Poke! Massive stall in Brisbane Transport; Duck for falling satellite! (22th September 2011)

Power problem causing transport mayhem in Brisbane CBD [Courier Mail]

Commuters were having a bad day today because there was a power disruption happening at the Valley train station, and that caused trains from Central to Bowen Hills almost stalled. Not only a major annoyance for commuters. People who are travelling with cars are also seeing increased traffic congestion on the roads.

Several hundred afternoon commuters are being funneled on to just two platforms at Brisbane's Central Station as delays continue to plague the city's train network. Commuters are now being stopped at Go card gates at central station as Translink staff stagger entry on to the two platforms where limited train services are operating. Staff are waiting until operating trains ferry passengers from the plat forms before allowing more people in to the station

The cause of this big mess is an electric wire that snapped and knocked out power to Central and Valley. Even though the power has restored at around 3pm, they have also warned that there will be significant delays. One single wire turns the whole city into a transport chaos.

Q&A: Brace yourself for the falling satellite [The Telegraph]

Nasa's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is expected to hit Earth on Friday but scientists have no idea where the six tonnes of space junk will fall.

The fate. The uncertainty. I'm guessing the satellite has had enough for being floating in space and decided to fall back into orbit. But to be serious, the satellite hasn't been used after being decommissioned and NASA expects to fall tomorrow. They have ruled out America as the impact zone so apparently the satellite could hit anywhere EXCEPT America. Ha, nice plan you've got there, Americans.

In the mean time, the chance of 1 person being hit by the satellite is 1 in 3200, and that mean it's quite improbable if you multiply it into the world's population. Oh dear, hope it will just crash in the water rather than hitting major metropolitans because I don't want to see something this uninteresting being amplified into a disaster-like doomsday warning.

D.

Poke! Look Dad, A cruise ship!; Water scare in The Gap (21st September 2011)

The Sun Princess cruise ship arrived at Brisbane [Courier Mail]

Before reading this news piece, I know that Hong Kong has a very big advantage in town where big ships can pass through the Victoria Harbour without any hassle. But in Brisbane, since the curvy river is both narrow and, well, curvy, large ships couldn't get in easily and they usually dock at the Port of Brisbane or the wider part of Brisbane River, and they simply cannot get any closer into the city.

"There are various obstacles they like to put in our way - tankers tied up along the side where we have to go very slowly," said Capt Froude. "It's a busy river, a commercial river, we have to take our turn in it as well." He urged authorities to "move the cruise terminal" to Fisherman Island to allow even larger ships to visit Brisbane.

Now that the Sun Princess has arrived, they have to dock the ship at Hamilton wharf. But lucky for the retailers alike, because the ship will be staying there for 5 long months!

"Then over the season that's going to be $10 million pumped into the local economy so it's a great time for Queensland holidaymakers and it's a great time for Queensland residents as well."

House fire caused water panic around The Gap [Courier Mail]

Who would have thought a fire incident can cause a neighbourhood's water supply? Normally it shouldn't be a problem, but the Queensland Urban Utilities has done a flush out at the main pipes before the house fire has started last night. That resulted in contaminated tap water and after a whole night's drama, residents were urged not to drink or use tap water. It's been quite a few water-related hassle in this month I reckon.

Affected customers will be compensated the equivalent of 5000L to make up for the water they will use flushing out their systems. More than 15,000 bottles of water had been delivered to affected streets and are available from 2 and 29 Arkin Street, the corner of Hilder Road and Kilcolman Street and the corner of Hilder Road and Cloghan Street. Water tankers were also available in Arkin Street and Moygara Street from 6pm. The incident affected 387 homes.

D.

Poke! Evil children; dual cancers (20th September 2011)

Are some children just born evil? [Brisbane Times]

Some kids are well-behaved, tidy and mannered. But some are just mischievous, rebellious and even evil. In this article, we focused on how some children are just born that way, where aggression, violence and even cruelty to animals are seen. Professor Mark Dadds from the University of New South Wales has done research about children, especially boys, regarding these issues.

Dadds's work with these ''cold'' children contributes to a body of research trying to map what Harvard experimental psychologist Steven Pinker calls ''the moral instinct'' - finding the neurological clues that switch on empathy.

