Greenflame

Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand

Category: General

  • Lancet report on mortality in Iraq

    The Guardian has the summary of a new report from The Lancet citing 100,000 civilian casualities in Iraq. Possibly more if Falluja is included (the radio today suggested up to 200,000). Violent death is now the biggest cause of death in Iraq. See Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | 100,000 Iraqi civilians dead, says study…

  • Busy weekend

    Very busy weekend for all of us. Multiple birthday parties for friends, a farewell dinner, a triva competition plus all the normal weekend stuff. Friday night Kim and I attended a farewell dinner for Chris Marshall at BCNZ. After 19 years of teaching NT studies at BCNZ Chris is heading off to Victoria University in…

  • Big Weather

    Was in UBS the other day at Uni and while trawling through the poetry section came across Big Weather – Poems of Wellington edited by Gregory O’Brien & Louise White. Thoroughly enjoying it. I especially liked James Brown’s “Disempower Structures in the New World” (a poem about supermarkets (New World is an NZ chain) and…

  • Coach vs. Coach

    Last rugby post for a while – I promise. New Zealand Sports News – super12 – Coach vs Coach Daniel Carter and Andrew Mehrtens rejected offers to be the Hurricanes’ first five-eighths in next year’s Super 12. In NZ we’ve often complained about European union or league clubs not releasing players for national teams and…

  • See the announcement here: Consistency

    See the announcement here: Consistency Of Selection In Hurricanes Squad. The 2005 Hurricanes squad announced today contains only four changes to the 2004 squad. With the bulk of the 2004 squad performing well for the Vodafone Wellington Lions and Genesis Taranaki in the recent Air New Zealand NPC, coaches Colin Cooper and Murray Roulston have…

  • More on the Bush site

    Netcraft: Campaign cites “security reasons” for blocking access to Bush site follows up on the earlier posting. A campaign spokesman acknowledged that the official site of the Bush-Cheney campaign has been rejecting requests from outside North America since Monday morning. “The measure was taken for security reasons,” campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel told news services, but…

  • Bush Campaign Web Site Rejects Non-US Visitors

    Saw this on Netcraft: Bush Campaign Web Site Rejects Non-US Visitors. The author makes the excellent point that people outside the US who are eligible to vote via absentee ballot won’t be able to access the site, should they wish to do so. Apparently you can in Canada but that seems to be an exception.…

  • Whatever next – apple trees you can plant in your garden?

    Maybe the next step is a cucumber, tomato and lettuce GM-hybrid that allows you to grow a whole salad on the kitchen window ledge. The house and garden movement was given a fillip yesterday by the first supermarket lettuce designed to be matured and harvested on a kitchen windowsill. See: Pick-a-leaf lettuce hits the window…

  • Normal service resumed

    Ahh, the cool, refreshing green is back. Even though I’m a fan of gold-and-black verdant hues do something for the soul. (If you’re still seeing the red-and-black scheme try freshing your browser a few times.) Labour Day here today (long weekend) which coincides with our spring cleaning at home. So far the office has been…

  • It’s all gone red and black

    Canterbury cruise to a fine double after beating Wellington 40-27 at the Cake Tin tonight. Needless to say I’m not as happy as I might be. But Wellington didn’t play as well as Canterbury, especially in the forwards and set pieces, and the Cantabs deserved their win. Andrew Mehrten’s did have a great game (including…