Posts by Kyle Matthews

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  • Random Play: The writing on the Wall,

    Here here!

    I was struck by the part of the 3 news item when John Howard commented on it. Here's part of the transcript from his press conference:

    "And we all should understand what is at stake: an American or western defeat in Iraq will be an unbelievable boost to terrorism and if America is defeated in Iraq, it is hard to see how the longer term fight against terrorism can be won. If the West retreats in Iraq, if America retreats in Iraq then that has enormous consequences for the stability of the Middle East and it will also be an enormous boost to terrorism in our part of the world."

    Y'know, I thought the 'domino theory' of communism had been pretty much discredited a couple of decades ago, but no, apparently if we switch 'communism' for 'terrorism' it still has a whole heap of merit.

    They should rename the whole thing from Gulf War II, to Vietnam II. Much more appropriate.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: More party pill palaver,

    The maths is pretty simple.
    One(ish) death. 5 million+ pills sold in NZ.
    4+ deaths. From how many hits of butane/lpg?

    So which is the bigger problem?
    And which is easier to ban?

    While not disagreeing with your main point, I'm not sure that LPG is actually easier to ban.

    I see a future with underground BBQs, people sneaking gas bottles around down their pants, just to cook a few sausages. Camp cookers will be disconnected between meals and the bottle hidden in the creek down the back. Taxi drivers will never stand for it. ;-)

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: More party pill palaver,

    Meanwhile, the ODT gets onto a hot story, Cannabis growers head indoors, only about 20 years late.

    The fact that our paper is a couple of decades behind the times, shouldn't be taken as a reflection of the rest of the region. We even have the inter-web-thingy down here. And the ODT has just run out of cats up trees stories, the vague mention of drugs here is guaranteed to be front page.

    Anyway what's worse, our crappy paper running it, or the "Best paper in NZ" *splutter* syndicating it out north of the Bombay?

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Inauspicious,

    Since we are discussing Saddam, here is a random factoid related to Iraq, just read that New Orleans' murder rate is twice that of Iraqs'. Based on the last 6 month in New Orleans, our murder rate is 105 per 100,000 and based on the last year in Iraq, Iraqs' is 53 per 100,000. I don’t feel the least bit unsafe here. Mind you, I am not going into the ‘hood to buy crack, and we don’t have suicide bombers and IEDs here. Still, an interesting and thought provoking comparison nevertheless.

    Wow, that's quite... meaningless.

    You mean apart from the fact that the country is ravaged by civil war, military occupation, hunger and lack of basic resources, here's two figures, one of which is probably a fair indication of how many people are murdered in New Orleans, and the other is probably a wildly inaccurate figure about undefined 'murders' which proves nothing. What proportion of murders actually end up in those figures in Iraq? 10% maybe?

    The US military has killed more than 53/100,000 in the past four years, let alone Iraqis killing each other.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: The true meaning of Tutaekuri,

    I recall seeing Tutaekuri wine in the supermarket once, presumably named after the Hawkes Bay river. It was clearly a small run done for export, judging by the back label with a London address. And it had a very happy looking dog on the main label.

    I quite like that wine (well, not the wine, but the bottle) "Cat's pee on a gooseberry bush" or some such name.

    The wine's OK I guess, but I'm the other direction from wine-knowledgeable.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • OnPoint: Who's the real Dick, then?,

    And actually quite a lot Darth-Vader-with-his-mask-taken-off as well.

    Multi levels of disturbment.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • OnPoint: Who's the real Dick, then?,

    Just to get the discussion totally back on (star wars) topic.

    Is it just me, or does a dead Pinochet totally win the Yoda look alike competition?

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3897678a12,00.html

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Down in the Park?,

    I'm always amused by the bizarre impression that people have of sanctions, that they're a great thing until they start to actually impact upon the world, and then we shouldn't do it.

    I suspect the point of sanctions is that having a real impact upon the world is precisely when they start to bite, and that's the point that they need to be applied.

    I'd be terribly disappointed to see the Fijian team here if things don't improve over there. I was disappointed to see them in South Africa over the weekend, given the positive influence that sporting sanctions have had on the future of that country!

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Flying Nun Moments,

    (Martin Lambert, from the Shore. Hmmmm. I went to school with a Martin Lambert. At Rangitoto College. 1988-1991. You don't happen to be him, do you?)

    Virtual high school reunion, happening right in front of your eyes.

    Danielle, who last I saw working in a music store in Takapuna.

    My best flying nun moment was Chris Knox playing outside the Student Union on a summer afternoon in... 1995? 96? He left that little keyboard playing it's little repetitive ditty and wandered into the crowd, pulled off some woman's shoe and sucked on her toes. A true Chris Knox moment which only he could get away with.

    I'd never seen anything like it before, or since, thankfully :)

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Hard News: Remember where you heard it…,

    Isn't that what Last post by ... does?

    Woah, that's a link? Crazy...

    Cheers for the responses re getting it to MP3. I'll try them out.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

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