Posts by Simon Lyall

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  • Hard News: The Golden Mile,

    I would have thought the number of media to high end retailers in Queen St (especially below Victoria St) was pretty good.

    The major problem I would have is actually the banks and similar (such as Delottes) which take a large pieces of frontage with one door, boring glass and the odd ATM. Discouraging more of them would probably help.

    I’m always surprised at that seems to be room for “just one more” foreign exchange shop too.

    Auckland • Since Feb 2007 • 60 posts Report Reply

  • Legal Beagle: Infrequently asked questions,

    You answered if somebody could stand in 2 electorates but can somebody be on 2 separate lists?

    Also what consent does a party need before adding somebody to their list? Could a minor party start adding random people into their list to attract votes.

    Auckland • Since Feb 2007 • 60 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Complaint and culture,

    I remember hearing years back that Don rings up the council/police daily to complain about minor things. The guy has been wasting people's time for years

    Have you ever been dazzled by car lights? Tonight after 6pm. i reported 3 bicycles and 6 cars to police. They all had no lights or faulty lights. Are they too bright? Why do they shine horizontally- to the horizon and into the sky.

    Today, Monday 22 Nov 99, at 11.40 am. another marked police car reg
    WI 7501 was parked outside Wellington Polytechnic,
    Wallace St, Mt Cook, on a garage entrance and dotted** yellow line,
    on the footpath near ped Xg. I stopped the bus and got off
    at a service station to ring '111' and report it.

    Police Complaints Authority (Judge IA BORRIN) was silent after 8 months investigation on whether Newtown Constable Karen Ellis visited my house and lied that I e-mailed lotto numbers to her. I have 4** other witnesses whom Constable Ellis harrassed similarly. I am claiming $100,000.

    Auckland • Since Feb 2007 • 60 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: This is your National Library, in reply to Hilary Stace,

    Hilary and Gordon. Thank you very much for you pointers to sources. I'll get onto them about photos.

    Auckland • Since Feb 2007 • 60 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: This is your National Library,

    Sounds like things are very promising, small example of problems I'm encountering with Wikipedia. A project I'm working on right now is to get photographs of all New Zealand MPs (past and present) on their wikipedia pages. This involves getting "CC-By" or better pictures of each.

    This is proving surprising hard. For the current parliament the National and Labour are unable to give us photos ( Act and the greens have been very helpful though ) so we are having to go to public events, source photographs from overseas (The main photo on John Key's wikipedia page is from the Chilian govt!) or ask MPs directly ( I just got two photos from Jamie-Lee Ross a few minutes ago).

    For MPs who are no longer active/alive but whose photos are "in copyright" things are much harder. The Horowhenua Historical Society made a generous donation from their archives which enabled us to have photos of David Lange, Rob Muldoon and (and exterely low quality one of ) Bill Rowling but getting these is very hard and a manual process.

    I'm hopefully that NZGOAL will eventually result in photos from the vaults of government being released ("MP opens New Building" or "Minister poses with staff" are the ones I am after).

    Auckland • Since Feb 2007 • 60 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Sharks Dine Out on…,

    Rent and be at the mercy of the landlord sharks

    Perhaps landlords in Christchurch are a nasty bunch but this is probably overstating it a little. Remember what got these people into trouble is having all their wealth (actually more than that with the mortgage) tied up in a single, immovable asset which despite their best efforts (insurance) was vulnerable to being badly hurt.

    Part of the solution might be higher density, cheaper to rent units/flats rather than attempting to re-house everybody on a 1/4 acre section. But I suspect that people (potential tenants and NIMBY neighbours) will reject this option.

    Should be be encouraging poor and retired people to invest all their money in over-priced housing?

    Auckland • Since Feb 2007 • 60 posts Report Reply

  • Regulate What?,

    I believe it's not illegal to gossip about the names behind suppression laws. It's publication that will have you pulled up beside whaleoil in court.

    The problem is that we are not just talking about the "Top 10 political blogs" (like this one) which have daily posts by political/media insiders but every other sort of blog (ie the once a month food blog) and forums such as facebook.

    So while (for instance) Kiwiblog and stuff.co.nz have contact addresses and semi-fulltime editors that can update stories as required what happens when Auntie May uses to discuss the latest court case with Auntie June?

    Suddenly the name is published for all the world to see and Auntie May might not even be aware that since she read about it in the Herald the name got suppressed.

    As Robyn said earlier this affects a lot more people that the Big Blogs and I don't think the press council is going to sign up every facebook and twitter user as a member.

    Auckland • Since Feb 2007 • 60 posts Report Reply

  • Legal Beagle: At least we have MMP,

    Personally I hate the perception that Electorate MPs are a better class than list MPs. In reality in most seats people vote for the candidate representing their party.

    If people hanker for a return to FPP then ask them:

    "So you'd be happy if there was a boundary change and you ended up in Rodney Hide's / Chris Carter's / Anne Tolley's [pick the ones you think they would like least] electorate and they had a 10,000 vote majority"

    Both main parties have half a dozen electorate MPs who they each they would prefer to replace with younger and more dynamic. Just look for anyone on the 3rd (or more term) that isn't in the front bench and has a list position below 40th.

    Auckland • Since Feb 2007 • 60 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Rethinking the EFA,

    I really think it discourages people from running a little campaign unless they are professional politcals.

    For example I might want to put up a website or a few posters advocating an issue or a party.

    I'd have to publish my home address ( which is nicely situated for people to throw rocks through my bedroom windows)

    I'd have to understand ( just about get a legal opinion) if I was allow to encourage people to vote for a particular party. Would I need permission? Would I need to record my spending etc?

    So the simple weekends exercise of putting up a website becomes something that exposes me to a financial, legal and even physical risk. Which is really just a bit hard for a single person who just cares about an issues but doesn't really want the fallout from setting up a little website to dominate their life for the next year or two.

    Auckland • Since Feb 2007 • 60 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Another nail in the coffin of…,

    The big thing about Album sales these days is most people don't actually buy anything. Sure half the people here have thousand CD/Record collections but the average person only buys one of two albums a year according to the RIANZ figures.

    So one option would be to charge everybody around $5 per month and then let them share, download and keep as much music as the like. The amount of money coming in would be the same and going off the complaints from all the musicians just about any new method of sharing the money around would give them more than they get now.

    Auckland • Since Feb 2007 • 60 posts Report Reply

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