Posts by Gareth Ward
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By the way, does anyone have a link to terms of reference yet? I'm interested to see how the Australian thing is couched - is it "recommend anything you want to get a productivity level same as Aus" or "recommend things Australia have done/are doing to help their productivity"?
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What I haven't heard in this whole folic acid debate, are the voices of anyone with spina bifida. Who are we (general public, policy people, politicians etc) to judge their right to exist, and make assumptions about their quality of life?
I really don't follow your point about "judging their right to exist" but the Spina Bifida folks have been pretty vocal in the media.
Go through Scoop's coverage to see their press releases. -
If I was a doctor how would I do that? Cut consultations from 15 minutes to 10 minutes or 5 minutes? Ration drugs? Get rid of the charge nurse?
That's one (incredibly wrong for our situation) way. The other is too invest in technology, training, better hospital rooms etc to mean that with the same people and ongoing spend, you perform the operation more successfully/faster. Hence the need for capital deepening to give you access to the investment cash to do that.
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Yes, Rod Oram. I'm saying it more in hope than expectation, but I'm saying it.
Amen. Or someone of similar inclination. Gaynor would be another possibility, although possibly too market focussed than economic.
The problem we'll face is that capital deepening as practiced by the Taskforce's "target" is compulsory employer superannuation at highly favourable tax rates. I think it's fair to say that is something the current Govt has moved away from rather than too.
If the taskforce focusses solely on concepts around labour incentives, rather than total factor productivity, then it would be fair to say they have blindly ignored the reality in NZ. Plus, we have to remember that it's up to individual businesses to make the capital investments necessary to increase output off the existing labour base - and NZ has a terrible track record of that, regardless of Government policy
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I'd be inclined to ask whether there's any record that homework has really been done on the rate of bread-eating among women in the fertile age range. Because if I had to guess, I'd estimate it as: pretty low.
Not sure of the relative merits, but it certainly worked in the US. CDC study suggested "Data from the 1999--2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) indicated that median serum folate* concentrations in nonpregnant women of childbearing age had increased substantially, compared with concentrations during a period (1988--1994) before fortification was mandated"
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Also, I wonder how the APs and Reuters do in this new world? That source-journalism continues to be necessary, I just wonder if the newspaper folk are the middle men aggregators that they claim to despise?
Source-journalism plus online-whatever-the-hell-flavour-you'd-like-it-opinioned-in seems like a leaner model. -
We drink instant coffee.
Well, fuck that
He's removing his very humanity just to survive in new-world journalism.
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Cripes, powerful stuff. Nice work.
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Big earthquakes usually happen around new moons and full moons, and a week either side.
Can't argue with that.
LOL. Man's a forecasting genius.
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According to Facebook friends in Queenstown (I know, I know it's soooooo 07), they just had another jolt?