Open mike 16/08/2013

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 16th, 2013 - 94 comments
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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Step right up to the mike…

94 comments on “Open mike 16/08/2013 ”

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  1. karol 1
    16 August 2013 at 7:09 am

    Agree with this. Restore Auckland’s St James Theatre. It’s more important to Auckland’s culture and heritage than the SkyCity, pokie convention centre.

    • big bruv 1.1
      16 August 2013 at 7:34 am

      karol.

      I suspect this is another in the long line of demands by the bludging arts crowd for free and easy access to my money.

      Whenever I see the words “heritage” and “culture” it is normally means that some talentless hack wants the public to subsidise their hobby.

      • karol 1.1.1
        16 August 2013 at 7:53 am

        Well, bb, it’s me that used the words “heritage” and “culture” – so thanks for the insult.

        And for the righties, the commons doesn’t rate unless they can profiteer from it, and do so in the short term. They’d rather bleed a city by pandering to the gaming industry, and well-off convention attendees, via such things as SkyCity dirty deals. Culture and heritage is a living part of communities – a thing that brings people together.

        The St James has been an important part of Auckland’s heart beat in the past, and can be again – and, for the right wingers who view everything through the immediate profits evident on the balance sheets of private businesses – the St James has been a great part of Auckland’s culture while being managed as a successful private business.

        • Rob 1.1.1.1
          16 August 2013 at 12:03 pm

          Yep agree Karol, lucky we saved from it the Cath Tizard and the visionless Auckland council who wanted to knock it over.

      • framu 1.1.2
        16 August 2013 at 8:03 am

        yeah i think you should refrain from pointing the bludger finger mate.

        but its funny that you have this weird jump from the issue of the st james to some unemployed artist.

        Do you remember the history of the Civic in Auckland?

        Whats the general opinion of the Civic, and the fact that it was not just saved from demolition, but restored and is in regular, income and employment generating use today?

        can you then explain exactly how any of that is in any way related to your weird delusion about personal hobbies?

      • vto 1.1.3
        16 August 2013 at 8:13 am

        “I suspect this is another in the long line of demands by the bludging arts crowd for free and easy access to my money”

        Like professional rugby bludging off old lady ratepayers for a stadium
        Like professional cricket bludging off old lady ratepayers for a Hagley oval.
        Like dairy farmers bludging off taxpayers to subsidise their business
        Like aluminium factories sucking at the taxpayer tit.
        Like so much corporate fucking welfare that this government doles out left right and centre.

        You’re a joke bb

        • srylands 1.1.3.1
          16 August 2013 at 9:20 pm

          “Like dairy farmers bludging off taxpayers to subsidise their business”

          New Zealand agricultural subsidies are by far the lowest in the world. So this statement is a bit silly. One thing we have got right in NZ.

          http://www.economist.com/node/21563323

          You will find the picture is similar across other sectors (but less stark than for ag).

          So the “corporate welfare” mantra is a myth. A chant not supported by any empirical evidence.

      • halfcrown 1.1.4
        16 August 2013 at 8:57 am

        “Whenever I see the words “heritage” and “culture” it is normally means that some talentless hack wants the public to subsidise their hobby.”

        Like the America’s Cup or the Velodrome at Cambridge

      • Ennui 1.1.5
        16 August 2013 at 12:00 pm

        Hi BB, my experience of shelling out as a tax payer is to subsidise financiers and their investors (SCF rings a bell), and as a rate payer in Wellington for various Right Wing mayors public shows of largesse such as fireworks, concessions to developers etc. Please add these to your list of bludgers, carpetbaggers and free lunchers.

    • BM 1.2
      16 August 2013 at 10:00 am

      I just googled the St James theater, looks really average from the out side, but the inside is really impressive.

      It would be a real shame to see something of that caliber disappear.

      • framu 1.2.1
        16 August 2013 at 10:03 am

        the outside is rumored to be equally impressive – what we actually see is some rather ugly facade that was added in the 70s or 80s

        Ive done a bit of event work in there from time to time – theres a huge amount of amazing features and back stage capabilities that have simply been blocked off and forgotten

        and its not just the st james – theres 3 other main spaces that were once cinemas behind the facade – each with distinctive features. But i think theres been some slicing and dicing of these spaces over the years. So some might once have been part of the st james in a previous life

  2. phillip ure 2
    16 August 2013 at 7:13 am

    any gamers out there..?

    ..my son found this deal yesterday..that really needs to be passed around..

    http://whoar.co.nz/2013/ed-gamers-have-electronic-arts-got-a-deal-for-you/

    ..electronic arts..(the dark empire of gaming) are attempting to rehabilitate their lousy reputation with gamers..

