RobiNZ Personal Blog

Brilliant, the Truck Protest "gridlock" eased my commute

Normally I leave for work at about 08:20 to get across Auckland, from the West to the Shore, for a 09:00’ish start. This avoids the worst of the commuter and school run traffic. An 08:30 start means a 60 minute +commute so I don’t unless it’s necessary.

Today I expected the truck protest to cause havoc but, because of car  pooling, didn’t leave early as advised. I actually left a little bit later, nearer 08:25, and was amazed to arrive at work at 08:50. That’s a record time thanks to deserted roads and no cross traffic triggering red lights.

Riding the green wave on empty roads was brilliant. Could we have a Truck Protest every day?!

Protest fails to bring traffic chaos - 04 Jul 2008 - NZ Herald: New Zealand National news
An estimated 4000 trucks converged on the main city centres and smaller towns throughout New Zealand in protest at the government's plan to increase road user charges.
By 8am the roads were jammed but police estimated the number of private cars on the roads, particularly in Auckland, was down between 30 and 40 per cent and the predicted nightmare of a city-wide traffic gridlock did not happen.

Ed Murray, New Zealander of the year

He did what many would like to do… 

Angry resident rams boy racer's car after 'gutsful' - 21 Jun 2008 - NZ Herald: New Zealand National news
Police are yet to decide whether to lay charges after an angry resident rammed his 4WD into a boy racer's car, writing the vehicle off…

'Enjoy life while you can' - Prophet, Grumpy old man, or both?

Over-abuse of the word “sustainable” just grates. Is it too late to be sustainable?

Is Carbon offsetting is akin to a fat man sitting eating donuts while paying a thin man to exercise for him?

Is James Lovelock right, or just a grumpy old man?

'Enjoy life while you can' | Environment | The Guardian
Climate science maverick James Lovelock believes catastrophe is inevitable, carbon offsetting is a joke and ethical living a scam. So what would he do?

“Lovelock believes global warming is now irreversible, and that nothing can prevent large parts of the planet becoming too hot to inhabit, or sinking underwater, resulting in mass migration, famine and epidemics.”

To Lovelock, the logic is clear. The sustainability brigade are insane to think we can save ourselves by going back to nature; our only chance of survival will come not from less technology, but more…

Peter Bromhead, New Zealander of the year

To get this paragraph in “Granny Herald”* was worthy of the highest honour. Peter Bromhead’s column in the Business section of today’s NZ Herald paper was about the perils of publishing:

* For overseas readers the Herald is NZ’s largest, and rather staid, daily paper. If the full article appears on their site I’ll add a link.

Alan Coren dies

Sad to read this. In addition to “The News Quiz” I remember Alan from appearances on Clive James, Parkinson and other talk shows. He will be missed.

Alan Coren dies aged 69 | Top News | Reuters
Humorist, broadcaster and commentator Alan Coren has died aged 69 after suffering from cancer, the BBC said on Friday.

Why "Pumpkin", when we know Qian Xun Xue’s name?

Early in the investigation the unidentified toddler abandoned in a Melbourne Train station was known as “Pumpkin”, simply because she wore “Pumpkin Patch” clothing.

Even now, long after Qian Xun Xue’s real name is known, the news media still refer to her as “Pumpkin”. Not just in headlines, perhaps understandable, but also through the entire article without ever using her real name. It’s “Pumpkin”, “Pumpkin's mother Annie Liu”, “Pumpkin's father” and “Pumpkin's parents”.

Is it because she’s Asian and has a non-European name?

Would Qian Xun Xue still be “Pumpkin” if her name was, say,“Madeleine”?

Tags: Qian+Xun+Xue

Princess Diana and the white Fiat Uno

Yes I do have a white Uno. Yes it does have a few paint chips, dents and dings but they are the result of 245,000 km commuting, stones, errant supermarket trolleys and the like.

This isn’t me!

