Posts by Kyle Matthews
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Labour has been critical of China on human rights issues. I think that anyone who thinks that the FTA is somehow giving "redibilty to brutal states" just wants to believe that no matter what.
I keep coming back to (and the comparison isn't exact, but similar in principle at least), how would it have looked (and felt) if we'd signed a free trade deal with South Africa 30 years ago.
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How the hell can you close a department that has working PhD students? Appalling.
It's actually not easy to close a department without screwing over some PhD students. If you're nice about it, and say "we'll close in three years, everyone finish up their PhDs, no one take on any more", then the theory is nice, but the staff aren't going to sit around for three years and then apply for jobs.
Jobs might not come up very often in their fields, particularly in a little country like NZ. So even if the department stays open, the only specialist that can supervise might get a job elsewhere anyway. And some departments, won't supervise if they can't provide a specialist, so the only easy answer is 'never close a department', which doesn't always work as an answer.
And it's pretty expensive to run a department which is going to have a sinking lid of undergraduate and postgraduate students, because you can't take on new postgrads, or new majors, because the staff won't be around long enough for either of them to finish.
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The only sexual tension is between me and Pippa (this from someone who didn't like her when she first appeared - oh the shame - as soon as the glasses disappeared I fell for her like the sad lonely man I am) ... Ahem.
Do you need a room for one and a TV? Don't mind us...
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Kyle: Ok, I see how the carbon sink element would work as opposed to oil. Using that idea, trees that take a generation to grow before being used for fuel would make more sense than corn. Corn would reach its maximum level of carbon sequestration in only a few months and retain it for for merely days or weeks. On an annual basis the net effect would be close to nil as the fuel thus produced was released while the next crop grew. Unless plantings expanded on an exponential basis, ther would be little net benefit over time. Never mind the land management issues and consequencs for food supply.
Well I know very little about corn, except that it's an incredibly inefficient replacement for oil.
But the radio show I heard was talking about algae farming. Something about the sea having more green mass than all the landmass, at any point in human history, though I was only paying half attention to the radio show.
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Oh no kitset, that's cheating.
If you don't build it yourself, then it loses all its charm. And wildly dangerous inaccuracy.
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Farmers pay their taxes too
Dammit they don't! The tax rort (and it's not just farmers, they're just the obvious ones) where cars and their house are written off as an expense grates against me enormously. The barn is a farming expense, the milking shed is a farming expense, the tractor is a farming expense. The bedroom where your kid sleeps? The lounge where you watch your TV? Your on-the-road-only sedan car? Not so much.
(And farmers all over the country curse me).
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Speaking of biofuels, anyone know how the trials of the algae grown on seweraged derived biofuels went? that was all over a while back but nothing since.
They did a show on National Radio - I think it was in the changing world show, 3, maybe 4 weeks ago. It doesn't seem to be online, but from the bits I caught they were optimistic about moving it onto something that could be commercialised as part of the solution.
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I've never been a columnist for a newspaper, but I'd imagine that MacDonald has no control over what other people write for that newspaper, or what they write in it.
I'd imagine his only option would be, if he found them abhorrent enough, would be to not write for the newspaper at all.
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PS Did anyone in Dunedin go see the show? Kyle? Ali?
Sadly I'm saving my limited funds for Heavenly Burlesque at Sammy's this Friday. A burlesque show with circus arts, followed by Sonic Smith at the after party. It's got the three essential food groups surely.
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I know a guy who makes trebuchets.
Those are the coolest things. I want to make one for my backyard and use it to throw the ball for my dogs. For the dog's entertainment only, obviously.
The fact that they might have to cross three neighbouring properties to retrieve their ball is just good exercise.