They are not tanks. They are 6 wheel drive light armoured vehicles of some sort.
This is a tank.Freaking idiots. It really says a lot about the "fact checking" skills of some people at Fairfax.
Saturday, 11 October 2008
These are not freaking tanks!
The stupid, stupid people at the SMH are at it again. They posted a video in their "breaking news" section of two "military tanks" being setup as part of an art exhitibition in Sydney.
They are not tanks. They are 6 wheel drive light armoured vehicles of some sort.
This is a tank.
Freaking idiots. It really says a lot about the "fact checking" skills of some people at Fairfax.
They are not tanks. They are 6 wheel drive light armoured vehicles of some sort.This is a tank.Freaking idiots. It really says a lot about the "fact checking" skills of some people at Fairfax.
Friday, 10 October 2008
Fat food fan fined
Scary monsters.
We had KFC for dinner. Our local deep fried fat emporium has a 20 minute parking limit. How on earth could you spend up to 30 minutes eating at a KFC? I can't last more than 5 minutes in the place.
By the way, I spotted a rabbit running into our carpark at work this morning. And apparently it has kittens.
I asked if we were allowed to shoot rabbits on the property.
The first question was, "Do you own a gun?"
Next five minutes was spent discussing firearms with Dilberts.
We had KFC for dinner. Our local deep fried fat emporium has a 20 minute parking limit. How on earth could you spend up to 30 minutes eating at a KFC? I can't last more than 5 minutes in the place.
By the way, I spotted a rabbit running into our carpark at work this morning. And apparently it has kittens.
I asked if we were allowed to shoot rabbits on the property.
The first question was, "Do you own a gun?"
Next five minutes was spent discussing firearms with Dilberts.
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Cafes - good vs the abominable
I've had the odd day off over the last few weeks, and I have put those days to good use by going for a spin on the pushy. After two hours of wheeling around the countryside, I really need a feed. Cycling is a great way to provide the best excuse for eating out. The body needs fuel and coffee, and where better to get that than a local cafe.
The first place I tried was Bar Napoli in Five Dock. I am usually a bit suspicious of the eating houses around here, because all of them have disappointed me so far. But Bar Napoli is new, and their coffee is not bad, so I decided to give the food a go.
Boy, was that a mistake.
I wandered in around 11am and asked for Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon.
Now the meal that I would expect to get when ordering that would be as follows:
Hollandaise sauce is an emulsion of butter and lemon juice using egg yolks as the emulsifying agent, usually seasoned with salt and a little black pepper or cayenne pepper.
Hollandaise sauce is well known as a key ingredient in Eggs Benedict.
Hollandaise requires some skill and knowledge to prepare; care must also be taken to store it properly after preparation.
Properly made, the sauce should be smooth and creamy.
The flavor should be rich and buttery, with a mild tang added by the lemon juice and seasonings.
It must be made and served warm, not hot.
I have also been a complete thieving bastard and lifted this photo of what eggs benedict should look like.
So, even if you have never had this delectable dish for breakfast, you should now have a reasonable understanding of what it looks like, and how to prepare it.
My breakfast at Bar Napoli was nothing like this.
The muffins were not toasted at all. They were cold and raw.
The eggs were poached, but also cold. There might have been a touch of heat in them once, but otherwise, they were approaching the heat death of the universe.
The salmon was not bad.
The hollandaise sauce was the worst - the worst - hollandaise that I have ever had, and I have eaten this stuff all over the world. But that is not what made the meal so stupendously awful.
I could have accepted the meal if they had followed the custom of some establishments and served the hollandaise in a small receptacle on the side. Then it would not have mattered how foul a concoction it was - I could have ignored it after the first taste.
But they did not follow that custom.
Imagine a pint of beer. Or a pint of Guiness.
Now imagine that as a pint of bland, flavourless and bright yellow butter sauce - totally devoid of the lemon tang that this sauce requires to lift the palate.
Now imagine taking two halves of a cold, raw muffin; topping them with salmon and cold poached eggs; then pouring a pint of bland, flavourless and bright yellow butter sauce over the top. Imagine pouring on so much sauce, the muffins begin to float - like some ghastly version of the Titanic, freshly launched from the shipyard.
I am not even going to try and describe the bright yellow butter sauce as hollandaise, because it clearly failed to get anywhere near the generally accepted characteristics of hollandaise.
Even though I did my best to scrape the worst of this execrable emulsion from the remainder of my breakfast, it still left an Exxon Valdez-like coating of thick, yellow goop on every bite. Now I know how the penguins felt.
To cap it off, the staff were more interested in sitting outside having a smoke than serving the customers.
I give it minus one star.
It would have recieved minus three stars, except that the coffee was good.
I can only think of one reason to go back. Let's say that someone really annoys me, and I feel the need to vomit on them. Ingesting some of their bright yellow mock-hollandaise would be just the thing to create a particularly loathesome and putrid puddle of puke.
Contrast that with a visit to Tank in Drummoyne. Unfortunately, due to kitchen restrictions, Tank cannot create for me a breakfast of bacon and eggs. I had the next best thing, which was a croissant filled with ham, tomato and cheese.
Now that might sound like a very simple breakfast, and one ripe for horribleness. But it was not. The croissant was fresh and light and crispy. The ham and cheese were of superior quality. The tomato was flavoursome and did not leak water over everything else. It came attractively presented on a plate with a garnish and some finely chopped grape tomatoes. It was a completely delightful breakfast, served by friendly staff. The coffee was excellent too. They also look like they do a good line in gellato. I give Tank four stars. If you want a quick, simple meal with little fuss and bother, and good coffee, think Tank.
Guess which one I am going back to after my next ride.
The first place I tried was Bar Napoli in Five Dock. I am usually a bit suspicious of the eating houses around here, because all of them have disappointed me so far. But Bar Napoli is new, and their coffee is not bad, so I decided to give the food a go.
Boy, was that a mistake.
I wandered in around 11am and asked for Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon.
Now the meal that I would expect to get when ordering that would be as follows:
- a warm, toasted English muffin, cut in half
- two lightly poached eggs, with runny yokes. Also warm to hot. (If you don't like bits of wagon, you can also have runny yolks. Or, in the deep south, running yokels).
- some spinach (if the chef is feeling generous)
- a few slices of finest quality smoked salmon (well, at least the best farmed stuff you can get)
- a rich hollandaise sauce, either on the side, or lightly covering the eggs and salmon
Hollandaise sauce is an emulsion of butter and lemon juice using egg yolks as the emulsifying agent, usually seasoned with salt and a little black pepper or cayenne pepper.
Hollandaise sauce is well known as a key ingredient in Eggs Benedict.
Hollandaise requires some skill and knowledge to prepare; care must also be taken to store it properly after preparation.
Properly made, the sauce should be smooth and creamy.
The flavor should be rich and buttery, with a mild tang added by the lemon juice and seasonings.
It must be made and served warm, not hot.
I have also been a complete thieving bastard and lifted this photo of what eggs benedict should look like.
So, even if you have never had this delectable dish for breakfast, you should now have a reasonable understanding of what it looks like, and how to prepare it.My breakfast at Bar Napoli was nothing like this.
The muffins were not toasted at all. They were cold and raw.
The eggs were poached, but also cold. There might have been a touch of heat in them once, but otherwise, they were approaching the heat death of the universe.
The salmon was not bad.
The hollandaise sauce was the worst - the worst - hollandaise that I have ever had, and I have eaten this stuff all over the world. But that is not what made the meal so stupendously awful.
I could have accepted the meal if they had followed the custom of some establishments and served the hollandaise in a small receptacle on the side. Then it would not have mattered how foul a concoction it was - I could have ignored it after the first taste.
But they did not follow that custom.
Imagine a pint of beer. Or a pint of Guiness.
Now imagine that as a pint of bland, flavourless and bright yellow butter sauce - totally devoid of the lemon tang that this sauce requires to lift the palate.
