Cynicarc comments

@Bass4funk, definately no scars, and in fact I love my parents, we get along really well, I visit them almost every fortnight. I know and understand that they did what they did because they cared for me and that they'd do anything for me if I applied myself to what I wanted to do (so long as it wasn't criminal of course), and its this that helps keep us close. As to the prone to bashing? I'm probably more likely to sit someone down with a drink and talk things over with them.

I think my parents went around the right way of doing things, I mean I was the youngest and thus usually able to get away with more, but if it rounded out my two older brothers as well as myself, then obviously, the system works for those who are a bit more unruly. If you're lucky enough to have children who never get to the unruly stage (completely ignoring your instructions, blatantly disobeying the rules you've set down, causing trouble for your family and others, etc) then of course you won't have to spank them. Spanking on young children creates a learned shock like action, if the shock is great enough and painful enough (though not too much), your body tells you it doesn't want that pain again and associates whatever you were doing with that pain, and you then instictively avoid doing that, thus they have learned not to do whatever it was they were doing.

I'm going to have to agree with Bass4funk, I was one of the unruly kids when I was one, my parents would often try the talk to me method, but as I was back then, I didn't really care so much. What I wanted to do seemed a lot more important, until I got spanked, then it hit home that what I was doing was not acceptable. Its thanks to my parents who disciplined me with spanking that I am now a responsible and law abiding adult. I often hear from colleagues and others around where I live (those who are around the same age as my parents in particular) that they wish their kids were as polite and disciplined as myself.

I see a lot of this "New Age - don't spank Parenting" happening around the place and in particular at school my mother teaches at, and the children of these parents don't seem have any respect for authority. I bet if they were spanked a couple times (at the appropriate occasions of course) they'd sharpen up really quick.

I wonder how it's powered, thin form battery? or thermo-electric power from being in someone's warm hands?

@JeanValJean - Along with the rest of the "Talent" shows that are around, I mean an Idol a year with X Factor, and 's Got Talent and whatever else has popped up since I stopped actually watching TV.. Once they get rid of that diatribe they can put on some decent shows again.

I was listening to this teenager (I think) and they used the word 'Like' so often. "Like, I saw this like really cool guy who was like doing some like awesome like stunts on his board, and like he totally like should be like pro, like ya know? Like they were like seriously awesome like." I think that kid just spent or earned a bit of money just from his comment to his friend ....

@John Master, Also 'people' are like sheep, you pick the dumbest one and tell them something is good, they believe it and spread the word to other stupid 'people' who buy the product. Then you have the herd mentality, who say "oh if all these other people think its good, it must be", and thus they buy it. Then there's the 'Hipsters' who only get something if someone famous is endorsing it, as such lots of them will buy it, because corporations are smart and hire the famous to pitch their product.

Also, statistically speaking, Call of Duty is far from being the worst FPS game in the history of mankind, it has out-done soo many others in terms of sales, and playability. Sure I agree that it's not the best game they could have chosen to bring as a demo piece for a next generation console, but they certainly could do worse.

@SushiSake3, more to the point, what place does any church/religion have in defining what the State does? Religion and 'The State' should be separate.

@pizzatime I wouldn't say that Federer is not the same guy from years ago, certainly he doesn't dominate every match with casual finesse, but I think that is because all of the younger players have been watching his tennis for around a decade if not longer, aiming to be him or beat him, and he is still the Second seed in tennis currently. The fact that Nishikori managed to beat the #2 player in the world is amazing, more power to him and other young aspiring tennis players. I wish I could have seen this match, I'm sure it would have been very exciting.

I would only consider them for world heritage if they were more than 200 years old, afterall, things of that age are pieces of history before any living person's earliest memories. I wouldn't call anything built or designed within the last 100 years worth of World Heritage status. Perhaps a local heritage site or state/prefectural level of heritage, but definately not World Heritage as it has been suggested above.

As for relocating this monster, perhaps they had already thought of that, but realised to do so would destroy its structural integrity and thus make it very real hazard wherever they relocated it to. Not to mention there is also a phenomenal cost associated with cutting it down to relocatable pieces when dealing with a structure of that size and strength.

Say what you will about Federer's alleged decline, but he's still ranked in the Top 5 (and they are a league of their own) and that Kei Nishikori was able to beat him is an amazing feat. Well done to him and good luck in the future.

I feel safer in a 'Red Light District' in any major city in Japan than I do in any most cities in Australia.

@Thunderbird2 and Bertie

Servicemen in Japan, and Asia in general need to learn that they are not a conquering army, able to treat women any way they like for personal satisfaction.

That implies just servicemen, when really, it should be "No man should be able to treat any man, woman or child, any way they like for personal satisfaction." Abuse isn't just to women, just the prevailing case, and needs to be stopped.

