Australia Is On So Much Fire, You Can See It From Orbit 289
Jeremy Lee writes "Temperatures in Australia this week hit the point where the Bureau of Meteorology had to invent a new color. And with heat and winds come Bushfires. So it's probably good that I made a real-time bushfire map with every known source of public data directly relating to fires in Australia, mostly because fire doesn't respect state borders."
From space.
The smell, the horrible smell (Score:5, Funny)
Once you've smelled burning kangaroo mixed with the acrid stench of melted dune-buggy and dead mutant, you're never the same again. I can still hear the koalas screaming in my nightmares.
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Walk away. Just walk away. And live.
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The worst part? (Score:2)
Ice Cube, and not just for the irony.
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Ahhh, they're used to it in California. Except the species are different is all.
But if you want gut wrenching stench, visit Decatur, IL, home of ADM (motto:"breadbasket to the world"). The whole city smells like a pile of rotting pig carcasses dumped on a pile of shit, covered with sugar and set on fire.
Someone should open a weight loss clinic there.
My god ... (Score:3)
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So you're saying Australia has been invaded by Scotsmen?
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If they have been, I bet they weren't True Scotsmen!
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Came here for this.
Dark Helmet has box jellies in his shorts.
Invent? (Score:2)
Invent a new colour?
Is this some new mix of visible wavelengths that had never been encountered before?
Seems to me they just used an existing colour that had not previously been used on the temperature gradient maps.
Re:Invent? (Score:5, Funny)
They had to invent a new colour, Australia wasn't visible from space before
Re:Invent? (Score:4, Funny)
Octarine? That could explain its invisibility from space, I suppose.
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They even had to hire a Colo(u)r Invention Specialist. The CIS's job is to mix and match wavelengths in crazy new ways. In lieu of payment, he has been given an unlimited supply of hallucinogenic narcotics.
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Invent a new colour?
Well, you can try to trademark it . . . the next insane level of Intellectual Property madness . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_trademark [wikipedia.org]
Good News! (Score:5, Funny)
Australia is pleased and proud to announce that the number of horrid and lethally venomous creatures per hectare has reached historic lows!
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Gotta be a Washington DC joke in there somewhere.
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Gotta be a Washington DC joke in there somewhere.
All the Jokes ARE in Washington DC?
This is BAD (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course this has nothing to do with the fact that the north pole melted to record small levels this years. This is an isolated incident of freak weather, as was Sandy.
headline (Score:5, Insightful)
You know must of us English speakers, both in the USA and else were would have written "So Much of Australia is on Fire" for a headline. "Australia Is On So Much Fire" Sounds like George Lucas is posting now.
Re:headline (Score:4, Funny)
You know must of us English speakers, both in the USA and else were would have written "So Much of Australia is on Fire" for a headline. "Australia Is On So Much Fire" Sounds like George Lucas is posting now.
Most of us English speakers would have written:
"You know most of us English speakers, both in the USA and elsewhere, would have written "So Much of Australia is on Fire" for a headline.
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Well, at least there's no "would of" in gp's post.
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You know must of us English speakers, both in the USA and else were would have written "So Much of Australia is on Fire" for a headline. "Australia Is On So Much Fire" Sounds like George Lucas is posting now.
That's the joke. It's a joke. the awkward structure makes the headline more humorous by highlighting the absurdity of the situation involved.
Plus 50? (Score:5, Funny)
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What's the big deal? It's 54 degrees here in Texas right now...what? metric? we don't do metric here in Texas. How much is that in 'merican? Wow, that IS hot. Never mind.
That's "hotter'n hell" in Texican.
Deep Purple? (Score:2)
To be fair, one of the "new colours" should be used to indicate Smoke on the Water.
Re:Deep Purple? (Score:5, Funny)
It appears that they are using it instead for Fire in the Sky.
Self-Solving Problem (Score:5, Interesting)
I suspect next summer is going to be another bad year for fires in the USA. Seems like the entire goddamn west burned down last year. The sky was brown all summer. We cleared the layer of smoke in a plane, and the blue of the sky came as quite a shock. I'd actually forgotten the sky was supposed to look like that. I didn't want to descend back into the sludge, either. It was the first time in a couple of months that I'd had a breath of fresh air.
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i look forward to this vegetation free world were i can be safe from forest fires.
Affect global temperatures? (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder if this will create enough particulate in the atmosphere to reduce global temperatures.
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depends on the balance with soot settling on icecaps and making them absorb more light.
