Posts by Peter Ashby
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I remember flying Singapore airlines back in '96, must have been just after they put the systems in. They were wonderful back then.
As for not being able to see the screen if the person in front leans their chair back. Instead of scalding them or getting mini me to barf on them did you try asking nicely and explaining the situation? They cannot take account of your problem if they are not aware of it.
Or embarras them by complaining to the cabin crew.
I am 6foot with long legs so I can see your point re the discomfort, but not sitting fuming when there are remedies.
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One thing that is obvious is that humanity in general is simply obsessed with getting of its collective head and to that end has tested pretty much everything natural for such possibilities. Please, a moment of silence for all those who have fallen in this endeavour.
Many may have been the side effect of hunger and I suspect various psychedelic shrooms fall into that. But Stilton rind? Maybe you have to be already light headed from starvation for the proper effect. Or perhaps simply ketotic. Anyone on the Atkins diet around? Though where would Stilton rind fall in the food group sense?
Which of course simply makes the 'war on drugs' simply futile as America's experience during prohibition amply demonstrates. Why nobody learns that lesson wrt other ways of getting of your head is beyond me, except that it likely has a lot to do with a religious impulse to forestall anything that might lead to people enjoying themselves, or dancing.
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Thinking of common things you can ban because their psychedilic potential don't forget the rind of Stilton cheese. Apparently you need to consume quite a lot of it and I have never had any effects from the small amounts adhering to the portions of loveliness on my oat biscuits. But if a shroom can do it, any funghus can.
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My Dad used to work for the old NZR as an Engineer. He had a friend who was heavily involved in the Hungarian built EM units for Wellington. Wikipedia tells me it cost a whopping $33m. Done under a govt dept no less.
NZR had chronic under investment. The old Northerner overnight train between Auck and Wgtn was postwar stock kept running on a wing and a prayer and a lick of paint. I remember travelling with the family on it (we got free travel) and at Auck station there was holdup (a hot box) so off Dad went to sort it.
What rail needed was a system to get money into it. Here in the UK Virgin who run the West Coast franchise between London and Glasgow are touting trains with universal WiFi. You have been able to plug your laptop in for some time now.
The tracks here are govt owned (now) and maintenance has now been brought back into public ownership after penny pinching and bad practices by the corporates tendered to run it.
The operating companies rent the right to run on the tracks and must pay fines for running late if it is their fault. Virgin doesn't own their trains, they are leased since it could lose the franchise next time it's up. At which point the trains will be repainted in the new company's livery. This has not prevented massive investment.
BUT it has been very messy; the tracks etc have had to be renationalised; it STILL requires huge govt subsidies and the French do it all SO much better and faster, and cheaper, and cleaner, and more efficient. And state owned.
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I regularly when discussing civil unions/partnerships over here in the UK extol the virtues of civil unions in NZ. Here in the UK civil partnerships are for Gays only which makes it far too vulnerable to a future government for one thing. I think that the Act in NZ made civil unions open to everyone and can even be used for non sexual union purposes is wonderful.
If I were to get married again (don't let the missus see this but) I would go for a civil union. At the time we got married basically to satisfy the families and in a church ditto. I agree with Russell that it is the commitment between two people that matters most, not wider society. Having the support and best wishes of family and friends is nice, but not necessary and certainly not sufficient.
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I thought playing current local music was wot student radio was for? are am I behind the times not having listened to it since 1992?
I can't for eg have got the idea to buy all those LPs from the Dunedin sound from seeing all those bands in Dunedin at the time since I was too skint (I did see the Verlaines live in the Ori but). I have this collection of the oevre that some day I will copy into MP3s since my turntable doesn't work with the new stereo....
Though seeing what my Sneaky Feelings LP could be worth that MP3 turntable could be seen as an investment :)
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Bugger, I sure didn't type 110MB. Make that 10MB/s.
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The other thing that happens with fat pipes (I have cable here in the UK) is you get what they refer to as 'traffic shaping'. So I nominally have a 110MB/s pipe (upgraded from 0.5MB/s several times for free). But I rarely get that, largely because I don't need it but also because I use the net when everyone else in the area does, and there are teenagers hereabouts. So to give everyone connected to the local hub a workable net experience the ISP limit your bandwidth at certain times. It's poverty of the commons innit? So it needs a regulator.
In addition if I constantly stream videos while playing online through the cable modem via my PS3/XBox?Wii then I may well find that the ISP has throttled back my pipe to allow others on the local box to get a look in. The ISP's boards are full of people asking if they have been shaped and bitching about it. Of course it is also a revenue gaining scam since I can always pay more for a fatter pipe which funds them installing a bigger local box etc.
Having enjoyed the benefits of cable for several years (it is VERY stable) I would be most reluctant to got to ADSL over copper. For one thing going all cable (including the phone) means I could finally have nothng to do with BT, nothing at all.
Now if we can just see off Phorm, all will be sweetness and light ;-)
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Jon Ronson's THEM was a tv series here in Blighty. If you think he was pissing about with wannabee Islamic terrorists at least one of them was convicted and sent down for some time recently. There is a very interesting moment in the video where head terrorist looks at his group of 'recruits' and tells him that Jon and his camera man are Jews...
That they are all in a Scout hut at the time only slightly diminishes it. Although there is the element of the banality of evil there too. Like the original Dr Who and the Autons, iirc I was about 8 when that came out and I remember being genuinely scared walking along George St in Dunedin with my Mum that the hands of the shop dummies were going fall off and a gun emerge...
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I know what you mean about that feeling Russell. I was in the lab in Dunedin while the Aramoana shootings were going on and being broken on the radio. It was one of those oppressive overcast, norwesterly days too. My memory of the day is simply a sort of creeping horror. Not much science got done that day.