What's Happening?

Christmas

2008-11-23T19:03:00.000-08:00

Yes it's that time again. What am I going to buy as a gift? Is it going to cost a fortune? Will I have any money left for myself?

It can be stressful, it can also be a joy. Do you need to spend a lot? NO NO NO

Christmas need not be expensive. The whole idea is really to have a break and catch up with family and friends, share a story, share food and drink, enjoy one another's company.

If you must buy a gift make it reasonable, book token, or book, CD, DVD, it doesn't have to be the latest Ferrari.

Get someone started on a new hobby, buy them something to keep them interested on those long winter nights if you live in the Northern hemisphere or something to relax with on the sun lounger if you are South of the Equator.

A piece of silver, old or new, need not be expensive. A guide to hallmarks so the recipient can understand those funny marks stamped into silver goods. Try the hallmarks quiz online, send the link to a friend, they may enjoy testing their knowledge.

A piece of silverware or silver jewelry is sure to last forever and bring back memories for years to come for both the recipient and the giver.

NZ Government Employs Morons To Produce Report

2008-08-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

TRANSPORT REPORT

The Dominion Post published an article about what we should expect in NZ in the near future from what is described as a 'Comprehensive new report'.

Idiotic statements like, 'Motorists should pay more to drive cars - including more expensive car parks, and fees to use roads - if New Zealand is to survive rising oil prices'.

How does increasing the cost of a car park and adding additions road usage charges help one survive rising oil prices? Will oil / fuel suddenly become more plenfiful if we double the cost of parking? Will barrels of oil be sold at bargin basement prices because we have added additional road usage charges? I DON'T THINK SO!

The report 'calls for a fundamental shift in the Government's transport solutions'. They are advised in the report to do this by adding barriers and discouraging anyone to use the road system in private vehicles. We are already a country with no public transport systems outside of the main cities, ie Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin and even the systems in those cities are pathetic when compared with other developed countries.

The report advises companies to swap from company cars to allowances and bus subsidies! How stupid is that. "Where will you be today?" asks the boss, "Oh, just going to visit a client 20kms away, should be away most of the day", replies the employee, "What! Back in the year 2007 it only took 15 minutes to get there and another hour for the meeting. What on earth is happening here?", says the old fossil fuel boss. "Sorry boss, it's the public transport system, makes things take so much longer and I can't take the samples with me so have had to have them couried there so I can talk about them when I arrive. It's new government policy, great scheme!.

So here we have it, a group of morons and luddites asked to produce a report, a plan for the future. What do we get? A plan to take us back to the early 1900's when a bicycle was perhaps the best a man on the street could aspire to. A plan to destroy any efficiency gains that personalised transport has produced. A plan than sees only, barriers and no opportunities, gloom and doom but no optimism, a plan based on a defeatist attitude instead of one that looks to provide incentive to create personal transport solutions that are not based on oil.

What is most annoying is that we, the tax payers of New Zealand, are actually paying for this report. There are no solutions here. This is a report that says, 'We have had an earthquake, what do we do now?', 'I know, we'll bring in some tents, make a few paths, put in some stand pipes for water, or better still dig a few wells around the place, that should do nicely!". Instead of, 'Lets get in the heavy equipment, clear all the rubble, plan a new and more efficient place and start building bigger and better than before!".

A zero vision report from zero vision people. SACK the lot of them and while you're at it buty the Green Party, who welcomed the report!

NZ National Party - Fund Raising Woes

2008-07-31T21:43:00.000-07:00

Here in New Zealand legislation has been passed to make the funding of political parties more transparent. Many forms of funding have been brought into question by the new law.

These are some of the new limitations placed on Political Party Funding:

Donors giving more than $1000 (whether directly or through an intermediary) must be identified to the recipient and will be named in public returns if limits are reached:
eg. a) donations to electorate candidates of more than $1000 towards an election campaign
b) donations to political parties of more than $10,000 in a calendar year
c) donations to third parties of more than $5000 towards an election campaign.

Donors may not give more than $1000 to any recipient unless they are: living in NZ, or are NZ citizens, or registered electors, or bodies incorporated in NZ, or unincorporated bodies headquartered or having their main place of business in NZ.

