Posts by jb
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The SAS officers were highly embarrassed that, after pushing to be given missions, the first one had gone wrong; and even more embarrassed because the urgent extraction of the New Zealanders involved heavy US military resources.
Why “embarrassed”?
They have extraction strategies, being compromised by locals or targets is factored into the operational risk analysis.Move along, nothing to see here….
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No need for language skills to interpret “Radler” correctly – Wikipedia en gets it spot on.
Interestingly, one of the better vintners over here (home of the Radler) tried to trade mark the generic “porphyry” (look it up….) to differentiate his (exceptionally good) wines grown in that soil type from others. Sort of like trying to trade mark “gravel subsoil”.
A neighbouring vineyard – also growing in porphyry soil – dared to mention the word in the descriptive text on his label, gets sued, wins the case, justice (and common sense) prevails.
Has anyone thought of trying to register “shandy” as a trade mark? Just to test the IPONZ waters…. -
There are 2 possibilities:
The Government and the insurers made a "same-greasy-old-number" deal to ensure precisely this outcome or they were negligent in defining the use cases that they surely would have formulated to address all possible victim permutations.Both are realistic, neither palatable.
Back to the drawing board and tweak it a bit before the courts get active.
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Or simply change the name from ACT to APO, the German acronym for Extraparliamentary Opposition.
Which is exactly is what's going to happen -
I switched from a Treo 680 (Palm OS) to a 3GS simply because syncing to al the Mac stuff we've got via MissingSync got too tiresome and error-prone.
(Plus someone stole one of my images, I caught them and got a chunk of money for it...)
Bought it in NZ, live in Europe and travel more than a bit (which means I can switch SIMs in and out depending on where I am - here's a guide http://bit.ly/buW2t5), but if I have the SLIGHTEST problem (case cracking) I have to have it addressed in New Zealand. A mail to Steve Jobs got 2 executive support people (Ireland, Australia) on the line straight away, but it's a true pain. Especially as the refurbished replacement drops calls like crazy and freezes if you just look at it. Wait until I'm back in NZ with 3 weeks time (for the turnaround..) and before mid-November.
The i (the Phone bit doesn't apply at the moment...) is great for syncing everything I need via MobileMe, it's a Skype phone via the WLAN and 3G, there are some good/great apps and the camera's usable.What I don't like about Apple - aside from their hermetically sealing markets ( I can't get the Nat Bank app via my standard (German) iTunes account) - is their lack of focus on the business user, utter lack of knowledge at the coalface and their cloying cuteness and focus on eye candy.
As in - can I have options for setting up my i for UK English as a language, location in DE and € as a currency? Can I set up appointments in different time zones without resetting my system time and location? Can I link cells in Numbers to a cell in another Numbers file? Can I link appointments or events to a contact?
The list goes on... -
Runkeeper's a good app - covers walking, running, cycling
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Not wearing a cycle helmet has positive outcomes for the public health system, because this results in more fatalities (no cost to the health system, but a negative outcome for costs to society in the form of increased welfare payments)
Wearing a cycle helmet has negative outcomes for the public health system, because fixing something fixable costs money. But if the level of fixability is low, it also results in a negative outcome in costs to society in the form of increased welfare payments as well.
I begin to realize that I am completely and utterly crap at explaining any of this. Sorry folks!
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...get themselves into a flap these past few days..
Not really.
Finding enough overlap between fairly disparate election platforms, forming a government and setting out a working timetable within 3 days is pretty good going, given that Germany, the Poster Boys and Girls of MMP, took weeks to get agreement between the CDU and FDP (both having declared each other their preferred partner prior to the election) and 6 months on, they're still feuding and not governing the bloody country..
Impressive stuff from Cameron and Clegg
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Working public holidays
Any employment contract I've ever signed clearly defined rights and responsibilities i.e. requirement to work shifts/weekends/public holidays.Don't see the problem. Don't like it? Don't sign it. If you really DO object to working Sundays/religious holidays, then retail (and that's the real issue) may not be your thing.
Surcharging
Any business that can't factor the cost of 5 or 6 days of higher wages into the costs for the other 360 days and price accordingly is dysfunctional. And do I get a discounted menu in winter when staff levels are lower to match reduced customer demand? In a business environment where one compensates a cafe/restaurant owner for higher costs, I think I should...Keeping a cellar
Now you've got a house, Damian, you've got space to bunker beer for emergencies.
End of story. (;-) -
Never retire until you have a succession plan.
And talking of physicists...
I have 2 as fairly good friends
The classic scruffy sort who continue to do physics and create general havoc http://bit.ly/d0Ufbn http://bit.ly/cTWvgI
The other sort who use their profound intellect in business. My ex-CEO at a major aviation group company, for example. His CPU was so unbelievably fast that you'd just started understanding one marketing concept and he was 4 or 5 steps ahead on something else. Humbling