Readers' Tips
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Avoid anything with the term "style" in the title. A bit like "pork flavoured" sausages - WTF does that mean anyway?
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"non-pork flavour' going by some of my family's sad experiences...actually almost anything styled 'flavoured' is NOT going to have aforesaid substance in it. Also, be extremely wary about anything described as "NZ made, with local & imported ingredients" - the translation is : 'assembled in ANZ with buggerall local ingredients.'
Tip: buy clearly locally-sourced foodstuffs! I paticularly reccommend stuff like garlic (costs more/keeps waaay better/TASTES!); local veg
(especially frozen), and chicken & fish. -
Also, be extremely wary about anything described as "NZ made, with local & imported ingredients" - the translation is : 'assembled in ANZ with buggerall local ingredients.'
Additionally, the local brand may not be so robust. Some apparently local food is only ever "conditioned" in situ in order to justify the tag i.e. product is sourced elsewhere but briefly farmed or grazed in a renowned or desirable area so as to be branded with the better location.
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Avoid anything with the term "style" in the title. A bit like "pork flavoured" sausages - WTF does that mean anyway?
Also can apply to the term 'drink', ie fruit drink vs fruit juice. BIG difference. I've noticed, however, that it is impossible to get cranberry juice vs cranberry drink (must be something to do with the food standard).
Also - beware foods that are sold as 'dietry supplements' in supermarkets. Manufacturers tend to use this to get round food labelling laws and can put some terrible stuff in teas just because they aren't 'food'...
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re: funding models for regional newspapers - BBC Worldservice radio has successfully survived in New Zealand with donations from listeners (especially ex-pats).
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Do any PA readers know of a good way to clean up mucky vinyl LPs? When I say mucky, I mean needing a bit more than a wipe down with a soft, damp cloth.
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probably depends on the sort of muck, but I was told, years ago, by someone who worked in a second hand record store, that the best thing was just ordinary soap, a bit of warm water, and a soft cloth or - if you're daring - brush.
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1. has anyone mentioned ctrl+enter when typing in urls? It adds the http://www. and the .com (should that be your destination)
As jon_knox says, try Opera.
Opera is totally standards compliant, unlike IE.
In Opera you can set up auto completion to append .co.nz but Ctrl Enter will auto complete .com. There's lots of other goodies too and it was first with tabbed browsing and it has built in eMail and notes and mouse gestures and and and.
Well I like it anyway. ;-) -
ordinary soap, a bit of warm water, and a soft cloth or - if you're daring - brush.
Try the dish washer they come out really floppy and you can make great looking fruit bowls out of them. Also Wire brush and acetone is really good for that authentic scratchy sound.
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Do any PA readers know of a good way to clean up mucky vinyl LPs? When I say mucky, I mean needing a bit more than a wipe down with a soft, damp cloth.
If you're dead serious about it, this is how they do it at the Smithsonian:
1. Use a photgrapher's compressed air can to blow off any loose debris.
2. With an artist's brush gently apply a hypoallergenic conditioner-free face peel to the plastic surface of the record (Be sure to avoid getting anything on the label.) Do not scratch the surface but simply dab on as little face peel as possible while not agitating the dirt on the surface any more than absolutely necessary.
3. Place the record in front of a fan to dry the face peel as quickly as possible.
4. When the face peel has dried enough so that it has formed a soft but intact film, gently remove it from the surface. All the loose dirt in the grooves should come off with the film.
5. If necessary, repeat steps 2 to 4.
6. Once the particular debris is off the record, carry on routine cleaning. (Which goes something like this: apply a few drops of cleaning solution - 1 part conditioner free dishwashing detergent for 100 part distilled water - on a pad and wipe the disc while it's rotating on the turntable, then repeat with only distilled water).This comes from Saving Stuff, by Don Williams and Louisa Jaggar. Do you want to know how to preserve electric fans, ambrotypes, plastic campaign stickers, pipe organs? Ask these guys.
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Anyone know how to kill fungus, once it gets into VCR video cassettes
I heard a bloke from the Film Archives on Natradio the other day, talking about safekeeping film, video, cd/dvd - sorry, i think video's doomed once the mould's got it. He reckoned one should buy a new vcr player and mothball it to play tapes in the future, (damaged vcr tapes leave little bits of film on the heads that damage the next tape in); keep your tapes out of sunlight, dampness and not in their cardboard slip-cases, possibly wrapped in natural fibre cloth that breathes?
