Saturday, 25 September 2010

Save Me From The Daylight

Time change at the start of Daylight Saving Time
"If daylight needs saving, throw it a rubber ring!"
Roger Smith

Most of new Zealand woke up grumpy and disorientated this morning as daylight saving time is upon us once again.

Cows who had planned to yield their milk an hour later were in for a rude surprise and there was the usual frantic scabbling around the house to change all of the clocks.

It's not even that there is even a universal timing for this event.

Israel for instance adjusted their clocks on September 6th, two months before the US and a month before Europe.  In their case it was nothing to do with the advent of summer and is tied in to a religious festival.

Egypt chops and changes and this year suspended daylight saving during Ramadan.

Meanwhile our bio-rhythms have Benjamin Franklin to thank for dreaming up Daylight Savings Time back in the 1800's.

Bizarrely he was attempting to increase productivity although there is some medical evidence that this practice has a positive benefit for those who suffer from SAD, seasonal affective disorder, a form of depression that is caused by lack of daylight in the fall and winter.

On the downside, the US reports a spike of 5% in heart attacks during the first week of daylight saving time as "the loss of an hour's sleep may make people more susceptible to an attack", some experts say.

Not that these changes will be bothering recaptured terrorist Mas Selamat (pictured) who is now back in his old accommodation, Singapore's Whitely Road Detention Centre.

He had spent a year on the run after limping his way out of prison, swimming to Malaysia and hanging out with his old mates.

I suspect that only the Home Affairs Minister will be losing any sleep over the possibility of a repeat performance, as Singpore doesn't even have daylight saving.

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Friday, 24 September 2010

New Zealand's Answer To The MRT

Monorail wins $1.3m from Google
News today that a New Zealand invention has won sponsorship from Google to undergo further development.

This injection of capital will reportedly elevate it from a  them park ride to "a "mass transit" system for use in traffic-clogged, skyscraper-strewn cities".

I can visualise this being deployed from Jurong to JB.  A couple of hours exercise in the hot sun to get across the Causeway, do some shopping, and then return without the need to fill up on cheap petrol in Malaysia!
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Tuesday, 21 September 2010

The Delhi Debacle

I can now confidently predict that India will scoop the medal pool in the forthcoming Commonwealth games being staged in Delhi this October.

There is a very simple reason for this calculation; nobody else will be there to compete.

The airwaves in New Zealand have been dominated by reports of the disastrous state of the athlete's village with " bare wires sticking out of the walls".

The BBC reports "Delegates who visited the tower blocks where athletes will live during the games had described them as filthy, with rubble lying in doorways, dogs inside the buildings, toilets not working and excrement "in places it shouldn't be".

The conditions have been described as squalid by visiting officials.  In response defensive Indian officials have tried to shift the blame by intimating that westerners have 'different standards' than those in India.

There have been close ups on television of the dengue carrying mosquitoes sporting themselves in puddles and drains adjacent to this accommodation.

The much touted security has been proven to be totally ineffective as was proven by an Australian journalist who carried the compnents of a bomb in a large suitcase into a main venue, unchallenged.

All of this adds up to a very sorry picture of the preparedness of the country to host the games.

The latest news today is of the collapse of a footbridge near the main stadium which has injured 23 workers.

The Singapore contingent remain committed to the Games according to the Straits Times yesterday.  They hope to better their previous record haul of 18 medals.

Why such a large event was ever granted to a country with a known record of inefficiencies and corrupt practices is beyond me.  Now of course it is too late to find a satisfactory alternative venue.

Within a decade most of these sites will be overgrown with weeds and vines which is perhaps why they adopted the brand of "The Green Games" ?
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