Bugger!

[JimC]

From the Age: http://www.theage.com.au/national/huge- ... 1551s.html

Huge locust plague looms September 11, 2010

LOCUSTS have laid eggs over an area of Australia about the size of Spain, as farmers ready for a plague of record proportions.

Egg beds, in some cases kilometres long, laid during the autumn in northern Victoria, New South Wales, southern Queensland and south-east South Australia, are starting to hatch.

A wet and warm winter provided ideal conditions for the eggs' survival, with fears this spring's swarms could be far larger than usual.

The NSW Farmers Association has predicted the biggest plague locust swarms for a generation and said an area larger than Spain - about 500,000 square kilometres - could be ravaged.

''When you think of a substantial part of the egg beds for probably 50 per cent of the western half of NSW and a good part, probably a third of the north-west part of Victoria, into South Australia, I think that will be bigger than Spain,'' association president Charles Armstrong told the ABC yesterday.

The Australian Plague Locust Commission said egg-hatching would be spread over several weeks, with the exact timing depending on local weather conditions. Most will occur between mid-September and mid-October. Various countermeasures are planned.

The Victorian government is urging rural communities to remain vigilant against locusts, despite recent flooding, which it says is unlikely to have reduced the threat.

Poor old farmers will cop it again...

My son David is part of an EPA team that will monitor the state's rivers to see if run-off from the pesticide spraying is having any damaging effects...

[Hermit]

Ode to the world's biggest whingers:

SAID HANRAHAN
by John O'Brien (1921)

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
In accents most forlorn,
Outside the church, ere Mass began,
One frosty Sunday morn.

The congregation stood about,
Coat-collars to the ears,
And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,
As it had done for years.

"It's looking crook," said Daniel Croke;
"Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,
For never since the banks went broke
Has seasons been so bad."

"It's dry, all right," said young O'Neil,
With which astute remark
He squatted down upon his heel
And chewed a piece of bark.

And so around the chorus ran
"It's keepin' dry, no doubt."
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."

"The crops are done; ye'll have your work
To save one bag of grain;
From here way out to Back-o'-Bourke
They're singin' out for rain.

"They're singin' out for rain," he said,
"And all the tanks are dry."
The congregation scratched its head,
And gazed around the sky.

"There won't be grass, in any case,
Enough to feed an ass;
There's not a blade on Casey's place
As I came down to Mass."

"If rain don't come this month," said Dan,
And cleared his throat to speak -
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"If rain don't come this week."

A heavy silence seemed to steal
On all at this remark;
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed a piece of bark.

"We want an inch of rain, we do,"
O'Neil observed at last;
But Croke "maintained" we wanted two
To put the danger past.

"If we don't get three inches, man,
Or four to break this drought,
We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."

In God's good time down came the rain;
And all the afternoon
On iron roof and window-pane
It drummed a homely tune.

And through the night it pattered still,
And lightsome, gladsome elves
On dripping spout and window-sill
Kept talking to themselves.

It pelted, pelted all day long,
A-singing at its work,
Till every heart took up the song
Way out to Back-o'-Bourke.

And every creek a banker ran,
And dams filled overtop;
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"If this rain doesn't stop."

And stop it did, in God's good time;
And spring came in to fold
A mantle o'er the hills sublime
Of green and pink and gold.

And days went by on dancing feet,
With harvest-hopes immense,
And laughing eyes beheld the wheat
Nid-nodding o'er the fence.

And, oh, the smiles on every face,
As happy lad and lass
Through grass knee-deep on Casey's place
Went riding down to Mass.

While round the church in clothes genteel
Discoursed the men of mark,
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed his piece of bark.

"There'll be bush-fires for sure, me man,
There will, without a doubt;
We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."

[JimC]

If only Hanrahan could've added locusts...

Am I allowed to say that this may be a plague of biblical proportions, or will I be reviled and cursed by all right-thinking Ratz?

[Hermit]

If only Hanrahan could've added locusts...

Am I allowed to say that this may be a plague of biblical proportions, or will I be reviled and cursed by all right-thinking Ratz?

You're safe. A prerequisite to membership of Rationalia is an inability to think right. I challenge you to point one out who is an exception.

Plagues of biblical proportions are cyclical. We had them several times before, and despite the damage they did, Hanrahan was proven wrong every single time.

[Rum]

The last bible I owned was about eight inches by five.

[Azathoth]

That's what you get for electing an atheist prime minister.