Now imagine taking two halves of a cold, raw muffin; topping them with salmon and cold poached eggs; then pouring a pint of bland, flavourless and bright yellow butter sauce over the top. Imagine pouring on so much sauce, the muffins begin to float - like some ghastly version of the Titanic, freshly launched from the shipyard.
I am not even going to try and describe the bright yellow butter sauce as hollandaise, because it clearly failed to get anywhere near the generally accepted characteristics of hollandaise.
Even though I did my best to scrape the worst of this execrable emulsion from the remainder of my breakfast, it still left an Exxon Valdez-like coating of thick, yellow goop on every bite. Now I know how the penguins felt.
To cap it off, the staff were more interested in sitting outside having a smoke than serving the customers.
I give it minus one star.
It would have recieved minus three stars, except that the coffee was good.
I can only think of one reason to go back. Let's say that someone really annoys me, and I feel the need to vomit on them. Ingesting some of their bright yellow mock-hollandaise would be just the thing to create a particularly loathesome and putrid puddle of puke.
Contrast that with a visit to Tank in Drummoyne. Unfortunately, due to kitchen restrictions, Tank cannot create for me a breakfast of bacon and eggs. I had the next best thing, which was a croissant filled with ham, tomato and cheese.
Now that might sound like a very simple breakfast, and one ripe for horribleness. But it was not. The croissant was fresh and light and crispy. The ham and cheese were of superior quality. The tomato was flavoursome and did not leak water over everything else. It came attractively presented on a plate with a garnish and some finely chopped grape tomatoes. It was a completely delightful breakfast, served by friendly staff. The coffee was excellent too. They also look like they do a good line in gellato. I give Tank four stars. If you want a quick, simple meal with little fuss and bother, and good coffee, think Tank.
Guess which one I am going back to after my next ride.
A ticklish cycling problem
This stretch of cycle path is not the problem. In fact, this is anything but a problem. The nice authorities in this area have in fact grabbed an extra 8 inches or so of road space from the car lane and added it to the bike lane - you can see the older, faded line marking on the left.
No, this is the ticklish problem. Spring is here, and all the Australian natives are shedding their pollen. This particular type of tree sheds a lump of pollen that always, always grabs me right in the back of the throat. If I inhale it, it feels like my throat is closing up - somewhat like an asthma attack I presume. It's a right bastard. I might have to start riding with a surgical mask on my mug during these months - which is something that I am sure I would hate.
No, this is the ticklish problem. Spring is here, and all the Australian natives are shedding their pollen. This particular type of tree sheds a lump of pollen that always, always grabs me right in the back of the throat. If I inhale it, it feels like my throat is closing up - somewhat like an asthma attack I presume. It's a right bastard. I might have to start riding with a surgical mask on my mug during these months - which is something that I am sure I would hate.
Trees vs solar power
This photo, of some solar panels, was taken along the waterfront in Bicentennial Park, Homebush. The solar panels in question are now totally shaded by trees.
I went past this spot about 6 months ago, and there was a ute full of workmen there with a chainsaw, arguing with someone - presumably over what could and could not be lopped. I guess the chainsaw lost out.
I take it that these panels are used to power some navigation equipment for boats plying the river (which is right on the other side of those trees). What's going to happen if the navigation stuff runs out of power one night, and there is a prang on the water, and someone dies? Are we putting trees before people to that extent?
I went past this spot about 6 months ago, and there was a ute full of workmen there with a chainsaw, arguing with someone - presumably over what could and could not be lopped. I guess the chainsaw lost out.I take it that these panels are used to power some navigation equipment for boats plying the river (which is right on the other side of those trees). What's going to happen if the navigation stuff runs out of power one night, and there is a prang on the water, and someone dies? Are we putting trees before people to that extent?
Attention! Golliwogs ahoy! Place your confected outrage here!
I am not going to say where this shop is, just in case some loonies decide to picket it.
I was this close to buying one - purely to be able to annoy any PC types that might visit our house.
I was this close to buying one - purely to be able to annoy any PC types that might visit our house.
Quarantine station
I was out for a ride today (first time in a week, since bending my front wheel by smashing into the kerb) and I stumbled across this old quarantine station in Abbotsford. It is now a park.
These appear to be the old stables.
Think of how much more artistic this last photo would be if I had posed a naked kiddie in there somewhere.
These appear to be the old stables.
Think of how much more artistic this last photo would be if I had posed a naked kiddie in there somewhere.
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Why rich Democrats shit me to tears
Let's say two people start separate businesses and get rich. Who cares what their line of business is - let's just assume that they are in the business of manufacturing kalamazoos.
One is a conservative, the other a leftie.
Now the conservative will probably say, "I'm rich, I'm succesful and I have worked hard. I'm going to spend my money any way I want, and as far as I am concerned, my employees can do the same. They've earned it - they are free to do good things with it or bad."
The leftie on the other hand might think like this: "I am rich and succesful, and I have gotten that way by knowing more about things than everyone else. I know what is right for people, so I am going to use my newfound wealth to accumulate the power to dictate what other people must do in their lives. If they were as good and knowledgeable and sensible as me, then they too would be rich. But since they aren't, they must have failings, and it is my job to correct those failings."
Which is why whenever I see a rich leftie, I want to punch them in the face. Not for being rich. Good on them for being rich. But for being such smug, self-satisfied arseholes that they think they should run our lives for us.
I'd prefer that rich lefties developed a taste for cocaine and whores rather than a taste for meddling in the lives of others.
One is a conservative, the other a leftie.
Now the conservative will probably say, "I'm rich, I'm succesful and I have worked hard. I'm going to spend my money any way I want, and as far as I am concerned, my employees can do the same. They've earned it - they are free to do good things with it or bad."
The leftie on the other hand might think like this: "I am rich and succesful, and I have gotten that way by knowing more about things than everyone else. I know what is right for people, so I am going to use my newfound wealth to accumulate the power to dictate what other people must do in their lives. If they were as good and knowledgeable and sensible as me, then they too would be rich. But since they aren't, they must have failings, and it is my job to correct those failings."
Which is why whenever I see a rich leftie, I want to punch them in the face. Not for being rich. Good on them for being rich. But for being such smug, self-satisfied arseholes that they think they should run our lives for us.
I'd prefer that rich lefties developed a taste for cocaine and whores rather than a taste for meddling in the lives of others.
Monday, 6 October 2008
SMH beclowns itself over McCain's flying record
The SMH hits a new low in stupidity with this article regarding McCain's record of crashes and mishaps in the Navy.
Check out this paragraph:
In 1965, McCain crashed a T-2 trainer jet in Virginia, and after he was sent to Vietnam, his plane was destroyed in an explosion on the deck of an aircraft carrier in 1967, the report said.
That "explosion on the deck" was the fire on the USS Forrestal. How you can include the destruction of his aircraft in that catastrophic fire with his history of crashes is beyond me. It's like me sitting here blogging in the office whilst a drug-crazed lunatic behind the wheel of a stolen car smashes into my parked car out of the front, and me being called a poor driver for my "history of crashes".
Check out this paragraph:
In 1965, McCain crashed a T-2 trainer jet in Virginia, and after he was sent to Vietnam, his plane was destroyed in an explosion on the deck of an aircraft carrier in 1967, the report said.
That "explosion on the deck" was the fire on the USS Forrestal. How you can include the destruction of his aircraft in that catastrophic fire with his history of crashes is beyond me. It's like me sitting here blogging in the office whilst a drug-crazed lunatic behind the wheel of a stolen car smashes into my parked car out of the front, and me being called a poor driver for my "history of crashes".
