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One of the nice things that has shown up over the last few years is the slow rise of Internet videophone technology. I've been using Skype for years for various purposes, largely for doing conferences with remote programmers when playing with ideas during projects. But…
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Actually, this guest post never got published because, before we could publish it, Richard Worth would be involved in some new scandal and then he was sacked, which adds a layer of irony to the post: In a shocking week for the National government, Internal Affairs…
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lolz. Cheers to saltandvingarclips for linking to their hilarious vids in comments
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So politics is winding down for the year. Hopefully you'll be getting away with your family and friends for some time in the sun. Our posting will probably ease off for the next few weeks but we thought it would be fun to fill some…
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Season's greetings all...
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Merry Christmas to all!
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One of the stranger Internet campaigns has being going on in Britain. It has resulted in this excellent track being the Xmas number 1 single this year (it is in my programming playlist for special bugs). Far better than the usual mulch, and enough to…
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No Right Turn has a post The blogosphere is not above the law. Since the beginning, there's been a meme on the internet that the law doesn't really apply here, and that we can get away with anything. But while there may be practical difficulties…
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In the US it is easier than NZ for home-owners to walk away using the jingle mail options in the US. However in NZ it is far too easy for businesses to do the same. Slate Magazines article "Everyone's Defaulting, Why Don't You?" by Daniel…
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The banks, who tried to rip us off to the tune of $2.6 billion, have agreed to pay us $2.2 billion. I don't get it. We've spent tens of millions so far on court cases to get our money. We've won every case. The judgments…
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So John Key thinks I'm a Muppet. "[when I'm in Hawaii on holiday] they'll send me stuff ... those Muppets in the background who send it all to me"* Well f#ck you, John. While you're off in Hawaii with your DPS pouring you drinks, I'll…
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a) Paula Bennett gives a story to Colin Espiner about beneficiary and, apparently, scoundrel Darryl Harris. The release of the information is a clear breach of the Privacy Act. Espiner is clearly being used as a tool for softening the public for beneficiary bashing. Espiner runs the…
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Reproduced with permission from Kotare - The Strategist This is the unspoken issue with climate change. What are the human impacts of climate change. Where will the wars happen? This study (h/t Crikey Creek) looks at the likely impact that rising temperatures, caused by climate…
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I must say I love the Christmas season. You spend a lot of time catching up with all sorts of interesting people, having a few too many drinks and sharing some gossip. How much of it is true is anyone's guess but here's a few…
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Since Marty's away, no pretty graphs. There's not much Christmas cheer in the new GDP numbers I'm afraid. The economy grew at just 0.2% in the September quarter (the forecast was 0.3%). That's below the rate of population growth, so economic output per person continues…
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While most Kiwis are getting ready for Christmas there are tens of thousands who will be having a hard time this holiday season because they were made unemployed this year. And most of these workers will have had no redundancy protection to tide them over.…
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Poring around the nets while I'm on holiday is turning out to be quite interesting looking at summaries of science. I've been picking out some for discussion here. Here is a post from Knol with a summary on why Europeans are so pale. They discuss…
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So Paula Bennett wants to force people on the dole to reapply after a year. At best, it's a waste of money by adding more bureaucracy. At worst, it will leave people who are already in poverty destitute for weeks. You can lose your dole…
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Information is Beautiful recently produced the image below summarizing the various arguments between about climate change. Click on the image to see the full version. hat-tip: Open Parachute
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There's a Youtube clip on Stuff of Key talking on The Edge. Presumably filmed by one of Key's people. It's run as headline news. Yup. You got that right. It's now news when Key appears for a soft interview on other media. Not the first…
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There are always consequences to the type of mass unemployment that we're starting to see in NZ at present. However there looks like being an unexpected one. Spontaneous abortion of male fetuses as a response to mass layoffs. The Economist science section has an article…
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Earlier this year, Paula Bennett released the personal details of two women who get the DPB who had opposed her cancelling of a grant designed to get people off the benefit. As far as I'm aware, the Privacy Commissioner still hasn't published her opinion on Bennett's…
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Greenpeace executive director Kumi Naidoo makes the case that the failure of our leaders at Copenhagen means the time has come to intensify the pressure on them, including through non-violent civil disobedience and direct action. Hat tip: Greenpeace blog.
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Could making the surface of cars rough be a cheap and esay way to boost fuel efficiency, thereby saving oil and helping tackle climate change? The idea comes from the dimples on golf-balls, which hold a thin layer of air to the ball, lessening turbulence and…
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike..
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Two protests today successfully highlighted the role of New Zealand's agricutural industry and business community in contributing to climate change. The first protest involved a blockade of the NZ Stock Exchange entrance and resulted in nine arrests. In the second action two activists scaled the…
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There have been some new results from the search for WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) at the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) in Minnesota. This showed up in The Economist science section last week with an excellent summary of what they were looking for and…
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The UMR poll for the Auckland super-city mayoral race is interesting reading. The headline difference (PDF) of 11% towards Len Brown over John Banks has been extensively reported. The poll of 482 people, while small, is even more interesting when you see the breakdown of…
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Text from John Darroch a couple of minutes ago: hey just hanging ten stories up the mfat building in welly protesting against fonterror :-) regarding climate change Nice one John - according to NZPA you're only four stories up. Hope you get your point across…
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The government is beginning to explain more about its Whanau Ora plan, although it is still startlingly vague considering we're talking a billion dollars of taxpayer dollars a year. The idea seems to be to get more money that is currently spent by social welfare…