![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 69 to 93 of 93. Go back in thread:
Posted by sigismund on October 23, 2018, at 7:30:44
In reply to Re: Anthony Bourdain » beckett2, posted by sigismund on October 23, 2018, at 7:06:44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaaIKf1YSLA
The album was called HQ in the UK and 'When an old cricketer leaves the crease' in the USA.
Posted by sigismund on October 23, 2018, at 7:49:29
In reply to Re: Anthony Bourdain » sigismund, posted by sigismund on October 23, 2018, at 7:30:44
Never more true than now.
I feel like I am covered in filth and I bet I'm not the only one.
Posted by beckett2 on October 23, 2018, at 17:12:04
In reply to Re: Anthony Bourdain, posted by alexandra_k on October 21, 2018, at 2:29:19
In our area, the coast below SF, even in our area, within say 30 miles, there were numerous tribes called the Ohlone people.
I understand being foreign in your country. In Hawaii, me and my family will always be haole. Foreigners. From wiki:
The 1865 Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language, compiled by Lorrin Andrews, shows the pronunciation as ha-o-le. A popular belief is that the word is properly written and pronounced as haole, literally meaning "no breath," because foreigners did not know or use the honi (hongi in Maori), a Polynesian greeting by touching nose to nose and inhaling or essentially sharing each other's breaths, and so the foreigners were described as breathless. The implication is not only that foreigners are aloof and ignorant of local ways, but also literally have no spirit or life within.
> Different Maaori tribes are different...
>
> There's some awful Maaori in Auckland (my personal experience of them was that they were awful to me).
>
> There was a real focus in Auckland on Maaori-dom. On this idea of people being on a hierarchy and equality for Maaori or equity for Maaori was when they had comperable positions on the hierarchy as white people.
>
> The idea of the Treaty as being an international thing. So there is no nation of New Zealand. Maaori soverignty. They didn't ask settlers to settle here and we should go away.
>
> Or spend all our time sitting still on the Marae keeping our mouths shut listening to the Maaori elders rant at us in Maaori because...
>
> Well...
>
> In reparation of how he was supposed to sit still and shut up in the classroom when he was a kid, I suppose.
>
> I don't know.
>
> By Maori for Maori. They are clear. I'm not Maori. So...
>
> Where does that leave me?
>
> Sh*t out of luck.
>
> So... It's hard not to be racist in Auckland. Becuase the Auckland Maori I experienced were racist towards me because I'm not Maori. So all I'm allowed to do is parrot back to them exactly what they've said to me. Unthinkingly and without understanding. And... For me to get out / get away because I am not wanted there.
>
> They couldn't be any clearer.
>
> The Waikato Maori weren't like that... From memory. And they didn't much like the Auckland Maori, either. Something something about selling out their own people and...
>
> But I haven't even seen a Marae down here...
>
> I read something about how peoples used to be more diverse...
>
> Like how fruits and vegetables and so on... There used to be far more people and they were more distict from one another...
>
> Anyway...
>
>
Posted by beckett2 on October 23, 2018, at 17:37:14
In reply to Re: Anthony Bourdain » beckett2, posted by sigismund on October 22, 2018, at 6:10:09
> >Ok, I don't know Australian politics, and I was alarmed (and startled) that Morrison grabbed onto Trump.
>
> We remain, by the skin of our teeth, a centre-left rather than a centre-right country, despite the best efforts of Murdoch and the shock jocks. The swing in Wentworth, Turnbull's old seat, was 20%, mainly over climate inaction, and won by a centrist independent. The Liberal candidate supported moving the embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The proportion of Jews in Wentworth is very high, but I doubt this is a first order issue for them.
>
> I see President Bone-spurs has become President Bone-saw. Here is the wrap up on the election by FDOTM
>
> https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/22/wentworth-and-the-charred-remains-of-the-morrison-governments-hopes-and-dreamsI adore FDOTM, but the subtleties of AU politics are still beyond me, although I am learning. OK, so would this lead to a vote of no confidence in Morrison? No, I must have that wrong. But there is a national election next May?
