Merry Christmas !!
By Bat | December 25, 2008
Another year has almost passed by, a year of considerable change and upheaval in so many ways. Here’s hoping 2009 will see a return to more stability around the world.
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.
I wish you all a safe holiday season and all the best for 2009.
Topics: Randomness | No Comments »
Welcome back, iServ
By Bat | November 9, 2008
Welcome back to iServ, one of Australia’s pre-eminent web sites on current affairs and political commentary.
iServ has been sorely missed during it’s short absence. Whilst many may not have agreed with the opinions expressed on iServ from time to time (and I am quite ready to acknowledge that I occasionally disagreed with some of the views of the site’s owner, so don’t for one minute think this post is merely a suck up to iServ), I think it is fair to say that the owner was fair in his allowance of freedom of speech to all that cared to make reasoned and considered comment. He always was, and I’m advised that he will continue to be, fair and reasonable in allowing commentary from all comers.
So long as one stays “on topic”, and does not attempt to denigrate the thread into a personal slanging match or some other diatribe that defies the intended aim of the site, then contributors have nothing to fear from the site’s owner.
Topics: IRC, Politically Inclined, Randomness | No Comments »
N.S.W. - Getting grimmer by the hour….
By Bat | November 2, 2008
One has to wonder what ever possessed Nathan Rees to take on the role of Premier of New South Wales. If there was a job that was going to be a thankless task and a burden to one’s spirits and optimism, then I think being Premier of N.S.W. in 2008 has to rank amongst the top few. I can only wonder at what carrots the Labor Party backroom boys must have dangled in front of Mr Rees to convince him to take on the job. Talk about “sacrificial lambs being led to the slaughter”.
And in today’s papers comes news that Labor have further deserted their traditional supporters, workers and their families, by deciding to stop subsidising free school travel for N.S.W. students.
Poor Premier Rees - he really is on a hiding to nothing. The only thing he has on his side at the moment is time. The next election for State politicians is not due until around 24 March, 2011 (the last full election was held on 24 March, 2007), so Premier Rees and the Labor Party at least have time to try to turn things around.
Even so, I think it will take nothing short of an economic miracle to save the Labor Government in NSW. Their past ineptitude has finally caught up with them - N.S.W. is a state in of dire economic circumstances, as evidenced by the cutbacks Premier Rees and his Ministers are having to introduce. On top of this, there is the current world economic crisis that is yet to be fully felt here in Australia. Things are going to get tough for Australians, no matter how much chest beating Prime Minister Rudd and his colleagues at Federal level do about how they’re taking action to mitigate the effects of the crisis on Australians. N.S.W is effectively bankrupt and doesn’t have the war chest of funds available to it that the Federal government has. Premier Rees and N.S.W. are going to keep getting hit, and hit hard, over the next couple of years, and N.S.W voters will continue to be reminded of their State’s dire woes right up to, and most likely beyond, the next State election.
On top of all that is the Australian voter’s penchant for not wanting the same political party at both State and Federal level. I think we will see a number of State governments change political persuasion as voters cast protests based on their perception of both State and Federal government’s handling of the economy.
As a resident of N.S.W. I can only hope we will see a turnaround in the State’s circumstances sooner rather than later, but, despite being an optimist by nature, I really feel it’s going to take a long time before N.S.W. is out of the economic doldrums.
Topics: Politically Inclined, Randomness | No Comments »
The lake floods…
By Bat | February 28, 2008
On 3 February, 2008, Sydney was in the grip of a major low pressure system that saw large quantities of rainfall across the entire Sydney metropolitan area. There were many areas affected by flooding (thankfully, we were not unduly inconvenienced). However, the lake across the road from our house rose to levels never before seen. The lake is part of a stormwater catchment system designed to prevent the detritus of human occupation (read “garbage”) such as empty plastic bags and bottles, grass clippings, pet faeces, etc., etc., from finding it’s way downstream and eventually ending up in the Hawkesbury River.
The lake is home to a number of different species of native water birds, and has even hosted a breeding pair of black swans (regretfully, they have taken up residence elsewhere - we suspect this is in no small way due to the visits by marauding & opportunistic pelicans that show up on frequent occasions. And then there were the couple that used to bring their Labrador Retriever dogs to the park for training for dog trials and these people would blithely throw floating “toys” into the lake for the dogs to retrieve as part of their training regimen. The dogs would end up swimming to the small island that can be seen in the photos which would have been very unsettling for the swans and their brood. These people were politely requested by several of the residents around the lake to not to let their dogs into the lake, and they were gracious enough to adhere to this request for a while, but eventually the dogs were back in the water. These people and their dogs haven’t been seen at the park for some time now and that coincides neatly with the departure of the swans).
