Tinakori sunrise

Catching the early light from atop Tinakori Hill (aka Te Ahumairangi) in the Wellington Town Belt this morning, elevation 303m. Click the photos to enlarge.

Out to the heads, 6.42am

6.45am (HDR)

6.52am

Mushroom cloud, 7.07am

Radiation, 7.09am

See also:

Photos: Stormy day in Petone, 14 July 2013
Photos: Ans Westra - Wellington 1976, 30 June 2013

Photos:  Highbury to south coast walk, 17 February 2013

Photos: By the dawn's early light, 11 February 2013

Video: Misty morning at the wind turbine, 16 December 2011

We know roughly when the world will end

From the Hull-based indie rock band Red Guitars, here's their first single from 1983, Good Technology. Issued on the band's own label, the track - railing against the emptiness of consumerism with catchily-angular guitar phrases - was an outsider hit, selling 60,000 copies. The band was championed by legendary DJ John Peel, and the track appears on the 2006 compilation, John Peel: Right Time, Wrong Speed 1977-1987.



See also:
Music: Red Guitars - Marimba Jive (1984 single)
Music: Deacon Blue - Dignity (1987, recorded live 2006)
Music: Talking Heads '75 (live at CBGB)

Coach travel from London in 1658 and 1739

[C]ompared with the stage-coaches of the best period, travelling by the earlier stage-coaches was a sorry achievement. Here is an advertisement of stage-coaches of the year 1658:—

"From the 26th April there will continue to go stage-coaches from the George Inn, without Aldersgate, London, unto the several cities and towns, for the rates and at the times hereafter mentioned and declared:—

"Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—To Salisbury, in two days, for xx. s.; to Blandford and Dorchester, in two days and half, for xxx. s.; to Burput, in three days, for xxx. s.; to Exmister, Hunnington, and Exeter, in four days, for xl. s.; to Stamford, in two days, for xx. s.; ... to York, in four days, for xl. s."

Indeed the charges might have been reckoned by time, the travelling being at the rate of about 10s. a day. Another advertisement in 1739 thus sets forth the merits of some of the stage-coaches of the period:—

"Exeter Flying Stage-coach in three days, and Dorchester and Blandford in two days. Go from the Saracen's Head Inn, in Friday Street, London, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; and from the New Inn, in Exeter, every Tuesday and Thursday." Then the advertisement makes known the fact, with regard to another coach, that the stage begins "Flying on Monday next." They were not satisfied in those days with a coach "going," "running," or "proceeding," but they set them "flying" at the rates of speed which may be gathered from these notices. Nearly thirty years later another advertisement set forth that the Taunton Flying Machine, hung on steel springs, sets out from the Saracen's Head Inn, in Friday Street, London, and Taunton, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at three o'clock in the morning, the journey taking two days. There were places inside for six passengers, and the fares were as follows, viz.:—

To Taunton, £1 16 0
" Ilminster,  1 14 0
" Yeovil,  1   8 0
" Sherborne,  1   8 0
" Shaftesbury,  1   4 0

Outside passengers, and children in the lap, were half these fares.

- James Wilson Hyde, The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance, 3rd ed., London, 1889

See also:
History: An old Wandle snuff mill, 13 January 2011
History: Mr Pepys in Old Clapham, 1 February 2010
History: The mysterious Mr Tibbet, 27 April 2009

TV flashback 1991

One of the advantages and disadvantages of having a family home that's been in the family for sixty-odd years is that random glimpses of the past turn up regularly. Particularly out in the garage, which was Grandad's haunt, and where he stored the many articles and clippings that took his fancy over the years. In going through some of this material recently my mother chanced upon an entire front section of the Herald from 15 April 1991. The lead item is 'Prices cut for firms to survive' ('Extreme gloom now prevails throughout the economy...'), written by the Herald's current chief political reporter, John Armstrong. Most of the local news concerns the early impact of the October 1990 general election, which had returned National to power. There are numerous references to the Employment Contracts Bill, which became law in May 1991. The legislation generated much protest at the time and was repealed in 2000 after Labour returned to power. There are also newspaper ads for now-departed concerns like the United Bank ('11.25% p.a., 3 month term, minimum deposit $5000').

At the back of the section the compact television listings sit next to a TV review by the now Herald editor-in-chief, Tim Murphy. There are just three free-to-air channels, plus brief listings for Sky News, Sky Sport and Sky Films. Here's a reminder of what New Zealand TV viewers had to entertain themselves in primetime, 1991. There's certainly not much local content in peak hours! Bring back any memories of the days when the schedule included a 'Closedown' at the end of the evening?

ONE

5.15 Me and My Girl - sappy ITV family comedy (1984-88, 52 episodes)
6.00 Network News
6.30 Holmes - personality-driven 'current affairs' (1989-2004)
7.00 Sale of the Century - with Steve Parr
7.30 'Allo 'Allo - BBC WW2 farce (1982-92, 85 episodes)
8.05 Fawlty Towers - BBC classic Cleese comedy (1975/1979, 12 episodes)
8.45 Beyond 2000 - Australian science show (1985-99, 475 episodes)
9.45 Haggard - ITV Georgian comedy (1990-92, 2 series)
10.15 Network News
10.45 Documentary: Nippon - The Shock Effect
12.00 In Sickness and In Health - BBC Warren Mitchell sitcom (1985-92, 47 episodes)
12.40 Closedown

TWO

5.00 The Bugs Bunny Show - with Hine Elder
5.30 Wheel of Fortune
6.00 Blind Date
6.30 M*A*S*H - Korean War comedy (1972-83, 256 episodes)
7.00 Neighbours - Australian soap (1985-onwards, 6740 episodes+)
7.30 The Flying Doctors - Australian drama (1986-93, 221 episodes)
8.30 L.A. Law - US legal drama (1986-94, 172 episodes)
9.30 Jake and the Fatman - US crime drama (1987-92, 106 episodes)
10.30 Aussie League - Winfield Cup, Manly v St George
12.45 Closedown

THREE

5.00 He-Man - figurine-selling animation
5.30 Home and Away - Australian soap (1987-onwards, 5840 episodes+)
6.00 National News
7.00 Hey Dad! - Australian family sitcom (1987-94, 291 episodes)
7.30 Candid Camera
8.00 Lenny - US sitcom (1990-91, 16 episodes)
8.30 Movie: Peter Gunn (1989 telemovie feat. Peter Strauss)
10.30 Nightline - with Joanna Paul & Belinda Todd
11.00 Hot Pursuit - short-lived US drama (1984, 1 series)
12.00 Closedown

See also:
TV: Jean-Philippe Toussaint on Television, 4 August 2012
TV: Movies on NZ free-to-air TV, 30 July 2012
TV: Public service broadcasting in NZ, 27 July 2009

California Design

On Saturday I visited the Auckland Art Gallery for its California Design exhibition, which was originally curated by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Subtitled 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way, the exhibition provides a broad overview of design styles that dominated in the style-conscious and increasingly affluent world of mid-20th century California, where new ideas percolated into the national and international consciousness. Included in the exhibition is a range of highlights from key design genres, particularly classics like architecture (Neutra, Lloyd Wright, Laszlo and the influential Case Study Houses), furniture design (Eames!) and fashion. There was also a brief clip from the lovely and evocative Disney 1957 educational short, Our Friend the Atom, which set the scene for the gee-whiz Jetsons lifestyle that fuelled so much of the imaginative - if sometimes impractical - home design of the period.

Here's a few photographs from the exhibition, which closed on Sunday. Note that if this infringes any copyright I will remove the images on request - just leave a note in the comments below.

Lawson Time's 'Zephyr' clock, c.1938

Fujiye Fujikawa, 1942
(Designed whilst interned in Wyoming)

Released 1956

Mary Ann DeWeese, 1961

Cedric Gibbons' art direction Oscar for The Bridge of San Luis Rey, 1929
(Gibbons designed the Oscar statuette)

ESU (Eames Storage Unit), c.1949

See also:
Photography: Who Shot Rock & Roll, 1 January 2013
Art: New Zealand posters by young German artists, 30 June 2012
Art: Auckland's old new art gallery, 7 September 2011

APAC 2013 forum

On Thursday and Friday I was able to attend the APAC Forum on Quality Improvement in Healthcare, held in Auckland at the Sky City conference centre. Over the two days of the conference a wide range of international and local health care improvement experts shared their experience and led discussions about the pressures affecting the New Zealand health system. Here’s a few highlights from the sessions I attended.

Carol Haraden (Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement)

Carol's presentation discussed how health systems might learn from the serious failures at Mid Staffordshire in England, and how individuals and teams who are responsible for monitoring quality can detect warning signals and act on them effectively. She made what I thought was a particularly useful point when she noted that 'every system is perfectly designed to deliver the results it delivers' - the key is making sure that system design doesn't lose sight of patient safety and high standards of care, as they did in Mid Staffordshire. She also observed that the prevalence of the term ‘whistle-blower’ is an admission that the system has failed, not because problems have been identified, but because individuals have found no outlet for their concerns through the usual channels. She also cautioned against resting on the laurels of processes and measurement systems that are perceived to be effective, because in some cases the reality of day-to-day operations is far removed from the ideal world that gets signed off in reporting documents. This also has flow-on effects for training: ‘because we can’t acknowledge we’re not following policy, we can’t talk about bad practices or measure them’

Glenn Colquhoun (Horowhenua GP, poet / writer)

The keynote speaker for Day 1 was Horowhenua poet and GP, Glenn Colquhoun, who offered an atypical voice in a high-falutin' health care conference, and spoke movingly and comprehensively of the challenges faced by relatively impoverished and isolated rural communities. He said sensible things about inequality being a risk factor for disengagement with health services and society in general, but most of his time was spent painting a picture of health services and youth lifestyles in the backblocks. (Actually, the Horowhenua isn't that far from Wellington, but it's a radically different environment for young New Zealanders growing up there).

Dan Heath (Author, Senior Fellow at Duke University)

One of the advantages of having conferences like this is that international speakers are involved. I'm often rather wary of slick American experts, but Heath (the author of several highly-successful books) offered a entertaining vision of how to encourage positive change. In part, Heath argued, we need to avoid an ever-increasing focus on a managerial problem-solving cycle, to the detriment of a positive focus on bright spots that could offer new ways of improving. A stronger and more positive approach is to ask what is going well and how can we do more of it? He also stressed the importance of using a range of tools to convince stakeholders and the public to overcome the inertia that often stifles improvement initiatives; diligent use of data isn’t enough – a little motivation is needed to encourage change. This can often be provided by 'path interventions', simple initiatives to turn (in the words of one Heath anecdote) ‘jerks’ into ‘saints’. 

Hon Michael Kirby (Australian High Court judge, 1996-2009)

I'd not heard of distinguished former judge Michael Kirby, but his illustrious career in his native Australia and in international diplomatic forums has made him justly famed there, and it was a pleasure to hear an eloquent and persuasive senior statesman sharing his views. Only the week before the APAC conference he was in Geneva delivering a report from a commission he led to investigate human rights violations in North Korea. The New York Times reported the reaction of US ambassador to the UN's Human Rights Council:

“The great value” of the report, said Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, United States ambassador to the Human Rights Council, is that it “has begun to shed light on the horrifying realities of life in North Korea and raise international awareness of the ongoing tragedy and barbaric conditions there.” She also said the findings represented a “small but significant crack” in the North’s “information blockade.”

Kirby's APAC keynote address, delivered whilst roaming amidst the full-capacity audience, focused on the North Korea report, the failure of the international community to meet the Millennium Development Goals that were set at the turn of the century, and the rising global health crisis brought about by patent restrictions on tier 2 and 3 anti-retroviral treatments for the HIV virus. Regarding the latter issue, I was unaware that the more complex HIV treatments are not being promoted and adopted in third world countries that are most at risk of HIV spreading, because the intellectual property restrictions in place mean that they are simply unaffordable and cannot be undercut by cheaper generic drugs. Kirby argued for a fairer balance between the inalienable right to decent health care and property rights, and cited the good work of former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, head of the UN Development Programme, who is working closely with UNAIDS to promote a new intellectual property framework for pharmaceuticals.