Darwin, Australia - April 2019

A weekend trip to Darwin by Jetstar. Travelling by plane is my only vice when it comes to the climate emergency.

I commute to work usually by bus and train, I don't eat meat and I consume very little dairy - usually only when travelling and even then only when it is part of some vegetarian meal (being 100% vegan is hard), solar panels on the roof of my house produce 50% more electricity than our family uses.

Going by train from Gold Coast to Darwin (Gold Coast to Brisbane, Brisbane to Sydney, Sydney to Adelaide, Adelaide to Darwin) would take minimum 4 days, and it would be a 5400 km trip on mostly diesel powered trains, including The Ghan from Adelaide to Darwin which costs minimum $2349 per person, one way, in low season.

It is about 2900 km by plane. I'm looking forward to the day when we have commercial electric planes. Meanwhile, to offset this trip I used https://co2.myclimate.org to calculate CO2 amount: 5900 km, two people: 2.0t. Then, using the most conservative calculation - one year of carbon abatement: 22 kg of CO2 per tree (Quora - How many trees do I need to plant to offset the carbon dioxide released in a flight?) gives the number of 91 trees. Now, for somebody to plant them you can go to:
https://www.trilliontreecampaign.org/donate-trees where prices start from 0.10 USD per tree for the Eden Reforestation Projects. Tree survival rate for this project is 80%, so we need to plant 114 trees, which is only $11.40 USD. This is probably the cheapest you can find nowadays.

Darwin is a city of 145 thousand people. 

The airport and the RAAF base dominate Darwin. The Darwin City is the small area in the lower left part of this map. 

Parap was the site of the original Darwin airport. The new, much bigger one was built on swamps east-north of Parap.

Approaching Darwin CBD by car

The ABC

A small city Park

Street-scape

Harbour

View from the museum

NT Parliament

Street art in Parap

Parap markets - ban fracking, legalise marijuana.

Parap markets - that's how bamboo should be spelled! There was another stall with the name OSSOM :-)

Aboriginal experience

Goulburn islanders attending a mass at Arnhem Land in 1917

Aboriginal identity disc

Dog tag

Impossible land to master

Chinese men transporting their catch from a fish trap near Darwin in 1914

Sick and elderly Chinese men awaiting deportation from Darwin in 1914

Daily life

Transport

Enlisted Territorians 

End of war

German loses

Uprising over price of liquor

Strikes

Union power

Housing

Bark hut

Tin hut

Worker houses

Multicultural

Mining subsidies

Alfred Deakin

Under federal government

Port Darwin

Original box for "motor spirit"

CycloneTracy

Vietnamese refugees

The actual Vietnamese refugee boat

Meteorites

Green/orange ants

It was so much cooler/nicer in this park

War memorial

A plaque to Americans who died defending Australia

LNG terminal

A WW2 mural on a public toilet wall

Building an underground parking near NT Parliament

No shade. Hot

Vines not climbing fast enough

This tree needs more space for roots

Darwin is hot, always

The bombing of Darwin in 1942

These ceremonial poles reminded me of the Easter palm trees in Christian tradition

Desert Rose

Mindil beach

The Pragmatic Programmer Book by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas

It was one of the most important books for me as a programmer. I think I was given it, to read, by a colleague who later went to work for CERN. I had two copies: one in Polish, one in English. Both are gone, I think I lent them, and never got them back.

A new edition of this classic by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas is out: https://pragprog.com/book/tpp20/the-pragmatic-programmer-20th-anniversary-edition

As usual there are interesting comments about it on Hacker News:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21016664

The timeless list of tips:
https://pragprog.com/tips/

Europe Trip 2018 - Warsaw, Poland

These photos have been taken just as I was going about my business in Warsaw and vicinity. None are from touristy places. They show that there is still a lot to do to make Warsaw and the surrounding areas beautiful. More trees and flowers in summer, fewer cars and parking, more high quality signage like in German cities, fewer ads, renovated facades - maybe paint the buildings white instead of cream/grey, or just clean or re-paint them more often... there is a lot to do.

