Posts by Kumara Republic

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  • Hard News: Some things I've been meaning…,

    www.righttosmack.co.nz/smackathon.html

    The current record of 455 children was set in 1987 at Disneyland, California during a church group visit, when the park was closed early due to a sewerage leak.

    Can we arrange for some sewage to be leaked at parliament when this lot arrive?

    Some of these might help. :) NSFW.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • OnPoint: AIA and Maori Seats,

    Stop Press: CPP's bid for AIA has been given the heave-ho. The reasons being are on the DomPost website.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Speaking freely,

    And the windows media one plays the ad at the beginning, but not the actual clips. Flash one seems to work better.

    I had the same issue last night. The first episode played in Media Player Classic just fine, so I suspect it's the 2nd episode may have some encoding issues.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: The Audacity of Hype: John Key…,

    Tom S:

    I see him very much as the prisoner of a media and business elite that is curiously out of step with New Zealand in 2008 and seem stuck in the last century. The ideological isolation of our business and financial elites from the mainstream realities of the consequences of Rogernomics is reflected in their mouthpieces in the media, who seem more concerned that the neo-liberal reforms of the 1980's and 1990's be defended at all costs than they are to discuss the future of New Zealand.

    Local loop unbundling, to take one example. Nearly this time 2 years ago the DomPost dubbed it a "nuclear strike" on Telecom. It wasn't so much an nuclear strike on Telecom itself, but rather a nuclear strike on the dogma of the "media and business elite". Telecom is more like the flagship nuclear-armed submarine of the said elite, boarded and commandeered by an allied force, and its warheads used against its original masters.

    And now the elite is smarting not just from the loss of its flagship, but also from their ideologies being rendered a politico-economic Maralinga. Just like General Tojo when he appeared before the Far East Military Tribunal in 1946 - both in denial of the undeniable.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • OnPoint: Dear Peter Brown: *Hug*,

    In regards to integration issues, the problem isn't the quantity of immigrants. In places like Hawaii and San Fran, Asians have a very large presence and are part of the furniture. Rather, we were late to the party, only adopting the current points system framework in the late 1980s. In a way we've had to pressure-cook our way from bi-culturalism to multi-culturalism, whereas North America & Australia had the luxury of waiting a generation or more for the immigrants to blend in. Furthermore, up until recently we've taken a "you're on your own, sunshine" policy towards integration.

    On the flipside, Mark Broatch wrote in the Sunday Star Times last year:

    On this side of the ditch we heard endlessly about Australia's multiculturalism during the 80s and 90s - well, where is it? Don't tell me to go to Cabramatta for the Vietnamese food or Fairfield for the South American vibe - that's 32km from the CBD. That's the length of the Routeburn Track. If you were in Auckland city, your favourite Asian dish would be in Papakura. Almost everyone's a shade of white bread, lightly toasted. The old immigrants, from Athens and Rome, have retired and their children gone professional and merged into Middle Australia. We need the SBS channel more than they do.

    SBS - now I want that on FreeView. And Broatch continues:

    Some of my best friends are Australians. No, not really. I wish I knew more. But whereas New Zealanders seem to aspire to a kind of classless middle-classdom, a lot of Australians seem to revel in being plain speaking, proudly working class, leather- skinned, fagged Ockers. The women in the designer shops, of course, are impossibly petite and impeccably made-up. And this entire continent is obsessed with sport in a way we can hardly imagine. Despite the gay life, too, there's a conservative streak a mile wide. Imagine this headline in this country: "No more sit-down money for blacks". New Zealanders, for all their faults, tend to be much more like the Dutch of the Pacific - live and let live. Oh, and a word to those loveable larrikins - you're not funny and you're not clever.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Episode One,

    Fortunately (?) I had a copy of IE around, so I can see it there. But why the hell does TVNZ hate firefox?

    I had no issues with Firefox, it ran normally. For the record, I'm using the latest version (2.0.0.13).

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Ya rly,

    In addition to my post above, I'm going to re-work a famous Ronnie Reagan quote:

    "A laissez-faireist reads Adam Smith. A non-laissez-faireist understands Adam Smith."

    In particular, these little gems from Smith's The Wealth of Nations:

    Monopoly...is a great enemy to good management. (Book I Chapter XI Part I)

    The monopolists, by keeping the market constantly understocked, by never fully supplying the effectual demand, sell their commo-dities much above the natural price. (Book I, Chapter VII)

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Ya rly,

    Does Mr Sheppard seriously think that broadband is something that keeps his pants from falling down? I'll give him credit for helping to extract the $27m out-of-court settlement from Fay Richwhite, but he really should save his energy for recovering the remaining $240 million-plus from them.

    The best, if not the only, alternative to unbundling would have been to take the cargo cult approach, wait for a white knight to write a $5 billion cheque, and watch fibre-optic wires magically plant themselves in the ground. Competitors like TelstraClear tried hard but threw in the towel.

    I wonder how familiar Mr Sheppard is with anti-trust law, particularly the DOJ VS Ma Bell lawsuit that sued the monopoly out of existence?
    The impact on Telecom shareholders' value is a given, but it's short-term pain for long-term gain.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: New on the Street,

    I think National's official line is reflected in Maurice's intial reaction - if it overrides property rights to unbundle it would be equally messing with susequent property rights to re-bundle. I'm not sure how that works in terms of the philosophy of property rights, but the upshot is they've said they won't reverse anything (including Ferraris?). Not caring is of course a different issue.

    The only MPs to vote against unbundling were ACT's Rodney Hide & Heather Roy. I'd be interested to find out if they, and all the other remaining anti's, would force Orcon & Vodafone etc to remove their equipment from Telecom's exchanges if they were in charge.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Slumpy Cashflow,

    There's a lot more to the housing affordability issue than just bureaucracy. Too much bureaucracy can be counter-productive, but on the other extreme we've had the leaky homes debacle and Cave Creek. Cut red tape where possible, but not if the end result is an American-style litigation industry.

    Complicating things even more is Joe & Jane Kiwi's addiction to property for investment income, thanks in no small part to Fay Richwhite and their hangers-on destroying public faith in the sharemarket. And before anyone mentions unbundling, Telecom didn't earn its way to monopoly status.

    And what's been glaringly overlooked in the housing debate is infill and high-density living. There are no shortage of lessons to be learnt from the low-grade shoeboxes blighting downtown Auckland (and the tower blocks of 1960s Britain). But not all of us want to live in a pseudo-lifestyle block, myself included. All the more so if or when petrol prices breach post-Khomeini levels.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

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