Posts by Gareth Ward
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It's interesting that it's still being called a NFZ - both the resolution and subsequent actions make it quite a bit more than that. Reports of destroyed tank columns outside of Benghazi etc...
In effect, they're saying they'll defend citizens from the big, chunky stuff (tank and artillery bombardment, air strike etc) but that's not going to stop sniper fire, urban death squads, disappearances, protest crackdowns etc and without ground invasion there's no way you can. In itself, I think that's an entirely worthy start - when you CAN do something about artillery bombardment of a civilian population then you bloody well should, even if there are other nasty means of oppressing and supressing that population that you aren't stopping.
And I think that's why all the calls for equivalence are partly missing the point - Bahrain isn't shelling its protesting citizens via sitting duck artillery rigs and openly strafing them from air force jets. Without ground invasion, NATO et al are leaving the Libyans in pretty much the same spot as all these other "nasty" regimes... -
Speaker: Why the disaster in Japan made…, in reply to Garth Bray,
more so if i knew you had a background in nuclear sciences or medicine
I did go to the doctor once, does that count?
Edit: a slightly more serious answer is that I got intrigued by the reports of radiation so looked a bunch of stuff up - started at good ol Wiki and read here and here at least as well as others:
http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/cesium.html
http://www.hko.gov.hk/radiation/tidbit/200803/cs137_e.htmIt's nasty enough though that it's considered a leading contender for likely contents of a dirty bomb (but obviously in significant dose)
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don’t dare inhale or swallow the tiniest speck.
Getting a little off the topic (strange, loves me a good iPhone) but while caesium-137 is nasty stuff the trace amounts of caesium in the air in Tokyo now are actually "OK" if that's what you're referring to as "tiniest specks". There was a bunch in Germany post Chernobyl and all over the weapons test sites, but it also has industrial uses in cancer treatment and the like. Stay away from it in anything remotely resembling concentration, sure, but the "tiniest specks" that are registering now in Tokyo and surrounds aren't going to be dangerous.
But God knows I'd have been doing the same thing as you and your mates in regards to getting the f*&k away from a nuclear plant in an unknown state of trouble...
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And that is possibly true. Possibly. But both of them?
Huh? If that is true (and it seems entirely plausible to me) then it equally holds for both games rather than just one.Are we really so parochial that which Island a game is held in matters? I presume you accept that the only other alternative is Dunedin and their stadium has about 20% less capacity and I doubt the accomodation and other infrastructure to host 40,000 people. If Wellington seemingly doesn't have the capacity then neither does Dunedin.
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to Russell Brown,
I suspect it would be very good for Arie if he was to hear – at the expense of whatever government – a sincere apology from those who had custody of him, and for them to hear just how awful he was made to feel. That, and a promise that what happened here won’t happen again, backed up with a commitment to training.
And, naturally, substantial media coverage.
And, I fear, porcine aviation.
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Hard News: About Arie, in reply to Che Tibby,
indeed. these men are HEROES!! heroes i say!!1!
Yes, sir. Whatever you say sir. No sir, you can put the telephone book away sir.
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Aussie cops bought into NZ allegedly beating a young man with Aspergers for acting out his obsession is surely a huge story, but I guess it goes against the narrative huh?
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Some of those programs would fit quite solidly in One's lineup wouldn't they? Especially given the maturity you mention...
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So if we're facing at least a $10b bill for this (wildly optimistically assuming full recovery in 2012) I wouldn't have thought changes to WFF abatement rates was a particularly useful answer.
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Couple of questions:
1. What is the estimated hit on the Govt's accounts (not the total bill)? Including any rebuild cost for non-insured, direct cost of the response and estimated tax revenue hit from contraction in economy?
2. Is lowering the income point at which you still get WFF payment (from, say, payments when you're earning $70k a year with one child down to a threshold of $50k) really make a big dent in that? I realise WFF is a big percentage of welfare spend but what's the distribution like?