crazyscot

It sounds like a set of scores from an Olympic event.

Sadly, those are the magnitudes of the earthquakes we have had this afternoon.

( Read more... )

1:58pm local time. A significant earthquake, the worst we've felt. Mw 5.8.
3:20pm. Another significant quake, seemed shorter but more violent than the first.

There have been many aftershocks which have been alarming in their own right. We are fine, if shaken up. Will post more when I'm feeling more coherent.

Does anybody here know how to reliably contact the Cambridge Lib Dems, specifically whoever is responsible for maintaining the Gazette distribution list? I somehow got onto that list several years ago and am still on it despite never having done anything for the party beyond voting for them. I tried emailing camlibdems@gmail.com back in October but haven't had even a reply, and have just received (auto-forwarded by the Royal Mail) another Gazette...

I understand that the UK news is dominated by the Euro situation, so most readers won't have seen much if any coverage of NZ's latest woes.

Poor old Nelson, a city of some 45000 at the north end of South Island, has just had 260mm of rainfall - over three months' worth - in 48 hours. The surrounding hills, up to twice that. There are landslips all over the place, communities cut off, a few hundred homes damaged or destroyed, a lot of lucky escapes, and some pretty devastating footage. (News montage.) Here in Chch we've escaped the worst of that system, and while it did pee down for a while this morning it's not a patch on Nelson.

The past year and a bit have not been kind to NZ. The Christchurch quake series; the Pike River mine; the Rena oil spill; and now this.

Phew.

Just got back from my mandatory two hour mountain flight. Not to teach me how to really fly in the valleys, y'understand, but to give me a feel for it in case I ever get into trouble. (On reflection, this makes it sound a bit like being strapped into a chair and told I will appreciate the mountains!)

When we got to the foothills, the instructor asked me which way the wind was blowing. North-easterly, I ventured, given that was what it had been on the ground? Bzzzzt! Thank you for playing. That was on the plains some 50km away. Here was in the mountains, the wind was doing its usual thing of flowing over the hills from the west. He went on to demonstrate just how predictably different the wind is; it flows rather like water, and his local knowledge took us to some different effects. All the while we were flying up and down valleys, below the level of the (sometimes cloud-shrouded) mountain tops on either side, getting much closer to the cumulus granitus than I have ever been before...! I kept instinctively wanting to fly up the centres of the valleys, that being as far away from the sharp pointy bits as possible, but that is usually the wrong thing to do; you fly on one side, so that if you should decide that you need to turn around, you have the full width of the valley to play with. There were optical illusions aplenty; the flattish valley floors often misled me into thinking they were level, underlining the need to keep on top of where the real horizon would be.

Next step will be my BFR, and then I'll be able to apply for my NZ license!

The state of Linux video editing and animation software hasn't drastically improved in the last year and half, has it?

I'm going to end up getting Final Cut Pro and Motion (and a Mac to run them on), aren't I?

CERA have opened up a temporary walkway between Cathedral Square and the temporary container mall on Cashel Street for a couple of weekends.

We had been there in February, in what were happier times for Canterbury. We had just arrived on South Island that morning, checked into our motel and had gone for a walk into town. We sat in the shade and looked over to the tram stop and where the cycling brass band had played that (Sunday) afternoon. We stared up sadly at what's left of the now-deconsecrated cathedral which is to be pulled down. We looked to the north and realised that we were looking at the row of buildings behind those on the north side of the square, which are no more.

I'm not religious, but seeing the Cathedral - a powerful symbol of the city whichever way you look at it - in its half-collapsed state was a wrench. Construction work to get the CBD back on its, ah, foundations is progressing, but if you ask me it can't happen quickly enough.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crazyscot/sets/72157628257981455/detail/

Hanging out laundry at 8am in the bright morning sun, it immediately began to steam rather violently. I guess it must be a corollary of the high relative humidity at that time (it was +11, dewpoint +9). I don't think I've ever noticed this before.

Is it just me, or have there been fewer lj and dw posts recently amongst people I know? I know my viewing habits have changed since I moved timezones, but I find myself reaching for the "Previous 20" button a lot less than I used to...

I'm very sad to hear of keristor's untimely passing.

He was a very interesting bloke to converse with, and a darn fine techie. He came across as very intelligent, and opinionated (but in a good way). I wish I'd known him better. We will all collectively be a bit poorer without him.

Losing somebody who has "worked" for me (at-con) is a great wrench - especially in such cruel circumstances. I'm proud to have had him on my team.