Lunar observations: wai

NY Times:

“Indeed yes, we found water,” Anthony Colaprete, the principal investigator for NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, said in a news conference. “And we didn’t find just a little bit. We found a significant amount.”

The confirmation of scientists’ suspicions is welcome news both to explorers who might set up home on the lunar surface and to scientists who hope that the water, in the form of ice accumulated over billions of years, holds a record of the solar system’s history.

The satellite, known as Lcross (pronounced L-cross), crashed into a crater near the Moon’s south pole a month ago. The 5,600-miles-per-hour impact carved out a hole 60 to 100 feet wide and kicked up at least 26 gallons of water.

Water on the moon. I never imagined they would actually find any water because all the previous expeditions - manned and unmanned - never turned up anything. But the scientists seem convinced:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration later said that Lcross did indeed photograph a plume but that the live video stream was not properly attuned to pick out the details.

The water findings came through an analysis of the slight shifts in color after the impact, showing telltale signs of water molecules that had absorbed specific wavelengths of light. “We got good fits,” Dr. Colaprete said. “It was a unique fit.”

The scientists also saw colors of ultraviolet light associated with molecules of hydroxyl, consisting of one hydrogen and one oxygen, presumably water molecules that had been broken apart by the impact and then glowed like neon signs.

In addition, there were squiggles in the data that indicated other molecules, possibly carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, methane or more complex carbon-based molecules. “All of those are possibilities,” Dr. Colaprete said, “but we really need to do the work to see which ones work best.”

Someone should tell these guys —
— they've been drinking their own piss for the last ten years.

Bomber's Blog - The War on News - ep 18

The War on News

Wank o the week award


The show plays on Sky 89 & simulcast on Freeview 21 10pm Tuesdays. Replayed on Triangle TV 9.45pm Wednesday and posted on Scoop, Cheese on Toast and Tumeke by Friday.

Peak Oil

Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower
Exclusive: Watchdog's estimates of reserves inflated says top official
The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying. The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves. The allegations raise serious questions about the accuracy of the organisation's latest World Energy Outlook on oil demand and supply to be published tomorrow – which is used by the British and many other governments to help guide their wider energy and climate change policies.

These forces were in full effect pre the crash when we saw oil spike to crazy levels, post the crash the economy hasn't been able to speculate because demand died off, however the bubble is building again as stimulus money keeps the game spinning and this new info from peak oil concerns from whistleblowers within the IEA remind us that the future of energy is hardly as secure as it has been sold.

Global warming and peak oil should be incentive enough to force a rethink.

Boycott NZ until we are clean and green

New Zealand was a friend to Middle Earth, but it's no friend of the earth
As the world prepares for the Copenhagen climate negotiations next month, it is worth checking out the greenwash that has followed the promises made 12 years ago when the Kyoto protocol was signed. A surprising number of countries have succeeded in raising their emissions from 1990 levels despite signing up to reduce them. They include a bundle of countries in the European Union, which collectively agreed to let some nations increase their emissions while others (mainly Britain and Germany) cut theirs. Step forward Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece — all with emissions up by more than a quarter. Then there are the US and Australia, which both reneged on the protocol after signing it. And Canada, which never reneged but still has emissions up by a quarter (worse than the US) and shows no sign of contrition or of being called to account by the other signatories. But my prize for the most shameless two fingers to the global community goes to New Zealand, a country that sells itself round the world as "clean and green". New Zealand secured a generous Kyoto target, which simply required it not to increase its emissions between 1990 and 2010. But the latest UN statistics show its emissions of greenhouse gases up by 22%, or a whopping 39% if you look at emissions from fuel burning alone.

As National allow the wealthy polluters to continue to be subsidized at our expense, the rest of the world is clicking onto how much a lie our clean green claim really is. This piece by the Guardian should terrify the Government into action. The problem is that our Dairy industry has so much power (they were able to censor an entire chapter last year in our environmental report that criticized their industry). It will only be through external pressure like this article attacking our clean green myth before the Dairy industry is forced to change.

Hone gone by kai time?

