Is it $30 million or $3 million ? It makes a difference as to whether I'd support it or not.

Scientists, can you please tell me if after nearly five decades of taking my antibiotics neat, I might now benefit from these pills and their promise to "help restore beneficial flora"?

For every course of antibiotics I have to take, I buy a potted ficus. Always worked for me.

It's also?

Is it $30 million or $3 million ? It makes a difference as to whether I'd support it or not.

I believe NZTA said $30m full on, the pro-cycle-friends said $3m for a simple alternative.
Possibly somewhere on the lower-end of inbetween then?

(I give up – who is the 3rd guy?)

Mr Steve Braunias.

Possibly somewhere on the lower-end of inbetween then?

Right so far we've got ...

A group of engineers and specialists from the government agency who do this sort of estimating for major civil works all the time say it'll cost $30 million.

A group of lycra wearing enthusiasts (one of?

NZ Pharmacy's main purpose is as a dispensary for free drugs for the government

No, their main purpose is to sell lots of cosmetics, hair product and cheap sunglasses. Somewhere down the back, most of them have some medicine.

Speaking of which, has there actually been a ban on over-the-counter?

Fantastic stuff.

Also, I will be there on Sunday morning, possibly with bell on. Do we have any numbers on the possible size of the PAS contingent?

has there actually been a ban on over-the-counter pseudoephedrine-based medicine

No. The new phenylephrine products are mostly not as effective, but you might have to push a bit harder to get the good stuff. Note, in case of an emergency, P, other amphetamines, and cocaine will also work, but are?

I find it profoundly irritating that people who were made to study chemistry and microbiology every year of their degree peddle this crap. Either they believe the woo (depressing ignorance and gullibility, testimony to the lack of efficacy of a?

However I find the fluorescent yellow entertaining especially when hung over.

You could just eat fruit and veges but you'd miss out on the opportunity to support our local economy, in particular help pay for your pharmacists new car which they bought from a struggling?

(I have a mate who's one, and after a year or so doing interesting stuff in a hospital, he went to work at Boots in the UK. A lot of his time was spent fixing cameras – on the grounds that they are technical thingys,?

Well Glenn I think it's fair to say you've nailed your colours to the mast

Not at all, The point I'm trying to make is I would support the bridge cyle way but not at all costs and not at $30 million or anything approaching it.

I reckon $50k. All it needs is a big white line down the middle of the upstream clipon, a couple of accessways by the Curran St on-ramp and the old toll plaza, and some barricades to close the lane off.

study chemistry and microbiology every year of their degree

FWIW, they take much less microbiology than that (one paper in second year @ otago). Although antibacterials are an important class of medicines, there's a lot of others that don't have too much to do with it.

Vitamin tablets = expensive urine

A little worse than that; some vitamins, in large doses, are not at all good for you.

General rule of thumb for medical stuff: if it uses the words "boosts your immune system", it's at least 50% woo. Possibly more. It's an almost unconfirmable, difficult?

It's also why it's hard to buy that really really cheap generic bottle with 400 ibuprofens in the supermarket the way you can in the US

Grrrr – don't get me started ESPECIALLY when it comes to children's liquid paracetamol (aka "pamol". Anyone who has been parent will know the?

How about $30k for an old transit van and say $40k year for the driver to run shuttles across for a year and see if it gets used?

Offering an insulting shitty option, and then claiming that its rejection proves there's no demand for proper provision, is not cool. Hey,?

Grrrr – don't get me started ESPECIALLY when it comes to children's liquid paracetamol (aka "pamol"

Most doctors that I've seen with my kids are good about asking you "and do you need some pamol? Just in case? How about I give you a script that you can have in?

I reckon $50k. All it needs is a big white line down the middle of the upstream clipon, a couple of accessways by the Curran St on-ramp and the old toll plaza, and some barricades to close the lane off.

You forgot to budget for the green paint.

You forgot to budget for the green paint.

and the guy from the council with the video camera filming anyone who strays into the green, whilst parking his council car in the middle of it ;-)

Not as cheap as it should be (the supermarket own brands have the pills cheaper) but not as expensive?

I don't think cocaine works as a nasal *de*congestant, somehow...

