Posts by Chris Waugh
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Russell Brown,
Well, well, well.
Press release from Grant Robertson:
Wow, wow, wow, this story just keeps on going like an energizer bunny trainwreck. My big questions are: Are we ever going to find out the name of this mysterious Chinese official? And if so, how is this going to hit the Chinese press? (and yes, I am looking, but haven't seen much so far....)
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Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to BenWilson,
Nobody wanted to be Neo?
Government jobs are much more stable and have better welfare.
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Cracker: The Colorado Experiment, in reply to BenWilson,
It’s kind of hard to see that as an advantage, since the faster plane can just circle around. The slower one could land on a shorter runway, though, for whatever that’s worth.
I dunno, maybe the faster plane would burn its fuel faster, and therefore need to get to that longer runway sooner? And I can see landing on a shorter runway as being hugely advantageous to any kind of smuggler - drop into some remote jungle, bayou or desert spot, unload, and disappear long before the Feds can get there.
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It has happened before in these islands: the slow but inexorable eclipse of one culture by another. The process begins with the deliberate co-option and corruption of local elites. With their connivance, land and resources are progressively alienated by impossibly wealthy newcomers to the point where the economic, political and cultural autonomy of the indigenous people become fatally compromised.
When they first arrive the newcomers constitute a tiny and seemingly harmless minority. But, within the space of just a few decades, they begin to outnumber the original inhabitants. Naturally, the latter are constantly reassured that what is happening is in their long-term interests, and that they have nothing to fear by allowing the wonders of the newcomers’ imported world to supplant all the familiar treasures of the old.
I was thinking, is Chris Trotter going all Yellow Peril on us? And then:
Is it permissible, I wonder, to ask how much of the New Zealand political class the Peoples Republic of China has already purchased?
Oh, he is. But a very specific kind of Yellow Peril. I wonder, does he mean to suggest that Collins and Williamson would never have gotten into trouble had they not been corrupted by Chinese people? Seems to me China is merely an incidental detail and the corruption would've happened regardless of the nationality of the non-governmental players.
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A few more objects found quietly posing in corners.
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The wee one set this up.
And this second one was fun... Shot through a gap in another tower, but so close that all the light from the flash shot straight back into the lens, then tweaked just a lot to find the target....
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Carpark/restaurant spillover/old-style stools.
A little closer.
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And out on the (surprisingly clean!) lake…
…some life that stayed extremely still…
...and sensibly far from shore.
(those tadpoles that survived long enough to become frogs had the smarts to hide among reeds fenced off from people, while others were caught and put in reused drink bottles. The dragonflies darted and danced too quickly to suffer any more than a few "Wah! Look at that!"s)
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New life?
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Capture: Still Life in Mobile Homes, in reply to Nora Leggs,
With courgette flower
I love that shot!
