A speech I gave at Toastmasters recently.  This was Speech 7, ‘Research your speech’, and my goal was to explain the basics of how nuclear power plants work to a lay audience, using the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant as the prime example.  Also the word of the day was’perturbed’.  :-) Note: My aim here [...]

Catastrophes, Education, New Zealand, Personal, Science, Technology, Wellington | 1 Comment »

Wellington City Council has released a list of Wellington buildings considered to be at risk in a major earthquake. I’ve made a simple webpage which uses the data in that list to build a map of the earthquake-prone buildings in Wellington. Check it out at quake.howison.co.nz

Catastrophes, New Zealand, Personal, Science, Technology, Wellington | 1 Comment »

Only a week after my discovery of a disgustingly thorough example of the Broken Windows Fallacy, another example pops up, this time from the Herald’s Business Editor, Liam Dann. Disaster forces Govt to spend up The earthquake in Christchurch is a disaster … But one upside … is that nature has unleashed the biggest job [...]

Catastrophes, Education, New Zealand, Quotable, Skepticism | 10 Comments »

A commenter (‘Ed’) in The Press commits the Broken Window Fallacy in a particularly distasteful fashion. Because of these accidents a lot of jobs are created. Think about police, tow truck companies, funeral parlors, hospital staff, insurance companies, new or second hand car dealers, lawyers, prisons, judges, maybe even roadworkers to fix the road after [...]

Catastrophes, Miscellaneous, Parables, Politics, Quotable | 1 Comment »

“Our most basic freedoms are threatened by an outrageous attempt to shut down peaceful activist magazine NORML News,” declares Libertarianz Drugs Spokesman Luke Howison. Three issues of the popular cannabis activism magazine NORML News have been submitted to the Office of Film & Literature Classification for ‘classification’ – which is potentially a precursor for a [...]

Catastrophes, Culture, Free Speech, Freedom, Libertarianz, New Zealand, Police, Politics | 1 Comment »

Made by me (click to embiggen). If you are confused, look here.

Catastrophes, New Zealand, Photos, Resilience | 2 Comments »

Yep, we’re all doomed.

Catastrophes, Science, Technology | 1 Comment »

ACT’s David Garrett is on the front page of the papers again, accused of tough-talking Clayton Cosgrove in a closed-session law-and-order select committee meeting, alledgedly suggesting they “take it outside” during a disagreement. The man is a complete embarassment to the tattered remnants of the classical liberal wing of ACT. “Aren’t ACT lucky they chose [...]

Catastrophes, New Zealand, Politics, Wellington | 2 Comments »

The Dominion Post reports this morning that a coastal access road near Cape Kidnappers has been half-destroyed by coastal erosion. The astounding thing is, nature didn’t do this – the RMA did. Nearby land-owners identified the problem three years ago and tried to protect the road by building a barrier, at a cost of $10,000. [...]

Catastrophes, Free market environmentalism, Infrastructure, Libertarianz, New Zealand | No Comments »

It’s great to cheer for protestors who are fighting for democracy in Iran (and they appear to be fighting for their lives as well), but the sad truth is that each of the four candidates in Iran’s race are heavily involved in corrupt, often murderous government activities. Wikipedia has this to say about Mousavi: Mousavi’s [...]

Catastrophes, Culture, Middle East, Politics, World | No Comments »