Reading this mornings Herald online i see that Rodney Hide is even a bigger liar and hypocrite that was first reported. It now seems that Ms Crome lives with him in Wellington during the week.
Makes his claim about time for MP’s relationships a bit hollow!
But doesn’t she go away on playing tours? so they have to grab what time together they can. For such a hard working person, like most MPs, I think it is completely reasonable that they should travel together when they can.
Yeah, I think it is the “say one thing when in opposition, do the opposite when in government” approach that Rodney is taking that seems to be the issue. There is a single word that sums it up and it begins with “H”.
Oh, and it bugs me that Rodney has tried to justify his travel allowance by saying “it didn’t come from the trough we have been told not to use, it came from a different one that we are allowed to use”.
JK set the principle – “if you want to take your partner, pay for them yourself.” Which is quite different to “if you want to take your partner, take it from a different trough.” In the end it is all taxpayer funded. I mostly pay two different kinds of tax (income tax and GST), it goes to thousands of different places and I don’t get, or want, a detailed breakdown of how it is spent. But spending taxpayer money on travel is spending taxpayer money on travel, irrespective of whether it comes through a ministers account or an MPs account. To be consistent with the PM’s direction, Rodney should have paid for his partner’s travel himself. If he pays back the amount and apologises that might go some way, otherwise I will have to conclude that the PM does not mean what he says.
Lets get the whole Rodney thing back where it should be. The whole travel thing is a siideshow and distraction. It is not going to sink him, it merely shows him for what he is, a blown up in your face frick you egomaniac.
More to the point this whole thing is having a smokescreen effect on the real issue, that Hide is colluding with Auckland big business in an undemocratic way to strip the people of their assetts. ARC and councils (aka the Auckland regions ratepayers) currently own as much capital wealth as the whole NZSX, and these larcenists want it. They also then want you to pay forr the capital they need to bankroll the larceny over the forseeable future through such devices as privatised water bodies.
When will Labour ever come clean, determined to drop below the Greens.
Another MP poll-busted
4:00AM Sunday Nov 01, 2009
By Matt Nippert
A second Labour MP has been implicated in the fake-name polling scandal uncovered last week by the Herald on Sunday.
The volunteer who came forward last week to blow the whistle said she was recruited by MP Iain Lees-Galloway, who was also present when the polling took place.
Don’t think this is purely a Labour thing. What is implied when National choose not to attack over this. Even Gerry Brownlee on Morning Report (RNZ) suggested that this was a beat-up.
When it comes to the climate change debate, the common criticism I have seen is that contrary evidence can’t be accepted because it hasn’t been peer reviewed.
I want to take the opportunity to point out that the peer review process isn’t all its cracked up to be, and that the published evidence in any field can provide an extremely distorted picture due to a number of potential biases in the process.
A common bias is the positivity bias. This bias means that reviewers tend to prefer to publish research that shows a positive effect rather than research that shows no effect. However, in reality, the research that shows no effect can be just as important as research that shows a positive effect. Here is an article from another field, medicine, that provides empirical evidence of the problem:
This bias is potentially very serious for the field of climate change. This is because the null hypothesis will often be something like “observed changes are due to natural variability”. Thus, any research that confirms the null hypothesis is much less likely to be published, potentially providing a skewed view of reality. Lets assume that the research was 50/50 either way. In that case I would expect there to be much more published research in favour of climate change, than against it due to the positivity bias alone.
There are several other relevant biases that are likely to have an impact:
For instance, the name and affiliation of a research can have a substantial effect on whether an article is published:
Thus, if most reviewers hold a position of supporting the climate change debate, it is less likely they will accept research from those with contrary views, regardless of the objective merits of the research.
Another possibility arising from these types of biases is that even scientists who support climate change are less likely to put forward research if it fails to find an effect from climate change. This is because they are likely to fear being seen in the camp of “the deniers” simply because their research has not found an effect.
Thus, relying only on published peer reviewed literature leaves people open to getting a skewed view of reality, especially in a field such as climate change where there are very polarised views.
Peer review is as you say not what it is always cracked up to be. It is best described as a ‘necessary but not sufficient condition’. Peer review weeds out papers with bad errors and basic mistakes, however it’s also obvious that the process is not foolproof and that for a number of reasons, flawed work can and does get published.
The perils of positivity and confirmation bias are drummed into every undergraduate student. While they are a real and present danger, they are strongly guarded against. Any working researcher who is shown to make this basic kind of error too often, will quickly find their career at an end.
Scientists are not a uniform group who all think exactly alike. A consensus is just that, a model or line of thought that is agreed upon at that point in time… but no more than that. Every individual scientist has their own opinions, view points and line of attack on the problems. The idea of white coated hordes all trapped into the same hive mentality is so much nonsense.
Indeed, given the profile of the AGW issue… there would be enormous rewards and several Nobel prizes for anyone who could conclusively prove that all the data really could be explained by natural variation alone, and that humans really could pump as much CO2 into the atmosphere and the resulting excess IR absorbtion would have no effect. Yet so far no-one has been able to do this.
Really this whole argument boils down to three options:
1. The large majority of qualified and experienced climate scientists have independently concluded that AGW is a real and threatening phenomonon.
2. The large majority of qualified and experienced climate scientists have suddenly and mysteriously all lost competency at what they do, that they all made a whole lot of errors, across many different approaches to AGW, that have all independently reached the same wrong conclusion.
3. The large majority of qualified and experienced climate scientists are all secretly colluding together to hoax the world in order to gain secure access to funding. And that no-one has so far been able to produce concrete evidence of this massive conspiracy.
“The large majority of qualified and experienced climate scientists are all secretly colluding together to hoax the world in order to gain secure access to funding.”
The experts all believe that global warming is a real phenomenon with serious consequences, and that action to curb emissions is urgently needed.
What they are saying is that if people make claims that cannot be proven, or are easily questioned, other dishonest fuckwits will use that as a reason to do nothing, which would be a disaster.
This is because the null hypothesis will often be something like “observed changes are due to natural variability’.
Umm it is clear that you’ve never been around science much.
