Posts by Kyle Matthews

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  • OnPoint: AIA and Maori Seats,

    Anyway, why doesn't the Government just bite the bullet and nationalise the airports, ports and rail network and tell us what social services are going to be cut to pay for it all? :)

    What's this 'pay' white man? That sounds like buying, nationalising is when the government informs you on its state-run channel that these things that you used to own, now belong to them. You might get paid a pittance of what you wrongly thought they were worth, and possibly not shot. Move along.

    Personally, I really fail to see what the problem is with a Canadian Pension Fund owning 40% of the airport, and declining to have that much control. Private NZ, or other overseas investors are going to be just as interested in making money and not caring about the 'strategic value' of AIA as a Canadian fund.

    And personally, I'd much rather than a bunch of Canadians having a say than anything headed by John Banks.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Random Play: Sing like you’re winning,

    And what's the problem with her spitting her gum into a dresser's hand before she takes the stage? Do we criticise a prize fighter for not removing his mouthpiece and locking eyes with his trainer and saying "gee, I know it's gross, and I'm sorry to ask you while you're busy watching me, but do you suppose you could hold this for a little while while a have a drink and rinse my mouth? Thanks so much for that". From what I've seen they just spit it into a waiting hand, their gaze fixed in the middle distance.

    I think the problem is, Kiri probably had a rubbish bin to put her gum into, and boxers don't have their own hands to take their own mouthguard out.

    If I was the dresser, I'd have to restrain myself a great deal not to smile and rub the gum into her hair.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Radiation: New season,

    Am I the only person who is quite happy to give heavily 'serialised' shows like The Wire a pass on network TV and wait for the DVDs? One reason I checked out of Lost was because I'd be utterly... well, lost if I missed a couple of episodes.

    I struggle between that, and "dammit, I need to know what's happening" with Lost. Which they never properly answer anyway, but I still feel it.

    For other shows which people say are 'really good' but which I never got into in the first season (BSG, Wire etc), I just ignore it on TV and think "I'll rent the DVD season 1 some time and see if I want to buy them all".

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Laying Down the Law,

    Just for fun I have calculated the confidence levels for the figures Russell quotes from the Herald. There's a 99% chance that the actual percentage of New Zealand First supporters who wish NZ First to go into coalition with National is between 64.5% and 115% (!). For ACT and United Future its between 42% and 156%, and for the Maori Party between -2.6% and 92.5%.

    These statistics are based on the extremely dubious assumption that the people surveyed provide a representative snapshot of the range of opinions of the supporters of the four parties. The stats are, of course, meaningless as Russell and others point out. It's not simply a case of OVERinterpretation here - rather, it's a case of basic innumeracy.

    There's a high level of irony in a post critiquing someone else's statistics, while making the claim that 115%, 156%, and -2.6% (!) of a group of people want something.

    Clearly this proves that not only can statistics say anything, they can also say nothing at all.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Laying Down the Law,

    The one think I'll never forgive Margaret Wilson for is splitting the anti-Winston vote just enough in '99, that He Who Must Not Be Named beat Katherine O'Regan by sixty three votes.

    I'm not so sure if Wilson is as much to blame as any one of about 50 retirement villages. I would go with the napalm to be honest.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Speaker: Community Modelling with DAS,

    Oh! And I was thinking about experts cage-wrestling, and I remembered the first article David H did for PA, on energy policy. That was a wee gem. Maybe that would be a good area for expert death-matches getting closer to the election: experts analysing party policy in their particular area.

    Hear hear. That was a PA article that still sticks in my head and which I've mentioned to people occasionally.

    Intelligent, reasoned information during an election campaign. We could try it for a laugh I guess.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Laying Down the Law,

    I once signed up to an ACT list as a 'keeping an eye on the bad guys' thing for my work old work.

    Unsubscribing was tremendously hard. The unsubscribe page said it worked, but the emails kept on coming. Eventually it took rude emails to some administrator to get me off.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Random Play: Sing like you’re winning,

    One of the gossip magazines - No Idea some weekly

    "No Idea" is a great for a stupid gossip magazine. I vote they all get renamed to that.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Speaker: Community Modelling with DAS,

    Interesting idea Che. I wonder however if it would end up being a bit of a 'tree falling in a forest'. How many people wouldn't read because they couldn't contribute?

    I wonder if Russell has any thoughts on whether adding system has increased the readership of the straight blogs that he used to have on PA.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Random Play: Sing like you’re winning,

    I didn't hear boo about this big tiff or whatever until it was covered on Mediawatch yesterday morning.

    Seriously... one singer having a go at another singer in what appears to be a bit of a stupid thing to say. How is this news?

    Britney is even more interesting than this, and that's not saying much.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

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