ObservatioNZ

Nothing to read here?

2008-05-16T10:00:00.002+12:00

I haven't been writing that much here. Lack of inspiration, and a feeling that it doesn't get read much (yes, I realise that's a chicken/egg situation).

I do write more often on my livejournal at http://richdrich.livejournal.com - even if mostly just social organisation with my friends.

How Labour could win

2008-01-14T14:56:00.000+13:00

I think it's fairly inevitable that the Nats will win the next election, failing some sort of amazing stuffup, like John Key flying off to Langley in election week to collect his updated CIA instructions.

However, this needn't be the case. Labour's excessive caution has given average NZ voters a fairly small set of reasons to vote for them. Where they have let go a little (interest-free student loans, 4 weeks holiday) it's been a win for them (the former probably gave them that little push over the line at the last election). What they need to do is a whole lot more like that - policies friendly to the average worker that will drive a wedge with the Nats and enable Labour to paint them effectively as the rich peoples party.

I'd suggest:

1. Zero tax for average families. We actually have this now - if you get Working for Families credits you pay no *net* tax up to just under average earnings. But because they can't be linked, people don't see this. I'd provide an option for anyone in that position to opt for either the current system, or to have no tax and a reduced tax credit.

2. Zero tax for average workers. This would maybe need to be phased, but I'd bring in a personal allowance that would take an increasing set of workers out of tax.

3. Free lifetime education. We should phase out tuition fees and introduce free education for everybody. This would be both degree level for those qualifying and also any other level, so if a 40-year old wanted to retrain for a new career, they would have the benefit of free tuition. Equally, those who have run up existing student loans would get their tuition components credited back.

4. Five weeks annual leave at a time of the workers choosing. Compulsory leave and compulsory work weeks would be banned. This would need to be phased in over a few years to avoid a sudden business impact.

5. Make the very rich pay their share of taxes. I'd introduce a 50% income tax rate on salaries over $200k and a capital gains tax on assets of $1mln. This would have zero effect on ordinary people, would raise a bit of useful revenue and would take the top off the property market, making houses more affordable for ordinary Kiwis.

This would all make the Nats and ACT spin out and blow steam from their nostrils. Good. The more they froth, the more people would realise that they are batting for the guy with the Porsche and the Omaha beach house, not for them. Especially when they start moaning that they can't spend more than $120k on campaigning.

But it won't happen, sadly.

A test

2007-12-14T15:58:00.000+13:00

This is just a test.

Posted by Rich at 13:45 4 comments

FUD from Genesis

2007-11-23T13:45:00.000+13:00

When I moved into my new flat, it was connected to Genesis Electricity. Getting the bill put in my name resulted in the remains of several trees being delivered to me in the form of bills, corrected bills, bumph, "charity" begging, etc. Destroying the planet is a hard job, but somebody's got to do it.

Amongst the bumph was a document with the following statement, which is repeated at their website:

We know that New Zealanders are concerned about future generation. So we are committed to keeping the energy coming. If lake levels drop we can rely on our other energy sources such as wind and thermal energy.

Now, that would suggest to me a claim that where other generators might cut power in a crisis, Genesis would be able to keep their customers going. That's how I read it anyway.

So I checked this fact with somebody in the industry. Can the customers of power generators be selectively connected / disconnected from the mains? (perhaps in the same way as your hot water tank gets turned off at peak times through a device called a ripple relay).

Nope - can't be done either technically or legally.

So basically, Genesis are putting out a blatantly misleading statement to sell power. As a customer and shareholder (they're an SOE) I object to this.

Sorry, I gave earlier

2007-11-12T11:30:00.000+13:00

I guess I might be being a bit curmudgeonly, but I am slightly irritated with this "Movember" thing that has induced a substantial proportion of the males around town to grow facial minge.

Firstly, I have this belief that essential public services, like healthcare, should be funded out of taxation, not dependent on charitable contributions. The several thousand dollars I fork out each month in tax ought to pay for a decent health system without my having to find a few more quid voluntarily. If it doesn't, then we should be paying more tax.

For me, charities should be funding "nice to have" areas of spending, like sport, parks and art galleries; they should also be campaigning for change (which government obviously can't do).

Secondly, charitable donation should be an act of entirely voluntary altruism. If charities try to guilt trip me into giving them money, the iconoclast in me says no. I object to chuggers, badges, stickers, etc. The Movember thing is getting a bit like poppies are in the UK - you're obliged to have one or people think you're a callous bastard.

Incidentally, did you know that when you give money to charity via a business through the "do you want to donate a dollar for cute babies" thing they hit you with at the till, the supermarket company or whatever is taking a tax deduction. So basically, as you give money to the charity, you decrease the amount of tax money that's going to fund healthcare, etc.

I gave some money this month to the Urewera 17 legal fund. Plus I gave some to the SPCA, just because they're were some chuggers buttonholing people next to a nice SPCA lady sitting quietly with a bucket - so the latter got my money.

Distorted fireworks

2007-11-05T11:03:00.000+13:00

More distortion in the Herald today, this time with fireworks as the target.

They claim that "at least nine people were injured in fireworks-related incidents at the weekend" and report calls for a ban on all private firework sales. Apparently we have been told by the Prime Minister to "behave" or fireworks will be banned.

Let's examine those reported nine injuries:

Incident 1 was two kids slightly injured when a home firework malfunctioned and shot fireballs, apparently with enough force that they were still able to inflict burns 10m away.

Incident 2 was three children slightly injured by a faulty firework at a public display.

Incident 3 was a 22-year old man with an eye injury from a private firework. No details are provided on what happened.

Incident 4 was two idiots in the South Island₁ throwing petrol on a fire and each other on top. This dumbass accident involved petrol not fireworks.

Incident 5 was a professional pyrotechnics operator injured by a firework at a public display.

So actually, three people were injured by the private use of fireworks. Four people were injured at public displays. Two were injured by stupidity with gasoline, which I assume the government isn't going to ban, at least until supplies run dry.

Two, maybe three of the injuries stemmed from "misbehaviour" rather than product or procedural failure. Only one of these involved fireworks (and we don't know they were being dumb, it might have been another dud).

But the Herald manages to turn no evidence whatever that anyone was injured by fooling with fireworks into an unanimous call for a ban. They didn't even question the fire chief when he said "[the new restrictions] are a positive thing but they just don't work". They're meant to be journalists - should they not have asked what his criteria was for a success? Or why he was saying that, when *nobody* had been seriously injured in Auckland as a result of fooling with fireworks. Should they maybe have asked whether the reduced sale time for fireworks was having a bad effect on product quality?

1. What is with South Islanders? They're only a quarter of the population but account for a disproportionate amount of dumbass injuries (eating ten party pills at a go also springs to mind). Maybe just the South Island needs a ban on anything flammable, toxic, or longer than it's wide?

The imaginary Crown

2007-10-27T13:43:00.000+13:00

I just got back from the rally against police oppression of thought criminals in Aotearoa. We had a good turnout despite the shite weather. People were fluffy. There were no cops apart from those lined up outside Wellington nick trying to look staunch (only one of them had a coppers beard - what's with that? Are they going out of fashion or are they auditioning for undercover work?)

One of the speakers, as is traditional, used the term "Crown" to describe the NZ government. I so don't like that shorthand - here's why:

The decisions to send armed cops against Tuhoe and arrest peaceful activists in Te Aro aren't being made by an old lady in a castle in England.

They aren't really being made by a younger lady in an office block in Wellington (who believes that a right-wing government run by her is better than one run by John Key).

What drives those decisions is the attitudes of a bunch of New Zealanders listening to talkback radio on their way to the mall.

- They think that because they pay rent to a bank instead of a landlord, they actually "own" their house.

- They think that their tax money, rather than being coming straight back in services and benefits, is being handed out to The Other to subsidise indolence.

- They think that because they have a desk, phone and business card, they're actually partners in the enterprise they work for rather than human machinery.

- They think that the passage of 150 years erases the property rights of brown people and makes any attempt to reclaim those rights an act of racism.

- They think that spliffs and pills are bad, evil drugs; but their six pints while watching a rugby game is a chap's reasonable refreshment.

- They believe that all of this is not a political stance, but something called "common sense" and that the media which echo this all back are "impartial".

Which is all a lot harder to deal with than to just rail against an imaginary "Crown".

That's my rant for today. Have a good one.

Crap security advice

2007-10-11T15:42:00.000+13:00

If you use a corporate provided computer system, you probably have a number of passwords to "remember". You probably have these written on a postit attached to the monitor or stored in a convenient file on the desktop called Passwords.doc.

Here's some advice a dude with dodgy hair at Computerworld that explains why:
Use strong passwords: No user password should be shorter than eight characters. It's even better if they are nine or 10 characters long. Elevated accounts should have even lengthier passwords. Passwords should not be shared between internal and external sites, and they should be changed every 90 or so days.

Users won't remember those passwords. Particularly if they access an "elevated" system like payroll that only needs to be accessed every quarter. They'll be on postits or in files.

Look, if the data/system is too important for a six character password it should be protected by two factor authentication, like one of those security dongles you see. Otherwise you might just as well hand your users a printed card with the password on and tell them to keep it safe.

And while I'm at it, something that wasn't recommended in the article, but which is very popular, is to have a convoluted system of forms and approvals to get a login. Which pretty much guarantees that once Doris in accounts has finally obtained a password for the payroll system, it'll be written on the whiteboard for the whole office to use.

No?

Burning Man Pt2 - Actually there!

2007-09-25T20:34:00.000+12:00

So here we are again with the next part of my exciting holiday in the desert - Stay Awake At The Back There!!

By the time we had made it through the entrance, it was heading for dawn already. Despite Dire Warnings it was pretty easy to find the Burner Hostel area. We parked up, and I started into rum with coffee to keep the cold out (it wasn't really very cold at all). The first interesting site was a very nice couple with a tricycle that incorporated a harp. Which the girl was playing, rather sweetly.

Soon sun rose over the desert and the BRIBH:

It was time to pitch camp. The tent having been beach tested, it went up relatively easily. The shade structure took a bit more cursing - having tested it in the cool of my Auckland office, I hadn't allowed for it expanding in the desert sun. However I eventually got the thing built - and it stood up through duststorms for the whole week:

Britcamp had also to be finished, so we bolted and tied that together. By the evening we were pretty much sorted. The BRIBH bar was also ready...

I'm not sure what the correct ratio of rum to coke in a rum and coke is. Probably the first ones that Emma made were about right - by about 9ish, it was about a pint of rum with a dash of coke.

Having partaken of That Drink, I then decided unilaterally to go for a wander around the city. There was after all, that exciting total lunar eclipse to see that evening..

Despite it being the first night, numerous bars and dancy places had opened. I found most of them. At some stage I noticed that the moon looked wierd - I wasn't really sure as to quite why. Eventually, I lighted upon a pub that brewed English-style beer - what a great concept!

By that stage, my Cup With A Lid (which one had been instructed to Always Carry) had been left on a bar somewhere. No problem, since I had a convenient Nalgene water bottle that was now empty of water. The people in the pub nicely filled this with beer, so I was sorted!

There follows a blurry interlude. Apparently at some point around this time The Man was burnt. Early. There also should have been a lunar eclipse, but apart from the abovementioned wierdness I can't really recall noticing. I guess I somehow made it home. (I have an instinct for this, usually)

The next morning, I realised that the shade structure was good for about 0900. Not any later and certainly not noon like I'd hoped. The only shade structure that works for that is an RV with aircon and plenty of diesel. I was thirsty as fuck. I reached for my water bottle, which contained the dregs of the (by now very) warm, flat, English beer from the night before...