Your medical analogy is strained because the vast majority of medical research is funded by medical providers like drug and medical equipment companies. They don’t like publishing null hypotheses (ie it didn’t do anything or was detrimental) about their products – so it doesn’t get to peer review. It is pretty much a case of why the profit motivation of the market isn’t that good at doing basic research (and great for simple engineering research).
By contrast most of the earth sciences research comes from various not-for-profit bodies, largely with tenure, and with few commercial attachments. Most of the participants are more than mildly cantankerous, and enjoy taking the contary positions if there was evidence to support it. The usual struggle is to get a place to publish rather than getting past reviewers. Reviewers tend to prefer letting through contary positions with substantiated evidence to papers on known material because to disagree with evidence is science.
With the CCD ‘scientists’, what is always interesting about them consists of several factors.
1. They usually have some quite interesting commercial links.
2. They literally never have new data, just reinterpretations of old data.
3. Their reinterpretations don’t have testable predictions.
In other words they are crank critics, not scientists. That is mainly why they don’t present papers to reviewers, and when they do, they don’t get published. The quality is too damn poor.
This is because the null hypothesis will often be something like “observed changes are due to natural variability’. Thus, any research that confirms the null hypothesis is much less likely to be published, potentially providing a skewed view of reality
erm, no. Just about any pattern in the world is made up of a ton of contributing factors, and a lot of work is done in trying to tease out what these factors are. ‘Natural variability’ is not any sort of nailed down constant, it’s a huge & complex soup, with a few strong contenders for the ingredients list. A lot of climate change study is not focussed on AGW, but paleoclimatology, which is about the only place where you can look at a range of time scales and evidence to ease out what some of these ingredients are on different time scales. These range from plate tectonics (for eg. the opening of the Drake Passage & formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current), to Milankovic cycles to Solar activity. What is typical is that not one pattern explains the variation seen in proxy records, particularly as the mechanisms are often indirect; what you can get however, is an idea of how much of the pattern you’re interested in (for example global temperature patterns over time) is explained by the factor you’re looking at, and what the ‘residuals’ are, that is the left over bits.
I have a pattern of setting my alarm for 6:20 AM on weekday mornings, but actual real world results don’t match this. If I compare the real world results with the predicted results, I’m left with the odd discrepancy – the odd days when I forgot to switch the alarm on (or the weekends when I forgot to switch it off!), power cuts etc might explain the variation that would not have been expected.
What I’m getting at is that determining these sorts of residuals & what causes them in climate data (be it global anomalies or local variation) are results, it doesn’t just come down to null vs alternative hypothesis. Secondly, it’s not that difficult to frame a null hypothesis in the other way, and I’d be surprised if no-one has eg have your null hypothesis as Anthropogenic Global Warming explaining the variation, vs your alternative hypothesis being solar activity (or whatever natural variability factor/s you’re looking at) explaining the same better and bingo; if AGW explains the pattern better then you might have a problem getting it published, if solar activity explains the pattern better you have a result.
In reality you don’t get a whole lot of studies on ‘AGW or ‘natural variability’ as a whole, and nor as an simple either/ o proposition. What you get is people looking at where the data doesn’t fit the best matching patterns (CO2 concentrations & orbital geometry) and looking into why this is, ie what the residuals might be caused by.
You won’t find many climate scientists who don’t believe in natural variability, but you will find that no-one has managed to explain observed warming trends by natural variability alone. As Redlogix points out above, there’s no shortage of incentive for someone to do this.
Just like there was no shortage of incentive to find that tobacco smoke doesn’t contribute to ill health, and certainly no lack of support for those scientists who found it worth their while to find no evidence of harmful effects.
Include John Key in this scam since Rodney “checked” with him twice before setting off on his perk trip with live in girlfriend. Why? Maybe a little voice was telling him THIS IS WRONG! Attempts to justify this episode prove Key & Hide lack integrity. SHAME on them both when there are NZers financially struggling.
What is the difference between Blinglish’s family trust and Jonkey’s family trust? I gather that when Tranzrail questions were being asked in the house the defence was that the questioner had no pecuniary interest in the trust that held the shares.
yeah, or to eat less meat, or to eat different meat.
For my part I can walk 5 minutes away and buy wild venison/ bacon/ goat/ rabbit; to my mind you can’t get more environmentally friendly than that. Not that everyone’s so lucky with their local shopping. It’s certainly a lot more environmentally friendly than my more sanctimonious vegetarian friends who eat lots and lots of cheese (bobby calves, stream pollution etc).
Interesting thinkpiece on global economy from Prof Robert Wade, NZ with London School of Economics affiliate aptly acronymed DESTIN (discussing our future likely destiny which can not be fully predicted, so the ‘Y’ is left hanging?). Can hear on radionz from Chris Laidlaw Sunday morning prog.
Has the Rod Oram sound, careful, considered thinking around the problems and possibly solutions. The future isn’t great, a W effect in global finance, and we now are in the middle – likely to go down again in 2010/11 when the effect of the stimulus from govts fades, and those are unlikely to be similarly repeated. More war activity from USA. Sounds feasible looking at past history. Good insightful stuff.
Use of the term ‘tipping point’ coined by Malcolm Gladwell in his 2000 book of that name which describes “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable” (wikipedia), has reached a tipping point. Hereafter people who use the term shall be regarded as unimaginative imbeciles.
It’s great to be clever on this site but wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to be firing this type of thing thru to Granny Herald or the like to get those rags to be held accountable for their lack of investigative journalism into the likes of the Rodney Hide rorts or the disgraceful self promotion of the finance minister? And where was the outcry from the media when 500 health jobs disappeared due to restructuring? The converted are being preahced to here. With the govt’s honeymoon going way beyond what is normal, now is the time to be bombarding the media with the type of comments made on this site.
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We’re proud to have delivered on our election commitment to establish a public holiday to celebrate Matariki. For the first time this year, New Zealanders will have the chance to enjoy a mid-winter holiday that is uniquely our own. ...
Proposed new legislation to reduce the risk that timber imported into Aotearoa New Zealand is sourced from illegal logging is a positive first step but it should go further, the Green Party says. ...
