Author: Neville

CityRail is a sardine express in peak hour

Alicia Wood
The Daily Telegraph
December 22, 201212:00AM

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Commuters on the North shore rail line Chatswood to Milsons Point / Pic: John Grainger Source: The Daily Telegraph

NORTHERN Sydney train commuters are suffering more than those in other parts of the city – packed like sardines in the morning and afternoon peaks, CityRail data reveals.

CityRail published its capacity figures yesterday, showing that in peak hour the average train is standing-room only. In the morning peak to the city, Northern line commuters fared worst, averaging more than 22 passengers standing and all seats taken by the time trains get to Redfern.

The most packed morning train on the Northern line had more than 74 people standing.

The Airport and East Hills line was the next most overcrowded service in the morning peak, averaging more than 12 people standing, with a maximum of more than 74 people standing by the time the train reached Green Square or Redfern.

Inner-west commuters also faced crowded trains in the morning peak period, averaging all seats occupied, with the most crowded train carrying more than 74 people standing.

In the afternoon peak, commuters travelling home on the North Shore line were the worst off, with the average number of trains at standing-room only, and the most packed train carrying more than 74 standing passengers by the time it gets to North Sydney. The average Illawarra train had all seats occupied, and the fullest train carried more than 22 standing passengers on reaching Redfern.

Heliport approved without safety check

Date December 22, 2012 Read later

Lenore Taylor

Chief Political Correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald

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Lacking regulation … the harbour heliport. Photo: Andrew Quilty

THE NSW government approved the controversial floating heliport in Sydney Harbour before it had asked about air safety or air traffic control regulations, documents obtained by Fairfax Media reveal.

In late November the government approved Newcastle Helicopters to run a floating heliport on a moveable barge in the harbour, without preparing an environmental impact statement, testing for noise, consulting the public or putting the plan to tender.

Now two letters sent by the director of the maritime division of the Roads and Maritime Services department reveal the government had not yet asked for basic information about air traffic control and aviation safety when it made the decision.

On December 4 the director, Tony Middleton, wrote to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority asking whether the heliport required CASA approval, whether CASA monitored helicopter operations over the harbour and whether the helipad had to be a ”minimum distance from residents and/or the shoreline”.

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If there was no minimum distance, he asked ”how is the impact of helicopter noise managed?” ”What regulations apply to the operations of helicopters controlled over Sydney Harbour?” Mr Middleton inquired.

On the same day he wrote to Airservices Australia, which provides air traffic control, to ask whether it needed to approve or monitor helicopter operations over the harbour.

”Does such an operation require approval from Airservices Australia? Does Airservices Australia monitor helicopter operations over an area such as Sydney Harbour?” he asked.

Both letters acknowledge that Roads and Maritime Services, which had already approved a permit known as an aquatic licence, had ”no jurisdiction over the helicopter services”.

A spokesman for CASA told Fairfax Media his organisation would need to see ”full details” of the proposed heliport operation because ”a number of existing aviation safety requirements” would apply.

He said CASA would need to provide ”detailed instructions” on the landing sites, including ”suitable dimensions and clearance from obstacles”. ”In addition, aviation safety regulations prescribe certain distances from buildings and people for the starting and running of engines, including helicopter engines.”

There were also weight restrictions, flights would have to be restricted to daylight hours in good visual conditions and could occur only ”within designated helicopter lanes and float plane transit lanes, unless specifically approved by CASA”.

CASA would also need to audit the helicopter operation to make sure safety standards were met.

A spokesman for Airservices Australia said that organisation would not have any involvement with the heliport as flights would be below 1000 feet, and therefore outside controlled airspace.

Public opposition to the decision has grown since its announcement, with residents worried about noise, environmental ramifications and safety.

The federal Liberal frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull has labelled the decision ”reckless and undemocratic” and called for it to be rescinded. But he said he was not accusing the Premier, Barry O’Farrell, directly ”as I have been advised that he was not privy to the decision which was taken administratively by the Roads and Maritime Services department without any consultation with him or with the cabinet.