Submission on BZP

2007-09-19T17:36:00.000+12:00

Here's my proposed submission to the Health Committee that is considering the Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill.

I oppose the intent of this bill because:
1. The control of potentially harmful substances, in order to achieve any degree of popular acceptance, should be evidence based.

2. Despite 15% of young adults in New Zealand using BZP, there have been no deaths and no proven long term harm as a result.

3. Comparable drugs which are not to be proscribed by the bill cause 1000 deaths (alcohol) and 5000 deaths (tobacco).

4. Some level of use of recreational substances by young people and others is inevitable in all open, democratic societies.

5. Proscribing a further group of substances will not reduce the overall level of use but will result in users switching to other substances, which may be more objectively harmful (e.g. Methamphetamine)

6. No alternatives to proscription of BZP (such as education, control of outlets, price control through taxation) have been attempted, apart from banning sales to under 18s.

7. The normal presumption of innocence under the Bill of Rights Act is reversed by this act. It is unjustified to remove this basic right for the crime of supplying an allegedly mildly harmful substance, whilst it remains for serious crimes against the person, such as rape.

Any thoughts? The deadline for submissions is the 12th October. I believe that the committee sees a summary of the points raised by submitters, so for maximum effect, submissions should try and include original points that will be included in that summary.

Burning Man Pt1 - the pre-burn

2007-09-15T12:22:00.000+12:00

In some ways we Kiwis are not as isolated as we think. Downtown Auckland to downtown San Francisco is a sub-18 hour trip with no changes of plane - some of the Brits had epic journeys involving Atlanta and the like. I got to SFO on a sunny Sunday lunchtime, and after a quick snooze wandered up Haight St in search of blinkies and clothes. San Fran has many areas that reflect events in modern history - from the New Deal (the Coit Towers) through an obscure 1950's literary movement (North Beach) to the great leap forward of the 1960s (the Haight). The latter has more or less moved on into the current world of nu-rave (or whatever one calls it) with all the stores fully ramped up to meet the needs of those adjusting for the Company Picnic (as I understand they call it in the Bay Area).

Having got myself some nice skirts sharongs and a kilt, as well as a few of the aforementioned overpriced blinkies, I was ready to head out. I caught up with Hippie and Pascal, stuffed our faces with Mexican food (cheap and yummy) and headed out of town in my shiny (and soon to be otherwise) rental car. A four hour blast up the freeway later, we managed to find Hageys without a map (navigation kudos to Pascal - no u-turns!) and began my descent into the lower circles of burnerness.

Reno pre-burn was a whirl of shopping, meeting new friends, hanging out in the pool, buying beer, drinking beer, buying more beer, etc. The crowd at Hageys was the usual mix of dotcom millionaires, predicate violent felons and recently released DPWers. Somehow I managed to equip myself with ticket, water, snackfood, more blinkies, (mostly) legal substances and more beer.

One thing you notice as you approach Burning Man is the level of hierarchy and status positioning that happens in a supposingly "radically participatory" festival. Each to his own, but an awful lot of people seem to regard part of their Burning Man experience as being able to set themselves up as a team leader or whatever. I guess they are all self-employed or work for amazingly flat organisations that don't give them enough of that sort of thing in the default world?

Anyways, a group of us decided, since we weren't going to be allowed in One Minute Before Midnight, to go camp at Pyramid Lake on Saturday. Hagey gave us the good oil on where to camp, we managed to avoid getting stuck in the sand (unlike one family of obvious non- burners who drove their soft roader right up to the lake and got it axle deep. Ha ha!) and found an excellent spot right by the pyramid. Us being me, Itamar, Paisley, Keren and Neta (so one Kiwipom, three Israelis and a token American).

After chilling at the beach, kayaking around the pyramid (thanks to Jenna? for lending us her boat) and driving up through the desert, we got to the gates of Burning Man.

Soon (after several hours fluffing around) I finally entered into the altered world of the Playa!

Back from Burning Man

2007-09-06T06:21:00.000+12:00

I just got back from Burning Man a couple days ago.

I'll post a few articles (with photos) on this next week when I have better computer access, but suffice it to say that it was awesome. I missed the first burn of the "Man" but saw the second one.

Plus I met lots of people and have some great ideas and plans.

Outaa here!

2007-08-19T11:07:00.000+12:00

I'm just about packed. Costumes, tents and other fun things (including the MoaBike) have either been built or passed the event horizon of not-happening-this-year. My flat contains less strewn around bits of wire, fur and disassembled electrics and instead has three large bags.

So for the next three weeks I shall be variously in California, Nevada and at the location shown above partaking of the Burning Man. I'll write something about it when I get back, probably!

Shiny stuff

2007-08-14T11:55:00.000+12:00

I should maybe have gone to Siggraph '07 in San Diego - despite my general conference aversion. They were covering wearable technology - like a bikini₁ that charges a mobile music player. Actually, a bikini that charges a phone would be more useful. If the phone was in the top, then it would add a whole new aspect to the phrase "why are you talking to my tits".

1. Just as a bonus, some of you might not know the etymology of the word "bikini". Two piece swimsuits were invented at about the same time as H-Bombs. The first such device, when tested, blew the middle out of Bikini Atoll. Hence the name bikini was used for a swimsuit with no middle bit.

Email advice

2007-08-08T16:47:00.000+12:00

Apparently the following advice has been circulated in a major NZ university on the phrasing of emails to students:

Wrong!
You want a days extension! Ha ha ha!

I'm sorry to hear of the death of your father/auntie/cat/pet gerbil. Especially since I'm fully convinced you never had one. Even if you presented me with the body laid out in an open casket, I'd still suspect you'd got one of those goff Engineering students to dig it up out of Grafton cemetery.

Whatever grade I gave you, you still wouldn't pass this course. I suspect you'd have problems passing water without drinking five pints of Lion Red first. Oh sorry, you don't drink Lion - should have guessed that from the headtowel you wore in the one lecture you came to this term. Cristal then.

Call me old fashioned, but to get a degree in an English speaking country you actually have to speak English. Which you have about as much skill at as George Bush.

I'm sorry to hear that you are going to report this to Sheik Yerbouti - if he's related to you, he must be a thickshake!

I will not be giving you the assignment extension. You are not only thick as pigshit, but a hideously ugly freak to boot.

Yours,
Dr Insensitive Bastard

Right!

Thank you for asking for an extension for your May class assignment.

I'm very sorry to hear about the death of your family member. Please accept my condolences. This year has certainly been a tragic one for you - it is some time since a student had more than two bereavements in a semester, let alone twelve.

I hope this sadness will not affect your success as a postgraduate student here at the University. Should you find the need to take some differently challenging units next term, I would commend our business school to you. They offer a range of internationally appropriate studies leading to recognised qualifications. Understanding that all languages are valid and vibrant forms of communication in international business, they avoid judging students on their (perhaps imperfect) command of just one of the planets tongues.

Your extension has been approved. Are you happy with a B+ grade?

I look forward to seeing you on your next visit to the university. If as mentioned you require an aegrotat for next term's classes then please let us know.

Kia Kaha,
Dr Sensitive Financially-Friendly

Shade Structure

2007-08-07T10:23:00.000+12:00

My shade structure for Burning Man is nearly done. Because BM is held in the desert, it gets damn hot in the daytime, so trying to sleep in, as might be required after hard-core partying, needs a bit of planning.

North Americans who drive to BM have the option of lugging large amounts of heavy stuff to solve this (e.g. a refrigerated shipping container with rooftop jacuzzi).
I'm limited to three bags of no more than 22kg each, so I've had to try and keep things small and light.

What I've tried to do is build a braced frame out of UPVC pipe and then put an Alishade cloth over it. Like this:

The actual frame is below. The joints between the pipe are reinforced with dowel to give them some rigidity and strength (in tension/compression). The idea is that the base will be firmly nailed to the playa surface with rebar hoops. The yellow rope bits you see are internal guys - I guess I could also string external guy ropes but shouldn't really be needed.

I've just got to fix eyelets to the shadecloth and it'll all be ready to go. Weight about 7kg and fits in a ski bag.

Brilliant!

2007-07-31T20:21:00.000+12:00

If there's any doubt of the cleverness of our government, they've just been dispelled.

NZ has struggled for some months with an (allegedly) overvalued dollar and no effective tools to reduce the parity. Now they've found one:

Winston Peters has been sent around the world to spout his views on economics. Once the markets realise that not only does our present government contain an unreconstructed Muldoonist, but that any future Key administration will as well, we will see a dollar back in the 60c range faster than you can say "voodoo economics"!

Hey hey it (was) Saturday

2007-07-29T16:34:00.000+12:00

I don't normally do political meetings, but I thought that George Galloway would be worth hearing. He didn't disappoint - I don't think any NZ politicians can match his oratory - he even does samples: "I told Tony Blair that the invasion of Iraq would not be the end, it would not be the beginning of the end, it would be the end of the beginning". (Original - Winston Churchill, 1942).

It was a very good turnout - the 800 seat hall was filled to capacity. That's a lot of people for a political meeting on a wet Saturday night in Auckland.

After that, and after lashing together a green glowy roadworkers top, I went to see Tom Cosm at Space. Cosm is amazing - he's known as a psy-trance DJ, but as Helix correctly pointed out last week, he's a whole lot more than that - he mashes together psy and breaks in a one-off live performance. (Using Ableton, a laptop and a couple of controllers). If you get a chance to see him touring with Pitch Black, go and do it...

36 days till the man burns!

2007-07-27T14:02:00.000+12:00

It gets closer to Burning Man!

I got my EL wire delivery today.

The Moa-bike is getting close to complete. The Laser Eyes work. The LED illuminator works, the head is about there. I've done the frame for the tail and just have to cut and sew (!) the fur.

I've also got the shade structure roughed out, going to get the Alishade material this arvo and set the thing up. It fits in a ski bag, too.

DJ Station are making me a fur coat and I have a range of cool trousers.

So I think I'm getting there, mostly...

Save the Kiwi

2007-07-06T12:04:00.000+12:00

Like everyone in NZ, I've got the option of joining Kiwisaver this year. I guess it's a sign of age that I'm actually interested in it.

I've just had a look at the terms - which, on most of the information sites, have been subject to a degree of inaccurate precis.

They basically amount to:
- An initial $1,000 kickstart
- A tax credit of $1,043 or the amount you contributed in a year, whichever is lower
- An employer contribution of 1% in 2008/09 rising to 4% in 2011/12

In return for this, you lock your money up until age 65.

What isn't in the scheme (and *is* in a UK personal pension, for instance):
- tax relief on contributions (apart from the capped tax credit). Your contributions come out of *taxed* pay
- tax relief on fund growth. The fund providers are taxed at 30% (you don't see this tax bill - it just reduces your fund growth)

Of course, the Brits pay quite a lot more tax than we do and they can only take 25% of their fund out as a lump sum.

I've made this calculator to see what the tangible benefits of the scheme are. It compares, based on age and salary, the effect of putting 4%/8% of salary into Kiwisaver against putting the money into a fund directly (and thus having it immediately accessible). Note that due to GoogleDoc limitations, to change values you'll have to export it into Excel or your own document if you want to change any values.

