Category Archives: random
Inappropriate letterboxes to be replaced
Following the resignation of their highly paid CEO, it seems that our postal services need to recover some of the revenue it has been paying out in the last few years.
24 Hrs of Flight Paths
Video: 24 Hours Of Flight Paths Over Europe
Flown anywhere lately? You were not alone – You had company up there.
A data visualization of Air Traffic in Europe was created from real flight data. It shows the air traffic which flies on a typical summer day and highlights the intensity of the operation in Europe – an operation which runs 24x7x365.
Innovation
Preview: good design
Lumio Lamp 
I saw this online and thought of a friend who has been looking for a light to take outside to have dinner in their courtyard. We have looked at various solar light thingys. None quite worked out. and now in early 2014, maybe this is. Not yet available but there is the you tube promotion below. Continue reading Innovation
Distraction
Opinion: from Guardian Australia
Tourist walks off pier while browsing on Facebook
no need for further comment – click on the image.
How to permanently delete your Facebook account
click this link to another web site that sets out how to delete your facebook account
Distraction
Opinion: Damon Young: Distraction
blame the mind, not the machines
An interesting few words from Damon Young on the machines that distract some people. Damon likes to observe – here’s one of his people observations. I think that too often I have observed his subject.
An ordinary suburban cafe, with an ordinary sullen teenage waitress and faux-friendly barista. The tables are unvarnished barrels. The cups are marmalade jars. And the coffee is bitter, weak and overpriced.
Political Distraction
Opinion: Rabbott Distracts while cutting deep
Very cleverly the Rabbott Government used the ‘shock’ announcements of vehicle manufacturing closures to distract attention from the government’s cuts to key social programs.
The mainstream media filled headline after headline about the closure of a particular car manufacturing company.
Our loyal opposition parties did not help as they joined in crying out loud through the media about the closures. Meanwhile damage was being done elsewhere in plain sight.
MacMansions
Opinion: Recent book on MacMansions
We’ve all seen it. Now someone has traveled around and photographed it happening.
Just a look through this article in SLATE is worrying enough.
(although I have to say that Slate’s new online web site is a mess)
Seeking Keating
George Megalogenis In Conversation
Seeking a Leader Like Keating
allow 20 minutes – maybe turn up the volume, do the washing up while listening to George (dated May 2, 2013).
Interesting mention of my local member, Andrew Leigh. I agree. I hope the ‘lone wolf’ chooses the right time to move.
Urbanity – Bicycle
Opinion Piece: cycling on our roads.
First an admission. I used to be a reasonably keen urban cyclist . However some time back, I had two serious near misses whereby I was run off the road by local buses. After the last bruising, the bike sat in garage till one day I sold it on. Whenever I can , I now walk instead. But I do miss the experience of cycling through neighbourhoods.
Today there was a very good summary in the Guardian on the situation and changes to urban cycling across many cities internationally. Click on the image below.
There’s currently a crazy debate here in Canberra about cyclists and vehicles and pedestrians. Crazy because the debate has been dominated by no so cool people who are not accepting of any other point of view. So I wonder what the problem is?
The Media
Opinion: The state of Australian Media
The Democracy experiment continues to be under threat
An article from the Asia Sentinel hits the mark on the media issues in Australia.
A milestone of a dubious kind was passed in Australia recently when it was discovered that the number of public relations practitioners had for the first time exceeded the number of journalists actually working as reporters and editors. (Hamish McDonald)
The full article is a good read. Click here.
Food: in japan
Photo-essay
Japan and food – an image
A photograph taken in 2006 of lunch time on a busy back street in Tokyo.
The food was great. Ordering in such places is always interesting as no-one there spoke English (and this is the usual off the tourist areas) and we spoke absolutely no Japanese. We managed through hand gestures and pointing and thanks to the politeness and very friendly nature of the owners. This experience was repeated often whereby the locals were both helpful and courteous to these foreigners who did not speak their language.
Rudd Resigns
Comment: the resignation of Kevin Rudd
former Prime Minister resigns, at last.
Last night I happened to be online when the former Prime Minister stood up in Parliament to resign and to leave office.
There were lots of kind words and some hinted at the troubles he had caused but most were polite and positive about his contributions in public life.
Climate Change
“It’s time to stop this madness”
Philippines plea at UN climate talks
click on the image above for the speech whereby the Philippines pleads with the world to get out of their ivory towers and to do something about climate change.
Listening were you Rabbott? Oh that’s right, you had important things to do rather than have Australia properly represented at these climate talks.!
Paul Keating
Paul Keating: a most appropriate speech
the Australian War Memorial 11 November 2013
Paul Keating’s Remembrance Day address “Those Australians fought and died not in defence of some old world notion of competing empires and territorial conquests but for the new world – the one they belonged to and hoped to return to.
This is why Australia was never in need of any redemption at Gallipoli, any more than it was in need of one at Kokoda thirty years later.
There was nothing missing in our young nation or our idea of it that required the martial baptism of a European cataclysm to legitimise us.”
full text of his speech at Australian War Memorial
Rabbott update
Review: Things beyond belief
It it time to monitor the performance of our nation’s pet Rabbott now that he and his followers are inside the pen with all the assets of people of Australia to play with.
