Anna Bligh, Premier of Queensland, must have the worst job in the world at the moment.

Since late November, Queensland has experienced six ‘major rain events’ as the Bureau of Meteorology calls them.

The Bureau says that, in late December and early January, “almost every river in Queensland that is south of the Tropic of Capricorn and east of Charleville and Longreach reached major flood level at some stage”. It flooded in 17 towns including Theodore, Dalby, Chinchilla, Emerald, Bundaberg and Rockhampton. Some towns were under water for 2 weeks.

In the second week of January, Toowoomba was flooded. Toowoomba? It’s on top of a mountain! How can Toowoomba flood? Yet we all saw the videos of cars and trucks being washed down the main street.

Then Brisbane, Ipswich, Chinchilla and Dalby (again), Maryborough and Gympie.

Almost all of Queensland was awash. 35 people had died. Thousands of properties were knee-deep in mud. Infrastructure was badly damaged.

And then a cyclone or two. Anthony, a pip-squeak of a weather event, crossed the coast at Bowen on 30 January. Yasi, the biggest cyclone ever to hit Australia, crossed the coast last night around Mission Beach.

And during all of this, there has been Anna Bligh.

She has fronted up every day—several times a day—dispensing hard facts, forecasts, good news and bad.

She has been calm, in the face of actual and potential horror. She told us what was happening, in detail, without panic or emotion. But when, hours before Yasi hit, she talked of how frightening the night would be for those in the path of the cyclone, and how much she felt for them, you got the distinct impression she just might mean it.

She is to be applauded for her plain speaking. It’s rare to see politicians talk so much about numbers, names, dates and places (the Prime Minister, for example, suffers badly by comparison).

Bligh calmly reiterated the authorities’ advice. She told people what to do, and when to do it. It seems that, by and large, the people of north Queensland and far north Queensland heeded the advice. That’s the sign of a real leader.

Air New Zealand has announced that it has bought 14.9% of the shares of airline Virgin Blue.

Some of us are still smarting over losses incurred when Air New Zealand last tried a foray into the Australian aviation market, and wrecked Ansett.

I vowed then that I would not travel with Air New Zealand. And now, I will no longer travel with Virgin Blue.

At the time of the Ansett collapse, Virgin Blue was the tin-pot 3rd carrier newcomer flying out of third-rate terminals. When Ansett collapsed, Virgin Blue stood up to replace it as Australia’s second carrier after Qantas. And now Air NZ wants to buy a substantial portion of Virgin Blue. Such irony!

Of the gazillions of reports of Air NZ’s purchase, few seem to share my memories or concerns. One exception is Ian McIlwraith, of the Sydney Morning Herald, who writes about What a difference a decade makes.

I like carpaccio.

My understanding of what it is conforms to Wikipedia’s definition:

Carpaccio … is a dish of raw meat or fish (such as beef, veal, venison, salmon or tuna) generally thinly sliced or pounded thin and served as an appetizer.

According to Arrigo Cipriani, the present-day owner of Harry’s Bar, Carpaccio was invented at Harry’s Bar in Venice, where it was first served to the countess Amalia Nani Mocenigo in 1950 when she informed the bar’s owner that her doctor had recommended she eat only raw meat.

What, then, does the Hyatt in Collins Street, Melbourne, mean by the following (found in their events menus)?

• Carpaccio of roast beetroot, goat cheese, fine herbs, citrus dressing
• Seared tuna carpaccio, dill, capers, aioli and baby herbs

Ricky Gervais—of all people—writes about responses to ‘Why don’t you believe in God?’.

… historians have cataloged over 3700 supernatural beings, of which 2870 can be considered deities.

So next time someone tells me they believe in God, I’ll say “Oh which one? Zeus? Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra?…” If they say “Just God. I only believe in the one God,” I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869.

Read the full article at A Holiday Message From Ricky Gervais: Why I’m an Atheist.

Thanks to John C. for the link.

Sometimes, just sometimes, governments get it right.

Australia is prone to the odd bushfire and flood. The Australian Passport office will replace, free of charge, a passport lost in serious floods, storms, bushfires and the like.

Impressive.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has released its final report into an incident in 2008 in which a Qantas 747 lost its main power unit in flight and landed in Bangkok on backup battery power.

This reporting does not meet the general standards of reporting of aviation incidents, on two counts:

1. It does not include the word plunge as in “The plane plunged 300 feet…..”
2. It does not describe the flight crew as heroes.

What kind of outrage is this? As we know, all planes in any kind of incident “plunge” and all crew are “heroes”. The SMH seems to follow standards of reporting somewhat different from other aviation writers in Australia.

Note to self: remove tongue from cheek when ready.

Melbourne’s Herald Sun reports that Ian Botham and Ian Chappell had a fist fight in Adelaide recently.

The Herald Sun reports:

Botham, who hasn’t spoken to former Australia captain Chappell since 1980 …

and

Since then [March 1977] the pair … have only traded insults.

Which ‘fact’ is correct?

Or is there some way of trading insults without speaking?

From Annabelle Crabb’s WikiLeaks and the ‘Handy Heel’ manoeuvre at ABC’s The Drum:

[Talking about Vladimir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi:]

One hopes they also share clothes; an advantageous arrangement, seeing as Mr Putin is frequently shirtless, and Mr Berlusconi rarely in need of trousers.

Is it just me, or does the rescue capsule used in the Chilean mine disaster remind you of Mr Squiggle’s rocket?

Later: It seems it’s not just me. Friends tell me that the similarity was discussed on Jon Fain’s program this morning.

ABC Online has published a story—well, it’s not a story: it’s a report of the views of one Dr Rebecca Huntley, and is effectively a promo piece for an ‘ideas festival’ this weekend—about the relative amount of housework that men and women do.

Huntley’s thesis is that women are to blame for the fact that men do so little because women’s standards are too high.

She seems to have missed the basic point. She says:

men are reluctant to help out in the home

Help out? “Help?”

Why are domestic chores women’s work in which men “help out”?

The issue is not about helping out. It’s not about one person being responsible, and another “helping out”. It’s about everyone taking responsibility for domestic chores.