According to the latest figure from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia has just experienced its fastest population increase ever! In the 12 months ending March 2007, we saw 307,100 new residents, 46% through “natural increase” (porking, I assume) and 54% through net migration.
Watching 29,000 aircraft
This isn’t a new video, but certainly one I like: a time lapse video of flight patterns over North America as they unfold over the course of a day.
You can clearly see the wave of activity following the time zones east to west as the morning commuter flights do their thing. International flights follow a different drummer.
One of the reasons I like this video is that it reminds us we’re all part of something much, much bigger. In this case it’s the human-made world of aviation, but like the Powers of Ten video, it helps generate a sense of perspective.
Thanks to The Long Now Foundation for the reminder — and follow their blog for many more similar reminders, such as a 35-year time lapse of the Tokyo skyline and some slow art.
I’ll write more about The Long Now Foundation another time.
Weekly Poll: Revealing comments
If you listen closely to the conversations between you and your friends, you’ll discover tiny little phrases that reveal who you really are.
So this week’s poll — yes, I know it’s a week late, deal with it! — asks you to choose from a number of phrases the one you’re most likely to use in conversation. Go to the website to vote.
[poll id=”10″]
Last week’s results: Yes, without a doubt, Duran Duran is the greatest band in the history of pop.
Antony Green’s Election Guide online
Ãœberanalyst Antony Green’s guide to the 2007 federal election is now online. That is all. At ease.
Feeling flat? Blame Sydney!
Are you feeling as uninspired today as I am? Been like that all week? Perhaps it’s what I’m going to start calling “The Sydney Effect”.
OK, if you’re not in Sydney this won’t work for you. But today it’s not just me feeling flat. So is my office manager. So is The Other Andrew. So are most people I’ve spoken with on the phone — and email volume is definitely down today.
A few years back I was talking with a psychiatrist who’d practised all over the world, including Sydney, London, the US, Europe. He’d noticed that in every city, each day his clients would be in different moods depending on what’d been happening in their life. Every city, that is, except Sydney.
In Sydney, if his first client was depressed, then everyone else that day would be depressed too. If that first client was angry, so was everyone else.
He didn’t know why, he just knew that it happened.
Maybe I should run a test each morning. Phone someone at random, see what mood they’re in, and plan the rest of the day accordingly.
Neo-Con Dating Service
I guess if Julie Bishop won’t be my neo-con sex kitten, I’ll have to settle for Bill Maher’s Neo-Con Dating Service.