Posts by Stephen Judd
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Charles E Wilson may very well have believed that what was good for General Motors was good for the country (or, to be strictly accurate, "What’s good for the country is good for General Motors, and vice versa"). That doesn't make it any more excusable.
But it does, unless motivations are completely irrelevant. Demonising your opponents as inexcusable no matter what is a step down the road to civil war.
Also, as a high income earner, I consistently vote against my financial best interests, as do many other "rich pricks", because I believe in voting with everyone's interests in mind, and I find your persistent rhetorical conflation of people who earn a lot with wanna-be aristocrats intensely annoying. You ought to know that class and income are not the same. While I will not be voting National specifically to spite you, it crosses my mind in my worser moments.
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like getting "ibid" on the other foot...
... and "cf" on your penis.
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My problem is that I confuse people's names. I know that I do it, so when I see Jane, whom I always wrongly call Joan, I make a special effort to trap "Joan" and say "Jane".
Unfortunately, some part of my brain then learns a new rule "whenever you see the J person, your natural instinct for her name is wrong." So then I start to say the right name and then correct myself and clearly and confidently say the wrong one.
So then I learn a new rule to do the opposite of the "flip names" rule, but the "flip names rule" says to do the opposite of what I think is the correct name, and my brain locks up in an infinite loop until the other person starts talking to me. It's like having your own personal brain version of Abort, Retry, Fail...
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Sarah Palin takes the Voight-Kampff test
CHARLIE GIBSON: You’re in Juneau, walking along the snow, when all of a sudden you look down—
SARAH PALIN: Why?
GIBSON: Why what?
PALIN: Why am I in Juneau?
GIBSON: It doesn’t make any difference—
PALIN: But, how come I’d be there? Oh, you know, Todd’s got a snow machine race outside Wasilla tomorrow and—
GIBSON: Maybe you’re on state business. Maybe you want to do some governing. Who knows? You look down—
PALIN: Do I get a per diem for this?…
GIBSON: The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the Alaskan sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t. Not without your help. But you’re not helping.
PALIN: You’re darn tootin’ we’re gonna help out with those turtles that are in our American tundras that are hurtin’ in this time of economic crisis in America! Also, I’d like to talk for just a minute about energy again, which……
GIBSON: Describe in single words only the good things that come into your mind about… your running mate.
PALIN: In what respect, Charlie? -
big billboard brother says we are extremely overtaxed, we are business unfriendly, we have out of control crime, we have unprecedented floods of migration of our best people.
To be scrupulously fair, the first three of those things are matters of opinion, since they depend on your personal assessment of what ideal levels of taxation, friendliness to business, and crime are.
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Rachel: as your investment adviser, I must point out that $3.50 per weekday, invested at a net 5% return (not unreasonable for KiwiSaver) would return almost $12,000 over 10 years.
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I've seen people gathering olives from street trees in Jerusalem.
I wondered about doing it here, but the thought of pollution from car exhaust puts me off.
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VP debate in song and dance:
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Apropos Mr W Oil and friends - isn't it hilarious that these fierce critics of the "mainstream media" fail at the fundamentals of journalism.
Phil Kitchen may have looked at this, and he should have. It's his job. But did you see a series of teaser articles in the DomPost? No, because it is elementary practise to verify your information before you publish it.
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Got any good pointers (or links) on home roasting? I've thought about it (creating marvelous new blends etc) but I'm nervous about wasting the beans by making them undrinkable.
A couple of good starting points:
Green beans are between $10 and $15 per kg, so it's not too traumatic if you ruin them.
It isn't too hard to make something drinkable, especially for filter/plunger methods (espresso as always is a difficult one).
Remember that once up on a time, everyone roasted their own coffee. Industrial coffee roasting is the innovation, and it required considerable marketing effort to get people to accept pre-roasted coffee. If you normally buy cheap grounds from the supermarket you can definitely do a lot better.
Having said that, I think the quality of NZ's boutique roasters is very high, so home roasting is only worth doing if you enjoy doing things yourself.