Posts by Matthew Reid
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An interesting aspect of the NZDep is how it is quantified. There are 9 dimensions taken into account - people aged 18-64 receiving a means tested benefit, people living in households with income below an income threshold, people not living in own home, people aged <65 living in a single parent family, people aged 18-64 unemployed, people aged 18-64 without any qualifications, people living in households below a bedroom occupancy threshold, people with no access to a telephone, people with no access to a car. I think some people find it surprising that there are people out there living without broadband, let alone no telephone...
The ethnic breakdown of deprivation is also intersting, with an under-representation of European and Other groups and an over-representation of Maori and Pacific people in the most deprived deciles. And it means something - life expectancy reduces / mortality rates increase with increasing deprivation (and then independent of deprivation mortality rates are higher than for non-Maori) - that is there is a socioeconomic gradient in mortality.
In these maps they seem to have gone for quintiles rather than deciles, so the red parts are areas that are the most deprived 20% of the country and the pale pink parts are areas that are the least deprived 20% of the country. But it is, of course, relative. So it's not like the red parts get redder and pale pink parts become paler as inequality grows. Yet socioeconomic inequality increased over the 80's and 90's and so did inequalities in mortality. The late 90's and early 2000's saw a slowing of the increase in relative inequality. Let's hope that's a trend that continues.
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Matthew - bowl both bridges on Colombo & Moorhouse cnrs creating a tree lined walk/cycleway (OK with a set of lights for rail) seperated from cars & open the city to the south.
Brilliant - we've fixed it.
And reconvert the Hoyts into a railway station again, and everyone who is now driving from Rangiora, Kaiapoi, Belfast (and soon Pegasus Town), Halswell, Prebbleton, Lincoln can get off there and go for a morning coffee on Colombo South then free shuttle into CBD. Wicked.
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If any developers are out there - I recon Colombo St South offers a real oppitunity.
I reckon too, and so does Henderson apparently. The fence surrounding the building site at Sydenham Square has Vespas, pearl neclasses, outside coffee tables... There is a decent cafe down that way now, but the shopping centre with Spotlight is a bit depressing and empty.
But, the main problem is that from the CBD Colombo has that awful rail overbirdge which kind of unnatrually cuts the street off. You certainly aren't going to get pedestrian flow from town. Which is why it might make sense to have people live there, in those beautiful brick terraces.
Maybe an idea yet to find it's full realisation.
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Green Cabs now - efficient in all ways!
Except if you want to leave too early in the morning in Chch, in which case they send another taxi company! This was in the their first few weeks of operation so perhaps it's not the case anymore. Ironically it was a big six cylinder number.
Shuttle makes you leave incredibly too much early for your flight. But as Shp said, the bus is great if you don't mind an extra 1/2 hour.
Tried to fly out of Chch this morning but fog cancelled me out.
What's his name who took on the IRD & then made a movie about himself (shrinking violet), developed SOL & did it backwards by building puds first - should have been accomodation first & it would have limited the pub developments/noise etc (& his profit). When he did build the accomodation he didn't use double glazing & so the noise & cold come right inside.
Completely agree about David Henderson (SOL is South of Lichfield for you out of towners). He's also behind Sydenham Square on Colombo & Brougham, which is stalled for lack of funds...
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Indded the "parsite" quote with Public Address banner in the background. Sorry for the bad press...
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glad you pointed that "study" out, Juha.
the so-called scientists behind the gynomastica / lavender link used a sample of three boys who came to their attention through various other studies.
Yup - ONE, TWO, THREE.Perhaps it's worth pointing out that this is what is known as a case series, which is not high level evidence of an association. The next step down, to simplify things a bit, is a case report. Case reports and case series are descriptive, not analytical, in that they describe and postulate hypotheses but don't test them.
However, they are how we came to recognise AIDS as a condition - case reports, then case series being put togehter by observant doctors. Of course, not all case reports end up being the basis of something so massive, or they could propose an association that doesn't end up being there after further study.
