Posts by George Darroch

Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First

  • Hard News: Medical Matters,

    if your body had any autonomy, you'd just let it do it's thing

    Which is precisely the point. If women have bodily autonomy, you let them do their thing. If you're interfering in choices over their body, you are quite clearly interfering with their bodily autonomy.

    p.s. dozens of posts that say very little, and are long on rhetoric is known on the internet as trolling. This forum sustains argument, but it doesn't generally like (in my experience) posts that are more heat than light.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report

  • Hard News: Bean-Counting the Beat,

    I haven't commented on this thread, but I do have something to say; thank god we don't have Triple J in NZ. There are good Australian bands, but they don't get local exposure - properly local rather than nationwide. To get on the radio in a small or medium size city, you have to make it nationwide. Compare this to the b-Net. This means that bands aren't getting the feedback on their music they need, and persist on playing shit music. I certainly hope the b-net's role as in fostering new music persists.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Sutch Files,

    closer to home, the student pilot thrown out of NZ (and jailed in Saudi Arabia) because he briefly shared a room with one of the September 2001 hijackers.

    When the proposed immigration bill goes through, things like this will be par for the course.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report

  • Island Life: Songs in the life of Key,

    Why do I have to start a fscking blog site to read them?

    Indeed.

    Stephen Judd is too modest to link to his ruminator's digest of the last year's news, but it is truly compelling viewing. It's both beautiful and disturbing, and describes the print media in less than two minutes.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report

  • Island Life: Songs in the life of Key,

    Don Christie said,

    policy one might expect from 9 friggin years in opposition

    forgetting that National has 14 policies generated in those long dark years.

    That said, I'm extremely disturbed by some of the things that Labour is doing. Instituting Guantanamo standards in it's new Immigration Bill, for one. After nine years, this Government isn't listening to any of its critics, and for that reason alone I think they should spend some time in the cold. At least changes made by National would have strident opposition.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report

  • Hard News: Don Paul,

    So we agree with George Bush now. If you don't like their politics shoot them. Great philosophy Dislike even hate the actions of others but don't hate them.

    I thought that I said largely the opposite. I left Iraq out of the comment deliberately. I think terrible things would have happened had the United States removed Hussein and done everything else "right". But they made so many monumental f' ups in the first few years that even trying to imagine that counterfactual strains my capabilities.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report

  • Hard News: Don Paul,

    A well-placed bullet in a fancy restaurant could help solve a lot of Zimbabwe's problems.

    Etc. There is no doubt that sometimes removing a dictator solves a country's problems, and a transition to democracy follows. But often, one despot is removed, and another steps into place, or the country disintegrates. None of which is to say we should support dictators, but that we should have our eyes open about the possible consequences.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report

  • OnPoint: Bandwagon Hobos,

    soy products but they're not cheap either - 500 mls of most non-GMO soy milk is around the AUD $3.00 mark.

    I buy soy milk from Aldi at $1.49 per litre, and So Good is $2.35 at my local IGA, so I'm sure it doesn't have to be that expensive. I paid about $2.50 per litre in NZ.

    The whole calcium and dairy thing is vastly overstated; as you would expect it's is pushed heavily by the dairy industry. Yes, there is a reasonable level of calcium in milk, but there are similar amounts of calcium in a large range of other foods, some of which allow the body to take the mineral better than milk, which contains large amounts of protein (which inhibits uptake). The Physisicians Committee for Responsible Medicine provide a counterpoint to the dairy lobbies, on this and other issues.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report

  • OnPoint: Bandwagon Hobos,

    Steve Barnes said

    the next time you take a long trip in an aeroplane, have a look out of the window and see just how insignificant the human impact is on a global scale.

    He's not looking very hard. Last time I flew, I saw a coal power station emitting huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. I saw large areas that had been cleared in the last century, and forests that were being cleared below me.

    I would also like to remind Steve that the 2006 article he cites says

    "There is no reason to believe that methane levels will remain stable in the future,"

    It now appears the pause is over, and levels are increasing again (NOAA ESRL).

    The article also notes that

    "There is no reason to believe that methane levels will remain stable in the future," Simpson says. "For example, in the future methane levels could increase as a result of increased natural gas and energy use, climate change feedbacks and/or a decrease in the global abundance of the hydroxyl radical, which chemically removes methane from the atmosphere." Potentially catastrophic amounts of methane lie trapped as so-called burning ices, or methane hydrates, in the permafrost beneath arctic tundra--as much as 10,000,000 teragrams still trapped compared with just 5,000 teragrams in the atmosphere today, according to Simpson.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report

  • OnPoint: Bandwagon Hobos,

    Organic producers are typically inefficient, and let the margins make up for it. It's the poor quality that irks me, since this is in no way inevitable.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report

Last ←Newer Page 1 215 216 217 218 219 227 Older→ First