A speech I gave at Toastmasters recently.  This was Speech 7, ‘Research your speech’, and my goal was to explain the basics of how nuclear power plants work to a lay audience, using the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant as the prime example.  Also the word of the day was’perturbed’.  :-) Note: My aim here [...]

Catastrophes, Education, New Zealand, Personal, Science, Technology, Wellington | 1 Comment »

Wellington City Council has released a list of Wellington buildings considered to be at risk in a major earthquake. I’ve made a simple webpage which uses the data in that list to build a map of the earthquake-prone buildings in Wellington. Check it out at quake.howison.co.nz

Catastrophes, New Zealand, Personal, Science, Technology, Wellington | 1 Comment »

A while ago we (Phil, Leanne, Jess and I) went on a great trip to Matiu/Somes Island with our sister, making it a four-Howison outing! I took a few panoramas.  What can I say, it’s just kind of my thing I guess!  :-) View over Wellington overlooking the lighthouse View of Petone from the WWII [...]

Free market environmentalism, Holidays, New Zealand, Personal, Photos, Science, Wellington | 1 Comment »

I don’t post much technical stuff here, but I’ve been into Linux (specifically Ubuntu) for a long time. I’ve been geeking it up tonight installing Chromium OS on my netbook, and decided a head-to-head boot-up speed test was in order. I measured how long it took for each OS from pressing the ‘on’ button to [...]

Freedom, Miscellaneous, Personal, Science, Technology | 2 Comments »

Yet another anti-alcohol study has popped up: Otago University researchers say people are more likely to binge if there’s an off-licence nearby. Otago University Professor Jennie Conner says … “We found that the more liquor outlets you live close to the more harm you’re likely to report from drinking”. A classic case of poor science [...]

Brewing, Education, Free Speech, Freedom, New Zealand, Science | No Comments »

Last night I gave this speech at my Toastmasters club about iPredict, and thought I’d share it here. I had a slightly more involved ending where I reviewed what I had said in the body of the speech, but had to cut it short as I was running out of time. “Buy low, sell high.” [...]

Free Speech, New Zealand, Personal, Science, Technology, Wellington | 1 Comment »

Jess and I went for a trip over the Easter weekend to visit some geocaches.  The cool thing about Geocaching is how it always takes you to awesome new places, often with fantastic views, and this trip was no exception. First stop was Pukerua Bay, where there is a cache on the newly constructed Goat [...]

Holidays, New Zealand, Personal, Photos, Science, Technology, Wellington | 1 Comment »

I was fascinated to read about the Sentinelese recently – a tribe of 250-odd hunter-gatherers living on a fairly big tropical island off the coast of India. They are extremely hostile to visitors and appear to have had no more than cursory contact with people from the outside world. This picture is the typical view [...]

Culture, Freedom, Linkage, Non-state actors, Pacific, Photos, Science, World | 2 Comments »

Yep, we’re all doomed.

Catastrophes, Science, Technology | 1 Comment »

I read in the Kapiti Observer this morning about council plans to distribute 34,000 fluorescent lightbulbs free to every household.  This will involve a $74,000 interest-free loan from the EECA.  The report contained estimates that the bulbs will save Kapiti residents $5.8 million – that’s a huge return of $74 per $1 spent over the [...]

Education, Energy, Freedom, New Zealand, Science, Wellington | 3 Comments »