A complete failure of our media to understand US politics
The Australian media must be the most ignorant in the world. They devote metres of newsprint and months of airtime to covering the US elections, but they have only the vaguest notion of how the US system works. Sometimes, I wonder if they have even the vaguest notion. Then again, even our local "experts" from the press gallery appear to have no knowledge of how our local parliaments work, so it is little wonder that they say the stupidest things about the US elections.
Here is the first lesson in US politics vs Australian politics. In Australia, MPs vote along party lines almost all the time. If someone crosses the floor, or if the leaders give them a conscience vote, then it is big news. We get a bit of horse-trading in the Senate when the lunatics have the balance of power, but otherwise, the Labor, Liberal and National members tend to toe the party line almost all the time.
In the US, things are not like that. Take the recent bail-out bill. Many appeared not to notice it, but 1/3 of the Republicans voted for it and something like 2/3 of the Democrats voted for it, but that was not enough for it to pass first time around. What none of our idiot commentariat seemed to notice is that 1/3 of the Democrat members and 1/3 of the Republican members defied their party and crossed the floor one way or the other.
One third! That is unheard of in other western democracies like Australian and the UK. This is why around election time, so much emphasis is put on the voting record of US politicians. No one has ever bothered to study the voting record of Malcolm Turnbull, because he would never have thought about crossing the floor and voting with Labor on an issue.
So the first big lesson is that party discipline is very weak in the US. You have Reagan Democrats and RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). You have Democrats who vote to the left on economic policy and to the right on social policy - and the other way around. You have Republicans from states that are nominally Democrat, and they vote like Democrats a lot of the time. Similiary, Democrats from nominally Republican areas seem to be much further to the right than Democrats from socialist enclaves.
It doesn't always mean much when one party ends up with more seats in Congress than the other, because they may find that a lot of their members vote the other way on certain issues. There is a lot of crap being sprouted at the moment about regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Democrats are trying to pin the blame on the Republicans by saying that "they controlled Congress" after the Gingrich revolution. Yes, they had the numbers on paper, but that does not mean that they actually had the numbers to pass legislation. If some Republicans defected (as enough did), then the legislation to tighten up controls on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were defeated. And they were defeated.
It's sometimes said that the UK and the US are two countries separated by a common language. The idea behind that statement is that just because we share the same mother tongue, it doesn't mean that we are alike. Our idiots in the media think that because the Yanks speak English, they are just like us. Yes, in some ways they are - but in a lot of ways, they aren't. You can't just assume that we are alike in all ways.
Take beer for example. People from both countries enjoy a beer, but I would not call most of the mass-market American beverages "beer". It looks like beer, sometimes smells like beer, but it is not beer.
Their parliamentary system is the same. They have a Senate, and we have a Senate (since we copied it from the Yanks). They have a two party system, just like us. But that is where the comparisons end. From that point on, US politics bear as much resemblance to ours as say the politics of Azhabaijan.
Here is the first lesson in US politics vs Australian politics. In Australia, MPs vote along party lines almost all the time. If someone crosses the floor, or if the leaders give them a conscience vote, then it is big news. We get a bit of horse-trading in the Senate when the lunatics have the balance of power, but otherwise, the Labor, Liberal and National members tend to toe the party line almost all the time.
In the US, things are not like that. Take the recent bail-out bill. Many appeared not to notice it, but 1/3 of the Republicans voted for it and something like 2/3 of the Democrats voted for it, but that was not enough for it to pass first time around. What none of our idiot commentariat seemed to notice is that 1/3 of the Democrat members and 1/3 of the Republican members defied their party and crossed the floor one way or the other.
One third! That is unheard of in other western democracies like Australian and the UK. This is why around election time, so much emphasis is put on the voting record of US politicians. No one has ever bothered to study the voting record of Malcolm Turnbull, because he would never have thought about crossing the floor and voting with Labor on an issue.
So the first big lesson is that party discipline is very weak in the US. You have Reagan Democrats and RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). You have Democrats who vote to the left on economic policy and to the right on social policy - and the other way around. You have Republicans from states that are nominally Democrat, and they vote like Democrats a lot of the time. Similiary, Democrats from nominally Republican areas seem to be much further to the right than Democrats from socialist enclaves.
It doesn't always mean much when one party ends up with more seats in Congress than the other, because they may find that a lot of their members vote the other way on certain issues. There is a lot of crap being sprouted at the moment about regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Democrats are trying to pin the blame on the Republicans by saying that "they controlled Congress" after the Gingrich revolution. Yes, they had the numbers on paper, but that does not mean that they actually had the numbers to pass legislation. If some Republicans defected (as enough did), then the legislation to tighten up controls on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were defeated. And they were defeated.
It's sometimes said that the UK and the US are two countries separated by a common language. The idea behind that statement is that just because we share the same mother tongue, it doesn't mean that we are alike. Our idiots in the media think that because the Yanks speak English, they are just like us. Yes, in some ways they are - but in a lot of ways, they aren't. You can't just assume that we are alike in all ways.
Take beer for example. People from both countries enjoy a beer, but I would not call most of the mass-market American beverages "beer". It looks like beer, sometimes smells like beer, but it is not beer.
Their parliamentary system is the same. They have a Senate, and we have a Senate (since we copied it from the Yanks). They have a two party system, just like us. But that is where the comparisons end. From that point on, US politics bear as much resemblance to ours as say the politics of Azhabaijan.
Palin vs Obama at the SMH
Romeo Mike has started the ball rolling by analysing how the SMH has been covering Obama and McCain/Palin. In my view, they are such one-eyed Obama-fans, I don't know why they haven't resorted to painting horns on every photo of Palin that they publish.
I did a search on the SMH website this morning, and started by searching for "Palin". Here are the results:
Interesting.
I did a search on the SMH website this morning, and started by searching for "Palin". Here are the results:
- Americans twitter vice-presidential debate - balanced article
- US braces for Palin debate with Biden - snide references as to whether Palin is up to it. Totally Obama-biased
- McCain defends 'maverick' Palin - has a number of digs at McCain and Palin. Totally Obama-biased
- Sarah Palin makes it big online - goes on to say that she is "not a big hit with voters". The story chronicles a number of web sites that make fun of Palin. There are many that have a similar dig at Obama, but none have been mentioned by the SMH. Totally Obama-biased by ommission.
- Sandra Bernhard cops Sarah Palin blowback - not sure what to make of this, but the lack of comment from the Obama camp is interesting. You'd think they'd chime in and say comments like Bernhard's are unacceptable, but the silence is deafening.
- I represent everyday Americans: Palin - this is a classic bit of juxtapositioning in an attempt to wreck here statement: "John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin has portrayed herself as a champion of everyday people, while noting her family's stock portfolio took a $US20,000 ($A25,200) hit last week." They are trying to have a dig at her here for being a stock-owning plutocrat, but of course she was referring to her retirement account - essentially her superannuation. Totally Obama-biased
- Feisty Palin escapes gaffes, but Biden wins snap polls - not sure what to make of this story yet.
- Palin has plenty in the bank: records - this story is a total stitch-up job: "Sarah Palin, who regularly tells voters she knows what it is like to struggle to pay the bills, earns nearly $US200,000 ($A259,487) and has substantial savings". What it fails to point out is that her family earns nearly $200,000 - that total amount includes the earnings of her husband. And yes, I think they'd have fun paying the bills, given that they have 5 kids and live in Alaska, which is an expensive place to live. That's also their gross income - it doesn't take into account the expenses that her husband incurs in running his fishing business. In short, totally Obama-biased. By comparison, I did a search for "obama + aragula", to see what the SMH had to say about Obama's famous arugula gaffe, and there is no mention of it on their website. Interestingly, that search on google returns 418,000 hits.
- A month after being a sensation, Palin's now a problem - they get their comments for this story from a Professor in Berkeley, possibly the most left wing place in Ameria. Puh-lease. Totally Obama-biased
- Judge will not block Palin firing probe - no comment
- Republicans gird for Palin debate - another hatchet job on Palin. Totally Obama-biased
- Palin true to herself and values - a positive story, but it was written by a Conservative
- Aussie punter bets $50,000 on Obama win - I don't know why this should be of interest, except in order to fluff up Obama
- The Boss and Billy back Obama - who cares.
