tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59994532012-02-07T09:56:45.846+13:00If you "incentivize failure," you get more failure; if you "incentivize success," you get more success. And, from a government's view, since it's the people with money who pay the taxes, you might as well incentivize success. For this also leaves governments with less wreckage to pay for. ht - David Warren.Waymadnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-77231565169079212792012-02-07T09:55:00.000+13:002012-02-07T09:56:45.857+13:00

Housing affordability has five components:1 - cost of land.2 - cost of building - and as NZ is well under scale, and hence has hopelessly overpriced materials: it's still worth going to the States and filling a 40' container and paying GST plus duty on the contents: most materials are around 20% of the NZ converted cost. 3 - time taken - as time=money - the 'carry' can be significant even for

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-44720132387019000562012-02-05T15:24:00.001+13:002012-02-05T15:26:05.832+13:00

A word about Development Contributions. I'm an old grizzled ex-County Treasurer who actually used to administer these babies in the good old days before the dopey Sandra Lee LG Act 2002 injected 'Social and Cultural Wellbeings' into Councils spending arena. DC's were really about public open space: land, reserves and the like. A simple cash amount, which was held in trust and applied only to

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-76967345311857321892012-01-24T13:30:00.000+13:002012-01-24T13:31:21.228+13:00

The old, traditional delivery areas of Local Government - roads, bridges, hard services such as drainage, sewers, water - are doing just fine. But the regulatory areas such as planning and consents are simply getting in the way of everything. Spatial Planning is a failed concept - the RMA was meant to gauge proposals by reference to their effects, not their zoning. But it was captured early on by

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-11851546219217197872011-12-18T11:52:00.002+13:002011-12-18T12:00:08.108+13:00

The best quote:"the transformation of universities into Maoist re-education camps with beer kegs"I'm struggling thorough Goldman's 'It's not the end of the world, it's just the end of You' and finding it a little too theistic but the learning, the breadth and the one-liners are amazing to behold.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-80421817855639405572011-06-03T20:07:00.002+12:002011-06-03T20:10:24.440+12:00

Spengler, once again, nails the essence of what is really going on in MENA. Implosion, in a word. These countries will simply become flyover territories. But short-term, they're gonna generate a world of refugee pain for the Eurozone and any other country unlucky enough to border them.....

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-63785813371063704062011-05-24T19:41:00.001+12:002011-05-24T19:42:30.203+12:00

Read the comments thread - LOL.Disclaimer: I did not have English Peas for my evening meal.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-45354969021203782142011-05-03T21:38:00.002+12:002011-05-03T21:48:05.236+12:00

'Spengler' pulls another superb grain of wheat from the mass of chaff being talked about OBL's demise. To precis: the poor old chap was thrown under the bus - a victim of the various Arab upheavals which have yet to run their course. AQ had been more use to the Iranian cause of late, and the Saudis took a dim view of That, as the Yemeni buffer zone to their south is visibly disintegrating by

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-66791964965443428172011-03-25T20:44:00.008+13:002011-03-25T21:19:41.781+13:00

Reynold's law (bolded in the quote below) is one of those delightful discoveries that one stumbles across. Reynolds argued that societies often fail to understand the drivers of success and conflate its accidents with its essence. So when they want more of the essence they invest in more of the accidents.The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-70696952527805388422011-01-29T14:40:00.004+13:002011-01-29T14:51:53.284+13:00

This was one of Kurt Vonnegut's phrases from his later years. But I've realised that it has a major flaw: 'artist' is a much misused word.My own favourite artists in music are Tom Waits (check this clip for a wonderful mixture of vid and aud), Bob Dylan, Chris Rea. If you look at Dylan's 'World Gone Wrong' cover notes from 1993, my take is that he spotted the coming shitstorm and nailed it in

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-84184788188786685792010-09-05T13:02:00.002+12:002010-09-05T13:03:04.924+12:00

Sitrep from the absolutely untouched north-east of Chch at Waimairi Beach: 100% habitable, no liquefaction, no problems, power, water on (we're 300m away from a coastal bore), Sewer/stormwater pipes have stayed in place, no chimneys to collapse, everyone going about their business. Also true of Forest Park and most of Parklands plus most of Tumara Park. That's over 4000 households total.Key

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-65078991853799944532010-09-04T15:22:00.002+12:002010-09-04T15:31:51.380+12:00

Yup, the Big One (well, 7.1, anyways) has hit.Total damage at the WayMad household: one preserving jar on the pantry floor, and (boo hoo) a snowboard fell across the bumper of the Big SUV. A Paint Scratch! I'm devastated. But to judge from the breathless nature of much of the news coverage, you'd believe the whole of Christchurch is sleeping under the stars tonight. As looters carry away all

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-85116444405401091762010-06-30T12:06:00.003+12:002010-06-30T12:25:28.940+12:00

A good site for US housing bubbular info is Dr Housing Bubble. A few of the noobs here could do with a click over there, methinks.And yes, LTV's of 110% were creeping in here - I do recall a Westpac marketing pamphlet for 'professionals' which offered just that.But y'all are missing an important aspect of the whole puzzle.You Cannot expect useful, current or relevant info from the MSM or indeed