Another question. I was taught AU stood for Australia. Recently, it's used for the African Union. I'm confused.
Posted by beckett2 on October 23, 2018, at 19:50:50
In reply to Re: post coffee » alexandra_k, posted by sigismund on October 23, 2018, at 4:21:34
> My skin doctor used to work in NZ and told me the skin cancer rates there were even higher than Aus. It is actually nice there to be out in the sun when t is cool. I had thought the hole in the ozone layer was if not fixed then getting better. Maybe not so? No solution to protect your northern British skin?
>
> My line on the Nazis was considerably influenced by Christopher Clark'e "The Sleepwalkers", after which I concluded that Hitler's world outlook of dog eat dog was an understandable reaction to a lethal situation existing in (shall we say) cockpit Europe where everyone wanted revenge for something in the past, except perhaps for the British. That doesn't explain the Jews, but it does explain the French and Russian desire to destroy Germany. (Then the Kaiser was an idiot.)
>
> HG Wells was asked sometime before WW! 'What do you think will happen to the BROWN races' and he replied 'I assume they will just have to go.' That's a lot of people to get rid of. Was WWI an example of the return of the repressed? Of course the wrong people died. But one wonders what would have happened to the rest of the world without it. The Germans hadn't had much time to get going. There was a small genocide in Namibia? (Goering's father) The Belgians excelled themselves. Half the population in 30 years? (Plucky little Belgium.) The British built railroads and institutions in India. Did they reduce it to beggary? (as that recent book argued). Not to speak of the settler societies. (Cowboys and Indians, Doris Day, The Black Hills of Dakota, clear inspiration for Hitler). If this is the nature of the world, and we wish to accept that, maybe the choice of victim is less important than acting out this perversion of Nietzche.
>
> With Eichmann there are 2 accounts: That from the trial in Jerusalem and the other from a recorded conversation with a young dutch Nazi. Any Nazi worth his salt was not meant to stand around waiting for orders. (This brings to mind Christopher Browning on Trump.) The simple act of giving the police old military hardware (Obama) brought the overseas wars home to the USA. Tanks in Ferguson?
>
> At this point in my rumination I shake my head and feel disappointed. And it doesn't look good down the road.>The simple act of giving the police old military hardware (Obama) brought the overseas wars home to the USA. Tanks in Ferguson?
If they have it, chances are, just like a good dramatist knows when placing a rifle in the frame, it will eventually be used.
Last week I learned there was a potential military plan to use nuclear bombs in Vietnam.
Posted by beckett2 on October 23, 2018, at 20:14:49
In reply to Re: Anthony Bourdain » beckett2, posted by sigismund on October 23, 2018, at 7:06:44
> That is odd. I actually read Cold Mountain 20 years ago and remember nothing. I do remember Roy Harper, one of the smartest kids on the block, who, like Lou Reed, was given ECT against his will for something or other. I thought he had the freshest perspective on this world ever. He strikes me as actually a real conservative, which is to say, cricket, ale, leave me alone, where's that joint, this place makes me feel like throwing up. Flat Baroque and Bezerk (sp?) is very good, as is HQ. Here are the words of The Game......
>
> There's an owl in the valley fixing his prey
> He's not counting the tally
> It's down to what comes up before the day
> And the trees in the orchard were taken from a narrow view of time
> Where the minds of the tortured perpetuated patron saints of crime
> Oh civilisation
>
> I can fit into your puzzle but it's hardly, hardly ever a hold
> And I'll tell you, yeah yeah, tell you the trouble
> The habits I've got are more than 10.000 years old
> And we cannot sell our souls to learning morals
> Big brother is no place for us to slide
> We cannot live by numbers or on laurels
> And hardly on how far from death we hide
>
> And it's not a case of rampant paranoia
> But just an age I'd love to see unborn
> Not that I'd be missing playing Goya
> More like I feel awkward passing on
> Civilisation, civilisation down to my children
> Without a question
>
> While the prophets of freedom, battery farming brains for narrow minds
> Have decided, yes they decided that meaning is far beyond the lives they left behind
> As two thirds of the population dine
> On scraps in shadow lengthening with time
> While propaganda spreads the same old theme
> You is me and we can change the game, b*llsh*t
>
>
> Oh but how many times have we written these lines
> And delivered these signs and not made it happen
> Walking the tightrope of taking our head off
> Losing the rhythm, idealising and all criticising
> And not realising that we've changed and left and we've gone
>
> And sad to be leaving the things we believe in but time has a way and we fly
> The next age is born and the old hands are gone and done in the wink of an eye
> No point in passing bad reason good guessing, no time for massing much more than can flourish with love
>
> And right now, my darling, I'm lying here dreaming of feeling, no daylight between us
> So wherever you are and whenever I'm there is someplace we've got to be ours
> Can we right-heartedly stand in this light and see what might turn out to be crazy enough, enough to be we ?
