Monday, 22 March 2004

• Lake Alta

  

  Taken Friday, 12 March 2004

  
  
  An alpine lake high in the Remarkables. The peak behind the lake is Double Cone, the summit of the range.
  Posted by Matthew at 11:54:04 PM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Places | Back to top

• Russell Brown vs. weblogs

  I have wondered more than once if Russell Brown of the Listener Computers column and Russell Brown of Hard News weblog fame are actually two different people. This week's print column talks about how maybe Google isn't as good as it once was. Anecdotal evidence suggests apparently that some guy performed some search somewhere on some other engine, and it worked better. Give me a break. This horse has passed on long ago. When something amazing comes along, let us know but don't try to feed us Alta "we didn't have any new ideas so we tried a site redesign instead" Vista again. Brown even uses the tired line, "But now, with weblogs cluttering up results. . . ." There are so many things wrong with this that I've had to make a numbered list:

  1. Russell Brown (or his namesake) has one of these cluttery weblogs, and it's a good one I might add. To me, this makes his argument less than convincing.
  2. I generally find weblogs help with results. They tend to gather together information about something I'm wondering (such as for example "What's really happening in Iraq at the moment?") and helpfully provide links for further info.
  3. Exactly what is this pure content that weblogs are cluttering up? Is it commercial? The Coca Cola website? Here you can read about their recent bottled water recall but you won't find out that the water in question is actually purified tap water. Perhaps it's old media: the Listener website where there are an array of tempting looking articles, most of which can't be read online. Perhaps it's anything produced by media insiders like Russell or Chris Knox, or other duly authorised faucets of culture. Perhaps it's academic — but when was the last time you read something interesting on a university website? Perhaps it's local government sites like that one I was looking at yesterday for the city of St George that mentions nothing about the city's legacy of cancer due to federal nuclear weapons testing programmes.

  One of the oldest and most boring chestnuts of the web has been the hysteria from traditional media over the unwashed masses suddenly being able to produce content. The sky has been falling for years now. When in fact this very unauthorised content is often some of the best around. Let's move on.

  Posted by Matthew at 11:47:57 PM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Internet / Computers | Back to top

• Every year there are more of them

  Daylight savings just ended here, and it's easy to spend that entire gained hour just resetting clocks embedded in a bunch of devices that really have no business knowing what the time is. Unfortunately the controls are not obvious for setting the clock in Mitty's belly. Consequently, breakfast was at 6:30 this morning.

  Posted by Matthew at 6:32:44 PM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Back to top

• Mount Aspiring

  

  Taken Monday, 8 March 2004

  
  
  From the road near Glendhu Bay, Lake Wanaka.
  Posted by Matthew at 8:35:07 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Places | Back to top

• Diamond Lake, Wanaka

  

  Taken Sunday, 7 March 2004

  
  
  The track behind the lake climbs the hummocky leeward landscape of a roche moutonnée. From here, there are excellent views of Lake Wanaka and the glacial landscape.
  Posted by Matthew at 8:30:57 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Places | Back to top

• Matukituki River Mouth

  

  Taken Sunday, 7 March 2004

  
  
  The Matukituki drains into Lake Wanaka. It is gradually filling the glacial lake with alluvium washed down from around Mount Aspiring. This view is from the Diamond Lake Track.
  Posted by Matthew at 8:30:56 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Places | Back to top

• Glendhu Bay

  

  Taken Sunday, 7 March 2004

  
  
  On the shore of Lake Wanaka.
  Posted by Matthew at 8:27:46 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Places | Back to top

• Karearea

  

  Taken Sunday, 7 March 2004

  
  
  Glendhu Bay, Lake Wanaka.
  Posted by Matthew at 8:26:01 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Nature | Back to top

• Karearea

  

  Taken Sunday, 7 March 2004

  
  
  Pair of New Zealand falcon at the Glendhu Bay Camping Ground, Lake Wanaka.
  Posted by Matthew at 8:24:29 AM | Permanent link | Comments (1) | Email Matthew | Nature | Back to top

• Lindis Pass

  

  Taken Saturday, 6 March 2004

  
  
  Posted by Matthew at 8:20:53 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Places | Back to top

• Tussock, Lindis Pass

  

  Taken Saturday, 6 March 2004

  
  
  Posted by Matthew at 8:18:37 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Back to top

• Pukaki Boulder

  

  Taken Saturday, 6 March 2004

  
  
  An enormous erratic boulder abandoned by the glacier that formed Lake Pukaki. This boulder on the Mount Cook Road is around 6m high and must weigh something like 500 tonnes.
  Posted by Matthew at 8:16:52 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Places | Back to top

• Howard Hughes' movie of death

  OK so I'm reading Generation X (ten years too late of course but never mind that) and there's a reference to a movie that killed over half the cast and crew. Turns out (and you may know this already but I didn't) that stat is slightly exaggerated. At least 91 of the 220 cast and crew of The Conqueror contracted cancer subsequent to filming. The director, Dick Powell, and the stars, John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendáriz, and Agnes Moorehead, were included in the victims.

  It seems that the Snow Canyon, Utah area where the movie was filmed had been acting as a natural reservoir for fallout from military nuclear tests at Yucca Flats, upwind. The nearby residents of the town of St George seem to have suffered also with very high cancer rates, although there is no mention on the city's website (apparently that area has a lovely climate and lots of scenic beauty, oh and some top notch cancer facilities). All I could find was this.

  This was the last movie Howard Hughes ever made before he went nuts.

  Posted by Matthew at 8:03:54 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Movies | Back to top