These new rules must be having a major impact on funding and anonimity. Not to be stymied by this the National Party in the Rangitikei have decided to earn money from the public by offering new services that benefit both the recipient and provider. 'Power to the people' you might say!

Beloved Leader - NZ

2008-04-14T18:13:00.000-07:00

You may find it hard to believe but here in New Zealand we have our own "Beloved Leader", not Kim Jong-il, but our own, home grown Winston Peters. "He is not the leader" I hear you say! Maybe, but he is the "king maker".

Just a few months out from a general election and he is saying the if National wins most seats and he (Winston) is in a position to join them in government, then he wants every National MP to sign a declaration of support for Winston, "We love Winston and will cherish his support. We will do our utmost to conform to his demands. Beloved Winston, we capitulate".

You have to hand it to him, he is one great politician, been there for years, rejecting the baubles of office, switching from one government to the next, a slippery creature indeed.

Can the voters get rid of him or not? Will he break the 5% barrier? Will the get elected to a seat and bring in the inevitable hangers on?

Who can tell? Who cares? Well if National does get most seats and Winston gets elected to then perhaps John Key will care, he will have to put up with the great puppeteer, Winston, with his hand up his backside and I am sure Helen will be glad to have that same clammy hand removed from hers.

Heart or Respiratory Systemic Failure (HRSF)

2007-11-12T18:22:00.000-08:00

Recently the World Cancer Research Fund released the results of a long term study, the biggest yet, of cancer and it's causes. The consumption of processed meats and too much meat is regarded as a cancer risk. What does this mean for mankind?

Even more disturbing news with greater impact to health has now been released. A wide study of deaths going back hundreds of years has been conducted by a team of scientists headed by Professor Vladimir Humoroff at the Russian Institute of Human Health and Longevity based in Moscow.

This elite team has uncovered a threat to mankind of pandemic proportions. It affects almost every person on the planet, a far bigger threat than bird flu and worse still the threat is already here.

Professor Humoroff states, "In over 99% of cases studied, here in Russia and in 26 other participating countries, HRSF has been devastating and always fatal". Nowhere has anyone recovered once the onset of HRSF has been confirmed.

When asked how to avoid this and if a cure is imminent he said, "There is as yet no cure". "Sometimes death can be delayed by using life support systems". He went on to emphasize, "In Russia and around the world the best scientific and medical minds are working on a solution".

A spokes person for the Whyte House said, "There is no need for widespread panic and most people can still continue to expect a normal life span. However we have a plan in place already to protect the President, life will go on".

From the Vatican a statement has been released saying, "Here we have a catastrophe, this disturbing news brings into doubt the infallibility of God. Basically God has stuffed up in the design of man and now it is up to man himself to fix it".

When pressed for more a Papal spokesperson said, "If God can stuff up in this way, what hope is there for mankind"?

The world can only wait an hope. Hope man can find a solution, hope HRSF can be defeated, hope that you do not succumb.

Professor Humeroff and his team have described their alarming findings. "Prolonged failure of the respiratory system or the heart oxygen delivery system always results in death. The research required to beat HRSF is enormous. The world has never before been faced with such a huge challenge and the cose in human lives and money will be immense".

Those wishing to help can donate to the "Evolutionary Medicine Organ Treatment, United Operation Yield, Mechanical Outcomes Research Foundation", (EMOTUOYMORF). Please give generously.
EMOTUOYMORF

Collecting British Silver

2007-09-18T15:16:00.000-07:00

If you collect silver then you will appreciate the hallmarks system.

Countries throughout the world use hallmarking to denote the silver quality, place and year of manufacture and also the makers details.

This is obviously a great advantage to collectors since they can get some idea about a piece of silver when they look at the hallmarks.

They enable the collector to easily focus on collecting specifics, eg place of manufacture, period, specific maker. For those visiting car boot sales and various markets, even antique fairs a knowledge of hallmarks adds to the experience when hunting out pieces of interest.

Several books are available that have details about hallmarks from various countries and these are a great resource, especially the pocket book size. The assay offices often produce small pamphlets that are even easier to carry in you pocket or purse.