The swans still return occasionally for a visit, but rarely remain long. Hopefully they will one day return to re-establish the lake as a nesting site and produce another clutch of progeny - there is something quite satisfying watching the adult swans majestically paddle around the lake closely followed by the troop of signets. We see a similar thing with the native ducks and their ducklings paddling around the lake, but it’s just not quite the same.
Following are a series of photos showing the lake as it is normally, and how it appeared on 3 February together with a timeline to indicate how quickly the waters rose.
Photos 1 to 7 show the lake in it’s normal, non-flooded state, panning from right to left from our viewpoint. Note especially Photo 7 and the small signboard at the centre of the shot. This signboard, which shows pictures and a brief description of the types of water birds that reside in the lake for people to study as they walk around the lake, stands approximately 1.2 metres high.
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4
Photo 5
Photo 6
Photo 7
And now for the same scene during the deluge…
Photo 8 - compare this with Photo 1
Photo 9 - compare this with Photo 2
Photo 10 - compare this with Photo 3
Photo 11 - compare this with Photo 4
Photo 12 - compare this with Photo 5
Photo 13 - compare this with Photo 6 (I stuffed up the focus on this one unfortunately - nevertheless, even though the intended focus area is blurred, you can get an idea of the water level)
Now then - remember the signboard in Photo 7? What follows is a series of photos with a timeline to show the rise of the waters. These all follow on from Photo 9, which was taken at 12.23 pm. (I regret that a couple of them are a bit blurred. It’s a new camera and I really am going to have to work on my camera technique).
Photo 14 - 12.27 pm (4 minutes after Photo 9)
Photo 15 - 12.31 pm (8 minutes after Photo 9) - notice the strength of the water flow has forced underwater the reeds that were visible in Photo 14 in front of the grid fence
Photo 16 - 12.32 pm (9 minutes after Photo 9)
Photo 17 - 12.34 pm (11 minutes after Photo 9)
Photo 18 - 12.37 pm (14 minutes after Photo 9) - going…….
Photo 19 - 12.40 pm (17 minutes after Photo 9) - going……..
Photo 20 - 12.41 pm (18 minutes after Photo 9) - goooorrrnnnn!!!!
Photo 21 - 12.52 pm (29 minutes after Photo 9) - long gone under, and the waters are almost smooth as the depth above the grid has almost negated the turbulence created as the water flows over the grid. This was about the maximum level the waters reached, but I have no idea how deep it was as there is no flood water measure (like the type you find near rivers prone to flooding). My estimate is that the water reached a level that was a little over 2 metres above it’s normal height.
Topics: Randomness | No Comments »
Bat’s View undergoes some refurbishing
By Bat | February 28, 2008
I decided “Bat’s View” was looking a bit jaded and old and in need of some work to make a bit more “fresh”, so I’ve been playing around a bit with the style sheet.
What you see at the moment is the initial result of my tinkering. No doubt there will be some purists that deride what I have done as it’s now designed to take advantage of the increased size of monitors being sold/purchased with computers today, as opposed to those being sold a few years ago. The entry level monitor these days appears to be a 17″ lcd, rather than the 15″ crt that was “de rigeur” not so long ago. Therefore, I’ve optimised the appearance of Bat’s View to take advantage of the increased “acreage” available on these larger monitors (i.e., a native resolution of 1024 x 768 instead of the older 800 x 600). Having said that, I’m currently typing this on a HP notebook with a 15.4″ lcd monitor, and Bat’s View renders perfectly across the screen without creating a need for me to have to scroll from side to side to see all of the post.
This change also allows me to post images in a higher resolution than the old 800 x 600 resolution would allow. This means the images provide better, clearer viewing for the reader.
Further changes will occur as I learn a bit more about the style sheet and it’s effect on what you, the reader, sees.
I hope you like the changes.
UPDATE: 3 November, 2008 - I’ve done a bit more tinkering. Hope you like the latest look.
Topics: Randomness | No Comments »
Happy New Year
By Bat | January 1, 2008
I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year.
May your endeavours bring you growth and prosperity.
