Fraser revisited

An extended weekend to Fraser Island ended this Sunday. A few months ago we decided to pay Fraser another visit (read about our previous excursion in Danish here) with Rikke.

Day #1: Departure

Majken and I picked-up the biggest Toyota Landcruiser we could rent. We packed our camping gear and made our way to Fraser Island. Unfortunately, we were a bit slow in packing and made a wrong turn on our way to Rainbow Beach, costing us an extra couple of hours driving time. The delay meant we missed the last barge leaving for the island. As a result we spent our first night in Rainbow.

Day #2: Waddy Point

We left early for Inskip Point where the barges depart. Before reaching Inskip we engaged the 4wd and deflated the tyres to gain better traction on the sand.

It is hard to describe the feeling of hitting the beach on Fraser from the barge - it was a mixture of pleasure and anxiety. Pleasure at the prospect of driving on the beautiful beaches, and anxiety of not knowing if the vehicle would stall or instantly get stuck in dunes.
Fraser Island lies just off the east coast of Australia. At 122 km long, it is the largest sand island in the world. Remnants of tall rainforest growing on sand and half the world's perched freshwater dune lakes are found on the island. The combination of shifting sand-dunes, tropical rainforests and lakes makes it an exceptional site and popular tourist attraction.

We made our way to the northern part of the island, making excellent time driving on the hard sand of 75 Mile Beach. 75 Mile Beach is not only a fantastic beach it is also Fraser Island’s superhighway and air strip - cars (4wds) and planes share this piece of sand.

We reached our destination, Waddy Point, around noon and set up camp. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach. Swimming in the sea is, contrary to tradional wisdom, not a normal activity on Fraser with it's shark infested waters, but we found a little inlet where the kids could play and bath safely.

Day #3: Champagne Pools and Indian Head

It was a fairly short drive to the Champagne Pools. Here waves from the ocean crash over the rocks, filling the rock pools with white foam giving the impression of champagne. A great place for Tobias and Christoffer to play.

Fraser Island was called K'gari by its Aboriginal inhabitants, it means paradise. The island shows evidence of Aboriginal occupation of least 5000 years, although it is possible that further archaeological work may reveal evidence of earlier occupation. Early European reports indicated that Fraser Island was heavily populated by Aboriginal people, but subsequent research suggests that there was a small permanent population of 400 - 600 which swelled seasonally to perhaps 2,000 - 3,000 in the winter months, when seafood resources were particularly abundant. The last Aborigines - Butchulla tribe - left the island in 1904 when the Aboriginal mission at Bogimbah was closed.

Leaving the Champagne Pools, we headed to Indian Head with a perfect view of the coastland. After some camera snapping including sightings of some dolphins and a Manta Ray we descended to the beach and spent the rest of the day resting and playing in the sand.

Day #4: Central Station

In the morning we packed our belongings and headed south on 75 Mile Beach passing a shipwreck of a luxury liner from the 1930s. It is slowly sinking into the sand. In a couple of decades it is likely be entirely submerged at the current rate of erosion.

Travelling further south we reached the entrance to Lake Wabby. The lake is a short (1.8 km) walk through the rain forest and over rolling sand dunes. The walk, however, didn't feel short in the heat and with Christoffer on my shoulders.

Wabby is a barrage lake, formed when sand blow blocks the waters of a natural spring. This phenomenon is easy to see. On one side the lake's deep green waters are bordered by a giant sand dune that is slowly moving into the water. In a century or so, the sand dune will probably have swallowed the lake. In the meantime the sand dune pushing its way into the lake provides for a speedy launch (jump) into the lake - something Tobias and Rikke did a number of times.

Late afternoon we arrived at our campsite for the day - Central Station. Located in the middle of the rainforest it was formerly the central point for logging operations and is now a picture perfect camping ground.

That night a tropical storm passed overhead. For both Christoffer and Tobias (and Rikke) it was a challenging evening with thunder and lightning and heavy ran. Christoffer in particular was upset as it was his first real experience of thunder. However, after a while he grew accustomed to the noise.

Day #5: MacKenzie and home

For our final day on Fraser, we made our way to Lake Mackenzie, cutting through the rain forest in the rain. Mackenzie is a perched dune lake. It was formed when organic matter, such as leaves, bark and dead plants, gradually built up and hardened in depressions created by the wind. With the weather not in our favour we only spent 15 minutes admiring the crystal clear waters before heading to 75 Mile Beach for a final drive to the Barge pick-up point.

We arrived home late afternoon. Below is a picture we took of a Dingo - the only one we sighted on the island.

Communications Day

Today I was quoted in Communications Day: CCC urges rejection of Telstra demands (Page 3)

The Competitive Carriers' Coalition has urged broadband policy makers to switch off from the incumbent’s demands and regulatory dictates in order to accelerate world class broadband infrastructure.

CCC Executive Director David Forman said that if, as recently claimed, broadband is a disgrace, “it is one of Telstra’s making.” He added that “the idea of building a policy response according to the dictates of the incumbent is not what we understand to be the model being pursued in those nations leading the international broadband pack. ”

The CCC endorsed reports yesterday from Allen Consulting and Marsden Jacobs Associates which claim that structural separation is a viable option to encourage competitive, world standard broadband investment in Australia.

Marsden Jacobs Associates senior economist Jasper Mikkelson said “turning to the incumbent is the wrong response and not what has been done in other jurisdictions. It is a wrong response because it is an answer to the wrong question. It is backward-looking in an environment that needs to be forward-looking and pro-competitive. Creating a competitive environment is the only way to improve Australia’s broadband situation.”

Telstra responded stating that structural separation debate had been argued last year and policy makers opted for a version of this which is only finally coming into effect at great cost to Telstra. “Of course they would like to see Telstra tied up in even more red tape, but strangely none of these companies are keen on such schemes themselves... particularly AAPT/Telecom New Zealand,” the Telstra spokesperson said. He added that the real debate Australia should be having is about how to get faster broadband to more people, “this proposal would only make matters worse.”

The Allen Consulting Group report, “Structural Separation, why it is needed and what can be done,” claims that the fully privatised Telstra is likely to ramp-up its sabotage behaviour. “Structural separation can potentially reduce sabotage behaviour, as the incentive for it only occurs when the monopolist is integrated. In an environment of continued Telstra integration, competition in Australian telecommunications may never fully realise its potential.”

Forman added that the current public discourse is the opposite of what we should be talking about. “We are trapped in a dialogue about what favours we should do Telstra to help them invest without risk. We are alone on the world in having so little faith in competition. We are alone in the world in clinging to thinking that had its heyday in the 1960s but now looks as archaic as the Berlin Wall,” Forman said.

Von Neumann

I wouldn't normally make reference to an article about economics in this blog. However, I read an article today from Forbes called A Beautiful Theory. It is about mathematician John Von Neumann who made some important contributions to economic theory. Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern were part of my second year microeconomics course at university in the form of expected utility theory.

The article is a very easy read and provides some background on the development of the economic discipline on which my Master Thesis was based - Game Theory.

Here is a printed version of the article.

A condensed version is below:

The revolution in the social sciences began in the 1920s, when the man Time magazine called "the best brain in the world" decided he would work out how to win at poker. John von Neumann's quicksilver genius accelerated the development of the atomic bomb by a year, and he was one of the fathers of the computer.

Von Neumann was only interested in poker because he saw it as a path toward developing a mathematics of life itself. He wanted a general theory--he called it "game theory"--that could be applied to diplomacy, war, love, evolution or business strategy. But he thought that there could be no better starting point than poker: "Real life consists of bluffing, of little tactics of deception, of asking yourself what is the other man going to think I mean to do. And that is what games are about in my theory."

In 1944, Von Neumann teamed up with the economist Oskar Morgenstern to publish the bible of game theory, A Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. The essence of the theory was the mathematical modeling of a strategic interaction between rational adversaries, where each side's actions would depend on what the other side was likely to do.

A Theory of Games and Economic Behavior was widely hailed as an original and rigorous foundation for modern social science.

The admirers were soon disillusioned. To understand why, consider the toy model of poker presented in A Theory of Games. The model certainly meets the challenge that Von Neumann set for himself--bluffing, which seems to be such a psychological affair, emerges from the pure mathematics of the game's equations. Armed with Von Neumann's mathematics, even a computer could learn when to bluff.

But the trouble is that it would take a supercomputer to crunch through the complexities of the model's mathematics. Worse, in order to reach a solution, Von Neumann had to simplify the game of poker dramatically. Real poker is hugely more complicated--and so, too, is real life.

