Extremes
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- tOki
One part of australia is under several metres of water, and another part which is in the worst busfires ever recorded in the country - with a 108 deaths so far in several days. There has even been reports of children being snatched by crocodiles in floodwaters...
I'm glad I live in inner city brisbane heh.
- kelpie0
sounds pretty scary all round, one of very good pals is over in Melbourne for 6 months, I've been watching with interest. Hope she's ok.
- _me_0
crazy times in this country of ours for sure...
- NotByHand0
It's a sad situation. My prayers go out to everyone affected.
- utopian0
Unfortunately, I foresee more extremes in the weather all around the world in coming years due to global warming. My prayers are with you and your country.
- Amicus0
My thoughts are with everyone out there at the moment. One of the members of my karate team is out fighting the fires, so I wish him and all the fire fighters the best of luck with the weather over the next few days and hope the winds die down quickly.
- Corvo20
How's it going folks?
- autoflavour0
Its strange reading about how the NSW government is reviewing the arson laws incase they arent severe enough..
look, arsonists start fires because of the thrill.. the idea of a long jail term wont stop them, if anything its more of risk, more of a thrill.
they are trying to legislate against a pathological disorder. it might stop a few wanna be fire bugs, but the serious arsonists.. pffft..
its horrible what they do..
- LeRoi0
The other scum of the earth - looters - are apparently going through homes where residents cant get back into blocked off fire affected areas... unbelievable.
- Corvo20
We have a lot of trouble with summer arsonists too. It's really complicated, since you can't convict loonies for their deeds.
The solution our police found is to arrest or keep a close watch for people with prior indictments or within a certain profile on certain periods.
Known pathological arsonists are "arrested" or relocated for social-service during summer months.
But there's always new ones, or just summer campers neglect.
It's really like fighting against a dragon.
- Uh, where do you "relocate" an arsonist? Somewhere made of all concrete I would think?mg33
- Also "doing burns" was a common practice of pt shepards (now prohibited), so the cattle had new pasture.Corvo2
- No, they are relocated to institutions 300km away. Most arsonists are rural loonies who like to watch how the...Corvo2
- ...village and the fire-department get the frenzy. Some say they put fires because they like to watch the helicopters...Corvo2
- helicopters and have a rush for sirens. They're mad.Corvo2
- Also, they are relocated because most arsonists put fires from petty revenge.Corvo2
- MrOneHundred0
I am having mixed feelings about the media’s involvement in reporting the fires. I don’t really need to hear gruesome details of peoples’ deaths to feel the human impact – the numbers are enough. And now that the media circus has descended on the site of the disaster to present their morning shows, it really feels like a ratings grab.
Actually, I don’t have mixed feelings at all – it makes me sick to my stomach that they are using very intimate details of peoples’ deaths to feed the notion of 24-hour news, and that we need to be glued to the TV all day to “get the latest”.
Am I crazy?
- Corvo20
Well, journalists are journalists after all. They report what they get from people's fellings. It's not a science report from laboratory work. It has always been so, in fact.
- MrOneHundred0
True, but how many different ways to be burnt to death do we need to hear about to “get” that there’s been a fire and a lot of people are dead? It’s the perception that simply digging further into to the gruesome detail is adding to the news story somehow. If I had lost my wife and child in a fire, I certainly wouldn’t want the scientific details of their untimely deaths turned into a sound bite for the TV news. It is becoming like a freakshow.
- Corvo20
I have no answer to that in particular, but that's how most media work in general. They repeat whatever is most gruesome - and there's always someone from "the people" good enough to make an interview.
I guess we should stop being surprised by this.
- I’m not really surprised about it, but finally have had the resolve recently to turn it off.MrOneHundred
- ...my wife wanted to catch up on the news this morning, hence my renewed outrage.MrOneHundred
- BuddhaHat0
I've sadly become jaded by all of this 'news' Mr100. The word 'news' these days almost directly implies some sort of negativity to me, with only the occasional 'and now on the brighter side of life' type stories even being shown or printed... it's what the medium has become to some extent, a tool to satisfy the audience's morbid curiosity.
- MrOneHundred0
Yes, the morbid curiosity is the thing. Are they feeding it, or did they create it? Is it human nature? If so, up to what point?
As mentioned, I have discovered up to what point I will be fed. I wonder what would happen if they stopped at the point which I believe they should.
During the first world war, news from the warfront would be despatched weekly. Deaths were presented as numbers, and “heroic” acts were reported to boost morale and present a positive angle. Tales of individual horror were left to the individual and their oral history, to be shared by family members/friends as needed. Imagine if the network news teams had only an hour a week to report the news.
Oddly, that is now about the amount of news I subject myself to per week and I feel better for it. The important stuff filters through – economic downturn, economic stimulus package, fatal bushfires in Melbourne – and I don’t feel weighed down by the “doom and gloom”.
Just my opinion.