if we moved to permiculture and urban agriculture.

re your accusations of me ‘making things up’ about russel norman..?

about his bio-fuel pimping..?

phil(whoar.co.nz)

Your skepticism about whether it will happen before we hit the brick wall is probably justified. But without hope there is no future.

In the era of virtually free energy there was no incentive to do more with less energy. Ditto with water. There is certainly a political unwillingness to change from free to expensive before it’s too late.

And as for your average voter. Ok, so you’ve got a shiny new car but are you using it to do anything your parents or grandparents didn’t do? In less time? So what have you gained from all that extra energy you are using? The ability to live further away from where you work and shop. Why? Because of single use zoning. And because you’ve got more money than your parents and grandparents and can’t think of anything useful to do with it. Insulate your house? Install solar hot water? Where’s the advantage in that? That’s not going to impress friends, family and complete strangers the way they are when they see you in a shiny new car, is it? Except they probably don’t even notice, and certainly not for long enough to give you your share of Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame.

Whoops, sorry, maybe pessimism and reality are contagious?

Maglev is the only sustainable alternative to the airliner. I suspect that the energy needed to lift a 100 ton train a few millimetres is a tiny fraction of the energy needed to move it at 400kmh. Trevor’s argument that we have too many hills is the main reason why our existing rail network was horrendously expensive to build even though curve and gradient standards were hopelessly compromised to keep costs down.

This and transfer of US farmland in accord with energy self sufficiency polity is problematic as to any reverse in the trend.

i don’t feckin’ ‘make things up’..

get russel to answer wether it existed or not..

and where it is now..

don’t just assume i am ‘making it all up’..

i find that assumption on your port to be quite offensive..

and as you are making this accusation/assumption..(based on what..?..)

please show an example of me doing that before..

in the many many comments i have made on this blog..

put up..!..or shut up..!

toad..

and feckin’ apologise while you are at it..

phil(whoar.co.nz)

While true, the maglev train should use considerably less energy than an aircraft for the same weight of cargo and passengers. For one, it doesn’t carry any (significant) fuel, as the main propulsion is provided by the track, so it is lighter. For another, it only lifts a short distance, not 37000 feet, and the lift is magnetic repulsion rather than aerodynamic lift, so the drag is less. In addition, the maglev train is longer and has a smaller cross-sectional area so its wind resistance is less than a plane, although the plane flies in thinner air. Finally, the energy doesn’t come from burning fuel.

Unfortunately New Zealand doesn’t suit maglev trains. We have too many hills and I doubt that we would have enough passengers per mile.

Trevor.

As if I would have known? Anyway, from what I understand of the protocols of this blog is that nothing gets “expunged” unless it is blatantly offensive. Correct me if I’m wrong, frog.

But Phil, yours is the most pathetic defence ever! If you really wanted to use the post that you had concerns about and are now maintaining existed(if it actually did exist, and I am challenging your credibility here) later for your own political ends, surely you would have saved it yourself, and be now able to now post it to frogblog and anywhere else you may choose.

Instead, you make unsubstantiated allegations, and cannot back them up with evidence.

Produce the post, and prove your claim has some validity. Otherwise, I think you are talking male bovine faeces here, and should migrate to Kiwiblog where most punters talk that way!

does that not smack of a sub-thread of totalitarianism..?

phil(whoar.co.nz)

and norman is party co-leader..

which makes my question entirely relevant..

tell me how that is not so..!..b.j..

your attempt to ‘red herring’/cheapen/demean my question..

is just ‘kinda shabby’..eh..?

and..um..!..a severe slippage in standards by yourself..

phil(whoar.co.nz)