This is a more serious problem than it appears, because game theory is all about "asking yourself what is the other man going to think I mean to do."

Von Neumann and Morgenstern developed a theory of "zero sum" games, such as poker, where one player's loss is the other player's gain. If you play the optimum strategy in that sort of situation, and the other player makes mistakes, you will win.

But real-life games are not usually zero-sum. Consider the plot of the movie "Dr. Strangelove," in which the Soviets rationally create a Doomsday Device which will wipe out the world if they are attacked. Before they can tell anyone, a rogue general launches a strike against them. Peace was a possibility, but instead, the human race is destroyed. That's about as non-zero-sum as you can get.

It is also a reminder that in most situations, the point is not to beat some opponent but to do well for yourself. That will involve understanding the man on the other side of the game. If you think he is rational, and he isn't, your strategy will go badly wrong.

Some brilliant mathematicians and economists have worked hard to patch up these holes in the Von Neumann project, including Nobel prize winners Robert Aumann, John Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten. The most famous of them all is John Nash, who was surprisingly made a celebrity after Russell Crowe played him in the biopic A Beautiful Mind.

Game theory has a lot to contribute to the analysis of life, love and economics. But the game will only go according to plan if you're sure the other fellow knows the rules.

Busy Christmas

Yesterday Majken's friend Rikke arrived from Denmark after spending a few days in Sydney. Her arrival marks the beginning of a busy and eventful Christmas. On Wednesday we drive to Fraser for a few days camping and sightseeing. The following Wednesday my parents arrive after spending time in New Zealand and Melbourne.

TIE Fighter Advanced

A couple of weeks ago we baked Danish Christmas cookies. Tobias was heavily involved and was very keen on gingerbread men (not the gingerbread women). I wonder what he would have thought of building (and baking) a space ship instead. This is exactly what a few science fiction fans in Sweden did first Advent - made a TIE Fighter Advanced (the prototype starfighter in Star Wars, flown by Darth Vader during the Battle of Yavin). Swedish freaks!

Click here to see more "Bilder från 2006 års pepparkaksbak i Läbyvad".

Triathlon

Today we left the apartment early at 4.45 am to make an hours drive north of Brisbane to a triathlon race. Our neighbours Ross and Gale are triathlon fanatics and persuaded me to give it a go. The course was a 1 km swim, 28 km bike ride and 8 km run.

With Ross there to help me, registration and preparation was easy. So I was pretty relaxed at the outset of the race. Both the swim and the ride went fairly well; however, my legs were not forthcoming during the run. Disappointing, since running is the only thing I have consistently been training. But all in all, it was a good experience and I will try to do a few more during the next months (and focus my training on getting my legs to run after a ride).

Below is some footage from the swim to bike transition and from the finish line (listen to the commentator at the finish).

Swim transition


Finish

Lego facts

Businessweek.com has an article about how LEGO bricks are made. The article contains a number of interesting facts:

• in 2000, LEGO was named "Toy of the Century" by Fortune magazine as well as by the British Toy Retailers Assn., beating out such other classics as the teddy bear and Mattel's Barbie;
• the bricks produced today can interlock with those produced back in 1958;
• the bricks are so versatile that the LEGO Group has calculated that just six eight-stud bricks can be arranged in 915,103,765 different ways;
• LEGO is the largest tire manufacturer in the world, it produces 306 million tiny rubber tires a year;
• the production process is so air tight that only 18 of 1 million pieces are considered defective; and
• in 2004, the company launched LEGOfactory.com, where anyone can download a LEGO Digital Designer and build his own LEGO model. After that, you can either save it in a gallery or buy the pieces needed and have it sent to your home to build it in real life.

To take a look at how the classic LEGO bricks are made: click here for the slide show.

Close-ups at the playground

Daylight saving (2)

As noted in my previous post there was a lot of discussion of daylight saving in Queensland a few weeks ago. Daylight saving has also been on the agenda in Perth, where the West Australian chased comments from the state’s leaders last week. Here are some of their deeper thoughts (sourced from Crickey):

Bruce Donaldson: Liberal MLC

Who will cook the tea? While everyone is prancing around the beach or running around a park kicking a football, what will happen? I have a feeling our major takeaway outlets will love daylight saving because Mum will say to Dad: 'We've had a great time in the park but I didn't put the chops or potatoes on'.

Ray Halligan: Liberal MLC:

If this legislation is passed and we have daylight saving, it will mean either that some alterations will have to be made or that people will have to accept that their wedding photographs may not be taken at sunset.

Barry House: Liberal MLC:

A lot of blokes do not turn up to work if the surf is up. They do not arrive until 11 o'clock in the morning. If we agree to daylight saving 11 o'clock will turn into 12 noon. By then it will be lunchtime, so they will take two hours off for lunch and think: 'To hell with it, it's not worth going to work at all'.

Robyn McSweeney: Liberal MLC:

The effect daylight saving will have on our circadian rhythms, which is the 24-hour cycle in the physiological process of living beings. When our circadian rhythm is upset, it puts us out of sorts. I do not want my circadian rhythm upset because I do not like being out of sorts.

The most thoughtful response, however, came from the Nationals MP for Avon, Max Trenorden – a very deep thinker indeed:

In physics there is no such thing as time. The Earth goes around the Sun and rotates on its axis, and that is pretty wobbly too. We need atomic clocks to adjust time every now and then because it is not perfect. It might be worthwhile for people to remember that.

Stoffer og Bias

Invisible

Ever wonder why young children aged between two and four years believe that you only have to cover your eyes (or head) to become invisible?  According to Nicola McGuigan and Martin Doherty this is probably because young children think of ‘seeing’ in terms of mutual engagement between people.

Here is further discussion.

Blogsite graph

Here is a site which converts data from websites into a graph resembling a molecule diagram of some sort. I ran it on this blog. The result is shown below.

The colours have the following meaning:

• blue: for links (the A tag)
• red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
• green: for the DIV tag
• violet: for images (the IMG tag)
• yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
• orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
• black: the HTML tag, the root node
• gray: all other tags

For screenshots of other sitegraphs have a look on flickr at websitesasgraphs.

Daylight saving

While New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia adjusted their clocks to daylight saving (adjusting the official local time forward, by one hour) a couple of weeks ago (earlier in Tasmania) we in Queensland together with Western Australia and the Northern Territory have left our clocks untouched.

In a 1992 referendum Queenslanders categorically rejected daylight saving. I am unaware of the specific arguments back then, but based on the discussions in the media this time around they seem to have revolved around beginning the day in darkness, ruining some farmers routines, disruption in sleep patterns and increased temperature at the end of the day.

Queenslanders appear to have the daylight saving discussion annually and this year was no exception with Premier Peter Beattie fronting the peculiar argument that daylight saving would have the consequence of increasing our exposure to the sun, increasing the risk of developing skin cancer (click here for a presentation of the arguments). Funny, he didn't argue for daylight saving as way of conserving power in these climate change times.

The main problem is of course that Queensland is huge in all directions. There is little seasonal variation in the tropical north, while the south has a more temperate and variable climate. For us living in Brisbane (which is the far east) the problem is also exaggerated. Sunrise here is earlier than in the west. Sunrise in summer is very early. It is light before 5am – great if you get up early to work, but not if you want to stay up past 10pm. Sunset is around 6:30pm.

Beattie has promised a vote on the issue next year to see if consensus has changed since 1992. This is a good move. Queensland should have time zones that suit the majority. The problem is that the vote is likely to reveal a very clear geographical preference, with the majority of people in the south east preferring daylight saving and the others the status quo. One way to solve this problem is to split Queensland into two time zones. The southern and eastern part would get the benefits of daylight savings and the northern and eastern parts would retain the existing system.

In any case, for us it is really not a big deal. We live more by the sun than a time zone. Tobias in particular is guided by the sun, although he gets up around 6am at the moment. However, as a consequence of the early sunrise I have shifted my morning routine and now get up at 5am.

There is a fairly detailed Wikipedia entry on daylight saving here and an Australian specific entry here.

Jellyfish

Tobias har tegnet vand- og brændmænd eller som han ynder at kalde dem jellymans.

Bugs & Frogs

Tobias var helt vild da jeg viste ham billeder af diverse insekter og froeer paa taet hold. Klik her (Click for large gallery of bug close-ups). Hans tre favoritter er nedenfor.

