Posts by Lucy Telfar Barnard
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Muse: Worthwhile Literature, Worthless Newspaper, in reply to slarty,
More kids will read it precisely because of this flurry of interest from the old farts. I think that is the outcome to dwell upon.
Reminds me of my mother sending her books to Patricia Bartlett in the (fruitless) hope Bartlett would call for them to be banned. Can't buy publicity like that!
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Also, I was under the impression that when you would have been 14, there was no “age of consent” for boys for heterosexual sex. I remember it has having been relevant to some Children's Commission advocacy for a boy who was being charged liable parent contribution for having, aged 12, fathered a child to an 18-year old woman.
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Up Front: It's Complicated, in reply to BenWilson,
She was really into it, we were getting on famously. But like a fool, I let it slip that I was 14 (too honest for your own good, you idiot, my friends said), and she freaked out and took off.
Or maybe she was 16, or 15, even though she said she was 20, but even for 15-year-olds it's seriously uncool to go with a 14-year old, even if they look older, so she might not have "freaked out" so much as not been interested in playing below her league.
As for the "you can't ask them how old they are, because that would be offputting and putting your cards on the table", well, that excuse might hold for before you kiss, but somewhere between kissing and genital contact (which is the point at which the law kicks in), I'd think your cards were already on the table, and asking how old they are would be an entirely reasonable thing to expect, even if it's just "you are over 16, right?".
And related to Grant's comment just now, I wonder if a reason for the 16-year limit might be to protect those under 16 from having to defend themselves and their reputations in court the way rape victims STILL do? If you're under 16 and you're raped, all you need is evidence that sex occurred. Once you're over 16, if there's evidence sex occurred, it's not enough to say "this person forced me to have sex", you have to prove there was coercion. In which case, we're trading young people's freedom of sexual expression with young people's right to freedom from undergoing an adult-style rape trial.
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Hebe,
If enough people could do a good-enough (rather than solar perfection) measure like hot water heat pumps, the demand must on the electricity supply must decrease.
Some research I saw by colleagues of Bob Lloyd (which I'll try looking up a citation for in the morning...) suggested that hot water heat pumps were in fact a better option for most of the country because they continued to provide electricity savings even in cold weather, whereas solar hot water only works when the sun's out. As overall electricity demand is greater in cold weather (and electricity shortages more likely in winter) using less electricity in winter meant hot water heat pumps would better contribute to reducing carbon emissions than would solar hot water.
I think the same would be true for photovoltaics as for solar hot water, so from that point of view, you can take comfort in the thought that hot water heat pumps may be closer to perfection than solar anyway. -
Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to BenWilson,
The other advantage to this is that solar panels are capital improvements to their property, something that NZers are not so much keen on as outright addicted to. They’re tax free investments.
Except we’re not so keen on capital improvements that don’t improve the capital value of the property. All the research I’m aware of shows that so far buyers won’t pay the necessary amount more for energy-efficiency improved properties, so for now, photovoltaics/solar hot water/insulation/double glazing/etc can only be valued in terms of what the property-owner will get out of them over the period they’re planning to live in the house; otherwise they’re over-capitalising.
Also, on the smoothing effect, yes, there would be some, but there are (presumably, based on population) more roofs in Greater Auckland than there are in the South Island, so if solar was common, the weather in Auckland would still have the greatest impact on solar supply.
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So this morning it seems Rio Tinto have walked away from the government negotiations and are going back to Meridian. I wish that made me hopeful (that the government wasn't a pushover; that the government wasn't going to make the asset sales an even larger wealth transfer to the wealthy), but I'm rather concerned that what it will mean is that Rio Tinto gets concessions from both Meridian AND the government.
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The short version from the Transpower website indicates that the new very large project is a major upgrade of the North Island grid.
Channelling my partner a little (…electricity sector type) getting power out of Southland/Otago is the main problem but this is fairly easily resolved by an already identified project that Transpower have put some effort into over the last few years and even hold consented for I am lead to believe. This would upgrade transmission capacity northwards above Clyde/Roxburgh allowing increased flows into the Waitaki valley at a one off cost of $100-200M or so (no new towers just new lines). Once it has reached the Waitaki valley Manapouri power will mostly flow across the DC link into the Wellington region and further northwards or flow to the rest of the South Island accommodating growth in demand there over time. Increased losses will occur (compared to today) but they are not a show stopper and might increase by 20-30% or so. As total losses within Transpower’s system are around 5% of total consumption an increase to 6-7% is not the end of the world.
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Thrash Cardiom,
Not to rain on anyone's parade but would anybody seriously consider placing a major data centre in the South Island with the Alpine fault ready to rumble at any time?
It didn't seem to stop people building Silicon Valley in the Hayward Fault Zone
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Cool (Unlimited and DiscoveryOne I mean), even if hippies do sometimes make my eyelid twitch a bit (it's all fine until anyone mentions leylines...).
On the mobility question, I was meaning mobility in the way we use it in Public Health, which is basically that people move house more often, rather than in relation to vehicle access. In general, people in more deprived areas move house more often due to poor security of tenure. For those who have stayed in Christchurch, I can easily imagine the mobility might have dropped (i.e. people might move less often) due to lack of availability of rentals, but I would also have thought that those who have moved cities might be more likely to belong to this group. However, the rising rolls at those schools might suggest this is not the case after all.
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Up Front: Twenty-Two Two, Two, in reply to Emma Hart,
Note the roll changes: 230 to 241, and 146 to 155
In that case, I take it all back, and go back to being suspicious and cynical. Sigh.
Also, um, how did two schools end up being called "Unlimited" and "DiscoveryOne". They sound like off-shoots of Scientology or something. (Really sorry if I'm offending someone whose children go there, but they do sound like that, particularly when they're in the same sentence).