Posts by Ben Austin
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Speaking of Britain, law, crime and the like the 42 day detention bill was passed in the House today, 315-306. Let us hope the Lords do their duty.
Makes me ashamed to be a short term economic migrant residing in Britain sometimes
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I'm sure a gray market will start up pretty quickly for Iphone v2 given the success of the v1 gray market.
The abortion thing could be pretty big, it has after all been a while since the smacking/prostitution issues, so if someone wants another whack at starting a culture war this is all that is going. Although I can't see the mainstream Right buying into this cause. That being said I guess it would be a little easier this time, since the UK has just had a rehash of the abortion debate we could borrow all their debating points.
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I'd love for Wimax to come along and solve all our problems but is that still going to happen? I remember a couple of dire articles a few months back like this that had me rather worried. Still not sure if that is angst or an actual problem.
Oh and there is plenty of broadband internet whining in the UK at present - based around BT's 21st century network. Apparently it is delayed and not good enough compared to Europe. So apparently the grass is always greener.
Regarding Telstra - their talk of 17.5% pretax profit was probably written in reference to their great fear of declining traditional revenue. Their financial models probably require next gen/new wave networks to achieve this rather ambitious return in order to make up for their projected revenue loss.
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This was the moment I finally used Twitter in a useful sense, using it to alert a friend living a few hundred km away from the quake that it happened. Funny that London heard about it before Hangzhou but then my friend doesn't speak the local language very well so he could well be out of the loop.
This was his comments on his ability to find local English news on the quake:
If you are expecting fresh news, or any information as to what is going on, I would not expect it from me. The chinese TV has a channel devoted to the story, but it is unsurprisingly in chinese. Google news searches for "China + quake" have been blocked, and even facebook was offline for most of the morning. The CCTV9 English channel is showing a programme on rowing, and the competition to become China's olympic coxswain. They are trying to pretend that a trained monkey could not be a cox, but this is sadly not the case. If it were the case, then they would not have the "who wants to be an olympic coxswain?" competition in the first place.
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I purchased a hoody specially when I moved to London, after all, I want to show the natives that I embrace their culture wholeheartedly. Plus it looks kind of neat with my mustache.
I've yet to be harassed by the police or mall security guards despite my frequent loitering and lollygagging.
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Seems like all your analysis of the Comalco question is from a national rather than local perspective. Now the needs of the nation are of course important, as are the environment, but do you have any studies on the social or economic impact of a Comalco closure on Invercargill?
I know Invercargill has, like many other rural focused places, done a lot better for itself this last decade. The Invercargill I visited in the 1980s is worlds away from the one I visited last year but it is a small urban centre reliant on a small number of industries for survival. Would the recent sources of growth be enough to mitigate the loss of Comalco? I doubt it, or if it would, then not for some time. So what would the nation be doing to compensate the city for its sacrifice to this apparent national interest?
It is very easy to sit far away and talk blithely of national interest and closure of major employers when you don't have to deal with the consequences* on a human scale, day to day.
*With the obvious exception of environmental consequences -
I've been seeing £100 iphones, unlocked in a few rather, or at least potentially, dodgy stores around London of late. However there is apparently some sort of legal action going on in the background from Apple to stop this. Either way I won't even consider getting one till the 3G models are tried and tested.
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My first drink in Wellington was at the old Thistle - back before it was gentrified. It used to have quite a strange ambience back then - blue collar types in thigh gumboots intermixed with civil servants
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Thanks for the link *Samuel*
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So it looks like you all have horror stories for service at NZ restaurants, but I'll say this, London is far worse and they now expect a tip for your troubles. Nothing worse than paying astronomical prices for average food then having to add 12.5%.
It isn't all bad though, I was at a Japanese restaurant in Soho the other night which had a noticeboard that had a delightful flyer advertising something called "Movement of the Rising Sun", which looks to restore the "Imperial Japanese Empire" and is currently looking for "European Supporters". I have the phone number if anyone is interested.