But it does have the benefit of not to making you drowsy... quite the opposite I've been lead to believe.

No one as far as I know makes a generic non-branded version of it in NZ

It depends on the sense in which you apply 'generic'. Paracetamol is long off patent, and 'Panadol' was the name of the original patented innovator brand. Pamol is made by Johnson & Johnson, though. Paracare?

and the guy from the council with the video camera filming anyone who strays into the green, whilst parking his council car in the middle of it ;-)

Ah, that's what those guys are always doing on Albert Street with the cameras! I wondered why the council never mailed me?

Vitamin tablets = expensive urine

Yes. The only sensible way to increase one's vitamin intake during the winter is to switch from olives to a twist in one's Martini.

All it needs is a big white line down the middle of the upstream clipon, a couple of accessways by the?

I don't think cocaine works as a nasal *de*congestant, somehow...

You're thinking of re-bound congestion. If you look at a nasal spray, it will say don't use for more than 5 days (or it will cause worse congestion than you already have). Same with coke. As an aside, Cocaine's current?

1) When I saw that picture of Phil Spector, I thought it was Steve Braunias.

2) What does Deborah Hill-Cone think of the Lake Road cycle lanes?

I don't think cocaine works as a nasal *de*congestant, somehow...

I understand that after some years of prolonged use, it can be quite effective, in the same way that scorched earth policies are quite effective at weed control.....

Which Devonport pharmacy are we talking about, though?

The snobby genteel one?

The snobby genteel one in the high street? Or the new grungy, sleazy one by the supermarket that I keep thinking is the $2 shop?

I have yet to try the new one...

a transparent one laid on the harbour bed

Please refer to Island Life edition 42.

What does?

a transparent one laid on the harbour bed

Jumps up and down shouting "see, see"

I told you it was a winning idea!

As an aside, Cocaine's current legitimate medical use is for nasal surgery.

A friend of mine was prescribed it after having had a nasal feeding tube in for...not sure how long exactly, but at least several months. Presumably to numb the discomfort. God knows that if anyone deserved to be?

however when my kids where tiny (60's/70s) Dr's always said to give them yogurt to stop the trots that anti-b's often bring on?

some sort of self-powered gondolier system

Something like this, perhaps.

It'd be way cooler if you could fasten your own bike into it and pedal across as per usual, though.

If you took a wind trainer and bodged it with an oversize shweeb pod, should be workable. Be a hell of a tourist attraction as well.

You did your best to get 'Deborah Hill Cone' and 'spanking' into the same sentence didn't you?

Come on. Admit it...

I though she lived in Manurewa now?

Yeah, but she and hubby got fed up waiting for the Waterview Motorway to go through so they could burgle all those nice folk in Pt Chev.

You did your best to get 'Deborah Hill Cone' and 'spanking' into the same sentence didn't you?

Thank you Sir! may I have another?

He started out by snarling at Her Majesty, Brenda, Queen of New Zealand.

I love it that I'm the queen. But it was that Braunias tosser that snarled at me on Friday night – not the other guy.

the greatest indignity offered to our butter since Marlon Brando rented an apartment in Paris

And a belated rofflenui.

I will be spending this Sunday morning rabble-rousing.

Beware the Idas of May
Throwing the monkey-changers out of the temple seemed like a good idea at the time...
But it didn't end so well for that other Sunday-centric chap with across to bear, the leg-endary holes make bipedal watercrossing hazardous.?

we must know once and for all
and all at once

Would it throw your universe out of whack to hear that I was listening to Yes while I was reading that?

Would it throw your universe out of whack to hear that I was listening to Yes while I was reading that?

I'll take that whacked out universe
and raise you this pearl
from the multiverse
I rest my / your case?

Don't push me ('cos I'm Close to the Edge)

It's like a jingle sometimes.

hah uh hah hah ha

It's like a jingle sometimes.

(quick ad lib)
it maketh me to wonder
if the medium is...

hah uh hah hah ha

yrs
Ichabod Crane
& his Furious Fiive Digits
Sleepy Hollow

...Your Move

the leg-endary holes make bipedal watercrossing hazardous

sometimes it makes me wonder how i keep from going under...

sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under...

