Hard News: The back of a bloody envelope
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3410,
Eden Park is bigger than a rugby field
Perhaps as much as 8-10x bigger, including all grounds. Certainly nowhere near 121x bigger (and that's being generous - I'm sure most people would hear the phase "size of Eden Park" as describing the playing field).
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Maybe he's an advocate of really, really large postcards?
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Maybe he's an advocate of really, really large postcards?
I believe I heard him on Morning Report today, dismissing the criticism about his misleading example by saying "well, now we're just arguing over what's a postcard".
To which all I can say is: if I can hide underneath it, it's not a postcard.
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So, how long before somebody goes and digs a hole in the middle of Eden Park to show Mr Brownlee exactly how big that postcard would have to be.
Don't all rush. -
Maybe he meant this one?
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his official portrait (small size for humble families) that hung above my Nanna's pin-cushion
I doubt we'll ever have another leader whose photo graces most homesThe John Key Pin Cushion might be a goer...
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Thats not going to have all that big of an effect on our 'brand' ...
New Zealand 100% Puree
we chewed it up and spat it out...
(Puerile?)
or
New Zealand - it's the pits!
or
New Zealand - the dream is over
(now the nightmare begins...) -
Or, in answer to Lara Bingle's 'Where the bloody hell are ya?'
New Zealand. 'We're in here.'
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if I can hide underneath it, it's not a postcard
Heh.
No doubt Brownlee is sincere in his belief that mining is an ideal way to improve the country's economic wellbeing. Wrong, but genuine.
Labour MP David Shearer decries the poverty of vision.
Sadly, it’s more clutching at straws, trying to emulate Australia which we’re trying to catch. It’s ad hoc, quick fix, get rich quick. It’s short termism, shows a real lack of imagination, an absence of anything strategic, forward thinking or sustainable.
What we are not seeing is that Australia is not content to rely on its minerals. It’s investing in science – upping its investment by 25%. It’s giving breaks to innovative companies. Finland, Denmark, Singapore are all doing similarly.
NZ will not become prosperous overnight. It needs long term thinking, a commitment to capitalising on our brains and building innovation into our economy through our brightest companies. We need to be clean, green and clever.
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What ANZ can do rather well is creativity - whether it be in film, other arts, or writing.
There has been NO substantial investment in working writers (my field, tho' I am a pictorial artist also) - despite the loud noises made by the Clark governments (hey! I'm a Labour supporter) since 2001.
I was truly fascinated by one of my publishers explainations as to why I had earned rather less than ten percent royalities of a book of mine - despite the fact I had 10% royalties...
You want the country to fly? Make sure artists have
a)enough to live on (I've advocated a minimum working wage for any *proven* & committed fulltime artist)-you earn more than that, you pay full tax rate:b)No punitive taxes if we strike a jackpot (I still resent the 66% tax gouged out of my royalties when they were at their highest;) and
c)make sure our earnings are portable/transferable/ungougable- I am currently fighting a wee battle as reguards earnings overseas & and an automatic assumption that I will permit ALCS to use my UK-published works in an e-book scheme. NOTE: to all ANZ writers - CLL is trying on exactly the same thing.
They will continue building their bureaucratic empires, and we will have the bitter scraps...
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New Zealand - A hole lot of fun.
But back to the second part of the post re Obamahealth.What staggers me about the insurance business is that it is utterly utterly one of the most pefect socialist inventions ever. What is it? A group of people pooling a fee to protect the group on the off chance one or two of them have a catastrophe.
And who runs these things? Once organised and run by co-ops (with absolute minimal fees 'cos there were few members) it was - surprise - taken over by the capitalists and by adding a "small" clipping fee, could churn more profits from the masses.
Sigh.
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Labour MP David Shearer decries the poverty of vision.
Maybe Mr Shearer would like to STFU given the way his party strangled science funding and channelled what little money we put into research into end stage development using other peoples discoveries instead of discovering new things for ourselves. Labour's handling of science during it's term was atrocious.
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What staggers me about the insurance business is that it is utterly utterly one of the most pefect socialist inventions ever.
You've been reading Roger Douglas' book of speeches again!
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Forget Rodger Douglas... It's getting more like Douglas Adams what with those Vogons in the House.
I appears that we don't have the brightest wildlife either.
Douglas Adams on the Kakapo -
You've been reading Roger Douglas' book of speeches again!
Whenever the concept of Insurance originated, it is fairly clear to me that probably on the first day, if not the first few minutes, someone thought; 'Shit, we're gonna get filthy rich out of scaring people half to death. Where's that surgeon friend of mine. He'll want to invest.'
Don't worry, according to recent reports my cynicism will drive me to an early grave. Ha, who's laughing now? No more insurance money from me!
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Whenever the concept of Insurance originated, it is fairly clear to me that probably on the first day, if not the first few minutes, someone thought; 'Shit, we're gonna get filthy rich out of scaring people half to death. Where's that surgeon friend of mine. He'll want to invest.'
Actually co-operative insurance and mutual aid societies go back at least to the middle ages where medieval guilds organised them. So I think your instincts are quite wrong there. For-profit insurance is a fairly recent invention and even now, some co-operatives are still going strong.
Co-operative self-help organisations are one of the classic examples socialists and anarchists use to illustrate how voluntary organisations of workers can create powerful, useful systems without the need for capitalist institutions.
(Why yes, I was reading Colin Ward in bed last night.)
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Co-operative self-help organisations are one of the classic examples socialists and anarchists use to illustrate how voluntary organisations of workers can create powerful, useful systems without the need for capitalist institutions.
Well that's one rose-tinted way of looking at it. In the case of medical insurance the "co-ops" have tended to be instigated by members of the medical profession to effectively create a private market for their services in the face of otherwise becoming public servants in the public health system.
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@Stephen - yes I agree. The protection of the group was first, the profiteering came after.
the case of medical insurance the "co-ops" have tended to be instigated by members of the medical profession
Maybe we should organise an "insurance" system where "patients" pick the Docs rather than the Docs pick the patients? If i was in it, I would ensure evidence based medicine was only funded.
Keep homeopathy out well of it. Oh...and osteopaths
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For-profit insurance is a fairly recent invention and even now, some co-operatives are still going strong.
Fonterra?
Yes, you make many valid points. But I was thinking of the 'for-profit' insurance sector, which seems like another form of wholly corruptible usury.Seems I'm not alone in seeing Insurance in this way, but I might now be on some watch-list for reading it.
The person quoted says;
As an alternative to health insurance, Dr. Alam suggests Takaful, “…the concept of social solidarity, cooperation and mutual indemnification of losses of members. It is a promise among a group of persons who agree to jointly indemnify the loss or damage that may inflict upon any of them, out of the fund they donate collectively. The Takaful contract so agreed usually involves the concepts of Mudarabah, Tabarru' (to donate for benefit of others) and mutual sharing of losses with the overall objective of eliminating the element of uncertainty.”
Interesting.
Well that's one rose-tinted way of looking at it. In the case of medical insurance the "co-ops" have tended to be instigated by members of the medical profession to effectively create a private market for their services in the face of otherwise becoming public servants in the public health system.
Yes. This is what I was thinking about.
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In the case of medical insurance the "co-ops" have tended to be instigated by members of the medical profession to effectively create a private market for their services in the face of otherwise becoming public servants in the public health system.
That postdates what Stephen was talking about by some time. I thought early insurance was more to do with trade - a guild would collectively put in money so if one of their number got robbed or something, they would receive support. A couple of hundred years before the idea of insuring your health came about.
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Y'all may be interested. I did an OIA request to ACC and asked them what they have funded on CAM treatment over the last 5 years. ACC have 14 types of treatment providers which include, medical practitioners, physios, medical lab technicians, accupuncturists (!), chirpractors (!) and osteopaths(!).....my definition of CAM included those last 3 which is what they gave me.
These are from 2004/05 to 08/09/
Accupuncture has gone up from $5.4m to $15.7m
Chiropractors from $8m to $13.2m
Osteopaths from $6.7m to $10.9m.I would have to say these are quite significant amounts.
The total for those 3 has gone from $20.1m to $39.8m.
Gosh. You can get a lot of real "medicine" for that price. Like lots and lots of hearing aids, hip replacements, more preventative education etc etc.
In my next life I am going to "learn" how to wield and be a real prick. I could retire at 45.
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Glenn: that's almost 100% reversed from the truth. In fact the NHS in Britain was inspired by such societies, eg the Tredegar Medical Aid Society.
I know that Southern Cross in NZ was not such a lovely worker-led thing, but the 1930s are recent history as far as mutual aid groups go.
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Glenn: that's almost 100% reversed from the truth. In fact the NHS in Britain was inspired by such societies, eg the Tredegar Medical Aid Society.
BUPA was more what I had in mind rather than the NHS itself.
But yes, I guess I was thinking of more recent local history
http://www.southerncross.co.nz/about-the-group/southern-cross-group/early-history.aspx
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Maybe we should organise an "insurance" system where "patients" pick the Docs rather than the Docs pick the patients?
I think in our system it's more the Docs pick the Docs isn't it ?
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I appears that we don't have the brightest wildlife either.
Douglas Adams on the KakapoOr watch the man :) (probably want to click on over to youtube & watch/listen to this there)
[paste'n'pray]
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