For the first 4% of salary, you always win. The size of the win tapers off as you earn more (and the younger you are) but you always get a reasonable (8% rather than 4%) benefit from locking your money up in Kiwisaver.

For the next 4% (i.e. making an 8% contribution) you *never* win in cash terms, unless you earn less than $27k. Locking up an extra 4% of income gives those earning more than this zero benefit.

(Of course, you might regard having the money locked away and unavailable to spend as a benefit - then again, if you wind up short of cash and needing to borrow at any stage, it's a big negative).

So I'm going to do 4%, but I can see no reason at all to go beyond this.

Rules

2007-06-28T13:45:00.000+12:00

I'm not going to blog about the America's cup - this is media commentary!

This article in the Herald about Team NZ's protest against Alinghi says:
"It may seem unfair to have docked Alinghi the race for such a technical fault which had no bearing on it"

Their journo must know very little about sailing, or be dedicated to oversimplifying. The issue Team NZ complained of was that Alinghi had to send a man up to drop their mainsail (that's the larger sail to the back). It's normal for any sailboat larger than a windsurfer to have its mainsail hauled up by wire/rope such that it can be released from deck level. This is only sensible, as the sail may need to be released in an emergency. If the sail was fixed to the top of the mast, you could potentially have lighter gear at the expense of safety - which would give you a slight speed advantage.

If a boat had this, then it *is* a material breach of the rules. As it turns out, it looks like Alinghi doesn't - it just has a halyard system that doesn't work very well.

I know this stuff - surely the Herald's yachting correspondent should?

Straight back to school

2007-06-27T15:21:00.000+12:00

Have the Herald's new outsourced subs started work?

Straight (adj): Not crooked or bent; having a constant direction throughout its length.

Strait (n): A narrow channel of water

It's a bleedin' ski resort mate!

2007-06-22T17:23:00.000+12:00

Queenstown has cancelled some of its winter festival events due to snow. Funny, but I thought that was the point of being in a ski resort?

Block Sobbath

2007-06-21T14:39:00.000+12:00

In hairfarming news, a resurrected Black Sabbath are playing in Auckland in August and are on heavy bFM advertising/plug rotation:

They go out in NZ as "Heaven and Hell, Black Sabbath the Dio Years"

Two things here:
- I don't believe it's really Black Sabbath with no Ozzy. That's like the Stones without Mick Jagger.
- I'm fairly sure it's Ronnie James DeeOh not DieOh. He is not a girls school.

Pulling the Queen's Chain

2007-06-20T09:46:00.000+12:00

New Zealanders believed for many years in the "Queen's Chain" - a strip of land with public access around the coast and rivers of New Zealand. Sadly, no legislation was ever passed to enshrine this.

The UK government (in a rare moment of good sense) has just proposed a similar, but real, coastal access strip, for England and Wales (Scotland has had a coastal walkway for some time).
It's going to cost GBP50 million - not a lot really, given the length of coast and the price of land.

We need the same thing. Our coasts shouldn't be private preserves. Beaches and clifftops should be open to public access, whether they belong to Mr Rich Whitebastard, Ports Of Auckland or Ngati Whatua. This would remove the need for the (racist) Foreshore And Seabed Act and take us closer to having a right then many thought we always had. This is not, by the way, confiscation. Everyone would keep their land - they would simply have to concede the rights of the greater community to access.

Bring it on!

2007-05-24T13:43:00.000+12:00

The UK government is planning to build new nuclear power stations.

According to their consultation document, one of the top proposed sites is just outside Brighton.

For those that don't know, Brighton is the core of crustiedom. Anarchists and freedom fighters have sallied forth from there to such (unsuccesful) battles as Manchester Airport, the Newbury Bypass and Stop the City, not to mention the (succesful) Poll Tax Riot.

Trying to build a nuclear power station 10 miles outside the town is just going to be the trigger for the biggest uprising since 1649. It might even radicalise enough people to start a real alternative force in British politics.

Healthy!

2007-05-21T09:41:00.000+12:00

Rather than spend another weekend bouncing frantically to dance music, I had a healthy outdoor weekend. I hiked up Mt Ruapehu.

It's a good walk. Starting from the Whakapapa carpark (outside ski season there is a huge amount of parking space) I headed up the lift lines. Navigating on an out of season ski field is easier than an unsullied mountain, although one needs to remember that you can't always follow a chair lift - especially when descending. (Skis and boards are a wonderful invention - some of the slopes that are quite easy to slide down are a bit alarming when you are standing on the bare rock).

I made fairly good progress up past the top draglift. The last few hundred metres before the crater are pretty crumbly though. Last time I was up here there was snow and steps kicked, which made it a whole lot easier. I made the mistake this time of aiming for what looked like solid rock rather than scree and ash - unfortunately it was steep and totally frangible. Will remember next time..

So I got to the crater at 3pm:

Took a photo and started down. The downclimb was easy enough, made it to the car just before it got dark.

Something I noticed is that there was a lot of bits of rubbish left lying about where the lift company have been building things. This isn't really on. I've got no objection to neccesary ski machinery, but they need to clear their crap up afterwards. If you leave bits of wire, fastenings, broken signs, etc. lying around on an eroding mountain, it all gets carried down with the scree and gets strewn all over the hill. Like Snowdon.

Events in history

2007-05-17T13:09:00.000+12:00

"Violent criminals threaten Paris"
(Headline, Le Matin, 14th July 1789)

"Violent criminals threaten Paris"
(Headline, New Zealand Womens Weekly, 17th May 2007)

Power saving chargers

2007-05-11T15:36:00.000+12:00

Nokia are making a phone that emits annoying beeping when the battery is full. Apparently this will save a huge amount of energy.

What would save even more energy, and not be annoying, would be for the phone to send a message to the charger to tell it to power down when the battery gets full. A properly designed switching supply should, in any case, draw very little current from the mains when the mobile device isn't taking any current.

Fired for taking prescription meds

2007-05-09T12:52:00.000+12:00

Two women have been sacked by a state funded Te Atutu based addiction treatment centre "Higher Ground" for taking their prescribed medication (citalopram) for depression.

Both of them presented to their GP with depression and were prescribed a standard, evidence-based treatment. Their employer, on learning of this from one of the women, suggested that they instead take St. Johns Wort - an unlicensed drug of unproven effectiveness. When they did not take this advice, they were fired.

The Employment Relations Authority has rejected one of the womens claims on the grounds that she did not follow correct process in challenging the authority (the other has complained directly to the Human Rights Commission).

I think this is unacceptable on several grounds:
- Psychiatric illness is a disability and a prohibited ground of discrimination under the Human Rights Act. It should be as unacceptable to sack someone on these grounds as to sack them for being black. And I don't believe the ERA would accept a race-based dismissal on grounds of incorrect process.

- Organisations which systematically breach the HRA should not be funded or endorsed by the state.

- The public health system is based around evidence-based medicine - encouraging people to uptake appropriate treatment is part of this. The system should not be funding organisations that actively work against the uptake of such treatment.

Will Gordon succeed Tony?

2007-05-04T12:41:00.000+12:00

Gordon Brown is widely expected to become the next British Prime Minister when Blair retires next month.

Will he though?

Brown has (and I write as no fan of the Blair government) been by far the most successful British Chancellor (finance minister) in living memory. He is the longest serving modern holder of the office and has presided over the longest period of sustained growth in British history, as well as achieving consistently low inflation and unemployment. Britain is now thought of as a rich country - it wasn't when I was a kid!

If he becomes PM, he is almost certain to be defeated at the next election.

One would have thought that he might want to be remembered as a highly successful Chancellor rather than a failed half-term PM (after the fashion of James Callaghan - John Major got re-elected).

(Don't) Smack your kids up!

2007-05-03T13:55:00.000+12:00

I'm posting this here, although it's actually an answer to this post on Tactical Ninja because I didn't want to deface Tatnja's LJ with a 400 word political rant/essay...

Firstly, I'd be the first to agree that NZ is a bit overregulated. I'd like to be allowed skyrockets. Or to drive on deserted South Island roads at a bit more than 100km/h. Or to go to a (mainstream) festival without having to pass through checkpoints between the "beer-free" and "child-free" areas. Or to advocate sofa burning (actually, I *can* - the Dunedin police just failed to prosecute a publican for that).

I don't think thumping kids falls into that category though. Small people are people, and they have rights not to be assaulted like anyone else. That's all changing the law does. The cops aren't going to wade in every time someone is spotted slapping their kid in Woolworths, but there will be the ability for the authorities to deal with violent abusive parents without them being able to claim immunity on grounds of "discipline".

Something I would also note is that, since schoolteachers have been banned from physical punishment, instances of teacher-child abuse (like the dreadful behaviour of "Christian" Brothers in the 1960s) has declined almost to zero.

Finally, I think NZ has a bit of an issue with violence and it's acceptability. Something I've noticed here is that people will say quite often "if you do/say x you'll get beaten up". Which they didn't in England. Or Switzerland. Or even the US (I guess when your preferred instrument of violence is a firearm you have to be that bit more sparing about when you bring it to bear). I think that needs to change and less clouting of kids might be a small step.

(BTW, Sue Bradford has three children)

Very quick crossword

2007-04-23T20:55:00.000+12:00

For those of you with time to kill, but not much of it, I present The Observationz Very Quick Crossword

Down:
2: Furry animal with four legs.
Across:
2: Implement used to play cricket.

Have fun and don't think too hard!

We got rid of the twat!

2007-04-19T14:39:00.000+12:00

I posted this response in the Herald in response to the glad news that Garth George is leaving Auckland:

Bye.

Don't come back. Maybe your bigoted and archaic views will be appreciated somewhere else, although I think all of New Zealand is becoming a more intelligent, tolerant, society.

Perhaps Queensland or Mississippi? Or Zimbabwe - Robert Mugabe hates gays too you know..

Doubt they'll print it!

Posh & Mental

2007-04-17T18:56:00.000+12:00

I refer of course to the former royal couple, Kate & Wills.

This article talks about how Kate wasn't posh enough for the B.R.F.₁

She went to Marlborough FFS! That's posh enough for most people. The thing is the B.R.F. aren't just posh - they have taken it to whole new levels. Use of archaic English is a marker - apparently the use of words like "toilet" and "pardon" mark you down as common (I'm not sure how "shithouse" and "you what mate?" fit on this scale?). I personally would see this as indicative of a psychiatric disorder..

1. British Royal Family

No surprise

2007-04-14T13:34:00.000+12:00

Apparently the Dubai backers of the "New Zealand" Americas Cup challenge are talking about holding the next series in Dubai, should they win the cup (and thus the hosting rights, which sensibly go to the winner).

I'm not surprised at all. The AC teams are not national rep teams like the ABs - they are the private enterprises of very wealthy people and will attach to whichever country is convenient.

Question is, if they do this will Dave Dobbyn have to start singing "Loyal" in Arabic - which, per Google, would make it موالي.

Having fun

2007-04-09T14:00:00.000+12:00

Seen on a poster in Sydney (for a different party):
Jesus had a shit time at Easter. You don't have to!

So I escaped the Auckland holiday shutdown and had fun at a hidden location in the Australian bush - 10km from anywhere (and anywhere wasn't very much of a place) up a dirt track, which left my rental car a bit grubby..

That's the entrance gate thingy above. Neat eh! The organisers did a great job of decorating the place. They had a geodesic dome as a DJ booth (which apparently lives in Canberra and is available for hire).

