Posts by A C Young
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Speaker: A Disorderly Brexit, in reply to Sacha,
The Telegraph article which Sacha posted adds weight to my own relatively uninformed hunch, which is that the UK is about to get completely reamed in trade negotiations (the fact that officials were not allowed to devise written plans for dealing with the brexit is appalling from the point of view of efficient governance).
Obama has said they go to the back of the queue, the rest of the commonwealth is going to be happy to deal but will not drop previously agreed trade deals and China will twist arms since they have the leverage.
How well are the xenophobes going to react when bankrupt UK farmers (having lost 3 billion in subsidies and the European market) start selling their land off to Chinese companies?
To me it looks like economic and trade planning post-brexit is on the level of the underpants gnomes from South Park.
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Up Front: Reading Murder Books, in reply to Emma Hart,
Regarding Bridge of Birds, the forgotten classics podcast recorded all of bridge of birds as hourlong pod casts starting here:
http://hcforgottenclassics.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/episode-168-bridge-of-birds-ch-1-3.html
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Kerry Greenwood for good wry mysteries (I enjoy reading her Corinna Chapman novels more than Phryne Fisher although I love the TV series).
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis is technically a time travel comedy but there's some decent stuff in there involving classic mysteries.
I also find J D Robb books really soothing for some reason.
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Connie Wilis is fantastic in her lighter moments (To say nothing of the dog for example ).
Tanya Huff writes good solid space opera (and even manages to write space elves in such a way as to not put me off the book).
Margaret Mahy was a genius.
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Polity: House-buying patterns in Auckland, in reply to BenWilson,
"Or even simpler, just make the cost of housing part of the basket of goods in the inflation calculation"
Actually I believe that it is:
http://www.stats.govt.nz/tools_and_services/newsletters/price-index-news/Apr%20-14/purchase-of-housing-and-rentals-in-the-cpi.aspxAccording to that page, building a new house or renting an existing one are both part of the basket.
What is not part of the basket is the cost of the land itself.
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I definitely don't support banning books or even getting rid of them.
I do wonder about books with misinformation which could damage people.
I am thinking here about the recent flap in Australia about the paleo children's cookbook which, if the nutritional advice is followed, could potentially cause well-meaning parents to do serious damage to infants.
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Legal Beagle: The Northland by-election;…, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Looks like you have your change =)
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Well you can't say they aren't efficient...now they're generating scandals before the judges even show up to work:
*sigh*
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Hard News: Show some decency, in reply to Chris Waugh,
an we avoid that word, please? It's caused enough trouble already this election. First time round I found it very hard to believe that anybody would not have known it's an anti-semitic slur, it caused enough fuss back then I don't see how anybody has any excuse to be using it now.
According to wikipedia at least, it's probably not anti-semitic in origin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShysterIt is close enough to genuinely anti-semitic slurs that it is probably not a good idea to use ( like niggardly).
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Hard News: Show some decency, in reply to tussock,
Cambell Live running stories about the dairy boom? Sell the farm. Wall-to-wall adds for great returns on investment? Divest. Waiter at lunch chatting about the stock market? Sell your stocks. Newspaper article about a company's bright future? It will crash.
This is part of the reason I have not been particularly keen to get into the housing market for the last 3 years.