3 minutes

Hvis du har tre minutter saa klik her.  Den stoerste prik laver en rotation (en cirkel) paa tre minutter, den naeststoerste prik to rotationer, den tredjestoerste tre....osv.

Ikea Logan

A new Ikea store opened Friday in a suburb call Logan, 17 km south of Brisbane. In the week leading up to the opening, Ikea spammed the airwaves with an annoying commercial boasting a fictional Swede named Steve (a young bald trendy guy with glasses – thick black frame - dressed in yellow) fine talking the delights of Ikea in Lowgan (i.e. Logan with a Swedish accent).

In Melbourne we often visited Ikea because of their import of Swedish food products not readily available anywhere else. Within the first month of our arrival in Brisbane we decided to keep up the tradition and visit Ikea in Springwood. It turned out to be small and puny and as a result we didn't go again. However, with the new Ikea in Logan we were hoping for a better experience as it was being hailed as the largest Ikea in the Southern hemisphere.



We arrived at 10 to 10. There was already a queue building up outside the car park, but the attendants and police were quick to guide the cars into place. Once inside it was the familiar Ikea layout. On offer was a breakfast consisting of bacon and eggs for a lousy $2, so it wasn’t a surprise that people had turned up early for some food before hitting the exhibition. Because Tobias was hungry we bought some breakfast. It was poor (what can you expect for $2), but Tobias was happy nonetheless.

We ended up spending $120 on different items, most significantly some Christmas decorations. On our way out we also paid the Swedish food market a visit and bought some obligatory liquorish.

I am certain Logan Ikea will be a great success. Located between the Gold Coast and Brisbane it has a huge market base. It also has a reasonable size and therefore the full Ikea range with a decent warehouse to go with it.

Monicacos de Esperanza

Neil Guy, Burning Man photographer extraordinaire, has posted his striking 2006 pix: http://burningcam.com/2006/photos/.

Above is a photo of Monicacos de Esperanza by Pepe Ozan. An odd ensemble of surreal creatures walking towards nowhere. The creature in the foreground reminds me of cartoonist Vaugh Bodé. A common theme in his works was the use of lizard-like creatures as stand-ins for "real" humans (though most of his female characters are quite human).

Extracting extra value

Many DVDs have alternative language tracks. Especially many of the cartoons we have bought for Tobias contain a multitude of language options. Today Tobias watched the first 20 minutes of Garfield in Finnish by his own request. He had a ball!

iCrib

I was clicking my way through the Engadget website and came across the iCrib. Well, I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that someone would come up with a sound system that attaches an iPod to a crib. After all, babies like music and lots of people own iPods (we have 4), so it makes a whole lot of sense.

Christoffer is too old for the iCrib, he would probably grab it, wrestle it free and proceed to shake it and push any buttons he could find. Ultimately he would probably toss it through the air in an attempt to see how far it could fly. Probably better to consider the iCrib for the next one. And no... before you get too excited there is nothing on the way.

YouTube and looking forward

From Concept to Hyper-growth: Click here to view a fantastic video about the creation and early days of YouTube from the quiet co-founder, Jawed Karim. This is a University lecture he did on the 21 October. It is 50 mins long and required viewing for anyone interested in the process of creating an internet company.

Tobias and Christoffer hope you listen and learn. Although the world will probably have changed when you enter the business world, I would like to hope that you could be just a fraction as successful as the YouTube guys.

People are already searching the the next YouTube. One candidate could be outside.in.

Yesterday Boing Boing reported that Steven Johnson has published a new book The Ghost Map, a scientific thriller about an 1854 cholera outbreak on London’s Broad Street in Soho. The Ghost Map celebrates cartography in the context of neighborhood knowledge, the wisdom about a place that can only come from living there.

Now Steven has brought that same theme alive in today’s world of Google mash-ups and location-enhanced computing through outside.in.

outside.in is a tool for participating in the online conversations taking place about your community within your community. After you locate yourself on a map, real-time blog posts, reviews, and news relevant to that area appear. Drag the map and the content changes. The system draws from a wide variety of placeblogs, user-contributed links, and tagged neighborhood data. All of that hyperlocal information is then aggregated together and linked to the physical places where the news matters most.

So far it only appears to be working for selected areas in the US.

Abstract cars part II

In the previous post is a painting by Tobias. Majken managed to catch the artist on camera. It shows him initiating what apparently turned out to be a tractor. When you watch the clip, note the background music. This is not any recording of ours; it is music from the Roma Street Parklands at our doorstep.

Last weekend a multicultural festival was held in the park. The intention was to celebrate the diversity, colour and vibrancy of Brisbane’s population. There were samples of music, art, ceremonies and food from a multitude of different countries and the opportunity to take part in many of the activities.

An interesting feature was a world map (2 by 4 metres) where festival participants were encouraged to place a tiny red sticker on their parent’s country of origin. Not unsurprisingly there were mountains of red on Australia, most of Europe, New Zealand, Hong Kong (migration prior to 1997 prompted by the hand-over to China) and Pacific Islands. However, patterns I didn’t expect where: the relatively few stickers on countries like Spain and France; a red cloud around Peru and hardly any on the other South American countries; and two or three major pockets of red on Africa, suggesting substantial migrations from a few selected regions.

There was also Danish representation at the festival. The Danish Club of Brisbane had a stall where they sold hotdogs and aebleskiver (a small cake of batter cooked in a special pan resulting in a small round delicacy that is eaten with marmelade or sugar). According to Majken the quality of their aeblerskiver was not up to scratch. I guess this should be expected given that good home made versions are very difficult to come by even in Denmark.

Abstract cars

Tobias has painted a collection of different cars. Can you spot which ones are which?

Monster Trucks

Tobias har fået nogle nye biler – ikke helt almindelige biler men monster trucks. Han har i en periode leget med tog, sværd og computer men nu er biler et hit igen. Han har altid haft et særligt forhold til biler og tilbragte timer med at parkere (eller placere) dem i farveorden, da han var mindre.

Cars are back as Tobias preferred toy, not normal cars, but monster trucks.

Han fik sin første Hot Wheels monster truck fra fars trylletaske. Det er min gamle computertaske som har den særlige evne at den kan fremtrylle legetøj. Det sker dog ikke særlig ofte (hidtil kun tre gange på et halvt år) og det er kun mig, der ved hvornår tasken kan anvendes.

His first Hot Wheels monster truck came from dad’s magic bag, i.e. my old computer bag with the wonderful ability to conjure up toys. It doesn’t happen very often and at my full discretion (has only happened three times during the past 6 months).

Han har siden købt to til med penge han har tjent ved at støvsuge. Så nu har han tre ialt, hvilket gør det hele lidt lettere fordi Christoffer så også har mulighed for at lege lidt med dem. Det er ikke let at holde styr på alle tre på en gang.

He has since bought two additional trucks using the money he has earned vacuuming. So now he has three, which makes life a little easier because it gives Christoffer the opportunity to play with them as well. It is difficult to keep track of all three at once.

Hans fascination med monster trucks er ikke ny. Sidste år var vi på the Melbourne Show Grounds. Her fik han et førsthåndsindtyk af en monster truck ”in action”. Se videoklippet nedenfor.

His fascination with monster trucks is by no means new. At the Melbourne Show Grounds last year he saw one in action. See the video clip below.

Laughing with measuring tape

In a previous post I described how Tobias gets a lot of kicks out of everyday tools and objects. Here is an example of Christoffer (and Tobias) having fun with a measuring tape.

[Jeg har tidligere beskrevet hvordan Tobias faar en masse sjov ud af at lege med dagligdags ting. Her er et eksempel hvor Christoffer (og Tobias) har det sjovt med et maalebaand.]

TED

The TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference is an annual event where leading thinkers and doers gather for inspiration. Talks are made available on-line.  Click here.

There are may interesting talks, for example, Richard Dawkins Oxford University Professor and author of the 1976 book, The Selfish Gene and more recently The God Delusion gives a talk called Queerer Than We Suppose: The strangeness of science, he suggests that the true nature of the universe eludes us, because the human mind evolved to understand the "middle-sized" world we can observe. Also Hans Rosling professor of international health at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, provides an amusing presentation on how the well-being around the world has changed over the past forty years using the program Gapminder.

A bicycle light

Playing with non-conventional toys is always an interesting experience. Lately Tobias has been playing with my white bicycle light. He invites Christoffer to join him and they make their way to a dark spot where they can play with light. This afternoon Tobias explained the many functions the light has:

• A rocket – the white light is the exhaust from the rocket.
• A helicopter – the light has a flicker option. In his mind this translates to the propellers of the helicopter breaking the light.
• A light sword – not difficult to imagine as the light is pretty bright and therefore produces a beam.

