Posts by Alfie
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NZME and Fairfax have applied to the Commerce Commission today seeking authorisation for their merger.
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Polity: Budget 2016: Fantasyplan, in reply to ,
Would that all go into policing the laws that prevent polluting them, paying policy people to write more policy, and or actually filtering the water?
None of the above, according to Russell Norman.
OK, what about water? There's the $100 million allocated to the "Freshwater Improvement Fund".
Sounds good?
But in an Orwellian twist the "Freshwater Improvement Fund" can be spent on subsidising irrigation schemes according to the Ministry 'for' the Environment. And irrigation schemes cause water pollution by reducing flows and increasing intensive dairying and its pollution.
So not only does the Government subsidise irrigation schemes through the Crown Irrigation Fund ($120 million) and the Irrigation Acceleration Fund ($60 million), but the Freshwater Improvement Fund, which could be cleaning up the pollution created by these irrigation schemes, can also be spent on ... more irrigation schemes.
If you don't laugh you'd cry.
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Whoops!
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Polity: Budget 2016: Fantasyplan, in reply to SHG,
I’m so old I remember when public address wasn’t Rob Salmond’s personal NATIONAL IS BAD MMMKAY blog
I did wonder if three seperate budget posts from Rob was really necessary. One considered post would probably be more effective and keep the related discussion in one place.
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Hard News: Things that do us good and ill, in reply to TracyMac,
Thanks for taking the time to write that Tracy. I have my own SMTP server on a dedicated IP address, reverse DNS and MX are correctly configured.
I do admit my organisation blocks all SMTP traffic from dynamic addresses, and even large blocks of IPs hosted by Comcast and similar large ISPs.
You've got it. My tech guys tell me that the link in the chain which causes a problem is my initial ISP connection via Vodafone. I had an argument with them a year back and was told that they never configure reverse DNS on dynamic IPs. The only solution they offered was a static IP for my home connection for an additional $20 per month. As I only pay $1 mth for my existing static IP (mailserver), I refused their kind offer.
I should really ditch Vodafone because their customer service is crap. But I've been with iHug since the 90s and have the whole (net, landline, Sky, free MySky) package through them and it would be a major hassle to move everything.
Sorry everyone else for this diversion from the original thread.
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Hard News: Things that do us good and ill, in reply to Moz,
An increasing number of recipients block my actual emails because I have my own domain rather than using a major host (viz, gmail/yahoo/MS/apple).
Hey Moz... so it's not just me. I even set up my mail server with a secure certificate and https to get around the problem, but Yahoo in particular seems to think if you're not with one of the big email providers, then you just don't count. It's frustrating.
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Hybrid technology keeps improving... mild hybrids seem like a possible solution for professional drivers. 70% of the benefits of traditional hybrids at one third the cost, with 10-35% efficiency gains overall.
It's new and probably won't be available here for a while, but it can be retro-fitted to existing vehicles.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber Driver…, in reply to BenWilson,
...they don’t like Priuses because of how sexy they feel in them.
Q. How can you tell a Prius driver?
A. Because of the amount of smug they emit.
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When I was about six years old I used to have regular flying dreams whenever I stayed at my Nana's house. It became so commonplace I began to look forward to it every time I went to bed. It was a very gentle and pleasant experience, quite "out of body". I would lift off and fly around my neighbourhood, down the road to the school and generally tour the area. Thinking about it invokes some great memories and from the replies here, it sounds like it's a common experience.
In my early 20s I experimented with lucid dreaming where you try to set up the dream in advance. I never had much success.
These days I hardly ever recall dreams so it's hard to know whether they actually happen or I just don't remember them.
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The latest government stats published this month show that NZ's carbon emissions have increased 23% compared with 1990. RNZ reports that our insane rush into dairy conversions is largely to blame.
Agricultural emissions had increased 15 percent since 1990, which the report said was primarily due to an almost 95 percent increase in the national dairy herd and a more than five-fold increase in the application of nitrogen-containing fertiliser.
Our Minister for Doing Bugger-All About Climate Change Paula Bennett says she is "considering" developing a Green Paper on climate issues.
She says her focus is “working on a plan to have a plan. And that plan for me goes out decades. I think a lot about what New Zealand looks like to me as a country … and what it looks like for my grandchildren’s children and grandchildren.
Nice sentiments. So what exactly is a Green Paper?
...a green paper is a tentative government report and consultation document of policy proposals for debate and discussion, without any commitment to action.
If she's serious, Ms Bennett may want to consider a newly released Canadian report looking at what will happen should the rest of the world choose to follow our government's example and take no practical action. The University of Victoria report concludes that by the end of this century, our little planet will warm by an average of 10C. Higher CO2 levels mean the Arctic will warm by 20C. At that point, life on earth is unsustainable and Ms Bennett's grandchildren will be toast.
While Bennett is in no rush to institute any significant changes, at least she appears to have some basic ideas.
The way that we farm and how we do it; the transport, our use of fossil fuels...we can certainly do better there.
She's right! Removing taxpayer subsidies on agricultural emissions would be a good start. As would an outright refusal to participate in any more dodgy east-european carbon credit scams.
Even better, the Green Party launched their transport policy today which would see half of New Zealand's freight being transported by rail and sea by 2027. When a single train replaces 70 heavy trucks, it makes a lot more sense than building more motorways of National Party Significance. However Bennett's colleague, Transport Minister Simon Bridges is obviously singing from a completely different songbook.
He said the Government were investing "sensibly" in roading, but the Greens were looking at a "mighty spend up".
So I don't think it's something the taxpayers of New Zealand will want to see.
I daresay Ms Bennett's great-grandchildren may beg to differ.