Posts by Russell Brown

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  • Cracker: Mr Transparent,

    What's voting?:)

    LOL.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: All your Trade are belong to us,

    I suspect that the police had never done record gathering on that scale before, so had no idea that it was going to result in such a volume of information. Once they've got it they can hardly give it back, too, so being in possession of it they had to hand it over during discovery. Hopefully it's a lesson learned and in future they'll be a bit more discerning, but if they got useful information from a reasonable percentage of the secondary trade records it could become another tool to be utilised on a regular basis.

    Wise words. I also hope they learn from the experience.

    I'd strongly debate that it was a "fishing expedition" -- they've sought information on people with a direct trading link to the suspects, and in some cases those people have provided evidence.

    But you'd think they could use public trading records to narrow the field before they execute their warrant for names and addresses.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: All your Trade are belong to us,

    does anyone know whats happened to their circulation in the last year or so?

    The Audit Bureau of Circulation says total circulation (including freebies) is 65559 -- down 4.4% on a year ago and 5.4% on six months ago.

    It's faring much better than Metro (17% down in a year!) but apparently not as well lately as North & South.

    OTOH, The Listener's readership (which is estimated from the Nielsen media surveys rather than actually counted) is up 8% year-on-year.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: All your Trade are belong to us,

    Also, Russell, your last link (to the Herald) seems to be broken.

    Ta. Fixed now.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Island Life: And later on, a bit of a…,

    Oh, and Public Address reader Andrew Wilson gave us this personal account of a Horowitz lecture appearance in Indiana in 2005.

    It is every bit as disturbing as you'd expect. And then some more.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Island Life: And later on, a bit of a…,

    I note that his name has been cropping up a bit on Farrar's blog, but from what I can tell no one (apart from maybe Redbaiter and Michael Coote of the NBR on the New Zealand Right has gotten out there yet.

    Coote's a hoot. I can't confirm if he actually is Redbaiter, but The Fundy Post has revealed his after-hours gig: he's the campaign manager for National's Jackie Blue in Mt Roskill.

    Which certainly casts an interesting light on this part of his NBR polemic:

    Which feckless, taxpayer-funded bunch of collectivist lickspittles - red or blue - one wants to preside nominally in Parliament over the country's true entrenched ruling class of expropriating bureaucrats and other species of mis-named public servants, is all that anyone will be turning out one upcoming Saturday to vote upon. Those who expect the unelected ruling class to be disestablished as an outcome of the election would be wise to hedge their bets by launching a petition for Pharmac to undertake full funding of psychiatric drugs to be available without prescription in supermarkets.

    Oh bloody dear.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: All your Trade are belong to us,

    but I find it extremely hard to believe that this would be a net that casts so wide as to be five figures in size.

    That seems to be at issue. The Listener story says "at least 5000 and as many as 10,000" and the Trade Me advisory says 3000.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: John Key(nesian),

    Since we're also talking rugby, I wonder if somebody could enlighten me on the following: some have said that the ABs were incorrectly awarded the lineout that lead to Woodcock's second try, since the Aussie fullback (was it the fullback) grabbed hold of the ball with a foot deliberately outside the line. But he didn't catch it on the full, the ball was on the ground - does that make any difference as far as the rule goes?

    I thought the decision was wrong at the time, but that part of Law 19 is gloriously unclear:

    The ball is in touch if a player catches the ball and that player has a foot on the touchline or the ground beyond the touchline.

    If a player has one foot in the field of play and one foot in touch and holds the ball, the ball is in touch.

    The "ball still in motion" thing that everyone's been rabbiting on about doesn't feature at all in the wording. Is picking it up "catching", so long as the ball is moving? Or does "catch" mean what it says -- ie, on the full? And does that make a difference as to which side is deemed to have put the ball out??

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: John Key(nesian),

    Tracey's stats are online now.

    They speak of a superhuman performance by McCaw.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: John Key(nesian),

    I reckon some sort of insurance should be compulsory, with a levy to catch the no-fault element. Just like the British car insurance system in fact...

    The only problem there is trying get insurance of any kind. I had a minor conviction and had to resort to an insurance broker just to get contents insurance for our flat on the rough side of Brixton. Cue conversation:

    "So what do you do for a job?"

    "I'm a journalist."

    "What kind of journalist?"

    "A music journalist."

    "Oh ..."

    You tended to need an MI5 clearance to open a sodding bank account too.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

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