Posts by Rich Lock
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to "chris",
Not to overlook others, but all of you and especially Russell and Hilary, deserve to be heartily congratulated for your unrelenting and passionate efforts here on this case .
I'll +1 that.
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Hard News: 2011: The Year Of What?, in reply to BenWilson,
I had a very interesting discussion with my Grandmother recently, who lived through the Great Depression. She told me something interesting - it was the most exciting time of her life, that everyone partied like there was no tomorrow. The parties were cheap as could be, but that didn't make them less fun. Faced with adversity, people can work together, and that can be extremely enjoyable and empowering in the way that a secure future often isn't.
Can this year be the year of parties? We've still got 4 months to make it so.I've read a few accounts recently that were written by battle of britain pilots. All those guys seemed to do when they weren't flying was get on the piss in a way that makes your average rugbyhead seem like an effete 2-shandy screamer.
My grandparents always seemed rather serenely unflappable, like a pair of octogenarian zen monks. It occurred to me recently that once you've lived through a depression and a world war, the winter of discontent and thatcherism are going to seem a bit trivial.
Party at your place, then? Bring a bottle?
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Hard News: Is that it?, in reply to BenWilson,
There's plenty wrong with the example, not least the crooked accounting practices - it all falls apart when they have to balance the books for the taxman. But it's a mildly amusing (albeit crude and flawed) illustration of modern economics.
Like, (I think) most people, I just don't 'get' how the fate of the global economy can be decided on an abstract perception that is far, far removed from the goods/services that the companies involved actually offer/sell. Or how immense fortunes can be made or lost trading on this perception, rather than something that someone, somewhere can hold, touch, taste, feel, etc.
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Hard News: 2011: The Year Of What?, in reply to 3410,
Probably "Psychopaths and big money - it all adds up" from NZH.
Dr Robert Hare puts the incidence in the general population at 1%.
Apparently, this can rise to 4-5% in upper management, although I don't have a handy reference for that.
Still, this is an interesting article.
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Hard News: 2011: The Year Of What?, in reply to Danielle,
Bloody dystopians, ruining it for everyone.
I'm more of a dyspeptian, generally.
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Hard News: 2011: The Year Of What?, in reply to David Cormack,
Well I had a great weekend, and was feeling very positive.
Can't be having that sort of behaviour now, can we?
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Hard News: Is that it?, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Circulation is more important than size, the faster the "money" moves, the more it is worth
It is a slow day in the small Saskatchewan town of Pumphandle and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.
A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night.
As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op.
The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.
The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.
The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect anything.
At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 and leaves.
No one produced anything.
No one earned anything.
However, the whole town is now out of debt and looks to the future with a lot more optimism.
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Hard News: 2011: The Year Of What?, in reply to Russell Brown,
You’re no fun, Brad, raining on our incipient hysteria with your facts and statistics.
But reassuring all the same. Depending on which way the wind blows, a Taupo eruption is pretty much game over for New Zealand.
Just got to this 2006 article in the google stats:
Rotorua, Taupo and Whakatane are set to be wiped out in a massive overdue earthquake, say geologists.
The shocking prediction has been made at a Natural Hazards Management Conference in Christchurch.
Geology experts Tim Davies and Mauri McSaveney have predicted that an alpine fault earthquake is overdue, and would result in the East Cape ripping away from New Zealand, destroying the plateau that Rotorua is based on and taking Taupo and Whakatane with it.
The pair say the earthquake will strike "out of the blue" and cause widespread death, shut down power generators, create tsunamis within New Zealand and overwhelm emergency services.
"The most likely time [for the quake] is now. The next most likely time for it to happen is tomorrow," Associate Professor Davies, of Canterbury University, told the conference.
The Chch connection makes that...actually not all that funny.
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Hard News: 2011: The Year Of What?, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
Googling earthquakes+taupo+today brings up some interesting results.
GNS volcanologist Brad Scott said today's earthquake was fairly typical movement:
"We would typically have maybe two or three events around maybe 5.5 and 6 (magnitude) at about 150-200km depth a year under the North Island. It's slightly larger than average but it's kind of what we really expect."
You're no fun, Brad, raining on our incipient hysteria with your facts and statistics.
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Hard News: 2011: The Year Of What?, in reply to Hilary Stace,
reaping what has been sewn
2011: the year we all had to get our coats.