Storms . :s

By Steve Lillebuen From: The Sunday Telegraph March 07, 2010

MELBOURNE airport was closed, cinemas evacuated, trees and power lines brought down and footy and horse racing cancelled as hail up to 10cm in diameter fell over the city like snow yesterday.

In one of the most severe storms to hit the southern capital, 19mm of rain fell in just 18 minutes, causing havoc as streets were flooded and trains, planes and cars brought to a standstill.

Tullamarine Airport, where gusts of 100km/h were recorded, was closed and the deluge stopped trains and forced the evacuation of Southern Cross Station and a popular cinema complex in South Yarra.

"It was a very dangerous thunderstorm," senior weather bureau forecaster Richard Carlyon said. "We don't often see storm cells like that."

The storm forced the cancellation of the NAB Cup footy game between Brisbane and Geelong.

At Flemington, racegoer John Bell said: "Marble-sized hail stones came down for about 10 minutes. The track was covered in hail. It was all white. It looked like it had snowed."

Meanwhile the southwest Queensland town of St George is preparing for a flood peak that is expected to inundate 80 per cent of the town tomorrow.

The news is better for Sydney, with a few showers expected over the next few days and a forecast maximum of 27 today.

Summary

Melbourne was hit by heavy storms yesterday. In just 18 minutes, the rain falls about 19mm. Everything was shut down. A marble-sized rain falls came down about 10 minutes. The storm is expected to be continued tomorrow. Most places except sydney will be expecting rains.

Critique

Weather can't be predicted, things can get so fast and nothing we can stop it. We can plan things, but bad weather can spoil it. Just like in this article, everything was just cancelled. Football games being postponed, trains service and the airport are all closed.

Family pleads for help to find Trinity's killer

Family members said Trinity was a fun-loving water baby who loved butterflies. (Qld Police)
Relatives of a murdered eight-year-old girl in Bundaberg in southern Queensland have issued a public plea for information about the crime.
Police say they believe Trinity Leigh Bates, known as Trinny, was abducted from her home and her body found in a nearby drain.
As floral tributes piled up outside the girl's home this morning, Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson said the force was pouring "every possible resource" into the hunt for the killer.
The site remains cordoned off and extra police have arrived to help with the investigation.
Grandmother Kerri Hanlon and cousin Suzie Cavallaro spoke of their loss, describing Trinity as a fun-loving water baby who loved butterflies.
"She was one of the most photogenic creatures you'd ever find - if there was a camera, she'd be there," Ms Cavallaro said.
Mrs Hanlon says someone must know something.
"If anybody's out there that saw anything or thought they saw anything or think they know something, they need to tell somebody," Mrs Hanlon said.
Residents say they are living in fear after the murder.
One woman said she cannot believe it happened in her neighbourhood.
"I have a young girl of my own and now she's frightened - she's too frightened to walk to school by herself," she said.
Others are in shock.
"I lost a grandson to cancer but this is worse than that - this is horror," another resident said.
Local resident Caroline says she is shocked.
"I think for something to happen in a town like this is just unreal," she said.
Neighbour Jim says the community is now questioning itself.
"It does worry you that there's somebody like that around," he said.
Police are expected to give further details at a press conference later today.
The cause of death has yet to be determined.

Summary

Bundaberg which is located in southern Queensland, a place where people don't expect this kind of things to happen. A girl was recently murdered and left in nearby drain. The site of the incident were guarded by the police as further investigation will be carried out soon. Residents started to be aware of the situation and the children especially, became afraid to go out from their house. Some of the people still can't believe that there's murder in their town as they have been staying in such a peaceful place for years. However, the cause of the death has not yet been confirmed.


Critique,
Well, we should always be careful. Unexpected things can happen everywhere at any time.

Even in a place such where there's very tight security, a crime can happen.

Car size matters in safety, say experts
Philip King, Motoring editor From: The Australian February 23, 2010 12:00AM

A SMALL car would always come off second best in a collision with a heavier vehicle and it was more difficult to make them safe, experts agreed yesterday.

Just nine models on sale in NSW fall below the 975kg threshold for the transport levy and, with the exception of three Lotus sportscars, all are lightweight runabouts with a range of crash test results.

Two -- the Fiat 500 and Mazda 2 -- achieve the maximum five-star crash rating commonplace for larger vehicles.

Jack Haley, a technical specialist with the NRMA, which sponsors the New Car Assessment Program crash tests, said many drivers were more comfortable with small cars and manufacturers were now fitting sophisticated safety features, such as multiple airbags and electronic stability control.

Mr Haley said the aim of crash-test ratings was to help buyers make informed decisions.


"People normally buy a vehicle within a certain size range, and we try to steer them towards the safer vehicles in that range," he said.

He said smaller vehicles could be engineered to absorb crash energy effectively, but there was no dodging physics.

In multiple-vehicle collisions, weight played a role and occupants in a heavier car would be better off. "Mass has an effect," he said. "A car that's twice as heavy has twice the energy."

Stuart Newstead of the Monash University Accident Research Centre said that driving a car weighing less than a tonne -- much less than the fleet average of 1450kg -- meant you were automatically at a disadvantage.

"If you're in something light you're going to get hit by heavier things on average," he said.

