Posts by Paul Campbell

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  • Hard News: The Sunday Capers,

    actually I think the story as written is "shock horror politician sex"

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: There is History,

    I guess my main point though was that it was spread by ship and took weeks to get to NZ rather than hours

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: There is History,

    The Spanish Flu was spread by returning troops - on ships - these days things (and people) move so much faster

    This morning I had to decide whether to send the kids to school - the flight from LAX those kids were on was probably full of kids returning from their school holidays who'll be heading off to school today. Add to that my daughter was exposed yesterday to at least one friend who flew in from the US that night (might well have been the flight from SFO though).

    In the end we sent them off - with a history lesson of the previous great pandemic and instructions to stay away from any kids who'd been to the US these holidays for a few days (and not to demonise them)

    On the other hand I seem to be coming down with something .....

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: Dear Prudence,

    Bart: doesn't just have to be industries - people too otherwise Auckland becomes an ever increasing black hole and the rest of the country empties out - Kyle's link showing spot prices implies that if you can play in the market with the big boys you can get power here for $26/MWh while in Auckland it's $44/MWh if you're exporting that's probably worth considering - maybe if Powerstation gets big enough we can all play in that market

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: Dear Prudence,

    No what I was implying more was that we'd use our power more efficiently if we put the users closer to where it's generated - by making South island power the same price in both the North and South Islands we effectively encourage people to waste it - sending power from Benmore to Auckland (or even Wellington) is a waste, instead if we can encourage industries to set up in say Oamaru instead we'll use what we already have much more efficiently - the best way to encourage that is to charge the real costs, including geographically related transmission losses

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: Dear Prudence,

    remember how electricity works, basically the company loans you a few electrons and then takes them back - 50 times a second - what you're really buying is not the electrons but the push behind them

    What I'd like to see is an electricity scheme that includes the cost of pushing those electrons across Cook Straight (they get pushed only one way which makes converting them back into the form we get into our houses much less efficient) if we lose say 30% of what we put into a cable it stands to reason it ought to be cheaper at the other end

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: Dear Prudence,

    My teenage son did one of those IQ tests (probably not from there) - it wanted his cell number to text the results to - somewhere along the way he signed up to some bogus text service he couldn't afford - much yelling was done over the phone - beware

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: Deconstruct This,

    heh - Joanna - I got the same blank screen and was expecting some wonderful neo-existentialist tirade from the inhabitants ....

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: It would be polite to ask,

    It may also be that "Eskimo" was simply naive in a big unwired world but is now insensitive in ours smaller wired one ...

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Hard News: It would be polite to ask,

    A friend of mine pointed out today that most non NZers expect the islands to be called "North Island" and "South Island" while we strangely include the article as part of the name.

    He suggests we officially rename them as "The North" and "The South"

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

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