wonk v3.0

A lot of Australian mobile phone users have been the recipient of a premium SMS scam from the number 19900025. The message received is a really bad Christmas joke which you are charged up to $3.50 for receiving. A lot of information on the source of these messages has been uncovered at the whirlpool forums, but if you have received this message you should contact your phone company immediately to report the scam and dispute the charge. Hopefully if enough people complain quickly the scammer will be shut off before too many more people are caught.

Update: I called the number Juz gave below and left my details.  A refund cheque arrived in the mail just over a week later.

Melbourne grinding to a halt (The Age / Dan Silkstone)

The Age today is carrying a set of stories related to the public transport woes Melbourne is currently suffering from. The government has commissioned a report titled “Most Liveable and Best Connected?” which confirms what commuters already know - the current system doesn’t work. Also revealed is the fact that the privatisation of the system has not delivered any improvements to commuters and may actually be costing the public more money than if it was still government run.

Personally I would love to be able to take public transport to work, but for double the travel time at almost the same cost as driving I don’t consider it to be a reasonable option.

Solar Tower of Power Finds Home (Wired News / Stephen Leahey)

A good article by Wired News gives a quick overview of how the solar tower works as well as some of the history of the technology. The company building the tower, EnviroMission Limited, has purchased a $1million property near Mildura to build the tower on. Total costs for the project is expected to fall between $500 and $750 million.

Anger over bottled water (The Scotsman / Russell Jackson).

From the article: “BOTTLED water was criticised by campaigners yesterday for having a damaging impact on the environment.

Friends of the Earth said it was “environmental madness” to transport vast qualities of water often hundreds of miles when essentially the same product was available out of the tap.“

Makes sense when you think about it.

Global warming tipped to produce hot city nights (ABC News)

Bummer, I don’t sleep well on hot nights.