Open mike 16/11/09

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, November 16th, 2009 - 11 comments
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Over to you…

11 comments on “Open mike 16/11/09 ”

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  1. mickysavage 1
    16 November 2009 at 7:21 am

    I see the ETS select committee report is due to be released today. I have two questions:

    1. Has Treasury actually worked out how much it will cost?
    2. How much is it?

  2. Bored 2
    16 November 2009 at 9:22 am

    Good questions Mickey if you believe in the present economic paradigm. I think you might better have demanded Treasury and the current economic establishment to account for all ecological and resource based costs and then pose a more fundamental question. Something like do you want your children and grandchildren to stay cool, fed, and above water?

  3. prism 3
    16 November 2009 at 9:54 am

    Fishing stocks and quota in NZ. Has been hailed as great, only because there is a lack of legislation and control in so many other places. But right from the start the small fishermen started selling small quotas they had to bigger players. Charging high prices for the right to fish under quota by quota holders probably keeps from overfishing that type. Better use of the bycatch and the charge for it being lowered could be the answer to a viable NZ owned and operated fleet. They say that they can’t continue at present returns and more foreign ships and crews will be utilised instead.

  4. vto 4
    16 November 2009 at 9:56 am

    Am I still banned for calling rocky a ‘fucking idiot’ in a thread following her calling me a ‘fuckwit’ in another?

    I want to play in the sandpit again.

  5. prism 5
    16 November 2009 at 10:00 am

    Family Start is a support agency for parents and young children. It was introduced I think by Bill English when there was a call by a UN agency for more help and support for such parents. Now there is a mention that it is under threat because overseas it hasn’t shown significant benefits – measured by how? Where? And why shouldn’t it be beefed up in NZ so it can be more effective? Life is made constantly harder for parents, bth low income and middle, in NZ and no assistance should be jerked away.

    • mickysavage 5.1
      16 November 2009 at 10:55 am

      The Herald is blaming Labour for it failing. If what you say is right (and I have no reason to disbelieve you) there appear be two not small difficulties with this:

      1. If National started it.
      2. If it is not failing.

      Oh for a professional and dedicated MSM.

      • BLiP 5.1.1
        16 November 2009 at 5:00 pm

        you’d think the New Zealand Fox News Herald would, at the very least, want to fact check its front page lead!!

  6. Tigger 6
    16 November 2009 at 4:30 pm

    A bunch of 16 and 17 year olds have been buying fake licences. I love this quote.

    “Mr Watson said those who were fully cooperative and whose only intention was to use the forgery to buy alcohol or enter bars or clubs were formally cautioned.

    “Those who are uncooperative or who have perhaps more sinister motives are still being investigated with a view to prosecution.”

    Sinister motives? What can you do at age 18 that you can’t do earlier that is sinister? The only thing I can think of is vote for a right wing party…

  7. Draco T Bastard 7
    16 November 2009 at 5:26 pm

    New School of Thought Brings Energy to ‘the Dismal Science’

    Through analyzing historical production data, experts say the petroleum sector’s EROI in this country was about 100-to-1 in 1930, meaning one had to burn approximately 1 barrel of oil’s worth of energy to get 100 barrels out of the ground. By the 1990s, it is thought, that number slid to less than 36-to-1, and further down to 19-to-1 by 2006.

    If you go from using a 20-to-1 energy return fuel down to a 3-to-1 fuel, economic collapse is guaranteed, as nothing is left for other economic activity, said Nate Hagens, editor of the popular peak oil blog “The Oil Drum.”

    And no amount of technology can fix the problem. Hagens points out that oil extraction has evolved by leaps and bounds since the early 1900s, and yet companies must expend much more energy to get less and less oil than they did back then.

    “It isn’t that there’s no technology,” Hall said. “The question is, technology is in a race with depletion, and that’s a whole different concept. And we think that we can show empirically that depletion is winning, because the energy return on investment keeps dropping for gas and oil.”

    • prism 7.1
      16 November 2009 at 8:18 pm

      This is something from Mike 15/11. “Peak Oil, i.e. it’s not going to be an issue till the end of this century (see October 09 issue of Scientific American, “Squeezing More Oil from the Ground’ pp36)”
      Any comment on this publication Draco? I don’t know why they put such a long timeframe for oil problems to develop.