farmdoc's blog post number 587

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…
1. sick of unwanted calls from unwanted people trying to sell me unwanted goods and services, I joined the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s 'Do Not Call Register' [1]. The Australian Direct Marketing Association has called telemarketing 'the lifeblood of commerce in this country'. Screw them.
2. the Liberal Party, bitterly divided over Rudd’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, is in the process of imploding [2]. It couldn’t happen to a nicer lot of people. Rudd’s performance on global warming/climate change is appalling. Theirs is abysmal. Shit eh.
3. talking of which, the Nutrition Diva told me that bananas contain a type of fibre called pectin that absorbs water in the intestines and so can help with diarrhoea. Also bananas are high in potassium, a nutrient that can be depleted by diarrhoea [3]. I love bananas regardless.
4. saw the launch of bicycling tours around my area (i.e. the Great Western Tiers). Maps and podcasts are downloadable from the website [4]. It’s a great idea. But…
5. I saw that so far this year the media have reported nine crashes involving log trucks [5]. These crashes have been State-wide. Nevertheless cyclists are no match for log trucks. And they never will be.
6. it was reported that up to 40 plug-in electric vehicles – either full electric or hybrid – are being developed by the world’s motor manufacturers for launch within three years, propelling electricity to the forefront of alternative transport [6]. That’s great news – both environmentally and geopolitically.
7. I read that male staff at a UK National Trust property are being encouraged to piss on a compost bale, saving the organisation water via less toilet flushing. But also to create nutrient rich compost activator. Yet women are excluded - their piss is considered too acidic! [7]. Ho hum.
8. Sweetheart Vivienne was invited to read from Alzheimer’s: a Love Story – at the prestigious Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas [8]. At 6 p.m. on Monday 15.3.10. Good for her. I’ll be there. You couldn’t keep me away.
Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

farmdoc's blog post number 526

I love Tom Waits’s 2002 song Long Way Home – whether Tom sings it, or Norah Jones does. Given the choice, I’ll take the long way home. Every time. Because usually it’s more picturesque; there’s less traffic; and it gives me time to think, and to enjoy the journey. But some people take the short way home. They’re habitual shortcuts takers. And when people take shortcuts, they miss something. In these straitened times at the tail end of the GFC, or just after it, business costs must be closely watched to maximise profits (or minimise losses). Especially in industries that are feeling the cold winds of economic adversity blow in their faces. The logging industry, for example. With margins and profits squeezed, it’s no surprise log truck maintenance expenditure has fallen, and so log trucks are less well maintained. Last Saturday the ABC reported that recent random safety checks of Tasmanian log trucks found problems with every truck stopped. The problems included metal cracks, and worn chains and straps (allegedly) securing loads. Yet alarmingly, no trucks were put off the road until fixed. I’ve previously written about the dangers of log trucks. This latest report compounds my fears. Many fold. I’m just hoping against hope that, time being money, log trucks don’t take the road I’m taking. That is, the long way home.

farmdoc's blog post number 29

One reason I came to live in Tasmania was to ride my bike in what I believed was cycling heaven. But I haven’t ridden much at all. The reason? Log trucks. Most country roads here are infested with these monsters. They are tall, and their high loads make them inherently unstable. They are wide, and so they often overlie the centre line. They speed, because to their drivers time is money. This time pressure may explain why they are driven with intimidating hostility towards other road users – cars, other trucks even, and therefore of course bicycles. It is not one of life’s pleasures, I assure you, to be pedalling away at a brisk 30km/hour when a log truck roars up behind, slams on its exhaust brakes, and with a threatening growl drops down into a low gear. And their drivers, of whom I have seen several in my consulting room over the years, tend to be uneducated aggressive men with chips on their shoulders (pun intended). Yet despite all this, my local municipal authority, the Meander Valley Council, recently announced plans to become a world mecca for touring cyclists, with signage, podcasted touring routes, the works. I wish this initiative well, but it seems doomed to failure unless something is done to remove the log truck scourge.