Posts by Rob Hosking
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Written on rolls of papyrus, it was.
Papyrus?
Looxury.
We had it on blocs of stone. Julius Vogel visited us and explained why he'd borrowed all that money.
And Hone Heke was a regular contestant at the wood chopping competiton at the school gala day.
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Graeme,
Is that because she's bugging you, or because you can't wait to see how much she enjoys it?
Its important: one makes you a grinch, the other makes you an indulgent uncle. (no value judgement here: both have their place)
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I find the workshop shavings are a perfect infusion fora piece of salmon on foil with a touch of lemon and honey atop to be hot smoked for 5 to 10 mins
If you're feeling really decadent, sprinkle some Laphriog Single Malt over the salmon as well. Goes down a treat.
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Craig,
Quoting from the classics, I see.
I generally don't have personal heroes, but Burke comes about as close as possible.
The part about 'cautious experiments, and rational, cool endeavours' is the key bit. Should apply to every major policy change.
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Not a bad idea keith....have to get some recognition of Godwins Law in the index as well (an aside here - when I was involved in Uni debating in the late 80s some adjudicators would deduct 10 points if you compared you opponent's argument to Nazi Germany).
Its not so much about Hansard - the pollies have always said silly things in the House, but it usually doesn't matter that much because there's sort of a tacit acknowledgment its theatre, and besides, most of the time no-one's paying much attention anyway.
Its what's said in the media, I suppose, which seems to have gotten sillier and more over-dramatised. Maybe journos are more inclined to print silly things, maybe its the Oprah-isation of our culture, maybe its [insert pet unprovable sociological theory here]
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Keith,
Gidday, met you briefly at that Nat end of year do... I was heading for the door at the time.
You've touched on something I wrote about in my end of year Trans Tasman column - the over inflated political language which has characterised this year.
I don't know if its because we've spent so much time on things like the anti-smacking bill, or the terrorist raids, or the general lowering of standards you tend to get as governments age, or the blogs, or what..
But it looks to me as if the laconic Kiwi understatement is dead, apart from when it is used self consciously in Speights ads and the like. there's a marked tendency towards rather melodramatic language which is downright unhealthy.
On another point - I was at the Treasury Secretary John Whitehead's address last night which made a few headlines this morning.
He had a great quote I hadn't heard before from Daniel Patrick Moynihan which went something like 'everyone is entitled to their own private opinion, but they're not entitled to their own private facts.'
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This thread has become fascinating on so many levels, and I jsut want to say a great big HI! to those hundreds of lurkers I know are watching at the moment.
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Excuse me while I take my vibe-o-corn to church.
Should put a bit of feeling into those 'hallelujiahs!'s, anyway.
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It was always going to be hard to prove historical claims beyond doubt.
Stephen Price makes an intriguing point about this on his media law blog: the cases heard were criminal trials and therefore the standard of proof was beyond reasonable doubt.
Nicholas has called Rickards a rapist in her book. Rickards has called her a liar who needs help.
Both are potentially actionable for libel - and the std of proof in a civil case is balance of probablity. If one of them were to sue the other....
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Internat Observer:
They were still pushing that particular 'face massager' in the early-mid 1990s when I was in Auckland.