Posts by Bart Janssen
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I wouldn't say Vettori isn't a spin bowler. He just doesn't spin it much any more.
Um he can't spin the ball but he is still a spin bowler????
[Vettori's] test batting average over the last 4 - 5 years is almost 40, so on that basis he'd make it into our side as a batsman
Yup agree entirely. In which case Vettori should exclude one of the batsmen from the side, not Patel. Seriously with an average of 40ish Vetorri should be batting at 4, 5 or 6 and he should displace one of the players that is currently occupying those slots.
He should not displace an attacking spin bowler with the form that Patel currently displays.
One of my favourite NZ cricketers of all time was a thinking player, a good batsman who captained and bowled slow. Vettori also fits those criteria now.
I'm not saying Vettori can't be an enormously effective player for NZ but we/he and the selectors need to get their heads around the fact that he is not a bowler any more and as a result he needs to become part of the batting line up and the bowling line up needs to be chosen without him.
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But really, Vettori hasn’t been a decent attacking test spinner in favourable conditions for around a decade.
As mentioned in the commentary on the weekend if you asked just about everyone in NZ cricket to list the 5 best bowlers at the moment, Jeetan Patel would be on every single list. But he can't get in the side.
The simple fact is that Vettori has an average of 40 as a bowler since his back injury all those years ago. As a bowler Vettori really cannot justify his place in the NZ side. But commentators rave about his control of flight and pace and lots of people say he is a good captain.
The result is Vettori is in the side and that means we have no room for a real spin bowler. The reason Harbi spins the ball so much is because he is a spin bowler and Vetorri doesn't get spin because he isn't a spin bowler.
This raises the question of whether it is wise to go into a test match without a spinner, especially since one of the top five bowlers in the country happens to be a spinner (Jeetan Patel).
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Love the game pity about the players. Saturday was hard to watch from anywhere but at least at the ground you do get to wander around the grass during the break and see just what "the enormous hole patch just on a good length" really looks like.
The sad thing is that it will be boxing day before the selectors, coach and team get to try again to be test cricketers. I'm not sure any of the current bunch care :(.
As for moving when trying to catch, yup. Even playing social slowpitch softball simply moving as the ball comes off the bat makes a huge difference to ones ability to know where the ball is going. Of course then one has to convince knees that running to where the ball is going is a worthwhile or even feasible endeavor.
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In total agreement that Auckland, and particularly downtown is bereft of beautiful buildings.
But do we want a building? I agree it would be great to have something special to lift Auckland. But are there other options than the work of an architect?
As one thought how about replacing the parking lot that is the container wharf with some kind of really special park? I don't know if that is special enough but I just don't know that I want Auckland to be known for a building, even a beautiful one. Not too long ago you could say we were known for "One Tree Hill".
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What a vision of the moral decrepitude that is rife in Christchurch...
David if you're reading this...
Don't let that son of yours hang out with evil influences ... he'll grow up to be a country singer!!! -
We just try to draw graphs that look pretty.
It's so easy now too, just push a button in excel. Oh and we just download the data from teh interwebs straight into excel. Hardly takes any time at all and we can go home early and hoon around the streets in our Loti.
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But, Global warming is a big business in itself. Ask any academic looking for funding, If you want funding all you have to do is append the name of your study with the words "With regard to Global Warming" and you're home and hosed.
Bull-F'ing-shit.
I'm an academic.
I look into our carpark at work and see all the Ferrari's and Lotuses (Loti?) that confirm your argument (Clue, I can't see any).
Just for a second have a look at the cars of scientists and the cars or the arseholes who claim we get lots of grant money from faking global warming.
Sorry but this assertion that scientists can get lots of money by lying to the world is so insulting it makes me ....
If you are pointing out that some unscrupulous scum wearing suits have swindled valuable research money out of the governments by pretending their business has something to do with GW, then I might consider your argument reasonable ... for a nanosecond.
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We replaced the light fittings in our lounge from incandescents to CFLs. The CFL fittings looked nicer and apart from taking some time to "warm up" they produced a nice illuminations for the lounge.
BUT
We then had to repaint the whole lounge ceiling because the fittings were a little bit smaller and the paint that was previously hidden had not changed colour the way the rest had.
I'm not sure the environmental cost of the new paint has been paid off yet :(.
And then wierdly we have one fitting where the CFL keeps blowing out, average lifetime about 1 month. At the moment it is an empty socket which saves even more power but leaves me somewhat concerned about the quality of our wiring.
Doing the right thing can get complicated.
So how do you know it's a "good quality" CFL?
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I heart Stephen Fry
Although sometimes I think it is unfair that one person can be so clever and talented :)It hasn't all been easy for him
Fry has been diagnosed with cyclothymia, a mild form of bipolar disorder.[40] He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1995 while appearing in a West End play called Cell Mates and subsequently walked out of the production... ...Fry went missing for several days while contemplating suicide. He abandoned the idea and left the United Kingdom by ferry, eventually resurfacing in Belgium.
Fry has spoken publicly about his experience with bipolar disorder, which was also depicted in the documentary Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic-Depressive.
I saw the documentary one day while home sick and he was amazingly open and frank about his experiences.
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Which is like having a mortgage of 3.5 times earnings - people seem to mostly be able to service those. Or at current interest rates, the US has to put around 15% of GDP into servicing the interest (public and private).
Um No it's not. Mortgages are usually intended to be paid off and if your income drops banks tend to ask hard questions or sell your house.
Most folks would think it a little strange to pass on that kind of debt to their kids. It would be even stranger to suggest that instead of paying off the debt those kids should make it bigger and pass it on to your grandkids, who should make it bigger and pass it on...
Note also in this case many of the lenders (other countries) also have similar debts. Does China actually have all the world's money?
Anyway as for cutting Key some slack...
There is no way any NZ politician can miraculously solve NZ's problems. We are utterly at the mercy of the EU, Asian and US economies. They tank, we tank. All any politician can do for NZ is try to not make it worse.
Cullen did that by not spending tax dollars and paying off debt, at the risk of stifling the NZ internal economy. He got away with it for a while but some of the issues we face now come directly from him not changing his policy fast enough.
What Key is planning to do I have yet to ascertain. He routinely speaks a lot without saying anything (he is a politician after all). I'm not sure there is anything he can do except free up some government money (take less tax and borrow in other words) to try and hold up the internal economy. Someone (your kids) will have to pay that money back sometime, but at least you'll have a job and can send your kids to uni/poly/apprenticeships so they can be skilled enough to pay the money back.