Posts by Tinakori
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Speaker: Misrepresenting Kiribati and…, in reply to linger,
"The details of the cited articles (rather than just their headlines) tend to support my comments above."
Maybe if you're on the staff of the Lysenko Institute for Scientific Investigation........
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Speaker: Misrepresenting Kiribati and…, in reply to linger,
On the contrary these are statistical processes with memory. In this case the memory of the physical history of the islands for the last 60 years. And that memory - the 12-30% increase in observable land area in the sample islands - directly contradicts the hypothesis that Kiribati (and others) have now and in the past suffered from land loss arising from climate change. Land loss arising from climate change and sea level rising is a possible hypothesis about what will happen at some point in the future but it is not supported by evidence in these islands as as yet.
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Speaker: Misrepresenting Kiribati and…, in reply to linger,
There's a whole series of papers on the subject at http://www.env.auckland.ac.nz/people/p-kench
In one sample of 27 islands they found that 23 had increased in size over the last 60 years, including all of the islands in the sample from Kiribati, which had increased by between 12 and 30%. This at time when sea levels have been rising, although the rate of atoll accretion has been higher. They will have problems when and if that is not the case, but not at the moment, which suggests any current case for climate change refugee status would not have an empirical foundation.
"Slam dunk. Is that a climate change joke?"
Based on the above, not yet.
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It's also not a slam dunk that Kiribati is mortally threatened by climate change.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/9963480/Pacific-atolls-resilient-to-rising-seas-study
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"There are a number of things to bear in mind regarding the story about British Prime Minister David Cameron putting his thing in a pig."
Jeez, Russell,"thing"? Did William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Henry Miller et al die in vain. There are a gazillion perfectly good words for penis - including penis - in the English language, wang, dick, cock, willy, etc, etc, etc, but "thing" has to be one of the most feeble. Or have I somehow missed the Hard News special Be Considerate to Queen Victoria Week?
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"Yes, they’re expecting $30,000,000 a year in profit from South Auckland Wiri prison"
I think that's revenue not profit.
The disappointing thing about the performance of Serco is that it is all too similar to the work of the Department of Corrections. They were supposed to be better.
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Hard News: Everybody has one, in reply to Russell Brown,
"....his endless editorials are inevitably full of mistakes and misapprehensions, especially on any economic matter."
That's how I feel about Dita De Boni, I'm afraid.
"Du Fresne is a puzzle. His feature writing is generally excellent. His columns, or worse, his blog posts, are often weird and cranky"
My test is whether I read them to the end and can enjoy them on the way.
For me, Dave Armstrong and Karl are very similar on that criterion, irrespective of the views they express in reaching the end.
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".......it'd be forgotten by the next election, and all their mouthpieces would be long gone."
And so would the media platforms for any opinion outside of state broadcasting.
Look, as someone who enjoys well expressed opinion from any part of the left/right continuum, I don't find any difference whatsoever between Mike Hosking and Dita De Boni. Both appear to express themselves wholly in cliches and are long on unsupported assertion and short on penetrating analysis.
Media companies are not so well off, including the radio outlets, that they can afford to take strong political stances irrespective of their commercial underpinnings. If they could make money from a left wing version of Mike Hosking they would so. In fact, long ago and not so far away there was a left wing version of Mike Hosking. Her name was Pam Corkery. Her outlet, Radio Pacific, staffed mostly by hosts in or heading towards their haemorrhoid years and aimed at a comparable audience, was a power in the land.
Dave Armstrong writes an explicitly left wing column in the Dom Post that is entirely readable. His liberal counterpart, former Dominion Editor Karl Du Fresne is also a much better writer than either Hosking or De Boni. Both spend time on the particular before going to the general which gives their writing texture and lowers the ranting ratio in each column. Maybe there is something in the Wellington and Wairarapa water?
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Polity: New Zealand and the TPP: “Or…, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Its not based on an assumption but my observation of this post and his inglorious excursion into racial politics.
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Two points
"All that is because Tim Groser spent the last 20 years getting naked before stepping out to play strip poker, said Groser has been negotiating badly for 20 years,"
Including, presumably, the 6 or so years he was the Labour government's chief trade negotiator?
"That’s what is going to happen. Groser’s going to cave on our behalf, and New Zealand’s going to suffer as a result"
Translated into what you really mean,
"Please, please Tim, sell us out so we can have some basis on which to attack the government"
A more important question, why can't Labour attract quality advisors?