Posts by Steve Reeves
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OnPoint: SECRET MILITARY LULZ, in reply to Caleb D'Anvers,
As No Right Turn said on The Standard
comment 5:
But nothing is off the record. if the informationis held by the Minister in their official capacity, then its official information and subject to the OIA, no matter what format or storage medium it is in. Hell, the OIA even applies to information in Minister’s heads, which means you can tell them to write stuff down, and offer to extract it surgically if they refuse.
“Private” email accounts only hide information if the Minister is going to break the law. And then their staff should be having a quiet word to the Ombudsman about it.
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Hard News: Media Mathematics, in reply to Ana Simkiss,
That probably just counts as being pedantic.
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But the minister seems to think (in coming up with and disseminating these figures) that he needs to make this argument.
Perhaps we'll at least get him to admit that, as Lew says, it's an ideological decision, as his "factual" argument falls to arithmetic and thought.
Not that the Nats would ever want to portray themselves as being anything as political as ideological.
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Brilliant stuff, Russell.
I would expect the minister concerned to now come on here and respond, or at least apologise!
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Hard News: Thanks, Steve. For everything., in reply to Ian Dalziel,
The use of a one-button mouse
Requires a display of some nouse...
In fact, the "nouse" is the "nose mouse", as in nose-activated, too... -
I still have my SE (and it works!). I used it to write my first big piece of work (a textbook) after writing-up my PhD (using psroff on Unix....).
It was great---and now when I occasionally get it going again, I am amazed that I managed to use such a small screen, no colour, scan lines evident as the electrons swept back and forth....
It was clear even then that this was something new, different and great. I'm glad I've been allowed to use the SE and what followed it throughout my working life!
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Hard News: London's Burning, in reply to Steve Barnes,
That's White HART Lane, deer.
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Part of an email from a friend (whose partner is in hospital in Intensive Care---for unrelated reasons---in the middle of it all!):
But as usual with Londoners, we're all planning our travel routes to avoid the burnt out cars and looted shops..."Hmmm, 276 will be diverted but I bet the 425 is still running..." Those of us who aren't clambering out of JD Sports carrying armfuls of sports gear are actually all being rather friendly and helpful to each other...especially in the travel advice area...blitz spirit?
So sad to hear some of my old haunts are affected too.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Something sort of the same... but different....
Haven't there been instances of the trait "herbicide resistance" moving from your crop (where you want the resistance) into (related?) non-crops ("weeds") where you don't want it?
And can this cause problems---for example having to escalate the use or "strength" or amount of herbicides?
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to BenWilson,
Absolutely!
I am currently trying to convince people in industry that my research group has something to offer them. We've shown certain processes to work in the lab, and now we want to see if they work outside the lab.
We have peer-reviewed work that supports our goodness, and international collaborators that have succeeded in industrial settings overseas.
But even getting to talk to people who manage projects in the companies we're interested in proves to be really difficult.
Perhaps we should put a price tag on---it really does seem that if you are suggesting something that is, to the company concerned, free (in terms of money), they have little respect or time for you!
And we're not even competing with anyone else--just, it seems, a lack of awareness that things could be done far better than they are, with all sorts of benefits, we believe.
The fact that, under current government policies, being able to show some link to industry can mean getting or not getting a further grant also means that come the end of this year the research will stop here in NZ, and talented people that the country has put years and years of money towards for their education and their employment as researchers will lose their jobs and move overseas.
A common story, I know, but a very upsetting and frustrating one.