Wednesday, August 31, 2005
New breed, same as the old one
"You are looking at a new breed of car," the TV advert declared, as a sleek, largish (of course, black) but nonetheless pretty ordinary looking vehicle rolled onto the screen. The ad was presented with such unusual gravitas that, for once, it won my attention.
"A revolution in driving experience. The future is here," the voiceover concluded.
Wow. Was the hydrogen fuel cell engine finally here? Or is this some new ultra-efficient hybrid electo-LPG vehicle?
Goodbye global warming and hello to a more sustainable tomorrow!
Alas not. It was the 3.6L, V6, All-Wheel-Drive Nissan Murano. It was the future of vehicle technology because it had a slightly different gear stick, or something. Oh, and heated front seats.
I had been duped into delaying fetching my coffee. This was no revolutionary vehicle. It was just another gas-guzzling, child munching SUV. No doubt complete with free can of spray-on mud to demonstrate to other parents dropping off at school that your rugged suburban lifestyle warrants running a vehicle that barely manages 8km per litre.
An advert this far removed from reality is surely in breach of the advertising code of ethics. (By my reckoning, at least contrary to Section 1.2 re deception and 1.4 re the environment. See http://www.advertisingstandardsbureau.com.au/PDF/AANACodeofEthics.pdf)
When the ads finished and the news continued the first item informed us that crude oil had reached the staggering price of $70 per barrel, before settling at $67 by the end of the day.
The trigger for the oil spike was Hurricane Katrina, threatening an already tight crude market with further minor short-term reductions in US supply. Underlying this trigger factor, the report continued, is soaring energy demand and habitual political instability in the Middle East.
OPEC has agreed to boost exports to try to calm fears. After all, spiralling oil prices only encourage market substitution.
But OPEC's actions will surely make little difference in the medium term. Instability in the Middle East looks set for the next century and demand is only heading in one direction. Even the weather is likely to get more volatile, due to global warming. Face it, high oil prices are here to stay.
Even the usually sanguine Economist magazine suggests that the $60-$70 mark could be the new equilibrium price we should all get used to. <http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4321834>
So is this really the time to be investing $56,000 in an 'all new' Nissan Murano? But perhaps even more importantly, is this really the time for Brisbane City Council to be investing $700m in digging road tunnels for cars?
In tomorrow's transport system, there will undoubtedly be a role for personalised transportation, similar to that afforded by the petrol-driven car today. But the Nissan Murano is most definitely not part of this transport future.
Now is the time to reconsider our oil dependency. It is not going to run out tomorrow, but we do need to make the transition today, before its price begins to destabilise an economy thus far built on its cheap and plentiful supply.
We need
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
4th Test
After being outplayed for the third time in three tests, despite narrowly loosing two of them and drawing the third, Australia find themselves in unfamiliar territory. Last time they were behind in an Ashes series, they had five more games to turn it round, and did so with a vengeance - blasting England out the way in three of the next four. Oh those heady days.....
This time, they only get one chance to make amends.
Hopefully it will not all come down to the toss of a coin. If England win it, they will bat out all five days on the flattest, driest and most benign pitch that the groundsman can muster. If Australian win it, there are enough batsmen whose career is riding on this innings to make a big score.
Either way, the Aussie batsman must all start to perform. They are not bad players all of a sudden, yet Warne is averaging above Katich and then both Lee and Warne are averaging well above Hayden, Martyn and Gilchrist. This is simply not good enough. Even Clarke and Ponting are scoring too far below their average for their form to be acceptable.
Is the time ready for Hussey over Hayden?
Much also rests on McGrath's shoulders (though hopefully not too much on his elbow). At Trent Bridge the Aussie attack was diminished to essentially just Lee and Warne (who also scored pretty well with the bat). Operating with just two bowlers does not bowl out teams like England twice. Even with McGrath back, Tait will need to contribute more.
Prediction: DRAW. England will win back the Ashes. There is no shame in this, nor injustice, for they have been outplayed so far. When a team has held a trophy for so long it is inevitable that it will loose it, eventually. But what a great series.
Apparently there are rumours that the English Premiership season had kicked-off, but these rumours have been unsubstantiated.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Charlie Moreland campsite
It sounds a whole lotta fun, but we need to make the most of the rugby off-season
So back to last weekend: Loads of people rave about 'Charlie Moreland' campsite, in Kenilworth State Forest, so maybe we shouldn't have been surprised that it was as busy as it was. At times it was like staying at a tourist site on the coast with the noise and other people having fun.
That is not allowed of course. You are supposed to be able to go to these places and enjoy the peace and quiet of the bush and make all the noise you want when you want and not be disturbed by other people.
Charlie Moreland (don't know who he was) lies about 6km along a dirt track in Kenilworth State Forest (Conondale Range), about 130km north west of Brisbane. As a State Forest it is 'mixed-use' and so not pristine habitat. But still, the scenery was nice enough. The kids (four of them - we went with another couple) whiled away their time in the nearby creek.
There is plenty of wildlife too. Though not seeking sanctuary in the bush. Most of it skulks around the campsite, looking for the scraps of food discarded by campers.
Some of the wildlife gets pretty bullish too. Possums, bandicoots, laced monitors ('goannas'), scrub turkeys and plenty of kookaburras all lie in wait for that uncovered morsel or dropped crumb.
Though all this food draws the wildlife out of the forest, it is further evidence that a 'low-impact' tourist activity like camping has implications for local ecology.
However, a highlight was finding a carpet python. Though these things commonly inhabit suburbia, it is surprising how rarely you see them, particularly in light of the places we go: scrambling through rainforest and up creek beds etc.
And this fella was pretty big too (5 foot). After being nearly run over by two cars and then being surrounded by 8 gawping humans, it decided against crossing the track, and rather than leave it to the mercy of a blind corner, we coaxed off the road.
On the way home we tried to detour up into the nearby Conondale National Park, but after casing out the second creek crossing I bottled it. I didn't want to get the car stuck and spent Sunday afternoon waiting for someone to tow us out.
Now I must get one of those SUVs...
Post some pics soon.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Weather is the real warning
Pics from Canberra trip
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
“I didn’t do it”
Therefore, if Michelle Leslie - caught in Bali with two ecstasy tablets in her handbag at a dance party - wants to escape prison, she is going to need a better defence than that.
Fellow Australian, 20 year old Graham Clifford Payne is also in deep trouble. He is facing death by firing squad if convicted of trafficking, after being caught with more than 2000 pills and syringes in Sumatra.
Prime Minister John Howard has played the warm and caring role: he has simply labelled Leslie and Payne ‘stupid’. ‘Our Schapelle’ was sent down less than two months ago, about the same time that nine other Australians were rounded up trying to ship heroin out of Bali.
Howard said "It's beyond belief that any Australian could be so stupid as to carry drugs into any country in Asia."
So once again - rightly or wrongly - the Indonesian justice system will come under Channel 7 scrutiny and no doubt, criticism. But how would a young party-goer be treater in Sydney, if caught red handed with two ecstasy tablets?
It seems this time the Australian Government has washed its hands immediately. If Payne is sentenced to death there will be appeals for clemency (as the death penalty is opposed by Australia), but otherwise they are on their own.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Weekend down south
Conversely, he argued, purpose built national capitals, such as Washington, Madrid, Bonn and Canberra - which from the beginning lacked the commercial impetus - remain staid, soulless places, often unable to generate wealth making capacity to suit changing times and economies.
This is why these cities are overshadowed by New York, Barcelona, Frankfurt and Sydney.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Bludger's day
Alternatively, if you are a somewhat over visiting overpriced, overbusy marketing agricultural shows masquerading as little more than a giant marketing opportunity, then it is a bludge off work mid week.
Judging by the number of SUVs northbound out of Brisbane that morning, I’m not sure whether anyone has gone to the Ekka this year. Assuming the weather was going to up to up to scratch, we headed north for the first beach day of the season, possibly at Caloundra.
Just to give the weather a chance to warm up we climbed Ngungun first. Ngungun is one of the more moderate volcanic plugs that make up the Glasshouse Mountains. At 227m is dwarfed by the larger peaks, but nevertheless provides some great panoramics of the whole range and good scrambling/climbing terrain for kids.
James and Matthew lapped it up; for them (with shorter legs) it was ‘climb’ nearly all the way to the top. At the top, the forest thins and a the peaks thrust out above a slabbed plateau.
Being volcanic plugs, much of this plateau is the weathered tops of hexagonal columns of lava. It makes for some interesting exploration and climbing, if the walk to the top hasn’t been enough.
By the time we had lunch in Landsborough the wind at picked up and the beach didn’t seem such a good idea so we sat in the car park (the southbound Bruce Highway) all the way home.
Matthew (4 ½) has shown his enthusiasm for climbing/scrambling often enough and he is certainly fit enough to do some 12-15km in a day. I think we shall attempt Mount Warning at Christmas.
Tomorrow, we fly down to Canberra for a day’s skiing on Saturday at Perisher. Kids are staying with Richard and Lisa for the weekend.
Tunnels? No thanks
This is an interesting move by the paper, normally noted for its demand for ever more infrastructure to cure Brisbane’s growing pains.
The opinion writer – a post-grad student of Urban and Regional Planning at the Queensland University of Technology – takes the long view and argues that in 20 years time we may have regretted spending $1.4bn on building a tunnel for motor vehicles when we could have spent it on something else: public transport, for example.
Local air pollution is his main concern. Cars will spill thousands of tonnes of particulates and toxic chemicals into Brisbane’s air, with serious consequences for human and ecological health in the long term.
But he also alludes to the concept of induced demand: “[Politicians] argue that air pollution is caused by traffic congestion (not car dependence), and that building new or wider roads will fix these problems. “
This is true, as cars run most efficiently (if they run ‘efficiently’ at all) at some 70-80km/h. Improvements to the existing road system – particularly coordinating traffic lights or replacing them altogether with roundabouts – would appear to be money well spent. Building more roads would fix a problem from an intuitive engineering perspective.
But it is generally accepted now that increasing supply will simply increase demand “as additional road space is quickly consumed by people undertaking more and/or longer car trips in response to shorter travel times.” This has been demonstrated with quite obvious regularity in the persistently fruitless widening of the M25 London Orbital.
Congestion is a traffic demand management tool. It is blunt, counter-intuitive and not one that people particularly like, but it does work. Indeed, it should be made to work with even greater force by further reducing road space available to single occupant vehicles and ensuring that mass transit systems have priority over people who choose to bring a tonne of steel, taking up 10m2 of road space, to work with them every morning.
I seem to manage to fit everything I need into a briefcase weighing less than half a kilo.
