dear bomb

I think DPF summed it up best with

This is not a good thing at all. This is very bad, and there will be consequences down the road.

North Korea today issued the a statement claiming that they had

successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on October 9, 2006

adding that the test

will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it

I'm not holding my breath.

The msm are variously reporting that the test took place at either the Yongbyon nuclear facility, located 100km north of Pyongyang, or at Hwadaeri (CNN citing Hwaderi, a place that doesn't exist) near Kilju City, while seismic data indiicated the only activity of it's type today located here.

I'd like to say that I hope this is just North Korea puffing itself up with lies, but - like others - I'm scared of not only the crazy North Korean leadership, but of how their neighbours and the world reacts. We haven't had any problems out of India and Pakistan yet, granted, but I'm not as confident with Kim Jong IL behind the wheel.

Big discussion over at Kiwiblog - Matthew Webster has a good summary of the problems with both military and economic solutions, concluding that

I think its pretty close to an intractable problem, internationally speaking, and it maybe that this problem is only "solved" (in as much as is possible here) by the reactions of countries who feel their security is threatened.

shiny & new

So I've spent a very long time updating the design of the blog rather than any real work or useful posts - mostly because of the change to blogger in beta - which was worth it, but if you want to do anything remotely interesting with your blog, set aside the weekend.

(n.b. the change is really done in two stages, one to shift everything over, the second to update the template. It's the template change that can take a while if you like a custom template)

Also put some shiny new pictures from around Auckland to liven things up a bit in the header. Ooooh...

And to give credit where it's due (esp if you're after the funky drop down label box), here is the copyright & credit notice from the HEAD section of the blog template.

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urbancast.blogspot.com (c) 2006

Images & text (c) 2006

Template based on Minima by Douglas Bowman (www.stopdesign.com) 26 Feb 04, updated by Blogger team and modified by urbancast with (hacked) labels hack from hackosphere.blogspot.com
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wage inflation

After calling for employers to exercise moderation in giving wage and salary increases, the Reserve Bank's wage bill has grown by 18% in the last year. The Herald points out that the rise

takes into account a rise in staff numbers to 223 full-time equivalents from 218 in 2004/5, it still represents a 15.4 per cent average rise in remuneration per employee to $96,860 from $83,944.

Which, compared to the NZ Income Survey is well above the 4% pay rise given to the average worker this year. In real terms, the average wage is only just keeping in line with inflation, the CPI for the year to June 06 was 4%.

That the RBNZ isn't keeping inflating between 1-3% - missing it's targets - clearly doesn't have any relation to how the reward their staff. It demonstrates that workers at the top end of the wage spectrum are treated spectacularly differently from those at the bottom. As the RBNZ forks out 15% extra for their staff without blinking, those wanting just over half that are punished for daring to suggest it.

Interesting to note also, from the Income Survey that while females still lag behind their men on average incomes ($473 for women vs $754 for men av p/w), they are closing the gap faster than they have for many years (up 7.1% for women vs 2.1% for men). Let's hope it's even closer next year.