Tuesday, September 06, 2005

What kind of city will the new New Orleans be, when it is rebuilt. Because the old New Orleans is no more, it could resurrect itself as the great new American city of the 21st century. Or as an impoverished tourist trap. Founded by the French in 1718, site of the first US mint in the Western United States, this one-time pride of the South, this one-time queen of the Gulf Coast, had been declining for decades, slowly becoming an antiquated museum. Now New Orleans must decide how to be reborn. Its choices could foretell the future of urbanism.

NZ First leader Winston Peters would appear to be in serious trouble. Three months ago, when NZ First was riding at 10-12% in the polls and everybody talked about Winston as king-maker, who would have thought the party faced the possibility of having no seats after the election? Has this been a volatile campaign, or what? My mind idly turned today to what Helen Clark would do after the election should Labour lose. That might depend on how stable is the coalition that National can put together. If it should appear to be unstable, Helen might enjoy egging on its destruction. But if it looks able to stay the distance, what then? It would be almost unprecedented for anyone to lead two successive governments, spend 3 years in the wilderness, and then come back for a third successful term. Would she want to spend three years as Opposition leader? I suspect not - she has other unfilfilled ambitions. And Labour has a history of quickly quitting themselves of losing leaders. Watch this space.

Entertainer Sir Howard Morrison has urged New Zealanders to lift the country's flagging moral standards. The singer said he despaired at the greed and lies of the country's politicians. "I have read so much garbage, tinged with greed, and absolute quest for power that I think we are losing the sense of values, the morality and the real issues of the people," he said.

The Government is asking people to car-pool, drive smoothly and try not to use their air-conditioning to help international efforts to ease pressure on the oil market. Energy Minister Trevor Mallard said that while the Hurricane Katrina disaster had damaged crude oil production and refining capacity in the United States, he did not expect New Zealand to run short of fuel. "Nor do we anticipate any requirement for any mandatory measures to reduce demand, such as rationing or car-less days," he said. Mr Mallard said rationing and car-less days were "last resort measures" which would be considered only in response to a catastrophic disruption to world oil supplies.
But Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen says large off-road vehicles could become a rare sight as petrol price rises continue to bite. Dr Cullen told a small business gathering in Morrinsville that New Zealanders had already started buying fewer large vehicles.

Parents want more information on their children's schooling, says a report by Maxim Institute released yesterday. The report is based on interviews with 1001 parents throughout New Zealand and finds that almost 90 per cent of those interviewed would like more information on the quality of their children's teachers and what areas a school specialises in.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who steered the US Supreme Court on a more conservative course during more than 33 years on the bench and who presided over the impeachment trial of one president and helped elect another, died on Saturday. He was 80. A conservative stalwart appointed as associate Justice by President Richard M. Nixon in 1972, Rehnquist was elevated to chief justice in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan. His 33-year tenure on the court was one of the longest and most influential in the institution's history, as he spearheaded a rightward move at the court -- first as a lone dissenter, then later as the leader of a five-justice conservative majority. His death leaves President Bush with a second seat to fill on the high court.
President Bush announced this morning that he will nominate John G. Roberts to replace Rehnquist as Chief Justice of the United States.

Internet file-swapping was dealt a fresh blow today after an Australian court ordered the world's largest file-sharing service to filter out copyrighted material from its network.

The Japanese have known it was coming for years, but it still arrived sooner than anyone expected. The Japanese population has gone into absolute decline, and there will be at least 60,000 fewer Japanese at the end of this year than there were last January. In coming years, the decline will only accelerate. It’s the same elsewhere in East Asia. Last week, the National Statistical Office in Seoul announced that South Korea’s total fertility rate (the number of babies the average woman has in a lifetime) has now plummeted to 1.16, even lower than Japan’s. China’s looks better at 1.7, but that is deceptive because there is a 15 percent surplus of boys over girls in the youngest population groups. All these countries’populations are going to start falling steeply over the next generation. But why is it not happening in France?

Scientists say the 40 percent of humanity living in South Asia and China could well be living with little drinking water within 50 years as global warming melts Himalayan glaciers, the region's main water source. The glaciers supply 8.6 million cubic metres every year to Asian rivers, including the Yangtze and Yellow rivers in China, the Ganga in India, the Indus in Pakistan, the Brahmaputra in Bangladesh and Burma's Irrawaddy. But as global warming increases, the glaciers have been rapidly retreating, with average temperatures in the Himalayas up 1degC since the 1970s. A World Wide Fund report published in March said a quarter of the world's glaciers could disappear by 2050 and half by 2100.

Two long-time friends, both heterosexual men, have called off their controversial plans to wed in Canada, but not before causing a stir.



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