Archive for December, 2007

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  Stiglitz on Bush’s economic legacy

  
  
  
  Good article by Stiglitz about the economic legacy of Bush. Stiglitz was Chief Economist at the World Bank and chaired Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors. Stiglitz went on to be highly critical of the World Bank and especially the IMF for destroying the economies of developing countries. He infuriates the neoclassical economists with his theory of imperfect [...] read more
  December 28, 2007 6:07 pm - 47 Comments
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  Wind assisted shipping

  
  
  
  On a more positive note, the Beluga Shipping co. will use a Skysail kite to assist a 132m container ship across the Atlantic in January, according to an article over at Worldchanging. The kite is supposed to reduce fuel consumption by 50% at maximum pull and up to 35% on average. If the trial is successful [...] read more
  December 27, 2007 11:41 pm - 67 Comments
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  Want toilet paper with your towel?

  
  
  
  It’s christmas. Time to go for a quick dip in the local lagoon. Or maybe not… because it’s full of shit. A despatch from the Hawke’s Bay: A warning has also been issued for Waipatiki Lagoon, also north of Napier, which has raised levels of E.coli after heavy rains upstream washed effluent from farmland and discharges [...] read more
  December 27, 2007 11:30 pm - 2 Comments
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  Cycle tracks

  
  
  
  Went for a bike ride out to Petone day before yesterday. It could be a great ride, next to the Harbour from Wellington CBD out to the beach at Petone. But the bike track is really bad – it’s rough as guts, has lots of glass on it, is covered in loose gravel in various places. [...] read more
  December 27, 2007 2:40 pm - 26 Comments
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  The Swarm

  
  
  
  The holiday season is pleasantly underway. Over the last two days I read a work of fiction for the first time in, well, quite a while. I read The Swarm by Frank Schatzing. It’s pretty good. It’s long at 881 pages but pretty easy to read, in between bottles of red as befits the season. It [...] read more
  December 26, 2007 9:37 pm - 44 Comments
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  Bob Clarkson 2

  
  
  
  Is it unfair to keep picking on him?  Maybe he is shy.  Maybe he’s a man of actions rather than words.  According to the TheyWorkForYou website here are Bob Clarkson’s verbal contributions to Parliament in all the furore before the house rose for the year.  (12 Dec 2007) Interjection: “You’d better hurry; this is under urgency.” (6 [...] read more
  December 22, 2007 10:58 am - 20 Comments
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  Test. Cricket.

  
  
  
  I have only ever thought of cricket in culinary terms, being a frog and all. However, last night a perfectly good political thread was interrupted by an outbreak of cricket. So this is a test. Not test cricket, but a test of having a cricket conversation on a political blog. Toad has shared his/her preferred Test [...] read more
  December 21, 2007 11:04 am - 18 Comments
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  Super cheap solar

  
  
  
  Nanosolar, a new solar energy company started with money from Google’s founders, has finally delivered on its promise to produce solar energy for less than $1 per watt. Technology announced several years ago, that avoids using expensive silicon and instead prints a semiconductor ink onto a thin film, has just started rolling off the production [...] read more
  December 21, 2007 10:18 am - 74 Comments
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  The price of food

  
  
  
  I’ve talked a couple of times in the recent weeks about the global price of food, and its links to peak oil. At the moment the world is experiencing dramatically increasing food prices after decades of falling prices. Interestingly in New Zealand the Department of Statistics latest figures confirm that peak food [...] read more
  December 20, 2007 9:12 am - 22 Comments
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  Jeanette is Colin James’ politician of the year

  
  
  
  Jeanette has been named as Colin James’ politician of the year. But best have been the Greens: almost always positive and principled, patiently scoring points and this year getting some significant bills passed (Sue Bradford, Sue Kedgley) and getting (at long last) action on energy efficiency. I single out their very long-serving co-leader, gracious, generous, fair-minded and, [...] read more
  December 19, 2007 11:16 pm - 33 Comments