Posts by Steve Barnes
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Hard News: About Campbell Live, in reply to simon g,
For example, Kim Hill in 2005 grilled all the party leaders at length – a real interviewer, who got to say “After the break, more questions”, not “After the break, cats and dogs”.
Well what do you expect from a journalist who's name is an anagram of "Kill Him" ? Had 'em scared I can tell you.
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Hard News: About Campbell Live, in reply to Russell Brown,
Nielsen measures live viewing (with a sample of 600 Peoplemeter households) and also time-shifted viewing, via a smaller panel.
They still use that? I would have thought there would be an opening for someone to offer a more comprehensive set of numbers than 600 out of a hovering figure of around 130,000, the GCSB for instance.
Joking aside. The ratings for last week...
Audience ratings
The 20 highest rating funded television programmes on air last week, 2 - 8 April 2015
PROGRAMME AVERAGE 5+ AUDIENCE
1. Hyundai Country Calendar 557,990 TVONE* · 7:00pm Saturday
2. I Am Innocent 374,550 TVONE* · 8:30pm Wednesday
3. The X Factor (NZ) 254,951 TV3* · 7:00pm Sunday, 7:30pm Monday & Tuesday
4. Best Bits 197,195 TVONE* · 9:30pm Thursday
5. 7 Days 180,942 TV3* · 9:30pm Friday
6. Jono and Ben 157,421 TV3* · 7:30pm FridayCampbell doesn't get a mention in the "Top Twenty"
Does anybody have any idea what sort of confidence factor would apply with those numbers?. -
Russell, your sentence " For someone in governance to behave as Christie is said to have done – when her target was coming up for a contract renewal – is not so much unwise as insanely irresponsible. "
Could easily be re-written as... " For someone in governance to behave as [insert almost any public figure here] is not so much unwise as insanely irresponsible"
and be just as trueThis is all part of a much bigger picture.
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Access: Geoblocking, global mode and NZ…, in reply to kevinM,
CallPlus may be facilitating this, but there's nothing to stop anyone from signing up for a VPN.
Or use an extension or add on for your browser, like Hola
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Hard News: The other kind of phone tapping, in reply to Son of Dad,
I was always thought of myself as refined rather than wimpy...
I am so glad to hear that. ;-)
There was an addendum to that story...
My Father, being an aspiring middle manager, decided that "It wasn't cricket", fathers beating up children on behalf of there less than manly sons. So... he tracked down the miscreant and confronted him on his doorstep. It was the first time I heard someone tell my father to fuck off. It was also the one and only time I saw him receive a punch on the nose.
There is no justice where there is unbridled might and thuggish behaviour. -
Hard News: The other kind of phone tapping, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Varian Eimac transmitter valve
Whilst looking to see if I could find any use for such an esoteric bit of historical hardware, other that to go between to 1940's microscope and the steampunk robot on my now crowded bookshelves, I cam across this and decided it belonged here.
Making a type C triode vacuum tube.
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Hard News: The other kind of phone tapping, in reply to Angela Hart,
The newer step by step exchange in its own separate building at Mount Eden had different problems, mainly down to the "wipers" which swept across metal contacts until they detected an available circuit being so delicate that they needed frequent replacement.
That must be why, if you got a "bad line", you could hang up and dial again and get a better connection I guess.
I once, as a kid, was doing the push button B trick to get coins and tapping out long random numbers hoping to hear a foreign accent, when a big "Dad", with his wimpy kid in tow, wrenched open the phone box door, dragged me out and started bashing me about the head, I thought it was the bloke from the post office. Turned out the wimpy brat had been bullied at school and I looked a bit like the bully and said Dad was metering out revenge for him.
Oh the irony. The kid didn't go to my school, well, not until his Dad pulled him out of his school over the bullying, then he came to mine.... poor bastard.eta.
Speaking of irony, post above mine is from "Son of Dad" no relation I hope. -
noting that the Official Count and the return of the writ are nearly two weeks ago.
Surely you mean "noting that the Official Count and the return of the writ are nearly two weeks away"? meaning NZ First has two weeks in which to make their decision.
It also gives Winston leverage against Key, ie "talk to me or I will bring in another MP to make your position less tenable." -
Legal Beagle: The Northland by-election;…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
perhaps 'troll bridges' could be the go?
Come to think of it Winston does, kinda, resemble a big billy goat gruff, Osborne looks like he's had his fill of foldy roll under the bridge and the grass on this side is definitely greener.
Today I am a happier man.
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Several points on the election.
First, of course,we should have a good look at the election spending of National. I can't see how they could put that number of feet on the ground, let alone the limos. The number of hoardings and signs should have broken the budget on their own.
An annoying factor is that after Little said Willow Jean would get in "By hook or by crook" it was picked up by a media that seems to have no ability to understand common idioms
By hook or by crookThis phrase formerly meant "by fair means or foul", although now
it often (especially in the U.K.) means simply "by whatever
necessary means". The first recorded use is by John Wycliffe in
_Controversial Tracts_ (circa 1380). Theories include: a law or
custom in mediaeval England that allowed peasants to take as
firewood from the King's forests any deadwood that they could reach
with a shepherd's crook and cut off with a reaper's billhook.But with the understanding of a giggling forth form schoolboy, or Steven Joyce, it was forced down our throats as "Andrew Little is a crook" yeah, thanks for that.
For all those that say Winston can't actually do anything, well. National know that they will have to chuck large bundles of cash at the North to have any hope of a win in 2017 so at least they will have to build those bridges, even if they turn out to be metaphorical.Northport and the proposed railhead are a good start and would relive the roading situation, allowing more to be spent on improving existing roads over the construction of "nice to have" motorways to the batch.
Well done Winston, they don't like it up them, as Lance-Corporal Jones would have said.