RobiNZ Personal Blog

John Key’s affordable housing solution?

Seen in Huapai, his electorate, today. A reasonable re-locatable family home that should be quick to build. Auckland and Christchurch housing problem sorted. Read more →

Sir Paul Callaghan, should be Prime Minister

I cant embed this video but click the link to see why this man should be running New Zealand. From his Bio on sustainablefuture.info Sir Paul Callaghan (GNZM, FRS, FRSNZ) is Kiwibank’s 2011 New Zealander of the year, for his service to science in the fields of nanotechnology and magnetic resonance. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Oxford, was made Professor of Physics at Massey University in 1984, and was appointed Alan MacDiarmid Professor of Physical Sciences in 2001. Paul is the founding director of both the multi-university MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology and... Read more →

The Onion’s Apple Friend Bar, and an alternative to Mr Key’s Kiwi/Panda swap?

This Onion piece was pretty good but the follow up headline that ends the item really hit the spot. I saw it when New Zealand was gripped by our PM’s daft idea of swapping Kiwi (birds) with China in return for Pandas as “an extension of the bond" between the countries”. Perhaps we should get a Tibetan Monk instead? New Apple Friend Bar Gives Customers Someone To Talk At About Mac Products Read more →

Getting Wellington out of debt, with intelligent growth « Jack Yan

Is it worth moving to Wellington, just to BACK JACK? I love point three in his post as it seems to sum up the national, actually the National, economic strategy: 3. You can keep praying that the Rugby World Cup will give a temporary boost and hope no one notices that the other years aren’t as prosperous. Click through to see Jack’s vision which is far more inspiring than the moronic credit card shredding and Olympic fantasy the Queen city is being offered. Pity about the Wellington weather otherwise… Getting Wellington out of debt—by growing the right businesses « Jack... Read more →

BACK JACK - A campaign fund-raiser on Thursday night

Click for details Wellington Mayoral Candidate Jack Yan’s campaign fund-raiser on Thursday (15-04-2010) night Read more →

Help (via Forest & Bird) save our national parks from mining

As sent via the on-line submittal form at Forest & Bird’s site: To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Our national parks are too precious to mine Dear Prime Minister, I was annoyed to hear your "well they would be opposed wouldn’t they" comment on Radio Live this morning (2010-03-15) regarding this Forest & Bird campaign. It is possible to be supportive of economic development (including tourism) and regard mining in conservation areas to be a stupid move. These special parts of New Zealand will create far more long-term wealth through tourism than they will ever do from traces of minerals. Low-impact... Read more →

Party Central, are they are using our money to get yours?

Thinking why there is a need for the Rugby World Cup “Party Central”? It struck me that, unlike The Viaduct just a few hundred metres away, It is: A contained area away from other commercial activity Somewhere they can sell concessions to food/drink vendors Somewhere they can what is offered and pricing Imagine Rugby World pour into town and fill the existing bars, restaurants and clubs. None of their money would go to the organisers. Is that why they need to provide a place to party? Perhaps it would be more accurate to name it “Party Containment” Meanwhile the WRC... Read more →

Is the GST change a smokescreen?

I wonder if the "announced" rise in GST is just part of a long term play. Imagine we get to the, if not black at least a very dark shade of blue, budget to find a whole raft of changes announced. Not changing GST would make a bitter budget much easier to swallow. I might be wrong but think back to the proposed massive increase to motorcycle ACC that was scaled back on announcement. If the final amount hadn't been softened by the bogus plan it would had been the subject of outrage rather than grudging acceptance. Blog posted here. Read more →

Back Jack Yan’s 2010 Wellington Mayoral Campaign

I first “knew” Jack from reading the, group authored, Beyond Branding Blog which included content from his own: The Persuader Blog. When not blogging, running his virtual company, publishing Lucire, writing, speaking, creating fonts, appearing on Radio and TV he somehow even found time to comment on my blog(s). Although we primarily know each other via blogging that connection has grown as we’ve both embraced other social media and, finally, actually met last year. At the time we talked about many topics and he mentioned his vision for Wellington. It wasn’t a pitch, he was talking to a little read... Read more →

Jack Yan’s candidacy for Mayor of Wellington

This is a bit embarrassing: Cleaning up my draft blog folder I found this post, written back in September, but for some reason unpublished! Wind your mind back to 09/2009 as you read… Jack Yan announces candidacy for Mayor of Wellington I can’t say this was a surprise as when I met Jack for lunch, while in Wellington visiting the Formula 1 exhibit at Te Papa, he mentioned the possibility. Ok, it was more than a mention as although we talked about blogging (which is how I met Jack), cars, fonts (he designs them) and much more the one constant... Read more →