Posts by Russell Brown
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Field Theory: All Blacks v South Africa…, in reply to BenWilson,
I’m expecting a great season, if the All Blacks play like that, and the other teams lift to the same level, it could be some of the best rugby we’ve ever seen. I would not be surprised if there are quite a few upsets this year.
It's hard to say too much, given how woeful South Africa were, but I thought what the All Blacks did from set pieces was encouraging. Set moves were executed pretty well by the backline, and they had the clear purpose of creating space.
It helped that the Boks, unlike most beaten teams, held their patterns -- they just didn't have their hearts in what they were doing -- so the ABs got a very good opposed training.
What strikes me is the wealth of talent amongst the AB outside backs -- apart from the ones we saw last night, we have Toeva (who was sensational in Super 15 until his his injury) and Israel Dagg coming back soon and Sivi, who wasn't even the squad last night. We should not assume that Mils will be first choice fullback in the big RWC games.
I'm not as down on Ali Williams as some people are. He makes mistakes, but he fronts up for a lot of work. The coaches have clearly decided that he needs as much game time as possible.
I'm gutted for John Afoa, who was deliberately extended an opportunity to show his stuff at test level but almost immediately suffered a fractured cheekbone, which will take him out for a while. Ironically, it offers a chance for Charlie Faumuina, who I'm betting is an international-quality prop and will be an All Black before long.
It was interesting that a scrum without Brand Thorn pushing in it was still capable of dominance.
Carter, goal kicking aside, had his best game in a long time.
We still haven't had a good look at the Nonu-Williams combo.
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Hard News: Friday Fun with Brickface, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Now that this post-Sumerian clay-based ’font’ exists
would it be possible to make it available as a font to buy
which might then give Blair some small extra return on
what looks like a lot of creative work…See above, I had a very cunning plan for that, which has died for reasons beyond my control. I'm a bit gutted about it. But we will prevail.
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Hard News: Friday Fun with Brickface, in reply to recordari,
Like Ian, I'd welcome the opportunity to remunerate Blair for his talent. Especially since I cheekily used it on my Gravatar, and hope to use it on a t-shirt. Some sort of pennies per brick scheme, with a top-up for bricklayers in Christchurch?
Totally hearing you -- more so given that another scheme that was intended to give Blair a return for this project has fallen bloody over.
I've asked Blair whether he has a Paypal or anything. Stay tuned.
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Hard News: Vanilla Buffalo Yoghurt, in reply to nzlemming,
Just posted text to it. What was broken, Ian?
It was closed. We've just turned it on again, but I don't know why it closed. Mystery!
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It's a bleedin' mystery!
I had to check in case there was some solemn reason for the thread closing, but there doesn't seem to be.
I did delete an entry in questionable taste, so perhaps that did something.
Anyway, carry on!
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Hard News: How much speech does it take?, in reply to giovanni tiso,
So the principle – that the state aspires to allow as little censorship as possible – remains fixed in time, while the particulars of what is deemed objectionable change over time.
Which is essentially what I said to David above. The question isn't "what specific criteria should we use to determine whether something is legitimate free speech?" but “what are our criteria, if any, for restricting speech?”
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Hard News: Vanilla Buffalo Yoghurt, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Looks like we broke the Brickface Thread!
was it server overload or sensory overload?News to me! Just checking there's not a major reason for it to be off before turning it on again.
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Hard News: How much speech does it take?, in reply to Paul Williams,
Then I reiterate my earlier point, if you want certainty and simplicity, you’ll get the lowest common denominator standard.
You'll also get an immovable point in time. If we had forever codified norms about speech in the 1950s they'd look very different to the ones we have argued our way to now.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
So could you answer ma question about where we go to in the Owen Glen building to morrow?:)
The front door. Main entrance. Right on the road.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to recordari,
If anything, the large scale corporate approach to GM has been to hold the future of global food supplies to ransom for greater economic return. What possible humanitarian justification could there be for terminator gene technology in third world seed supplies?
The "terminator gene" -- producing plants which, like many of the modern hybrid crops already in use, cannot reproduce -- was actually originally conceived to ease fears about GM plants spreading their DNA. It was only when it got its scary name that it became a bad thing.