Timezoneone Blog

Cool light projections by French company Easyweb who base their creations on the historic buildings of Dijon.

Matt

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In the search for inspiration you always stumble onto some great work. These huge wooden installations are the work of artist/sculptor Henrique Oliveira and are made from scrap wood found on the streets of Sao Paulo. Great stuff…

Matt

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The Lance Armstrong Foundation LIVESTONG has teamed up with Nike for their latest campaign to run during this year’s Tour de France (which started on the 4th July). Text messages of hope and support are applied to the cycle route using the specially developed Chalkbot, a kind of mobile, chalk spewing inkjet printer. People who have sent texts are then given GPS coordinates telling them where their message will appear on the route. Check it out…

Matt

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Last year a read a wonderful story about the Kiwi identity. It was written by John McCrone and published in the Your Weekend magazine. Here are a few snippets.

Gallic flair, Yankee ‘drive ,  ltalian passion, Aussie mateship, Chinese industry, Kiwi..Aerr…purity? Yes, for New Zealanders, the question of national identity seems ill-defined. Are we just Aussies with an inferiority complex, Poms cut adrift by the mother country, a bicultural experiment on the fringe of Asia, or a small nation that punches above its weight yet still gets flattened when the fight proper starts?

New Zealanders can be summed up by six characteristics: ingenious, fair, restrained, modest, earthy and informal. The core American attributes are speed, self-reliance, law and order, equality, speaking up and capitalism. For the Chinese, it is face, family, social networks, prosperity, harmony and nationalism. The swiss emphasise consensus, order, following the plan, slow but sure, Swiss-made. The English go for privacy, singularity, evolution not revolution, fair play, pragmatism and revealing a recent shift in the British psyche, social mobility. It is remarkable how little counties overlap. And even where there are similarities, there are telling differences. Take Australians. The Aussie cultural DNA stress the fair-go, Jack’s as good as his master, and live and let live. In a general way, as fellow colonial settlers escaping the constraints of the old country, they share idea’s about being unpretentious and egalitarian.

But there is a twist, where Kiwi’s are encouraged to be diffident - team players, modest to a fault, a people who don’t skite, don’t impose - Aussies demand an assertive expression of mare-ship and classless-ness. Australians value forthrightness call a spade a bloody shovel mate. New Zealanders are more indirect in their communication, more restrained We are friendly, but beyond that is a reserve, a caution. `So New Zealanders will think of Australians as being a bit brash, a bit pushy a bit loud, and Australians will think of New Zealanders as being a bit too PC ‘ Falconer says the two countries really are at opposite ends of the spectrum on this score New Zealanders will duck confrontation while the Aussies are out there with the South Africans, Israelis and Dutch for blunt speaking.

Bill Watson of Access Asia, another intercultural consultant, agrees that restraint is a defining Kiwi characteristic . Certainly Kiwi business people know to keep their heads down. Only here would a semi-billionaire, like South Canterbury Finances Allan Hubbard, continue to drive around Timaru in an old Volkswagen Beetle We may have a few big-noting millionaires driving around in Porsches and swanning about on yachts but they may as well be Australians as far as the rest of us are concerned.

This national reticerice can be a drawback and an asset, says Watson What foreign employers like about Kiwis is that we are instinctively team players eager to collaborate And our modesty can be an appealing trait, especially in a world lands increasingly dominated by strident self· promotion.

What about the other key ingredients in the New Zealand recipe: ingenuity, practicality and informality?

The resourceful side of the Kiwi character is the No 8 wire story Watson says  it is indeed something that comes through strongly even when we are compared with Australians and Canadians.

A practical problem-solving streak is a powerful selling point if we are talking a national brand, Watson believes Look at how the world has responded to characters in our history like Burt Munro, Richard Pearse and Edmund Hillary lisa quality in great demand as the world economy becomes increasingly dependent on smart ideas and effective thinking.

 Andy

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I have finally worked out that thru some odd living and relocating selections that the Summer Olympics seems to follow me.  I believe I would be a perfect candidate for a world city using me as a marketing tool for bringing the Olympics to their city…. well these cities may have to potentially rethink this strategy as they would be stuck with a little nuggetty Aussie bloke as their spoke person, I personally think a fantastic strategy anyway.

