Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Budget 2018: The final tick, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Several MPs from across the House spoke in favour, some even passionately. No one spoke against it and it was sent to a select committee. It was great to see Parliament working cooperatively like this.
That is indeed great.
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New post from Bazza on what appears to be a bit of a fear campaign by some retailers:
Here is what I believe to be true, from reliable sources:
There is currently no progress on LEV legislation at NZTA (Light electric vehicles include ebikes). This might start up again next year as part of a wider review programme (depending on what the Minister decides to prioritise).
Adopting the Euro legislation and 25kph speed limit is not likely
Banning throttles on ebikes is not on the cards (and why would it be?). The current laws require the bike to be designed to be primarily pedal operated. Mopeds are and always will be a separate class of vehicle.
There was a view that the power constraint would be changed from 300W so something else, because 300W is just a random number and 300W bikes/motors are not available anywhere (resulting in widespread violation of this rule anyway). It is likely to be raised and better defined rather than lowered, in part to enable use for cargo bikes and as a mobility aid.
A “speed limit” has been talked about, but there will be rules for who/what/when that can be exceeded.
It does seem there's likely to be a revisiting of e-bike regulations, but there's no hurry, which is fine.
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Hard News: Up with the Pacer: embracing…, in reply to Aaron Wilson,
Any reflections on the Pacer on year on? Looking at one for my commute into the city from Te Atatu.
It has a few flaws:
- The hard front forks still bug me a bit, but not enough to shell out for the suspension fork kit.
– The original Kenda tyres were rubbish (but I think they may have switched to Schwalbe Marathons now, which is good)
- It's better on the flat than going up hills.
- And mine is currently in for its third major repair to the motor or sensor. Not a problem while it's still under warranty, but I do wonder if others have experienced a similar failure rate.
But in summary, I've been riding a borrowed e-bike for the past few days and it has served to remind me what a quick, balanced and well-designed bike the Pacer is.
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For the longer and care complicated version, there's a Seth Abramson Twitter thread.
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Hard News: The remarkable rise of…, in reply to nzlemming,
Oh, and worse yet since Avenatti’s Sunday drop:
Michael Avenatti’s Mother’s Day bombshell, explained
So … Avenatti (or his clearly very good researchers) have found images of Cohen, Michael Flynn and Ahmed al-Rumaihi, who runs QIA, Qatar’s big sovereign investment fund, at Trump Tower, just two days after the Steele dossier had QIA buying 19% of the huge Russian oil company Rosneft with a nice little “brokerage bung for Trump himself.
Independently, another current lawsuit – taken against al-Rumaihi by Ice Cube! – has provided testimony that al-Rumaihi bragged about successfully bribing Flynn and trying to bribe Steve Bannon.
This would be deemed too unlikely as a TV plot.
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Damn, I just missed this on Friday, but it’s incredible. The video for Alien Weaponry’s musket wars song ‘Kai Tangata’:
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Hard News: Friday Music: Recalling the Rascals, in reply to Gareth Shute,
When I reported that back to him and questioned how they got to 13%, he deleted the entire thread.
Oh dear!
Average them out and you get 12.5%. I think you see what I’m getting at …
Yeah, they've been doing that for years. That's the advantage of voluntary self-regulation.
(sorry for the excessively long comment!).
That is not an excessively long comment by Public Address standards :-)
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Hard News: The remarkable rise of…, in reply to nzlemming,
Chris Hayes is not my favourite reporter, but this is interesting. US newspapers are confirming Avenatti’s document from separate sources (?) and the companies named are confirming payments and that Cohen was promising access to Trump.
And the consistent pattern is that the actual amounts paid into the slush account are multiples of what Avenatti reports.
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And Avenatti has just posted a new link.
Looks like he exceeded his Dropbox cap!
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Hard News: The remarkable rise of…, in reply to nzlemming,