- McCain trusty but experience costs - a fairly balanced article, written by a Democrat. Interesting that a Democrat writes a more balanced article than is normally published in the SMH.
- Springsteen rocks Obama rally in Philly - a pure plug for Obama.
- Obama slams 'shameless' Palin - a pure plug for Obama.
- Obama accuses McCain of ignoring crisis - a re-write of the above story, with another plug for Obama, and a prissy photo of Palin
- Obama pulls ahead in the critical areas - a pure plug for Obama, featuring a photo that shows McCain looking clueless.
- Palin on attack over Obama's terrorist 'pal' - it starts as an attack on Obama, but 2/3 of the story is then devoted to Obama's defence.
- Round one: Obama takes narrow lead - fairly balanced
- Elbows fly in White House race - similar to the story on Obama's terrorist "pal" above, but 3/4 of it is devoted to fluffing up Obama
- Obama has huge lead over McCain -- in cyberspace - you can guess who this is tilted towards
- Obama takes campaign to the iPhone - a pure plug for Obama, and trying to paint McCain as out of touch with technology. The story might as well have been paid for by Obama.
- Obama grabs big lead in key US states - balanced
- US presidential election could come down to race - a story preparing the ground for "racists cost Obama the election"
- Obama, aka fat little Barry, remembered - a fluff piece on Obama
- Obama accuses McCain of sordid attacks amid economic peril - totally Obama tilted
- McCain leads in the 'burbs: poll - but the story then devotes about 50% of its space to an attack by Clinton on McCain. Typical.
Interesting.
Should parliament sit on Fridays?
I found out a bit more about one of my grandfathers over the weekend - he who was a state MP for over two decades. I hope you find some of this as interesting as I did.
Born 1881, he left school at 12 because his dad had won a contract to cart sand to fill in a lagoon for the construction of a railway station. He spent the rest of his life complaining that he was uneducated, and was never seen to read a book. (Those of you who have seen the library that my parents have put together over the years would perhaps consider their work to be a slight over reaction to his devout un-learnedness).
He joined the railways after that, and was posted to Southern Cross in 1899. He spent some years doing the Kalgoorlie-Southern Cross run, taking a train up one day, and a train back the following day. He started as a Fireman, and ended as a Driver. He was a founding member of a railways union on the goldfields - at a time when being a union member was a sackable offense. It was essentially a secret society for many years, which I guess made him comfortable with becoming a Mason (which he did). They worked 50 hours a week for 50 shillings - when water on the goldfields cost 1 shilling a gallon (this was before the pipeline was built). They formed a union for obvious reasons - to better their predicament. They were seeking a reduction in the working week to 48 hours - 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. By the sound of it, life was bloody hard.
He was rejected for service in WWI, having varicose veins (which apparently meant he could not march). His older brother, who was 40, went instead - taking his 15 year old son with him to France in 1916 in the 11th Battalion. As I blogged last week, his brother was killed, and someone must have twigged to the age of his son and he was sent home. Good thing granddad didn't go, as dad was not born until some years after the war. Five of his cousins were killed as well - two of them have service numbers in the mid-800's. Yes, a three digit service number.
Grandfather was one of the 36 delegates from WA that attended the great All-Australian Trade Unions Congress in Brisbane in 1921. Plutocrats like me will be interested to know that it was at that Congress that the ALP adopted a socialist policy. Apparently granddad was not an ardent socialist - he was more concerned with improving the conditions of the working man. When he died, apparently he was the last of that delegation to the Congress.
He then stood for state parliament in 1921, losing by 5 votes. Voting was voluntary back then, and apparently 20 people approached him in church the next day and said, "If I had known it was going to be that close, I would have voted for you."
Interesting factoid - there were only around 2000 voters enrolled in that electorate for the entire time he was in parliament. That gives you some idea of how small the population of WA was before the mining boom in the 1960's.
At the next election in 1924, he won by about 50 votes. By the time he retired, his majority was something like 700 votes - and at that next election, the seat switched to the Liberal Party. Prior to granddad siezing the seat, it had always voted conservative. Many of his relatives were farmers and businessmen - people who would naturally vote against Labor, but they all voted for him.
Even the descendants of Sir John Forrest, who was its first MP, voted for granddad - Twiggy Forrest is descended from that line (I am vaguely related to him by marriage I guess, but then every family that has been in WA for 100 years is related to everyone else. You may start making strange, twanging banjo noises at this point if you feel the need). The Forrests were some of the richest people in the state, so that says something about the personal following that granddad had.
He originally made his way around the electorate on horseback or in a sulky, but he eventually bought a car - a Willys Overland of some sort. All the roads in the electorate were sand or gravel tracks, and any journey generally involved at least one puncture. The car had two spares - one mounted on each side above the running boards. Dad remembers granddad fixing a flat almost every other day. Getting bogged was a fact of life - you always carried an axe and some rope, and had to be ready to pull other motorists out if need be. Horses were also used to unbog cars.
(As an aside, I remember driving to Perth as a kid and part of the road was still gravel for a distance - it is now two lane freeway most of the way. I remember the gravel because we got into a slide one day and ended up off the side of the road in a ditch).
The electorate was quite large (for its time), and it could easily take 2 hours to drive to a meeting. Going to Perth by car was out of the question - the only way to go was by train, which took 5 hours. The train stopped every 15 miles to take on milk containers, so it was a bit of a slow trip.
That to me answered the question as to why parliaments usually never sit on a Friday, and only sit for around 30 weeks a year. In the old days, transport being what it was, you only sat for 4 days to give the MPs a chance to get back to their electorate for the weekend. Parliament also had long recesses to give the members a chance to actually get around their electorate in order to conduct whatever business they had to. I guess a lot of people didn't have phones, so meetings had to be face to face.
When he retired, he stood for Mayor and was elected. There aren't many politicians who are happy to step from state or federal parliament to local government, but he didn't mind doing it.
I am sure Dad told me some more, and I will post it as my memory returns.
Born 1881, he left school at 12 because his dad had won a contract to cart sand to fill in a lagoon for the construction of a railway station. He spent the rest of his life complaining that he was uneducated, and was never seen to read a book. (Those of you who have seen the library that my parents have put together over the years would perhaps consider their work to be a slight over reaction to his devout un-learnedness).
He joined the railways after that, and was posted to Southern Cross in 1899. He spent some years doing the Kalgoorlie-Southern Cross run, taking a train up one day, and a train back the following day. He started as a Fireman, and ended as a Driver. He was a founding member of a railways union on the goldfields - at a time when being a union member was a sackable offense. It was essentially a secret society for many years, which I guess made him comfortable with becoming a Mason (which he did). They worked 50 hours a week for 50 shillings - when water on the goldfields cost 1 shilling a gallon (this was before the pipeline was built). They formed a union for obvious reasons - to better their predicament. They were seeking a reduction in the working week to 48 hours - 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. By the sound of it, life was bloody hard.
He was rejected for service in WWI, having varicose veins (which apparently meant he could not march). His older brother, who was 40, went instead - taking his 15 year old son with him to France in 1916 in the 11th Battalion. As I blogged last week, his brother was killed, and someone must have twigged to the age of his son and he was sent home. Good thing granddad didn't go, as dad was not born until some years after the war. Five of his cousins were killed as well - two of them have service numbers in the mid-800's. Yes, a three digit service number.
Grandfather was one of the 36 delegates from WA that attended the great All-Australian Trade Unions Congress in Brisbane in 1921. Plutocrats like me will be interested to know that it was at that Congress that the ALP adopted a socialist policy. Apparently granddad was not an ardent socialist - he was more concerned with improving the conditions of the working man. When he died, apparently he was the last of that delegation to the Congress.
