Posts by Patrick Xavier

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  • Hard News: The Foundation for…,

    So, Graziella, how are you getting on with paying your debts?

    (I'm still thinking "Insinc[ere]life".)

    Since Nov 2006 • 49 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Foundation for…,

    According to the liquidator's report:

    CREDITORS
    Callplus Services Limited $2,779.70
    Duncan Cotterill Lawyers $684.00
    Inland Revenue Department $97,332.66
    Westpac $44,194.30
    Inland Revenue Department $72,043.98
    Busy Books Limited $3,358.13
    The Liquidator visited the office/ premises of Scarabetta Limited to view and evaluate the office furniture. The office furniture consists of two desks, two leather couches, a book case, a printer and a small concrete water feature. The Liquidator has concluded that the furniture is of little value to be of benefit to creditors and will therefore disclaim interest in this asset. No further action to be taken.

    But otherwise, you know, such promise.

    Since Nov 2006 • 49 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Foundation for…,

    I'm thinking "Insinc[ere]life".

    Since Nov 2006 • 49 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Foundation for…,

    On the other hand:

    18 November 2009:

    Court liquidation: International leadership business operator Thake’s Insinclife (now Scarabetta) wound up

    Defendant: Scarabetta Ltd (ex-Insinclife Ltd)

    Directors: Graziella Thake, Kohimarama

    Applicant: Westpac Banking Corp

    Liquidators: Official Assignee

    Other details: Insinclife changed its name on 13 October. Another application to wind the company up was withdrawn last October. Ms Thake called in insolvency practitioner Peter Jollands to argue her case in court, to no avail. Associate Judge Abbott said Westpac’s court action had been well known to her for more than a year and Inland Revenue also had an outstanding tax debt of $167,000 dating back to returns from 2006-08, which had increased by about $20,000 recently. In short, he said: “It seems abundantly clear that this defendant is insolvent and has been so for some time. Any investigation of the extent of these debts should be undertaken in the course of liquidation.” Insinclife’s website says its founder, Ms Thake, is a psychologist who has expanded her leadership & training programmes business around the world to Melbourne, Dubai, Malta, Colorado & Los Angeles. She’s a director of 2 companies which retain the Insinclife name – Insinclife Conscious Programs Global Academy Ltd & Insinclife Leadership Institute NZ Ltd.

    Since Nov 2006 • 49 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Meaning well with the money…,

    Hang on a minute:

    MP for Cthulhu-Southland

    That's just awesome.

    Since Nov 2006 • 49 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Doing Science in Court,

    Phil's reference to Simon Singh, while about the parlous state of UK defamation law, is also likely to give some considerable comfort to the defendants. The UK appeal judgment in British Chiropractic Assn v Singh [2010] EWCA Civ 350 finishes by approving US Appeals Court Judge Easterbrook's comments in Underwager v Salter 22 Fed. 3d 730 (1994):

    Scientific controversies must be settled by the methods of science rather than by the methods of litigation. … More papers, more discussion, better data, and more satisfactory models – not larger awards of damages – mark the path towards superior understanding of the world around us.

    Also, this:

    The opinion may be mistaken, but to allow the party which has been denounced on the basis of it to compel its author to prove in court what he has asserted by way of argument is to invite the court to become an Orwellian ministry of truth. Milton, recalling in the Areopagitica his visit to Italy in 1638-9, wrote:

    "I have sat among their learned men, for that honour I had, and been counted happy to be born in such a place of philosophic freedom, as they supposed England was, while themselves did nothing but bemoan the servile condition into which learning among them was brought; …. that nothing had been there written now these many years but flattery and fustian. There it was that I found and visited the famous Galileo, grown old a prisoner of the Inquisition, for thinking in astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought."

    That is a pass to which we ought not to come again.

    Since Nov 2006 • 49 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: iPad Impressions,

    I gotta say, I'm still trying to get my head around the paradigm shift, but I'd be perfectly happy if the only iPad app I had was Instapaper. My lord, I thought that was good on the iPhone, but on the iPad it works as it was probably first intended. Awesome.

    Since Nov 2006 • 49 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Behind the Paywall,

    I like that (a) ad-supported content as an alternative to a paywall is being undone by, for example, Readability and Instapaper (which I use to read PA, but not PAS because then it defaults back to PA), (b) the Listener doesn't use a paywall, but just a wall, so you can choose between access and immediacy (and learn something about instant and deferred gratification besides), and (c) The Atlantic recognised immediacy is only a currency for news.

    Since Nov 2006 • 49 posts Report Reply

  • Legal Beagle: Because it is a big deal,

    I quote this bit....

    Quite right: good governance, not PFA illegality.

    Since Nov 2006 • 49 posts Report Reply

  • Legal Beagle: Because it is a big deal,

    Now if I could find a legal basis for it, I'd be a happy man.

    No doubt, but that would just be confirming your prejudices.

    You're missing the point of both the BofR and the PFA: it is that public expenditure must be authorised (and, as a corollary, the diversion of public monies for private benefit is an offence), not that private expenditure is prohibited. Your reference to s25 of the PFA illustrates how far you miss the mark.

    Private expenditure on Ministerial credit cards presents a risk to transparency, tends to illustrate poor judgement, and its reimbursement should be achieved through good governance. But it's not an offence in itself.

    Since Nov 2006 • 49 posts Report Reply

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