Owner of white Fiat Uno refuses to give evidence at Diana inquest | the Daily Mail
A key witness to the car crash that claimed the lives of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed has rejected repeated requests from British detectives to give evidence at next month's inquest into their deaths…

Tags: Fiat+Uno, Princess+Diana

The giant, ugly, crappy, railway footbridge of Glen Eden...

Bridges don’t have to be ugly – many are beautiful – but I drive past this monster every day.

Yes drive! I won’t walk over it to catch a train that isn’t there and couldn’t go where I need to go if it was. There no rail-tracks to the North Shore and public transport turns a 30–40 minute drive into a multi-leg, multi-hour, ordeal.

Still, I get to admire this vast lump of concrete & steel as I zoom past. It’s built to 1 in 12 slope for wheel-chairs & cyclists(?) but I reckon you could break the 50km/h road speed limit just freewheeling down that looonnnnnggg straight ramp. Must try it…

Giant bridge appals locals - 21 Jun 2007 - Building and construction news - NZ Herald
Dan Greig says it's lucky he trains as an ultra-distance runner, considering the effort needed to scale a 90m ramp to a new railway footbridge towering over Glen Eden.…

The Holiday Scam Rang!

The phone goes last night, about 8pm, and a scratchy voice says:

“I’m ringing from Australia” (sounded more like a bad VOIP call from Mumbai)

“Your number has qualified for a free holiday, 9 nights anywhere in Australia or New Zealand, where would you like to go?”

With scam meter on full alert I asked:

“What company are you representing”
(Silence)
“Where are you calling from?”
“Australia”

I thought it was a timeshare or similar bullshit offer so ended the call with: “Not interested thanks”.

Then this morning on Radio Live News an item about not faxing or calling a phone line to give your credit card number in order to qualify for a “free holiday”. Seems the 0900 number they provided wasn’t answered and cost a fortune per call…

Beware of cheap holiday scam, say police - NZPA

If your P-lab blows up, should you be treated?

You have to wonder, when the genuinely ill sit on waiting lists, is it worth wasting money treating morons who blow themselves up cooking methamphetamine…

I suppose they have to do it but it must be tough on all the staff who work so hard, fixing morons.

P-lab blast puts two in hospital - New Zealand news on Stuff.co.nz
A P-lab explosion which critically injured two men yesterday forced health workers, a medical centre and a rescue helicopter to be decontaminated in its wake.
Doctors say it will cost more than $100,000 to treat each of the two severely burned men, who will spend up to nine weeks in Auckland's Middlemore Hospital and face months of rehabilitation and skin grafts…

Yay, Stuff.co.nz delivered with RSS Feeds

I like the news page “Stuff.co.nz” but once commented, via their feedback form, that the lack of RSS feeds was disappointing. Today I got an email saying they’ve added feeds which is a great improvement and also an impressive demonstration of follow-up response to feedback!

Hi there
 
As you've contacted us at some point requesting RSS feeds from Stuff.co.nz we wanted to let you know that they're now available on the site.
 
We add more than 300 stories to the site every day so we hope you'll find our initial offering of 11 feeds from different sections of the site useful in keeping up with the latest news. You can find our feeds here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/feeds.html
 
If you have any suggestions on how we can improve our RSS feeds please let us know via our feedback page: http://www.stuff.co.nz/feedback.html.
 
Thanks for your support of Stuff.co.nz - happy reading!
 
Kind regards on behalf of the Stuff.co.nz team

I don't care if [insert self indulgent celebrity name] is in or out of rehab!

I avoid “gossip media” in all forms, if there is a hell it’s 24 hour/day “E” Channel viewing. However the rehab status of various “celebrities” seems to be impossible to avoid. It’s now regarded worth reporting by the mainstream media.

I really don’t give a damn if some drug dependent, self indulgent, multi-millionaire can’t cope with their privileged lifestyle or fuels their own “celebrity” with PR announcements regarding their “rehab”. Leave the news for real news!

The Warehouse, Woolworths and "Lesbian life & love" at Granny Herald?

I went to read a story about work at the NZ Herald, on-line version of our daily paper, but was distracted by the advert that appeared below the story….

