St Kilda Junction is not a friendly place for cyclists at the best of times. There is heaps of traffic going in all directions and you kind of need to know before you get there, which lane is the right one for where you want to go. But it turns out there is a way to make it worse. And that way is to be a driver, make a mistake, and then try and pull the kind of correction that you pull on tiny quiet roads (ie blatantly disregard the road rules).



^ This is an overhead shot of the relevant part of St Kilda Junction. The green and pink are the paths that you're supposed to take for those two lanes. (The green ends you up on Dandenong Way and the pink ends you up on the Nepean Highway heading to Frankston.)

The red is an invalid path for realising that you are in the wrong lane and want to go to the Nepean Highway. Oops.



^ This is the street view of what it looks like as you approach. (As a cyclist having to cross the two lanes to get to the edge of the pink lane is already a little hairy.)



^ This is the street view for when you're in the green lane and you're all "I can't turn right, fuck" and then the red line is for when you're like "Fuck I'll just do it anyway" and the pink is where you'll be VERY UNEXPECTEDLY merging from the left with existing car traffic and, oh yeah, cyclists.

So this happened to me this evening and I wouldn't have even noticed a driver was pulling that shit except another car beeped at them, and then I'm cycling through the middle and they're still not making eye contact with me and still not and still not and I'm shouting "Hey. HEY. HEY! HEY! HEY!!!" (finally make eye contact) "FUCK!!"

St Kilda Junction is not the place for fancy lane switcharoos, people. If you make a mistake, YOU ARE COMMITTED.

this post is brought to you by Google Maps and KolourPaint.

Various reviews of Science Tales. Check out the first review I saw which was in New Scientist.

Here's the text from the two page spread that appeared in The Observer.

On the science\tech blog Boing Boing.

And on the blog Headline Environment.

Oops. Apparently I did really well in January but never wrote it up, and since then I clearly fell off the wagon.




January:

* Oglaf book 1. (not sure comics count...)
* The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman.
* How to be good, Nick Hornby.
* Vegan: The new ethics of eating, Erik Markus. (nf)
* Nobody passes: Rejecting the rules of gender and conformity, ed. Mattilda. (nf)

'Vegan' - spent a lot of time talking about the health benefits which I don't find nearly as compelling as the moral benefits. Didn't blow me away, but I guess there wasn't a lot I hadn't heard before at some point.

'Nobody passes' - enjoyed this, looking forward to reading it again sometime. Most of the essays do relate to gender but a few solely relate to other issues, like race. Didn't blow me away as much has Persistence but maybe it had the virtue of being read first. Or maybe it was better edited. shrug.

Feb to May: (well May ain't over, but I don't see any more being knocked off)



* A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby

A book club book (my suggestion) and a great one. Maybe my favourite of his books that I've read now. It has 4 main characters who alternately narrate the story. The characters meet when they all separately go to the same place to commit suicide one NYE, and they essentially talk each other down. This is a great device to let them talk to each other in a frank way that doesn't happen in polite society.

* The Forgetting: Alzheimer's: Potrait of an Epidemic, David Shenk (nf)

This has been on my shelf for a while, maybe I picked it up after Easter last year. It's really great; well written, so easy to read it feels like cheating. Covers the current (well, 10-20 years ago) medical theories/advances, the history of how it came to be identified as a disease, has excerpts from carers and sufferers. My favourite parts, and the parts that really lift this above your average well written pop science book, are the parts that trace how senility has been written about throughout Western history. Potentially over-emphasises the "humanity" of the disease over the pain it must be for carers to deal with, but maybe that is a bit of hope and a nice perspective to dwell on if you are such a carer.

* Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, Julia Serano (nf)

Awesome book. Very clear-headed and persuasive. Will add it to my mental list of essential feminist texts. Not that I've read that many to know. whatevs. It's a good sensible rant.

* The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen

Another book club pick. I read his book of essays called 'How to be alone' many years ago, but only just now got around to reading the book that made him famous. What can I say, it's good. It's impressively expansive and so many well-fleshed-out characters. As one of my bookclubbers observed the writing is self-conscious in places but it's still good. I found it easy to read but it is a hefty size.

2011 books recap

A very nice review of Science Tales in the GP magazine, The Pulse.

"Darryl Cunningham has given us a truly lovely book! Essentially, it contains a series of clever cartoons which tackle important issues with lots of humour. They skilfully direct us to the heart of the matter, stimulate critical thinking and debunk common myths, many of which are related to healthcare. Most importantly, they amuse us and thus make potentially boring subjects enjoyable.

In this book, Cunningham's cartoons tell us 8 stories: electroconvulsive therapy; homeopathy; the facts on the case of Dr Wakefield; the moon hoax; climate change; evolutions; chiropractic; and science denial. Each story is only about 20 pages long and explains complex issues simply but accurately. Cunningham takes a "no nonsense approach" and has a refreshing pro-science attitude. The best weapon against quackery, he seems to think, it is poke fun at it.

I predict that homeopaths and chiropractors will not like this book. Everyone else, however, should have a good look at it – chances are, you will love it, simply because it is lovely."

This is sensational. I kinda collect dance videos... and somehow I missed this incredible one of Marquese "Nonstop" Scott... until now. People, I implore you... watch this and be amazed. It starts slow, but then gets awesome. And the slow bit in the middle is actually a setup to a great climax. Incredible stuff.