Re:Affect global temperatures? (Score:4, Insightful)
It is possible, but if it did it would be a temporary effect that would only mask the problem. Eventually, the particles would settle out of the atmosphere and the climate would heat up extremely fast. Maintaining particulates in the air wouldn't be a viable option either as this would just be creating pollution on a massive scale to fight global warming. This would be the "releasing thousands of snakes to fight a lizard problem and then releasing thousands of gorillas to take care of the snakes" plan. Except there wouldn't be a winter to kill off the gorillas.
View from Space (Score:5, Informative)
For the real good stuff, though, check out the high res images in the Universe Today coverage [universetoday.com], which showcases several of the images directly from Cmdr Hadfield's twitter feed [twitter.com].
Well you know Austrialians (Score:2)
everything is BIG... and its started with BEER...
*Sigh* Pedants... (Score:2)
I can't believe I'm reading comments complaining about the grammar of the post title. It's a perfectly hilarious bit of hyperbole, and I enjoyed it. "Man, Australia is on so freakin' much fire right now!"
These people must have already run out of stupid IRC arguments and stuff to downvote on Reddit and imgur for today...
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I'm just annoyed that there's no link to actual images of the fires from orbit, like these ones [universetoday.com].
Besides which...
Australia Is On So Much Fire, You Can See It From Orbit
Can't you usually see it from orbit when it's not in fire, too?
Whoop-dee-doo (Score:2)
FROM SPAAAACE! Is the sort of thing which is apparently supposed to sound impressive, but rarely is. The ability to 'see' something from orbit is about as precise and interesting as saying that you can 'see' a shrub from a couple miles away while standing on the hill in Kansas, which is not much at all.
While I'm at it when something 'makes its own weather' it is about equally as impressive.
Australian Rails (Score:2)
Fire Storms!
No train in New South Wales may move.
No train may enter New South Wales.
No rail building in the area.
Our temperature scale goes up to 54 (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know.
Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Put it up to 54.
54. Exactly. 4 Hotter.
Small clarification to the linked Mashable article (Score:4, Informative)
Quote from the linked Mashable article:
with temperatures hitting 107 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas
That's 41C, and not entirely accurate. The island-state of Tasmania, the coldest (on average) place in Australia, reached 41C. Some areas on the mainland have reached 49C, which is 120F. My home in central NSW (six hours west of Sydney) was 40-42C for 4-5 days, with high winds for the last couple. Bushfires were burning several kilometers from my home, with over a hundred firefighters fighting to contain them. Emergency vehicle sirens have been common, and I've received SMS messages from the Rural Fire Service warning about how close the fires are.
Thankfully a cool change appeared yesterday, but there are still many fires burning around the country and temperatures are expected to increase again tomorrow.
As an aside, why won't Slashdot let me post the degree symbol (alt-248)?
Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, because English teachers are the only ones against it. Everyone else understands that it's acceptable when used properly.
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Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:4, Interesting)
No, it's not formally correct.
It's very much allowed, it just ceases to be formal English at that point. Most people do not communicate using formal English.
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As a brilliant British writer once said, "This is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put."
Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:5, Funny)
Another old joke about this problem:
Visitor to Harvard: "Where's your library at?"
Harvard student: "This is Harvard. We don't end our sentences with a preposition."
Visitor; "Ok, where's your library at, jerk?"
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I'm not an English teacher, but I think that starting a sentence with a conjunction is okay if it is used for rhetorical emphasis.
What surprises me is that nobody in this grammar-nazi thread has picked up on the dyslexic object phrase in the article's headline. I guess they're "on too much fire" about other trivialities.
Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:4, Informative)
You seem to not understand the idea of colloquial grammar. "And" at the beginning of a sentence can communicate information that isn't necessarily directly dependent on the previous independent clause. It can, for example, represent the notion of building on a previous assertion in the same paragraph. And that is why colloquial grammar should be understood, and not edited for no better reason than "I say so".
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You seem to not understand the idea of colloquial grammar. "And" at the beginning of a sentence can communicate information that isn't necessarily directly dependent on the previous independent clause. It can, for example, represent the notion of building on a previous assertion in the same paragraph. And that is why colloquial grammar should be understood, and not edited for no better reason than "I say so".
This is because they live in constant terror of comma splices or run on sentences. Bad grammar is a leading cause of slow painful death.
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I've re-read both our comments carefully, and I can't find a reasonable plural noun to which "they" might be a back-reference. Could you tell me who you mean?
Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:5, Funny)
Should you put "and" in quotes or should we wait for the rest of the sentence?
I want to be a grammar nazi too. ;-)
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Better a grammar nazi than a nazi gra'ma ^_^
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-1 for missing the apostrophe in the contraction for "it is" while engaging in Grammar Natzism.
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Yet you managed it.
It's a reasonable colloquialism. It basically indicates a strong tie of one sentence to the previous sentence. It is probably just a lazy way of avoiding run on sentances. And I think it does a great job at that!
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I'm not sure if it slipped your attention, but a lot of online communication, even if typed rather than vocal, tends to take the conversational form/tone.
Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:5, Informative)
Greetings, time traveler from the 19th century. "And" has been an acceptable opening segue for some time now here in 2012. Also, we attempt to use gender-neutral language, which has made using the plural "they" and its variants as singular forms increasingly acceptable. In addition, the delineation between "effect" and "affect" seems to be fading in popular usage as well, as have traditional meanings of "irony" and "hacker" (a word which probably means something REALLY different to you).
Oh, and we have a cure or treatment for every venereal disease now! And we have a polio vaccine too!
Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:4, Funny)
Greetings, time traveler from the early 21st century. It's only 2013 now, maybe you should have gone for a longer journey than coming from 2012.
Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:5, Funny)
That's nothing. I slept through the end of the world a few weeks ago.
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That's a quiet life.
Everyone I know was awake for the rollover from 2012 to 2013. Most were consuming some sort of alcohol too.
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You will not get me to use the plural pronouns to make gender neutral references. There are perfectly acceptable made-up words for gender neutral pronouns. If we're going to abandon traditional English, we might as well do it with new words rather than abuse the accepted meaning of existing ones.
Mr. Gordon Sumner may feel free to die in one of the aforementioned brush files. If I love someone, I will set her free. Or perhaps hir if I'm feeling especially androgynous at the time.
AND, there are FOUR light
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"between "effect" and "affect" seems to be fading in popular usage as well"
No more than "then" and "than", "there/they're/their", or various other commonly confused words with different meanings. No, they aren't "fading in popular usage". They're just more confused than ever because more people tolerate sloppy writing. They are still distinct, and the need for them to remain distinct has not vanished. (Example: "It is better to be pissed off then pissed on" -- "Uh, I think you meant 'than'")
Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:4, Informative)
Mod parent up. You can affect an effect, but you can't effect an affect unless you're in the same business as Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro.
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Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, and we have a cure or treatment for every venereal disease now!
Greetings time traveler from the 22nd century.
rather then argue with you id say your rite wen it cums to ppl dropping some real anachronistic and arcane usages of grammer speling is also real grate hear U definately have a point weve cum a long way!!! i think the affect of this has bin AWESOME!!!
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We're now using and at the start of sentences?
and why not?
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yes. but it's ok.
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Here, allow me to blow your mind:
"And" at the start of a sentence is not acceptable.
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Aaaaaandddd Whooosh!
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Is saying "We are" when writing a question another symptom of the demise of the English language?
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And you have a problem with this?
Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Demise of the English langauge (Score:4, Interesting)
We're now using and at the start of sentences?
Yup.
Face it: language changes. The English of Beowulf is a foreign language to modern speakers. Chaucer is heavy going. Hell, many people struggle with Shakespeare and Dickens.
Some changes I've seen in my own life. I'm 51.
Loss of distinction between adjectives and adverbs in spoken English, particularly "good" vs. "well".
Loss of "hw". "Whale" and "wail" are homonyms except in a few regional accents.
Singular "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun. I like this and use it myself.
Very few people use colons or semicolons in written English. Fewer still know how to use them correctly.
My grandparents were born from 1884 (paternal grandfather) to 1905 (maternal grandmother) and used the subjunctive mood. It was largely gone before I was born. It only survives in fossilized expressions like "so be it" and the song title "Let it be".
...laura
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Looks to me, as short as the second half is, like it was a typo and should have been a coma instead of a period.
Oh, the irony. ;-)
Re:I blame global cooling (Score:4, Informative)
Is this a drive-by post by a moron?
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To be fair, the new colors would fit best in the scale in the range well below freezing.
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I thought so too but then at 55 degrees north I probably see temperature gradient maps of sub-zero temperatures more often than an Australian does.
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think of them as negative kelvin (i.e. hotter than normal temperatures).
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Phrasing it worse would certainly take a bit of effort. I had to read it 3 times before shaking my head and moving on to the comments.