Maori Party on verge of split
The Maori Party is on the brink of a potentially damaging split after renegade MP Hone Harawira was told to toe the line or get out. Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia has backed an ultimatum given to Mr Harawira during a showdown over his behaviour, signalling his colleagues have run out of patience. He has been given two weeks to decide his future after party president Whatarangi Winiata said he was acting like an independent MP and should become one. Mrs Turia said problems with his behaviour ran much deeper than the email in which he branded Pakeha "white motherf...ers" and his boasting about skipping meetings during an official European tour to take his wife to Paris. "You don't ask someone to leave your movement, when they have contributed so much, on the basis of one issue," she said.

The Maori Party are split between their social conservative faction and their radical faction, with Tariana making these statements, there can be little future for Hone 'we'll always have Paris' Harawira within the Maori Party and I still think his best bet would be to talk to the Greens.

The first rip in John Key's Big Blue Tent?

If Hone wants to make his mark the Greens should call him over the weekend and he should jump party on principle. Have a coffee on Saturday, make sure the sst times photographer is tipped off, hey presto, media platform for a live 6pm Sunday press conference by Hone.

Here's what he gets:
He should apologise for his out burst, explain that he has been under a lot of pressure having to give his support to policy that he did not join the Maori Party to vote for. Because the Maori Party have received so little for their support and the policy that has been passed under urgency demands a stronger stance than being inside the Maori Party allows he is joining the greens.

What they get:
Replace the support Sue took with her when she left, regain their edge that has made the Greens drop below 5%

Beenie man needs to be bagged from BDO

BDO organisers investigate Beenie Man
Big Day Out organisers are investigating whether controversial Jamaican Dancehall act Beenie Man will perform homophobic songs at next year's music festival. Beenie Man was yesterday named to perform at the 2010 Big Day Out music festival at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland on January 15, alongside Muse, Dizzee Rascal, Lily Allen, Groove Armada, The Horrors, Mastodon and others. Beenie Man, real name Anthony Moses Davis, caused an outcry earlier this decade over a series of songs that contained homophobic lyrics. He had concerts cancelled in 2004, and was stopped by police at Heathrow Airport. He claimed he wasn't homophobic in 2007, but denied reports he had signed the Reggae Compassionate Act, a petition renouncing homophobia. Concerts have been cancelled in the past because of the lyrics to some of his songs, and a Facebook page, Standing up against Beenie Man at Big Day Out 2010, already has 900 members.

I just can’t believe that Beannie Man was allowed to come into the country? He hates gay people, here are his lyrics…

Beenie Man - Han Up Deh
Hang chi chi gal wid a long piece of rope
Hang lesbians with a long piece of rope

Beenie Man – Damn
I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays
I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays

Beenie Man - Batty Man Fi Dead (Queers Must Be killed)
All batty man fi dead!
All faggots must be killed!

From you fuck batty den a coppa and lead
If you fuck arse, then you get copper and lead [bullets]

Nuh man nuh fi have a another man in a him bed.
No man must have another man in his bed

Beenie Man - Roll Deep
Roll deep motherfucka, kill pussy-sucker
Roll deep motherfucker, kill pussy-sucker
Pussy-sucker:a lesbian, or anyone who performs cunnilingus.

Tek a Bazooka and kill batty-fucker
Take a bazooka and kill bum-fuckers [gay men]

How on earth did this guy get an invite from BDO? Big Day Out are in damage control right now and the only way out would be to un-invite him. Asking him not to sing these lyrics isn’t a solution, if BDO let him in they will be insulting all Gay NZers., and knowing the people at BDO I can not imagine that is what they want to do.

Cop sex was on the job?

Bid to recruit woman 'as informant'
A former Christchurch police officer accused of extorting sex from a prostitute maintained he was recruiting the woman as an informant when he had sex with her in a Belfast cemetery, a court has heard. The High Court in Christchurch yesterday was shown a video of then-constable Nathan Connolly being questioned about the relationship by Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey on September 11, 2007. Connolly, 31, is on trial before Justice French, charged with obtaining a bribe and two charges of sex with consent induced by a threat. Connolly, wearing police uniform, was shown on the video saying he had known the complainant, as a customer, since age 18, before he joined the police force. He maintained throughout the video interview that he was attempting to recruit the woman as an informant, but he had succumbed to her offer of "freebies".

