Posts by ScottY
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Rob, about a couple of things you said:
That's nonsense. It was true 15-20 years ago but has not been the case for some time.
There has in fact been a surge in capital investment since about 2002. (Its dropped off recently, for obvious reasons) We've had a tight labour market so businesses have had to look at more machanised ways of doing things. Also most of our capital goods are imported: when the dollar was low a lot of businesses took advantage of that to import plant and machinery.
I'm not sure we can dismiss what Matthew says as "nonsense." New Zealand businesses have been, and still are, poor at taking up new technologies. I'd be interested in understanding what "surge" you are referring to. At best there may have been a modest uptake of new machinery and technologies - that's certainly my impression from working as a lawyer in the technology/IP sector, but does anyone have any figures on this?
The biggest drag we have on productivity is the numbers in our workforce who are still functionally illiterate and innumerate.
Is this verifiable, or just one of those canards sold to us by the people who would like to justify why we must remain a low wage economy? New Zealand's performance in a number of education reports recently has been pretty good, actually. In a recent OECD report we came second to Finland for performance in science for 15 year olds.
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'pose it's too late to start a copyright reform party ?
What are you doing? Do you want the Candyman to take this thread over too?
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Michael Lhaws in his latest article has declared the whole thing a fraud:
And now swine flu this concoction of public health officials and hysterical news media, both looking to justify their drawing of a salary from someone else's pocket. Indeed, it is not simply hysterical rubbish. It is a fraud.
As someone who has made a career of pedalling hysterical rubbish, he should be well qualified to pronounce on such matters.
He takes the opportunity to show his expertise on family health matters:
It's like medical authorities trying to scare parents not to share beds with their children. Yes, some drunk, drugged insensate mums do roll over and asphyxiate their kids, but most of us don't. This natural bonding process between breast-feeding mum and infant is portrayed as akin to child abuse.
Emma told us in her post not to put labels on other people. So all I'll say is what a complete and utter person he is.
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Dear Garth might find bicycle riding more comfortable if he didn't talk out of his arse so much.
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To be fair to Anne, she specified that you don't need to to join a church or religious group
She's clearly deluded. Everyone knows you won't get to heaven unless you have a pastor/bishop who has a boat and drives a late model car.
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It's a pity that it doesn?t seem to affect those ones that live bad lives.
Who knew that being evil would stop you from getting the flu?
Please excuse me while I find some old ladies to mug.
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How easy is that, and it costs you absolutely nothing.
That depends on which church you belong to.
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Which I think is something that needs to be fully tested on some really stupid TV show
I'm sure there's a reality TV show in this swine flu. I'm picturing a tropical island, two teams of Z-list celebrities, and a lethal virus. The teams battle it out to infect each other, and each week the person with the most points gets the Tamiflu.
Two words: Ratings. Winner.
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But I'm with you on the election law. I'd like to see that actually end up in the courts sometimes.
I'm sure you can understand why the police don't want to go near electoral law issues, though. The party being prosecuted will invariably claim the police have been leaned on and are bowing to political pressure And if you're a top copper it probably pays not to piss the politicians off. Because that pollie you're prosecuting may one day be your boss.
The main reason, though, is that electoral law is so damn complex that the police probably figure they have more interesting and pressing things to do with their time.
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And what exactly is the disturbing mutant doctor all about?
Sweet Jebus! First the government and now the health system. The lizard people are everywhere!