He then stood for state parliament in 1921, losing by 5 votes. Voting was voluntary back then, and apparently 20 people approached him in church the next day and said, "If I had known it was going to be that close, I would have voted for you."
Interesting factoid - there were only around 2000 voters enrolled in that electorate for the entire time he was in parliament. That gives you some idea of how small the population of WA was before the mining boom in the 1960's.
At the next election in 1924, he won by about 50 votes. By the time he retired, his majority was something like 700 votes - and at that next election, the seat switched to the Liberal Party. Prior to granddad siezing the seat, it had always voted conservative. Many of his relatives were farmers and businessmen - people who would naturally vote against Labor, but they all voted for him.
Even the descendants of Sir John Forrest, who was its first MP, voted for granddad - Twiggy Forrest is descended from that line (I am vaguely related to him by marriage I guess, but then every family that has been in WA for 100 years is related to everyone else. You may start making strange, twanging banjo noises at this point if you feel the need). The Forrests were some of the richest people in the state, so that says something about the personal following that granddad had.
He originally made his way around the electorate on horseback or in a sulky, but he eventually bought a car - a Willys Overland of some sort. All the roads in the electorate were sand or gravel tracks, and any journey generally involved at least one puncture. The car had two spares - one mounted on each side above the running boards. Dad remembers granddad fixing a flat almost every other day. Getting bogged was a fact of life - you always carried an axe and some rope, and had to be ready to pull other motorists out if need be. Horses were also used to unbog cars.
(As an aside, I remember driving to Perth as a kid and part of the road was still gravel for a distance - it is now two lane freeway most of the way. I remember the gravel because we got into a slide one day and ended up off the side of the road in a ditch).
The electorate was quite large (for its time), and it could easily take 2 hours to drive to a meeting. Going to Perth by car was out of the question - the only way to go was by train, which took 5 hours. The train stopped every 15 miles to take on milk containers, so it was a bit of a slow trip.
That to me answered the question as to why parliaments usually never sit on a Friday, and only sit for around 30 weeks a year. In the old days, transport being what it was, you only sat for 4 days to give the MPs a chance to get back to their electorate for the weekend. Parliament also had long recesses to give the members a chance to actually get around their electorate in order to conduct whatever business they had to. I guess a lot of people didn't have phones, so meetings had to be face to face.
When he retired, he stood for Mayor and was elected. There aren't many politicians who are happy to step from state or federal parliament to local government, but he didn't mind doing it.
I am sure Dad told me some more, and I will post it as my memory returns.
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Resisting the urge to do something
I figured out last night why we have so many problems in this world. By that, I mean "problems that need solving", as in when something happens, and there is an immediate hue and cry from the media/activitists/a political figure to "do something".
We end up in the soup because there is an unlimited supply of problems, but a limited supply of resources to deal with them. By "resources", I don't mean money and things like bulldozers and buildings and computers - I mean competent people who can actually get things done.
If we assume that competence in getting things organised and done is distributed according to a normal distribution, then there are only a small number of "super stars" that are really brilliant in delivering things - whether they be social services, kicking goals, flipping hamburgers or doing footrubs.
So let's start with the idea that in any given population (whether they be social workers at DOCS, school Principals, Nurses or Police), there are a small number of really, really good people; a large mass of competent followers and a tail of completely useless drones.
Now in my experience, the really good people are always being siphoned off - they tend to get promoted up the ranks into management, where they then get sorted again according to theBell Curve. Some turn out to be great managers, whilst with others we find that others never make the transition properly - they make terrible managers. The great bulk muddle along somewhere in the middle. Then people get promoted again and the whole sorting process starts anew. In some cases, the truly incompetent continue to get promoted simply because they are unbelievably good in interviews, and their management is always too weak to get rid of them.
I have generally found though that the people that get tapped to be managers are those that are doers. The inert, the lazy and the dozey never get considered - most of the time. So what you find is that the ranks of management are full of people who are looking to solve problems - the reason they ended up there in the first place is probably because they were seen to be good at fixing things, and had the gumption to wade through shit six feet deep in order to make things happen.
Politicians are the same. You can say what you like about the policies of our current crop of politicans at council, state and federal level, but one thing you can't accuse them of is laziness. Some might be intellectually lazy, but the reason they get preselected is that their selection committees saw a history of action. Look at Malcolm Turnbull for instance. You can't accuse him of being a work-shy shirker. Or Bob Brown. Brown might be a meat head, but I'm sure he is an extremely busy meat head.
I personally know quite a few politicians at all three levels of government, and none of them sat down at 18 and decided that a career in politics was for them. All of them went and did lots of stuff, were quite good at what they did, and they eventually fell into politics because it was an extension of getting stuff done. They entered politics not with the aim of grasping power for themselves, but instead because they figured that they could do a better job than the useless bastards currently giving it a go. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions....
Newspaper editors and TV Producers are the same - they are people who have made their bones at a newspaper or TV station by being people that make shit happen.
The biggest problem all these people face - public service managers, media people and politicians - is that they can't resist wanting to take action whenever a problem rears its ugly head. They are congenitally unable to sit back and say, "Fuck it, just leave it alone". They want to throw money and resources at the problem and fix it, because that is what they do. They fix things. They don't care what they are fixing or why they are fixing it - they just enjoy the process of fixing. They are full of the restless energy of the high achiever. They need an outlet for that restless energy, and they find it in solving problems and doing stuff.
(I did a very interesting psych test a few years ago that showed that I am one of these people. Some people like to talk about things, others want to know why we should do something, and another group wants to know how to do something - the process driven people. I am part of that group of people that don't care about they how or the why - we just need to be told to do something and we'll figure out a way to do it and just get it done. We also hate gas-bagging about it.
That's a big hint to my fellow managers by the way - you'll always find yourself having to deal with a certain number of underlings who can't even start on a task until either the how or the why is explained to them. That is immensely frustrating to people like me, who just expect people to salute and get on with it, but now that I understand that this is how some people tick, my life as a manager has become a lot easier).
Anyway, here is the big problem with wanting to fix the problems of the world - there is a strictly limited supply of people who can solve problems. When you look at the Bell Curve as a manager, you will have a few people that are utterly brilliant and priceless, a large mass of people who will work for food and a couple of complete drongos bringing up the rear. However, a can-do manager, or a can-do politician, does not regard his or her resource base in this manner - they think that everyone should be as capable as them, and therefore capable of tearing in and massacring problems as they arise. If only everyone had as much get up and go as me.... that should be the sad lament of every burnt out problem solver that has been run into the ground after 20 or 30 years of effort trying to get this or that organisation to do something.
I started off being a "we can solve every problem" kind of guy, because I worked in a small company with a staff of very capable people - all of them were A class people, both in their technical knowledge and their approach to work. We ripped through stuff because we had no one slowing us down. I didn't need to spend all day managing them - I simply pointed them at a problem and left them to it. Stuff got done. Lots of stuff. Mountains of stuff.
Then we had a merger, and got a lot bigger, and suddenly I went from having 4 very good underlings to a staff of 12, and I now had 4 x A and 8 x B. We still got a hell of a lot of stuff done, because even the B types were very good. All I had to do was partner an A and a B and the A would lead the way and the B would lift their game and they'd make short work of whatever I'd given them.
Then we had another merger, and I found myself with 40 staff. I inherited a couple of A's, but I now had something like the following:
Apart from them, we also went from having a management team that was all A types to having the following after our first merger:
I believe the root of our problems though was that the next level of management above us had not performed an evaluation like I had, so they thought we were a team of superstars, able to achieve any task thrown our way. If they had taken a realistic view of our capabilities, they would have scaled back their ambitions in a big way.