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Clearly, Australia has ALL THE FIRE.
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Cheeky bastards. Why couldn't they just install really bright street lights if they wanted to be visible from space.
I have to admit I'm a bit surprised that Australia wasn't visible from space till it caught fire. I thought Africa was the dark continent.
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Indeed. I mentally stumbled over that phrase as well. The problem is that the submitter split the adjectival phrase "on fire", a similar type of grammatical error as the more widely recognized "splitting infinitives".
Properly, it should read "So much of Australia is on fire", although even that phrasing implies that there ought to be some sort of following idea which satisfies qualitatively "how much" is being referred to. Colloquially, however, the follow up phrase is not strictly required, the implic
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Is that roughly the Canadian January experience if you swap C to F? I'm just south of Canada and its a balmy 40s day, when usually January is spent entirely below zero for the month. Not unheard of, but unusual to have a thaw in January. I'm thinking of selling my snowshoes after the last two years, which is too bad, because I really enjoy snowshoeing along hiking trails... well other than the snowmobiles trying to run everyone over. Its roughly like moving about 100 to 150 miles south.
Re:Numbers from the article... (Score:5, Insightful)
seeing a whole graph of temperature (or daily max, or daily mean or whatever) against time will always tell you much more about a trends than a list of its peaks can.
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seeing a whole graph of temperature (or daily max, or daily mean or whatever) against time will always tell you much more about a trends than a list of its peaks can.
"Hottest national averages on record (before today)."
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Yesterday bumped Dec 20, 1972 out of third place and 1985 off the chart. Here's an updated list:
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{{citation needed}}
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I'm sure the Global warmers/deniers will be all over the place. Either way, the article for those who didn't read it have the following stats:
Hottest national averages on record (before today).
-Snipped-
So it would appear that 1972 and even 1973 were very hot years there. As well as it appears that 2013 will be as well. Finding cause in those two anomalies will be interesting. I don't think 1972 had as much CO2 in the air as we do now. Is the area of temp measurement too small to say either way was is the cause? I'm not a climatologist. But what I do know is it's hot.
I'm not going to point out the obvious fact that they're out of order because it's a conspiracy to disprove global warming. However, I just want to ask, can we just have a giant, 10 year study of several locations among the map from Antarctica to Chile, seeing if cars or power plants may or may not have an adverse affect on weather? I'm getting tired of hearing this story, but I also know that there might be SOMETHING man-made affecting our weather.
Consider the fact there the industrial revolution happen
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An ice age is not a multi-variable problem. Understanding how they came to be and changing the climate, however, is.
Since it is difficult in how it forms and goes away, I said it was dangerous to engineer a climate change, because it's a damn difficult multi-variable problem, and chances are we won't be able to predict the side effects of changing the delicate climate.
Yet I like to see anyone deny that we're still in an ice age, and how the ice is still melting more than there's water being frozen, anualy.
Re: BBQ (Score:5, Informative)
Re: BBQ (Score:5, Informative)
Yep, I had Kanga Bangas [gstatic.com] for dinner last night. Not as succulent (fatty) as regular sausages and with a stronger flavour but not bad all the same. Kangaroo burgers rock, and Kangaroo steak is great when done quite rare, but overcook it and it goes tougher than a pair of Chuck Norris's boots.
Kangaroo meat is also much better for you and the environment than beef. Kangaroos need to be culled in many parts of Australia due to rising population levels (there are considerably more kangaroos in Australia now than before white settlement, due to agriculture), the meat is very low in fat, and kangaroos fart far less than cows, so we don't get the methane output that cows produce. If you can get kangaroo meat, try it.
Re:BBQ (Score:5, Funny)
Something with a little kick to it.
Re:Thanks (Score:4, Interesting)
Thanks to you and everyone who looked at the map. The extensive slashdotting let me code some improvements :-)
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Cat 4 cyclone off WA [bom.gov.au]
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That particular colour cannot be used to indicate bushfires. I believe it's been reserved for smoke on the water only.
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Just for the record, the land burnt or burning in the current outbreak is 368,940 hectares (~911,670 acres) in the State of New South Wales (with a few just over State borders) where most of the fires are concentrated. The largest single fire is approx 177,000 hectares (437,000 acres). (Source: http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/feeds/majorIncidents.xml [nsw.gov.au] at 2013-01-09T21:10Z)
There does not appear to be "a whole lot in central Australia to burn" but what is present, not forests but grassland, is tinder dry and burns