Posts by Damian White
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. . . but . . . but . . . but . . . but Simon Barnett was like a 'big brother' to a whole generation of us ex-'What Now' watchers.
A generation that all now have keyboards . . .
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In 1997 the closest to PA System was the nz.general usenet group
Ah, the halcyon days of alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die . . .
. . . and 'wizard has summoned a Herb'.
:)
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Personally I found NIWA fantastic to work with their focus on weather and accurate visualisation of that weather, MetService is very much an organisation with a split personality.
. . . while that may be the case, I don't think it's the point here. And -- rather surprisingly -- I didn't think Russell's take on it was, either. In neither article (i.e. that linked to stuff.co.nz, or in the Herald's near-mirror version) was Auer demanding that NIWA be closed down because he didn't like its findings on climate change. He wanted NIWA disbanded because [Salinger] is letting his own bias on global warming/climate change effect the neutrality of his comments.
While this does have the appearance of the-throwing-out-of-one's-toys-and-going-home type sulk on Auers part -- I mean, closing NIWA down just because of this? Really? -- he does have a point in that as an empirical-based measure formulated on scientific rigour, the reporting of weather-based facts and figures should be unbiased and neutral, especially given the current climate (da-dum cha!!) of the global warming debate. Fuelling the fire of a black-box debate by sensationalising one's own view when in a position of trust/authority is truly the boil on the backside of our multi-media, hyper-information era.
I do believe the specific comment that chewed Auer's gristle was Salinger's claim that 'with global warming, warmer air can hold more water, leading to heavier rain'. If any Worzel-Gummage-types out there could put their Meteorology head on (Nigel . . ?), and explain the validity/stupidity of this statement, I for one would appreciate the information.
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> If you had to pick a Black Cap who had to bat for your life who
> would you choose?. . . Astle.
Sure he might be a little out of touch at the moment . . . but whilst the new, younger batsmen may have their futures ahead of them, they're also somewhat green. Ask any of them to 'bat for your life', and watch as their eyes boggle, and they freeze up on the pitch. They're simply not used to that kind of pressure. Astle is; he's been there n' done it all before. Well, maybe not batting for someone's life, but . . . yeah, he can handle a little pressure.
Even in the recent Sri Lankan tour, the old guard generally looked to handle the likes of Malinga much better than the young'uns . . . and note how Lee seems to smile with a gleam in his eye whenever he's bowling to a just-joined-the-squad batsman.
However, all of this said, I will have to say that Taylor has impressed with his sound-headedness at the crease. And not just during his big innings at Eden Park, even when he's gone cheaply he still has an air of level-headedness about him.
So I'd say Astle, and then when he retires, Taylor.
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Starter for 10, no conferring . . .
. . . so, how do you actually pronounce Wii . . ?
Is it like "wi-ee" . . . or "why" . . . or "why-two" . . . "double-you-two" . . ?
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. . . yip, we deserved to lose that game fair n' square; may the McCullum-as-opener experiment soon lose it's flavour. He's a superb middle-order batsman, both as an end-of-innings high strike-rate hitter and a we're-in-the-poo night-watchman type. Let him develop in that role -- at least for a few more seasons without the added responsibilty of an opener -- the weight of which Astle and Fleming are deserving of. As tail-enders usually see a softer ball when one gets experimentally promoted to opener, they get shown the short-pitched fast bouncer only available in that first spell when the ball is hard and comes on a lot faster. Vettori's trial as opener a few years back only lasted as until McGrath started bouncing him at about head-height . . .
If Hawk-Eye *is* actually radar-based -- i.e. the graphically rendered trajectory based on a quantitative measurement -- then it deserves reference. Cricket is such a 'particular' game that it deserves that degree of accuracy and precision, IMHO . . . Gilchrist's catch was controversal, but radar showing Vettori's ball being plumb is pretty clear-cut . . .
. . . however, the brunt of my post wasn't about either of these things, and/or a vent at an apparent mis-adjudication; it was about the polarity of Channel 9 commentation.
Sure, each commentator is going to be biased toward his or her own team, but still there should be some degree of give and take relative to both teams . . . 'good grace' is about calling a game as you see it; not parading colourfully when your team is doing well, then hitting silent mode when one of them makes a mistake.
Still, I guess New Zealand commentators are somewhat lucky in that we're on the receiving end of the beating stick relatively frequently, so the likes of Smith need to be in honest appraisal of the other team's performance . . . or else they'll be silent.
I'm willing to pay money to hear Grieg have to say "the Aw-straalians are reelly struggling hair . . . "
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. . . what really grills my gristle is how one-sided the Channel 9 commentators can be. Case of point, Vettori's plumb LBW of Clarke/White at around the 40th over or so.
Bowling across the line, the ball pitched perfectly on mid-stump, then straightened up completely to rap the batsman just under the knee-roll. Hawk-eye showed the ball's trajectory to take it perfectly on middle stump. Of course the commentators were adding all sorts of conjecture during the replays whilst Hawk-eye was being rendered into a graphic, and then as it did, there was naught but pure silence as one of the beloved was very obviously caught in front. Cue: quick cut back to live.
No opinion was entered into on this, no comment on how the umpire got it wrong, no comment on how it was obviously plumb. If it were the likes of Warne bowling, you would have veritably heard the steam coming from the like of Tony yes- I'm- South- African- but- I've- got- the- Australian- flag- so- far- up- my- bum- I- hope- that- counts- Grieg's ears . . .
. . . bring back the off-white, I say.
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. . . yeah, we unwittingly jumped on the Unleashed bandwagon at home, too. Initially we were hitting 400+kB/s PvP download, but as the weeks have progressed this has flattened off to something entirely unremarkable.
Noted problems most of last weekend initially, with connection rolling back to 0kB/s . . . then blipping up to a few bits here n' there . . . then back to flat-lining. Things seemed to pick up on Monday morning -- we assumed someone at Xtra had pushed the Big, Shiny Red Reset Button -- but then dribbled off again . . . only to be back to average yesterday . . .
. . . ah, the joys of 3rd-World broadband. ;)
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I would like to confirm that experience in business does not really qualify you for anything much other than...business.
. . . surely the whole 'reality TV' phenomena is evidence enough that experience in business can also qualify you for making a complete arse out of yourself on public telly . . .
'The Apprentice', anyone . . ?
:)
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Don's gone.
. . . indeed.
And is if just me, or is somebody, somewhere, laughing in that evil-magalomaniacial "my- large- ultimate- plan- for- world- domination- has- finally- come- to- fruition' kinda way . . ?