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-64785805290416169562010-06-15T10:04:00.002+12:002010-06-15T10:31:52.147+12:00

Motoczysz has won the Isle of Man TT, just short of the magic 100mph lap speed, on an all-electric motorbike.Wheee! As the Mogambo Guru likes to say.Oil, Gaia's abiotic fruit, yer days are numbered.Especially as the alternatives to batteries themselves are under development, as this little piece of good news shows.Just as the early iron ships, steel bridges, internal combustion engines, and

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-33993726499715791232010-06-13T12:36:00.002+12:002010-06-13T12:40:31.882+12:00

A leetle rant about those who insist that PO is here! In NZ! I told yer so!Variations on 'I told you so' are a good substitute for thinking?NZ is nowhere near PO: the CSG prospecting undertaken by L&M, the Southland lignite fields, and the highly prospective offshore oiliferous zones are all local mitigators. The undoubted impact in a wider sense is of the toxic combination of locally

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-18716680260778218672010-06-11T20:13:00.003+12:002010-06-11T20:17:58.980+12:00

In a discussion about the EPA's approval to 'regulate' carbon doixide (that gas we all breathe out all the time), I came upon this priceless comment.....harnessing the rotational energy of Grave-Spinning-Founding-Fathers.Mind you, this can only last the term of the current Prez.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-89609675799016980882010-06-09T10:17:00.003+12:002010-06-09T10:21:01.562+12:00

Hadn't caught up with the lyrics till now - but my, don't they sound current? From 'Infidels'. Partial quote only."The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land,He’s wandered the earth an exiled man.Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn,He’s always on trial for just being born.He’s the neighborhood bully.Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,Old women

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-3341304863974069182010-06-08T13:25:00.003+12:002010-06-08T13:31:10.930+12:00

That article is, simply, what I believe. Takers in NZ outnumber and can thus outvote Makers, and this will not end well. Because Makers are free to go Make someplace else; to Make less (just sufficient for their own sustenance - income equals expenses); or to stop Making altogether. In all three cases, tax revenues collapse, suddenly.And, you cannot Make (coerce) the Maker to Make stuff. At

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-38528202687293654562010-04-28T20:50:00.002+12:002010-04-28T20:59:13.303+12:00

Now this is what 3D printing is really about: spraying construction material at 25dpi and making buildings (or parts thereof - it's limited to a 6m cube enclosure at present).Faster, please.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-78216692166673315922010-03-19T11:09:00.003+13:002010-03-19T11:20:44.073+13:00

This (Gummint discovers that taxing property won't raise the dosh needed for tax cuts) all neatly illustrates the unfortunate corner that most western democracies have knowingly painted themselves into.In handing out entitlements, perqs and goodies, in an implicit intent to buy their recipients’ votes, they have triggered the ‘endowment effect’.Simply put, this means that you may not miss

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-72737789240507381102010-02-11T10:34:00.002+13:002010-02-11T10:38:39.583+13:00

Comment over on WUWT thread about AGW and its current, shall we say, terminal thrashing about.The middle of the road stance is, surely, adaptation. And there are some unlikely allies in this: read Stewart Brand's latest 'Whole Earth Discipline', and it is clear that there is a splintering of the entire movement from within. Brand advocates moving to cities (concentrate service delivery, allow

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-5909024890631841912009-12-02T21:18:00.002+13:002009-12-02T21:25:10.452+13:00

I’ve had a good deal of experience with accounting systems, and it has just struck me that the whole global temperature database should be constructed in a transactional fashion.To wit:Each station in the record has an ‘account’ – a GUID if you will, and all temperature values and adjustments for a given station are recorded as transactions for that account, assigned to a date (and even time),

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-44296518605449363972009-11-30T12:30:00.003+13:002009-11-30T12:47:00.763+13:00

An entertaining read. Harry has grave qualms about the data, the methods, and his own abilities, all written up in the ReadMe text file in unflinching fashion.A lovely quote:So, once again I don't understand statistics. Quel surprise, given that I haven't had any training in stats in my entire life, unless you count A-level maths.An honest man in a den of vipers - I've just finished Wolf Hall,

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-43733159131804344332009-11-26T16:34:00.003+13:002009-11-26T16:58:24.554+13:00

The 'Hardly Screwed' epithet which envious types used to throw at the University of east Anglia's Climate Research Unit is spookily accurate, possums....Chiefio - who has discovered the 'snowbird' tendency of global thermometering - is my favourite link, because he took the time to actually build a test Linux box, work through the GisTemp code and station data, and think about the results. An

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-65221797956734556532009-06-08T11:01:00.001+12:002009-06-08T11:03:44.199+12:00

Another classic article from the classicist and agricultural toiler, Victor Davis Hanson.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-19435325896770992262009-06-04T14:14:00.002+12:002009-06-04T14:18:30.914+12:00

Hat tip to MaxedOutMama. Health warning: please DO NOT read this with a cup of hot liquid near your mouth or over the keyboard. You have been warned.....