Ohhhhhh, the cop wasn’t using his position as a Police Officer and forcing free sex out of a Prostitute, he was fucking her us! When he pulled her over and told her that he could charge her for having an unregistered and unwarranted car and then proceeded to have sex for free in the back of the Police car he was doing it all for us to get an informant.

R-i-g-h-t.

The court case continues today.

I was talking with a woman last week who dated a cop. She told me a couple of months ago after she broke it off, he waited at the end of her street and flashed his lights at her, She pulled over, pretty frightened and he told her he wanted to ‘talk’ about the break up. He pulled her over in his bloody Police car for no reason other than to ‘talk’.

What did happen to those recommendations that Margaret Bazely demanded had to be implemented to change Police sexual culture that led to the Louise Nicholas case? The ones she said the Police would be unable to implement without an independent body forcing them to do so? Oh yeah, they weren’t all implemented were they?

LOVE LITTLE GOAT BOY! LOVE HIM! Pharming with AgResearch

AgResearch wants GE cows
AgResearch plans to alter the make-up of cows, sheep and goats to produce a medicinal super-milk by mixing human and animal DNA. The Crown research institute is pushing ahead with the plans, despite being embroiled in a court battle with GE-Free New Zealand over similar proposals that the lobby group says show "callous disregard" for the environment and economy. The Environmental Risk Management Authority is calling for submissions on the AgResearch application, which involves creating goats, sheep and cows at Ruakara in Hamilton.

I love this game. AgResearch cliam that a gene they produce in their Frankenstein cows will ‘help’ someone do something, they call it ‘therapeutic proteins’. It’s never really specific about who these ‘therapeutic proteins’ will help, in the past a potpourri of disabled children have been wheeled out by AgResearch. They want in on the pharming speculative bubble under the smokescreen of helping disabled babies and they want in now, hence the need to promote goat boy.

AgResearch want to perfect the technology of mixing genes between species to see what neat crimes against God they can cook up, it has bugger all to do with helping little disabled babies, but the public aren’t going to love goat boy unless they think goat boy can help a really sick rich baby.

AgResearch were turned down in the High Court appeal earlier this year to have GE animal applications and months later are trying it on again with their ‘our mutant cows will save your sick baby’ line. It has NOTHING to do with sick babies and EVERYTHING to do with perfecting the transgenic technology for their American backers they seem so intent on flirting with.

Pharming with AgResearch – the prozac milk tickles

Lies, damned lies and Polls

UMR survey shows voters want MMP
A new survey has found a majority of voters don't want to change from the MMP electoral system.

The UMR opinion poll, released today, contradicts previous surveys which have shown the opposite.

A referendum will be held at the same time as the 2011 general election asking voters whether they want to change from MMP, and if they do they will be able to tick an alternative choice.

If a majority want a change, there will be another referendum at the time of the 2014 election which will be a run off between MMP and the most preferred alternative.

UMR used the proposed wording of the first referendum in its poll and the result was 48 per cent in favour or retaining MMP and 40 per cent in favour of changing the system.

Other recent polls have shown a majority in favour of changing the electoral system.

UMR questioned 750 voters and also asked them whether they wanted a referendum.

When they were told it was going to cost $20 million, 60 per cent didn't want one and 32 per cent did.

Voters were also asked about alternatives to MMP and UMR said opinion wasn't clear -- 41 per cent were unsure or didn't know enough to make a choice.

The Government hasn't announced which alternatives will be put on the referendum paper, but it is known they will include the old first-past-the-post system (FPP) and probably single transferable vote (STV) and supplementary member (SM).

UMR found that of those who did have an opinion, 29 per cent favoured FPP, 20 per cent STV and 9 per cent SM.

"It is likely to be a very close contest on whether there is a second referendum at all," UMR said when it released the findings.

The survey was carried out between October 22 and 27 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 per cent.