The trend is to make fools of the media – and this is a turn around given the role of the mainstream media in promoting the Rabbott and Murdoch messages prior to the last federal election.
WTF
Global Warning on Coloured Hair Dyes
Alert Alert – it may be time to panic!
There’s an alert in circulation globally about the use of a particular hair dyes by aging business men.
Halloween
Why do we do this?
I do not get this one. The supermarkets and other retailers have again attempted to convince us that Australia celebrates Halloween and we should be encouraging children and teenagers to wander around and knock on doors to demand sweets. I do not think so!
I’ll migrate that appropriate saying from that other not so relevant event: Bah Humbug.
those damn leaves!
Need to rake those damn leaves!
September 2013.
Casual roaming of the neighbourhood can reveal some of the oddities of local urbanity.
First a background story. Going back several decades, there used to be tradition in Canberra that each winter the residents would rake their leaves in the street gutter and then set fire to them. The neighbourhoods were full of smoke from these frequent local burnings. Eventually the local government put a stop to this local tradition.
Signs of Life
Review: Signs that assist us daily
Always interested in how signs work and how our environment is being cluttered with so many well-meaning signs. Here’s one from near the Canberra airport.
This sign warns drivers to watch out for a certain animal (kangaroo) that apparently is much larger than humans. Note the size of the creature in relation to the human being in front of it.
I suggest that anyone driving along this road should definitely keep an eye for this giant.
Maybe it is a warning to parents about how dangerous giant kangaroos are to children.
(click on the image for a larger version)
That Media Sneer
A note on Crickey Reporting
Ever so often, actually a little too often, Crickey puts out a silly and patronising report that leaves you feeling What was the point?
Here’s one by Andrew Crook, who has a few of these out there.
Hold the bus! He has researched the possible annual income of the outgoing Prime Minister. Well that ‘s important information I needed to know!
One can not help sense that he is not going to let that Julia Gillard retire quietly and resume life peacefully in her new roles. Must be some dirt here somewhere. Surely such a ‘senior journalist’ could do some real journalism. Is that asking too much? Andrew – get a life, on your bike…
Nicola Roxon
Wooow!
Former Attorney General, Nicola Roxon, has delivered a speech that outlines her ten housekeeping tips for a future Labor Government. However it is her comments about and suggestions for Kevin Rudd that have made the headlines.
Democracry under threat
Be Alert and Be Aware
The democracy experiment continues to be under threat in the United States.
A revealing article on a the web site, Independent Australia, explains how frightening the current political crisis is within the US and the background to the government shutdown.
Unfortunately it does not take much to join the dots as to what is going on behind the scenes in Australia now with the Abbott government.
here’s the link to the article – hope it dos not spoil your spring day.
A Word
Give PM Julia Gillard credit where credit is due
an article re-published – in no fibs – was originally published by Mary Crooks
Executive director Victorian Women’s Trust on 5 July, 2013 as a full page advertisement.
I identify with her finishing paragraph:
“The truly ugly aspect of our national life revealed by the past three years should give cause for us all to reflect on what else is required to restore and maintain respect, civility, common decency and a fair go for women – in our society and in our democratic politics.”
read the original piece as reproduced here
When Names Stick
Sometimes your image of particular people changes to something silly and from then on they can no longer be taken seriously
It was while I was sitting at a meeting a couple of years ago that I became quite irritated and maybe even a little bored with the posturing, the rantings and endless domination of the conversations by one particular male at the meeting.
Truth is out there?
Julia’s ‘murderous rage’
An article in a paper today by Alecia Simmonds stopped me in my tracks.
In the piece she discusses the reporting of the conversation between Anne Summers and Julia Gillard in Sydney. Alecia questions why the reporting concentrated on the statement by Julia when she referred to ‘murderous rage’. Alecia point was that such reporting was about manufacturing controversy yet again. There remains so many celebratory aspects of this event to be highlighted and discussed but too many reporters have yet again chosen to concentrate on making a headline as some form of criticism.
Truth is out there
political spin at its worst
This morning on the ABC program, INSIDERS, the group were discussing the two very successful events last week whereby Anne Summers had two conversations with Julia Gillard, one in Sydney and the other in Melbourne.
Julia had made a statement that it was not acceptable to do things that undermine the government and the labor party. She was clearly having a go at Kevin Rudd and his close supporters and their three-year campaign to internally disrupt the Prime Minister and her government and to create the environment for Kevin to be re-installed. Continue reading Truth is out there
Exhibition chatter
When roaming the art galleries in Sydney recent, I came across a couple of women in Martin Browne Contemporary. As they slowly walked through the exhibitions they were chatting endlessly about all sorts of gossipy things and were not really stopping to look at any of the art on display.
They managed to meander through the two floors of the space without actually stopping to look and without pausing their conversations.
Amazingly I ran into them twice more at different galleries and they put on the same performance. Chat, slow wander, and no contemplation or discussion of the works.
They were not whispering. They spoke reasonably loudly, so it was hard to ignore, and the conversations were just plain boring!
what the F? was going on – it seems they were going through the motions of visiting galleries and exhibitions but in fact it was simply a meaningless social occasion.