Posts by Rich of Observationz
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Prior to Taliban rule, women accounted for as many as 70 percent of teachers, and approximately 50 percent of civil servants.
Would that have been under the Soviet-backed government?
They achieved that by killing around 1.5 million (presumably mostly male) Afghans over 10 years, which makes a paltry few thousand seem positively beneficient.
The Afghan men aren't going to accept liberal democracy without being forced into it with a degree of violence that we'd never stomach. All we're battling for is to replace a crazy nutjob theocracy with a mildly nutty theocracy. One that gives women a fair trial before stoning them to death, I suppose.
I work on a simple principle: as an elector in a nominally democratic society, the actions of government servants, such as troops and policy are my moral responsibility. The actions of others, such as the Taliban, are not. The world is a nasty place, and the best countries like NZ (or the US for that matter) can do, is not make it any nastier.
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ready to become operational
How 'operational' can those guys be? I mean, it must be hard to be an undercover spook in a place where everyone knows everyone else. I know SIS types aren't supposed to say where they work, but that's a dead giveaway in itself. If they claim to work for any other department, it'll be a bit obvious that they don't work with Bill who really works there.
Like undercover cops - how do they not get rumbled as being the bloke who was at school with Fred, and then joined the police?
I reckon the SIS are like business consultants only even less useful - they spend their days writing reports based on "secret information" that actually amounts to gossip, fabrication and pure fantasy.
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Actually, the raw material cost of a phone is a few dollars in sand, metals and hydrocarbons. Everything else is labour, design and overheads, albeit at the component level.
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Apple invented it's own plastic
That's nothing. I've heard that Cupertino boffins are working on a new element, Jobsium, that will be exclusively used in new Apple product. A half-life in the nanoseconds is causing some issues, but the legal team is confident they can sort it with a warranty clause.
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I suspect the next big whinge is going to be as manufacturers, hit by OLED unavailability, swap to a new LCD screen tech. Apparently about to happen with some HTC kit.
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Not gloating or anything, but Androids got substantially faster with Froyo and a better Java VM.
Then again, they filter updates so a device will at some stage stop being updated due to hardware support.
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Shiny things wouldn't be much more expensive under a better system of economic organisation. Sure, the price would have to include the cost of fair wages for workers and environmental protection, but it wouldn't include the CEO's private jets or the shareholders BMWs.
Western companies mostly manufacture in dodgy jurisdictions to squeeze a bit of extra margin out - it isn't essential to the viability of the product.
I personally do buy gadgets when I reckon the use/interest outweighs the cost. I'd favour buying units built in a sustainable, labour-friendly way, but that's hard to do. (Though you can do stuff like getting a local tech to rebuild you a machine around existing case and power supply).
I'd just suggest that when lauding the next new new thing, one should consider the whole picture.
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Any kit going into the EU (which means anything being made, as it isn't worth having separate designs) has to be ROHS compliant, which limits the amount of nasties in the product.
However, making electronics uses a bunch of nasty process chemicals which are fine if contained and controlled (like most things). The trouble is that it's cheaper to make shiny stuff in corrupt dictatorial states, where there is little restraint on how much manufacturers pollute.
It's kinda like the difference between being next door to Novartis, or a Mongrel Mob crack lab.
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I bet nothing like 12, 000 people
(310 m/854 k = 363 . 4 .37m/363 = 12, 072 ) in NZ
have TS clearancesYes, but those that do include Paula Bennett, Murray McCully and Gerry Brownlee.
Seriously though, are MPs really vetted and "cleared"? We have a right to elect who we want - even if they're a secret Taliban.
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Sure, in the olden days (circa 1980), your 19" Ferguson had toxic stuff in it. But it was made in a union shop in a more or less democratic, developed state, where any hazards people knew about could be mitigated. Also, it was repairable and good for maybe 15 years before being dumped, not 18 months as for today's joy.