In the year 2000 I lived in the State of Georgia in the US of A and briefly in Atlanta, Georgia.  Atlanta hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics.

I spent the first 21 years of my life in Sydney, Australia and oddly left about two months before the start of the 2000 Summer Olympics.

and

Now I live in Chicago that is one of the candidate cities for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

We all here in the TimeZoneOne Chicago office have our fingers crossed that Chicago will win the 2016 Summer Olympics and then maybe I will actually get to see the games.  Keep all your fingers and toes crossed for Chicago winning the bid then the world will see how fantastic this city really is.

Folksey

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As some of the planets resources dwindle, and landfills get fuller, the need for sustainability and recycling becomes ever greater.

Here are some great examples of creative recycling:

Boots made from fused plastic bags

Fairy lights from egg cartons

Chandelier from banana boxes

Chair from industrial cardboard rolls

Things made from coathangers

Rose

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Following my recent blog regarding bicycle commuting in Christchurch and Chicago I thought I’d see if there was any noteworthy advertising around the subject. As creators of advertising and design we certainly need to be visually aware but I have to admit that I was caught out by this cycle safety campaign for Transport for London.

Matt

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Last week the SMG Captivation Awards web site went live for our client SMG. A big well done goes out to all the team who worked on this project. Rob and Mel deserve a special mention for the great job they did in managing this technically challenging project.

The site provided our client with a live virtual space to announce award winners daily over the past week for their global annual in-house awards programme. It featured winners videos, live comments from the SMG team around the world plus profiled all the finalists from SMG offices around the globe.   

The site looks great! 

Nigel 

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Millions of cubicle dwellers across America helped set records for Internet traffic on Tuesday as they watched online video of the inauguration ceremonies — or at least tried to. The overwhelming demand meant that some Web sites and data networks had trouble keeping up, forcing many people to turn to less cutting-edge forms of media.
Internet traffic in the United States hit a record peak at the start of President Obama’s speech as people watched, read about and commented on the inauguration, according to Bill Woodcock, the research director at the Packet Clearing House, a nonprofit organization that analyzes online traffic. “The peak is the highest measured to date, and it appears to be mostly a U.S. phenomenon,” Mr. Woodcock said.

Rather than go on about it I have attached my favourite photos from the ceremony celebrations. The volume of people attending and the passion on their faces speak louder than words!

Liz Bissland

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For all of you who love gardening, or for those of you who want to save some money and grow your own - I thought it timely to post tips on planting your own raised vegetable garden beds.

 1.  Get 4 pieces of untreated 8″ x 2″ wood to your desired length

 - usually around 1.2metres x 1.2m.  Either pine or macrocarpa is best. 

Untreated wood is important as treated wood will only  leach chemical nasties into your plants!

2.   Bang the wood together  - using a hammer & nails to create a box structure.

3.   If you want to get creative you can add another level or seating on the top if you wish. 

4.  Place box in an area facing north with plenty of sun.

5.  Fill the first few inches with something that will allow drainage

- wood chips, scoria or small stones that sort of thing.

6.  Fill the remainder of the beds with soil  - for best results use a mix of something like zoom grow and a compost mix full of either pig manure, chicken manure, sheep manure etc.

7.  The soil tends to drop after a day or so  - so it’s best to prepare the bed, water it and let it settle for a night then top it up when you are ready to plant.

8.  Plant it with anything you like to eat from lettuces, rocket, tomatoes, herbs, carrots, beetroot, parnips, silverbeet, corn etc. 

Making sure that the taller plants (eg corn) are planted along the back of the bed with the smaller plants to the front of the bed 

 - this allows the sun to reach all the plants.

9.  Add a handful of potash, a sprinkle of lime,  some extra sheep pellets and a few Nitrophoska  blue fertiliser pellets  - this just gives your plants an extra boost.

10. Water daily and watch your gorgeous little plants grow.

For maximum weed control  - wood chip between your raised beds.

To bring the bees to pollinate the plants -  plant lavender.

To control bugs plant marigolds somewhere in the garden as they attract the bugs and keep them off your plants.  Throw some slug pellets down as well. 

…and lastly if you live on a farm make sure your partner closes the gates!!!  After a huge effort last weekend I woke up on

Saturday to find my entire vegetable garden annihilated by our 5 sheep!   So here it is again lovingly replanted!

Jackie Clark

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