Posts by BenWilson
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LOL, I never realized his gold was all nicked. But if it came to asking him for my gold back I guess I'd probably just take a pass too.
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Well, for some time now I've seen myself as the PAS Fool.
As you do.Rubbish, you ain't no Fool, fool. Fight u for it!
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Actually, they had plenty to trade. They were the world's largest producer of gold, diamonds and a slew of valuable minerals for a long time.
Yup, and that was exactly why it held on as long as it did. But that's nothing compared to what China has.
What they have is not exactly the same as Apartheid. But practically, it's about as bad, certainly on the scale that they can (and have) put it to.
However, I'm not arguing against the agreement. I just figure that practically a country like NZ simply can't use trade sanctions to any useful effect against a superpower. Against the likes of Fiji and South Africa, our gestures make a difference. Against China, we hurt ourselves, and that sure isn't the point of it.
Furthermore, we trade with the buggers already anyway. It's not like there already is an embargo, or that anyone is actually proposing one. This is simply a deal that gives us a lot more of what China has got, at piss all cost to us, and that makes it a great deal.
I too find the shrillness of the opposition (mostly fringe groups so far) very, very silly.
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I do think that if SA had more to trade, Apartheid would have lasted longer, though. It's one thing to accept getting hit in the sport, another in the wallet. It was the US embargo that really killed it, however much we remember our own battles. And it was a lot easier for the US to write off the produce of SA than it would be for any nation to write off the produce of China.
We have to accept that the FTA is practical rather than principled. Like most political compromises. I'd rather the USA didn't have Guantanamo Bay either, but to stop trading with them over it would be martyring ourselves.
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Ah copyright. The desperate, hopeless and pointless fight against piracy continues...
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Peter
Ben if we burn even a fraction of the known coal reserves we are going to hell in a handcart unless you fancy the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet that is.
I fancy that a lot more than having no power.
Then there is the shortage of uranium, the quality ore that is making nuclear even dodgier.
Well it is 'running out' but every estimate I've seen puts the time frame in hundreds of years.
There is NO suitable energy technology that can even possibly support our lifestyle on anything but the long-term radar.
The running out of the existing forms is also on the 'long-term radar'. Naturally it's better to plan for that running out now, but that is happening. Alternative energy technologies are constantly becoming more viable as the stored stuff runs out. A lot of them have distinct advantages over fossil fuels that will actually improve our lifestyles.
We cannot afford to burn the fossil fuels we know about and can economically exploit without crossing various tipping points that will take eons to come back if they ever do.
Perhaps. What is on the other side of the tipping points is unknown. Where the tipping points are is unknown. What we can do about them is unknown. It's a hell of a risk to tip the planet's climate, but it is not guaranteed disaster.
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I suspect there will have to be some sort of revolution before the Chinese get any sort of freedom.
Let's hope not. They cost a hell of a lot of lives. Communist Russia managed to switch over without full blown revolution.
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to me, this is just not going to happen. a fantasy even. the affluent lifestyles on this planet are based on a 100-year petroleum bonanza--a one-off boom, followed by the inevitable bust. as more and more people on this planet demand to have their own fossil-fuel slaves, we are going to end up either changing to a radically less energy intensive way of living or have even more wars over ever-decreasing energy supplies.
There has definitely been a bonanza on oil, but there's no way I believe that's it for humanity, that from now on we're heading towards energy depletion. There's still huge amounts of stored energy in nuclear and coal, and various ways of tapping solar power are constantly improving. Not to mention improved efficiency of energy usage.
Biofuel seems cool to me on exactly one score - that we can make liquid fuel with it. The efficiency of doing so now makes it pointless compared to oil, but oil just won't last forever, and unless technology makes huge strides, it will still remain the most space efficient and convenient method of portable energy storage, which will always have some applications. It is difficult to see how aircraft could operate any other way.
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Damn, what a difference a slash makes. Doh.
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The bedroom where your kid sleeps?
Gotta house the workers.
The lounge where you watch your TV?<quote>
Meeting room?
<quote>Your on-the-road-only sedan car?
Gotta make trips to town for work sometimes...
None of it sounds much different to my expense claims. Well, the kids bedroom, but I have to say that one sounds like bs.
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