Online resource also abound on the internet. One to help you learn the British Hallmarks, by way of a quiz, can be found at British Silver Hallmarks.

This quiz is quite fun and a free version for the city of Birmingham can be downloaded from the site.

A must try for all silverware collectors.

Politicians - The Self Serving

2007-06-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

Politicians must be the most self serving, grubby people in society.

Here in New Zealand we had an unfortunate, somewhat tragic event last week. A woman who was using a machine to assist with her breathing died.

So what? You may say. Well all the news was that an electricity utility company had visited the address because of an overdue electricity bill. They had previously sent a letter to the family to warn them that they would be disconnected if their bill was not paid.

The contractor arrived and the family took him into the house in an effort to explain the the electrical supply was essential to operate the breathing aid machine. In spite of this he continued with the disconnection.

Shortly later the woman died. We do not know at this stage if the death is directly attributed to the machine being inoperable due to the electrical supply disconnection or some other reason, she was not a well person.

Needless to say, everyone who had something to say about this event did so. The family, justified in their grief were both bewildered and angry at the actions of the utility company. The company stating that they had followed all procedures.

Local members of parliament visited the family to find out more about the circumstances and I suspect to get some free publicity in what is a good light for them, people in shining armour trying to ascertain what had happened and to apportion blame.

New Zealand being a small country with the population of a reasonably large city, managed, quite easily to get a reporter to interview the Prime Minister. She stated how sorry she was and that her members of parliament were involved and would assist the family in whatever way they could. Then, as the story grew, she decided, I suspect, that there was much more mileage to gain from this event. So she visited the family personally and become involved in the grieving and blaming process.

Now the politicians had a scapegoat, the utility company must be the ogre of the piece. "We must come down on them hard. Make sure this can never happen again. We need answers".

No reflection that this was a family in need, very low income, really needing assistance from government agencies. No this was nothing to do with bad government, bad policy, the creation of a low wage, low value economy. The government can feel it has done everything possible to ensure that such events cannot happen.

But who has all the information? The government through it's agencies knows exactly how much income is coming into this household. They know what medical care is being required and delivered. They have access to all the information and yet no responsibility. Perhaps they should be making sure the power company knows that the machine, sent out from a government owned hospital to help someone breathe, requires the constant supply of electricity to operate. Perhaps they should be in a loop to know that this family needed assistance to pay the bill. Perhaps they should know from the tax department that here is a family who is going to be struggling, low income, a number of dependents, the cost of living; perhaps they should be targeting these families to tell them what government assistance is available to help them through difficult times.

Finally. What about personal responsibility. The family were warned of the disconnection event. Should they have take more action to make the power company aware that their electricity supply was essential for medical reasons. Should they have taken immediate action after the disconnection to move their mother to a place where electricity was available or even have taken her straight to the local hospital.

Lots of questions remain unanswered but one thing is clear. Politicians from members of parliament right up to the Prime Minister, seeing a good publicity opportunity, jumped in with both feet to be part of the lime light.

Only one set of people, perhaps two, will continue to suffer after all the publicity machine has packed up and moved on to the next news worthy event. That is the family of the dead woman and the unfortunate person who cut off the power supply.

Weight – It’s an EATING Problem

2007-05-09T16:33:00.000-07:00

TOO FAT

TOO THIN

You’ve got the same problem!

For over 90% of people who have a weight problem, the problem can be directly related to the amount of food you consume. It is no secret that the human body likes to store excess food intake as fat. So if you eat more than you need you are going to pile on those kilos of fat. Conversely if you eat less than you need then your body will not build fat reserves and in extreme cases of too little food intake the body will begin to use up the muscle mass to maintain it’s primary functions.

So be under no illusions that YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.

Well, what can we do about it?

TOO THIN
It can be as difficult to gain weight, as it is to lose it. Most people do not recognize this as being a problem. A lot of people will be envious of your dilemma.
Well eat more. It doesn’t need to be difficult. Just add a small amount to each meal, don’t try to ‘Super Size Me’ if that is not what you are capable of eating in one sitting. Try to squeeze in an extra snack in the morning and afternoon.

