Improvement to Workplace Relations advertisement

Here's an amusing improvement to the Workplace Relations media saturation campaign spotted on a Flinders St tramstop...

Despite the saturation campaign (27 TV, radio and press advertisements to date), I notice a recent Roy Morgan survey commissioned by GetUp! indicates the results are less than impressive:

• 45% feel less positive towards the Government's laws as a result of the multi-million dollar campaign.
• 23 per cent say it made them feel better about the laws.
• 24 per cent say the ads made no difference
  
• 8 per cent not sure.

Prepare for an onslaught when the election is announced!

Sustainable House Day 2007 Sunday 9th September (Victoria)

Sustainable House Day is a national open house scheme organised by the Australian and New Zealand Solar Energy Society (ANZSES). It showcases sustainable design features to encourage adoption in new and existing homes and homes and to show how simple, easy and cost effective sustainable living can be.

Victorian open houses:
WestWyck 492 Victoria Street, Brunswick West VIC 3055
19 Murray Street,West Brunswick, Victoria, 3055
25 carron Vale Road, Mooroolbark, Victoria, 3138
103 Stewart Street, Brunswick, Victoria, 3056
3/924 Toorak Road, Camberwell, Victoria, 3124
39 Stanbridge Street, Daylesford, Victoria, 3460
13 Queensberry Street, Daylesford, Victoria, 3460
13A Queensberry Street, Daylesford, Victoria, 3460
7 Trafalgar Avenue, Altona Meadows, Victoria, 3028
6 Pritchard lane, Beechworth, Victoria, 3747
27 Rose Street, Sandringham, Victoria, 3191

Further info and details of other states: Sustainable House Day

Gapminder World 2006: Visualisation of World development data

Gapminder World 2006 is is an interesting free tool for visualising statistical data. It provides a very effective interface for dynamically representing relationships between variables showing trends over time. The Gapminder foundation believe that decision makers, politicians and educators need more accessible tools such as this to make use of existing global development statistics and to improve understanding about the complex society.

Unfortunately, using the tool with your own data is not yet possible, although Google recently acquired Gapminder's Trendalyzer software and development team so this may eventually be possible.

As it stands you can chart the following World Development Indicators on two axes and dynamically map changes over time - typically 1975 - 2006.

• CO2 emissions
• Child mortality
• Fertility rate
• Contraceptive use
• Economic growth
• Income per capita
• Internet use
• Life expectancy
• Military budget
• Number of girls c/f boys in school
• Phone users
• Physicians per head
• Population
• Urban population
• Women in workforce

The easiest way to see how it works is to view the one minute demo.

You can create your own charts, e.g. I've used the tool here to compare per capita CO2 emissions of various countries with similar income levels.

Hans Rosling, one of the founders, demonstrates at TED 2007 how global trends issues and relationships can be powefully presented.

Solving Melbourne's Transport Crisis - Community Meeting 30 August

Thursday 30 August
5.30pm for 6.00-8.00pm
Swanston Room
Melbourne Town Hall

Speakers include:
Evidence based transport planning Dr Paul Mees, Senior lecturer in Transport and Land Use Planning, University of Melbourne and author of Melbourne’s Future Transport Options, (MCC, 2005)

Implications of global warming and peak oil for transport Cr Janet Rice, Chair, Metropolitan Transport Forum, Councillor and former Mayor, City of Maribyrnong

Transport funding – myth and reality Peter Fitzgerald, Infrastructure expert and author of Review of Partnerships Victoria Provided Infrastructure, (Vic Gov, 2004)

Where to from here? Cr Janet Rice, Metropolitan Transport Forum
Angela Munro, Citizens for a Liveable Melbourne

Organised by the Metropolitan Transport Forum with Citizens for a Liveable Melbourne in association with the Municipal Association of Victoria, Victorian Local Governance Association and the Blue Wedges, Friends of the Earth, Green Wedges Coalition, Institute for Sensible Transport, Koonung/Mullum Forestway Association, Protectors of Public Lands Victoria, Western Region Environment Centre and Environment Victoria.

RSVP:
Susie Strain, MTF mtf@mtf.org.au
Angela Munro, CALM Tel 0429 355 474

Burnout Self-Test Tool

For those of you still with your nose to the grindstone...
Here's a Burnout Self-Test tool to help you look at the way you feel about your job and work experiences and identify burnout risk.
Retrospectively I scored 66!

Generic casserole recipe

Appealing to a non-cook like me now having to think about cooking, but I'm sure this will cause much mirth to others - hence 'humour' tag. The idea/hope is that you just need to memorize the one generic recipe and reuse it according to ingredients on hand, etc.

1 cup main ingredient
1 cup second ingredient
1-2 cups starchy ingredient
1 1/2 cups binder
1/4 cup “goodie”
seasoning
topping

Main ingredient: tuna, cubed chicken, turkey, ham, seafood, etc.
Second ingredient: thinly sliced celery, mushrooms, peas, chopped hard-boiled eggs, etc.
Starchy ingredient: thinly sliced potatoes, cooked noodles, cooked rice, etc.
Binder: cream sauce, sour cream, can of soup, etc.
“Goodie”: pimiento, olives, almonds, water chestnuts, etc.
Topping: cheese, bread crumbs, etc.

An example given is chicken + mushrooms + rice + cream of chicken soup + cheese combo (no goodie).

This post is calling out for comments & advice!

[from The Simple Dollar review of The Complete Tightwad Gazette (p625)]