This video of level crossings is incredible. (See also: accompanying article.) The last clip in particular (starting at 1:10), from my local station at Bentleigh, had me gasping. The first person crossing is foolish enough, but the second — particularly as he appears to stumble — is just seconds from death. I fail to see ... [More]
Month: July 2009
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One drive, three morons
All from a ten minute period this morning. Lady in Mini Cooper, turning off Footscray Road to head over the Bolte Bridge. At some stage have you considered getting off the phone? White stationwagon, heading over the Bolte Bridge. There’s been over a kilometre of signs and arrows on the road surface indicating which lanes ... [More]
Forgot to review the Star Trek movie. In summary: great stuff, really enjoyable. (And still chuckling over The Onion’s take on it.) How is it that Rivers in Victoria have 7 retail outlets, but 31 clearance centres? For those of you who want to browse PT timetables online while out and about, bookmark this in ... [More]
The issue of new trams being too long for some tram platform stops was highlighted in The Age the other day, and on ABC Radio’s AM. But having got all the information about it now, I don’t see why it’s a problem. From the document specifying the new order of trams: Optimal operation of the ... [More]
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TV’s obsession with murder
I had been thinking about this for a while when I saw this quote yesterday: “Today’s TV is filled with crime shows, medical shows and all things depressing.” — Herald Sun article about a campaign to bring back Hey Hey It’s Saturday What is it with all the murder shows on TV? Why is there ... [More]
Just a game I thought of: what Doctor Who episode aired on or closest to your birthday? Check this list to find out. (I guess those born before 1963 or in the 90s will probably gravitate to one of two episodes…) Me: Inferno, episode 7 (third Doctor, 1970). This was a classic slow burn story ... [More]
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Ticketing rules you may not know about
I have a vague feeling I might have posted something like this in the past, but I can’t find it, so here it is again. For those of you who don’t read the Victorian Fares and Ticketing Manual for fun, here are some rules about Metcard ticketing that you may not know about. These rules ... [More]
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Percussion in the park
Yesterday after having a win at Officeworks (they agreed to beat Landmark’s $20 price on Canon ink cartridges by 5%, thus giving me a discount of almost $11 on each of the three I was buying), we took a look at the Sir William Fry reserve. There were couple of strange metal things near the ... [More]
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How crowded is your line?
An article the other day revealed the latest passenger counts on trains show that overcrowding during peak hour has dropped slightly. I don’t have those figures to hand, but I do have these graphs from 2007 handy, and I thought it might be interesting for people to see how the various lines compare. Patronage has ... [More]
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A missed opportunity?
I assume Glen Eira council put this graph of forecast revenue from parking in their propaganda sheet newsletter because they’re pleased about it. I was going to point out that plenty of people park in stupid places, and I’d prefer they got stung with tickets if at all possible, so they can subsidise my council ... [More]
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It can’t be real
The deniers like Steve Fielding would say climate change can’t be real. (An ultra-conservative “becoming” a climate-change skeptic — who saw THAT coming?!) After all, to take a simplistic view, if the planet were starting to heat up, we’d be seeing record low rainfall… Melbourne has recorded its driest first six months of the year ... [More]
I was playing around with the Wii Weather Channel. If you zoom out, then hold down the button as you flick the controller just so, you can send the Earth spinning around wildly. Anyway, if one looks around southern Australia, various prominent cities and towns are highlighted. One caught my eye: Keith. Keith? I’d never ... [More]