Happy Australia Makes You Die Day!: seanan

Happy Australia Makes You Die Day!

A year has passed, and that means that once again, my big list o' holidays* has landed on a holiday that is very important to me on a deep, meaningful level. Maybe not as deep as Virus Appreciation Day (October 3rd), which I celebrate every year by not unleashing the pandemic, or Cuckoo Warning Day (June 21st), which is best celebrated by evolving parasitic wasps into telepathic humanoids, but still, it's important to me.

Today is Australia Day.

Today we celebrate the existence of Australia, the continent which proves that evolution did a lot of drugs when it was young. Today we celebrate the fact that Australia is full of things that want to make us all die, the fact that Australia is frequently on fire, and the fact that Australia essentially hates humanity. Specific things to celebrate about Australia include venomous snakes, spiders the size of dinner plates, marsupials, really interesting money, the koala (which will totally rip your face off if you poke it), and the cone snail, which is the size of a man's thumb and can kill you extremely dead. This is why you do not fuck around with the native wildlife of Australia.

On a more serious note...Australia is having some serious issues right now, with the flooding in Queensland verging on Biblical proportions. The government of Queensland is organizing flood relief. It's rare that I post this sort of thing, but today is Australia Day, and I'm their Princess, so I felt that it was appropriate. That is one hell of a lot of water, and they're going to need one hell of a lot of buckets to clean it all up.

So thank you for existing, Australia. Today is your day. Your venomous, deadly, kicking-your-ass, being eaten by koalas day.

Hooray Australia!

(*I have a list containing a holiday for every single day of the year. Some days have more than one holiday listed. The world needs more excuses for a party.)

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ladyphoenixia

January 26 2011, 22:32:48 UTC 6 years ago

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For the record, most of the touristy places in Queensland are fine.

Also, if you don't pay for flood insurance, which a lot of people choose not to as it's mroe expensive, then why should you be reimbursed?

January 26 2011, 22:55:17 UTC 6 years ago

...considering at least the Brisbane area had a significantly worse flood (about 1m higher) in 1974, no. If you live on a floodplain you should be aware of that. And flash floods like the one in Toowoomba are covered, it's just when you're flooded by rivers as a consequence of living on the floodplain (i.e. Brisbane city) that you're not.

*shrugs* I tend to have little sympathy for people who don't pay the premiums and read their PDS when insuring and then expect something for nothing, because I'm the sort of person who reads through everything and likes to be totally aware of my risks. It seems unfair that some people do the right thing, and those who can't be bothered expect the government to step in and bail them out.

January 26 2011, 23:01:34 UTC 6 years ago

Fair enough. I did some part-time work last year for a company that does a lot of work in hazard risk analysis and stuff for insurance companies, which is what gave me a bit more understanding of the insurance thing. And being a climatologist, I tend to understand the difference between a "flash" flood, which is insured, and a "riverine" flood, which is not - something a lot of people don't understand and part of the problem, as they may have thought they were insured. So I may be too harsh - I just tend to be fairly intolerant of ignorance, which is not always fair. ;)

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