Posts by Richard Grevers
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Question: Have there been any (recent) polls on attitudes to the TPPA? For me it's the biggest political issue going at the moment, but no party seems willing to make it a campaign plank. (The Greens told me some time back that it's there in their policy but they limit campaign focus to three policy areas).
IMO Maori MPs of every political colour should be vocal opponents given the huge sovereignty issues it raises, but I've heard very little.
Labour seems divided and unwilling to get off the fence, although their union base is clearly anti. - do they have info that opposing might cost them votes? -
Yes FG, I mean lifestyle. It seems to be relatively hard to get young people who grew up on farms to commit to a rural life, and much harder to get the city-bred interested. I think it's a mixture of lack of techno-luxuries and social circle / entertainment. And yes, I meant perception, not my own view. To me, our off-grid TV-less coal-range lifestyle is great, although Telecom's mobile data caps do suck, and they've just announced a tripling of over-cap data cost, something that seems totally unjustifiable.
To Ian, my comments on Chinese Dao farmers are based on a friend and teacher who has spent months living with them to study their understanding of the flow of water through the land.
There is a big difference between one or two animals working a padi a few times a season and a whole herd spending several weeks on a paddock.
I've been told that the "war" between farmers and nomadic herders was a major reason behind the building of the Great Wall - If the cattle invaded and were ousted it still took generations to get the land back to full productivity. -
Wandering back towards the original theme, the Avon river red zone in Christchurch looks remarkably similar to the (then somewhat secret) 0.5m sea level rise map that I saw in the 1980s. So regardless of foundation suitability, CERA has substantially avoided a future problem by halting redevelopment in an area where it was doomed to be temporary.
I wonder if insurers will ever bite the bullet and say to customers in vulnerable areas "You have 15 years, after which this location becomes uninsurable" - or do they profit more by upping premiums and hoping to avoid a payout? -
Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Russell Brown,
How viable is it to talk about replacing pastures with grasses (GM or otherwise) which will reduce the emissions of our ruminants? And if not now, at some point?
Coming very late to this interesting discussion...
There's a base assumption right there, Russell - that cows eat grass. They can eat and enjoy a large range of fodders. What farmers don't like is that some involve work - they need to be brought to the animals from the field where they are grown.
Asian farmers - truly sustainable ones who have worked the same land for 5,000 years with no degradation and no external inputs - know that hoofed animals destroy soil structure and significantly reduce the productivity of the land. So they restrict the animals to a very small percentage of the land - housing them, essentially, and achieve outputs per acre far above anything seen in the Western world. The system doesn't support animal products as the primary output, but animals are an intrinsic and essential part of the system. The amount of land needed to support a family to a decent standard of living is an acre or two. (We bought 1.5 acres and hope to become that productive on it)I don't know of a dairying example in NZ, but a mixed farm in inland Taranaki produces premium quality beef, lamb, poultry and bacon plus many other products. Pastures, with a wider than usual plant diversity are successively grazed by all the different animals. Animals self-medicate from the many medicinal plants in living fences. 170 acres produces the same income as the neighbouring 4000 acre block.
Basically it's a myth that organic methods produce lower outputs. They are more labour intensive. So we could have a future where a lot more people work on a lot less land, leaving unsuitable land to be reforested, fixing many erosion problems. The stumbling blocks being that too many people see rural life as a low standard of living, and that the financial system values investment in land far above investment in people. -
From my experience, the people who opposed the repeal of section 59 didn't, and still don't, understand the law and, more particularly, the meaning of correction.
There are still circumstances where it isn't illegal to smack/physically restrain etc. a child - e.g. stopping a child from endangering themselves or others is not "correction". Immediacy is a big factor - even a minute's delay could see it become correction. -
"Perfect Season" seemed to dominate last month
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Slacktavism - more commonly heard term meaning the same as clicktavism.
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This might be as good a thread as any to comment on the recent decline of the stuff mobile app.
Until the recent changes, the 30 top stories were primarily National/World with a bit of sport and business thrown in. Stories would basically slide out the back as new ones hit, lasting about 24 hours on a busy news day, a couple of days on a slow one. It was a good way to keep up with the news, especially living with a 2GB/month data cap.
Since the latest upgrade, there seems to be a basic split of 40% news (national/Intenrnational, business and tech), 30% sport, and 30% lifestyle, much of which is Aussie-sourced. Stories such as the secrets of great fingernails can linger for days, whereas news coverage is totally inadequate.
There has also been a marked change in writing style from journalism to feature writing - even half the news stories read as though they belong in "New Idea".Is this just deliberately softening us up for the paywall? I certainly wouldn't pay for anything that risks being more of the above.
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Conservative parents, so they didn't take me to anything. First big gig was Hunters and Collectors playing Canty Uni Orientation (1985 I think, I had wheels by then). I believe I had successfully suppressed the memory Certain Sounds.
I do recall being taken to a scout Gang Show in the James Hay Theatre while I was in cubs. It had a "the janitor is a hidden Eric Clapton" type sketch, which might have been the first time I heard music that wouldn't have made it on National Radio. I was impressed, by the show in general but by that act in particular.
When the Chch Gang show was revived in the late 90's they used Rep, where I worked. The performance quality was dreadful and the script dire - I must have grown up in between. -
Wow - I stayed there a few years back - camped out on the cinema stage. Didn't realise Neil and Jette had left these shores - a loss to the country.
We've been on the lookout for a Sunbeam toastermatic (1960's "pop-less" toaster) ever since. Well, not since we moved off-grid and 1kW electric elements are a no-no.