Bat
Topics: Randomness | No Comments »
Joke No. 5
By Bat | August 9, 2007
A tour bus driver is driving with a bus full of seniors down a highway, when he is tapped on his shoulder by a little old lady. She offers him a handful of peanuts, which he gratefully munches up.
After approximately 15 minutes, she taps him on his shoulder again and she hands him another handful of peanuts. She repeats this gesture about eight times.
At the ninth time he asks the little old lady why they do not eat the peanuts themselves, whereupon she replies that it is not possible because of their old teeth, they are not able to chew them.
“Why do you buy them then?” he asks, puzzled.
The old lady answers, “We just love the chocolate around them!”
Topics: Humour | 1 Comment »
Street Racing - so what’s so new about it?
By Bat | August 7, 2007
Over the last week or so the NSW state government, police force and Australian media generally have put under the spotlight the tendency of drivers to “race” their motor vehicles on the streets. This current focus has been brought on by the recent tragic deaths of an elderly couple quietly returning home after a night out at a local venue. They were killed when their car was hit by 2 other vehicles travelling at high speed on a public road, allegedly “racing” each other.
There has since been much spoken and written about the incident and other similar incidents. Many people are asking why it is allowed to continue, what drives people to race their cars on the streets, and how it can be stopped.
It is my belief that such activities can never be wiped out. Man is, by nature, a competitive beast. Like the rest of the animal kingdom, we are genetically pre-disposed to strive to out-do our peers to get to the top of the heap and be seen as the strongest and quickest to ensure the “survival of the species”. This clearly extends to every facet of human endeavour. Therefore, it will be impossible to stop it without turning the human species into an evolutionary backwater that will stagnate and eventually fade away (we’re probably going to do ourselves in as a species anyway, but that’s a whole different story).
These activities are allowed to continue due to the NSW Government’s inability to maintain adequate police numbers actually on the roads being policeman. Premier Morris Iemma claims that they are providing additional police, however the problem with that is that his government is merely bringing police numbers back to levels from which they have gradually been allowed to decline. The government has not increased the numbers of police to keep pace with the growth of the population and many more need to be added to our police force. A more visible presence of police on the roads will go a long way to reducing traffic infringements in general.
More police on the roads is one piece of the puzzle to reducing this so-called “anti-social” behaviour of street racing. But more than just police on the roads is needed. The NSW Police Commissioner, Ken Moroney, has suggested seizing the vehicles of people convicted of street racing and crushing them into a small cube and putting the cube in the offenders front yard as a reminder. This idea simply isn’t workable. Mr Moroney cites overseas examples, such as in southern California, USA, and in England, of this practice. But it hasn’t stopped the street racers in either of those places, so clearly it doesn’t work as a way of stopping the practice.
It seems to me that the best way of combatting the situation and reducing the risk to the majority of road users lies in better driver training - something I’ve always been a strong advocate of. The NSW driver’s licencing regime for motor vehicle drivers is nothing short of a farce. There needs to be a mandatory requirement for all learner drivers to attend a car control course where they are able to learn, in a controlled environment away from public roads, what an out of control car feels like and how to avoid getting into those situations, or if they do find themselves in situation then they will know what to do and not freeze in panic. This needs to be extended to a refresher course at the time they graduate from their red “P” to their green “P”, and perhaps again when they graduate to their full licence. In fact, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for it to be a compulsory requirement that people must attend such a course on a regular basis, say every 5 years. These courses not only teach people the physical skills, but they also focus on the mental attitude of drivers which I think is a major factor.
There are those that say these courses are a bad thing as they give the trainees a false sense of security and actually increases the risk they will do something dangerous. To these people I say RUBBISH. From personal experience I can say that idea is a load of crap. I have watched family members go from being inexperienced panickers that simply froze if the car or traffic around them did something unexpected, to being confident drivers able to cope with pretty much any situation day to day driving can throw at them. I’ve seen the evidence first hand that these courses save lives.
As to reducing the incidence of street racing, might I suggest firstly that, as part of their punishment, anyone convicted of such an offence be forced to do community service in a hospital trauma ward helping to tend to those injured in motor vehicle accidents? Secondly, if the convicted driver is guilty of actually injuring other people, then that driver should be made to face the families of the victims and see the grief and torment their actions have caused.
And to those that ask why we have to have such powerful cars on the roads, the amount of power of a motor vehicle will make no difference (and do you wowsers realise that the more powerful vehicles are safer than the tinny gutless offerings you favour, because of the features built in to cope with the increased power?). Human beings will pit themselves against their fellow human beings at any opportunity - we can’t help it, it’s our destiny….
