Posts by Logan O'Callahan
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Isn't casting bronze statues as much a practical art as a conceptual thing. Weta have the practical knowledge in spades, and enough imagination in the ranks to pull this off as well as anyone.
Anyway, what's proposed is more a monument than a sculpture. Give this commission to a real artist and they might think about what the rugby world cup really means t us and make a giant bronze dog turd (or something).
IMHO any 5m edifice to rugby is plain tacky.
How about a bronze set of goal posts (complete with padding and someone diving in for a try kind of suspended along side one of them) as a gateway somewhere.
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If we made all gains on sale of all houses taxable, whether they were family homes or not, then I wonder if we would have to allow mortgage interest costs to be deductible. It would be an expense incurred in producing the income (i.e. the capital gain), and usually, those costs are deductible.
Almost by definition, capital gain is not income. CGT is a tax on a windfall. I've never seen how anyone can have a problem with that.
This is symptomatic of NZs biggest problem. Everybody thinks the best way to make money is the happy money go round pyramid scheme that is leveraged property investment.
Reality bites: Landlords are already charging as much as the market can bear (it is a market). Come landlords will feel the pinch and sell, but they will sell to someone else so there is no loss of accomodation. An increase in properties for sale will lead to falling prices. Houses will be more affordable to buy, for owner occupiers or landlords. Eventually, rent will offer a sufficiently attractive return on the new prices for landlords to reenter the market.
In summary, rents are constrained by demand, so it will be property prices that move.
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[stands in pentagram with candles]
I summon the demon of statistics Keith Ng to prove or disprove...
Hypothesis 1: the bottom 20% will largely be in the poorer schools and the parents will not choose to move their kids because they don't have time or resources to pay extra school fees or cart their children around. The home schools will then be penalised a further 25% of the funding for these kids for not achieving.
Hypothesis 2: the top 5% will largely come from high decile schools with committed parents. They will easily achieve whatever standards are set and thereby gain extra funding.
Hypothesis 3: More importantly (for Acts supporters), some of the parents (with either the highest or lowest) will have enough money to top up to meet the tremendous cost of private schooling. In essence, it is a scholarship which can be taken up only by the wealthy.
[steps back, nothing happens]
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This thread has come a long way.
Put us down for two home births, both breastfed for four years or more.
Hospital birth was out of the picture after we visited NatWomens and my love basically fainted. She doesn't like hospitals.
Both births were great. As Russel says - best thing is relaxing at home with your new one when everyone else leaves. That and the older one being at the birth.
When we had our first the local DHB gave us 6 weeks free nappy service as a bonus for saving them money.
He also got all the experiments: frozen expressed milk, sleeping in a cot, baby sitting. Takes a while to realise that the real benefit of breast feeding is convenience.
The second one slept in our bed from day one and still does. IMHO the prize for anecdotal grandstanding goes to the coroners.
Best birth book: Spiritual midwifery
Best baby book: LLL womanly art of breastfeeding (good for all parenting not just the feeding). -
Totally agree with the sentiments on wealth.
Not too many people have a problem with the likes of the La Grouws (Lockwood houses) and Gallaghers (electric fences) of this world. They built big businesses by hard graft, making real things and employing lots of people.
What we object to is the people who get rich quick at other people's expense simply by shovelling money around. The scene that is crowded now with property developers, investment bankers and finance companies.
My concern is that we're too entrepreneurial, in the wrong ways. It's too easy to start a company, and with no requirement for input capital. It's a form of win only gambling: Want to take a few punts on the horses, do it through a company. In fact, do it through 5, keep the winners and let the TAB take a bath on the rest.
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Gee that was some thread already.
Perhaps it hasn't been expressed clearly enough already:
Placebo effect is a positive result. It requires belief. If you successfully destroy the credibility of "quackery" you remove a potentially useful placebo.
On other bits:
Cranial osteopathy for reflux seems to have observed support from many more than just Russell.
Having an osteopath who has a good understanding of the musculo skeletal structure of the body check you out and advise you how to sit/stand/walk and start the ball rolling with a little relaxation is quite likely to be effective, and worth paying for.
My familial experience is that diet and mild eczema are closely linked.
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"attractive" = likely to receive attention. That is the meaning of the word.
"unwanted"= a state of mind only known after communication
Communication's not always black and white. Some of you might be ignoring the part clothing, body language etc plays in communication.
Without a bit more persistence past the first verbal rebuff a fair few long term partnerships would never have happened.
Not excusing anything, just expanding the discourse.
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When I was a lad the usual concern was getting wasted and waking up next to someone you'd rather not have, or without memories of parts of the night before, or having spoiled the living room carpet/front doorstep/bed.
Now its guest starring on youtube.
If these things become a bit regular for someone maybe they lose the fear factor?
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I'd be interested to know the particular restrictions in cycling. Eg: do they count out recumbent cycles or other unusual configurations.
In lots of technology driven sports restrictive rules can actually lead to increased cost (to eek out the last fraction). But without them the race is won by the latest tech, not the athlete. This might drive forward technology, but destroys the athletic side of the sport.
So if you're after an athletic sporting competition, you may as well keep it really low tech.
You can always have a seperate technology driven side to the sport.
Motorsport and sailing operate this way.
Or else, let some other area of cycling (the recreational or transport side) drive the new technology. The sport can adopt it when it matures.
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Who cares about records. The real problem is it made an inherently low cost sport vastly expensive.
$100 bucks a year for some budgie smugglers, goggles and a razor became $500 per race.
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Few working class members travelled.
Actually a couple of generations of young men got to travel quite extensively, not necessarily voluntarily, and meet all sorts of nice, and not so nice, people in some very exotic locations.
Not all of them came back to share the experience.