>
> When we've had a past sad enough to last for sometime into the future
> These storms have torn and true love is alone and the past is almost a failure
> Consciences burn in the programme turn, computing the social behaviour
> But yoke revolts, the foundation bolts and cries for yet another saviour
>
> And I'd pack my things on a pair of wings and tomorrow I'd be parting
> With the summer birds and the winter herds for a place to face a new heart in
> But it makes no difference, where I am I'm in the game first hand
> There are no certain answers and no time to understand
> The rules are set to paradox, coercion and blind faith
> The goal's a changing paradise, a moment out of date
> The dream is righteous grandeur fit to flood the universe
> The fact is more than meets the eye but less than runs the earth, running the earth
>
>
> And the prisoner of the present paces up and down inside his cell
> He's the living replacement, somersaulting from this psychic well
> Screaming : 'I'm the sponsor of a hell'
> Voices like the sea inside a shell
> Telling me I cannot stake a claim
> Possession is a clue but not the game
> So please leave this world as clean as when you came
>
> So please leave this world as clean as when you came
> Please leave this world as clean as when you came
> Please leave this world as clean as when you came
> Please leave this world as clean as when you cameThis brings to mind the bitterness I've spoken of because I feel no matter how carefully I clean my feet, I'm tracking some sh*t into the house. I've used bitterness as a way to staunch the sadness and despair.
After Kavanaugh I was able to go into my studio for the first time really since the election. Where there is no joy, there is no courage. Something like that. Where did I read that?
The world is complicated. I find myself thinking, so glad my father isn't alive to see this.
Posted by sigismund on October 24, 2018, at 7:49:45
In reply to Re: post coffee » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on October 23, 2018, at 19:50:50
>Last week I learned there was a potential military plan to use nuclear bombs in Vietnam.
That rings a bell. They were (oh no, I'm thinking of north Korea, there they were going to bomb the dykes or dams). Just to give you a sense of proportion McCarthur or was it Curtis LeMay suggested laying down a cordon of say 25 nuclear strikes across the peninsular to prevent entry by and Chinese.
You can now calm down and enjoy whatever it is you manage to enjoy at this hour. I'm having coffee myself and then will move on to a big mouthful of coca.
I was being born during the Korean war. They say there were only 3 buildings standing in the north, everyone sensibly living underground. Do you have The Bachelor in the US? My daughter loves to watch it with me and then have conversations (of an obscure design) on the subject of who is the most authentic. The latest was 'Has the honey badger broken Australia's heart?'
Well!
Posted by sigismund on October 24, 2018, at 9:47:42
In reply to Re: Anthony Bourdain » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on October 23, 2018, at 17:37:14
FDOTM is on many levels. There is some in it I am ignorant of, there is more that slowly dawns on me, and something more interesting for which you might have to be Australian: He gets under my skin and sometimes I laugh for hours on and off. He is deeply informed about local and world politics...well, that is how he does his job so well. You have heard about the little island in Hawaii that disappeared in the huracain (I can't remember the rules of Spanish spelling and English spelling at the same time). You remember the picture of Jacinda rubbing noses with that little Maori boy? Wasn't that lovely! That what leaders are for...to set a moral example. How old fashioned of me!
Here is his latest
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/24/coal-it-will-not-die-omg
Posted by sigismund on October 24, 2018, at 9:50:28
In reply to coal and god, posted by sigismund on October 24, 2018, at 9:47:42
They know they are going to lose in a landslide and maybe soon.
