02 | July | 2016 | Utopia, you are standing in it!

2% are faceblind

02 Jul 2016 Leave a comment

by Jim Rose in administration, economics, health economics

2% of people suffer from this inability to recognise faces including Stephen Fry! I thought in his business you have to be able to spot faces.

I have the opposite syndrome of name deafness. Great at remembering faces but terrible at remembering names especially when put under pressure to remember them face-to-face.

The reason why I do not read novels is I cannot remember the names of the characters. But if I read a technical article I remember the names of the authors and people discussed in it.

The Big Fella and the New Guard 1932

02 Jul 2016 Leave a comment

by Jim Rose in economics

OZ HISTORY BLOG

A MOST DRAMATIC RIBBON CUTTING

It’s 19 March 1932 and one of those sunny, festive Sydney days that leaves the rest of the country mildly jealous. Crowds and officials are gathered to see the opening of that great span over the harbor that had been contemplated for decades and then built in eight years.

Jack Lang, the Labor Premier of NSW, has scissors in hand to cut the ribbon. The fact he’s openning the Sydney Harbour Bridge is controversial. It’s the sort of thing that the King’s representative is expected to do but Jack “The Big Fella” Lang wouldn’t have a bar of that.

Suddenly a uniformed man comes into view on a horse. He raises a sword, slashes the ribbon proclaiming his act was in the name of the decent and respectable people of New South Wales, and is then quickly dragged to earth and hauled away by the…

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#Corporatewelfare since 2008 @JordNZ @MatthewHootonNZ @GrantRobertson1 @stevenljoyce

02 Jul 2016 Leave a comment

by Jim Rose in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: corporate welfare, industry policy, picking losers, picking winners, The pretense to knowledge

My latest corporate welfare report is out at the Taxpayers Union website. The company tax could be 6 percentage points lower but for this generosity of politicians picking winners.

Source: New Zealand Budget Papers, various years.

It is not as bad as you think under the last Labour government budget. $700 million of those hand-outs to business was seed capital for agricultural research institute. That institute to be run out of the investment income on that $700 million one-off injection which the incoming National Party-led government cancelled.

Another $675 million in that last Labour budget was to KiwiRail and OnTrack. Other than that, the Labour Party ran a pretty tight ship on business subsidies. There are no particular record of picking winners. Labour did buy a real loser in KiwiRail. You heard it here first.

.@GreenpeaceNZ picks & chooses its scientific consensus #GMOs #globalwarming

02 Jul 2016 Leave a comment

by Jim Rose in development economics, environmental economics, global warming, health economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: activists, agricultural economics, antimarket bias, climate alarmism, do gooders, expressive voting, GMOs, green rent seeking, Greenpeace, Twitter left

The Public's Perceptions of Current Scientic Issues: What are their Views influenced by? https://t.co/klIEN0qPs9 pic.twitter.com/q0pbe4mkk1

— Linda Regber (@Satoshi_calling) July 2, 2016

Richard Tol on the scientific consensus about human-caused global warming http://t.co/NaSlhpG4CW pic.twitter.com/OpdRtsY1tx

— Skeptical Science (@skepticscience) March 24, 2015

For a generation, a campaign by the green movement against the growing of genetically modified crops has held sway across Europe. These foodstuffs are a threat to health, the environment and the small independent farmer, NGOs have argued.

As result, virtually no GM crops have been grown on Europe’s farms for the past 25 years. Yet hard evidence to support what is, in all but name, a ban on these vilified forms of plant life is thin on the ground. In fact, most scientific reports have indicated that they are generally safe, both to humans and the environment.

This point was endorsed last week when a 20-strong committee of experts from the US National Academies of Science announced the results of its trawl of three decades of scientific studies for “persuasive evidence of adverse health effects directly attributable to consumption of foods derived from genetically engineered crops”. It found none.

Instead the group uncovered evidence that GM crops have the potential to bestow considerable health benefits. An example is provided by golden rice, a genetically modified rice that contains beta carotene, a source of vitamin A. Its use could save the lives of hundreds of thousands of children who suffer from vitamin A deficiency in the third world, say scientists.

Source: The Observer view on the GM crops debate | Opinion | The Guardian

Scientists and governments around the world overwhelmingly agree that climate change is real, is largely human-induced and needs urgent action to prevent.

There is, in fact, a broad and overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, is caused in large part by human activities (such as burning fossil fuels), and if left un-checked will likely have disastrous consequences.

Furthermore, there is solid scientific evidence that we should act now on climate change – and this is reflected in the statements by these definitive scientific authorities.

Source: Scientific consensus | Greenpeace International.

