Healthy debate needs truth
My view, as I’ve expressed before, is that healthy debate is important, but it relies on the participants sticking to the facts, and not just making things up.
Otherwise you get stuff like this, which concerns a Bacchus Marsh resident who apparently misinterpreted what he read and contacted Leader (newspapers) with concerns about seniors ticket pricing doubling from $3.30 one way to $7.
I suspect Myki spokesdroid Jean Ker Walsh was probably correct when she said some seniors may be confusing a one-off cost with ongoing senior fare prices.
That is, to buy a re-usable Myki card will, once all the free offers are gone, cost $7 for a concession.
Many people also seem to be assuming (incorrectly) that tourists and others will be forced to shell out for a card. They won’t — short term (non-reusable) tickets will be available: Short term tickets (for occasional users such as tourists) will replace the single-use 2-hour and Daily tickets available now.
I know it’s easy for people to assume the worst, but these sorts of false “the whole thing is totally crap” arguments don’t really help the debate, and help obscure the truth: that Myki is incredibly expensive, late, and badly implemented.
So it goes too for climate change.
Lord Christopher Monckton has been doing a speaking tour of Australia in the past few weeks, and doing a fair bit of media along the way. He’s an extremely eloquent, apparently very knowledgeable and intelligent climate change sceptic.
But, as MediaWatch found, he makes stuff up. He comes out with unsubstantiated claims which (as MediaWatch showed) many in the media let him get away with unchallenged.
I think the United Nations Climate Panel is now a busted flush. For instance, Rajendra Pachauri, its chairman, Sir John Houghton, its former chairman, and a number of other people associated with it, are now under formal criminal investigation in the United Kingdom for filing false accounts of a charity known as TERI Europe of which they are all trustees.
MediaWatch asked Sir John Houghton, who said “I am not and have never been a Trustee of Teri Europe.”
They also spoke to the UK Charity Commission which said it’s evaluating Monckton’s claims, but is not running a criminal investigation. And they asked TERI Europe, who said that “Neither TERI Europe nor its trustees have received any complaint from the Charity Commission about its activities, let alone any allegation of criminal conduct.”
Another of Monckton’s claims: The Barrier Reef Authority has established that sea temperatures in the region of the reef have not changed at all over the last 30 years.
MediaWatch checked this too. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says it doesn’t measure sea temperatures itself, and doesn’t know where his figures come from.
It really does appear that he’s just making stuff up — and not for the first time, either.
I suspect to anybody with an open mind, it all just casts doubt on the rest of his arguments, and it doesn’t help us have a serious, healthy debate at all.
TV news
Superb! Charlie Brooker on what makes a generic TV news report:
(via Mumbrella)
Two things I hate
Two things I hate are getting up early, and driving in heavy traffic.
This morning I did both, for the sake of The Car.
The Car was bought from Alan Mance in Melton. (“Don’t take a chance, go to Alan Mance.”)
To maintain the three year used-car warranty (which mind you only covers certain types of faults, and under fairly specific circumstances), I need to take it back to them every 6 months for a service, or a “safety check” if it’s not due for a service (which it rarely is, as I drive so little).
Thankfully I don’t have to go all the way to flippin’ Melton for that; but the closest one is in Footscray.
This either involves being organised enough to stay at Marita’s overnight (which I didn’t do), or getting up way earlier than I’m used to and driving across town in an effort to beat the traffic.
So this morning I the alarm went off at about 6:25, I was conscious and eating breakfast a few minutes later, in the shower at about 6:50, and out the door by 7:10. Now I know some would be scoffing at this and saying that’s not early at all. But it is for me.
Brad with the traffic on 774 was saying it was a CFMEU rostered day off today, and this was helping the traffic. I can only assume it’s pretty horrible normally then, because I got stuck on Brighton Road, St Kilda Road, Queens Road, and Kingsway.
Sure, it was only for a short period each time, but it really makes me appreciate that I don’t have to fight my way through the traffic every day. I don’t know how people do it.
So could I beat the traffic getting the car home? I checked with my sister, who works in South Melbourne and sees it every day — she said Kingsway is fine at 4:55pm, but clogs up just after five.
Originally they’d said the car would be ready at 4pm. Plenty of time to get across the bridge before 5pm. But then wouldn’t you know it, they rang at 3:15 saying it was advisable to replace the external drive belt (whatever the hell that is, apart from another $140), revising the pickup time to 4:30. D’oh!
As it happened I turned onto Kingsway just after the 5pm radio news came on.
And actually, it wasn’t too bad, and I made it home in one piece. Maybe that CFMEU RDO really did make the difference.
Tags: car, driving, traffic
7 comments
Nothing says Valentine’s Day…
Nothing says Happy Valentine’s Day like Hot Cross Buns.
