"...most intersection are unsafe to have an automatic green man, as pedestrians j-walk and it creates a dangerous situation with possible filtered right turners. A scenario where people see a green man and run to cross the road creates one of the most dangerous situations, with regards to left and right turners.
Studies conducted by VicRoads and the Australian Road Research Board have proven the safety issues with the above."
I contacted VicRoads to ask about making a pointless pedestrian crossing green automatically when it's safe to cross and their response was very telling.
Something I've noticed about restaurants in this cost of living crisis... if it's an existing restaurant, it'll put up prices but feel the need to have some continuity with their previous prices.
If it's a new restaurant replacing an old one, they just jump straight to high prices, the $35 bowls of pasta etc. And I never pass through their doors.
#melbourne Beach Road is chockers with Melbournians flocking to the bay hoping to catch some #aurora action tonight. Nothing to see at the moment except for creeping fog from the south.
Managed to do a fair bit of gardening today despite battling the start of a migraine (eventually thwarted by caffeine and rest in the afternoon). I repotted a blueberry plant that was in a way too small pot. I also repotted my $5 tubestock camellia I purchased recently.
My big success was finishing sieving my worms from their worm poo and therefore being able to retire one tray of my worm farm. It has taken me many hours over a few weekends to accomplish this because it is the first time I have done it and I didn't know what I was doing. Eventually with advice from @treevan and @earthmothering9 I got it and this morning I was much more efficient. This is what social media is so good for - sharing skills and experience as well as encouraging others.
So I cleaned up a worm tray and felt good! #worms#vermiculture <- newly learned word for me :-)
I used the worm poo slurry for our street garden. After a harsh summer I have been giving it some loving care. Despite the perargoniums being stunted while they held on for dear life during the period of no rain and high temperatures I pruned them a bit yesterday to encourage new growth.
I have grown the pelargonium (geranium) pictured below on the left from a cutting I took from a street planting in North Fitzroy. Those pelargoniums needed cutting to invigorate them and make them bushy. The cutting had thrived in a pot so I planted it out yesterday.
The pelargonium on the right is a slower growing variety grown from a cutting from my mother's garden. I have put it in a more sheltered position in the street garden as it is a slow grower and seems to be a bit more delicate.
While I was tending the street garden this afternoon a neighbour I have not met before stopped and said he likes seeing me take care of the garden so often. That makes me happy because that is the point of the garden. In an area covered with signs of addiction, rubbish and grafitti of the tagging variety, I want this small patch to uplift passers by and awaken in them the thought that it is possible to make things better here. #StreetGarden#Melbourne#StreetGardening#GardeningAU
Today I feel emotionally exhausted. I feel like my life is going to be pre 11 May Aurora and post 11 May. I've been planning for the solar maximum for at least 6 years - would I go to Canada? Finland? spend 6 months in southern New Zealand?
In the end I spent 4 hours on a beach an hour's drive from my home. It was more than I ever dared hope for.
As the beams shot over my head with awesome power I was overwhelmingly grateful to my mother earth, whose magnetic field and atmosphere keep me safe every single second of my life.
Sigh.
I think I need to get a rail replacement bus or something to ground me again. #Aurora#Melbourne#Australia
Hoop House Number One now up and running thanks to our hardworking #KensingtonTownHallCompost volunteers. Made entirely from the surplus urban and industrial materials thrown up and thrown away by the population of #Melbourne. Our latest cool season seedlings have moved into their new home
Sitting on the couch after spending a couple of hours sieving worm poo to extricate bits of plastic from the shredded material I added, and to extricate worms (some tiny) and worm cocoons. I then poured the worm poo slurry onto the garden. #GardeningAU#Melbourne
This crossing is where a cyclist was hit 2 days ago by a b-double truck while crossing with a green light.
The cyclist was told he is unlikely to ever be able to walk again.
The safety of this crossing relies on truck drivers turning on to a motorway on-ramp to expect and look for cyclists and for cyclists to know that trucks will be doing that while cyclists have a green light.
This morning our gardening group gave away a lot of cuttings to a family nearby. We had been nurturing the plants over summer. We also gave away plants that my mother no longer wants.
Gardening can be an incredibly cheap hobby if you know a bit about plants. Many gardeners have piles of black plastic pots they no longer want and some plants like pelargoniums (geraniums) are easy to grow from cuttings. I pick up cheap potting soil from a supermarket as the easy to grow plants don't really care about what they grow in.
A beautiful thing about hyperlocal compost processing is the opportunity for hyper low-emission transport options.
Our current compost input collection vehicle of choice distributes hundreds of litres of coffee grounds every week, moves nutrients across the neighbourhood compost network as needed.
All powered by bioenergetic sources (how much can depend on how many cups of coffee were consumed)
So despite climate change, Australia's federal government has just committed an extra $3.25 billion into building a toll road and a 20-lane freeway widening.
"Pouring an extra $3.25 billion worth of federal funds into Melbourne’s North East Link is a good use of taxpayer money, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has insisted, despite the project’s cost doubling just a few months ago.
...
"The North East Link – which includes 6½ kilometres of tunnels – will stretch from Bulleen to Greensborough. It will widen the Eastern Freeway by up to 20 lanes.
"Allan revealed in December that the 10-kilometre toll road had more than doubled in cost since it was first announced.
"The toll road was initially budgeted at $10 billion and reassessed in 2019 at $15 billion. But the government revealed last year that the updated cost estimate was $26 billion."
I've just booked tickets for this play at the Malthouse in July – looks great. I'm always a sucker for a production riffing on Macbeth (my favourite Shakespeare play - I was in it once at uni!).
Let me explain. The Secret Post Office is what we call the post office which is hidden away between Flinders Lane and Collins Street. The signage is as minimal as possible (see below) and I suspect the staff like it that way. It's our special secret.
Except that now Australia Post has closed the much more obvious post office near the GPO building, the SPO has become much busier! Sad AP staff. :(
Folks, I'm starting my post-#PhD job search low-key on the side while I write up my #thesis.
I have an odd collection of skills - #Linux, #Python, #Jupyter, #pandas, #DevRel, and I've done a lot of work in team leadership and management, and have led a multi-million $ not for profit in the past. Keynote speaker.
I'm looking for something that harnesses all of these skills - and it will be a senior role with senior pay, given my experience, qualifications and proven capability. I have time and will be discerning about my next step.
Job titles that might fit here would be Senior Research Engineer, Engineering Lead, Lead AI Engineer or similar.
Looking for fully remote work, with one day a fortnight max in #Melbourne, AU. If you don't believe in #RemoteWork or #WFH, we're not a good fit.
Super keen on something full time rather than splitting my attention over multiple part-time roles.
Looking to start around August, so a fair amount of lead time.
Keen on organisations that have strong values alignment - #FAIR and #CARE data use, #EthicalAI, AI for social good.
Day 3 of my quest to separate the worms from their castings and retire one bin of our worm farm. I have been following helpful advice from @treevan and @earthmothering9. This morning I bought a cheap sieve and have been pouring rain water through the castings to separate the worms and put them in the other tray.
To my annoyance I found that there was a bit of shredded plastic amongst the shredded paper we had been feeding the worms. I have been painstakingly fishing the plastic out as well as the worms.
I will get there! I am being slow and nitpicking doing this but that is my nature and it is better to get those personal qualities out on the weekend and in solitude rather than annoy people at work with them. #GardeningAU#Melbourne#worms