Today’s teacher strike in Canberra poses the question: “Why do teachers always take half-day strikes?”. Samuel explains the reasons, and why it is such an effective strike format.
The episode can be downloaded from here
Samuel
8 comments March 14th, 2006 at 06:00am
In the last 24 hours I have noticed a trend where the spammers are moving away from the tried and tested (and blocked very easily by spam filters) method of using short bits of random text, to having long extracts of weird and nonsensical stories. Here is the one that came in this evening, and is undoubtedly the best one so far.
same thing happened. ‘Are you trying to get in my way on purpose?’ screamed Ivan, infuriated. ‘ You’re the one I’m going to report to the police!’ Ivan tried to grab the choirmaster by the sleeve, missed and found himself grasping nothing : it was as if the choirmaster had been swallowed up by the ground. With a groan Ivan looked ahead and saw the hated stranger. He had already reached the exit leading on to Patriarch’s Street and he was no longer alone. The weird choirmaster had managed to join him. But that was not all. The third member of the company was a cat the size of a pig, black as soot and with luxuriant cavalry officers’ whiskers. The threesome was walking towards Patriarch’s Street, the cat trotting along on its hind legs. As he set off after the villains Ivan realised at once that it was going to be very hard to catch them up. In a flash the three of them were across the street and on the Spiridonovka. Ivan quickened his pace, but the distance between him and his quarry grew no less. Before the poet had
Samuel
March 13th, 2006 at 11:10pm
This morning’s sunrise had a rather pretty effect on the clouds. Here it is as seen from my house.
Samuel
5 comments March 13th, 2006 at 05:01pm
The fact that the title for this post is a good summary of a dream I had, is quite a worry, and a testament to the abilities of the unconcious mind to imagine.
Yesterday afternoon I had a nap, and during this nap I had a rather disturbing dream, which I have described below.
It was the early evening and I was in the lounge room sitting down having a cup of coffee, as was mum. Dad and Nattie were not in this dream, it is quite possible that they had gone for a walk. Anyway, the phone rang and I walked over to it and answered it, I said “Hello” and a man on the other end of the phone started asking me if I wanted to buy chairs and tables for $10. Suddenly it became very clear to me in my head that this person was a dangerous criminal telemarketer as the news had been filled with stories about him, so I yelled down the phone for him to “go away and don’t ring again”.
I was just about to ring the police when a group of men appeared at the front gate waving chairs and tables and yelling in a moaning type of voice about them being for sale for $10. They opened the gate and started to walk towards the front door. It is worthwhile pointing out that these men had slightly disfigured heads which looked like a mildy exagerrated version of your stereotypical vilain in a “western” movie, they were also wearing suits and chequered flannelette shirts, and some were wearing worn out hats.
I rushed to the front door (wooden door open, wire door closed, as per usual during the day) to ask them to leave, mum followed me to the front door, and I realised that the wire door was unlocked, I reached for it to lock it, but before I could lock it, the leader of the group started to open the door, mum and I grabbed the door handle and tried to pull the door closed, but the group of men started to pull it open and slowly succeeded.
There was a lot of yelling and screaming going on as the men started to try and pull mum and I out the front door. As I was trying to get out of the grip of one of the men who was trying to pull me out of the house, the next door neighbour, George, stepped out of his house to see what all the commotion was about, I spotted him and called out “Call the police George”. George went back inside and the struggle continued, suddenly two police cars appeared and the police dragged the group away. One policeman stayed with mum and I while the men were being dragged away and made a comment about it being good that they had finally caught the dangerous men, and I made a comment about the lock on the wire door.
It is interesting to note that I have been receiving an unusually high number of calls from people who can barely speak english trying to get me to attend a seminar about blinds, awnings and shutters. The first time I spent a few minutes on the phone trying to work out what they were talking about, told them that I wan’t interested and eventually hung up when they just kept trying to persuade me to find out more about blinds, awnings and shutters. The second time I told them I wasn’t interested and not to call again and hung up, and the last two times I have yelled at them that I told them not to call again and hung up.
It is also interesting to note that when I finished my nap this afternoon and went to take Nattie for a walk, the front wire door was unlocked, with people of the household sitting near it.
So far there is no sign of real life telemarketing, house visiting, cheap furtniture con artists, and I think I’ll keep it that way.
