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Fearing conditions that could eclipse the deadly Feb 7 Black Saturday fires, in which 173 people died, the authorities have also altered the national alert system so that it can now warn of a new level of “catastrophic” blazes.

Nathan Rees, New South Wales premier, has warned that December to February could be “the highest risk summer that we have ever faced”, with drought, climate change and dry forest undergrowth combining to create perfect fire conditions.

With the new fire season just two weeks away, authorities said they were preparing “neighbourhood safer places” to be ready by November.

The refuges would range from school halls to sports grounds to community halls, and would be required to meet tough fire protection standards, authorities in New South Wales said.

“It’s a place of last resort, a last place that people can go and where we would move trucks and personnel to protect them as fires approached,” said a spokesman for the state’s Rural Fire Service.

The Black Saturday fires, fanned by heat wave conditions and winds topping 70 miles per hour, struck in Victoria and caused the highest ever loss of life from bushfire in the world’s most fire-prone country.

Several towns near the state capital Melbourne were destroyed or severely damaged, and 2,000 people were made homeless.

Victorian authorities and other states have changed their system of alerts for days of “catastrophic” fire danger, warning people in bushfire-prone areas to leave their homes on days of severely hot weather.

It is expected there will be at least one day of the highest possible fire risk in most states this summer.

John Brumby, the Victorian premier, said there “is no house that can be guaranteed to be 100 per cent safe on such a day”.

The following graphic texting while driving PSA is an example of how fear can be effectively used as a teaching tool. The four-minute sequence involves British student actors and crew.

In 2002, villagers in a remote part of Indonesia caught this gigantic python – which measures a massive 7 meters (23 feet) in length.

this cat is either very, very hot… or he rode the short bus as a kitten

The explosion of an underground methane gas leak in a remote area of northern Jordan sparked rumours of an impending volcanic eruption, causing panic across the desert kingdom.

A shepherd said he saw his flock “burn and completely disappear” after he let them wander into a rocky depression to search for grass.

The incident set off a frenzy of speculation at the weekend that Jordan now had its own volcano or that a massive earthquake was imminent.

Government experts dispatched to the burned region in Um Jaozeh on the outskirts of the city of Salt revealed that a nearby waste treatment plant had saturated the soil with methane gas and organic materials.

“The underground fire erupted when some local residents set fire to dried grass in the vicinity and the sparks spread,” said Bahjat Edwan, president of the Jordanian Geologists Association.

“The phenomenon is strange, but there’s no need to panic because no volcanic eruption or earthquake movement was detected.”

Holes were dug in the area to release the trapped gas and the area was flooded to neutralise the problem.

Nvidia has lifted the NDA off its first 40nm DirectX 10.1 cards, the Geforce GT 220 and G210. All Nvidia partners should announce their versions today, and some of them have already found their way on the net.

The GT 220, aka GT216 has 48 processor cores, a 128-bit memory interface and will be available in both DDR3 and DDR2 flavours. The reference card should work at 615MHz for the core, 1335MHz for shaders and 790MHz for 1GB of DDR3 memory. The slower G210, with a GT218 GPU, has 16 processor cores, a 64-bit memory interface and partners will probably stick to DDR2 memory on this one. This one works at around 589MHz for the core, 1404MHz for shaders and 800MHz for DDR2 memory.

The mentioned clocks are reference values and, as far as we know, most of the partners will come up with different and higher clocked versions as every partner is using its own cooling solution. Both cards don’t need an external power connector and most of the G210 cards will probably use a low profile PCB.

According to the first reviews, Nvidia’s 40nm DirectX 10.1 GT 220 and G210 are slower than a year old ATI HD 4670 card which is currently sold for around €50 to €60. So the only thing that can save these is that the price should be lower, much lower than the HD 4670 or the HD 4650 in G210’s case.

The guys from PCPerspective posted a review of Galaxy branded GT 220 and G210 here.

Felipe Massa says he is the same driver he was before his dramatic accident at the Hungarian Grand Prix after testing a Formula 1 car again on Monday.

The Brazilian, sidelined from the sport since he fractured his skull in Hungary, returned to the wheel of a grand prix car at the Fiorano circuit, where he tested a two-year-old F2007 car fitted with GP2 tyres.

Although he didn’t complete many laps, Massa said he felt as if the accident had not happened.

“When I was inside the car it was as if nothing had happened: I’m the same bastard as before,” Massa was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

“Everything went well, I felt very good physically, it felt like the crash from 25 July had never occurred. I haven’t had any eyesight problem and today I’d be ready to do not just one, but two races in a row.

“Obviously we need to respect the doctors’ limitation as a precaution, but after getting in the car, I can say I’m back to what I was before the crash.”

The Brazilian insisted he is not thinking of racing again this year, and will instead start focusing on 2010.

“[We can] start preparing for next year, which won’t be an easy year because this one has been hard, and work to have a good car and fight for the championship,” he added.

The Ferrari driver also welcomed Fernando Alonso’s arrival at the Italian squad, although he made it clear he is not expecting to be best friends with the Spaniard.

“Alonso is a good professional,” Massa added. “So I don’t see why there should be any problem with him. He isn’t coming here to become my best friend, what’s important is the professional relationship.”

Massa admitted he was still furious about the result of last year’s Singapore Grand Prix, where he reckons the race-fixing scandal robbed him of the title he lost by a single point.

“I’m still very angry, because what happened then didn’t change just a race, but the entire championship. The winner of that race is still Alonso, Briatore has gone home, while nothing has changed regarding what they stole away from us. I’m very sorry about it, because the result of the championship could have been different.”

Michael Schumacher is backing Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel in this year’s championship fight, and has told his compatriot to remember that the battle “is not over until it’s over”.

Vettel, dominant winner of the last race in Japan, is currently 16 points behind championship leader Jenson Button with just 20 to play for.

Seven-time world champion Schumacher reckons Vettel should not give up on the title despite the odds being against him, and the former Ferrari driver said he will be rooting for him in the final races.

“This F1 season turned out to be extremely attractive again, and as probably all motorsport fans I am looking forward to seeing what will be happening in the last two races,” said Schumacher on his website.

“Both championships are still open, and for me it is obviously important to see how the constructors’ championship will end – of course I wish for our guys to defend their third position.

“I think it helps to think of a fact which I was always sticking to during my career: It is not over until it is over; you have to fight until the end. At Ferrari, we live that experience very successfully since many years, and I am convinced it will be like this again this time.

“Sebastian as well will probably share this view because he still has the chance to win the title. This alone is already a big success. I am sure he will make everything possible to show a good performance in the next two races. Mathematically everything is still possible, and I will keep my fingers crossed for him.”