Posts by Kyle Matthews

  • Hard News: Granny for Sale,

    How can they cheat? I'd imagine FIFA want to see birth certificates when they register players.

    What's the bet they don't?

    I know players who have represented NZ at age grade level in other sports, and never been asked for a birth certificate. You register at 5 or 7 or 8 or whatever, and they keep copying the date over.

    There's a tip for parents of young kids - add a 1 to their year of birth when you sign them up for their first sports teams, just in case.

    And there was that gymnast in Beijing that they specifically avoided asking about her age.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Busytown: Trick or treat (Electoween 08),

    Although I did once see a fancy ceremonial helmet in a museum in, I think, Copenhagen which had a decent pair of horns.

    Presumably not a viking - might be a pre-Viking Bronze age helmet. Or Germanic.

    The wings on the helmets was a Celtic thing. Gauls, such as our two cartoon friends, were Celts.

    http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2189/did-vikings-really-wear-horns-on-their-helmets

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Busytown: Trick or treat (Electoween 08),

    Ta! Although sadly nine out of ten people we passed said "Ooh, look at the Vikings," and the other one was invariably a European of some sort...

    Ah. Little known fact about Vikings: Despite the repetitive images, Vikings never had horns on their helmets.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Because They Could,

    I'd be dubious to see it happen, but if he started taking pretty solid GOP states - Georgia, Louisiana, and McCain's own home state, then the Republicans would have to be looking at a shelacking.

    In this day and age, if there were to get well below 200 electoral college votes... that would be an arsekicking.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Legal Beagle: Standing Orders 101,

    Third, it might have changed the result in Tauranga last time; I admit, this is wild speculation, but it's a possibility.

    If a signifcant bunch of people voted for Bob Clarkson as a vote against Winston Peters, the result could have changed. You might have seen those people changing their vote to no confidence.

    The result however would have changed to Winston Peters getting elected. You're advocating a change in the voting system which could have resulted in a result which goes against the current will of the people - which is to have Bob Clarkson as MP over Winston.

    If those people don't want Winston as their MP they are better off voting for another candidate, because that is the vote which will give them that result.

    No confidence isn't about changing the results of elections. It's used as a safeguard in student elections in which there is only one candidate standing, and they're so bad that it would be better to not have the post filled and have a bielection. Even then it doesn't work. No confidence hasn't won an Otago election in over 16 years, across up to 15 positions - it's been put up about 250 times.

    This is not something we have occur in general elections, parties know they'll get stung if they put up complete morons in electorates. It would never win in a general election.

    A No Confidence option would be a safeguard against all the existing parties in parliament putting really evil candidates in your electorate.

    A safeguard against all the parties putting up really evil candidates, is that one (or more) party will go "man, all the other political parties are putting up Satan's little helpers as their candidates. If we put up some really good candidates, we'll get craploads of votes."

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Island Life: Pregnant Calamity,

    He'd probably be getting a bit of media mileage today and putting the boot in to sundry monetarists if he were still around.

    Heh. Thought exercise for the week. If Muldoon were PM today, what would he have done about the financial crisis? Probably froze house prices a decade ago...

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Cracker: All In,

    But touch screens add a whole other layer of potential for fucked-uped-ness, because they have their own software for interpreting where on the screen the user has pressed.

    Only some touch screens do that. Infrared and ultrasound models stay aligned.

    Why counties are using technology that goes out of whack and could make people vote for other people if they're not paying close enough attention...

    Again, paper works quite well for this whole voting thing. The #1 requirement for a voting system is surely 'getting it right'.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Cracker: All In,

    You are sure about that, are you?

    Well, I think the last shoot-em-up game I played was Wolfenstein 3D, and it worked then.

    It's possible that the wondrous advances in computer technology since the 1980s have broken the simple algorithms they used to figure it out. If they can break 'tick the box to vote', anything is possible.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Up Front: The Classics Are Rubbish Too,

    When do we get an edit button, overlords??

    I've come to the conclusion that the PAS edit button is like the Island competition, on The Island which was on TV the other week.

    They dangle in front of us by editing posts as moderators, but it'll never come for us.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Mood and meaning in a time of…,

    And there has been a Maori prime minister - although admittedly not in New Zealand.

    James Carroll was acting Prime Minister in 1909 and 1911.

    Which doesn't sound like much by today's standards, but the PM was traveling around on the world on a boat, so he was our Prime Minister for several months on the trot.

    Also the first Maori MP to be elected by Pakeha voters.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

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