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Not having a rear reflector on your bicycle is like saying "F*#K YOU CAR, JUST TRY AND FIND ME".
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Here's a great tip/insight for any political parties suffering from a lack of empathy for the communities they're about to screw.
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Dear Jon Knox - having no rearlight/reflector on your bike means you swiftly become road kill: my tip is to have a gargantuan LED spotlight on the back of your velocipede (or whatever) which you switch on, upon hearing approaching motor vehicles - hilarity ensues.
Alternatively, you may wish to invest in my short pamphlet, "Roadkill, and how to utilise It" so your family/friends can make many interesting items with the resultant roadfelt.
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Steve wrote:
Try the dish washer they come out really floppy and you can make great looking fruit bowls out of them. Also Wire brush and acetone is really good for that authentic scratchy sound.
Funny. Looks like occassionally Steve goes a bit overboard with the happy pills.
Not everyone has a dishwasher Steve...Alternatively you can just use the washing machine on a synthetics wash...and if you don't have one of those, there is always a laundromat. Applying lead (pb and perhaps fe is just as effective) to the surface to clean the surface is only good for at high speed/velocity records...which I think are more difficult to lay your hands on these days. 78's I think they're called.
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Islander wrote:
Dear Jon Knox
You're confusing me with that other Jon Knox...I'm nothing if not inexpensive.
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Jon Knox -whichever version- I really like the cheepo kind
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As Frank Zappa replied, when asked if he believed that anyone can be truly free:
"If you can't be free you can always be cheap." -
Funny. Looks like occassionally Steve goes a bit overboard with the happy pills.
How dare you Sir. I'll have you know I was totally drunk. After all, it was nearly midday.
As for your speed/velocity habit
Applying lead (pb and perhaps fe is just as effective) to the surface to clean the surface is only good for at high speed/velocity records...which I think are more difficult to lay your hands on these days.
Well of course, you silly man. You have calculate their vector before you attempt to catch them. Even then, have you tried running really fast carrying a big lump of Plumbum now you've reached the ripe old age of 14.75 ?
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The Auckland Coastguard has for many years put on a couple of education cruises around the Hauraki gulf on a midweek evening in the early part of December. They are great learning experiences/entertainment/fun/value.
Get shown around the gulf by some old salts, who not only reveal some great spots and a bit of history, but also have an interest in ensuring that you are best prepared for own adventures later (even if you're not a boatie). Graham Reid's favourite Weather Ambassador Bob McDavitt generally gets an hour rocking the microphone, covering some interesting (gulp) weather stuff, even if the PA system on the boat is a bit ear shattering and Bob's style of delivery is...um...a little unique....undoubtably it is performance art!
As I recall one cruise heads north to Maharangi and the other cruise heads to Coromandel. Year to year there is a bit of variation in the routes taken, so interesting even if you have been before. There is a bar for those of us, who feel the need for a drink and a sausage sizzle for those who need a bit of kai and did not bring their own sandwiches.
Details of how to get tickets (which are generally snapped up fast) are generally provided via the Coastguard website a bit later in November. I think it was $30 for a ticket last year, though I'm not entirely sure. Departs from the Downtown ferry terminal at 6pm sharp and returns about 10:30pm. My tip is get someone to pick-you up afterwards.
Though the Coastguard team involved are volunteers, I have wondered why there are not a few more of these cruises put on, such is the great demand and the high level of value that they provide. I think they could easily double the number of cruises, be a little more active in the advertising and still have a surplus of demand, particularly as the same punters attend year after year.
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. . . Bob's style of delivery is...um...a little unique....undoubtably it is performance art!t
In my limited experience of such things most performance artists feature a Barbie doll or rubber chicken - sometimes both - in their stage shows. Bob sounds as if he's blasting into some radical new space with his aquatic act.
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I'd think Bob is sufficently unassuming that if asked nicely he would work a barbie doll and/or a rubber chicken into it. He may not entirely understand, nor be interested in the reasons why you want him to do so. Then again he may consider it such a ridiculous a request that he just refuses.
Bob has a tremendous passion for the weather and in some regards may be on a different plane (perhaps I'm on a different plane to him/you/society), but I think Bob knows that people enjoy his delivery and enjoys that himself without having an appreciation or concern for people like me considering it a form of quintessential NZ performance art.
The world is a much richer place for the likes of Bob McDavitt, a guy that probably grew up as part of a generation that wanted to be like Pinetree Meads/Buck Shelford and in his own way is.
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