I’m glad my bitching about Polls on Radio NZ last month has led to a sudden jump in information available in these polls. Perception research shows people are open to manipulation and repeated manipulation stays in peoples minds so that Polls are easy to create false public opinion. Zaller makes these points in the Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion and Fishkim’s deliberative polling research shows when people are explained issues before polling that they come up with much better informed answers. This UMR poll and the reporting of it is far better than has been shown in other polls this year, while we still don’t see the weighting, call back or land lines over cell phones, the interesting bit is how NZers favour MMP when they are informed about parts of the cost involved in changing it.

My co-blogger has predicted MMP will win several times, this Poll suggests NZers won’t dump MMP as quickly as some on the right have hoped.

Global Warming Denial so passé

So a major plank of climate denial quack science just fell over with new research showing Antarctica is melting faster than anyone predicted….

Antarctic ice melting much faster than thought
Next month world leaders will meet to confront climate change in Copenhagen and they in turn will be confronted with new evidence about how urgently they need to act. The latest assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was released in 2007, but this week came new data to back it up. A new warning shows things are getting worse for the millions facing rising sea levels, drought and water shortage. The study was the most robust of its kind, compiled by 500 authors, condensing the work of tens of thousands of scientists - which was then reviewed by 2500 experts. Scientists now say not only was it correct, new data on the loss of Antarctic ice sheets shows they are melting at the fastest end of the scale predicted. New satellite data from Antarctica and Greenland have been added to IPCC projections and show that instead of a 59cm sea level rise in the next 100 years -we can expect 75 -190cm.

…all the while Kiwibloogh and Ian Wishart continue to pretend global warming isn’t happening because of man made pollution and Kiwibloogh continues to run propaganda lines for the climate denial circus despite what the scientists have to say…

Weather to get more extreme, say scientists
Weather forecast for 2100: more rain in winter and spring for the West Coast and Southland, getting drier for those in the east and north. Sea levels higher than average. Scientists gave an update yesterday on the state of the climate ahead of next month's world negotiations in Copenhagen at which countries will decide how much to curb greenhouse gas pollution by from 2012. Scientists believe some global warming is inevitable even if emissions were halted today - meaning an increase in westerly wind flows over New Zealand bringing more rain to the west and south.

…and pretending that NZ is only a small player in emissions is a lie…

Nasa: Methane effect worse than thought
Climate change specialists say New Zealand would face environmental challenges if the danger of methane gas is revised. Photo / Supplied New Zealand may be making a bigger contribution to global warming than scientists thought. A Nasa study says climate scientists have underestimated by 20 to 40 per cent how much methane warms the planet - even though it is already believed to be 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

…while our Australian neighbors face their own climate change meltdown and mass coastal erosion…

Soaring temperatures threaten another crisis
CANBERRA - Spring across the southeast of Australia has become a furnace, breaking records with heatwaves scorching Melbourne and Adelaide and turning vast tracts of bush and farmland into tinder.

…the fact is climate change from man made pollution is now out of control and fast becoming a run away event. Capitalism has a problem, I’m not talking about the inherent injustice of a few having all the money or the slavish ideological worship of the free market or even the IMF and worldbank genocide of poor people they commit every day with policies that promote Western mega corporations and their ability to dump heavily subsidized mass produced food on countries thus destroying the local markets – oh no, I’m talking about it’s impact on the environment. The reality is that the filth we pump into our planet has an impact on that planets health, a truth that the right wing desperately want to cover up.

We have had to put up with oil funded skeptics claiming the entire global warming idea is a hoax created by Greenpeace to make money for tree huggers for too long. The reality is that our pollution created by an unsustainable consumer greed capitalism is killing the planet and we push the environment to its very edges of being able to sustain our civilization with our denial of this fact. Right now we have a climate change denial Government in power, led by a man who initially didn’t believe in global warming supported by a political party that claim C02 is a misunderstood nutrient and that a 2 degree rise in temperatures would be “beneficial” for NZ. In their first week in power, nACTional have destroyed the Emission Trading Scheme and they are embarrassingly setting up a select committee to examine the 'science' behind global warming to provide pollution Industry funded quack science with a platform. It will be a global media embarrassment that will make NZ out to be a backwater Hicksville that seems unable to accept that the world isn’t flat.

