Posts by Brent Jackson
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Legal Beagle: $420,259.33, in reply to Tom Semmens,
I think you have the wrong end of the stick here, Tom. Graeme blogs about Electoral Reform and other news that has legal quirks. This story did and so he wrote about it. The fact that there are other such stories is irrelevant. He chose to write about this one.
I do not believe it is
a partisan attempt to hawk a beat up
.
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Hard News: Dressing for the Road, in reply to BenWilson,
Richard Grevers wrote :
“chinese cycling speed” – 2-3 x walking pace, which is reportedly the most energy efficient means of transport known
Ben Wilson replied :
I’d believe it. Occasionally I’ve rambled around like this for 3-4 hours without feeling noticeably tired at all – it’s less effort than concerted walking for the same amount of time, and 50km slips behind you.
Was out cycling with my son and mentioned that cycling was more efficient than walking. He was a little incredulous. Four hours later, after exploring the Northwestern bikeway, and the Rosebank peninsula and the tunnel construction site, I reminded him of it, and he could immediately tell that he was a lot less tired than if we had been walking for that amount of time (and we covered at least 5x the distance as well).
Cheers,
Brent. -
I just wear normal clothes, as I haven't bought any clothing specifically for cycling since I was regularly commuting to varsity back in the 80's. Back then I bought cheap vinyl gloves (from Rendals for $2 a pair - they needed regular replacing, but were a lot cheaper than leather ones) and a padded jacket with zip off sleeves. On the bottom edge of the back of the jacket I sewed some high-vis reflective material (pirated from an abandoned, damaged, motorcycle cop's waistband, the rest of which I added some velcro to so as to make ankle "clips" for my jeans). In warmer weather, I rode in the jacket without the sleeves, but in colder weather I'd put the sleeves on as well but not actually attach them to the jacket. As I heated up as I rode, I would slide the tops of the sleeves down or up as necessary to regulate my temperature. Probably looked a bit weird, but, hey, it worked for me.
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Great news.
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Emma wrote :
Introduce Unit Standard 26625 as compulsory, so hearing-impaired teens have to pass “actively participate in spoken interactions” to get NCEA Level 1 Literacy?
This can be done in any of our 3 official languages, can't it ? Using Sign Language to talk must be considered a "spoken interaction", surely ?
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Ours cost $6000 back in 2004. That's 2 solar panels with glycol running through them (which makes the system frost tolerant down to -18dC), and a 300L Stainless Steel cylinder (doesn't look like they've changed much : LX305. It included installation fees, the crane to get it on the roof, the builder, the electrician and the plumber. So not at all surprised at $14,000 for a full install these days.
My mother has a cheaper solar install, with water in the panel pipes, and it doesn't work anywhere near as well as ours does.
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to BenWilson,
Russell wrote:
But we had to let go of solar water heating – it was just such a big investment that would take a long while to pay off.
Ben Wilson asked :
How much, how long? How does it compare to money in a term deposit? Or even the stockmarket?
Before we put in our Solar Hot Water I did the sums and found that it would never pay for itself. We would be better off financially, by investing the money that the Solar would cost, and using the income from that to pay for electricity (and have a bit left over). But we wanted Solar Power and knew that our existing cylinder was quite old, and it was in the way of our kitchen re-development so we went ahead and got solar anyway.
It has been great. We turn it off (ie turn off electicity to the element in the cylinder) in early November and turn it back on in late April, so we 6 months of completely free hot water. Our power bills during the Summer are around the $70 mark. It makes us feel good - seemingly saving money (even if we aren't actually) and helping the planet and the country. Sometimes there are considerations other than purely economic ones.
I'm sure Solar will continue to get cheaper, so hopefully more people can take it up.
We're also keen to get an electric car, but the price point for those seem way too far above break even point at the moment. We've never been early adopters, so we'll bide our time on that one for now.
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Sorry. Don't get to visit as often these days, but Easter pressie now delivered.
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Up Front: Oh, Grow Up, in reply to Emma Hart,
My son dropped Philosophy this year (year 12), because although he loved the classroom discussions on morals, ethics, and other "big" questions, he was annoyed at having to do Religous Studies and Art History in order to get NCEA credits. I've been told that change is coming, but it'll be too late for my kids ...
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Great idea. Hope it takes off.
It’s called “urs”. It’s pronounced “yours”
Are you sure it's not pronounced "ours" ? Especially with that logo.