Posts by Fooman
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OnPoint: What Andrew Geddis Said, But…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Firstly, no monarch or governor-general of an independent Commonwealth realm has vetoed a bill in 300 years.
I had a conversation with someone who knows a fair bit about Governers General on a similar topic, and they noted that it isn't so much a formal refusal to sign, but governments, after "reflection" decide not to proceed with assent, if something is not sitting quite right.
This has happened at least once in a realm, if I recall correctly.
FM
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OnPoint: Budget 2013: Bringing Down the…,
Just a placeholder for my upcoming note of appreciation...
FM
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Capture: Someone, Somewhere, In Summertime, in reply to Hebe,
Gorgeous sunset though Fooman; where is it?.
There is a rather large clue in the image file name...
Cheers,
FM -
Capture: Someone, Somewhere, In Summertime,
Playing around one evening, on the first camping holiday I've had in over 20 years.
FM
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Hard News: Women and their representations, in reply to Jackie Clark,
+1 to the power of 1 million
Ahem, in other words, 1?
I'll get me coat....
FM
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Capture: Mama Don't Take My Lytro Camera…,
Very interesting.
Saw the initial reviews of this a few months ago. The form factor is indeed "interesting" - reminds me of the Ziess Axiocam microscope camera I used a few years ago - fantastically good, but was essentially a box with a hole in it.
Can you stack focal depths and export them out as one image? Or would that be limited to 3rd party software (e.g. ImageJ's focus stacker)?
Cheers,
FM -
Speaker: The Voyage: The Engine Room…,
Passenger jet speeds haven’t increased for 50 years
Poor example. This has got something to do with transonic shock waves forming on the aircraft requiring exponential increases in thrust to overcome the aerodynamic forces, rather than a lack of innovation or evolution of technology.
The technological progress is shown by the fuel consumption per passenger dropping to 30% of what it was in 1960 (1). At the same time as improving reliability.
The drive in aerospace technology is, in fact, driven by civil aerospace requirements for fuel efficiency, high specfic performance, and longer maintenance cycles. Military applications, less so.
FM
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Hard News: Press Play > Budget, in reply to Paul Campbell,
I’m always been amazed that people haven’t been shrinking their loans this way – it always seemed very rort-worthy
Well, the drip feed nature of student loan draw downs makes this unlikely. The most you get ever get in one shot was ~$1k for course related costs (text books, maybe laptops these days). The rest came in at a max of $150 per week, and for most students on a loan, was needed to pay for inconsquentials like rent, power and food.
FM
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Hard News: Press Play > Budget, in reply to HenryB,
Does that mean that the SOEs have been making a significant contribution to the growth in NZ’s GDP whilst core-govt expenditure has stayed static?
Were there not figures flying about how the SOE's recent rate of return is something on the order of 18% on values on anywhere between 3-7 billion. Seems a bit more than the just above static GDP of recent times.
Core govt expenditure has actually skyrocketed recently (by approx 18 billion off the top of my head) - but that is not in the field of things like health, welfare, etc. The increase, as far as I could see were the Roads of Unusual Size, earthquake costs and the bailout costs. Raw figures are at:
http://www.treasury.govt.nz/government/financialstatements/yearend/jun11/16.htm
For my earlier lay-analysis, see: http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/04/government_expenditure-2.html#comment-956469
FM
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Hard News: Press Play > Budget, in reply to HenryB,
I don’t see how a `zero’ budget with an increased GDP adds up to a government that is “the biggest it has ever been…as a share of the economy”
Inclusion of SOE's and the like, rather than core Govt. expenditure?
Just a guess at this stage...
FM