This isn’t a debate about science because the science has been ‘settled’ in the same way evolution science has been ‘settled’, this is a culture war. Those in denial will not accept that their lifestyle is part of the problem and their ego’s are so inflated that to admit ‘tree huggers’ (a group they despise as much as their mythical ‘nanny state’ bullshit) are right and they are wrong would be such a devaluation of their status driven personalities that they fight with the venom of vanity. Would Paul Henry or any of his ilk ever admit they were wrong? We know the answer to that. They’re petty denial should be viewed with the contempt it deserves and their role in the debate should be as marginalized as much as one would marginalize someone trying to argue the planet is only 5000 years old at an evolution conference.

How will we explain all of this to the next generation? That we didn’t know? How will we explain the way we ignored the warning signs? We didn’t see this…

Iceberg 'halfway to Australia'
A large iceberg has been spotted off an island about halfway between Antarctica and Australia, a rare sight in waters so far north. Australian Antarctic Division researchers working on Macquarie Island, about 1500km southeast of Tasmania, first saw the iceberg last Thursday about 8km off the northwest coast of the island. The iceberg, about 50m high and 500m long, is probably part of one of several larger icebergs that broke off Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf between 2000 and 2002, Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young said. Several icebergs have been drifting slowly northward with the ocean current toward the island over the past year, but it is uncommon for them to move so far into warmer northern waters, he said.

…chunks of fucking Antarctica are floating past us folks. This bullshit response by the Government to subsidize big polluters is not a solution, it’s a greenwash sell out.

If you are not angry, you haven't been paying attention.

ATA

The countdown is going and the ATA will start feeling the heat as it tries to shoe horn in the competing interests and manage the various institutional cultures toward a unified Auckland city entity. Their initial preferred structure is very streamlined, very corporate, very centralised and very CEO focused. It looks too simple - and not just because the diagram omits the elected officials from the scene.

Here's the very centralised executive Mayor structure of New York:Even here we have autonomous units outside of the Mayor and the CEO and a community of governance within the executive Mayor system - something lacking in the ATA proposal which has the CEO at the centre with very few direct reports. Len Brown's latest blog post picks up on this:

Let’s start with the worrying thing – the senior executives responsible for liaising with and overseeing community bodies and local boards are three levels down from the chief executive.

Why does this make me uneasy? One of the key concerns Aucklanders had when the government revealed the first plan for the super city was that it didn’t have enough local representation and input. That concern was so strong, the government changed the structure to include more community boards and have all councillors elected through wards, rather than some elected at large.

But the structure outlined on Monday does not appear to have strong links to local boards and communities. There will be no direct representatives of local and community interests at the council’s top level. Is this really the best structure for Auckland? Will this really ensure that Aucklanders from Manurewa and Mission Bay, Avondale and Albany, Glendowie and Glenfield receieve the attention they deserve from their new council?

I don't think the ATA knows how to adequately reflect the very minor role that local boards will play in the new reality. Since the über stadt laws that Rodney Hide and his Tory chums rammed through parliament emasculated any hope of influence and responsibility for the local boards there isn't really anything for the ATA to say on the matter.

The two key issues that would give real autonomy and credibility to local boards:
1. the ability to set their own budget through control of their own sources of revenue (inter alia the ability to strike a "local rate"), and:
2. the ability to hire and fire a manager who can action decisions of the board:
- have been canned. Without one or both measures the local board is merely an advisory committee to the council. Council will delegate things for them to do, minor decisions that are best left to the local level, but they will be as toothless as they are now - maybe even more so considering the council's power and the number of boards.

I’m also concerned that we still don’t know how the Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) will link to the council, and that it will be another month before we find out. It’s proposed that vital infrastructure such as transport will be controlled by such organisations – all Aucklanders need to know sooner rather than later what these plans are, so we all have time to make well-considered submissions before the super city structure is finalised.

The transport agency may be nothing more than another fudge. At the moment the sector is divided between so many different players with multiple demarcation issues that Wellington continues to call all the shots. Without any dedicated funding - like the local fuel tax that National dumped - the investment into public transport and in particular the rail system will be incomplete.