On World Refugee Day, the Green Party is calling on the new Minister for Immigration, Michael Wood to make up for the support that was not provided to people forced to leave their home countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
This week, we’ve marked a major milestone in our school upgrade programme. We've supported 4,500 projects across the country for schools to upgrade classrooms, sports facilities, playgrounds and more, so Kiwi kids have the best possible environments to learn in. ...
We’ve delivered on our election commitment to make Matariki a public holiday. For the first time this year, all New Zealanders will have the chance to enjoy a mid-winter holiday that is uniquely our own with family and friends. Try our quiz below, then challenge your whānau! To celebrate, we’ve ...
The Green Party says the removal of pre-departure testing for arrivals into New Zealand means the Government must step up domestic measures to protect communities most at risk. ...
The long overdue resumption of the Pacific Access Category and Samoan Quota must be followed by an overhaul of the Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) scheme, says the Green Party. ...
Lessons must be learned from the Government's response to the Delta outbreak, which the Ministry of Health confirmed today left Māori, Pacific, and disabled communities at greater risk. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to withdraw the proposed Oranga Tamariki oversight legislation which strips away independence and fails to put children at the heart. ...
Police Minister Chris Hipkins congratulates the newest Police wing – wing 355 – which graduated today in Porirua. “These 70 new constables heading for the frontline bring the total number of new officers since Labour took office to 3,303 and is the latest mark of our commitment to the Police ...
Members with a range of governance, financial and technical skills have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Board as part of the shift to strengthen the Bank’s decision-making and accountability arrangements. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 2021 comes into force on 1 July 2022, with the establishment of ...
New Zealand to remain at Orange as case numbers start to creep up 50 child-size masks made available to every year 4-7 student in New Zealand 20,000-30,000 masks provided a week to all other students and school staff Extra funding to schools and early childhood services to supports better ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will join Ukraine’s case against Russia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which challenges Russia’s spurious attempt to justify its invasion under international law. Ukraine filed a case at the ICJ in February arguing Russia has falsely claimed genocide had occurred in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, as ...
The Government has taken another step forward in its work to eliminate family violence and sexual violence with the announcement today of a new Tangata Whenua Ministerial Advisory Group. A team of 11 experts in whānau Māori wellbeing will provide the Government independent advice on shaping family violence and sexual ...
Te Mahere Whai Mahi Wāhine: Women’s Employment Action Plan was launched today by Minister for Women Jan Tinetti – with the goal of ensuring New Zealand is a great place for women to work. “This Government is committed to improving women’s working lives. The current reality is that women have ...
Kia ora koutou katoa. It is a rare thing to have New Zealand represented at a NATO Summit. While we have worked together in theatres such as Afghanistan, and have been partners for just on a decade, today represents an important moment for our Pacific nation. New Zealand is ...
Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs Aupito William Sio has been appointed by the United Nations and Commonwealth as Aotearoa New Zealand’s advocacy champion for Small Island States. “Aotearoa New Zealand as a Pacific country is particularly focused on the interests of Pacific Small Island Developing States in our region. “This is a ...
An estimated 100,000 low income households will be eligible for increased support to pay their council rates, with changes to the rates rebate scheme taking effect from 1 July. Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta has announced increases to both the maximum value of the rates rebate, and the income threshold ...
A long-standing physical activity programme that focuses on outcomes for Maori has been expanded to four new regions with Government investment almost doubled to increase its reach. He Oranga Poutama is managed by a combination of hapū, iwi, hauora and regional providers. An increase in funding from $1.8 million ...
The Government is progressing a preferred option for LGWM which will see Wellington’s transport links strengthened with light rail from Wellington Station to Island Bay, a new tunnel through Mt Victoria for public transport, and walking and cycling, and upgrades to improve traffic flow at the Basin Reserve. “Where previous ...
To Provost Muniz, to the Organisers at the Instituto de Empresa buenas tardes and as we would say in New Zealand, kia ora kotou katoa. To colleagues from the State Department, from Academia, and Civil Society Groups, to all our distinguished guests - kia ora tatou katoa. It’s a pleasure ...
On June 28, 2022, a meeting took place in Madrid between the President of the Government of the Kingdom of Spain, Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, and the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, who was visiting Spain to participate in the Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as one ...
A six-fold increase in the Aotearoa New Zealand-Spain working holiday scheme gives a huge boost to the number of young people who can live and work in each other’s countries, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says. Jacinda Ardern and Spanish President Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón made the Working Holiday/Youth Mobility Scheme announcement ...
A significant barrier has been removed for people who want to stand in local government elections, with a change to the requirement to publish personal details in election advertising. The Associate Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty has taken the Local Electoral (Advertising) Amendment Bill through its final stages in Parliament ...
New financial conduct scheme will ensure customers are treated fairly Banks, insurers and non-bank deposit takers to be licensed by the FMA in relation to their general conduct Sales incentives based on volume or value targets like bonuses for selling a certain number of financial products banned The Government ...
Legislation that bans major supermarkets from blocking their competitors’ access to land to set up new stores paves the way for greater competition in the sector, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Dr David Clark said. The new law is the first in a suite of measures the Government is ...
The Government has announced an end to the requirement for border workers and corrections staff to be fully vaccinated. This will come into place from 2 July 2022. 100 per cent of corrections staff in prisons, and as of 23 June 2022 97 per cent of active border workers were ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has concluded a visit to Rwanda reaffirming Aotearoa New Zealand’s engagement in the Commonwealth and meeting with key counterparts. “I would like to thank President Kagame and the people of Rwanda for their manaakitanga and expert hosting of this important meeting,” Nanaia Mahuta said. “CHOGM ...
Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty officially launched the new Monitoring, Alerting and Reporting (MAR) Centre at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) today. The Government has stood up the centre in response to recommendations from the 2018 Ministerial Review following the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake and 2017 Port Hills fire, ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has welcomed the announcement that a 110km/hr speed limit has been set for the SH1 Waikato Expressway, between Hampton Downs and Tamahere. “The Waikato Expressway is a key transport route for the Waikato region, connecting Auckland to the agricultural and business centres of the central North ...
