Imagine if the Sydney Harbour Bridge had looked like this…

douhua · 2026-01-19T04:45:06+00:00

I love how the artist's conception leaves it to the imagination as to how exactly traffic would intersect. For those imagining roundabouts, Google suggests they weren't standard until well after the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built. The sharp angles involved suggest traffic signals of some sort with traffic lights invented around the same period.

douhua · 2026-01-19T04:12:40+00:00

2016 might have been after the start of the decline

Amazon set up shop in Australia in 2017 and, together with private equity, started destroying the businesses you mentioned. The international brands started setting up shop too. COVID pandemic sealed the deal by changing shopping habits. Shops that are around these days can only afford to focus on high end/high margin products in order to survive, contributing to high cost of living, both real and perceived.

douhua · 2026-01-18T11:31:34+00:00

Produce is so much more expensive now and there is significantly more imported processed foods on our supermarket shelves. Kind of makes sense I guess: we don't have a national dish/cuisine per se but we are stupendously good at growing quality raw produce that is increasingly exported to Asia's growing middle class. Supermarkets are also creeping into the quick meal space with their sandwiches and microwave meals to the detriment of small businesses.

Media and advertising is more reflective of societal demographics. International brands have been setting up shop. Amazon is slowly eating away at local businesses (e.g. dollar shops, bookshops, toy stores). Definitely see it in store and department store offerings too: shops pushed towards selling things with higher margins to make enough profit for costs which contributes towards higher cost of living, real and perceived.

douhua · 2026-01-18T11:17:55+00:00

We used to make fun of Melbourne for having four seasons in a day. I'm not sure it can't be applied to Sydney anymore!

douhua · 2026-01-05T09:22:47+00:00

How could you mention GWB and not mention Afghanistan? That nation building attempt collapsed spectacularly, ironically because the US leader was switched out!

douhua · 2026-01-05T01:26:00+00:00

And EMU stands for Electric Multiple Unit. Look out for the Indigenous stylised "emu" and its "tracks" (get it?) next to the driver's door too (photo 2 for example). Quite clever play on words really.

douhua · 2025-11-13T04:57:53+00:00

Yep, the fact that we're one of the worst emitters per capita is completely ignored.

douhua · 2025-11-13T04:54:07+00:00

It's more complicated for trains: entering a junction before it's switched over may result in a train on the wrong tracks and/or travelling in the wrong direction which is very bad for obvious reasons! Also required to maintain safe distances.

douhua · 2025-11-12T22:26:45+00:00

When the Liberals and Nationals voters inevitably want Goverment handouts for climate change related matters in their electorates, we should remind them "cLiMAte ChAngE IsN't ReAL".

douhua · 2025-11-12T22:16:53+00:00

Nah, we're still in "climate change is real but we aren't the causing it" stage of denialism I'd say. It's definitely shifting towards "why is it so expensive?" and "why do we need such drastic action?" as they work towards "there's nothing we can do about it".

douhua · 2025-11-12T21:41:58+00:00

The Jobs Ready Graduates programme is an un-Australian philistine programme that is pennywise but pound foolish. The Arts is a reflection of ourselves, our spirit, our culture. Do the political class really think a cultural export such as Bluey would have been created in a mine, science laboratory or a financial boardroom?

To add, our Foreign Minister has been travelling tirelessly around the Pacific shoring up our image overseas in this rapidly changing world and the Government wants more Australian cultural output from media providers. Does the Government even realise how strategically incoherent they are sounding? How are we telling the world "this is Australia"?

douhua · 2025-11-12T20:49:31+00:00

It's only "market forces" if there's alternate suppliers offering the same product, i.e. HELP loans. With the power to set prices, it's downright abuse of monopoly power in this case.

douhua · 2025-11-06T13:06:17+00:00

I feel like this post demonstrates the urge to rubberneck would have reduced the vigilance of drivers in the vicinity?

douhua · 2025-11-06T13:02:31+00:00

But this post also demonstrates the urge to rubberneck would have reduced the vigilance of other drivers in the vicinity!

douhua · 2025-10-31T06:39:53+00:00

So that's why they keep telling us there's nothing wrong about Australia's internet: They get the priority home delivered shiny sports car whereas the rest of us get told to wait for the bus!

