http://joannenova.com.au/2010/10/away-til-monday/comment-page-1/#comment-101946

There are formatting functions that enable bolding, block quotes etc.

Much easier to follow, debate, draw out key issues etc.

Health Warning – Hot Topic Troll Alert

http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2010/10/7/victory-for-kiwi-sceptics.html?lastPage=true#comment10108933

My last 2 cents worth

The Law (From Statement of Defence)

„Public record‟ is defined in the PRA as:
“(a) …a record or a class of records, in any form, in whole or in part, created or received (whether before or after the commencement of this Act) by a public office in the conduct of its affairs; and (b) includes—

(i) a record or a class of records declared under section 5(1)(a)(ii) to be a public record for the purposes of this Act; and (ii) estray records; but (c) does not include— (i) a special collection; or (ii) records created by the academic staff or students of a tertiary education institution, unless the records have become part of the records of that institution”

„Special collection‟ is defined in the PRA as:
“(a) … records collected by a public office for purposes such as research or the preservation of records; but (b) does not include public records;”

The Defence

(b) The NZTR is not a record and is not a public record for the purposes of the PRA;

[i.e. NIWA's "out" is that yes the CliFlo "Database" is a Public Record but the NZTR derived from it is not]

The Defence again

(d) The Database is a public record;
(e) It is a controlling public office in respect of the Database; and
5
(f) It is not a controlling public office in respect of the NZTR, 7SS, 11SS or Marine Measurements for the purposes of the PRA.

[The Plaintiff will have to prove that the NZTR is a public record]

[But NIWA inherited custody of the NZTR via heritage asset transfer from the assets of the Meteorological Service of the Ministry of Transport. So is it not a public record even though it is not "Database" or "Special Collection"?]

[It remains that the NZTR is a heritage asset]

From NIWA’s Financial Report 2009

16. Heritage assets

NIWA has one collection and three databases that have been defined as heritage assets. Heritage collection assets are those assets held for the duration of their physical
lives because of their unique scientific importance and databases are maintained as an incidental part of existing business operations.

NIWA has the following heritage assets:

Type Description
Marine Benthic Biology Collection
A national reference collection of marine invertebrates.

National Climate Database
A national electronic database of high quality climate information, including temperatures, rainfall, wind, and other climate elements.

Water Resources Archive Database
A national electronic database of river and lake locations throughout New Zealand, including levels, quality, and flows.

New Zealand Freshwater Fish Database
A national electronic database of the occurrence of fish in the fresh waters of New Zealand,
including major offshore islands.

The nature of these heritage assets, and their significance to the science NIWA undertakes, makes it necessary to disclose them. In the directors’ view the cost of these
heritage assets cannot be assessed with any reliability, and accordingly these assets have not been recognised for reporting purposes

[So CliFlo is a heritage asset of NIWA (the Crown owns NIWA) but is not the NZTR spreadsheet part of "A national electronic database of high quality climate information, including temperatures"? If the NZTR is not "high quality" then why is there a "passing off" of it on NIWA's website. Is this not an economic tort?]

In addition, can’t help noticing this:

13. It denies paragraph 13, and says:
[snip]
(c) There is no material statistical difference between the trend in the 7SS and the global trend;

There should be!

Comparison of Northern Hemisphere / Southern Hemisphere / Tropics (includes global)

http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/GW_NotGlobal.htm