    ..by offering a killer humble-deal..

    ..eight a-grade/big-selling games – for about u.s.$4-$5..

    ..plus monies from all sales go to a charity you choose from a provided-list..

    ..what is not to love about that..?

    (just one of those eight games will cost you $60 if brought over the counter today..in auckland..

    (nb..i am not in the employ of electronic arts..or any of their agents..and receive no gain of any sort from this recommendation..

    ..but this one is just too good not to pump..

    phillip ure..

  3. bad12 3
    16 August 2013 at 7:39 am

    From the Herald online, Slippery the Prime Minister, obviously in a panic over the Campbell Live roadshow gathering the opinion of ‘heartland’ Kiwis, has in a written statement to the Herald said that He will restrict the GCSB from accessing Kiwis email accounts,

    As the Minister in charge of the GCSB He says that no warrants will be signed by Him for such access to emails unless there is some credible threat to that users account and the account holder would have to give permission to allow the GCSB to access their account,

    Begs the question doesn’t it, why capitulate now making special provisions for the GCSB to only be able to access private email accounts only with a specific warrant to do so signed by the Prime Minister with the knowledge of the account holder,

    The next question is, should not such measures be a matter of the Law, this measure should be part of the Legislation not something at the simple discretion of the Prime Minister as the Minister in charge of the GCSB…

    • geoff 3.1
      16 August 2013 at 7:59 am

      Yep.
      As I said in karol’s Key vs Campbell transcript, John boy only responds to threats to his popularity. He has no principles.

      • bad12 3.1.1
        16 August 2013 at 8:21 am

        A cynic might interpret the swift foot shuffle of Slippery the Prime Minister as an admission that the previous ‘plan’ for the GCSB was to in fact have free reign to access the email accounts of the country’s citizens,

        If the GCSB or the SIS have grounds to look into the email accounts,(or any other accounts for that matter),of private citizens those organizations should seek a search warrant and serve that warrant on the citizen concerned,

        That should be what the Law says, fishing expeditions by the country’s citizens are a matter of legal proscription and the agents of the State should carry out their business under the same legal proscriptions,

        Looks like we have heard the last tho of the Prime Minister and His Shills whining like beaten dogs that ‘the people’ are more interested in the snapper catch limits than the GCSB’s intention to trawl the peoples email accounts hoping to land the ‘big one’…

      • Greywarbler 3.1.2
        16 August 2013 at 9:12 am

        geoff
        Of course not he is The Principal! And he knows what he is talking about.

        Some useful quotes relating to words meaning whatever the speaker wants.

        Lenny’s Alice in Wonderland site:
        “But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
        “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
        “How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
        “You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
        (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6)

        The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”
        “Come, we shall have some fun now!” thought Alice. “I’m glad they’ve begun asking riddles. — I believe I can guess that,” she added aloud.
        “Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?” said the March Hare.
        “Exactly so,” said Alice.
        “Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on.
        “I do,” Alice hastily replied; “at least–at least I mean what I say–that’s the same thing, you know.”
        “Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter. “You might just as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see’!”
        “You might just as well say,” added the March Hare, “that ‘I like what I get’ is the same thing as ‘I get what I like’!”
        “You might just as well say,” added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, “that ‘I breathe when I sleep’ is the same thing as ‘I sleep when I breathe’!”
        (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 7)

    • yeshe 3.2
      16 August 2013 at 9:11 am

      But does not restrict NSA etc access to all Kiwi emails plus metadata .. we should yet remain vigilant !

    • Dr Terry Creagh 3.3
      16 August 2013 at 10:31 am

      What are the steps toward dictatorship?

      • Colonial Viper 3.3.1
        16 August 2013 at 1:08 pm

        – You have to ensure subservience/submission of the masses (eg through debt peonage, job insecurity, transfer of economic power to the corporates etc)

        – You have to ensure that potential dissident groups are kept silenced or silent (eg. academics, civil society groups like the Law Society, activists and advocacy groups, trade unions)

        – You have to disable checks and balances on executive power e.g. take away the right for judicial review, appointment Yes men (and women) to bodies like the Race Relations office etc

        – You have to bolster the security and intelligence services and actively undermine, discredit or put down protestors, activists and mass movements.

        And just look at what is happening in Egypt. Military forces killed over 500 civilians. And while the US is “monitoring” the situation, it is continuing military and political aid.

      • Colonial Viper 3.3.2
        16 August 2013 at 1:18 pm

        Also you raise divisions in society by targetting minority unliked classes (prisoners, benes, child abusers, …) and spreading out from there.

