Ho Ho Ho

Merry Xmas!

Hope everyone has a safe silly season. I hope to be back in the new year with more detailed work on a few items. Drop me a message if you have any suggestions or requests.

Why I Have No Sympathy for Taxi Drivers

First of all - the title relates to taxi drivers who complain about a lack of wages and not in relation to violence towards drivers.

Taxi drivers complain about not getting paid enough money etc. Here is a tip don;t refuse a fair that will generate $30 to $40 income in about 10 minutes rather than sitting in a queue in the city.

On Friday night I was out with a few friends in a last gasp xmas catch up. At the end of the night we all rolled out of the Northcote Social Club in search of transport to get us home. It was decided that 4 of us would catch a cab as we we're all heading in the Preston, Coburg, Reservoir general direction.

Cab Driver One "You going to the city?"
no
screeching tyres

Cab Driver Two - finger pointed towards city
my finger pointed opposite direction
driver does not stop
my middle finger pointed skywards

Cab Driver Three - locked doors, window opened a crack "You going to City?"
No Preston, etc..
"For $50 I will take you"
Looks like you are going to the City by yourself sunshine.

Cab Driver Four - same event as two, maybe he did a block and came back around?

Cab Driver Five got the cash. Nice work Abraham.

Of course i did not include the other drivers who did not even slow down.


So the driver who picked us up had a nice fare, got some income and would have been back in the city 20 minutes later than the other guys. It is illogical to me why a cab driver would want to drive around empty looking for the big fares when they can do a great deal of work running around the 'burbs. No doubt those guys who were looking for the big fare picked up someone to go to Melton only to have them do a runner on them.

Throw a Shoe at Bush

Yes I know you probably have got the link via email. But in case you haven't:

http://www.sockandawe.com/

Is one of the online viral games on how to do what a lot of the western world and what most of the arab world have wanted to do for a while now.

Some things to note:

At the time of this being published there had been over 21 MILLION shoe hits.

and the top 5 countries who had visited the site:

1. United States
2. France
3. Australia
4. United Arab Emirates
5. Saudi Arabia

WTF 6

Honestly - WTF is with the Corby family?




Not bad for a woman who went to court in a defamation case against Today Tonight to save her good name??

I think Tracey Spicer sums it up:

MEMO Mercedes Corby: put your tits away. Nobody really wants to see
them.

I can now exlusively reveal one of the shots.

WTF 5

The poor bastards. Having to listen to Britney over and over. AC/DC would be ok but c'mon!

prisoners tortured by Britney Spears, AC/DC

BRITNEY Spears and AC/DC songs are being used to torture prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, outraging human rights groups.The groups are protesting that blasting tracks such as Britney Spears's Baby One More Time, AC/DC's Hells Bells and Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA into cells at high volumes for hours on end can cause the inmates long-term psychiatric problems.

Now the musicians themselves have joined the fray, furious that their songs are being used to "break" suspected terrorists, reports the Daily Mail.

Musicians including Massive Attack and Tom Morello, guitarist with US group Rage Against The Machine have joined a campaign against the practice.

According to an FBI memo, one interrogator at Guantanamo bragged that he needed only four days to "break" someone by alternating 16 hours of loud music with just four hours of silence.

The practice has been used often in the "war on terror", with US forces systematically playing loud music to hundreds of its detainees.

Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, the former US military chief in Iraq, said the aim was "to create fear, disorient . . . and prolong capture shock". Read more personal accounts of prisoners being tortured by pop and rock music in the Daily Mail here

Tram Route 112

It has been a little while since I have caught the 112 tram for work but the rant below still stands.


I have been living in postcode 3072 for 6 years now and have used the 112 tram to get to and from work in the CBD a fair bit. The alternative to the 112 is to walk a longer distance and hope the train turns up on the Epping Line. The 112 has had some "issues" over that time.

How many times have I sat at the eye and ear Hospital stop on Victoria Pde to watch 3 or 4 mostly empty brand new trams going to Box Hill only to see a single length old 112 come around the corner 15 minutes late. Doors open and it is like a 3rd world country inside. I am sure some people have gotten pregnant on that tram it is so crowded.

It is a popular tram line that services one of the busiest restaurant and shop strips in Melbourne along Brunswick Street. It also provides a city commute for people from Parliament Station down Collins Street.

How to make it work better:

1. Limit single length trams to be used on non-peak times. Use articulated trams at peak times. They have more doors, more seats, more standing room. They therefore have less delays as people struggle to get on or off;
2. If the tram is full and there is another tram right behind the first one, keep going until someone asks for it to stop. Most people look at the crowded conditions when the door opens and say bugger it I will catch the next one anyway;
3. Equalise the priority in peak times between the 112 and the 109 at peak and shoulder times.
4. Increase the fair way zones at key locations such as on Brunswick Street and Alexandra Pde where the tram often sits still for minutes.
5. Increase the tram priority at a number of intersections so that it is not delayed;
6. When the existing roundabout at St-Georges Rd / Merri Pde is reconfigured give the tram priority.

Any other suggestions? let me know

update:

I caught the tram again this morning. It took about 40mins to get to the city from West Preston, the time taken was roughly as follows:

10 mins Bell St to Merri Pde along St Georges Road

5 mins Merri Pde to Brunswick St Oval where the Lions used to play

15 mins Brunswick St Oval to Alexandra Pde

10 mins Briunswick St

5 mins Victoria Pde to City fringe.

So the upshot is.. The tram is very efficient in getting to the city. Compare this with the 30mins it take via train from Bell Station to Southern Cross.

The only bit that takes the time is getting across Alexandra Pde. There should be a revisit of the clear way zone north of the pde intersection if Yarra Trams aer serious about improving the times taken by trams.

WTF 2 Part 2 - The Return of the Tits

Good News everybody. You can sleep safe at night:

shipment of inflatable breasts found in Melbourne

December 10, 2008 01:45pm

MORE than 100,000 pairs of missing inflatable breasts intended for a men's
magazine promotion have turned up in Melbourne.The shipment of plastic boobs
from China had been missing for more than a week after Chinese officials lost
the paperwork and put them on the wrong boat, a Ralph magazine spokeswoman said.

They had been due to dock in Sydney last week, but have since turned up at a
Melbourne dock, where they've been sitting for a week. Workers are now
frantically working to put them in bags to go out with the December 15 issue.
Ralph editor Santi Pintado said the incident had cost the magazine $30,000.

"If we'd found them a day later, it'd have been too late to get them on the next
issue," Pintado said. "You'd think the Chinese economy was in enough trouble
without misplacing 130,000 pairs of boobs." The magazine is expected to break
the Guinness world record for the most boobs given away at one time.