Gizmodo: sydney

Waking Up On Mars: Australia's Bizarre Dust Storm

Danny Allen — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:00:00 EDT

I woke up Wednesday (Tuesday U.S. time), to a scene from Total Recall. Sydney had been blanketed by an apocalyptic glowing red dust storm. Red from iron-oxide: rust. And if I couldn't breathe, my tech gear wouldn't like this either…

But I did what any geek would do. I regressed into an excited 10 year old, grabbed the camera, and went out to play in the freakish weather. After 5 minutes of constantly clearing my throat, and noticing that my G9 had started to collect dust, I decided it just wasn't worth it. Having been asleep with a window open meant a little dust was also inside. I switched off my main desktop (it's got a big air-intake fan), and fired up a laptop to find out what the hell was going on.

Big winds had swept the dust from Australia's drought-stricken interior, carrying it hundreds of miles to the east coast. Sydney (with a population of 4.3 million) was most affected, but other cities were, too. In terms of air pollution, particle concentration reached a thickness of about 15,000 micrograms per cubic meter—a normal day here has about 10-20.

Comedian Arj Barker (from Flight of the Conchords) Tweeted this pic: "It's like Dune here in Sydney. This is the giant dust storm we had to land in."

Until winds swept the dust to sea mid-afternoon, flights were canceled, Twitter went crazy, MMS traffic spiked 50 percent, and data centers installed air filters…it was interesting to watch how technology intersected with the bizarre weather.

The dust cloud was the worst in 70 years, and it's still unclear if climate change was to blame. But at the very least, I got a dusty taste of life on Mars for the day (well, sort of). [Sydney Morning Herald]

Australia Building Huge Electric Car Grid: 600,000+ Stations By 2012

John Herrman — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 05:50:23 EDT

Apparently not content with just one giant ongoing infrastructure project, Australia has committed to fully outfitting three of its biggest cities for widespread electric car use. In hardware terms, that amounts to 200,000-250,000 charging stations each for Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, with an additional 150 battery swap stations scattered between them. The effort will cost $1bn in Australian Dingo Dollars, which is about $667m USD. If that's not ambitious enough for you, consider this: it should be online in three years.

Granted, most of these 'stations' will just be small, designated sockets clamped on to existing lines at homes, businesses and parking lots, and the battery swap stations will essentially trade your batteries the same way that Ace Hardware does your propane tanks. But even if the technology is kind of trivial, the fact remains that a significant part of Australia's population will soon have a ubiquitous infrastructure for electric cars.

The Australian government is currently encouraging domestic automakers to answer the anticipated demand for electric vehicles, because, well, there are about two right now. There is, however, a suspicious aspect to this plan: the government is suggesting cell phone-like contracts as a method of charging for the juice, which sounds like about as good an idea as Kangaroo Jack IV. [AP via Slashdot]

Sony Earphones Make Attractive, Useless Subway Maps

Wilson Rothman — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 21:45:00 EDT

In order to prove how far Sony has come since ATRAC3 and long-playing MiniDiscs, a new ad attributed to the company shows a NYC subway map traced in its entirety by black Sony earphones, accompanied by a Network Walkman. As if it wasn't enough to try to retake ownership of just one iPod-saturated public transit system, a search revealed similar designs for both the London Underground and Sydney's Metro. That last one makes sense, since Sony retained the Sydney office of badass ad agency Saatchi and—repetition is key to messaging—Saatchi for the inspired work. One prob though: As any seasoned straphanger will tell you, you kinda need the colors, or else all the lines run together. [The Cool Hunter]

Apple Store in Sydney, Oi Oi Oi!

Benny Goldman — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:53:28 EDT

Our brothers from down under at Giz Australia got a full-on press-packed walkthrough of the new Apple store in Sydney, the first on the continent, and it looks as nice and Apple-y as you'd expect. This long staircase—to places unknown—is especially cool, and unique compared to what we have in the cramped confines of NYC. However, the retail and Genius Bar sections still do look like, in Blam's words, an "evil twin" of the NYC Meatpacking District's store. Hit the link to see the rest of the pics. [Giz AU]