Posts by Steve Barnes
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Hard News: Is that it?, in reply to John Armstrong,
There is no such thing as mindless work, and to claim otherwise in an insult to the people who do it.
Another side of that is not all people derive wisdom from their work.
I can think of jobs, currency trading for instance, which give little insight into the everyday workings of peoples lives. Working at a supermarket checkout, on the other hand, does. You could say that a bright person working in a dull job will gain more wisdom that a dullard in a complex and competitive position. -
Muse: A Friday Kind of Linky Love, in reply to Joe Wylie,
a particularly grubby little subgenre of video games eupmemistally described as "interactive movies"
I really can't imagine what entertainment that would give a chap. Whatever next? "Interactive Movies" that involve shooting things or driving badly.
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Hard News: Is that it?, in reply to Sacha,
That'd be the Auckland snow/sleet/graupel -
Some people have many words for snow...
Just not the Usual SuspectsBut the truth is that the Eskimos do not have lots of different words for snow, and no one who knows anything about Eskimo (or more accurately, about the lnuit and Yupik families of related languages spoken by Eskimos from Siberia to Greenland) has ever said they do. Anyone who insists on simply checking their primary sources will find that they are quite unable to document the
alleged facts about snow vocabulary (but nobody ever checks, because the truth might not be what the reading public wants to hear).The prospect of snow must chill the hearts of television weather forecasters, as well as writers covering the Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, because there does not seem to be any short, acceptable synonym for ''snow.''
They are forced, after the first mention of snow, to refer to it as ''the white stuff.''
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Hard News: London's Burning, in reply to giovanni tiso,
All of us, all along—if we’re honest for a microsecond—knew this was a ludicrous way to build a city, to live in a city.
Now that could open a can of worms. The life of a city and its inhabitants are symbiotic but in the end it is the people. If the people aren't working then the City isn't working.
In Darabi, an Indian Slum area, which is the worlds largest and most thorough plastics recycling centre, there is no unemployment and the people are happy, if not sick. You have to wonder what would happen if they bulldozed this place. -
As I ranted on Bernard's comments…
No wonder the party faithful were whoopin’ and a Hollerin’ like a bunch of Tea Bagger Tories.
Dear leader and his pals found a way to get the hating going without losing many votes, 16-17 year olds vote?. Yay, blame the kids without jobs while the NZX rakes in the dividends, the likes of Freightways ramp up the profits and our richest 150 bludgers get a 25% boost to their coffers. Yup, got to close that gap with Australia
“New Zealanders desperate to move to Australia are being told not to bother.
Rather than the good life they are expecting, they risk finding themselves broke and homeless” according to the Herald. Yay, let's all be broke and homeless.More and more we are being told that we are being protected from those “Evil Ones”, in this case 16-17 year olds, last year it was “Boy Racers”, perhaps now the Yoof can’t afford cars. Judith (lock him in a cell with a “cellmate”) Collins promised to chush those cars, more hollow rhetoric
Are these people really offering us a brighter future or just offering us bogey men.
Welcome to (Brave) New World, Order… while stocks last.
</t’shirt Moment>“In the past, politicians promised to create a better world. They had different ways of achieving this, but their power and authority came from the optimistic visions they offered their people. Those dreams failed and today people have lost faith in ideologies. Increasingly, politicians are seen simply as managers of public life, but now they have discovered a new role that restores their power and authority. Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us: from nightmares.”
Adam Curtis -
God's approval rating is languishing at 52 percent,
God's problem? He had a child out of wedlock and he is a "gaffe machine," between floods, famine and the lack of aged pinot noir on Air France.
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Hard News: London's Burning, in reply to Carol Stewart,
Jim Hopkins can always be relied on to subtract from the sum of human knowledge.
Once again Mr Hopkins demonstrates the need for education.
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Paul Lewis and James Harkin
The Guardian,
Who are the rioters?Three Asian men in their 40s, guarding a newsagent, discussed whether they should also take advantage of the apparent suspension of law.
"If we go for it now, we can get a bike," said one. "Don't do it," said another. Others were not so reticent; a white woman and a man emerged carrying a bike each. A young black teenager, aged about 14, came out smiling, carrying another bike, only for it be snatched from him by an older man.
Anybody can be a Rioter these days it seems.
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I have wondered on the subject of honorifics. If one was an Earl and received an OBE would one become an Earlobe?
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Hard News: London's Burning, in reply to David Hood,
|I could make my own tables|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
I would recommend using a mortice and tenon joint for attaching the rails to the legs, preferably foxed with a soft wedge to accommodate changes in humidity and temperature.
As for the table top itself. Care must be taken in this exercise as larger widths of timber are more susceptible to warping. Therefore plywood is recommended as a suitable base for an attractive finish, such as paint.
There are, of course, other joints that could be considered, such as the Biscuit Reinforced Butt Joint
Mmmmm biscuits...