Canberra in transition

God lends a hand with Canberra public housing  demolition

Beneath the surface

The submarine used in filming the 2018 TV-series Das Boot. But wasn't a sub, it was a faked up non-diving replica built in Malta.

I was then cast as the 'modified' American sub S-33 for the film U-571(U-571), also shot in Malta. The S-33 had been a real sub of WW2.

The story of the US movie is a lie presenting that the yanks snatched the Enigma code machine from an operational U-boat. 

Worse, they tried to present it as real. IMDB says

• The theatrical version contained some captions before the end credits, explaining that the Enigma was, in real-life, recovered by the British Royal Navy, and not by the American Navy as portrayed in this movie. The captions have been removed on the R2 DVD.

Footage, sets and models from that movie have been reused for other productions, including Submerged, depicting the loss of USS Sailfish, and the fictional Ghostboat. The Maltese replica is still afloat, moored in Marsa in the inner Grand Harbour. 

A special rig was built for the Das Boot production by a Maltese armory team, that allowed the submarine's anti-aircraft gun to both fire and recoil, something not done before with a blank-firing gun.

Malta, Germany (Munich), France (La Rochelle), and Czech Republic (Prague) were chosen for the location shooting, which started on 31 August 2017 and finished after 105 days on 20 February 2018. The budget was $32.8 million.

Solar Saviour

Church rooftop cross in solar panels, Canberra.

The promise of EVs to come

And with the sound of the petrolhead 2019 Summer Nats still ringing through my Canberra suburb of Lyneham, it is good to be reminded of the massive wave that will break over the car culture in the next decade.

Probably the easiest way of keeping up is to enjoy the YouTube episodes of Fully Charged as they come out.

The first episode of 2019, a ramble through expected developments in EVs this year by producer and host Robert Llewellyn is only a "talking head" but reminds just how out of touch Australia is becoming.

As a point of comparison Red Victor One, the worlds fastest street legal car was on display at Summer Nats. It boasts 0-100kph in one second but cost the owner roughly $200,000 to custom build and potters about the streets at 56 L/100 km.  The production Tesla model s p100d with ludicrous mode costs about half of that and does 0-100kph in 2.5seconds with a pottering equivalent fuel consumption of 2.26 L/100 km...and quietly.

New Year Photowalk

Commonwealth Park: Birds in Flight

Derelict housing on Northbourne Avenue

Friend's go shopping

Cycling through Commonwealth Park

Police Building, Constitution Avenue

Bikes

While the hotrods of the SummerNats roar only a kilometer away, Canberrans find their own quiet way

For the record

Day after the New Year, supermarkets move to celebrating Easter withe traditional buns