Well today is the big day. After 2 months of ‘the toothache of death’ (good name for a band) I am off to have my four wisdom teeth yanked. Thanks to my genes I have the toughest jaw on the planet which will require a chisel to split each tooth in half before each halve is yanked.

Again, due to toughness the doctor suggests I go under general aesthetic less I punch the living snot out of the nursing staff during the procedure if I were awake. As a result I must sign over the rights of this web site to the people for a short period.

As I write this I am looking at some general information on general anesthetics and from the sounds I am in for one whacky ride. Unconsciousness followed by euphoric high but my major concern was a little snippet I read as follows….

“To help control pain during and after surgery, your anaesthetist may give you strong painkillers. These can be injected through your cannula, or given as a suppository – a tablet inserted into your rectum (back passage).”

What the F#ck!!!!??? Does this mean while I am asleep some unknown creature may insert something somewhere?

Someone help me….

Live long and prosper

Here you go people, a bunch of new robots monitoring your performance in society and punishing you for non compliance.

There will be 7 new speed camera locations being tested in the south-east corner over the coming weeks and if successful will be operational by mid 2010 and then will be rolled out through the rest of the state. These will be:

TWO COMBINED RED LIGHT/SPEED CAMERAS

Cnr Waterworks Road and Jubilee Terrace, Ashgrove
Cnr Beaudesert Road and Compton Road, Calamvale

THREE SPOT FIXED SPEED CAMERAS

Pacific Motorway, Loganholme
Gateway Arterial Road, Nudgee
Clem7 Tunnel, Woolloongabba to Bowen Hills

ONE MOBILE SPEED CAMERA

Used at varying locations

ONE POINT-TO- POINT SPEED CAMERA SYSTEM

Bruce Highway, Caloundra Road to Wild Horse Mountain, Beerburrum
A point-to-point (or average) speed camera system uses a number of cameras over a length of road to measure a vehicle’s average speed. The system uses the time it takes for a vehicle to travel between the two points to calculate the average speed of the vehicle: Speed = Distance/Time.

Point-to-point speed camera systems use a number of cameras mounted at staged intervals along a particular route.

Point-to-point camera systems, like fixed speed cameras, are monitoring traffic 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, unlike current fixed speed cameras, point-to-point systems are not activated when a vehicle violates the speed limit at a given point in time measured by a speed detection device. Rather, point-to-point camera
systems apply a mathematical calculation based on the time it takes for a vehicle to travel from one camera to the next and the distance between the cameras.

The first length of road the system will cover is approximately 13km.

The new locations will be digital processors so if an infringement is detected the images are uploaded instantly to the infringements processing centre and you receive notification with 2-3 days. Currently with the wet-film system these can take up to 4 weeks.

I can’t provide exact figures on the road fatalities because the government appear to have changed the measurement of these figures from calendar year to financial year statistics so here is how it breaks down.

1999 314
2000 318
2001 324
2002 322
2003 310
2004 311
2005 328
2006 335
2007 331 (could be 360 based on a different report)
2008 327

Not much of a change, but baring in mind that the population of the state has increased approximately 22% during this same period I am guessing there has been some improvement on a per person basis. However I am personally not sure that more cameras is the solution.

I believe a large percentage of these fatal accidents are head on collisions and feel confident if major highways were separated or at least 2 lanes wide each way separated by guard rail (in the middle) then many lives could be saved. Perhaps keep the speed cameras we have and use the fine float (revenue) to go towards these improvements.

After losing a work colleague / friend of 15 years last year to a head on collision I know this may have made a difference, speed cameras did nothing to save him as he was not speeding, guard rails may have kept both cars apart.

Just an idea, let the shooting down begin. I know at least one of you out there should be an expert on the subject.

I must be the only person in the country who thinks the Australian Winter Olympic team are acting like a bunch of spoilt brats at their refusal to remove the boxing kangaroo from the athlete’s village after numerous requests from the International Olympic Committees (IOC).

I may be wrong, but last I checked the IOC ran the show! Not a bunch of self inflated athletes who once every four years think they are worth more than a bubblegum wrapper. I personally value a bubblegum wrapper much more than any winter Olympian (except Bradbury because he proved that dumb luck beats ALL statistics most of the time).

I can only think that these self delusional winter wanna bees have no thought as to why the IOC is requesting the removal of this flag. One good reason is that we have a flag that hangs in some stadium somewhere which should be the centre of our athletes pride. A second good reason is that if we can hang our flag then those niff nuff Kiwi’s will want to hang theirs and it could get worse from there. The Americans will have bald eagles swooping from all angles and who knows what Third Reich sympathizing German athletes might hang.

Its simple, the rules are there for a dam good reason and the fact that certain deputy leaders of this nation make statements like this “It’s a scandal,” “I think we want to see a lot of the Boxing Kangaroo, particularly now that we’ve had this ridiculous ruling. So, yes, boxing kangaroos everywhere.” indicates to me that certain sections of the community think they are above the rules.

If I were Mathieu Turcotte and I had a room located behind this flag reminding me of a certain event that occurred in 2002, I may consider the purchase of a cigarette lighter… just saying