Posts by Kiwiiano
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It seems to me we're waaay overdue to pull back from the whole northern hemisphere mid-winter Saturnalia festivities thing and settle for a celebration more appropriate for our southern summer. If it can't easily be cooked on a BBQ, forget it! What we save on buying hams and turkeys can be diverted to supermarket cold salads, Xmas mince pies, pavlova and ice cream. The Xmas tree and the lights can be a lot of fun for the littlies but keep them small and symbolic.
And strike the whole manger palaver, if it happened at all it wouldn't be in December. There's no way shepherds would be washing their sox by night in the middle of a Palestinian winter.
Now if we could just tone down the retail excesses, especially now we've had the hideous 'mercan Black Friday/Cyber Monday abomination foisted on us. Bah HUMBUG i say!! -
It looks like Trump has been set up by the 1% to provide a distraction while they ram thru the tax legislation that will restore the Robber Baron status. They may well throw him overboard then.
The silly thing about colliding with the Russians is that it was probably unnecessary, they were only too happy to promote Trump covertly knowing he could bring the US to its knees. My guess is that some little money grubber saw a chance to make a heap of $$$$$. -
Hard News: The climate changed, in reply to John Farrell,
Well, in terms of their carbon footprint, it was noted that the original VW Beetles hd a lower gas consumption per km than the new ones, because they were a lot lighter and had a lot less 'extras'. True, without all the side intrusion bars and reinforced passenger compartments they aren't as safe but....
If you go back to the 50cc/adult passenger, the vast majority of vehicles are hopelessly over-powered on the off-chance they may have to take a trailer-load to the transfer station once every couple of months or 'need' seating for 7 adults.
The predictions are that within a few years the convergent technologies of autonomous electric vehicles may see all our ICEs reduced to museum pieces. Quote "Your current car may well be the last one you will ever own!" That roll-over, which could take only a decade or so, should knock a dent in our national carbon footprint.
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Hard News: The climate changed, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
To be fair, trolley buses are an unsightly mess. We’d be far better off to have electric buses that top up their batteries every time they stop at a bus stop from the coils buried below, picking up enough charge to make it a few stops beyond. The fact they are available yet is an opening for a bright young lad.
My other grump is the claim we have too many old cars. We have too many cars that are way bigger than the 50cc/adult passenger minimum requirement.
Or not enough EVs. -
Wasn't 2037 about when it was predicted that a Universal Minimum Income would be necessary with so many jobs being automated, disappearing entirely with no promised alternatives, or only being available to highly trained and capable specialists? Try teaching a freezing worker to cut code.
And why do so many people assume that an OAP is going to disappear into some hidden overseas bank account or be splurged on gold-plated Italian marble bathtubs? More likely to be frittered away on groceries, power bills and/or doctor's fees, but at least the GST will be back in the coffers promptly and a fair bit of the rest will be taxed one way or the other unless the Crumblies are investing in new iPhones or cruises down the Danube. Money works best if it goes round & round.
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Re the wall that Dubbya actually has already started building... It will need to be pretty high, 60% of Mexicans arriving in the States are coming by plane.
Then there's this thought...
https://cleantechnica.com/2017/02/06/obama-wheres-trumps-birth-certificate-way/ -
Hard News: The next four years, in reply to Tess Rooney,
Isn't "Fox News" spelt "Faux News"?
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If this God burk goes around killing baby seals isn't he/she/it criminally liable for harming protected animals? In fact the shearwater chicks are an endangered species! Can we ping the brylcreamed bishop for association with criminals?
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Hard News: #eqnz: Okay?, in reply to Hilary Stace,
A possible link between earthquakes and the phase of the moon & its tidal effects was one of the very first explanations for quakes, but it wasn't long before they could see no pattern in the distribution of the two events.
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There seems to be a failure back at Secondary school level, students being encouraged into careers for which there will rarely be enough jobs for the graduates. Most of the medical and scientific disciplines would be included, the arts and fine arts ditto. It would seem that trades are far more likely, but even there the periodic booms and busts can catch a fresh-faced apprentice with the only option "would you like fries with that?"
Of course, the real problem may be that the brave new world of the Neo-liberals never guaranteed a job for anyone, let alone a well-paying, secure one. They faded away 50 years ago.
Thought in passing: does anyone produce an annual list of employment possibilities? Based on real checking, not delusions of Uni or Polytech administrators?