Posts by Rob Stowell
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Speaker: Are we seeing the end of MSM,…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
the court action will establish how much authority the blueprint carries -
Since we need to rip up the 'blueprint' and start again, I sincerely hope the challenge loses- and badly.
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Before wibbling on about how undemocratic the EU is, with all its appointed this and that, it would be honest to mention the appointments are largely made by the (democratically elected) EU parliament. I'm sure it's not perfect. Bureaucratic and boring and officious. But I think the claims it's undemocratic are a over-egged.
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For truffles, my (sometimes vague and unreliable!) memory is you need a soil that leans alkaline. Our soil tested too acidic. We had the option of liming it, but decided not to invest in inoculated oaks. (At the time, they were not cheap.)
OTOH a local forager insists (from dried remnants) we have porcini (which grow in a similar manner.) I'm not convinced yet. But if we can find fresh ones (and he can test them!) it would be a remarkable bonus. -
If you haven’t seen it this project to collect words from around the world for specific emotions is worth a look.
In defence of Norway this fills a lexical hole:utepils (Norwegian, “a beer that is enjoyed outside . . . particularly on the first hot day of the year”)
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Idyllic family life with melancholy – what richness! My only thought on høstens vemod is once autumn has vanished and we’re in the depth of a Canterbury winter, there’s also the feeling things can’t get a lot worse.
Of course they can. But at least the weather will almost certainly get better, eventually.
Until global warming really hits.
Oh dear. This Norwegian vermod is strong stuff! -
Maybe it's a trendy idea going nowhere, but UBI is everywhere - here in the New Yorker.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Roger writes…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Not that I know of - though I seem to remember some art projects. PEP schemes were likely to involve some other odd project. (I worked on a social survey for the UC social work unit, and a lands and survey job taking levels between Amberley and the Lewis Pass - based on a passing Chinese theory about earthquake prediction according to the surveyors. When we'd finished that we worked on replacing trig stations up around Amuri. Both in their way interesting jobs.)
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Hard News: Friday Music: Roger writes…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Great doco – watched it last night right through without quite meaning to. And there’s a definite parallel with Muldoon here. Mostly the FN bands didn’t write overtly political songs. But there was a deep shared sense of being anti-Muldoon – him personally, his government, and the mind-set it stood for. Absolutely something to rebel against. 10%+ unemployment, job creation schemes, regulations all over the place, police we didn’t trust.
It feels a tiny bit ironic now. Much of the music was effectively subsidised by the (relatively) generous and easy dole (or a job scheme that paid a union negotiated wage.) Yes, it was hard to import music, guitars, there were taxes and import controls – but also things like Jansen amps and guitars made right here.
In retrospect it was a time of many things colliding – painfully but also throwing off a great mass of sparks. -
I’m really enjoying ’In Love with these Times” too. It’s a bit stubbornly sideways about stuff – which is perfect. Self-deprecating one page; full-on record-shop-geek opinionated the next. It’s far better for not trying to be encyclopedic. It’s a personal memoir, and you get a real sense of the man: sometimes sharp, sometimes gawky, a little awkward but monumentally determined too. Only 1/3rd of the way through, and looking forward to getting back among the pages.
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hey ho. must learn not to comment on polity!