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posted by mattie_p on Monday February 17 2014, @05:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the not-in-my-backyard dept.

Submitted on behalf of user "crutchy" #179, who writes:

"I don't seem to be able to use the 'Submit Story' feature at the moment... I just thought I'd flag a little saga currently unfolding near where I live. An open cut coal mine that supplies coal to a nearby 1600MW power station in Victoria, Australia, has been on fire for over a week. This could threaten electricity generation in the area and might have been deliberately set.

What might be more interesting is the lack of news media attention to it."

[Ed. Note] we're working on fixing article submission, thanks for getting this to us via alternate means.

 
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  • (Score: 1) by kwerle on Tuesday February 18 2014, @05:13AM

    by kwerle (746) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @05:13AM (#1416) Homepage

    The 'problem' is, we are all different. That said, a lot of different things grab my interest: I might want to read what you might want to submit.

    Sure, that's true. And that's part of the reason I'm hoping to see some kind of goal/subject statement for the site. If this is to replace slashdot (and, one hopes, improve), then I'd like to never see this kind of story, here.

    If this site is going to cover TSA incidents, car fires, and arbitrary topics like this, then I should bail.

    My hope is that this will cover technology news. Which this is not. My hope is that you will find news about coal fires that may have been caused by arson on an eco news site or some other site that talks about possible arson.

  • (Score: 2) by mattie_p on Tuesday February 18 2014, @06:25AM

    by mattie_p (13) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @06:25AM (#1442) Journal

    kwerle, since this article was posted, we've released articles on auperconductivity research, Google buying (yet) another tech company, a Tesla story (or not, but gotta love those flamewars!), discussion on DRM within HTML5, Java 8 release candidate, and DNS snooping. If we are not meeting your needs here, please let us know what articles you ARE looking for. Unfortunately I am not a mind reader, nor are the other editors.

    The best way for you to tell us what you want to see is to submit a story yourself! [soylentnews.org] I really have the same goal in mind as you, and I hope that as a site we will be able to articulate the vision we have and meet the needs that you want.

    Thanks for reading!

    • (Score: 1) by kwerle on Tuesday February 18 2014, @04:12PM

      by kwerle (746) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @04:12PM (#1675) Homepage

      Yeah, that's a Tesla story. It is NOT a news item.

      The best way for you to tell us what you want to see is to submit a story yourself! I really have the same goal in mind as you, and I hope that as a site we will be able to articulate the vision we have and meet the needs that you want.

      Again: I'm telling you what I do NOT want to see because that's more important to me than what I do want to see. The tech news you mentioned is all great stuff (again, the Tesla story is not news). That's never been the problem with /. The problem has ever been the signal to noise ratio because the editors failed to reject trash stories.

  • (Score: 1) by crutchy on Tuesday February 18 2014, @06:32AM

    by crutchy (179) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @06:32AM (#1443) Homepage Journal

    My hope is that this will cover technology news

    so... apple sues google, google sues apple, apple sues microsoft, microsoft buys motorola, linux 3.X released, nvidia support for linux is shit, steam... bitcoin...

    maybe you should go back to slashdot

    i brought up this story not only for its environmental impacts, but also the possible/apparent mainstream media censorship issue

    it's fine if you don't think it's newsworthy... but please don't assume that nobody thinks it's newsworthy

    i doubt you will find any newssite in the world that only publishes articles/stories that all of its readership enjoys

    it is also early days for solent... if nobody contributes anything out of fear of backlash there isn't going to be much to read and comment on

    • (Score: 1) by kwerle on Tuesday February 18 2014, @04:00PM

      by kwerle (746) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @04:00PM (#1669) Homepage

      so... apple sues google, google sues apple, apple sues microsoft, microsoft buys motorola, linux 3.X released, nvidia support for linux is shit, steam... bitcoin...

      maybe you should go back to slashdot

      Maybe.

      My point is that /. carries too many articles like this (non tech articles), and too many non news articles (a car caught fire). Frankly, I'm not very interested when companies sue each other - I'm far more interested in when suits are settled and something actually happened.

      My hope is that the focus of this site be narrower than what /. has become. Not that there be more articles - but that there be fewer of better quality.

      Again, a goal statement would perhaps be helpful.

      • (Score: 0) by crutchy on Tuesday February 18 2014, @08:51PM

        by crutchy (179) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @08:51PM (#1901) Homepage Journal

        I'm far more interested in when suits are settled and something actually happened

        how is that newsworthy? usually it merely consists of a handshake and a non-disclosure agreement

        also, if you're seriously comparing the coal mine in TFA to a car fire, i encourage you to look into it more (even though there isn't much in the mainstream media). the mine is huge and even the fire is about 3 km long. fire authorities are still trying to figure out how to put the thing out after more than a week. i have a feeling this fire will eventually appear in the mainstream media, but by then it will be too late.

        • (Score: 1) by kwerle on Tuesday February 18 2014, @09:02PM

          by kwerle (746) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @09:02PM (#1909) Homepage

          how is that newsworthy? usually it merely consists of a handshake and a non-disclosure agreement

          It probably isn't. And by extension, the announcement that a suit is *starting* certainly is not.

          also, if you're seriously comparing the coal mine in TFA to a car fire, i encourage you to look into it more

          From a technology standpoint, they're about identical. Nothing [interesting] to do with tech. The fact that the coal fire is big doesn't make it more technologically interesting. If they use some interesting tech to put it out, then I'd love to hear about it. Until then, it's a coal mine fire. And if it was arson, then it was a crime. Neither of those give it a reason to be on this site (I hope).

          • (Score: 1) by crutchy on Tuesday February 18 2014, @09:14PM

            by crutchy (179) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @09:14PM (#1921) Homepage Journal

            Nothing [interesting] to do with tech

            the fact that it is threatening a power station might be... a lot of tech doesn't work well without them :-P

            If they use some interesting tech to put it out, then I'd love to hear about it.

            there is some interesting tech being used from what i hear. it's unfortunate that the media hasn't reported on it, but there aren't hundreds of firefighters lined up with conventional hoses trying to put this thing out. from what i hear there are some fairly specialized high volume firefighting appliances being used. i haven't seen any pics, so unfortunately this is just third-hand info. you don't put a coal fire out by hammering it with a water jet because it kinda acts like oil in some ways (it just spreads). i would think that's whatever the equipment actually is looks like, the water being pumped onto the fire is probably low pressure but high volume; so very large pipes with water flowing over the batters from the top maybe.

            the aspect that i originally thought might be interesting to soylent readers was the apparent media/corporate cover up (the mine and power station is owned by GDF Suez). it's something that is talked about a lot around here (in my engineering circle) anyway.