This is not a throw-away waste product but it is an example of New Zealand skills at their best! Well done.

Hoki sparks nano-fibre revolution

By Christopher Adams

5:30 AM Thursday Nov 14, 2013

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Co-founder Ian Hosie says RevolutionFibres is on track to make revenue of $2 million this year. Photo / APN

Iain Hosie reckons his company is a good example of the kind of manufacturing that can thrive in New Zealand.
The Henderson-based Revolution Fibres is hardly a labour-intensive operation.
The firm - whose electro-spinning technology creates nano-fibres out of hoki skins, a by-catch of the fishery, which are used in everything from air filters to fishing rods and cosmetics - has a maximum of three staff on its factory floor at any one time.
Another three staff are focused on research and development.
And Hosie said the products were "incredibly high-value and incredibly light".
"This is almost a weightless export," he said. "The amount of nano-fibre you can fit into a shipping container is quite ridiculous."
Revolution's technology has its origins in Crown institute Plant & Food Research, but it was Hosie's firm that made it a commercial reality.

Backed with government research and development funding, the company was formed in 2009 and a machine that could manufacture nano-fibre out of marine collagen - called The Komodo - was built.
The electro-spinning process basically works like this: The hoki skins are ground into a powder, which is then turned into a liquid solution and zapped with around 50,000 volts of electricity, producing the nano-fibres that are about 1000 times thinner than a human hair.
Revolution has been supplying nano-fibre air filters to New Zealand home ventilation system manufacturer HRV since 2011.
Despite New Zealand's clean and green reputation, Hosie claimed there were plenty of nasties in the air that Kiwis should be worried about.
"We're perceived as clean and green but we do have a lot of particles in our air," he said. "We have huge pollen counts and a lot of allergies like asthma."
Revolution is also supplying its products to fishing rod manufacturer Kilwell, Hosie said.
He said the Rotorua-based company used a fine layer of nano-fibre, embedded inside resin, to strengthen the rods.
The company is also gaining traction in producing cosmetic products.
It's developed a face patch that uses collagen fibre to apply plant extracts with "rejuvenation properties" to the skin.
"When you buy a cream, 90 per cent is the cream and 10 per cent is the goodness," Hosie said. "We've made a product that is 100 per cent active ingredients, all the stuff that is good for the skin, and nothing else."
Hosie said the face patch product, which is being marketed by a partner he could not disclose, would soon hit the market in China, South Korea and Japan.
Revolution was on track to pull in revenue of $2 million this year, he added.
The company, owned by its founders, has funded its development without having to take early stage venture capital or angel investment.
"We've gone through the valley of death and popped out the other side," Hosie said. "We're a profitable business ... and we could be a lot more profitable if we didn't invest so much of our potential profits back into the business."
He said the company would like to take investment from business partners it was developing products with.
"I think we'd be looking for capability investment - investments to meet market demand, which is the right reason to invest," Hosie said.
"The ideal situation would be our customers becoming our partners."

Solar oven, online shopping and now a thermal cooker! What next?

A few months ago I brought a solar oven and tired it out. It took me a while to get it up to the necessary temperature for the right amount of time. I finally achieved this but I have to say that it is marginal at best in the colder cloudy months for Auckland.
I then had an attack of 'online shopping syndrome' and brought a few spurious items. It seems I never learn but I guess there are worse  vices.
Now I am about to launch into my next obsession. It's OK, I am  counsellor so I can deal to myself re self observation and calming techniques! I shall purchase the thermal cooker from an online company selling thermal cookers. The principal is one whereby for a small amount of energy, one gets to cook food at a fraction of the cost of conventional cooker. It works on a similar time-frame to a slow cooker and you may be asking--'why not use one of those for the same or similar result?' Well, the answer is that it is very convenient to start off a meal, and have it continue cooking while one is travelling or out in a boat, camping or relaxing in the park or at the beach. Imagine a corned beef and veggies or a butter chicken recipe with rice 'doing it's thing' while you are enjoying yourself. I am a sucker for such enjoyable occasions. But--it will depend on how good a deal the company that sells the above device offers when I make the purchase. Follow my blogs to see how this all goes and get an update re the solar oven. The company is:
www.thermalcooker.co.nz

www.authorneilcoleman.com

At last--- a stumbling block to destroying the gains made by unions over many years. Parliament deadlocked!

For more than 100 years workers in New Zealand have battled to win fair working conditions for their members. At times the struggle has gone to the extreme where striking workers have been killed. Yes, that has been a rare event but such times have been catalysts in the struggle. For a few decades New Zealand was a shining example of hope for workers around the world as they slowly achieved working conditions that reflected a widely held belief that NZ offers ‘fairness’ for those who were prepared to put in a day’s work. Then the battle started again, in the later part of the last century as successive Governments, but manly those led by the national Party scrambled to increase the profits of large companies and lessen the powers of organized labour.