Quick and polite
When asked “Do you have an Everyday Rewards card?” at Safeway, what’s the quickest, most polite way of saying:
“Yes I do, it’s tucked inside my wallet somewhere, but I know full well that there’s no benefit to me if it’s scanned on a transaction less than $30. This one is only $15, so I don’t get a petrol discount, and I don’t get Frequent Flyer points, all I get is more data on my shopping habits going into the Woolworths Corporation database, and the more they know about my shopping habits, the more likely it is they’ll be able to direct highly targeted and irritating advertising at me, and I really don’t want that thanks very much. So I realise you’re only following your script, but to be quite honest, I
cancan’t be arsed getting it out, thanks very much.”
There’s no quick and polite way of saying that, so I think a little white lie isn’t out of the question, along the lines of “I don’t have it with me.”
(On the subject of Woolworths, one of my pics got used on the Cult Of Mac web site. Cool. Thanks for the tipoff, Damien.)
Manual vs auto
Sometimes I ponder if I should have gone ahead and bought a manual car. I can handle it okay, but gears are just another thing to deal with. As summer comes along, one has to remember to rev it a bit more when the aircon’s on, otherwise you make an unscheduled stop in Stall City.
It also means when Marita’s with me, she gets driven everywhere as she doesn’t do manuals! (Though she had a go of a manual truck recently and did fine.)
On the plus side for manuals, the fuel economy is a bit better, and there’s less mechanical stuff inside the car to break down.
Then again, hill starts still scare me a little.
Within a few years, the kids will be learning to drive. On the one hand it makes sense for them to learn gears, on the other, I wonder if not having to deal with them makes beginner drivers safer?
Thoughts?
Tags: cars, driving
24 comments
The fifteen minute network
During the school holidays, the kids and I will often leave the car at home head out to not just attractions in the CBD, but also to parts of the city we might not normally get to. Partly for the joy of exploration, but also partly because Jeremy is keen on hunting down secondhand video games, so we’re gradually ticking off visits to the various branches of Cash Converters around the place. (Though new discovery GameTrader is also worth exploring.)
We can get around fairly easily with PT on weekdays, as the network in my neck of the woods hangs together quite well for spontaneous travel because many of the main routes run every 15 minutes or better.
Even the government has figured out that this is appealing to people:
“This high-frequency bus service, with a bus arriving every 15 minutes during peak periods, is a viable alternative to the car.”
…
“In just a few months of service, we have already seen a 37 per cent increase in weekday usage along this route. That makes this SmartBus service the most popular bus route in Melbourne,” she [then-Minister Kosky] said. — Government press release, July 2009.
The problem is that the network of frequent services only serves some suburbs, and it really only applies on weekdays, which unfortunately is when white-collar workers like me are least likely to be wanting to go anywhere other than work.
Is every fifteen minutes perfect? Hell no. I think at least every ten minutes should be the target, but the key is that it applies all of the week, to all main routes, so you can get from anywhere to anywhere at (almost) anytime with a minimum of waiting.
So anyway, during the holidays just gone we headed to Northcote, where we found no good games, but I did get a couple of cheap CDs.
Another trip was to Frankston, where no games or CDs were found, but we had a nice lunch (this time avoiding the “I’m amazed they don’t get sued” Hungry Zak’s which we’d tried the previous time… a bit horrible). And as a bonus, within minutes of arriving I saw a guy try and swipe a can of drink from a shop, only to be chased and caught by the shopkeeper — classy, Frankston, classy.
On these and other recent excursions, we didn’t have to wait more than a few minutes to hop on trains, trams and buses. When it all works, it’s a very relaxing way to get around, and I get to talk to the kids way more than when I’m concentrating on the road. (Not to mention a quick trip down to Frankston for $2.02 full fare/$1.01 concession using a Myki or 10×2 hour Metcard is a flippin’ bargain.)
I’m more inclined to use PT for these kinds of trips for a number of reasons, but one I consider very important is that I’m getting my kids acclimatised to the world around them. I’m making sure they know how to get themselves out and about (not just on PT, but as a pedestrian too) so that at the point they’re old enough to (which isn’t far off), they can do it with ease. You just don’t learn any street smarts being chauffered around.
The psychedelic playground
The City of Glen Eira has some pretty psychedelic playground equipment in some of its parks. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what you’re meant to do with it.
This one I don’t think many people would have problems with. You get on and it spins around, alarmingly fast. Pretty easy.
This thing however, reminds me of two miniature monorails, but appears to involve “surfing” the board things while holding onto the railings. You can also try and sit on them and ride them, but that doesn’t appear to be how it was designed. Though I’m not really sure what they had in mind.
This one is obviously inspired by a Mobius strip, and is quite a challenge (in a good way) to climb. We noticed it’s made from four identical pieces hooked together.
And as for this, Escher couldn’t have done better with the ladder. The middle bit is like a rock climbing wall, but impossible to actually use. The slide thing is hinged and wobbles from side to side. Weird.
(Elsewhere they have equipment that is easier to figure out, and more suitable for little kids.)