Ya gotta have faith, faith, faith...

wham bam
thank you man

yrs
Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou

rabble-rousing

Can you cycle this thing? (YEAH!)
Are you gonna get a lane? (YEAH!)
Say Wham! WHAM!
Say Bam! BAM!

Say Wham! WHAM!
Say Bam! BAM!

Drop the Bomb! DROP THE BOMB!

Let's Get Small...
do ya wanna get down... : )

yrs
the Pudding Word
a.k.a. Say Go-Go
(and the South East Crew)

Don't push me ('cos I'm Close to the Edge)

I bet Bono says this all the time.

I bet Bono says this all the time.

U2 Brutus?

yrs
Big Julie

I bet Bono says this all the time.

I only know this from Happy Feet (spot the parent).

Big Julie

"Don't go , Julie!"

You may have had antibiotics without recovery aids for years, but pre-probiotics are a very positive help.
It has been found that about 75% of our immune system lies in the gut,?

(Near the bottom of the article, it is claimed that inulin, found in large quantities in oats and onions, is food for the so-called good bacteria).

They signed their name (Dr)

A lot of homeopaths, naturopaths, and so forth do this. I'm rather skeptical that this person has an actual medical degree (and if they do they are *bollocks* at communicating it.)

I should say that it was a message to me, rather than the forum.

If they were writing in this context, I imagine they might want to couch the argument in more precise terms – and they might not necessarily wish to engage in the debate?

I will be spending this Sunday morning rabble-rousing.

Congratulations Mr Slack! Never before have I seen such a well roused rabble as the one at Point Erin. I think you may have started something....

photo's here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=108677&id=759152494&l=ed1dde0204

blog here: http://cheapsexandotherstories.blogspot.com/2009/05/im-on-bridge-muthafukkers.html

I cycled across and was astonished to see cyclists in the central section. However one told me that the police directed him?

It did seem a bit odd that the police blocked all four lanes – surely it would have been better to let the northbound traffic go through the centre (like during the marathon)?

I liked one person's?

That was great. I've wanted to cycle over that bridge for such a long time. Now if only it were something we could do?

Damn, I wish I could have been there. Just, awesome. Civil disobedience with wheels on.

(And seriously, "there is?

I mean if there is cycleway/footpath over the bridge think of all the criminals cycling down from the North Shore.

And cycling back again with all those big-screen TVs tucked in their panniers. Weasels.

There's just something so exhilarating about those photos. I've walked the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge... how I'd love to walk the Auckland Harbour Bridge?

Still don't understand why we couldn't just use the clip ons. The gradient incidentally wasn't as bad as I anticipated (and was a hoot on the descent).

Next year I want to see horses.

The gradient incidentally wasn't as bad as I anticipated (and was a hoot on the descent).

I reckon! In all seriousness, motorway asphalt is so smooth! Ideal for cycling.

...motorway asphalt is so smooth! Ideal for cycling.

I'm told, by a friend who makes a study of such things, that the early proliferation of cars is in part down to the lobbying of cyclists who wanted smooth roads to ride on. The paved roads proved ideal for motoring...

So I guess you just gave up on the "We will be insisting that we get to cross, but will not force our way onto the Bridge. It is the Police's call as to whether we get across" bit you put in the flyer :>

It turned out quite differently?

I'll just say this: they didn't need to close the centre lanes, and the fact that they did leaves me thinking there was a tactical cynicism to the decision.

Absolutely. Unfortunately, and typically, no journalist appears to be asking that very obvious question. If they can do it for the?

I'll just say this: they didn't need to close the centre lanes, and the fact that they did leaves me thinking there was a tactical cynicism to the decision.

Wayne McDonald does seem to be keen to try and polarise the issue:

"The Transport Agency says it has learnt lessons?

That is just so?

And how, if you?re going to, it should be for a seriously good reason. Something fundamental, like the abuses that led to:

Sitting in the whites-only part of the bus.

Standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square.

Being chained?

Invading the sacred tarmac is more significant than it may seem, like invading a rugby field in Hamilton helped native South Africans win their elections 14 years?

And the bridal path is a semi-reasonable alternative by comparison.

Thread-merge: but surely the bridal path should be open to everybody who wants it, and/or abolished completely.

