My new Electric Scooter

I am the proud owner of a brand new electric scooter. It has a 1500 Watt motor and can surpass the 50 km/h speed limit on the flat. It carries with it 60 kg of lead acid battery. It connects to standard domestic single phase power sockets, getting enough charge from 3 or 4 hours charging.

The range is reputed to be 50 km before full recharges are required, but my riding is pretty aggressive so I don't think I'll achieve that. I still need to find a good place at the work to plug it in and charge it up. Doing so, the cost to run it will be very small indeed. What I know not to do is to park next to the 3.7 litre SUV down in my work's underground carpark, whose driver is Mrs Grumpy and from which she can't see any precious little things.

I paid $3,000 for it, plus insurance, rego and helmut. I just need to learn how to be careful with it, zipping past all the cars going nowhere at traffic lights. It is a lot of fun.

The weight is just 127 kg, much more appropriate than the grotesque 1300 kg I could otherwise use to commute to work.

For more info on getting one in NZ, see EVT (I got a 4000e) or E Scooter. An Electric Motorbike is awfully tempting.

Christmas and Communism

Merry Christmas.


Today we celebrate the arrival of the baby boy Jesus, the King of the Jews. We celebrate God living amongst humanity and the new creation and freedom that he brought.

We remember the stories of his birth, where King Herod the Great is threatened by the birth of this rival King. As a man Jesus is crucified as the King of the Jews, and then later proclaimed by Paul as LORD, as rival to the emperor, in Rome itself.

Throughout the Old Testament, one thing that comes up again and again is the importance of the quality of the King and his government. Which makes one try ask "Where is God" when it comes to governments of today.

Most attempts to understand current political events are distorted, horrible and speculative. One writer who I like for the sense he brings is Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham. In a recent lecture, he addresses the issue of "Where is God in the 'War on Terror'" (See article on the bottom right).

But having read today of one event that happened today in history, I just have to show the way spin can be given to this event. And it keeps on spinning for a long long time.

I find very interesting how the previous Pope, John Paul II, took on communism. And won. There is a lot of room for tellng the story this way. The Polish Pope visited his homeland in 1979 and spoke in front of a crowd of 2 million people. He showed his fellow countrymen their inner strength and gave them hope and inspired the Polish drive to end communism. The final leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev once said that the collapse of the Iron Curtain would have been impossible without him.

In 1981 Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded in an assassination attempt by the Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca. In 2006 an Italian Parliamentary Commision concluded that this attempt was backed by the Soviet Union.

I write this today because it was on the 25th of December 1991 that the Soviet Union was dissolved.


Merry Christmas.

Mad Ramblings

I thought it was time to move out of home. So I emailed a mental health service provider, as you do, and they found me a flat with too friendly flatmates. The guys I am staying with would probably be living in big old SECURE mental health hospitals were it not for the community care revolution.

When I told my mum of my intentions, she reacted loud and clear. She called me "Idealistic" and other bad words. I think she was wrong, I think I am still true to my identity, my identity is an Engineer, with a healthy mind and healthy judgement. Engineers are realists and pragmatists, sometimes with bold visions, but always practicle. I thought the risk of this place being too hard was low and after four weeks I am pretty sure I was right. I am just staying with friendly humble people. It be fear that holds people back from loving others.

As a sane person, I get to self mutilate myself in culturally acceptable ways. I will be doing only the half marathon come Sunday morning at 6.30am. I will get up at 4.15am for my breakfast to settle. One day I would like to be able to a full marathon.

While on the topic of poor risk assesment, if you want to keep your little ones safe, you buy a big shinny (#@$%^$!) SUV, and get to watch them grow fat and obese. Or you could let them have a little risk of being run over, but reduce the risk of overweightness. But where's the marketing payback in walking?

Sky Cabs for Auckland

Why do our cities look like they do? With such efficient and fast transport systems? Well there are many reasons. One of these is that some men had a dream. A dream where all the tram lines across America would be ripped up. They could be ripped up as they wouldn’t be needed anymore. Everyone would be using the internal combustion powered machines of these men, and sending their money to these men. To hear more about this conspiracy theory (including court victories) click here and look half way down the page for the heading "Why does the auto/oil/sprawl/highway cartel oppose the “Global Warming Bill”?".

My town of Auckland suffers from the “everything is so spread out so you need a car - everyone has a car so lets build everything spread out” circle of death. There is not the population density to make trains work for the entire city so everyone has a car.