Samuel
3 comments March 13th, 2006 at 02:26pm
One of the interesting things about Australia Post is that it is possible to generate statistics based on forms they give you copies of, when you fill them in. This is made possible by the serial numbers applied to the services the forms are used for, being in numerical order.
One such form is the Registered Post form, which gets filled in for every article sent via Registered Post, Australia Post’s insured post. Each Registered Post article is given a unique serial number, known as the “Registered Post Number”, this number is prefixed with the letters “RL” as is issued in numerical order. It is therefore possible to calculate how many Registered Post articles have been sent in a certain period of time based on these numbers.
On a recent check of the filing cabinet I found an old Registered Post form, from the year 2003, I also have two recent registered post forms.
Because I don’t have the exact times of each article being posted, and because having times would make the calculations too messy for quick use, some assumptions need to be made about the times of postage which do, unfortunately, add a small degree of error to the calculations. For the purposes of these calculations we will assume that each article was the last one posted on that day, which means that we need to subtract one item from each calculation to have “full day” figures.
For example, if item 15 was the last item sent on Monday and item 50 was the last item sent on Wednesday, a calculation of “50-15” would be a calculation of one item from Monday, and every item from Tuesday and Wednesday. A calculation of “50-16” would be a calculation of every item posted on Tuesday and Wednesday…this is effectively the same thing as subtracting one item from the “50-15” calculation.
Now that we have the theory behind us, we can perform some calculations:
The last figure does seem somewhat erroneous, and I suppose that it is possible that the numbering system isn’t entirely sequential, perhaps giving specific computers a block of numbers at a time. Regardless, the system is at least mostly sequential, and it would be unwise to expect perfect statistics from an external source anyway. Australia Post undoubtedly would have access to the true figures, and I would be surprised if they differ much from the ones above (with the exception of the last figure).
One interesting statistic from the Australia Post Annual Report for 2004-2005 is the number of items posted, which for the 2003-2004 financial year was 5,307,500,000 and for the 2004-2005 financial year was 5,363,100,000, a total of 10,670,600,000 from the start of 1 July, 2003 to the end of 30 June, 2005, a period of 731 days, which makes an average of 14,597,264.02189 items posted every day (rounded to five decimal places).
If we use that average to estimate the total amount of mail posted from the start of 4 November, 2003 to the end of 10 March, 2006 (a period of 858 days), we can estimate that 12,524,452,531 (rounded to nearest whole number) articles were posted, which makes registered post (a total of 7,801,010 articles for the same period) a mere 0.06229% of Australia Post’s mail.
If one was willing to work out the number of days post offices were open during this period, it would also be possible to work out the average time between postage of each item, and each Registered Post item, sent through Australia Post.
I personally found that quite interesting, I hope you did too.
Samuel
3 comments March 13th, 2006 at 11:40am
I think the best way to summarise my tips for Round 1 would be to call them “shocking”.
I picked 1/7, which is 14.29%.
Samuel
2 comments March 13th, 2006 at 08:10am
Editorial Echoes #1 for Monday March 13, 2006 is online. Today’s topic is mobile phone charges, how they’ve become too complex, and what can be done to fix it.
Many thanks to Chuck A. Spear who suggested the “Editorial Echoes” name, and thanks to everyone who suggested names.
Editorial Echoes hs its own email address, echoes@samuelgordonstewart.com
The podcast feed can be found at https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/EditorialEchoes/echoes.xml
iTunes subscribe link coming soon.
The Editorial Echoes page, with a listing of all episodes can be found at https://samuelgordonstewart.com/editorial-echoes/
Future posts about future Editorial Echoes episodes will not contain the logo, and will be much shorter than this one.
Samuel
21 comments March 13th, 2006 at 03:10am
This week the award goes to Elton John, and the feature (a hard choice considering the sheer number of great songs Elton has sung) is “I’m Still Standing”.
