(Part 3) Top products from r/sydney

Easy, just get him a Zombie survival guide from Dymocks/Kinokuniya. What you have to watch out for is that you don't get him a shit one, of which there are many. IMO, The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks is the best one out there. If he hasn't read it, World War Z also by Max Brooks is excellent reading. It's not so much a guide as a collection of individual recounts, reports and stuff from different people over the course of a zombie breakout. It reads realistically which is more than I can say for the majority of Zombie related "survival guides" and books that are just stupid. They're making a movie out of it with Brad Pitt starring - just to show it's popularity.

If he hasn't seen The Walking Dead, getting him the seasons on DVD might be a good idea. Awesome TV show - again, realistic. If he's seen them, don't bother. I mean, he can just download them anyway so I guess this would be a crap gift unless he really likes the show. There are graphic novels that the show is based on which might be good.

If he's a gamer, might be good to get him ARMA II: Combined Operations. The reason I say that there's a great zombie survival mod for it called Day Z which is basically an online multiplayer open-world zombie survival like game. Trust me, he'll like it. Steam summer sale is on right now so ARMA II is 20% - if you can wait, don't buy it yet as it may go on sale for more (possibly up to 75%) if it goes up as a daily deal/flash sale/community choice. There's also a The Walking Dead game which I've heard is good. It's already been a daily deal so 25% is as good as it will get now.

Last of all, making him a kit might be cool. I put together this for a redditor last year. You can probably make a better one than me - I'll admit I cheaped out a little. Get a box or a backpack (you can cheap out on the backpack) and fill it up with things like a flashlight, a med kit (bandaids, bandages, surgical scissors, sports tape etc. things you can buy from a pharmacy), water purification tablets (this especially adds to it IMO), food (canned, power bars or, if you want to go the extra mile, MREs), thick army socks, a compass, etc. Basically just shit you'd take with you if you were going camping. Make it as compact/lightweight as possible.


Well, fuck, that turned out to be a lot longer than I intended. Anyway, good luck.

EDIT: Oh yeah, one more thing. What I did for that same redditor last year was that I wrote a survival plan for him. Basically, if you get him that Max Brooks Survival Guide, one of the things they suggest is hiding out in a prison (fortification, food, water, exercise yard, accommodation, weapons, remote etc.) - what I did was that I researched prisons in the walkable/bikable vicinity of his house and I mapped out routes to them from his house on a map I printed of his house from google maps.

How in depth do you want here? If you want stories that are interesting, original and accurate you should check out Grace Karsken's books. Good reading: http://www.amazon.com/Colony-History-Early-Sydney/dp/1741756375

Thats easily the best book, apart from kusaioshiri's suggestion of Leviathan. It's a cracker of a read.

On top of these good books, you could take a different route by taking one of these fantastic walking architecture tours, by passionate, practicing architects: http://www.sydneyarchitecture.org/

Or you could check out this free museum in The Rocks which is surprisingly good with lots of touchscreen interactive panels: http://www.therocks.com/sydney-Things_To_Do-The_Rocks_Discovery_Museum.htm

Mandatory mention of the consistently good Museum of Sydney run by the Historic Houses Trust. http://www.hht.net.au/museums/mos

Yeah, Interface Carpets have done incredible things. Ray Anderson the owner of Interface did a great TED talk where he explains their journey. You can find other cases along this vein in the book Cradle to Cradle. They give me faith that business and manufacturing can positively contribute to sustainability if they choose to.

Hey there, recent arch-graduate here!

I'd be pretty interested in all of these at the prices listed; always looking to expand my archi-library!

Well... apart from 'Towards a New Architecture' which naturally I already own (unless of course it is specifically this edition: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0892368225/ref=pd_aw_sbs_14_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=51-O88BGLHL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL100_SR100%2C100_&refRID=0XY1C90GPZWYTM23QMKG which as far as I am concerned is the definitive translation/commentary and would always borrow from the library rather than using my own other edition when I needed it lol).

