You can't win...

bottom trawling may not be systematic environmental pillage

far from destroying a habitat, the trawl may have created a new one by etching grooves into the flat bottom

Early signs indicate that marine life survived, even thrived

The noo religion tells us that bottom trawling is maybe not so evil.

Take that and smack it greenies! How's that global warming climate change thing going?

A letter to Figjam

Subject: Letter to Figjam Power



Dear Mr Power

Let's put the seniors in jail and the criminals in a nursing home. This way the seniors would have access to showers, hobbies and walks. They'd receive unlimited free prescriptions, dental and medical treatment, wheel chairs etc and they'd receive money instead of paying it out.. They would have constant video monitoring, so they could be helped instantly, if they fell, or needed assistance.

Bedding would be washed twice a week, and all clothing would be ironed and returned to them. A guard would check on them every 20 minutes and bring their meals and snacks to their cell.

They would have family visits in a suite built for that purpose. They would have access to a library, weight room, spiritual counselling, pool and education.

Simple clothing, shoes, slippers, PJ's and legal aid would be free, on request. Private, secure! rooms for all, with an exercise outdoor yard, with gardens. Each senior could have a PC a TV radio and daily phone calls.

There would be a board of directors to hear complaints, and the guards would have a code of conduct that would be strictly adhered to.

The "criminals" would get cold food, be left all alone and unsupervised. Lights off at 8pm, and showers once a week. Live in a tiny room and pay $900.00 per month and have no hope of ever getting out.

Justice for all we say.

fresh off the wire (slightly modified from 'The Letter to Julia Gilliard')

Where National should be

"absolutely no case" for treating Maori people differently

That's more like what National should look like. I love it.

The whole concept of a racially based political party would be seen as grossly inappropriate if wanted by any other race than Maori," he said. "What would be the reaction if a group of New Zealanders of European background decided to set up a 'European New Zealanders' Party'?

Orewa Mk III. Not the NACTional pink wash that endorses every Liarbour socialist mantra.

He also attacked National's economic performance and criticised what he said was high spending, over-regulation and a refusal to back down on a number of Labour-led policies

What NZ politics needs is a large dose of Don. New Zealand would be a performer, an achiever under his stewardship. God help Key in 2011. Lazarus looks better by the day.

Rabid greenie councillor getting children to do dirty work

I wish they would do something quite brave: go and visit the farmer who has poisoned the tussock land on the north face of the Hokonui Hills, which overlooks their small country school, and tell him that his actions are harming the environment, risking serious erosion and giving farming a bad name

Shame on you Robert Guyton. If your regional council has an issue with a farmer working his land, his private property, do not get children to do your dirty work via underhanded suggestions. Property rights reign supreme.

The show goes on

there's still 50-odd million tonnes of coal there

Whilst I thought Peter Whittall handled himself extremely well over the last week, I feel he has been premature making such a comment today. Meanwhile the board members continue to keep an obscenely low profile.

The Department has up to six months to investigate and bring any charges

What's the betting the time limit expires before any prosecution? The show goes on.

A sad end

Our thoughts are for the families.

National: We've established what you are...

MB doesn't want to haggle over the price any more.

Helen won.

Robots and things

Whilst robots with electrickery were proven to not work that well under water today, I've been thinking about other techno trickery that could work in a closed space with explosive gases.

The explosive gas problem maybe relatively easily fixed by making any devices intrinsically safe. That is removing the potential of internal electrical currents and sparks in any device ever coming into contact with the explosive gas mixture. In other words fully and totally sealed. Note there is also an element of reducing induced and static charge potentials along with protection for fault conditions.

So what about flying a drone such as one of these small choppers you can get these days up the barrel of the gun that is this mine? With an IR camera on top? Sure you might make the electrics of a battery powered chopper intrinsically safe, but the static issue will be hard to fix. Ticks a few boxes, won't generate stone-on-stone sparks as it moves. Dunno about the wireless range though. Straight line 2.5Km might be possible, but underground and around bends, probably not.

Another possible thing, what about RFID tags that are all the rage of late. Surely it wouldn't be too hard to incorporate such a tag into the clothing of a miner. And have a protected fixed sensor wiring system throughout the mine. After all the mine must have fixed wiring lighting systems and and extra sensor wire wouldn't take much space. A sensor wire system with redundancy could be cheaply encased in concrete in the walls as the mine is extended, protecting it from blast damage. Once an explosive incident had occurred, rescue services could locate each miner through interrogating the RFID tags and know where to concentrate rescue resources. Might even be able to incorporate some real-time bio functionality/information. Should be real easy in this modern age.

Food for thought, whilst we all await a miracle.

From Stuff - drilling to commence

Mine boss: Rig will be used to drill into shaft today ... More soon

Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall said this morning there was heating of ''some sort ''under ground - some combustion of material which was generationg posionous gases - still

Very interesting. That suggests to me there has been a rockfall/collapse and access via the usual portal is not possible. We await more.

The donkey wins!

Let's party. We won.

Some would say that if you pinned a red rosette on a donkey, Labour supporters would vote for it. But there is more.

There are no second prizes in politics.

Fill in Phil declares his dislike of MMP.

That statement will come back to haunt him.

ps And I note that the Not PC crowd might as well shut up shop with 43 votes...

As suspected...

Many did not want to be named or quoted for fear of being targeted.

"Of course none of us are happy about being next to a brothel, and what many of us worry is that the [type of] business also has links to Asian gangs."

The real reasons emerge why the council put the digger boot in, no questions asked, favouring the RMA over a citizen's property rights.

A brothel just wouldn't attract the right types to the inner Super Shitty you know.

WTF is going on down at the mine?

Whilst it is hoped that the outcome will be positive, 14 hours in, one wonders just WTF is going on down at the Pike River mine?

It appears that the rescue teams are dithering above ground. Worried about poisonous gases. Do they not have full face breathing apparatus like firemen? And since the initial event, the shift sparkie has actually been in and out, along with the others who exited safely. I would have thought a quick recce would have happened by now.

One hopes that we are not going to witness another event like the Singh dairy robbery where the authorities stuffed around for some time before entering.

Just saying, wanting to see some real positive rescue action. Fast. Meanwhile we all wait, thinking of the families involved.

Friday Funny

Just off the wire...

Men’s advice column extract:

Hey Mate, really need your advice for a serious problem:

Dear “Mate”

I have suspected for some time now that the missus has been cheating.
The usual signs; Phone rings, if I answer the caller hangs up, going out with the girls a lot. I try to stay awake to look out for her when she comes home but I usually fall asleep.

Anyway last night about midnight I hid in the shed behind the boat, when she came home she got out of someone's car buttoning her blouse, then she took her panties out of her purse and slipped them on.

It was at that moment crouched behind the boat, I noticed a "hairline crack" in the outboard mounting bracket.

Is that something I can weld or do I need to replace it?

Cheers,

QoTD

When I'm walking, I hate drivers.

When I'm driving, I hate pedestrians.

But no matter what I'm doing, I always hate cyclists.

from here

Now the kneejerk reaction...

still "firming up the details"

I have no idea how many cases are in the system, but we're looking at that over the next few days

A kneejerk of the worst kind. Standby for every feral greenie lycra clad lout and taxpayer funded nutter organisations to attend. With the subsequent regulations. Anti-driving regs that is. Next thing roads will be closed whilst cyclists are mounted. Maybe even Mr Plod out with a red flag warning evil motorists.

The Chief Coroner is told to get to work on his bike. Obviously Smile and Wave has had a word in his shell-like.