Musicwise, it was psy-trance all the way. Excellent sets from all the DJs and a good reaction despite the intermittent drizzle. Naked Tourist played an excellent three hour set. I'm left inspired to adds a bit more psy- to my own collection..

Great party! Wish we had more of those sort of events in NZ - apparently they have an outside doof nearly every weekend right through the year, including midwinter day parties.

Glowing away

2007-04-06T12:41:00.000+12:00

I've just about finished my first attempt at an EL wire project.

It's very simple - a t-shirt ($20 from Farmers) with a spiral of green EL wire. The spiral is a good shape to start with, as it doesn't involve any cutting and is low-stress on the wire. I didn't even have to terminate it - just used a standard length and made the belt loop thing with the surplus. I used hot melt glue to stick the wire to the shirt, passing it through the fabric every so often to try and give it some structural integrity. I was going to sew the wire in place, but actually duct tape on the inside of the shirt seems to have done the trick. Also, I've used tape to hide the bits of the wire I don't want to show.

Why? I'm going to this psy-trance doof in Aussie - flight's this arvo!

On Airstrip One

2007-04-05T08:52:00.000+12:00

‘Smith!’ screamed the shrewish voice from the telescreen. ‘6079 Smith W.! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You're not trying. Lower, please! That's better, comrade. Now stand at ease, the whole squad, and watch me.’

A sudden hot sweat had broken out all over Winston's body. His face remained completely inscrutable. Never show dismay! Never show resentment! A single flicker of the eyes could give you away.

- 1984, George Orwell, 1948

The home secretary, John Reid, today denied that plans to expand the use of "talking" CCTV cameras across the country were akin to "Big Brother gone mad".
Loudspeakers are being fitted to cameras in 20 areas, allowing CCTV operators to bark commands at people committing antisocial behaviour.

- Guardian, 4th April 2007

And people ask if I'm going to move back to the UK?

New Burning Man theme..

2007-04-04T09:23:00.000+12:00

In case you hadn't seen this - this is the modified theme for this years Burning Man.

Gardening from indoors

2007-03-30T15:58:00.000+12:00

I just saw a Flymo type lawnmower being dangled from a crane.

That looks a great way to cut the grass. You could swing it back and forth over the lawn from inside the crane cab. Or, if it was a remote control crane, from your sofa..

Hot Fusion

2007-03-29T11:30:00.000+12:00

Went to an interesting gig last night - The Rapture / Gnarls Barkley at the St James.

Not sure why they put them on together - they are quite different although both are a fusion of styles.

The Rapture were my main reason for forking out for a ticket, and they were pretty good. I'd call them indie rock/dance music fusion (ok, if any genre fascists are reading this they will no doubt tell me the correct name). The style is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the Prodigy. None of the showmanship of Keith though - four New York collegey looking kids.. I'm going to start looking out some remixes of their stuff - I think that's a gap in my collection and would go down well on the dancefloor - I think their songs would work better for dancing at 8min length..

Gnarls Barkley combined being slick and enthusiastic. They started with the Pink Floyd song "We don't need no Education" - I assume they were at Bliss incognito and pinched the idea from Helix! Generally, they aren't my #1 choice of stuff, but pretty slick and entertaining.

Early (7:45) start was wierd though - I'm kinda used to gigs as being a late evening thing - I suppose they're doing it cos it's a schoolnight. Not sure how many tickets they sold, but the place didn't look full. It's an interesting experiment promoting three midweek gigs by majorish international bands on weeknights. In Auckland.

Bliss

2007-03-26T10:07:00.000+12:00

Went to Bliss at Space on Friday night. It was awesome!

Then crawled to Hammy and played some tunes for my mate's party - also very cool.

Hubbard's 500 million

2007-03-02T11:11:00.000+13:00

Old Mother Hubbard (aka the mayor of Auckland) "guessed" that his trip to Hamburg generated $500mln in trade.

Stats NZ give annual exports to Germany at $894 million. Hamburg represents 3.6% of the German economy, so according to my calculator you could (reasonably) guess our trade with that city at around $32mln.

Does Hubbard really think that his visit will boost exports more than ten-fold?

I really think he should go back to cereal making at the first opportunity - then he can make dumb decisions in his private business with his own cash. Or at least pay for his own jollies and junkets out of his personal fortune, not hit the ratepayers up for business class air travel.

(Told-you-so section: see http://observationz.blogspot.com/2004/09/mayoral-racing.html).

Armed and dangerous

2007-02-19T09:58:00.000+13:00

bFM just did an interview with MC Frontalot, a nerdcore rapper from (obviously) Cambridge, MA. Nerdcore involves rapping about geek stuff like Star Wars and text mode adventure games.

What's worrying about this is that we all know that many actual rappers and hip-hop identities are in fact middle class computer geeks from nice suburbs (or indeed public school educated sons of bishops). Is the converse true? Is MC Frontalot in fact a genuine crack smokin', machine gun totin' gangsta? I so hope so!

Kiwiburn '07

2007-02-17T17:32:00.000+13:00

Last weekend I participated in Kiwiburn '07.

Things you don't get at Kiwiburn (unlike standard festivals):
1. Idiot drunken high skool kids
2. Lines to get in and have your car/body frisked
3. VIP areas
4. The annoying "band of the summer" that plays at every festival
5. Sleep

Things you definitely get at Kiwiburn:
1. Unbelievably cool friendly people
2. Your own spanking paddle
3. Theme camps with people giving out Absinthe shots
4. Me cranking out the bangin choon's - with fire poi dancers keeping up at 140bpm
5. Me playing trancy stuff with a guy toasting along (thank you Reno!)
6. Swimming in the lake
7. Burning the man
8. Tearing down the temple and throwing it on the flames
9. Shininess
10. Sheep

I'm so going next year - I want to have a floating theme camp on the lake. If I can possibly manage it, I'm going to Nevada in August as well!

Polled out

2007-02-01T08:38:00.000+13:00

The Dominion Post is whinging that people skewed their "poll" on John Key's popularity. Allegedly people in Parliamentary Service offices have been multiple voting.

Well boo hoo! Simple answer - stop running unscientific self-selecting polls that are designed to achieve the result the paper is trying to push (not to mention make money from those dumb enough to text vote).

The voting system on Stuff is trivially easy to hack - all you have to do is block the cookie it sends when you vote - you can then watch the votes crank up indefinitely.

Have a look at their current poll on "Has Daniel Radcliffe made the right career move by starring in a raunchy new stage play?" Look at all the votes!

You can do this too - all you need is this little Linux script:


#!/bin/bash
i="0"
while [ $i -lt 1000 ]
do
wget http://www.stuff.co.nz/view-poll-results.html?section_id=1860&poll_id=14455&option_id=22228
i=$[$i+1]
done

Take a copy - drive pseudo-polling out of New Zealand!

Scary

2007-01-31T16:00:00.000+13:00

John Key has identified McGehan Close as New Zealand's worst street. For those not familiar with the neighbourhood, it's in Sandringham (not the one where the Queen lives). The following Google Maps picture shows the scene - burning cars, bodies, destroyed buildings, etc:

(You might notice that higher-res imaging is not available - the satellite pilots were too scared to fly any lower)

The scariest thing is that the area is frequently attacked by "gangs from Grey Lynn". These notorious desperados are noted for their pillaging of Auckland - look at these guys for instance:

I hope Mr Key's audience are suitably cautioned by his speech and stay safely in Christchurch - we wouldn't want them venturing into the ghettos of Glenfield, Takapuna or Kohimaramara, would we?

Advice for water-walkers

2007-01-30T10:45:00.000+13:00

To avoid unfortunate tragedies like this one, the following safety tips are provided for those at large scale god-botherer gatherings who feel the need to try some aquatic pedestrianism:

1. Beginning water-walkers should start on a shallow pond with no currents.
2. Fast flowing rivers should be avoided for those who haven't managed the art of running on water.
3. As should jump starts from a bridge - you should practice starting from a level beach until confidence has been gained.
4. If you feel the water coming up to your neck, swim for the shore. Pray some more and try again.
5. Don't take the brown acid - even if you got it from the bishop.

First time?

2007-01-29T16:07:00.000+13:00

I'm not sure, but this might be the first time that a columnist has used a newspapers comment facility to criticise the subbing of their article. Well done Charlie!

Healthy eating

2007-01-17T10:49:00.000+13:00

Popular comedian and friend to Havoc and Newsboy Mike King is in hospital with a stroke.

Hopefully he'll make a full recovery, but could it be that stuffing yourself with red meat for every meal as advocated by the NZ meat industry and its spokespeople isn't all that good for you?

Tribal strumming

2007-01-15T16:22:00.000+13:00

Those naiccce girls at Red Confectionary pointed out this article in the Dom Post.

Since anyone can play this game, I've made up the following tribes with amusing acronym names, something the original authors conspicuously failed to do:

ARSEHOLES - Auckland Real Smooth Elegant Home Owning Lifestyle EnterpreneurS
e.g. Michael Boulgaris

SICOES - South Island Church Organising ElderS
e.g. Graham Capill

PRATS - Public Relations Articles To fill up Space
e.g. the article referenced above (ok it's not a group of people, I'm running outta inspiration here)

I'm sure you can think up others!

(Viz. Profanisaurus strum v. = A relaxed tug.)

2007-01-15T14:38:00.000+13:00

Johann Hari has an article in the Independent today defending the UK government's proposed integration of state computer systems to share personal information.

I dispute his thesis on several levels:

Firstly, he treats as equivalent a criminal action committed by the state or by an individual criminal. This to me is plain wrong - as an elector I have vicarious responsibility for a cop who makes his dog cripple a child - I don't have such responsibility for the actions of a random psychopath, paroled or otherwise.

Secondly, he uses rape as an example of why it is acceptable for the state to invade personal privacy to prevent a much worse consequence. Leaving aside the likelihood that circumstances, not identity are at issue in most of the 50,000 unsolved rapes he cites, how desirable is a society where crime is suppressed through individual surveillance?

The widespread deployment (in the UK) of numberplate recognition is likely to allow the police to have a list of all vehicles (and eventually faces) that passed near the site of an offence. Given the pressure to make use of this information, it is likely that before long most people will become "suspects" in several serious offences every year. What will it do for the tolerance of policing once everyone gets a regular knock on the door and a demand to justify their movements?

It is technically possible (and becoming easier) to perform random drug testing on the entire population. Given that drug use is illegal, it would be justified in Johann's logic for the state to try and wipe it out by drug testing the entire population and imposing "rehabilitation" on those that fail. Would this be an acceptable use of state power?

It is an unfortunate fact that a largish minority of the UK (and NZ) population are hardline racists, support radical Islam, physical force (Irish) republicanism or other undesirable ideologies. Should the government monitor all communication and discussion in order to blacklist such people and prevent them working in jobs where they might discriminate against or attack other citizens?

I'd suggest to Johann that just as using state power to try and enforce better government on Iraq turned out to be a bad idea, so using state power to try and coerce the domestic population into better behaviour may be a good idea in theory, but a thoroughly bad one in practice.

My PageRank's collapsed (and then recovered)

2007-01-13T13:23:00.000+13:00

My Google PageRank has gone from 6 to 0! No idea why - have they changed the rules so that blogs drop down unless you post at least once a month?

It's been Xmas - I haven't had anything to write about!

Oh: Now I switched to the new Blogger it's gone back up again - must be a new feature to make you upgrade!

Corporate Fandom

2006-12-06T16:21:00.000+13:00

Two things I noticed today:

Apple launched their iTunes site in New Zealand, after several years of depriving us of it.
I read Robyn's article about Holden fans and the prevalence of them on NZDating.

