Posts by Sam F

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  • Southerly: Bob's Top Five,

    I see the good Mr Slack has made the jump from PAS into the pages of the Aucklander - he's featured in a story on cycle helmets in today's edition.

    Doesn't seem to be online yet.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: Gushing for Auckland,

    Penny Bright in the news:

    Board chairman Christopher Dempsey says the controversial character is being honoured for focusing attention on water privatisation and pushing for transparency in council contracts. "If you put aside her persistent techniques - the controversial heat that she generates - she has done very valuable services for us."

    Councillor Cathy Casey has spent many occasions waiting with Ms Bright for police to arrest her after clashes at council meetings. With Cr Glenda Fryer, Dr Casey nominated Ms Bright for the award.

    With added quasi-magnanimousness from Banks:

    Mayor John Banks has had Penny bundled out of the council chambers several times but was not at all surprised to hear about the award.

    "I think if the Eden Albert Community Board want to award Penny, then it's okay by me. You've got to admire her pluck, her tenacity, her strength of conviction," he says.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: Gushing for Auckland,

    Those must be the unfunniest lyrics in the history of song though.

    Lost in translation? Although the death-metal delivery from one of the singers does make up for this somewhat.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: Grade-A lunacy. With your money.,

    Interesting; I can't find the offending paragraph on the Manukau Libraries site anymore - have they nixed it since the blog post?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: Grade-A lunacy. With your money.,

    Grade-A lunacy. With your money.

    You may regret having used this title now, should Banks' Supercity Olympics proposal get any traction in the real world...

    But yes, seems like a spectacularly stupid set of rules to provide for a website. And this:

    do not modify the information or make it available to third parties through a networked computer environment

    Does this mean I can't actually tell other people what the URL is for the Auckland Council website?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: Public Address: Technical Profile,

    1. Some of us (well, me at least) use IE at work and Firefox at home - so the numbers don't necessarily reflect the preference of the users - although they can't be far off.

    Currently using IE 7 here, but it's always Firefox at home.

    Haven't given Chrome a try yet...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: PEDA: Who, what, where, why,

    Can somebody remind me what befell Holmes after the cheekie darkie on air rant?

    If I remember correctly Mitsubishi dropped its $1 million+ sponsorship of Holmes, one of the TV show's producers quit... and I believe that was it, since TVNZ said the comments were made outside its jurisdiction and TRN did nothing - Holmes apologising and claiming to be "tired" was apparently enough for them.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: Gushing for Auckland,

    C'mon man jesus isn't all bad.

    I have it on good authority that he aided and abetted his fishing industry buddies in exceeding their quotas, and that's before we consider the obviously fiddled receipt for those loaves.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Speaker: KICK IT! Goodbye England's Rose…,

    I can hardly tolerate that age group 'seagulling'. The prospect of adults doing it is chilling.

    I just naively ran a straight Google search for the term "seagulling". Wow.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Disingenuous Press,

    I notice the pale burghers of Howick managed to get the name of the new super-city ward they were part of changed from Te Irirangi to - you guessed it - Howick.

    I realise the discussion's well and truly moved on from this (dear God, more than a week ago!), but couldn't resist linking this rather nice recent post from Denis Welch:

    The name is that of a 19th-century English aristocrat, the
    third Earl Grey, who before he succeeded to his father’s
    title was known as Viscount Howick, that being the name
    of the family’s stately home in Northumberland. Grey was
    Colonial Secretary in the British government at the time
    eastern Auckland was being occupied by white settlers.
    He never came near New Zealand, let alone the part of it
    that bears his name to this day.

    Tara Te Irirangi was the paramount chief of Ngai Tai, the
    tangata whenua at the time the settlers arrived. According
    to Brian Rudman in the New Zealand Herald he was a
    ‘friend to the newcomers, learning their language and
    supporting the new settler government.’ Nice of him. He
    got a street named after him, and Otara’s name derives
    from him too. But the Local Government Commision’s
    proposal was clearly a suburb too far for some. ‘The name
    has come from nowhere,’ thundered the editor of the
    H & P Times. ‘It doesn’t mean anything to people who
    have lived here for a long time.’

    [...] Meanwhile, at the other end of the country, the Invercargill
    City Council has roundly rejected the idea of calling a new
    street Ti Kouka Way, as suggested by a council officer, and
    opted for Kakariki Way instead. Not so egregious, you
    might think, but Ti Kouka (the cabbage tree common in the
    area of the street) missed out because, according to the
    Southland Times, ‘councillors agreed it might be difficult to
    pronounce.’ One said it sounded like ‘coconut.’ Another said
    it would be a hard one to explain to a call centre in Delhi.

    That's the trouble with these pesky foreign languages, which
    is what te reo still clearly is to many Pakeha: they're just
    not English enough.

    /linkderail

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report

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