Posts by 3410

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  • Hard News: I'm marking Youth Week by…,

    It may not appeal to your taste but radio is an accurate arbiter of the taste of New Zealanders.

    I don't think that means what you think it means.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • Hard News: I'm marking Youth Week by…,

    Speaking of music, Jim Mora's featured album of the day is Barbra Streisand's 1980 LP, 'Guilty'. Sounds like us? Is Jim the only man in NZ impressed by the phrase "Grammy Award-winning"?

    Anyway... Hardly surprising that record companies aren't interested in counting P2P downloads. For a start, the charts are not a public service set up to accurately measure popularity, they're a promotional device. Moreover such a move would only give the practice perceived legitimacy, which is the last thing they want.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • Hard News: No end of mileage,

    Honest question: What is the Mayors' conference trying to achieve? Stopping 'boy racers' from being involved in so many fatal and serious crashes, or stopping 'boy racers' from annoying law abiding citizens? I can't tell anymore.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • Hard News: No end of mileage,

    1) I won the practical component of my Driver's Licence (at 15) based on little more than what I learned as an 8 year old at Footrot Flats, and from what I hear the test is even shorter & easier now. Compulsary driver training would go a long way to curb the discussed problem. I think the fact that we are stationary in relation to the vehicle gives drivers a false sense of security; the main reason older drivers may generally be safer is that they've experienced what happens when you get out of line. If "the kids" had some experience of understeering, oversteering, aquaplaning, brake lock-up, hazard avoidance etc, in controlled conditions, they might not have to learn the hard way.

    2) RB, Props for smacking down the 'common sense' brigade with actual research - we need more of that - and congrats on the deserved QMA, though I've got to say, If NZH won Best News Site I've got to question the veracity of the process.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • Hard News: He even has his Baldrick,

    Note that the Middle East Media Resource Institute, which hosts this clip, is a Washington-based organisation dedicated to selecting and promoting clips which cast non-jewish Middle Easteners in the worst possible light.

    Some comments about MEMRI from Wikipedia and the complete MEMRI Wikipedia entry here.

    I'm not taking sides, but it's all in the selection, right?

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • Hard News: He even has his Baldrick,

    Time to start the discussion on the abolition of the undemocratic threshold? Certainly not my cup of tea, but Destiny New Zealand scored enough votes at the last election to get Richard Lewis into Parliament. What right in a democracy have the rest of us to tell them to stuff off unless they earn enough votes for 6 MPs?

    Graeme,

    Any party need only have one electorate MP elected in order to gain representation for their party. Indeed, United Future is in parliament, not for reaching the threshold - which if memory serves, it didn't - but by virtue of Dunne's Ohariu-Belmont win.

    Also note that, contrary to your implication, it is now easier than ever for small parties to win parliamentary representation. Recall 1981, where Social Credit scored more than a fifth of the popular vote, though attained seats only for Beetham and Knapp, out of the then 60.

    Personally, I'm getting pretty sick of these oppurtunistic "centrist", "common sense" parties (NZF, UF) hijacking the middle 5% of parliament. If anything, the threshold should be raised.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • Hard News: What's on David Bain's iPod?,

    Maybe the question is whether the general audience has been taught, via years of McDonalds for the brain, that meaningful participation in media and politics is not an option, so why bother.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • Hard News: What's on David Bain's iPod?,

    People SAY they want long form current affairs interviews a la Kim Hill, but then they don't watch it.

    Isn't it rather that the intelligensia say they want long-form current affairs, but the proles don't watch it? As for whether that equation should dictate content, I guess it depends on whether you think the dissemination of information (ie media in general) carries with it any responsibility to society, or whether it's just another revenue stream to exploit.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • Hard News: What's on David Bain's iPod?,

    BTW, DC, you're one of the good ones. :)

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

  • Hard News: What's on David Bain's iPod?,

    You haven't answered the question though 3410, what would you have asked? Given that he made it clear he wasn't going to answer anything about the judicial process (and presumably therefore the case itself). We've had a lot of funny examples, prison nickname, whether he got action etc, but has anyone come up with some serious questions that would have beaten the media scrum that you're all having a go at?

    I didn't realise it was directed at me, but if you give me the equivalent time of an AKL-CHCH flight to think of one, I will. In any case, Emma, for one, came up with a question that was ten times better than any offered by the pros, and in a few minutes, one suspects. If my only option was "how do you feel?" I'd have probably said nothing. I mean, why ask that for the seventh or eighth time? Is it just to get some tape with yourself on it? I can't see any other reason.

    BTW, I also expect teachers, doctors, baristas or plumbers to be better at their job than I'd be.

    I appreciate that you're defending collegues, and good on you for that, but I still say the performances were poor. The biggest news story of the year, well telegraphed, and they had nothing.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report

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