Posts by Joe Wylie
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Capture: Two Tales of a City, in reply to Just thinking,
That this is Bans fault is unlikely in my opinion.
Shigeru Ban claims to do his own engineering assessments, so he's supposedly pretty hands-on. According to today's Press, The cardboard columns were cosmetic only, with the building load carried by timber beams inside the tubes. This has been public knowledge since February, though it hasn't stopped the project being hyped as the largest paper tube structure of Shigeru Ban’s career thus far.
While there's plenty of evidence for Ban's gift for self-publicity, his much-hyped "humanitarian" disaster relief projects pale under closer scrutiny. The cardboard cathedral went ahead with only a crude model, a few sketches, and a single computer generated long shot partly obscured by trees offered for public scrutiny. There wasn't even an attempt at a 3D walkthrough.
Ban needs Christchurch on his CV more than we - or the Anglicans - need him. The unfolding problems are due to a credulous Anglican hierarchy and NZ's dismal cultural cringe. When Ban spoke in Christchurch a while back someone casually mentioned that he'd also be designing a house for a senior member of the Anglican hierarchy. Let's hope it's made of something more substantial than his trademark tubes.
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Up Front: Gathered Together, in reply to Emma Hart,
Some laws are about standing up and making a statement about who we are as a nation. They're bigger and far more important than their on the ground practical effect. This is one of them.
Thank you Emma.
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Hard News: Cultural Heroes and living memory, in reply to Tommy Honey,
one of New Zealand's "ingenious people"...
Ha! Thanks, I missed that. I did notice that Juxtapoz has him as "Tame Ito", and that he's had "legal issues with the law".
Meanwhile, in Henderson, under the radar of the creative sterility police.
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Askew, who too often works for little more than the cost of materials
Respect. And also for this.
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Hard News: My Food Bag: is it any good?, in reply to Islander,
seals are really good at harvesting penned salmon-
Thanks Islander. It's been a big issue with fur seals in Tasmania for years now. Capsicum spray seems to be the latest trick.
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Hard News: My Food Bag: is it any good?, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Any farmed salmon is neither ethical or particularly healthy
Re. the ethics of farmed salmon:
The alleged main protagonist in the bashing to death of 23 seals at Kaikoura in 2010 was described , along with his younger already convicted accomplice, as a builder. Both men have claimed that they were culling animals that they regarded as pests. What hasn't been prominently reported is that they were employees of a salmon farm. -
Hard News: My Food Bag: is it any good?, in reply to JacksonP,
I do think businesses identifying themselves with the 'Living Wage' movement, and signing a pledge or something, as with the Tonzu Tofu Hilary mentioned, might help in a small way. Or a big way, for those working in those companies.
Tonzu's reasons for getting involved are certainly interesting. BTW at around $15 per kilo Tonzu seems to be one of the better priced premium tofus, and their claim to be organic appears to be backed up by independent certification.
That's still nearly twice the price of Chinese supermarket tofu, but I notice that Tofu Man, probably one of the biggest non-organic producers, was named and shamed* by Auckland health inspectors a while back.
*Despite the headline the offenders listed aren't all restaurants.
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Hard News: My Food Bag: is it any good?, in reply to JacksonP,
First question, can we come up with a decent way of calculating a genuine 'living wage'?
There was some earnest discussion in the Chch Press a few months back about reversing the decay of New Brighton and environs. The one idea that seemed to spark enthusiasm was to somehow have the area go 'upmarket'. If a more moneyed class of gentlefolk could be persuaded to take up residence then the place would become 'vibrant', with the kind of cafes and watering holes that supposedly flourish across the estuary at Sumner.
It all seemed very well-meant, but nowhere was there any suggestion that the current residents might patronise an emerging cafe culture if only they were paid enough to eat out occasionally. Nor did anyone address the question of where they'd live once the makeover class had usurped their living space.
Some living wage info here. The meaty stuff is in the downloadable PDFs.
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Hard News: My Food Bag: is it any good?, in reply to BenWilson,
"Time poor" - what on earth is that?
People who don't have enough time to cook. "Time Starving" are people who don't even have enough time to eat. "Can't eat, tweeting", is "Time anorexic"
Heh.
How about "time bulimic" - human-free soylent. -
Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Steve Barnes,
I only wear winter clothes and find bare skin offensive
No early morning barefoot strolls for you then Mr Angry.
Keep those precious bodily fluids safe from the international dewish conspiracy.