The large number of people who bitch and moan, in person and on social media, about the increasing use of Te Reo in every day life. And yes, you are but one example of this.
Oh I totally agree solar is only a part of the solution, not the magic bullet. Absolutely agree. I was really just trying to point out why the usual refrain of "it's not perfect so there's no point doing it" and "but what about this problem, let's not even bother" is tiresome.
My point is that people tend to dismiss mass solar based on perceived problems without realizing there are solutions to them.
Some of my ideas are costly, sure, but others aren't. Why is charging a slow release heater and heating your hot water during the day not cost effective? It is cost neutral, but utilizes solar.
Why is a crown corp offering full price buy-back not cost effective? There is no reason for the lower buy-back rates, other than to ensure profit for the power companies. If the company was not profit driven, they could offer full buy back rates. How do I know this? Because it used to be that way, but the buy back reduced as solar uptake increased.
Stop dismissing progress because it might require a small amount of problem solving. Otherwise, we will need improve our country.
While he's right about the timeframe, he's wrong about the country of origin.
The best hypothesis of the Polynesian expansion is that they left from Taiwan sometime after 3000BC. They are decendants of the Taiwanese aboriginal peoples, not Han Chinese settlers. So even if you ignore current geopolitics, saying "China" is grossly misleading.
I've seen this argument a lot, and the problem is it always assumes we don't change anything else. Here are some ideas that would make this much more of a non-issue:
Crown corp power "Kiwi Power" could buy back at full price.
Night-store heating that charges during the day then releases over night when the temperature drops.
Hot water heats during the day instead of at night.
Battery storage for all, or community-sized storage for local redistribution.
If large-scale storage is done, power price could vary depending on the amount of power supplied during the day that went into storage. With our current smart meters this would be trivial.
So you see with a bit of thought and creativity these problems can be alleviated. Unfortunately, it seems a large proportion of New Zealanders are allergic to change, so this is unlikely to happen.
I have to spell my street name 50% of the time, and it's a perfectly normal English word. The last place I lived had a slightly unusual English word name, and I had to spell it 90% of the time.
It's my opinion that anyone who thought about upzoning logically for two minutes would come to the conclusion that it is necessary to substantially increase housing supply without also needing to substantially increase infrastructure. I'm glad to see the results are starting to be noticed.
I have re-read your original article, and I think it's point is that the way crime is reported on does not match the reality of the situation, and that the 'tough on crime/soft on crime' rhetoric currently in the news cycle is not new and has nothing to do with actual crime rates. To this i agree.
As to the recent crime rates, they are overall trending downwards. However, as the article you linked pointed out, certain types of crime are on the rise. I would say it is important to try and understand why this is the case, and address the underlying causes, rather than increasing sentences or other harsher punishments. My reasoning is that we have been on the right track with our current approach, so we should not throw out the rehabilitation mindset just because it feels good to punish criminals more harshly.
Convenience is exactly the issue. Technology tends to make our lives easier. I don't even have to take my wallet out now, just use my phone. It's just so much easier. The transaction fee thing is annoying, but most of the time it's so small I just pay it anyway, instead of going through the above-mentioned steps to pay with EFTPOS. I'd also add "chose the wrong account and it was declined" to those steps. I use EFTPOS so infrequently now I often forget which account I keep all my money in.
Because it's really hard to learn one new word, amirite?