Posts by InternationalObserver
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I believe the phrase is "love the sinner not the sin".
Oh, I thought that phrase only applied to homosexuals.
So who's loving William Bell right now? -
"Sub prime" does it for me too!
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I understand some people say that some of the tension is caused not by racism but by the obvious wealth or success of those that are abused. But I have never heard anyone being abused for being rich
MPs in the Beehive sandpit have been throwing their toys around over the past couple of years.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen calling National leader John Key ... a "rich prick" is just the latest incident.
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NB to RB:
this post should be removed now, it's redundant.
cheers!
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Earlier this year 60MinutesNZ did a story about 2 kiwi girls who got in a suicide pact with a teenage boy they met online. It turned out the boy was fictious, and luckily the girls didn't go thru with the pact. The girl who created the fictitious identity said it was just a prank, and Police spoke to her but said there were no charges that could be laid.
A similar case has emerged in the US, but this time the girl did kill herself. And again the Police/FBI say there are no charges that could be laid. Obviously the child who suicided was troubled, but it's galling to think an adult was involved in setting up the child.
It's an 'interesting' story, and further proof (not that it's needed) that the Internet is still the Wild West -- and that you need to watch your children. This CNN interview sets the scene:‘Megan The Bitch…Had It Coming,’ Or How To Kill A Child Twice
The family that created the MySpace account of Josh Evans did this so they could, in their confession to police, find out “what Megan was saying about their daughter”. The police report that has been posted confirms this and confirms that the mother confessed that she “created, instigated, and monitored the account”.
This MySpace account had been in place for about 6 weeks in which Megan thought this person was her online boyfriend. She and he shared intimate conversations. The creators of this MySpace then ended the relationship with the a barrage of hateful emails that Megan received on the Monday she hung herself. The last message she received was “the world would be a better place without you”. Less than 20 minutes after receipt of that message, Megan hung herself.
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Can we look forward to a Robbie Deans v Graham Henry World Cup Final in 2011?
For us non-rugby fans ... YES!
For the rest of you ... not so sure.
The scrapping/second guessing should start right about ... 5 minutes ago.
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POLITICS
For a bonus: Three years later, another Maori was elected to a general seat. Who was that? Win Peters
In 1978, the Westland MP Paddy Blanchfield retired and made his farewell speech in Parliament. What was unusual about the speech? He was drunk/singing/irish??
For a bonus: In 2002, one MP's maiden speech included the performance of a version of a song that was a hit in the early 1980s. Who was the MP and what was the song? Kulcha ???
What, by legend, was found in the briefcase stupidly left by an SIS operative on a journalist's fence? A pie and a copy of Penthouse.
For a bonus: What was really in there? A pie and a copy of The Anarchists Cookbook.
The plastic Rob Muldoon piggy bank had a unique feature -- what was it? cigarette burns in the eyes
---CULTURE
Scribe, Che Fu and Nesian Mystik's Feleti Strickson-Pua are all, of course, local rap artists. But what did their fathers have in common in the late 70s? Brown Panthers
If in the early 1980s you have been a member of the 1480 Kroozers, what would you have been? Radio Hauraki's Gay Audience
If you had been at an event in the company of 75,000 other New Zealanders over Auckland anniversary weekend in 1979, where would you have been? Sweetwaters
What, in late 1970s, was the Sportronic? Electronic gamebox to play Pong or Thorn Colour TV??
Who did Tineke Bouchier replace in the televised version of 'It's In the Bag'? that radio woman as old as Selwyn Toogood
MULTI-CHOICE
5. Which of the following was not the acronym of a interest group active in the 1970s?
(b) SPUC
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</off-topic>
Not wishing to be too negative, I'll also throw my vote behind "sub prime". It just seems to mean anything below par, dodgy or all-round stupid. Like lending to people with insufficient funds.
Just so we're clear - it wasn't 'stupid', just dodgy. Very dodgy. Capitalism at it's worst. You lend money at a discount to people who won't be able to afford the real interest rate when it kicks in, in 6/12/18 months time. You 'justify' this on the basis that the property market is rising and in 6/12/18 months they can probably sell the property at a higher price, pay off the loan, and maybe make some extra dollars for themselves in the process. In the meantime you've made money on Day One by charging them a range of fees for getting these no-hopers a loan.
Then these dodgy loans are bundled together with other 'good' loans into what is called a CDO - a Collateralised Debt Obligation. And as if by magic these CDO's are given a positive risk rating, because for some reason the CDO is rated according to the strongest link in the chain, not the weakest. And those CDO's can be bought and traded on the International market, and down in little ol' NewZealand some fund managers decide to buy some because they're a new trading instrument, and they're hot.
Until one day finance people start to notice that a lot of people are defaulting on their loans, and maybe these CDO's aren't as hot as they thought, and then they stink, and no-one wants them, and suddenly a lot of funds are writing off their CDO holdings. Which means all the mums and dads who invested in these funds because their financial planner/bank manager told them to, suddenly find their retirement savings is looking a little/lot thinner. Bummer. -
If only they weren't on rival networks ... South Pacific coulda had a 'crossover' episode with the Shortie St killer revealed as ... PASCALLE!
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Some bank used Bittersweet Symphony recently, for reasons best known only to their ad agency.
Actually, I think they used the same Stones sample the Verve used, no?