He has also used the light to examine my face, mouth and hands. The mouth in particular was interesting because he is due for an examination at the dentist on Friday.

Story Bridge Climb

Yesterday I climbed the Story Bridge. The climb was a present from Tobias and Christoffer on Fathers Day.

The Story Bridge crosses the Brisbane River and connects Fortitude Valley to Kangaroo Point and is one of Brisbane's most recognisable icons.

The morning was a bit hectic as I had to dash out to the West End market and by rye bread and fruit before heading off to the bridge. And to make things a little more exiting I also had to pop by work to print my climb confirmation slip. With some help from my bike and a little running along on the way I made it to the bridge climb headquarters on time @ 9:45.

Our instructor (Jeremy) took us through all the formalities including an alcohol breath test. Climbing on the bridge is prohibited with a blood alcohol concentration higher than 0.05 per cent (the legal limit for drivers).

Equipped with a climbing harness, jump suit, radio equipment and other miscellaneous accessories and a brief instruction we started the climb.

Suffice it to say I felt pretty ridiculous dressed up in the outfit provided. The jump suit in particular was …. well don’t ask. But what we were lacking on the fashion front was made up for on the tech side. I was very pleased to try out a pair of temple transducers from Motorola. I have seen these many times in the past but had never tried them before. The temple transducer uses bone conduction technology, so you can receive audio without covering the ear. The receiver portion rests on the temples. The sound vibration is transmitted through the surrounding human tissue and bone directly into the inner ear. With them Jeremy was in crystal clear commando style contact with us throughout the climb.

The bridge climb starts on a spiral staircase that takes you up to the underside of the bridge, where a walkway has been built. Stairs take you up and above the pedestrian walkway and cars driving below, to the viewing platform on the main South pier (approximately 80 meters above sea level). This is the main look-out point.

We stayed up there for 15 minutes and enjoyed the panorama view. Then we descended to the middle of the bridge. This was the halfway point of the climb. After a short stop we ascended again to the top of the main pier and from there descended back down to climb headquarters.

The climb is enjoyable. It isn’t strenuous at all for anyone with a reasonable fitness. If you have acrophobia (a fear of heights) it is probably not the right activity to undertake, but for everyone else it shouldn’t be a problem. Obviously, the main attraction of the climb is the view and it doesn’t disappoint. Our guide Jeremy also did an excellent job of providing facts and figures and historic commentary on the immediate surroundings.

The bridge was constructed as a public works program during the Great Depression. As such it was a means of boosting morale and creating employment. Construction began on the bridge in 1935 and was opened five years later in 1940. More than 300 men were employed for its design and construction and the structure contains nearly 12,000 tonnes of steel. It is named after John Douglas Story, a senior and influential public servant.

Oh yeah….and I received this certificate as proof of my climb ;-).

Sheep Market

Here is a strange website: The Sheep Market

The owners of The Sheep Market have paid people online to draw a sheep facing left. No other guidlines where provided. The ‘brushstrokes’ of the artist are captured and are replayed when you select a sheep. You can buy a block (4x5) of sheep as lickable adhesive stamps complete with a certificate of authenticity in a collectable package for US$20 each.

Each drawer was paid 2 cents each for their efforts. That is $0.40 for a set of 20 sheep (or $200 for 10,000 sheep - the number of sheep on the website). Even with additional expenditure for the website, design, materials etc. these guys probably have a healthy profit margin.

Snake aquarium

Tobias latest creation is a snake aquarium combo. The aquarium is occupied by a family of octopus. It has wheels so it can drive to the fish shop. On the back of the aquarium he has painted yellow spots. Why? You guessed it, because the octopuses enjoy them.

Den seneste "kreation" fra Tobias er et slange-akvarium, hvori der bor en blæksprutte famile. Akvariet har hjul så det kan køre til fiskeforretningen. På bagsiden af akvariet har han malet gule prikker. Hvorfor? Du gættede det, fordi blæksprutterne kan li' dem.

Australian Financial Review

I was quoted yesterday in the Australian Financial Review. Read the article below.

Model warfare as Regulator tackles Telstra
By Tony Boyd

The competition regulator is planning to spend up to $1 million to build a computer model of Australia's phone and internet network to help it score points in its wrangling with Telstra over whether the phone monopoly is overestimating its costs.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's move has been welcomed by Telstra's rivals, but an economist who has worked for Telstra, which has its own computer model, said the ACCC is simply creating more hassle and cost for the company.

Henry Ergas said building a network-cost model was fraught with risk. "I think a note of caution one would inject into any effort by the ACCC to go off down this particular path is that building a model is complex, time consuming and costly," said Dr Ergas, head of the Asia Pacific operations of economic consultancy CRA International. "I think they would be extremely lucky if they can build a really robust model for $1 million."

Dr Ergas, who has worked for Telstra on many access pricing issues, said if the ACCC goes ahead with its own model Telstra would inevitably have to supply much of the source information.

The regulator has long been frustrated by Telstra's modelling, which the ACCC believes overstates the company's costs and produces access prices for competitors that are unreasonable. The ACCC also claims Telstra's model is not forward looking and overstates costs because it fails to take into account developments such as broadband internet.

"Telstra’s model is inappropriate, irrelevant and backward”

The new model will be used by the regulator to assist in its enforcement of the Trade Practices Act which involves, among other things, determining if the access prices are reasonable.

Telstra's fixed network cost model, known as PSTN ingres degress version 2 (PIE II), has been endorsed by the world's leading expert on hypothetical network models, Bridger Mitchell, the principal of CRA International.

Dr Mitchell, who built one of the first hypothetical network models in the 1980s in California, said in a report to the ACCC that the PIE I1 model was forward looking and included subscriber and traffic forecasts for 2006-07 and 2007-08.

Dr Mitchell said the model appropriately incorporated the principles for total element long run incremental cost modelling that have been developed and applied in international practice.
But the ACCC says PIE I1 is inappropriate, irrelevant and backward. Telstra's rivals and industry consultants have made similar criticisms.

Jasper Mikkelsen, senior economist at Marsden Jacob Associates, said PIE II failed to take account of non-voice traffic such as broadband resulting in inflated costs. "It is one of the models I have found most difficult to understand," he said.

The ACCC last month invited industry comment on what should be included in its new model when it goes ahead with a tender, which is likely to be published next month.

En milepæl

I dag sagde Christoffer ”far”. Det var sgu på tide - nu har han også kun sagt ”morgenmad” til mig de sidste 4 måneder som det første når han vågner.

Camouflage balloons

[From Boing Boing] Here is a gift for Tobias: Camouflage Water Bombs. Tobias has always been very fond of balloons and water bombs are no exception. I am sure these camouflaged versions are right up his ally.

The store selling them is called Larrys and not only do they sell water bombs they also sell water grenades and launchers. Yikes! And they will ship them all over the world.

On second thoughts, maybe water bombs are not such a good idea now that we live in an apartment. But he sure would love them.

More music - Monkeys and sheep

[Nedenfor er en beskrivelse af to engelske boernesange som Tobias regelmaessigt synger. Den ene handler om aber der hopper i sengen den anden om et faar og uld.]

There are two songs that Tobias currently is keen to sing: Five Little Monkeys and Baa Baa Black Sheep. He sings each of them in his own very special way. While he usually sings the sheep song with his innocent boyish voice, he tends to growl the monkey song in double tempo.

The monkey song goes like this:

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped his head.
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed."

Four ...

Three ...

Two...

One little monkey jumping on the bed.
He fell off and bumped his head.
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said,
"Put those monkey's straight to bed."

Okay so you get the picture, as soon as the monkeys say good-night to Mama, they start to jump on their bed. Trouble lies ahead as, one by one, they fall off and hurt themselves. The doctor issues stern orders each time and finally says "Put those monkey's straight to bed".

I am not sure how Tobias interprets the song. He doesn't seem to have any trouble with the monkeys bumping their head and he himself has never backed away from jumping in our bed. For him it is seems to be all fun and games. Maybe jumping on the bed is his way of celebrating his inner monkey. It’s naughty. It’s fun. A phrase I got from a website appropriate for the occasion: http://www.bedjump.com/.