Don’t think this means stuffing junk down your throat all day long, candy bars, sweet stuff. No, make it good food, some protein and carbohydrates. Try some new foods and flavors. Try different styles of cooking. In fact start to make more of your own stuff. As your interest in creating new and delicious meals increases so will your appreciation of food.

Take a class in cooking and entertaining, try to make food something you are interested in. Let’s face it we all need food to survive so enjoy it.

TO FAT
Eat less and engage in more physical activity. Remember the body stores the food we do not need as fat. Eat too much and pile on the fat cells. More people suffer from being overweight or from easily gaining weight so this is perceived as being a more difficult thing to control. It isn’t

What you do need is to exercise some self-discipline. In this instance you need to cut out the snacks and reduce the size of your meals. You may need to be more drastic than thin people trying to gain weight. You already enjoy eating, so much in fact that you already eat too much. There is no magic bullet or pill. Try using a smaller plate at mealtime and don’t pile it high. Try to eat more protein that carbohydrate. Protein makes you feel fuller for longer. A thick nutritious soup will keep you feeling fuller for longer than a standard meal of the same calorific value.
Very important for this group is the need to increase your level of physical activity. Provided your food intake is now at a level slightly below what you need to stay where you are, the increase in physical activity will increase your rate of weight loss. Your body will begin to use up those fat reserves it has been storing.

METABOLISM
What about it? Research has shown that metabolism doesn’t vary that much. True there are differences but it is not a reason or excuse for either TOO THIN or TOO FAT. So forget about it and put into place an action plan to get you where you want to be.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO
Find out what your weight should be by researching a few freely available information sheets on weight / height averages for male and female.
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company introduced a table in 1943 and revised it in 1993, it puts the details in an easy to read format and explains some basic details. You can find this on the Internet along with hundreds of others.

Work out your daily intake requirement. Again lots of resources are available on the Internet. To gain weight, increase your daily intake by 500 calories. To lose weight, cut your daily intake by 500 calories. Medicdirect has a great resource for helping you work out your ideal requirements.

Next you need to design your plan around what you know now i.e. what you have found out about what your ideal weight should be.

TAKE ACTION
Develop your plan and stick to it. Tell people about what you are doing, that often gives you the reason you need to stick with your plan. Give yourself as many reasons as possible to push yourself to succeed.

Go for it!

Motivation

2007-04-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

You can read all the books, you can go to seminars, you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk.

There is really only one thing that will get you moving along, that is to take action.

If you have a set of goals, great! If not then set some. Make them precise, measurable and something that is going to put you outside of your comfort zone.

If your goal is too big, break it down to smaller steps. Every journey starts with the first step, so they say.

The one thing you need to do next is to take action, action, action. Millions of people have the best of intentions. They have set their goals, they have spent the time to examine what it is they would like to achieve and then basically forget about them. They do not take action, it is as if they expect that the process of setting goals the end of the journey and not the start.

We have all done it. "Wouldn't it be nice to spend more time with the family". "I need more time for golf". Great! But what to you need to do to enable that. What is stopping you from doing that now? Most probably you need the cash, income from your regular job. Okay, so you need to get an alternative income or reduce your expenses, perhaps both.

So how are you going to achieve it? How will you know that you have achieved it? Are you prepared to knock on that door, pick up the phone, hit the street? If you are great, if not, forget it, you are going nowhere. If you are you have a chance of reaching your goal. Do not give up, if your first action set doesn't work, figure out why. Brainstorm it with your family and friends, better still ask someone that is successful in what you are trying to do for advice. Make another plan and try again.

Almost all of us give up too easily, after the first or second setback we start to rationalise our way out of our goals achievement. "The timing is not right". "If only". Excuses are easy to make
and are our way of justifying failure. It is amazing how good we can be at making excuses and not very good at giving ourselves a kick up the backside.

It is easy to over analyse, to be forever researching what to do, when to do it, how to do it. Just do it. If you have goals then take action, action, ACTION.

