I found this painting in someone's office - a good commentary on the advertising business - indeed any business involving ideas.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Robert Fisk on Lebanon and Civil War
(Source: The Guardian) Robert Fisk writes a sobering article on why Lebanon might be headed for civil war again.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Video: The Mission Concert
Click on the title above, or the link below for a short video clip taken at the Eric Clapton concert at The Mission. Produced by Shakey Hand Productions.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Eric Clapton concert
Some pics from the Eric Clapton concert at The Mission winery in Hawkes Bay - 25,000-strong crowd.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Know your left from your right ?
(Source: The Guardian) Hilarious extract from a book about growing up in a politically conscious household..... has some interesting points to consider..... here is a sample:In the early Seventies, my mother searched the supermarkets for politically reputable citrus fruit. She couldn't buy Seville oranges without indirectly subsidising General Francisco Franco, Spain's fascist dictator. Algarve oranges were no good either, because the slightly less gruesome but equally right-wing dictatorship of Antonio Salazar ruled Portugal. She boycotted the piles of Outspan from South Africa as a protest against apartheid, and although neither America nor Israel was a dictatorship, she wouldn't have Florida or Jaffa oranges in the house because she had no time for then President Richard Nixon or the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. My sisters and I did not know it, but when Franco fell ill in 1975, we were in a race to the death. Either he died of Parkinson's disease or we died of scurvy. Luckily for us and the peoples of Spain, the dictator went first, although he took an unconscionably long time about it.
Read on ! :) - with a cuppa or a glass of wine. (Click on the title link above.)
World is running out of water
(Source: The Guardian) The world is running out of water and needs a radical plan to tackle shortages that threaten the ability of humanity to feed itself, according to Jeffrey Sachs, director of the UN's Millennium Project.
Professor Sachs, who is credited with sparking pop star Bono's crusade for African development, told an environment conference in Delhi that the world simply had "no more rivers to take water from". The breadbaskets of India and China were facing severe water shortages and neither Asian giant could use the same strategies for increasing food production that has fed millions in the last few decades.
Ethanol fuel hit as price of oil drops but corn soars
(Source: NZ Herald) Interesting dilemma:
The economic viability of ethanol as an alternative to petrol has been thrown into question as the oil price fell below US$50 a barrel yesterday for the first time in nearly two years, while the price of corn - the main ingredient in the new fuel - surged to a new 10-year high.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Holiday: Places
Here is a variety of video clips profiling some of the interesting places we visited - click on the links BELOW:
Havelock North (Hawkes Bay) - the village where we stayed
Waimarama Beach (Hawkes Bay)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apA30RO20ls
Gisborne - where Capt James Cook landed as the first European in NZ
Gisborne - where Capt James Cook landed as the first European in NZ
Ohope (near Tauranga)
Karangahake Gorge (near Waihi)
Holiday: People
Here is a montage of some of the interesting people we came across - click on the title above or the link below for the short video clip.
Holiday: Shopping
No holiday is complete without some shopping - click on title above or the link below for the short video clip.
Holiday: Friends
Of course we caught up with some of our friends - here is the video clip (title above or link below).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqlUJnowqjs
Holiday: Wineries
Hawkes Bay is well-known for its stunning wines - some wine-tasting was mandatory :) Click on the title above or the link below for the short video clip.
Holiday: Architecture
Video clip: the Hawkes Bay region is known for its art deco architecture - this video is a sample - click on the title above, or on the link below:
Holiday: Landscapes
Here is a video clip of some of the stunning landscapes we visited in Hawkes Bay, Mahia, Gisborne, and the Bay of Plenty. (Click on the title above above or this link):
Friday, January 5, 2007
The Holiday
Hello, and welcome to my first posting in 2007. We have just returned from a very relaxing holiday during which we spent 10 days travelling around Hawkes Bay, Gisborne and the Bay of Plenty. For my overseas friends, these areas are all on the eastern side of the central North Island. We caught up with friends, and tasted wine from a number of the local wineries. We went to a few beaches, did some local shopping and coffees at the cafes, and thoroughly checked out the Hawkes Bay countryside and art deco architecture. The weather was pretty good, and on returning to Auckland we discovered that summer has finally arrived here as well. I will shortly be uploading some pics and video clips from our trip, so you can share our memories.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Peace on Earth
Video: Click on title above for link to our family Christmas greetings. Merry Christmas :)
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Beards are back
(Source: The Guardian) For years, beards were shorthand for sandal-wearing hippies of a certain age. But no more! It's time to throw away your razor, writes hairy-chinned Charlie Porter
Post Modernism is the new Black
(Source: The Economist) Fascinating article on how modern retail was influenced by the Post Modernists.
The Cult of Genghis Khan
(Source: The Economist) This article shows how Genghis Khan's exploits have been re-written to become more palatable from a marketing perspective, and the growng issues between Mongolia and China over land and economic dominance.