But no manager ever gets ahead by telling their boss that their team should be doing less. So they agree to take on things that in reality, they have no hope of implementing with the people that they have on hand (I am generally talking about the public sector here, but I am sure that there are many people with lots of private sector experience that have seen the same thing).
I once shocked the hell out of our GM by drawing a pyramid on the whiteboard, and took them through my evaluation of my team - so many A's at the top, then a mass of B's, then the C's, the D's and the F- at the bottom. The shock was when I told them that we were working on 30 separate initiatives, and that I did not have 30 people each working on one initiative. Instead, I had my top 3 people working on all 30, because the other 37 people on my team were incapable of delivering what was required. Until that meeting, they had this amazing expectation that because I had 40 people, we could easily handle 30 different initiatives. I think that meeting was a real eye-opener. They left the meeting trembling in shock at what they had got themselves into. The worst of it was that with only 3 really good staff, we could only handle about 10 initiatives at once.
You have to wonder though about how people can get to that level of management without ever going through that sort of sorting and sifting exercise at least once in their career.
Anyway, next time you see a newspaper editorial screaming for "something to be done", or a politician promoting a new program of spending to fix a problem, just do us all a favour and tell them loudly to JUST FUCK OFF AND DO NOTHING for a change. They really don't have to spend our money in the vain hope of changing the world.
We end up in the soup because there is an unlimited supply of problems, but a limited supply of resources to deal with them. By "resources", I don't mean money and things like bulldozers and buildings and computers - I mean competent people who can actually get things done.
If we assume that competence in getting things organised and done is distributed according to a normal distribution, then there are only a small number of "super stars" that are really brilliant in delivering things - whether they be social services, kicking goals, flipping hamburgers or doing footrubs.
So let's start with the idea that in any given population (whether they be social workers at DOCS, school Principals, Nurses or Police), there are a small number of really, really good people; a large mass of competent followers and a tail of completely useless drones.
Now in my experience, the really good people are always being siphoned off - they tend to get promoted up the ranks into management, where they then get sorted again according to theBell Curve. Some turn out to be great managers, whilst with others we find that others never make the transition properly - they make terrible managers. The great bulk muddle along somewhere in the middle. Then people get promoted again and the whole sorting process starts anew. In some cases, the truly incompetent continue to get promoted simply because they are unbelievably good in interviews, and their management is always too weak to get rid of them.
I have generally found though that the people that get tapped to be managers are those that are doers. The inert, the lazy and the dozey never get considered - most of the time. So what you find is that the ranks of management are full of people who are looking to solve problems - the reason they ended up there in the first place is probably because they were seen to be good at fixing things, and had the gumption to wade through shit six feet deep in order to make things happen.
Politicians are the same. You can say what you like about the policies of our current crop of politicans at council, state and federal level, but one thing you can't accuse them of is laziness. Some might be intellectually lazy, but the reason they get preselected is that their selection committees saw a history of action. Look at Malcolm Turnbull for instance. You can't accuse him of being a work-shy shirker. Or Bob Brown. Brown might be a meat head, but I'm sure he is an extremely busy meat head.
I personally know quite a few politicians at all three levels of government, and none of them sat down at 18 and decided that a career in politics was for them. All of them went and did lots of stuff, were quite good at what they did, and they eventually fell into politics because it was an extension of getting stuff done. They entered politics not with the aim of grasping power for themselves, but instead because they figured that they could do a better job than the useless bastards currently giving it a go. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions....
Newspaper editors and TV Producers are the same - they are people who have made their bones at a newspaper or TV station by being people that make shit happen.
The biggest problem all these people face - public service managers, media people and politicians - is that they can't resist wanting to take action whenever a problem rears its ugly head. They are congenitally unable to sit back and say, "Fuck it, just leave it alone". They want to throw money and resources at the problem and fix it, because that is what they do. They fix things. They don't care what they are fixing or why they are fixing it - they just enjoy the process of fixing. They are full of the restless energy of the high achiever. They need an outlet for that restless energy, and they find it in solving problems and doing stuff.
(I did a very interesting psych test a few years ago that showed that I am one of these people. Some people like to talk about things, others want to know why we should do something, and another group wants to know how to do something - the process driven people. I am part of that group of people that don't care about they how or the why - we just need to be told to do something and we'll figure out a way to do it and just get it done. We also hate gas-bagging about it.
That's a big hint to my fellow managers by the way - you'll always find yourself having to deal with a certain number of underlings who can't even start on a task until either the how or the why is explained to them. That is immensely frustrating to people like me, who just expect people to salute and get on with it, but now that I understand that this is how some people tick, my life as a manager has become a lot easier).
Anyway, here is the big problem with wanting to fix the problems of the world - there is a strictly limited supply of people who can solve problems. When you look at the Bell Curve as a manager, you will have a few people that are utterly brilliant and priceless, a large mass of people who will work for food and a couple of complete drongos bringing up the rear. However, a can-do manager, or a can-do politician, does not regard his or her resource base in this manner - they think that everyone should be as capable as them, and therefore capable of tearing in and massacring problems as they arise. If only everyone had as much get up and go as me.... that should be the sad lament of every burnt out problem solver that has been run into the ground after 20 or 30 years of effort trying to get this or that organisation to do something.
I started off being a "we can solve every problem" kind of guy, because I worked in a small company with a staff of very capable people - all of them were A class people, both in their technical knowledge and their approach to work. We ripped through stuff because we had no one slowing us down. I didn't need to spend all day managing them - I simply pointed them at a problem and left them to it. Stuff got done. Lots of stuff. Mountains of stuff.
Then we had a merger, and got a lot bigger, and suddenly I went from having 4 very good underlings to a staff of 12, and I now had 4 x A and 8 x B. We still got a hell of a lot of stuff done, because even the B types were very good. All I had to do was partner an A and a B and the A would lead the way and the B would lift their game and they'd make short work of whatever I'd given them.
Then we had another merger, and I found myself with 40 staff. I inherited a couple of A's, but I now had something like the following:
- 6 x A
- 20 x B
- 10 x C
- 3 x D
- 1 x F-
Apart from them, we also went from having a management team that was all A types to having the following after our first merger:
- 3 x A
- 2 x B
- 1 x F-
- 3 x A
- 2 x B
- 3 x C
- 1 x D
- 3 x F-
I believe the root of our problems though was that the next level of management above us had not performed an evaluation like I had, so they thought we were a team of superstars, able to achieve any task thrown our way. If they had taken a realistic view of our capabilities, they would have scaled back their ambitions in a big way.
But no manager ever gets ahead by telling their boss that their team should be doing less. So they agree to take on things that in reality, they have no hope of implementing with the people that they have on hand (I am generally talking about the public sector here, but I am sure that there are many people with lots of private sector experience that have seen the same thing).
I once shocked the hell out of our GM by drawing a pyramid on the whiteboard, and took them through my evaluation of my team - so many A's at the top, then a mass of B's, then the C's, the D's and the F- at the bottom. The shock was when I told them that we were working on 30 separate initiatives, and that I did not have 30 people each working on one initiative. Instead, I had my top 3 people working on all 30, because the other 37 people on my team were incapable of delivering what was required. Until that meeting, they had this amazing expectation that because I had 40 people, we could easily handle 30 different initiatives. I think that meeting was a real eye-opener. They left the meeting trembling in shock at what they had got themselves into. The worst of it was that with only 3 really good staff, we could only handle about 10 initiatives at once.
You have to wonder though about how people can get to that level of management without ever going through that sort of sorting and sifting exercise at least once in their career.
Anyway, next time you see a newspaper editorial screaming for "something to be done", or a politician promoting a new program of spending to fix a problem, just do us all a favour and tell them loudly to JUST FUCK OFF AND DO NOTHING for a change. They really don't have to spend our money in the vain hope of changing the world.
Wednesday, 1 October 2008
And they call religious nutters crazy...