Monday, August 15, 2005
My crisis with Rugby Union Football
No doubt the Wallabies were out-gunned by the All Blacks in Sydney. Their scrum half (Weepui (?)) kept momentum going forward all the time and McCaw and Collins hit the rucks with great pace, enough to disrupt much of the ball the Wallabies had.
For their part the Wallabies were scratching around for players and though Gitteau then Flatley then Whitteker performed admirably at five-eighth, they did miss Larkham’s ability to take responsibility for making the calls. Latham, Rogers, Tiranui and Sailor also either did not lay or did not finish.
My crisis in confidence with Rugby Union rests with decision making and the whole philosophy of the modern game.
Indulge me for a minute. Though out-played, the Wallabies were no doubt on the arse-end of three tries from bum decisions by the referee:
Try 1. Australian advantage played for a knock-on, the clearance kick goes straight to Rokocoko on the Wallaby’s 22. He makes 20 yards, ruck, recycle, try. Referee obviously thought that Rokocoko is such a poor player that your advantage is over the moment he catches the ball.
Try 2. Australian attacking ruck; without the ball, Gregan is taken out by Collins coming though the ruck. Ref waves play on, All Blacks pick up and run the length of the field from a counter attack, line out, penalty, then try. Is tackling a player without the ball part of the game now?
Try 3. Ball turned over at Australian attacking ruck, All Blacks spin ball wide and – doh – pass it forward. Ref lets it go: try. Helpfully, the pass forward occurred on the 22-yard line – a useful point of reference for seeing that it was way forward, had the referee known the rules of the game.
Did the referee not know the rules, did he not see them or did he misinterpret them? It is unlikely to be the first and was a probably a combination of the second and third. Sadly, now Rugby Union is so over-complicated, so burdened with rules and different facets of play, that you will always feel ultimately frustrated by it.
But the philosophy behind it is crooked too. The modern game revolves around cheating and how best to get away with it.
The game’s advocates devotedly refer to this as ‘playing right on the limits’. But it is not, it is cheating. Players know the rules and they break them because they know that in most instances they will get away with it. Games are commonly won by the team that can cheat the most subtly. I cannot think of any other sport where this is the case.
Each scrum is the subject of cheating. As the referee can only be on one side of the restart, players always have an opportunity to cheat on the other. Props drop binds, bore-in or simply pull down on their opposite number. It happens every time. Commentators refer to this as a ‘lot of pressure on that scrum’ and it is shrugged off as just being a bit of light hearted ‘front-row skulduggery’. It is not pressure, nor is just something that props do. It is trying to get away with cheating.
Each tackle area leads to one a number of infringements. Invariably, all the involved players will attempt to break the rules. Either the grounded player will not release, the tackler not make any real attempt to roll away, both teams will use hands in the ensuing ruck or a defender will try to lay over the top of the ball to prevent it coming out quickly.
At most line outs, the gap closes or the jumpers are pulled down. Again, commentators refer to this as ‘pressure’.
Around the pitch ad hoc infringements occur with remarkable frequency. Forwards do not defend from the proper offside line at a ruck (ie behind the back foot), but if the refs looking, the backline will go offside instead. Late tackles and lazy runners lead to constant infringement (Jerry Collins is good at the former, Springbok locks at the latter). High tackles without arms occur constantly. Dan Carter tripped Gregan after a quick tap and go from a midfield penalty. This was a cynical, intentional foul (though there was no question of it leading directly to points), so why wasn’t he sent off?
It is not necessarily a failure on the referee’s part. If every infringement were called, the game would grind to a halt. It is the whole philosophy of the game which is at issue.
With one referee, thirty players and grey-area laws, all the game’s administrators are left with is just trying to make an absurd game work.
For me, this leads to feelings of injustice when your team goes down, instead of shrugging it off and accepting the result. If you read BBC’s Scrum-V chat, you will find out that even All Black supporters feel they were hard done by the referee in Sydney. How can this be? Decisions clearly favoured the All Blacks!
It makes for one-eyed supporters who revert to blaming the referee, when instead we should be looking at the game itself and the way it is coached and played.
On Sunday, I went to watch a different sort of rugby: a top of the ladder clash between the Brisbane Broncos and the St George-Illawarra Dragons, in the National Rugby League.
Though the Broncos went down, it was an enthralling game of flowing ball-in-hand rugby, brutally hard tackling, clever running lines and some great subtle kicking skills. The Dragons hooker and half-back constantly changed the point of attack until eventually the gaps emerged and they romped home four tries to one.
In the whole match I counted one instance of cheating – a Dragons player pushing the ball out of Tonie Carroll’s hands, in a 3 on 1 tackle. The ref adjudged it a knock-on.
Is it that Rugby League players angels? I doubt it. They are every bit the brutish athletes as their Union cousins. But there are just fewer opportunities to cheat. Fewer opportunities to cheat leads to fewer missed infringements or incorrect decisions. When your team goes down, you are left feeling disappointed with their performance, rather than spitting chips about the referee and the ‘blatant cheating’.
While Rugby Union requires a wider range of skills (ie each player must learn to ruck and maul as well as run and pass), the game’s intricacies are every bit part of the problem as they are part of the appeal. It is known as being the thinking man’s game or ‘the monster’s game played by gentlemen’.
But it is the straightforward laws of Rugby League that gives this game its appeal. It still has players of great skill, fitness and vision and can produce games every bit as exciting as Rugby Union.
Its simplicity gives it universal appeal. Like football (soccer) all you need to kick off is a patch of grass, four coats and a ball. Stroll on the 2005 finals series and go the Broncos.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Update
This good win makes last week’s crap game seam all the more disappointing, but then I guess even U7 sides have weeks on which they don’t perform.
This will be my last season with these guys as next year I will step down to coach Matthew in the U6, assuming that he wants to play (pretty sure he does) and that he is big enough (not quite sure about that – being a December 29th baby, he will be pretty small).
Unfortunately the weather was cold and wet (really English rugby weather) so we decided to postpone our end of season BBQ for a few weeks. No one was really keen to stand out in the rain, eating sausages and pretending to enjoy themselves.
On Saturday afternoon I took James and Matthew and Jack out for a bike ride along one of the creek corridors in the northern suburbs. Brisbane City Council is working hard to create a comprehensive and contiguous network of bicycle tracks through the city.
Already there are great opportunities but in a few places it is still fragmented by major arterial roads and in true Brisbane fashion at a number of crossings pedestrians and cyclists are treated like inferior beings when compared to the lone motorist.
It is not just money that needs spending but a major shift in perceptions in balancing rights of way. People simply shouldn’t have to wait 6 or 7 minutes to get across three crossings just to cross one major road, nor scamper like rabbits as the warning lights start flashing after just a few seconds.
Saturday night was Bledisloe Cup night in Sydney. I was quite excited before, but in the end, it was a thoroughly disappointing game (see above).
Sunday
Went to see the Brisbane Broncos get beat by St George Illawarra Dragons in a thoroughly enjoyable and altogether less frustrating game than the Bledisloe Cup, alongside 49,000 other people, at Lang Park-Suncorp Stadium.
Apart from the great game, another highlight was when a pissed bloke, two rows in front, stood up, then fell 5 or 6 rows forward, over the top of those in front of him: a bit like stage-diving. Eventually someone caught him and prevented him from falling to the lower terrace.
Embarrased, he fled the angry mob to get first use of the soap.
Adrian has flown to New Zealand. He has found out that he cannot apply for a visa from within Australia. Therefore, at some stage in the next 7 months, he will have to head back to England.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Always a talking point
No wonder political action on climate change is slow. People’s perceptions of global warming are most influenced by their immediate experience. Don’t talk to this Brisbane resident about global-bloody-warming: I had to wear a jumper today.
After a sweltering heatwave is shattered by a fierce storm which brings two damaging tornados to the UK’s West Midlands, ask a resident of Edgbaston if they think global warming is real and you might get a different answer.
But this personal misunderstanding of the weather symptoms of climate change must not cloud (no pun intended) the debate on more detailed scientific studies into this phenomena.
The New Scientist recently ran a story on a study that concluded that the Siberian tundra is rapidly thawing – in response to a 3°C increase in average temperature over the last 40 years - with potentially devastating consequences.
Permafrost beneath many hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of marshy tundra (“the size of France and Germany put together”) is melting fast, and there’s a high probability of it could release vast quantities of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
If the bogs dry out, the humus will rot and oxidise and the greenhouse gas will be released as CO2. If the bogs do not dry, 70 billion tonnes of methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas, will bubble up into the atmosphere instead.
Either way, we could be stuffed.
What is most disconcerting about this study is not just the alarming speed at which it is occurring but that it is just one of a number of theoretical positive feedback mechanisms identified in a warming earth, which could perpetuate even greater levels of warming.
Other positive feedback mechanisms identified include the melting of the bright white Greenland ice-cap, which could result in the more energy being absorbed by a darker ground cover rather than being reflected straight back into space. Another is the drying of lush equatorial forests, leading to CO2 release from reducing living biomass.
These positive feedback mechanisms are most concerning as they amplify the impact that humans have already undoubtedly had on atmospheric CO2 levels and global warming.
Thus, even in an ideal world of rapidly reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions, we may already have pushed the planet beyond a stable equilibrium towards a runaway greenhouse scenario, potentially taking many tens of thousands of years to restabilise.
With the political will we can make a difference to human emissions, but even this may now not be enough.
Friday, August 12, 2005
Technology in sport
Kasper had battled miraculously with Brett Lee to come within three runs of defeating England and going a long way to retaining the Ashes. But agonisingly for Australians he was given out caught behind. High-tech slow motion replays from three dozen angles, reveal that the umpires decision was incorrect. On its way through the ball did strike his glove, but his hand was not holding his bat: Not Out.
Australians shouldn’t be too distraught however, as that same replay technology showed that Kasprowitz was clearly out LBW, some three overs prior.
The Edgbaston Test will down as one of the great Ashes battles, but nevertheless it was marred by a number of incorrect umpire decisions, mainly, it must be said, from Billy Bowden. Would technology have made the result easier to accept? In retrospect, it’s impossible to say.
Generally, sports governing bodies have accepted new technologies, aimed at improving the quality of key decisions, in a pragmatic fashion. Tennis adopted Hawkeye in the late 1980s to adjudicate on serve and whether the ball – sometimes travelling at 250kp/h – has landed within the service box. Rugby (both codes) now defer to TV replays to check the ball is correctly grounded in a try situation and to help post-match inquiries into player conduct. Even old fuddy-duddy cricket has allowed TV replays to adjudicate on close run outs.