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-66590528798301254092008-12-17T16:58:00.003+13:002008-12-17T17:26:43.704+13:00

This Spengler piece neatly sums up the feeling I've had all year: that parts of the world are simply going to 'go dark' - lapse into internal disorder, become flyover country, off the map, fenced off from the remainder.See 'em while you can (and, of course if there's anything to actually go for). Art and Architecture are my choices. That rules out a good deal of the globe, anyways.As Kipling

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-8752321078505924952008-12-01T10:46:00.004+13:002008-12-01T11:14:33.812+13:00

This little gem from the ever-watchful Torygraph, shows just how much power is literally under our noses. I've always known that, given the right incentives (which generally means a crisis of some sort), that is to say, a large dose of Necessity, humans can pull yet another wabbit out of Gaia's capacious hat. Oops, I mean, exploit more sustainably our Ecological Niche.Whether it be

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-3049315118903191102008-07-06T17:51:00.015+12:002008-07-06T17:56:56.537+12:00

Heh. Couldn't have put this better meself. There are two mass delusion abroad IMHO: AGW being one (natch) and the notion that financial Ponzi schemes will not cause pain, the other. Sigh. As Dylan sings (Things have Changed):People are crazy and times are strangeI'm locked in tight, I'm out of rangeI used to care, but things have changed

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-81503334684359609212008-06-25T14:52:00.047+12:002008-06-25T15:11:35.519+12:00

Thanks to the wunners of globbelisation, I have three hot new books to devour. That's right: ordered 11 June on Amazon, delivered 25 June to my very doorstep.Brave New War - John Robb. John's website (Global Guerillas) is compulsory reading for those who are trying to make sense of the increasing disorder that seems to surround us. I long ago read (in Rees-Mogg and Davidson's 'The Great

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-75962902815093877042008-04-28T15:48:00.003+12:002008-04-28T15:54:36.297+12:00

Bruce Sheppard, the quinessential provocateur, has wondered publicly about the relevance of Te Tiriti in 2008. I've added a little comment, but Bruce has touched on the edge of an issue that's interested me for quite some time.Is the political support currently behind the re-tribalisation of Maori, a Good Thang?If you look at Ngai Tahu, who want to be capitalists, why yes. Probably.If you look

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-35908813261081838072008-04-08T13:32:00.040+12:002008-04-08T14:02:45.947+12:00

Spengler has, as always, a pithy comment - turn the whole show into a Theme Park. The money quote (soon, to be tariff-free, even, thanks to the FTA):“The monks do not practice a religion so much as a sort of folkloric animism that is out of place in the modern world. That is what makes them appear so charming to the spiritual tourists of the West. Attractions of this sort aren’t rational, and

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-91280225306828228872008-03-29T21:32:00.050+13:002008-03-29T21:45:58.962+13:00

This just has to be a No Shit, Sherlock moment for the hapless central planners of our funny little economy.For the otherwise unenlightened, the backstory is that, due to Clean Air fixations, wherein chimneys emitting smoke are deemed to be a Bad Thang, there is a movement afoot to replace open fires and old wood fires, with 'clean' heat sources. And to encourage the masses, there are Gummint

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-34358057917992376372008-03-28T14:55:00.019+13:002008-03-28T15:01:57.873+13:00

Couldn't agree more with This (ht Tim Blair). While I'm wholly in favour of reducing consumption (and am well ahead of the curve, in that I have LED lights drawing 1-3 watts each as downlight replacements), I abhor the collectivist pressure inherent in EH. And there's a less-well-publicised aspect to dimly lit precincts and premises that you won't hear about anytime soon from the promoters:

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-2830368482666692032008-03-26T08:47:00.005+13:002008-03-26T08:51:31.524+13:00

The proposal to streamline the building industry consents etc process is gathering steam. Not PC has easily the best summary of my views - planners, who needs 'em? They don't have anything to say about boats or cars. So why houses?

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-15393083628351794142008-03-18T16:20:00.007+13:002008-03-18T16:26:23.082+13:00

Great thread here, where the comments throw up all the usual suspects. And the lead paragraph is just it: what Were they thinking? Scapegoat time, methinks....My own take on things is that of a Bear of Very Little Brain:Sadly for conspiracy theorists, the US debacle is much simpler, much more widespread, and much more worrying. There are four underlying causes:1 - the US has for many years

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-72451581141131639722008-03-13T12:51:00.028+13:002008-03-13T13:55:41.310+13:00

I seem to have been infected by a Rhyming Bug, and to exorcise it, have commented all over a bunch of otherwise blameless victims. To hell with posterity, here they are, each with their context:Cullen and tax cuts:There was an old teacher named Michaelwho chortled at down trending cycle They'll have to vote we backInstead of that Key hackLet's nationalise Fisher and Paykel!Damn Furreners and

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-59602739388364776382008-03-13T12:42:00.025+13:002008-03-13T12:49:51.147+13:00

This leetle bombshell affects, oh, around half the marine organisms in the world. In essence, by omitting the 'assumed in the current paradigm' step of releasing oxygen while consuming carbon dioxide, these organisms have never done a darn thing in the carbon cycle.That sound you may hear if you listen closely is a whole bunch of Gerbil Worming gravy train riders saying 'bugger' and

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-2887581414356911932008-02-27T12:20:00.001+13:002008-02-27T12:23:58.099+13:00

ht: smalldeadanimals

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-37889693005814211982008-02-26T10:46:00.028+13:002008-02-26T10:55:24.728+13:00

