These are some really great and fun map projects on the net:
Wikimapia - it’s great, but most of the things I wanted to add are added already. But I did contribute to some places in both HK and in Melbourne. It works perfectly on Camino, but not on Safari. There are some security issues here though, which I won’t elaborate on as it takes too much of my brain and effort.
Roadwatch - Incomplete, but a useful tool around for speeders - like me.
While I am in Melbourne, Australia, when we are in the middle of winter, with occassional showers and cold weather, HK is experiencing strong winds (> 100 km/h) to the point that people are being hit by flying bins. And yet, HKO has only issued a no. 3 typhoon signal. WTF? In this kind of situation, the no. 8 typhoon signal (which shuts businesses and the economy down) should have been issued (from my experiences of watching hk-related news).
I asked spacehunt why and his response was to see how things are structured in the HKSAR. And so I did and found the government organisation chart. For ten minutes, I was searching for the HKO under the Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works column. But it is structured under the Secretary for Economic Development and Labour.
Hmm… that explains everything… so the economy plays a role in whatever the HKO does and despite weather forecasts and scientific observations..
That also reminds me of the Bus Uncle quote: “I have pressure, you also have pressure”.
Update: I did a quick search on google’s blogsearch engine and found the following links:
Oh - and why the hell does the HKO uses criteria from the 1970s? And one of them includes the average windspeed in Victoria Harbour. The Zonaeuropa blog, which translates Appledaily articles to English relates the whole situation to Donald Duck and the Snooping law. Bringing together science and politics leads to conspiracy and catastrophe. :p
The video clip on youtube that I mentioned a few days ago has now captured the international media. It’s even on wikipedia. People must have nothing better to do in Hong Kong - putting in subtitles, making music video remixes of it and even producing sequels from the original.
Actually, I’ve been checking EastSouthWestNorth everyday since I saw the clip to see if the blogger on the site has translated related articles from Chinese media because it does a pretty good job on translating news-worthy articles.
Some of the best quotes out of it include:
“Don’t call me boss - the world is fair and we don’t know each other”
(That guy’s quite right - we are all considered as an equal since we don’t know each other. Labelling people doesn’t resolve the problem - it only makes it worse).
“You and I both face pressure. We are all stressed in this society. Then why did you provoke me?”
(I definitely agree with this comment. Hong Kong is a stressful society with long working hours (from nine till six for five days a week plus Saturday mornings), heavy traffic congestion, air pollution and noise pollution. Plus it’s densely populated and almost everybody that lives there can’t afford to waste a minute of their time especially in the early rush hour. To some degree, stress can be taken as an excuse to release anger at people because I do it sometimes, but swearing repeatedly is just rude.
“It’s not yet resolved!”
It was only a minor incident that started out with a young adult tapping on the so-called “Bus Uncle’s” shoulder, yet the reaction can be so big that even profits can be made from it.
Warning: This video contains some obscene language. Play at your own risk.
….That was strange. The younger fella didn’t know what he was doing and had such a stupid mind that provoked that middle aged man because he was loud on the phone. The middle aged man - he was losing his temper because of one little thing. Fair enough - he was angry, mad and being uncivilised. But that youngester should also be responsible for the incident - he should have just ignored him or got someone to notify the bus driver. I feel sorry not for the teen, but for everybody else who had to put up with all that crap that guy was on about.
And by the way, this was on a bus in Hong Kong…
This teaches us a lesson: Never provoke people on public transport in Hong Kong