Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Russell Brown,
As much as I love the beach’s new look, that’s my impression too – it’s definitely dropped off a bit since the work was done.
Most of it in the first summer, actually. I was a bit worried it was going to slide away, but it stabilised, so I presume it was all part of the plan.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Glenn Pearce,
It’s disappearing before your eyes (slowly). I think I read at the time it would need to be done again in 15-20 years.
Sounds like a decent investment to me, then. Waitangi Day last year was amazing -- they staged a local regatta and there must have been 1500 Aucklanders of all hues swimming and picnicking and enjoying themselves in the sun. Wouldn't have been possible before.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Sacha,
Part of the justification (by Council engineers, naturally) for resanding the eastie beaches was protecting Tamaki Drive from erosion after the protective sand had been swept away. The Chev though is probably meant to be a mudflat, yes.
It's one kilometre of a long harbour shore, and has always had some sand and been swimmable around high tide. This has just made it much better.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Che Tibby,
precisely. it’s not “nourishment”, it’s beautification. a bit like spray-painting one’s grass greener.
That's an awful analogy. Coloured grass has no utility over uncoloured grass. What's happened at our local beach represents a massive increase in utility.
all that sand just washes out into your estuary, then out to sea somewhere.
Oddly enough, ours has been stable for three summers now. Your chances of me conceding your point are basically zero.
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Che Tibby,
if you don’t like the idea of your non-sandy beach actually being a freaking mudflat or estuary, then… i don’t know what. book in for a reality check somewhere…
let’s face facts [disclaimer: those 3 words channelled from talkback radio], a toddler doesn’t care if the beach is golden brown or mud-brown. and the water beyond the resanding remains the same.
Nope. I'm thinking that the transformation of Pt Chev from a short, muddy beach to a long golden one where hundreds of local people can enjoy themselves at once is a Great Thing.
The water is clearer, the beach is viable for swimming for more hours a day, there's small marine life in the shallows and it's far, far better for small children. There's still plenty of estuary left too.
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Meanwhile, I think we have a new champ in the victimhood stakes:
Tuscon Tea Party co-founder Trent Humphries called Giffords’ previous concerns about violent rhetoric “political gamesmenship,” claiming that if Giffords was so concerned, then she is to blame for Saturday’s shootings because she “had no security whatsoever”:
“It’s political gamesmanship. The real case is that she [Giffords] had no security whatsoever at this event. So if she lived under a constant fear of being targeted, if she lived under this constant fear of this rhetoric and hatred that was seething, why would she attend an event in full view of the public with no security whatsoever?” he said. “For all the stuff they accuse her [Palin] of, that gun poster has not done a tenth of the damage to the political discourse as what we’re hearing right now.”
What awful, awful people.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
But you’d really have to stretch a loooong way to equate it to the “Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s a SECRET MUSLIM” blah-blah that was all the way in your face. And bluntly, it would have been nice if McCain and Palin had been a little more Nixonian (who, for all his faults, was rather more scrupulous about playing the religious card considering Quakers aren’t exactly mainline Protestants either).
Yup. I’m sticking with “the present rhetorical climate is unprecedented”, if only because it couldn’t have happened even 20 years ago, when one mass medium (the internet) didn’t exist in a popular form, and another (TV) was a very, very different creature than it is now.
I also meant to observe yesterday that I think the far reaches of Wikileaks support embrace similarly paranoid politics. Regarding government, per se, as a conspiracy is unhelpful. Sorry if that offends anyone, but I think it's true.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Yeah yeah, I get it – Murdoch Anti-Christ Superstar. Meanwhile, can I start quoting the most stupid and vile comments on PAS and start attributing them to Russell?
Still didn't see that, but let's please drop it.
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Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 2:…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Rupert Murdoch sinks a little further and blames it all on some poor girl:
No he doesn’t, SImon, Two vile numpites in the meth-head New York tabloid his company owns did, You’ve just pulled the most frak-witted trollism here on PAS and attributed it to Russell. Stop.
Eh? I can’t see trolling or inappropriate attribution to me, or divine any offence in Simon’s comment. Please don't get riled on my account.
But it does bear mentioning that the original story was in the Daily Mail, which is nothing to do with Murdoch.
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Props also to Dan News for his service on the Queensland floods. It was via him that I was able to watch Nine's coverage live this morning.