So then what is my transport dream? I rather like the SkyCabs proposal. It is the baby of an Auckland architect Hugh Chapman. The idea is to have 4 tonne (when full) driverless cabs each side of a beam zooming across Auckland. Each cab would seat eight people. It would be designed as a super light system so the beams could be slender.

To me it is a solution that makes sense with our current technology. Sure Monorails have been up and running for a hundred years and Magnetic Levitation trains are the real state of the art transport system, but it still seems to be better than motorway designs thought up in Hitler’s Germany.

Having a beam supported by columns every 30 metres or so seems so much easier that building or widening new roads. You just have to prune some trees and make sure you don’t hit any watermains, gaslines, power cables or telecom cables when you place the piers in the footpaths. These are things you have to do to widen roads anyway. You wouldn’t have to keep maintaining such a big wide flat loadbearing area like roads require either. For the next 18 months I will be involved in a $NZ 14 million bus lane project, so I should know.
I have just designed a motorway bridge, it has eight parallel beams per span to take four lanes, the SkyCab design would only require one beam per span, and that beam would only need to be one fifth the strength of one of my eight beams. So the SkyCab system does seem so much cheaper.

I reckon a SkyCab network across Auckland spanning a couple hundred kilometres could be built cheaply, much much cheaper than any motorway or rail proposal. The question is how to get one built. There is a plan for a 600m test track to show everyone that it would work. There is enough feeling amongst Aucklanders that something needs to be done about the transport system, and enough of the feeling amongst the rest of New Zealand that “I don’t want to live in Auckland because of its traffic problems”. Winning the hearts and minds of the public will be the easy thing, to convince the powers that be to try something different from the tried and tested status quo could turn into a monumental struggle.

Market Based Environmental Protection

In Brian Easton’s draft from his new book (he’s posting it on the internet for everyone to look at), he spends time talking about a Market Based system of Environmental Protection. The system would involve everyone’s rights becoming defined. An example given is if a group wants to build a new Airport. If the Airport is more economically valuable it will buy the property from its noise complaining neighbours. If peace and quiet is more valuable, its neighbours will buy the Airport to shut it down. At first read a market based system for environmental protection seems ideology gone wrong. But because Brian Easton is a truly sensible economist who has a heart, I am trying to grapple with the suggestion.

One example of market based environmental protection is the idea of selling water rights to users of the Waitaki River in New Zealand’s South Island. If recreational fishermen get part of the allocation I will be happy. Also wanting their share is Meridian for a hydro electric power scheme and farmers wanting irrigation water. With a system of water rights, to use so many litres or percentage of total water in a year, then if one user \tries to pollute the water, downstream water users could block the polluter.

New Zealand's chief environmental legislation is the Resource Management Act (RMA). It is similar to laws in other countries such as the US National Environmental Policy Act in that it requires an Assessment of Environmental Effects. Its a good idea to make people look at an action's effects before they do it, just a shame that lawyers become the judges rather than someone who understands the physical / biological side of what is going on. The way the RMA works within a market model is if developers know who is going to object to their proposal, they can go to potential objectors and pay them money equivalent to the objectors resource rights. Then the Resource Consent Application will run so much smoother. Thus buying off objectors becomes a sign of health in a market based environmental protection system.

To me a market based system of environmental protection is totally different from what New Zealand’s right wing political parties want. These parties sound like they want a reduction in peoples rights, rather than a market based system that gives everyone defined rights which they can then exercise to stop plans they object to. As to whether or not a market based system would produce environmental results that I am happy about, I do not know. And hence whether it is just something okay in theory but dismal in practice is also a big unknown.

The Jewish Jesus

Jesus was a Jewish person speaking to a Jewish culture. This Jewish culture then changed after a couple of rebellions against the Roman Empire, as the results didn't meet expectations. Christianity quickly spread from beyond its Jewish beginnings to become predominantly a religion of Greco-Roman people, who often had little understanding of its Jewish context from which it had arose. The question of what changes occurred in how Jesus was understood is for me an unsettling question, as it can challenge Evangelical beliefs that have been much cherished since the Protestant Reformation, and can place me in disagreement with people whom I have great respect for. Christian tradition is of much importance to me.

As a New Zealander this is hard situation to be in, for to quote Bill Pearson: “In public morality, the New Zealander’s guiding principle is: Do others do it?

I have learnt a bit about what a Jesus within first Century Jewish culture looks like, from reading Tom Wright’s large tomes. I am still pondering whether or not this Blog is the appropriate place for such discussions. Feel free to comment.

Sustainability

Introduction to Sustainability
While living as my alter ego, an Engineer, I have learnt a few things about Sustainability. So I thought I would give a brief introduction to a few Sustainable Engineering principles.

Sustainability is where you can keep on doing something forever, unlike Moa hunting, whaling, sealing and logging Kauri trees.

I hate pollution, oil must surely run out the way we are using it, and its prudent to expect greenhouse gases to cause global warming.

To become more sustainable, the idea is to reduce waste.

Sustainable Transport
Transport currently wastes a huge amount of energy. A fully loaded train is more efficient than a bus. This is even more so when people are employed to cram in extras Hong Kong style. An 8 tonne bus with 60 people is more efficient that a 1.3 tonne car with 1 person, although a car gives greater flexibility.

A car can be made more efficient if it uses lightweight materials like fibreglass and carbon fibre rather than 1.3 tonnes of metal, as well as through regenerative breaking systems. Petrol-electric hybrid cars can recover breaking energy using their electric motors/dynamos. But no matter how efficient cars get, scooters and motorbikes are still going to use less energy. Bicycles will continue to use even less.

Vehicle efficiency is only half the picture. Cities such as Auckland are built according to the car. As everyone has a car, our offices, shopping malls and recreation facilities are on the outskirts, where the only realistic way to get to them is by driving. So everyone buys a car. So new workplaces, shopping malls and recreation facilities are built in places where you need a car to get to them. The spiral of doom.

A much better city has a high population density along public transport routes, with destinations at or near the train stations. A train station is a great place to put a movie theatre.

It also takes many more motorway lanes to carry the same amount of people if the motorway is jammed with cars rather than buses.

Sustainable Buildings
For Sustainable buildings the idea is to waste less in construction, waste less during operation and have it last forever so that there is no waste in demolition.

To waste less energy during operation, the idea is to create buildings requiring neither air-conditioning nor heating. The exterior walls and windows should be well insulated. Inside the house should be concrete slabs or masonry block walls to absorb heat on a hot day and slowly release it on cold days. Shades can be designed so more sun comes in through windows during the winter than summer. There are computer programs available that model a building’s temperature to help it achieve a comfortable temperature year round.

One building where air conditioning was still required, but a clever solution was used, was the Invercargill ice skating ring. The heat taken from water to create ice is then used to heat the swimming pool next door.


Sustainable Manufacturing
For manufacturing, the idea is that nothing should be ‘waste’. Any by-products should then be reused in something else. When an item gets old, as many parts as possible should be reused in new products. Instead of buying an appliance, the appliance, including packaging, is ‘rented’ so that when it is no longer needed the manufacturer takes it back to reuse or recycle its components.

The Nauseating Evolution Debate

I find both sides of the evolution debate nauseating in the way they arrogantly draw conclusions that are beyond the scope of science.

The Big Bang theory holds that there was a starting point to space, time, mass and energy. As Science can only speak of space, time, mass and energy it can say nothing about before the Big Bang, as that is before space, time, mass and energy.

It is interesting that when the Big Bang theory was first debated, scientists didn’t like it because for philosophical reasons they preferred a universe that had always been there.

Evolution holds that different species arose at different times. I am happy that fossil records clearly show that different species arose at different times.

I see no reason to feel threatened as a Christian by that. If for some reason I actually wanted to go down the following line of thought, I could say that the creation account of the bible is that different phases of creation happened at different times. But I see no point in going there.

It is also safe to say that within a species, those that have features making them better able to survive and procreate will be the ones that prosper. Clearly natural selection through survival of the fittest does occur.
As to the mechanism that could allow new species to form, the intelligent design people have a point that it is an open question whether or not survival of the fittest, time and chance alone are enough for complex organs and complex systems of organs to come into existence, especially as often all parts of the system need to be working for the system to work and be of any use.

People can make their own decisions on whether or not survival of the fittest, time and chance are sufficient to account for the myriad of living creatures we have today. I myself do not think survival of the fittest, time and chance is a satisfactory explanation. But that doesn’t mean the Intelligent Design protagonists can declare victory. If there was a Devine Creator involved , that poses further questions of how this Devine Creator came into being. It is a much simpler explanation if no Devine Creator was involved. Simplicity is an important criteria of the scientific method. Thus neither side wins.

Science cannot say anything about a Devine Being that is other than space, time, matter or energy, as it is beyond the scope of science. It is fair game for Scientists to make comments using Philosophy, Theology and History, but those comments cannot claim the authority of scientific methods, and should not be taught as Science.

I hold that it is intellectually dishonest to teach Intelligent Design as scientific proof for a Divine Creator, just as it is intellectually dishonest to teach Evolution as scientific proof against a Devine Being involved somehow in creation. As to what is meant by Devine Creator, well the subjects of religion and theology are vast.

New Chinese and Indian Cities

As the Chinese and Indian people begin to enjoy lifestyles more like that of Europe and North America, one consequence is that they will migrate to cities. Currently these countries are mostly rural but this will change.

In China new cities will need to be built and are being built. From what I have observed of India, her cities don’t have the infrastructure for their current growing populations, let alone being swamped by 800 million people.

So it is with great interest that I am following the proposed city of Dongtan in China. It shall be built according to world best practice, with the best of British sustainable design thinking. So lets see what a new city, designed to have a low ecological footprint, looks like.

The Marriage Proposal

I presented this poem at a friends wedding reception, telling the story of the night he proposed to his bride.

To be with the man she loved while dining
Was the desire for which this lovely woman was pining
What great anticipation there was all day long
For a quiet night together, she needed no song

What splendid palace will be our eatery
where we can eat venison, taro and plum jelly
Today’s stunning and beautiful bride mused
while through the Jewel of Polynesia they cruised

Then before you know it they had arrived
It was at the gateway to the world, they were alive
and for some weird whacked crazed strange method
Out of the car’s trunk some travel bags un-hid

Onto a giant bird together they climbed
One with a koru and jet engines and fumes behind
Maybe she realised something was under the weather
As the plan was to have a quiet night together

At great speed to the citadel they went
Where you find the capital, of which we lament
Back on land another strange thing appeared
A rental vehicle that had been prepared

To the botanical gardens of majesty and elegance
Our mischievous and scheming man drove at once
Then past the gate, as he walked down the old asphalt
It was only the beating of his heart that he felt

Our splendid bride had once lazily said
That the amphitheatre gave joy to her head
But focussed in the middle, at the centre of the stage
It was only the two of them on this page

With breathing while moving of jaw and lip
Our beautiful brides favourite sonnet was let rip
Then down on his knees the great time came
How could any part of his life ever be the same?

Our strikingly good looking gentleman
He always knew what to do, he kept to his plan
With all his courage, which is vast, unfathomable gargantuan
He finally asked her, can I forever be you man

It took just a very short moment for an answer
Quicker than the blink of an eye, no much faster
Alas not, in truth there was a little hesitation
He had to wait for the earth to do a full rotation

After a very long night the next day came
One way or another Brendan would never be the same
Then out came the answer after much meditation
Of course I will, she said, my hearts in a joyous celebration!

A Great Thing about New Zealand

A great thing about being in New Zealand is that we aren't here for the money. We all know that we’ll get paid more if we go to Europe, the US or even Australia. If life were just about the money we would have left for richer shores long ago. So may those media commentators who see economic growth as the be all and end all please quickly depart and leave the rest of us free to enjoy life.

THE ARAMAIC PRAYER OF JESUS

The Lord's Prayer as translated from the Aramaic by Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz of the Sufi Order of the West

O, Birther of the Cosmos,
focus your light within us -- make it useful
Create your reign of unity now
Your one desire then acts with ours,
As in all light,
So in all forms,
Grant us what we need each day in bread and insight:
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
As we release the strands we hold of other's guilt.
Don't let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will,
The power and the life to do,
The song that beautifies all,
From age to age it renews.
I affirm this with my whole being.

60 litres of Petrol

When I fill up my car’s petrol (gasoline) tank, all I see is a black hose going into my car and some numbers on the meter. I don’t see the large volume of petrol quickly streaming into my car’s vast fuel tank. I am insulated from the fact I have just bought 60 litres. When I picture in my mind how much 60 litres actually is, three large 20 litre buckets, or 6 x 10 litre buckets, it impresses on me how wasteful it is to use a 1300kg (2,800 pound) car to transport little old 100kg (220 pound) me.

Originality?

Hello World.

I am a great beleiver that practically everything people think, they have been told by someone else. Whatever I say, someone else will have told me it. My rants are just me jumping on the bandwagon. My only hope of saying anything new to you is by putting together other peoples thoughts in a way you haven't yet, or repeating thoughts to people who have heard them yet. Ahhh lovely.