TV technology has revealed the finest arts of cricketing skill. Hawkeye systems now track the speed and trajectory of every single delivery in a game. Clever overlay tricks can make a batsman disappear on screen in order to judge whether the ball has struck him plumb LBW. The ‘snick-o-meter’ listens for faintest of edges and now, ultra-motion cameras can pick out minute adjustments in direction of the spin of a ball on its way passed the bat – a tell-tale sign of a fine edge to the keeper.
Modern camera work has opened up a parallel world of slow motion cricket that has benefited player’s coaching regimes and enthralled enthusiasts. We can now see the most subtle details of the phenomenal skills of Warne’s leg spin or McGrath’s upright seam.
This parallel world is then shattered when the Channel 4 production team run the ‘real-time replays’. Umpires must see everything: where the bowlers' front foot lands, the line through which the batsman plays the ball, how far forward or back is his crease he is, any swing of the ball in the air or seam off the pitch and the height of the bounce. This is all before the batsman has played at the ball. This takes approximately 0.4 seconds. Perhaps it is most amazing that umpires get it more right than wrong.
But this also demonstrates how beneficial deferring to technology’s superior and more multitudinous eyes and ears could become. The introduction of new technologies into sports adjudication seems inevitable, particularly as the money staked on the game becomes more pressing. Technology has the potential to reduce uncertainty in decision making by a big factor.
But rapid technological advancement means it will always be ten steps ahead of any implementation. There will always be a requirement for careful consideration before its introduction and so therefore its deployment will never be state-of-the-art.
In considering its roll out, the following must be taken into account as a bare minimum:
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Don't speak about the peak
Brisbane City Council is currently embarking on the ‘biggest urban road project proposed in Australia’. Superlatives aside, it’s enough to send a shiver down your spine and Brisbane back to the dark ages.
When the good residents of Brisbane elected Campbell Newman early last year, they trusted he would be the answer their traffic woes. For months prior to the election, Campbell’s beaming face had stared down at them from advertising hoardings, while they fumed in traffic jams. If they just sat tight in their cars for a little longer, he would solve everything, and you would soon be able to drive anywhere, anytime, without frustration.
At face value, the electors appeared to buy it and turned over a strong Labor majority to elect him Lord Mayor, albeit as a minority in his own council Chamber. An engineer – an army engineer – by trade, he was a ‘doer’, a ‘can-do’ man. He sees a problem and he fixes it.
Newman promised tunnels, and lots of them. Tunnels would cure Brisbane’s congestion chaos, currently draining $2.6bn per annum from the local economy. Five tunnels were proposed in all, criss-crossing the city form north to south, east to west, bypassing the city centre.
The scheme is called TransApex. The total cost would be $4.3bn over 20 years. Newman would go to George Street and Canberra and vie for State and Federal funds. The tunnels would be operated and part-funded by the private sector to run as a tolled system. The total public debt would be repaid by 2043.
The TransApex ‘Pre-feasibility Study’ argued that 2/3 of all CBD traffic is just passing through. Existing radial arterial routes are used as shortcuts predominantly by motorists travelling from the north to the west (and vice versa) attempting to avoid congestion on the inadequate Gateway Motorway and the tolled Gateway Bridge and Logan Motorway, which bypass the city to the south and east.
Sending cars underground will also have the added benefit of ‘freeing up’ surface space for public transport and urban renewal.
The first phase of TransApex, the North South Bypass Tunnel and Airport Extension, is now in procurement phase with drilling due to start in the next 12 months. Its costs have already blown-out, indicating the complete TransApex program could balloon to some $6-7 bn.
Councillor Newman declared his election victory gave him a full mandate for the rollout of the TransApex scheme. This claim was made, despite the majority of electors voting against him. Indeed, most strategic planning consultation undertaken by BCC has revealed that community support for the tunnels is at best luke-warm and quite possibly openly hostile.
The initial community soundings are difficult to decipher. In reality, most planning consultations tend to attract the more discerning or activist views, which tend to be those most opposed to grand schemes promoting car use. At the recent fairs and workshops many have questioned whether the billions of dollars would be better spent improving suburban centres, public transport networks or installing more modest intelligent transport systems. Is that the predominant feeling, or are they the vocal minority, the rest just happy to see ever more money spent on indefinitely increasing road capacity.
But opposition is crumbling. The Labor majority has swung round behind the first phase and has given the NSBT and AE funding. In fact, these projects were always on the drawing board for a future Labor administration. It seems all the pollies want a piece of the action in major infrastructure. Community action will now only serve to make the tunnel-pill easier to swallow by having more trees planted at the tunnel exits.
But there is noticeable disquiet from within the bureaucracy. Some of this is undoubtedly a result of finance being diverted from the ‘softer’ council programs, such as equity and diversity, child immunisation, greenhouse gas action and bikeways, towards funding tunnels. (See Budget). This has resulted in job upheaval and pet projects being canned. But the disquiet is also driven by a more holistic (ie non-engineering) view of the city’s development, and in particular, how it deals with traffic congestion.
The unease extends very nearly to the top (and may also include the top), where more nuanced minds do not share their political masters’ view that building more roads and tunnels is the right answer.
‘Peak-oil’ is again on the news agenda; no doubt brought on by the Brent Crude being high and stable, well above $60 pb.
A senior BCC bureaucrat is agitating to get peak-oil reviewed and considered at Director-General level with the State government and at senior levels within council. A city facing rapidly inflating petrol prices is likely to have a very different complexion and infrastructure requirement. That bureaucrat is also keen for peak-oil to be discussed at this month’s CityShape Conference.
Most people would think it prudent to consider the risks presented by peak oil, before embarking on a spending spree to expand the city’s road network to the tune of $7bn. However, the Lord Mayor is keen not see peak oil flagged as a risk in public discussion. He has far too much political capital invested in keeping Brisbane residents moving around in their cars.
The bureaucracy may be forced to shut-up and put-up, but public discussion will not let the Lord Mayor’s benign assumptions on oil futures pass idly by. That’s the problem with public engagement – it doesn’t always give you the answer you were looking for.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Tihs is qutie wreid
Typoglycemia >>
Monday, August 08, 2005
Evangelical cricket
Fortunately for them, treatment is available, in the form of an Ashes Test match. If there has ever been a day to convert the heathens to the game, this was it.
(Actually, it didn't work, she was watching a Hugh Grant film. Somehow, I feel I have missed my opportunity.)
I didn't bother tuning in for the first half-hour of the fourth day, assuming the final two wickets would have surrendered for a dozen runs. Shocked to still see Warne there, and the required runs at 70, the remaining 45 minutes prooved to be some of the most absorbing cricket since the last World Cup semi-final tied ODI between South Africa and Australia.
It was an amazing finish to a remarkable game, epitomised by Flintoff consoling what must have been a distraught Brett Lee, before joining his team mates in celebration.
The whole nation was on tenter-hooks and in end must feel disappointed that Kasper succumbed to following a ball down the leg side, after the last pair had watched with patience and left so many balls before. By the time the last wicket fell, I am sure John Agnew (listened to on BBC web-streaming of TMS) was crying! He certainly had a wavering voice.
Australia will take heart that they competed till the end, were out-classed for nearly the whole game and still only two runs seperated the teams. England will be on a high, and with charismatic and infectious players like Flintoff in the side, will be difficult to keep at bay.
With McGrath still out for the third Test (and any team would miss him), a whole lot more application is required of the Australian batters. Clarke, Katich, Martyn and most especially Hayden, should take note of the bravey, focus and determination shown by Warne, Lee and Kasper with the bat. It simply should not be up to the tail-enders to keep the team's head above water.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Show your colours, Bob
"The pre-announcement of climate change as a theme for the G8 Gleneagles meeting led to a predictable burst of pressure-group propaganda on global warming."
Worse, the devoutly Marxist ABC and SBS "reinforced Greenpeace's television advertising propaganda by repeatedly running alarmist news coverage on the warming issue."
Professor Bob Carter describes himself as a "researcher at the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University". No doubt he is a cool rational, hard headed scientist, basing his assertions on what.... undiluted scientific evidence.
Bob is a member of the rather grand and upstanding sounding Tech Science Foundation. Clearly a man of balance and integrity, who wouldn't hide his credentials.... or benefactors....
The Tech Science Foundation is based in Wahington DC. It is described as providing 'climate change support', but of course is just another nuetral sounding foundation for Big Oil, or ExxonMobil, to be precise. In 2003, $95,000, out of a total of $150,000 was funded by the oil company.
It has published papers in the US which lobby against climate change mitigation policy for its oil clients.
Good 'ole Bob has written papers for this group.
Now Bob is probably very clever, and may doubt the impact of anthropogenic CO2 emissions on climate change. I do not dispute that he can argue as forcefully as he likes in supporting his view.
But Bob should come clean about his oily affiliations if he is to be accepted as having any credibility in this matter.
See:
http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/files/corporate/giving_report.pdf
http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=112
http://www.techcentralstation.com/050504A.html
A measure of success
Integrated ticketing has pulled (most) SEQ public transport ticketing into a single zoned system for which passengers can purchase daily multi-modal tickets. It represents a triumph of cooperation, drawing in rail, bus and ferry operators across the region.
The first year figures are impressive: bus patronage rose by 2%, train patronage by 4% and ferry patronage is up a whopping 25%. The Sunshine Coast – with notoriously poor public transport - has seen mode share increase by 100%.
These are good numbers – and will probably continue to improve year on year. But think about it: as the population grows and gets wealthier, of course they will. These figures disguise the reality the integrated ticketing has only been a success within the narrow confines of patronage.
At the same time that, Brisbane traffic volume has increased and congestion has got worse, with average morning peak over speeds down by an average of 36 seconds per kilometre. And some perspective is needed: the huge increase on the Sunshine Coast is a result of a jump in public transport mode share from 1% of all trips, to 2%. Mode share for public transport across the region has barely shifted from the pitiful low 7%.
In addition, under the original, discreet ticketing system, the Council-run CityCats which ply their trade up and down and across the river, were always significantly more expensive than trains and buses. The new zoning system has brought all ferry stops within the inner zones, thus dropping the maximum price paid for any CityCat ticket by 50%. My rudimentary knowledge of economics suggests that when the price falls, demand rises until it reaches a new equilibrium.
Many Brisbanites commute by boat, but for most of the day and at weekends, these multi-million dollar vessels operate as tourist pleasure crafts; it is a wonderful (and now cheap) way of seeing the city. Higher CityCat patronage has added a nice gloss to integrated ticketing, whilst the commuters of Brisbane have been forced to subsidise tourist whims.
The success of integrated ticketing must only be measured against any fall in private vehicular trips and congestion. If traffic volume increases, integrated ticketing should not be noted as a policy success. A general increase in transport demand is a reflection of poor urban planning. After all, transport demand is often a symptom of being in the wrong place.