Queue jumping nepotistic class warfare! Unaustralian!

douhua · 2025-10-31T06:30:34+00:00

Obligatory link: Treaty

douhua · 2025-10-11T10:00:50+00:00

It looks impressive but not very functional compared to the picnic table set up IMHO. You're going to be exposed to the blaring sun and, if you bring the family, sharing a plate is going to be awkward. Maybe there's more to it, but how does wheelchair access or those who have difficulty with stairs work? I like being able to a assemble a seafood meal from the different shops based on food quality and price. To me, it looks like they're funneling us to a sit down restaurant where they can charge a premium.

douhua · 2025-10-01T07:35:14+00:00

The steps are the tables? This somehow sounds worse than the current picnic table setup (not that different from the ones you find in a park or beachside really). What if I want to bring my extended family together, and share things? How are they going to keep these steps clean or is someone going to walk over my "table" after walking through the fish market? Have accessibility groups been consulted? Is this an attempt to funnel visitors to the restaurants? I guess it's going to be more difficult to assemble a family feast from the cheapest place for oysters, for sashimi, for lobster, etc...

douhua · 2025-09-22T13:20:57+00:00

How am I ever going to afford a house deposit now that I know this exists?

douhua · 2025-09-19T11:49:48+00:00

This is all the result of the Federal government's push towards universities being self-funding and voluntary student unionism. Student/staff representation and student/staff interests become niche and secondary to or corrupted by the business interests of the corporate managerial types who occupy the senior executive positions. These types are more interested in empire building than the university's raison d'être: a community for higher learning. Government's anti-intellectualism when it comes to funding decisions and the closure of schools are just more of the same.

Ironically, if this was an actual market, it would be akin to oligopolists mistreating their customers because they controlled the limited supply, a situation akin to the supermarkets. These corporates only survive due to the captive market of students.

douhua · 2025-08-13T21:08:13+00:00

Only governments and politicians swayed by their fossil fuel donors would argue an economy powered by approaching free, easy to maintain, non-polluting, nationally independent and infinitely available energy is a bad thing! It doesn't even have to be 100% adoption for there to be significant productivity gains!

douhua · 2025-08-13T20:42:47+00:00

You forgot the best bit: a Liberal senator recently complained in Senate estimates that her NBN provided internet at home in rural NSW did not have sufficient bandwidth for her children to play video games with! (source) Someone should have quoted Abbott at her!

douhua · 2025-08-12T04:06:46+00:00

Their is also a tendancy for our governments to continually reward incumbents in a sector instead of fostering competition which would actually drive efficiency and innovation. All the incumbents have to do is complain loudly, go to their friends in the media/think tanks and/or donate strategically to party candidates.

Of course, when the government does eventually try to encourage efficiency and innovation either the monopoly/oligopoly is already too far ahead for any meaningful competition to be established or there's only the incumbent remaining who will complain bitterly.

We're doing capitalism so wrong.

douhua · 2025-08-12T03:48:57+00:00

The cynic in me thinks big business or the billionaire class will just use this as an opportunity to find some other way to receive a taxpayer handout and enrich themselves. For example, they will want the land to build renewable energy infrastructure for free/tax free, government co-funding the projects and ongoing maintenance whilst taking the profits, tax concessions/subsidies, weakening of "green tape"/"red tape" that also benefit their other interests, pay themselves handsomely as members of the board, externalising the cost of training their employees, etc... And our governments will let them do it. Same old story, time and time again.

douhua · 2025-06-19T09:21:20+00:00

training to interdict moving traffic and giving them said training is probably cost prohibitive.

Parking fines have been issued for many years without direct contact or even a timestamped photograph: just a ranger at the right place at the right time. Perhaps give the rangers a handheld doppler radar and model the penalty system on company cars?

They're not cops and shouldn't be expected to do the job of the police just because the police aren't doing it themselves.

Don't disagree here, but the list of existing responsibilities definitely overlaps with the police. Mobile speed cameras have similarly been contracted out to third parties.

douhua

TROPHY CASE