Royalties - Payments to Artists

2007-04-20T22:19:00.000-07:00

Well New Zealand is apparently thinking about joining the ranks of some other demented countries who add a commission on a piece of artwork that gets paid to the original artist when it resells.

It apparently would work like this:

artist creates work of art and sells it to a buyer $300 for example
purchaser keeps it for a few years and puts it into an auction, wonder of wonders he gets $10000 for this wonderful piece of work
auctioneer then adds his charges and a original artist commission to the price say 10% each pushing total purchase price to $12000
auctioneer deposits $1000 into artist consolidated fund and then the original artist gets paid the $1000 commission
so in total the artist now has received $1300 in total for the piece of work

This little cycle can go on for about 50 - 70 years with the artist getting commission every time the work of art is sold.

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!

If we take this further then we will have architects wanting commission on the resale of any unique building they have designed each time it sells.

What about none mass production car manufacturers, will they want additional payments each time one of their cars is sold.

What about farmers, that lovely marino wool they harvested from the sheep that has gone into your exclusively designed sweater, are they going to demand a commission on each sale that takes place from the farmer to the consumer.

This is such a load of old rubbish. If you make or create something and sell it that is the end of that. It doesn't matter if the article appreciates in value that is the good fortune of the current owner.

I find it hard to comprehend how some people think. If artists want a better income then create better work and sell it for more than you do now.

Some artist are sensible and see this as the rubbish it is. Others are immature idiots who feel they have missed out on some money if their work appreciates in value.

If a piece of art work appreciates in value then that in itself will raise the profile of the artist allowing them to get more for their new pieces.

Let's bring some sanity back into the world and put people who dream up these idiot ideas into the stock and pelt them with rotten eggs and old tomatoes!

Getting More Exposure For Your Blog

2007-04-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

Creating the blog is the easy part. Getting anyone to visit is much harder. How can you get your blog noticed?

It takes time and can be laborious.

First tell everyone you know that you now have a blog, send the address to all your friends and as them to set it to all of theirs, before you know it you will have quite a few people who have been made aware of it.

Use the ping services http://pingomatic.com/ http://www.pingoat.com/

Register at blog carnival http://blogcarnival.com/bc/

If you are a member of mylot.com then add your blog to your account, simply follow the instructions provided. myLot User Profile

Then finally try out the social bookmarking sites http://www.socialize-it.com/ and http://ekstreme.com/socializer/

Good luck, I reckon we need some.

Global Warming - The biggest con of the 21st Century

2007-04-10T21:10:00.000-07:00

Bollocks to global warming. Just 40 years ago we were headed into a mini ice age, now the same crazy scientist say we are warming up due to our own activity.

When this idea initially aired, it was regarded with scepticism. As more and more 'scientists' have joined the wobbly band wagon the idea has gained in credibility. None of these 'scientists' seem to pay any attention to the normal periods of extreme climate change that has occurred in the history of the world.

If we are headed into a warmer period, don't worry, get on with dealing with the changes not trying to stop it. I seem to remember king Canute was asked to turn back the tide, he couldn't and neither can mankind change the climate, but we can adapt to the changes that occur.

What is striking about the global warming phenomena is the way governments around the world have jumped on the bandwagon. Why? Because they can impose and raise taxes on the people without having to provide a return to the people. It sounds so credible, "Science tells us global warming is going to have a major impact on the world and our way of life", "let's implement a carbon tax", the only one affected is the poor taxpayer. Extra taxes on fossil fuels, taxes for cutting down forest blocks, extra taxes on producers for using energy to create whatever it is they produce.

The net effect is to remove money from the economy, increase prices for consumers and put extra cash into government coffers to be squandered on administration of the new stupid regulatory framework they introduce.

The saddest part of it all is that there is a whole lot of the population who believe this nonsense and even worse think they can reverse it if it is happening. Once again we have the lunatics in charge of the asylum.

Broadband in New Zealand

2007-04-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

New Zealand is pretty way down the table for broadband uptake published by th OECD. In June 2006 it was 22nd out of 30 countries. The majority of users being on DSL.