Transport policy needs to evolve from such blunt instruments as integrated public transport ticketing - which does nothing to reduce overall transport demand - to more sophisticated pay-as-you-go schemes for all transport. This should include billing use of private motor vehicles to more reflect the true cost of motoring each mile in urban areas (congestion, poor air quality, accidents, forgone alternative land use, CO2 emissions).
Then, people might start using more of Brisbane’s 600km of bikeways (an additional 1,150km is planned).
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Renegades will undermine Kyoto process
But this pact raises more questions than answers, and on the face of it looks like nothing more that policy rhetoric. A way of saving face, whilst privately coming to terms with being wrong about global warming all along. Full article >>
Monday, August 01, 2005
Who said the web wasn't a serious public consultation tool?
I think it's great, and really shows that the web is a serious polling tool. The monologue style really suits.
Somehow, paragraphs wouldn't have done it justice.
New breed, same as the old one
Posted by Living with Matilda at 5:43 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
"You are looking at a new breed of car," the TV advert declared, as a sleek, largish (of course, black) but nonetheless pretty ordinary looking vehicle rolled onto the screen. The ad was presented with such unusual gravitas that, for once, it won my attention.
"A revolution in driving experience. The future is here," the voiceover concluded.
Wow. Was the hydrogen fuel cell engine finally here? Or is this some new ultra-efficient hybrid electo-LPG vehicle?
Goodbye global warming and hello to a more sustainable tomorrow!
Alas not. It was the 3.6L, V6, All-Wheel-Drive Nissan Murano
I had been duped into delaying fetching my coffee. This was no revolutionary vehicle. It was just another gas-guzzling, child munching SUV. No doubt complete with free can of spray-on mud to demonstrate to other parents dropping off at school that your rugged suburban lifestyle warrants running a vehicle that barely manages 8km per litre.
An advert this far removed from reality is surely in breach of the advertising code of ethics. (By my reckoning, at least contrary to Section 1.2 re deception and 1.4 re the environment. See http://www.advertisingstandardsbureau.com.au/PDF/AANACodeofEthics.pdf)
When the ads finished and the news continued the first item informed us that crude oil had reached the staggering price of $70 per barrel, before settling at $67 by the end of the day.
The trigger for the oil spike was Hurricane Katrina, threatening an already tight crude market with further minor short-term reductions in US supply. Underlying this trigger factor, the report continued, is soaring energy demand and habitual political instability in the Middle East.
OPEC has agreed to boost exports to try to calm fears. After all, spiralling oil prices only encourage market substitution.
But OPEC's actions will surely make little difference in the medium term. Instability in the Middle East looks set for the next century and demand is only heading in one direction. Even the weather is likely to get more volatile, due to global warming. Face it, high oil prices are here to stay.
Even the usually sanguine Economist magazine suggests that the $60-$70 mark could be the new equilibrium price we should all get used to
So is this really the time to be investing $56,000 in an 'all new' Nissan Murano? But perhaps even more importantly, is this really the time for Brisbane City Council to be investing $700m in digging road tunnels for cars?
In tomorrow's transport system, there will undoubtedly be a role for personalised transportation, similar to that afforded by the petrol-driven car today. But the Nissan Murano is most definitely not part of this transport future.
Now is the time to reconsider our oil dependency. It is not going to run out tomorrow, but we do need to make the transition today, before its price begins to destabilise an economy thus far built on its cheap and plentiful supply.
We need
- to reassess how, when and where we work. How about video conferencing, tele working or even just staggered work hours?
- to start building our communities in ways that reduce our demand for powered transport. This will entail using land more efficiently, pulling in local services and employment opportunities to within walking/cycling distance
- technology which reduces our short trip travel demand, rather than encourages us to drive 2km to the video shop
- to invest in public transport rather than more road space for cars. Though this must sound like a broken record, even modest investments in bus corridors have boosted patronage. Now imagine $700m invested in Brisbane's public transport network, rather than sunk into road tunnels.
- to make the transition to a service economy, which provides goods and services far more efficiently than outright private ownership. Do we all need an SUV when we challenge its capabilities just a few times per year?
- an attitudinal change. Think seasonal dinners that reduce the 'food miles', changing our choice of leisure services or holidays or instead, just stop being so bloody lazy and reaching for the keys to our SUVs. We are time poor, because we try to squeeze in so much.
So while thus far the economic impacts of $70 per barrel have been modest and the medium term outlook is robust enough to have not precipitated a mass exodus from the exploration industry, the implications of a transition to rapidly increasing oil prices are potentially massive.
Our entire economic and social infrastructure is geared towards the continuing provision of a cheap, transportable and centralised energy source. If that disappears, Brisbane will be left with some very expensive ventilation shafts.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 5:43 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
4th Test
Posted by Living with Matilda at 8:57 AM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Another roller coaster ride for English and Aussie cricket fans.After being outplayed for the third time in three tests, despite narrowly loosing two of them and drawing the third, Australia find themselves in unfamiliar territory. Last time they were behind in an Ashes series, they had five more games to turn it round, and did so with a vengeance - blasting England out the way in three of the next four. Oh those heady days.....
This time, they only get one chance to make amends.
Hopefully it will not all come down to the toss of a coin. If England win it, they will bat out all five days on the flattest, driest and most benign pitch that the groundsman can muster. If Australian win it, there are enough batsmen whose career is riding on this innings to make a big score.
Either way, the Aussie batsman must all start to perform. They are not bad players all of a sudden, yet Warne is averaging above Katich and then both Lee and Warne are averaging well above Hayden, Martyn and Gilchrist. This is simply not good enough. Even Clarke and Ponting are scoring too far below their average for their form to be acceptable.
Is the time ready for Hussey over Hayden?
Much also rests on McGrath's shoulders (though hopefully not too much on his elbow). At Trent Bridge the Aussie attack was diminished to essentially just Lee and Warne (who also scored pretty well with the bat). Operating with just two bowlers does not bowl out teams like England twice. Even with McGrath back, Tait will need to contribute more.
Prediction: DRAW. England will win back the Ashes. There is no shame in this, nor injustice, for they have been outplayed so far. When a team has held a trophy for so long it is inevitable that it will loose it, eventually. But what a great series.
Apparently there are rumours that the English Premiership season had kicked-off, but these rumours have been unsubstantiated.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 8:57 AM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Monday, August 29, 2005
Charlie Moreland campsite
Posted by Living with Matilda at 8:49 AM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
We are in the midst of holiday season at the moment. Two weekend's ago we were in Canberra, last weekend we were camping in the Conondale Ranges and next weekend holiday proper starts with a trip up to the Whitsunday Islands followed by a few days camping at Lennox Head near Byron Bay.It sounds a whole lotta fun, but we need to make the most of the rugby off-season
So back to last weekend: Loads of people rave about 'Charlie Moreland' campsite
That is not allowed of course. You are supposed to be able to go to these places and enjoy the peace and quiet of the bush and make all the noise you want when you want and not be disturbed by other people.
Charlie Moreland (don't know who he was) lies about 6km along a dirt track in Kenilworth State Forest (Conondale Range), about 130km north west of Brisbane. As a State Forest it is 'mixed-use' and so not pristine habitat. But still, the scenery was nice enough. The kids (four of them - we went with another couple) whiled away their time in the nearby creek.
There is plenty of wildlife too. Though not seeking sanctuary in the bush. Most of it skulks around the campsite, looking for the scraps of food discarded by campers.
Some of the wildlife gets pretty bullish too. Possums, bandicoots, laced monitors ('goannas'), scrub turkeys and plenty of kookaburras all lie in wait for that uncovered morsel or dropped crumb.
Though all this food draws the wildlife out of the forest, it is further evidence that a 'low-impact' tourist activity like camping has implications for local ecology.
However, a highlight was finding a carpet python. Though these things commonly inhabit suburbia, it is surprising how rarely you see them, particularly in light of the places we go: scrambling through rainforest and up creek beds etc.
And this fella was pretty big too (5 foot). After being nearly run over by two cars and then being surrounded by 8 gawping humans, it decided against crossing the track, and rather than leave it to the mercy of a blind corner, we coaxed off the road.
On the way home we tried to detour up into the nearby Conondale National Park, but after casing out the second creek crossing I bottled it. I didn't want to get the car stuck and spent Sunday afternoon waiting for someone to tow us out.
Now I must get one of those SUVs...
Post some pics soon.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 8:49 AM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Weather is the real warning
Posted by Living with Matilda at 12:53 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
A quick scan of the news paints a bleak picture of the planet’s weather systems:
- Severe flooding in China and India
- Continued drought and record high temperatures contributing to forest fires in Portugal, Spain and France
- Three days of heavy rain causing flooding in Austria and Switzerland
- Heavy rain causing flooding in the Balkans
- Tornados in United Kingdom
- Drought causing forest fires in Indonesian Sumatra
- Flooding in Bouganville
- Continued drought in Australia
All just as the harbingers of global warming had predicted. More extreme weather events occurring more frequently. The implications for human development and settlement are catastrophic.
So far, most climatologists and media outlets have been reluctant to point the finger of blame at human-induced global warming, though some have at least posed the question.
The reasons behind this are quite straightforward. All these events have been triggered by particular weather circumstances; a few days of heavy rain here, a couple of years of poor rainfall there or simply unseasonal weather.
But there are also a number of underlying socio-geographic causes for why the news wires are saturated with catastrophe, but yet the climate change sceptics remain unconvinced.
Firstly, most of these weather events have been intensified by an increasingly malign human impact on the landscape. Deforestation in particular, but also the spread of the built environment and poor land management practices have all exacerbated instances of flooding and forest fire.
Secondly, simply more people equate to more settlement exposed on the urban fringe, which increases the likelihood of loss of life and damage to property. When once time these events occurred far away from human habitation, now they happen at a lengthening development front.
And undoubtedly, the apparent growing frequency of such events is correlated to more widespread new communications technology and globalisation. Ubiquitous information services and a larger diaspora assure that today we have a profitable audience for more news from further around the globe. Flash floods in Bouganville can be instantly beamed into your living room and your greater knowledge of the world increases your concern.
These news stories recount ‘weather’ events, and not, as such, ‘climate’ trends. In a complex system such as the earth’s biosphere, it remains hopelessly difficult to verify that any specific event is a result of a long-term trend, such as global warming. So, in the context of the underlying social-geographic reasons why these stories cram our media channels, it is unsurprising that few serious scientists or journalists are willing to stick their neck out and blame global warming.
In addition, a level of perspective is required. For all the current strife in parts of Asia and Europe, most parts of the globe will be experiencing relatively normal – or at least not wholly unusual – weather patterns. “Average rainfall experienced in Peru” is rarely seen as a by-line in the current media ‘climate’. The ordinary, by definition, isn’t news.
