A regular suggestion that pops up is that Melbourne’s zone 2 should be merged with zone 1, making the whole metropolitan area a single zone. No surprise that everybody wants cheaper fares… but is it a good idea? No shortage of footy fans on the trains on ANZAC Day, in part thanks to discount fares ... [More]
Month: April 2013
I get The Age delivered on weekends. On Saturdays in particular it’s good to lazily read its numerous sections in the morning. So I picked it up wanting to know who won the football last night: Richmond or Fremantle? I just want to know if I tipped it right. Sometimes they have the score on ... [More]
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Some ANZAC Day thoughts
Passchendaele This report from last night’s ABC TV news is well worth watching: Western Australian students visiting Passchendaele, and taking on the roles of real WW1 soldiers for a day. The emotional moment in the story is as the connection with their forebears is really nailed, when late in the day, they learn of “their” ... [More]
Tragic events in Boston last week. Being quite interested in language, a couple of things about the use of words caught my eye as events unfolded. Active shooter This is something I’ve noticed before, during all-too-often incidents in the US: the term they now use is “active shooter”. In this case it was at MIT, ... [More]
Some pics from around the place in the past week or two… Train delayed at Southern Cross? Maybe you can catch a hot air balloon instead: Yes, Metro does have diesel engines — and this one is not used on the Stony Point line. It’s part of a special train for inspecting overhead wires: “Advertise ... [More]
This has come up again since RACV are resisting the removal of a lane of traffic on Princes Bridge to give cyclists more than the part of a busy footpath and the mere sliver of roadspace they have now: What alternatives are there to RACV road service? Because if you disagree with the RACV’s stance ... [More]
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The past and future of retail
In one lunchtime walk yesterday, I saw both the past and future of retail. “As seen on TV.” Seriously, they still use this tagline to hook people in? Does it still work? It’s never the name-brand products which used this — always the slightly dodgy ones. I walked past this display twice, and saw nobody ... [More]
The Phase 2 Report from the High Speed Rail study was released last week — predicting that although HSR would cover its recurrent (running/maintenance) costs, it’d first take some $114 billion and 45 years to build it. As I’ve said before, I think a 3-ish hour trip from Melbourne to Sydney would be time-competitive with ... [More]
…this person, who ignored the convention to keep left of the white line in Flinders Lane, and came up against this tram coming around the corner. The tram actually had a fair pace making the turn — luckily it stopped in time to prevent a collision. The motorist backed out of the lane, and hopefully ... [More]
It was house maintenance week this week. I took a couple of days off to do some de-cluttering and get some people in. Hard rubbish got rid of two old mattresses, three former recycle bins, a big plank of wood, an old fan and two disused old bicycles. Amusingly, between putting stuff out/booking the collection ... [More]
A lot of the unfortunate jellybean characters are depicted around CBD railway stations at the moment as part of Metro’s Dumb Ways To Die campaign. I was amused at the placement of this one: …but this one is even better. (Only a short video — don’t bother with the sound; it adds nothing.) Perhaps I’m ... [More]
It’s inevitable that the passing of Margaret Thatcher would provoke mixed responses. Such polarising figures often do. She may have been a trailblazer for women in power in the western world, but I don’t remember her time as Prime Minister fondly. I was young and perhaps it was a naive viewpoint, but I remember the ... [More]