Samuel's Blog

Can’t stay up for the budget

My coughing fits are too much for me now, I’m going try to get some sleep instead. I’m recording the budget, and The Bill which I missed on Saturday and is being repeated tonight.

I’ll try to catch up with it all (well, the budget at least) in the wee hours and have a poll about it for you tomorrow.

May the night be pleasant, and Mr. Swan be nicer than expected.

Samuel

2 comments May 12th, 2009 at 05:52pm

Dreams of buses

I’m not sure what to make of two dreams I have had in recent days.

In one dream I was given a bus by people lurking in a dark alleyway. It’s entirely possible that the people in the alleyway either constructed the bus or had been “maintaining” it, because it fell apart after a few minutes.

In the other dream, I stole a bus from a man who appeared to be flying it like a kite. The bus promptly crashed over a cliff and into a river which had replaced Limestone Avenue.

Anybody want to make sense of these?

Samuel

2 comments May 12th, 2009 at 11:43am

I could have been Mark Parton’s morning paper boy

I note with interest that part of Mark Parton’s morning routine is to visit the Caltex Woolworths service station in Belconnen to pick up the newspaper:

I usually whip on down to the Woolies petrol station at Belconnen first thing to grab a Canberra Times. Laurie’s usually on deck there. He’s been working the graveyard shift there for a while. He seems like a nice bloke. He’s always the same. He’ll say ‘g’day’ and have a brief chat, but he knows that most people who are coming into the servo at 3:30 in the morning, probably aren’t up for a long involved chat. He is refreshingly ‘old school’.

If we go back a few months, that could have been me instead of “Laurie”. I was nearly employed there earlier this year, but baulked at their deceptive recruitment practices when I was told during induction that I was being employed in a role which was not the one I had been interviewed for, not the one I had applied for. I would have taken the job if it hadn’t been for this…in hindsight perhaps I should have, but with recruitment being a virtual con-job, I couldn’t bear to stick around and see what other footwear would eventually fall.

I suppose it would have been an interesting sight…me ranting back at the radio during Jim Ball’s show, oblivious to the fact that a fuel pump needs to be authorised! I wonder how different Mark’s story would be if that had been the case.

Samuel

2 comments May 12th, 2009 at 08:03am

Bureau Broken!

The weather bureau’s Canberra temperature page has gone on holidays. It’s currently stuck on the 5:45am temperatures, and it looks like it’s the entire Canberra weather data feed because Weatherzone have the same problem.

This makes me wonder what radio stations are doing for current temperatures.

I use the Gungahlin Weather Centre for Gungahlin temperatures as a matter of course, but I have had to fall back on ActewAGL for City temperatures (which may be slightly out considering that it’s on top of a concrete building) and Weather Underground’s Conder temperatures for the Tuggeranong weather.

It looks like the bureau’s entire automated system has gone bang, as Sydney is also stuck in a time warp. Oops!

A day when things don’t break is not a day at all.

Update 7:50am: And the Bureau are back at work. End Update

Samuel

May 12th, 2009 at 07:23am

An open message to Jim Ball’s caller “Rick”

To Rick, who called Jim Ball a bit after 4:20am today.

Rick, firstly before I get on to my main point, congratulations on having a kid. I hope Jack grows up to be your pride and joy.

I have to clarify something which you said in reference to something I said. I did not say to Jim that gravity’s influence had changed. What I said was that I am often amused at how the rules which our scientists have made up to try to explain how the universe works, keep changing. The scientists come up with these great rules and regulations for everything based on their evidence, assumptions, and as the article which Jim quoted said, theoretical calculations.

My point really was that we should take all of these alterations to the scientists’ rules with a grain of salt, because they are almost all theories, and not necessarily the absolute truth. It is important to differentiate between the laws of physics which actually exist in the universe, and the so-called “laws of physics” published by scientists. The former actually exist, are real, are happening, and are the truth. The latter are rules created by humans to attempt to explain how everything works. If scientists were 100% correct, then the former and latter would be a perfect match, but because we, as humans, do not understand everything, the latter are not 100% correct, and constantly require modification as we either discover more, or correct mistakes.

It’s also worth noting that there is absolutely no good reason why the real physical laws of physics can’t change over time, especially if a superior being has some control over our universe.

Rick, it’s great that you have a good understanding of the scientists’ laws of physics, but you of all people should realise that they are theories, and just like every other theory in science, they are there to be proven and disproven. The idea that we shouldn’t consider a scientific theory to be wrong is, well, wrong.

Best of luck with your kid.

Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
(the caller before you)

The article which started this whole conversation is to do with Dwarf Galaxies prompting “another modification of Newton’s theory of gravitation“.

May 12th, 2009 at 05:00am

The $58 Billion Deficit

The three possibilities which spring to mind regarding the federal government’s supposed $58 billion deficit

1. It’s accurate, strategically leaked in an effort to get the horror headline out of the way, and Wayne Swan will focus on favourable points tonight.
2. It’s inaccurate, strategically leaked, the deficit is lower, but that’s about the only good news and Wayne Swan will milk it for all it’s worth.
3. Channel Seven made it up in an effort to get some publicity for themselves, and the government can’t be bothered calling it “wrong” because the budget deficit isn’t anywhere near that figure.

My instincts tell me to rule out number three, and lean towards number one.

A quick calculation: $58 billion deficit in a country with a population of 21,714,000 = $2671.09 per person. A strange thought just crossed my mind…imagine if the federal government had a “reverse stimulus package” and confiscated $2671.09 from each person in the country…the dollar figure would have to be higher because they could only easily do that with taxpayers, but regardless, the howling and screaming would be deafening, as would be the noise of people filing for bankruptcy, and I’d be one of them. Such a thing would never happen, but it is somewhat easier to digest such large numbers when they are broken down to the per-person figure.

Incidentally, Wayne Swan would have to be pleased about Four Corners airing a controversial (and one-sided) investigation into Rugby League players’ indiscretions with people of the opposite sex. If last week’s newspaper headlines and this morning’s talkback is anything to go by, it will drown discussion of the budget until late this afternoon at least.

Samuel

May 12th, 2009 at 03:31am