Though the interface between what constitutes ‘weather’ and what is ‘climate’ remains fuzzy, it nevertheless exists: weather events generate climate statistics. The social and geographic factors that permit climate change scepticism could well be a cloaking device, preventing us from noticing the elephant sat in the same room.
But look more carefully at the news. It is not just extreme weather events that are reported. The stories of floods, tornados, hurricanes and forest fires are supported by background stories of research that argues glaciers are retreating, the tundra is thawing, the oceans are warming and Antarctic ice shelves are breaking off: big picture signs of a warming planet.
A healthy suspicion on behalf of the climate change sceptics is welcome; this is how science gets done. But it is surely time to acknowledge the elephant, sew together a bunch of coincidences into a coherent narrative and start managing the risks of climate change, or even better, combating its causes.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 12:53 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Pics from Canberra trip
Posted by Living with Matilda at 10:13 AM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Photos from our recent trip to Canberra and Perisher Blue are found here: http://www.geocities.com/buckwells_du7/canberra/canberra.htm
Posted by Living with Matilda at 10:13 AM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
“I didn’t do it”
Posted by Living with Matilda at 12:38 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
So far, this excuse hasn’t worked for Schapelle Corby, the convicted Australian drug smuggler facing a 15-year stretch in a Bali prison.Therefore, if Michelle Leslie - caught in Bali with two ecstasy tablets in her handbag at a dance party - wants to escape prison, she is going to need a better defence than that.
Fellow Australian, 20 year old Graham Clifford Payne is also in deep trouble. He is facing death by firing squad if convicted of trafficking, after being caught with more than 2000 pills and syringes in Sumatra.
Prime Minister John Howard has played the warm and caring role: he has simply labelled Leslie and Payne ‘stupid’. ‘Our Schapelle’ was sent down less than two months ago, about the same time that nine other Australians were rounded up trying to ship heroin out of Bali.
Howard said "It's beyond belief that any Australian could be so stupid as to carry drugs into any country in Asia."
So once again - rightly or wrongly - the Indonesian justice system will come under Channel 7 scrutiny and no doubt, criticism. But how would a young party-goer be treater in Sydney, if caught red handed with two ecstasy tablets?
It seems this time the Australian Government has washed its hands immediately. If Payne is sentenced to death there will be appeals for clemency (as the death penalty is opposed by Australia), but otherwise they are on their own.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 12:38 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Weekend down south
Posted by Living with Matilda at 1:37 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
In his book, "Cities", John Reader argues that what makes a certain city vibrant and prosperous is its ability to reinvent itself and regenerate after transformative economic and cultural changes. Above all, it is the commercial sector which drives this ability. Where this commercial energy overlaps with government/administrative institutions the result is metropolises able to change, adapt and generate wealth from the stability afforded by being the cultural and national centre.Conversely, he argued, purpose built national capitals, such as Washington, Madrid, Bonn and Canberra - which from the beginning lacked the commercial impetus - remain staid, soulless places, often unable to generate wealth making capacity to suit changing times and economies.
This is why these cities are overshadowed by New York, Barcelona, Frankfurt and Sydney.
Any longevity is supported by the political objective of maintaining a cultural and bureaucratic centre of a nation, often a drain on public finances. John Reader suggests that the choice of Madrid as a national capital of Spain cost the Spanish monarchy the entire bounty of gold plundered from the new world. Spent otherwise, west European history could have been very different.
Whether Canberra has been a just a costly exercise in politics is unclear, for much like every other city in Australia it is has a rapidly expanding suburban fringe of McMansions. Originally designed to accommodate some 25,000 people, it is now home to 330,000 and growing. What they do in their spare time is another question altogether.
A good history of Canberra can be found here.
I will reserve final judgement on the place until I see it in the warm sunshine. In the grey, windy, raw and cold, few cities look their best. In the interim, suffice to say it is soulless, it lacks energy and is far too spread out. Hence, everyone gets around in (small) cars on wide sweeping boulevards. Had we not hired a car we would have managed the walk between Parliament House and the War Memorial before running out of time (and enthusiasm).
Our itinerary was perfunctory and involved driving, stopping, snapping and running for cover in the warm of the car again:
Friday - very cold
- Australian War Memorial was austere and grey. Perhaps fitting, but its central position, along the main spine of the city is a worrying reminder of the centrality of fighting wars in building up the mythology of a nation. Canberra's centre is based on an equalateral triangle, with Parliament House (PH), the commercial centre and the Ministry of Defence at each corner. Running along a central spine from PH is another axis ending at the War Memorial. PH is perched on a hill in the middle of concentric circles. In the middle of it all is a lake, Burley Griffin, named after the American who designed it.
- Mount Ainsley (dedicated to the Britain's favourite TV chef) for a great view over the city, highlighted by finding remnants of snow and a dead wallaby at the top! (More about dead wallabies later.)
- Black Mountain and Telstra Tower for another view over the city and light lunch, highlighted that the Telstra Tower (surely the focus of telecommunications technology in Australia) could not electronically process credit card payments.
- Scrivener Dam, which holds back the waters of Lake Burley-Griffin: somewhat dull.
- (New) Parliament House, perhaps the highlight of the city; a fantastic building with a great tour, taking in both the Senate and the House of Reps. So very different from the inaccessible Palace of Westminster, where visitors are traditionally known as 'Strangers'. Parliament House is a very open and welcoming public space, exactly as the democratic focus of a nation should be. Even the debating chambers have specialist rooms for catering for visiting students.
- National Capital Exhibition was an interesting romp through the history of Canberra, why it was chosen, who designed it, why it was built as it was. The exhibition is backed by the Captain Cook Memorial Water Jet.
- National Museum of Australia was far too eclectic. I think their exhibition philosophy is "find some old stuff and put it in a glass cabinet."
- Canberra's commercial centre: briefly visited the city centre for an early tea and couple of pints. City centre reminded me of downtown Aldershot. A low rise, windswept, energy-free pedestrian precinct.
- Canberra Planetarium; we originally wanted to watch the real stars, but it was too cloudy. Eventually settled for a mildly interesting planetarium projection show instead.
- Dinner was in the restaurant district of Dickson. A lively-ish corner of town, labelled "Chinatown", but really nothing more than a mixture of eating places, backed by a shopping mall a la Farnborough.
Saturday
Skiing - see below
Sunday - freezing cold
- The National Carillon is a bell tower on an island in the middle of the lake. Interestingly it was given to Australia by the British, but was accepted on behalf of Australia by Queen Elizabeth II. So she gave it to herself, effectively. Of course, having a head of state that is hereditary and from another country is not silly at all.
- Commonwealth Place lies along the main spine running between Parliament House and the War Memorial. Not sure my it was called Commonwealth Place as it featured flags from all over. Still, interesting enough.
- Red Hill sits behind Parliament House and is the southern apex of the main triangle. This was our last stop before heading back to the airport and the sub-tropics.
I guess when it is warmer and you have more time, Canberra could be quite pleasant. It is on the doorstep of mountainous National Parks and the public spaces are generous and accessible. But while Brisbane remains green and lush (though this is an illusion) all year round, in Canberra the leaves fall from many of the trees and the city becomes barren and sparse.
In addition, as the city is so spread out (a legacy of idealistic design and maturation in the age of the motor vehicle) it remains devoid of people. Though I am sure the weather is a factor here, when entire place is zoned and divided by such generous separating public spaces and huge boulevards, you must take to the car for the simplest of tasks. As a result, the streets are more devoid of people than Brisbane's.
Saturday skiing at Perisher Blue was excellent. There is still plenty of snow around and they should see out the last few weeks of the official season OK. The drive was a little tedious, through featureless, undulating pastureland, devoid of trees. Only in the last 20 minutes do you climb up into the mountains.
The final push to the slopes is via a train, which takes you from the ski-centre up through a tunnel in the mountain to come out in another valley high above.
There were stacks of lifts and plenty of snow to chose from and though the slopes weren't especially steep and/or challenging, they offered a number of different routes down, through trees and powder or over jumps and rocks. The highest lift took you right to the to of Perisher Mountain (2054m) where you could see (on clear day) Mt. Kosciusko, the continent's highest point.
What is most bizarre is skiing though gum-trees, instead of the usual pine and everyone speaks English (I have never skied in an English speaking place before).
Bus left at 4.30pm to take us back to Canberra; arriving just in time to watch the Wallabies get beaten (again) by the Springboks (again). Presumably now, Jones will drop Gregan for Whittaker.
I'll post some pictures soon.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 1:37 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Bludger's day
Posted by Living with Matilda at 9:32 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
To allow Brisbane workers/residents to attend the Exhibition, the middle Wednesday of the “Ekka” is a public holiday.Alternatively, if you are a somewhat over visiting overpriced, overbusy marketing agricultural shows masquerading as little more than a giant marketing opportunity, then it is a bludge off work mid week.
Judging by the number of SUVs northbound out of Brisbane that morning, I’m not sure whether anyone has gone to the Ekka this year. Assuming the weather was going to up to up to scratch, we headed north for the first beach day of the season, possibly at Caloundra.
Just to give the weather a chance to warm up we climbed Ngungun first. Ngungun is one of the more moderate volcanic plugs that make up the Glasshouse Mountains. At 227m is dwarfed by the larger peaks, but nevertheless provides some great panoramics of the whole range and good scrambling/climbing terrain for kids.
James and Matthew lapped it up; for them (with shorter legs) it was ‘climb’ nearly all the way to the top. At the top, the forest thins and a the peaks thrust out above a slabbed plateau.
Being volcanic plugs, much of this plateau is the weathered tops of hexagonal columns of lava. It makes for some interesting exploration and climbing, if the walk to the top hasn’t been enough.
By the time we had lunch in Landsborough the wind at picked up and the beach didn’t seem such a good idea so we sat in the car park (the southbound Bruce Highway) all the way home.
Matthew (4 ½) has shown his enthusiasm for climbing/scrambling often enough and he is certainly fit enough to do some 12-15km in a day. I think we shall attempt Mount Warning at Christmas.
Tomorrow, we fly down to Canberra for a day’s skiing on Saturday at Perisher. Kids are staying with Richard and Lisa for the weekend.
- Climbing Ngungun
- View of Coonuwrin and Beerwah (rear)
- On the summit of Ngungun
- Tibrogargan
Posted by Living with Matilda at 9:32 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Tunnels? No thanks
Posted by Living with Matilda at 8:36 AM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
A guest writer has been granted room in Brisbane’s The Courier Mail to editorialise against Lord Mayor Campbell Newman’s plans for a North-South Bypass Tunnel (“Fouling our nest”)This is an interesting move by the paper, normally noted for its demand for ever more infrastructure to cure Brisbane’s growing pains.
