Posts by George Darroch
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I have a philosophy degree. I suppose that makes me marginally more able to deal with certain questions. I felt a little grown up when I graduated. I felt a little philosophical. I did a history degree, and felt a little more grown up. And a little more historical. I lived in different countries. I felt a little more indifferent.
Since house prices have just reached two thirds of a million dollars in Auckland, I'll never be able to use house ownership as a ticket to grownupedness. I might have to have children and watch them grow up instead.
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to David Hood,
You might want to review the quality of the links in the last discussion that got derailed by this topic, particularly back when people where commenting about the links you were posting. I think it is still fresh in most other people’s minds.
Ah, a history. I have no time for denialists.
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Richard Grevers,
What I’m meaning is that India and China are capable of making highly efficient appliances which are affordable for their own middle classes – which would be really cheap in NZ terms. I wonder if NZ importers are deliberately choosing less efficient models for the bottom end of the market so as to justify the cost of the high end models?
This is why we (should) legislate efficiency. Unfortunately, the last Labour Government set up EECA with a rather weak mandate based around education and did not put in place the kind of standards that are increasingly common around the world. National, with a strong belief in 'consumer rights' and 'freedom' has further weakened EECA's mandate.
Someone put this fool out of our misery.
On the evidence there's only a small degree of difference between FG and what other people here believe, and it's on things which reasonable people can disagree on. And which reasonable people can agree to disagree on. Plonking down something that looked like denialist linkbait might not have been the best start, but as Russell has noted elsewhere, what debate is happening here isn't actually a constructive one - it's rather boring.
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Why are we arguing climate change here?
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Yeah from my limited reading there does seem to be a gap. Also it seems like wind turbines are all “old tech” – where are the carbon fibre structures that combine the best engineering to cope with high wind events with high efficiency in low wind? It seems like given our research into yacht and sail design shouldn’t we also lead the world in wind turbine design?
Kinda. NZ has a small domestic turbine industry, and it does alright for itself. The experience gained in putting up a lot of wind farms certainly hasn't gone to waste. But we haven't had anything like the kind of policy support that allowed the Danish to become the world leaders - and the amount of investment they put in to new technology is phenomenal. In the last 15 years wind turbines have become massive, and there's a great amount of engineering and science behind any one structure. China is of course catching up, and the US has a reasonable industry, though they've been buffeted by inconsistent government policy. But Denmark, a small formerly agricultural nation with limited resources (but access to markets) remains a world leader.
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I long for the day when we had a PM with testicles. Clark stared down SQ and BRY over AirNZ... if only that story were better understood.
I quite liked the one we had with ovaries, personally.
Would closing the smelter create at least 1.21 jigawatts of additional capacity? If so then perhaps the South Island could become an international hub for research into time travel.
We've already gone back to the 90s. But if we're going to go full speed, ordinary fuels won't do it. Unfortunately it requires something with a little more kick: plutonium. Once this is discovered in our national parks, we'll have the ability to enter any decade we want, at will.
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It stays like this for months. Eventually everything is browner than a Waikato farm...
For the moment though, it's very pleasant. Out of frame, some wonderful friends.
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It's near the end of the wet season, the grass is still lush but the air is drying out.
They closed the road out of my village last night, on account of solemn religious festivities. It took a gentle conversation with some elders and local police (who were there to watch things) to be allowed out to practice my own form of celebration...
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“Why do we tolerate, or perhaps even revel in, the smell of our own farts?”
I've got been given lot by Public Address (by which I mean our gracious host Russell, mostly). I'll find the credit card and put something in.
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Congratulations, as Russell said. Ideas are easy, but execution takes work.
Did you give prominent 16 year old journalists and celebrities a week's free supply of the product?
