Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: What I'd really like to know

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  • Kyle Matthews,

    My guess, and I’m a plant developmental biologist, is that if we can figure out how plants grow that will open up areas of tremendous value to NZ and humankind as a whole.

    That's not a question that's already answered in my Yates NZ Gardens book?

    And we haven't had a decent student riot in years :(

    We had a fairly exciting one down here last year. Bloody Canterbury students and their crappy cars and alcohol. If you can't have a proper riot, why bother?

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Idiot Savant,

    (Though I'd like to see this advisory issued: Do not go to a toga party commando style. Especially if your self-esteem is going to suffer when a wardrobe malfunction results in pointing and hysterical laughter.)

    That, and it's anachronistic. The romans had invented underwear, you know (they'd even invented leather bikinis for women at the gym).

    Palmerston North • Since Nov 2006 • 1717 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    Thanks Bart -- you probably knew I was angling for yourinput when I asked those questions. I appreciate your knowledge and your frankness.

    Can't muster much more in the way of a response right now. Too busy playing with my just-in-the-country-and-not-quite-ready-for-your-Mum to-use Freeview PVR (a Topfield).

    The thing I'm most interested in is getting files off the thing (something you can't do with the MySky), but I can't do that until I can download an application and driver, and I can't do that until I can get the PVR to talk to my router ...

    Damn, it's hot behind the entertainment rack. Will blog in the morning ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Damn, it's hot behind the entertainment rack. Will blog in the morning ...

    Sounds like something Mr Spitzer woudl say.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    And at the risk of being a tad bitchy, why is it that local body politicians who live in the ugliest houses are always so eager to lecture everyone else on good taste? (Don't worry, I'm not going to post pictures but I sure hope he's no longer living in the wodge of Maini Vice lego he used to occupy. Wasn't even so tacky it reached the level of perverse cool.)

    LOL! I knew I could get a bit of help there . Thanks Craig. What if there is a teddy bear, but we just cant find it?

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report

  • Andy Milne,

    "So, yes, I think a bit of B&W about the weather isn't totally out of order from people whose livelihoods are intimately connected with it."

    Maybe they could sacrifice a goat too while they're at it?

    Weather happens, and it's no good bitching and whining about it. And if they prepared properly for the inevitable bad weather (definition may vary depending on specific industry), maybe they wouldn't need to bitch and whine so much?

    Bollocks. I/S how happy do you think you would feel if your salary was cut in half simply because it didn't rain for four months? Nothing to do with your job performance, or market conditions, but simply too much sunshine? You can prattle on all you like about "preparation", but what would this look like exactly do you think? The fact is that most preparation is simply about reducing stock numbers and hanging on for dear life. Telling farmers to be better prepared is as ignorant as it is condescending.

    Lets have a little more Savant, please, and a little less Idiot.

    Christchurch • Since Aug 2007 • 59 posts Report

  • Andy Milne,

    ugh. Just noticed I used the word "simply" three times in that post. Ugly stuff.

    Nurse! need a subeditor here, stat! Or a thesaurus, at the very least.

    Christchurch • Since Aug 2007 • 59 posts Report

  • Emma Hart,

    I/S how happy do you think you would feel if your salary was cut in half simply because it didn't rain for four months? Nothing to do with your job performance, or market conditions, but simply too much sunshine?

    Depends. Did you just start up a dairy farm in a region famous for it never raining?

    For the record, I'm also an unsympathetic bitch when it comes to people who keep rebuilding their houses on that nice flat bit of land next to the river and bitching when it floods.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

  • Andy Milne,

    Did you just start up a dairy farm in a region famous for it never raining?

    Oh, you mean like Waikato, where it hasn't rained this summer either?

    Sometimes, shit just happens. Maybe they should just suck it up and get over it, but I don't think its completely unreasonable for farmers to feel a little unhappy when extreme weather events impact on their livelihoods.

    Christchurch • Since Aug 2007 • 59 posts Report

  • Bart Janssen,

    Hi Kyle

    That's not a question that's already answered in my Yates NZ Gardens book?

    Lovely book isn't it. It answers the question of "how to grow plants?". How plants grow is a much more interesting question :). What happens inside the plant when you shade it with another plant? Exactly what changes occur when your parsley stops producing yummy leaves and instead produces useless seeds?

    Find the answers to those questions and maybe you can do something exciting and valuable that the Yates book never covered:).

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia,

    LOL! I knew I could get a bit of help there . Thanks Craig. What if there is a teddy bear, but we just cant find it?

    If Hiz'Honnor has a soft toy secreted anywhere about his person, I don't want to know. There ain't enough pharmaceuticals in the world to deal with that trauma. :)

    Anyway, for those in search of a mental health break here's some urban minimalism that won't be making the cover of NZ House and Garden in this lifetime.

    But snark aside, if Banks is trying listening to people now and then he deserves every encouragement. I'll just see how he deals with a real tough call, and whether his born-again aestheticism lasts for long.

    Surprise me, John.

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

  • Emma Hart,

    Oh, you mean like Waikato, where it hasn't rained this summer either?

    No, I don't mean the Waikato, I mean Canterbury, but you KNOW that. The Waikato isn't 'famous for it never raining'. I'm not talking about ALL farmers, only the ones I was actually talking about. Not the Waikato, not Southland, which has also been freakishly dry, not the Coast. Perhaps I should have been clearer: I think it is unreasonable to complain when the climate continues to behave exactly the way it always has.

    Nor are all farmers teetering on the edge of having one bad summer force them to sell their children. If my cousins have a bad year, they may have to offload one of their investment properties.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

  • Gareth Ward,

    The 3 pm news said that Key says National will scrap the 700m fund.
    He would use the money to lower taxes apparently.

    Oh man, really? Did he/Teh News actually say the "lower taxes" bit or is that some slightly cheeky presumption?
    Cause if so that's dropped his stock in my books. By quite a bit.


    Is "dropped his stock in my books" a terrible butchering of metaphors?

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    For the record, I'm also an unsympathetic bitch when it comes to people who keep rebuilding their houses on that nice flat bit of land next to the river and bitching when it floods.

    Its also like Americans living in Tornado Alley and"thanking God" and "We're gonna rebuild" as soon as their house is flattened by their annual devastation of their home. Duh!

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report

  • B Jones,

    Exactly what changes occur when your parsley stops producing yummy leaves and instead produces useless seeds?

    Anti-GM be damned, you could make a fortune from frustrated kitchen gardeners if you could invent a perennial parsley or coriander plant. My last-but-one coriander crop got to 2cm high before going to seed.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 976 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    __The 3 pm news said that Key says National will scrap the 700m fund.__

    He would use the money to lower taxes apparently.
    Oh man, really? Did he/Teh News actually say the "lower taxes" bit or is that some slightly cheeky presumption?
    Cause if so that's dropped his stock in my books. By quite a bit.

    The brief Checkpoint report didn't mention the taxes part, so I'll take that as license.

    But he's still insisting, after having seen the official papers that say different, that only the interest on the fund will be available. He's basically holding that black is white. And he is saying that they'll cancel the fund.

    And he has no alternative policy to offer. They've jumped the shark. Really.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Gareth Ward,

    And he has no alternative policy to offer.

    This is partly my confusion - he makes statements like:
    "National will be rolling out a comprehensive research and development policy closer to the election. We will make long-term funding commitments that provide certainty to the sector because we see it as a way of lifting productivity and helping to make New Zealand a smarter nation."
    And then calls this fund a gimmick and says they'll scrap it? So your comprehensive R&D policy doesn't include Govt funds setup to target specific areas of economic potential in NZ then?

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    If people buy the product thinking the of the Shire but then realise Fonterra is in fact Saruman the White this may prove effective

    Could you translate this please?

    Lord of the Rings & NZ as Middle Earth

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report

  • Kracklite,

    The romans had invented underwear

    Not to mention that the toga was the equivalent of a formal tailored suit.

    Though considering what the Governor of New York has been up to lately...

    And he is saying that they'll cancel the fund.

    Bah. More short-termism. Hole. Spade. Dig deeper. Meet subterranean shark. Jump. (Metaphor. Mix.)

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Shep Cheyenne,

    I thought underwear came from India. Certainly Pajamas did.

    Since Oct 2007 • 927 posts Report

  • Jason Dykes,

    I am biased on this issue after a stint as the comms manager for the global FMCG bit of Fonterra a few years ago. I don't want to go into detail ... but to me it's obvious the co-op's owners aren't going to invest in R&D to the level other global companies can. If NZ's biggest company is in this position, why should we expect our smaller organisations to have the resources to consistently out-manoeuver the R&D budgets of giants such as Unilever? Foolishness (and you'd have to be a fool of a Took to cancel the initiative). The $700m is well overdue.

    Expect disagreement from those in the pockets of foreign multinationals.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 76 posts Report

  • Glenn Pearce,

    Bollocks. I/S how happy do you think you would feel if your salary was cut in half simply because it didn't rain for four months? Nothing to do with your job performance, or market conditions, but simply too much sunshine?

    Excuse my ignorance of how this works but my experience, admittedly only as a consumer, is that when an agriculture sector (take your pick which flavour crops, livestock whatever) has a "bad season" due to weather the price to me goes up correspondingly so presumably the farmer's income hasn't "halved" ?

    Isn't weather part of market conditions??

    Auckland • Since Feb 2007 • 504 posts Report

  • Danielle,

    Its also like Americans living in Tornado Alley and"thanking God" and "We're gonna rebuild" as soon as their house is flattened by their annual devastation of their home. Duh!

    And when some enormous part of New Zealand - say, Wellington or Auckland - gets swallowed up by a massive earthquake someday, or buried by an enormous volcanic eruption, I'm sure you'll all have the same charmingly empathetic 'well, you shouldn't have lived there, dumbasses!' response, right? I mean, who would live in a place so geologically unsound? We must all be crazy and stupid and deserve to die, or at least lose our homes!

    People choose where to live for all kinds of reasons, like family or friends or employment or scenery or strong emotional ties to the land - or perhaps they're so poor that they don't have many choices, because all they can afford is a double-wide in a trailer park.

    In other words: meh.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia,

    And he has no alternative policy to offer. They've jumped the shark. Really.

    Hey, at least Key's not dithering and indecisive. [__Insert signifier for simultaneously rolling eyes and shrugging shoulders__.]

    I don't think I'm with him on this, but someone really needs to sit John down and explain a deep truth of life I only began to pick up in psychotherapy after opening a vein:

    There are some people in this work -- hell, a lot of people -- who will shit on you from a great height no matter what you do. You've got to figure out a way to deal and move on, otherwise you're going to do a lot of stupid things while trying to achieve the impossible and worthless.

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

  • Snowy,

    well said Craig

    Wellington • Since Jan 2008 • 62 posts Report

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