Wow. Just read this on trains.com (behind a paywall, so I'm not posting it in its entirety).
Quote:
PERTH, Australia – A raging bushfire Thursday destroyed most of the town of Yarloop in just 10 minutes, including the historic Yarloop Workshops Museum, a major industrial archeology and historic railway site.
Yarloop, located ... about 75 miles south of Perth, was once the headquarters of the Millars Karri & Jarrah Forests Ltd., which operated an extensive network of 42-inch gauge railways...
The shops area was restored as a museum 30 years ago... A large collection of station steam and diesel engines, as well as steam locomotives, was housed and maintained by volunteers at the museum.
In addition to nearly every home in the town, the post office, bar, fire station, and school were destroyed...
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
Wow. Just read this on trains.com (behind a paywall, so I'm not posting it in its entirety).
Quote:
PERTH, Australia – A raging bushfire Thursday destroyed most of the town of Yarloop in just 10 minutes, including the historic Yarloop Workshops Museum, a major industrial archeology and historic railway site.
Yarloop, located ... about 75 miles south of Perth, was once the headquarters of the Millars Karri & Jarrah Forests Ltd., which operated an extensive network of 42-inch gauge railways...
The shops area was restored as a museum 30 years ago... A large collection of station steam and diesel engines, as well as steam locomotives, was housed and maintained by volunteers at the museum.
In addition to nearly every home in the town, the post office, bar, fire station, and school were destroyed...
Sadly that is how it happens. Currently in WA the state department responsible for firefighting on various public lands has a policy of waiting for fires to subside before they take any suppressive actions. The oxidative processes are indifferent to any dotted lines on the maps alas. It is officially unclear at the moment what the generating logic for the policy is, but I'm sure after this fire season the questions will be put. And no, this is not a spoof.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Sadly that is how it happens. Currently in WA the state department responsible for firefighting on various public lands has a policy of waiting for fires to subside before they take any suppressive actions. The oxidative processes are indifferent to any dotted lines on the maps alas. It is officially unclear at the moment what the generating logic for the policy is, but I'm sure after this fire season the questions will be put. And no, this is not a spoof.
Cheers, Mike.
WHO told you THAT Mike?
I have lived in Washington State for almost 58 years and know several fireman and a couple that fly the chopper around the NW States and they don't just wait for the fire to go out.......ask the many that have died doing the work here over the years.
I have lived on the Olympic Peninsula home of the Olympic Mountains and National Parks and millions of trees and that NEVER happens here.
I also have friends that have been planting and starting 100's of thousands of new trees (and I have planted hundreds on my property)
Lightning fires in the middle of the mountains or National Parks are allowed to burn to a certain extent because THAT is part of nature and makes a better forest.
But I don't know anything about Australia other than old history that I have read about.
Sadly that is how it happens. Currently in WA the state department responsible for firefighting on various public lands has a policy of waiting for fires to subside before they take any suppressive actions. The oxidative processes are indifferent to any dotted lines on the maps alas. It is officially unclear at the moment what the generating logic for the policy is, but I'm sure after this fire season the questions will be put. And no, this is not a spoof.
Cheers, Mike.
WHO told you THAT Mike?
My sister. She and her husband have been sheep graziers in the area b/w Perth and Albany for some three decades now. Her husband is captain of the local CFA ( volunteer fire fighters ). There have been several fires this season where they were prevented from entering public or 'Crown' land ( on threat of prosecution for trespass ) by "assessors" that arrived from Perth. They declared their mandate so firmly that the CFA crews had to wait until the flames breached the boundary of the relevant forest.
There was a similar scenario early this season in Victoria. The relevant department both started the fire ( against official advisories issued on the day ) and then refused offered assistance ( CFA again ) when it got away. The rest you can read in the link above. But with litigation on the way some are busy in shredding and forget-me-please mode.
The short answer is that we are ( hopefully ) on the tail end of a particular variety of political culture ( now on the wane ) within some public departments that, on the face of it at least, manage our environment. We live in strange times indeed. Nuff said.
