Posts by David Hood
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I’m sorry, when someone mentions Norway, and house decoration (in a thread titled wall and paper), I cannot help but think of
this visual symphony
be sure to check out the full glory of the interior decoration. -
Nuclear Power in New Zealand is impractical from economic reasons (there is no cost justification whatsoever that I’ve seen that works without massively externalizing costs), engineering (issues about the grid load from one source), and social. All could in theory change, but I am pretty confident in saying “not in my lifetime”.
Meanwhile, Ahhhh the stupid it burns (More from Ken Ring). I left the comment:
Ken Ring cites a blog post that the moon was above Tokyo (technically it was about 2/3rds of the way above the horizon) as evidence of the significant effect of the moon. I wish to point out that in the recent major Canterbury quake, the moon was below the horizon- i.e. on the other side of the planet. -
Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Matthew Poole,
The Herald article on rental demand from a month ago does seem to contradict the Feb figures that have come in for the period, which are described as "Flat"- Up 3% from a year ago, but down compared to January.
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Sacha,
though I fear it has already been eaten..
I don't think that I can take it/'Cause it took so long to bake it/And I'll never have that recipe again
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Keir Leslie,
From Fendalton. You know all that guff about social stratification in Christchurch? Well…
My wife (from Christchurch) and I have been adopting a certain amount of black humour about the suggestion we heard that people from the better, less damaged, parts of town could adopt one of the hard hit poor streets.
"What, them? Well, I suppose I could deliver some bread, or perhaps some Cake" -
While I'm certain that there would be a lot of belief in the non-rational, I suspect that it would vary widely with Americans' based on subject area. The Scientific American survey of its international readership is kind of interesting in this regard- http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100922/full/467388a.html
One thing about the earthquake that really, really stood out to me was that in talking to survivors, and media reports, hardly anyone at all said "I prayed" or "god saved me". Anyone would think we lived in one of the most secular countries in the world or something. -
Have had people in conversation with me saying "Well, since the moon influences weather, it is a reasonable theory that it influences earthquakes", I went one step back and graph Dunedin's rainfall for the passed year against lunar cycles.
Rainfall vs Moon's Phase
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thoughtfulbloke/5492207401/
Rainfall vs Moon's Orbit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thoughtfulbloke/5492207399/
from this I can conclude as Dunedin is unaffected by lunar based weather, we are also safe from earthquakes (to use logic as sound as the orginal theory) -
Hard News: The First Draft, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
Why they feel the need to relate earthquakes to nukes, I have no idea.
Perhaps they could provide the figure in Libraries of Congress
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Absolutely texts queue up while your phone is off. I got some texts out to people to say I was alive and ask them to look at the state of the airport, roads, and bus services from outside and text me a summary each hour, then I began switching my phone off for most of the time to save battery life.
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I happened to be in Christchurch for the day for work. Still here (at an undamaged work contacts house in Burnside). Have managed to organise a seat on a bus back to Dunedin for tomorrow morning.
I was actually fairly lucky, in as much as we had happened to take a very early break for lunch, and I walked through places that are now very damaged about half and hour before the quake as part of a lunchtime walk. The building I was in when the quake struck is cracked, but was safely evacuatable.