Monthly Archives: March 2010

NZ Army sells bad Bullets to the Public?

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Posted by JJ on March 25, 2010 – 5:40 pm
Filed under Random Grumps & Raves
Tagged as , , ,

This story was reported in the Dominion Post, NZ Herald and in Stuff.co.nz.

The New Zealand Defence Force bought $590,000 worth of bullets for the army’s Steyr rifles, despite the manufacturer warning they were useless.  The stock of 5.56mm ball ammunition had worked well in the past, but when the manufacturer changed the alloy content, they could no longer be fired accurately because the bullets disintegrated as they came out of the barrel, the Dominion Post reported.

Army spokesman Kristian Dunne said the ammunition was bought for use on the Ardmore range, south of Auckland and their reduced range overcame the danger that a ricochet would fall outside the safety zone.

I don’t know about you, but the way I read that, the bullets are supposed to be safer on a short target range.  But because they disintegrate they are inaccurate.  Yet the army sold the 1,284,220 rounds of ammunition to Gun City in Christchurch for between $300,000 and $350,000, meaning a loss of around $240,000.  Gun City director David Tipple said he had sold a large quantity of the ammunition to a United States wholesaler and kept the rest.  I doubt that either Gun City or the US wholesaler intend to use the bullets as ornaments.

Defence Minister Wayne Mapp said the army’s decision to sell the ammunition was appropriate and the best way to minimise the cost to the taxpayer.

Someone please tell me that the NZ Army has not sold sub-standard, potentially dangerous ammunition to a dealer, to be sold on to public purchasers in NZ or overseas.  All for no better reason than to minimise the loss they would suffer as a result of incompetent purchasing.  Please please convince me that is not true.  Please convince me that the Dominion, NZ Herald and “Stuff” have been guilty of shoddy journalism and failures in sub-editing.

Because right now, I am disgusted with what the Dominion, Herald and “Stuff” reports appear to reveal about the army and the Minister of Defence.

References:

NZ Herald Article: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10634190

Stuff.co.nz article: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/news/latest-news/3502207/Army-off-target-with-590-000-of-dud-bullets

Racism in NZ Politics

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Posted by JJ on March 23, 2010 – 9:26 pm
Filed under Random Grumps & Raves, The Demise of Democracy and Freedom
Tagged as , , , , , , ,

Democracy is not working for Maori, according to the New Zealand Minister of Maori Affairs, Pita Sharples.  He says Maori will not be fairly represented in the Auckland super city.

New Zealand has separate Maori seats in parliament, which is something Sharples wants for the super city, and he now says democracy is failing Maori.  “There is a democratic process but it’s not working for Maori, they are outside of that system,” Sharples says.  He says the principle of one person one vote will not give Maori representation.

“Unless we find some ways for them to be more involved, that is user friendly to their culture, then we have to do something else and I believe seats for Maori is the answer,” Sharples says.

The principle of one person one vote gives every individual equal representation.  Not every racial group – every person, regardless of ethnic origin.  European countries have comparatively recently become democracies.  European societies evolved from a tribal system, in which everything belonged to the chief, the tribes were constantly at war, and no common man had individual representation.  The societies developed into feudal systems, in which everything belonged to the king or duke and his lords and knights, the kingdoms and fiefdoms were constantly at war, and no common man had individual representation.  Finally (and with much struggle) European societies became democracies.  Pre-European Maori society and culture was tribal, and the tribes were constantly at war.  Now New Zealand is a nation, not a collection of tribes or fiefdoms, and it is a democracy.  That democracy brings individual representation to all.

Maori culture, having declined for too long, is undergoing a renaissance within our democracy, and is flourishing.  So what’s this about democracy not being user friendly to Maori culture?  What does that mean, Pita?  Are you implying that Maori who, like you, have been through the NZ education system, are inherently incapable of understanding the political system, inherently incapable of benefiting from the representation they now have?  Isn’t it time to acknowledge that all can achieve and make their mark according to their abilities?  That all Maori people can aspire to academic distinction, or to become a Minister of the Crown?

But if you are right about democracy not suiting particular races, then let’s try it your way.  Let’s have a racist organisation.  Let’s have, say, separate seats for New Zealanders of European descent, and for New Zealanders of Chinese descent, and of Samoan, Tongan, ad nauseum descent.  Let’s have a racially divided proportional representation, with the interests of each racial group stridently represented by each bloc.  And decided by majority vote.

No?  You bet, no!  It would pit ethnic group against ethnic group, leading to hatred and conflict instead of acceptance and harmony.  Let’s have simple democracy instead.  It may not be ideal, but it’s the best we can hope for.

Like you, Pita, I have Maori and European ancestors.

References:

Pita Sharples on Democracy:  http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/sharples-says-democracy-not-working-maori-3428048

CO2 Domes and Charlatans

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Posted by JJ on March 19, 2010 – 9:39 am
Filed under Global Warming
Tagged as , , , , , ,

“Any scientist who can’t explain to an eight-year old what he is doing is a charlatan.” – Dr Felix Hoenikker, nuclear scientist.

“Write it down, then ask yourself ‘Would it make sense to my Grandmother’?” – Ken Dixon expounding his “Grandmother Test”.

A Stanford University study has concluded that domes of increased carbon dioxide concentrations – discovered to form above cities more than a decade ago – cause local temperature increases that in turn increase the amounts of local air pollutants, raising concentrations of health-damaging ground-level ozone, as well as particles in urban air.  The overall conclusion is that CO2 domes in US cities are responsible for an increase in premature mortality of 50 to 100 deaths per year in California , and even more,  300 to 1,000 more premature deaths in the contiguous 48 states.

How is this established?  By data-evaluated numerical computer modeling of CO2 feedbacks and health impacts for the contiguous 48 states, for California and for the Los Angeles area, to determine the increase in the death rate from air pollution for all three regions compared to what the rate would be if no local carbon dioxide were being emitted (See Appendix below).

That’s it – no hard data.  Nothing testable.  They built a complex model predicting heating impacts, made assumptions about the health consequences of that heating, and then made recommendations about carbon taxes based on the model’s estimates.  So CO2 causes the urban heat islands (UHI)!  Not concentrations of people and services and central heating and power and motor vehicles and concrete and stone, but CO2!  Come on – cities are hotter than the countryside simply because they are cities.

But no -we gotta blame CO2.  Carbon taxes are depending on it.

Pity the scientists didn’t try explaining it to their grandmothers.  Or failing that, to an eight-year-old.  They might have realised just how ludicrous their “study” really is.

References:

pdf of the Stanford study:  http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/CO2loc0709EST.pdf

WUWT Post on the story:  http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/03/16/stanford-urban-co2-domes-mean-more-death/

Appendix:

This is what they claim to have real-world modelled to a standard of certainty sufficient to predict the urban death-rate due to CO2:

Example CO2 feedbacks treated include those to heating  rates, thus temperatures, which affected

  • (a) local temperature and pressure gradients, stability, wind speeds, and gas/particle transport
  • (b) water evaporation rates
  • (c) the relative humidity and particle swelling
  • (d) temperature-dependent natural emissions, air chemistry, and particle microphysics.
  • (e) photosynthesis and respiration rates
  • (f) dissolution and evaporation rates of CO2 into the ocean
  • (g) weathering rates
  • (h) ocean pH and chemical composition
  • (i) sea spray pH and composition
  • (j) and rainwater pH and composition. Changes in sea spray composition, in turn, affected sea spray radiative properties, thus heating rates.