My math is far too weak to follow Black-Scholes, but it's been the standard paradigm for pricing of exotic financial instruments for a quarter of a century.No longer.Ever since I read Nassim Nicholas Taleb's 'Black Swan', and bought/read his 'Fooled by Randomness' I've had this intuition that there was a big soft spot right underneath the main pillar of the financial establishment. The article

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-72192238908461001912008-02-22T16:14:00.029+13:002008-02-22T16:38:23.685+13:00

The always indispensable Spengler has done it again, with a piece about the wisdom of getting in your retaliation early. And of course the appeasement rhetoric of the ArchBish gets yet another hammering.As Warren Buffet has siad, it's not until the tide goes out that you can tell who's swimming naked. And with a harder, colder, wind blowing through the world, Spengler's piece is a reminder that

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-15244269141422765302008-02-16T14:05:00.050+13:002008-02-16T14:24:57.250+13:00

This piece (ht: Instapundit) is a useful reminder that the good ol' entrepreneurial business is the way forward. Earnest Gummint committess won't cut it. Bit like the UN in Darfur - no skin in the game, so no real incentive to step in and help.Moore's law: explanation here - capability rises/price halves roughly every 18-24 months. Works for me.The money quote:"You may not like their

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-83284419275406498752008-02-14T11:31:00.030+13:002008-02-14T11:52:12.583+13:00

The dear sainted Archbishop of Canterbury does seem to have gottem his fluffy self into a spot of bother with his all-too-public musings on sharia law and its applicability to England. Having been to High Wycombe for a radio station client, I had actually rather thought it (sharia) was there in all but name, but no matter. Anyhoo, this little gem of an extended Burma Shave sign did flash past a

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-9590561681715841912008-02-10T22:02:00.024+13:002008-02-11T12:26:54.351+13:00

I follow Anthony Watts, and he's come across this, from the wonderfully named Joe Bastardi. JB sees a re-run of the early-50's pattern of a La Nina which stopped the global warming (which had peaked in the '30's) in its tracks.Yup, we need to be more worried about cooling than warming. As someone who actually farms for a living notes, one nights cooling can kill your crop. One night's warming

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-39910701763071096862008-01-24T11:36:00.000+13:002008-01-24T11:43:42.314+13:00

A chilling but essential read for all who harbour Pollyanna thoughts about the Long War. Belmont Club has always turned out excellent analysis, and the comments thread is simply breathtaking. Especially Zenster. Plus there's a link to dear Steven Den Beste, on Triage.Compare this thread with the pathetic namecalling on, say, DPF's comments threads. Pick almost any one. Sigh.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-50127806434739572322008-01-23T13:11:00.000+13:002008-01-23T13:15:36.479+13:00

I've always been a sucker for maps, and this one (ht: Gods of Copybook Headings) is a bewdy. Yup, we're about the size of the US of A's District of Columbia. Oz, OTOH, is Ohio.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-9565919037018428042008-01-18T15:29:00.000+13:002008-01-18T15:44:18.773+13:00

It all sounds very technical, but it is quite important.Find out (if you're a shareholder in a bank, financial instituion or even a pension fund of any description, and with KiwiSaver, that's most of us) what value of institutions' assets are in the Voodoo bucket.There's a most useful primer here, and a bearish article from Asia Times online here.Because until we know (a) where the financial

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-50089035735175381292008-01-03T13:39:00.000+13:002008-01-03T13:47:15.858+13:00

Stewart Brand should need no introduction: Whole Earth Catalog, and a personal favourite: How Buildings Learn. Edge mag invited a whole bunch of folks to say what they changed their mind about in 2007. Guess what our Stewart came out with? Good Old Stuff Sucks. The obligatory quote:"The Precautionary Principle tells me I should worry about everything new because it might have hidden dangers.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-63552425022466130172007-12-20T17:32:00.000+13:002007-12-20T17:39:42.783+13:00

Something I'd read ages ago, updated here by the always-estimable Martin Wolf of the FT, and commented by Naked Capitalism.If there is a crunch or three coming along (energy use, global cooling cos' of Chilling Stars, various tragedies of the commons), we humans won't react all that well. Fights. Wars. The line which best sums it all up:"People fight to keep what they have more fiercely than

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-36588342732550867192007-12-17T15:09:00.000+13:002007-12-17T15:22:34.891+13:00

This little anecdote has to be one of this season's LOL hits....How's about:a huhu grub inside arifleman inside a tui inside a pigeon inside ablue duck inside a little bush moa inside a New Zealand eagleI'd just be exerting my customary/culinary/cultural rights.Oh dear. Some of these here boids seem to have been extincificated.Culinary rights clearly have a Lot to Answer For. No, wait. Some of

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-36289301088312869062007-11-29T17:40:00.001+13:002007-11-29T17:58:35.276+13:00

This is just the best news. Big award, for a deserving company.With current solar at around$USD3-5/watt, buying say 2 or 3 kw of panels is economic madness, particularly when you do the conversion to the Kiwi Peso. Best price I've seen for silicon is around $NZD9/watt. Times that by, what the hell, 3000, and that's a lot of pesos.No more.Nanosolar (hmm, I seem to have figured this out early