This may be their way of poisoning the well.
Posted by sigismund on October 24, 2018, at 9:55:12
In reply to Re: coal and god » sigismund, posted by sigismund on October 24, 2018, at 9:50:28
This makes me glad I had a Christian education, was a believing Christian and have always taken an interest in just about all religions.
They do not fool me.
Posted by sigismund on October 24, 2018, at 10:06:38
In reply to coal and god, posted by sigismund on October 24, 2018, at 9:47:42
I like to read the comments below the cartoon. This seemed right.....
"Coal will not die because politicians on the take have a death wish for the rest of us. As CC deniers would say, show me the evidence if I am wrong."
An Aryan Death Cult. The shithole countries can go down first and at least that will be fun to watch.
Posted by alexandra_k on October 24, 2018, at 20:47:43
In reply to Re: coal and god, posted by sigismund on October 24, 2018, at 10:06:38
rubbing noses with a cute little boy is one thing...
taking a deep inhale of the exhale of an elder (with no access to dental) while maintaining a stoic face is something different entirely.
i thought that melanin skin pigmentation was supposed to help protect against ultra violet rays... but then how come rates of skin cancer are higher in Maaori and Pacific than non-Maaori and Pacific?
i have been wondering how much the skin cancer problem isn't so much due to a hole in the ozone layer. i don't mean to say i've become a climate change denier. i do mean to say that i've got to wondering about nuclear fallout from all those nuclear tests that were done in the south pacific. i got to wondering how much they are doing radiation experimentation, still, on the oceanic peoples.
which makes our data of value.
which makes australian satellites a priority.
which makes us defense defensive.
Posted by sigismund on October 25, 2018, at 7:53:10
In reply to Re: coal and god, posted by alexandra_k on October 24, 2018, at 20:47:43
Well, Alex, things have been such that one little thing is enough for me. In an age where the US provides the airforce for Al Queda in the brave fight against terror, a little simple kindness goes a long way. I can't imagine Scottie doing it. You have had some reasonable women PMs too.
>i got to wondering how much they are doing radiation experimentation, still, on the oceanic peoples.
You are not talking about the Pacific atmospheric nuclear testing of the 50 and 60s then?
Posted by alexandra_k on October 26, 2018, at 19:02:00
In reply to Re: coal and god » alexandra_k, posted by sigismund on October 25, 2018, at 7:53:10
> Well, Alex, things have been such that one little thing is enough for me.
Yeah. I do see what you mean. I also see that she has likely been cooked up by some foreign con-munications department so that we can all feel better.
Things have been getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse for a greater and greater and greater proportion of New Zealanders.
Our suicide rates are amongst the highest in the world and our death by traffic are also atrocious (often in what is likely a particular form of suicide).
Our economy is apparently 'the best place in the world in which to do business'. Not just because of the lack of laws to protect our workers but becuase of the presence of laws that actively favor businesses and business interests above all else.
Our environmental laws are behind other developed nations (we would likely need to tidy up our production process in ways which would result in significant losses for business if we wanted a free trade deal -- because at the moment it's looking like our government is directly subsiding these heavy polluting industries and heavy polluting means of production).
Our copyright laws only grant an artist copyright over their products for 50 years. In this day and age (in the developed world) that is not the lifetime of the artist. We will not extend copyright protection for 70 years. We do not want our artists to live longer we do not care about the value of their product (paying them a living wage would be an opportunity cost for big business).
I do not know anyone in New Zealand who owns only 1 house. Either they own no houses at all or they own at least 2. Things have been going better than swimmingly for a small minority of people in New ZEaland. Ones willing to do whatever it takes to serve the business monopolies that we have.
We only seem to have the illusion of diversity. There is only 1 main grid for power supply. THen there are a different range of middle managers who take their cut, to be sure.
You can spend your time trying to figure which of those it is best to go with. If it's fun for you.
Just don't pay attention to the where the money actually goes. Who is actually getting rich off of slum landlordism at the end of the day.
