Why we should be careful about identity politics
Submitted by Rimu Atkinson on Mon, 07/11/2011 - 22:07If people are especially concerned about oppression of indigenous people or other oppressed groups then I'm really happy about them trying to do something about that. There are often very real issues of discrimination which need to be addressed.
Read moreMMP vs FPP - the historical context
Submitted by Rimu Atkinson on Sat, 10/09/2011 - 15:43The political terms Left and Right were coined during the French Revolution, referring to the seating arrangement in the Estates General; those who sat on the left generally supported the radical changes of the revolution, including the creation of a republic and secularisation. The left represented the values of the Enlightenment - universal human rights, rationalism, science and progress. The right were the old school - aristocratic, feudal and religious.
Read moreRevolution is underway in several countries in the Middle East
Submitted by Rimu Atkinson on Sat, 29/01/2011 - 16:34Peak Oil is pushing up energy and food prices all over the world. WikiLeaks is discrediting various power structures globally. Countries that have had a simmering discontent for a long time are starting to crack under the strain. This time the riots are more serious than 2008, the year of the first oil (food) price spike.
All of these news stories are very recent:
Read moreI have chosen to censor news.google.com
Submitted by Rimu Atkinson on Tue, 27/04/2010 - 20:24
I'm pretty sick of sensationalist news stories about crime and car crashes so I've written a GreaseMonkey script which hides them from me when I'm using http://news.google.com
You can get the script from http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/75346
Read moreGetting ASP.Net 1.1 running on linux - a trap for Ubuntu 9.04 users
Submitted by Rimu Atkinson on Thu, 15/04/2010 - 20:06On 9.04 when you install mono from the repos by following these instructions, (and opt not to install ASP.Net 2.0 and just go with the default of 1.0) then you end up with a mis-configuration of the web server - it's looking for the 2.0 version of the .Net framework when all you have is 1.0. This will be evidenced by these lines in /var/log/apache2/error.log
Read moreTired of nzherald.co.nz splitting articles across multiple pages? You need this
Submitted by Rimu Atkinson on Mon, 22/02/2010 - 22:40I've written a wee Greasemonkey script which detects when you're looking at a nzherald news article that has multiple pages, and redirects you to the version of the article which is a single longer page.
It's my first Greasemonkey script. I already know Javascript, so it was really easy especially with this fantastic free book on the subject.
Enough of my yammering. You can download it here.
Read moreExactly what is wrong with SUV's
Submitted by Rimu Atkinson on Tue, 12/01/2010 - 15:14I spent some time driving over the holidays, and came up against a surprising amount of SUV's, tearing around on dirt roads towing boats, jet-skis, etc. The below rant I ran across on the intertubes sums up by feelings perfectly
Read moreSending encrypted email with PGP
Submitted by Rimu Atkinson on Fri, 08/01/2010 - 17:42It appears that New Zealand is becoming a bit more of a police state, with pretty much all internet activity able to be monitored. This feels a bit creepy, so in response I've taken the 10 minutes necessary to learn how to encrypt my email.
Read moreMerry Christmas! Now, one last kick in the teeth for the year...
Submitted by Rimu Atkinson on Sun, 27/12/2009 - 15:11The unemployment benefit will only last for 1 year. Yes, during in the worst recession in 70 years
also
Read moreA really simple way to figure out how much emissions cuts each country must make
Submitted by Rimu Atkinson on Sat, 19/12/2009 - 12:52(amount of emissions required to get to 350 ppm / population of the earth) = allowed emissions per capita allowed emissions per capita * number of people in country = country's future emissions level for each country country's current emissions level - country's future emissions level = required cuts per country end
Everyone in the world has the same right to pollute as much as anyone else. It makes no difference which side of a line on a map that they live, because the atmosphere is global.
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