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-83743022154240531012007-10-01T09:41:00.000+13:002007-10-05T08:27:37.194+13:00

This is the latest (and, to my mind, clearest) statement about the origin of Oil - it ain't a 'fossil' fuel at all, according to those contararian Ruskies. It's a natural product, created deep within the Earth and slow-erupted up into the crust. Where it can be found by following geological signs, but just not the ones the Western scientific world tends to use.All this rather does blow a big

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-50815406706297258702007-09-25T15:36:00.000+12:002007-09-25T15:41:30.132+12:00

At last, a univeristy type with a backbone. This is Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger's address to the hapless Iranian. Mr President, I'll second that.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-13485259997672602852007-09-25T12:33:00.000+12:002007-09-25T12:43:10.312+12:00

This article is the best I have ever seen on the topic. It reviews Theodore Dalrymple's book 'Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy', and Richard DeGrandpre's alternative approach in 'The Cult of Pharmacology: How America Became the World’s Most Troubled Drug Culture'. Who says history is bunk, after reading Harris' skilful interlacing of the

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-44886826120416758202007-07-11T16:41:00.000+12:002007-07-20T16:20:26.650+12:00

The headline really says it all, no? And, dear reader, it's not from a lone blooger in his attic. It's from Dow Jones.All of us who have wondered, for three years now, just how it is that credit can be freely given for crap furniture ("Buy now! No repayments until your 3-year-old kid graduates Medicine school!"), let alone actual Houses, are receiving an answer from the financial universe.It's

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-45922202295406709612007-07-05T10:17:00.000+12:002007-07-12T08:45:53.156+12:00

This piece of actual science shows the value of actually doing the sums. Essentially, there jest ain't enough recoverable hydrocarbons in the entire world, to support assumptions made in the IPCC's climate model. Like, IPCC assume 11-15 trillion barrel-of-oil-equivalent (TBoe) is going to go up in smoke.Bzzt...wrong. There's only 2.7-3.5 TBoe left in the whole freakin' world, according to this

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-89689113092430982202007-06-14T15:23:00.000+12:002007-07-12T08:26:41.152+12:00

This article (ht: Gods of the Copybook Headings) sums up my own attitude to The Gerbil Worming debate. A teaser quote:"it speaks in the doom-laden accents of pure certitude of what will happen in 50 or 75 or a hundred years from now - and, with the same ferocious certitude, demands decisions of immense consequence be made now to forestall its bleak and definitive projections."Right on, bro'.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-40083603918716961132007-05-29T10:37:00.000+12:002007-05-29T10:52:37.768+12:00

Here's a neat piss-take on the Scary (well, scarily bad) Science behind the Beeb's recent trip to the thinner atmospheres of unreason, re WiFi radiation in the home.Sort of reminds you of all the other Chicken Little fads that we, as dumb humans, seem to need to work through every once in a while:'A Blueprint for Survival' - I still have a yellowing copy (you'd think they'd have printed the damn

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-3684001719679300552007-05-24T11:58:00.000+12:002007-07-12T08:25:52.898+12:00

This international article is a good summary of the last 20 years' experience of unsubsidised farming in our fair land. The Social Laboratory Syndrome strikes again!I do remember a leetle anecdote about those last glorious days of Supplementary Minimum Prices in the late '70's, way down South in a tiny self-governed town called Otautau.Y'see, SMP's were counted on certain days. And the basis

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-15908322785444582302007-05-17T12:38:00.000+12:002007-07-12T08:24:12.511+12:00

A useful post here from another bubbular location: Southern California (SoCal, for short).What can happen there can happen here, too. The post is quite good on the accelerated effects of information flow about housing, and the relationship between credit card debt and higher mortgage payments as fixed-rate or sweetheart deals reset to mrket levels.In the '80's, Muldoon borrowed and hoped. We

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-27467788635981193562007-05-17T11:45:00.000+12:002007-05-17T11:55:37.702+12:00

As anyone with a passing acquaintanceship with the blogosphere knows, James Lileks has been bumped off the Strib's columnist list, and assigned to local news stories.But I would bet that the dopey exec's who handed out this demotion, aren't prepared for this sort of reporting of their hallowed local events....

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-39914089714991523822007-04-24T16:45:00.000+12:002007-07-12T08:27:20.469+12:00

Dear old William Rees-Mogg has a typically pithy article in the Times. Change the context to NZ, and his comments are still apropos. Especially the ones about the four conditions for a cartel. From the article (my numbering added):"1. license housebuilding, so that no one could build a new house without a licence, or even rebuild an old house or a redundant barn.2. encourage developers to

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-3350176820676763892007-04-23T16:35:00.000+12:002007-04-23T16:40:28.115+12:00

Darwin is hard at work again, here. Used to be 'Fish, Barrel, Shoot' as a shorthand for, well, shooting fish in a barrel.Taunting a number of crocodiles then suffering the consequences (both kids and crocs) has that air of inevitability about it all, n'est ce pas?So perhaps 'Croc, Taunt, Lunch, Shoot' is it......

