Posts by Tim Darlington
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If a commercial enterprise is genuinely viable, then it should be able to happen at a profit within our existing legal framework.
Public transport, for example? Seriously, don't go there - there's an endless range of publicly owned or subsidised commercial activity that most of us wouldn't want to do without.
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I think we can rule out basic decency - more likely to be that ACT on Campus put the hard word on him. No enthusiasts for religious conservatism among his enthusiastic electorate helpers, I'll bet.
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There are two problems standing in the way of expansion of Green OA:
1. The current model is largely based on authors signing copyright on their work over to the journal publisher, who has a direct financial interest in NOT undercutting the current model through allowing authors to publish their final draft online at no charge. For that reason, it's a long, slow uphill path getting publisher agreements for open-access archiving.
2. Even if we didn't have PBRF, an author would want you to cite his publication in the prestigious journal that published it, not the X university institutional repository. But with PBRF, an author has to be seriously public-spirited to make the final draft available open-access - it could potentially reduce their citation count according to the measurements that TEC are going to make.
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Legal Beagle: MMP Review #1: The Party…,
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But a lot of voters – not just self-interested elites – have valid reasons for supporting some limit on parliamentary representation...
That term "valid" bugs me. The only basis for a threshold other than 0.83% of the party vote is Tyranny of the Majority - ie, if lots of people don't like small parties, small parties can be given a hard time getting into Parliament. Democracy allows for tyranny of the majority, but that doesn't make it right.
I think most people would see that it keeps much of the same ‘proportionality’ of MMP though, except that it is fairer.
Fairly obviously not, given that most people voted to keep MMP.
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Legal Beagle: Election Fact Check #8:…,
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Labour leader Phil Goff is calling for a law change to stop minor parties "smuggling" in MPs when they're "not entitled".
Only a rep of one of the two main parties would have the gall to refer to minor parties "smuggling in" MPs in numbers proportional to the votes they received. The sooner these geriatric hangovers from FPP days are eradicated by retirement, the better.
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Legal Beagle: Referendum Fact Check #1,
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My favourite, that I've seen twice now, is that MMP has given us Hone Harawira - an electorate MP...
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Legal Beagle: Too long, didn't read,
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Duncan Garner, would you come over here and read this, please?
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What is depressing is that most of his friends seem to like '80s power ballads (Bon Jovi, Poison etc...) and ACDC. WTF is up with that?
Your niece and nephew used to love It's a Long Way to the Shop and Highway to Hell when we were in Kuwait, I never had a problem with it (er, seeing as it was me playing it ahem). Am now facing having to get the oldest to Wellington because Trivium is playing ahead of Disturbed - this is a heavy blow I'm doing my best to take as something other than a personal insult and declaration of bad parenting. I blame inappropriate peer influences...
Motorhead doing 'God Save the Queen'. Because why wouldn't you?
I hadn't seen this and probably wouldn't have if it wasn't posted here, so ta very much. One thought occurred - Jones and Lydon are way better at this song than Motorhead, which says a shitload about why they are awesome deities of music, really.
The Saints’ ‘Know Your Product’. Hear the horns and rejoice, people:
I did! Ta very much twicely.
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Labour and their supporters can either go on relitigating these debates, almost certainly lose them all again, and definitely get a lot of potential voters pissed off at them again - or they can draw a line under them and say 'we're just not going to go there anymore. People didn't like it. We listened. So our focus will be on the economy'.
Well, we've yet to hear from Labour, but you've certainly got your answer re which one their supporters will pick...
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What being born articulate allows me to do, however, is to win arguments even if I'm wrong. Just ask my ex-husband
No. I'm sorry, but that has far less to do with being born articulate than with having the correct gonads. No level of skill at argument avails a husband against his wife.