Posts by Bart Janssen
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Hi Keith
So what are you trying to say you don't want to be a geek?!? You got something against us geeks?????
As for your scooter plans. I'm guessing how bad the pollution is relates pretty closely to price. Pay more probably get a better (more efficient) motor.
But on the big plus side the carbon cost associated with making and shiping your new scooter to NZ is a fraction of that for a standard car. The same is probably true for the Loremo which sounds as if most of its gains come from being light and using less materials in construction.
On the minus side is riding a scooter is much more likely to get you in hospital, which almost certainly has a huge carbon cost. Besides we don't really want you to end up in hospital:).
On balance I think you'd be drier and better for the environment in a car:).
cheers
Bart
I'm a geek, I've done the test to prove it! -
The real problem with scooters and tuktuks is the weather. Especially in Auckland.......And even if you get rid of the urban terror vehicles from the roads you still don't have the protection on a scooter for when you do make an error and hit a fence/wall/pig/power pole.
Which raises a question I have about the loremo. Just how much of the modern safety engineering is retained in a superlight car like the loremo?
I'm still hoping our old Corona will last long enough for us to get a really good electric/hybrid car that will do what we need both in the city and on holiday.
Oh and David and Stephen, you do realise that changing languages mid conversation is very very geeky:)
cheers
Bart -
Hemp biomass is highest in cellulose, as well as an excellent nitrogen-fixer. Grows like a weed.
And if this is correct, why aren't we growing more of it ?Don't know if it is the highest but there are a lot of plants that are very high in cellulose. Often it's not the cellulose that is the issue it's the other things like lignans that create problems with using the cellulose. Whatever processing system you want to use gets clogged up or the product devalued by the contaminants.
As for hemp in particular, my guess is the carbon economics would be aweful given the amount of papaerwork required to get through ther bureaucracy :).
cheers
Bart -
and "largely slipped off the front pages" is supposed to be a valid measure of the issue? For anyone to say that, is pretty poor. For a supposedly leading journalist... that's shocking.
That is my problem with much of the "media" today. There is a strong tendancy to believe the media is the news. That is of course an interesting view. Most folks believe the media report the news.
It also highlights something else, we are very often unaware of just how much our view of the world is shaped by those who choose which stoires are worthy of making it into the media. A kind of censorship. More benign perhaps because it's mostly stupid censorship based on commercial goals eg TVNZ reports "news" about dancing with the stars because it raises TV1 revenue. But censorship nontheless.
Some folks, apparantly Ms Black think it's just fine that editors decide what is really important.
Thank [deity of your choice or none at all] for the internet
cheers
Bart -
If you're after Mediterranean flavours work with the C's Cumin Corriander (freshly ground seed in a mortor and pestle is best) and Cinnamon. We add lemon zest and olive oil to make a very nice lamb marrinade.
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deciding between plastic chicken, plastic turkey, and plastic cheese
Well the thing I like about Subway is the food is pretty much real. It may not be the best sandwich you could make but the bread isn't sweet and the lettuce is actually green and in NZ the cheese is actually cheesy and the chicken actually looks like it's chicken. So it isn't that bad a sandwich
But I'm still gonna Boycott them for a bit. And while I realise that it was only one stupid franchisee, the best and most powerful way to get a change made and to make sure it is enacted across the whole chain is to affect sales figure across the whole of NZ.
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That was in New Zealand!!!!
I heard the Subway story while we we're preparing dinner last night and just caught a farction of the story. I thought ...
"Good grief, another rednecked boss throwing his weight around in some small town south of the Mason-Dixon line".
Concomitant with that thought was the smug, "I'm so glad we aren't so backwards here in NZ".
To my horror I discover it happened here, in a country I think of as caring for it's workers.
BTW I do actually eat subway and enjoy them so they can count two less customers for now.
cheers
Bart -
Ok excuse me but I‘m going to think a bit out loud here.
As we’ve already established I have no musical taste at all (I do like Little Feat), so I’m going to stay general rather than specific.
As a number of folks have pointed out artists in NZ can’t make a living from their art, be it music or playing with clay in the backyard, or stringing words together in interesting ways.
Free-market/Massey MBA thinking would argue that because NZ is a small market and because the percentage of the market that will pay for any particular piece of art is small then no art producer/marketer/retailer can make a living from NZ art. Logically NZ should then get all its art from overseas. The same logic that means we don’t have a local car manufacturer.
Two things prevent that happening. First artists don’t care, they still want to make their art. BTW this puts them in a crappy bargaining position.
But for me the really interesting bit is the second reason we have indigenous art. And that is of course society (aka the government) is willing to pay for some indigenous art.
Now as far as I’m concerned as a tax paying member of that society that is just great. I actually believe firmly that some of the money I earn is well spent encouraging artists to create …. well …. Art. Because art is good in all sorts of ways for a society and I sure as hell can’t create any of it myself (see my above lack of musical taste).
It seems to me the problem is, that at the same time the government has created funding bureaucracies to encourage artists to produce indigenous art (so we don’t have to rely on only foreign muck), they’ve also demanded those same funding bodies “perform”. And it’s the measures of performance that seem to be the issue. For NZOA it seems (from the outside) that the performance measures are commercial ?!?
So I guess the thought is how much do we as a society want to spend on building developing or maintain NZ art?
And why are we doing that?
If the answer to the second question is – so we can earn export dollars from the art then I think we should stop spending the money right now. But if the answer is – because it’s good for a society to have indigenous art – then cool keep spending the money. But make sure the measures of performance are consistent with the reason for spending the money in the first place.My gut feeling is if you judge the art/music/film/tv you fund on it’s artistic merit and support it on that basis then the best stuff will probably earn you export dollars anyway. The corollary is of course if you judge art etc on it’s potential for commercial success it will be crap.
Sorry long post
Cheers
Bart -
and - god save us - Little Feat
Huh? Ok I know I'm not anything like knowledgable about music but I just got my Little Feat double live album out a few days ago and really liked it. What's so bad about it????
Old folks Boogie is a fun song with a line (ripped off I know) with which I am more and more familiar
"You know that you're over the hill, when your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill"
cheers
Bart -
Russell objected
You can question my authoritah, but do not question my word mojo:
Oh no I didn't doubt it was a word (me doubt your word mojo??? I thought you were quoting Keen), from the noun infantilization!!!
I just think it's ugly, that's the point. When you could have used a turn of phrase like "causing us all to squabble and behave like children".... go on seriously tell me that infantilising rolls off the tongue :).
Besides I still think it's inappropriate for the point - the etymology of the word suggests it should refer to anything but the conversation and babble that occurs on the web .... might I suggest teenagilising :).