Posts by Rich of Observationz
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Hard News: Snowden and New Zealand, in reply to Idiot Savant,
Indeed. Snap.
I think S20.A could be used against a cop leaking to journalists, or a Treasury official getting a bit over-enthusiastic on that online insider trading site.
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If you are discussing S.78A of the Crimes Act, then the infomation has to belong to an NZ government department.
I don't think information can be "born secret" in NZ, so if it hasn't passed through the hands of the NZ government, it isn't protected.
Also, information that doesn't "prejudice the security or defence of New Zealand" isn't protected, and revealing mass surveillance would fall into a grey area, in that a prosecution would have to prove a threat to security. (Various British cases such as that of Clive Ponting ended in acquittal for this reason).
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Hard News: Snowden and New Zealand, in reply to nzlemming,
Please provide a solution for:
x >= y
s.t
y ≯ xthen
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Hard News: Snowden and New Zealand, in reply to nzlemming,
I think most languages use <= rather than !> or ≯
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Hard News: Friday Music: Content with…, in reply to Russell Brown,
showing up in these charts is a way to get DJ bookings, which are far more lucrative
Good point, which translates to us getting "top international DJs" who turn out to be a bit meh.
Or, missing out on the hyped people due to distance and dollars, which may be a good thing...
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OnPoint: Budget 2014: Yeah okay., in reply to Steve Barnes,
When they talk of a surplus, it means that the government is spending less than it takes in taxes over a year. Paying all the debt off would take quite a long time.
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So Beatport makes a margin on all those fake downloads (the artist is just recycling their cut, possibly with the record company participating in the hyping cost if the musician has a very sweet deal).
Crocodile tears?
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Anyway, history apart, I think what we really need is a "Get a Warrant Act" (the name is from Australia, and obviously the real act would have a proper name).
It should be illegal to read private information (of any kind, including metadata, locations and so on) by any means (including interception, searching and copying devices or obtaining information from a foreign power) without a warrant.
Warrants would only be issued for serious crime or military threats, and there would need to be an audit process as to whether warranted investigations are genuinely being progressed (e.g. arrests made or defensive action taken).
Such an act would bypass the details of security service organisation, which would obviously derail any enquiry more or less forever.
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Hard News: Snowden and New Zealand, in reply to Sacha,
Thatcher got in 5 years later. She or one of her cohorts would probably have rolled Heath had he stayed in office and won/lost an election in late 74/75.
The real problem was the divided and compromised nature of the Wilson/Callaghan governments (all those "tribal Labour" right-wingers). With North Sea oil coming on stream, a left wing Labour government could have taken the UK down a very different path.
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OnPoint: Budget 2014: Yeah okay., in reply to nzlemming,
Is it fair or not to say that the $375m loan is a dodge to contrive the $372m surplus?
I'm not sure whether NZTA purports to be an independent body whose debt is not guaranteed by the state?
In any case, the government is on shaky ground in this area. They won on Bank of Tokyo v Solid Energy.
But there was a lot of mess around Learning Media where the government infused cash to pay off Westpac while leaving their other creditors (the owners of their leased premises) dangling. (Winston Peters should do more digging in that case, maybe).
It's quite hard for a government to act as an arms-length shareholder and claim limited liability when it controls the order pipeline and legal environment of most SOEs and Crown entities.