I am back from Australia. The toilets there, far from flushing in the opposite direction due to the Coriolis effect, simply flush straight down because they use far less water with, seemingly, no sacrifice in power.
In fact, they are nearly all equipped with a half-flush button, a savings measure so simple in its rightness that I can't believe we don't have one in every house.
In fact, the Aussies seem far more energy conscious than us - less likely to have central air conditioning (albeit in a more temperate climate than Macon), paying more for gasoline (and calling it petrol) and with goods priced high enough to discourage consumption, but not make it prohibitive.
Beer, for example, will run you $18 a six-pack in many cases. Cigarettes, you don't even want to know how much those are, but I will tell you they slap pictures of premature babies and diseased eyes on them. Smoking apparently causes blindness.
And yet Australia has a huge hole in the ozone layer above it, at least partly due to pollution in other countries and wind patterns, etc.
Whammy.
Doc Holliday will be happy and unsurprised to hear Australians use roundabouts as a default at most intersections. They were quite easy to use, even while driving on the wrong side of the road and from the wrong side of the car, which is disconcerting.
Seriously, if I could do it, you have no excuse, so the idea that roundabouts are hard to use can just be thrown away.
Also, the speed limits there appear to be true maximums, with the understanding that you might not go that fast. That's as opposed to America, where the speed limit is just a starting point.
One way or another, I think that says a lot.
I found Australian cities to be very clean, with almost no homelessness or panhandling, with the exception of near the few casinos we visited as part of a volunteer effort to curb gambling in the world.
The Aussies are a good lot, and I thank my new friends there. But I am glad to be back in America.
Results in the unnamed political tournament early this afternoon, likely before I get through the 570 emails I missed.
1 comment:
Welcome back!
That's fascinating about Australia, but I'm disappointed the water didn't swirl the opposite direction.
I'll bet Australia doesn't have a bunch of lobby firms and activists in the corporate world that keep them from implementing solutions that will help our econmony. After all, no corporation, politician or their lawyers want you to see chopped up babies caused from abortion, the affects of smoking, the affects of gasoline guzzling cars when we have students who can build better cars that require less, or no gas.
I just love lobbyists. I'm getting a taste for what kind of power they have with our politicians at good old RAFB.
So, inquiring minds want to know....did you eat kangaroo while you were there, or is that just a rumor that they eat those animals?
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