posted by
martyb
on Wednesday December 18 2019, @04:20PM
from the let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow dept.
from the let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow dept.
Only 6 years after the weathermen needed a new color for just one spot of extreme temperatures on the map, this is how it looks when that color needs to be used for over 30% of the Australia's area. And that for 3 days in a row, starting today, Dec 18 2019 (like, meh, just a balmy 40C in Melbourne at 18:30, she'll be apples).
[40C is 104F and 50C is 122F --ed.]
Coverage:
BBC - Australia heatwave: Nation endures hottest day on record
Guardian Australia heatwave: records forecast to be broken as temperatures surge past 40C
AFP Australia has its hottest day on record, more to come
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Hottest Day of December on Record in Australia - Most of It Over 42C
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday December 18 2019, @04:24PM (3 children)
Bake all the spiders, snakes, roos, cane toads, etc. and let the air conditioned primates inherit the continent.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday December 18 2019, @09:29PM (1 child)
That will just kill off the weakest, leaving the strongest ones behind.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @09:13PM
And now they are angry, too.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday December 18 2019, @09:43PM
Today is the day when bears will drop - anyone walking around gum trees be aware!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @04:48PM (40 children)
We must raise tax!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by acid andy on Wednesday December 18 2019, @04:54PM (26 children)
Bzzzt wrong! Deregulation! You see, the climate is feeling stifled by all those short-sighted, selfish environmental regulations. We all know when someone says it's stifling, they mean they're too hot. Logically therefore, getting rid of all the regulations will surely make it cooler! Now sack all those waste-of-space scientists immediately!
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 1) by soylentnewsinator on Wednesday December 18 2019, @05:39PM (25 children)
I'm glad to finally see some support behind nuclear here. Though, I'm a big fan of the newer thorium reactors.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:09PM (19 children)
I've not seen a decent very long term strategy for dealing with the waste, even if there's less with thorium. What happens when someone digs it up in 500 years in a civilization where Geiger counters no longer exist? Fusion on the other hand would be a different story.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:15PM
> what happens when someone digs it up in 500 years in a civilization where Geiger counters no longer exist?
They might get cancer a bit early, but when Geiger counters no longer exist they are more likely to die of childbirth, plague, war, starvation, or indeed lung disease from mining 1 km underground.
Meanwhile what is the impact *now* from global warming.
> Fusion on the other hand would be a different story.
Alas, global warming is happening *now*. Fusion is in "50 years".
Stop mucking about and prevaricating. There is a solution that works *now*. Do it.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:34PM (15 children)
There is no such thing as nuclear waste, if it is radioactive it can be used as fuel.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:46PM (3 children)
Can be but can we trust those motivated by profit to do so and to properly contain it in the mean time?
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @08:47PM (2 children)
No, you can't trust anyone. Ever. Their motivation makes no difference. I know plenty of people motivated to help the sick who are only feeding them poisons.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @11:59PM (1 child)
How is that interesting? Is SN 90% trolls now?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:02AM
No, you just don't have common sense.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday December 18 2019, @09:31PM (10 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @10:44PM (9 children)
If it is energetic enough to harm someone it is energetic enough to extract energy from. What you really mean is there are easier things to extract energy from instead.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday December 18 2019, @11:05PM (5 children)
Would you like some micrograms of Polonium in your tea? I hear it's smashing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @11:47PM
I'm sure you can use micrograms of polonium to heat up some stuff if it is that dangerous.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:07AM (3 children)
https://web.archive.org/web/20120310145431/http://www.ead.anl.gov/pub/doc/polonium.pdf [archive.org]
So 140 uW per ug. You can use 1 microgram to power about 140 watches:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(power) [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday December 19 2019, @01:39AM (2 children)
Until the Carnot tax.
By the time you pay off all the energy to get the remaining energy in the form you want it, usually in the form of electricity or shaft work, you find there isn't much, if any, left.
Kinda like a Cheetah expending 100 calories to catch rodents having 80 calories in them. No matter how many rodents the big cat catches, it's gonna starve.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @02:33AM (1 child)
This is morel like harvesting 100 calories in per microgram of mouse.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:29PM
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 18 2019, @11:16PM (2 children)
No, doesn't work that way. The biological thresholds can be a lot lower than the threshold for viable energy extraction.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @11:45PM (1 child)
You keep using that weasel word "viable". The energy is there to be extracted, it is just that there are easier ways.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:20PM
We can increase the efficiency somewhat by dumping all the radioactive stuff into some sort of insulated warehouse and let it warm up a bunch, but you'll never get more energy out of that than the massive investment of energy and time you put in.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:58PM (1 child)
Roughly, the half-life of a material is an inverse approximation of how radioactive it is --> the longer the half-life, the less radioactive (and therefore, less dangerous to handle).
