Archive for September, 2008

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  Noisy neighbours get the boot - by frog

  
  
  
  I never figured I’d be standing up for my Aussie cousins, particularly those living in Dunedin. However, a whole bunch of them have just been evicted for making too much noise in search of a mate. The Otago Daily Times reports that several Australian brown tree frogs have been rounded up and evicted from a [...] read more
  September 26, 2008 10:47 am - 7 Comments
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  Hyundai announces NZ’s first fully electric car - by frog

  
  
  
  Although it won’t be New Zealand’s first electric car, it will be the first fully electric production model. But wait, there’s more! The conversion to fully electric will take place here, according to a press release from Hyundai today. The project is in collaboration with engineer, Ross Blade who developed the Getz retro-fit electric car. [...] read more
  September 26, 2008 10:19 am - 50 Comments
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  NZ’s melamine contamination - by frog

  
  
  
  Poisonous food and dying babies is strictly a ‘far away in China’ sort of thing, even if it happens to be large New Zealand company embroiled in the scandal?  Right? We can look sadly on and shake our heads despondently at Chinese officials and businessmen who didn’t respond fast enough or allow the public to [...] read more
  September 25, 2008 3:19 pm - No Comments
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  Excluded cos we’d win? - by frog

  
  
  
  I’ve just been pointed to this TVNZ webpoll on who is the trustworthiest politician.  Out of over 120 MPs your only choices to vote for are Clark, Key, Peters, Anderton, Hide and Dunne.  Neither the Greens nor the Maori Party are listed. Maybe this poll is like one of the the preliminary knockout rounds before [...] read more
  September 25, 2008 3:15 pm - 20 Comments
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  Erythrosine - by frog

  
  
  
  A small crafts business, Golding Handcrafts, has applied to Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) to relax restrictions on the controversial food colouring, erythrosine.  Sue Kedgley is concerned because Erythrosine is an endocrine disruptor, altering the level of thyroid hormones to the extent that it causes thyroid tumours in lab tests. Any small change to [...] read more
  September 25, 2008 2:42 pm - 34 Comments
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  A coffee break - by frog

  
  
  
  TreeHugger has these interesting coffee stats: 20 Million — That’s how many families (about 60 to 80 million people) depend on coffee for their income. After oil, coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world. 100 — That’s how many coffee beans it takes to make one cup of coffee on average. 4,000 [...] read more
  September 25, 2008 11:16 am - 7 Comments
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  Bob Clarkson adds to his total word tally in Parliament - by frog

  
  
  
  After I reported Bob Clarkson’s work rate in Parliament at various times as  65 words in 2 and half months, 16 words in one month and 19 words in nearly 3 months, I was hoping after last night to be able to say Bob Clarkson had blown all those previous records out of the water [...] read more
  September 25, 2008 9:50 am - 46 Comments
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  Who will it be? - by frog

  
  
  
  Triennially the question goes on to all the MMP parties: So who’s it going to be, who will you go with? This time, with the exception of the Maori Party, we pretty much know the answer, or will know the answer before the election for all of them.   But what we don’t know is [...] read more
  September 25, 2008 8:29 am - 53 Comments
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  Walking to work - by frog

  
  
  
  It was fairly impressive this morning to see swathes of people people enjoying the Wellington spring sunshine as they walked  to work along the waterfront.  Sadly this massive increase in pedestrians was all due to entirely the wrong reasons.  No matter what you may think of Go Wellington’s industrial dispute with its bus drivers, a [...] read more
  September 25, 2008 8:13 am - 33 Comments
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  Donna Wynd on strict liability for drivers who hit cyclists - by frog

  
  
  
  There has been some debate among frogblog commenters here about the part of the Green transport policy which talks about introducing clearer criminal liability for crashes involving active modes so that motorised vehicles are liable unless the pedestrian or cyclist has been reckless. Or, to put it more simply, Jeanette said in her speech on [...] read more
  September 24, 2008 3:55 pm - 12 Comments
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  Russel’s speech on the Privileges Committee findings - by frog

  
  
  
  Ok, so as speeches go the atmosphere is not quite Barack Obama in front of faux Greek pillars, but it’s a pretty clear annunciation of why Russel voted to censure Winston Peters. read more
  September 24, 2008 3:08 pm - 15 Comments
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  Nat’s forestry policy is Labour lite - by frog

  
  
  
  True to form, the National Party has released a forestry policy that leaves Labour’s policies completely unchanged, but whinges mightily about the RMA. What a yawn. The now familiar recipe goes like this; Ingredients: 1 Labour policy (ripe) 1 cup of meaningless statistics 1 National Party spokesperson 1 cup of self-righteous bile standard seasonings Implements: [...] read more
  September 24, 2008 2:25 pm - 3 Comments
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  The methane time bomb - by frog

  
  
  
  Scientists have recently documented the ticking of the biggest climate change time bomb of them all – methane frozen for millennia beginning to melt in the Arctic. Indeed, the tipping point that the IPCC fears the most may already have been reached. The Independent reports the bad news: In the past few days, the researchers [...] read more
  September 24, 2008 11:02 am - 32 Comments
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  Wall Street socialism - by frog

  
  
  
  SolveClimate.com is asking why the American government will step to in to nationalise failing companies like AIG, but it won’t buy profitable companies before they go belly up?  And it’s got a suggestion.  Why not buy ExxonMobil? (After all it worked for Hugo Chavez!) In the current crisis in the financial markets, even free market [...] read more
  September 24, 2008 10:24 am - 80 Comments
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  Remember just because something makes you money doesn’t mean it is good for you - by frog

  
  
  
  From Brazil’s WWF, via The Sietch read more
  September 24, 2008 9:55 am - 2 Comments
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  Knowing where your milk powder comes from - by frog

  
  
  
  Here’s some more from Question Time in the house yesterday.  The government has a longstanding position that Country of Origin Labelling on food is not a food safety issue and so it refuses to protect consumers’ right to know where their food comes from. That assertion that the safety of food has nothing to do [...] read more
  September 24, 2008 9:02 am - 5 Comments
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  Car Free Day – Christchurch - by frog

  
  
  
  I’ve received this Car Free Day report from the Aoraki Greens in Christchurch: Jeanette Fitzsimons joined 5 local candidates plus a dozen active members and engaged with almost 2,000 commuters. We handed out nifty stickers with the message “Super Heroes Don’t Drive Cars” and the recently released Green Party transport policy leaflet, which highlights our [...] read more
  September 24, 2008 9:01 am - 4 Comments
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  Trading away Pharmac and GE free to the USA - by frog

  
  
  
  Following on from No Right Turn’s analysis of what we stand to lose from a trade deal with the USA, Russel asked a couple of questions of the Acting Minister of Trade in Parliament today: Dr Russel Norman: Will the Minister publicly guarantee that he will not sign any trade deal with the United States [...] read more
  September 23, 2008 7:58 pm - 4 Comments
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  Hand in hand - by frog

  
  
  
  John Key, 6 September 2008: “Economic growth and improving the environment can and must go hand in hand.” Bill English, 5 August 2008: “Don’t fall for the word sustainability – what the hell does that mean? You’ve got to make money if you’re going to stay in business.” read more
  September 23, 2008 2:13 pm - 10 Comments
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  g.blog: ‘Fixing’ the Resource Management Act - by frog

  
  
  
  It turns out our toad is a bit of a Ralph Steadman! For those who want some historical background the National Development Act 1979 was Muldoon’s effort to speed up development projects in the ‘national interest’. It was a key part of Think Big and the Clyde Dam.  It was also a great way of [...] read more
  September 23, 2008 2:02 pm - 2 Comments