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-87620119919390258122007-04-15T09:32:00.000+12:002007-07-12T08:24:48.632+12:00

Th is is good news. There are several companies very active in the CIGS field now (Nanosolar, Miasole, Konarka, Heliovolt) and there is a very useful directory here. The premise is simple: thin film solar generates DC current in useful amounts, and the films themselves are produced via a printing process akin to newspapaer printing. That is: by the hectare. The films can be molded in any

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-74076193004427064882007-03-20T13:50:00.000+12:002007-03-20T14:29:32.312+12:00

This analysis (which, funnily enough, blames investors, and this rather better one, which blames the stoopid Gummint, are both about the same research, by Dominick Stephens, of Westpac. Apart from the headline bias, the reserach confirms my own view of the casuses of the growing house price-to-earnings ratio (currently sitting at the 'severely unaffordable' in major NZ cities: at or over 6).The

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1165539427982536082006-12-08T13:55:00.000+13:002006-12-08T13:57:08.000+13:00

The funniest Aussie in Iraq strikes a pose.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1164705471315823982006-11-28T22:15:00.000+13:002007-07-12T08:28:08.563+12:00

This leetle auto is my idea of Green heaven. Somehow, I don't think those ever-earnest actual political Greens are going to be advertising this.....

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1150067938479521872006-06-12T10:57:00.000+12:002007-07-12T08:28:48.755+12:00

This line is part of a now-classic sequence from Quentin Taratino's movie: Pulp Fiction. The context:"Who's bike is that?""It's not a bike, it's a chopper""Who's chopper is that?""That's Z's chopper.""Who's Z?""Z's dead, baby, Z's dead"After reading the muted local response to Zarqawi's JDAM supper (Z's dead, baby, geddit?), the overseas stuff looks, as always, to be better informed and more

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1147415583338731632006-05-12T18:33:00.000+12:002006-05-12T18:33:03.350+12:00

This Radio Blogger piece, featuring Mark Steyn and Hugh Hewitt, is a Lileks translation of the now-famous 18-page Iranian letter from one prez to another. Read the Lileks parsing of it, read the original 18-pager, then when you have dried away the tears of laughter and possibly donned a new set of breeches, ask yourself the question:'Can we do business with this guy?' (Mahmoud, that is).

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1143415956127240252006-03-27T11:29:00.000+12:002007-07-12T08:29:56.583+12:00

A defence policy, people, resources and equipment to do the dirty deeds, and training etc is just what I expect my hard-won and reluctantly surrendered taxes, to fund, as the very first duty of Gummint. So, you (Greens) are quite correct, not having such a policy shows a fundamental unseriousness about Governing.And your own straw person (Lord help me, I’m using the same woolly language) is the ‘

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1143415757100437122006-03-27T11:27:00.000+12:002007-07-12T08:30:21.244+12:00

This was my substantive comment on the Campbell and Fisk thread.....The first duty of Gummint is the physical security of its citoyens.Fisk is essentially saying, if you’ve seen what I’ve seen, you’d never go to war again.But history is replete with cases of citizenries being trapped in what amounts to our modern eyes, as slaveries of some sort.Tyrannies of all stripes are in fact extremely

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1143415622919746722006-03-27T11:24:00.000+12:002007-07-12T08:30:44.359+12:00

And in today’s crowning irony, solidly built chaps (and possibly chapesses, if the Special Forces have Embraced Diversity), armed with nasty shooty things, have barged their way into some poor cowering oppressed Iraqi’s shack, and forcibly ‘released’ those lovely peaceful CPT citoyens. And without dialoguing anyone, too!

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1141700599274285862006-03-07T15:55:00.000+13:002007-07-12T08:31:32.153+12:00

Which seems to be causing a good deal of angst as folk try to figure out ethnicity, religion and other stuff that eludes, say, DNA analysis or a blood test. But the work questions are the most annoying: the good bureaucrats at Statistics NZ clearly haven't cottoned on to the Road Warrior pattern. They seriously expect a single workplace! So it's 'No Fixed Abode' for me, and (in a classic

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1140128677625418622006-02-17T11:13:00.000+13:002007-07-12T08:32:17.347+12:00

In li'l ol' NZ, no less, A thoughtful piece, and as usual, backed up by historical research. With my having just finished Simon Schama's 'Citizens', a history of the French Revolution, the spectacle of masses being incited to acts of violence, has more than the usual revulsion factor. Never did like crowds, now there's another angle to that.KW's closing paras:"Today, we live in an age of

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1139443242972537772006-02-09T12:48:00.000+13:002007-07-12T08:33:53.190+12:00

Lots of heat and little light in our own benighted and multi-culti-infested media warrens.Antidotes hereby prescribed: Belmont Club has a good set of posts on strategies, and notes that the orchestrated 'toons controversy is likely to derail radical Islam's designs on Europe by engaging it on two fronts simultaneously: not something the lead-from-some-cave-somewhere kriegmeisters had probably

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1138954380628379982006-02-03T21:10:00.000+13:002007-07-12T08:34:31.451+12:00

In stark contrast to the woolly-headed claptrap encountered in most comments about grand strategy, this piece hits the spot quite nicely. Fasten your seat-belts. Hat tip: Arts and Letters Daily.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1138156473320666032006-01-25T15:33:00.000+13:002006-01-25T15:34:33.336+13:00

Bit scary: try replacing 'Paul Martin' with 'Helen Clark' and the shoe mostly still fits.....

