Posts by Stephen R
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Hard News: Never mind the quality ..., in reply to Stephen Judd,
Apropos RealMe, to obtain validated RealMe is an onerous process that requires fronting at a Post Office etc with documents. Otherwise there's nothing stopping you setting up a RealMe account for Donald Duck -- it's the validation that makes it ok to use for serious business, and that of course requires an in-person transaction with a bunch of papers.
I have not validated my RealMe identity, but they were happy to send me a passport renewal requested via realMe, which makes me think the RealMe validation is for purposes other that making it "Ok for serious business".
(I did have to upload a photo, which I guess was sufficiently similar to the previous passport for them to think it was really me, and I paid via Credit card with the sameish name, so I guess they had some reasonable grounds to think it was valid, but I don't know why anything else would require more validation than a passport request).
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Hard News: Steven Joyce: Prick or Treat, in reply to Matthew Poole,
I was meaning politically universal rather than communally universal.
Ah, fair enough, sorry for misunderstanding.
One of the things I really liked about Michael Cullen as Finance minister was that he ignored for so many years the bleating for tax cuts, and instead paid off debt while the going was good. I think that's one reason NZ didn't suffer more in the GFC.
I was disappointed that he (or Helen) finally caved in the last year, but I guess it was a last-ditch attempt to fend off the inevitable defeat.
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Hard News: Steven Joyce: Prick or Treat, in reply to Matthew Poole,
Or do you mean "we cannot and should not increase the overall tax take"? Because the latter seems to be a pretty universal sentiment outside of the NZ Communist Party, with even the Greens looking to trade off some increased taxes here with some decreased taxes over there.
Speaking as someone without children, and not a member of the Communist party, I'd support an increase in my tax rate if the money got spent on hospitals, education (especially early childhood), and assistance to people who need the help.
I'd rather live in Finland than the US, thanks.
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Hard News: Steven Joyce: Prick or Treat, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
often winding up in IT
I applied for a job as a programmer sort and explained that my BSc degree was in philosophy (no, really), and the head of the department replied that since his degree was in classics, he completely understood...
It's not just science degrees.
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Hard News: Now win the argument, in reply to ,
I pity the Australians of my acquaintance who are embarrassed because of Tony Abbot.
I think they're winning on the embarrassment stakes, so far at least.
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Hard News: Media Take: Afghanistan,…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
But Mr key has said this kinda thing (Drone strikes, etc) is just 'prosecuting' suspected terrorists, and he's comfortable with that - so what could possibly be wrong with that?
Surely it's actually conviction and capital punishment, rather than mere prosecution? Capital punishment without a trial; based on information provided by the NZ government (or the GCSB, which might be somewhat more independent).
That bothers me a lot, but I'm not sure what can be done about it.
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The sights on the chain-gun on the Apache helicopter are slaved to the pilot and/or gunners helmet. Turn your head, and the gun moves to follow where the pilot is looking.
I could well believe that that could end up slightly out of alignment, such that shooting ends up off-set from where the pilot expects. Banging the helmet accidentally when putting it on might be enough. There's still lots of dangerous 30mm HE shells heading down range, just not where the pilot expected.
Of course, "malfunction" could be the term you use when you kill someone you shouldn't have, without having to admit that you screwed up.
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Hard News: The Letter, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
You know what, he probably needs to outsource that line considering Tim Barnett is now extremely reluctant to go on the record either confirming or denying anything Liu has said
After Cunliffe got spanked so hard for being 100% sure he had never written on behalf of Mr Liu and being wrong, are you surprised? I heard Tim Barnett on the radio being interviewed, and my impression was that he was saying "I'm 99% sure that we didn't get $100,000 donation from Mr Liu" but leaving room for some obscure document that they haven't found yet to come out.
That doesn't seem unreasonable in the circumstances.
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On the drive to work this morning, we turned on National Radio to hear Guyon Espiner talking to David Cunliffe. David said he felt that there were more important things to talk about, such as a recent report on child poverty in NZ, and Guyon agreed, and then said (rather forcefully) that for the moment the story was about Mr Cunliffe. Then he proceeded to ask Mr Cunliffe why he had let the story be about Mr Cunliffe ...
Partner and I screamed at the radio in unison and competed to see who could turn it off fastest.
Some days, I despair of my species.
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I have suddenly been reminded of the sour taste I got from the last world cup, that I had scoured from my memory. The play acting should be punished, even if you have to do it after the game based on TV replays.
That penalty shouldn't have been a penalty, and when you're taking a penalty, isn't the kicker supposed to do one run in instead of a run, a pause and another run?
And that yellow card for Neymar - could that have arguably been a red? It would have changed the game considerably.