We have seen a slow stripping away of the rights of unions to organize and represent the rights of their members. Union membership fell for several decades and it has only been in the last few years that this tendency has slowed or perhaps reversed. There is little doubt in the minds of many people that their positions in the work place are far more tenuous now but action to fight that has been lacking despite the best efforts of unions to increase their membership numbers.

Last night in Parliament a ‘Private Members’ bill was stopped in its tracks as the proposer failed to gain a majority in order for it to proceed. This is a watershed moment in the struggle for fair rights for workers. The National Party and its friends will be fuming at the prospect of a worker fight back. Unions will take strength from this result and renew their fight for a resurgent and way overdue reversal of recent trends. But, is this enough? I don’t think so. The media is still well and truly in the pockets of industry and big business so if the unions and tier allies think that the battle for better working conditions is won, they need to think again and build on this very small gain. They have a long way to go, just to stop the losses in their numbers. Now they need to focus on some of the worst aspects of the attacks they have endured for so long. Unless they win this battle, we will see more of the failed ‘trickle down’ (which has been proven to be a ‘trickle up—only faster) myth and the ever widening the gap between those who have most and those who have less and less.

www.authorneilcoleman.com

Why would New Zealand want a one-sided trade deal with the USA?--- Read Nicky Hager's article below.

Trans-Pacific Partnership leaks reveal trade battle

By Nicky Hager

5:30 AM Thursday Nov 14, 2013

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The intellectual property issue is important to Hollywood studios such as Warner Bros, which is behind The Hobbit.

Secret details show NZ opposed US on issues such as copyright and medicines.

Secret details of the United States-Pacific trade agreement have been leaked showing New Zealand in serious dispute with US negotiators on many issues.
These include internet freedom, access to affordable medicines, protection of New Zealand industrial innovation and ownership of native plants and animals.
After 3 years of intense negotiation and with political calls for an agreement by Christmas, New Zealand and the US are still far apart in key areas.
The UK-based WikiLeaks organisation has obtained the crucial "intellectual property" chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and released it exclusively to the Herald and Mexican, Chilean, US and Australian media.
The leaked chapter, marked "TPP Confidential", was produced and circulated to chief negotiators at the end of negotiations in Brunei in August. Insiders say there has been little progress in two meetings since then.

The 95-page draft includes some of the agreement's most contentious issues, such as copyright, patent and pharmaceutical rules.
It contains more than 250 references to New Zealand supporting or opposing particular clauses. In about 60 cases, New Zealand supports the US position. But in most cases the US and New Zealand are opposed to each other's proposals, usually with several other countries agreeing with New Zealand.
Intellectual property is especially important to Hollywood and US pharmaceutical, biotechnology and entertainment corporations, which have a strong influence over the Obama Administration's trade policy. Their influence is seen throughout the draft document.
A large section reveals the battle between the US pharmaceutical lobby and countries such as New Zealand that want to continue to buy cheaper generic medicines. The US negotiators have inserted several pages of measures to help maintain and extend the dominant position of big pharmaceutical companies. Only the US supported these proposals while Australia, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei opposed them in full.
New Zealand is the lead nation for a series of alternative proposals to "adopt and maintain measures to encourage the timely entry of pharmaceutical products to the market". Canada, Singapore, Chile, Malaysia and Vietnam join New Zealand in proposing rules that would avoid blocks to generic medicines.
Since this text was written US Trade Representative Michael Froman has publicly proposed giving developing countries a phase-in period if they accept the US-promoted pharmaceutical rules, but this would give no relief to New Zealand.
Other areas of dispute are provisions that would require internet service providers to enforce copyright of behalf of foreign corporations, including closing down their customers' accounts; overseas royalty payments on all books, music and movies for 20 years longer than at present; restricting cheaper parallel importing; imposing penalties for breaking "digital locks" such as regional zones on lawful DVDs; allowing plants and animals to be patented; and allowing "diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods for the treatment of humans or animals" to be patented.
There is also dispute over agricultural chemicals.
A target of Christmas for concluding the agreement was set by President Barack Obama last year and was reconfirmed at the TPP leaders' meeting in Bali in October.
However the wide differences evident between the US and New Zealand mean someone would have to back down on national interest provisions - or the US back down - for there to be any prospect of the agreement being concluded. More than 100 issues are unresolved.
A coalition of groups, ranging from Internet New Zealand to Trade Me and the Library Association, have opposed the agreement. The Fairdeal Coalition's spokeswoman Susan Chalmers said the New Zealand negotiators have been sticking up for the country and called on the Government to support them.
"If New Zealand caves on the intellectual property chapter," she said, "it will face inevitable economic, cultural and social losses that in the long-term will likely outweigh any gains from improved agricultural access."
An earlier WikiLeaks release of US embassy cables showed former New Zealand chief TPP negotiator Mark Sinclair privately telling visiting US State Department Deputy Assistant Frankie Reed in February 2010 that there were "a number of areas sensitive to New Zealand" in the TPP talks and pharmaceuticals were "bound to be a contentious issue".
The deal
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a trade deal under negotiation between 12
countries: New Zealand, US, Singapore, Chile, Brunei, Australia, Vietnam,
Peru, Malaysia, Canada, Mexico and Japan.
What's next
November 19-24: TPP negotiators gather in Salt Lake City to try to resolve issues.
December 7-9: Trade ministers meet in Singapore.
Christmas: Target date for concluding agreement.