For higher level proof one would need to put together cases and compare them to controls in a well designed study - perhaps on the basis of a case series of 3 boys someone might do that. It would be a reasonable way to examine what is probably a rare outcome and its proposed association with lavender oil as the exposure.
BTW Eleanor I have the same concerns as you regarding the need for transparency in the provenance of funding. -
As far as the census goes, I'm still waiting for jack-booted Stats Nazis to kick my door down because I never have, and never will, answer any questions about my ethnicity
But please, when answering ethnicity, do not put "mongrel" or "New Zealander" as it really really doesn't help. Try figuring out which demographics in the country need help through policy when ll you've got to go on is "New Zealander". It's not racist it's just dumb.
If you are a "mongrel" tick as many boxes as apply to you, StatsNZ encourage you to.I think there are good reasons to answer questions about ethnicity. As Hadyn has pointed out making use of census data to make good policy requires as complete as possible data. There are strong privacy protections around access to the data. And we need good denominators to, for example, follow the disparities between the health of Maori and non-Maori - so that we know whether its getting better or worse, whether inequalities are increasing or decreasing and whether interventions work or not. The reality is that the first census was in 1851 for non-Maori and 1858 for Maori.
Other routine data collected:
Births and deaths: non-Maori since 1848, Maori since 1913
Stillbirths: non-Maori since 1914, Maori since 1942
Causes of death: non-Maori since 1872, Maori since 1920I think the difference in dates is outrageous - Maori figures were too hard to record? Only worth collecting data on non-Maori?
I think it is justified to demand to be able to record ethnicity on the census - for Maori it hasn't always been possible.
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One thing Keith didn't mention was the threat by the UNHCR to pull out its support and resources unless the Government stopped forceably repatriating refugees back into their original areas. In fact, my recollection is that the UNHCR acted on that threat in an attempt to force the Government to stop doing it. It did pull its people out (although I haven't been able to confirm this). If they did, or if they do, then would be enormously significant - since it strongly affects the inclination and ability of other aid agencies to carry on their work.
Indeed, it would be a major statement by UNHCR, and not something they would do lightly. I know that Médecins Sans Frontières pulled out in October, but have since been able to return. That wasn't directly related to forced repatriation, but interference with their work.
Their work is tough enough as it is - I spoke with aid workers who had been evacuated by their agencies several times as the bombs fell around them.
And worse, with the murder of aid workers from Action Against Hunger (reported by BBC) also last year.
The only time we hear about sri lanka at the moment is related to cricket.
heaven forbid newpapers report on anything other than that :/Sri Lanka made it into MSF's top 10 most underreported stories in 2006 - which is measured by TV coverage in the US, but clearly holds true for NZ as well.
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My vote is for Spooky - The 3d's.
I couldn't even feel you breathe
I think it's time to leave
Might be a bit literal but it's such a beautiful song. -
BTW, anyone else have crashing problems with Safari on Public Address System?
No problems with Safari at home or Opera at work. Occasionally misplaced type but nothing worst.
That's not the only problem. Ever since we got the Xtra Go Large package (unlimited downlands, fast as can be done) I haven't been able to access the Herald quickly. It can take up to a minute to load.... which of course gives me plenty of time to pop over to Public Address. Problem with Xtra, or with the Herald? Or (shush - don't say it too loud) with our Mac? Any advice?
I have the same problem, both on Mac and PC. I also get stuck with just the banner. I thought it was being so far away...
With regard to service and Macs I have always had pretty good, if somewhat painful, service from MagnumMac in Christchurch. They replaced my white-spotted PowerBook screen (although the new one is doing it now too). I can't say I've had good or expert help from the Apple Store in Sydney nor the Apple Centers in Moscow (but that may be more a reflection of the usual Russian personality than anything to do with Apple). And in the land of allofMP3 there is little demand for iTunes here.