The nursery rhyme Baa Baa Black Sheep is a completely different story. It goes like this:

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
One for the master,
One for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

He sings it to a variant of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and will often only sing from "one for the master". When searching for the lyrics on the internet I came up with several versions. It turns out that the original lyrics (as shown above) have been criticized for being racially negative. According to Wikipedia, in 1999, guidelines from Birmingham City Council in England suggested that the rhyme should not be taught in schools because it was seen as racially negative and could cause offense. However, these guidelines were dropped by the council early in 2000 when black parents described the advice as ridiculous. Yes, indeed, bizarre! Nevertheless, in many different cities across the UK, the nursery rhyme is no longer permitted to be sung in its original manner. Variations include 'Fluffy sheep', Wooly sheep', 'Rainbow sheep'.

Pat Boone

Tobias er helt vild med Pat Boone's Speedy Gonzalez. Du kan høre 30 sekunder af sangen på "last fm". Klik her. Teksten er nedenfor. Han er især vilde den kvindelige stemme der synger la-la-laaa...

[Tobias is crazy about Pat Boone's Speedy Gonzalez. Get a 30 second preview here. The lyrics are below. He is particularly fond of the female voice singing la-la-laaa...]

Spoken:
It was a moonlit night in old Mexico. I walked alone between some old adobe haciendas. Suddenly, I heard the plaintive cry of a young Mexican girl.

(Female voice singing a series of 'La-la-la's')

You better come home, Speedy Gonzales
Away from Tannery Row
Stop alla your a-drinkin'
With that floozie named Flo
Come on home to your adobe
And slap some mud on the wall
The roof is leakin' like a strainer
There's loadsa roaches in the hall
Speedy Gonzales, why don'tcha come home?
Speedy Gonzales, how come ya leave me all alone?

Spoken in a male Mexican accent
Hey, Rosita
I hafta go shopping downtown for my mudder
She needs some tortillas and chili peppers

Your doggy's gonna have a puppy
And we're runnin' outta coke
No enchiladas in the icebox
And the television's broke
I saw some lipstick on your sweatshirt
I smelled some perfume in your ear
Well if you're gonna keep on messin'
Don't bring your business back a-here
Mmm, Speedy Gonzales, why don'tcha come home?
Speedy Gonzales, how come ya leave me all alone?

Spoken in a male Mexican accent
Hey, Rosita
Come queek
Down at the cantina they giving green stamps with tequila!!

(Female voice singing a series of 'La-la-la's')
(Female voice singing a series of 'Ya-ya-ya's)

Stoffer foran kameraet

En mini ferie - video

Nedenfor er et par videoklip fra vores hvalsafari.

Delfiner svømmer op til båden i fart og leger.


En hval vinker farvel.

Wet'n'Wild

Last weekend we were at the Gold Coast (approx. 100 km south of Brisbane). We stayed with Mark (from the Melbourne office) and Eva from Sunday to Monday. They were there for a week of holidaying with their kids, Stefan (6.5) and Ramon (3.5). It was an excellent opportunity to get up to speed and for the children to play.

We decided to visit Wet'n'Wild Water World which is a combo of water slides, leisure pools and subtropical gardens. Unfortunately (for Tobias) nearly all rides required a minimum height of 1.10 m. With his 1.04 m, Tobias and Ramon (similar height) were restricted to two rides. Luckily there were other options like buccaneer bay with a multi-level attraction based on a pirate theme. The focal point of the attraction was a giant tipping bucket mounted at the top of the play structure (of water pipes) that every 5 minutes or so spilled several 100 litres of water onto those standing below. Here we set-up camp and allowed the kids to run around and play.

With the smaller kids occupied Mark, Stefan and I went on a tour of the different slides. The most extreme slides are found in what is called the Extreme H20 Zone – a new slide area that is built specially for those seeking a more radical aquatic experience. It didn’t disappoint, although unfortunately their newest attraction, the Tornado, was closed.

We will have to go back when Tobias has reached the 1.10 m mark.

Below is some footage of Mark, Eva, Stefan, Majken and Tobias on the Mammoth Falls.

Internet use

My use of the internet has changed substantially this year.

I have changed the way I view web content by moving to an RSS feed reader (in my case RSS Reader). RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". The feed reader pulls together all of the content I am interested in one place and strips away ads and other junk. In the process I have ditched most of the e-mail alerts I previously received and which clogged up my inbox.

If you are not already using a reader I can highly recommend that you get started.

In addition, I have started two blogs and in the process discovered a wealth of information sources (other blogs). From a family perspective blogging is an ideal media for informing family and friends about news and developments. It also provides an opportunity to share thoughts and experiences. Down the track it may also provide our children some insight into their parent’s mindset and the time of their upbringing.

The blogosphere has exploded in size in recent years. See the figure below from David Sifry’s State of the Bolgophere report (which he publishes every 3 months).

The blogosphere has been doubling in size every 6 months or so. It is over 100 times bigger than it was just 3 years ago. I doubt anyone could have predicted how blogging would evolve.

River Festival

Below some footage of the fireworks at the opening of the Brisbane River Festival today.

Bedtime - an update

In a previous post I discussed the sleep routine for Tobias and Christoffer and the ease by which Christoffer accepted it. Well it just got easier. Today, I told Christoffer that it was time for bed and without any hesitation he stood up and walked into the bedroom with me on his heels. All I did was lift him into bed and tuck him in. Shamefully easy!

The joystick prophet

Sometimes you come across things on the internet that make you smile. This is one of them.

Polish artist Janek Simon blends the narrative and aesthetic form of two media, one ancient, one merely nostalgic: Caucasian carpets and late-70's videogames. This line, from the project's accompanying text, is particularly illuminating:

It is the Oriental rug for your portable arcade mosque. Follow the voice of the Joystick prophet.

Tobias is a fan of space invaders and many of the old videogame classics I used to play on old arcade machines or a Commodore 64 or Amiga 500. You can test your ability free of charge at: http://www.80smusiclyrics.com/games.shtml

En mini ferie

[Below is an account of an extended weekend trip to Hervey Bay (with whale watching) and Fraser Island.]

Dag 1 lørdag – turen går til Hervey Bay

Vi tager fra Brisbane kl. 12. Turen til Hervey Bay (udtales Harvey) er ca. 4 timer i bil. Vi tager motorvejen hele vejen. Lejligheden hvor vi skal bo, er i to etager. En spise/opholdsstue og køkken i stueetagen og to soveværelser ovenpå. Helt perfekt til børnefamilien. Vi når lige indkøb til aften- og morgenmaden i Safeway (supermarked), som lukker kl. 17.30. Majken laver mad, mens jeg og ungerne går ned til stranden. Der er ingen bygninger direkte på strandkanten. Istedet er der et bælte af uberørt skov mellem strand og vej. Det er vanskeligt at vurdere strandens udstrækning i skumringen, men jeg har læst, at den er 15 km lang. Vi bliver der ikke længe på grund af mørket. Vi får pasta og ungerne lægges i seng. Vi skal tidligt afsted imorgen til Fraser Island (verdens største sandø - 1630 km² - ca. halv så stor som fyn), hvor vi skal mødes med min kollega Chris.

Dag 2 søndag – Fraser Island

Kl. 8:45 går færgen fra marinaen. Vi når den i god tid. Det viser sig, at vi kun kan købe en billet til Kingfisher med indeholdt frokost. Ærgeligt når vi ikke skal tilbringe tid på det resort, der hører til Kingfisher. Lidt i 10 ankommer vi. Omkring bådbroen er der fyldt med Mulet (en fisk) og Majken får øje på ryggen af en delfin. Chris møder os ved enden af bådbroen. Han har lånt en Toyota Landcruiser af University of Queensland. Den ligner lidt en gammeldags 4-hjulstrækker fra 70’erne, men Chris forsikre os, at den kun er et halvanden år gammel. Det viser sig, at der er to slags landcruiser, dem man typisk ser inde i byen og så den ”rigtige” version, som vi skal køre i. Den har hverken lædersæder, elektronisk spærre, indbygget satelitnavigering etc. Tilgengæld kan den køre gennem hvad som helst. Jeg får monteret børnesæderne, som vi med besvær har medtaget og så går turen mod første pitstop ’Lake Wabby’ (Wabby søen).

Vi har kun lige sat os tilrette i bilen og forladt asfalten omkring Kingfisher, før vi finder ud af, hvorfor en 4-hjulstrækker er uundværelig. Vejen ud af Kingfisher er ikke en vej i traditionel forstand. Det er sandspor, der snor sig med hældninger på godt 30 grader gennem en helt særlig tropisk regnskov. Sandet er tilmed blødt, hvilket betyder at bevægelse er essentielt.