It’s for a TV Drama, Woolworths declined to comment. All a bit of a let-down really…

Woolworths declines to comment on Warehouse plans - NZ Herald

SYDNEY - Grocery giant Woolworths Ltd has declined to comment on the reason it took a 10 per cent stake in New Zealand discount variety chain, The Warehouse Group…

Levitating Stadium latest plan

We could build a levitating 60,000 seat stadium held up by Telekinesis and float it around to the various cities as events demand it. Crazy idea, well it’s no worse than the stupid idea of putting a stadium by the harbour…

Stadium over water latest plan - 18 Sep 2006 - NZ Herald Building & construction

“The idea for a waterfront stadium has captured the public imagination, with more than two-thirds of nearly 200 people who sent emails to the Herald last week on the Bledisloe Wharf option saying a new purpose-built stadium would be a showcase for the city and the nation”

Which leaves about 4.2 million who couldn’t be bothered responding to this crap.

The Herald understands that Helen Clark and Mr Mallard strongly favour a waterfront stadium,

I bet they are, anything to divert attention from the other things going on at the moment.

It is not known how much the Captain Cook/Marsden stadium would cost or how much wharf and water space would be needed. 

I’m suspect it will cost at least 1.5 times whatever they say it will cost.

The roofed, 56,500-seat Telstra Dome in Melbourne Docklands was built on a 2ha site 170m by 140m in 2000 at a cost of $530 million

I’ve been to a concert in the Telstra Dome and it’s a great facility. But it’s not pretty and is in the middle of an old railway/goods area. It’s about 600m from the main river/wharf & 3km from the coast, not on prime waterfront land. Stadiums are ugly inward focused buildings,  just look at that thing along the road from this proposed site that they are still trying to finish. This location is just wrong.

Losing a Aussie legend - Farewell Peter Brock

Just weeks before the Bathurst 1000, an event he won nine times, Aussie racing hero Peter Brock died in a crash while competing in the Targa West tarmac rally near Perth, WA. It’s a great loss as “Peter Perfect” was an icon, as popular in New Zealand as he was in Australia.

I haven’t been to Bathurst, watched many of his wins on TV, but have seen him in other races and still remember his laps in the classic XU-1 Torana at the Melbourne Grand Prix a few years ago. It was billed as a “demonstration run” but the old car got quite a workout! Out of the car he was easy to spot as was always surrounded by a huge crowd of admiring fans.

It will be strange to have a Bathurst without Peter Brock. Farewell to a legend, thanks for the memories.

Quit Targa West 2006 (CAMS Media Release)

King of the Mountain always a legend – Daily Telegraph, Australia
EVEN to those Australians who knew or cared little about motor racing, Peter Brock was a household name…

Peter Brock's incredible record – Sunday Times.au

Brock the master, says car racing expert – Daily Telegraph, Australia
MOTOR racing legend Peter Brock died in a car originally built by his US "doppelganger" Pete Brock…

Peter Brock Official Website - peterbrock.com.au

Peter Brock Foundation - peterbrockfoundation.com.au
Our motto is "The energy of caring" which truly expresses the drive behind the Board of Directors. They aim at all times to encourage people to help others and above all, to truly help themselves.

Tags: Bathurst, Peter Brock, XU-1 Torana

It's tough being popular...

Networks are wonderful until they stop working as many discovered when a recent network outage caused major disruption . No I’m not referring to TypePad’s recent problems.

On one of the busiest shopping days of the year, the Friday before Christmas, the main EFTPOS network in New Zealand collapsed due to a hardware failure. Backup systems failed and it took a couple of hours to restore service requiring shoppers/retailers to resort to manual credit card transactions.

Of course, you could still use cash but who carries that these days? From the lines seen at ATM machines not many. We are so heavily dependent on EFTPOS that many retail systems could not cope with handling the volume, reported 88 transactions/second nationwide, manually.

