Posts by George Darroch
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And if all else fails, we get another typset, somewhat reminiscent of the Hillary 2016 set.
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Hard News: The positive option of Red Peak, in reply to Russell Brown,
Does PAS support GIFs?
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I’m surprised at how much vitriolic dislike there is of John Key, and how it has been expressed through this process. It’s mostly incoherent, and reasonably unfocused – which makes it useful for populism (Little this week, Peters every week).
So, as disappointing as it is, it’s fairly straightforward that Andrew Little tried to play politics with this.
Let’s explain by way of example: I ask you if you want a new t-shirt you’ll wear everywhere. Your existing t-shirt is old but comfortable. You ask which one, and you’re told that you have to decide if you want it before you’ll be told. A non-preferential yes/no process is designed to produce a no, and Labour know this.
They’re particularly angry on Twitter and Facebook today because their opposition moment has been snatched away by a party in favour of giving more people a chance to choose. It doesn’t help them that Gareth Hughes got a glowing endorsement on the front page of the DomPost today.
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It shouldn't cost tens of thousands of dollars to consent a house though. The lack of lower-cost options in the market seems to be due in part to the fact that consenting makes the margin on smaller houses considerably lower.
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Su Yin Khoo asked: Which of these four flag designs do you feel best represent our refusal to help refugees?
Lyndon Hood answered.
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I'm happy that Hypnoflag has come out of this. (Credit to whoever is running that account.)
However like many I'm generally disappointed with both the process and its inevitable outcome. One of the key men in the process is Drury - who prominently hangs a white silver fern on a black background on a flagpole above his Wellington business. It's a logo, for a corporation.
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Access: Persistent Polio, in reply to Seriatim,
It seems likely that we will need to continue vaccination in a number of countries for some time after polio is eradicated.
This isn't actually as bad as it sounds. Mass polio vaccination has created the infrastructure for universal vaccination for other communicable diseases, and helped establish healthcare systems in places where they are absent. The continuation of vaccination will bolster these.
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A fascinating local history Hilary. Thank you.
Raymond’s right about Rotary’s role – without that impetus, and the support of the Gates Foundation, this effort would have stalled or slowed. We’re now getting there, very quickly. The figures that Hilary mentions are found here, and you can see countries being crossed off the list. It has now been almost a year since the last case in Nigeria, for example. There is some circulating vaccine derived polio in Madagascar, but this is being contained.
http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx
This article illustrates very well how the challenges posed in Pakistan and Afghanistan are being faced and overcome.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/health/pakistan-polio-every-last-child-documentary.html
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Language absolutely matters, because what we think becomes what we do.
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I think what could work well - I'd be curious to know if such things exist elsewhere - is a kind of subscription model for live music.
Part of what Spotify does so well is its guarantee of quality. You click, it delivers: music that you actually want to listen to. It isn't about free, or micro-payment, but about curation. For those who are immersed in music and know where to find information about who and what is actually good, this isn't so necessary. But for the ordinary person it's gold.
Removing that uncertainty by lowering the decision cost is important. The first is obviously financial. The second is less obvious but actually harder - how do I know I'll actually like what I listen to and see?
My suggestion is that a venue or group of venues could run a curated and marketed series of gigs, promoted collectively over time. For example; the person attending pays $70 and can see up to 6 gigs over the course of a year.
Festivals are like this. You pay $150-300 for a ticket, and then you can sample and attend as much as you like. Don't like this band? There's another one on the other stage...
