Posts by Sam F
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Great topic.
My favourite Glorious New Zealand Failure? The Semple Tank.
An ingenious Kiwi war machine, to be sure, but a war machine with some issues. Such as, well, being based on a Caterpillar bulldozer, not the most blitzkrieg-friendly of vehicle platforms - even before they added in several tons of corrugated iron "armour", and eight unfortunate blokes trying to man several machine guns studded all over the rattly great mess.
Slow, heavy and generally useless, the brainchild of the minister of works didn't find favour with the army. They had a thing about tanks that have to come to a complete stop to change gears. However, it it did get paraded down Auckland's Queen Street during the Second World War to good effect - complete with nicely indigenous manuka planks added to its tracks to protect the road surface.
Thank God its capabilities were never put to the test, but this thing stands out for me as a charming New Zealand failure of the first order.
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Good to see a drugs approach consistent with actual harms.
As demonstrated nicely in this post from Danyl McLauchlan.
(Which I've already posted in the old drug thread, I know, but hopefully that'll be gone shortly...)
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Just too late for me to edit into my last comment: Danyl McLauchlan's much more elegant effort.
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Opportune time to bump this thread given last night's news:
A national indoor gardening chain would not have turned a profit if it hadn't been knowingly supplying equipment and advice to cannabis growers, police say.
Directors, managers and staff from the 16 Switched On Gardener stores - which are advertised on national television - around the country have been arrested and charged as part of Operation Lime which targeted businesses responsible for the commercial sale of equipment used to grow cannabis.
The Press had a story including this:
Police Deputy Commissioner Rob Pope said yesterday Operation Lime would "break the cornerstone of the illicit cannabis-cultivation industry".
"Cannabis is the most abused controlled drug in New Zealand. The harm that this drug causes New Zealand communities can be conservatively estimated at $430 million a year. It hurts every community in every part of the country."
An interesting time for an investigation of this kind to come to a high-profile end, given the renewed debate about alcohol, which causes harm in the region of $1-4 billion a year, including around $650 million in public health costs alone (according to estimates by Brian Easton from 2002, cited by ALAC's website). But heaven forbid we should dare to even place an increased tax burden on this dynamic industry.
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Euphemism alert! You may not be aware what that seemingly-innocent statement CAN mean......
Normal people don't do that sort of crap, etc.
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Torrential rain in Auckland today. I'm not making any inferences, but it's all there to be worked out for the sensible* observer, as we know from Bjorn Lomborg.
*paranoid
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I am neither Jewish nor an anti-semite, I am also not a Zionist, a "Truther", a bigot or a troll. I just have doubts about the truth of the explanations, all of them.
So why did you choose to link to that one in particular? Honest question.
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And we have a winner... IMO, it looks like something from about 1980, but hopefully the professionals will develop it further and bring it up to date a bit.
Dare I ask what everyone else thinks?
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(At which time, I was punched in the face by a future V.C. winner, but that's a whole other story.)
Bloody hell, isn't it just...
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Reports indicate a shortage of tropical fruit is imminent, green beans are in short supply and a crisis looms in Kenyan flower supplies.
Truly, armageddon is upon us.
Strange to think it wasn't really so very long ago that oranges were desirable enough in Europe to be given as Christmas presents.