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1138136455632981272006-01-25T09:23:00.000+13:002007-07-12T08:32:46.340+12:00

Not pc has a good note about affordability and its inverse relationship to planning and land-use regulation. But when you look at the actual cost of new building , you start to see a significant Nanny State impost in quite a few areas.Fencing of sites. Never used to happen, and not too many gory tales of kiddies' hands being lost to Tools Left Lying Aboot.Certified scaffolding for jobs needing

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1138088124241654502006-01-24T20:34:00.000+13:002006-01-24T20:35:24.250+13:00

Green Speechwriting, over at Sir Humph's.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1138079274684184662006-01-24T18:02:00.000+13:002006-01-24T18:07:54.696+13:00

Culture Cult has some good new articles up.Eamon Duffy's seminal book on the English Reformation has been re-released with new research and words. Just finished reading t'old one, as it happens.TCS Daily - always on the reading list.Canadian election - can't go past the wittiest RWDB around - Mark Steyn

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1137020637184538932006-01-12T12:02:00.000+13:002006-01-12T12:03:57.193+13:00

Fitzsimons lied, foliage died.Giving it the 'Fitzsimons Flick'Russia as 'Nigeria with permafrost' (ht: TCS)

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1135075599224370592005-12-20T23:33:00.000+13:002007-07-12T08:35:37.488+12:00

Mark Steyn does his usual pithy take on what's going on here. And a genuine Aussie sheila has her say as well. And Keith Windschuttle. And the good Prof Bunyip.No prizes for guessing what's at the heart of this matter: a bunch of self-marginalised young Muslim gangsta males with quite inexcusable attitudes to women. Not that you'd read that in the dead tree editions, anytime soon.But then

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1132512829652585242005-11-21T07:48:00.002+13:002005-11-21T07:53:49.653+13:00

We have allowed just this one day, as Venice is our primary goal for the second Italian week. The Uffizi gallery is first on the list, and leaves us with the same feeling as the Vatican Museum: a display of temporal power, but with far too much religious tat. However, the more ancient pieces of statuary are great, Botticelli's Venus glows at us, and there are a couple of Canaletto's little

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1132512760513094162005-11-21T07:48:00.001+13:002005-11-21T07:52:40.513+13:00

The Intercity stops at each major station, and our compartment is occupied with four Italian women who gossip non-stop from Roma to Firenze. They quickly establish that we have less Italian than would be useful, but one does kindly offer us fresh mandarins along the way. Firenze charms us immediately, the more so when our LastMinute hotel in Via Nazionale regretfully tells us that the room has

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1132512687848377452005-11-21T07:48:00.000+13:002005-11-21T07:51:27.863+13:00

The Metro beckons, and day tickets are only 4 Euro. So it's off to the Vatican, Cipro stop. Where the Church's profit motive and trade in religious artefacts continues. But the Vatican Musuem is a wonderful and eclectic collection of decidedly non-religious artefacts, from Egyptian figures, through the whole Graeco-Roman early periods, to the Church proper in the single-digit A.D's. The

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1132081564083098292005-11-16T08:04:00.000+13:002005-11-16T08:06:04.086+13:00

We are not about to tour sitting down today, so walk everywhere. Down to the Colosseum first, join a tour which is well worth the money, and then just wander. The Colosseum is still an amazing piece of engineering in stone, although like most of Rome, it is inadequately conserved, has little interpretative signage, is dirty and desperately needs the equivalent of the British National Trust and

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1132081470690565922005-11-16T08:03:00.001+13:002005-11-16T08:04:30.690+13:00

The Easyjet flight has no hand baggage weight restriction, thank goodness. And is not very full, so we bag a window seat forard of the engines. It's a clear day, and the plane takes off westwards, circles over the Avon mouth, and describes a slow circle back up the Severn, crossing the Channel over Portsmouth. Then the cloud sets in a bit so I turn attention to figuring out where the hotel is.

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1132081422810160092005-11-16T08:03:00.000+13:002005-11-16T08:03:42.810+13:00

Trev runs us up to Bristol airport over the Mendip Hills - not that you'd actually spot them as such. We vsee them from the air later, and they are more like a limestone ridge. Down through Burrington Combe - a little gorge through the limestone cliffs. Gorge is a relative term: nothing to compare with say Arthur's pass and the Otira Gorge, but wild in a very British way. Complete with caves

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1132081377623352582005-11-16T08:02:00.000+13:002005-11-16T08:02:57.626+13:00

A family lunch at West Bay, just down from Bridport on the Devon coast. Jurassic fossil cliffs east and west of the town, and the restaurant has a great outlook over a river mouth, and the enclosed harbour beyond. Superb seafood: we have both revised our rather dim former view of Brit cooking on this trip: there is a pride in the locality and freshness of the food all through the South-west,

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1132081312699902272005-11-16T08:01:00.000+13:002005-11-16T08:01:52.700+13:00

Have to drop the renter back at Marksbury, just out of Bath, so we have a Bristol, Bath and Avon day. Trev takes us on from the Europcar dropoff, out to the Avonmouth area and we see the Second Severn Crossing bridge from Bristol to Wales - very graceful, and with surprisingly little development along the Severn Estuary edge - it is, after all, a water view. On to Bristol centre via Whiteladies