Following feedback from the sector, Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti, today confirmed that new literacy and numeracy | te reo matatini me te pāngarau standards will be aligned with wider NCEA changes. “The education sector has asked for more time to put the literacy and numeracy | te reo ...
$4.5 million to provide Ukraine with additional non-lethal equipment and supplies such as medical kit for the Ukrainian Army Deployments extended for New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) intelligence, logistics and liaison officers in the UK, Germany, and Belgium Secondment of a senior New Zealand military officer to support International ...
Changes to electoral law announced by Justice Minister Kiri Allan today aim to support participation in parliamentary elections, and improve public trust and confidence in New Zealand’s electoral system. The changes are targeted at increasing transparency around political donations and loans and include requiring the disclosure of: donor identities for ...
The Labour government has announced a significant investment to prevent and minimise harm caused by gambling. “Gambling harm is a serious public health issue and can have a devastating effect on the wellbeing of individuals, whānau and communities. One in five New Zealanders will experience gambling harm in their lives, ...
The Government has widened access to free flu vaccines with an extra 800,000 New Zealanders eligible from this Friday, July 1 Children aged 3-12 years and people with serious mental health or addiction needs now eligible for free flu dose. From tomorrow (Tuesday), second COVID-19 booster available six months ...
The Government is investing to create new product categories and new international markets for our strong wool and is calling on Kiwi businesses and consumers to get behind the environmentally friendly fibre, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said today. Wool Impact is a collaboration between the Government and sheep sector partners ...
At today’s commemoration of the start of the Korean War, Veterans Minister Meka Whaitiri has paid tribute to the service and sacrifice of our New Zealand veterans, their families and both nations. “It’s an honour to be with our Korean War veterans at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park to commemorate ...
Minister of Tourism Stuart Nash and Associate Minister of Tourism Peeni Henare announced the sixth round of recipients of the Government’s Tourism Infrastructure Fund (TIF), which supports local government to address tourism infrastructure needs. This TIF round will invest $15 million into projects around the country. For the first time, ...
Matariki tohu mate, rātou ki a rātou Matariki tohu ora, tātou ki a tātou Tīhei Matariki Matariki – remembering those who have passed Matariki – celebrating the present and future Salutations to Matariki I want to begin by thanking everyone who is here today, and in particular the Matariki ...
Oho mai ana te motu i te rangi nei ki te hararei tūmatanui motuhake tuatahi o Aotearoa, Te Rā Aro ki a Matariki, me te hono atu a te Pirīmia a Jacinda Ardern ki ngā mahi whakanui a te motu i tētahi huihuinga mō te Hautapu i te ata nei. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister David Parker will represent Aotearoa New Zealand at the second United Nations (UN) Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, which runs from 27 June to 1 July. The Conference will take stock of progress and aims to galvanise further action towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, to "conserve and sustainably use ...
The Government is boosting its partnership with New Zealand’s dairy sheep sector to help it lift its value and volume, and become an established primary industry, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “Globally, the premium alternative dairy category is growing by about 20 percent a year. With New Zealand food ...
The Government is continuing to support the Buller district to recover from severe flooding over the past year, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today during a visit with the local leadership. An extra $10 million has been announced to fund an infrastructure recovery programme, bringing the total ...
“The Government has undertaken preparatory work to combat new and more dangerous variants of COVID-19,” COVID-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall set out today. “This is about being ready to adapt our response, especially knowing that new variants will likely continue to appear. “We have undertaken a piece of work ...
The Government’s strong trade agenda is underscored today with the introduction of the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement Legislation Bill to the House, Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “I’m very pleased with the quick progress of the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement Legislation Bill being introduced ...
A ministerial advisory group that provides young people with an opportunity to help shape the education system has five new members, Minister of Education Chris Hipkins said today. “I am delighted to announce that Harshinni Nayyar, Te Atamihi Papa, Humaira Khan, Eniselini Ali and Malakai Tahaafe will join the seven ...
Austria Centre, Vienna [CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] E ngā mana, e ngā reo Tēnā koutou katoa Thank you, Mr President. I extend my warm congratulations to you on the assumption of the Presidency of this inaugural meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. You ...
The Government is taking action to make sure homecare and support workers have the right to take a pay-equity claim, while at the same time protecting their current working conditions and delivering a pay rise. “In 2016, homecare and support workers – who look after people in their own homes ...
A law change passed today streamlines the process for allowing COVID-19 boosters to be given without requiring a prescription. Health Minister Andrew Little said the changes made to the Medicines Act were a more enduring way to manage the administration of vaccine boosters from now on. “The Ministry of Health’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ritesh Chugh, Associate Professor – Information and Communications Technology, CQUniversity Australia Shutterstock While manufacturers have successfully increased the water-repelling nature of smartphones, they are still far from “waterproof”. A water-resistant product can usually resist water penetration to some extent, but ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suze Wilson, Senior Lecturer, School of Management, Massey University Phil Walter/Getty Images The US Supreme Court’s recent ruling to throw out Roe v Wade is an issue of relevance to political leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand. The decision was ...
New Zealand will present its legal view on Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations' international court, contesting the Kremlin's claim of genocide. ...
Buzz from the Beehive The Government has declared or reiterated three bold ambitions, one of them (the elimination of family violence) probably unachievable. Whether progress is being made towards the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Price, Team Leader / Senior Research Officer, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Shutterstock Most new parents and caregivers will know the phrase “put your baby down when drowsy but awake”. But some parents may find this just doesn’t work for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Stavrou, English Language Instructor, University of Cyprus, and PhD Graduate, Charles Sturt University Traditional approaches to adult language teaching often use resources such as textbooks and generic learning materials that are less than inspiring for learners. New research shows ...
Accompanied by a giant albatross sculpture made of reclaimed plastic bottles, Greenpeace has delivered a 100,000-strong petition to parliament calling on the Government to ban single-use plastic bottles and incentivise reusable and refillable alternatives. ...
Covid-19 Response Minister Ayesha Verrall says the country needs to remain at the orange traffic light setting as case numbers are starting to "creep up". ...
