Posts by Rich of Observationz
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'Cause it is a hugely significant economic activity... and many other industries effectively do have their own Ministries e.g. Fisheries.
Racing is, by NZFirsts probably high estimate, 1.3% of GDP.
Industries that have Ministers:
Agriculture
Education (mostly provision)
Sports, Fitness & Leisure (mostly provision, I guess)
Energy
Fisheries
Forestry
Tourism
Communications
ITThere isn't a minister for retail or engineering.
The real reason for having a racing minister is so the biggest Good Old Boy in the Cabinet can spend his time at the races.
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>10 years in prison
Prison doesn't work. It should be kept for violence and the most heinous fraud, not political fiddling.
I'd suggest a ban from seeking election for individuals, a ban for parties from contesting elections (although I guess they could just reform) and disenfranchisement of electorates (like Tauranga) stupid enough to vote for the idiots.
Because in the end, the problem isn't Peters, it's the 130,000 people dumb enough to vote for NZ First.
Also, this process stuff is boring. Is there any chance we could discuss *policies* (such as ACT having come out firmly on the side of climate change denial) or is does that take too much effort?
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Just to diverge from American politics to Coddington:
I'm a bit uncomfortable with regarding any use of hyperbole that involves Bad Stuff as being an implied attack on the victims of the real Bad Stuff. To me that's pegging back the use of language to avoid even seeming to give offence (I'm not going to use that unpleasant right-wing cliche here). It seems to be the same sort of thing as UK exam boards removing a poem involving knives from the syllabus.
Coddington's an unpleasant racist as far as I'm concerned, and she's using hyperbolic language to describe the fully justified opprobrium her racism brought on. But hyperbole's a common rhetorical tool, and I don't think it should be automatically condemned just because the Internet doesn't handle nuance well.
I mean, if I say "there's a real famine of good books at the moment", am I insulting starving Africans?
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Florida’s probably big and strange enough to be its own country.
Florida'll be seabed in a few years.
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Actually if it was me I'd close one of the lanes, and split it half between pedestrian and cycleway. I'd imagine that'd cost a couple of million at most. But I'd imagine that idea going down like a lead balloon :)
That'd be the simple solution, with another lane as busway. Plus a bridge/motorway toll set at whatever levels needed to limit the inevitable congestion and enable those who really want to drive across to do so.
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I find it funny that they've got all snotty because Dfender got all their friends together to vote them in. Isn't that what everyone does for comps of every kind where there's a public vote? I get heaps of "please go here and vote for me" on Facebook and the like.
What will they do next year - elect a special "public" to vote?
Still, I guess all promotion is fun. If I could suggest a "most popular Kiwi live act" for the band that was seen by the most people in the year. Dunno how you audit the one, though.
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Tom Cosm was complaining that because he releases all his music under a Creative Commons license rather than commercially, he wasn't eligible for the Vodafone (?) awards.
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It's like it's randomised or something
Because we must be strong. Because if we are not strong, then we will be weak. And if we are weak, we will not be strong....
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And speaking of the environment, Green party campaign launch today:
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http://www.greens.org.nz/election08
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Why would you not?It said to me: "Won't somebody think of the children!!"
Personally I think they should be targetting new voters in the 18-21 age group (4% of the electorate). If they could get a third of those people to vote and vote Green then that's a 1% uplift.
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Wow Neil - bit bashing video on an Atmel FTW!
Is this open source - like is there code and circuits?
My microcontroller art project is Dance Dance Decoration which uses a PICAXE to drive the paint sprayer motors.