Frank Sartor just looks more and more on the nose every day. I wonder how many more stories we're going to to see coming out of the ICAC enquiry of developers donating to Sartor moments their multi-million dollar developments are approved. And often approved in contravention of the spirit of planning and heritage legislation.
Of course Mr Sartor acknowledges this spirit himself - word is he's currently undertaking a review of the heritage legislation to remove some of that spirit and so he and the developers can sleep a little easier at night.
Link: Frank Sartor and his Dictatorial planning powers - SkyscraperCity.
THE Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, took control of a major Labor Party donor's $51.7 million residential development in Burwood shortly before he appointed an independent planning panel to assess all other similar developments in the suburb.
We had quite a busy Sunday - we went to the Weston's Biscuit factory exhibition at MOS, the Art in the Open event at Mosman, which was a little staid, and the Newtown Festival, which was the opposite of staid.
Along the way we also had a wander through the old gun placements at George's Heights. It's one of my favourite landscapes in Sydney. Siobhan's good friend Lynda Roberts and her partner Ceri Hann had installation pieces in the Mosman festival, and we mistakenly thought they were down at George's Heights. We quickly figured out we had it wrong, but it was wonderful to be able to wander through the deserted site at Middle Head.
Go to my flickr site for images of Lynda and Ceri's installation.
Since returning from our 10-day holiday to Japan I've been slowly uploading shots to flickr. It's taken me a few days though to get through the photos from Tsukiji fish market, simply because I took a few hundred of this remarkable fresh food market.
Wikipedia says of Tsukiji:
For many tourists in Tokyo, the Central Wholesale Market, better known as the Tsukiji fish market and said to be one of the best sushi destinations in the world, is synonymous with Tsukiji. It is also the largest fish market in the world handling more than 2000 tons of 450 types of seafood daily.
The market is exciting, industrious and dizzying. Going there was an eye-popping experience that left me wondering just how perilously over-fished the oceans must be.
It's movember again!
After briefly weighing whether to dismay my partner and shock my children, deciding to do so, and even accidentally shaving off a two-day mo on Nov 3rd, I've now committed myself to go the mo once more.
This image is from last year. As you can see things will get pretty hairy, and not everyone will be happy.
So I don't lose heart, so that I can beat my last year's grand total sponsorship of $550, it would be greatly encouraging of you to sponsor my mo over at the Movember site.
Irregular visitors to this site will notice that my personal blog has moved URLs.
My personal blog is now over at www.pureandapplied.net/adrian/.
And I've resumed my industry blog at the base domain www.pureandapplied.net/.
Head on over and have a look at my first post in a long while on ethics and sustainability in websites.
Every now and then on flickr an image gets a lot of visits and you never quite know why.
This is one such image from my travels in Japan with Siobhan. It has easily three times the visits of what I would regard as more interesting shots, but why fight the crowd.
For me the interest in this image is what it says about cycling in Japan. People don't really get dressed up to go out riding, they get dressed up and then ride their bike to wherever it is they've dressed-up for. Just as many westerners would simply drive, many Japanese simply ride.
ABC TV's late night current affairs show Lateline has lately become my favourite night-time viewing. Never had I thought I'd become a late-night daily-wrap show junkie, but life is full of surprises.
It could be because I just don't have time to sit down and watch the news, but actually I'm finding the unflappable Tony Jones just a remarkably watchable, cogent and credible journalist. His balanced approach, sprightly wit, wry responses, sharp-as-a-tack tackles are just a joy to behold. For all these reasons it's just great watching him put some of our politicians through memorable grillings.
One such session to remember was last night's interview with Julia Gillard and Tony Abbot. After Tony's diabolically bad day on the hustings it was a surprise to see him still valiantly running the ball up after dark.
TONY JONES: Tony Abbott, let's start with you, and where your problems began. What possessed you to launch a personal attack on Bernie Banton? That was bonkers, wasn't it?
TONY ABBOTT: It was a mistake...
TONY JONES: Was it bonkers?
TONY ABBOTT: It was an error of judgement on my part, I shouldn't have done it, and as soon as I realised what I had done, I rang him this morning and I apologised.
TONY JONES: As soon as you realised what you'd done, that's sometime after you did it, presumably?
TONY ABBOTT: Look, yesterday was...
TONY JONES: As soon as someone made you realise...
TONY ABBOTT: No, no, no, no, no, no, look, I didn't need to be told, once I saw it in black and white in the paper the next morning, I though, 'No, this is a problem, I'd better call him up and apologise.'
TONY JONES: It is a problem. The Health Minister insulting a dying man who is trying to get better access to expensive drugs to treat mesothelioma sufferers. But what I want to ask you here, it's such a bad look, did you actually consider resigning your portfolio today?
Tony Abbot is a politician who's shown himself given to ill-considered and peevish outbursts. Of course I must confess a partisan preference and so I enjoyed Gillard's pointed asides:
JULIA GILLARD: Tony, can I just say I think Tony Abbott here has lost touch with civility and he's lost touch with reality. What we have said is that we will invest $600 million in getting through the waiting lists, people who are being required to wait for more than the clinically appropriate times. We don't want to see elderly Australians waiting for a hip replacement for longer than they should. So we are going to invest to get it done.
The Howard Government hasn't done anything to match Labor's plan. If we look at what they've said in health, they haven't got a plan in this campaign and they haven't had a plan for the national health system...
TONY ABBOTT: Who is being uncivil now? I mean really, and truly.
JULIA GILLARD: I'm not swearing at you, Tony, that's for sure. The Howard Government doesn't have a plan for every hospital in Australia. We do. They have a plan for one hospital and it's degenerated into a shambles. If this is the template for their reform, the Mersey Hospital, we have to conclude that reform will be a shambles.
Download the video from the archive, and here's the rest of the transcript where you can find out if Abott considered resigning or not.
As a sideline - Tony Jones' suits are always sharp (except that badly-fitting dark one two weeks ago), and his hair has a silver sheen not seen since Bob Hawke's time in the spotlight. He looks the business.
Link: Lateline - 31/10/2007: Abbott, Gillard discuss health debate.
I offered one of my colleagues an organic biscuit this afternoon from a yummo packet I picked up at new favourite grocery store (do people still use the word "grocery"?) Macro in Bondi. I'm not sure exactly where this places me in the shopping ecosystem of Sydney, but I feel like I'm a long way from Marrickville Metro which isn't altogether a bad feeling. (As a further aside - the Marrickville Metro website, although abysmally designed, is better arranged than the shopping centre itself. Improbably enough Kate Fisher appears on the Marrickville Metro homepage. Have I missed something - maybe I should shop there after all...)
This lead to the following exchange with my mate Jewels:
Are they fairtrade?
No, but they are organic.
That's not what I asked.
Which lead to the following video, on metacafe which you really should take a moment to watch if you're concerned at all about independent thinking in your children.
Link: Leaving Home Video.
As an experiment both in embedding a google map, and in recommending a walk to work, I created the following map for one of my workmates who lives in Newtown.
I've hazarded a guess that this walk is about an hour, via either route. I suppose I should try it myself before suggesting someone else tries it, but I know a few people who walk from down near St Peters into the city, so I know it's possible, and probably a nice way to start the day to boot!
Link: Google Maps.
