Samuel's Blog

In this blog, I will discuss my opinions on the new Western Sydney Airport, my excitement for it and provide a little travel blog of the day I went down to Sydney at the end of April to do the runway walk. This blog will be fairly relaxed and won't include really any references - take my opinions very lightly as I am just an airport and train foamer. Photo I took of the WSI terminal building 26 April around 5PM Hello to anyone reading this, it has been a while since I've posted something, but I am still here! I've just been very busy and a lot of things have changed as I've graduated high school, started university and started working a part time retail job as well, so my free time has reduced this year. Despite, the runway walk occurring back in April, I still want to share my experiences and thoughts on the new airport especially since I am someone who loves anything transport infrastructure related.  Western Sydney International (Nancy Bird Walton) Airport (WSI) is c...

Ipswich has finally got some bus improvements. This is incredibly exciting, especially since this is the beginning of a 3 staged bus improvement to Ipswich that will be rolled out over the coming few years. This has been incredibly needed for a long time as the corridor from Springfield to Ripley is rapidly expanding. Notably, Deebing Heights (4000 residents in the 2021 census) has no bus routes at all. It’s unfortunate that residents will have to wait another year to get a bus - if all goes to plan. The first stage of the bus routes roll out on 17 November 2025, and the translink journey planner has the routes in already. This is an amazing beginning for a better and more well connected public transportation in Ipswich. Additionally, I'm so happy that the 501 exists, and that residents don't have to wait for the postponed or delayed, Ipswich to Springfield Rail corridor to be built. Map of the new and improved bus routes The routes! All routes have an exact rough hourly off-p...

  In this article, I'll discuss weather Tasmania's over representation in the lower house is an issue, and the implications of balancing the house of representatives on the senate. In this article I will be using enrolment statistics for the 2025 federal election.  The Constitution  The Constitution of Australia regarding political representation states that, "24. Constitution of House of Representatives The House of Representatives shall be composed of members directly chosen by the people of the Commonwealth, and the number of such members shall be, as nearly as practicable, twice the number of the senators. [...]  But notwithstanding anything in this section, five members at least shall be chosen in each Original State. " To summarise, the number of state elected members in lower house should be twice the size state elected senators, with all original states guaranteed five members. Since there are 12 senators per state equalling a total of 72 senators (since ther...

This article: Basic Economic Analysis of Future Made in Australia by Samuel Challenger is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0  Therefore, the attribution in the footer does not apply to this article.     For context: when writing this, I am in my last year of high school and economics is my favourite subject at school. I'll be using analysis techniques taught to me, I am in no way an expert in any of this; if you are an expert, feel free to criticise me, as it will only help me. Or perhaps build upon my opinion, it's why this article is under a Creative Commons ShareAlike license compared to a non-derivative one.

Today, I've decided to release all of my fun proportional representation experiments with Australian electoral data (entirely a product of my own procrastination and satisfaction) on my website because it may have value to someone, I don't know.     https://www.samuelchallenger.com/pr In my free time, I'm often bored, so what's a better thing to do than occupy my time by using the 2022 Federal Election to speculate on proportional representation! Feel free to critique my speculation through email or mastodon. Or alternatively, use the creative commons license to improve upon my work. Also worth noting, I know the limitations of simulating elections like how people might vote differently if presented a party list. I also recognise the constitutional challenges associated with some systems, but this is a product of me being bored and wanting to do something. Visit my other website to see the simulations I made. https://www.samuelchallenger.com/pr As for my own v...

  Today I decide to reflect on my experiences with linux.   I now have a new computer to replace compared to the last time I wrote my experiences with Linux. After I got my computer, I finally decided to do a full install, but I don't know how, but when I tried to install Kubuntu by letting the installer format my drive, my computer did not wake up from the installation.  It was in a permanent boot loop, and I couldn't even boot my surface on USB, the whole hard drive seemed to have been corrupted by the install process. Thankfully, I had my new computer and I had backed up everything, so this wasn't much of issue. Since then, the computer has been recycled. Now, personally, I do not want to change my OS, as the install could mess up my computer, and I'm weary of installing Linux on my current computer due to the potential that my drive could get corrupted in the formatting process.  I now use Windows. But personally, I'm still fond of Linux and open source software...

Today, I have decided to move my Substack to blogger? Why?  I mainly moved because of this domain, which I think is very cool. Also blogger allows me to take more control over my webpage compared to substack. My substack will still exist but it will be unmaintained, as it doesn't cost anything to maintain. This is why don't use wordpress, because of the extra costs and maintenance associated hosting on that platform. As this purely a method for me to speak my mind and opinion on nothing I'm qualified for. 

State Library of Queensland , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons This article: Summarising the 2024 QLD Election Policy Platforms by Samuel Challenger is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Therefore, the attribution in the footer does not apply to this article. You are free to remix, adapt and transform this article. Summarising the 2024 Queensland state election promises and policy platforms from parties that either have representation in parliament, or are standing in over half (50 or more) electorates across Queensland. Labor: "Doing what matters for Queensland" Labor wants to support farmers by having $715 million of the budget dedicated to better agricultural policy. For cost of living they wants to continue policies like $1000 off energy bills, 50c public transport fares, 20% off care rego, free kindy & TAFE, $1000 cash-back for tools for first-year apprentices, $200 in FairPlay vouches, as well as a new policy of free school lunches. As for crime prevention,...

Nick-D , CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons This article: Summarising the 2024 ACT Election Policy Platforms by Samuel Challenger is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Therefore, the attribution in the footer does not apply to this article. You are free to remix, adapt and transform this article. Summarising the 2024 Australian Capital Territory election promises and policy platforms made by political parties contesting in 3 or more electorates. Most are specific to Canberra, but some smaller parties, like Family First have a general policy platform. Labor: "Progressive, Practical, Proven" A re-elected Labor government wants to hire 800 more healthcare workers, build a new billion dollar north side hospital in Bruce, better walk-in centres, more bulk billing, and new health centres. As for cost of living, Labor will enact an $800 energy bill on top of the federal government's $300 relief, free public transport on Fridays, $500 for trainees & apprentices, free presch...

Copied from Substack. In my first proper article I will try to explain why I've switched to Linux, and give my thoughts, experiences and review after 6 months of using it.   Hello, In my first substack article I want to talk about my experience so far has been with using linux, what distro I’ve chosen, and why I even chose to run linux as my main operating system when I’m not even a computer nerd or even that tech savvy in computing. By now, I have been using Kubuntu daily for both personal use and school use. I have a Surface Laptop 3, i5, 256 GB, 8GB Ram. (I know the irony of using a Microsoft laptop, but not using the Microsoft OS) Anyway, so far, it’s been great, most of the apps I use are available on Linux and I’ve even found & discovered new entirely free apps! (Krita, Okular, and Kdenlive are the best free programs I’ve come across!) My wacom tablet literally works out of the box, something that can’t be said for windows, my printer just works with no additional setup, ...