Posts by Kyle Matthews
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Wait, we're exploring the serious issues of a silly paper story on a silly column about something of no importance that someone said about... blah blah?
Is it Friday already? Where's my Hard News?
I'm currently sick of this story (Police accused of hypocrisy), which seems to neglect to note that it's actually about a police officer exercising his legal rights, like any other human being.
Right or wrong, that's not hypocrisy, that's actually "one law for everyone", which I'm sure these same journalist have banged on about in relation to the police before.
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That's usually attributed to Bismarck, in a form something like "people who love the law and sausages couldn't sleep at night if they saw how they were made."
Actually there's a lot of quotes in the West Wing which come from history.
Martin Sheen's line about the poor men throwing their caps over the wall so that they had no choice to follow. That's a mangled J F Kennedy quote (I think it originally comes from Ireland, so Kennedy might have taken it from his Catholic roots).
TV writers steal with the best of them.
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Jon Stewart did an amusing interview with a guy from Amazon about the Kindle 2 (the guy had an annoying laugh).
Best moment, Jon's reaction when the guy mentioned the price. You thought it might be $100, $150 or something. No, $359 US!
It was just the worst marketing ever on a tv show that millions of people watch. Jon's draw dropped and he handed the product back to the guy.
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I visit the casino almost every weekend, sometimes twice a weekend, to play texas holdem poker (tucked off upstairs and to a side) and do enjoy it. It is fun for us particpants when getting the rush from winning.
I think like a lot of activities, gambling has a scale. Poker is a competitive activity, with a social element, interaction with other human beings etc. I've played it a fair bit online and really enjoyed it, though I've never fronted up with real money.
Pokies doesn't have either of those things, and as Russell describes them, they're basically anti-social money drains. I'd support changes to how we approach pokies as a society, while leaving other forms of gambling relatively untouched.
(I presume casinos also manipulate their card tables in various ways to get money out of the punters as well).
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logging = lacking.
Honest.
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I should have added Davesparks' point about having plenty of good people to finish things off, assuming we don't end up in the tail (has Vettori's batting gone downhill the past year or so after he was in top form a couple of years ago?
Guptill, Taylor, N. McCullum, Oram, Broom, Mills, Southee. Sure not logging people who can put the ball to and over the boundary. Do we have any finesse players left these days?
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I can't really say that I know this, but I have heard so and I would not expect a casino to do things any other way unless explicitly legislated for.
Absolutely. Experienced players will go to a machine after someone else has lost their money into it. You never go play a machine that someone has just emptied.
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I just think that after over 15, McCullum should be the next batsman in regardless of how many batsmen are out. And yes that means he could come in at no.3 one day and no.6 another day.
I do agree with that theory. The piece of paper should just be a list, and the number of overs, runs scored, type of bowling left to go, etc etc should determine who goes in next, more than any pre-determined order.
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Brendon McCullum is a good perhaps even very good keeper/batsman who can smack the bejeesus out of the ball when the bowlers are a bit tired and the ball is a bit soft. He should not ever be wasted at the top of the innings.
His last five innings in 20/20 (all opening) 14, 59, 61, 56*, 69*. A 20/20 international average of 83.3 for the summer. He's got an overall average of 34.23 (21 games, most of which he opened), higher than both his test and one day averages. He holds the world record for a high score in a 20/20 match (158, a score you couldn't get close to unless you opened).
He hit some bad form a while ago, while opening, and the mantra came out that he should slide back down. Neither the statistics, nor the theory (I think) support it. The assumption of course was that he would score more runs if he'd come in 5 players down, of which there isn't any evidence. Bad form might just be bad form, and it could have been reflected down the order.
Yes he is good at the bottom of the order, last 15 overs. He's also good at the top of the order.
The prime difference between the two, is that at the bottom of the order, he largely has one option: smack it. At the top of the order he can do that (and single-handedly win a match, as he did with that 158), but he can also play through an innings and set up his team - as he's done for both the last 20/20 matches.
I think there's good reasons that you put your most influential player at the top of the order. NZ has done it before with Astle, now McCullum. West Indies do it with Gayle. If your most influential player hits top from for a game, you want them to do it with all the game to play with, not 10 or 15 overs. It also gives them options as to how they fit into the game. You don't get that if you come in at over 40 with 4 down.
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I know that "pokie" derives from "poker machine", but it also describes the activity. People poke at pokies. Another word that comes to mind is "disconsolate".
I really don't get pokies. You put your money in, a bunch of lights flash and things go around, and then it tells you that you've lost, or won. I've never been able to figure out what the difference is between the winning and the losing, which maybe is part of the point. "Ooh, 3 bananas, that must be good!" (actually nothing), but "Two monkeys and a star, bugger!" (turns out to be worth $5).
I went into a casino at Niagara a few years ago with $20, and spent a very enjoyable hour competing against a blackjack pokie. It was just like playing real cards against a dealer. At one stage I was about 10 bucks up, but I finished $5 down and decided to call it then.
We don't seem to have those 'real' games much here in NZ. It's all nonsensical pictures scrolling across the screen, which seems way less attractive to me.