Our Annual plan 2022/23 was presented to the House of Representatives today. This annual plan is a key accountability document for our Office. It describes the discretionary work we consider will help us to achieve our ultimate outcome – that Parliament ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Director, Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre; Associate Professor of Criminology, Faculty of Arts, Monash University AAP Image/Supplied by Department of Justice In 2020 the killing of Hannah Clarke and her three children – Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University The election of the Albanese Labor government brings an opportunity to end one of the most detrimental elements of Australian refugee law and policy in the past decade: the use of temporary ...
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has welcomed the launch of the Te Mahere Whai Mahi Wāhine: Women's Employment Action Plan today. For too long, women have been disadvantaged in the world of work. While many improvements have been made over ...
The experimental weekly series provides an early indicator of employment and labour market changes in a more timely manner than the monthly employment indicators series. Key facts The 6-day series includes jobs with a pay period equal to or less than ...
Statement from Auckland Transport Interim Chief Executive Mark Lambert: Auckland Transport is proud to support the New Statement of Ambition being launched tonight by the Climate Leaders Coalition. We’re delighted that AT’s work to achieve the ...
Greenpeace Aotearoa, SAFE, Animals Aotearoa, SPCA, and the New Zealand Animal Law Association have joined forces to call for an end to intensive winter grazing through the Government’s Dairy Cattle Code of Welfare review. The coalition says that as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Swift, Educational Experiences team lead (Senior Lecturer), ANU School of Cybernetics, Australian National University Shutterstock I love writing code to make things: apps, websites, charts, even music. It’s a skill I’ve worked hard at for more than 20 years. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Baillie, Professor of Allied Health, University of Sydney Shutterstock COVID might be the largest mass casualty event in Australian history. And with one in 20 people with COVID still experiencing symptoms three months later, long COVID might even become Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick O’Connor, Associate Professor, University of Adelaide A tiny parasitic mite that lives on the European honeybee (Apis mellifera) has breached Australia’s border quarantine and been detected in managed bee hives in New South Wales. This is bad news for Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Main, Visiting Scholar, Australian National University Shutterstock The COVID pandemic slowed mining activity across the Pacific. But as economic activity returns, an Australia-based company is poised to pursue what would be the largest mine in Papua New Guinea’s history. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachele Sloane, Graduate Researcher and Tutor – Master of Education, Student Wellbeing Specialisation (MGSE), The University of Melbourne Shutterstock New Child Safe Standards come into effect in Victoria this Friday, July 1. The set of 11 standards builds on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Morag Kobez, Associate lecturer, Queensland University of Technology shutterstock When the temperature drops in the southern hemisphere, you might like to stave off the chill with a big steaming pot of mulled wine, and fill your home with the comforting aroma ...
Russia's actions in Ukraine are an affront to the world but mustn't be allowed to create a more polarised, dangerous world, the prime minister says. ...
Russia's actions in Ukraine are an affront to the world but mustn't be allowed to create a more polarised, dangerous world, the prime minister says. ...
EDITORIAL:Bythe Rappler teamWe will continue bringing you the news, holding the powerful to account for their actions and decisions, calling attention to government lapses that further disempower the disadvantaged. We will hold the line. Dear readers and viewers, We thought this day would never come, even as ...
ANALYSIS:By Gavin Ellis The Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media Bill — introduced to Parliament this week — will have a long journey before it is fit for purpose. The Bill gives effect to the government’s plan to replace TVNZ and RNZ with a new entity designed for the digital ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caleb Goods, Senior Lecturer – Management and Organisations, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia Uber Australia has struck a historic agreement with the Transport Workers’ Union – a statement of principles that re-regulate work in the Australian rideshare and food ...
Today the signatures of 72 Mayors, Deputy Mayors, Councillors, Local board members, and the LGNZ Young Elected Members Committee will be handed to the Government in support of making the voting age 16 via an open letter organised by Make It 16. “Young ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Grogan, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, The Daffodil Centre, University of Sydney E-cigarettes and vape products are illegally imported into Australia. Some claim not to contain nicotine, but do.Simon Collins/Shutterstock ABC TV’s Four Corners this week reported how unlawful sale of e-cigarettes ...
However, more work is needed to understand the cost of rolling out a new approach to disability support, Minister for Disability Issues Poto Williams says. ...
Hospitality New Zealand is calling for MPs across Parliament to send ACT MP Chris Baillie’s Member’s Bill on repealing Easter trading restrictions to a select committee so hospitality businesses can have their say on whether to stay open or ...
On 1 July an exciting new Ministry for Disabled People – will come into being to lead much-needed change. There is nothing that people will need to do on day one to continue receiving disability support services. “Many disabled people and whānau ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra As well as her interviews with politicians and experts, Politics with Michelle Grattan includes “Word from The Hill”, where she discusses the news with members of The Conversation politics team. Michelle and Peter Browne from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Shutterstock “Stagflation” is an ugly word for an ugly situation – the unpleasant combination of economic stagnation and inflation. The last time the world experienced ...
The Ardern government has done it again, announcing a grandiose plan to reform Wellington’s transport system. The plan includes a long-overdue duplicate Mt Victoria tunnel, a rearrangement of the road around the Basin Reserve and a light rail operation from the city centre to the south coast, all in the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Legislation to tighten things, legislation to relax things and a speech which reminds us of threats to our democracy – from the PM, we are delighted to note – feature in the latest posts on the Beehive website. Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark has ...
The Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner has expressed disappointment over the delay in undertaking urgent action to address ethnic, gender and disability pay gaps across workplaces in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Government has committed to scoping ...
OP-ED by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). ...
Our report Improving value through better Crown entity monitoring was presented to the House of Representatives today. Crown entities carry out a wide range of important public services and functions. In 2020/21, Crown entities were responsible for 39% ...
Auckland Council has formally adopted the 2022/23 Annual Budget. This includes Mayor Phil Goff’s proposal for a billion-dollar “Climate Action” package to be funded by a new targeted rate levied on households. The Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance has ...
