RobiNZ Personal Blog

John Key’s affordable housing solution?

Seen in Huapai, his electorate, today. A reasonable re-locatable family home that should be quick to build. Auckland and Christchurch housing problem sorted.

Mothers Day: got her new washing, drugs and gambling!

It was actually some new bed linen, collected her (prescription) pill pack and a Lotto ticket but that sounds less dramatic!

Also had a nice family lunch and (takeaway) roast dinner. A good day!

Red Bull Crown Range drifting? Tried it on a bike!

I’m not a fan of drifting, waste of tyres I reckon, but this video got my attention. I’ve ridden the Crown Range road twice, both East and West, so have been up and down the hill shown on a bicycle. Although the downhill was extremely fast (maybe 70-80km/h?), extremely fun, the uphill was probably more life threatening.

At one stage on the steepest bit a car coming down the hill stopped a few hundred metres ahead of me. The tourist driver got out to take my photo, saying: “You’re an extremely brave man!”! I could only gasp in response “Foolish!”

 

Photos from my 2004 & 2005 cycle trips

 

I’ve also been over the Crown Range in my Fiat Uno 45. Not quite as quickly as the Red Bull car but it was, literally, full throttle all the way!

The importance of being wrong: the Big Bang and precision cosmology - Professor Richard Easther

This sounds interesting. I hope to get to to his inaugural lecture as found Richard’s Auckland Skeptics in the Pub cosmology talk (October 2011) and the discussion after really interesting.

Although my Physics education ended at High School, so probably won’t understand much, i still enjoy learning what I can.

The importance of being wrong: the Big Bang and precision cosmology

Inaugural lecture by Professor Richard Easther Department of Physics

A generation ago, “precision cosmology” was an oxymoron. Since then, advances in observational astrophysics let us measure global properties of the universe -- age, expansion rate, composition, temperature, smoothness -- to within a few percent, or even better.

This newfound clarity allows us to test competing cosmological models and rule out those which do not match what we see in the sky.  I will describe recent advances in observational astrophysics, and explain how I use this data to explore the properties of the universe a trillion, trillion, trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.

All are welcome to this public lecture.

5.30pm, Tuesday 14 May Large Chemistry Lecture Theatre Building 301, 23 Symonds Street The University of Auckland

www.physics.auckland.ac.nz

Traffic Light Thought – Elvis K should be a Cadillac?

I’m no Elvis Presley expert, or fan, but surely the personalised plate:

  [Elvis the King]
ELVIS K
  [Elvis the King]

belongs on a Cadillac, not a Hyundai Sonata!