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[Reudh]

44C weather in Melbourne. Fires across the west of the state, a few towns under such risk that even emergency crews aren't going to go near it, it's just too dangerous. Thankfully, where I am the closest one is about 30km south of me, and poses no threat to even its local community.

[Max White]

Any casualties? Wealth is due to break tonight, so that should help...

[Reudh]

None that I know of. Dadswell's Bridge and other northern Grampians communities were told to evacuate, until 3pm Victoria time, at which point it is too dangerous to leave. So, it's likely there'll be a few casualties in that area, hopefully none, but the Northern Grampians fire is moving fast and out of control. The cool change will bring winds, so that puts that area at greater risk.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/a/20817308/residents-urged-to-leave-as-grampians-fire-rages/

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/2022398/rolling-coverage-grampians-fires/?cs=2452

[Max White]

Fuck... God save anybody who didn't get out, because I wouldn't want to have to. Also unhappy to hear about that wind report, any new sentiment from fire fighters? Good, bad, horrible?

[Reudh]

Grampians fire likely to continue to burn out of control as this day goes on, especially early evening as winds increase due to cool change. One casualty in Rose's Gap confirmed, near Dadswell's Bridge, confirmed as fire related.

[Max White]

Seems the weather has eased up, fires are going down, homes and lives have been saved. A good year for our fire fighters in pretty insane conditions.

Back to the high seas, witnesses report suicide attempts, while Nauru is left without a judicial system.

Edit:
And the fun just keeps coming in! More reports of abuse from the hands of the navy, and another human rights group is annoyed with us.
You know in regards to the beating and burning of refugees by the navy, there are some people saying these accusations are totally unreasonable, and the armed forces always operate with the highest of professional conduct... They kept saying the same thing about sexual abuse until there was an actual inquiry, and look how that turned out. Some people need to get over their patriotic armed forces boner, and accept that sometimes our defense force does bad things.

[DG]

I think this fits the "hilarious" theme. Retailers want an increase to the price of electricity in Canberra so that more retailers are attracted to the market. More retailers will increase competition and more competition will lower prices. This article has kept me giggling all day.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/call-for-higher-electricity-prices-in-act-20140121-3175t.html

[crazysheep]

And this is why I still don't fully comprehend economics.

Or feedback control, for that matter.

[Reudh]

Seems the weather has eased up, fires are going down, homes and lives have been saved. A good year for our fire fighters in pretty insane conditions.

Back to the high seas, witnesses report suicide attempts, while Nauru is left without a judicial system.

Edit:
And the fun just keeps coming in! More reports of abuse from the hands of the navy, and another human rights group is annoyed with us.
You know in regards to the beating and burning of refugees by the navy, there are some people saying these accusations are totally unreasonable, and the armed forces always operate with the highest of professional conduct... They kept saying the same thing about sexual abuse until there was an actual inquiry, and look how that turned out. Some people need to get over their patriotic armed forces boner, and accept that sometimes our defense force does bad things.

no biggy, it keeps teh evulz out of australia...


Anyway, don't they realise that treating people like shit in the name of Australia is the best way to breed mistrust and anger against us?

[Max White]

I think this fits the "hilarious" theme. Retailers want an increase to the price of electricity in Canberra so that more retailers are attracted to the market. More retailers will increase competition and more competition will lower prices. This article has kept me giggling all day.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/call-for-higher-electricity-prices-in-act-20140121-3175t.html

You misread a very important point, that being the retailers in particular are the electricity retailers. The people selling the electricity want to be allowed to raise the prices... As for the promise of lower prices later on, well they would say that wouldn't they!

Anyway, don't they realise that treating people like shit in the name of Australia is the best way to breed mistrust and anger against us?

One day they are going to bomb something like the Opera House or something... God I hope not, but I won't even be surprised when they do.

[Jimmy]

While it's a bit of old news, seeing as Australia day is coming up I wondered about people's opinion on the allegedly 'racist' t-shirts that were pulled from sale by Aldi.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/racist-logos-on-aldi-big-w-shirts-spark-australia-day-symbolism-debate-20140109-30jc9.html

In specific, the debate focused on the slogan "Australia est. 1788" which failed to recognize the native Aborigines as the occupants of the land before this date.

Personally I think it's a load of garbage and a case of political correctness gone too far. While the name "Australia" wasn't formally approved by UK until 1824, it was in common use for the parts of the continent colonized by the British settlers. Prior to this date the name "New Holland" was used to refer to parts of the continent as yet unexplored. I cannot find anything on Wikipedia listing any name the native people gave to the continent as a whole before this point. We celebrate Australia Day for the day the flag was raised at Sydney Cove on January 26th, 1788. As far as I'm concerned, the t-shirt, while not technically correct, is completely acceptable.

[Max White]

Yea, it seems a little silly to get so upset about them. I mean I'm not an indigenous Australian, but then again neither are many people getting upset... Point is it is just a clever little joke on Australian history and all those brands that put "est. XXXX" on their stuff. At least it was good reason for bogans who would otherwise be shirtless all day to avoid skin cancer.

[Reudh]

While it's a bit of old news, seeing as Australia day is coming up I wondered about people's opinion on the allegedly 'racist' t-shirts that were pulled from sale by Aldi.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/racist-logos-on-aldi-big-w-shirts-spark-australia-day-symbolism-debate-20140109-30jc9.html

In specific, the debate focused on the slogan "Australia est. 1788" which failed to recognize the native Aborigines as the occupants of the land before this date.

Personally I think it's a load of garbage and a case of political correctness gone too far. While the name "Australia" wasn't formally approved by UK until 1824, it was in common use for the parts of the continent colonized by the British settlers. Prior to this date the name "New Holland" was used to refer to parts of the continent as yet unexplored. I cannot find anything on Wikipedia listing any name the native people gave to the continent as a whole before this point. We celebrate Australia Day for the day the flag was raised at Sydney Cove on January 26th, 1788. As far as I'm concerned, the t-shirt, while not technically correct, is completely acceptable.

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree that it was an over-reaction.

[Reelya]

Being a non-white who grew up in country Australia and was incessantly beat up for my entire childhood for being non-white (I've had e.g. every one of the 30+ students in my year 6 class beating on me when the teacher left the room, male and female included) , I can see both sides of this issue. It might not seem like a big deal to an outsider, but to someone suffering a lifetime of racial abuse, it reopens old wounds.

Short version: it's a lot different if you grew up in a big city, or a regional area (racism and violence are rampant), plus indigenous Australians copped it even worse than I did for being part-asian.

Things that could be seen as equivalent of those 1788 t-shirts could be: going to synagogue in full NAZI regalia, or wearing a humorous Hiroshima bombing t-shirt in front of Japanese people on the Hiroshima anniversary.

[Edmus]

I think it was in poor taste. The reaction is over the top however.