Technology is wonderful until it stops working…

The nightmare before Christmas

EFTPOS meltdown frustrates xmas shoppers

Retailers keep their fingers crossed EFTPOS hiccup won't be repeated Christmas Eve

New Orleans - understanding the devastation

When a disaster is no longer front-page news, that doesn’t mean it’s over. A week or so back I had a pleasant dinner with Buzz Bruggeman in Orlando. Recently he visited his friend, Ernie the Attorney, in New Orleans…

Ernie The Attorney: New Orleans - it's hard to understand the devastation.

I [Ernie] drove him [Buzz] out to Lakeview, and as soon as we encountered the first sign of major flooding the wind came out of his sails.

"Holy shit," he starting muttering.  "Holy fucking shit.  This is bad."

“When you live in another city it's easy to think you understand what it's like here.  I completely understand, and I'm guilty of the same tendency.  We've all somehow come to believe that our high-tech communication tools (TV video, Satellite imagery, weblogs) can give us a fine-tooth sense of how things are in remote places.  But, you know what?  They can't.”

NZ Herald News get RSS

The New Zealand Herald news[paper] have added RSS to their website – Thanks Granny!

Herald website adds RSS service - 15 Nov 2005 - Media & Publishing Industry

Lethal Beauty

When you stand and look…

You do wonder…

What would it be like…

Why would you…

Jump.

SFGate: Lethal Beauty
A seven-part series looking at the darker side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Royal Idiot

Prince Andrew thinks security is only for the peasants…

Andy climax as Prince refuses security check - National - theage.com.au

“As a VIP and a royal, Prince Andrew was met by airport officials at a special gate at Melbourne Airport on Wednesday. But when told he needed to pass a security check, he refused…”

RadioLive offering RSS News Room feed

Subscribe to Radio Live news in your RSS Reader.

RadioLive News Room

Feed URL: http://news.talkback.co.nz/SyndicationService.asmx/GetRss

Paul Henry, the best interviewer on TVNZ

I liked his morning radio show and after seeing todays Agenda TV interviews, and following discussion, think that Paul Henry is the best talent on One News. It’s a pity he’s wasted on the morning TV show as deserves a bigger audience. Move over Susan, it’s time for another Paul in prime-time news.

Sent: Sunday, 4 September 2005 00:16
To: agendatv.co.nz
Subject: Could Paul Henry do all the shows up to the election

No offence to Simon but could Paul Henry do all the shows up to the election? The show today/tonight (3 September, 2005) was impressive.

Regards,
Robin Capper

ICE - In Case of Emergency

A good idea I hope you’ll never need (from Britain).

ICE - In Case of Emergency

Eight out of 10 British people carry no next of kin details. Yet 80% carry a mobile phone, most of whom have it on them all the time. There is no simpler way of letting the emergency services know who to contact should you be involved in an accident than by using ICE. Standing for In Case of Emergency, ICE will allow ambulance crews and police officers to quickly contact a nominated person who can be informed of the incident.

• Tell your ICE contact that you have nominated them
• Type the acronym ICE followed by a contact name (for example, ICE - mum or ICE - David) into the address book of your mobile phone
• Save their phone number

 

A Wal-Mart Nation

But not the one you’d expect;

TIME.com: Wal-Mart Nation -- Jun. 27, 2005

 

H2Gone ~ Austrialia Dries up

In a post on “A Networked World” Earl comments on how Australia is drying up. A few days later the Sydney Morning Herald report even tougher water restrictions.

The problem seems to be uneven distribution, rather than lack of water, since at the same time in New Zealand the poor people in the Bay of Plenty were watching their homes being washed away in floods. They don’t have enough H2O, we had too much. Perhaps we can export some of our rain to Australia?

His suggestion that New Zealand could be invaded by a horde of thirsty Aussies is rather terrifying.

A Networked World: The Luck Runs Out

For about three generations, Australia has billed itself as”The Lucky Country” while at the same time acknowledging that it is a wide brown land. It has lived with this inherent contradiction for a hundred years and never had to deal with the cognitive dissonance that permits it, nor the underlying reality that is entailed in inhabiting the driest continuously inhabited place on earth…

Sydney faces tougher water restrictions - National - smh.com.au
Sydneysiders will next week face tougher water restrictions following the announcement that dam levels have dropped to 39.7 per cent, with Warragamba Dam now at 36 per cent…

Schapelle Corby – Guilty or Not Guilty?

