Posts by Robert Urquhart
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A friend of mine who woks on the EQC claim processing team, which I’d summarize thus…
There aren’t as many staff processing claims as you think there are, they aren’t paid as much as you think they are, they all have broken homes and earthquake-stress here in Christchurch of their own and they also suffer threats and abuse from claimaints.
Edited: 16JUN10, 1.46 pm
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Hard News: Christchurch: Square Two, in reply to Emma Hart,
Also... the students? Are in the middle of exams. They'll not be digging us out in a hurry this time round. And dear gods, how TIRED they must be.
Are either swearing or cheering as their exam schedules/assessment hand in dates go up in smoke, depending on how hard they've been studying. This entire semester has been hard on them, there's been precious little certainty and an oversupply of confusion about even when/where your next lecture is going to be.
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Up Front: Respectably-Dressed Sensible…, in reply to Che Tibby,
what recent high-profile cases have taught me is that the definition is far broader. broad enough to make me take a very long look at my own behaviour.
I wrote a short series of posts a little while ago, triggered by the statistic that "6% of college age men, slightly over 1 in 20, will admit to raping someone in anonymous surveys, as long as the word "rape" isn’t used in the description of the act". I'm just going to link them here rather than retype
Part 1: Rape links, and the importance of Assent
Part 2: Personal demons is filtered, because it's quite personal but it's basically where I admitted to mistakes I have made in the past (see Che's other comment above) and my fears about making them again.
Part 3: changing the social "normal" -
Southerly: That CERA Rumour, in reply to Islander,
Slightly OT but
anyone else had the message from “hedgehog100” apropos Fletchers, demolition tenders, and the government?No, but I've just seen a copy of CERA's response posted to Sue Wells' blog
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Southerly: One Hundred and Thirty-one…, in reply to Fraserhead,
Now, can I get you to help me out with a way to "Amsterdamize" the CBD???
I was participating in one of the Share An Idea workshops on Sunday and although I wasn't working on the "Space" aspect I noticed that both groups that were came up with and highlighted "Stop calling it the C B D" in response to the question about how to encourage the use of the physical space in the city in the evenings.
I noticed in all the materials it's being referenced as the "Central City", so I think the council may be already on to this.
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I just let off in my LJ/blog about "Incentive" not being equal to "Opportunity" after something Bill English said in an interview today.
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: A Credible Path to…, in reply to SteveH,
If there is a revolutionary application that requires massive bandwidth then why hasn’t it appeared already in the places which have massive bandwidth?
I realise you’re talking more about indirect benefits, which are harder to point to. But FTTH is already available in many countries, so why haven’t we been shown the economic impacts from those countries?
Because the “killer app” isn’t actually the end product.
It’s like you’re saying “If there is a revolutionary application that requires electricity then why hasn’t it appeared already in the places which have electricity.” Substitute “telephone” if you like.
As for collaboration, as someone who works from home in NZ for an office in Sydney I think it’s pretty practical now, even with the ridiculous 1Mbit upload limitation of ADSL2+. Yes, more bandwidth would be nice, but I’m not convinced it’s worth $1B of public money.
Good for you. Much of the country can only dream of being able to connect at your ‘ridiculous’ 1Mbit. That’s the issue the broadband rollout is supposed to address. That’s the opportunity it’s supposed to give everyone, to do what you are doing.
Tell me, do you get paid the same (converted to $AU) as your counterparts across the ditch? If so, congratulations, you’re actually achieving what National has completely failed to, catching us up with Australia. That’s one example the power of high speed internet and international collaboration, letting people earn on an international payscale here in little old NZ.
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I saw a quote somewhere - maybe it was in a cartoon - a little while ago.
The person who invents a thing, is not necessarily the same person who discovers it's use.
Or something like that.
The internet (and services built on it), especially enabled by broadband, has proven to be one of those things in spades. High resolution videoconferencing in and of itself isn't going to bring money in. But our best and brightest being able to collaborate in real time with their counterparts around the world - without having to leave NZ - that just might lead to something that does*. And not just in the tech sector.
Something does have to be done about that pipe though ... -
Except that student allowance eligibility was calculated on parental income, not value of assets held by your parents (or more likely the bank).
And was of course gross income, which as we've seen is very high for farmers, which meant that, since my folks played it straight and didn't have the station's assets hidden away, that I could never get an allowance.
But really it's a bit like Kiwisaver - if you're self/not employed it makes sense to put just enough in to get the maximum top up, and it made sense to use the trusts loophole to cut the amount of tax you were paying. I can see why so many people did it.
See also 0 interest student loans, which came in just as I had to return to study. Borrow off the mortgage at whatever % it was then - or interest free. It didn't take very long to come to a decision.
That said if I'd put it on the mortgage I might have paid it off by now. Might not have a few other things.
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Southerly: That CERA Rumour, in reply to Shulgin,
In regards to retrofitting new foundations I think the costings are underestimated by the author.
Oh, I think David is sadly intimately familiar with the cost of retrofitting new foundations to a riverside house in Christchurch.