The town of Dunalley was devastated by the fires (Source: SMH)
Updates:
- “More than 1000 people have been evacuated from the peninsula to Hobart via boat, with the final ferryload of 180 people departing Nubeena for the capital early on Sunday morning…”
- There are fears of more casualties, as a number of people remain missing – let’s hope they are all accounted for safely
- The good news – the fires have been downgraded “…The Forcett fire, east of Hobart, has spread and is still active at Taranna and near the larger communities of Forcett, Eaglehawk Neck and Dodges Ferry.Chief fire officer Mike Brown says the fire has been downgraded from an emergency listing to a watch and act. But he says residents still need to be monitoring the situation.”
A good report from Al Jazeera:
The fires are described as the “worst in half a century”.
Also recommended, the video channel of the Tasmania Fire Service.
My thoughts are with the people and communities of Tasmania.
Watching the Deniers 
Have a friend who lived through this one,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Tasmanian_fires
.
major australian bushfires,
1939
1967
1983
2009
2013.
The email which watts would not allow in his comments,
from: Dana Nuccitelli
To: Anthony
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2012 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: still waiting…
We of course don’t agree with giving denialists the death penalty, but we’re also not going to waste our time commenting on what some German musicologist said just because he happens to (correctly) cite SkS as a factually accurate source on climate science.
Given than you frequently allow WUWT guest posts from people like Christopher Monckton, who aside from being a total nutjob (to put it as kindly as I can), says some pretty horrible things on a regular basis, I really don’t think you’re in a position to expect more than that.
-Dana
That’s interesting. What was the source for the email?
second post down, the first one is also a classic, all the DK’s get whacked by Leif Svalgaard
http://wottsupwiththat.com/category/character-assassination/
Ah indeed. Mind you, and I’m sorry to appear so skeptical, it does seem odd that Wotts has access to Dana’s email. Don’t mistake me – Watts whipping up hysteria amongst his conspiracy theorists by conflating a musician with SkS isn’t unexpected. I’d just expect Dana to post this himself rather than leak it through another blog – that seems odd to me…
Ben and dana are mates
SKS did not think that it warranted a post so gave it to ben who does keep an eye on watts, have not searched sks but may be just a comment there regarding,
I am against the death penalty, particularly the death sentence on billions enacted by the denialist evil. I’d rather life without parole for the top denialist dogs, spent in hard labour on ecological repair work. However, they must face justice.
The creationists party blog and the Australian continue with the misinformation
http://theclimatescepticsparty.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/guiness-book-of-climate-crap.html
IQ and the values of nations
see summary
Click to access JBS2009.pdf
Summary. The origin of values and preferences is an unresolved theoretical
question in behavioural and social sciences. The Savanna-IQ Interaction
Hypothesis, derived from the Savanna Principle and a theory of the evolution
of general intelligence, suggests that more intelligent individuals may be more
likely to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel values and preferences
(such as liberalism and atheism and, for men, sexual exclusivity) than less
intelligent individuals, but that general intelligence may have no effect on the
acquisition and espousal of evolutionarily familiar values. Macro-level
analyses show that nations with higher average intelligence are more liberal
(have greater highest marginal individual tax rate and, as a result, lower
income inequality), less religious (a smaller proportion of the population
believes in God or considers themselves religious) and more monogamous.
The average intelligence of a population appears to be the strongest predictor
of its level of liberalism, atheism and monogamy.
Ah, we should just kill them then…do you openly show the swastika Johnny Baptist?
You lot are scary, especially you john byatt … you are a certifiable nutbag. Thank goodness there are gun laws in Australia to save us from you. Holy shit, I knew you alarmists were all a bit loopy but you are dead set insane. Luckily, we’ve advanced as a society and its unlikely that you’re going to get too many more zealous crazies to follow your crusade. Man, i thought I was having some fun looking at what you dummies were talking about but now I’m scared. BTW my real name is Lee Gilham and I live in Metung so leave me alone
Thank you for your nuanced, carefully argued critique.
The force of your logic is exceeded only by the broad sweep of your research. How you managed to uncover that esoteric evidence fills me with awe.
Who could disagree with such an intellectual titan? You’ve convinced me.
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