"The Wellington Chamber of Commerce welcomes today’s announcement of a preferred option for mass rapid transit," Chief Executive Simon Arcus said today. "It is good to see the government being very clear on its thoughts. These are the kind ...
Wellington Airport is welcoming progress on Wellington’s transport network with the Government announcing a preferred option today. “It’s good to see progress being made and a clear pathway forward,” says Wellington Airport chief executive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ismini Vasileiou, Associate Professor in Information Systems, De Montfort University Shutterstock Today marks 15 years since Apple released what’s arguably its flagship device: the iPhone. A decade and a half later, there are few products that have managed to reach ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Phillimore, Executive Director, John Curtin Institute of Public Policy, Curtin University Just before the Western Australian state election in March 2021, the then leader of the Liberal Party did an unusual thing. He conceded defeat – but then asked voters to ...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon says he has no interest "importing culture wars" into New Zealand after Roe v Wade was overturned in the US. ...
New polling out this morning confirms that Aucklanders overwhelmingly support fare free public transport. These results follow the release of a report jointly co-commissioned by FIRST Union and the NZ Public Service Association Te Kauae Kaimahi, making the ...
New research released today emphasises our growing concern for harmful content online. Today, the Classifications Office released their report, ‘What we’re watching - New Zealanders’ views about what we see on screen and online.’ The report shows ...
A new poll conducted by Talbot Mills purports to show overwhelming support for mayoral candidate Efeso Collins’ fares-free public transport policy. However, the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance says the wrong question was asked. The poll of 772 Aucklanders, ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is urging candidates to tone down their rhetoric and leave personal attacks out of the campaign. On Wednesday morning, The New Zealand Herald reported that mayoral candidate Efeso Collins and his family were “nearly ...
The Electoral Commission begins an enrolment drive today to make sure people are enrolled for this year’s local body elections. ‘It’s time to check you’re enrolled, and that you’re listed at the right address, so you’re ready to vote ...
New government information about the deepwater fish orange roughy shows the fish may not reach full maturity until the age of 80, throwing the entire management of the fishery into doubt. Orange roughy, a long-lived deepwater fish, grow and mature ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa has delivered its oral submission in support of the Fair Pay Agreements Bill, outlining how it will benefit workers and improve the quality of early childhood education. When the legislation comes into force the Union will be seeking a Fair ...
Hindu Youth New Zealand (HYNZ), a Division of Hindu Council of New Zealand Inc., is pleased to announce its first online webinar series focused on recent changes in visa, and immigration requirements in New Zealand – Pathway to Aotearoa . Whether ...
Crime victims are being urged to seek support even if they don’t report the crime. Victim Support, the charity that supported more than 43,000 victims of crime, trauma and suicide last year, says the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey released today ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Isaac Alan Robert Kerr, PhD Candidate for Palaeontology, Flinders University Illustration by Peter Schouten, Author provided Long ago, almost up until the end of the last ice age, a peculiar giant kangaroo roamed the mountainous rainforests of New Guinea. Now, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Strangio, Professor of Politics, Monash University Renewal or decline? These are the competing narratives that now surround Daniel Andrews’ Victorian Labor government, with five senior ministers exiting cabinet as a preliminary to leaving parliament at November’s state election. The resignations of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Senior Research Fellow, Western Sydney University Initial data from the 2021 census released this week shows Australia continues to become more culturally diverse. Almost half of us have at least one parent born overseas (48.2%), and almost a quarter ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Watson, Senior Lecturer in Disability and Inclusion, Deakin University Netflix The Netflix sci-fi horror series Stranger Things is vividly soaked in 1980s nostalgia, famously catapulting Kate Bush’s 1985 song Running up that Hill to the top of the music ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Hamilton, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences, University of New England Shutterstock A friend introduces their partner as “my current husband”. Another jokes about marriage as a life sentence. Everyone laughs, no one is surprised. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ayesha Scott, Senior Lecturer – Finance, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Cost of living is – and should be – on everyone’s mind. But how we are managing increasing costs could impact us well into retirement. As cost-of-living pressures ...
NZ Political Polls need to be held to account, to protect our democracy Ted Johnston, Auckland Mayoral candidate for the New Conservative party has called out Curia for its crooked poll. “Biased political polls can fix elections and this poll does ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Australians are becoming more fearful in an insecure world, and want to see the country armed up, favouring more defence spending and the planned acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines. Three quarters of Australians say it ...
By Leah Tebbutt, RNZ News reporter An Aotearoa New Zealand health workforce recruiting agency is fielding calls from senior US doctors who say they can no longer live in their own country. Accent Health Recruitment has been flooded with inquiries from US doctors wanting to come to New Zealand following ...
By Luke Nacei in Suva Foreign investors could be sent to jail in Fiji for breaking a new investment law, says the prominent Suva law firm Munro Leys. The company said the “vague and unsatisfactory” new Investment Act could create greater uncertainty for foreign investors. In a legal alert to ...
The working holiday scheme between New Zealand and Spain has been expanded to allow more young people to travel and work in each other's countries for up to two years. ...
The number of young New Zealanders and Spaniards who will be able to travel and work in each other's countries has increased from 200 to 2000 after a meeting between the two countries' leaders. ...
Reading this mornings Herald online i see that Rodney Hide is even a bigger liar and hypocrite that was first reported. It now seems that Ms Crome lives with him in Wellington during the week.
Makes his claim about time for MP’s relationships a bit hollow!
But doesn’t she go away on playing tours? so they have to grab what time together they can. For such a hard working person, like most MPs, I think it is completely reasonable that they should travel together when they can.
Yeah, I think it is the “say one thing when in opposition, do the opposite when in government” approach that Rodney is taking that seems to be the issue. There is a single word that sums it up and it begins with “H”.
Oh, and it bugs me that Rodney has tried to justify his travel allowance by saying “it didn’t come from the trough we have been told not to use, it came from a different one that we are allowed to use”.