Which got me thinking about the strange phenomenon of corporations that have fans.

I can understand sports teams having fans. Musicians, actors and authors have fans. But why does anyone bestow their admiration on a publicly quoted company?

For car manufacturers (Holden and Ford in Australia and NZ, Ferrari in Italy) motor racing has been the route to this status (I guess). And while Ferrari have had to spend billions on producing the worlds best racing cars, Holden just hop up an overweight, low-tech family saloon and race a single opponent (Ford, of course) around the backblocks racetracks of Australasia.

Apple's method of reaching adulation has mostly involved Not Being Microsoft. Pushing their gear mostly to influential creatives and up market home users ensures cachet (David Brett uses a PC - he would never in a million years be furnished with an Apple). So while an MSFT product launch involves a good deal of sneering about bugs, security and how many dollars Bill Gates is making, the launch of iTunes is met with pure obsequiousness: "Can you tell us again how insanely great the iTunes store is, Mr Cue".

What other companies have corporate fans? Sony almost has, but could just be trying a bit too hard lately. Vodafone would dearly, dearly like to, but at the end of the day they're the phone company and they take your money. Google might have, but it's hard to see really how the search process is exciting enough to keep the fans amused.

Maybe MySpace - it's a bit ugly, but then that was never an absolute bar to fanned-ness.

Dumb and dumber

2006-11-17T10:35:00.000+13:00

If you think the stadium is a silly idea (and I only disagree really because it's a waste of public money, not on planning grounds), look at this plan to make Albany "a city in it's own right".

Like Auckland needs more "edge cities" on greenfield sites! I suppose there might be a place for this in 20-30 years time when the central city reaches an optimal density, but not now. I know Albany has a busway link to the city but that isn't going to help when people living in the eastern, southern and western suburbs get jobs there and need to commute in - and they will.

Just why am I buying a new stadium?

2006-11-06T15:02:00.000+13:00

Apparently the government is minded to build a $700 million new stadium on a waterfront site in Auckland. Plus $150mln for land and relocation costs (and that seems quite cheap, assuming the port will have to relocate to Tauranga). If this doesn't work, then the bargain alternative is to spend $350mln improving Eden Park.

I don't really care where they build it. If they did build on the waterfront, then I'll lose what remains of my view from work (below) and won't be able to walk to the rugby/cricket any more. But I'll probably have moved house and job by then.

I just don't see why the taxpayer needs to fork out for this. If the hospitality/rugby industry feels it essential, why don't they raise the money themselves? I have better things to spend $400 (waterfront) or $160 (Eden Park) than to build a stadium for a match I'll almost certainly not get tickets for.

Big bangs

2006-10-17T09:11:00.000+13:00

According to the Herald, New Zealanders last year set off 1,700 tonnes of fireworks. That means we beat the North Koreans puny 500 tonne nuke!! Suck that Kim Jong Il!

(Ok, so gunpowder only has 1/10 the energy of TNT but I still think we're getting pretty close. Everyone needs to buy more firecrackers this year so we can try and get well up into the small nuke range).

Energetic improvements

2006-10-16T15:20:00.000+13:00

I commented earlier on No Right Turn about the government's scheme to reduce fuel usage by restricting the import of gas-guzzling cars.

I said I had a better idea, so here it is:

Some petrol usage is clearly non-discretionary - e.g. driving to work. Other usage is highly discretionary, e.g driving to a bach in the Coromandel every weekend. I propose that we tax the former less heavily than the latter.

One mechanism for this is for each vehicle owner to get a smartcard (no more than one per person, clearly). This would allow them to buy a certain amount of petrol each year at a discounted price. Fuel bought outside this would be taxed more heavily (to pay for the scheme and to allow for the purchase of carbon credits).

The amount of cheap fuel would be based on driving one of the most economical cars currently available (e.g. a Daewoo Matiz) for an average commute (this could possibly be regionally based). This equates to around 400 litres annually. The price of this cheap fuel would be pegged to inflation, while the amount would reduce every year to allow for changed travel patterns and improvements in vehicle economy.

The chart below shows the effect over five years. I've assumed that to start with the price of cheap fuel would be $1.30, resulting in an unsubsidised price of $1.56. I've also put various inflators in. This is a very rough calculation, but it serves to illustrate.

I reckon this would modify people's behaviour in a positive fashion. It would also help the less well off, who would benefit from reduced, predictable fuel costs.

PS: I will post the spreadsheet when I track down a suitable site!

My new project

2006-10-10T14:48:00.001+13:00

I've started a new blog. This one covers everything about mixing, mashups and emerging multitrack music formats like ChoonML, Umixit and U-Myx.

Have a look if you're interested! No politics there, of an NZ or any other flavour...

Stand up for the boys in...

2006-10-09T10:55:00.000+13:00

The capacity of Eden Park needs to be increased by 25% for the 2011 World Cup.

This is expected to cost NZD320 million - for which the NZ taxpayer and/or the ratepayers are being hit up (for some reason the NZRB are suddenly too poor to afford more than 10mil - they didn't seem to mention this when they bid for the cup?)

There does seem to be a simpler solution to increasing capacity - take all the seats out. I'd reckon this would provide comfortable standing for at least 25% more people. (UK soccer grounds had more than twice today's capacities before they went all-seater).

And if the players are expected to run around for 80 minutes, can't the spectators be expected to stand up for that long? Also, the NZRB would be able to save on having stewards to get people to sit down.

I see a ship in a harbour

2006-09-24T13:35:00.000+12:00

Went to the Peter Hook gig at Coherent on Thursday - it was awesome!

I wasn't expecting that much - 40-something (ok 5-something) bass player DJing - but he was cool. No technique, just great choons (and quite a lot of them matching *my* record box).

Jackson to remake "Dambusters"

2006-09-01T13:33:00.000+12:00

Peter Jackson is to remake the WW2 classic movie "The Dambusters".

I wonder whether they will change the name of Guy Gibson's dog?

Also, I really hope he does it without CGI. There are two Lancasters still flying they could use for the aerial shots (as well as lots of genuine wartime footage that could be spliced in). The Waikato dams could be mocked up to look like the Ruhr.

It'd be so much better than a high-tech cartoon!

Spying on the net?

2006-08-27T10:48:00.000+12:00

The Herald has an article on the Motion Picture Association's apparent deployment of a system which can "track internet searches".

There are a number of ways they could be doing this:

1. Tapping Internet traffic, either on peered networks or at an NZ ISP.

2. Placing spyware on individual computers,

3. Obtaining details of searches from Google and others.

4. Placing spoof sites and possibly paid advertising on search engines and then monitoring where the hits come from.

5. They're bluffing.

1 & 2 are plain illegal - section 216B of the Crimes Act prohibits the interception of private communications (which a search request clearly is).

3 would seem to run counter to Google's privacy policy (at least) and would also possibly contravene the Privacy Act.

4 wouldn't be illegal, but possibly also wouldn't be effective. They'd probably get a lot of hits on "lord of the rings torrent" - but that wouldn't be proof of anything. My guess is that this is the most likely methodology, apart from (5).

It will be interesting to see if any more emerges on this.

NZ offered "scientific" reactor - yeah right!

2006-08-12T12:25:00.000+12:00

According to this article, NZ was offered British aid to build a small nuclear reactor in the mid-1940s for "medical, industrial and scientific purposes".

The real purpose behind this is not hard to fathom. After having been a junior partner in the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bombs, Britain had been cut off from access to nuclear material and knowledge by the McMahon Act . As a result, an independent project was started to build a bomb, the first step in this being the construction of nuclear facilities at Windscale.

Canada was involved in this from an early stage, both in mining uranium and in building reactors, the plutonium from which was sold to both Britain and the US. The whole nuclear weapon program was very difficult for a small and relatively impoverished country like post-war Britain, and any assistance, especially in terms of space for facilities was obviously welcome.

Fortunately, as with later British requests for a test site, NZ declined this "opportunity".

bFM and Havoc - get over it?

2006-08-07T13:24:00.000+12:00

Bit of a comment on Damian Christie's Public Address posts on bFM's upcoming replacement of Wallace with Mikey on the breakfast show.
By not totally agreeing with Damian, I think I'm in a minority of one, but here goes:

- bFM obviously have a business issue. More than 50% of Aucklanders prefer to listen to the kind of radio station that doesn't tax you with music that you might not have heard before. The rest mostly favour hip-hop, right-wing drivel, or something in their home language. That leaves maybe 5-10% of people who are open to listening to an "alternative" station, in which I'd include bFM, Kiwi, George and some of the low-power stations. With bFM at around 1.5%, it's hard to see how they can substantially boost those figures (assuming they don't fancy a total change of format / demographic). You can see how tweaking with "name" presenters might appeal.

- They could of course go back to their "student radio" roots, fire most of the paid staff and rely on the endless pool of keen volunteers. Trouble is, I've listened to RadioActive and it isn't pretty...

- Mikey's musical tastes aren't to everyone's liking. The USP of bFM is, however, *meant* to be, as far as I can tell, that they play a wide range of different music. Surely that includes "bangin house tracks"? After all, Havo also plays plenty of noisy rock music, hip-hop and wistful pop. There is a wonderful device on the market that allows you to restrict yourself to music that matches your own taste - it's called a CD player (or iPOD, even).

- Havo has a range of views on politics, some of which I find annoying and some I even agree with. But surely bFM viewers are intelligent enough to filter this? I think it's a sad day if we can't hear opinions beyond "sensible and realistic liberal opinion".

- There do seem to be rather a lot of callers to bFM whose mental functions are in some disrepair, either through natural causes or through overenthusiastic drug use. These people do seem to be attracted to calling Mikey.

- I think it must be a general problem for radio stations to find creative presenters that will reliably turn up at 7am. Look at Chris Evans.

Having said all that, I think Wallace does a good job on breakfast and is steadily getting better. I haven't switched to George for ages (unlike with the previous incumbent). But then, I'm not in the typical demographic - maybe 20 year olds want a bit more craziness at breakfast time?

Uncyclopedia thingy

2006-08-04T19:47:00.000+12:00

Paula has discovered this Wikipedia game that involves finding interesting things that happened on your birthday.

Trouble is, nothing significant happened on my birthday. Some alleged muslims allegedly tried to blow up London, but failed, possibly because Play-Doh isn't an explosive. The first Indo-China war was resolved by the Geneva Conference - lasting peace, that one. And some English soccer player I've never heard of was born.

However in Uncyclopedia there are far more exciting happenings, only a few of which I just put there:

Three events
1944: End of the Great Toaster Rebellion

1968: Kitten Huffing banned in the state of North Dakota.

2002: The execution of the Spice Girls by the Vatican Boys Punishment Squad.

Two birthdays
1497: Mona Lisa - Author of the DaVinci code and inventor of the aeroplane

1921: Barney Hitler - Adolf's younger brother.

One holiday or observance
National Fight Day.

Visiting Bali

2006-07-31T13:22:00.000+12:00

I recently got back from a holiday break in Bali. It was great: nice people, excellent weather and a new cultural experience.

Also, nobody blew me up.

What there isn't at the moment is very many tourists - largely because Australia and New Zealand recommend against non-essential travel. Other countries don't do this, the UK recommends exercising caution. Since I'm British and in any case consider a beach holiday to be "essential travel", then I reckoned I was ok.