Who is getting rich off of all those people living in cold and humid mouldy sewerage infested hovels.
But she's cute for the camera, sure. I mean... She's so sociall skilled! Doesn't she just make you feel better about life and this quaint little clean green slice of paradise!
We don't know how lucky we are!
In an age where the US provides the airforce for Al Queda in the brave fight against terror, a little simple kindness goes a long way. I can't imagine Scottie doing it. You have had some reasonable women PMs too.
>
> >i got to wondering how much they are doing radiation experimentation, still, on the oceanic peoples.
>
> You are not talking about the Pacific atmospheric nuclear testing of the 50 and 60s then?
Posted by alexandra_k on October 26, 2018, at 19:03:14
In reply to Re: coal and god, posted by alexandra_k on October 26, 2018, at 19:02:00
I was thinking about those tests, yeah.
I suppose there have been others.
I suspect Christchurch was likely a bombing.
I suspect most of the 'natural disaster' is man-induced, these days.
Something, something, about insurance companies redistributing the riches.
Stimulating the economy during the rebuild.
Posted by sigismund on October 27, 2018, at 5:38:58
In reply to Re: coal and god, posted by alexandra_k on October 26, 2018, at 19:02:00
>Our suicide rates are amongst the highest in the world and our death by traffic are also atrocious (often in what is likely a particular form of suicide).
Yes, I read that somewhere. Wellington traffic was described as 'krypton factor on acid' in the Lonely Planet, so we decided not to drive.It was a puzzle to me why Wellington houses were so bad. I was comparing them for no good reason to Tasmania, just because it's nice and cool, although in Wellington's case wet and mouldy as well. So all this attention needs to be paid to light, which is what I spend my time avoiding where I live. Many of the wooden buildings have problems with wood rot, something I had never heard of. Tasmania has all these lovely stone buildings, many from the military occupation. Maybe they would have fallen apart in Wellington earthquakes? Maybe not enough extractive wealth? Too much meth? It's a ridiculous drug anyway. I don't know what happened to old fashioned biker speed.
I'd like to drive up that cold section between Wellington and Lake Taupo in winter. There must be somewhere to stay around there. I didn't mind Napier, the art deco place levelled by an earthquake?
Ever been to Tasmania?
Posted by alexandra_k on October 29, 2018, at 5:40:02
In reply to Re: coal and god, posted by sigismund on October 27, 2018, at 5:38:58
> Yes, I read that somewhere. Wellington traffic was described as 'krypton factor on acid' in the Lonely Planet, so we decided not to drive.
Hmm. I didn't know that. I have been to Tasmania, for conference. We took 1/2 a day to take a look around and drove literally around and around and around the one way street system. Everything was then closed, because it was Sunday afternoon, and that's the religous day, or something. It was very bizarre and people thought we had two heads (each) for expecting things to be open.
> It was a puzzle to me why Wellington houses were so bad.
Yep.
> I was comparing them for no good reason to Tasmania...
Which seems reasonable.
> So all this attention needs to be paid to light, which is what I spend my time avoiding where I live.
Yes. In Wellington there seems to be something magical about the ultraviolet radiation rays killing the slimy mould bugs. Or similar. Not just Wellington. If you are on the dark side of a hill or in a little bit of a valley water will pool / hang around in your house... It feels like it gets into your bones... There is a very odd cold... I think (I think, I think) I have learned it is an evil combination of high humidity together with cold so you heat and you heat and you heat and you heat and you heat and you heat and you heat your wooden house and it never gets properly dry and the mould (or whatever it is) simply will not die. But direct rays of sunlight... Yeah... And a particular house can have uninhabitable rooms... Or a whole house can be uninhabitable... Or whatever... And it all depends (rather a lot) on how many hours of direct sunlight the house gets each day. Because the frames are treated timber but the treatment doesn't appear to prevent the growth of mould and it grows in the walls...
But the new builds aren't much better...
Which might be something to do with why we are trying to subsidise a smelter? I don't know...
> Many of the wooden buildings have problems with wood rot, something I had never heard of.
Yeah.