Peter Faris QC has an excellent analysis of the Schapelle Corby case. Nobody other than Schapelle really knows if she was guilty. If not guilty she is extremely unlucky. Its possible that the chain of events claimed by her defence team occurred (see point 45 in Peter’s post) but I tend to believe that the less complex answer, she did know, is more likely.

One thing that has struck me as odd through the whole case is that the drugs were in a boogy-board cover with, according to most reports, little other than a board in it. How can you not notice an additional 4kg package?

Faris QC Blog » Schapelle Corby – Guilty or Not Guilty?

NZ Skeptics in the media this week

Vicki Hyde, “chair entity” of New Zealand Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Inc. (NZ Skeptics), has a short item on Sunday Supplement (10.45am; National Radio 21–05–05) this Sunday which may be of interest something coming up next week on Close-up (TV1, 7pm) relating to "old wives' tales" and whether there is anything to them.

Tindall has $100m for innovation

STUFF : BUSINESS - STORY : Tindall has $100m for innovation

25 June 2004 By ROELAND VAN DEN BERGH
Retailing guru Stephen Tindall has put his money where his mouth is, investing $100 million of his own money in new innovative companies...

Paradise in peril

NZ Listener | Paradise in peril by Philip Matthews
The "Paradise" this article talks about is my backyard and playground. The Waitakere Ranges are one of the Auckland regions greatest assets. The map (click to enlarge image) shows their location approximately 30km from Central Auckland (The blue arrow is where I live).
The Eastern Foothills and Western Coastline of “The Ranges” are being increasingly targeted for development. This article looks at the impact of development on Piha, a popular beach on the Waitakere Coast. If you are not familiar with Piha the area mentioned in the article, nicknamed "The Gap", is approximately the red-hatched area to the right of the main beach on the 3d map below. Check out the Waitakere Ranges Protection Society for more information on protection of the Ranges.

All Map Images created with TUMONZ - The Ultimate Map of New Zealand.

Boeing, Boeing, Gone?

Interesting article from Popular Mechanics about the future of Boeing. Its risky to build any new aircraft due to the huge investment required but how dependent are they on the success of the 7E7?
Popular Science | Boeing, Boeing, Gone?

Superheliyacht?

In what is believed to be a world-first, a helicopter was successfully landed on the aft deck of a privately-owned sailing yacht in Auckland recently. The EC130 seven-seat helicopter landed on the new super sloop Tiara anchored in the Waitemata Harbour in the city.
Arriving in style - helicopter lands on super sloop's afterdeck

Helen & Rodney Blog!

Just found this, Does the leader of your country blog?
Helen's Blog - Helen Clark Prime Minister of New Zealand

To balance things up so does Opposition ACT MP (future ACT Leader?) Rodney Hide. I think his has more interesting content and you can add comments etc like a real blog. He even blogs live from the Parliamentary chamber... using a Sony P900 and GPRS!
Rodney Hide's Blog

Rodneys blog was mentioned on Robert Scobles "Scobleizer" Blog

Boeing's UFO

Unmanned Flying Object?

Boeing Unmanned Combat Aircraft Makes Aviation History

Air NZ tipped to go Airbus

If this happens will be a major change for NZ aviation. The long haul fleet has been all Boeing since the Douglas DC8 & DC10's were retired.

Air NZ tipped to go Airbus way 15 April 2004 By ROELAND VAN DEN BERGH

Air New Zealand is tipped to buy a fleet of Airbus A330 twin-engine jets, worth up to $1.2 billion, to replace its Boeing 767-300 aircraft on medium to long-haul routes...

STUFF : BUSINESS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website

Radio Legend Cooke dies aged 95

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Radio legend Cooke dies aged 95

Alistair Cooke: A great man, a great career, RIP