Even under 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, one in 20 species could go extinct: https://t.co/eMBoqlZGfB pic.twitter.com/AyKmsdZ5zS

— Inside Climate News (@insideclimate) June 15, 2016

The contribution of China to The Great Escape from extreme poverty

02 Jul 2016 Leave a comment

by Jim Rose in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles

Poverty, Inc. | Official Trailer

02 Jul 2016 Leave a comment

by Jim Rose in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: The Great Escape

@UKIP voters are far more intellectually coherent than #libertarians

02 Jul 2016 1 Comment

by Jim Rose in economics of regulation, libertarianism, Public Choice

How different parties’ voters divided on the EU referendum – from my 12k-sample poll: pic.twitter.com/30oBSIfs49

— Lord Ashcroft (@LordAshcroft) June 24, 2016

Only 4% of UKIP voters do not understand why they vote that way.

1/3^rd of libertarians do not understand that to be a libertarian means you have to have rather liberal views on marijuana decriminalisation but 1/3^rd do not know this.

There has to be some sort of litmus test of being both a UKIP voter and on the on the list the name at night will pick me as we all take more a you being a libertarian. 1/3^rd of libertarians failing compared to 4% of UKIP voters do but these probably have already joined the perpetually baffled.

The Horror of the Somme

02 Jul 2016 Leave a comment

by Jim Rose in economics

Why Evolution Is True

As I noted in this morning’s Hili Dialogue, today is the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, a bloody conflict that lasted 141 days—from 1 July to 18 November, 1916. The total casualties of the battle, as you can see below, were over a million, with 146,000 Allied soldiers killed along with 164,000 Germans. In contrast, the number of UK soldiers lost over the entire course of World War II was 373,000, with between 4 and 5 million German soldiers dying from all causes (and on two fronts). On the first day of the Somme, 100 years ago today, nearly 63,000 soldiers of all nationalities were killed, injured or captured; this according to a document sent me by reader Pyers, “The First Day on the Somme,” which he wrote for his job. Over 19,000 British soldiers were killed on that day along with 10,000-12,000 German soldiers. (Note that the ratio of killed…

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Is @GreenpeaceNZ a pyramid scheme?

02 Jul 2016 Leave a comment

by Jim Rose in environmentalism, politics - New Zealand

Greenpeace International spends 34% of all funds raised on fundraising; its local arm is not much better. Good to see that Greenpeace NZ pays their collectors a living wage, but not a cent more, to pester people on the street and cold-call them at home. Greenpeace has the effrontery to accuse others of being paid advocates.

Source: Greenpeace defends fundraising strategy | Stuff.co .nz

@Greenpeace thugs vandalise golden rice trial in #Pinas

02 Jul 2016 Leave a comment

by Jim Rose in development economics, economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, health economics Tags: Anti-Science left, GMOs, Greenpeace, Philippines, terrorism

The Nobel Savage: Greenpeace’s Colonialist Ambitions

02 Jul 2016 Leave a comment

by Jim Rose in economics

The Risk-Monger

Golden Rice (rice genetically fortified with beta-carotene to help prevent Vitamin A Deficiency among malnourished populations) has become a dogmatic noose around the neck of Greenpeace threatening to choke the entire organisation. Their relentlessly obsessive opposition to all GMOs have cost the NGO many good leaders, ostracised them within agricultural circles (except the tiny, but boisterous organic food industry lobby) and brandished them with an anti-scientific label that will burden their credibility for decades to come.

On Thursday (30 June 2016), 110 Nobel laureates condemned Greenpeace for being anti-scientific, begging them, other NGOs and the UN to stop opposing GMOs and, in particular, Golden Rice. Since there are only several hundred living Nobel Prize winners, this is a significant sting for an organisation like Greenpeace trying to move in from the fringes of society and be respected at the policy table.

The letter signed by 110 Nobel laureates considers Greenpeace’s opposition to Golden Rice as…

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Utopia, you are standing in it!

2% are faceblind

The Big Fella and the New Guard 1932

#Corporatewelfare since 2008 @JordNZ @MatthewHootonNZ @GrantRobertson1 @stevenljoyce

.@GreenpeaceNZ picks & chooses its scientific consensus #GMOs #globalwarming

The contribution of China to The Great Escape from extreme poverty

Poverty, Inc. | Official Trailer

@UKIP voters are far more intellectually coherent than #libertarians

The Horror of the Somme

Is @GreenpeaceNZ a pyramid scheme?

@Greenpeace thugs vandalise golden rice trial in #Pinas

The Nobel Savage: Greenpeace’s Colonialist Ambitions

Listen to this kitten growl

The Monkees – I’m a Believer (1967)

James Taylor – Handy Man (1977)

The West Wing: President Walken answering questions

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