Posts by Kumara Republic
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Really interesting comment -- and I wonder if there's any empirical data out there to back up my instinct that the younger you are, the more comfortable you are with the notion of being a long-term renter. Is real estate really the national fetish the media would like us to believe, or is this another case of middle-aged, middle-class baby boomers turning the media into a funhouse mirror?
In Europe (and seemingly any tall city), renting is the norm rather than the exception. And regardless of social status, it appears to be a lifestyle choice, as opposed to a necessity.
Home ownership culture, on the surface of it, seems to be a New World Colony thing.
-
Pihema Cameron was no angel, and probably never would have been. But Cr Corbett and others who endorse his killing might as well join the Scuderie LeCoq.
-
If recent history is anything to go by, my TelstraClear cable plan will relax its monthly free bandwidth cap again.
When I originaly got cable in late 2005, I started on a 5GB traffic plan for $69/mth. Just a year later, it quadrupled to 20GB - and all I had to do was sit back and pay nothing extra, with little or no loss of signal.
Plus, the downstream cap doubled from 2Mbps to 4Mbps over the same period. And TCL's long-delayed 25Mbps upgrade to its network is finally on its way.
The downside? With Welly CBD apartment dwellers on the increase, current availability of cable broadband in apartments and townhouse blocks is around 20%, and TCL has said it's unviable for them to wire up unless 60%+ of the residents in any one building want cable all at once.
But TCL has started to address the issue, and they've formed a new unit for that purpose. CityLink was a bit like that when it started out, and now their coverage in Welly's CBD is almost perfect.As for those outside WLG & CHC, I just hope Telecom keeps its side of the bargain with LLU when it rolls out the fibre cabinets. Irrespective of what happens in the ADSL arena, there'll be further consolidation of the ISP market - already Vodafone is killing off the IHUG brand.
Wireless broadband (including mobile and satellite) will further advance, but at a snail's pace, and will never be a substitute for wired broadband.
-
RB: Owen McShane is also listed as a "prominent scientist"
DH: For fuck's sake... honestly...
It's typical of Kyoto-sceptic "experts" - most of them have a background in finance or economics, not science - McShane's web site says as much. Baron Lawson (who visited recently) is another example who comes to mind.
-
Any grounds to lodge a Press Council complaint, if there's enough evidence of deliberate misinformation?
-
Since what has been happening is fairly clearly based on "hope" with regard to future prices continuing to go up, it's a bubble- encouraged by easy access to loans. Unless someone- Mr Key?- can significantly improve the average wage and salary take, it's gone past sustainable already.
And what certainly isn't helping is the fact that home loan availability is still skewed towards the traditional 'quarter-acre paradise', at the expense of apartments and infill housing.
If Mr Key gets in, I hope for the sake of the country that he encourages the development of livable apartments, rather than McMansions and urban sprawl.
-
PS. Tze Ming, hope you're enjoying it over in Helvetia.
-
I lived in ChCh from 1994 to 1997 (not of my own choosing), and between ChCh and Dunedin from that point until the end of 2001.
From my experiences, I found Dunners to be more cosmopolitan than ChCh. All the more so when I attended a very prestigious private school in ChCh. My yeargroup guide told me at the time, "you'll recognise who the boarders are because they won't particularly like you." I later realised many of them were from rural areas who packed their insularity into their suitcases.
I was in university by the time I went to Dunners, which definitely helped. Even outside the university sphere, I felt surprisingly at ease. Dunners seems to have a higher proportion of students (local and foreign) than other major centres in NZ.
Since moving back to WLG in 2002, I've hardly ever been racially slurred. I suspect whenever race issues ever pop up in WLG, the culprit is usually a member of the Bridge & Tunnel brigade.
As for the ExpatExposed forum-goers, have any of them heard of FightDemBack? The EE'ers already gotten mad, so FDB might give them impetus to actually get even.
-
Mr Litterick of the Fundy Post has an intriguing account of Protest Saturday in Auckland.
He goes to these things so you don't have to.
Interesting how recent events have brought out both the far-left and far-right elements in society. Maybe they all could do well to browse a Cronulla Beach real estate brochure or two.
-
Can you start a terrorist gang in Second Life and blow up the Swedish Embassy with home made napalm and very pistols bought off TradeMe?
There was a 'virtual riot' on Second Life earlier this year between the French National Front and anti-racist activists. Quite enterprising really, especially when the weapons of choice are exploding pigs.