Stuff with very short half life can be very dangerous but irrelevant long term as it will all be gone. Iodine-131 falls into this category.
Stuff with very long half life will stick around for the long game but also isn't very radioactive so not a big worry.
The worrisome bits are reaction products that fall somewhere the middle, very typical nuclear waste products in this category are Strontium-90 and Caesium-137, both with a half life of about 30 years.
We can estimate the scenario you describe based on past incidents. Caesium-137 was the material involved in the a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident'>Goiânia accident when a scavenger found a 93g sample, did not know what it was or the dangers it posed, and 4 people died from exposure to high energy gamma rays.
So with a half life of 30 years, after 500 years this will have decayed by half a little less than 17 times. So if we bury 10 tonnes of Caesium-137 and 500 years later someone digs it up, about 100g will remain and we have roughly the same amount of material that lead to the Goiânia accident. However, a key difference is that remaining caesium-137 will not be very pure, mixed with ~10 tonnes of other crap and I suspect it will be less fascinating to the people who find it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @01:02PM
you're going to need quiet a few nuke reactors to make enough electricity to smelt enough iron and possibly lead to to build that ginormous dig-dug that can handle 10 tons of radioactif caesium ^_^
but i guess it's ok to concentrate more power in fewer hands ... sunburn is for losers.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by HiThere on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:16PM
You're a big fan of something that hasn't been built yet, where all you've seen is salesman's promises.
I'm moderately optimistic about the molten salt Thorium reactors, especially if it turns out to be true that they can consume the waste from current plants as part of their fuel. But ... that's salesman's promises. I want to see what actually shows up before I get too optimistic.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @08:11PM (3 children)
Ignorance does that.
Reality is that thorium is same as uranium. If you are not a fan of uranium, you cannot be a fan of thorium, by definition. If you think they are different, you don't know physics.
PS. I'm fan of nuclear energy because it's simply better alternative than continued usage of fossil fuels. That's all. But snake oil about "magic thorium" is just that. Snake oil
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:22AM (1 child)
It was my understanding that with thorium unlike uranium you could have pebble bed reactors, which by design aren't susceptible to runaway meltdowns. Is this understanding wrong?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by dry on Thursday December 19 2019, @04:08AM
Yes, you can make pebble bed reactors with most types of nuclear fuel. You're right that they don't melt down as they burn first if things go really wrong. As usual the claim is that industry would never take shortcuts so they're safe.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday December 19 2019, @01:49AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:40PM (12 children)
How do you propose we pay for all the extra firefighters?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:11PM (5 children)
In a socialist society, people will work for free.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday December 18 2019, @08:54PM (3 children)
In a Libertarian paradise the market will solve the firefighting problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @09:09PM (1 child)
Let everything burn tbh
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @10:41PM
Start with the libretardians, we'll look again if we need continue after that.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:02AM
Nah, in their mind the current system is fine. 85% of all fire fighters are actually volunteers. Basically people with money just say "fuck you!" and so society relies on some decent folk to work extra to cover the gap.
The US is broken, has been for a long time, but being the economic powerhouse let the broken jaloppie keep sputtering along.
(Score: 3, Informative) by barbara hudson on Wednesday December 18 2019, @11:54PM
People can't work 12-hour days for free for 5-6 months a year. Large parts of Australia are going to have to be abandoned not just because of fire but lack of water. Wells are either dry or contaminated with salt. Many homes are just cinderblock with swamp coolers, and they don't work well when it's 45 and up (some streets measured 61-68 in the sun - 141 to 158 F).
When nighttime doesn't provide relief, it's not really doable. Aboriginals are worried about having to leave permanently.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Wednesday December 18 2019, @10:02PM (5 children)
Don't know - how do we pay for more volunteers? [wikipedia.org]
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday December 18 2019, @10:45PM (1 child)
Generally, in the US at least, the equipment and training is paid for in a large part with federal and/or state grants and/or local property taxes.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:36AM
Oveer here as well. Which is why we aren't allergic to paying taxes - we can see the benefits.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday December 18 2019, @11:56PM (2 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:38AM (1 child)
No, it isn't a reasonable expectation. And yet they do.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday December 19 2019, @01:52AM
They only do until they hit the wall. Exhaustion makes them worse than useless. They make mistakes, slow down others, and ultimately have to be cared for by others.
Given that many Australians were criminals "transported" to Australia against their will, maybe they can demand the right to return to the UK. It's only 25 million people.
We can call the program of resettlement "Back From The Outback!"
But all joking aside, this is the shape of things to come for about 2 billion to 4 billion people.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @05:51PM (2 children)
That's just barely warm here in SoCal. When it gets over 115F in the shade I take off my sweater and wear shorts.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @06:54PM
Forecast average for the continent.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:18PM
So you live in the Mojave? Death Valley? Not in Santa Barbara.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:12PM (1 child)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhs3Qklz5a0 [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @07:38PM
A G.I for his cutie-pie is Not
(Score: 3, Funny) by SomeGuy on Wednesday December 18 2019, @08:21PM (1 child)
Knew it. That new G5 is microwaving the place.
