small-torque.blogspot.com
SmallTorque: December 2016
http://small-torque.blogspot.com/2016_12_01_archive.html
Sunday, 11 December 2016. Defined hard news (someone wants to kill it off) and argued that it is a public good so we should consider public funding to top-up what the providers might get from other sources. Before we get into the details of how this might be achieved, let's start with a bit more background. Firstly, " we, the NZ public. Do already provide public funds for some kinds of broadcast (not print) media, through NZOnAir. Opens it's NZ section with the following statement. In New Zealand, in 198...
small-torque.blogspot.com
SmallTorque: Funding Hard News
http://small-torque.blogspot.com/2016/12/funding-hard-news.html
Sunday, 11 December 2016. Defined hard news (someone wants to kill it off) and argued that it is a public good so we should consider public funding to top-up what the providers might get from other sources. Before we get into the details of how this might be achieved, let's start with a bit more background. Firstly, " we, the NZ public. Do already provide public funds for some kinds of broadcast (not print) media, through NZOnAir. Opens it's NZ section with the following statement. In New Zealand, in 198...
small-torque.blogspot.com
SmallTorque: Rowarth as Columnist
http://small-torque.blogspot.com/2017/01/rowarth-as-columnist.html
Tuesday, 3 January 2017. Here's the second paragraph of a column by the EPA's chief scientist, Jacqueline Rowarth, from the Rural News on 20/12/16. Although farm animals aren't included in New Zealand's Emissions Trading Scheme (no country has put agriculture in to any sort of GHG scheme), many people still point fingers at 'polluters' and regard the animals and their owners as free-loaders. The rest of Rowarth's article explains why this is "odd". In the rural press. I reckon that regulators should not ...
small-torque.blogspot.com
SmallTorque: C, E, F & P
http://small-torque.blogspot.com/2016/11/c-e-f-p.html
Thursday, 24 November 2016. Rachel Stewart is at it again. Criticising the dairy industry. And here I am again, basically agreeing with her despite being a dairy farmer. Dairying is indeed a very powerful industry in NZ, to the point where the 'C' word (cow) just was never mentioned by officials commenting on the water contamination in Havelock North. But you will never catch Fonterra advocating a massive reduction in dairying in NZ, which is Rachel's position. No They won't. Markets are socially def...
small-torque.blogspot.com
SmallTorque: Minority Rule
http://small-torque.blogspot.com/2016/11/minority-rule.html
Tuesday, 1 November 2016. Nassim Taleb has a great post. On how quite small minorities can win over the majority in social matters:. Taleb's argument is not that minority rule is generally. True (a plethora of oppressed minorities know differently), but rather that it can. Happen if the minority is intransigent, for example for religious reasons (kosher, halal), and. The majority is flexible (i.e. we don't mind if its kosher and halal), and. This could explain why huge food companies like Nestle. These f...
small-torque.blogspot.com
SmallTorque: September 2015
http://small-torque.blogspot.com/2015_09_01_archive.html
Wednesday, 30 September 2015. Agricultural science funding in NZ. Recent job cuts at AgResearch have focused attention on the money that kiwi taxpayers spend on scientific research and its allocation. The CRIs get about $400m. Of public money each year and AgResearch is the biggest of them. Here are its sources of revenue for the last two financial years for which records are available ($m). As the motivation for the sackings. I could ask questions about this all night, but let's just try a few. Kudos to...
small-torque.blogspot.com
SmallTorque: Hard Journalism as a Public Good
http://small-torque.blogspot.com/2016/12/hard-journalism-as-public-good.html
Saturday, 10 December 2016. Hard Journalism as a Public Good. Earlier this week the Commerce Commission held a conference on the proposed merger between Fairfax and NZME. Most of the discussion involved the applicants responding to questions from the Commission. The transcripts will be available here. This post is not about the proposed merger but was provoked by the discussion at the hearings. But G&F are distributors of content, not creators, which is why they haven't really cared. Cross-subsidies are ...
small-torque.blogspot.com
SmallTorque: October 2015
http://small-torque.blogspot.com/2015_10_01_archive.html
Friday, 30 October 2015. Legendary sevens coach Sir Gordon Tietjens. Spoke at a bank-sponsored do in Nelson last night and echoed many of the themes and values Steve Hansen has been discussing. The bank CEO endorsed them too, talking about their "partnership" with the NZ Rugby. And how excited they are about the leverage opportunities. Concept that underpins so much public policy in New Zealand and beyond. What the corporates have figured out is that they are also winning values. Although the NZ Rugby.
small-torque.blogspot.com
SmallTorque: September 2016
http://small-torque.blogspot.com/2016_09_01_archive.html
Monday, 19 September 2016. About that Elephant / Where's my Money? Ganesh, the Way-Clearing Man-Elephant. We get several "free" newspapers each week, as do all farmers in NZ. They're entirely sponsored by advertisers, with bits of farmer-friendly content around the ads to attract our eyeballs. By Ian Proudfoot of KPMG. Ian reckons that we must stop ignoring the GMO elephant in the room, because people keep talking to him about it, though he has "no clear view on what the right course of action is". But I...
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