In his studies, he sets up a playroom for the boy and his mother and tell the mother to show her love to her son as he focused on their eye contact. He found that children having an unemotional traits or being callous towards others, did not gaze directly back to their mothers.

the cold children did not return their mother's gaze, and did not seem to respond to their love - and it was apparent even in children as young as four.

After reading this article I just cannot believe how human kinds are shaped in such an early age, and in this case where children has started to show traits of misbehaviour and defiance, while they are having problems reading people's emotion. Besides that, I've read another article about two young boys murdering a toddler in Britain back in 1993, where the case has stunned the whole country. The boys showed no sympathy or emotion as they prepared to kill the young child, and this is just appalling to think of.

"Every night when the baby goes to sleep, I step outside, and I cry," - One family suffers from 2 cancers [CNN]

Who could imagine life would be when after your wife has got a cancer, the newborn child of yours are also having cancer as well? In this piece of reporting, we get to meet the Mum and the daughter, who are both having different cancers, and look at how the young family strive for their daily lives.

Being the man of the family, Mike, has to cope with two of his loved ones over cancers, and the ongoing battle , both emotionally and physically. It is a very big burden to carry as one of your family members are suffering from cancer, but now there are 2 of them. Imagine the pressure and stress you'd have to deal with every single day. And the pain and ongoing treatment for mum and their daughter. He said, "I'm at risk of losing both of my family members, the two most important people in my life." Indeed, the hardest period for the whole family, where the mother was already physically drained because of chemotherapy, and yet there is still a sick daughter to take care of. Dad could only help out with daily chores and emotional support, and yet, he couldn't cure them.

Although the type of cancers the mother has is different from the daughter, it is rare that 2 of the family members are having cancers.

This isn't the first time cancer has struck two members of a family at the same time. Fathers and sons have dealt with dual prostate cancer diagnoses, and mothers and daughters have fought breast cancer side-by-side.

This is a very heart-wrenching story to read, and I learnt that the strong family bond is very important in a situation like this, because not only you have to deal with the disease alone, there are the sadness and hopelessness of one's feeling has to look after. I wish the very best to the family, and other families who happened to suffer in similar cases like this.

D.

Poke! Playing with fire; documenting sounds (19th September 2011)

Playing with fire – life on our flammable planet is about to get hotter [The Conversation]

Here's a very intriguing piece about fire. We do not see fire as much of a thing as the past. We mastered it eons ago and developed a diversity of uses of fire. However nowadays, they are hidden and replaced by fossil fuels, which turns into electricity, and we seemed to forget a bit about the its existence.

In the past, it has influenced our living so much and without fire I believe human race will never be able to get to this stage. However, we still encounter fire, but we see it more as a hazard rather than a tool, like disastrous bushfire that takes away beautiful homes and landscape; one of the many causes of climate change that makes the earth heats up and boil. But we have to realise that fire can be controlled and mastered just like how our ancestors used to be.

[...] understanding the relative influences of climate, human ignition sources and cultural practices in particular environments is critical to design sustainable fire management to protect human health, property and ecosystems.

However, there is something we have to concerned about as well:

The excessive combustion of fossil fuels driving climate change may completely overwhelm human capacities to control fire. [...] And humans have made this situation worse by liberally spreading highly productive and flammable plants (such as robust grasses and eucalypts) around the world. This may create a truly vicious fire cycle.

In short, even though we understand fire and know how the rules on handling it, it is still a very risky thing to juggle about.

It's even louder in national parks [NPR]

In the age of aviation and high technological advance, we tend to look back and seek refuge in the quiet and serene backyard of nature. Some researchers in the US has spent a long time to record the sounds of nature at Crater Lake's National Park. The funny thing is even though we thought places like this would be absolutely calm, and you'd be loosen up into this beautiful scene. But apparently, the researchers are not so happy about hearing noises that generates from human civilisation.

In this article, the major nuisance noted when recording the sounds of the natural environment is that aeroplanes and helicopters are flying around as they are seeking for absolute silence, and they said it happens 15 percent of the time. To us, this might seem a little bit extreme, but they said they could not find anywhere else without this kind of "noise pollution" in America. As the articles says, species like owls need an absolutely quiet environment to hunt, and this small amount of noise can restrain them from hunting efficiently.

The problem, McFarland says, is that human noise, like climate change, is a problem the national parks can't just fence out.

D.