Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Dead Elephant Frenzy

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  • Sacha,

    My kids are gutted, by the way.

    So is my inner child, you cynical bunch. Kashin was like a family pet - just marketed to and shared by many, many families. But very good at building affectionate relationships spanning years, in any case. I was touched that they closed the zoo for a day so the keepers could do their grieving.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Michael Stevens,

    Yes, she was put down, but she definitely died. To say anything dies does not suggest agency automatically.

    I just dislike euphemisms such as this. An increasing number of real estate agents now talk about "powder rooms" instead of toilets in their ads.

    It's a style of language I find distasteful.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 230 posts Report Reply

  • Glenn Pearce,

    Anyone else think the photo in the Herald last week of Kashin being craned into her final resting place was a little unnecessary ?

    My kids were a bit disturbed by it when they were looking through the paper looking for 'news' to take to school.

    Auckland • Since Feb 2007 • 504 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Different outfit -- Bob's Family First.

    I stand corrected -- they all melt together into a bit ear-waxy ball of useless.

    But I am interested in where he gets his money from and how it's spent.

    So am I, but I'd rather the Herald on Sunday put a little more time and effort into fact-checking the porkie pies of Messers McCoskrie and Baldock. As I said on PAR this week, the media should be ashamed of the outright bullshit they allowed to pass unchallenged. Guess that's what happens when you outsource your subediting and make PR an attractive option for everyone else.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • LegBreak,

    So was Kashin the People's Elephant?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1162 posts Report Reply

  • mark taslov,

    I'd love to know how the referendum $9m was spent.

    Te Ika-a-Māui • Since Mar 2008 • 2281 posts Report Reply

  • Jackie Clark,

    I'd rather get a text or an email or a tweet or a Facebook message. Anything but voicemail.

    I removed voicemail from my phone service ages ago. And we don't have an answerphone either. I figure that there are thousands of ways for people to stay in touch - remove one, and what difference does it make?

    Mt Eden, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 3136 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    Not so much as a dead elephant but a threatened kiwi! Some of you might not know that there is a Centre for New Zealand Studies at the University of London (Birkbeck College), which has been funded by a combination of NZ and the UK government. It was largely the inspiration of Ian Conrich (a great friend of New Zealand) and has been remarkably successful--showing NZ films, hosting talks by NZ film-makers and literary types (such as C.K. Stead), running international conferences on NZ Studies, building a huge resource of historic material, starting up PhDs etc etc.

    Anyhow, for some inexplicable reason, Birkbeck are planning to close it down. You can sign a petition about this very foolish move, at www.lobbyingforum.com

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Tony Siu,

    So you spent $59 on having new features such as "Easy PDF text selection", "Faster startup and shutdown" and "Finder's icons can now be as large as 512 by 512 pixels". Finally, Mac OS X now has system-wide, user-definable text substitution—see the Text tab of Language & Text in System Preferences. And yes Redmond, that is the Find and Replace feature in your copy of Word since it appeared in Office during the Windows v3.1 days.

    Yes, it is a service pack by definition.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 82 posts Report Reply

  • JackElder,

    Six months ago, I realised that I didn't know how to check the voicemail on our home phone. My thoughts were, if it's important, they'll call my mobile. So we've been paying for technology I don't know how to use.

    My god, I thought. I am turning into my parents.

    Wellington • Since Mar 2008 • 709 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    I removed voicemail from my phone service ages ago.

    Both my work and personal phone messages are: "I'm not here, don't leave a message, I won't check it. Text or email me instead for an immediate response"

    In the first week I got four messages, all of which said "What an odd message..." Since then it's died away

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Phil Lyth,

    I'd love to know how the referendum $9m was spent.

    I asked the Chief Electoral Office under the OIA and on 13 July got this (RB, can I add a PDF of the reply?) in round fgures

    Printing and delivery of ballot papers (outward) $1.8M
    * Budgeted postage for return of ballots $1.0M
    * Processing of returned ballots $2.7M
    Leaflet mail drop $267K
    TV/radio promotion - $518K for Electoral Enrolment Centre, $233K for Chief Electoral Office
    Online media promotion - EEC $151K, CEO $47K
    'Other' EEC $727K, CEO $1.3M (obviously I didn't ask the right questions to dig into these amounts.

    * they estimated an 80% response rate for budgetting, so the 56% actual response rate suggests they would have spent $1M or so under budget.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2009 • 458 posts Report Reply

  • ChrisW,

    An increasing number of real estate agents now talk about "powder rooms" instead of toilets in their ads.

    How strange - that's the last room I'd think of confronted by that name, "keeping one's powder dry" and all that. Or might it refer to the explosive power of the powder, nicely connecting back to the traditional "thunder box"?

    Gisborne • Since Apr 2009 • 851 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I asked the Chief Electoral Office under the OIA and on 13 July got this (RB, can I add a PDF of the reply?)

