SA Firefighter

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http://torrentfreak.com/aussie-police-pirate-080407/

A recent audit of computer systems belonging to the South Australia Police has found that hundreds are being used to "share" films. In a move smacking of hypocrisy though, officers involved will not be charged.
According to The Australian, during an audit of computer systems by the South Australian police force's IT branch, police computers belonging to hundreds of police officers were found to contain movies.
The origin of these movies is not clear, but it is probable that they've been downloaded via p2p at some point, either on these systems, or on the personal systems of officers and transferred over.
Senior officials of the SA police force have been made aware of the findings, including its commissioner Mel Hyde. However, police sources have told press that there will not be any investigation into this, citing the large numbers of police officers involved.
The Australian Federation against Copyright Theft (AFACT) has said it will write to the commissioner to seek an explanation, presumably as to why the police officers are being let off with what it considers a heinous crime. Quite ironically, AFACT boasts of "working closely with police" - perhaps this closeness has shown the police officers involved just how unimportant and meaningless this so-called 'crime' is in the grand scheme of things.
If the officers do go unpunished, it could create a favorable precedent for filesharers in South Australia. If police officers, who are expected to be held to a greater level of accountability regarding the law, show this level of contempt for the current copyright laws, are unpunished, it will make it harder to convince a court that regular citizen should be punished for similar acts.
On the other hand, if the officers are punished under the law, which allows for upto AUS$60,500 (About US$55,700 or 35,500Euro) per infringement and up to 5 years imprisonment, the ability to effectively police the state will be severely diminished.
Either way, this case will bring to a head the vastly disproportionate penalties for an act that, as yet, has never been proven to be even financially damaging. One thing is certain, when even the police officers join large numbers of citizens in flouting such laws, the law's place in society should be called into serious question.
The South Australian police force had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.


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Very amusing....

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http://www.safirefighter.com/boards/index.php?topic=1691.0

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Article from The Mount Barker Courier on 29/8/2007.  It's nice to see some CFS vols doing us proud interstate! :)

I noticed on the ABC's Lateline report on the Californian fires that the fire fighters are forcing residents out of their homes.
What are people thoughts on doing this, and does anyone know if the CFS has an *official* policy on telling people to evacuate?

As far as I know, Australia is the only country that actively encourages residents to have a bushfire plan, and prepare to stay and fight, and not leave at the last minute...

I've decided its time for another SAFF continuing story.
The Rules:
Continue the sentence from the previous post, and end your post mid sentence.  Also try to keep your posts short - 3 sentences maximum...
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Once upon a time...

Quote from: rescue5271 on September 01, 2007, 09:39:33 AM
I am sure that the five rope rescue cfs brigade's would loved to have been involved in that rescue..............

I'm sure its been discussed elsewhere, but which are the 5 brigades?

(sorry for going off topic)

Emergency Services Minister Carmel Zollo says a review of South Australia's bushfire management system will mean key changes.
She says they will be phased-in by next year's fire season.
Ms Zollo says co-ordination of resources will be improved and there will be a greater level of community participation in bushfire prevention strategies.
"We'll be improving the current structure of bushfire management from a complicated three-tier structure to a streamlined and outcome-focused two-tier structure," she said.
"The CFS [Country Fire Service] will assume the role of the preparation of bushfire management plans instead of local government.
"The councils will still have a role, clearly they'll still have a role at the regional management committee level, there'll be representations, there'll be at least two representatives from council.
"We'll remove from them the onus to actually prepare the bushfire management plan and also to have a bushfire prevention officer."

...From ABC online...

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Lets hope these "new roles" also come with "new funding" and "new staff"...

QuoteAug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The death toll in Greece's forest fires reached at least 59 as European Union nations sent fire- fighting planes and a blaze damaged the site of the ancient Olympic games.

High temperatures and strong winds contributed to the spread of more than 220 blazes across the country since Aug. 24. "We have every reason to believe it won't stop here," Health Ministry official Panos Efstathiou said yesterday by phone, detailing the casualties.

Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis mobilized the army to battle the flames after declaring a state of emergency that allowed the government to requisition private property and labor. Karamanlis, who faces an election on Sept. 16, put the entire country on alert and called on citizens to assist firefighters.

"This is an indescribable national tragedy, and my pain and my anger are as deep as yours," Karamanlis said in a televised statement.

Flames trapped people who tried to flee in their cars, save their homes and fields or rescue others. Several villages in central and southern Greece were evacuated. About 60 people were hospitalized and dozens reported missing.

"Many people were surprised, panicked or refused to leave their homes," fire service spokesman Nikolaos Diamantis said yesterday in a televised news conference. Arson is suspected in many of the fires, he said.

Full Story

I wish the Greek authorities best of luck and safety.  From what I hear, the Greek fire service isn't very well kitted out for rural fires - they mostly rely on their huge water bombing fleet.

This topic has been moved to Incidents.

http://www.safirefighter.com/boards/index.php?topic=1411.0

On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree. Just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts."One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me," said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down toward the fence.

Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me."

He just knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along.
"Come here quick," said the boy, "you won't believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls."
The man said, "Beat it kid, can't you see it's hard for me to walk."
When the boy insisted though, the man hobbled slowly to the cemetery.
Standing by the fence they heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me."
The old man whispered, "Boy, you've been tellin' me the truth. Let's see if we can see the Lord."
Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.

At last they heard, "One for you, one for me. That's all. Now let's to get those nuts by the fence and we'll be done. They say the old man made it back to town a full 5 minutes ahead of the kid on the bike.

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QuoteURGRES will soon be here.. they where testing it the other day....

Linc24p mentioned that in the CFS FAQ thread...
Anyone know why they want it?

I just want people to know that even though this site reports that I've been logged in for 32 days and 20 hours, I haven't actually been on here all that time... I do have a life... :P

I'm not sure why it always reports me as being on-line, but for some reason, if my computer is on, it says I'm on here....

Had to clear that up :D  :-P

This topic has been moved to SAMFS.

http://www.safirefighter.com/boards/index.php?topic=890.0

Is there an official breakdown somewhere of how the emergency services levy is split up between the services?

Also, does the CFS have some annual report where they detail what money went where, and how it was spent?

Does anyone know of a good way to clean resin (or gum) that drips off gumtrees off a car?