> Tasmania has all these lovely stone buildings, many from the military occupation. Maybe they would have fallen apart in Wellington earthquakes? Maybe not enough extractive wealth?
I don't know. Maybe both. There are stone buildings in Dunedin built around goldrush times, though, so that was it. I think the stone buildings (churches, mostly) were damaged in the Christchurch earthquake... Damaged... But still standing... And of course whoever does the cost estimates think they can get something newer built for cheaper than a proper repair job... So pressure on people to abandon the churches was last I heard (but I haven't heard anything in a while).
In Dunedin the building architechture is odd. There is a really nice clocktower building with ornamental stone stuff. Then you can see slightly newer buildings. Then slightly newer buildings. Then slightly newer buildings. Newer is uglier. The stone quality is poorer. The workmanship is poorer. Looks like it's been downhill since fairly much the start of things, here...
I think now Otago Stone is mostly exported. There is a quarry... There's a lot of stone laying about the landscape if you drive for a bit, too... But I don't know anything about stone. Expensive to ship, I bet.
> Too much meth? It's a ridiculous drug anyway. I don't know what happened to old fashioned biker speed.
It is, isn't it. I was raised on good old fashioned speed, too. Haha. No. I tried speed a few times. Meth only a couple. Not enough to have a preference or to have particular feelings about one being better or worse than the other... Just something something about the skinheads and the shipments so time to switch since nobody wants to have anything to do with those guys (stabby in the back types rather than having any kind of sense of honour or fairplay). At least... That's what the boys told me, and I'm sure they knew...
> I'd like to drive up that cold section between Wellington and Lake Taupo in winter. There must be somewhere to stay around there. I didn't mind Napier, the art deco place levelled by an earthquake?I liked Napier, too. Very pretty / cute little town. Wealthy region, apparently. Vineyards and cheese and Rushman Rose icecream... Lots of pretty blocks doing things like that. I had a friend who was tied up with Maaori land in those parts. Spent some time with her family and saw the beach land... Forestry... Pretty trees...
I was hoping to take a bike trip... But I think trawling the length of this country might be a bit ambitious for my first multi-day trip... Especially since I'll need to cart all luggage on my back-pack. Ideally... I'd road trip with people who could drive my gears for me... If I end up back in Auckland I think it's more likely I'll road trip my way down the country. I would like to get out to Queenstown / Arrowtown while I am down here... But I don't know that I will, honestly. Once I've paid off my power bill... We'll see...
Posted by alexandra_k on October 29, 2018, at 5:43:10
In reply to Re: coal and god, posted by sigismund on October 27, 2018, at 5:38:58
New Zealand does have a lot of little nice towns like that, from memory.
I was born in Cambridge (New Zealand, not England).
There are hydro dams / lakes. And riding horses. Not just racehorses (but also racehorses). Mark Todd (Eventing) was from Cambridge. I patted his horse... Charisma. That's the one. When it was all old and retired they would drive it around all the pony club shows and the like. Lots of good horses are bred / raised there.
I don't know what it's like now... There used to be lots of old people arts and crafts stuffs going on, too.
Posted by alexandra_k on October 29, 2018, at 5:45:21
In reply to Re: coal and god » sigismund, posted by alexandra_k on October 29, 2018, at 5:40:02
The highlight of Tasmania, for me, was getting this bag of assorted seafood from a boat-shop. There were lots of different ones and we just picked one out. Basically fish and chips or mussles, squid rings, all kinds of things...
Someone told me I had to do that, even though I did not think I was a fan of seafood. And I did. And it was wonderful. Really fresh and delicious. It's only been since then that I like marinated mussles, sometimes.
Same friend, actually.
Posted by alexandra_k on October 29, 2018, at 5:48:26
In reply to Re: coal and god » sigismund, posted by alexandra_k on October 29, 2018, at 5:40:02
It's probably that there simply aren't any stonemasons left.
Did you ever read... Follet... I don't remember... It was this novel about building a Cathedral.
The building parts of it were really interesting.
We can't build a non-leaky building, anymore. Too much money to be made in a constant stream of repairs...
