Posts by Ross Mason
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As a car driver it is enough to be worried about other cars, trucks and busses on the road without worrying about cyclists when there are also cyclists riding along the footpath next to you amongst others.
No, you need to be able to do all these things at the same time. That's pretty fundamental I think.
TXTing is a hell of a lot easier on a bike.
Pecking order in New Zealand. From most respect given to least. (We divide and attempt to kill rather than conquer)
Trucks (big)
Buses
Trucks (small)
Ford Falcons
Holdens
Black cars
SUVs
Politicians
Pedestrians (Any)
Cyclists
Any car smaller than yoursIn the rest of the civilised world
Pedestrians
Pregnant women on cycles
Children on cycles
Women on cycles
Men on cycles
Any car smaller than yours
Everyone else except...
Trucks (any) - Thrown off the road for sunday too!!!! -
The other parallel universe China could be compared to is the peasantry moving from tenant farmers into the cities of the UK at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The focus back then was cotton and wool. This century it is silicon, plastics and electrons.
The more one thinks about it the more one can see how similar it was/is. When will the emigration begin from China??? Or maybe the movement of capital / people has already started. Crafer farms et al.
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Sacha: (Hopeful this doesn't hijack this discussion too soon)
Until we address systemic matters like our low quality of leadership, we won't change fast enough to avoid becoming serfs to foreign capital (even more than we already are).
Bingo. But we threw the baby out....
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/6332446/Researcher-in-awe-of-trailblazing-training-system
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BTW. Nokia began losing market when they did not respond to personal communicators encroaching into the internet. Rather than the cost of production.
They missed a market. And it is a disruptive one.
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It is the LABOUR that is cheap. The future will be more and more chinese middle class wanting more and higher wages, less wokring hours and .......recreation time. Shock horror. And then, the price will have to go up.
For a prime example look no further than the US auto industry. Damn near collapsed with Japanese car imports. But once automation came in the US became quite attractive to even the Japanese to build cars there again. Why? Japanese labour became expensive.
I am damn sure that when - not if - automated assembly becomes the norm on these consumablee assembly lines we will see a marked change to the source of our "can't-be-without-Star-Trek-salt-shakers."
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Hard News: Finally, the Teapot Tape?, in reply to Jarno van der Linden,
At about 7:50 it sounds like the recorder is being put in a bug
heh.
I wonder. Did both of them see the "recording device" and think the other one was recording the conversation? It occured to me that there was a lot of deferring "Prime Minister" and the non verbal "comments" that made me think they were aware of it. Then not until it ended and JB did not pick it up that JK figured it wasn't JBs. Then he opened the bag and lifted it partially out and told those around him that it was a recording device.
Just thinking.
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Joe Bennett has been called a curmudgeon at times but today he has hit a few nails on the head. (His opinion piece in te DomPsot not yet seen on Stuff)
Talking about Marryatt.
A CEO runs a competitive business that has to make money. The council is a monopoly that does not have to earn money. It just demands money from it's ratepayers. So Mr Marryatt'a job is merely to oversee the spending of a guaranteed income. Spending is easier than earning.
On PR
The council has a vast communications department. Yet it is lousy at communicating. This is becasue to corporate speak "communicating" does not mean communicting. it means propoganda.
It means press releases expressing concern for my safety when the the council is only concerned about its own legal liability
And on the real purpose of a council after the CCC marketing.dept got into the act.
They coined the ludicrous slogan "Love your rubbish" and they wrote "Your city; Your people" on the side of council vehicles. All of it is propogandist puffery, in imitation of the exciting corporate world.
And that, in the end, is what is wrong. The council is not a corporation but a public service that has lost sight of its purpose.
That purpose is to serve the people with honesty and humility. The people are not the consumers to be duped and milked, or idiots to be patronised. They are autonomous adults and they are the council's masters.
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bmk:
Maybe if somebody could produce a quality product that might be different.
Hmm...
Since this is a reference to tobacco, "quality product" has to be the oxymoron of the month.
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PS - I have hijacked the PS comments system to ensure I get dibs as first commenter.
Carry on.
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Will blog about it next week.
My 10 millions worth.
We all give each other our bank account details.We set up automatic payments to each other. Keith posts. The first one to comment is docked 10c into KN's bank. The second one banks 10c into the first commenter's account and 10c to KNs. The 3rd commenter is docked 10c to KN and and 10c to both the first and second commenters. etc.
Trust me. It works.