You could never know what it’s like
Your blood like winter freezes just like ice
And there’s a cold lonely light that shines from you
You’ll wind up like the wreck you hide behind that mask you useAnd did you think this fool could never win
Well look at me, I’m coming back again
I got a taste of love in a simple way
And if you need to know while I’m still standing you just fade awayDon’t you know I’m still standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid
I’m still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mindI’m still standing yeah yeah yeah
I’m still standing yeah yeah yeahOnce I never could hope to win
You starting down the road leaving me again
The threats you made were meant to cut me down
And if our love was just a circus you’d be a clown by nowNo, I’m still standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid
I’m still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mindI’m still standing yeah yeah yeah
I’m still standing yeah yeah yeahDon’t you know that I’m still standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid
I’m still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mindI’m still standing yeah yeah yeah
I’m still standing yeah yeah yeah
I’m still standing yeah yeah yeah
I’m still standing yeah yeah yeah
I’m still standing yeah yeah yeah
I’m still standing yeah yeah yeah
Samuel
March 12th, 2006 at 09:55pm
This week we see Samuel comparing his computer generated gold map data to the assay office gold data, and come to the conclusion that there must be more gold in Dolgnwot.
Samuel
7 comments March 12th, 2006 at 06:39pm
I usually glance at my spam to see if the spam filter has picked up anything which is normal email, and often I see random text at the top of the email which is placed there to try and trick the spam filter into believing that the email is genuine. Occasionally these bits of random text are interesting and make strange stories, such as this one:
She had died a mostly unexpected death. Snowboarding in 1887 When she came in he heard her singing.
Samuel
March 12th, 2006 at 02:03pm
Thanks to Irene in Brisbane for this one.
Growing older is mandatory, Growing up is optional, Laughing at yourself is therapeutic.
Samuel
3 comments March 12th, 2006 at 01:40am
As citizens of commonwealth countries would be well aware by now, the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games start on Wednesday night. Various broadcasters around the world will be covering it, but here in Australia the coverage will be brought to you by Channel 9, ABC Radio, and much more interestingly, Southern Cross Radio and affiliates.
Among the people bringing you the Commonwealth Games on Southern Cross are Bruce McAvaney, Kieran Perkins, Shane Healy, Tony Leonard, Murray Olds, Matt Granland, John Gibbs & Raelene Boyle.
The “host” broadcaster is 3AW (not surprising considering that they are in Melbourne), and the games coverage will be relayed to Southern Cross and subscriber stations. In most cases this is likely to be your local John Laws broadcaster.
Games coverage on 3AW will take place from 10am to 1pm and again from 6pm to 10pm daily. I would presume that 2UE will continue the John Laws Morning Show during the 10am-1pm session, and possibly even Afternoons with John Stanley during that time for the benefit of network stations who aren’t taking the Games, but I would expect 2UE to take the full games coverage.
Network stations’ own broadcast schedule is a mystery, and will obviously be up to them. I would personally be surprised if 2CC interrupt the rugby league coverage for the Commonwealth Games, and would be even more surprised if they don’t interrupt Laws and Stanley for the Commonwealth Games. None the less, contact your local stations for details.
Radioinfo have a bit more information about the Commonwealth Games coverage:
The game plan for the Games on 3AW Southern Cross Radio
10 Mar 2006
3AW, the official commercial radio broadcaster for the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games will begin its coverage with a special program at 6pm on Wednesday by the breakfast boys, Ross Stevenson and John Burns, from the station’s outside broadcast site at the special Live Site at Queensbridge on the Yarra.The coverage will then move to the MCG where Clinton Grybas will join Bruce Mansfield and Philip Brady to cover the opening ceremony in Nightline.
For the 12 days of the games 3AW will provide extensive coverage of all sporting events. There will be block coverage of events from 10am through to 1pm and again at 6pm to the close of the day’s competition around 10pm.
3AW programs will also be out and about during the games. Mornings with Neil Mitchell, Afternoons with Ernie Sigley and Drive with Derryn Hinch will broadcast from 3AW’s special games outside broadcast facilities at the Live Site and from the MCG.
Each night after the conclusion of sporting events, Bruce Mansfield and Philip Brady will broadcast from the Queensbridge Live Site.
In addition to more than 80 hours live sporting coverage, 3AW will bring listeners all the news as it breaks, interviews with the stars and The Games Today, a daily wrap of all the action, hosted by Bruce McAvaney and Clinton Grybas at 6pm.
Weekend programs will also be out and about the city during the duration of the games.
The broadcast team is headed by Bruce McAvaney with more than 20 years of broadcasting including six summer Olympics under his belt. Sportscaster Clinton Grybas has broadcast just about every sport over the last 11 years, spanning the Olympics, the AFL Grand Final, The Australian Open Tennis and the Manchester and Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games. And Kieran Perkins brings his great knowledge of swimming to 3AW listeners.
