There is hot, and then there is really hot!

Will global warming set new records?
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Hottest temperature on earth revised

Date    September 14, 2012 – 3:43PM

Bridie Smith

Science and Technology Reporter, The Age

Death Valley, California.

The hottest temperature recorded on earth is not as hot as previously thought, after the World Meteorological Organisation declared the phenomenal 58 degrees recorded in Libya 90 years ago was wrong.

Instead, the sizzling title goes to Death Valley, California, where in July 1913, a top temperature of 56.7 degrees was recorded.

That compares to Australia’s highest recorded temperature of 50.7 degrees, recorded in Oodnadatta, South Australia, in January 1960.

The revised pecking order emerged after a panel of climate experts reviewed the method employed to take the temperature in El Azizia, south-west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in 1922.

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The experts concluded that the thermometer used was not standard and determined that the person who measured the temperature was probably inexperienced.

“We’re pretty sure that the person who was tasked with taking the measurements using this instrument didn’t know how to use it,” said Randy Cerveny, who headed the World Meteorological Organisation project.

An expert on climate extremes, Mr Cerveny said the original 1922 logbook had data recorded in the wrong columns, which reflected a degree of inexperience.

He theorised that the unidentified individual had in fact completely misread the thermometer “and was off by 5 degrees Celsius”.

It is not unusual for records to be reviewed. Climatologist at the Bureau of Meteorology Blair Trewin said not all readings survived scrutiny.

Among the more famous not to make the record books was the 53 degree temperature taken in Cloncurry, in north-west Queensland, in 1889.

“We found documentary evidence for that which showed the measurement was taken in – would you believe – a beer crate nailed to the side of a house,” he said. “That would certainly have affected the reading … which was probably somewhere around 47 degrees.”

In Australia, standard screens used to cover thermometers in the field came in progressively between 1890 and 1910.

Dr Trewin said the record books only contained readings taken in these screens, as they standardised the equipment. Regular reviews are still undertaken, though, as instrument faults or clerical errors can still occur.

After Oodnadatta, South Australia, the next hottest recorded places in Australia are all in the west; Mardie in Western Australia (50.5C in February 1998), Emu Creek, Western Australia (49.8C in February 1998), Mundrabilla, Western Australia (49.8C in January 1979) and Forrest, Western Australia (49.8C in January 1979).

The coldest recorded place is Charlotte Pass in NSW where the mercury plunged to -23 in June 1994. Kiandra in NSW wasn’t far behind with -20.6C recorded in August 1929, followed by Perisher Valley, NSW (-18.0 in June 1994), Thredbo (Top Station), NSW (-14.7 in July 1980) and Gudgenby, ACT (-14.6 in July 1971).

– with AFP

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/hottest-temperature-on-earth-revised-20120914-25wji.html#ixzz26RITEJJW

About Bloody Time!!!

Cloven hooved animals such as cattle and sheep are not native to Australia. Cloven hooved animals destroy the little, shallow topsoil that is a feature of the Australian landscape.

Kangaroos have evolved over thousands of years, to survive in a harsh, dry, country. Their padded feet do not churn up the topsoil so that the wind can blow it out to sea! And kangaroos, do not emit the most potent climate changing gas of all, methane, like cattle and sheep do.

Kangaroo meat is probably the healthiest meat you can eat because of its very low fat content.

And there is no argument against culling these animals, as they exist now, in plague proportions. Why? 

Because before the arrival of Europeans in this country, nature carefully controlled numbers of animals that competed for scarce resources, such as water, and vegetation. But then, European man arrived with his cattle, that also needed water and feed. So our clever European man, started drilling bores and waterholes all over this land, to provide for his cattle, and sheep. But there was a severe by product of all this extra water and feed… Kangaroos, no longer needing to struggle for survival in a harsh land, now had it easy, and began breeding in far greater numbers, in what was for them now, a land of plenty…

It is to me almost criminal, not to harvest this natural, sustainable, environmentally friendly resource. Let us get rid of the destructive beef cattle and replace it with kangaroo… This will also stop damage in the delicate environment of the High Country, where each year, farmers turn out their cattle to graze…

Bring on this legislation Teddles Ballyhoo. Do something positive, for a change!!!

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What do you reckon, Skip, meatworks a goer?

