two brilliant photos out of Japan

would you like ice with your drink?

tiny little bit damp in Paris … awesome

japanese tsunami footage … can’t. stop. watching.

Dailymotion – New Shocking Video Of The Japanes…, posted with vodpod

epic footage out of japan. a disaster movie come true

*speechless*

ho. ly. shit. new footage from japanese tsunami

unbelievable. terrifying.

Footage of Japan’s devastating tsunami, posted with vodpod

bike weather in milwaukee

aahhh, wisconsin. how i do miss you.

found at boing boing.

yasi … gonna live blog from twitter until i go to work

Just a thought: Gonna catch a couple of hours of zzzzzz’s. Back later.

UPDATE 1.51am: Photographer John Wilson is in Tully and is updating his website as he can.

UPDATE 1.38am: Latest radar image:

UPDATE 1.22am: Google’s Australian Disaster Map 2011.

UPDATE 1.20am: Another live stream, this one from Kirwan in Townsville.

UPDATE 1.18am: NASA has constant updates, both images and information.

UPDATE 1.16am: SBS online have published a list of resources for following Yasi online.

UPDATE 1.11am: 1am track map released:

UPDATE 1.04am: Latest from the BOM:

At 1:00 am EST Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi, Category 5 was estimated to be 120
kilometres south southeast of Cairns and 50 kilometres south of Innisfail and
moving west southwest at 30 kilometres per hour.

YASI CROSSED THE COAST NEAR MISSION BEACH DURING THE PAST HOUR WITH THE LARGE
DESTRUCTIVE CORE AROUND THE EYE EXTENDING BETWEEN INNISFAIL AND CARDWELL.

Tropical Cyclone Yasi, CATEGORY 5, will weaken only slowly as it continues to
move in a west-southwesterly direction towards the Georgetown area during the
morning.

EXTREMELY DANGEROUS WAVES AND HIGHER THAN NORMAL TIDES tides exceeding the high
water mark will continue between Cairns and Proserpine until at least the
morning high tide.

VERY DESTRUCTIVE winds with gusts up to 290 km/h between Cairns and Ingham and
the adjacent ranges will extend inland and gradually weaken.

The VERY DESTRUCTIVE CORE of the cyclone will take up to 4 hours to pass.

DESTRUCTIVE winds with gusts in excess of 125 km/h between Cape Tribulation and
Ayr will spread inland overnight.

DAMAGING WINDS with gusts to 90 km/hr are occurring in remaining coastal areas
between Cape Flattery and Proserpine, and are forecast to extend through to Mt
Isa during Thursday.

Winds are forecast to gradually ease about the east coast during Thursday
morning.

FLOODING RAINS between Port Douglas and Proserpine will gradually extend inland.

UPDATE 12.54am: Awesome color loop from MTSAT.

UPDATE 12.49am: Jess Van Vonderon reports from her hotel room in Townsville.

UPDATE 12.34am: ABC radio confirms the Innisfail evac centre roof is just fine. @CharlieMunsie is a liar.

UPDATE 12.32am: Footage from Townsville at midnight.

UPDATE 12.25am: Reports 150,000 are now without power.

UPDATE 12.22am: Eye of the storm now over Mission Beach. They can see stars, apparently.

UPDATE 12.20am: Rumours now that the Innisfail evac centre report is a crock. The joys of Twitter and the fuckwits who think it’s amusing. Stay tuned.

Just a thought: Enough with the hunkering and the bunkering, people.

UPDATE 12.10am: Hotel guests leave their rooms for evacuation rooms.

UPDATE 12.08am: Reports the Innisfail evac centre with 500 people inside has lost its roof. no reports of injuries.

UPDATE 12.05am: Updated track map from 12am:

UPDATE 12.04am: Another live stream from Townsville, looking to Castle Hill from North Ward.

UPDATE 12.02am: here’s a comparison for the Brits:

UPDATE 11.59pm: Dunk Island getting hammered.

UPDATE 11.56pm: Live stream from some storm chasers near Lucinda.

UPDATE 11.54pm: Funniest tweet of the night so far from @drunkenmadman:

“I ate some shellfish before i settled in to watch #tcyasi. Yes, it was the clam before the storm.”

Awesome.

UPDATE 11.53pm: Cairns weather radar.

UPDATE 11.50pm: Footage from Castle Hill, Townsville this afternoon:

UPDATE 11.47pm: Smart birds:

UPDATE 11.46pm: Another comparison image:

UPDATE 11.43pm: 290km/h winds reported between Cairns and Ingham. reports it will come ashore between Innisfail and South Mission Beach.

UPDATE 11.42pm: Live stream from a Townsville garden. Nice windchimes.

UPDATE 11.39pm: latest radar image. shit’s starting to hit now.

UPDATE 11.37pm: Live webcam from Cairns CBD.