Also joining the team will be Shane Healy, Tony Leonard, George Grljusich, Benny Pike, Smokey Dawson, Murray Olds, Matt Granland, John Gibbs, Karl Langdon and Andrew Hewett.
Expert analysis will be provided by Raelene Boyle, David Wansborough, Phil Smyth, Michele Timms, Jim Irvine, Eloise Southby-Halbish and James Victor.
So, my plan for the Games. I will naturally be listening on 2CC, and when I’m watching on TV I will have the TV muted, and 2CC turned up. It will be very good to hear Bruce McAvaney in full voice and, to change the topic for a moment, I can’t wait to hear him calling Friday Night AFL for Seven again next year.
Samuel
5 comments March 10th, 2006 at 11:16pm
Alrighty then, a new Friday feature…my footy tips. I’ll start AFL tips next week. My selections are in bold, and the team I am tipping against are crossed out.
NRL Round One
Tigers V Dragons
Knights V Eels
Bulldogs V Panthers
Sea Eagles V Raiders
Warriors V Storm
Broncos V Cowboys
Rabbitohs V Roosters
I will try and get these online on the Friday morning from now on, the decision to put my tips online was taken late today.
Samuel
6 comments March 10th, 2006 at 07:30pm
Right now I am seriously considering adding a second podcast to the lineup on this website. This would be a short (2-5 minutes) daily (on weekdays) podcast with a title something along the lines of “Samuel’s Editorials” or “Samuel’s Views” or maybe even “A few minutes of Samuel’s Views”, the latter of which would work very well as an outro “This has been a few minutes of Samuel’s Views”.
I tend to have something to say about something each day, but I tend not to get around to writing it down, and then often forget about it. This is something I could produce either “on location” with the help of my digital notetaker, or in the studio depending on where I am when the idea strikes. The subject of the day would most likely vary from something newsworthy to something of personal interest. I suppose that the bottom line here is that it would be short and to the point, and something that you could listen to on the bus or train to work…if you wanted to.
Details are still sketchy at this stage, mostly because I haven’t thought about most of them, although I think this is something I could do without taking too much time out of my already busy schedule, after all, I tend to do this in my head already.
Samuel
30 comments March 9th, 2006 at 09:57am
I had an assignment which I thought was due on Tuesday. I did a lot of work on this assignment, brought it up to and beyond my standard for finished assignments, and brought it with me to the class it was due for on Tuesday evening.
In this class it became apparent that the assignment is due next week…OK no problem, early submission is fine…but wait, the assignment is changing before my eyes, suddenly there are a bunch of new bits and pieces in it, suddenly I have to take my assignment home and rewrite th whole thing, suddenly a heap of my work, time and effort has been wasted. This is an issue, and it becomes an even more serious issue when you consider that I was up all night on the night before “submission” putting the finishing touches on this assignment, so that I wouldn’t have to do so in the afternoon after a very important meeting which would go for an unknown length of time.
Now I have to rearrange my schedule for the coming week, which is already looking busy, in order to rewrite an assignment which was changed with a week to go. It could just be me, but in my opinion all assignments should be properly defined when they are issued, they may have minor changes (eg. corrections) after that, but the entire submission format should not be changed, nor should vital aspects of the assignment.
I’ll admit that the due date error was mine and mine alone, but that doesn’t matter as nobody would mind if I handed in an assignment a week before it was due. What matters is that I spent good time, and put in a lot of effort to produce an assignment which now has to be rewritten and redesigned. I am not impressed, and my level of annoyance has not changed since Tuesday night, when this entire debacle of teaching methodology occured.
You may have noticed that I am being very bereft of specific details here, and there is a reason for that. The teachers involved know that I am not happy about this, various students also know it, however I feel that this was a mistake, I don’t think that the teachers in question set out to change the assignment with a week left. I get the distinct impression that certain details were simply absent from the original assignment sheet and the teachers didn’t notice. I therefore have no reason to “name and shame”. I have provided enough detail for you to understand the story, and for the teachers in question to know who they are. I see no point in naming the teachers, they know who they are and I don’t think it will happen again. The incident is regrettable and annoying, but these things happen, and there is minimal point in dwelling on it.
All I can say is that I am not expecting my second version of the assignment to be up to the same standard as my first version, I just don’t see how that will be possible in the abbreviated amount of time available to work on it.
Samuel
37 comments March 9th, 2006 at 06:15am
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