Date  September 12, 2012

Jason Dowling

Turning culls into business? Photo: Dallas Kilponen

DON’T know what Victorian kangaroo meat tastes like? You soon may because the Baillieu government is considering ”the feasibility of commercial harvesting of wild kangaroos”.

All kangaroo meat sold in Victoria is sourced from interstate, mostly Queensland and New South Wales, because the commercial use of the thousands of kangaroos culled annually in Victoria is banned.

That may soon change.

The Southern Grampians Shire Council is calling for the ban to be lifted and the state government is evaluating it.

”Each year between 9000 and 30,000 animals are authorised to be destroyed and left on site,” the council said in a motion to the Municipal Association of Victoria state council to be held next week. ”There is a potential commercial use for these kangaroo products.

”Allowing the controlled commercial culling of kangaroos would allow councils in rural areas to investigate the potential to grow their meat-processing industries, create new businesses and local long-term jobs and accrue additional economic benefits to regional areas of Victoria,” the motion said. A government spokeswoman said the government was studying the suggestion with advice from the Department of Primary Industries.

”We will await the outcome of that work before making decision about possible changes to regulation to allow commercial kangaroo harvesting,” she said.

The RSPCA does not support the commercial use of kangaroos culled in Victoria.

”Once you have commercial drivers then sometimes the welfare drivers become secondary,” RSPCA Victoria chief executive Maria Mercurio said.

”We always want the welfare considerations to be paramount,” she said.

The Southern Grampians Shire Council manager of economic development and tourism, Hugh Koch, said allowing the commercial use of culled kangaroos could be an economic fillip for the region.

”Being in regional areas where we are looking at a number of economic development opportunities, this was one that was pointed out to us by a number of kangaroo shooters and, so too, by a local abattoir,” he said.

”Under the current regulations wallabies or kangaroos which are destroyed … are mainly left on the ground to rot and because we are talking about what are permitted to be culled we thought it would be a great idea to explore the opportunities to develop an industry out of it,” he said.

The idea was not to shoot more kangaroos – it was to not waste those shot anyway.

”What shooters tell me is that they can take two carcasses away at the moment, but they shoot 80,” he said.

”We think there is tremendous opportunity … to set up mobile coolrooms to store the carcasses, bring them back to a licensed abattoir and develop it for a domestic, export or pet food market.”

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/what-do-you-reckon-skip-meatworks-a-goer-20120911-25qoa.html#ixzz26B5YmRK6

Between a Rock and a Hard Place!

Labor’s biggest problem is, that dickhead Kelvin Dudd, and the Liberals’ is, Tony Blabbot!

As far as I can remember, these two idiots are the worst politicians the populace of this country has ever been subjected too!

The trouble with Barnaby and the LNP

Date

September 10, 2012

Katharine Murphy

National Affairs Correspondent, The Age

Tony Abbott, a Howard- era loose cannon, now has his own to control.

 JOURNALIST David Marr, in the new Quarterly Essay hitting shops today, recalls the minister in the Howard government who liked to improvise on his feet and think off-script.

Unusually for a conservative, Tony Abbott favoured activist government. ”That Howard allowed him such a long rein used to exasperate his colleagues, often the same ones who despaired on his stream of suggestions for Canberra’s intervention,” Marr writes. He then quotes Peter Costello. ”[Abbott] used to tell me proudly that he had learned all of his economics at the feet of Bob Santamaria. I was horrified.”

Fast forward to the here and now, and we see the same basic dynamic in action, except this time Abbott is the Coalition leader and the interventionist he’s indulging is Queensland’s Barnaby Joyce.

A new generation of Liberal rationalists roll their eyes about this state of affairs just like Costello used to. ”Joycenomics” cops an absolute hiding in private, and Abbott is blamed for lacking the basic economic policy orthodoxy to keep the free-wheeling Queenslander in check.

Tension has been building inside the Coalition for some time between the free marketeers and the populist interventionists. Last week the back-biting finally hit the public domain. Liberals sought to draw a line in the sand, taking on Joyce for his public opposition to the Chinese acquisition of Cubbie Station.

Indeed, for some time there’s been concern in Canberra about the relentless march of Queensland – or at least the Queensland Joyce represents. Rationalist Liberals really loathe the old National Party faction. But there are broader concerns.