For fire fighting one needs managers that have primary/personal knowledge of fire fighting. I would highlight my disbelief that despite the temperature, wind and relative humidity all being well out of range the burn activity was initiated nonetheless. When it all went belly up the managers expressed surprise that there had been a problem. Apparently they couldn't work out the relationship b/w specific conditions of the day they lit the match and the subsequent course of events.
Australia has been a land of bushfires from way back. There are many plant species that adapted quite well to fire for reproduction. In the 1880's there were dreadful conflagrations which were never fully mapped or understood at the time. Those were likely at the peak of a certain southern pacific weather oscillation ( EL Nino with approx 7 year cycle, it has been occurring for millennia ) that dominates fire risk here.
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) The adaptation is brilliant. The plant usually dies from the fire. But the seed pods remained closed for several days and then open to allow the seeds to drop out - onto a surface for which it has no immediate competitors and has been freshly fertilised. That's Darwin right there ! :-)
( edit ) In fact if you take Banksias for example, their distribution is essentially a fire prevalence map for the Australian continent. We have a few species in our garden. Alas their spring blooms smell like piss, which I'm told deters certain ants that would otherwise attack the bees that pollinate !
( edit ) In South Australia a government surveyor by the name of George Goyder mapped the area to determine pastoral leases. He unwittingly has outlined the swing in the rainfall due to El Nino, the lower limit of that is a line is now named after him. I visited that area on the way to a coastal holiday last year : "even the rabbits were on the dole". In the years 1863-1866 anyone north of that line was devastated by drought. Tree ring data from the early 1880's indicate the precipitation went down to about 1/40th of the average, such a low level not even vaguely seen since. The governor of the day didn't want to hand out cropping leases only to have people fail or even die there, hence the survey. But it is not that simple, by a long way. Many factors are relevant. Ecosystems are complicated suckers for sure. For example Australia had a vast inland sea and so too much rain will bring salt to surface if it doesn't run off. Further inland are the Flinder's Ranges which contain very ancient rocks at the surface ( containing pre-Cambrian biota fossils in the Ediacara Hills ), you still see this layer because virtually nothing is washing it away. Etc ...
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
RE: hmm..Seems like all the
)
When Annie goes away, there's a lot less activity. This time, it may be a while.
Please do. It's growing a fur coat.
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
Wow. Just read this on
)
Wow. Just read this on trains.com (behind a paywall, so I'm not posting it in its entirety).
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
RE: When Annie goes away,
)
Annie is OK. I am in touch with her and her daughter. There are private family issues that are being dealt with.
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now
I'm buying Y'all a round !
)
I'm buying Y'all a round ! Enjoy )
Bill
Hey Bill can you send me one
)
Hey Bill can you send me one of these? (my form of morning brew)
I'm not a morning person and it is 9:45am here
Thanks
Ugh... How can you drink
)
Ugh...
How can you drink that stuff??
I had a guy come in a few months back complaining of stomach pain. Finally figured out he has ulcers in his stomach (age 24)
After questioning him, turns out all he drinks is Redbull (his girlfriend works for the company) so they get it for free.
His GF wasn't too happy he was removed from all similar products for his health...
RE: Wow. Just read this on
)
Sadly that is how it happens. Currently in WA the state department responsible for firefighting on various public lands has a policy of waiting for fires to subside before they take any suppressive actions. The oxidative processes are indifferent to any dotted lines on the maps alas. It is officially unclear at the moment what the generating logic for the policy is, but I'm sure after this fire season the questions will be put. And no, this is not a spoof.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
RE: Ugh... How can you
)
I don't like or ever buy or drink Red Bull (over-priced and tastes awful)
That 24 year old didn't get ulcers from drinking a RockStar
Btw I am going to be 58 in a couple weeks and COFFEE is what makes my stomach hurt like an ulcer and RockStar doesn't at all.
But I am also not a goofy kid who would drink a 6-pack of energy drinks every day.
Just one nice and cold in the morning instead of coffee.......works every time.
I do try to find it on sale since it can be expensive but not a rip-off like Red Bull.
