Posts by Matthew Poole
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Kyle, I believe it's otherwise known as the "anti-Beatrice Hall" (the real author of the oft-misattributed quote I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.) philosophy.
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As distasteful as I find the lack of action on the behaviour exhibited against Norman, people seem to be ignoring this part of the police comment: “Within the timeframes available to us police have decided there is insufficient evidence to substantiate any assault charges at this time.”
Do people actually expect the Police to determine the validity of charges, bring charges (over a weekend), get court orders to hold foreign security personnel at the border, and do it all in two days? The delegation was only here for three days, remember. We live in a nation where the rule of law includes due process. That means that holding people at the border requires presenting evidence to a judge sufficient to justify a warrant for arrest, and assembling that evidence takes time. This is not China, this is New Zealand. To achieve the required standard of evidence in under two days would be pushing the boundaries of reality to the very limits. The Police have taken a pragmatic view of the available time against the severity of the charges. It's common assault, not attempted murder. Get some fucking perspective before ragging on people who have severe constraints of time and law within which to operate.
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ITA, Craig. As important as China is to us as a trading partner, the fawning and pandering to their sensitivities really does get rather much to bear. At least this wasn't the locals interfering with legitimate protest, unlike APEC, but that doesn't make it any better. If anything it's worse, because it demonstrates a disdain for local laws and customs.
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Ah. Now it makes sense. That is rather an oversight on B'lingish's part. Shame the media's still all occupied with credit cards and ham sandwiches.
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Idiot/Savant has a snapshot of the relevant Budget line to show that's a bald-faced lie.
Except that that snapshot accounts for $1m, not $4.8m. Where's the other $3.8m gone, exactly? It's not in that picture. I would be very, very hesitant to say that English is lying, or corrupt, or even incompetent, when a significant portion of the disputed sum is not demonstrated as being allocated to PEDA.
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Joe, ordinarily I would agree with Don that taking a copy of someone else's IP isn't theft (in the technical, legal sense). However, in the case of plants, it is because the law says it is. The law doesn't say that downloading music or movies is theft, no matter how often opponents of the practice may use the word, but it does say that plant cuttings are real property and can be stolen in the same way that a car or book can be stolen.
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If they then take cuttings from those trees and start planting out orchards from those cuttings then they are stealing from us and yes we prosecute them too.
Just because someone didn’t use a crowbar to jimmy open a seed warehouse to steal the seed doesn’t make it less of a theft.Actually, it is absolutely not a theft.
Actually, it absolutely is. This isn't just a matter of linguistic semantics, unlike the copyright issue, but a matter of real law that deems it to be theft. The name of the case escapes me, but there is NZ law that says that unauthorised taking cuttings of crops and then growing them yourself is theft.
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And that case law dates back to way, way before GE became an issue. So don't go talking about how Monsanto are "pricks" for manipulating the law, because it was all about straight cross-breeding of fruit to come up with a new variant. -
We are not opposed to GE if it is kept in the lab in a contained and ethical manner.
So, for all intents and purposes, you are opposed to GE. Because if it's not allowed out of the lab, it's worthless. You can't produce commercial quantities of any kind of plant matter if it must be kept in sealed labs.
This is exactly the point that Bart has been making: something that cannot be used for any practical value of "used" may as well not be developed at all, and the rules around use that exist in NZ at present are the same as changing the definition of "use" to "kept in a test-tube or petri dish for all eternity."
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Is that why new jeans these days are really not very sturdy and much more ill-fitting than they used to
More likely, I would imagine, that the cotton is being spun to be thinner, allowing more material from a given weight of cotton. It's a fairly normal business technique. There's also a reduction in the number of different cuts, which reduces your choice of sizes/fits.
Plus, now you can buy cheap jeans at the Warehouse. Go back 10 years and you really didn't have that choice. Jeans were generally pricey, with the associated quality. You can still get very sturdy jeans from Levis or Lee or the other usual suspects, but they're considerably more expensive than nearly-as-good jeans from TBRS or other low-price retailers. -
I vote Green mostly for their social policy too...
If there was a true liberal party with enough support without that stuff I would vote for them.Rumour has it that Sue Bradford may try and start just such a party. I would certainly vote for a party that stood on a real platform of social justice. I care far less about green credentials than I do about social justice credentials, and the Greens are sufficiently anti-science on a number of issues to put me off them. Sadly they're still the best counter to the "big two."