Equal school funding please

Here’s my idea for equitable school funding, and it’s not the usual wrangling over public-private school government funding in Australia, but rather intra-public school funding. I do not claim to be an academic or learned expert on this subject, but having gone through almost 10 years in the Victorian education system, I think that I’ve a pretty good idea on what needs improving in this area.

Sea lions leave Galapagos because of climate change?

Today we are enlightened by the BBC and its popular story of the poor, innocent sea lions, which are “endemic” to the famous Galapagos Islands in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, who have been driven out of their apparently pristine and untouched paradise by the evil clutches of climate change/global warming/global climate change/whatever the phrase now is (I’ve long given up trying to keep track). They have neglected to mention the possible other, and far more likely reasons, that the sea lions left and the increase in water temperature.

Is an earthquake what it takes to get debt cancelled?

Today we heard a pledge from G7 countries, namely the US, UK, France, Canada, Germany, Italy and Japan, to “cancel all Haiti bilateral debt”. Although this is a great thing for Haiti, the question must be asked: Why does it take a huge natural disaster for the First World to cancel its debts to poor Third World countries?

Ball kids, shmall kids – quit complaining

Alas, alas, the usual media flurry every Australian Open about the “ball kids being denied the miserly per diem of $42 a match” and the emotionally dripping language that accompanies such stories.

The forgotten Holocaust

Before I begin yet another rant, I would like to make something abundantly clear:

I AM NOT A HOLOCAUST DENIER OR AN ANTI-SEMITE BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION

There I hope that this will stop the comments that I usually get when I say these types of things…

“There are three types of climate sceptic”

Ah. Really?

This and other comments were made by Kevin Rudd’s speech at the Lowey Institute recently. Once again, dismantling an argument point by point is going to be fun, if not a good diversion from Ancient Greek exam revision :

You’re having a brain fade Al Gore

There has been quite a bit of coverage of Al Gore’s comments on Victoria’s climate plan, in which he condemned the ‘clean coal’ plans and made a lot of ignorant and unfounded comments.

To all of those people who have annoyed me on public transport

The following is addressed to the various supposed members of the human race who have caused me some sort of grief during my rather lengthy travels on this world’s public transport systems

Bus < Train < Tram?

Where art thou sane bus route planners? I don’t usually travel on buses, but I have had cause to travel on the bus routes around and beyond my local area, involving me making some interesting, although not altogether complementary, observations.

Now before I begin my ranting, I would like to point out that the 903 ‘Smartbus’ is a fantastic idea, in terms of frequent and modern buses arriving exactly on time at their ‘time points’ in a circular route around the metropolitan area, but I speak/rant here of the number of bus stops and the often ridiculous bus timetables.

Firstly regarding the number of bus stops. I admit that I haven’t travelled on buses extensivly, I’m more of a ‘tram person’ myself, but in my few experiences, I have come to notice a few things.about the bus stops that there is often a ridiculous number of bus stops – up to six or seven between two main roads. This causes the bus to be slowed down (as mostly it stops at around 3-4 of these stops). Why are there so many stops?

Take the tram for instance. Between two random main roads, there are only three tram stops, around 100m apart, as is usual on tram routes, on a length of road around 700 metres long. On the other hand, between two roads that, might I add, are about as close together, there are six bus stops, around 20 seconds apart (travelling at around 50km/h). Who on earth needs this many bus stops?

Sure, the elderly and disabled may benefit, but how come trams and trains aren’t the same? Why should we add an extra 50 but stops to a bus route streching from Altona to Mordialloc simply for the sake of a few wheelchair bound pensioners who have alternate transport anyway, and inconvenience the thousands of other people who travel along the route every day?

My reply to Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the UN

Many speeches were made at the recent U.N General Assembly meeting, some controversial (Gaddafi, Ahmadinejad or however you spell it) and some not so controversial (Obama, Rudd). However, everyone seems to have overlooked Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech, which I will provide for here.