An inclusive mayor who works in the interests of all Auckland, backed by an effective and efficient council and executive, can make any structure work. But we want the best structure – one that benefits all Aucklanders.

With just a year to go before the super city comes into existence, and just a month or two for public comment and submissions before the structure is finalised, Aucklanders need to know sooner rather than later precisely what’s proposed. That’s the only way we can have meaningful input and ensure the final structure unites all Auckland in a city that really works.

The public are supposed to be doing the proposing - not just the ATA. The blank slate is being filled in - but not by the public.

Radio NZ 4pm today

I'm on Radio NZ this afternoon at 4pm

March for Democracy a fundy $450 000 waste of time

Anti-smack review finds no concerns
A review of anti-smacking legislation has found no evidence parents are being subjected to "unnecessary state intervention" for lightly smacking their children. The report, written by Social Development Ministry chief executive Peter Hughes, could not discount the possibility there may have been "isolated incidents" where the practice differed. Tabled in Parliament yesterday, it used police and Child, Youth and Family (CYF) data to reach its conclusions. Data indicated a significant rise in reporting, apprehension and prosecution of violent crime, as well as notifications of concerns about children. But, in the two years since the anti-smacking law was introduced, it did not disclose any changes in the way police or CYF responded to reports of light smacking, or minor acts of physical discipline.

I was listening to this clown who is organizing this fundy $450 000 waste of money to ‘March for Democracy. He said, and I kid you not, that he was never going to die for his country, so this was his chance to fight – really? You are equating fighting and dying for your country to a $450 000 waste of money to demand the right to belt your kids back?

Jaw dropping.

People don’t understand the repeal of section 59, it’s not their fault, the media did an appaling job pretending that every Parent would be made a criminal. All the repeal meant, was that it closed a legal loophole. IF and let me say that word again for our pro-smacking clowns IF you are charged with assaulting your child, all the repeal of section 59 means is that you don’t have the ability to use discipline as a defence – THAT’S ALL IT MEANS! It doesn’t mean that if you lightly smack little Jimmy’s hand to stop him from running onto the road in front of a car to touch a hot stove – IT DOESN’T MEAN that the Eagle Helicopter will suddenly spot light you and demand you lie face down with your hands above your head.
Why the hell are we wasting time on this issue, when real and vast draconian measures are being passed late at night with zero oversight regarding our DNA, drug driving and evidential thresholds which effect us all, not to mention the new proposed surveillance powers.

National charge us and let their big pollutor mates off the hook

Householders face the biggest Kyoto burden
Taxpayers will be stuck with 84 per cent of the bill for meeting New Zealand's obligation under the Kyoto Protocol, while farmers and large industrial emitters get hefty subsidies, according to a report out today. The report on the Government's planned changes to the emissions trading scheme by the Sustainability Council's executive director Simon Terry and economist Geoff Bertram says farmers will be subsidised to the tune of $1.1 billion by the end of 2012, while large emitters get nearly $500 million.

Why must we the taxpayer pay for the big polluters? Why the hell can't the big polluters pay for THEIR pollution how the hell did we get to a situation where we are paying for National’s corporate big polluter chums? There is no incentive for the big polluter to cut back on their pollution, because we are fucking paying for them!

And why should we care? Because we are seeing the impact on global warming now…

Seas may rise even higher
Scientists are predicting seas will rise higher than the levels the Environment Ministry advises local councils to plan for. Delegates in Copenhagen for the United Nations climate change conference next month are to be told of the new predictions, which draw on new satellite images of Greenland and Antarctica. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted a sea level rise of up to 59 centimetres by the end of the century. However, the director of the Antarctic Research Centre, Tim Naish, said the international community now believed sea levels could rise by 1.9 metres.

…while Kiwibloogh and Ian Wishart continue to pretend global warming isn’t happening because of man made pollution and Kiwibloogh continues to run propaganda lines for the climate denial circus, we must not allow the elites and those who generate the most pollution off the hook – you pollute, you pay.

Having us the taxpayer subsidize these buggers is unacceptable