Efter en time i rutchebanen (Christoffer falder i søvn, mens Tobias nyder de vilde bump), når vi en udkigspost over Wabby søen. Wabby er en ‘barage lake’ dvs. en indæmmet sø, som er formet ved at sanddyner gradvist flytter sig og blokere for en naturligt forekommet vandkilde. Wabby skrumper med tiden, efterhånden som sandet flytter sig.

Vi fortsætter mod stranden. Her kan vi ‘cruise’ på det hårde sand i vandkanten og får derfor hurtigt tilbagelagt et par km med 80 km i timen. Det er en super fed fornemmelse af frihed at give den gas på den kæmpe åbne strand. Næste stop er Eurong, hvor vi får en kop kaffe og lidt at spise. Chris fortæller, at Fraser Island er navngivet efter Eliza Fraser, som forliste ud fra øens kyst sammen med hendes mand, kaptajn James Fraser. Begge blev taget til fange af lokalbefolkning. Kaptajnen døde på øen men det lykkedes Eliza at undslippe. Hun rejste siden rundt i australien og england, hvor hun fortalte om hendes oplevelser og i særdeleshed om hendes tid med de infødte. Der findes mange versioner af hendes historie, som gradvist blev mere overdreven og utrolig som årene gik.

Turen forsætter mod Lake McKenzie. Imodsætning til Wabby er McKenzie det man kalder en ’perched lake’. En ’perched lake’ er en sø, hvor bunden af søen har ’sat’ sig, med det resultat at den regn der falder, har svære ved at trænge væk og der derfor med tiden dannes en sø (over vandspejlet). Vandet er vitterlig krystalklart og sandet kridhvidt, næsten unaturligt hvidt. Vi holder en times pause ved søen og nyder solen, vandet og leg i sandet.

Derefter går turen atter tilbage til Kingfisher. Vi når havnen ved halv fem tiden. Vi siger farvel til Chris, som skal tilbage til østsiden af Fraser Island. Han skal nå tilbage inden flod. Når han stranden senere end kl. 18, kan det blive vanskeligt og farligt at nå hjem langs stranden. Han fortalte, at han dagen forinden havde levet livet lidt for farligt og at den ’lokale’ kro har billeder af 4-hjulstrækkere, som er gået til søs i årenes løb. Færgen sejler tilbage til Hervey Bay kl. 17.15. Tilbage i lejligheden igen får vi et hurtigt måltid og så er det ellers sengetid for ungerne. Vi skal tidligt op næste dag på hvalsafari.

Dag 3 mandag – hvalsafari

Kl. 5.50 står jeg op. Spiser morgenmad og pakker lidt inden jeg vækker Majken og børnene, dvs. Stoffer er allerede vågen og i hopla. Der er afgang med båden ’Whalesong’ kl. 7.30. Vejret er godt, faktisk for godt. Senere viser det sig, at hvalerne ikke er så aktive i roligt vejr. Vi får serveret kaffe og lidt morgenmad kort efter afgang. Efter ca. en times sejlads ser vi den første pukkelhval. Den glider gennem vandoverfladen, blæser overskydende luft fra åndehullet på ryggen og tager derefter en ny indånding. Selvom den er mere end 100 meter væk, er den tydeligvis en kæmpe - en kæmpe organisk undervandsbåd, der langsomt glider gennem vandet.

Pukkelhvalen tilhører bardehvalerne. De voksne hvaler kan blive omkring 15 meter lange og veje mere end 30 tons og som Tobias meget malerisk kan berette, så spiser de krill, som fanges ved at tage en mundfuld vand og herefter si krillen ud af vandet ved hjælp af barder. Pukkelhvalen er nem at identificere. Den har et karakteristisk hoved og en krop oversået med pukler og buler.

Vi sejler videre med håbet om at finde nogle hvaler der er mere aktive.

Den næste hval jeg får øje på er på lang afstand. Den springer op i luften med hvad der ligner to tredjedele af kroppen over vandet. Helt vildt når man tænker på hvor store de er. Men da vi nærmere os, er der ikke meget krudt tilbage. Personalet på båden minder os om, at hvaler ikke er cirkusdyr og vi derfor ikke kan forvente et hvalspring på kommando.

De næste par timer sejler vi rundt efter hvaler. En enkelt gang svømmer en halvvoksen hval helt op til båden. Den dukker pludselig op 5 meter fra mig. Jeg prøver febrilsk at tage nogle billeder, men fejler i min iver. Tilgengæld har jeg øjenkontakt med den nygerrige kæmpe. Flere gange svømmer (bottlenose) delfiner foran båden. De er enormt nysgerrige dyr, som kan lokkes hen til båden ved at vinke (hvilket personalet opfordrer til).

Majken snakker med en 90 år gammel søulk, som er fast inventar på båden. Han hedder ’barnacle’ Bill og er tidligere hvalfanger. Han havde et venskab med en spækhugger, som hjalp ham med at fange hvaler. Den lokkede hvalerne hen til Bill, så han lettere kunne fange dem. Spækhuggeren reddet hans liv engang, da han forliste med sin båd. Ved at holde fast i dens finne, trak den ham ind til kysten, hvor han kunne svømme i land. Hans spækhuggerven døde for ti år siden.

Bill er vild med børn og kommer godt ud af det med Tobias. Jeg ser dem snakke sammen og drille hinanden lidt.

På vej tilbage mod havnen, er vi heldige at se et par hvaler der leger. De slår med deres lange finner/luffer ned i vandoverfladen, mens de med rullende bevægelser vender sig i vandet. Det ligner de vinker farvel. Kvart i et står vi atter på breden med en hel dag foran os.

På vej hjem til Brisbane tager vi et smut om Solskinskysten. Vi besøger Noosa Heads – et populært men også dyrt feriemål. Som forventet kan man få en ordentlig kop kaffe. Majken når også at kigge lidt butikker. Kl 19.00 er vi hjemme.

Drought prospects

I recently wrote a post on water recycling. In it I touched upon the grim prospects for the water supply in the south east Queensland region. To illustrate how bleak the outlooks are, have a look at the graph below sourced here. [click on the image for a larger view]

It illustrates current and forecast water storage levels in the Wivenhoe, and North Pine Dams (the main source of water in the region). Currently, the dams are 28% full. The forecast is based on a scenario where the inflow into the dams continues at the levels experienced between April 2004 and March 2005. The different numbers indicate the implementation of different drought contingency options. If no drought contingency measures are developed (blue line), then the Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine dams will be almost empty by September 2008. The yellow line depicts the situation with all the suggested 13 options implemented (timing shown in the graph). The green line is without a major recycling project (number 10) called the Western Corridor Recycling Water Scheme.

According to the graph we will be facing level 4 restrictions in September and no doubt yet unknown level 5 restrictions after New Year.

In our household we try to implement a water conscious line. But for some unknown reason our water consumption is not metered. This is of course absurd when we are running out of water and can use as much as we like for free and it seems even more absurd once you consider that the apartment block we live in is only one and a half years old. You would have thought that every new apartment block or house would be required by law to have water meters installed.

Is it possible to explain this apparent absurdity?

First, could it be the case that current drought condition is a relatively new phenomenon and no one gave any thought to metering water just one and a half years ago? It was certainly not a subject that achieved much attention in the media when we arrived in Australia two years ago. I doubt it.

Second, the demand for water is relatively inelastic. [For non-economists: When the price of a good rises for example, consumers will usually demand less of that good, perhaps by consuming less, substituting for other goods etc. The greater the extent to which demand falls as price rises, the greater is the price elasticity of demand. However, for some goods consumers may not be able to consume less or are unable to find substitutes even with substantial price rises. For such goods, the price elasticity of demand is called inelastic.] Apartment blocks like the one we live mostly have indoor water use (we do not have a garden). We are unlikely to change our consumption patterns should prices rise or other circumstances change, hence the inelastic demand. One could therefore argue that metering water and price rises will do little to curtail water demand.

Ultimately it is question of cost versus benefit, but the cost of a meter is unlikely to be prohibitive and ensure that consumers face the (resource) cost of their consumption decision no matter the relatively minor cost of water on the overall household budget.

Bedtime

Putting Christoffer to bed is a piece of cake:

• Step 1: around eight o’clock tell him its bedtime;
• Step 2: give him a kiss and carry him into bed; and
• Step 3: turn off the light and close the door (leaving it open only slightly just in case).

We seldom hear more from him until around seven the next morning. Too easy.

