Monthly Archives: February 2011

Real and ersatz driving

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I find this entirely unsurprising actually, because I  had to correct myself when I turned into a street yesterday where I  found myself wanting to drive on the wrong side of the road, something that I put down to only one factor and that is my recent playing of GTA IV. Now I don’t know if playing such games just makes you more aggressive on the road or if its just that the more you play  the harder it becomes  for you not to  blur the distinctions between reality and the game worlds but this is definitely a worry.
Cheers comrades

 

Yasi

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Cardwell, population 1200, and the nearby tourist centre of Mission Beach were evacuated in the face of a predicted storm surge up to 7m above the high tide, due about two hours before the cyclone struck at midnight local time (1am AEDT). Massive waves were recorded in the hours leading up to the cyclone crossing the coast and power was cut to almost 90,000 homes. Emergency services late last night received the first desperate call for help from a man and four other people, aged in their 60s, who were sheltering in a two-storey apartment building at Port Hinchinbrook, outside Cardwell, that was being engulfed by the storm surge. But there was nothing that could be done to help them because conditions were too dangerous. "They have been told to go to the second floor and . . . bunker down. There is going to be a storm surge up to the top of the first storey and they are on the second storey," said Disaster Co-ordinator Ian Stewart . At 11.30pm AEDT, as 100km/h gales blasted Cairns, the sheet metal roof of a commercial building near the CBD was torn off. On the Aboriginal community of Palm Island off Townsville, people were reported to have been moved from an evacuation centre when it lost roofing. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh last night said power outages were escalating, with Townsville the hardest hit, where 40,000 homes were without power. At the time this edition of The Australian went to press, 89,000 homes were without electricity. "We are seeing a real escalation in the number of houses losing power," Ms Bligh said. "The Townsville CBD has now lost power. That will mean a significant number of evacuation centres will be without power." Ms Bligh warned record high seas were to be expected and that waves of 9.5m had been recorded off Townsville, the highest level since measurements began in 1975. Speaking a few hours before the cyclone was due to strike, the Premier warned the nation to brace for "devastation and heartbreak on an unprecedented scale".(click for link)

Very scary stuff, fortunately we seem to do disasters very well in this country and hopefully that will mean that there will be minimal loss of life this time.

Respect Comrades,

respect.