Posts by David Haywood
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Southerly: Coming Up For Air, in reply to dyan campbell,
Well I hate to get all spiritual and poetic on you all, but I feel in my heart that life is
a steady state and negative entropy
Oh, a thermodynamics question!
But from a thermo point of view life is definitely *not* steady state, right? Since we started off with a barren planet and ended up with a multitude of beasties?
And while life certainly generates negative entropy at a local level (but net positive entropy, of course), isn't that an argument for Bart and Lucy's point of view? So long as you can have a sufficient energy input then you can avoid the undesirable effects of entropy at a local level?
Until the eventual heat-death of the universe, that is. So I guess it all depends on how you define 'immortal'.
-
Southerly: Coming Up For Air, in reply to Fooman,
Short rotation coppice tree species selection for woody biomass production in New Zealand
Many thanks, Fooman. Other priorities have meant that I haven't given the topic of coppicing the attention it deserves. In fact, I know so little about trees, etc. that I wasn't even sure if results from (for example) Palmerston North would apply to Canterbury.
The paper you've pointed out looks very helpful -- I shall study it in detail.
-
Southerly: Coming Up For Air, in reply to Hebe,
Hebe wrote:
May I suggest coppicing of trees (for local info google “Brandenburg coppice”) as I assume you will be allowed a logburner.
A ha! As the lovely Ian Dalziel will confirm, there is already an area on our site plan marked 'coppice'.
I'm a huge fan of coppicing, but only really familiar with how it's done in the UK. Other than planning a row of Sweet Chestnut, I am rather vague as to suitable species in NZ (although I have noted that eucalypts are popular for coppicing here). I'd heard of the Brandenburg Coppice, but my quick search doesn't really come up with anything useful (I have been planning a proper trawl of academic journals).
Now, of course, I'm hoping that with a name like 'Hebe' the phenomenum of nominative determinism might have kicked in, and that you will be an expert botanist. If so, I am all ears for any advice that you may wish to impart.
I also had vague plans to beard the legendary Euan Mason when he next graces these pages, as I understand that he has had the odd thing to do with trees in his capacity as an AP in forestry.
Islander wrote:
... here are the totally secret oatmilk recipes we teach the wee ones and the older ones and just about bloody well every one...
Thank you so much for that. We are now complete converts to oat milk, but the price is rather crippling. Will attempt your recipe ASAP!
I must say I'm surprised that there's no NZ-made oat milk available for sale (the only stuff stocked in our supermarket is from Australia).
-
Southerly: Coming Up For Air, in reply to Paul Dowden,
I'm sure you get all sorts of unsolicited advice but my nephew, who's about five now, had all the same allergies - thankfully he's grown out of most of them. My sister developed some excellent (evidence based!) recipes and strategies to keep him, and non-allergic siblings, fed and happy. I could pass on contacts if you like.
All recipes and suggestions gratefully accepted -- thank you very much, Paul!
-
Southerly: Coming Up For Air, in reply to Ken Sparks,
It seems to me that a huge amount of disruption is being caused by a somewhat arbitrary Red Zone assessment - who really knows what's going to happen next underground? Did you ever consider doing a Joe Bennett or do you agree that it's too unsafe to stay?
Thanks for the very nice message, Ken. We don't have access to all the geotech data for our area, but (from my own inspection of ours and neighbouring sections) I don't think it's necessary for us to move from a geotech perspective. But we have to go anyway because the Red Zone declaration means that we'll lose our insurance if we stay -- and that means we'd be in breach of our mortgage conditions. And I guess our bank would step in and sell our property to CERA in the end, anyhow.
-
Many thanks for all the very kind comments on this thread! It's so nice to know that people are thinking of us.
It's a super-generous suggestion, but I can assure everyone that there's no need to have a whip-round for us -- however if you do feel the Christmassy urge to give, may I suggest a donation to the Red Cross? They've been absolutely fantastic down here.
BenWilson wrote:
David, are you intending to stay there, or hoping to ride out bad financial times, and then eventually sell and relocate?
At the moment we have no plans to move again. Ever.
-
Southerly: Coming Up For Air, in reply to Lilith __,
Thanks, Lilith & Jackie! But, of course, it has to be acknowledged that many, many people have had a much tougher time than us.
In an update to CERA’s accommodation scheme, there is now a question mark over whether people in our situation are eligible or not while their houses are being moved. I’m investigating further (as soon as I find the time).
-
Hard News: Last Words, in reply to Sacha,
Wonder why higher income earners would have lower rates?
Just did a thing on NatRad about this very issue (which seems to have genuinely skewed opinion polls in the US). Annoyingly, I didn't find the NZ landline data until after the programme:
-
Hard News: I have a feast for you, in reply to Paul Campbell,
Oh – I was up until 3 am this morning beating my head against YouTube’s import filter. Turns out that it required the audio to be Lame encoded rather than AAC (even though YouTube specifies AAC in its own documentation). It’s now on YouTube here:
Sometimes it’s easier to have the sort of brain that just says: “I’ll use Vimeo.”
And I should make it clear that, of course, I think none of those dreadful things about Ms Ryan – who, on the sole occasion that I have talked to her off-mic, was extremely kind and lovely (even nicer than she seems on the radio).
Also, that when improvising on a theme, it turns out that not everything that comes into my head should be said aloud. There’s a couple of bits I wish I hadn’t mentioned; I'm still working a brain/mouth filter system for this sort of situation. My written notes consisted only of the words: “Don’t mention the pin-head thing.”
And big thanks to Big Ross for all his camera and editing genius. The man is definitely a legend.
-
Hard News: When the Weather is the News, in reply to Che Tibby,
anyone advised dr haywood to shrink-wrap his windows yet? cheap “double-glazing”.
Dr Haywood's Ph.D is in energy engineering/thermodynamics.