JK set the principle – “if you want to take your partner, pay for them yourself.” Which is quite different to “if you want to take your partner, take it from a different trough.” In the end it is all taxpayer funded. I mostly pay two different kinds of tax (income tax and GST), it goes to thousands of different places and I don’t get, or want, a detailed breakdown of how it is spent. But spending taxpayer money on travel is spending taxpayer money on travel, irrespective of whether it comes through a ministers account or an MPs account. To be consistent with the PM’s direction, Rodney should have paid for his partner’s travel himself. If he pays back the amount and apologises that might go some way, otherwise I will have to conclude that the PM does not mean what he says.
I must agree… Come on Rodney:pay it back!
Lets get the whole Rodney thing back where it should be. The whole travel thing is a siideshow and distraction. It is not going to sink him, it merely shows him for what he is, a blown up in your face frick you egomaniac.
More to the point this whole thing is having a smokescreen effect on the real issue, that Hide is colluding with Auckland big business in an undemocratic way to strip the people of their assetts. ARC and councils (aka the Auckland regions ratepayers) currently own as much capital wealth as the whole NZSX, and these larcenists want it. They also then want you to pay forr the capital they need to bankroll the larceny over the forseeable future through such devices as privatised water bodies.
Is the electorate so thick as to not care? .
When will Labour ever come clean, determined to drop below the Greens.
Another MP poll-busted
4:00AM Sunday Nov 01, 2009
By Matt Nippert
A second Labour MP has been implicated in the fake-name polling scandal uncovered last week by the Herald on Sunday.
The volunteer who came forward last week to blow the whistle said she was recruited by MP Iain Lees-Galloway, who was also present when the polling took place.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10606597
Yawn
Well STOP THE PRESS!
And here’s me thinking the Deputy PM and Minister of Finance thieving thousands and thousands from the public purse was bad.
If you start to criticise another member of parliament for alleged lying, you need to make sure you are perfect!
Three out of four people surveyed agreed that Doug was beating a dead horse over this issue.
LOL. Aren’t you assuming “Doug” is his real name?
Don’t think this is purely a Labour thing. What is implied when National choose not to attack over this. Even Gerry Brownlee on Morning Report (RNZ) suggested that this was a beat-up.
When it comes to the climate change debate, the common criticism I have seen is that contrary evidence can’t be accepted because it hasn’t been peer reviewed.
I want to take the opportunity to point out that the peer review process isn’t all its cracked up to be, and that the published evidence in any field can provide an extremely distorted picture due to a number of potential biases in the process.
A common bias is the positivity bias. This bias means that reviewers tend to prefer to publish research that shows a positive effect rather than research that shows no effect. However, in reality, the research that shows no effect can be just as important as research that shows a positive effect. Here is an article from another field, medicine, that provides empirical evidence of the problem:
http://blogs.openaccesscentral.com/blogs/bmcblog/entry/publication_bias_on_location_at
This bias is potentially very serious for the field of climate change. This is because the null hypothesis will often be something like “observed changes are due to natural variability”. Thus, any research that confirms the null hypothesis is much less likely to be published, potentially providing a skewed view of reality. Lets assume that the research was 50/50 either way. In that case I would expect there to be much more published research in favour of climate change, than against it due to the positivity bias alone.
There are several other relevant biases that are likely to have an impact:
For instance, the name and affiliation of a research can have a substantial effect on whether an article is published:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_18_169/ai_n26698930/
Thus, if most reviewers hold a position of supporting the climate change debate, it is less likely they will accept research from those with contrary views, regardless of the objective merits of the research.
Another possibility arising from these types of biases is that even scientists who support climate change are less likely to put forward research if it fails to find an effect from climate change. This is because they are likely to fear being seen in the camp of “the deniers” simply because their research has not found an effect.
Thus, relying only on published peer reviewed literature leaves people open to getting a skewed view of reality, especially in a field such as climate change where there are very polarised views.
Peer review is as you say not what it is always cracked up to be. It is best described as a ‘necessary but not sufficient condition’. Peer review weeds out papers with bad errors and basic mistakes, however it’s also obvious that the process is not foolproof and that for a number of reasons, flawed work can and does get published.
The perils of positivity and confirmation bias are drummed into every undergraduate student. While they are a real and present danger, they are strongly guarded against. Any working researcher who is shown to make this basic kind of error too often, will quickly find their career at an end.
Scientists are not a uniform group who all think exactly alike. A consensus is just that, a model or line of thought that is agreed upon at that point in time… but no more than that. Every individual scientist has their own opinions, view points and line of attack on the problems. The idea of white coated hordes all trapped into the same hive mentality is so much nonsense.
Indeed, given the profile of the AGW issue… there would be enormous rewards and several Nobel prizes for anyone who could conclusively prove that all the data really could be explained by natural variation alone, and that humans really could pump as much CO2 into the atmosphere and the resulting excess IR absorbtion would have no effect. Yet so far no-one has been able to do this.
Really this whole argument boils down to three options:
1. The large majority of qualified and experienced climate scientists have independently concluded that AGW is a real and threatening phenomonon.
2. The large majority of qualified and experienced climate scientists have suddenly and mysteriously all lost competency at what they do, that they all made a whole lot of errors, across many different approaches to AGW, that have all independently reached the same wrong conclusion.
3. The large majority of qualified and experienced climate scientists are all secretly colluding together to hoax the world in order to gain secure access to funding. And that no-one has so far been able to produce concrete evidence of this massive conspiracy.
“The large majority of qualified and experienced climate scientists are all secretly colluding together to hoax the world in order to gain secure access to funding.”
This is what tsmithfield is saying.
Exaggerated claims undermine drive to cut emissions, scientists warn.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/earth-environment/article6896152.ece
Interesting stuff Doug.
What they are saying is that if people make claims that cannot be proven, or are easily questioned, other dishonest fuckwits will use that as a reason to do nothing, which would be a disaster.
This is because the null hypothesis will often be something like “observed changes are due to natural variability’.
Umm it is clear that you’ve never been around science much.
Your medical analogy is strained because the vast majority of medical research is funded by medical providers like drug and medical equipment companies. They don’t like publishing null hypotheses (ie it didn’t do anything or was detrimental) about their products – so it doesn’t get to peer review. It is pretty much a case of why the profit motivation of the market isn’t that good at doing basic research (and great for simple engineering research).