I do think the travel advice thing is bad. It hurts a lot of people who can least afford it. Anywhere outside an active war zone, one is far more at risk from traffic accidents than terrerism.

I reckon the travel advice for everywhere should be something like the following:

Abroad isn't like NZ (or Australia, etc). Bad things might happen. They probably won't though. We don't provide a nanny service for travelling Kiwis (..etc) - if things turn bad, you're on your own. Having said that, almost all people have an enjoyable and enriching time overseas. Have a good trip!

Fiat advertisement and "All Blacks" Haka

2006-07-04T21:06:00.000+12:00

Offensively amusing?

Graham Henry, the manager of the Ford Steinlager Adidas All Blacks, was on the telly tonight complaining about the awful Italians commercially exploiting the "Ka Mate" Haka. Which came out of copyright in 1899 (50 years after Te Rauparaha's death).

I think the iwi is on slightly better ground that the AB's, morally, if not legally. But if they have a complaint about culturally disrespectful advertising, the Italian people could have one with the "don't toucha the hair" Sky ad - depicting Italians as mafiosi. Come to that, the Germans might have an issue with Steinlager using the German language to market one of NZ's nastier beers.

And have you noticed the Ford/All Blacks ad - doesn't the tune remind you of Chumbawumba's 1997 hit Tubthumping?

Ben Elton's not just boring because he's turned Tory

2006-07-03T16:10:00.000+12:00

Boring Ben

There's an interview with Ben Elton (not online as far as I can see) in the Herald on Sunday.

It covers, as you might expect, the criticism that Elton has "sold out" and become unfunny.

I think he isn't funny any more, not just because of his new-found Tory politics, but also because he's become very, very stale. Comedians have a sell by date, as do rock bands (take REM for instance: way back in 1980, they were cool as, nowadays, they're grannies music). And whilst rock bands can get away with a lot if they maintain a decent obscurity and keep playing the same stuff (like Iggy Pop, or George Clinton), comedians have to keep producing new material. And Elton's new material isn't any good.

He also came up with the lamest excuse for his political turnaround from left-wing firebrand to sycophantic royalist: "with a soft liberal government there isn't anything to get angry about" (paraphrased). I'm sorry:

- Thatcher refrained from invading anywhere except the Falklands (and pretty much all of the Falklanders favoured the re-invasion)

- Thatcher never gave state schools away to religious wierdos to run

- Despite them repeatedly (not to mention understandably) trying to kill her, Thatcher avoided locking up IRA members without at least a semblance of a trial

- After totally losing the confidence of her party, Thatcher at least had the good grace to resign

Prejudice and property?

2006-06-19T10:40:00.000+12:00

According to this Herald story (and I can't find anything on the Green party site, so it may be a misrepresentation), the Green leader, Russel Norman, is calling for (further) restrictions on foreigners buying NZ property in an effort to limit house price rises.

To me this smacks of racism, and I don't think it fits well in the policy of a progressive party.

I don't believe non-resident foreigners are a major factor in the NZ housing market, except maybe in a few places like Herne Bay or Queenstown. Returning Kiwis and new immigrants with pounds/euros/dollars to spend might be, but I can't believe the Greens want to stop permanent residents owning houses?

I'd suggest the following non-discriminatory measures that would work much better in controlling house price inflation:
- Just as the Reserve Bank has a target for general inflation, set a similar target for house price inflation and use mostly fiscal measures to achieve it. I'd suggest 2% under general inflation for the next five years.

- Introduce GST on larger mortgage payments (e.g. a mortgage over $300k).

- Introduce capital gains tax on house sales over say 500k (with an indexing allowance).

- Introduce a wealth tax on fortunes over, for instance, $2mln. Making this fall on any property in NZ would ensure that any "wealthy foreigners" would be making a fair contribution to the country.

All the above measures could be adjusted to achieve the inflation target (and abated to control a house price crash). The revenue could be used to reduce income tax and/or GST, helping ordinary people afford houses. They'd also help address the massive imbalance between taxes on capital and taxes on income in NZ (why is it that if I earn $80,000 working I pay 39% tax, while if I make the same amount of money speculating in property, I pay *no* tax).

Citizens or Serfs

2006-05-31T09:48:00.000+12:00

This month's edition of Prospect magazine has an article by its editor, David Goodhart, setting out his views on the nature of "citizenship" in modern (British) society. I thought it worthy of comment as it shows how far Blairism has diverged from the internationalist and liberal ideas that Labour began with.

To start with, the article shows incredible causistry in trying to argue that discrimination against non-European peoples is in some way not a form of racism. That there is a unfortunate practical need for some form of immigration control I do not dispute - that it is in some way a worthy expression of "Liberal Realism" I utterly disagree with.

Goodhart then constructs a model of citizenship suitable for a Blairite society.
It states as amongst the requirements of citizenship:
"acceptance of the rule of law and the authority of the state and its institutions; agreement to play by the economic and welfare rules and to accept national norms on such things as the place of religion, free speech and women's equality"

This negates democracy, as it requires that certain aspects of the nation's current arrangement are to be "accepted" as beyond disagreement. This is rather reminiscent of pre-Victorian Britain, where everyone was required to adhere to the state religion as practiced by the monarch - Jews, for instance, being banned from public office unless they converted to Christianity.

The author goes on to discuss the "duties" of citizenship. This is a communitarian idea that has become popular in Blairite circles over the last few years. The problem with this idea is that it directly conflicts with the concept of a democracy bound by laws. In such a political system, the duties of everyone, whether citizen or visitor, are limited to one - they must obey the law or face the consequences. Current British law imposes very few legal obligations that differentiate by citizenship: mostly it is one's presence or habitual residence in the country that determine an obligation to comply with national law.

As if to remedy this, Goodhart proposes that citizenship be bolstered by obligations and ceremonial. This ranges from a civil birth ceremony to the promotion of ID cards as a badge (I prefer the word "brand") of belonging. He even brings up the old concept of conscription - arguing for a "national volunteering scheme for school-leavers". (Since there are numerous such schemes already, I assume that "volunteering" is a euphemism).

These measures are not a mark of democratic citizenship as we have come to know it. It is rather more reminiscent of the system that preceeded liberal democracy - serfdom. Under this system the people of the nation were subject to the arbitrary requirements of the state for labour and military service and were expected to comply with the forms of religious and other thought required by the state. In a similar fashion to Goodhart's "contract" the state then attempted to protect the serfs from Mongol hordes and the like. The Blair project appears to want to revive this - with perpetual "centre-right" governments and local councils replacing kings and barons in the feudal structure.

If you live in Auckland you're an Aucklander

2006-05-16T13:59:00.000+12:00

I went to the rugby at the weekend, as you do. It was the Waikato /Auckland game, and apart from the fact that we lost bigtime, I did notice a bit of a dearth of Auckland supporters. Which is odd, given that you'd usually expect mostly home supporters at an Eden Park game.

So why is this? I suppose you have to allow for the fact that a lot of Aucklanders are league fans, quite a few are from what you could call a non-rugby heritage, and the weather was what you'd consider bloody horrible up here, but a nice evening by Hamilton standards. Still, you would have thought that we could muster as many people (from 1.3mln) as a city of 200k two hours drive away managed.

I guess it's that many people who live in Auckland don't identify with the city. A lot of Aucklanders were born elsewhere (or claim to have been). I've noticed also that people will choose the most interesting and "authentic" place they have lived as their hometown, even though they only spent six months there at the age of four (or in extreme cases, once stopped there for a pie).

The only problem with this is that people without any attachment to the city they live in don't want to do anything to improve it. But really, I think Aucklanders should face the fact that we're stuck here, the city has plenty of good points, and most of us don't really want to try and live on $10 an hour picking kiwifruit.

By the way, I'm not an Aucklander. I've decided to identify as a Frenchman from Fontainebleau. I lived there until I was two, so despite not having been back since, not being a French citizen and only speaking schoolboy French, I think I should identify as Fontaineblouis (?). They don't seem to have a rugby team - maybe I should start supporting Stade Français. Neat shirts too!

Helping Bill out

2006-05-05T16:23:00.000+12:00

Bill Gates has said that he "doesn't want to be the world's richest man".

It's a problem I think many of us could help him with. I couldn't take on the full USD55bln, or even the USD30bln or so needed to get him to #2 on the list. But I could happily take on a little bit, say USD100mln.

And I'd spend it wisely. People would be employed building fast cars, teaching me to fly helicopters and Harrier jump-jets, keeping my boats and houses maintained. I could buy a daily newspaper and maybe a radio station or two to use as a platform for my unique opinions. My regular free dance parties would provide entertainment for thousands of New Zealanders - especially if they avoided the "Richard is DJing" tent..

And it would make up for all the dosh I've lost on Microsoft stock because he's employed a bunch of impeccably qualified idiots. How can it take five years to write a frigging operating system - it only took Alan Turing three to invent the computer!

Immigration II

2006-04-26T15:02:00.000+12:00

Section 4 of the document covers the visa and permit system: in other words, the bureaucracy by which arrivals and stays in NZ are regulated.

To me the key principal here is that the system should not only be fair, open and transparent, it should place the absolute minimum burden on travellers to New Zealand consistent with a reasonable level of border security. That isn't just a question of being nice to travellers, it's also of economic importance.

One of the main impediments to NZ's growth is our geographical position. Tourists and business people (or "customers" in commercial terms) need to endure a minimum of three hours on a plane, and mostly much longer. We shouldn't add to this by slowing things up at the airport.

It's to be noted that our major trading partners have much quicker and more efficient border controls than we do. Generally, a scan of a passport is all that's required, even for non-EU citizens entering the EU (and "Schengen" borders within the EU, which one could reasonably regard as similar to the Australia/NZ "border", consist of a roadsign, as shown below).

The document asks the following questions:
4.1.1 Should the single term "visa" be used for all travel, entry and stay authorization granted to non-citizens?
4.1.2 Should the system continue to allow for exceptions to the standard requirement to have authorization to travel to, enter and remain in New Zealand (for example, through the equivalent of visa-free arrangements or permit exemptions)?
4.2.1 Are all the current permit exemptions justified?

I would say yes, yes and yes.

I'd go on to argue that the Act should put an obligation on NZIS to justify and minimize compliance costs and times at NZ airports. We could look at the following:

Recording most, if not all, visas and permits electronically rather than through passport stamps and stickers.
Removing the arrival and departure card requirements. According to this Guardian article most UK landing cards pile up unprocessed in a warehouse, and I wouldn't be surprised if this happened here as well. Almost all the information on landing cards can be (and mostly is) obtained from the airlines electronically. Having travellers sign to say that they have no contraband might be useful (but doesn't have much legal force).
Replacing the departure counters by spot-checks and automated scrutiny of flight manifests.

Wiki failings

2006-04-26T14:19:00.000+12:00

Good article from Russell Brown on the various failings of Wikipedia, including the tendency for various NZ wingnuts (and others) to try and convert it into a propaganda board for ACT.

It does occur to me, however, that the GFDL allows anyone to take a snapshot of all or part of Wikipedia and run with it. For instance, one could envisage a system of expert (or at least unbiased) editors who can approve and lock copy. The difficulty is that such systems can eventually logjam and become (more or less) useless (like Open Directory).

One day, technology will allow articles to be checked, referenced and approved by a neutral software program!

Immigration I

2006-04-24T15:25:00.000+12:00

No Right Turn has a good article commenting on the NZIS discussion document on changes to the Immigration Act, on which comments are currently being sought.