(Score: 2) by gawdonblue on Wednesday December 18 2019, @09:14PM
It's a Chinese plot!!!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Mykl on Wednesday December 18 2019, @09:40PM (18 children)
It's worth noting that this has happened in December - i.e. early Summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Australia is typically hotter in late Summer (particularly February). In other words, this record breaking heat day has occurred in a month that is not normally the hottest month.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 18 2019, @10:38PM (2 children)
In fact, in Rand-McNally, they wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people! [instagram.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @05:37AM (1 child)
No one appriciates a good joke anymore, today this would be considered racist towards rand-mcnallians.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @09:33PM
Huh?
There is only one sentient race on this planet, Homo Sapiens. I guess the bigot is you.
I suppose you thought your quip was humorous. It's not. And I'm *really* easily amused.
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday December 18 2019, @11:02PM (14 children)
Maybe the drought will break in Feb - millennium drought broke about that time of the year.
Lemme see [bom.gov.au]
Nope, for the time being, ENSO is in neutral.
Oh, well, for my sleep quality I'd better look to replace the evaporative cooling with a compressor driven one. The outlook [bom.gov.au] reads like
Yeap, we're properly fucked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:24AM (11 children)
I guess we'll all have to do a Smoko and holiday elsewhere...
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:40AM (9 children)
Let's go north - but we'll miss Christmas, they have theirs in July...
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Thursday December 19 2019, @01:11AM (8 children)
Let's not.
I invested 4 years of my life to get adjusted to "Christmas is a summer holiday".
Unlike others, this investment continues to pay up and I have no intention to screw it.
Even having a badly burnt & grease-smothered snag in a lousy bread slice** at a Bunnings sizzle is far more attractive than "going north".
(living in Melbourne, I can actually go a bit north, but I see going further than Cape York as a symptom of serious decline in intellectual capabilities)
---
** don't get me started on the proper placement of onions [theguardian.com], of course it's after sausage. The Aborigines civilization would not have survived that long if they were to put the sausage on top of the onions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Thursday December 19 2019, @03:22AM (6 children)
I do miss a proper white xmas. Even though for nearly half my life it's been summer xmas, the childhood view of what a real xmas is prevails. Snowmen, snow lanterns, snowball fights, and Santa after dark with his lantern bringing the pressies. On xmas eve.
**) Onions should not go on top of the sausage. Nor should they go under it. Or by the side. Any side. Or anywhere else near the sausage. Unless it's raw. We're fine with raw onions [theguardian.com].
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday December 19 2019, @06:56AM (5 children)
By the time I got here, I saw too many winters to still keep close the good memories of the childhood.
Lemme put it this way: I remember too well what I'm not missing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Thursday December 19 2019, @07:23AM (4 children)
Bah, how are you meant to feel alive if you're not having to spend half an hour in the morning freeing your vehicle from the clutches of the snow and ice that has built up overnight (sometimes with the assistance of a helpful snowplow traveling past and putting a wall behind your vehicle)? I fear I'm getting soft down here...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday December 19 2019, @08:11AM (3 children)
European, remember? It means public transport is placed conveniently enough for me to never need a personal car.
(maybe my subconscious told me I'm not alive enough and I should emigrate?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Friday December 20 2019, @02:39AM (2 children)
These city folk... no appreciation for life ;)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday December 20 2019, @02:46AM (1 child)
Heh, when I visited my parents the first time after emmigating, I made the mistake to rent a car.
The most frustrating experience ever, even outside the city: you can drive over 50-60kph for distances of 2-3 km; that is, until you hit the next village and need to cut back the speed.
Good to live in a country where there are so many place that can qualify for the middle of nowhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Friday December 20 2019, @03:13AM
Heh, yeah the sense of scale when you're living down here is rather different from what you get in Europe.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday December 19 2019, @05:24AM
My daughter lives in the US. Every time she comes home she insists on going to Bunnings for lunch on her first weekend...
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday December 19 2019, @12:54AM
Why?
(I mean... look, I like "properly fucked", doesn't happen often enough at my age) (large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by evilcam on Thursday December 19 2019, @05:01AM (1 child)
I wonder in 20 years how history will remember the LNP when it comes to their inaction on climate change? Sadly, I don't think any of them (or their voters) care.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday December 19 2019, @06:46AM
There's a number of things I couldn't get the taste of, even I have tried to.
One of them is cricket and a really tried to get into it.
The other one is LNP - Howard was... meh, but good enough while it lasted (got only his last 4 years). I find it now repulsive enough to not even cross my mind getting into it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford