The Energon Pub

Actually it's the largest loss of life caused by a natural disaster in Australia.

May not be much to other countries, but for Australia it is.

Burn wrote:Actually it's the largest loss of life caused by a natural disaster in Australia.

May not be much to other countries, but for Australia it is.

Mmm. I was going to say that. We discussed it at work and couldn't decide whether or not plague and white people constituted natural disasters.


I think the only greater loss of life at one time we've had is at war.

Renne wrote:We discussed it at work and couldn't decide whether or not plague and white people constituted natural disasters.

ugh .... please don't tell me you're one of those *cough* ... people ... who think Australia Day shouldn't be Jan 26 ...

Im just in shock with this . So much loss. I'll help if I can.

There was a photo in the Washington Express yesterday, and a video in the Washington Post today showing a team of firemen coming up on a koala who survived the blaze and given water. "Sam," as I believe they called him, looks remarkably unscathed, though the captions mentioned his feet were singed, and he's now recovering at a local wildlife refuge. Both the picture and the video show the koala drinking from a water bottle.

I think it's a touching scene (and am amazed the animal took to that water bottle as easily as it did, given that koalas aren't known for being overly friendly) and shows that humans are not the only victims of this tragic blaze.

Burn wrote:ugh .... please don't tell me you're one of those *cough* ... people ... who think Australia Day shouldn't be Jan 26 ...

**** no. Australia Day is Jan 26, bro.

Archanubis wrote:"Sam," as I believe they called him, looks remarkably unscathed, though the captions mentioned his feet were singed, and he's now recovering at a local wildlife refuge.

She.

Archanubis wrote:I think it's a touching scene (and am amazed the animal took to that water bottle as easily as it did, given that koalas aren't known for being overly friendly) and shows that humans are not the only victims of this tragic blaze.

Sam as well as hundreds of other animals that survived have horrible burns on their paws/feet. Strangely The koala took 3 bottles of water, no mean feat considering Koalas aren't exactly known for their love of water.
And you are right about Koalas being "not overly friendly" the only grumpier animal I can think of are Wombats, but as everyone has seen Sam was just too tired to be wary.

It's great to see all the animals they are finding and helping now.
I know the Red Cross has taken heaps of money for the human victims, I just wish more attention and money was being given to the Victorian RSPCA.

i_amtrunks wrote:Strangely The koala took 3 bottles of water, no mean feat considering Koalas aren't exactly known for their love of water.

As I recall, koalas typically get all their water from the food they eat. However, if one is thirsty enough, I don't know any animal that would pass up any source of water, whether it was from a puddle or a bottle.

my condolences to those who lost family and their homes.

I'll refrain from a tyrade about the preacher who blamed all this on abortions

Name_Violation wrote:I'll refrain from a tyrade about the preacher who blamed all this on abortions

Haven't heard that one. (Though i'm guessing it was good ol Fred Nile)

Did hear about former Australian (she now hides in England) and all round starter of the female equality movement in Australia (did I mention she now lives in England? Yeah, she loves her home country that much) Germaine Greer, came out and called the government arsonists themselves because they didn't do enough back burning.
(This is also a woman who came out and virtually praised the stingray that got Steve Irwin)

Well of course they didn't do enough back burning, because they had the bleeping tree hugging hippies on their back who pressured them to stop!

ugh .... you left the country, stop commenting on it you stupid witch.

Burn wrote:

Name_Violation wrote:I'll refrain from a tyrade about the preacher who blamed all this on abortions

Haven't heard that one. (Though i'm guessing it was good ol Fred Nile)

Well be prepared to be surprised... it wasn't.

It was some nobody pulling a Mundine and trying to get himself publicity by being a moron.

A man has also been taken into custody for lighting the Gippsland fire, responsible for 21 deaths thus far. Since the Government won't introduce a form a corporal punishment for these imbeciles, I hope he gets his just deserts while he rots in jail.

At the other end of the scale Kurumba is nearly out of drinking water even though they are in the middle of a flood.

And 2 Shark attacks in two days in Sydney (one in the Harbour, one at Bondi) is another strange occurrence.

i_amtrunks wrote:At the other end of the scale Kurumba is nearly out of drinking water even though they are in the middle of a flood.

You wanna drink that stuff you go right ahead. Flood water doesn't taste very nice.

Been away the past week.

Hope all of you are ok and that your families stay safe...

i_amtrunks wrote:A man has also been taken into custody for lighting the Gippsland fire, responsible for 21 deaths thus far. Since the Government won't introduce a form a corporal punishment for these imbeciles, I hope he gets his just deserts while he rots in jail.

The maximum penalty for what he's been charged with - arson causing death - is 25 years.

On the other hand, the guy is likely going to have to spend the rest of his life isolated because otherwise I think he'll be having himself a nasty accident.

Burn wrote:

i_amtrunks wrote:At the other end of the scale Kurumba is nearly out of drinking water even though they are in the middle of a flood.

You wanna drink that stuff you go right ahead. Flood water doesn't taste very nice.

It's like being stuck on a raft in the middle of the ocean. Just because there's water all around you doesn't mean it's fit to drink.

Renne wrote:The maximum penalty for what he's been charged with - arson causing death - is 25 years.

25 years? If someone caused that much damage and death here in the US, I certainly hope they'd get life in prison - minimum!

Renne wrote:

Blackstreak wrote:It is fortunate the numbers are low.

You're joking, right?

I mean, you'd have to be, since this is the largest loss of life from fire in Australia in known history, with more than double the loss of life of the next biggest fire and you're saying "it's fortunate the numbers are low"?

Perhaps in Australia for forest fires. Lets get some perspective regarding other natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. Yea, the numbers are low.

Blackstreak wrote:

Renne wrote:

Blackstreak wrote:It is fortunate the numbers are low.

You're joking, right?

I mean, you'd have to be, since this is the largest loss of life from fire in Australia in known history, with more than double the loss of life of the next biggest fire and you're saying "it's fortunate the numbers are low"?

Perhaps in Australia for forest fires. Lets get some perspective here. Comparing it other natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, etc? Yea, the numbers are low.

You're also forgetting to factor in the population base of Australia compared to other countries.

As far as hurricanes go, we get cyclones. Cyclone Larry a few years back had wind gusts as powerful, if not slightly more powerful, than Katrina. There was no loss of life because it hit a area with a population base massively less than New Orleans and there was no flooding. Still put a walloping on the town and left a few of it's residents a little more unhinged than they were before hand.

Heck, we've even had earthquakes, one of which caused loss of life a few decades back. But we're lucky in that we're not overly close to fault lines so they're few and far between.

But these bushfires are Australia's worst natural disaster, it may not seem much to someone from another country where the loss of life is higher, but given that we're a smaller country, and often lucky when it comes to natural disasters, it's a big number to us.

Renne wrote:The maximum penalty for what he's been charged with - arson causing death - is 25 years.

25 years? If someone caused that much damage and death here in the US, I certainly hope they'd get life in prison - minimum![/quote]
The justice system is a bit of a joke in Australia.People have got off lightly using the "I was high on drugs/drunk" or "traumatic childhood" cards and the judges let em off. They are already playing the "mental illness" card on this guy already. But hopefully the judges will listen to the public in this case and give the man life for every person killed. The last time any sentence was given like that was when the Port Authur massacre happened.

I think the koala photo is the sweetest pic ever. Im donating to the RSCPA.

Blackstreak wrote:

Renne wrote:

Blackstreak wrote:It is fortunate the numbers are low.

You're joking, right?

I mean, you'd have to be, since this is the largest loss of life from fire in Australia in known history, with more than double the loss of life of the next biggest fire and you're saying "it's fortunate the numbers are low"?

Perhaps in Australia for forest fires. Lets get some perspective regarding other natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. Yea, the numbers are low.

You know what? Take your "perspective" and shove it. With that co0ntinued epic display of retardation, you've just lost all rights to even having an opinion.

Archanubis wrote:

Burn wrote:

i_amtrunks wrote:At the other end of the scale Kurumba is nearly out of drinking water even though they are in the middle of a flood.

You wanna drink that stuff you go right ahead. Flood water doesn't taste very nice.

It's like being stuck on a raft in the middle of the ocean. Just because there's water all around you doesn't mean it's fit to drink

In case you didnt get it, I was going for the irony people.

So far the arsonist is only up for one charge of "arson causing death", instead of the 21 (with possibly more to come). So one would hope he would get 21 consecutive 25 year charges, on top of the other charges he was nabbed on.

But he'll play the "insane card" pleading that he didnt know that lighting a fire in extreme fire danger weather was bad or somesuch.

It'd be much better for him to be put out of his misery rather than have taxpayers pay to keep him in isolation for however long he is sentenced for.

We already guess that the arsonist would play that card(or the drugged out card or a race card). They found child pron in his house as well, he should go down just for that. Sicko bastard. . There are Facebook pages up where people can vent anger about this and the coppers are shutting em down. Boo! To quote a famous bot: 'Freedom is the right of all senient beings' in my opinion that means saying my 2 cents on this matter.

We knew it was going to happen.

An ACT based Firefighter died when a tree fell on him while he was fighting the fires near Marysville. It's terrible that we have now lost 200 people to these fires, but thankfully this is only the first Firie to lose their life.

And to add to the crazy-ness of fire and flood on the east coast, comes news that Bellingen and the NSW North Coast joins Kurumba and the Pilbara.

So thats 3 states with floods and one with bushfires...

i_amtrunks wrote:We knew it was going to happen.

An ACT based Firefighter died when a tree fell on him while he was fighting the fires near Marysville. It's terrible that we have now lost 200 people to these fires, but thankfully this is only the first Firie to lose their life.

I was actually terribly surprised that there hadn't been any firey deaths that Saturday, tbh. They're *so* vulnerable going in there, particularly with bushfire and wildfire. It's a credit to all the fireys and their strike team leaders that no one died that day, and it's a goddamned shame that one of the boys has lost his life now.