RobiNZ Personal Blog

Amazon.com: 1 Click donation to Red Cross Tsunami Disaster Relief

Credit to Amazon for setting up a one click donation to the Tsunami Disaster Relief (via the American Red Cross). In addition to a personal donation the little bit of income from this blog (mostly earned via Amazon links) has been donated. If you can help its only a click away. Link: Amazon.com: 1 Click donation to Red Cross Disaster Relief. At least 50,000 people have lost their lives in East Africa and South Asia in the aftermath of the earthquake and resulting tsunamis on December 26. Thousands in Sri Lanka, India, Somalia, Sumatra, Thailand, and Indonesia are still missing;... Read more →

What Happened to Konica/Minolta

Konica Minolta (formerly Zana) retired from the Sydney Hobart. This is the best account I've found of what happened, Around the World of Sailing - December 28, 2004 Coming the last two hundred miles by bus wasn’t the way we planned it.” These were the wry thoughts of Stewart Thwaites, the owner/skipper of the New Zealand supermaxi Konica Minolta.... Link: What Happened to Konica/Minolta - Around The World Of Sailing. Read more →

Sauber Formula One car in Auckland

I made my regular bike ride stop at Continental Car Services today. It's always worth a look to see the exotic vehicles they have on display as I go past there when heading around the waterfront. Today was surprised to see a Sauber Formula One Car in the Alfa/Fiat/Ferrari/Maserati showroom. Worth the trip if you want a close up look at a fairly recent car (Salo's 99 car) but I don't know how long it will be there. Link: Continental Car Services in Auckland New Zealand. Holiday Hours: Wed 29 Dec/Thurs 30 Dec 8am – 6pm New Years Eve 8am-... Read more →

Asian tsunami arrives in New Zealand

I heard on the radio that the sea level at Milford Sound rose/fell 20cm this morning as the Asian tsunami passed. When you consider its something like 9400 km away it gives some idea of the power. Although far away we can help. If you are in New Zealand phone 0900 31 100 to make a $20 donation to the New Zealand Red Cross. Read more →

Maritime Crew ~ New CD

Link: Maritime Crew. The Maritime Crew is currently working hard rehearsing songs for their 4th CD. This is going to be different from their previous CDs in that all of the 17 songs to be recorded are compositions by Captain of the Crew, Rudy Sunde. Rudy started writing sea songs way back in 1974 with his well known "The Orpheus". His 17th is "The Balclutha" which was just finished this year. Ten of his songs have been recorded over the years on LPs, Tapes and CDs but most of the early ones are no longer available. Terence O'Neill-Joyce of the... Read more →

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! Since March 29, 2004; Total number of hits: 37310 Average per day: 141.33 Today: 480 In the last hour: 8 This week: 1532 Read more →

Traffic Waves, physics for bored commuters

I first read this several years ago. Try it, it does work sometimes and if you have a manual car, saves a lot of gear shifts... Traffic Waves: Sometimes one driver can vastly improve traffic.William Beaty 1998 I live in Seattle and my two daily commutes last about 45 minutes. (That's when I'm lucky; sometimes it's more like two hours each.) This has given me an immense amount of time for watching the interesting patterns in the cars. Boredom led me to fantisize about the traffic being like a flowing liquid, with cars acting as giant water molecules. Over many... Read more →

Ellen Macarthur averages 16.8 knots for 10,000 miles!

B&Q has sailed a staggering 10,084 miles through the water at 0710 GMT this morning at the end of day 24 [Ellen has kept ahead of Joyon's record since Day 7] of her solo record attempt, at an average speed of 16.8 knots. This is actual miles sailed as opposed to VMG... Check http://www.teamellen.com for the latest data updated hourly Read more →

Customs Charges

I was looking at Customs Charges and although many things are now duty free in NZ (PC's have no duty - yeah) there are still some strange items in the list... Graphic equalisers ~ 7.5% Sarongs ~ 19% Metal detectors ~ 7% Electric hairclippers – for animals ~ Duty Free Electric hairclippers – for humans ~ 5% Link: NZ Customs Charges. Read more →

David Byrne to perform in Auckland

Cool, one of my favourite musians is coming to New Zealand and performing in Auckland. Link to Ticktetek NZ Website: David Byrne My Backwards Life. David Byrne (ex-Talking Heads) visits NZ with My Backwards Life tour. The founder, songwriter and "voice" of TALKING HEADS. For the first time in 13 years, he is performing the major Talking Head hits, as well as new songs. On stage with a hot American band. Quirky showmanship & relentless rhythms mean you'll be in for a heck of a time! Read more →