I picked up this snippet about mis-reporting of Governor Palin from Jules Crittenden:
"The governor told us though she’s not a member of any church, she visits a couple of them regularly when she’s home. She took issue with news reports that one of them, The Wasilla Bible Church, sponsored a conference where gays could be made straight through prayer."
Some lefties have made hay with that statement, beating it up as another one of those "the religious right are crazy - they believe prayer can 'cure' gayness" comments.
I for one don't believe that prayer can make gays straight. I also don't see why anyone should want to convert gays to the straight side. As far as I am concerned, if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.
The only thing that prayer, or religious observance, can do is to make you celibate - regardless of whether you like boys, girls or catfish. If you choose to be celibate, I'm sure prayer can assist you in keeping to the straight and narrow (wouldn't know myself - I am not the prayin' type, nor do I always feel the need to stick to the straight and narrow). It can't stop you from being gay - but it might stop you from engaging in gay sex, if that's the sort of thing you want to give up for some reason.
I think I am off track here.
So, you might think that someone is beyond the pale because they associate with people that try to make gays straight through prayer. I find that a little odd, but then a mate of mine believes in levitation and UFO's, and I have met people who believe in Ley Lines and talk about Gaia as if the Earth was a living thing. The last lot can be seen quite regularly in what passes for the mall in Five Dock, and they recently ran for a Council seat as candidates for the Greens.
I guess it is alright for the Greens to have completely batty ideas, and no one says that it disqualifies them from holding office. I don't care if they believe in Ley Lines - I only care about their policies (which I generally find to be completely objectionable).
The Left can also hold ideas that are utterly batshit crazy - some seem to believe that locking criminals up does nothing to stop them commiting crime. Others seem to believe that children don't require discipline in order to develop into mature and responsible adults. The worst of them seem to think that governments can create money out of thin air.
If you ask me, believing that prayer can make you straight is a lot less freaky than believing that certain indigenous Australians can talk to whales.
"The governor told us though she’s not a member of any church, she visits a couple of them regularly when she’s home. She took issue with news reports that one of them, The Wasilla Bible Church, sponsored a conference where gays could be made straight through prayer."
Some lefties have made hay with that statement, beating it up as another one of those "the religious right are crazy - they believe prayer can 'cure' gayness" comments.
I for one don't believe that prayer can make gays straight. I also don't see why anyone should want to convert gays to the straight side. As far as I am concerned, if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.
The only thing that prayer, or religious observance, can do is to make you celibate - regardless of whether you like boys, girls or catfish. If you choose to be celibate, I'm sure prayer can assist you in keeping to the straight and narrow (wouldn't know myself - I am not the prayin' type, nor do I always feel the need to stick to the straight and narrow). It can't stop you from being gay - but it might stop you from engaging in gay sex, if that's the sort of thing you want to give up for some reason.
I think I am off track here.
So, you might think that someone is beyond the pale because they associate with people that try to make gays straight through prayer. I find that a little odd, but then a mate of mine believes in levitation and UFO's, and I have met people who believe in Ley Lines and talk about Gaia as if the Earth was a living thing. The last lot can be seen quite regularly in what passes for the mall in Five Dock, and they recently ran for a Council seat as candidates for the Greens.
I guess it is alright for the Greens to have completely batty ideas, and no one says that it disqualifies them from holding office. I don't care if they believe in Ley Lines - I only care about their policies (which I generally find to be completely objectionable).
The Left can also hold ideas that are utterly batshit crazy - some seem to believe that locking criminals up does nothing to stop them commiting crime. Others seem to believe that children don't require discipline in order to develop into mature and responsible adults. The worst of them seem to think that governments can create money out of thin air.
If you ask me, believing that prayer can make you straight is a lot less freaky than believing that certain indigenous Australians can talk to whales.
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
A close shave
Nearly developed a very nasty case of road rash tonight. I went for a spin on the bike, and was nearly home when I decided to do a left hand turn into a street that would take me along a nice bit of waterfront. Trouble is, when I braked in preparation for the turn, the front wheel almost slid out from underneath me. Now that is something that you might expect on gravel, but I was on asphalt, and there was nothing remotely slippery about it.
What had happened is that my front wheel had suffered a puncture and gone flat in about 5 seconds - and I hadn't noticed it as I was too busy paying attention to all the nasty "I'm off home now" traffic on the road beside me. As the tube went flat, the tyre separated from the rim, and hence the skidding - I was pretty much riding on 1mm of metal rim instead of 23mm of inflated rubber. And metal rims 1mm wide do not grip that well on anything.
I managed to hold the slide (making all those broggies on gravel as a kid worthwhile), so instead of falling under a truck to my right, I managed to slide into the kerb on my left. My front wheel slammed into the kerb about a foot short of the corner, and I then bounced around the corner and came to a halt in a quiet side street, heart racing, shoulder muscles torn from the effort of staying upright and me quietly cursing the RTA and their useless bloody road surfaces.
I was reasonably close to home, so I walked the bike home rather than fixing the flat on the side of the road. When I removed the front wheel to fix the flat, I found an almighty ding in the rim from where the wheel had crashed into the concrete kerb - it's off to the shop tomorrow to determine whether it can be repaired, or whether it is time for a new wheel rim.
The front tyre also needs replacing - they're supposed to be good for 6000km, but it's only done 3000km since new. Just goes to show how even a kevlar reinforced tyre gets chopped up quickly by Sydney's nasty road surfaces. The gouges on the tyre from broken glass and metal shavings have to be seen to be believed. This is not a bike friendly town. Tyre + rim = maybe $300. This is not a cheap sport.
But at least I am home with all my skin and bones intact.
What had happened is that my front wheel had suffered a puncture and gone flat in about 5 seconds - and I hadn't noticed it as I was too busy paying attention to all the nasty "I'm off home now" traffic on the road beside me. As the tube went flat, the tyre separated from the rim, and hence the skidding - I was pretty much riding on 1mm of metal rim instead of 23mm of inflated rubber. And metal rims 1mm wide do not grip that well on anything.
I managed to hold the slide (making all those broggies on gravel as a kid worthwhile), so instead of falling under a truck to my right, I managed to slide into the kerb on my left. My front wheel slammed into the kerb about a foot short of the corner, and I then bounced around the corner and came to a halt in a quiet side street, heart racing, shoulder muscles torn from the effort of staying upright and me quietly cursing the RTA and their useless bloody road surfaces.
I was reasonably close to home, so I walked the bike home rather than fixing the flat on the side of the road. When I removed the front wheel to fix the flat, I found an almighty ding in the rim from where the wheel had crashed into the concrete kerb - it's off to the shop tomorrow to determine whether it can be repaired, or whether it is time for a new wheel rim.
The front tyre also needs replacing - they're supposed to be good for 6000km, but it's only done 3000km since new. Just goes to show how even a kevlar reinforced tyre gets chopped up quickly by Sydney's nasty road surfaces. The gouges on the tyre from broken glass and metal shavings have to be seen to be believed. This is not a bike friendly town. Tyre + rim = maybe $300. This is not a cheap sport.
But at least I am home with all my skin and bones intact.
Monday, 29 September 2008
The windbag must be home
Rudd must be back in the country - I went for a ride this morning and almost got blown off the bike. Only a prodigiously boring windbag could create such an effect.
Even the rowers were having a hard time of it. Rowing in wind-driven chop like you see here is no fun at all. In my day, when no one wore gloves, the oar blades would hit the top of the chop as you went forward on each stroke, and that would strike up spray that would always land right on the spot where you were gripping the oar. A wet oar handle is a quick way to get lots of blisters. You knew you'd had a rough day when you could count 36 blisters on each hand.
Even the rowers were having a hard time of it. Rowing in wind-driven chop like you see here is no fun at all. In my day, when no one wore gloves, the oar blades would hit the top of the chop as you went forward on each stroke, and that would strike up spray that would always land right on the spot where you were gripping the oar. A wet oar handle is a quick way to get lots of blisters. You knew you'd had a rough day when you could count 36 blisters on each hand.
