Posts by Kracklite

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  • Hard News: Turning the page,

    Come to think of it, that tinfoil armour concept should be be further investigated by the army, as should cognitive dissonance overall. I have visions of crack squads who are utterly immune from harm because they simply refuse to accept that they've been shot, are bleeding, that their guts are spread all over the battlefield. Furthermore, if Wle E. Coyote trained the airforce, we could have a combat wing again without any planes - pilots simply run off cliffs carrying heavy guns and refuse to look down.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: Turning the page,

    So, Lyndon, the big reveal is unlikely to be reptilian. My money's on amphibians.

    Bah! I've said it before and I'll say it again: Wishart's second-rate compared to David Icke. He's already been there with his revelation that the Windsors are anthropophagic (well, we can hardly say cannibalistic) reptiles (beat that, Mohammed al-Fayed!).

    Did it work? No?

    Tinfoil hats, matey. Absolutely impenetrable.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: Buy now: spend the recession inside!,

    Compared, for example, to the villas that half the Dunedin student population lives in

    We're at risk of a reference to Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen sketch ... please bring it on.

    I remember another Aro flat I had when I took the butter out of the fridge and thought that it was warm, but no, it was firm - the butter conditioner was the warmest part of the flat, the fridge wasn't cooling my food to preserve it, it was putting energy into warming it up.

    Then I discovered an alternative to Tantric sex - you can make it last ages when your girlfriend has a cold that she hasn't been ablt to shake off for months and has to stop to blow her nose every few minutes. The floor would be covered with tissues...

    You probably didn't want to know that.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: Buy now: spend the recession inside!,

    side stepped insulation.

    Nah, just forgot.

    Now I'm looking forward to a cold, damp Aro Valley winter and I'm thinking of the nice and toasty WCC tower block flat that I used to live in.

    Still, views of greenery and tui to wake me up in the morning. Swings and roundabouts.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: Buy now: spend the recession inside!,

    It may seem like a myth now but it was an ideal that was hoped for by Micky Savage and his band of merry labourites

    Good point, Steve.

    And now with the removal of housing standards like double glazing (the only concrete issue reported on) it seeks to enshrine inadequate housing that will impact on the health of NZers now and in the future.

    Not to mention heating costs and energy waste. There is a sort of nirvana-like timeless state beyond flabberghastment that is compounded of resignation, ennui and deep cynicism about the prospect of any change. I'm getting there.

    As I've posted before, I'm afraid that NZer's are going to have to give up the fantasy of a private quarter-acre estate and move into truly urban housing along the European model. The one good thing about the new policy was the long-term leasing idea. Now I just hope that that leads to better apartments...

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: Buy now: spend the recession inside!,

    Let me agree and agree.

    They're bloody good houses.

    Indeed. The state houses are held up in the design community as exemplars of efficient, practical design. Having at least done some house-sitting for some friends who bought one, I was amazed at how compact but well-proportioned theirs was (proportion in rooms matters as it can determine where the bed goes, how much useless space there is at the foot and how much useful space there is to the side and so on).

    I also lived in a council flat for several years and loved that, for the same reasons. Currently I'm in the lower floor of a private house converted to make flats and while it's pleasant enough, the design quality - both of the original plan and the conversion - leave a lot to be desired.

    Generally, the much-derided public housing begins with well-determined functional standards driving the design, which may be superficially dull, but work as dwellings. Looking at recent suburban developments, I'm so astonished that I often have to resort to flabberghastment at the unnecessary complications of plan and facade made - badly - to give 'visual interest', which only serve to add useless expense and complicate the construction. Murphy's Third Law comes to mind (the second being, anything that has gone wrong will get worse) - the more bits there are, the more things there are that can fail.

    On the other hand:

    Helengrad

    I'm thinking of Levittown and all it's dreary clones. Really though, we don't need more suburban sprawl.

    That, I'm afraid, is the main gripe that I have about Labour, despite my grudging preference for them: short-term, narrowly targeted solutions with almost willful ignorance of the wider consequences and social and environmental changes. It's that which marks their thinking as being stuck in the last century. Meanwhile the Greens really need to get on board with architects and urban designers to present some positive policy - there has been a lot of work on sustainable design that doesn't involve having to eat cold lentils in darkened geodesic domes.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: Buy now: spend the recession inside!,

    Well naturally I didn't mean you. I don't notice any bitterness or more than normal narcissism... and my hair's in retreat. It had more to do with a certain Dompost columnist. Could you untie me from the stake now?

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: Buy now: spend the recession inside!,

    I might add that the corollary or subtext of Sturgeon's Law is, FFS get over it - and yourself.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: Buy now: spend the recession inside!,

    curmudgeon

    Bah, as Dogbert would say. I put that in the same category as 'gadfly' - a nonsense word that at once trivialises and licences the bitter narcissism of ageing male baby boomers.

    And the 'primary research' point is not totally true either. The commentators on blogs are numerous, and they will often talk directly about what is going on inside their own domains.

    Seconded, with another echo of the canine Yoda, who is no doubt familiar with Sturgeon's Law (ninety percent of everything is crud).

    A word I do love that has been much degraded is amateur, meaning lover, and related to the advancement of science in the Enlightenment - most of science then was a hobby of the leisured aristocracy. Sure, there are boring, trivial blogs, but then there are blogs like this, which may be obscure to many, but show experts in their field reporting in real time on their vocation (and again, that's another word that bears close examination).

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Hard News: What I'd really like to know,

    The romans had invented underwear

    Not to mention that the toga was the equivalent of a formal tailored suit.

    Though considering what the Governor of New York has been up to lately...

    And he is saying that they'll cancel the fund.

    Bah. More short-termism. Hole. Spade. Dig deeper. Meet subterranean shark. Jump. (Metaphor. Mix.)

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

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