I could do pickup in the north shore or city also. PM me and we can work out some details :D

Thanks but instead of looking at the surface result again, I think you could've done more research. Here's the item on Amazon. As you can see it's not the highest rated option available which would've helped more. But thanks anyway.

edit:link fix

Good point, but:

(a) it's a hell of a lot better than nothing;

(b) on other freeway systems you do get new exits added with intermediate numbering and it seems to work - I've experienced this in New York. On googling, there's even a book about one of them: http://www.amazon.com/Exit-8A-Tales-York-Commuter/dp/1629038415

You have to admit that the present Lib government has done more positives for transportation and especially public transportation than any administration since Wran, and I'd argue has done even more good than Wran.

I'm actually a town planner and while your idea may be well intentioned, it isn't rooted in any reality I'm aware of and the problems it would arise are too numerous to count. Over a century of town planning has worked on the best ways to structure cities considering transport, livability, economic efficiency, infrastructure efficiency ect and they've pretty much concluded the exact opposite of what you're suggesting.

All economic powerhouse economies are centered around large and dense urbanised cities and there are many good reasons for that. The big one being businesses want to be centrally located with access to the largest pool of skilled employees with efficient transport networks for goods and people. Decentralising everything into widely dispersed car-dependent business parks flies in the face of what a modern economy wants. Google just pulled out of the White Bay redevelopment because of the lack of mass transport options.

If you want a walkable CBD with no cars then how are people going to get there from their 2 acre home 50km away? Mass transport is out since they're only efficient in denser areas. So roads? That's how you build a car dependent sprawling mess where people sit in traffic all day, reducing worker productivity and quality of life along the way.

You'd need to sprawl suburbia endlessly outwards to cater for people living on such large lots and forget about parks and nature reserves, they'll be consumed by the sprawl. By living denser you free up the amount of space that can be used for public and national parks.

I could go on and on but if you actually want to know why your idea wouldn't work start out reading Jane Jacob's The Death and Life of American Cities which is the cornerstone for modern planning. Worth noting that environmental sustainability isn't addressed much since it was written in 1961 so if you want additional arguments for denser cities then David Owen's Green Metropolis is a good entry point.

FYI I'd recommend this book if you're into Thai Food

I got my first copy many years ago and it's a bit of a Thai food Bible.

"In Flight Science" is excellent.
https://www.amazon.com/Inflight-Science-Guide-Airplane-Window/dp/1848312415

Good book on fonts
“Just My Type”

By Simon Garfield


Just My Type

Got it at MCA Sydney book store

This is the best book - though American (and things are far worse there - particularly the 'free' part in the title), many of the issues still apply

https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X

Found this great book because of the /r/IAmA thing by Adam Mansbach.

Tempted to order a case of them for all the new and expecting parents at work, but not sure if it's totally appropriate. (There must've been a LOT of bonking going on 5-15 months ago, so many folks I know and work with are having babies)

Haha no. It's from a classic, Imaginative qualities of actual things.

https://www.amazon.com/Imaginative-Qualities-Actual-Gilbert-Sorrentino/dp/1564784703

https://www.amazon.com.au/This-Book-Planetarium-Extraordinary-Contraptions/dp/1452136211

You can find it at kinokuniya if you need it soon

easy

sort of! I am not being very secretive here - Vanessa is actually my name. Possibly because of the butterflies but more likely http://www.amazon.com/Vanessa-Herries-Chronicle-Hugh-Walpole/dp/0711228922

Abandon women; and instead treat yourself and a bro(mance) to:

A Hardcopy of Rippetoe's Starting Strength and your first ~galon of milk

But in seriousness, if I can get a copy of Eldritch Horror for significantly less than the ~$80AUD it is here, that would be amazing. http://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Flight-Games-EH01-Eldritch/dp/1616617667

The Eldritch Horror: Forsaken Lore Expansion too. It's $35AUD in Aus.
http://www.amazon.com/Eldritch-Horror-Forsaken-Lore-Expansion/dp/1616618086