What's with the unicycles?

I'm surprised that people couldn't organise to buy two wheels instead of one, have organised themselves into some form of pseudo-sporting body!

In the last couple of weeks, I've seen three different unicyclists in action, on the streets of Melbourne, peddling their awkward, inertia-unfriendly, yet still wheel-based machine.

A 'mountain unicycle' costs above 1k.

NEW PRICE With ultra-durable components including the strongest 700c rim available, the KH29 rolls smoothly over bumps and is a faster choice for cross-country or combination on/offroad riding. Brake not included.

Isn't it hard enough that you are attempting to 'climb a mountain' that you have to try and do it with ONE WHEEL and NO BRAKE?! If that's not a plan to weed out the silliest people with the most money, I don't know what is.

If there was ever any doubt...

that dolphins were intelligent creatures.

"When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on. This behaviour is interesting because it shows that Kelly has a sense of the future and delays gratification. She has realised that a big piece of paper gets the same reward as a small piece and so delivers only small pieces to keep the extra food coming. She has, in effect, trained the humans."

Again, if you have a chance, go watch "The Cove"

Pointless information #9216

Really busy today running workshops. Still managed to squeeze in a quick blog.

Shirley sent me a news story about how a wildlife biologist was quoted as saying that coyotes possibly attacked a grown woman because they mistook her for a deer.

Wildlife biologist Bob Bancroft said coyote attacks were extremely rare because the animals were usually shy. He said it was possible the coyotes had thought Mitchell was a deer or other prey.

Not just any deer, a doe - a deer, a female deer.

Anyway, while you're humming along to the Sound of Music, here's another interesting and pointless fact that has now entered my conciousness and which I hope to drill into yours.

According to this article. Coyotes, which are canine (belonging to the same family as the dog and wolf), are also called Prairie Wolves.

Yet the rodents who live in the same desert are called Prairie Dogs.

Who was the short-sighted misguided soul who saw a coyote (Prairie Wolf) EAT a big rat and call that rat a Prairie DOG?

Ah?

Super long weekend this week. Melbourne Cup Day tuesday. Hope u r all having fun!

Leftover Laughter

You know something's funny when you're still chuckling in bed, trying to calm yourself down so you can get some sleep.

But when you wake up in the morning and you've got some laughter left over from the night before, that's just downright hilarious.

Sorry for not sharing the private joke, but let's just say we both started out on a good note today and besides, you wouldn't find it funny. :)

I'm becoming more cynical

Popped out for a quick lunch yesterday and walking down a busy swanston st, I noticed a $10 note, neatly folded length wise, lying on the road.

I was the nearest person to it and it looked like a complete note, but my first reaction was to keep walking.

I don't know whether I was thinking it was a 1) TV Prank 2) dodgy note

But further analysing my immediate reaction, I realised that it was pure cynicism - I figured, that there's no way, on such a busy street, that this note wouldn't have been picked up earlier.

Maybe it's also because it was $10, and it was folded lengthwise. If it was a $50 or a $100, I might have been more inclined to risk looking silly.

But yeah. I'm definitely becoming more cynical. I'm sure I'll be yelling at little kids in the park soon, calling them whippersnappers and such.

*sigh*

Baby no enough

The statistics of Singapore's population was a fairly interesting read.

Some key snippets:
- Singapore’s total fertility rate (TFR) was 1.28 in 2008 (Replacement rate is 2.1)
- The median age at first marriage increased from 28.3 to 29.7 years for males, and from 25.7 to 27.1 years for females
- As of June 2008, there were more than 180,000 Overseas Singaporeans (OS)

Resident (Citizens & PRs) = 3.64m
Non-PRs = 1.2m
Total population = 4.84m

It's not hard to predict what the future composition of Singaporeans looks like. It's definitely not what it was 10 years ago, or now.

Chart 17 (on pg 16) raised an interesting question. It basically showed that there was a trend towards preference for a higher education level before a PR or citizenship was granted.

But it did raise the question, in my mind at least, as to why Secondary and below immigrants were being accepted to begin with? Were they asylum seekers (I highly doubt it) Is it more a lowering of standards in order to make up the numbers?

On that note, I figured I'd do some digging into the eligibility requirements to get PR status in Singapore.

Google directed me to the Naturalisation Eligibility Tool

I thought I'd try a simulation. Assuming I was an Australian citizen, with an Arts degree, earning a self-sustaining $3k a month. Let's pretend I was in Singapore 5 years ago studying to get my degree, of which 3 years I worked part time (I don't know if working on a student visa is legal but lets just try it anyway). For simplicity's sake, I picked 'Single' as status (otherwise I'd have to fill up a whole other section for spouse)

Click Submit, anndd...



"you are not eligible for Singapore Permanent Residence at this point in time."

Huh. Better make sure my passport hasn't expired yet. Or maybe I should be polishing up my CV instead. :P

(Edit: To be fair, I know from my 'General knowledge' that the road to PR is via holding a steady job in Singapore. But I guess the point I was making was more to do with what Singapore values as an entry criteria. They really shouldn't be called foreign 'talent')

Some people shouldn't own dogs

A tiny little dog followed his idiot owner who jaywalked across a main road, at night.

One car stopped. Another didn't.

Stupid owner. Poor dog.