When I visited Phoenix, Arizona in 1996, it appeared to be the archetypal car-dominated city. I was told pretty much the only PT was buses once an hour. The freeways were packed at rush hour. Nobody walked anywhere. The downtown area was (especially on weekends) so deserted that they had to have signs saying “Welcome ... [More]
Was just watching the footy and noticed that the Sydney Swans have the initials of their old name — SMFC — on their jumpers near the back of the neck. Had previously noticed that the Bulldogs also have this — FFC. Collingwood doesn’t seem to have it. How many other teams do? Is it a ... [More]
On Thursday I noticed a Melbourne City Council City Of Melbourne worker wandering around Collins Street with a street sign under his arm, apparently puzzled as to where to put it up. Today I noticed it had gone up. In the wrong place. There is no way through to Howey Place there. If you follow ... [More]
The most efficient way of moving people is using their own two feet. Here’s the statistical measure: (Graph from Teufel, D, 1989, âDie Zukunft des Autoverkehrsâ (The future of car traffic), Umwelt und Prognose Institut, Heidelberg — and used more recently in PTUA’s Response to Australiaâs Future Tax System Consultation Paper. Here’s another representation of ... [More]
Every so often, some new online service will present itself. Some turn out to be duds, but some turn out to be pretty compelling. As most of them are free, it’s often handy to grab your name early on while it’s available, in case it becomes useful later. In the prehistoric days of the net, ... [More]
Why is Westpac bank turning into my mother? Do they really expect to get more customers like this? Great quote: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” — Robert J. Hanlon Star Trek: all creeds and colours of humanity, in a spirit of co-operation and harmony, working together at hating the ... [More]
I was hoping to find a decent JPG copy of that modified John Brack Collins Street 5pm that was in The Age a few weeks ago — the one where everybody’s wearing iPods — but haven’t seen it online, and I’m not sure I can get a good scan from the paper copy I have. ... [More]
UPDATE: See info at bottom of post Why does Australia have problems with multiple rail gauges? In summary, it seems to have gone like this: 1848: Everyone agreed to use standard gauge (4 ft 8.5 in). 1851: The Sydney Railway Company had a chief engineer who preferred broad gauge (5 ft 3 in), and convinced ... [More]
Just over two years after the accident, the verdict in the Kerang disaster case was returned yesterday. The truck driver was acquitted. There’s no question over the fact that he was at the wheel, or what happened after impact. And we know that the crossings lights and bells worked, because the traffic coming the other ... [More]
You know you’ve been watching too many online videos when you look at something in real life and think “Wow that’s high resolution… and the motion is so smooth…”
For those so inclined, here’s a music meme. Take your iPod, or alternative daggy unfashionable non-Apple MP3 player, or even your music collection on your computer. Pick a song, maybe one you like at the moment, doesn’t really matter which one. Using the alphabetic list of songs in your iPod/player/computer, list that song and the ... [More]
Morning radio can be very fast-paced. In the case of yesterday morning’s two-and-a-half minutes on Jon Faine’s programme, about railway security, I’d been dashing around, and only had a couple of minutes between hearing their voicemail and being on-air. Maybe that’s why they call it the “hectic half-hour“. Not sure it excuses me being unable ... [More]
A few weeks ago we watched Buster Keaton’s The General the other day. It’s public domain, a free download from the Internet Archive. Very funny stuff, and some quite remarkable stunts considering they had so few safety precautions compared to nowadays. I had been pondering if it was rude to talk during a silent movie. ... [More]
Dear “Number One Driving School”, You may not be Number One for long if you keep teaching your learner drivers to park in bus zones, then sit there for 5+ minutes. This pic was taken a couple of weeks ago, and was separate to another noted yesterday via Twitter: You parked in a bus zone ... [More]
Had to laugh at the Indian protestor talking to Jon Faine on Monday who appeared to inadvertantly use the phrase “Too many chiefs, not enough Indians” (at about the 20:45 minute mark, using the ABC media player’s weird countdown system.) I haven’t actually seen this week’s controversial Chaser episode yet. But judging from last week’s ... [More]
Just as news breaks that the Myki system overcharges when bus drivers change shifts and reboot the bus, we in Melbourne are starting to see something more than mounting points and black and yellow striped boxes for our $1.3 billion. This one is at Footscray station. I’d have to assume at some stage they’ll get ... [More]