Posts by Stephen R
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
The 40s have been good to me.
I actually decided I didn't really care about getting any further up the ladder by the time I was about 38, and actually took a step back from there - much less stress.
Paid off the mortgage when times were good instead of buying a new car (and we finished the day before my wife got made redundant) and now I'm pretty relaxed.
I took my current job because I wanted to work with the people here, doing the things they're doing, rather than because I cared about it looking good on the CV. That too is fairly liberating.
-
Last month, walking through Copenhagen, I looked up at a brutalist concrete building and said to my companion "That looks like the UCSA" - It turned out to be the Copenhagen university ....
I heard Warren tried to sue the UCSA to stop them painting the concrete because he had some clause in the original architecture contract that said they couldn't, but when they built it, the steel reinforcing was too close to the surface, so the moisture seeped into the concrete, caused the steel to rust, then expand, then spall bits of concrete off the outside of the building. Cue significant costs to rebuild the external concrete balconies sometime in the early nineties.
Ah the memories.
-
Bart, I read a book about 15 years ago which claimed that about 50% of Pharma research budget went on trying to replicate a current patented drug with just enough difference to not be covered by the patent but still be effective.
The two goals involved seemed to be replicating a different companies profitable drug so they could get in on the action, or replicating one of their current drugs that were about to run out of patent so they could market and sell a "new" drug which was still covered by patent.
If that's still true, it does rather take some of my sympathy away for their expensive research requirements.
-
Hard News: Not yet standing upright, in reply to Emma Hart,
I've always kind of hated our anthem. Then one day I was curious about how and when the decision was made to add the Maori verse, and I ran across the documentary David Farrier made about it, and I kind of changed my mind.
I rather like the way that, in contrast with some other countries, it doesn't celebrate kicking the shit out of someone else. "Rule Brittania","rockets' red glare" vs "
Guard Pacific's triple star ... From the shafts of strife and war," and "Listen to us gently, With the infinite love, May the goodness bear fruit;"(Which one is the triple star again?)
(translation via wikipedia) -
Hard News: Not yet standing upright, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Too bold for some narrow-minded people. For them it's a symbol of separatism.
My issue with it was that I'd feel a bit mean stealing it off the Tino Rangatiratanga people unless someone asked nicely first, and I couldn't see them going for that if the issues around shared governance et al weren't resolved first.
It is a really nice flag though.
-
Up Front: Well, Read Women, in reply to TracyMac,
Not to say that Moon hasn’t done fantastic research – the soldiering is incredibly true-to-life.
Elizabeth Moon was an officer in the US Marines.
She tells a story on one of her blogs about why she joined the Marines. Coming out of University, she decided to join the military, and went to a recruitment day somewhere. The Airforce said "We'd love to have you", the Army said "We'd love to have you" and the Marine recruiting sergeant said "You'd never pass basic training..."
-
Up Front: Well, Read Women, in reply to TracyMac,
Shout out to the Bujold massive!
I'm not all that keen on the Miles books, but Shards of Honour and Barrayar I've bought multiple times to read and give away (lose) and want to read again...
Cordelia is one of my heroes.
-
Up Front: Well, Read Women, in reply to william blake,
Lee Childs.
I'm pretty sure Lee Child is the pen-name of a bloke in the UK, and Lee Childs is a (male) tennis player...
-
Hard News: Incomplete, inaccurate and misleading, in reply to izogi,
My first thought on reading that was "don't most email conversations involve at least two participants?"
My reading of the reporting on this is that there were conversations from other people which implied Jason Ede had been sending emails that didn't show up in the official record, which is why they asked him specifically about them.
That just means not everyone deleted everything.
-
Hard News: News from home ..., in reply to Grant McDougall,
It should've just been solely on who caucus voted for, simple as that. Instead, Labour remains deeply divided and backing a leader that doesn't have the wide confidence of his caucus or party membership.
I thought they changed the rules to the way they are now specifically because they'd had leaders who were popular with caucus but not the party membership?
Am I mistaken?