Andrew, I hear you on the question of law-breaking thresholds, and why one might want to reserve illegal behaviour for the really big?

?For years now I have heard the word ?Wait,? ? King wrote. ?It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ?Wait? has almost always meant ?Never.? ?

The thing about Greenham Common is that it was a common,?

David Slack :I'll just say this: they didn't need to close the centre lanes, and the fact that they did leaves me thinking there was a tactical cynicism to the decision.

My thoughts too. I was on the Bridge fairly quickly and started motioning and yelling for people to stay?

Please note thatI support the intent of the protest,

Does anyone know what is happening with regards to the Hikoi? Want to get through the city but thought I'd wait a bit.

Or was it more like: ?Cycling good. Police silly. Woo-hoo!?

What we have here is a Dionysian upwelling of two-wheeled elán as the curvy round-wheeled cycles (representing the feminine principle) paradoxically push through the flimsy blue-clothed representatives of Apollonian order.

/Paglia

What we have here is a Dionysian upwelling of two-wheeled elán as the curvy round-wheeled cycles (representing the feminine principle) paradoxically push through the flimsy blue-clothed representatives of Apollonian order.

I must confess that was going through my mind also. But I had the accent in a different place.

the flimsy blue-clothed representatives of Apollonian order.

You mean, the erect but ultimately impotent blue-clothed representatives of Apollonian order.
/Paglia

(You could probably have squeezed Monica Lewinksy and Mandy Rice-Davies in there as well, on a tandem perhaps).

Andrew, quote of the week for this one:

There is a continuum?

You mean, the erect but ultimately impotent blue-clothed representatives of Apollonian order.
/Paglia
(You could probably have squeezed Monica Lewinksy and Mandy Rice-Davies in there as well, on a tandem perhaps).

But where is my Madonna reference? There can be no Paglia-ism without someone nattering on annoyingly about Madonna, surely?

I had the accent in a different place.

A different and of course correct place. Portuguese is taking over the bit of my brain that had French in it.

[re Greenham Common] Even if it was all eventually sorted out by Watership Down guy having a word in the ear of a Lord or two

I actually thought that what happened was that a certain Mikhail Gorbachev decided that attempting World Communist Domination wasn't worth the candle, and hence?

Still, I think I missed the bit that justified breaking the law. Could you direct me to?

But where is my Madonna reference?

I'd like another pre-Madonna reference.

And how perilous does that railing feel when you're walking next to it (it looks low in the pictures)?

Oh,?

Yesterday I felt no swaying, but we were in the centre lane, so I couldn't make a direct comparison.

(Doesn't it require moving in rhythm to create a hazard? Middle class white folk are not?

was there a noticeable "swaying effect" on the clip-ons?

Short answer: No. Long answer: what David said (esp the bit about the majority being White Middle Class)

But where is my Madonna reference? There can be no Paglia-ism without someone nattering on annoyingly about Madonna, surely?

there were lots of pointy orange?

Middle class white folk

Anyone want to speculate on whether that's the reason for the mild police presence and response?

(Actually, next time a bunch of mild mannered protestors is in danger of being whacked, the bridge crossing might set a helpful precedent.)

does anyone know what form the 30-year plan for cycle/pedestrian access takes?

I'd be willing to bet good money that it takes the form of a basic two-step process?

Step 1, now: We can't let you across the bridge now – we'll do it when we rebuild it in 30?

Seriously, this has the smell of "yeah, we'll right onto that one, sir, working on it hard now..." about it.

Yep. And I imagine any actual blueprints are on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying?

Oh, happy Towel Day everyone.

OMG, serendipity! I had no idea. Excellent.

Does the Auckland City ad "Big – Little City" cyclist wear a helmet or hat? I can't tell & do tend to cycle at a similar speed.

Wasn't a bike the symbol for "The Village"
in TV's The Prisoner ?
Who is the new Number 1?

Is there a freewheeling spokesperson for a Bridle path over the bridge as well – They eschew horses don't they?

Perhaps it could become a "Crate Ride" for those living?

Apparently not, according to this story,

Good god, what is that white-coated scientist doing to that crash test dummy in the ad on the bottom of that page??