Can you spell cacophony?

Daylight savings time is coming up this weekend in WA. Once it is over, we get to vote in a referendum (again).

Slashdot ran a story today about the end of DST in the northern hemisphere. Here a few of the more insighful comments.

I grew up in AZ – moved to a state that does daylight savings a couple years ago. I hate it. I never felt any lack for not having it or thought, “Gee, I wished we messed with the clocks twice a year.” – stoolpigeon

make everyone talk in UTC. That should do it. – frank_adrian

Russia has a dozen time zones and fares just fine – as does China, with only one. This business of claiming that ‘light’ is a problem needing a solution is the only issue here…- djupedal

So, scrap daylight savings time and replace it with a system of several thousand time zones, each updated daily based on the predicted “high noon” for that particular day at that particular location. If the prediction ends up being off by a few microseconds on a particular day, just change the time to correct it right then and there! Sure, wristwatches will become orders of magnitude more complex, but it’s the only way to have a truly sane and accurate system of time measurement. And after all, isn’t that what we all really want here? – eln

If people want/need to get up earlier or later to take advantage of the daylight then JUST GET UP EARLIER OR LATER! There is no good reason to change the clock backward and forward. Lots of places don’t do it and they don’t have any problems. – slashname3

After our latest [interesting election][1], Western Australia has a minority government for the first time in who knows how long. Among other interesting developments, I [read today][3] that our local member, Dr [Graham][2] [Jacobs][4] has been appointed our first Minister for Mental Health. Kudos to [Mr Barnett][5] firstly for creating the ministry in the first place, and secondly for his wise choice in Minister.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Australian_state_election,_2008
[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Jacobs
[3]: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/18/2368257.htm
[4]: http://www.grahamjacobs.com.au/
[5]: http://www.mp.wa.gov.au/colinbarnett/

Yes, the election is all over and we now have a new government.

Congrats to Mr Rudd and Co, condolences to Mr Howard, especially given the likelihood of him losing his own seat. Congrats too to my own local member, Mr Barry Haase who was returned to his seat in the parliament.

I must say I love the political process. While I can think of many things that I would see changed if I could (no compulsory voting, optional preferential voting) I think we do have a working democracy that is a privilege to be a part of.

Trying to explain what was going to my children today, I kept having to answer the question (when discussing the two potential PMs) “who did you vote for?”. The answer (which is much more complicated to actually explain) is of course, neither. I voted for the candidates in the seat of Kalgoorlie, the winner of which will put forward his or her opinion for PM…

This was complicated by the fact that I put three minor party candidates before either of the two major parties. Our preferential system being what it is however, meant that I was ultimately voting for one before the other.

In case anyone is interested, the minor party candidate I voted for (not without some misgivings) was Charles Dalton for the [Liberty and Democracy Party][1]. If the senate results so far are anything to go by, I was one of perhaps 1000 in the whole state to do so. Seems they might need to do a bit of work in improving their profile. While the Libertarians in the US are no danger to the presidency, at least some Americans know what a Libertarian is.

As for the misgivings, maybe that can be a post for another day.

Once again, congratulations to all involved, especially to our great nation on another great display of democracy.

[1]: http://ldpblog.wordpress.com/2007/11/24/election-night-news/

[These photos][1] were taken a couple of months ago.

The path involved is one that I ride down a few days a week to work at [the pharmacy][2], that runs along past the showgrounds and the hockey fields.

Back in January, we had some very heavy rains with localised flooding and everything. My path has a little sandy hill right next to it (to the left in the photos), so at a couple of points a nice covering of dirt was washed over the path.

I remember having to brace myself as I went to ride over the sand as my wheels would always float to the side. After a few days the path started to show through at one point (the right on the photos) and I was able to aim my wheels over that.

But as the weeks and then months went by I found myself wondering “doesn’t anyone from the [council][3] actually maintain this path?”. I mean, would a little sweep have hurt…?

Now, have a closer look at the photos. Remember it rained in January. The photos were taken in July. See that stuff in the middle of the sand? Thats *grass*!

Yes, the path was left with dirt on it for so long that grass grew!

Many times I was tempted to chuck a shovel on the back of my bike and just dig it all up myself, but that was a little impractical.

An interesting thought… the council elections are coming up next month. I wonder if anyone is going to run on a platform of **Cleaning Up The Paths**!

[1]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wynter/sets/72157600762084474/
[2]: http://castletownchemist.com
[3]: http://esperance.wa.gov.au

Every week, without fail, I take perverse pleasure in reading the column of Phillip Adams in the Weekend Australian magazine.

I say perverse, because as a rabid athiest, Adams has very little in common with me, a conservative Bible-believing Christian (read, in Adams-speak: fundie, Taliban-wannabe God botherer).

I often find myself banging my head against the wall (or at least the paper) asking why such a brilliant mind could be so ignorant of the nature of certain things.

But I digress… Today’s post is not about what I don’t like about Adams or how we disagree. No matter what else I may say about him, Phillips Adams is a true Australian.

He places great importance on the value of Australian culture and of preserving it in the face of the powerful Hollywood/MTV version of (United States of) American culture.

In his column on Saturday which (online at least), entitled Attack of the seppos, Adams laments the loss of Australian Slang.

Anyone who has seen The Adventures of Barry McKenzie might not consider that a bad thing…

I do. And so does Phillip Adams… He refers to an earlier attempt to save the language…

The idea was that each of us would adopt a favourite and forgotten colloquial expression and promise to use it at least once a day. You might choose drongo and apply it to a politician.

Our family has a few favourite slang expressions: “carry on like a pork chop” (applying particularly well to any one of my five sons) is perhaps too often used. I may very well seek to use the word “drongo” in conversation more often. Rhyming slang is also popular, though hard to know what is Strine-based and what is Cockney (I am fond of accusing my boys of telling pork-pies, but I am sure that is a Cockney one!).

I do have an admission to make though… When I greet people, even in the pharmacy, I am prone to use the awfully colloquial expression “G’day” (complete with apostrophe) in preference to Hello, Hi, Good Day, Good morning or (heaven forbid!) Howdy. It doesn’t quite make me Barry McKenzie’s long-lost brother, but I reckon I can wear the green-and-gold with pride!

And Phillip, thanks for a good laugh and for fighting the good fight!