Posts by Mikaere Curtis
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Until the Green party fronts up with some tangible, real world solutions to how we feed, cloth, employ, and allow to prosper seven-ten billion human beings on a planet that isn't overheating you are left with the uncomfortable feeling that we are dealing with movement that would rather allow to come to pass a Malthusian catastrophe that would make Pol Pot's Year Zero look like a vicar's tea party than adopt technology that would prevent it.
You forgot to include unlimited GDP growth.
So, you are saying that the solution to all our problems is GE ? And that if we don't go down this path then we are DOOMED !!! In other words: There Is No Alternative.
Now, where have I heard that before, and how did that turn out?
Wow - GE as a silver bullet against all the world's ills, I never would have thought of that one.
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But yes. I do not understand the fundamental opposition to this kind of GE - which is no different in the end result from traditional cross-breeding or grafting. I vote Green and this drives me batfuck.
But the result is different. Traditionally breeding techniques are do not have the same level of precision with respect to which genes are included, ergo the set of genes that is transferred is different, and may require multiple generations to breed out the undesired genes, if this is possible at all.
I don't have a problem with using GE to figure out which genes are of interest, and then using traditional methods used actually produce the hybrid.
They love evidence, except when they don't.
How about you show me evidence that we have the ethical capacity to deal with the risks of GE contamination. e.g. evidence that a multinational would behave materially different to the way DuPont acted in the aftermath of the Bhopal disaster.
I'm not saying that every single GE organism is a potential disaster waiting to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world, but in the light of the potential impact of such an occurrence, I'll take precaution over potential profits any day.
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Wow.
Somehow contrived to miss this on Friday.
He mihi tino nui ki a koe, e David. Kia whakamiharo to whakaaro, mo ake ake.
So many insights, so wonderfully gilded. Who knew living on the Shore could be so much fun ?
And thanks, again, for the iPod :)
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Game over, man. Game OVER !
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When Emma revealed the Aussie filtering system, I contacted TelstraClear to see if they had implemented it here as well. They said:
Well we have been using mandatory filtering system to filter out child porn, but this should not affect your speed.
They were right (on the speed, I haven't ever searched for child sexual abuse imagery), I have nice fast broadband.
When I get home I'll see if I can reach SOLO Passion. If not, then I'll be demanding that they unrestrict it.
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I've checked the website - seems to be an exercise in enticement but doesnt answer questions like "Can you scan on your own computer titles you own and then upload them to the KoBo?" (This would be the killer ability for me...)
It would seem so, the article says:
you can also copy your own PDF content onto a Kobo.
I think the appeal of the Kobo will be it's simplicity and price. If you simply want to read without luminescence, eInk seems to be the way forward. But if you wan to be amused then the iPad seems to be it.
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Apparently it has.
Bugger. I used to time my Friday drive to work around this. Mikey's rejoinders were often classic.
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What if in the 60s tuhoe was paid a fair amount for the time for the lake? how does that colour the conversation?
Given that the average Treaty-bases settlement amounts to around 0.5 - 1% of the actual value of the alienated resources, I find it hard to believe that Tuhoe were offered a fair compensation package in the 60s.
If they were, and they agreed, well that's that then. But if the experiences of my iwi are anything to go by, it is more likely that the Crown assumed ownership of the lakes, and made minor token payments.
Of course, the payments could also have been rental installments.
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It appears to me that we had a workable deal chucked under the bus by a PM who did not want to be seen to be pandering to Maori. It is such a short term focus in the context of such a long term issue.
Lakes Waikaremoana and Waikareiti are treasures of the nation as well as Tuhoe. Two-thirds of the troops that fought Tuhoe 150 years ago were Maori.
The whakapapa of the military actors is irrelevant. What matters is that the Crown stole land off Tūhoe. We already have existing mechanisms lakes where the lakebeds have been vested back to hapu - with access guaranteed - so I don't know why you would have a problem with that.
There must be other ways to settle treaty claims than through diminishing our conservation estate.
So, the Crown stole land, and the Crown still owns it, but if the Crown classifies the land as a National Park, they get to keep it ? If you think that is an equiitable way forward, then I have some real estate on the Moon I would like to lease to you...
Just that there's something about basing the argument (or any public policy debate) on "moral claims" that makes me twitchy.
However, when you have a dispute with the entity that creates the local statutes, it is hardly unsurprising that said entity has ensured you have no "legal claims", and thus, only "moral claims".
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I agree with Craig, the questiosn are loaded beyond salvage. Still, if they get the message that we aren't happy with Rodney's pseudoprocess...
Has the Government officially asked you what kind of Auckland you want?
It's like they forgot there was a Royal Commission. I voted Yes, although if they'd said this Government, my answer would have been different.
I only bucked the implied answer once, on the asset sales question, where I'm not sure about referenda as a tool
Depends on how they use the referenda. "Please endorse our decision to sell" is different from "Which asset out of this list should we sell ?". It is better to have an extra hurdle in the process than none at all.