It's less muggy today. Windy and wet, maybe the high teens not the mid twenties.

Reinforced my view of Auckland:

- There is a sufficient critical mass of rich people here for them to have their own suburbs with shopping streets, bars and auberges, decorated with flash git cars and mortgaged to the hilt. Wellington has rich people, for sure, but they skulk for the most part. There are posh shops, like Kircaldie and Staines, but they nestle next to Tarocash and the like. If Wellingtonians have immense amounts of money, they still live like students and keep it damn quiet that they own a 25,000 hectare sheep station down south, or whatever.

- Every outing involves a drive. People's homes and chosen meeting spots are too scattered to make it walkable. I've become used to the idea that when I go out I can just stroll across town. (When you ask the bus website how to get someplace, it quite often just suggests a 3km walk. I'm surprised it just doesn't flash up "GET A CAR" and leave it at that).

- If a new face appears at a Wellington gathering, like Fidel's, people will enthusiastically chat to them. Doesn't happen here. Maybe it's because people in big cities have surfeit of interesting people in their lives and don't need any more. (Exception is at 3am in club smoking areas, when an adequate amount of er, "social tonics" have been consumed).

- There are a wider range of gigs on though. And bFM has way more competent broadcasters than Active.

Tags: auckland

I'm not taking any photos coz someone managed to lose my camera in LA :-(

If anyone wants an amusing movie, I can recommend Star Balls which is a hentai parody of Star Wars.

This is of interest to maybe two or three people on my flist.

( Techy stuff... )

Tags: extreme geek
Current Mood: pleased

Various people have been discussing medicine on Twitter, and I had some thoughts that don't fit into the 140 character, half-a-conversation format.

Let's say that I have a slight fever and a headache.

Firstly, if I do nothing, this will probably get better. Or it might be meningitis (unlikely), in which case I could die.

If I go to the doctor, they'll work along established principles:

They'll ask a bunch of questions to see if I have any thing that might indicate a specific and maybe serious illness, like meningitis. If not, then it's probably flu, another viral infection or a bacterial infection. For the first two, there isn't really a treatment, so they'll suggest some sort of symptomatic relief like Codral and send me home. To identify a bacterial infection, they'd need to do a bunch of tests (which might not come back before the illness is over). So if nagged, they might prescribe an antibiotic blind. Of course, that won't work unless it is a bacterial infection for which the antibiotic is effective, and it will have negative effects on both the specific patient and the broader community (antibiotic resistance).

The upshot of that is that I'll come away with no definite statement as to what I have wrong and nothing that'll cure it.

So thirdly, what happens if I go to an "alternative" therapist like a homeopath, or indeed an utterly unqualified pharamcy assistant.

They'll ask a few cursory questions and, unrestrained by science or ethics, immediately suggest a diagnosis - "you've got a run-down immune system" is a good one. They'll then "prescribe" a remedy, which might be a bottle of expensive distilled water₁, or a dose of vitamins large enough to give me rather expensive urine for a bit.

They will leave me, however, with a clear diagnosis and a proposed treatment. So (if I'm gullible enough) I'll be happy. Being happy might make me feel better, and at least I'm not taking unneccesary antibiotics.

So, for the typical patient, they get a better "result" from ineffective treatment than from best medical practice. Of course, part of the reason for this is that they have had a grossly inadequate education in science, and have been convinced by their friends that doctors are a bunch of malevolent incompetents.


1. Homeopathic remedies typically involve dilution of a substance 10^100 times. This pretty much ensures that if a single atom of the original substance persists, it got there by random chance.

Tags: science

Tags: cynicism

So I got the EHT transformer from Auckland. However it's got a grounded centre tap - which means it isn't really what's needed for the Tesla coil (which needs one side grounded).

I'm seeing if they'll take it back and I guess it'll be the US unit for plan B.

Or unground the centre tap (which is possible, but awkward). Might delay sparkiness for a week or so.

I do have all the acrylic cut out now.

Tags: tesla

My spark gap has arrived.



3 days (over the weekend) from New Hampshire to Wellington. USPS first class, USD14.95.

BTW, anyone know how to bend thin (1-2mm) Lexan? Steam and a former? Heat gun?

Tags: tesla
Current Music: OMD, Tesla Girls

Beppo works :-) I managed to take the lock barrel out and the nice man at the locksmiths cut me a key from code. Also, I found why the drivers window is on the wonk, and fixed it, sorta..

Also my Internet is on. The Chorus person called me at 10am to say he'd patched the exchange - it took me till tonight to retrieve my phone and router, then it worked first time. Using the login from my last place, interestingly.

Now if I can find out the following, inter alia:
- why outgoing Bluetooth packets are getting corrupted in the DDJ firmware?
- where I can get either a POL-1/4", a POL-3/8" or a 3/8 LH-RH adapter (for gas bottles to valvework)?
- what varnish is the modern equivalent of "shellac" to insulate EHT windings?
- who can advise on setting up NZ accounts for a fairly small but diverse business?
- and who has an IT contract job (coding/config/design/advice) going for a few days a week?

I shall be Even Happier.

Do you think the hippy in the middle is an essential part of the mechanism?

Scouse House
 


Also, Junodownloads just came up with a classic, after buying something else:
"People who bought this also bought ... earplugs".