The Honours have been distributed, the fires have been somewhat tamed with the help of heavy rain and cooler weather, Melbourne has been blessed by heavy rainfall with red dust from central Australia. But the damage from the fires is horrendous and is a long way from being all over.
We can only hope that once the Royal Commission is held sensible solutions will be adopted with enthusiasm, unlike the results from past decisions to do better in the fire season, and indeed in the cooler times. Look to the effect of work in the cooler months in the Kimberly.
The other point about the fires and the people’s response is that global warming and climate change is likely to be given proper consideration instead of ‘nothing to be done’ because the ‘conservative’ rump of the Liberal Party doesn’t believe anything can or should be done. I know that saying this will make me damned by the climate deniers but I am a believer in preparing for worst cases. If global cooling comes next – eg because sunspot activity is reduced dramatically – that will be great, provided of course the Yarra River does not freeze over.
And it just keeps coming. Now we have the Wuhan plague, reportedly made far worse by the Wuhan mayor’s decision to deny it was happening. Brisbane University medical scientists are one of three groups asked, presumably by the Chinese government, to try to find a vaccine. Let’s hope they win, China might decide to be kinder to Aussie battlers criticising various aspects of life in China, especially for Muslims.
Kulture
Fiona Prior visits the latest work from Ronnie Burkett’s world famous theatre of Marionettes and becomes immersed in an interactive performance that is Shakespearean in depth and creativity. More here.
Sporting Life
The tennis is nearing its final stages and our Nick Kyrios hung in there to win after five strongly contested sets. Presumably, our Nick will fail to beat Raffa who cruised through three light sets – just a warm up.
Will Swanton on Friday produced the funniest article on sport I have read. It was based on the day John Millman beat Roger Federer in a forth round game, I think in the US open.
If you missed it, read on here, you will love it. And the punchline is ‘Millman almost did it again!
And Will Swanton has done it again, in advance of Kyrios' meeting with Nadal Monday night. Here it is.
And late in the day we sat on the edges of our seats to watch our Ash Barty struggle to beat an American with the surname of Riske. Ms Riske had beaten our Ash twice in the recent past and after a great first set our Ash struggled, especially in the second set.
As a failed sportman, may I offer some advice. In the first set, our Ash played very carefully. In the second set she relaxed and played far less carefully - and lost badly. Mostly in the third set she was again careful. If I am correct, our Ash will be told by her coach today to remember to play with great care.