Qantas rule leaves toddler stranded

The "moron of the day" award goes to Qantas staff in Christchurch.
Full story here
So they have a rule that young children must be accompanied by someone at least 15yrs old. Sensible rule. Their dodgy website then sells tickets to a young child and a 14yr old. Then when they both turn up to fly, these rule-following morons refuse to let the young child fly. Do they really think that stranding a 2yr old away from its family is a better result than the kid being accompanied by an "adult" who is less than one year younger than their rule says is acceptable?
Some people on this earth still know how to use their brain and when to break a rule. These Qantas morons clearly do not.

Sustainability Commissioner knows nothing about cars

Call to slug petrol heads more for rego
Petrol guzzlers should be slugged more in vehicle registration than those who drive greener cars, according to Victoria's sustainability watchdog.
A report by Environmental Sustainability Commissioner Ian McPhail recommends registration fees be pegged to emissions output. Under the scheme, Victorians who own more efficient cars would qualify for concessions on their registration bill.

Ian McPhail does not understand that cars only emit pollutants when they are being driven. The pollution is highly correlated with litres of fuel consumed, is closely linked to km driven, but has no connection at all with time elapsed. eg a registered car that sits idle all year emits no pollutants and guzzles no petrol.
One good way of deterring petrol guzzlers would be to increase the tax on every litre of petrol.
A reasonable way of deterring petrol guzzlers would be to tax every vehicle based on the km driven and a guess of its average fuel consumption.
However, it is moronic to try to deter petrol guzzlers by increasing the yearly registration charge. Under this system a person who drives a few km per week in his old Ford Falcon will be slugged whereas someone who burns through an enormous amount of fuel in a small car will be rewarded. How sustainable is that?

These govt clowns have got no idea of the user-pays principle, and in this case, no idea how to improve environmental sustainability.

Money down the drain?

Over the space of many years I have been highly critical of government for never having adequate backups or reserve capacity. Time and time again mishaps occur and we find out that govt has no backup. One part fails (or there is a fire on one part) on the Hornsby to Gosford railway and there is no backup. Hospital loses power - no backup. A few train drivers get sick - no backup. Roads at full capacity - no backup. Etc, etc.
One of the most important things that govt provides for us here in Sydney is water. It all comes from one or two dams and there is no backup supply. Finally govt has wisely decided a backup is required and has ordered one. Now, our govt is grossly incompetent and no doubt will get this wrong in many ways and spend far too much money. I don't doubt that. However they do deserve credit for finally giving us a backup supply of a vital service.

Some people however are not happy:
So much money down the drain
Water plant branded a bungle

This is a rare occasion when I agree with a politician:
$2 a week guarantees water supply

Caring in Cowra

I have grave concerns over the quality of care that injured or ill people are receiving from the NSW Ambulance Service - particularly in Cowra.
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Car-hater makes the news again

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Man who doesn't drive a car or use an MP3 Player wants the combination banned
chief executive of the Pedestrian Council, Harold Scruby, wants to see the devices banned for drivers and the manufacturers to place warnings on their packaging.

He says the "block-out effect" of headphones compounds the risk posed by listening to music in cars.

"If you take out the audial sense, you remove one of the most important aspects of road safety," Mr Scruby said. "You wouldn't hear an ambulance or police car, let alone someone tooting you."

Court overturns father's grounding of 12-year-old

http://www.smh.com.au/news/unusual-tales/court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12yearold/2008/06/19/1213770765707.html

A Canadian court has lifted a 12-year-old girl's grounding, overturning her father's punishment for disobeying his orders to stay off the internet, his lawyer said.

The girl had taken her father to Quebec Superior Court after he refused to allow her to go on a school trip for chatting on websites he tried to block, and then posting "inappropriate" pictures of herself online using a friend's computer.

The father's lawyer Kim Beaudoin said the disciplinary measures were for the girl's "own protection" and is appealing the ruling.

"She's a child," Beaudoin said.

"At her age, children test their limits and it's up to their parents to set boundaries.

"I started an appeal of the decision today to reestablish parental authority, and to ensure that this case doesn't set a precedent," she said. Otherwise, said Beaudoin, "parents are going to be walking on egg shells from now on".

"I think most children respect their parents and would never go so far as to take them to court, but it's clear that some would and we have to ask ourselves how far this will go."

According to court documents, the girl's internet transgression was just the latest in a string of broken house rules. Even so, Justice Suzanne Tessier found her punishment too severe.

Beaudoin noted the girl used a court-appointed lawyer in her parents' 10-year custody dispute to launch her landmark case against her dad.

AFP

This is an interesting one. There are two questions:
1) If a 12yr-old girl chats on websites and posts photos of herself deemed inappropriate by her father is it a fair punishment to ground her and not allow her to go on a school trip?
2) Who best decides this?

My answers are:
1) Sounds fair to me
2) Her father

Canadian voters would answer:
1) Not fair - too severe
2) A Judge - Justice Suzanne Tessier

Towering Stupidity

The "moron of the day" award goes to the people responsible for the Sydney Tower lift fiasco, the moron lift designer, the morons maintaining the tower and the moron staff who failed to call for help in a timely fashion when the lift went wrong.

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This is a rare situation where praise goes to an intelligent police officer, Steve Adams, who appears to know something about doing his job:
The police officer who lead last night's rescue operation also criticised the management for waiting over an hour before calling his squad.
Senior Constable Steve Adams said the place was in a panic when he arrived.
"People had lost control of things and were running out of options, that's why I had to yell and scream at people and say 'I'm here now, it's my job'," he said.
Mr Adams said he was concerned the long delay in contacting the police had jeopardised the health and safety of the trapped passengers.
Ten people were confined to the tiny upper half of the double decker lift, with no food or water and with cold night winds blowing through the doors.
An eleventh person was trapped on her own in the bottom half.
"I made the point that they shouldn't have been there an hour and a half to start with and I needed to get them out.
"People do deteriorate really quickly, the body starts to shut down."

Cut-price education

I am having trouble making sense of this one "Uni cheats outsource to India"

http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/sydney-uni-cheats-outsource-to-india/2008/07/03/1214950908513.html

Students who want to learn how to be computer programmers have discovered that programming can be done cheaply in India. As a result, these students are paying Indians to do their programming assignments.
If I found out that my current studies would give me skills of so little value, I would quit the course. What would you do?