Tobias, on the other hand, is a completely different story. Although he is 3 years older we still haven’t managed to create a routine for him. Sometimes it is easy, sometimes it is a battle (although it has become easier over the years).

Why this difference? With Christoffer we took the hard-line on sleep from the beginning (when he was about one year). We took the battle upfront. We put him to bed and let him scream/cry. Every 2-5 minutes we would check on him and encourage him to sleep. Ultimately he fell asleep. We did this for a number of days (3) until presto he would simply close his eyes and fall asleep. The implementation was hard, but we were determined.

As first time parents with Tobias we tried the same, but we didn’t have the stamina and the will. Tobias read our weakness and exploited it. We could not carry on and are still paying the price today.

There are several lessons to be learned from this experience.

• First, make your life easier, teach your child to sleep. Sleeping alone is something that has to be learnt. All that children know from when they are born is the caring nurture and comfort of falling asleep with their mother.
• Second, it is much easier to teach a child to sleep at an early age rather than later. Tobias is a testament to this. We have tried several times after being unsuccessful the first time, but have never succeed as well as with Christoffer.
• Third, sleeping must be practiced. Practice means crying is inevitable. Practice also means that it unlikely that the child will learn it after one day. It can go on for a number of days as we experienced with Christoffer.
• Fourth, if you are set on going through with the sleep routine don’t cave in. Children are quick to exploit any weakness. It will only result in the child crying longer and louder making it even harder to complete the task.
  

Until recently I was not sure where we had sourced this sleeping technique. We probably picked it up in some parenting book or from friends. Anyway, I had a look on the Internet and came up with a name: Richard Ferber.

Richard Ferber is director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children’s Hospital in Boston. Since writing his book, Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, he’s become known as a leading — and controversial — pediatric sleep expert.

Now I haven’t read this book, but it seems to me that we have pretty much taken the Ferber line with Christoffer.

Below is a quote from the babycenter website that explains his methodology:

Ferber believes in a "progressive" approach to helping your child fall asleep and stay asleep. Briefly, he suggests that after a warm, loving pre-bedtime routine such as singing, rocking, or reading a book, you put your child to bed while she's still awake. Putting her to bed, says Ferber, is crucial to successfully teaching her to go to sleep on her own. Once you put her in bed, leave the room. If she cries, wait a certain amount of time before you check on her. (The suggested waiting time, which Ferber charts in his book, is based on how comfortable you are with the technique, how many days you've been using it, and how many times you've already checked on your baby that night.) When you do go back to her room, soothe her with your voice but don't pick her up, rock her, or feed her. Gradually increase the amount of time that passes between checks. After about one week, your infant will learn that crying earns nothing more than a brief check from you, and isn't worth the effort. She'll learn to fall asleep on her own, without your help.

En uges ferie - South Mole Island, Whitsundays

Groundhogday og stress: mandag - onsdag
Vi tog afsted mod Hamilton island mandag. Alt gik som planlagt indtil vi skulle lande. Pga. dårlig vejr var det ikke muligt at lande. Istedet måtte vi flyve til Mackay på fastlandet. Her fik vi at vide, at vi blev nødt til at flyve tilbage til Brisbane #%&*%##!!! Så første dag gik derfor med en dag i lufthavnen og ombord et fly. Næste dag forsøgte vi så igen. Denne gang med success men ikke uden stress. Påvej til lufthaven stoppede toget. Et tog skulle passere så vi måtte vente. Uden yderligere oplysninger ventede vi mere end 30 min inden toget atter kørte. Imellemtiden havde Jasper ringet til flyselskabet, for at sikre, at vi kunne nå vores fly. Det kunne vi og når heldigvis vores check-in tid.

Da vi ankommer til Hamilton Island går der ingen båd til South Mole Island. Vi må vente et par timer på den næste, ikke noget man har lyst til, når det har taget over 24 timer så langt. Men okay vi får da set lidt af Hamilton. Vi ankommer til South Mole sen eftermiddag efter 45 min på havet.

Næste dag er det dejligt vejr, det blæser, men solen skinner. En skøn dag lige til jeg finder ud af, at min pung er væk. Vi erindre, at jeg sidst havde den på båden. Vi spørger i receptionen, om de har fundet den, men det har de ikke. De ringer il bådekontoret, men de har den hellere ikke. Vi ringer til min mor som spærre kortet. Senere kommer båden ind og jeg beslutter mig for at spørge personalet på båden. Da jeg kommer derud er der flydt med mennesker på båden. Jeg bemærker dog især en mand på dækket, der står og ser bagud væk fra kysten mere eller mindre samme sted som vi sad da vi sejlede over dagen forinden. Det undre mig og jeg går hen for at se mig omkring der hvor han står. Bagved gelænderet ligger min pung!!. Enormt heldigt, da den lige så godt kunne været faldet over bord.

Blæst og skyer: torsdag - lørdag
De følgende dage var vejret meget varieret, vi havde meget blæst og det var delvis overskyet. På en lille klippeø, er der ikke meget at lave, så vi slappede af med ungerne, spillet yatzi, fodrede fisk, fugle osv.

Der var en børnepasning på stedet. Tobias ville gerne derhen også selvom der ikke var andre børn. Stoffer prøvede vi også at aflevere. Han er meget genert for tiden, så han var lidt betuttet. Men han var ikke ked af det da vi overlod ham til pædagoen og så hjalp det at Tobias var der. Derfor afleverede vi ham et par timer, så vi kunne gå en tur. Bevoksning på øen var spændende og anderledes og udsigten spetaculær fra toppen.

Højdepunktet - Great Barrier Reef : søndag.
kl. 8.30 forlod vi øen og skulle så samle folk op på et par andre øer, inden vi satte kursen med revet. På vejen var vi heldige at se en humpback hval. Ved 11.30 tiden ankom vi til revet som ligger på åbent hav uden land i sigte. Umiddelbart var der ikke meget at se, så vi var spændte på hvad der gemte sig under havets overflade. Det var en kæmpe oplevelse, der var mange fisk, men de gigantiske koraller var det mest imponererede. Vi skiftedes til at snorkle indtil kl 15, hvor båden sejlede os tilbage igen.

Tobias ville vi også have med derud. I andet forsøg lykkedes det Jasper at få ham overtalt til at kigge under vandet og så gik det ellers derud af. Det første Tobias bemærkede (lidt skuffet) efter snorkelturen var, at der ikke var nogle hajer :-).

På trods af at det blæser derude, så er havet forholdsvis roligt. Det er inddæmmet af det ydre koralrev, som ligger som et barriere for det åbne hav. Great Barrier reef er et ”must”, hvis man er i Australien og på disse kanter.










Sidste dage og hjemme igen: mandag - tirsdag
De to sidste dag gik med afsplapning i rimeligt vejr. Ferien blev ikke helt som ventet. Vejret var ikke med os og vi startede med at have alt imod os, men vi nød at være afsted med ungerne og hinanden, væk fra hverdagen med madlavning, rengøring, tøjvask, indkøb osv.

Water Recycling

Yesterday residents of Toowoomba (an inland south-east Queensland city not far from where we live) voted no (62%) to a referendum on recycled water, i.e. the treating of sewage (your own shi...) for drinking water. This is an interesting development as Toowoomba is widely regarded as the litmus test of water re-use in Australia.

Contrary to Europe, droughts are inevitable in Australia due to it’s location under a subtropical belt of high pressure. This high pressure belt results in low rainfall that is also very inconsistent. In addition, phenomena such as global climate change and El Niño can exacerbate the problem. Currently large regions across Australia, particularly the east coast and central Australia, are experiencing severe drought conditions. Many of these areas are enduring and the most onerous conditions on record. South-east Queensland where we live is no exception. We are experiencing (level 3) water restrictions due to historically low dam levels and a very bleak outlook for the future water supply. The combined capacity of the dams has now fallen below 30% and is expected to fall even further. To put further strain on water supplies south-east Queensland is also Australia’s fastest growing metropolitan region and is predicted to continue to grow strongly from its 2006 population of 2.8 million to a 2026 population of 3.7 million. The need to consider alternative water supply options is therefore very acute.

I personally believe recycling is inevitable and important for securing the water supply in this region. Although recycling needs to be justified on economic, social and environmental grounds and compared with other options like desalination, the prospect of running out of water in any region is scary and one that should be avoided at any cost. However, the notion of recycling and hence the thought of drinking your own efluent is not without controversy and poses significant community challenges.