I thought I'd add some of my own thoughts, starting with Section I - Purpose & Principals.

They ask the following questions:
1 Do you agree with the suggested purpose of New Zealand’s immigration legislation?
2 Do you agree that New Zealand’s immigration-related interests are those suggested?
3 Should a purpose statement be included in the legislation?

To me, there is a philosophical objection which any immigration legislation has to address - such legislation is inherently discriminatory (Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits discrimination on grounds of nationality, although this is qualified elsewhere).

The argument for such legislation is that it is necessary to prevent uncontrolled and excessive migration from poor, unstable countries to wealthier and more stable states. It's worth noting in passing that the EU has had no controls on intra-union migration for over 25 years and that such migration has been relatively small - even though there are quite wide wealth disparities between, for instance, Portugal and Germany.

Assuming however, that we accept the principle that immigration controls are a pragmatic necessity, it seems to me that they should be constrained to the minimum required to prevent economic and social damage. The document lists the following interests that NZ has in maintaining immigration controls:

maintaining the safety and security of New Zealand
generating sustainable economic growth
establishing strong communities
fulfilling New Zealand’s role as a good international citizen, and
promoting international cooperation.

I have no problem with 2, 4 and 5 as far as they go. Item 1 is slightly more problematic, since "safety and security" can be expanded to cover a multitude of evils. Indeed, the chosen examples lead straight away to a very broad interpretation of "safety": "ensuring that non-citizens are of good health" is cited as one restriction justified by this clause. The current measures affecting the health of immigrants are primarily concerned with avoiding cost to the health system (an economic ground) than restricting the transmission of infectious disease. Indeed, there are no controls on the health of returning citizens and residents, who would seem equally likely to have picked up something nasty overseas. I'd suggest this clause be replaced with the simpler "prevention of crimes and hostile acts".

Item 3 I fundamentally disagree with. I don't think the government should be engaging in "social engineering" to try and force the nation's development down a certain path. New Zealand appears set to remain a basically Anglo-Polynesian society - if it takes in other influences, then that is a Good Thing. I also don't believe in the idea that immigration by groups with different ideals (e.g. Muslims) will lead to the erosion of our tolerant society: firstly, I believe our instutions are (or should be) robust enough to resist such erosion; secondly, most immigrants move here because they actually *like* the way things are.

I would add a further item: "protecting the rights and interests of migrants". This would cover activities such as preventing the exploitation of migrant workers (and indeed students).

Easter bunny

2006-04-15T18:33:00.000+12:00

Christ Easter is boring here! England used to make the pubs close at 1030 on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, which was bad enough, but at least they opened.

I don't quite get the labour protection argument. Lots of workers, from the duty shift at Huntly to Mick Jagger, and including the Department of Labour's own inspectors, have to work Easter.

I argued elsewhere that all public holidays should be replaced with an increased annual leave entitlement, giving workers the right to holidays of choice rather than on days ordained by the church. If this is impossible, and the government reckons a relaxation on Easter opening wouldn't pass the Christian element in parliament, then there is another option, which could be implemented without legislation: Give the DoL inspectors Chocolate Egg Day and Hot Cross Bun day off.

Ciao Berlusconi

2006-04-11T21:52:00.000+12:00

Looks like Berlusconi has lost the Italian elections - depending on whether the Prodi-led coalition has enough seats in the upper house to form a workable coalition.

So Bush just lost another satellite state!

It's also interesting to consider whether there might be further prosecutions - he has wriggled out of rather a lot of accusations.

My fake sheikh brings all the boys to the yard

2006-04-07T03:45:00.000+12:00

George Galloway has been in court again - the News of the World has been trying to suppress images of it's investigative reporter Mazher Mahmood. Quite what legal grounds they could have for this I don't know - images taken in a public place are generally the copyright of the photographer, not the subject. I can't believe he'd be entitled to a "Mary Bell order" - those have only ever been given to protect a child. Anyway, this is what he looks like:

and in his highly believable Sheikh costume:

So if you're a celebrity and he tries to stitch you up, then beware!

Random jottings from Europe

2006-04-02T00:44:00.000+12:00

I'm away in Germany and England for a couple of weeks and I thought I'd just post a few random comments from my travels:

Singapore: I was briefly in transit through Singapore, as you do. It does seem to be impossible to fly from NZ to Europe without transiting at least one authoritarian fascist state - but at least the Singaporeans are efficient fascists and don't make you spend most of your two hour stopover in line at immigration. I read the Sunday Straits Times on the plane out, and it worries me - it's ostensibly just like a normal Sunday paper, but with this Orwellian overlay to everything. Just about every article in the paper is slated to the national "model" of how people should live and behave - scary.

Germany: I was staying in a city in the Ruhr, which is what the Americans would call "rustbelt". Most German cities provide a constant reminder of what authoritarian government leads to - very few buildings older than 50 years (for obvious reasons). I think this leads to a sensible skepticism for authoritarian measures - one example of this being the German attitude to motoring - my taxi driver heading for the airport got up to a brisk 160km/h on the autobahn - in NZ that would practically be considered attempted murder!

Britain: I'm informed that drinking on the street outside a pub has been banned. All the time I worked in the City, this was traditional on sunny days (yes - England does occasionally have them) - you'd get your pint and stand out on the pavement and drink it. I *never* saw any trouble. Now they've decided to ban it - no doubt part of Blair's "Respect" (= social control) agenda. Next thing they'll ban chewing gum!

I just don't see how this slide into authoritarianism can be stopped - part of the reason is that societies don't have the big problems like depressions and world war that they used to, so governments feel they have to solve every tiny issue. Bah!

PM rocked by jammy dodger dodginess

2006-03-23T10:58:00.000+12:00

Scandal hit Prime Minister Helen Clark has been rocked by the news of unchecked theft within her departmental offices. Police last night confirmed that they are investigating the theft of a number of plain and chocolate biscuits from ministerial catering facilities at the Beehive. A cleaning operative is believed to have helped herself to the biscuits while tidying the departmental kitchen.

Act leader Rodney Hide said he had spoken to staff within the department who had told him that not only had plain biscuits been stolen, but also Tim Tams and jammy dodgers. Mr Hide said that he had been told that biscuits were left in unlocked cupboards and that staff regularly helped themselves to not only biscuits, but also to unauthorised cups of coffee and tea. Helen Clark's spokeswoman said that they were aware of some misuse of catering supplies, and that guidelines had been re-issued on staff refreshments. The spokeswoman said the theft was investigated but an outcome had yet to be decided.

Mr Hide said an answer from Helen Clark to a parliamentary question only gave part of the story, not mentioning that luxury biscuits such as Tim Tams had been involved in the theft and misleading the house that only plain biscuits had been misappropriated. He called on the Prime Minister to accept responsibility for this shameful neglect of public property and resign.

A government spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "I don't know about biscuits, but I'd like to see a stock-check on the doughnut supplies at the Business Roundtable after Rodney's paid them a visit."

Exceptions to every rule

2006-03-22T14:51:00.000+12:00

Normally I am of the view that torture should never, ever, be considered and that criminals should be rehabilitated rather than punished. However there are some people whose mere existence stresses my liberal principles to breaking point. Martha Stewart for example.

If the American's have to satisfy their 18th century bloodlust on someone, what was wrong with her, rather than random Kabul taxi drivers? And I'm sure a video "Martha Stewart executed by Scaphism" would be a hit on MTV.

Resigning ministers

2006-03-21T16:07:00.000+12:00

David Parker has been forced to resign his cabinet posts after making an allegedly false declaration on a company form.

I was surprised to find that ministers were allowed to be directors anyway. British ministers can't - the UK Ministerial Code is quite firm that "Ministers must resign any directorships they hold when they take up office". Our cabinet manual just requires them to be declared - I think this is something the government should look at - they're reasonably well paid for a full time job and shouldn't really need side interests.

The Herald (along with the usual not-exactly-unblemished wingnuts -thank you Russell Brown for the reference) suggests he might be prosecuted. I guess this rests on whether there was any material problem with the business. Parker should probbaly get the books audited pronto - if this shows that everything is above board, then I'd think that the chances of a prosecution and conviction are slight, and he might have some hopes of getting back into politics. If however there was actual sticky-fingeredness, then he's in trouble - and rightly so!

Protection-free poms

2006-03-03T14:30:00.000+13:00

Interesting story in the Guardian. Apparently almost no CDs released in the UK have copy protection. The UK record company branches don't believe it works.

An unspoken reason might also be that a pirated CD with the copy protection removed (or a memory stick full of MP3s) is *more* useful than a pukka copy-protected disk. Which might tip the balance for your average record buying kid between buying a CD or copying the choons from a mate.

Anyway, for New Zealanders, it might be useful to note that Amazon.co.uk list the Arctic Monkeys at GBP8.99 (=NZD23.65) against RealGroovy at NZD34.95. And it'd be less likely to try and *monkey* with your computer. (Groan!)

Mortgage rates up

2006-02-28T13:28:00.000+13:00

Interesting article in the Guardian by Larry Elliot, especially the last bit where he talks about Iceland and carry trades:

"The technical term for what has been going on in Iceland - and other emerging markets - is a carry trade. Inflation and interest rates are low in the leading industrial nations, and their currencies have been moving in fairly tight ranges. Central bankers tend to like this state of affairs, because it suggests economic stability. Investors don't like it nearly so much, because it means returns are not as big as they would like. So, they have been filling their boots with money borrowed in dollars, yen, Swiss francs and euros (at suitably low rates of interest) and buying assets in countries where interest rates are much higher (including Iceland)."

And New Zealand - that is how banks are managing to offer fixed rate mortgages (2yr 7.95%) at substatially lower rates than floating (9.55%) (http://www.interest.co.nz/mortgages.asp).

What these (often Japanese) investors are betting is that the NZD (or ISK) remain stable against their baseline currency (e.g. JPY). If they lose this confidence, then they will either want a higher premium for Uridashi and EuroKiwi (NZD denominated bonds marketed in Japan/Europe) or will bale out of the market altogether - this will send (fixed) mortgage rates up as the banks switch to alternative conventional financing.

When that happens, it could be the tipping point for the housing market.

What's she been smoking?

2006-02-23T15:02:00.000+13:00

Anti-crystal meth campaigner Marie Cotter is reported as saying:
"We've got the support of the whole of New Zealand"

Well she hasn't got my support, so she's clearly wrong! I think that all drugs, including methamphetamine, or "P" to give it it's marketing name, should be made legal.

The only reason why NZ has a (much exaggerated) problem with meth is that, being isolated, the authorities are able to interdict the importation of drugs with more success than in Britain, for instance. As a result, drugs like MDMA and cocaine that need to be imported (or made from imported ingredients) are expensive and hard to find. Hence, people (ab)use drugs that can be cooked up locally from common materials - which methamphetamine can be. So instead of taking a drug which makes you happy, people take a drug that makes you psycho (allegedly).

Great idea, prohibition.

Ban everything now!

2006-02-22T09:50:00.000+13:00

The Maori party has apparently come out for a total ban on tobacco, similar to the oh-so-successful one on cannabis and other drugs.

A cynic would suggest that this might be a policy ask on the part of the Mongrel Mob and Black Power - who would be in line to make an absolute fortune out of illegal tobacco plantations in every cornfield and forest.

Excessive access costs

2006-02-20T12:34:00.000+13:00

There has been much discussion on Telecom's latest broadband products, with Russell Brown raising the issue of contention rates and Paul Brislen of Computerworld (the magazine not the shop) calling for "boots and all" regulation.

