Some British History
An extract:
“History is written by the winners…..that is why there are so many empty pages in French history books.”
Take the time to view – it is very entertaining.
Category: General Musings
Nuclear Power
Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation says Australia has a direct moral responsibility for any nuclear fallout.
Fair enough as long as we accept that Japan has a direct moral responsibility for Aussies killed in accidents involving Japanese vehicles.
Same logic.
The Greens and Lefties will be crowing about the danger of Nuclear power but Australia is well know as being geographically stable so the current Japanese problems have no bearing whatsoever on our Nuclear power debate.
Two earthquakes and no tsunamis of note in my life time in the entire continent do not cut it as a factor in the debate.
The same type of characters that panic about climate change used to panic about nuclear energy and to try and force us to join their church come up with the term ‘China Syndrome‘, a scenario where a reactor accident would develop into a self sustaining heat source and burn all the way from the US to China.
In a small way the Three Mile Island accident proved the extent of truth in the proposition as the molten core material got exactly 15 mm of the way to China as it froze on the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel.
No one died but that’s not the point. The Left has an ideological abhorrence of anything nuclear, possibly emanating from the cold war days when they agitated for unilateral nuclear disarmament. Unilateral because they only wanted the US to disarm – the communists in the USSR were the good guys after all and anything that might bring the Great Satan to her knees was on their ‘to do’ list
It will be a long long time before Nuclear energy racks up more deaths that coal fired energy.
If ever.
Ziggy Switkowski, former chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation has this to say;
In Australia, opponents of nuclear power already point to the situation in Japan as evidence of the dangers of nuclear reactors. They conveniently sidestep the loss of life and damage caused by exploding oil tanks, burst gas mains, electrical fires: hazards that come with living in a tectonically active region.
Possibly tens of thousands dead from the earthquake but about half of the media coverage is about the nuclear disaster which, so far, has killed exactly no one.
Let’s just concentrate on helping Japan get back on her feet.
UPDATE:
There is an incredible amount of misinformation and hyperbole flying around the internet and media right now about the Fukushima nuclear reactor situation.
To get a good layman’s description and maybe become better armed to enter into debate on nuclear energy you might like to read this piece at bravenewclimate
Back on deck
Went south to Melbourne to help my forward scout from Vietnam celebrate his 60th. On the way I dropped into Belmont Hospital in the Hunter region to pay my respects to an old mate from RAAF Lang School class of ’66 and Vietnam class of ’70 who was on hist last legs. Had a couple of hours reminiscing about the good old days when we were corporals together.
He died two days later. Sad and so very, very final.
Left Melbourne with the temperature on 41 dec C all the way to Griffith and then locked myself in air-conditioning. Left the next morning for Brisbane with the temperature at 41deg C – damn thats hot!
Arrived home and walked into the pool – a lot better.
Switched on the computer this morning only to hear the dulcet tones off “Beep-Beep I have a RAM problem”. Took it apart, removed RAM chip..placed back in..computer happy now…hurry as I’ve got three funeral and two VSI Sick list notices to get up on my Battalion Association website before the funerals are over and the VSI’s become funeral notices.
Another day, another dollar but I’m still vertical so no complaints.
Bob Brown – ignorant bastard
GREENS leader Bob Brown is facing mounting condemnation after calling on coal companies to foot the bill for the Queensland flood recovery.
Pig ignorant bastard! Should be locked up in stocks in the biggest coal mining town in Australia so people can throw all their rotting vegetation at him.
Anna ‘talks the talk’
I must admit Anna Bligh did a good job over the week of the crisis in Brisbane – she definitely “talked the Talk”.
People with the attention span and memory of a lighting bolt are obviously easily taken in by “the Talk”.
How about this for over the top adulation…
“It’s hard to find enough superlatives to describe Anna Bligh right now. I want her to be my mum and my prime minister and my best friend. I want to sit in front of my TV and just watch her talk because with every sentence, she manages to strike an extraordinary balance of compassion and calm and heartbreak and resolve.”
Years of mismanagement all cancelled out by a couple of hours on TV according to writer Jessica Rudd (yes – that Rudd family) on mamamia
I don’t think so – she needs to ‘walk the walk’ as well but watch her polls rise 10 or more points.
Before and after
Here is a link to the best before and after shots of the floods – just slide the bar over.
Courtesy daughter Liz
Its stopped raining!
Sunny weather in Brisbane invokes a surreal atmosphere as I know that the city will be flooded, albeit in sunshine. Two of my children, one near Ipswich and the other at West End are safe but isolated without power. It would appear that I will be totally safe where I live just 11 kms north of the CBD. An old soldier is always going to go for the high ground to set up his house. Of course I can’t travel far and we are stocked with batteries, ice etc to withstand power outages but that’s nothing compared with what my fellow Queenslanders are enduring.
My wife has just come back from Woolworths, Taigum and reports no bread or milk! As an old soldier I can endure most deprivations but not having milk for my coffee is not one of them so I did a quick run to the local deli and got one of the last 2 lire milks he had.
I can’t help everyone but I can help those of my regimental tribe who are in peril or have lost their house and contents. To this end I have emailed all 7RAR guys in Queensland looking for people in trouble. Altogether, 7RAR Asscn, both National and local, have donated a $1,000 to a Flood Appeal established by the RAR Qld Asscn.
If you are ex-military or have an interest, you may consider donating to the following bank acct in the full knowledge that 100% of the donations will be spent on helping those in trouble.
Bank: Commonwealth at Stafford
Name of Account; Royal Australian Regiment Corporation
BSB: 064 127
Account Number: 1030 4915
Reference: Qld Flood Appeal 2011
Tonight and tomorrow still seem to be the problem time-frame as overflows from the Wivenhoe Dam and a high tide meet in the CBD. At least with the rain having ceased for the time being it will help Police and SES in the onerous task ahead of them.
Here’s hoping for a safer outcome.
It’s still raining
I last posted “It’s Raining in October and was mildly upbeat about the 150 ml we had got overnight. Four months and almost 2,500 ml (100 inches) later I’m less upbeat. When I got up this morning the shock of the Toowoomba disaster with 8 dead and 72 missing has left me in shock. Two daughters have just been sent home to prepare for flooding and they are currently on a train that might or might not get past Bowen Hills station.
Waiting for an SMS update.
The Brisbane River is breaking it’s banks in areas around the city and my wife, glued to the TV keeps dropping in with snippets of doom. It’s going to be worse that the 74 floods being the one that grabbed my attention.
I was here in Brisbane in 74 with young wife and son. My wife’s father had died on Christmas Day and when I had to report back to duty in Sydney we decided she would stay to help her Mother. I dove over the Centenary bridge sometime in January just before Brisbane went under and will always remember the huge barge forced against the bridge and threatening it’s integrity.
The Centenary bridge with attendant barge
I just got out but a few days later in Sydney I couldn’t contact my wife. No telegrams, no telephones and definitely no SMS then. My wife was seven months pregnant with our second child and I eventually found her helping friends clean out their flooded house.
Tough bird!
SMS back – daughters OK – Grandaughter collected from Creche and will all be here soon.
My family is OK but thousands aren’t and some complete families have disappeared and are listed in the 72 missing.
Queensland, perfect one day – recoiling in terror the next.
God help them!
And a Geeky Merry Christmas to you all
From friend Jean Madden
But wait, there’s more
THE man who brought Australia the phrase “but wait, there’s more“, Demtel promoter Michael Milne, was jailed today for eight and a half years on tax charges dating back to 2004.
Eight years six months more to be precise.