A sign of why we have a financial crisis
In days gone by, finance was hard to come by. You'd make an appointment with a bank manager, put on a suit and go and lay out your case as to why the bank should give you money. It was a time of trepidation for many, as banks were notoriously tight with their lending criteria.
Nowadays, the bank comes to you, and they try to lend you as much money as they think you can afford, and then some. Borrowers have become like French geese, with a funnel stuffed into their beaks and corn being force-fed into their gullets.
When I see a car like this, it reinforces my view that the banks only have themselves to blame, and that any bank managers crying poor to the government should be shown the door with a swift kick up the date.
When I was at Uni, studying Commerce, everyone wanted to be a Merchant Banker (this was at a time when Alan Bond and Laurie Connell were riding high). I know that because one of lecturers did a survey one day and asked us students to raise our hands if we found a certain career choice as being attractive.
90% wanted to go into stock broking or merchant banking. Maybe 10% thought commercial banking was attractive (essentially going to work for Westpac was seen as a sign of abject failure).
I was the only one who expressed an interest in manufacturing. Out of about 300 students.
In other words, my fellow students all wanted to get rich by working for a stockbroker or a merchant bank (no one had heard of Macquarie Bank back then, funnily enough). Being a commercial banker was not seen as the road to riches.
However, a reasonable number ended up working for banks after the likes of Bond Corp went belly up, and they had nowhere else to go. But the desire to make money never went away, and I suspect it was the likes of them that came up with all sorts of money-making schemes as they cast an envious eye at their compadres in the stock broking and merchant banking houses. The only way for them to make money was to grow their banks like topsy, and that meant lending money with a fury.
Main Street bankers are normally seen as a sober lot when compared to their Wall Street rivals, but I don't believe there is much difference between the two. Next time you get one of those "you have been pre-approved for a $5,000 gold Mastercard" type letters in the mail, consider who is to blame for this mess.
Nowadays, the bank comes to you, and they try to lend you as much money as they think you can afford, and then some. Borrowers have become like French geese, with a funnel stuffed into their beaks and corn being force-fed into their gullets.When I see a car like this, it reinforces my view that the banks only have themselves to blame, and that any bank managers crying poor to the government should be shown the door with a swift kick up the date.
When I was at Uni, studying Commerce, everyone wanted to be a Merchant Banker (this was at a time when Alan Bond and Laurie Connell were riding high). I know that because one of lecturers did a survey one day and asked us students to raise our hands if we found a certain career choice as being attractive.
90% wanted to go into stock broking or merchant banking. Maybe 10% thought commercial banking was attractive (essentially going to work for Westpac was seen as a sign of abject failure).
I was the only one who expressed an interest in manufacturing. Out of about 300 students.
In other words, my fellow students all wanted to get rich by working for a stockbroker or a merchant bank (no one had heard of Macquarie Bank back then, funnily enough). Being a commercial banker was not seen as the road to riches.
However, a reasonable number ended up working for banks after the likes of Bond Corp went belly up, and they had nowhere else to go. But the desire to make money never went away, and I suspect it was the likes of them that came up with all sorts of money-making schemes as they cast an envious eye at their compadres in the stock broking and merchant banking houses. The only way for them to make money was to grow their banks like topsy, and that meant lending money with a fury.
Main Street bankers are normally seen as a sober lot when compared to their Wall Street rivals, but I don't believe there is much difference between the two. Next time you get one of those "you have been pre-approved for a $5,000 gold Mastercard" type letters in the mail, consider who is to blame for this mess.
Saturday, 27 September 2008
With teachers like these..........
"The federal govt spends 75% of its education budget on private schools and 35% on public schools".
I hope that is a misprint by the paper. I really hope it is.
How long until I kill my Nokia N95?
If I hadn't spent so much money on such a small pile of crap, I'd have fed it to a dog by now.
Consider this.
I charged it completely on Thursday night. It even beeped at me to let me know that the battery was full.
I was flat by 9am Friday, even though I had not touched it to do a single thing. It failed to even last 12 hours on a brand new battery.
Then it decided to start locking up everytime I tried to use the "maps" function. The only way to recover was to remove the battery and reboot the bloody thing.
And speaking of reboot time, it takes at least 5 minutes to boot. I am going to time it one of these days, just to find out how long it takes. I can make an omelette for breakfast in less time than it takes it to boot (that I do know).
I seem to have solved the "maps" problem. I went into the GPS application and told it to find out where I was standing. After 5 minutes of searching the heavens (and flattening the battery), it managed to find out where I was. Since then, the mapping function has performed as it should - but it shouldn't have needed that initial "boot" to get it to work.
As for changing between functions...........sigh.
When I was at Uni, I did a stats course. We had to do all sorts of number crunching, either on a PDP-11 mainframe, or on the ultramodern IBM XT PC's in the computer lab. Or they might have been the AT model. Whatever. They had two 5 1/4 inch floppy drives - you booted DOS from one disk, then inserted a second disk that ran the application that you wanted - say Lotus 123 (Excel did not exist at that time). After putting a spreadsheet together, you'd save the data to a floppy, then take out the 123 floppy and put in another floppy in order to run SPSS (a stats package).
Now, consider how long it takes to close a program, remove a floppy, put that floppy back in it sleeve, take another floppy out of its sleeve, insert into floppy drive, boot program etc etc.
The Nokia takes even longer to flip between applications. No, let me rephrase that - to crawl between applications. Flip has too many connotations about speed. I imagine that there is a little troll inside the phone, sitting there in a cubicle waiting to swap floppy disks over every time I want to use the camera or the music player........and they are the type of troll that doesn't get out of bed unless they are being paid doubletime.
I don't know what Nokia were thinking of when they designed this phone.... but whatever it was, they couldn't have been thinking about very much.
Consider this.
I charged it completely on Thursday night. It even beeped at me to let me know that the battery was full.
I was flat by 9am Friday, even though I had not touched it to do a single thing. It failed to even last 12 hours on a brand new battery.
Then it decided to start locking up everytime I tried to use the "maps" function. The only way to recover was to remove the battery and reboot the bloody thing.
And speaking of reboot time, it takes at least 5 minutes to boot. I am going to time it one of these days, just to find out how long it takes. I can make an omelette for breakfast in less time than it takes it to boot (that I do know).
I seem to have solved the "maps" problem. I went into the GPS application and told it to find out where I was standing. After 5 minutes of searching the heavens (and flattening the battery), it managed to find out where I was. Since then, the mapping function has performed as it should - but it shouldn't have needed that initial "boot" to get it to work.
As for changing between functions...........sigh.
When I was at Uni, I did a stats course. We had to do all sorts of number crunching, either on a PDP-11 mainframe, or on the ultramodern IBM XT PC's in the computer lab. Or they might have been the AT model. Whatever. They had two 5 1/4 inch floppy drives - you booted DOS from one disk, then inserted a second disk that ran the application that you wanted - say Lotus 123 (Excel did not exist at that time). After putting a spreadsheet together, you'd save the data to a floppy, then take out the 123 floppy and put in another floppy in order to run SPSS (a stats package).
Now, consider how long it takes to close a program, remove a floppy, put that floppy back in it sleeve, take another floppy out of its sleeve, insert into floppy drive, boot program etc etc.
The Nokia takes even longer to flip between applications. No, let me rephrase that - to crawl between applications. Flip has too many connotations about speed. I imagine that there is a little troll inside the phone, sitting there in a cubicle waiting to swap floppy disks over every time I want to use the camera or the music player........and they are the type of troll that doesn't get out of bed unless they are being paid doubletime.
I don't know what Nokia were thinking of when they designed this phone.... but whatever it was, they couldn't have been thinking about very much.
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