So many lucky men, restless in the midst of abundance
(Source: The Economist) A rambling, but interesting article on economics - "the dismal science" and happiness at work. Read this with a glass of wine in hand... :)
Monday, December 18, 2006
'Breakfast at Tiffany's' dress fetches £410,000
(Source: Radio NZ) A black dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film [[Breakfast at Tiffany's]] sold for £410,000 in London on Tuesday. With a premium paid to auctioneers Christie's included, the total cost for the sleeveless, floor-length Givenchy dress rose to £467,200. It was bought by an anonymous telephone bidder in a long and tense session.
Shot of New Zealand from Space Station
Image shows bottom on North Island and top of South Island - hey, Chris and Lisa - can almost see your place :) (Hanmer Springs - for those who don't know).
Subliminal Messages Drive the Mind to Distraction
(Source: Scientific American) What you don't "see" may distract you anyway.
TROUBLE FOCUSING? Could be subliminal messages playing with your mind. A new study shows that images people don't even realize they're seeing can break their concentration. A new study shows that subconscious signals interfere with concentration, causing people to become easily distracted and falter on even the simplest of tasks. When people concentrate, they focus on the task at hand and filter out information irrelevant to what they are doing. A new report, however, published in this week's Science, says that sometimes unrelated info slips through, even if it is not consciously processed.
TROUBLE FOCUSING? Could be subliminal messages playing with your mind. A new study shows that images people don't even realize they're seeing can break their concentration. A new study shows that subconscious signals interfere with concentration, causing people to become easily distracted and falter on even the simplest of tasks. When people concentrate, they focus on the task at hand and filter out information irrelevant to what they are doing. A new report, however, published in this week's Science, says that sometimes unrelated info slips through, even if it is not consciously processed.
Ebola virus epidemic killing gorillas
(Source: Scientific American)GORILLAS and many chimpanzees in the Republic of Congo have recently been targeted by the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus, which kills 80 percent of its victims. In parts of the Republic of Congo in equatorial Africa, nearly all the gorillas are gone. Since 2001 gorilla and chimpanzee remains have showed up near and in the Lossi Sanctuary, close to the Gabon border. Just what was killing these great apes was unclear. Now researchers finger the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus as the culprit.
Against the tide of chic climate change gloom
(Source: NZ Herald) Deborah Coddington's alternate view on global warming and the Stern Report.
Robert Fisk: Who's running Lebanon?
(Source: The Independent) Devastated by Israel's bombs, threatened by the looming might of Iran and Syria, and divided from within by its own ethnic bloodletting - Lebanon is an unfolding tragedy with little hope of salvation. As the nation rushes headlong towards civil war, Robert Fisk, who has lived in Beirut for 30 years, picks through the city's wreckage to identify the agitators, military leaders and politicians who now wield the real power.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Office Xmas Party Shot
The theme was Scouts and Guides Jamboree - our team was the Tartan Firestarters
- call me Che McGuevara :)
Video: Christmas in the Park
Couple of 100,000 people watched this show in the Domain Sat night. We perched at our mates' apartment close by to stay out of the rain and people-watch. Fireworks were fairly impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcMlox_3pRg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcMlox_3pRg
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Monsoon intensity increasing with Global Warming
(Source: Scientific American) The monsoon is the great life-giver and the great destroyer of the subcontinent. Without rain from these annual storms, crops wither, animals die and more than half the world's population suffers from potential famine. With too much rain, crops are inundated, animals drown and people suffer from floods and the diseases that follow in their wake. Observations of this critical climate system stretch back decades, and the overall level of rainfall has changed little over the years. But now researchers have discovered a trend within the annual measurements toward fewer, more extreme downpours--a trend that bodes ill for flooding and other natural disasters.
Ancient Meteorites from Outer Solar System May Have Provided Raw Materials for Life
(Source: Scientific American) Meteorites rich in carbon and water fall to Earth once or twice every few decades. But when a truck-size meteorite crashed on frozen Tagish Lake in western Canada in 2000, researchers received a specimen speckled with stardust that promised to offer clues about the chemistry of our early solar system.
Friday, December 1, 2006
Global Warming Could Disrupt GPS Satellites, Study Says
(Source: National Geographic) A buildup of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere could require changes in the way satellites are launched and might impact the function of global positioning systems (GPS), an international team of atmospheric scientists suggests. Networks of orbiting GPS satellites send signals back to Earth that allow everything from jetfighters to cell phones to pinpoint their exact locations.
Global Warming Already Causing Extinctions, Scientists Say
(Source: National Geographic) No matter where they look, scientists are finding that global warming is already killing species—and at a much faster rate than had originally been predicted.
"What surprises me most is that it has happened so soon," said biologist Camille Parmesan of the University of Texas, Austin, lead author of a new study of global warming's effects.Parmesan and most other scientists hadn't expected to see species extinctions from global warming until 2020.
"What surprises me most is that it has happened so soon," said biologist Camille Parmesan of the University of Texas, Austin, lead author of a new study of global warming's effects.Parmesan and most other scientists hadn't expected to see species extinctions from global warming until 2020.
"Alchemy" used to create great violins
(Source: National Geographic) A fascinating snippet on how tests have revealed how Antonio Stradivari made some of the great violins.
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