Posts by Matthew Reid
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Hard News: Christchurch: Square Two, in reply to Hebe,
The Baptist Church in Auckland is accepting new or serviced old gas heaters to donate to people in quake-damaged Christchurch homes.
I'm just not sure this is a great idea. Unflued gas heaters create emmissions including carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, which can have serious health effects. They also create a lot of moisture - something like half a litre an hour, which isn't good for already damp houses.
I know it is very attractive, and very well meaning, to think of a heating solution that does not rely on what is prving to be a somehwat dodgy electricity supply. But I can imagine these ending up in bedrooms with the old, vulnerable and very young, where those emmissions can be most problematic. EECA and the Ministry of Health recommend not using them, definitely not using them in bedrooms and having to leave a window open - not great in winter, or for security.
Good to see that they're asking to include the cost of the logistics of getting the heaters to Chch along with the donations, but I think that there are potentially better ways to use that money than shipping stuff from Auckland. Apologies - I don't mean to rain on your partner's parade or to discourage worthy efforts.
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Malaria and dysentry, in Kenya. Got bitten after eating dinner with some locals at dusk, no repellent. Presumably the dinner was also the source of the gastrointestinal infection.
Amazing how a good going fever makes you feel icey cold. Don't remember having vivid dreams unfortunately. Previously I hadn't really appreicated how much easier it is to have diarrhoea with a sit down toilet than a squat loo.
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MoH advises lots of fluids. And cuddles. And paracetamol. Naturopaths reckon the MoH doesn't say enough about the ill-effects of immunisation.
Of course getting tetanus would be worse. I've seen it in babies and it's not nice.
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Hard News: Here's one I prepared earlier, in reply to Ross Mason,
Could the tetanus shot really be the reason for the sweats? Infections usually cause sweats rather than vaccinations
Immunisations often cause fever. MoH tips following immunisation. Condolences Russell.
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Southerly: One Hundred and Thirty-one…, in reply to David Haywood,
David Haywood wrote:
At 84 cm it’s not *much* wider than my existing handlebars and would certainly fit on the skinny CHCH bike lanes – and it looks oh so useful for carting round the little ‘uns. Beautiful! Er, would I have to sell my kidneys to be able to afford one?
It does fit on the skinny bike lanes, but we're a bit slow when fully loaded, so not so good when other cyclists want to pass. They also have a fairly wide turning circle. I can imagine them being used around town if CCC were keen (as they are south of here).
As for your kidneys, the exchange rate has improved with the Kroner since we bought it, I'd imagine, so you'd probably only have to sell one. The great value is in being able to talk to and see the kids while going places, and avoiding needing to use the car at all to take the kids to school/care or to do the shopping. When we looked into trikes there were cheaper options but the quality was not so certain.
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Southerly: One Hundred and Thirty-one…, in reply to David Haywood,
In Denmark, the minimum standard width is 2.5 metres
cart before that horse
bike ‘porn’
Another reason for the wider lanes in Denmark is the trike, which is a pretty common sight on the streets of Copenhagen. We've got one from these guys. It's considerably wider than your average bike, but hopefully safer for the three kids who are often sitting in the front than if they were in a trailer.
David, I love your suggestions, and fully support them. I'd love to see in Christchurch what you see in Copenhagen - large bike parks absolutely full of parked bikes in the central city, next to train stations, in parks; bikes on every street at all ours of the day and night, especially in summer; kids in and on bikes because it's safe and older people tootling along at their own pace; city workers riding along in their suits and skirts; and an industry around bikes that suit the needs of riders.
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Speaker: Bad Aid: How Murray McCully is…, in reply to Terence Wood,
Hi Rik,
The aid programme is approx $500m. I had govt revenue as approx $50B. So that's where my figure came from.
$500m is a lot of money true, but it's still only 1%. Or, to put it another way, not so much when you know how much is actually out there.$500m is around 0.4% of NZ's GDP (around $130b). There is a guideline of 0.7% of GDP (or was the commitment a % of GNP?) to spend on overseas development assistance, which would be $910m. By that metric NZ is not generous enough. I agree with Terence that when you look at the problems/needs around the world more would be better.
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Speaker: Bad Aid: How Murray McCully is…, in reply to George Darroch,
Why, it's just NZ's Transparency Intl rating.
That's probably safe. Transparency International's rankings aren't based on any hard science, but rely on asking businessmen how corrupt they think a country is. It's almost axiomatic that the style of friends and favours corruption practiced in New Zealand isn't seen as such.Whereas NZ ranking on the Commitment to Development Index by the Center for Global Development may very well be at risk, although NZ hasn't performed all that well for the Aid component of the index anyway.
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I liked the Chch buses - I live near Colombo so it was easy to get to town on one bus. But I also cycled a lot and they aren't so great from the two-wheeled perspective - the diesel fumes, the drivers who don't see you and cut you off. Probably buses better than even more cars, but then I did get a sadistic pleasure from riding past all the cars waiting in a queue.
Youth use(d) the buses a lot, to access a lot of stuff they moght not otherwise have - health services, welfare, work etc. Our kids love(d) them a lot and buses were more or less the only way the elderly neighbour across the road went further than the end of the street independently, but faffing around changing buses to get to the other side of town would stop us/her using them.
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Southerly: That CERA Rumour, in reply to James Green,
we use to go and run through the irrigator on the sports field
Try the paddling pool in Hagley Park in a nor'wester. It's madness.