Posts by Carol Stewart

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  • Hard News: Blog About Cat,

    Can you also give tips on how non-gardeners can grow things in Wellington's gales

    We grew potatoes in tyres (free from Firestone, they're happy to give you as many as you can stuff into your car) for a sciency project. I've re-used the tyres for growing herbs and it works a treat - seems to keep the plants well protected. I should add that we live in a horticulturally un-propitious place too - atop Brooklyn hill.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 830 posts Report

  • Hard News: Blog About Cat,

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 830 posts Report

  • Hard News: Blog About Cat,

    From Turtle Diary, by Russell Hoban:

    Frost this morning. Sharp it was, the air rang with it. I got up early and walked down the New King's Road to Parsons Green. Near where William lives there was a dead cat by a bus stop, pretty well flattened out. He looked as if he'd been run over by a lorry. A grey stripey tom he was with a head like a Roman senator, one eye open, one eye shut. His whole corpse seemed expressive of the WHAM! when his life met his death. He looked as if he'd been one hundred percent alive until the lorry closed his account in the flower of his tomcathood and his mortal remains were cheerful rather than depressing. To live with a yowl and die with a WHAM!

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 830 posts Report

  • Hard News: Blog About Cat,

    I had a Manx when I lived in Canada. She (Afra) was a character - she loved water and was not at all scared of the sea. In fact she would happily swim out to the dinghy.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 830 posts Report

  • Up Front: Feeling Like Death,

    Has anyone mentioned the fabulous Karori Cemetery? Among its many delights is a bronze statue of Mrs Chippy, the cat taken along on Shackleton's Endurance expedition by the carpenter Harry McNeish.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 830 posts Report

  • Speaker: Seeking Better Science,

    Humans have had voluntary contact with lead and its compounds for millenia

    Hence gout and stone afflict the human race;
    Hence lazy jaundice with her saffron face;
    Palsy, with shaking head and tott'ring knees.
    And bloated dropsy, the staunch sot's disease;
    Consumption, pale, with keen but hollow eye,
    And sharpened feature, shew'd that death was nigh.
    The feeble offspring curse their crazy sires,
    And, tainted from his birth, the youth expires.

    (Description of lead poisoning by an anonymous Roman hermit,
    Translated by Humelbergius Secundus, 1829

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 830 posts Report

  • Speaker: Seeking Better Science,

    FWIW, Bart, I agree with you in your take on the Gluckman pronouncement. And with most of your other comments too. Nice summary of the funding situation.
    On the general topic of 'better science', how bizarre is this rant from the Fluoride Action Network on Stuff, and in yesterday's DomPost? Puts me in mind of this. First noted by Danyl on Kiwiblog, but I prefer this excerpt.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 830 posts Report

  • Cracker: About a Boy,

    If it's any consolation, Danielle, (and it won't be) my mother had that problem with Eagle vs Shark, and she loved Boy.

    I'm with your mother too, Emma. I wanted to like Eagle vs Shark but just couldn't and didn't, but loved Boy. (And, I may add, so apparently did the rest of the capacity audience at the Penthouse cinema in Brooklyn).

    I really enjoyed this movie, even if you take it at one of it's shallower levels about being a kid in NZ in the eighties (as I was),

    I was a kid growing up in Opotiki around that time, and it felt distinctly like a documentary to me. Agree with Damian about it being pitch perfect.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 830 posts Report

  • Hard News: Climate science and the media,

    Marsden funds are the exception, they go towards blue sky research which may or may not produce something valuable at the end.

    I liked Martin Rees's comment that there are two kinds of research - 'applied' and 'not yet applied'.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 830 posts Report

  • Southerly: The Problem With Religion,

    I rather like Christians. However I've only ever met a very few of them.

    You have a field guide?

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 830 posts Report

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