Posted by alexandra_k on October 29, 2018, at 5:54:29
In reply to Re: coal and god, posted by sigismund on October 27, 2018, at 5:38:58
veneering a house in stone!!
there we go...
education.
mmm hmmm.
Posted by alexandra_k on October 29, 2018, at 5:56:53
In reply to Re: coal and god, posted by alexandra_k on October 29, 2018, at 5:54:29
and it's only $22,170 (NZD) in international student fees for one year of the two year course (not including living costs). University undergraduate is level 7 - but this is a level 4 course...
sigh.
no wonder we can't build a hospital. ffs.
Posted by alexandra_k on October 29, 2018, at 6:25:30
In reply to Re: coal and god, posted by sigismund on October 27, 2018, at 5:38:58
to be fair, the university recently had a lot of paving done. really good paaving, actually. it looks slightly shiny so you expect it to be slippery on a cold winter morning, but it surprisingly isn't as slippery as it looks.
this is to be contrasted with some of the features strips that have been laid in other areas, over the years, that are more slippery than they look, and that claim many an injury for acc, each year.
it is hard to underestimate the quality of life improvement that provides to a person in a wheelchair. most especially to people who are more permanently in wheelchairs (not the temporarily injured who typically have the motorised SUV types of mobility aids). for people who have cheaper chairs (heavier, less agile, easier to tip) having a smooth paving surface is just wonderful. they must have cost quite a bit to lay.
the work took a while. and you could tell that the people doing the work had pride in the work they were doing. that was nice to see. that isn't something that you see much of, anymore. craftmanship.
and the work looked quite hard. the stone is quite hard, i guess. and heavy. large blocks of it not just scrapings / scraps / chips embedded in something spreadable. saws and the like. could feel the vibrations... i don't know how people do that kind of work without going insane. jackhammer too, for construction. i don't know how people do that. i had a friend who was doing personal training at tech and he was previously a welder. he said he couldn't bear it anymore - the long hours of heavy hot gear and the facemask and the sparks flying he thought he was going insane. he was a really naturally friendly guy. the sort of person who likes to be with others, i mean, not a solitary guy, particularly. he said the quiet in his head was just too much...
i don't suppose you go to new zealand if you want to learn how to be a stone mason. i suppose you go someplace in Europe or someplace that has nice buildings they do care about maintaining, at least.
i wonder who built the buildings in Tasmania and New Zealand. I wonder if they were the same people, or what...
Posted by beckett2 on October 29, 2018, at 15:11:17
In reply to Re: coal and god, posted by alexandra_k on October 29, 2018, at 5:54:29
I knew some masons. Hard work! Have to be excellent too or it goes kaput. What amazes me are the fences that last centuries w/o mortar. Not here in California, but places on the east coast like Vermont. I was told the stones were pulled out of the fields so they could be tilled.
Posted by alexandra_k on October 31, 2018, at 18:43:31
In reply to Re: coal and god » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on October 29, 2018, at 15:11:17
> I knew some masons. Hard work! Have to be excellent too or it goes kaput. What amazes me are the fences that last centuries w/o mortar. Not here in California, but places on the east coast like Vermont. I was told the stones were pulled out of the fields so they could be tilled.
Yeah, very skilled work.
I didn't realise that most of the stone buildings in these parts actually are veneers (of reasonably sized slabs, in some cases) with a rubble core. That's how come much of Christchurch crumbled / turned to rubble in the earthquake. Once the outer stone shell cracks open the inner part sort of collapses / spills out. I found some engineering pictures.
I also found some site where apprentices in the UK were able to spend some time helping maintain some of the old church buildings (that nobody was really paying for the upkeep of). There was something about how you don't drill into those old stone buildinngs (becuase they are built from stone blocks, I guess) whereas the ones we have in these parts can be drilled into and some sort of concrete or mortar or whatever can be injected into the rubble core to help strengthen the building to help it become earthquake proof.
Yeah... Before cranes and the like stuff would need to have been hauled around.
It is phenomenal how ancient civilisations managed to organise people to construct pyramids and the like...
We can't even build a non-leaky house in these parts, nowdays.
'Progress'...
Mmm hmmm.
This is the end of the thread.
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