Posts by Carol Stewart
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Is that one of those HRV type systems, Lucy? When we were considering heating options for our house around 12 years ago we did entertain a visit from a HRV salesperson but I found him really, offputtingly aggressive and pushy; and I was very unconvinced about the underlying science as well, in that I couldn’t see how it would keep the house warm in winter without any heating unit in a Wellington climate.
We went for heat pumps, of which one is brilliant and makes for a very comfortable living space, but the other is a bit underwhelming, partly because of the shape of the room. When I worked at home, I found that I got too cold at my desk which was around the corner from the heat pump and with large windows on two sides; and I had to use an additional ceramic column heater to keep warm. -
Interesting to see rental property WOF taking shape, Lucy. It looks to me like it should apply to all properties and could be a useful tool for buying/selling.
I think it’s a pity that in NZ we are stuck with this old housing stock which is not designed for NZ’s climate or our current ways of life. We have a 1907 wooden villa perched on a ridgetop in Brooklyn, Wellington, and have just spent a small fortune on a few renovations. It’s incredible how fast the exterior seems to deteriorate – windows that were replaced and repainted only five years ago already have paint peeling off. -
Up Front: Lighting the Dark, in reply to Emma Hart,
Is “girl power” a positive when it’s used about grown women?
Excellent point.
When you say something like “girl power”, what is it you’re actually describing?
Well, it was probably a bad example to choose, but since you ask, I was thinking of it being a term that encourages girls to be assertive, independent, ambitious, self-reliant and so on.
But just to clarify, it's a horrible term that I wouldn't dream of using.
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Up Front: Lighting the Dark, in reply to Danielle,
All men. All women. All boys. All girls. We must “other” that gender, or chaos will ensue!
Gulp. I am guilty of that myself at times, in using terms like 'boy look'. I can see it coming back in unhelpful ways at times, when my son latches on to this idea of teenage boys being a bit helpless as an excuse for perpetually losing things and being messy.
Question: are gendered terms more helpful when they are positive, like girl power? -
Feed: Meals for Me, in reply to Joanna,
Thanks! I thought I’d seen the whole range of smoked products (cheese, tomatoes, garlic, yoghurt, mushrooms in addition all the seafoods and meats) but that one had passed me by.
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Feed: Meals for Me, in reply to Joanna,
smoked butter
Please tell me more.
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Like many others here, I don't get to eat alone all that often and it's quite a treat to be able to suit oneself completely. For a complete meal I'd probably go for baked potato, steak, mushrooms and onions, greens. For a snack - a mushroom sandwich-for-one. Similar to a steak sammie, but with a Portobello mushroom, with generous topping of garlic/parsley butter, baked in oven until juicy, in bap or similar. Simple but wonderful.
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Hard News: The Language of Climate, in reply to Bart Janssen,
There are several things going on but one thing to note is that on any issue there will be what are called polar bears and penguins, essentially people on opposite sides of an issue who will never change their minds about their position.
I heard a great quote the other day: Science advances one funeral at a time.
Which is apparently a paraphrase of Max Planck'sA new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.
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Hard News: A Big Thing, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
a huge piece of boring machinery
Is that a value judgment or a description? ;-)
Reminds me of a story, probably apocryphal, about an entry in the Yellow Pages that used to read: BORING: See Civil Engineers.Actually, not apocryphal.
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Busytown: School bully, in reply to Jolisa,
And here's another bit of anecdotal evidence, from a teacher who's been talking to her colleagues who are thinking about school choices for their own children:
I don't really share this gloomy view, largely because at the moment we're lucky that our lad is at a brilliant and enlightened high school and very happy there. I also have the impression that the teachers are pretty proud of and happy in their work, and several of them send their own kids to the school. However, our lad's path through the education system hasn't been all plain sailing. He had a very nasty teacher at intermediate level who was relentlessly negative about him and did little to stop a culture of bullying that took root in the classroom. He was quite devastated when she handed him a 'below national standards' in creative writing; his spelling is a bit wonky but he's got a great original narrative voice and has gotten completely different (and better) assessments on this front from pretty much all his other teachers.