Posts by Bart Janssen
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Hard News: There in half the time:…, in reply to Moz,
If I was going to spend more money I’d want something that goes faster instead.
Yes you don't get a faster top speed but you should still get there a lot faster because all the parts of your trip where your speed drops below say 20 kph you can use the assist to raise it closer to 30 kph. By using the assist to increase the low speed portions of your trip you should get a much better average speed.
Unless you have a flat commute.
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And as a second question how reliable and robust are the e-bikes?
Part of the joy of a bike is it's so simple* that there just isn't that much that goes wrong - add the electric assist and that simplicity starts to decline.
*simple in the sense that most of the engineering is so well established and refined now that it feels simple
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One of the advantages of a bike is that you can do most of the service and repairs yourself.
So one question I have is how much does the added complexity of the e-bike affect the basic repairs/servicing?
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Legal Beagle: On Gell-Mann Amnesia; or…, in reply to Kevin McCready,
Bart, it’s highly debatable whether jailing people sends an effective deterrent message.
I agree. My point was he probably needs psychiatric care (if necessary enforced).
This is less about criminality than identifying someone who is behaving in a way that suggests his future actions could be even worse and treating that behaviour now.
And yes all the studies show punishments do not reduce criminality. The probability of being caught reduces criminality.
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Legal Beagle: On Gell-Mann Amnesia; or…, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
because it would have been materially less horrible if he’d hit a male police officer
No it would have been just as horrible. But as a measure of how distanced this boy is from social norms then assaulting a woman is less normal than assaulting a man (and I agree that shouldn't be the case). Neither should be acceptable and both are equally horrible. But the point is this boy is comfortable stepping way out side the normally acceptable behaviour.
While I agree that locking him up may not rehabilitate him I also think there are pretty strong warning signals here that indicate this boy needs significant mental health assistance. Not just an alcohol treatment program.
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Legal Beagle: On Gell-Mann Amnesia; or…, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
We do try to keep first-time 18 year-old defendants out of prison where possible.
Which I agree with entirely. The question I have is do the severity if the injuries and the inferred violence of the assault play any part in the sentencing.
Two things really concern me about this boy, first is he kept on hitting after the woman went down at that point the only intent is to cause real harm. To me that suggests psychological problems. The second is that the attack was on a woman, so not a test of strength between immature male animals but something much more horrible.
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Speaker: Apocalypse on the count of…, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
How was he able to take these photos?
It's a tourist attraction now.
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Speaker: Apocalypse on the count of…, in reply to Russell Brown,
We also visited the Titan missile museum in Tucson Arizona and it really was interesting. Just as strange. The oddest part was how primitive all the equipment looked.
We only lived in Tucson for 7 months but it proved to be a really cool place, The Pima air and space museum which gets examples of just about every weird plane the US has made plus lots from other countries. The massive aircraft storage site where enormous numbers of military aircraft are mothballed. Then there's the desert museum and the desert and mountains themselves. And finally really good stargazing.
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I'm sorry but I don't think a competition point is a suitable punishment. And much as I am in favour of donations to women's refuge I don't think money can negate the crime. Neither of those things actually acknowledges the harm done.
A woman was abused and assaulted. I think those "independent witnesses" are liars. I think everyone at NZR knows what happened. They are weaseling out of responsibility.
Essentially they are happy accept the abuse and assault of a woman.
That says a lot about their worth as humans.
If we had a media with an ounce of conscience every single interview with anyone associated with rugby in New Zealand should start by asking why they accept the assault and abuse of women as part of their sport.
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Hard News: Housing NZ keeps digging the…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Mitchell is a business process guy.
Paul Commons, the COO who’s been fronting a lot of the meth stuff for HNZ, comes from project management, originally in the cement business.
>Rant incoming
That's true of every agency now. There is a myth (spread by management) that a good manager can manage anything. Our own CEOs come from Fonterra management who (guessing here) want to come home to NZ. They are nice guys but have no passion for science nor real deep-seated understanding of it, so they impose management doctrine without understanding the damage it does when it doesn't fit with the work we actually do.
You can see the same in most government departments. Ground level staff despairing of the management decisions.
And boards of directors are as bad, old white male accountants in suits all recommending each other for the next directorship, hiring yet more managers into leadership positions where they don't fit.
And any time the going gets remotely tough they're off with a golden handshake to the next management position ...
a pox on all their houses.