UPDATE 11.33pm: footage from innisfail:

UPDATE 11.31pm: here’s a video from 10pm in Townsville:

UPDATE 11.30pm: here’s a video from Cairns:

UPDATE 11.28pm: my counterpart at cairns.com.au Simon Crerar and his colleague are running a live blog updating as they can:

live blog.

UPDATE 11.21pm: Here is the obligatory biblical ARSECLOWN blaming it all on our atheist Prime Minister and our gay Greens leader:

I am sure many will remember newspaper articles which stated, some on the front page, “Prayers answered, Heavens open, John Howard Calls Nation to Pray, Christians Pray for rain. Now we have a new crisis brewing in the seas of Australia with Cyclone Bianca in WA just passing through, and Cyclone Yasi in QLD. How many more disasters will it take before our nation, starting from the Prime Minister, would fall on our knees and ask for God’s protection and turn back to Him?”

UPDATE 11.15pm: Awesome infographic from the ABC … (full size here):

seems to contradict some earlier info.

UPDATE 11.09pm: 90,000 now without power in path of Yasi.

UPDATE 11.07pm: Another fresh pic from the BOM:

UPDATE 11.05pm: Here’s a live stream from Cairns.

UPDATE 10.58pm: ABC tropical north has an excellent updating website.

UPDATE 10.53pm: Livestream from Townsville.

UPDATE 10.50pm: latest NASA image

just a thought (10.47pm): my partner’s up to her luscious ass in snow, and queensland is being hit by its third cyclone in 5 weeks. no, climate change deniers, there’s nothing in it all. ARSECLOWNS.

UPDATE 10.40pm: fuck yeah, cairns:

UPDATE 10.35pm: live stream at Ross Creek.

bigger than katrina. fuck me.

this is how it would look in the US:

suspect i’ll be going in to work shortly. can’t sleep with this going on and stuff needs to be done. my boss is going to be there anyway, and i’m scheduled to start at 5am, but shit, i just want to go in.

here’s the latest radar:

flood levy is the right thing to do …

here is my latest rant over at goldcoast.com.au:

OUR main poll at the moment asks the question: “Do you support the Federal Government’s flood levy?”

If the numbers are to be believed, 71 per cent of Gold Coasters — at least the ones who visit goldcoast.com.au and clicked on our poll — do not support the idea of a flood levy — a one-off payment to help their fellow Australians who have been gutted by the recent floods.

Really?

Let’s take a closer look at this flood levy.

For a start, if you earn less than $50,000 or were flooded, you don’t pay anything at all.

Second, it’s a one-off payment. Once. Pretty short-lived pain for long-term gain if you ask me.

If you earn between $50,000 and $100,000 per year you will pay an additional 0.5 per cent in flood levy. Over $100,000 and you’ll pay an extra 1 per cent.

Let’s be clear — if you earn, say, $60,000 a year, you will pay 96 cents a week in flood levy.

That’s $49.92. Total. Once.

If you earn $100,000 per annum, you will pay a total of $250.12. That’s it. Once.

(You can calculate exactly how much you’ll pay here.)

So, seriously, Gold Coast objectors? Do you really object to paying between $50 and $250 — ONCE — to help your fellow Queenslanders get back on their feet?

I’ll be honest with you … I find that just a tad mean-spirited.

If you’ve already donated to the various flood appeals then I can understand that you might object to being made to `donate’ again.

But I’m also willing to bet that if you’ve donated then you’re already of the mindset that says giving in order to help someone in trouble is, if nothing else, good karma, and you’d happily give a little more, even if my colleague Robyn Wuth wouldn’t.

There’s an old saw that people become more conservative as they get older. (For the opposing view, check out this study).

I must be the exception.

I swear I’m becoming more of a socialist as I get older.

Yes, I said it — the `S’ word.

Of course, in American politics, admitting to being a socialist is akin to declaring your membership of the Communist Party, and makes you instantly unelectable, the No.1 fear of US voters (at least the ones with money) being `wealth redistribution’.

(Here’s a classic piece of anti-socialism paranoia from the Washington Times.)

I’d like to think that here in the Lucky Country we’re still not afraid of helping those less fortunate.

Me, I’m all in favour.

If I were Queen For a Day — or Julia Gillard or Anna Bligh — I’d go a lot further.

For a start I would make it illegal to build any kind of residential development on a known floodplain, no matter how rare that flood event might be. And no amount of bribery from developers would change my mind.

Next, if your house was flooded, you would not be allowed to return to that location to rebuild. My government will pay to have you relocated to a site that is not floodprone.

Finally, my government would legislate to make sure every insurance company pays out on flood insurance regardless of whether the water falls from the sky, rises from the river or the ocean, whether it comes in a flash flood in minutes or over a period of days.

No exemptions, no refusals, no denials.

And if that means I have to make the rest of us pay an extra $250 in tax — ONCE — then, hell yeah, I’ll do it.

If all that makes me a nasty old socialist, so be it.

Socialist and proud.

At least nobody will call me mean-spirited.

look out gold coast

here we go again