Posts by Pete Sime
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He didn't rule out tightening up on depreciation, but it was pretty uninspiring. Looks like I have to resign myself to being a lifetime renter
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It was a dark day when KLF burnt a million pounds (wiki)
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It really is now or never for National to introduce the land tax, they still have the political capital to spend and while it will probably cost them a few percentage points in the polls, any negative effect will wear off by the next election, all other things being equal. Labour will be honour-bound to vote against it if it comes in via the budget, because they can't be seen to support the government on confidence and supply. However, I can't see them campaigning against it next year except maybe calling for a tax credit for low-income owners on the family home.
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Who says the flag should radically different, anyway? What matters is whether citizens can distinguish their own flag and so long as people know the difference between red and white stars or can count, they should. Look at the masses of tricolors throughout Europe. Take the average Kiwi and see if they could distinguish the flag of Russia, one of the world's great powers, from that of the Netherlands or Serbia. While they're not all national flags, Wikipedia has a good gallery of flag similarities.
Flags are really not meant to be that symbollic. We have a coat of arms for deep symbolism instead.
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I know this is opening a twenty gallon drum of worms, but wouldn't it be nice if, just once, the media standards bodies (both statutory and self-regulating) took junk science-driven scare mongering as seriously as bare tits and naughty words? There's a difference between "debating the science" and seriously dangerous shit like saying 'anti-depressants don't work' that has a real impact on real people.
The concerning thing is that journalists just don't know the difference between quality science and snakeoil - and they don't even need to have a heavy education in the sciences to have alarm bells ringing. It can be as simple as knowing what the peer-review process is and therefore giving more credence to an article that has gone through peer-review. Another clue is considering whether the spokesman/scientist stands to profit from the statement (sure in the case of pharmaceuticals they do, but there's heavy regulation and complete dislosure in patent applications), whether there's a history behind the discovery before the press-release and lots of other cues that point to verifiable statements.
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Thanks to someone introducing me to Charlie Brooker in some other thread, I've been looking at a lot of his stuff on YouTube. This seems strangely appropriate. Contains NSFW language.
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Hitler has received news of the iPad and, as usual, he's not very happy ...
That meme always delivers.
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I thought the Kindle was in fact available in NZ. I was spammed by Amazon on this very subject not two weeks ago.
As did I, but I checked on Amazon's site and no joy. Kiwis can order the BeBook from Australia, which looks interesting - but ebooks won't pick up in NZ - aside from enthusiasts - until you can go into the shops and buy one
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I'm more interested in the e-book aspect of the iPad and the iBookstore. For one thing, ebook readers like Sony's or the Kindle aren't available in N.Z., so this may open up the market. However, while LED screens are really good for most media, it might be more difficult on the eyes for intense reading. I think a device with an e-paper screen would be better in that respect.
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So DARPA, CERN, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Al Gore put all that effort into the internet just so you can jack it without the embarrassment of getting a dirty magazine at a newsagent.