I wonder how they'll make thier decisions .. anyone got a coin to flip?

Thank You ChinaGirl!! One thing that hardly anyone has ever mentioned is that these plants were at the end of their life cycle when all this happened. People should not be using this event as reasons to scare people about the new technology being used for the latest nuclear reactors. That being said, TEPCO has dropped the ball on this one.

My idea of something being decommissioned is that there is no-longer maintenance required nor personal monitoring the state of the infrastructure, which to me says that if it was scheduled to be decommissioned in March, that they would have started the shutdown and cooling process as far back as November last year so that the removal of the substances could have been finished by the end of March. But they just tried milking those reactors for as long as they could, and ended up with this mess.

ooh I'm new, maybe she can fall in love with me, and maybe if part of her wanting to be a stronger person is to have better/stronger legs .. I think I could help her with that too, in a round about way ...

@Nessie Ha! Though, would you rather they went into all the possible details?

There were middle class american's 2000 years ago? nice trying to put your american feet into the bible there ....

nandakanamanda, as far as seriously cyclone-proofing housing .. it would have been very difficult for that situation, if you're an american, 300kph is approximately 186mph, how many 'houses' in america withstand that? In Australia a Category 5 Cyclone is the strongest it gets .. and this one was bigger and stronger than most of those category 5s that we have had in the past. What suprises me is how many of the houses were not destroyed or severely damaged.

@GW: HA! @ninjastar: by your reasoning the near 50% of the populations in both the USA and Australia which are grossely obese have actually had too much nutrition?

Moderator: Back on topic please.

Indeed, as AdamB said, it is purely about the amount of rain that has fallen. Approximately 1 to 2 years ago, the Murray-Darling basin was in danger of being declared dry as a bone. As such the Federal government and several of the state governements tried to set up a program where water would be transfered from the desalination plants and treatment plants into the basin so as to prevent it from dying completely. This program kept on getting stalled due to Victoria's government demanding higher priority and taxing whatever water came through to South Australia.

Somewhat fortunately there has been enough rain in the last couple years that this is no-longer a problem, the reverse of that now is that we currently have too much water that we can't hold it all for the dry times.

They mentioned three quarters of Qld being hit and area underwater as being size of France and Germany combined ... France is nearly twice the size of Germany, and three quarters of Qld is nearly twice the size of France, I think they need to adjust their representation of the area of devastation a bit. (For Americans) The area devastated is 500,967.6 square miles (which is also close to twice the size of Texas).

goddog ... were they pigmy pumpkins?

DentShop, it's not so much their heads in their arses, but rather their fists ... scary pose.

goddog, the portion of effect for Brisbane ONLY, might be estimated at 5%, but that is increasing constantly. Brisbane's local government might be able to handly Brisbane alone, but there's the rest of the affected areas, and that tallies to be affecting a lot more. Think of all the farms that have been destroyed ... How much food has been lost? Many coal mines have also been flooded, that's several months of lost coal mining, which equates to a huge loss of power generation. The power regulators have already started turning off the power to large areas in order to conserve power.

As AdamB also said, this is affecting other states too, there are floods in New South Wales and some in Victoria, some in Northern Territory too, and just recently a cyclone (Typhoon/Hurricane) has developed off the western coast of Australia and is starting to cause havoc there too.

Look at the weather maps before saying something, what's happening in Brisbane is small compared to the true state of things in Australia.

jasperandy, yes, Queensland's wet season is usually from January through to the end of March, this time we've added November and December as well.

It is a truly sad event for many farmers, as many have lost their livestock or have to cull their livestock in order to actually survive this ordeal without starving as well as losing some of them to the flood waters, as such compounding the damage done to their livelihoods.

ratpack, these are just stupid kids that are calling 40-year olds 'old'. Junior highs, etc, of that age brackett think of anyone more than 10 years older as 'old'. Still a despicable act.

Thanks to all who send their best wishes. Unfortunately this site doesn't supply a lot of information as to what has been happening here. In some parts of the upper catchment of Toowoomba (the start of this torrent of water) the rainfall was so heavy they received more than 200mm (8 inches) in an hour and that all just bottle-necked into the city proper of Toowoomba causing such devastation.

One of the towns hardest hit had every house taken off its foundations and were moved to another town approximately 30km away. Some of those houses were upside down, some were unrecognisable as buildings.

Some more information that has been passed to me via a state government department, states that Wivenhoe Dam has a 100% capacity of 1,165,238ML (currently at 190% capacity) and is releasing water at a rate of 490,000ML per day, however the amount of water going into the dam is around 1,032,000ML per day. For those who use the US imperical measurement system just devide these numbers by 3.785 and you'll get the amount in gallons(US). Also 1ML = 1,000,000 litres just to help with your conversion.