As their top propaganda pimp, he and his overpaid chickenhawk cronies on Fox (R) will continue to lie vigorously about reality to Aussies as well as to Americans.

Canberra, the capital, lies at 35 degrees S. It is in almost the southern-most point of Australia, so the vast majority of the country lies closer to the equator. For perspective, Albuqueque, NM lies at about 35 degrees, and Australia is almost the size of the U.S. The northern edge of Australia lies at 12 degrees.

For perspective on all of this, the Sahara desert runs from 15 degrees north to 35 degrees north. So, roughly, Australia is at the exact same latitude (distance from the equator) south as the Sahara desert is north.

And, what is most of Australia? Desert! That's why the population density in the purple area is 0.1 to 1 person per square kilometer, and the high populations live on the coast.

Meanwhile, while Australia is hot (due to weather), the global lower atmosphere temperature anomaly for December was 0.34 degrees and the running 13 month anomaly was just 0.12 degrees.

Los Angeles is at 34 degrees N. Sydney is at 34S. These fires are from that latitude south, right down to Tasmania, 43 degrees south. So this is the latitude of California, plus a bit into Oregon. "high populations live on the coast". Well done. That's where these fires are - in the populated areas, not the desert.

Australia is record-breakingly hot:

Their weather service has to come up with a new color for high temperatures in order to map it.

But of course nothing to see here. We must pretend there is no global climate change so oil corporations can keep raking in their money and fools can keep driving their SUVs.

Apart from what Muriel corrected you on, I live in Canberra, and it's not almost the southern-most point of Australia. The capital city that takes that title is Hobart, in Tasmania. Canberra is in SE Australia, probably a bit of a degree S away from Sydney if you want to talk in map-speak.

No-one would dispute that there's a vast expanse of arid and mainly uninhabitable land that makes up the interior of the continent. That's what brings the blasting furnace-like temperatures to the SE of the country, which is what's been happening over the last week and after a respite with lower temperatures today and possibly tomorrow, is going to heat right back up at the end of the week and into the weekend.

While a day or two of extreme temperatures isn't unusual in summer, what makes this not normal at all is that the heat's built up and kept on going. Yesterday the coastal town that lots of Canberrans head to to escape the summer heat here was around 38 degrees (that's well over 100) by 9am when usually it sits in the high 20's during summer and that's only in the afternoon when it gets that warm. There's been all sorts of records broken with the heat, and there's no doubt this is global warming in action.

Real shame cause more billionaires per square mile than anywhere. Koch's live there.

The new congressman (from Col. Springs) voted against all aid for SANDY.

It ought to be a fun summer.



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A few years back (like 10) HGTV had a house for a prize in Colorado. The g/f wanted it. I said Colorado is gonna burn to the ground. If I owned any property out west near anything that can burn, i would sell & get while the getting is good.

Waldo Canyon Fire reports: http://www.9news.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=274327

This is a very large state, divided by a range of mountains topping 14,000 feet. Diverse. People need to discover Western Colorado and its climate, peach orchards, cherry blossoms, wineries, festivals, art and culture, biking, climbing, skiing, and much more - not to mention breathtaking beauty!

and found out the retail store are not open & even though I have enuff problems that I qualify medically, I need Colorado ID to shop.

I had $2000 to spend & was gonna stay a few days.

I was gonna ride "The Cardinal" from Philly to Chicago http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_(train) then hop on the California Zepher.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Zephyr

Then head out to San Francisco, train up to Washington & come back VIA Montana>Chicago>NYC>Vermont>NYC>Philly.

AMtrak 2 week pass w/ 8 branches of travel is $439.00

Though by far the best part of the ride is west of Denver,
though the Rockies and the Sierras.

The next big decision was which way next? There are several ways back. South & thru AZ NM & TX to Chi, nice desert scenery or north to WA,OR and then: Chicago - St. Paul/Minneapolis - Milwaukee - Spokane - Portland/Seattle (Montana looks nice & I have never been anywhere like it).

I would like to find a few traveling mates so we could afford a sleeper & get a shower every few days.

For some good Train info these sites are very interesting: http://www.dailykos.com/blog/SundayTrain# a really well done diary & http://www.steelinterstate.org/ a site calling for electrification of all freight & massive upgrade to get long distance tractor trailers of the highways & save lots of oil.

Whether you go north or south from San Francisco, the Coast Starlight is the one to take.
South you have some beautiful coastline, north you get Mount Shasta (and more coastline).
Usually the train is running a bit late by the time you get to Shasta, so it is possible to catch it with the sun rising behind.