The opinion writer – a post-grad student of Urban and Regional Planning at the Queensland University of Technology – takes the long view and argues that in 20 years time we may have regretted spending $1.4bn on building a tunnel for motor vehicles when we could have spent it on something else: public transport, for example.
Local air pollution is his main concern. Cars will spill thousands of tonnes of particulates and toxic chemicals into Brisbane’s air, with serious consequences for human and ecological health in the long term.
But he also alludes to the concept of induced demand: “[Politicians] argue that air pollution is caused by traffic congestion (not car dependence), and that building new or wider roads will fix these problems. “
This is true, as cars run most efficiently (if they run ‘efficiently’ at all) at some 70-80km/h. Improvements to the existing road system – particularly coordinating traffic lights or replacing them altogether with roundabouts – would appear to be money well spent. Building more roads would fix a problem from an intuitive engineering perspective.
But it is generally accepted now that increasing supply will simply increase demand “as additional road space is quickly consumed by people undertaking more and/or longer car trips in response to shorter travel times.” This has been demonstrated with quite obvious regularity in the persistently fruitless widening of the M25 London Orbital.
Congestion is a traffic demand management tool. It is blunt, counter-intuitive and not one that people particularly like, but it does work. Indeed, it should be made to work with even greater force by further reducing road space available to single occupant vehicles and ensuring that mass transit systems have priority over people who choose to bring a tonne of steel, taking up 10m2 of road space, to work with them every morning.
I seem to manage to fit everything I need into a briefcase weighing less than half a kilo.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 8:36 AM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Monday, August 15, 2005
My crisis with Rugby Union Football
Posted by Living with Matilda at 12:09 PM
- 4 comment(s) - Generate URL
Maybe it is just sour grapes and when the Wallabies whip the Boks next week I will get over my frustration with the game… But then it may go deeper, as I have been getting somewhat disillusioned with Rugby Union of late.No doubt the Wallabies were out-gunned by the All Blacks in Sydney. Their scrum half (Weepui (?)) kept momentum going forward all the time and McCaw and Collins hit the rucks with great pace, enough to disrupt much of the ball the Wallabies had.
For their part the Wallabies were scratching around for players and though Gitteau then Flatley then Whitteker performed admirably at five-eighth, they did miss Larkham’s ability to take responsibility for making the calls. Latham, Rogers, Tiranui and Sailor also either did not lay or did not finish.
My crisis in confidence with Rugby Union rests with decision making and the whole philosophy of the modern game.
Indulge me for a minute. Though out-played, the Wallabies were no doubt on the arse-end of three tries from bum decisions by the referee:
Try 1. Australian advantage played for a knock-on, the clearance kick goes straight to Rokocoko on the Wallaby’s 22. He makes 20 yards, ruck, recycle, try. Referee obviously thought that Rokocoko is such a poor player that your advantage is over the moment he catches the ball.
Try 2. Australian attacking ruck; without the ball, Gregan is taken out by Collins coming though the ruck. Ref waves play on, All Blacks pick up and run the length of the field from a counter attack, line out, penalty, then try. Is tackling a player without the ball part of the game now?
Try 3. Ball turned over at Australian attacking ruck, All Blacks spin ball wide and – doh – pass it forward. Ref lets it go: try. Helpfully, the pass forward occurred on the 22-yard line – a useful point of reference for seeing that it was way forward, had the referee known the rules of the game.
Did the referee not know the rules, did he not see them or did he misinterpret them? It is unlikely to be the first and was a probably a combination of the second and third. Sadly, now Rugby Union is so over-complicated, so burdened with rules and different facets of play, that you will always feel ultimately frustrated by it.
But the philosophy behind it is crooked too. The modern game revolves around cheating and how best to get away with it.
The game’s advocates devotedly refer to this as ‘playing right on the limits’. But it is not, it is cheating. Players know the rules and they break them because they know that in most instances they will get away with it. Games are commonly won by the team that can cheat the most subtly. I cannot think of any other sport where this is the case.
Each scrum is the subject of cheating. As the referee can only be on one side of the restart, players always have an opportunity to cheat on the other. Props drop binds, bore-in or simply pull down on their opposite number. It happens every time. Commentators refer to this as a ‘lot of pressure on that scrum’ and it is shrugged off as just being a bit of light hearted ‘front-row skulduggery’. It is not pressure, nor is just something that props do. It is trying to get away with cheating.
Each tackle area leads to one a number of infringements. Invariably, all the involved players will attempt to break the rules. Either the grounded player will not release, the tackler not make any real attempt to roll away, both teams will use hands in the ensuing ruck or a defender will try to lay over the top of the ball to prevent it coming out quickly.
At most line outs, the gap closes or the jumpers are pulled down. Again, commentators refer to this as ‘pressure’.
Around the pitch ad hoc infringements occur with remarkable frequency. Forwards do not defend from the proper offside line at a ruck (ie behind the back foot), but if the refs looking, the backline will go offside instead. Late tackles and lazy runners lead to constant infringement (Jerry Collins is good at the former, Springbok locks at the latter). High tackles without arms occur constantly. Dan Carter tripped Gregan after a quick tap and go from a midfield penalty. This was a cynical, intentional foul (though there was no question of it leading directly to points), so why wasn’t he sent off?
It is not necessarily a failure on the referee’s part. If every infringement were called, the game would grind to a halt. It is the whole philosophy of the game which is at issue.
With one referee, thirty players and grey-area laws, all the game’s administrators are left with is just trying to make an absurd game work.
For me, this leads to feelings of injustice when your team goes down, instead of shrugging it off and accepting the result. If you read BBC’s Scrum-V chat, you will find out that even All Black supporters feel they were hard done by the referee in Sydney. How can this be? Decisions clearly favoured the All Blacks!
It makes for one-eyed supporters who revert to blaming the referee, when instead we should be looking at the game itself and the way it is coached and played.
On Sunday, I went to watch a different sort of rugby: a top of the ladder clash between the Brisbane Broncos and the St George-Illawarra Dragons, in the National Rugby League.
Though the Broncos went down, it was an enthralling game of flowing ball-in-hand rugby, brutally hard tackling, clever running lines and some great subtle kicking skills. The Dragons hooker and half-back constantly changed the point of attack until eventually the gaps emerged and they romped home four tries to one.
In the whole match I counted one instance of cheating – a Dragons player pushing the ball out of Tonie Carroll’s hands, in a 3 on 1 tackle. The ref adjudged it a knock-on.
Is it that Rugby League players angels? I doubt it. They are every bit the brutish athletes as their Union cousins. But there are just fewer opportunities to cheat. Fewer opportunities to cheat leads to fewer missed infringements or incorrect decisions. When your team goes down, you are left feeling disappointed with their performance, rather than spitting chips about the referee and the ‘blatant cheating’.
While Rugby Union requires a wider range of skills (ie each player must learn to ruck and maul as well as run and pass), the game’s intricacies are every bit part of the problem as they are part of the appeal. It is known as being the thinking man’s game or ‘the monster’s game played by gentlemen’.
But it is the straightforward laws of Rugby League that gives this game its appeal. It still has players of great skill, fitness and vision and can produce games every bit as exciting as Rugby Union.
Its simplicity gives it universal appeal. Like football (soccer) all you need to kick off is a patch of grass, four coats and a ball. Stroll on the 2005 finals series and go the Broncos.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 12:09 PM
- 4 comment(s) - Generate URL
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Update
Posted by Living with Matilda at 9:20 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
The North Brisbane Junior Barbarians U7 Whites went out with a bang. In their last game of the season they turned in their best performance, with some really great flowing rugby and some pretty solid defence.This good win makes last week’s crap game seam all the more disappointing, but then I guess even U7 sides have weeks on which they don’t perform.
This will be my last season with these guys as next year I will step down to coach Matthew in the U6, assuming that he wants to play (pretty sure he does) and that he is big enough (not quite sure about that – being a December 29th baby, he will be pretty small).
Unfortunately the weather was cold and wet (really English rugby weather) so we decided to postpone our end of season BBQ for a few weeks. No one was really keen to stand out in the rain, eating sausages and pretending to enjoy themselves.
On Saturday afternoon I took James and Matthew and Jack out for a bike ride along one of the creek corridors in the northern suburbs. Brisbane City Council is working hard to create a comprehensive and contiguous network of bicycle tracks through the city.
Already there are great opportunities but in a few places it is still fragmented by major arterial roads and in true Brisbane fashion at a number of crossings pedestrians and cyclists are treated like inferior beings when compared to the lone motorist.
It is not just money that needs spending but a major shift in perceptions in balancing rights of way. People simply shouldn’t have to wait 6 or 7 minutes to get across three crossings just to cross one major road, nor scamper like rabbits as the warning lights start flashing after just a few seconds.
Saturday night was Bledisloe Cup night in Sydney. I was quite excited before, but in the end, it was a thoroughly disappointing game (see above).
Sunday
Went to see the Brisbane Broncos get beat by St George Illawarra Dragons in a thoroughly enjoyable and altogether less frustrating game than the Bledisloe Cup, alongside 49,000 other people, at Lang Park-Suncorp Stadium.
Apart from the great game, another highlight was when a pissed bloke, two rows in front, stood up, then fell 5 or 6 rows forward, over the top of those in front of him: a bit like stage-diving. Eventually someone caught him and prevented him from falling to the lower terrace.
Embarrased, he fled the angry mob to get first use of the soap.
Adrian has flown to New Zealand. He has found out that he cannot apply for a visa from within Australia. Therefore, at some stage in the next 7 months, he will have to head back to England.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 9:20 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Always a talking point
Posted by Living with Matilda at 9:16 AM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Friday 12 August 2005 was Brisbane’s coldest day in living memory. The maximum temperature reached just 13.1°C in the city. Yesterday, Canberra saw snow and Tasmania ground to a halt under heavy falls, even at sea level.No wonder political action on climate change is slow. People’s perceptions of global warming are most influenced by their immediate experience. Don’t talk to this Brisbane resident about global-bloody-warming: I had to wear a jumper today.
After a sweltering heatwave is shattered by a fierce storm which brings two damaging tornados to the UK’s West Midlands, ask a resident of Edgbaston if they think global warming is real and you might get a different answer.
But this personal misunderstanding of the weather symptoms of climate change must not cloud (no pun intended) the debate on more detailed scientific studies into this phenomena.
The New Scientist recently ran a story on a study that concluded that the Siberian tundra is rapidly thawing – in response to a 3°C increase in average temperature over the last 40 years - with potentially devastating consequences.