Smaller cars were also more dangerous in single-vehicle crashes. "They have less room to absorb impact energy and inside the vehicle there's less survival space," he said.

Crash results gave a distorted picture, Dr Newstead said, because not all stars were equal.

"It's much harder to design a small vehicle that is ultra-safe," he said. "The NCAP ratings don't reflect that because their tests are independent of mass."

He said that as people were encouraged into smaller vehicles for environmental reasons, it was important to recognise that there was a safety trade-off.

fooled !

hahaa..what a day. Its our day man, 15 nov 09.

The first movie .

Hey guys ! i watched a movie called Coach Carter. It was originally came out in 2005, is based on the true story of Ken Carter. Ken, who is played superbly by Samuel L. Jackson, runs a sporting-goods store in the neighbourhood. He was also approached to coach the local high school basketball team. As it turns out, coach Carter is somewhat of a legend at the school, and holds most of the records from his playing days.
As the movie opens, we watched the hopeless Richmond High School team floundering after finishing an abysmal 4-22 season. Ken Carter, a successful small business owner who was once a record setting basketball star at Richmond High, accepts the grief of a part-time coaching job for the munificent sum of $1,500 for the entire season. He immediately lays down the law to his new team of cut-ups and clowns, he wants them to sign a contract in order to play for him with rules that include: maintaining a 2.3 grade point average, showing up at all classes and sitting in the front row and wearing a coat and tie on game day. If anyone is late or talks back to him, everyone is punished by extra exercises. It's a tough regime that places kids and parents in open rebellion against him. Even the principal (Denise Dowse) thinks he's being too tough since these kids, she reasons, won't go to college or even graduate from high school, so basketball is all they have. However, things were not as easy as he expected. This is because the players team were in shambles, and while the players have talent, they were more interested in themselves than the team. They ignored classes, most of them are in danger of never graduating, and others even sell drugs to make a living. It’s hard to grow up in downtown Los Angeles.
Ken Carter comes in to coach the team and realizes he has his work cut out for him. But, creating a winning basketball team is the least of his worries. He is more interested in creating decent hard-working men who will have chances to go to college someday. He wants his player to success in life and matured.
Coach Carter’s motives are pure, but they are met with hostility from both his players and their families. Sports isn’t everything, that’s the message Coach Carter brings to the table. One man can really actually make a difference. But he has to be strict and brave even when talking to the players parent.
Of course the movie comes down to that deciding game. The last seconds are nail-biting. What’s going to happen? Are they going to win or lose? Well they lost the game against the state champions. It doesn’t matter anyway. The real victory is in what happens to the players and the community after the basketball season is over.
Rich what ? RICHMOND !

lady ashley .

After spending about 2 hours of watching Australia, i thought that we were going to do the same thing as we did last time which was plot. However to make it interesting, Ms. Dil told us to do characteristic on the character that we like. At first i wanted to choose Nullah but it seems that i prefered Lady Ashley. It was Nicole Kidman stars as Sarah Ashley. Lady Ashley was young and naive, was an uppercrust British believed that her husband was cheating on her. When Lady Sarah Ashley was riding horses, a car pulls up with a man trying to convince Sarah not to sell Faraway Downs. While walking through a stable of horses, the man insisted they could use the money. She goes to ride on another horse, finally telling the man that she will go down to Australia and sell it herself.
As the female leading character surely it must be beautiful. About this time,Drover was in a bar trying to get a drink while a man teases him about who he hang out with because he’s not racist. He told his main man, Magarri, to wave his hat when the woman shows up. He then proceeds to get in a fight with most of the bar. Sarah arrived, and walked down the wharf and ignored the women who were greeting her while the men helps her carrying the luggage of her. At that time she was gorgeous.
Besides that, Lady Ashley was a brave woman. She was braved to sack Fletcher who was in charge of her husband business. In the morning, when Sarah was getting ready to leave, Fletcher came to her. Sarah asked about the cattle, saying that Nullah told her about it. He turns around, not so happy, asked Nullah to come to him. His mother and grandmother tell him in their native language to go to him. He does, and Fletcher asks again if he saw anything, also telling him quietly that if he says anything, he will beat his mother. Nullah can’t say anything more, and Sarah thought that maybe he was mistaken. Fletcher hands him off to the cook. But Nullah gets away and runs up to the windmill, which Fletcher said had not run in years. Nullah climbs up the tower and takes out a pin, and the wheel springs to life, turning on a faucet. Nullah yells that Fletcher lies. Fletcher runs after Nullah and hits him, and in the process, hits Nullahs mother and grandmother. Sarah runs over and smacks Fletcher with a riding crop, and fires him on the spot. Fletcher tells her she will not have anybody for the Drive in the morning. But she never regret it.

Stupid ?

So what made you think you could take a life
And just push it push it around
I guess you build yourself up so high
You had to take her and break her down


some of the lyrics from, stupid boy by keith urban

well, its a good song to listen as the message is related to all of us .
the song told us that we should always appreciate what we have now.
sometimes things can get a little bit complicated but we have to face it .
we just cant escape from it because later we might regret it .
ok guys, hopefully we aren't the stupid boy .
anyway, thanks ms Dil for the song !

p/s : ms Dil,
i manage to get more words compared from the first song.