Odds and Sods

Like Licorice, Agamedes gets excited by All Sorts of things.

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

Mum with rare disease fears for daughters

The West, 1 May 2010: A woman suffers from a degenerative disease. Lorinda has "presenilin one". Her brain is destroying itself. Soon she will not remember her own family. Soon after, Lorinda will die.

Absolutely miserable.

Lorinda's mother died of the same disease; it's genetic. "I was hoping it wouldn't happen to me," says Lorinda. The disease is genetic, there's possibly an 8% chance that it will be passed on to children.

With this disease hanging over her head -- and the miserable example of her own mother dying of presenilin one -- Lorinda has had three children.

$315m plan for light-rail link

The West, 1 May 2010: A team from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute proposes a "light rail" track for Perth. It's like trams but given a newer, more funky name... Light rail is far better than "trams" which are well known to be old, clunky things which are the life-blood of public transport in Melbourne.

So a team of academic experts -- supported, no doubt, by students who do the actual work -- recommends an "arc" of light rail transport from the University of WA to Canning Bridge. The recommendation comes in a report. The report includes pictures...

I have nothing against light rail for public transport, it seems to be a sensible option. But just look at those pictures:

Each of the three pictures included in the report in The West shows a very modern, streamlined train -- on a single set of rails. How do these trains pass each other?!

The trains travel -- in the report -- at up to 110km/h. The proposed track is 21km long. Non-stop, at just 50 km/hour, a train would take 25 minutes to travel end to end. Does it then turn around and drive back? That would allow one train in a given direction at, at least, once every 50 minutes. With no passing lanes, what else is possible?

I do guess that there will be passing lanes -- that is, stretches where there are two sets of tracks. That doubles the space required for a new light rail system. Which makes it so much harder to find the required space.

Actually, the report itself (I searched the web) does seem to show some double-track sections. But the network will not be quite as simple and compact as shown by the glossy overview in The West.

Funding cuts a blow to ailing river

The West, 22 May 2010: The Swan River Trust's budget is to be cut to $12 million. Is it time to panic? Or to despair? Why bother!

The article has a Margaret van Kleef saying that, "it's a great shame to have their budget cut." Van Kleef also says that she has watched the health of the river deteriorate, in the twenty years in which she has lived by the river.

So we have a Swan River Trust. And we have a steadily deteriorating river.

What purpose does the Swan River Trust serve?

The river is dying. The Trust is failing. Perhaps we should get rid of the Trust entirely.

Let's spend the $12 million on something that actually saves the Swan River.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com