”It is surely incredible that a group of bureaucrats would take it on themselves to grant helicopter landing rights, in the middle of Sydney Harbour, without any consultation with the general public,” Mr Turnbull wrote on his blog.

The Roads and Ports Minister, Duncan Gay, has directed the department to review ”how such proposals are assessed and regulated”.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/heliport-approved-without-safety-check-20121221-2brjs.html#ixzz2Fj6XHmAH

Next year looms as hottest ever, but rain’s on menu for Christmas lunch

Date December 22, 2012 229 reading now
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Ben Cubby, Dijana Damjanovic

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NEXT year is expected to be the hottest, or at least one of the hottest, ever recorded, the British Meteorological Office says.

The office predicts next year will be 0.43 degrees to 0.71 degrees warmer globally than the average temperature between 1961 and 1990, with a ”best fit” of 0.57 degrees warmer. If the best fit prediction holds true, that would make next year the hottest year since instrumental records began.

So far, the warmest years on record are 2010 and 2005, both of which were 0.54 degrees above the late 20th century average of about 14 degrees. They are followed by 1998, which was 0.51 degrees above the 1961-90 average as a result of a strong El Nino phase, which enhanced warming. This year is ranked as the ninth warmest year on record.

”Taking into account the range of uncertainty in the forecast and observations, it is very likely that 2013 will be one of the warmest 10 years in the record, which goes back to 1850, and it is likely to be warmer than 2012,” the office said in a statement.

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While local temperatures vary, on a global scale it has been 27 years since the world experienced a month that was colder than average.

Of more immediate concern, a cool change and possibly a sprinkle of rain will be on the menu by the time most Sydneysiders sit down to Christmas lunch this year.

”It will be a hot Christmas eve, cooling down on Christmas Day when southerly winds arrive,” a weather bureau forecaster, Michael Logan, said.

Forecasters said temperatures in the high 20s are expected at the weekend, rising to 30 degrees on Monday, before the change sweeps through, cooling the city to a maximum of about 27 degrees on Christmas Day.

On Boxing Day, the weather bureau expects the cool weather to set in, with a maximum temperature of 22 degrees.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/next-year-looms-as-hottest-ever-but-rains-on-menu-for-christmas-lunch-20121221-2brgj.html#ixzz2Fj5c9ZDE

Reef’s collapsing sea floor could trigger tsunami
AM
By Sharnie Kim

Updated 1 hour 14 minutes ago
Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef Photo: The slab is the remains of an underwater landslide deep in the Great Barrier Reef. (Naomi Brookfield, file photo: User submitted)
Map: QLD

Researchers mapping the sea floor near the Great Barrier Reef say they have found a giant slab of collapsing sea floor that could trigger a tsunami in the future.
Audio: Sharnie Kim reports from Cairns(AM)

Marine geologists at James Cook University say it is only a matter of time before the slab, known as the Noggin Block, collapses.

Dr Robin Beaman says the slab is the remains of an underwater landslide deep in the Great Barrier Reef.

“It’s actually up on the top of the continental slope in about 350 metres of water,” he said.

“This block, which is about one cubic kilometre … is in the very slow, early stages of starting to break away from the edge of the Great Barrier Reef.”

He says the Noggin Block is stable at the moment, but warns a collapse could be catastrophic.

“The only thing that we could find that would trigger a block breaking away on that scale [would be] a very large earthquake in the near vicinity. That is very unlikely,” he said.

“If it were to break away catastrophically, that is break away really quickly, what that would do is it would create a surface wave above it. It would actually cause a tsunami.

“That tsunami would travel across the Great Barrier Reef, it’s about 70 kilometres offshore, and it would impact the local area, the North Queensland area.”

It would take about an hour for the tsunami to hit nearby coastal areas like Mourilyan Harbour and Clump Point.

Dr Beaman and his colleagues hope use their sonar mapping technique to find more underwater areas at risk of collapsing.

“We should be aware that these things exist,” he said.