    If you email it to me I can upload it.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Fish,

    I (& my wife) have mobiles on contract with Vodaphone, but they still charge a per call fee to check my voicemail! So we don't use.

    My wife had her first day as a 'paid' zookeeper at Auk Zoo on saturday, fortunately she got out of having to go in on sunday! I cycled over with 10yr old son to visit (on Sat), and we got to meet the kaka's, the male loves sitting on your shoulder and nuzzling under your ear while preaning himself, but his partner has a habit of latching on to any part of your body that is accessable with her beak and seeing how long you can bear the pain!

    I don't really consider myself a zoo person (apart from the fact my wife works there, and she is trying to turn me) but I grew up with Kashin. She arrived when I was a kid, I still remember the competition to name her. She has been unwell for some time, and I believe some of the NZ news agencies have had her obituary prepared for some time (NZ's answer to the Queen Mother rather than the Peoples Princess?)

    The zoo was free on Sunday, a saving of $54 for a family of 4 like ours, so along with the emotional attachment many Aucklanders felt towards Kashin it is not surprising there were so many visitors.
    Celebrations like this are what makes for a diverse city!

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 19 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Fish,

    An increasing number of real estate agents now talk about "powder rooms" instead of toilets in their ads.

    I think it is as in 'powder your nose'

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 19 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Rowe,

    How strange - that's the last room I'd think of confronted by that name, "keeping one's powder dry" and all that. Or might it refer to the explosive power of the powder, nicely connecting back to the traditional "thunder box"?

    Don't you guys have a magazine in your house? How on earth do you keep your canon primed?

    (or do you just go to the neighbours and ask to borrow a cup of gunpowder?)

    Lake Roxburgh, Central Ot… • Since Nov 2006 • 574 posts Report Reply

  • Julian Melville,

    Go the Wot Wots!

    Oh, hell yes. A kids show I can watch without being overcome with an urge to scratch my eyes out. Great stuff.

    Auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 200 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    So you spent $59

    $20 per licence, if you want to look at it that way. And that's the whole operating system, not some arbitrarily crippled "home" edition. How many hundred $ do you reckon the Windows 7 bug fix will set you back?

    on having new features such as "Easy PDF text selection", "Faster startup and shutdown" and "Finder's icons can now be as large as 512 by 512 pixels".

    I thinking more of a fully re-written Cocoa-native 64-bit Finder, and code optimisation that leaves me with more than 10GB of extra disk space after installation. That and Open CL and Grand Central Dispatch, both important core technologies, an entirely new (if incomplete for my purposes) media layer, new APIs everywhere, etc ... it's smaller and faster, basically. I am frankly delighted that Apple did so much under the hood rather than piling in features I didn't need.

    Finally, Mac OS X now has system-wide, user-definable text substitution—see the Text tab of Language & Text in System Preferences. And yes Redmond, that is the Find and Replace feature in your copy of Word since it appeared in Office during the Windows v3.1 days.

    I see you're right. It now has the same annoying features I'm still turning off in my new installation of Office ;-)

    Yes, it is a service pack by definition.

    Enjoy that new "fade-in highlight effect" on your Start menu, dude ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Michael Stevens,

    Legbreak - I think she was "The People's Pachyderm"

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 230 posts Report Reply

  • ChrisW,

    Don't you guys have a magazine in your house?

    Yes, "Library" was once an honest euphemism for toilet too, in honour of the magazine rack therein. Best Americanism - "where's the euphemism?"

    Gisborne • Since Apr 2009 • 851 posts Report Reply

  • Don Christie,

    At Least Family First have removed any doubt about using the term "child beaters" when talking about their goals.

    "Should a damn good thrashing, as part of good ...."

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/national/2814572/Violence-blamed-on-removal-of-corporal-punishment

    Really, if this is not advocating for child beating I don't know what is.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1645 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    Yes, it is a service pack by definition.

    Enjoy that new "fade-in highlight effect" on your Start menu, dude ...

    Though to be fair Tony's not the only one calling it a service pack. (and I edit to point out that I don't care either way, but that I had read the linked to article yesterday)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • David Cormack,

    Am I the only person who is slightly more worried about Bob McCoskrie's functional innumeracy (or his Tourette-like compulsion to make shit up) than where Focus on the Family gets its money from?

    Quelle horreur, nutty fundy groups get money from richer nutty fundy groups

    Suburbia, Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 218 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Though to be fair Tony's not the only one calling it a service pack. (and I edit to point out that I don't care either way, but that I had read the linked to article yesterday)

    There's some good debate about that in the comments below the article. For me, the broad and significant changes under the hood are more compelling than some extra shiny new visual features.

    But the clincher has to be that it can't be a service pack because Mac OS doesn't have "service packs" ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

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