Politechnika Square - not bad

The opposite side - paint needed!

Near Plac Konstytucji - grey

Still grey, but at lease there are some trees here

Look how lively the two city buses and a tram in Warsaw's yellow-red livery look compared to the buildings here. The bus in foreground is a hybrid MAN. Warsaw will get 130 all electric buses in the next couple of years. 

This would be a nice little street in the centre of Warsaw if 4 lanes worth of space was not reserved for cars: 2 lanes for the road and 2 lanes for parking, leaving narrow footpaths on both sides.

The silver-blue Police car improves this street's outlook

Finally, this is Ochota - a bit of needed greenery and colour

On the edge of Warsaw and Raszyn. Legia is the main football club in Warsaw. 

Most of Raszyn seen from Al. Krakowska is an eyesore. The peeling off white letters/blue background sign is for a lawyer's office - business must be bad, or is it? Notice the practice of attaching all kinds of ads to lamp posts and never removing them.  

This is an old post inn built in 1790 by Piotr Tepper, known locally as "austeria", which is an old Polish word for an inn. Google maps shows that the building is currently being renovated - great!  

I hope these buildings will be renovated too

IKEA Janki shopping centre - an ugly sea of cars and ads. There is even an underground car park under this one. A tram line extension from Warszawa Okęcie to Janki could help reduce the number of cars.

Another shopping centre, another multi-level car park - this one is in Warsaw - Ochota district. 

Pre-war residential low height (3 stories) apartment buildings in Żoliborz district.

The same Żoliborz area in Google Maps 3D

Pruszków near Warsaw

Also Pruszków

This is Mokotów district - high-rise (11-15 stories) residential buildings and lots of trees in between. 

This is how the above street looks like in Google Maps 3D. High density living, lots of green space.

Falenty village near Raszyn - Legia fans live here too. These are old car garages for local residents.

A big barn - Falenty IMUZ cows live here. They used to walk everyday to a nearby field 15 years ago. I don't see them leaving the barn anymore.

Jewish cemetery in Grodzisk Mazowiecki - about 30 km from Warsaw 

The cemetery gate is locked. Could the tomb plates be restored and this cemetery made accessible during the day like other cemeteries? There is a lot of history here.

Warsaw's low cost airport - Modlin. Can get very crowded and unpleasant.

And Modlin's main customer: Ryanair

The last photo is an ad for fibre internet. Prices start at 49.90 PLN per month and speeds go up to 900 Mb/s. We are far behind Poland here in Australia. Our internet access is much more expensive and much slower because our conservative party, which obviously in Australia is called Liberals (LNP - Liberal National Party), wrecked our National Broadband Network plan.

Europe Trip 2018 - Görlitz/Zgorzelec, Germany/Poland

This was one city until 1945. Then it became two. On the west side of the Lusatian Neisse river, Görlitz is a German city of 56,000 people. On the east side, Zgorzelec is a Polish city of 32,000 people. In 2007 Poland became part of the Schengen Area, which means there are no border checks here - you can freely explore the cities on both sides of the border.

Old map of the city shows that it was situated mainly on the western bank of Lusatian Neisse

Polish side, the white and red border pole.

One of two bridges joining the cities. A view towards the Polish side.

Same bridge, seen from further away

German side, a bit empty at 7:30pm on a Saturday

There is more people near the Old Town Hall. How many clocks does it have?

Reichenbacher Turm, built some time before 1376

Despite small population Görlitz has two tram lines 13.6km long. It had 5 lines at peak in 1939. It uses narrow gauge (1000mm) tracks, 600V power, 17 Czech Tatra KT4D trams.  

Such fruit and vegetable stands can be found in many German cities

The building that lets active traffic through. Active transport is the one where you use your legs to move: walking, riding a bicycle :-)

A shortcut for pedestrians and bicycles. Not all buildings have been renovated yet.

Built 1550. Astronomical diagrams on the wall.

Built in 1528