Posts by Ray Gilbert
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Hard News: Lowering the Stakes, in reply to Jason Kemp,
Mt Roskill has 7-8 kms of off road cycle paths and roads have been engineered around local schools making them safer for children to walk to.
It's also worth noting that the new road upgrades around the State Highway 16 expansion and the suburban links to New Lynn have off road cycle lanes included in them. This means that you can now travel from Sandringham to New Lynn without having to ride on the road - at least you will be able to when they finally complete Wolverton/Tiverton Rd upgrades. I assume the Waterview extension will also include more cycle lanes beside the motorway onwards towards Helensville.
Just a shame that the older northern parts of SH16 ster this are still some of the scariest roads to ride on I have encountered. Best stick to the back roads up there still.
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I spent well over a decade communting by cycle in Auckland every day rain or shine. Started with Herne Bay to Penrose, then Balmoral-Penrose, Mt Roskill-Grafton and finally Blockhouse Bay-Grafton. The first couple of years in Balmoral before the cycle lanes went on to Dominion Rd. I eventually stopped about 3 years ago because I got tired of the stress caused by inconsiderate and dangerous drivers with near misses and rude abuse on a regular basis - at least once a week.
I was as defensive a rider as you can get - you don't fool around and play loose when you are sharing Mt Smart Rd with peak hour commuters and large trucks! Despite all of this I lost count of the number of times cars refused to give way to me when it was my right of way turning across a road - this used to happpen at least once a week when I took my daily right hand turn across Dominiion Rd at the end of my street (no trafffic lights). It wasn't that people didn't notice me as I always made eye contact and signalled the drivers who would often turn into my pathway regardless.
In my years commuting I had people drive staight up the flush median I was travelling down to come into my lane, forcing me into oncoming traffic. I was deliberately forced off the road by cars, trucks and a bus. Also endured abuse, had someone threaten to kill me and on another ocassion was threatened by someone swinging a hammer.
All up I ended up getting excercise but not relaxation. Now I either travel by footpath and scooter in along New North Road, or take the train and actaully arrive at work relaxed rather than wound up.
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Freeview
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Hard News: The Crazy Gang Nation, in reply to Bart Janssen,
except of course most of them are maintained by scientists who actually want to get shit done
Obviously refering to link then
http://phylogenomics.blogspot.co.nz/2013/09/fecal-transplants-as-treatment-for.html
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Hard News: And one war ends?, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Nature Medicine has a short article on dueterated compound from June this year as these are apparently coming back in vogue in the pharmaceautical arena. It looks like the question of whether the compunds are novel and non-obvious therefore patentable. A court case will almost certainly be needed to determine whether this is the case.
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I only had the prividge of seeing The Skeptics live once. Last concert, just back in Auckland after a few years down south, right up the front of the stage of The Gluepot. Still one of my favourite all time gigs and at the time I had no idea of the significance of the performance. So seeing the movie last weekend with the same friend who I went ot the last concert with was a great way to make nearly 25 years seem like a much shorter time.
Accidentally ordering the 16% stout at Brothers Beer just before the concert also helped the evening start off on the right foot as well!
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Capture: The Capture Pinhole Photography…, in reply to Alex Efimoff,
I spent many years developing and printing my transmission electron microscope micrographs at work. For me it was the step before publication when we would try a large number of subtle differences in paper grade and exposure time for each shot put the results upon a large board and spend ages looking for the perfect result.
One thing all that technical photography did do though was to slightly ruin my ability to appreciate artistic photography. Our pictures were all about crisp lines and high contrast - usually grade 3.5 to 5. No subtle grey fades allowed.
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Hard News: The Wogistan form book, in reply to Russell Brown,
I had my allen keys confiscted from me at Auckland international, not because they were dangerous but because I had too many of them therfore they were tools of the trade. I had accumulated about 8 in the pocket of my rucksack over time for fixing my bike and scooter. It took them 3 gos but they finally reduced the number to an acceptable 2.
I didn't bother telling them that a quick check of my bag at the terminal before entering departures has located a large and vicious looking pair of scissors that I had forgotten I'd put in earlier.
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Whew - 10 long years. Lets throw a solar eclipse to celebrate