, advice is. yes lots of nice images, but don't expect to be blown away

Well, I don't know... you'll never know who might be walking down those stairs...

[fish]

...Well, I don't know... you'll never know who might be walking down those stairs... ...

Where? Where? Where?
I can't tell. Is Alex on those stairs?


The ImageBank site has potential, not so much for what I saw first up, but it has links to other sites, including ScanPix.se (as opposed to ScanPix.no which is where I found those other pics). So with a bit more deviousness there might be a way inside any/all of those.

Nice find.