Permafrost beneath many hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of marshy tundra (“the size of France and Germany put together”) is melting fast, and there’s a high probability of it could release vast quantities of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
If the bogs dry out, the humus will rot and oxidise and the greenhouse gas will be released as CO2. If the bogs do not dry, 70 billion tonnes of methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas, will bubble up into the atmosphere instead.
Either way, we could be stuffed.
What is most disconcerting about this study is not just the alarming speed at which it is occurring but that it is just one of a number of theoretical positive feedback mechanisms identified in a warming earth, which could perpetuate even greater levels of warming.
Other positive feedback mechanisms identified include the melting of the bright white Greenland ice-cap, which could result in the more energy being absorbed by a darker ground cover rather than being reflected straight back into space. Another is the drying of lush equatorial forests, leading to CO2 release from reducing living biomass.
These positive feedback mechanisms are most concerning as they amplify the impact that humans have already undoubtedly had on atmospheric CO2 levels and global warming.
Thus, even in an ideal world of rapidly reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions, we may already have pushed the planet beyond a stable equilibrium towards a runaway greenhouse scenario, potentially taking many tens of thousands of years to restabilise.
With the political will we can make a difference to human emissions, but even this may now not be enough.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 9:16 AM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Friday, August 12, 2005
Technology in sport
Posted by Living with Matilda at 8:48 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
The Michael Kasprowitz’s “not out”, which secured an England win in the Second Test, has once again raised the profile of technology in the adjudication of sporting decisions.Kasper had battled miraculously with Brett Lee to come within three runs of defeating England and going a long way to retaining the Ashes. But agonisingly for Australians he was given out caught behind. High-tech slow motion replays from three dozen angles, reveal that the umpires decision was incorrect. On its way through the ball did strike his glove, but his hand was not holding his bat: Not Out.
Australians shouldn’t be too distraught however, as that same replay technology showed that Kasprowitz was clearly out LBW, some three overs prior.
The Edgbaston Test will down as one of the great Ashes battles, but nevertheless it was marred by a number of incorrect umpire decisions, mainly, it must be said, from Billy Bowden. Would technology have made the result easier to accept? In retrospect, it’s impossible to say.
Generally, sports governing bodies have accepted new technologies, aimed at improving the quality of key decisions, in a pragmatic fashion. Tennis adopted Hawkeye in the late 1980s to adjudicate on serve and whether the ball – sometimes travelling at 250kp/h – has landed within the service box. Rugby (both codes) now defer to TV replays to check the ball is correctly grounded in a try situation and to help post-match inquiries into player conduct. Even old fuddy-duddy cricket has allowed TV replays to adjudicate on close run outs.
TV technology has revealed the finest arts of cricketing skill. Hawkeye systems now track the speed and trajectory of every single delivery in a game. Clever overlay tricks can make a batsman disappear on screen in order to judge whether the ball has struck him plumb LBW. The ‘snick-o-meter’ listens for faintest of edges and now, ultra-motion cameras can pick out minute adjustments in direction of the spin of a ball on its way passed the bat – a tell-tale sign of a fine edge to the keeper.
Modern camera work has opened up a parallel world of slow motion cricket that has benefited player’s coaching regimes and enthralled enthusiasts. We can now see the most subtle details of the phenomenal skills of Warne’s leg spin or McGrath’s upright seam.
This parallel world is then shattered when the Channel 4 production team run the ‘real-time replays’. Umpires must see everything: where the bowlers' front foot lands, the line through which the batsman plays the ball, how far forward or back is his crease he is, any swing of the ball in the air or seam off the pitch and the height of the bounce. This is all before the batsman has played at the ball. This takes approximately 0.4 seconds. Perhaps it is most amazing that umpires get it more right than wrong.
But this also demonstrates how beneficial deferring to technology’s superior and more multitudinous eyes and ears could become. The introduction of new technologies into sports adjudication seems inevitable, particularly as the money staked on the game becomes more pressing. Technology has the potential to reduce uncertainty in decision making by a big factor.
But rapid technological advancement means it will always be ten steps ahead of any implementation. There will always be a requirement for careful consideration before its introduction and so therefore its deployment will never be state-of-the-art.
In considering its roll out, the following must be taken into account as a bare minimum:
- When responsibility for adjudication is deferred to a third party managing the technology, what are the implications of the reduced status of and respect for the umpire/referee on the field of play?
- Technology based decisions should never impede the players nor unduly interfere with the flow of the game. Already, decisions on ball groundings in rugby and run outs in cricket impact on the spontaneity of the game, where it can be delayed up to 2-3 minutes, awaiting a decision.
- How will the introduction of a technology affect the game at grass-roots level, or in poorer countries at the top level? Too much technological wizardry at the top has the potential to destroy the simple accessibility of sport and development of a sporting ethos at the bottom. Accepting uncertainty can be a mark of personal development.
And nevertheless even technology has its limits, as highlighted by Ian Bell’s dismissal in England’s second innings at Edgbaston: adjudged caught behind off Shane Warne.
In replay from the front angle, it looked inconclusive, though suggestive. The snick-o-metre however, did not record a sound and the ultra-motion camera couldn’t reveal a nick or a change in the ball’s spin rotation. Yet the rear view camera picked up a definite deflection in the angle of the bat as the ball went passed, clearly indicating an edge.
These four pieces of evidence did not all point to the same conclusion. They would have left a third umpire again weighing up evidence from different ‘sensory’ sources, just as the man in the middle uses all his senses in making a decision. (Probably even including ‘softer’ senses, such as intuition, in judging the batsmen’s physical reaction - betraying his emotional reaction - to a particular shot.)
Limitations aside, technology will continue to steadily intrude into sports adjudication. In the meantime, umpires and referees understand that their skill and conduct are increasingly under the technological microscope. But this should only serve to drive up standards in their abilities and further limit injustices.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 8:48 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Don't speak about the peak
Posted by Living with Matilda at 5:47 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Politicians have long been fond of les grand projects, particularly when they get their picture in the paper at some sod-digging or champagne bottle smashing ceremony. And secretly, it must be quite a buzz signing a cheque for tens of millions of dollars.Brisbane City Council is currently embarking on the ‘biggest urban road project proposed in Australia’. Superlatives aside, it’s enough to send a shiver down your spine and Brisbane back to the dark ages.
When the good residents of Brisbane elected Campbell Newman early last year, they trusted he would be the answer their traffic woes. For months prior to the election, Campbell’s beaming face had stared down at them from advertising hoardings, while they fumed in traffic jams. If they just sat tight in their cars for a little longer, he would solve everything, and you would soon be able to drive anywhere, anytime, without frustration.
At face value, the electors appeared to buy it and turned over a strong Labor majority to elect him Lord Mayor, albeit as a minority in his own council Chamber. An engineer – an army engineer – by trade, he was a ‘doer’, a ‘can-do’ man. He sees a problem and he fixes it.
Newman promised tunnels, and lots of them. Tunnels would cure Brisbane’s congestion chaos, currently draining $2.6bn per annum from the local economy. Five tunnels were proposed in all, criss-crossing the city form north to south, east to west, bypassing the city centre.
The scheme is called TransApex. The total cost would be $4.3bn over 20 years. Newman would go to George Street and Canberra and vie for State and Federal funds. The tunnels would be operated and part-funded by the private sector to run as a tolled system. The total public debt would be repaid by 2043.
The TransApex ‘Pre-feasibility Study’ argued that 2/3 of all CBD traffic is just passing through. Existing radial arterial routes are used as shortcuts predominantly by motorists travelling from the north to the west (and vice versa) attempting to avoid congestion on the inadequate Gateway Motorway and the tolled Gateway Bridge and Logan Motorway, which bypass the city to the south and east.
Sending cars underground will also have the added benefit of ‘freeing up’ surface space for public transport and urban renewal.
The first phase of TransApex, the North South Bypass Tunnel and Airport Extension, is now in procurement phase with drilling due to start in the next 12 months. Its costs have already blown-out, indicating the complete TransApex program could balloon to some $6-7 bn.
Councillor Newman declared his election victory gave him a full mandate for the rollout of the TransApex scheme. This claim was made, despite the majority of electors voting against him. Indeed, most strategic planning consultation undertaken by BCC has revealed that community support for the tunnels is at best luke-warm and quite possibly openly hostile.
The initial community soundings are difficult to decipher. In reality, most planning consultations tend to attract the more discerning or activist views, which tend to be those most opposed to grand schemes promoting car use. At the recent fairs and workshops many have questioned whether the billions of dollars would be better spent improving suburban centres, public transport networks or installing more modest intelligent transport systems. Is that the predominant feeling, or are they the vocal minority, the rest just happy to see ever more money spent on indefinitely increasing road capacity.
But opposition is crumbling. The Labor majority has swung round behind the first phase and has given the NSBT and AE funding. In fact, these projects were always on the drawing board for a future Labor administration. It seems all the pollies want a piece of the action in major infrastructure. Community action will now only serve to make the tunnel-pill easier to swallow by having more trees planted at the tunnel exits.
But there is noticeable disquiet from within the bureaucracy. Some of this is undoubtedly a result of finance being diverted from the ‘softer’ council programs, such as equity and diversity, child immunisation, greenhouse gas action and bikeways, towards funding tunnels. (See Budget). This has resulted in job upheaval and pet projects being canned. But the disquiet is also driven by a more holistic (ie non-engineering) view of the city’s development, and in particular, how it deals with traffic congestion.
The unease extends very nearly to the top (and may also include the top), where more nuanced minds do not share their political masters’ view that building more roads and tunnels is the right answer.
‘Peak-oil’ is again on the news agenda; no doubt brought on by the Brent Crude being high and stable, well above $60 pb.
A senior BCC bureaucrat is agitating to get peak-oil reviewed and considered at Director-General level with the State government and at senior levels within council. A city facing rapidly inflating petrol prices is likely to have a very different complexion and infrastructure requirement. That bureaucrat is also keen for peak-oil to be discussed at this month’s CityShape Conference.
Most people would think it prudent to consider the risks presented by peak oil
The bureaucracy may be forced to shut-up and put-up, but public discussion will not let the Lord Mayor’s benign assumptions on oil futures pass idly by. That’s the problem with public engagement – it doesn’t always give you the answer you were looking for.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 5:47 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Tihs is qutie wreid
Posted by Living with Matilda at 5:57 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
It is best dnoe tyrnig to raed it relatively quickly. At lsaet it might crue my poor sepinllg.Typoglycemia >>
Posted by Living with Matilda at 5:57 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Monday, August 08, 2005
Evangelical cricket
Posted by Living with Matilda at 8:06 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Some - my non-criket-loving better half, for one - fail to understand how a game played over five days could possibly be exciting.Fortunately for them, treatment is available, in the form of an Ashes Test match. If there has ever been a day to convert the heathens to the game, this was it.
