Categories
transport

My take on the EV tax

I don’t think it’s as simple as EVs good, tax bad.

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Photos from ten years ago

Old photos from March 2010

Let’s momentarily distract ourselves from the perils of March 2020 with some photos from ten years ago. Parliament station, back when the old Passenger Information Displays were CRTs with a blue background. They converted the Flinders Street Lane/Spring Street crossing from a zebra to signalised – thus downgrading the experience for pedestrians. There was crowding  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Caulfield to Dandenong skyrail nears completion

Now that the new Noble Park station (aka “Area 3” of the Caulfield to Dandenong “skyrail”) is open, what of the rest of the project? It’s moving fast. “Area 2” in the Clayton area is coming along, and a rail line closure from the 3rd to the 15th of April will allow construction workers to  ... [More]

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driving Toxic Custard newsletter

Learning to drive

Masters Hardware couldn’t launch a viable business against Bunnings, and only a couple of years after launching, have closed up all their outlets. As this photo shows, they also couldn’t construct a functioning pedestrian crossing: No wonder Masters is in trouble – they couldn't even design a pedestrian crossing that goes anywhere. pic.twitter.com/CN8JFL9yHk — Daniel  ... [More]

Categories
Culture News and events

My late father’s account of the newspaper story in 1964 that led to a suicide

In looking through my late father’s papers, I found the following, which he wrote about an incident on Rupert Murdoch’s Sydney Daily Mirror in the mid-1960s. I found it fascinating in light of the News Of The World controversy that was uncovered during 2011, though of course one should not jump to conclusions about the  ... [More]

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Social media

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-03-19

Footscray and Maribyrnong residents, that noise you can hear is Top Gear Live at the Showgrounds. #Melbourne #

Categories
News and events

Clueless

Wow. Following up from frivolous calls after Melbourne’s earth tremor a couple of weeks ago, and just in time for yesterday afternoon’s tremor, Victoria Police put out a press release that reveals how many clueless people there are, who dial the Triple Zero emergency number for stupid reasons. January 2009 – Caller telephones 000 to  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism Melbourne

Not quite 7-11

When they first arrived in Australia, my mum used to call 7-11 “4-7-11”, because the TV jingle went “Thank heaven… for Seven Eleven!” In Swanston Street, just a few doors down from the 7-11 on the corner of Flinders Lane, is a fake 7-11: the 24-7 Cafe, with a colour scheme that is similar, but  ... [More]

Categories
Sport

GO KERRYN!

Australia’s Kerryn McCann says she was prepared to be beaten in the women’s marathon, until she heard the roar of the MCG crowd. — The Age Such a thrilling thing I haven’t seen in a long time. She didn’t know it, but 76,500 of us in the MCG were watching her progress against Hellen Cherono  ... [More]

Categories
Culture

Word of the week

I was idly flicking through the Comedy Festival programme this morning when I saw a familiar face: a guy I went to school with is doing a show, called “Run Nerd Boy Run!” So I read the blurb to Marita. When I got to the last bit: these two are treating life like an underfed  ... [More]

Categories
Geek Retrospectives

Big ears

Years ago, I occasionally shopped at Rod Irving Electronics in A’Beckett Street. There was a shop assistant in there who looked like Darrin from Bewitched. The first, original Darrin, with the ears that stuck out. Apart from the ears, he had slicked back jet black hair, a dark suit and very shiny shoes. I don’t  ... [More]

Categories
Doctor Who Geek Health Working life

Snippets

An update about my colleague who lost his laptop computer on Friday the 13th last month. A couple of weeks later he was playing with his kids in the front yard when a male youth walked past on the footpath. With a laptop under his arm. Colleague recognised the laptop, ran after him and rugby  ... [More]