Keith Ng, writing last week suggests that Xtra sells to "suckers-who-are-unaware-that-other-ISPs-exist". This might be partly true, but I get my connectivity from Xtra and I *am* aware of other ISPs. Why do I stay with Xtra? Basically because I sort out IT problems all day for a living - I don't want to do the same when I get home. I could see buying connectivity from a Telecom reseller (there are no competitive non-Telecom resellers, such as Woosh, that can provide services to my Auckland inner-suburb residence) resulting in endless circular arguments about whether a fault was with Telecom or Xtra - each helpdesk naturally blaming the other.

The "market" at present seems to work by Telecom setting their end-user pricing a little above the cheapest competitor. This means that the price is defined by the competition's cost of sales (not by Telecom's).

The main difference between Telecom and the rest is that they own a network worth around NZ$11 billion (at cost) or NZ$4 billion (depreciated) (estimate based on Telecom's 2005 results).
This network is largely paid for by Telecom's voice customers - broadband is an added value extra. Because the other ISPs don't own a network like this, they have to buy service from Telecom or build a very expensive alternative infrastructure. Hence the Telecom cost of sales is much less than the competition, thus enabling Telecom to offer a lousy service at high cost because no-one else can afford to sell anything better.

I don't believe there can really be fixed-line competition in an economy the size of NZ - at least not with Telecom around in its present form. The current solution as advocated by Paul Brislen and others (and favoured by most of the ISPs) seems to be for Telecom to be forced to lease out dark copper (or dark fibre) from premises to exchange, along with rack space in the exchanges for ISP equipment. I can't see this working that well - Telecom would still dominate the resale market and be the monopoly provider of wholesale infrastructure.

I can think of two possible alternatives:

Option One would be to force Telecom to divest it's local network to a mutual body controlled by a consumer trust. This would then lease circuits back to all ISPs and telcos - Telecom would be just another supplier working on leased capacity. Two problems with this: firstly, the network would have to be bought with public money (or confiscated from the shareholders, including the Super Fund); secondly, prices for basic telephone service might end up higher than they are today in order to finance the "artificial market" (resulting in poor old grannies with one phone subsidising wealthy geeks with 16 megabit circuits).

Option Two, which I think better, is to recognise that Telecom is inevitably going to be the monopoly provider in NZ. As such, it needs to be strictly regulated. I think international comparison is the best approach. Telecom should be required to price their services (on a PPP basis) to be in the cheapest quartile of the OECD for each bandwidth segment. At the same time, the "full bandwidth" offering should offer world-class bandwidth (as well as matching worldwide best practice for features such as contention ratios and bandwidth caps). The details should not be for politicians to bother with - there should be a new telecom regulator with the ability to enforce the price/delivery regime.

The latter option would not necessarily be welcomed by the ISPs - prices might fall too quickly for many of them to compete. But the purpose of regulation isn't to help ISPs make money - it's to enable consumers and businesses to buy broadband at a reasonable price.

Public Broadcasting II

2006-02-15T11:25:00.000+13:00

The Herald headlines today a call from a ~~bunch of old farts~~ group of eminent New Zealanders for TVNZ to revert to being a public broadcaster.

I wrote a piece on this back in November, suggesting how this could be funded without increasing net public spending.

An alternative to this would be to create a number of regional low cost broadcasters (a bit like Triangle or Alt.TV but with more original local content). This works well with radio (bFM, George) - perhaps it would work for TV.

UK politics decoded

2006-02-10T17:10:00.000+13:00

Why have the UK Lib Dems won a by-election while gripped by a leadership challenge, disarray and infighting?

Easy really, a substantial majority of Brits take not a blind bit of notice of issues, policies or anything else when deciding how to vote:

The working class vote Labour, giving Labour dominance north of the Severn/Trent line and in inner cities everywhere.

The suburban and rural middle class votes Tory, enabling the Tories to win most seats in the South-East outside inner cities.

So, how do Tories in Liverpool or Labour supporters in Winchester vote? Lib Dem - hence their resilience. Ironically, exactly the same factors make it awkward for them to come up with coherent policies when they are an alliance of people as different as socially conservative Northern businessmen and southern polytechnic lecturers.

A model nation?

2006-02-09T15:36:00.000+13:00

Helen Clark is reported as saying (in today's Herald):

"[Egypt] does have moderate leadership [and] we should be there," she said. "It [the opening of an embassy in Cairo] fits in with the general strategy we have of empowering the moderates, building up the relationships with the moderate leaders of the Islamic world."

WTF? Where did she get that idea?

Egypt is at best pseudo-democratic. The election last year was to a large extent rigged, with candidates outside Mubarak's National Democratic Party being prevented from standing. (The main Islamicist party in Egypt, which has substantial support, is banned).

Amnesty International also have a litany of complaints about human rights in Egypt. Torture is endemic, with many cases of people, including a lawyer, being tortured to death.

And this, according to a Labour prime minister is "moderate leadership". Apart from any moral aspect, doesn't our government realize that it's the existence of governments like Mubarak's that drives Arab peoples into supporting extremist organisations and adopting fundamentalist interpretations of Islam?

Logical priorities

2006-02-08T15:42:00.000+13:00

George Bush has proposes to increase spending on the "war on terror" by 5%, while cutting numerous non-warlike federal programs including cancer research.

In the last ten years, less than 3000 people have died in terrorist attacks in the US. The chances of an American dying in a terrorist attack in any year is less than 1 in 80,000.

In the same timespan, around 5 million Americans have died of cancer. Americans have a 25% chance of dying of cancer.

Go figure.

Blair officially Tory?

2006-02-03T12:00:00.000+13:00

The Guardian reports that:

Tony Blair will tonight praise a "new generation" of centre-right leaders across Europe for helping guide the EU out of a "darkened room" into a brighter future.

It strikes me that that is tantamount to declaring that New Labour is henceforth a centre-right party rather than maintaining it's increasingly unbelievable claims to a Social Democrat heritage.

I wonder whether our local wingers will be over in the UK helping "Labour" rather than the (increasingly leftist) Tories at the next election?

More on censorship

2006-02-02T13:41:00.000+13:00

The Guardian reports that Die Welt and France Soir have both republished the following cartoon:

This apparently caused riots and diplomatic ructions when first published in Denmark last week.

I guess if you're a Muslim then it's offensive - simple answer to that - don't buy the paper and feel smug in the fact that the authors, like me, will be off to hell in due course..

Anyway, I don't think it's nearly as offensive as a cartoon of Jesus getting a blowjob on the cross - I can't draw so I won't be regaling you with one (unless anyone happens to know of one I can reproduce for the purposes of comment?).

UPDATE: I've changed the cartoon to one that's funny, rather than just offensive. I did think about this article after I pushed it (which is unusual) on a basis that if "the sewer" seems to be agreeing with your opinions, then you should reconsider them. Basically, where I differ from the wingnuts is that I think that just as western media be allowed to print cartoons offensive to Islam, mullahs and others have the right to preach in a manner offensive to us - e.g. praising the perpetrators of terrorism. As I posted elsewhere, tolerance shouldn't just extend to the easily tolerable.

Banned in NZ

2006-02-01T12:12:00.000+13:00

An issue of Otago's student magazine Critic has been banned by the official censor, for containing an offensive, but clearly satirical, article that allegedly advocates date rape.

I find it somewhat Victorian that NZ even has a position of "official censor". Censorship of text is not usual in a democracy. This BBC article suggests that attempts to censor text died out in the UK during the 1970's, after a number of failed prosecutions (Lady Chatterleys Lover, OZ, Inside Linda Lovelace). In the US, most recent efforts to censor text have fallen foul of the First Amendment.

Personally, I believe that information should only be suppressed if there was a crime involved in its production (child pornography) or that it consists of specific incitement to a crime that is likely to be acted upon.

I saw the article when it came out and it was none of this - it was a piece of satire intended to shock. I can't unfortunately find it cached anywhere. If anyone does know of a copy then pass it on - I know people outside NZ who might mirror the text.

Sport and skiving

2006-01-30T21:22:00.000+13:00

Apparently NZ primary schoolkids are going to have a compulsory hour's sport each day. That is, I think, around 25% of available teaching time.

I have numerous objections to this:
- Most kids get plenty of exercise without formal sport. The main reason some become obese is excess calorie input, not insufficient exercise.
- School sports just put most of the less athletically inclined kids off exercise. I hated sport. From the end of 5th year to about age 25 I took very little exercise (beyond riding a bike for the year until I got my first motorbike). I went back to exercising when (1) my lifelong struggle with porkiness started and (2) there were things like skiing and mountain biking that I actually *wanted* to do.
- Very few kids will make any sort of living at sport, and they're mostly deluding themselves if they think they can. School is supposed to train children for life - basically sport isn't going to be a necessary part of this. NZ in twenty years time won't have too many good jobs for fit, thick adults.
- PE stresses physical strength and conformity (that's why the military is so keen on it). Violence is a major problem both schools and for society outside- how does emphasising the physical help with that?

Strikes me this is another attempt to appeal to the braindead vote.

Save the bunny!

2006-01-30T18:01:00.000+13:00

Today I was looking for evidence that rabbits and cats *can* live together - my partner reckons, probably correctly, that providing Poppy with a "bunny friend" will end in tears (and vet bills).

I came across (on a Californian website) these heartwarming tales of life with a physically challenged rabbit. I wanted to add to them with a story of how, after a long struggle against tail cancer, Flopsy succumbed, but was remembered by as all as we ate a delicious rabbit pie. In searching for rabbit recipes, I found this site:
http://www.savetoby.com

Basically, unless enough people donate by November, the owners pet rabbit, Toby, is going to be cooked and eaten (using one of the no doubt yummy recipes therein).
Very sad...

Sunburn - I nearly drowned!

2006-01-24T14:29:00.000+13:00

Here is today's UV forecast for the Auckland area, courtesy of metservice:

For those not here, it's the wettest day for some months. Rick Breeze is showing 30mm of rain already today. I guess the "clear sky" bit means that the UV forecast has no weather input at all - e.g it will be "11 - Extreme" for all summer days no matter what happens with weather, volcanic eruptions or any other sun-attenuating events. Seems a bit pointless - they could just have a block reading:

Summer in New Zealand can often involve sunshine. You can detect this when you go outside and don't get wet. Hanging around in the sun too long can lead to sunburn. Wear sunblock. Or stay inside a movie theatre, underground carpark or shopping mall.

Fanzines of the 21st Century

2006-01-19T11:51:00.000+13:00

I've been re-reading Tony Parsons The Stories We Could Tell - after all, one of the main characters is a thinly disguised Iggy Pop - who's playing tomorrow at the Big Day Out.

One of the characters writes a left wing fanzine called Red Mist, and reading about this makes me think that blogs are the fanzines (or minority political newspapers) of the 21st century. The difference is, in 1977 you had to *want* to spend 20p on buying Class War. Nowadays, you just have to click a link.

Which means that ideas and attitudes that didn't make the mainstream a few years ago now get wide circulation - to the annoyance of those like Deborah Coddington who expect the nation's reading material to fit inside certain boundaries. Way back when, I'm quite sure that you could find a poorly duplicated A4 mag comparing David Lange to Stalin - now you just need to click over to Sir Humphreys.

Strikes me, if you don't like it, then don't buy it - even if "it" is available free on the web instead of being sold by a lad on a street corner.