Open mike 11/08/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 11th, 2010 - 28 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

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28 comments on “Open mike 11/08/2010 ”

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  1. jcuknz 1
    11 August 2010 at 9:04 am

    For those who believe that wind generated power is a viable and good way to progress here is an article about Portugal’s experience and rapid progress over the past few years.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/science/earth/10portugal.html?th&emc=th

  2. jcuknz 2
    11 August 2010 at 9:14 am

    And what is happening in Britain as the 130 billion cut in Government spending starts to bite as they try to balance the budget.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/world/europe/10britain.html?th&emc=th

  3. jcuknz 3
    11 August 2010 at 9:49 am

    Famous last words?

    “They are superdomesticated and they just don’t really like to go wild,’ said Norman Ellstrand, a professor of genetics at the University of California, Riverside.

    Refering to genetically modified canola plants which are growing as weeds, in one case reported still growing while everything else around was killed by spraying.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/science/10canola.html?th&emc=th

    Still they are nice yellow flowers .. yellow is my favourite colour 🙂

  4. Armchair Critic 4
    11 August 2010 at 10:38 am

    Four days in a row the Open Mike post has had an extra zero in the title. Can one of the moderators please change it back to 2010. The thought of skipping ahead 18,000 years and finding National are in government is scary.

  5. The Voice of Reason 5
    11 August 2010 at 11:12 am

    An interesting take on the problems caused by unions accessing workplaces:

    “However, they indicated that they have not received many complaints from employers regarding workplace access by unions. In some instances where access to workplaces has been an issue, (they) believe poor understanding of the current law by employers has been the source of the dispute. They suggest that educative resources may be of value in raising a better level of understanding of the Act for employers.’

    Who’s ‘they’ I hear you asking? The EPMU? The CTU? Some far left ginger group? Nope its, er, Business New Zealand.

    So, if the employers don’t think there is a problem, why is Wilkinson proposing this change?

    The quoted passage comes from the DOL advice given to the Minister. The rest of the advice is along similar lines and can be found here:

    http://www.dol.govt.nz/initiatives/workplace/ers/unionacces.pdf

    • prism 5.1
      11 August 2010 at 8:27 pm

      Has this NACT government got a mission for each of its ministers to think up some key policy changes that should reduce cost of government? It seems they all must make changes whether or not they are good policy.

  6. john 6
    11 August 2010 at 11:24 am

    Have we reached the stage of runaway climate change? Considering the incredible temps the Russians are suffering from and the unbelievable floods in Pakistan?
    Refer link http://www.countercurrents.org/glikson090810.htm

    • john 6.1
      11 August 2010 at 12:01 pm

      Hi, another link on the big increase in temps lately:
      http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/127215-we-re-hot-as-hell-and-we-re

      • Draco T Bastard 6.1.1
        11 August 2010 at 3:03 pm

        Global warming shows no signs of levelling off

        It has also found that something like 93 per cent of the extra heat has been taken up by the oceans, so it is hardly surprising that this additional warming may be having a detrimental impact on the microscopic plant life that forms the base of the marine food chain.

        Emphasis mine

        IMO, we hit runaway climate change a while back – we just haven’t realised it yet.

    • Bored 6.2
      11 August 2010 at 1:04 pm

      John, its well advanced but I hope to hell it’s not run away yet. The real issue for us Cassandras is to:

      • keep the noise up to all and sundry.
      • act locally to do what you can.

      There are one hell of a lot of “peak’ issues that all link back to the commonality of “growth’ of our environmental foot print and impact. To address them we need critical mass of agreement and it’s a long way off. Don’t despair or nothing will happen, but keep calling a spade a spade.

      BTW my tomatoes never ripened in Wgtn last year due to the cold winds we had up until December, maybe caused by an extremely warm mid Pacific water mass drawing cold air from the southern oceans. Global warming is slightly bizarre, but it is there it is.

    • jcuknz 6.3
      12 August 2010 at 8:40 am

      According to the Met guy on Morning Report this morning it is not the first time this event has occoured, mayhem in the upper atmosphere or something.

    • john 6.4
      12 August 2010 at 1:45 pm

      Hi, Climate Change again, getting worse: here’s a link explaining the extreme freakish winter temps hitting South America! refer link:
      http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2010/07/record-cold-hits-south-america-carbon.html

  7. john 7
    11 August 2010 at 11:44 am

    Paula Bennett will be getting tips on how to do her job from members of the failed free market greed is all state of the US. John continues to practice the ideology that comes from that unhappy land refer link
    http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Archives2009/RobertsUSFailedState.html

  8. mickysavage 8
    11 August 2010 at 1:27 pm

    This from today’s Herald …

    An island of ice more than four times the size of Manhattan is drifting across the Arctic Ocean after breaking off from a glacier in Greenland.

    Potentially in the path of this unstoppable giant are oil platforms and shipping lanes – and any collision could do untold damage. In a worst case scenario, large chunks could reach the heavily trafficked waters where another Greenland iceberg sank the Titanic in 1912.

    It’s been a summer of near biblical climatic havoc across the planet, with wildfires, heat and smog in Russia and killer floods in Asia. But the moment the Petermann glacier cracked last week – creating the biggest Arctic ice island in half a century – may symbolise a warming world like no other.

    Of course climate change is a myth and we are actually cooling or at the end of a hocky stick or something …

    Link is at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10665275

    • felix 8.1
      11 August 2010 at 2:44 pm

      250 square kilometres can be hard to visualise, so try picturing (roughly) all of Wellington up to Porirua.

      Aucklanders, about the size of Gt Barrier Is. Or most of the Manukau Harbour.

      Central dwellers, picture the eastern half of Lake Taupo. The big half.

      And South Islanders? Don’t worry, like mickey said it’s all a big hoax.

      • NickS 8.1.1
        11 August 2010 at 4:39 pm

        And South Islanders? Don’t worry, like mickey said it’s all a big hoax.

        Grrrrr.

        If anything the North Island has more Fed Farmers science denying bozos than the South Island 😛

    • prism 8.2
      11 August 2010 at 8:32 pm

      Stephen Hawking has used his fine brain to work out an objective position for humans with means – set up house on another planet. I don’t think he is strong on irony so there’s an idea.

      Anyone read Greg Bear? I think he wrote a story where a group left for another planet. The ones left behind were really p.o.

      • loota 8.2.1
        11 August 2010 at 8:52 pm

        Then there are the Golgafrinchans from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. They concocted a story about a world ending calamity in order to load the useless third of their homeworld population into a deep space ark and send them off so that the rest of them could stay behind and enjoy life without them.

  9. NickS 9
    11 August 2010 at 4:48 pm

    From the What the Fuck [Insert Peer Reviewed Journal here]? Files, comes this:
    Biblical fever = influenza. You’re kidding me, right?

    Surely the reviews and Editor were drunk when they let this one through…

  10. Tigger 10
    11 August 2010 at 7:16 pm

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/4013987/Online-job-ads-continue-to-grow

    Online ad numbers are bigger than last year. All this conclusively proves is that more people are advertising online – not using print ads… It’s not evidence that jobless numbers are plumetting. Try again Basher…

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