Pascal’s Wager on climate change
Fortunately we have a government that’s prepared to act on climate change rather than gamble with the future. Nevertheless here’s an interesting take […]
all_your_base
Electoral Finance Bill changes welcomed
Stuff reports that “Key non-political critics have welcomed changes to the Government’s electoral finance reforms.” Both the Human Rights Commission and Coalition for […]
Fairfax poll
The Dom Post reports that: National’s support slid from 50 to 45 per cent in a Fairfax Media-Nielsen poll released today. Labour jumped […]
Pretend polling
Dodgy online polls seem to be becoming a staple of political reporting here in New Zealand. The story earlier this week on poll […]
Looking for: whatever he can get
In perhaps his strongest signal yet to potential coalition partners, John Key has set his Facebook ‘Looking for’ status to “Whatever I can […]
Hollow man beachtowel
Make your National MP’s holiday season with one of these fantastic towels. Currently out of stock but don’t doubt for a minute that […]
Google Australia launches election tools
Google’s launched some great new online tools for the Australian election. Check out: www.google.com.au/election2007 where you’ll find Google maps called maplets, with electorate […]
Electoral finance: link roundup
Tony Milne’s got a good piece on the Electoral Finance Bill over at his blog I See Red – electoral finance reform is […]
SCRABBLE success
Nigel Richards, formerly of Christchurch, has become our first world Scrabble champion. Richards apparently led from the start, needing just three of the […]
The cost of the war in Iraq
From the BBC: “The US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing nearly double the amount previously thought, according to a report set […]
Sharpen up your climate change arguments
The BBC has a good roundup of the top 10 climate change denier arguments with rebuttals from scientists who agree with the Intergovernmental […]
Robertson to win Wellington Central candidacy
Charles Chauvel has withdrawn his nomination for Wellington Central. This leaves Grant Robertson the uncontested Labour candidate, likely to be confirmed on November […]
International flip-floppery
Thought that we had a worldwide monopoly here in NZ on right wing flip-floppers with Don Brash, John Key et al? Think again. […]
Benson-Pope won’t run as an independent
The Herald reports that “Dunedin South MP David Benson-Pope says he will not stand as an independent if he is not selected as […]
Belated Halloween post – vampire maths
Vampires can’t exist. It turns out that their existence would contradict ours. Here’s the maths to prove it: “Let us assume that a […]
Quoting out of context
DPF and the National Party have made much of a Helen Clark quote unearthed from her conference speech in 2000 on tax cuts. […]
Kerik indictment likely to tarnish Guiliani
Bloomberg reports that Bernard Kerik, the former police commissioner under New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani who withdrew his nomination to head the […]
Larry Lessig talks creative freedom at TED
About a year ago I discovered the TED website. It’s rapidly become a staple in my internet diet. From their ‘about‘ page: TED […]
Record low unemployment: 3.5%
From Ruth Dyson’s press release: The latest Household Labour Force Survey quarterly results from Statistics NZ confirm the Labour-led government’s employment policies and […]
Labour’s earworm
powered by ODEO Written by Chris Knox, the song should come with a warning. Having heard it once, you’re unlikely to be able […]
National doublespeak
It’s happened again. The Nelson Mail reports that: National MP and former principal Allan Peachey has broken ranks with front-bench colleague Katherine Rich […]
Barnett not standing in Chch Central
Latest reports suggest that Tim Barnett will not be standing for Christchurch Central in next year’s election but may still stand on Labour’s […]
Gaybourhood Halloween party cancelled
From the NY Times: This Halloween, the Glindas, gladiators and harem boys of the Castro — along with untold numbers who plan to […]
Reshuffle
Three new cabinet ministers (Maharey’s retiring, Burton’s returned to the backbench, and Benson-Pope’s old place was still open): Steve Chadwick becomes Minister of […]
“Ethical Facebook” for businesses
Actics.com is an online neworking site for “ethical” businesses. Businesses that sign up choose to nominate themselves as expressing various corporate values and […]
UK cannabis reclassification causes decline in use
The Guardian reports that: Cannabis use among young people has fallen significantly since its controversial reclassification in 2004, according to the latest British […]
National still to scrap GP fee cap
Peter Bradshaw, at the Guardian, reviews Michael Moore’s movie Sicko: Last week in this paper, Seumas Milne reported on the boa-constrictor-sized parasites of […]
Turia weighs in
So now Tariana is calling for a police probe into the Mallard/Henare incident. Mallard came clean yesteday about his role in the incident […]
The Superest
You’ve probably heard of the battle raging accross the ditch. You’ve probably even heard of the one in the Parliamentary lobby. In California […]
Economic ‘Billiteracy’ infects National Party
The Dom yesterday ran a front page story by Tracy Watkins which used National Party figures aimed at showing that “Joanna Average” isn’t […]
Katine
The Guardian has launched a three year aid project with the objective of ‘together, lifting one village out of the middle ages’. The […]
What have the unions ever done for us?
(Hat tip: Robert Owen – via comments)
Debate allegedly turns physical
The Press reports that Trevor Mallard allegedly slapped or hit Tau Henare after the National MP made references to Mallard’s personal life in […]
Elephants ‘do a Blumsky’
The Guardian reports that “Six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted as they went berserk after drinking rice beer in India’s remote north-east”. No […]
Outage
Some server issues outside our control caused a bit of an outage this afternoon. We’re up and running again now though, as you […]
Lights out San Francisco
Lights Out San Francisco is a citywide energy conservation event next scheduled for March 29, 2008. On this night, they invite the entire […]