Posts by Brent Jackson
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Follow on thread is here
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Hard News: The silence of the public square, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
According to The Electoral Act 1993 (and subsequent amendments) :
144 Deposit by candidate
(1) Every constituency candidate, or some person on the constituency candidate’s behalf, shall deposit with the Returning Officer the sum of $300 not later than noon on nomination day.
(2) The deposit shall be paid in the form of money, a bank draft, or a bank cheque.
(3) The deposit of an unsuccessful candidate is forfeit and must be paid into the Crown Bank Account if the candidate receives in total less than 5% of the total number of votes received by constituency candidates in the district.
(4) In every other case, the deposit of a constituency candidate must be returned to the person who paid it, but only after the Electoral Commission has received a duly completed return under section 210 in respect of that candidate.So it costs you $300, unless you manage to get 5% of the valid votes.
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Hard News: The silence of the public square, in reply to Chris Waugh,
What annoys me about the “you lose your right to complain argument” is that it denies people the right to abstain as a conscious decision.
If one wishes to abstain as a conscious decision, then you should turn up, get your voting papers, and use them to not vote. That way your abstention will be counted.
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Hard News: The silence of the public square, in reply to Luke Williamson,
Guest; “I always vote National but I’m not political”.
Me; “Oh, good. If you’re not political, could you vote Labour this time for my benefit.”
Guest; “No. I always vote National.”But you may have planted a seed of doubt - "Why do I always vote National ?".
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Do away with the goalkeeper position and reduce the height of the goals to 1m ?
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Conflict resolution should so be an NCEA subject !
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We need to stop talking about violence against women as if it can be “solved” by tweaking an Act or giving the maximum penalty to an offender. The way men offend against women is inextricably tied to the way society perceives women, and when we simply increase the penalty for an offence, we’re not targeting the root of the problem.
This. Definitely this.
By the time the law becomes involved, it is too late; the victims have already been created.
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Hear hear !
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With respect to instant hot water from electricity, when we put in the Solar Hot Water System, we looked at getting an electric instant hot water for the kitchen sink (because it was as far from the roof HWC as possible). What I wanted was a thermostat regulated one that I could put on the Hot Water pipe that would heat the water to the required temperature, so once the water sitting in the pipes had drained through and the water from the cylinder started arriving, the electric instant hot water wouldn't be doing much any more. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any product that worked like this. All of them seemed to assume a cold water feed, and heated for a fixed time to give an approximate output. So I did the math and wasting the 5 litres of water in the piping and then using the Solar hot water, was much better than using electricity to heat cold water. In point of fact, the water is not wasted, as we use it to rinse things off before we start the dishes anyway.
I also wanted the hot water pipe connected to the dishwasher, but the plumber talked me out of it, and stated that it would invalidate the warranty. I still regret that I wasn't more forceful about it. Has anyone else ever connected a hot water feed to the dishwasher ?
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We have had Solar Hot Water heating for about 8 years now. We needed to move our existing HWC (hot water cylinder) as we re-developed our kitchen, and decided to go Solar. The maths at the time ($7500) was such that financially it was not worthwhile as the loss on interest on the capital outlay was less than the projected savings. But we got it anyway because we could afford it and wanted to do our bit for reducing CO2 generation. However, the price of electricity has gone up, and interest rates have fallen a lot, so it probably has paid for itself.
We turn the electric element in our HWC off sometime in November, and don't usually turn it on again 'til April. This means we have $80 to $90 electricity bills over summer (family of 4 with 2 teenagers). In winter this goes to $150 or so, because we do use electric heating, (though we do not keep the house at a comfortable temperature all the time - we wear more clothes). Whenever I've discussed this with people they've been astounded that our bills are so low.
We got an Edwards Solar system, which we chose because it has a separate gycol system which is heated by the sun (ie the sun does not directly heat the water). My mother and brother have each had problems with systems that heat the water directly.
Hope this helps.