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1132081259783227052005-11-16T08:00:00.000+13:002005-11-16T08:00:59.783+13:00

Up the A39 all the way up Cornwall, round the top of Devon, then cut across from Minehead to Taunton and on into deepest ZumerZet. A rainy, foggy day, so limited sightseeing. Lunch in Bude, a surfing and market town, where we pick up a very nice Peter Lehmann shiraz for 5 quid at the Co-op! Then up across Exmoor - which has lovely architecture in the town at Lynton - almost German. Taunton is

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1132081211428619002005-11-16T07:58:00.000+13:002005-11-16T08:00:11.440+13:00

We zip over the hill to Penzance, and immediately are drawn into the classic Cornish landscape: heathy hill with roofless engine house and chimney stack. Cripplesease, if memory serves. Penzance it is, and Newlyn just around the corner. Being on the sheltered side, the harbours in these two towns house the remnants of the Cornish fishing industry. Charming and a little sad. On round the

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1131616702133784222005-11-10T22:56:00.000+13:002005-11-10T22:59:20.956+13:00

Yes, a mugging. In deepest Cornwall. By a large seagull, of my almost-entire genuine award-winning Cornish pasty. We had a day mooching round St Ives: photos, much walking, Tate St Ives, and shopping through the galleries. Which galleries, St Ives being a notable artists' haunt for over 100 years, could be said to infest the place. The Tate was frankly a disappointment:

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1131538052178649452005-11-10T01:06:00.001+13:002005-11-10T01:07:32.180+13:00

A spot of Internetting at a local cafe to get e-mails and some work away. Then out of the town and onto the A roads - which are slow, clogged, and wend through delightful Devon villages. Devon is such typically English countryside - rolling hills, the odd escarpment, and the odd moorland for relief. We pop in to Lyme Regis for a fossil or two: Mary Anning, the 18th century lady who had a

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1131538011057703362005-11-10T01:06:00.000+13:002005-11-10T01:06:51.060+13:00

We check out, and head west along the coast. Which is built up right along: a working port just west of Hove, then Brit suburban housing and the occasional resort. We stop at one (Worthing) which has actual baches in one little corner. Photographic evidence ensues. At Worthing itself, a major apartment block has started: a graceful design which mixes Victorian and Art Deco elements. At

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1131537967997799942005-11-10T01:05:00.000+13:002005-11-10T01:06:08.000+13:00

We head for the sea-front, along with half of London, it seems. Just by the West Pier wreck, there's parking in a little square which we promptly snaffle. There's a strong onshore wind - around Beaufort 6-7 - mucho surf, and spectacular waves. The west End pier is a poignant iron skeleton, bits drop off every storm, we are told, and the main causeway back to the beach is long gone - a twisted

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1131537918974085222005-11-10T01:04:00.000+13:002005-11-10T01:05:18.976+13:00

We pick up our car just around the corner (another of the real advantages of staying near a major rail hub) - it's a 6-speed VW 1.6 Golf with only 400 miles on the clock. Well, that's gonna change. But first, to get out of London. Vauxhall Bridge and then the A23 all the way, the Europcar staffer had said. So we do. But lo and behold, the Brighton Vintage rally is also on, the same route,

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1131537876669530312005-11-10T01:03:00.000+13:002005-11-10T01:04:36.670+13:00

We do a bit of Web sleuthing (free wi-fi at the hotel, although frankly you gets what you pays for - it's intermittent and dodgy), and pick up a car for the South Coast to Cornwall leg, next week. Then off to the Musuems again, thus time with a card in the camera..... But first a leetle snack at Harrods, just by the gloriously over-the-top Egyptian Escalator. Serenaded by live orchestra and

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1131537826252944812005-11-10T01:02:00.000+13:002005-11-10T01:03:46.253+13:00

Later, a work trip to Birmingham: nice quick trip out of Euston on a fast train. Birmingham is a deeply unlovely city with a pronounced oik culture, but has a central canal system and some canalside restaurants which possess that old water-view magic. I have a mussels dish, they turn out to be the smallest shellfish imaginable: obviously no minimum size limit here. Or perhaps they just

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1131537741124868562005-11-10T01:01:00.000+13:002005-11-10T01:02:21.126+13:00

We had planned to see Natural History, and to look inside the Oratory - the Roman Catholic Cathedral for London. Natural History is an absolutely glorious building: sandstone and blue colour stone, terracotta tiling and ornamentation inside, over an iron frame. Huge, too. The Diplodocus replica skeleton inside is 100 years old, and the dinosaurs display is fairly much compulsory to kids of all

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5999453.post-1131537688109279862005-11-10T01:00:00.000+13:002005-11-10T01:01:28.110+13:00

Thomas Bewick, the renowned 17th century woodcut artist, used to illustrate his work with a tailpiece - a small woodcut of a fanciful, solemn or amusing scene. Coming back from Victoria station to our new digs (we have returned to the Cheviot after extracting a tarriff concession), we have our own tail-piece to the day. We are astounded to see a fox walking down Hugh Street - literally one

Waymadnoreply@blogger.com0