Posts by tussock
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"learn how to learn", as achieved smoothly by learning.
"dont remeber, just derive", or as science teaches; don't try to derive anything unless you already know the answer. Remembering all the answers makes for wickedly easy derivations, which you can also remember.
"problem solving skills are better than memory", the hell they are. Still, awesome backup for the infinitely large memory gaps.
"method is more important than fact", methods are the tools we use to check our all important facts, without which method is meaningless.
"active learning", 'cause doing stuff makes you hungry; just get someone to rote learn you the times table, which is invaluable for basic money management skills.
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Re: gambling. The problem is people think they can win (addicts think they win all the time, except for just this minute). The solution is to take away the ability to win.
So you walk in, you buy chips with money. These may be gambled for the usual loss or occasional gain. Chips may never be exchanged for any good or service, they are only ever allowed to be gambled with until they are all gone or you get bored.
Of course, then people wouldn't gamble on the old games as much, and the new games would become more and more like World of Warcraft, another form of reward addiction for those vulnerable.
Oh my god, it's 3:17, and these blogs are indeed proved addictive. You soulless bastards, stealing my sleep away. 8]
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RB:
Contrary to certain fevered opinion, the Labour Party does not actually direct the police.
Um, a certain party member, namely Helen Clark, directs the SIS. The SIS gather "evidence" and select some to hand to the police. The police then run 'round like it's Halloween and lay charges (to scare the fearful) based on this evidence, even though it apparently can't be used in court.
I get it, most Kiwi's are tut-tutting both sides, and will expect a good slap with a wet tissue for the boys in blue if it turns out nothing was going on.
But we're supposed to have a right to protest, so I'm a little concerned that the PM sends the spies after anyone who does, especially the ones that write books or make movies critical of government policies, and I'm concerned whether they said something really stupid last year or not.Not that I'll protest about it, because I'm just a tut-tutting Kiwi too, and having the armed offenders squad smash my door in at dawn and point guns at my family because I said Helen was a fascist bitch wouldn't be all that cool either.
First they came for the Save Happy Valley campaigners, and I said nothing, because I'd never even heard of the movie about the big Snails. But it's pretty seriously messed up that the SIS targeted someone who wrote a book about possible abuses of the terrorism act.
How far must they go, how many years must they spy on all the dissidents, before it's OK to say this is a bit like a police state?
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War is a racket. The only people who win are the men selling the guns, to the tune of a couple trillion dollars this time over, and it only costs them a tiny fraction of that in bribes (as "campaign contributions" in the states) to get one started, helpfully supported by the media (coincidently owned in large part by those who sell the guns).
The Iraq adventure will end when the people in the US bring a halt to the operation of normal government through mass protest, as they are unwilling to kill their own civilians at home on mass to maintain order. Until then the genocide will continue to further promote the war budget, with whatever Orwellian bullshit is needed (look how bad it is, we can't leave now) to support it being endlessly repeated.
It took 15 years in Vietnam, when the American kids whose whole memory was of the war abroad reached adulthood and demanded unconditionally that it stop. -
Dear Dunedin: $190 million spent on teh internets would better reward your future residents than would a flammable rugby ground with no parking. TIA.
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Thanks for the articles Graeme.
Could the main intent of the warrants and evidence collection be to have Tuhoe, Unite, Save Happy Valley, and other groups added to the terrorist list?
OK, that sounds monstrously stupid, fair enough, but if our media had been a little more credulous it might have looked more likely to come about. The British and American lot seem pretty happy to parrot such things without asking the hard questions, could be that was expected here.
It just seems to me like that's the only thing that could come about from the warrants, and those groups have certainly annoyed the police and various other influential people in recent times."We could have done something if only the amendments had already been in place" is bound to be said at some stage too, at least by NZF.
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This doesn't really make sense. If one has to be in a group which has either committed a terrorist act or been designated as a terrorist group, how the hell has anyone in the raids possibly fallen foul of our terror suppression laws?
Are they suggesting someone in the happy valley camp, global peace group, Tuhoe, and various environmentalists have secretly joined Al Quada? Really?
Oh, wait, they might be saying people were in a group which may have been conspiring to commit unspecified acts which may have seen it labeled a terrorist entity at some point in the future. That's one hell of a tenuous thing to claim, particularly when they don't think they'll find evidence of any other crime or conspiracy besides the holding of restricted firearms without license.
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I knew a bit of a Nazi dude from the 'naki who liked playing with /real/ guns, and doing military training. Of course, he was all talk.
IIRC, he's currently serving another tour in Afghanistan.
Psst. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Gun ownership rates show no correlation to murder rates (though do show correlation to the proportion of murders committed with guns). Gun laws show a delayed positive correlation with gun crime, which is to say more gun crime produces more gun laws, but gun laws show no effect on gun crime.
But hey, at least the police have a reason to raid all the protest groups. And don't you love how searches need a warrant unless you're in a car? And isn't it neat how there's a gag order on pretty much every protest group in the country for the next few months?
Right to protest, right to be free of unwarranted searches, gone in the name of our "safety". Wonderful. It'll be so much better once they don't have to bother with all that nasty "evidence" stuff.
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Oh dear. Suppression of Terrorism so quickly becomes suppression of dissent. Who would'a thunk it? Oh, right, me.
BTW, personally, I am trained in the use of firearms, in possession of a firearm and ammunition (though not technically so), know how to make molotovs, and know how to make Napalm or reasonable fax thereof. I have blown shit up for fun, several times.
Also, I think race-based land confiscation is a really bad idea, believe the constitution (as it is) could do with a few changes, think a Maori parliament is a brilliant idea, don't like the exemptions from animal cruelty laws granted to chicken and pig farmers, think coal is a bad idea anyway (snails or no), believe in preserving heritage buildings above having more fucking motorways, and so on.
Apparently, had I talked to anyone about this who was into activism, I would have had to miss the rugby this morning thanks to the goon squad breaking down my door and arresting me.
One would hope Tame Iti at least would sue the bastards for harassment.
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You know what really needs banned? Mountain Climbing. Seriously, kills people, cripples them for life, huge costs to the hospitals and rescue crews; and yet there's shops in tourist towns set up to sell mountain climbing gear as if it's normal.
I tell you, I climbed a wee bit of mount cook a couple times, got totally high, and could have bloody killed myself! The Government is involved in getting people to go there. It's MADNESS.
Won't somebody please think of the children! People are taking barely significant risks with their potential productivity just to try and enjoy life. Will it never end?