Posts by Danyl Mclauchlan
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Lead story on the Herald web site in 3 . . . 2 . . .
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<i>A prediction: nothing serious will be done.</i>
I think they'll close most of the loopholes - goodbye LAQCs - but I can't imagine they'll bring in a land or capital gains tax.
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Sometimes properties sell for less than you paid for them
But if you invest in a property you actually get a property, which has some value; if someone tries to rob the house or burn it down you can call the police. If you invest in a New Zealand company the directors can just take all of your money and give you back nothing and there's really no legal recourse.
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I've been looking back through newspaper archives from the late 90s, early 00s; the difference in quality between the Herald today and the Herald of old is pretty stark. It really was a very good newspaper only a few short years ago.
The editorials were the real shock: still conservative, but also informed and thought provoking. 'How interesting,' I thought, reading their critique of the new Labour governments charter for TVNZ in early 2000. 'How articulate and (in hidsight) how wise.'
My standard response to their editorials nowadays (I only read them when you or DPF link to them) is to wonder at where they found a clueless-enough half-wit to churn out such a high volume of drivel.Garth George was back there then, grumbling about doctors who want to stop him smoking in enclosed public spaces (just like the nazis) and the unfitness of woman for political leadership, bless his little heart.
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MILF Island is testing off the charts in the most profitable demographics: Soccer moms, NASCAR dads, white collar pervs and the obese.
- 30 Rock
I have to admit I don't really watch TV - not because I'm so fucking sophisiticated I'd rather be reading Proust, but because I don't have the attention span to sit through all the ad breaks. I always wander off and do something else and forget about what I was watching.
I do actually watch a lot of TV on DVD - Lost, Sopranos, Mad Men etc. I probably watch TV shows more than I watch movies. And I watched a lot of tv in the UK and the US, where the ad breaks are only a couple times an hour - but in New Zealand it seems like the breakdown is about 40% ads to 60% programming, which doesn't really work for me.
I realise I'm a bit of an outlier here - people often talk to me about which ads they like and don't like and get alienated when I can't respond. But I'm also a member of a highly targeted advertising demographic, and most of the people I know in my own cohort also watch little to no television. So I do wonder whether tv advertising in New Zealand has so saturated the medium that they've actually damaged their own industry.
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I'd agree that the large majority of people don't care to carry even one book with them most of the time.
I have my iPod with me all of the time, since it's not unusual for me to get some song stuck in my head - 'Life in a Northern Town', say - and it's nice to be able to scratch that itch. I don't think I've ever been walking along and thought 'I must read the Austerlitz chapters in War and Peace!'
I do always have a book with me in my satchel in case I find myself waiting somewhere or catching the bus in the rain, but I can't imagine ever needing a device with several thousand books on it.
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Finally a product that fills the aching void in our lives that lies between the macBook and the iPhone . . .
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And it does seem that Labour is much less inclined to use fear of crime as a political weapon
I'm only an ordinary New Zealander but I don't think it would get much play if Labour did start banging on about crime, given that it's barely a year since the change of government. Give 'em time.
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It does amuse me how the Herald arrogates the role of protest for itself. Last year it was going freaking nutso over a policy it deemed "an attack on democracy"; now it's telling teachers to shut up and fall in with legislation denied select committee scrutiny.
I wouldn't get too upset - give it a couple of days and the editorial voice will be praising the teachers for their courageous stand. The only thing more consistent than it's idiocy is it's inconsistency.
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Better seeing such a slogan on the arse-end of a bus, than oversized TV 3 news presenters or Vodaphone ads.
On the back of the buses in Wellington there are ads for a round-the-bays-charity swim, featuring a photgraph of a smiling Rodney Hide and the slogan 'if Rodney can do it, so can you!'.
Walking up Kelburn Parade with some co-workers, I pointed out the ad and asked them all if they knew who 'Rodney' was, they didn't. Someone pointed to the slogan and speculated that he was an intellectually handicapped person.