[holy smoke] signs of the times or just bad luck
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
I can never get over Oliver Kamm’s comment, to paraphrase and interpret him, about bloggers being derivative and using the main stream media’s pieces for their own commentary and opinions.
I detest doing this and the only way around it I can see is to access multiple sources and build an article of my own, as the mainstream usually does. But not always. How many pieces have you seen with AP or Reuters tags?
Anyway, this one is news this morning and there are no other sources, so I’ll have to run it as is. Sorry.
A monster lightning strike, captured by a Sydney Morning Herald reader during a freak storm in the city yesterday, narrowly missed luxury yachts owned by the likes of Nicole Kidman but almost wiped out a yellow sloop moored at Rushcutters Bay.
As the afternoon storm passed over the city, blanketing streets with ankle-deep hail, Gabriel Urbinaga snapped the bolt at the exact moment its zigzagging body struck the mast of the 22-foot sloop.
"I was ... at the balcony watching the storm and as a matter of luck I took this photo. I thought [it] could be interesting for you to illustrate the big rain," Urbinaga wrote in an email to the Sydney Morning Herald.
When Cruising Yacht Club of Australia dock master Scott Finsten saw the photo today, he was blown away.
"Holy s---," said Mr Finsten, who was hiding from the storm in his office. "Far out."
After seeing the photo, he went out to investigate which boat had been hit.
"It was quite clear when I got close to it [which boat it was]. [It's] pretty impressive. I'm just next to the boat now. The top metre of the [alloy] mast is all black.
"It's just black. You can see where it struck. I'm a glad we weren't out there doing a yacht race.
"Amazing the boat is still floating after such a hit."
He said lightning could cause major damage to the wiring of boats but thought the sloop, which was tied up to a swing mooring at the public wharf, would be all right because it did not appear to have much electrical wiring.
"Quite often a lightning strike will write a boat off. It basically burns out all the wiring and all the electronics - just basically fries all your electrical."
The lightning struck about 150 metres from the yacht club.
You can read the rest, by Jano Gibson, in the original, at:
http://www.theage.com.au/
I detest doing this and the only way around it I can see is to access multiple sources and build an article of my own, as the mainstream usually does. But not always. How many pieces have you seen with AP or Reuters tags?
Anyway, this one is news this morning and there are no other sources, so I’ll have to run it as is. Sorry.
A monster lightning strike, captured by a Sydney Morning Herald reader during a freak storm in the city yesterday, narrowly missed luxury yachts owned by the likes of Nicole Kidman but almost wiped out a yellow sloop moored at Rushcutters Bay.
As the afternoon storm passed over the city, blanketing streets with ankle-deep hail, Gabriel Urbinaga snapped the bolt at the exact moment its zigzagging body struck the mast of the 22-foot sloop.
"I was ... at the balcony watching the storm and as a matter of luck I took this photo. I thought [it] could be interesting for you to illustrate the big rain," Urbinaga wrote in an email to the Sydney Morning Herald.
When Cruising Yacht Club of Australia dock master Scott Finsten saw the photo today, he was blown away.
"Holy s---," said Mr Finsten, who was hiding from the storm in his office. "Far out."
After seeing the photo, he went out to investigate which boat had been hit.
"It was quite clear when I got close to it [which boat it was]. [It's] pretty impressive. I'm just next to the boat now. The top metre of the [alloy] mast is all black.
"It's just black. You can see where it struck. I'm a glad we weren't out there doing a yacht race.
"Amazing the boat is still floating after such a hit."
He said lightning could cause major damage to the wiring of boats but thought the sloop, which was tied up to a swing mooring at the public wharf, would be all right because it did not appear to have much electrical wiring.
"Quite often a lightning strike will write a boat off. It basically burns out all the wiring and all the electronics - just basically fries all your electrical."
The lightning struck about 150 metres from the yacht club.
You can read the rest, by Jano Gibson, in the original, at:
http://www.theage.com.au/
I haven't posted the photo of the blackened boat.
posted by James Higham at 07:32
2 Comments:
I don't agree with Oliver Kamm about all work being derivative.
People like Richard Littlejohn and Mark Steyn, for instance, give a lot of added value by pitching a different, and in their case, quite right-wing view. You may not agree, but at least it gets the old grey cells working.
The same is true of the old Sunday rags reporting on stranger than fiction tales and UFOs ... a laugh and a different perspective yet again.
It is this potpourri and serendipity that is news worthy as much as having a man on the scene - and even when there is a man on the scene, we know that some of them are tempted to make it up a la Reuters and News of the Screws.
Food for thought here - potpourri and serendipity.
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