“We don’t really know when such a block might collapse. All I can say is sometime it eventually will.”

The research is published in the journal Natural Hazards.

Topics:conservation, great-barrier-reef, marine-parks, research, earth-sciences, marine-biology, oceans-and-reefs, qld, cairns-4870, james-cook-university-townsville-4811

First posted 1 hour 45 minutes ago

More stories from Queensland

Teenagers forced to hitchhike in coastal areas and travelling in the boots of cars.
Govt’s only subsidise buses for school children. To provide a full transport system
for these areas in coastal and rural district would be economically impossible.

Further the battle over CSG and mining in Sydney’s western outskirts, would present
a threat to Greater Sydney’s water supply. Aquifers and some dams are already
threatened.

With the Immigration quotas and the asylum seekers issue, these problems will only
worsen. We are already over-populated and can not house or accommodate those
we already have. Govt’s already cash-strapped are cutting everywhere they can
to keep to budgetry constraints, which can indrease unemployment.

Australia is only 6 % arable, yet CSG and mining are allowed on farming land, and
are causing health problems in the process. This can only hasten the end of the
lifestyle we have enjoyed for so many years.

Is this the Apocolyse we are hearing about????

UQ scientist unlocks secret of Min Min lights

A UQ neuroscientist has revealed the probable basis of a bizarre Australian Outback phenomenon that has baffled observers and scientists for centuries.

The western Queensland town of Boulia has built its tourist reputation on Min Min lights, mysterious lights that seem to follow travellers for long distances.

Professor Jack Pettigrew said despite intense interest in the Min Min, they had never been explained in a satisfactory way.

“The Min Min light seems to have magical qualities, sometimes following observers, even as they speed away in vehicles, while at other times seeming to retreat shyly,” he said.

Professor Pettigrew, who is the Director of UQ’s Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre, provides an optical explanation and data about Min Min lights in the current edition of Clinical and Experimental Optometry, the journal of the Optometrists Association of Australia.

He used his skills in the vision sciences combined with extensive first-hand experience of the Diamantina region of Western Queensland at night. Professor Pettigrew was studying an elusive nocturnal bird, the letter-winged kite in the region, where he encountered the phenomenon.

“The Min Min light occurs when light, from a natural or man-made source, is refracted to an observer who is tens, or even hundreds, of kilometres away, by an inverted mirage, or Fata Morgana,” he said.

“Named after the Morgan fairy, who was reputed to be able to conjure cities on the surface of the sea ice, the Fata Morgana has a real physical phenomenon, being caused by a temperature inversion.

“A cold, dense layer of air next to the ground (or sea, or sea ice) carries light far over the horizon to a distant observer without the usual dissipation and radiation, to produce a vivid mirage that baffles and enchants because of its unfamiliar optical properties.

“In a celebrated and authenticated example, the Irish sea cliffs were seen floating in vivid greens and browns above the calm Atlantic by observers on a ship more than a thousand kilometres away.

“Wonderful during the day, such Fata Morgana can be terrifying at night when a single light source gives no hint that it is actually part of a mirage emanating from a great distance. Even hardened Outback observers can break down when they are unable to interpret the unusual optical properties of the light in terms of their own, very different, past experiences.

“The unusual terrain of the Channel Country makes the favourable atmospheric conditions more likely, while its isolation increase the impact of a single light source since the observer knows that it cannot be produced locally but sees it apparently there in front.”

Professor Pettigrew said some people would prefer not to have the Min Min’s mystique probed by city slickers.

“I apologise to them. However, knowing more about the unusual weather conditions responsible, could improve one’s chances of seeing it,” he said.

“Increased knowledge has certainly not lessened my own wonderment at the phenomenon on those infrequent occasions I’ve witnessed it.”

Media: Further information (after 10am):
Professor Jack Pettigrew, telephone (work) 07 3365 3842 email: j.pettigrew@vthrc.uq.edu.au

A link to the article can be reached from Professor Pettigrew’s web site http://www.uq.edu.au/nuq/jack/jack.html