Posts by JLM
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Russell Brown,
I didn’t say place was the only criterion for a community. I do object to the idea that representing an electorate is irrelevant or not worth the bother, and I think I’ve explained why. It’s the poor, elderly and disabled to come into electorate offices looking for help.It’s good that there is someone there to try and provide it.
From my experience in a town with at least four MPs (5 for a while if you count Hilary) only two of whom have electorate seats, all the MPs have offices and do constituent work. I'm not sure that citizens distinguish between who holds the electorate or not, they go to who can help
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to James Butler,
I wouldn't be surprised if there are no candidate/electorate specific ones - the Greens have less money to spend on billboards, so it might make sense to save by getting large print runs of a few generic designs rather than small runs of specific ones; but that's just conjecture on my part.
I think your conjecture is correct, and as someone else has pointed out, the Greens only ask for the party vote, anyway.
I'm slightly amused that some Greens of my acquaintance thought that bb slogan For a richer New Zealand was going to be hugely controversial, but it seems to have passed un-noticed. I guess most of us know without explanation what a rich life really means.
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Legal Beagle: Now it's up to you, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
Some time over the following week or so, the votes actually cast in the referendum at polling booths will be counted by the returning officer. Scrutineers will not be permitted to be present, although the count in each electorate will be conducted with a JP present (chosen somehow, by someone unknown) .
Thanks for this, Graeme. An extra piece of information that will help me make my mind up whether to stay on or go to the election night party.
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Hard News: Complaint and culture, in reply to Danyl Mclauchlan,
As someone attending parenting and breastfeeding classes with my wife, reading parenting books and buying a bewildering array of post-natal gadgets, I really don’t see this at all. The overwhelming message is pro-breastfeeding.
Which is good, to a degree, because there’s a lot of empirical evidence in its favour. But the differences aren’t mortal – the majority of the population over the age of 30 was formula fed, they’re not limbless vegetables. And many women have huge problems breastfeeding, so the message that this failure means they’re destroying their children’s lives isn’t that helpful. Especially since stress impacts on the milk production cycle.
The last sentence is the key. When you (well, I, anyway) are stressed, anxious or in pain, the oxytocin production that makes the milk flow out of the ducts is inhibited. Kid sucks, not much milk, unsettled, doesn't suck enough to "order the next meal" (can't remember what that hormone is called). Vicious circle ensues.
I didn't know about this when I was breastfeeding, but I did know that when I went home to visit my mum all of a sudden I had milk to spare. I didn't connect that I was away from certain things at home that were making me anxious.
Thirty years ago I hated the mystique around breastfeeding, lost my temper in public with a la leche leader who was extolling it as "so easy" and an aid to bonding, but was still grimly determined to do it, and managed to twice by some rather strange stratagems. Back then my concern was health, but I don't think that would be such an issue for me now after the first few weeks. There does seem to be a negative dose response effect as far as duration goes with the biggest impact in the first weeks.
My concern now would be cost, hygiene (I'm not good at keeping things clean) and my post-apocalyptic tendencies. I worry about the impact of unforeseens such as earthquakes on formula availability, but more I worry that something that approximately 95% of new mothers are apparently technically capable of with the right support has become so fraught and difficult.
Before the last election, National had an election policy to increase breastfeeding rates, or similar. Has anyone noticed any initiatives?
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We know what 2011 is going to be now - the year of the (zero damage, zero death) Washington Earthquake...
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Hard News: 2011: The Year Of What?, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Or the environmental fights, such as our own sea battle off the east coast, and growing mass protests around the world to new exploitation such as fracking and today’s high profile protest arrests in Washington.
And no-one's mentioned yet the other environemtal monstrosity that is worrying us sick down here, and should be doing the same to every New Zealander who wants to limit carbon emissions - the rush on lignite - our own tarsands...
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Hard News: Is that it?, in reply to BenWilson,
Alternative ways of organizing things have their own problems too. There’s a whole lot of organizing to get things done that no one wants to do, in, say, a collective. Anarchy tends to go for the tragedy of the commons – when you give stuff away for free, hoping for it to magically come back to you, most of the time it just doesn’t. Setting prices for work is an administrative nightmare, rather like the wage and price freeze – it’s pretty easy to work around, just by changing every single job description over and over again. I’d like to hear any other serious alternatives – it seems to me that I’m just lacking imagination here.
I think in Le Guin's 'anarchy' (The Dispossessed) everybody took a day or two out of their decad to rotate round the jobs that no-one wanted to do permanently. As Shevek said, it was inefficient, but better than condemning someone to doing the same horrible thing all the time.
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Hard News: When the Weather is the News, in reply to Hilary Stace,
and the design means the heat comes out of the top vent, not the bottom, so it is cold for the first metre above ground.
Well, that's daft, isn't it? What are fires designed for if not for sitting in front of (not on top of).
What I'm aiming for long term is a woodrange I can cook in and on. Something like this
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I like what I’ve seen of pellet fires so far, including the hypnotic sparking as the pellets tumble and flame. They’re also supposed to be very economical, and of course it’s a great use for waste wood. BUT, what’s the point of having a solid energy heating source that needs electricity to run? Do you think the fan would run off a battery?
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Just walked down to our beach in coastal Otago, and the storm surge is phenomenal - waves already running up to the base of the dunes with two hours to go till high tide and the whole bay, usually the "safest" of beaches, filled with crashing breakers.