Posts by Rich of Observationz
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A researcher can't say, you signed the consent last November so I can now do what I want
So if, for instance, a future left-wing government wanted to put up higher-rate tax in the second year of its term, it shouldn't be able to, because any consent it had for its policies has expired?
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Maybe one could have a system where the votes of non-voters were allocated at random in proportion to those who did vote (which would obviously make no difference to the result).
Then, each non-voter would get a letter/email informing them who they had autovoted for. Being told you'd voted for Peters or Dunne might galvanise them into voting next time.
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I'm sure if you got paid at your usual wage rate for jury service, a lot more people wouldn't arrange notes of excuse.
I doubt it would cost that much in the overall scheme of things.
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Hard News: Briefing, blaming, backing down, in reply to Joe Wylie,
There's an order of magnitude difference between NZ and Aussie political corruption.
NZ corruption would be having written the answers on one's arm in a school test.
Aussie corruption would be having one's political opponents murdered and buried in the concrete of a new motorway. -
Cracker: Audience wanted for lively TV discussion, in reply to Rob Stowell,
half a kva of solar can be had for about $2k
Can you recommend some suppliers - is that NZ or overseas sourced?
I've been looking at the idea of a portable solar rig to take to festivals and so on - basically a battery/inverter setup and panels that can replace a generator (with improved reliability, no messing with petrol, etc). We had this in Spain in '07 with two door sized panels (about 250w IIRC) charging all day and running a floodlight overnight - lots of sun and long days though.
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Could you not achieve something similar on a DSLR by automatically firing a sequence of shots while adjusting the focus? (Are there any cameras with that sort of programmability? The first DSLR that has 3G+WiFi and runs Android gets my cash - as in, a camera with phone bits, not a phone with camera bits).
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Cracker: Audience wanted for lively TV discussion, in reply to Damian Christie,
Not in Auckland, I'm afraid.
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Hard News: The Perfect Drug, in reply to Russell Brown,
a new and very different perspective on drug regulation
Bet that doesn't get past Dunne.
Something I notice about the drug regulation debate is that there are many people who believe that if they marshal their arguments well enough and make a sound case for a science-based policy, government will change. It doesn't work like that - illegal drugs are illegal in order to enable government to pose as the friend and protector of the non-drug-taking majority.
It's an othering strategy - same with child abuse. Paula Bennet doesn't give a stuff about abused kids - she wants her white (lower) middle class support base to be able to feel superior to those nasty ferals.
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I thought the AK-74 with the modified stock was more interesting than the drugs. Not sure how useful one of those would be in drug dealing though - it's kinda big to conceal.
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Cracker: Audience wanted for lively TV discussion, in reply to st ephen,
Auckland versus Barcelona
I couldn't find CO2 per capita numbers for Auckland - if you have them please post.
My point is that if we had 15 million people all living in existing urban areas then our CO2 numbers would be a lot better.
The problem with I have with 'future cheap home PV' and all other technical promises is that they're a distraction. We have the ability to go to 100% renewable electricity *now*, with existing, off-the-shelf technology on identified sites. What's stopping us is a lack of political will - the electricity pseudo-market makes it appear cheaper to just keep Huntly running.
If in the future, we have PV that's too cheap to meter, we'll be able to restore wind farms and dams back to their original state. Until then, we should just get on with it.