(Actually, it didn't work, she was watching a Hugh Grant film. Somehow, I feel I have missed my opportunity.)
I didn't bother tuning in for the first half-hour of the fourth day, assuming the final two wickets would have surrendered for a dozen runs. Shocked to still see Warne there, and the required runs at 70, the remaining 45 minutes prooved to be some of the most absorbing cricket since the last World Cup semi-final tied ODI between South Africa and Australia.
It was an amazing finish to a remarkable game, epitomised by Flintoff consoling what must have been a distraught Brett Lee, before joining his team mates in celebration.
The whole nation was on tenter-hooks and in end must feel disappointed that Kasper succumbed to following a ball down the leg side, after the last pair had watched with patience and left so many balls before. By the time the last wicket fell, I am sure John Agnew (listened to on BBC web-streaming of TMS) was crying! He certainly had a wavering voice.
Australia will take heart that they competed till the end, were out-classed for nearly the whole game and still only two runs seperated the teams. England will be on a high, and with charismatic and infectious players like Flintoff in the side, will be difficult to keep at bay.
With McGrath still out for the third Test (and any team would miss him), a whole lot more application is required of the Australian batters. Clarke, Katich, Martyn and most especially Hayden, should take note of the bravey, focus and determination shown by Warne, Lee and Kasper with the bat. It simply should not be up to the tail-enders to keep the team's head above water.
Posted by Living with Matilda at 8:06 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Show your colours, Bob
Posted by Living with Matilda at 10:03 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
In "Cool rationality shatters greenhouse hype", from The Australian Financial Review, Bob Carter argues that"The pre-announcement of climate change as a theme for the G8 Gleneagles meeting led to a predictable burst of pressure-group propaganda on global warming."
Worse, the devoutly Marxist ABC and SBS "reinforced Greenpeace's television advertising propaganda by repeatedly running alarmist news coverage on the warming issue."
Professor Bob Carter describes himself as a "researcher at the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University". No doubt he is a cool rational, hard headed scientist, basing his assertions on what.... undiluted scientific evidence.
Bob is a member of the rather grand and upstanding sounding Tech Science Foundation. Clearly a man of balance and integrity, who wouldn't hide his credentials.... or benefactors....
The Tech Science Foundation is based in Wahington DC. It is described as providing 'climate change support', but of course is just another nuetral sounding foundation for Big Oil, or ExxonMobil, to be precise. In 2003, $95,000, out of a total of $150,000 was funded by the oil company.
It has published papers in the US which lobby against climate change mitigation policy for its oil clients.
Good 'ole Bob has written papers for this group.
Now Bob is probably very clever, and may doubt the impact of anthropogenic CO2 emissions on climate change. I do not dispute that he can argue as forcefully as he likes in supporting his view.
But Bob should come clean about his oily affiliations if he is to be accepted as having any credibility in this matter.
See:
http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/files/corporate/giving_report.pdf
http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=112
http://www.techcentralstation.com/050504A.html
Posted by Living with Matilda at 10:03 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
A measure of success
Posted by Living with Matilda at 5:41 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Public transport chiefs in South East Queensland have been beside themselves recently. In the last 12 months patronage across the board has risen; mainly thanks to the visionary integrated ticketing system introduced last year.Integrated ticketing has pulled (most) SEQ public transport ticketing into a single zoned system for which passengers can purchase daily multi-modal tickets. It represents a triumph of cooperation, drawing in rail, bus and ferry operators across the region.
The first year figures are impressive: bus patronage rose by 2%, train patronage by 4% and ferry patronage is up a whopping 25%. The Sunshine Coast – with notoriously poor public transport - has seen mode share increase by 100%.
These are good numbers – and will probably continue to improve year on year. But think about it: as the population grows and gets wealthier, of course they will. These figures disguise the reality the integrated ticketing has only been a success within the narrow confines of patronage.
At the same time that, Brisbane traffic volume has increased and congestion has got worse, with average morning peak over speeds down by an average of 36 seconds per kilometre. And some perspective is needed: the huge increase on the Sunshine Coast is a result of a jump in public transport mode share from 1% of all trips, to 2%. Mode share for public transport across the region has barely shifted from the pitiful low 7%.
In addition, under the original, discreet ticketing system, the Council-run CityCats which ply their trade up and down and across the river, were always significantly more expensive than trains and buses. The new zoning system has brought all ferry stops within the inner zones, thus dropping the maximum price paid for any CityCat ticket by 50%. My rudimentary knowledge of economics suggests that when the price falls, demand rises until it reaches a new equilibrium.
Many Brisbanites commute by boat, but for most of the day and at weekends, these multi-million dollar vessels operate as tourist pleasure crafts; it is a wonderful (and now cheap) way of seeing the city. Higher CityCat patronage has added a nice gloss to integrated ticketing, whilst the commuters of Brisbane have been forced to subsidise tourist whims.
The success of integrated ticketing must only be measured against any fall in private vehicular trips and congestion. If traffic volume increases, integrated ticketing should not be noted as a policy success. A general increase in transport demand is a reflection of poor urban planning. After all, transport demand is often a symptom of being in the wrong place.
Transport policy needs to evolve from such blunt instruments as integrated public transport ticketing - which does nothing to reduce overall transport demand - to more sophisticated pay-as-you-go schemes for all transport. This should include billing use of private motor vehicles to more reflect the true cost of motoring each mile in urban areas (congestion, poor air quality, accidents, forgone alternative land use, CO2 emissions).
Then, people might start using more of Brisbane’s 600km of bikeways (an additional 1,150km is planned).
Posted by Living with Matilda at 5:41 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Renegades will undermine Kyoto process
Posted by Living with Matilda at 5:51 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
The move at the ASEAN Conference – led by Australia and the USA – to inaugurate a pan-Pacific a CO2 emissions deal should be seen as good news for the planet. That this agreement could include the burgeoning emissions giants of China and India should be even better news.But this pact raises more questions than answers, and on the face of it looks like nothing more that policy rhetoric. A way of saving face, whilst privately coming to terms with being wrong about global warming all along. Full article >>
Posted by Living with Matilda at 5:51 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Monday, August 01, 2005
Who said the web wasn't a serious public consultation tool?
Posted by Living with Matilda at 7:25 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
This was posted to our Neighbourhood Planning CityShape polling tool yesterday by someone who gave their email address as Still@large.com.I think it's great, and really shows that the web is a serious polling tool. The monologue style really suits.
Somehow, paragraphs wouldn't have done it justice.
"Whatever happens to Brisbane City will affect how I live; work; shop; and play. I prefer a dispersed pattern 'Multi-centred City' plan due to concerns over supply of services (especially with our ageing population); and how a Natural Disaster (Cyclone); Flu Pandemic; or Terrorist attack (using a low-yield (20-kiloton tactical Nuke?) would affect existing and planned facilities.::::::Note - Accommodation. I'd prefer to see nothing over 3 levels (ground-level garages and utilities; first and second level rooms) due to concerns over evacuation during fires (especially of the elderly; sick; disabled; pregnant; and young children). I'd also like to see ALL new housing with intelligent design features that include environmentally appropriate heating and cooling (solar hot water; etc); and disaster resistant designs (storms; earthquakes; fires; flooding; etc - especially the anti-bushfire house guidelines in Joan Webster's 'bushfire' books; like multiple watertanks with outlets the Fire Brigade can use).::::::Note - Flu Pandemic. 'Forward Planning Estimates' by the WHO (World Health Organisation) and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) are that a H5N1 (Avian Flu) Pandemic could infect over a third of the population; killing half of those infected. This equals one-sixth of the population dead; or some 3.5 million Australians dead; all within months. If people must come into the ONE place (CBD) to work; shop; etc; that ONE place becomes a major 'infection node'. If the people can work; shop and play separately; the chance of infection is reduced substantially.::::::Note - Tactical Nuke. Small; man-portable nuclear munitions have yields up to 50 kilotons (more power than both bombs used in WW2 put together). While intended for use against armoured battalions (tanks); these bombs also make ideal 'mass destruction' charges for sabotage of dams; industrial estates; mines; farmlands; etc. A single 20-kiloton bomb detonated at ground level outside the Brisbane GPO would effectively kill everyone within a 2-kilometre radius (over 90% will be dead 'immediately' from the initial blast; with the rest dead within hours or days from serious injuries or radiation); and result in a 'firestorm' that burns everything within a 4-kilometre radius.::::::Reality Check - One of the nukes used in WW2 was roughly 2 feet wide and 10 feet long - a modern bomb with SIMILAR yield will fit inside a large 'backpack'...::::::The local news revealed that some 'country' communities have health centres but no doctors; and that they have no choice but to send patients to the City. I believe that building hospitals and health facilities in the 'outer suburbs' provides a better solution - they are in areas that either do; or WILL need them within a few years anyway; (witness population growth in the North; South and West 'growth' corridors); and provide a quicker alternative for 'urgent' cases.::::::Abundance of health facilities dispersed over an area (even if they're NOT in use) is good insurance in the event that catastrophe befalls the City Centre and the facilities there (how many hospitals; etc are within 5 km of the CBD?).::::::The WHO and the CDC believe Colethat a H5N1 Pandemic may become reality within weeks to months. If not implementing Quarantine regimes even MORE restrictive than those used in the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic; Wherer will twhat plans does City Hall have to bury the tens of thousands of corpses that WILL suddenly need burial? Will there be mandatory use of mass graves?hey be? What 'land use' will be made of the mass gravesites afterwards?::::::In the event that the CBD is destroyed by a small tactical Nuke and with it the Qld State Government; the Brisbane City Council; the Police HQ; the Law Courts; the Head Offices of various Government and Emergency Agencies; etc - what procedures exist for 'Disaster Recovery' when most of the levels of State and Local Governement are no more? Where will the survivors (if any) relocate to? How will the surviving Health Infrastructure cope with the loss of Major Hospitals; let alone the subsequent overloading of what facilities there are with tens of thousands of critically injured?::::::And (God help us all!) what plans are there to evacuate the hundreds of thousands 'downwind' of the blast; those facing the dangers of 'fallout' unless they evacuate; and who may also need 'Stable Iodine Prophylaxis' to prevent Thyroid cancer?"
Posted by Living with Matilda at 7:25 PM
- 0 comment(s) - Generate URL
Disclaimer:
| I am employed by Brisbane City Council. All views expressed in this blog are my own and in no way reflect the views of my employer. |
Weasel Word(s) of the day:
From WeaselWords.com.au
Recent posts:
Blog roll:
Links:
Archives: