Posts by Russell Brown
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FWIW, I’m satisfied in light of our email exchange that Nikki Wysman, who posted the comment regarding Arie confirming he was beaten by the police, is a real person and knows the family.
They’re understandably cautious as to how much to say at this point, and are taking legal advice, but I may hear some more later in the day.
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Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to Sacha,
Freeview was once a free to air bulwark to slow Sky's growth. But it has a secondary role in TVNZ's digital strategy. Kearley says: "We still support Freeview - but we are not going to launch channels that we cannot make money from.
"We are a commercial organisation and shareholders have made that clear and we try to deliver dividends. That is non-negotiable.
"It has yet to be proven content would boost uptake for Freeview," he said.
Well, he's saying what he has to.
But there's an effing big risk here for the government. The rationale for 6 and 7 was that they would help facilitate the move to digital terrestrial. That has gone fairly well, but the job's not done yet -- and they need to get to the digital switchover.
When the analogue signal is turned off, there will be a bonanza of reallocated spectrum. There are plenty of potential uses for the unused frequencies. And governments make good money parcelling them out. They're going to look pretty stupid if they've tilted the market so far in Sky's favour that they can't get there when they need to.
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to Rhys Lewis,
On the one hand he is saying we should not jump to conclusions about people with autistic spectrum disorders, then on the other he follows the well-worn cliche that cops are thugs who beat people up.
Perhaps we are not all immune from prejudice after all.
He was in their custody. At the very, very least, the police would seem to have failed in their duty of care.
You might also wish to point out where I aired ” the well-worn cliche that cops are thugs who beat people up”. As I have noted, by far the most likely explanation of this man’s injuries is that he was assaulted in custody. That's not the same thing as thinking all police officers are violent thugs, which I assuredly do not think.
My experience of people with autistic spectrum disorders is that if they are in a unusual situation, particularly where stress triggers are involved, it would not be at all surprising if the person or someone nearby who was unaccustomed to the behaviour received some injuries.
I’ve lived with aspies for 20 years, and I know a few more outside the family. I submit that my take on this case is more plausible than the one you’ve just made up.
But if you are such an expert, you’ll also know that most ASD people are truthful souls, often to their own cost. Arie has told his foster sister he was beaten by police officers.
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to Nikki Wysman,
Arie was spoken to last Friday and confirmed that it was the police that beat him
Who did he speak to?
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But yeah, actually, I also enjoy Highway Patrol and Piha Rescue.
I think New Zealand actually makes a fairly gentle sort of reality TV. We're quite good at the public-service obs-docs, not given to the cruelty-based formats.
I felt pleased when idiot shows like Celebrity Treasure Island faded from favour, although I suspect that may have only been because it became impossible to find idiots to appear in them. And while Genevive Westcott's You Be the Judge died amid justfiable public scorn, UK digital channels have that sort of shit wall-to-wall, even now.
Master Chef, commercial orgy that it is, is fun if you're a foodie, and it's not using precious tax dollars. So what the heck.
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Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to Danielle,
Quickly, all of you! He is fraternising with reality television! You must stone him for his ideological impurity!
I confess. I ... enjoyed it.
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to Kumara Republic,
This is nearly as bad as those who attributed Martin Bryant’s trigger-happy spree to Aspergers, without evidence to back it up. In fact he had sub-par IQ.
He had all kinds of problems.
That story was all over the news when we got the Asperger diagnosis for Jimmy. Fortunately, we had home internet before most people and O.A.S.IS. existed.
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to Glenn Pearce,
They have also praised the herald reporter for getting *behind* the story of just another looter.
Yes, Jared Savage certainly deserves a great deal of credit for his story. But it might have been nice had the paper pursued the issue of Arie’s injuries.
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Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to DexterX,
Russell’s World. Hard News Time.
I don’t know how to break this to you, but last night I watched Master Chef.
Although I would argue that my responsibility was diminished by having just seen The Clean play. I was high on that shit.
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to richard,
I must admit I am uncomfortable seeing people minimize theft from a damaged house, whether it is light fittings or anything else.
I'm pretty sure I didn't minimise it. I may have ventured that it was a poor basis for keeping someone in prison indefinitely.