The question being "Is DSL obsolete?", from a New Zealand perspective it may as well be. The major telecommunication company is Telecom New Zealand and from personal experience the connection that you subscribe to is supposed to be "max" download, that being "as fast as your phone line allows" and an up link speed of 128kbps. The reality is that it is very marginally better that dial up.

There is no way in the world that you can watch streamed video. I am currently trying to watch a 140mb flash video file that takes 30 minutes to watch. This action has already been downloading for 15 minutes and is about 7% through the download making it impossible to watch.

Telecom New Zealand has been advertising to get more people connected to DSL and have had some success, the net effect has been to degrade the performance of the network because they have under invested in the infrastructure to deliver the product.

Unfortunately, in New Zealand the incumbent telecommunications provider is still in an almost monopoly position. It is by far the largest, the only one to service the whole country and the owner of the infrastructure, so it is virtually impossible for a competitor to compete effectively.

This has resulted in the customer being left with nowhere to go, very dissatisfied with Telecom New Zealand's broadband network and very limited alternatives. On top of this we have a government with few teeth and even less nerve or will to change the situation. Some announcements have been made but nothing in the way of action.

Sadly for the people of New Zealand we have a "toy" broadband network. It is impossible for new businesses to establish Internet services that are able to provide real time video or pay to view services. They would be unable to commit to a guaranteed service level.

The New Zealand government and in particular the Labour Party, that is in it's 3rd consecutive term in office, has failed to address the telecommunication shambles that is now impeding the provision of services and any innovation that requires the existence of a fast and reliable telecommunications network.

I suspect that New Zealand will have slipped further down the OECD ladder since June 2006, especially if the quality of the broadband is factored into the report.

Where is Everybody?

2007-04-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

Being on the internet is like being a needle in a haystack and boy is that haystack BIG.

How do you get noticed? This is a question I have been asking myself for some time and I am trying various methods. Is there a quick way? I don't think so. However continued self promotion does eventually start to drive a little traffic your way and that does slowly increase.

Of course you can use adwords and similar programs to pay for the opportunity of getting traffic but that's not really appropriate for the blogger, more for the sites that are actually selling a product or service.

So what does the blogger have to do? Well I find that you need to build a network, mutually joining groups to promote each others blogs, join forums that are related to what your blog is about and leave your link there. Traffic starts to build and if you keep putting stuff on your blog that others find interesting they will come back.

How have you promoted your blog? Leave a comment, I'd love to know.

Civilization - Maturity

2007-04-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

Notice how when a system or power is overthrown that most often things break down back to where they were before.

Progress takes time, short cuts don't appear to work. Take religion. The older religions, Buddism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism to mention a few, are able to tolerate other beliefs and have a better attitude toward acceptance of different belief systems. It wasn't always that way. Take Christianity, it too fought amongst it's own factions, each killing the other, Catholic killing Protestant and the other way round. As the Christian religion has matured, over hundreds of years, it has grown tolerant of the denominations under it's banner and tolerant of other religions.

Islam on the other had is still a relative baby and various factions go around killing each other in the name of god. Take Iraq, they are killing each other and once the invading forces leave it will continue for quite some time, each faction trying to gain dominance over the other. Over the next few hundred years this will give way to tolerance.

Yugoslavia was held together by one man, Tito, once he died the whole place splintered and broke down into it's original factions, ethnic and religious. They also will learn to live with each other in harmony as a long period of time elapses. Britain was the same, Scotland, Wales, eventally becoming part of a united Britain. There is still competition and national identity but there is no longer a need to kill one another. Again it took hundreds of year to reach that point.

Africa was colonised with no thought given to the tribal background that already existed there. Once the colonizers left or were vanquished there has been a brief period of stability followed by a breakdown back to the tribal roots with each vying for superiority.

So in my view you just cannot force people or institutions to be reasonable, they must come to that conclusion themselves and yes, it will take time, and lots of it.

Obsessed - What are you obsessed with?

2007-03-29T17:13:00.000-07:00

Today there are whole groups of people simply obsessed.

Obsessed by how we look, a nip and tuck here and there. Why only yesterday a contestant on 'Who wants to be a millionaire' said they would spend a good chunk of any substatial winning on cosemtic surgery. Can't anyone accept growing old naturally?

