Posts by Rich of Observationz
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Speaker: Why we can’t just fix secondary…, in reply to Moz,
One way to alter the playing field for top earners would be to have a salary cap for the public sector, as practiced in that hotbed of socialism, the USA. (The President is the highest paid government employee, and the VP's salary of USD230k sets the cap).
That would mean that you wouldn't be able to get rich in the public service, which would possibly attract those with higher motivations, or keen younger people seeking to make a name for themselves. Equally, private businesses wouldn't have to compete with an city council paying its CEO half a mil.
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Speaker: Why we can’t just fix secondary…, in reply to Deborah,
Wow, thanks for all the free tax advice. Not that I have any need to try anything like that at the moment.
I'd suspect though, that this is a bit like income tax on property trading - you have to be "taking the piss" to a fair degree before the IRD will consider it worth examining things, and most accountants have a very good idea of what one can get away with.
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Speaker: Sponsored post: Speed and Safety, in reply to Russell Brown,
I’m completely puzzled by that reading of it
Well, I'll admit to not listening to all the words until I played it back just now, and there is a difference between the narrative message and the surface impression.
Would I like such an ad being pointed at my ethnic class group? Probably not, [granted, it doesn't matter for me because posh Brits are in a position to shrug such things off, and a video about City boys caning coke and trashing Porsches would *obviously* be about the other guy] and I'd take that as a reason not to point one at anyone else.
But I just see this as rich white people getting commissioned by the government to make a film about how poor brown people should behave. (A government that conspicuously fails to do anything practical about young people drunk-driving, like providing public transport).
There aren't many ads aimed at middle aged men driving home drunk from the golf club in their Holden V8 / BMWs, are there?
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Speaker: Sponsored post: Speed and Safety, in reply to izogi,
Not reading high is a functional requirement of various vehicle certification authorities, so speedometers read low by design (as they will always have an error budget).
Also, some GPS receivers use doppler measurements for speed, which doesn't suffer from sampling artefacts as you turn corners.
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Hard News: A law gone awry, in reply to Bart Janssen,
I'm hoping Cosmic will start stocking a range of glassware and reagents (not to mention fume hoods) for those taking the DIY option. For the purposes of scientific study and enquiry of course, not for making anything psychoactive.
Also, I'd imagine that if you stick a suitable sidechain onto a psychoactive molecule, it would stop being psychoactive. And if that sidechain is easily cleaved off again, that's just chemistry.
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The amendment bill has been passed in the name of people who have fallen victim to synthetic cannabinoids
You may want to think that. I prefer the idea that it's about the state wanting total control over what its subjects put in "their" bodies.
I've noticed the amount of government information that's been supplied about the risks of taking legal and illegal drugs. Stuff like this? As in, none at all.
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Speaker: Sponsored post: Speed and Safety, in reply to James Butler,
You can see why the Ford Nucleon never made it into production?
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Speaker: Sponsored post: Speed and Safety, in reply to Russell Brown,
And rather different roads, too
Actually, not so much,
The UK has no unsealed roads, but a lot of one lane roads, sunken in a ditch and with mud all over the surface
All three countries have modern motorways, but also many secondary roads just like ours and many urban roads, especially in the US, that are way worse than ours (for instance the Bay Bridge).
Possibly we have more roads in the "good enough to die on but not good enough to save you" class, but I think being really bad drivers helps. And if all you do is slow people down, we'll have really bad slow drivers.
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NZ has a higher accident rate than many places with higher (and more leniently enforced) speed limits, like Germany, the US or the UK.
Driving a car, especially outside a city, does not, I am afraid, generally occupy or get a driver's full attention. They have radio, passengers, scenery and daydreams to fill the gap. The faster they are going, the more attention is likely to be given to the work of driving.
Then there is the factor that many drivers want to drive in an exuberant/stupid fashion, but know that speeding will likely get them tickets. So they engage in a bunch of substitution activity that's less likely to get them a ticket - wheel spins, dangerous overtaking, bad lane discipline, general aggression and lack of consideration for others.
Are you going to be running one of those "funny" racist ads next with the drunk Māori dude talking in the silly voice?
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Speaker: Why we can’t just fix secondary…, in reply to Deborah,
Section DC 5 of the Income Tax Act 2007
Does this apply if you're co-owners of a limited company, or have a business partnership?