By contrast most of the earth sciences research comes from various not-for-profit bodies, largely with tenure, and with few commercial attachments. Most of the participants are more than mildly cantankerous, and enjoy taking the contary positions if there was evidence to support it. The usual struggle is to get a place to publish rather than getting past reviewers. Reviewers tend to prefer letting through contary positions with substantiated evidence to papers on known material because to disagree with evidence is science.
With the CCD ‘scientists’, what is always interesting about them consists of several factors.
1. They usually have some quite interesting commercial links.
2. They literally never have new data, just reinterpretations of old data.
3. Their reinterpretations don’t have testable predictions.
In other words they are crank critics, not scientists. That is mainly why they don’t present papers to reviewers, and when they do, they don’t get published. The quality is too damn poor.
Most of the participants are more than mildly cantankerous,
LOL… that is for fracken sure. (Thinking back to the five years I actually worked for some geo-phsycists.)
erm, no. Just about any pattern in the world is made up of a ton of contributing factors, and a lot of work is done in trying to tease out what these factors are. ‘Natural variability’ is not any sort of nailed down constant, it’s a huge & complex soup, with a few strong contenders for the ingredients list. A lot of climate change study is not focussed on AGW, but paleoclimatology, which is about the only place where you can look at a range of time scales and evidence to ease out what some of these ingredients are on different time scales. These range from plate tectonics (for eg. the opening of the Drake Passage & formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current), to Milankovic cycles to Solar activity. What is typical is that not one pattern explains the variation seen in proxy records, particularly as the mechanisms are often indirect; what you can get however, is an idea of how much of the pattern you’re interested in (for example global temperature patterns over time) is explained by the factor you’re looking at, and what the ‘residuals’ are, that is the left over bits.
I have a pattern of setting my alarm for 6:20 AM on weekday mornings, but actual real world results don’t match this. If I compare the real world results with the predicted results, I’m left with the odd discrepancy – the odd days when I forgot to switch the alarm on (or the weekends when I forgot to switch it off!), power cuts etc might explain the variation that would not have been expected.
What I’m getting at is that determining these sorts of residuals & what causes them in climate data (be it global anomalies or local variation) are results, it doesn’t just come down to null vs alternative hypothesis. Secondly, it’s not that difficult to frame a null hypothesis in the other way, and I’d be surprised if no-one has eg have your null hypothesis as Anthropogenic Global Warming explaining the variation, vs your alternative hypothesis being solar activity (or whatever natural variability factor/s you’re looking at) explaining the same better and bingo; if AGW explains the pattern better then you might have a problem getting it published, if solar activity explains the pattern better you have a result.
In reality you don’t get a whole lot of studies on ‘AGW or ‘natural variability’ as a whole, and nor as an simple either/ o proposition. What you get is people looking at where the data doesn’t fit the best matching patterns (CO2 concentrations & orbital geometry) and looking into why this is, ie what the residuals might be caused by.
You won’t find many climate scientists who don’t believe in natural variability, but you will find that no-one has managed to explain observed warming trends by natural variability alone. As Redlogix points out above, there’s no shortage of incentive for someone to do this.
Just like there was no shortage of incentive to find that tobacco smoke doesn’t contribute to ill health, and certainly no lack of support for those scientists who found it worth their while to find no evidence of harmful effects.
Include John Key in this scam since Rodney “checked” with him twice before setting off on his perk trip with live in girlfriend. Why? Maybe a little voice was telling him THIS IS WRONG! Attempts to justify this episode prove Key & Hide lack integrity. SHAME on them both when there are NZers financially struggling.
Exactly CC, why would an experienced politician check anything with the leader of another party, let alone twice, unless he had misgivings?
Pecuniary Interests.
What is the difference between Blinglish’s family trust and Jonkey’s family trust? I gather that when Tranzrail questions were being asked in the house the defence was that the questioner had no pecuniary interest in the trust that held the shares.
To eat meat or not … a question with regard to global warming.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/opinion/31niman.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th
yeah, or to eat less meat, or to eat different meat.
For my part I can walk 5 minutes away and buy wild venison/ bacon/ goat/ rabbit; to my mind you can’t get more environmentally friendly than that. Not that everyone’s so lucky with their local shopping. It’s certainly a lot more environmentally friendly than my more sanctimonious vegetarian friends who eat lots and lots of cheese (bobby calves, stream pollution etc).
Interesting thinkpiece on global economy from Prof Robert Wade, NZ with London School of Economics affiliate aptly acronymed DESTIN (discussing our future likely destiny which can not be fully predicted, so the ‘Y’ is left hanging?). Can hear on radionz from Chris Laidlaw Sunday morning prog.
Has the Rod Oram sound, careful, considered thinking around the problems and possibly solutions. The future isn’t great, a W effect in global finance, and we now are in the middle – likely to go down again in 2010/11 when the effect of the stimulus from govts fades, and those are unlikely to be similarly repeated. More war activity from USA. Sounds feasible looking at past history. Good insightful stuff.
You are right.
I thought it was Oram for a while. He certainly had the same deep thoughtful way of expressing himself.
When are we going to have more updates on the cycleway, cost “to date” and the number of jobs that’ve been created?
I must have been so busy working that I missed them.
Don’t ya see Ak nut? The cycleway was a ploy to distract and give the Left something to debate while the serious stuff is deflected. Cunning plan eh!
Use of the term ‘tipping point’ coined by Malcolm Gladwell in his 2000 book of that name which describes “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable” (wikipedia), has reached a tipping point. Hereafter people who use the term shall be regarded as unimaginative imbeciles.
It’s great to be clever on this site but wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to be firing this type of thing thru to Granny Herald or the like to get those rags to be held accountable for their lack of investigative journalism into the likes of the Rodney Hide rorts or the disgraceful self promotion of the finance minister? And where was the outcry from the media when 500 health jobs disappeared due to restructuring? The converted are being preahced to here. With the govt’s honeymoon going way beyond what is normal, now is the time to be bombarding the media with the type of comments made on this site.