Author: Chester Press

New Zealand to Annex Australia

An intensive, three year long investigation has yielded a surprising result: The country of Australia should be considered a state of New Zealand.

The counter-intuitive conclusion of Maxwell Foreman’s thesis pertaining to Geological and Tectonic Boundaries and Established Political Regions shows that, while most of the countries follow an implied pattern, Australia and New Zealand are large exceptions.

“The problem appears that, since Australia and New Zealand have been colonised only very recently, in the grand scheme of history, there hasn’t been enough time for the usual flexing of borders to align with the Earth’s natural boundaries,” says Maxwell.

He goes on to say that while there are many such examples where the political climate has had more influence than the natural, the Australia-New Zealand situation is unique.

“New Zealand is essentially an archipalego with Wellington sitting almost perfectly on the arithmetic mean and, surprisingly, the mass of Australia is, geologically speaking, merely an island of that cluster,” he states, “Given time, we might find that Australia will be absorbed into the nation of New Zealand.”ChesterLogoSmall

Countdown to Less Traffic

Traffic lights are integral to the proper functioning of any urban transportation system. A necessary evil, they reduce the number of accidents and aim to increase throughput, yet they are a source of frustration for drivers.

One of these frustrations is being caught at a set of lights without any idea of how long they will take to change in favour of the driver.

A push by the National Road Users Association for visible countdown timers on traffic lights hopes to see better throughput and safer driving conditions for all.

“Our simulations show that by giving the driver an indication of when lights will change, rather than springing a cycle upon them, the driver’s reaction time is improved by upwards of 30%, which results in more cars through an intersection per cycle, improving the overall efficiency,” says Michelle Terry, NRUA founder, “We also expect fewer gridlocks, since drivers won’t thrust themselves into a blocked intersection if they can see that the lights are about to change.”

Schemes tested include placing illuminated signs above the signals.

“Displaying numbers works well in simulations, however we are also trialing colour, positional and rate-of-flash (ROF) sequences, in case numbers are too hard to see under particular driving conditions.”

There is no official date for a rollout of any proposed changes.ChesterLogoSmall