Posts by Russell Brown
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Ian:
I have watched and been absorbed by the video "My Language" and been blown away. Given that she was writing her own explanation of her thinking, it would suggest an extraordinary wealth of ideas which are presumably locked up in many autistic people. How frustrating! Do autistic people hear the language of others around them? Thanks.
The extraordinary thing is that she's taken the trouble to translate for us; to learn our language. The interesting thing in the Wired story that a non-autist "expert" has doubted she could be capable of it, which speaks volumes about perceptions and expectations amongst people who apparently ought to know.
Ben:
Furthermore, I can honestly say I feel the same way about my own thoughts a lot of the time. Taking absorbed fascination in the mundane can be quite involving, even if it seems to others that you're just sitting there staring at nothing or fidgeting in an annoying way. Very often the fidgeting itself is an expression or even a part of the thought, and it can lead to conclusions all of it's own.
To a greater or lesser degree, people on the spectrum lack the (as Kathy Sierra put it at Webstock) "spam filter" the rest of us take for granted. They experience everything with the same degree of intensity, at the same "volume". This is one of the biggest problems for AS kids in the classroom -- they're aware of human "noise" that everyone else simply ignores.
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I thought we'd all concluded that the published material came from the defense side, not the police side. Or was the one published on the internet different from the one the Dom used?
The internet one was definitely from the defence side, it's unclear who provided the Dom Post's copy. But they did get some earlier leaks from the defence camp.
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freakish about face is harsh. National made very clear when the suggestion of raising the age of full criminal responsibilty to 18 was raised that they were appalled at such a suggestion.
I guess so. I just read the speech as saying they'd expedite the passage of the measure he described as "long overdue". He could have been clearer, couldn't he?
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But OMG! Did youse guys see it tonight??? Although I missed like the last second, I will still admit to shedding a wee almost-tear when (SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN TONIGHT'S) Craig found Alice.
I thought it was great. Great location, excellent performances (especially Toni Potter as Alice) and a highly amusing tilt into the grammar of splatter movies. The loooooong story arc hasn't always held my attention, but the conclusion has been top fun.
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With a little luck, the day Key becomes Prime Minister the usual suspects are going to Mama Cass on their own bile.
No, I'm picking about three weeks later when it dawns on them that the elected government government is a perfectly conventional one, and thus unable to deliver them from their fevered dreams and grievances.
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Something that would be great if for no other reason than the enjoyment available from I watching the implosions it caused in the wingnutosphere
We won't have to wait long for wingnutosphere implosions anyway. Their lack of positive affirmation for Key is noticeable already.
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PPS: I must have missed something somewhere, but where have John Campbell's ties gone?
How would you know? You watch Shortland Street every night.
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SO no one can build another airport anywhere ever again? No land anywhere that couldn't be suitable, no other airports that could be expanded ever...?
I'd like to see the Whenuapai airport built, but here's huge resistance to it.
But even if it was, it wouldn't be a replacement as such. The third-party business investment in the area around the AIA site is enormous now. Freight businesses, a full-size supermarket, etc. Public infrastructure (including the Western ring route) continues to be built around it. It really is not replaceable in a realistic sense.
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I'm not a Dr. Who fan, but having seen how brilliant the guy from Torchwood was in season 19 of Nevermind the Buzzcocks (on divx from a bit-torrenting friend, in keeping with the current topic), I'd be keen to see it!
You mean the Amstell-Barrowman gay-off? Genius:
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Really? Got any evidence? Frankly I think that is a huge assumption. Did Fay Richwhite have such concern over rail? What about Alan Gibbs and Telecom?
In both those cases, there were actually large foreign shareholders who took huge dividend incomes out of the respective companies, at the same time as they ran down capital investment.
New Zealand government debt was retired with the $4.2 billion Ameritech and Bell Atlantic paid for Telecom in 1990, which was good, but it's actually hard to see what value they brought the company after that -- Rod Deane once muttered something about the "advice and assistance on projects" they provided, but it's hard to see what advice would have been commensurate with the cash they took out of the company. Their chief influence was probably on the size of dividends.
So that's one reason to be wary of big foreign shareholders moving into established businesses. Perhaps the Canadians were in it for the long haul, but a 30% voting bloc is a pretty big one if they suddenly decided to rip out cash and exit.
I'm also in agreement with Stephen about the different forms of investment. Vietnam is taking billions every year in foreign direct investment, but it's nearly all for new ventures.
I don't buy that this sort of restriction is a major barrier to equity investment in transport infrastructure, if only because everyone else, including the Australians and the Canadians (who are moving from federal to regional ownership of airports) is doing it. The manner are timing are another matter.
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