Obsessed by political correctness, disabled is physically challenged, mental illness mentally challenged, can't call someone a dyke of queer. Not that I want to but I should be able to without a whole bunch of do gooders trying to legislate against it. Apparently New York state is trying to ban certain words from the language.

Obsessed with climate. Global warming, the planet has been through countless periods when the climate has changed. Britain alone has been in ice ages, tropical paradise, desert, under the sea, back out again. I don't think cycling to work is going to change the climate. It's always interesting how someone dreams up a scenario and the governments jump on the band wagon creating departments and goodness knows what to deal with it. So you see someone always get's rich on a loco idea adopted by idiots in government.

Obsessed by nuclear power, all with double standards. Take NZ anti nuclear to the core but it uses nuclear medicine. Tiny population could generate all it's power with a few nuclear power plant situated on small offshore islands. Nope not a bar of it.

Obsessed by greenies. More double standard from NZ. Doesn't want to build coal fired power stations, too dirty and detrimental to the environment, still sell the coal to other countries, they can muck up their patch and add to the, wait for it, global warming. If they were serious they would ban the sale of substances that add the to global warming problem. What a dismal world it would be to live in!

Obsessed with stinging the motorist. Speed camera fines, huge fuel taxes, more taxes to maintain the roads. Speed kills, it doesn't, crashing kills, stopping too quickly, speed may assist you to die if you do crash but it won't kill you all by itself. Not that long ago people said mankind would not be able to breathe on trains travelling over 20mph. Now we have people hurtling into space and some of them come back alive!!

Obsessed anti gun lobbyists. Guns kill people, I don't think so, people kill people, and with a variety of methods. More people are killed through medical misadventure than are killed accidently or deliberatly by guns, perhaps we should ban doctors and save more lives. But what are we saving them for?

Money Money Money

2007-03-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

Yes YOU can make money on the internet. Get yourself a domain name and web hosting service. Build a web site, sign up for google adsense, amazon associate, clickbank, paydotcom. Promote your site, and that is it.

For step by step FREE guide see http://online.vpsware.co.nz

Is this Madness?

2007-03-25T18:25:00.000-07:00

How come industry groups and politicians, central and local government, have managed to hijack our lives.

Number 1. We have a "leaky home" problem.

Who created it? Architects and Builders
Who issues building consents? Local Authorities
Who inspects the work? Building inspectors, employed by Local Authorities.
How will we fix it? Create a government department to investigate.
How will we stop it happening? Pass new legislation, to ensure only qualified builders are allowed to build homes and do alterations. Tighten up on Local Authority inspections and building consents.
Who advocated this fix? Architects, Builders and Local Authorities, plus the MP's in central government.
Oops back to the top bullet point.

Better solution. Get rid of Local Authority, allow home owners to do all building work, legislate that all homes must have an inspection and warrant of fitness before being sold.

This is only one example of bureaucratic madness. Have you got others?

Health System Run Down By Doctors

2007-03-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

Public health systems are suffering. More money is being spent on them than ever before and the service level is in decline.

Health service bureaucracy's continue to grow while we struggle to get actual health worker, ie those who directly look after patient well being. Administrative salaries often outstrip those of the health worker.

What a mess!

How come if you need an operation in the public health system you get put on a waiting list or 6 months or more, but the same medical practitioner can see you next week if you go private? Well the answer is pretty obvious.

The surgeons are using the public health system as a feeder into their private practice. The worse the public system gets, the better private care appears.

Lets change the policy to "you either work for the public health system or your private system" not both. Make private practices pay all their own expenses, ensure they cannot utilise testing or any other facilities from the public sector for free. These surgeons are double dipping.

No doubt the surgeons will arue that without their time spent in the public systems things would be much worse, tell that to the person who is likely to die waiting for an operation in the public system. For them it would be no change.

Put them on performance based pay, contracted to provide a specific number of operations and specify the expected outcome. Then pay would be truly earned and the public would know what it is getting for it's dollar, plus if the outcome is not as it should be payment would be reduced or not made at all.