By Nicky Hager

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If you had any doubt about NZ's 'colonial past,' then go check out the blog in the NZ Herald for today!

How many of us have felt berated at by those espousing a particular point of historical view about NZ’s so-called colonial past? I am sure you can all relate to those moments whereby you think---‘here we go again. Can’t the past be left just there---in the past?’ Well no, we can’t because we are the accumulation of what has happened and the promise of what is to come. The attitudes we express now are primarily fed by what we have experienced and learned from the past, some of it, badly informed. New Zealand’s history is not one in which everything was ‘nice’ and well-ordered or one that is based on fairness. If you need proof just go to the article in the NZ Herald of today where there is a blog written at the time about the first 50 years of the NZ Herald—it is a section of an editorial about the struggle to make Auckland a viable city. There was a time when many people felt that Auckland was just not worth putting the effort into re making it a prosperous city with a future. Read the article and feel the views of some people at the time. It looks and feels like there was only one possible future for the make-up of Auckland. There was a strongly held view that Auckland and New Zealand in general was meant to be a country that should only be settled by ‘white people.’ There was some doubt that this ‘ideal’ could be achieved and that maybe ‘it could be left to the radicals and discontents’ and to concentrate on areas south of Auckland. In some ways things have not changed but in other respects we see a very different picture. History has much to teach and inform if we want to understand where we are ‘going.’

www.authorneilcoleman.com

Auckland---showtime---really?

The New Zealand Herald is reporting that Auckland is portraying itself as the city where the party never ends. Maybe not the exact words, but you get the picture. However---do you really want to see the whole picture? Do we want our visitors to hang around after the wee small hours of the morning in our queen city? Do we really want our visitors to sample the pleasures of drunken assaults, revoltingly behaved young men and women and some not so young as they throw up in the street and fight like trolls in the vomit. Am I overreacting in my description of Auckland after mid night? Well, just go and check for yourselves but make sure you have a safe escape route because I would not like you to get caught up in the drunken behaviour that the participants pass off as celebratory. Auckland is an ugly sight at these times. I am not just talking about young men spoiling for a fight; I include the girls and women who feel free to join in and I would very much discourage any of you to ‘have them on;’ challenging their behaviours.

Oh it’s just like the UK on a weekend night. You may also say that only young people go out at night and that those a bit older and that they should be wrapped up in bed. Wrong---just look at most overseas cities and you will see that the belief that Auckland is a safe place at night is pure misinformation. I know I felt a great deal safer when I walked around late at night in Jakarta, a city of 18 million plus people. Auckland has a problem, along with other NZ cities and we need to address it. Instead of getting uptight about the shenanigans of our mayor, maybe we should focus on something that really matters, the safety of our citizens and our visitors!

www.authorneilcoleman.com

Clinical supervision---my special day.

Today I attended the last of my training to complete my Clinical Supervision Certificate. That allows me to offer another string to my range of skills above and beyond counselling. Having worked in the latter position for more than 20 years I can now 'supervise' other counsellors and those in similar roles. I have always enjoyed the supervision I have received from other supervisors and not only is it a requirement for me to partake in this process, it is a means whereby I can reflect and extend myself as well as stay safe, both for myself and my clients. Now I am able to do the same for other counsellors. I look forward to building on my skills and contributing to this wonderful group of people who work with people and 'walk' along side them as they hold out a hand of hope for those who feel that life is testing them. Please feel free to contact me, via my website (follow the link re 'sending me a message' if you wish to talk about how I can help re your supervision, or to find out more about 'supervision' and how it may help you. I would like to send a huge thanks to the people who trained with me and the wonderful 'facilitator, John McAlpine who guided us on our journey.
www.authorneilcoleman.com