My stomach got bad from drinking the hundreds of cappuccinos in my younger days.
In fact we just got home from shopping and I brought home a couple 4-packs of RockStar (I only buy a case if I can find a sale for $1 per can)
You can have health problems AND stomach problems by drinking too much of ANYTHING ....including milk and water.
I know by experience not from what somebody said they heard.
RE: Sadly that is how it
)
WHO told you THAT Mike?
I have lived in Washington State for almost 58 years and know several fireman and a couple that fly the chopper around the NW States and they don't just wait for the fire to go out.......ask the many that have died doing the work here over the years.
I have lived on the Olympic Peninsula home of the Olympic Mountains and National Parks and millions of trees and that NEVER happens here.
I also have friends that have been planting and starting 100's of thousands of new trees (and I have planted hundreds on my property)
Lightning fires in the middle of the mountains or National Parks are allowed to burn to a certain extent because THAT is part of nature and makes a better forest.
But I don't know anything about Australia other than old history that I have read about.
RE: RE: Sadly that is
)
My sister. She and her husband have been sheep graziers in the area b/w Perth and Albany for some three decades now. Her husband is captain of the local CFA ( volunteer fire fighters ). There have been several fires this season where they were prevented from entering public or 'Crown' land ( on threat of prosecution for trespass ) by "assessors" that arrived from Perth. They declared their mandate so firmly that the CFA crews had to wait until the flames breached the boundary of the relevant forest.
There was a similar scenario early this season in Victoria. The relevant department both started the fire ( against official advisories issued on the day ) and then refused offered assistance ( CFA again ) when it got away. The rest you can read in the link above. But with litigation on the way some are busy in shredding and forget-me-please mode.
The short answer is that we are ( hopefully ) on the tail end of a particular variety of political culture ( now on the wane ) within some public departments that, on the face of it at least, manage our environment. We live in strange times indeed. Nuff said.
For fire fighting one needs managers that have primary/personal knowledge of fire fighting. I would highlight my disbelief that despite the temperature, wind and relative humidity all being well out of range the burn activity was initiated nonetheless. When it all went belly up the managers expressed surprise that there had been a problem. Apparently they couldn't work out the relationship b/w specific conditions of the day they lit the match and the subsequent course of events.
Australia has been a land of bushfires from way back. There are many plant species that adapted quite well to fire for reproduction. In the 1880's there were dreadful conflagrations which were never fully mapped or understood at the time. Those were likely at the peak of a certain southern pacific weather oscillation ( EL Nino with approx 7 year cycle, it has been occurring for millennia ) that dominates fire risk here.
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) The adaptation is brilliant. The plant usually dies from the fire. But the seed pods remained closed for several days and then open to allow the seeds to drop out - onto a surface for which it has no immediate competitors and has been freshly fertilised. That's Darwin right there ! :-)
( edit ) In fact if you take Banksias for example, their distribution is essentially a fire prevalence map for the Australian continent. We have a few species in our garden. Alas their spring blooms smell like piss, which I'm told deters certain ants that would otherwise attack the bees that pollinate !
( edit ) In South Australia a government surveyor by the name of George Goyder mapped the area to determine pastoral leases. He unwittingly has outlined the swing in the rainfall due to El Nino, the lower limit of that is a line is now named after him. I visited that area on the way to a coastal holiday last year : "even the rabbits were on the dole". In the years 1863-1866 anyone north of that line was devastated by drought. Tree ring data from the early 1880's indicate the precipitation went down to about 1/40th of the average, such a low level not even vaguely seen since. The governor of the day didn't want to hand out cropping leases only to have people fail or even die there, hence the survey. But it is not that simple, by a long way. Many factors are relevant. Ecosystems are complicated suckers for sure. For example Australia had a vast inland sea and so too much rain will bring salt to surface if it doesn't run off. Further inland are the Flinder's Ranges which contain very ancient rocks at the surface ( containing pre-Cambrian biota fossils in the Ediacara Hills ), you still see this layer because virtually nothing is washing it away. Etc ...
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal