May 2012
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Muted Memories
This weekend a small part of the downtown Christchurch Red Zone was opened to the public again. It included some of the parts of streets I walked out of the city on the afternoon of the 22nd. Streets and areas which were the scene of some of the more graphic things I saw that day.
I walked some of that route again today. It was odd. I’d expected the images and memories of that day to come...
April 2012
2 posts
The Facts About Christchurch Cathedral
On the 2nd of March, the Church Property Trust, the owners of Christchurch Cathedral announced that it would be entirely demolished, and not rebuilt. The two reasons given in their media release were:[[MORE]]
1. It’s too unsafe to save.
“…this is now a very dangerous building that needs to be made safe. Our priority is also to ensure people working on-site are safe - in fact...
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CCDU
Digging deeper into this Christchurch Central Development Unit announcement from yesterday, the government just did the following:
Took over all planning duties from the CCC
Added yet another abstraction between residents of the city and those in control.
Adopted the excellent Central City Plan, developed and delivered by the CCC on time, and with a world leading public consultation process.
...
March 2012
2 posts
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'The Market' won't work fast enough in post...
In response to this:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/rebuilding-christchurch/6601594/Christchurch-rent-crisis-best-left-to-market
Any engineer and likely any educated finance professional would have studied control theory of dynamical systems. Essentially how to control the output of systems with many interdependent variables such that they are first and foremost stable (don’t self...
“That is about the only thing that will get [young people] out of bed before...”
– John Key on interest free student loans.
The only tragedy here is that the Prime Minister would knowingly and intentionally not act in the best interests of the country.
This is the tragic and filthy reality of politics. Surely this is the least noble of any ‘profession’.
Democracy...
February 2012
3 posts
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One day, a year ago.
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One year on...
It feels odd reading what I wrote immediately after the earthquake last year. Interesting seeing the specific things I wrote about, and those things I did not. It reads very matter of fact, rarely describing the horrific human component of what I saw that day. It still, and I think always will, get to me, even just thinking about it, let alone writing or speaking about it. Although that...
January 2012
4 posts
“He says Mr Dotcom is not a flight risk, although he has access to helicopters...”
– Read this and try not to laugh. I dare you. From the NBR
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On The Eve of The SOPA Blackout.
On the eve of the US SOPA blackout campaign, maybe it’s worth reflecting on our own situation in NZ with respect to our equivalent legislation.
Most will recall the social media blackout campaign here well over a year ago, which initially caught the attention of politicians, and resulted in the bill being abruptly shelved, pending review. Then, a few months later, out of the blue, it was...
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Crunch Time.
Anyone in Christchurch in their 20s or 30s who’s really concerned for the future of downtown Christchurch, utterly disillusioned with those in control, & wanna try something completely insane to create a city people want to live in. Something concrete and enduring. Email me. I have a crazy idea. layton@polarbearfarm.com
WatchJames Blake - A Case of You
December 2011
2 posts
November 2011
0 posts
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“I could describe a litany of failures that have combined to drain away what is...”
– Turning disaster into opportunity – Hon Lianne Dalziel
This is exactly how it feels to me, and many, many people have it much worse off than myself in this city.
October 2011
3 posts
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Progress!
Last weekend saw the opening of the fantastic City Mall restart project.
I’m particularly pleased to see this project come to life, because it’s like an exclusively retail version of something I was mulling over back in May, except from a small business perspective. I even registered a domain, and setup a basic website: www.kickstartacity.com But never pursued it. I didn’t...
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A Message To Christchurch City Councillors
As you digest the submissions to the Draft City Plan, please keep one thing in mind:
It’s OK to not compromise.
One of the traps of soliciting widespread feedback from different groups, with different motives, different levels of understanding, is that you try and appease them all, often by compromising others values. It’s the design by committee trap. Try to please everyone, and...
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Steve Jobs on intelligence, experiences,...
September 2011
3 posts
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Some Perspective On Christchurch
I was driving around the CBD Red Zone cordon this morning. It’s a sorry sight. I thought I’d try and put what’s happening here in Christchurch in the context of other countries.
For those in the USA, imagine if the downtown areas of all these cities combined was evacuated and locked down this second, with no warning:
New York
LA
Chicago
Houston
Phoenix
Philadelphia
San...
August 2011
1 post
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Sigh.
Just a fucking embarrassment:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/5418866/Council-breaches-law-withholds-draft-city-plan
It may seem trivial, but if laws are just being ignored for the purpose of “managing information release”, what other laws are being ignored and for what purpose.
Wonder if I can use this logic when I walk the 60 metres inside the CBD red zone cordon without...
July 2011
2 posts
June 2011
2 posts
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From Natural Disaster to Governance Disaster
Christchurch has a problem much greater than earthquakes right now. The problem is a giant impedance mismatch between the self appointed people in charge of ‘recovery’, and those that live and have made this city what it was. It’s been this way for a while. The earthquakes won’t be the thing which destroy this city, it will be the combined responses of Civil Defence, CERA,...
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WWDC AT&T Prepaid Data
So you want to get data running on your unlocked iPhone while you’re in San Francisco. I’ve got no idea if this works on all iPhones, but it works on off the shelf New Zealand sold iPhones (which are unlocked by default). Here’s how:
Step 1: Don’t tell the AT&T assistant you want a prepaid SIM with data for your iPhone. They will tell you that prepaid data will not...
April 2011
3 posts
3 tags
Planes, Trains, & Automobiles
Cities live or die by their transport systems. The effect a poor transport system has on a large city is clear for all to see in Auckland. Christchurch is a city which I think needs to grow into the millions, without endlessly sprawling. We now have the perfect opportunity, with the scale of destruction here, to plan for that. This is a crisis which can’t be wasted by thinking small.
The...
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WatchJourney Into The Red Zone - filmed from the bus travelling from the old Christchurch Woman’s Hospital site to outside the remains of Edison Hall, Lichfield Street.
Music: James Blake - The Wilhelm Scream
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The Red Zone
Today, six weeks to the day, we got first access into our building since walking out after the quake. We were emailed on Friday to say that we would have access today, but then I got a call yesterday to say that was a mistake, and we wouldn’t have access. Other people in our building got told different things, so we decided to show up today anyway, and get the real story. Lucky we did. I...
March 2011
5 posts
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Why?
The government today announced the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) I have five questions. Why?
There are three cores to the rebuild as I see it:
Define a new vision for the city.
Devise an urban plan that supports that new vision.
Acquire the resources (financial and physical) required to execute that plan.
That actually doesn’t require a whole government department to...
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Welcome to the CBD
Imagine you were forced to leave your home and/or business right this second, with no warning.
Imagine you were then prevented from getting anywhere near you home or business.
Imagine four weeks on, you were still prevented from getting anywhere near your home or business.
Imagine the only information you’ve had from those who are blocking your access in that four weeks is
It’s...
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So now what?
This video excerpt from a 1996 Inside New Zealand special on earthquakes has been doing the rounds on Twitter today. While interesting viewing to those who haven’t seen it, I think a couple of things should be kept in mind.
First, I think people should be very careful not to make assumptions and draw conclusions about what happen in the September 4th and subsequent catastrophic February...
February 2011
9 posts
“I never understood how a man could dare
To watch a city shaken to the ground...”
– Anon. Penned after the 1931 Napier-Hastings Earthquake.
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Untitled
Never in my life did I think I’d experience an event as terrifying as the 2010 September 4th 7.1 Christchurch earthquake. Just before 1pm on the 22nd a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the outskirts of the city. This quake was far more violent. Far more terrifying.
I was in our office in Poplar St. On the top floor of an old 1920’s era brick building:
The shaking was immediate and...
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Webstock: the greatest conference in the history...
This was my first Webstock. I’d heard great things from people who had attended in previous years, and I had always admired the world class speakers the conference managed to attract. But there’s nothing like experiencing it. It is, without doubt, the greatest conference I’ve ever attended. The speakers, the venue, the attendees, the overwhelming attention to every tiny detail is...
“They don’t sell here, they sell offshore, right? They don’t sponsor...”
– New Zealander of the year Paul Callaghan on why out high-tech companies are so little known in New Zealand.
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The Untold Story of How My Dad Helped Invent the... →
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“Here we have the man who invented the personal computer, then the laptop. He’s...”
– Rupert Murdoch nails the key of Jobs’ ability to remain the innovation leader of an entire industry.
January 2011
1 post
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December 2010
11 posts
“For Google, nearly all of whose profits depend on advertising revenue, dominance...”
– Kontra (via Daring Fireball)
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A Diamond In The Rough
I thought i’d finally post some before and after photos of the transformation of the (premonitorily named) Epicentre co-work space I started this year, also home to Polar Bear Farm. Currently mother nature seems intent on slowly destroying parts of the building with continuing aftershocks from the magnitude 7.1 earthquake which hit the city on September 4th.
The building is located on the...
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WatchApollo 8’s Live Broadcast having rounded the dark side of the moon, December 24th, 1968.
Merry Christmas to all!
WatchUnbelievable footage of big cats in the wild.
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“No one owns being good. I’m good. I just don’t believe I’ll be rewarded for it...”
– Ricky Gervais on religion.