Queensland does not have Liberals and Nationals existing separately but as a merged entity, the Liberal National Party, with an ambitious organisation keen to ensure its successes don’t go unheralded.

For some time, Liberals from south of the Tweed have kept a nervous eye on the swagger and the aspiration, viewing it as not only unseemly but corrosive to national imperatives. The question has been, how far will it go if Abbott wins The Lodge?

Would the LNP seek to create its own distinct parliamentary caucus in Canberra and sit separately in order to maximise its internal lobbying power? Would there be a demand for a specific number of LNP ministries tied to the level of electoral representation? And, of course, there would be the deputy prime ministership up for grabs.

None of these potential scenarios are seen as positives, notwithstanding the fact that LNP representatives in Canberra, philosophically speaking, are a broad church. Many Queenslanders don’t have the same world view as Barnaby Joyce, and would in fact cringe at the thought.

Sensible Queensland folk insist the separate caucus won’t happen, even if it was sought, because too many long-serving MPs in Canberra don’t like the idea. It doesn’t stop people worrying about it though, and about policy direction.

Foreign investment is cited as a case in point.

Tensions spilt over last week because rationalist Liberals felt they had already been pushed as far as they intended to be pushed on the subject of future foreign acquisitions of agricultural land.

The Coalition recently announced its intention to tie up future overseas purchasers in red tape to appease Nationals under the pump at home over foreigners buying the farm. Electoral sensitivity on this subject is off the charts in Coalition polling.

But some Liberals really hated the policy concession, in part because it sent a poor message for a country so reliant on foreign investment. Some contend Abbott has really copped it from business, and that’s bad for the Coalition federally.

So when Joyce started freelancing about the Chinese proposal for Cubbie Station, tempers frayed.

There’s been a lot of different analysis of this issue over the past few days. Whether Joyce was playing a bit of down home politics because he’s in relentless pursuit of a lower house seat; or whether the Coalition was playing the politics by speaking out of both sides of its mouth – Joyce pandering to the front bar at the Dirranbandi pub, and shadow treasurer Joe Hockey carpeting him because Hockey was playing to the CBD.

Possibly both things are true. But this issue goes beyond politicking. It’s a genuine philosophical schism that will be very hard for Abbott to manage, now and down the track. These are fundamentally different world views in play here, and sincerely held on all sides.

Rationalist Liberals contend that retro Queensland ain’t done yet. They point to another fight looming on national competition policy – an internal scrap with a long history.

Queensland Nationals battled Costello during the Howard years for legal protections for farmers and small business. Costello resisted as much as he could – prioritising the interests of consumers. But with the uber-protectionist Bob Katter splitting the right vote in the Sunshine State, this issue is on slow simmer. How will Abbott respond?

Containing unwelcome outbreaks from Queensland is not, of course, a challenge vexing only rationalist Liberals. You’ve noticed Kevin from Brisbane? He’s here to help. Several times a day. In schools. In the Brisbane mall. On Twitter. On YouTube. Subtle as a meat axe.

In national politics, Queensland is here to help. Always, and for ever.

Katharine Murphy is national affairs correspondent.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/the-trouble-with-barnaby-and-the-lnp-20120909-25m5b.html#ixzz25zj3BvJz

MONSTER BLUEFIN TUNA COULD BE RADIOACTIVE!

Yahoo!7Updated September 7, 2012, 10:52 am

An Australian fisherman got the surprise of his life after hauling in a mammoth bluefin tuna thought to be radioactive.

Victorian fisherman Paul Worsteling reeled in a monster bluefin tuna 50km off the coast of Greymouth, New Zealand.

It took a two-hour battle using 58kg of tackle to land the 2.7m beast, estimated to weigh more than 275kg.

Worsteling, a host of Channel 10’s IFishTV, invited scientists from New Zealand Fisheries on a chartered vessel to explore this pocket of ocean, which yields 170,000 tonnes of blue grenadier each year.

The freakish fish will be tested for radiation to help determine if fish schools affected by the Fukushima reactor meltdown in Japan have migrated around the world.

The crew reportedly enjoyed a few slices of sashimi and anything the scientists didn’t use for research was delivered to a smoke house.

It’s believed the fish would be worth as much as $713,000 in Japan.