No charge today

How not to have an EV Charging Station.

• The charging station should be easily visible (inclusive of signage, parking bays and charging equipment) and accessible for users to find. 
• A prominent location has the additional effect of creating awareness amongst the general public of the existence of EV charging infrastructure. 
• Though prominence is important, the location should not be in a premium, high-demand parking area that would encourage non-EVs to occupy the charging bay, or attract high parking fees. 
• Accessibility in terms of limitations to non-paying patrons, and out-of-hours restrictions also need to be considered.

Don't be vague

Haig Park on the North of the Civic area, Canberra, was controversially named after Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, KT, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCIE,  a senior officer of the British Army. During the WW1, he commanded the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front. He designed operations that involved the wholesale slaughter of troops including 48,900 Australians. 

The tone of the time was summed up by Adrian Henri’s line “Don’t be vague, blame General Haig”. That was a parody of an advertisment of the time and neat since the General owed his wealth to the Haig whisky business.

Puffing Billy

The Newcastle  colliery steam engine 'Puffing Billy' was an important influence on inventor George Stephenson, who lived locally, and its success was a key factor in promoting the use of steam locomotives by other collieries in north-eastern England.

It also entered the language as a metaphor for an energetic traveller, and phrases like "puffing like Billy-o" and "running like Billy-o" are thought to derive from the locomotive's name.
In 1952 British light music composer Edward White wrote a melody named after the locomotive. The piece became ubiquitous in British media, being used on BBC Light Programme's 'Children's Favourites', a radio request programme, from 1952 to 1966 & also appearing in numerous commercials and radio shows. 

Source  

Memories are made of this

On display as part of the 1960s exhibition at the National Library in Canberra, are a few  fine examples carpenter Fred Ward's original furniture for the Library. 
A feature for anyone who used it was the anachronistic cardboard Dewey index catalogue, exquisitely boxed with brass and hardwood by Ward as well as the new-fangled Library of Congress index. His furniture subtly contributed to the building's atmosphere and launch a thousand academic papers. 

Ah, remember the slide, click and flick that went with the chore of tracking down dusty gems hiding in the Book Stack somewhere in the basement?

Max Dupain (1911–1992) photgraphed the Card Catalogue at NLA in 1968

One in the eye

When Mount Stromlo Observatory was destroyed during the 2003 ACT bushfires, parts of the 79-year-old Yale Columbia Refractor telescope was salvaged. They were used by Tim Wetherell to create this heroic sculpture of The Astronomer that stands outside the National Science & Technology Centre Pity the birds also like it as a roost. 

The smartphone: downfall of civilization

Forget Climate Change, forget the disparities in wealth, forget the waste.  Its smartphones that are causing our society to crash.

Jean M. Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University is responsible for this (not so outlandish) thesis. She has authored two books Generation Me and iGen but her condensed article that covers the smartphone is in a 2017 Atlantic article.

It has lots of interesting points but the most important is that there was an abrupt change in teen behaviour around 2012 when, for the first time, the majority of US teens had a smartphone.  Suicide rates doubled, depression was found to correlate with screentime.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/ 

Journey of a thousand miles

https://www.habitsforwellbeing.com/20-quotes-to-inspire-you-to-take-small-simple-steps-each-day/

...and you can already walk

...so watch your step

...begins with the delusion that it can be made without a stopover

...and another, and another, and another, and another...