Clearly, the ability to inform the community plays an important role. The need for transparent, reliable information to be made available to the community for it to form its own opinion (rather than experts saying how safe and reliable the supply would be) is paramount. This was also the basis for a successful community participation programme implemented in Singapore – one of the few countries to pump treated recycled water directly back into the water supply system.

It will be interesting to follow the debate. Support for recycled water schemes has achieved significant political support and it is unlikely that its implementation will be curtailed by this one referendum. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has in the media said regardless of the referendum outcome, other south-east Queensland communities would likely have to vote on the same issue in the future. "What happens in Toowoomba will have an influence on the time line for which south-east Queensland votes on this," Mr Beattie said. Also, he commented, if the vote was negative "then we will have to go out and explain the truth about recycling".

Does this ring any familiar bells with Danes? If you don’t get the answer you want first time around simply try again ("no" to the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and subsequently "yes" to Edinburgh in 1993).

Learning to read without books

The other day I was recommended a free website for children called Starfall where children can learn to read. To begin with children do the ABC's then move on to the books and games in a sequential order. It uses pictures and small animations to link letters, sounds and words in both verbal and written form and also incorporates other elements such as counting and the calendar. All very cleverly done.

The about section provides an overview of Starfalls history. The website was started by the Polis-Schutz family seemingly with a passion about making the world a better place, and to have the opportunity to use the Internet to help children learn to read.

In terms of experience with Tobias and the potential educational value it is still early days. He has only tried it a few times so far. However, observing him use the website is very encouraging. He already knows his ABC’s (in Danish and English), but is struggling with the sounds which is the key to pronouncing words. Here I think the website will prove its worth – at least initially. It will be interesting to follow his developments. Will keep you posted on how he goes.

Carcharodon carcharias

To learn about children and how to raise them is often the rather daunting but predictable task awaiting anyone about to have a child. That said, once travelling down the road of parenthood, there are endless bends, cracks, bumps and pit stops the majority of which cannot be predicted.

One thing that continues to amaze me is a child’s desire for information and knowledge and their sponge like ability to soak it up. For half a year or so Tobias has been absolutely engulfed in the world of sharks and whales. We have bought several books for him on the subject and a set of plastic marine animals. He will spend hours looking at the books and require us to read them before bed time. He can’t read the text so he meticulously studies the pictures, charts and figures. The result is that he able to identify more than 20 shark and whale species and has an acute knowledge of their size, habitat and behaviour.

Carcharodon carcharias is Latin for great white shark. This shark has a special place in his world because of its immense size and its nearly mythical status as the worlds most dangerous man-eater. Other species like the tiger shark and bull shark are also common in his role play because of their tendency to attack humans.

While a shark’s “dangerous” rating had immediate appeal to his curiosity, his attention has gradually shifted to encompass teeth, gills, pectoral fins, skin etc. and how they compare with whales and dolphins. All of this has of course not only been a learning experience for him but also for his mother and I. While I would not seek to participate in a TV quiz on sharks and whales, I would probably stand a reasonable chance of answering at least a few questions and would gladly seek advice from Tobias if he was there to help me.

Flytning til Brisbane

Vi har nu været i Brisbane i knap 2 måneder og føler os godt hjemme. Turen herop tog tre dage. For at gøre et ordentligt indhug på den lange vej fra Melbourne til Brisbane forlod vi Melbourne om eftermiddagen og kørte hele natten til næste middag på skift. Vi havde ellers fået at vide af vores ældre nabokone i Melbourne, at vi ikke skulle køre om natten, pga. lastbiler og de dyr der kunne løbe ud foran bilen.

Det var nu ikke så galt og faktisk savnede vi andre biler på vejene, som vi kunne følge. Vi så også nedkørte dyr på vejen. I de områder som var skiltet sørgede vi for at sætte farten ned. De flyttefolk som kørte vores ting herop kørte et par kænguruer ned på vejen. Med det lange træk kunne vi slappe lidt af resten af vejen og se os lidt omkring.

Første pitstop var Port Macquarie som ligger på østkysten ca. halvejs mellem Sydney og Brisbane.

Vi camperede ude ved kysten og tog en velfortjent slapper på stranden. Næste dag fortsatte turen op langs kysten, med overnattning i Ballina. På tredje dagen nåede vi Guldkysten. Her besøgte vi en marinepark, så Tobias kunne se hajer og delfiner. Han er helt vild med hajer og hvaler for tiden. Det var ikke helt billigt med viste sig også at være meget mere end blot en marineparrk. Der var et lille tivoli, badeland biograf osv. som man kunne benytte uden yderligere omkostninger. De viste bl.a. en 3D film eller som de kaldte den en 4D film fordi der også var effekter som rigtig vand og vind osv. Den var meget "virkelig", så virkelig at mange reagerede voldsomt på filmen. Tobias var ingen undtagelse.

Efter at have været der en halv dag, kørte vi til Brisbane, hvor vi lejede os ind på et hotel en enkelt nat, da vi skulle mødes med vognmændende næste dag, hvor vi også ville få nøglerne til lejligheden. Tobias og jeg var meget spændte på at se stedet, hvor vi skulle bo. Jasper var spændt på, hvad vi syntes om det. Det var jo ham, der havde taget valgt det.

Det er den helt rigtige beslutning der er taget. Vi bor ikke langt fra Jaspers arbejde, 20 min. Derudover så tager det 10 min. at gå ned til midtbyen. Ligeledes tager det ca. 20 min at gå til South Bank, som er en offentlig swimming pool som er lavet ligesom en strand, et rigtigt fedt sted.

Lejligheden har ikke kun en god beliggenhed i forhold til byen, den ligger ud til en park, så vi har et kæmpe grønt område, hvor vi kan gå ture, spille bold osv. Derudover er der legepladser, hvilket er ideelt, når man er en børnefamilie. Der er en del børnefamilier i ejendommen, hvilket jeg fandt ud af, da jeg var på legepladsen med ungerne. Jeg talte med en mor, som bor i samme ejendom. Hun fortalte at børnefamilierne fra ejendommen går på legepladsen ved 16-17 tiden. Det er rart med sådan en aftale. Så er der ofte en masse børn kendte ansigter på legepladsen

Selve lejligheden er meget dejlig. Den er relativ ny (et år gammel). Vi bor på 6 sal, men har elevator. Vi har to soveværelser. Tobias har et af disse værelser, hvor vi prøver at holde hans legetøj inde. Derudover er der to badeværelser, køkkenalrum og en dejlig stor balcon. Komplekset har indendørs lappool og udendørs pool, motionscenter, steamroom og spabad. Der er 7 bygninger der deler. Det lyder af meget, men det er det ikke.

Tobias går i børnehave 2 dage om ugen, det er ca. 20 min. på gå ben fra vores lejlighed. Det er en integreret institution og han er meget glad for det. Jeg talte med en af pædagogerne om hvordan han klare sig socialt. Hun fortalte at han er meget vellidt blandt de andre børn og han er god ved de små. Derudover er han begyndt at tale endnu mere engelsk, så sproget er heller ikke en hindring i forhold til at kommunikere med de andre børn. Tobias og Christoffer leger ellers godt sammen. Til tider ser det lidt voldsomt ud, når de leger, men ofte ser det voldsommere ud end det egentlig er, ihvertilfald så syntes Christoffer at Tobias er sjov. Der er selvfølgelig tider, hvor Tobias er for voldsom og vi bliver nødt til at bryde ind. Men i det store hele, har de meget glæde af hinanden.

Første måned gik med at få lejligheden op at stå, da vi manglede lidt indbo. Derudover så tager det også tid at ordne omregistring af bil, forsikringer osv. Vi har været ude og spise ved de to kollegaer, som Jasper har heroppe. Den ene er Tony, som er gift med Rachel, de har to børn en dreng Joshua som er ½ år ældre end Tobias og en datter Michaela på 2. Vi var ude at se deres hus, som de er ved at bygge om, hvilket er interessant, da de bygger noget anderledes end vi ville gøre derhjemme, f.eks står deres hus på stolper.

Den anden kollega er Jim, som er gift med Justine, de har sønnen Gus på tre år, som Tobias går i børnehave med om torsdagen. De bor lidt længere uden for byen og er omgivet af en nationalpark, skønt. De bor i et hus som er bygget efter japanske forskrifter, hvilket er helt anderledes, men meget meget dejligt!

Det var "lidt" om hvad vi har fået den sidste tid til at gå med. Nu gælder det om at udforske de nye omgivelser så vi får en bedre forståelse for de muligheder Brisbane og omegn byder på.