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Non Footy Chat Thread II

Poupou Escobar

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you mean the life long PHD students ?

I worked with a few at ANU on a commercial venture they were working on and that was about 20 years ago, and to this day there venture has never been commercialized, but hey, they are still being paid, albeit poorly, to carry out research
Exactly those types. There are now research jobs in my industry that exclude anyone with a PhD, so useless have they turned out to be.
 

Gronk

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Hopefully they don't give me thalidomide for my morning sickness.
Well thalidomide is however used in the treatment of skin cancer now, just not for pregnant chicks.

What's your point anyway ? That science is infallible ? Said nobody ever. It is indisputable however that science gets it right most of the time and there will always be detractors. Say hi to your flat earther mates for me.
 

Bazal

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I can see Pou as a flat earther. The merkin lives arguing dumb points, he'd be right at home
 
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cheers HJ

I'm not arguing the point or saying you are wrong, I didn't put any contra argument forward. Its just that if you dont provide a source of reference then its just an opinion and you can leave yourself open but we have had this conversation prior.

After following Fitsimmons for the last few months he has convinced me that no amount of hazard reduction would have prevented the current fires as we are in a pretty bad drought, and he is well qualified to make that claim.

As for climate change, well that's a whole other argument.

Have you been affected by the fires up your way ? I have friends in Kurrajong who nearly lost their house but they are OK, for now at least.

Well, despite clear evidence showing an increase in precipitation over the last century, this has still been the driest year in that century for Australia.

The first two decades of the 21st century have been much wetter than the first two decades of the 20th century but then, BAM!, 2019 comes outta nowhere and kicks us in the teeth.

It’s nothing more than an outlier, and not representative of anything other than that, but that doesn’t matter when we end up with the result we’ve got.

So, I agree to an extent with Fitzsimmons in that this year was always going to be a fire year, but I disagree around the lack of clearing not having an effect.

Since Bob Carr closed off the fire trails to protected parks the fuel load has been building up. Even in normal drought years this hasn’t resulted in a catastrophe because we’ve had enough water to balance the fuel loads.

This year, however? No. Ever since those trails closed the fire demons of nature have just been waiting for this outlier to arrive. And now it’s here, and now our sins are coming back to get us.

As for me - so far, so good, and thanks for asking. But if you look at the maps you can see the untouched area below the Springwood-Katoomba area has now started patching up with isolated fires. The dam is now surrounded so those southerlies are free to push the burn north towards the suburbs without the dam acting as a fire break. So, we’ll have to see how we go but so far, all good.
 
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Even if the majority of scientists do agree (I'm sure they do), most of them would be the garbage scientists not good enough for a salaried job in industry.

Well, 52% is technically a majority, so...

As for the salaried part...from those sampled for the phony 97% lie, you’d be looking at those who were professional forecasters (as in, they actually have a job doing it). The real figure there is 33%...
 

Gronk

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Since Bob Carr closed off the fire trails to protected parks the fuel load has been building up. Even in normal drought years this hasn’t resulted in a catastrophe because we’ve had enough water to balance the fuel loads.

Are you referring to the same Bob Carr who was NSW Premier from 1995-2005 ? How can it still be his fault ? That was 6 premiers ago !
 

Bazal

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Are you referring to the same Bob Carr who was NSW Premier from 1995-2005 ? How can it still be his fault ? That was 6 premiers ago !

Well there is such a thing as cause and effect. Why couldn't Carr have started a process or series of processes that eventually lead to issues?

I don't necessarily agree, but it's silly to just say "well that was six premiers ago so it's not true"
 

Gronk

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Well there is such a thing as cause and effect. Why couldn't Carr have started a process or series of processes that eventually lead to issues?

I don't necessarily agree, but it's silly to just say "well that was six premiers ago so it's not true"
I never said that Bob Carr didn't close the fire trails or whatever. I was simply pointing out that there has been plenty of opportunity to repeal, amend these orders IF they have been shown to be counterproductive. The mere fact that they have stayed closed (have they?) suggests that it's not been a huge problem. Otherwise two labor governments and 4 liberal governments since, would have done something about it.
 

Bazal

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I never said that Bob Carr didn't close the fire trails or whatever. I was simply pointing out that there has been plenty of opportunity to repeal, amend these orders IF they have been shown to be counterproductive. The mere fact that they have stayed closed (have they?) suggests that it's not been a huge problem. Otherwise two labor governments and 4 liberal governments since, would have done something about it.

But if person A puts in place a process that's wrong, however it isn't demonstrated to be wrong until person F is charge, how can the people in between be held accountable?
 

Gronk

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But if person A puts in place a process that's wrong, however it isn't demonstrated to be wrong until person F is charge, how can the people in between be held accountable?

I'm confused about the tangent that this has gone. This is not about anything other than if the closing of fire trails occurred in the nineties / naughties, then surely it could have been repealed IF it is indeed as problematic as HJ suggests.

If it is problematic and compounds hazard reduction issues, then each and every premier since the merkin who introduced it are just as culpable.
 

Bazal

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I'm confused about the tangent that this has gone. This is not about anything other than if the closing of fire trails occurred in the nineties / naughties, then surely it could have been repealed IF it is indeed as problematic as HJ suggests.

If it is problematic and compounds hazard reduction issues, then each and every premier since the merkin who introduced it are just as culpable.

The point is that if it hasn't been demonstrated to be problematic until now why would have it been changed? And why would it not then still be at least mostly the responsibility of whoever actioned it originally?

I probably didn't get it across very well to be fair. A month of smoke inhalation is starting to take it's toll. I answered the phone with an introduction from a job a left four years ago this morning
 

Poupou Escobar

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I'm confused about the tangent that this has gone. This is not about anything other than if the closing of fire trails occurred in the nineties / naughties, then surely it could have been repealed IF it is indeed as problematic as HJ suggests.

If it is problematic and compounds hazard reduction issues, then each and every premier since the merkin who introduced it are just as culpable.
If it took this long to be evident that it was harmful then the people in between aren't to blame. For that matter neither is Bob Carr. Nobody can know the unintended consequences of any policy change. Not even those omniscient lords of ethics known as scientists.
 

Gronk

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If it took this long to be evident that it was harmful then the people in between aren't to blame. For that matter neither is Bob Carr. Nobody can know the unintended consequences of any policy change. Not even those omniscient lords of ethics known as scientists.
Well the premise of the accusation by HJ was that the problem "started with" Bob Carr, which clearly makes a conclusion that it's been a problem since then and still is.

So if it's such a problem then Carr and his successors are jointly culpable.

If it has only manifested itself as a problem recently then Carr if off the hook.

Right now trivial fire trails are not going to stand in the way of the pragmatic attitude of the community. Right now the punters are sick of greenies and the far right getting in the way of meaningful action on climate change and sensible mitigation of bushfire risk.

The sensible middle want all you f**kers (you know who you are) to STFU and pull your collective heads in.
 
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