frogblog

There’s a nice little interview here on Scoop where the RDU’s Spanky talks to Russel about the polls, MMP, ‘Sustainability’ Labour, open source and free software and the need for tug of war at the 2012 London Olympics.

Photo credit: Here be Dragons

Al Gore’s at it again. After his call for America to go 100% renewable in 10 years, his organisation “We Can Solve It” is running a TV ad in the US demanding clean energy. But because even his big-bucks buddies can’t compete with $850 million a year spent by oil and coal companies […]

You know, Parliament’s question time was interesting yesterday.  Well, not so much all the Winston Peters stuff.  The funniest bit of that exchange was Dail Jones trying to claim that Owen Glenn’s damning letter might be a forgery.
The stuff I found interesting though was the discussion on the Waterview Connection. Russel began by asking whether […]

Xavier Goldie couldn’t quite believe Brian Lochore said what he did this week:
Apparently, not only did Lochore leave his babies (not children, but three week old babies) outside in the mud while he was boozing, but he actually attempts to justify the fact that he assaulted other people’s children. WTF?
Meanwhile, also on s 59 related […]

The have been the usual voices in favour and against the Greens’ decision to back the Emissions Trading Scheme, and I’ll talk more about that later. But I also just saw a media release coming from a different angle from the Director of the University of Otago Wellington’s He Kainga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme […]

The Green Party caucus has just voted to support the Emissions Trading Scheme. I was watching caucus debate through the window and can confirm the decision did not look to be a foregone conclusion. Jeanette’s media release highlights some of the improvements to the scheme:
We have always said the scheme needed to share the effort […]

National Geographic’s Charles Mann has an extensive September cover story on soil.  It’s a long read and this is just my quick synopsis, but it’s a fascinating topic, or at least I thought it was:
Journalists sometimes describe unsexy subjects as MEGO: My eyes glaze over. Alas, soil degradation is the essence of MEGO. Nonetheless, the stakes—and […]

The Niue Declaration on climate change signed last week at the Pacific Islands Forum contains all the usual statements you would expect from a bunch of poor islands with very few carbon emissions to reduce, yet facing the very real threat of global warming caused by other countries.  There were calls for international recognition and […]

According to the New Zealand Herald public transport is finally becoming popular in Auckland:
Aucklanders cramming into trains to avoid hefty petrol bills have boosted winter rail patronage over 30 per cent.
Bus use is also climbing from a trough, as fleet operators report up to 7 per cent growth since April. That compares with a 2 […]

LONDON (AP) — The manufacturer of an ultra-lightweight plane says the aircraft has broken the world record for longest-lasting unmanned flight.
Next week I hear the manufacturer will also be taking on the unwomaned flight record.
More details here.