Posts by tussock
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I do think the Maori Party has sold out poor urban Maori
As compared to what? The ETS national would have passed with ACT instead? You know, that lowered the minimum wage, put GST up to 20%, and gave a few more billion to the polluters, all paid for by selling the public health system.
They did, after all, get a some token funding for home insulation. I know it's shit, but it doesn't seem to hurt anyone in the short term (that largely being National's goal with the ETS, put the hurt off to some other government, even if it is ever so much larger by then (see also the govt. superannuation scheme)).
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Oh, and because I just spotted this thread, the threshold should really be dropped to what most closely approximates the number of voters that gets you an electorate seat, which is similar to half the amount you need to get two list seats (0.75 of a seat, or 0.6% of the vote).
That's a first divisor of 4/3, using our Sainte-Lague method. Various other places use a 7/5 divisor, which serves much the same purpose. And yes, it does change things now and then, stops minor parties taking quite so large an advantage by splitting up.
While we're at it, we could use STV for electorate seats (or a Condorcet method, if you're assuming voters are numerate), and even some sort of preferential system to reallocate party votes rather than accepting the cumulative rounding errors (which can in theory change governments from left to right based only on the vote split between Labour/Green/Jim voters). -
There's some talk here of "disarming" or "knocking some sense into" a person who is trying to stab you with a pair of scissors. That's not a good idea.
Assertive retreats are where it's at. First, you need to leave, and you need to be as assertive about it as you possibly can. Don't ask, don't bargain, don't chat, just leave. Use your loud voice as you go.
Do not grab at the weapon, or the person with the weapon. Do not approach the person with a weapon, other than to get past should they corner you.
Should you be restrained, you'll find the application of extreme violence should aid in your attempts to leave. Driving your fingers deep into their eye sockets, or biting a piece off their face or hand, that sort of thing.If you should be stabbed at despite your best attempts to get away, catch the weapon in (stabbed through) the palm of your hand, as it's an easy enough trick, and much safer than being stabbed anywhere else. Then get back to that leaving thing.
Second, contact the police, or any one of the thousands of random people nearby who might respond more quickly. Getting together with folk who are not looking likely to stab you is to be considered a high priority. -
Just fork up the documentation? Really? Employers leave, businesses close, no records are required past seven years or something anyway. People can inherit substantial money and property, how long does the public trust or your lawyers keep that info? How do you prove how long you've had an older asset that isn't normally registered with the state? How do you prove work done to improve a house was DIY? How do you prove gifts?
Do we have to track down dozens of people from years ago for affidavits? Will that even be possible?
How the hell is any of that supposed to work? Maybe some people keep a paper trail for all their valuable knick-knacks, but I sure don't.
There's a bloody good reason the state is supposed to prove you stole something: proving you fairly earned and bought everything in your possession would be ridiculous, if they can just tot up what you can't prove and take it, we're all fucked.
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Re: "This is worrying"
No it isn't, you're just getting old.
Really, kids spend a long time on the net because the net kicks ass. It's like newspapers, radio, TV, music, magazines, books, hanging out doing nothing, that time behind the bike sheds, board games, all the latest cool toys, and a friggen computer all rolled into one.
All of which, of course, previous generations where terribly worried about their kids spending too much time on. There's an urban legend says such concerns with the misspent time of youth are amongst the oldest recorded words of mankind.
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Yay for medical science. Saves some pretty cool people now and then.
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So, I read, when women talk for serious, they're expressing their feelings, and not normally presenting a problem to be solved. When men respond for serious, they're providing answers to what they perceive as a problem (namely whatever it is induced these "feelings"), often in the form of "loosely related facts".
That was a "fact" (and somewhat of a load of crap, as an aside), as I am a man, and I perceived a problem to which it was loosely related. It did not help the women in this discussion, as none had need of any help at all, but were simply expressing their feelings.
This has been a pathetic excuse for men everywhere who just don't get it. Thank you.
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I rather thought the rest of the infinities were the interesting bit, last time I read into it all.
Uni? Worst fifteen grand I ever spent. I was promised that high school was the boring bit you had to pass through to get to the interesting stuff at university. Turns out that was a lie.At university, they tell you the Bachelors is the boring stuff you have to pass through to get to the interesting work in year five. All the Masters and PHD students I talked to about it informed me that was another lie.
Apparently, a willingness to subject yourself to such boredom for 15+ years makes for a good potential employee. But my MSc (Chem) flatmate had been unemployed for 5 years straight, and the MSc (Optics) guy was headed the same way when I left.
Now I grow vegtables, and talk crap on the net. Turns out the boring options pay better. Never mind, at least this life's fun. 8] -
That's why we act as though our scientists really understand the universe, when history suggests on past performance that they are only less wrong about it.
Meh, not really. For a good few hundred years now each "wrong" has been more accurately described as "incomplete". Sometimes the bit you don't know yet is important (some radiation is bad for people), but usually what you do know works perfectly well whenever it matters (and when it doesn't, you go find the next part of the puzzle).
Science is usually pretty good with the error bars too, even if ordinary folk don't seem to understand what "95% likely to be this bad or worse" really means when the error bars are that big.
And then, of course, people do misapply science, even scientists outside their own field, and some people are just dicks, but science in general is pretty damned hot at being right. -
<sigh> Halflings and Spiderman. Both get a handy bonus to saving throws, you know.
Oddly, Bolt's new sprint record has pushed the theoretical limit for the 100m from 9.5 down to 9.2. That's got to be mostly from his leg length.Certainly evolution can beat that, as can springier tracks and shoes. If a Cheetah's good for 5.6 seconds or so, that's got to be closer to a true limit in the extreme long term for those sprinter-breeding and technological advancement programs.