Posts by David Haywood
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Southerly: Deconstruction and Construction, in reply to Jolisa,
Those paving stones look ominously back-ruining to me. In the absence of a full-on PAS working bee (St Ian is a celestial army of one), d’you think Student Job Search might be able to help a little?
Thank you for kind thoughts and wise medical observations!
Now that you mention it, the idea of hosting a paving, pizza, and beer party is beginning to appeal. Attendees can eat and drink as much as they'd like -- but they just have to shift 200 paving stones beforehand.
It might work.
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Southerly: Deconstruction and Construction, in reply to Aidan,
I did the rebates and rabbets (for joints) as well as providing guidance in the measuring. But Bob used the cut-off saw (not rip saw) and drill. Makes me realize that 4-year-olds can do more than you'd think.
The pole is a great mystery. It points due north. Saint Dalziel has speculated that it may have been a time portal.
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Southerly: Deconstruction and Construction, in reply to Islander,
Thank you! We're moving (Saturday) into the semi-mythical earthquake village in Linwood. But *very* touched by the offer of hospitality! Oodles to do on the house before we pick it up and put it on the truck (especially paving stones) -- so handy to be in deepest Linwood only a short journey away from the ruins of Avonside. Jen desperately packing for the move as I type -- better join her...
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Briefly (and somehow appropriately) interrupting my design of a drainage system to say what a *great* piece this is, Russell. Bloody outstanding work, dude.
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Hard News: Nobody wanted #EQNZ for Christmas, in reply to Hebe,
As a couple we have seen the main reports that were released and discussed them in depth, they all have a similar theme, regular six EQs will likely occur for approx. five years with increased activity for twenty-thirty years.
As Lilith says, this is a very odd comment. I can't make sense of what the anonymous writer is even trying to say, which suggests to me that they don't know what they're talking about (or can't properly express what they actually mean to say).
I believe that I've read all the publicly-released reports on this topic and that's certainly not what they appear to be saying to me. I've also personally quizzed seismologist Mark Quigley on the subject. Perhaps the anonymous writer is confused about interpreting the statistics?
Even allowing for what the anonymous writer appears to be claiming, the likelihood of future magnitude 6 shakes mean nothing on it's own. As we all well know by now, the destructive impact depends mainly on the depth and proximity to populace.
I can see why any scientist would use careful language when talking about this topic; it would be easy to make the situation much worse by some out-of-control scaremongering.
Let's remember that there were no fatalities at all in the June and December quakes.
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Southerly: Coming Up For Air, in reply to Ross Mason,
Who would WANT to be alive for even 150 years?... Think about the Xmas prezzies. The money you have to put in Xmas cards to all those Gkids, GGkids, GGGkids etc.
Yes, we all know what a reluctant gift-giver you are, Ross. Given that my house is currently being held together by the duct tape you selflessly provided -- and that many of my repairs will be taking place with the hammer that you so kindly sent in that same care package (not to mention the excellently useful gorilla-grips that are just the right size for those cramped-access jobs).
Your mask of curmudgeonliness doesn't fool anyone...
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Southerly: Coming Up For Air, in reply to dyan campbell,
obviously abiotic synthesis is not negative entropy
Hang on a minute…
Yes, for the chemical mixture as a whole there will certainly be an increase in entropy during abiotic synthesis – but surely from the local perspective (of the complex molecules being formed) there is a decrease in entropy? Isn’t this the entire point of coining the term negentropy?
I haven’t done the calculations on such chemical reactions (and don’t intend to), but I’d be awfully surprised if their formation generated entropy at a local level.
At any rate, I must have misunderstood your statement “I feel in my heart that life is… negative entropy”. I thought you were suggesting that immortality would somehow violate 2LT (but technically saying the opposite) – but obviously you were actually making a statement more in the line of poetry?
At any rate, it’s good that the poetry in your heart is completely in accordance with the laws of thermodynamics – a very cheerful state of being for the festive season!
P.S. RE: steady state. I had always thought of Life (with a capital 'L') more as 'reciprocating' with the rise and fall of species, etc. But you're quite right, taken over a short enough time period, an individual life-form can certainly be treated as a steady state system.
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Southerly: Coming Up For Air, in reply to Hebe,
I have some useful links and resources and contacts that I will email you in the next week or so when I have time to assemble them and the wifi works again.
Thanks so much, Hebe! I'll look forward to it!
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Southerly: Coming Up For Air, in reply to Bart Janssen,
If you want to look at the history of science it's littered with folks (some of them very very bright) saying something is theoretically possible but practically impossible only to be run over by three different impossible things.
Lord Kelvin (of whom I'm a huge fan, by the way) made a few of those pronouncements -- most famously about aeronautics:
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Southerly: Coming Up For Air, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Entropy is about physics and on the universe level you can't fight it. But it is trivial to reverse on a local level we do that every day, for the universe entropy always increases but for the individual entropy can decrease.
Snap! Sorry Bart... should have updated my page before I posted.