Topics: Politically Inclined, Randomness | No Comments »
Sydney’s Wharf Owners Display Their Arrogance
By Bat | March 30, 2007
The purveyors of Sydney’s waterfront stevedoring activities (i.e., the companies that operate the stevedoring activities at the wharves, NOT the wharfies themselves) have released their working arrangements for the Easter holiday weekend.
In a stunning display of unadulterated arrogance and abuse of power, they have decided that they will be charging storage on uncollected containers on days when the wharves are not open for business. By way of background information, let me make a few salient points so that readers are better able to understand what I’m prattling on about.
Sydney has suffered under a duopoly of wharf stevedore companies for many years. As a result of the complete lack of any real competition the two stevedoring companies could be said to be colluding in the way they operate and set their policies and charges. It seems that no sooner has one of them decided on a new policy or charge, than the other follows suit. Long gone are the days when the wharves made allowance for the Australian working week and the fact that most company’s warehouses are closed on weekends. The attitude of the stevedores is, generally, “we work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so importers and exporters should change their work practices to meet our schedules.” What this means is that the wharves now count Saturdays as part of the “normal” working week when calculating the free period of container availability before storage charges are levied. The wharves only allow 3 free days from time of declared availability, so if Saturdays are part of the 3 free day allowance long weekends often mean it is impossible for containers to be removed from the wharf before storage charges commence. The alternative is for the container to be collected on a weekend and thus incurring the additional costs of overtime and penalty rates from the transport company. Either way, the importer ends up with additional costs which, of course, are passed on to the consumer.
To add insult to injury, the stevedores have decided that Good Friday is an official “non-work” day (like Sundays) and they will not deliver or receive containers on that day. However, they will still include this day when calculating any storage charges that might be applicable, even though they weren’t there to deliver the container to the importer! So, if you are importing a container, and the last day of free time is the Thursday before Easter then you can expect storage charges to start on Good Friday and the charges will include Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday.
Am I wrong in thinking that charging storage on a day when they aren’t there is akin to “highway robbery”? And there I was thinking Ned Kelly was dead…..
As if this arrogance isn’t bad enough, the wharf stevedores have taken this stance despite the fact there is currently an investigation underway (and has been for the last 2 years) into the operating and charging practices of the wharf stevedores. This investigation, started by the Container Logistics Action Group (CLAG), has received initial favourable consideration by the Independent Pricing And Remuneration Tribunal (IPART) who have stated that they believe there is a case to be answered and are investigating further. It seems the stevedores don’t give a stuff and think they can just do as they please when it comes to their pricing and charging policies and operating procedures. This is hardly surprising though when one considers the amounts of money we are talking about. In the last financial year, the amount of revenue generated from wharf storage was in the order of some AUD40 million. This is pure revenue - there is absolutely no cost to the stevedores in generating this revenue stream (mind you, they would no doubt point to the fact that the container is taking up space on the wharf that could be used for other containers, and they have to manouevre around it, and whatever other spurious justifications they can think up - the fact of the matter is that there is quite enough space, and the container is most likely “block-stacked” somewhere at the bottom of a pile of containers anyway).
So this is nothing more than pure greed, especially when the storage rates along the lines of AUD 130.00 per day for a 20ft container are taken into consideration. It beggars belief that they can arrive at a figure of that magnitude when it costs nothing to have the container sitting on the wharf (most likely at the back of the wharf in a stack of other containers suffering a similar fate).
The sooner these companies are brought to account and made to be more reasonable with their operating practices and charging policies, the better it will be for our economy.
Topics: International Trade | 4 Comments »
Joke Number 4
By Bat | March 29, 2007
This one turned up in my e-mail inbox this morning, courtesy of a work colleague. It’s a reverse “blonde” joke - kind of “blondes fight back” :-). Enjoy!
Bubba and Junior were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking up. A blonde lady walked by and asked what they were doing.
“We’re supposed to find the height of the flagpole,” said Bubba, “But we don’t have a ladder.”
The blonde woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a few bolts, and laid the pole down. Then she took a tape measure from her pocket, took a measurement and announced, “Eighteen feet, six inches,” and walked away.
Junior shook his head and laughed. “Ain’t that just like a dumb blonde? We ask for the height and she gives us the length!”
Bubba and Junior are currently supervising the reconstruction of New Orleans.
Topics: Humour | 1 Comment »