        For the final steps of enabling a dictatorship you require a disaster or crisis to take advantage of, followed by a purge of all potential enemies. Can be quite nasty, looking back in history eg. the days after the Reichstag Fire.

  4. Greywarbler 4
    16 August 2013 at 9:05 am

    News : Mining commentator says – Underground mining has no future in NZ.

    News from informed opinion : New Zea-land has no future in New Zealand. Name seen as reflecting unpleasant reality of land being used with ‘New Zeal’ (of which land there will be considerably less and with change rendering it unrecognisable compared to its past appearance.) Soon to legislate for name change to New Nauru.

  5. Greywarbler 5
    16 August 2013 at 9:17 am

    Interesting moderation program operates at present. I ‘m not using Godwin’s law or anything but must be doing something out of the usual lexicon to strike the warning bell in the machine.

  6. Greywarbler 6
    16 August 2013 at 9:19 am

    And that awaits moderation also. I am Numero Uno on the unbucket list.

    [Bunji: an awful lot going to moderation at the moment, not just from you… LPrent? What’s happening?]

    • weka 6.1
      16 August 2013 at 10:26 am

      I’ve been getting these this morning

      Your access to this site has been limited

      Your access to this service has been temporarily limited. Please try again in a few minutes. (HTTP response code 503)

      Reason: Exceeded the maximum number of page requests per minute for humans.

      Important note for site admins: If you are the administrator of this website note that your access has been limited because you broke one of the Wordfence firewall rules. The reason you access was limited is: “Exceeded the maximum number of page requests per minute for humans.”.

      If this is a false positive, meaning that your access to your own site has been limited incorrectly, then you will need to regain access to your site, go to the Wordfence “options” page, go to the section for Firewall Rules and disable the rule that caused you to be blocked. For example, if you were blocked because it was detected that you are a fake Google crawler, then disable the rule that blocks fake google crawlers. Or if you were blocked because you were accessing your site too quickly, then increase the number of accesses allowed per minute.

      If you’re still having trouble, then simply disable the Wordfence firwall and you will still benefit from the other security features that Wordfence provides.

      If you are a site administrator and have been accidentally locked out, please enter your email in the box below and click “Send”. If the email address you enter belongs to a known site administrator or someone set to receive Wordfence alerts, we will send you an email to help you regain access. Please read our FAQ if this does not work.

  7. Boadicea 7
    16 August 2013 at 10:34 am

    There is a big lie dripping from the side of the mouth of NZ business leaders.
    I heard a report on a Dunedin meeting of regional worthies who want to stop job losses. We regularly hear business leaders talk of exporting difficulties.
    One of the solutions to job losses and exporting difficulties is to get interest rates, and as a consequence, exchange rates down. The fear of house price inflation is the main reason for our high interests rates. A strong Capital Gains Tax, including the family home, will enable the lowering of interest rates.
    Business and regional leaders know that a lower exchange rate will stimulate exports and jobs. That also know that a CGT is required.

    They know the problem and they know a significant part of the solution: but dare not speak it until they have made their own personal Tax Free gain.

    • McFlock 7.1
      16 August 2013 at 11:53 am

      Yep.
      Classic example of the capitalist class working against everyone else.

    • Not a PS Staffer 7.2
      16 August 2013 at 12:09 pm

      Aaaaah Tax Free income!

      I’m now a PAYE tax payer who subsidises all those businesses and farmers that are not paying a Capital Gains Tax.

      Many farms are set up to pay very lille tax and for all the gain to be in the Tax Free “sale” to the next generation or a third party.

      The average kiwi farmers pays less tax than PAYE farmworkers. (See the Tax Review commissioned by Key in 2009).

  8. bad12 8
    16 August 2013 at 10:53 am

    It appears that someone has been feeding the monkeys bananas, Maurice Williamson the Minister of buildings or something, in the online Herald today, just back from a trip to the States where He is absolutely gushing about ‘Affordable Homes’ and how they do it over in yankeeland,

    Maurice is impressed that they prefabricate kitchens, bathrooms and garages in factories over there and then truck the components to the building site, my opinion is that Maurice needs something a little more mind expanding in His diet so as to gain a full understanding of prefabrication,

    With the correct planning Houses can be mass produced in factories and only primitive apes would be engaged in the house building process by building one house at a time,

    In a series of factories all the internal components of a house can be constructed as a unit which then needs only bolting in to the house, everything including ALL the internal walls which can be jibbed and wired with all the necessary wiring and plugs leading into the ceiling can be mass produced in a factory using largely unskilled labour,

    The only components of a house that need be built on site are in fact only the foundation and the floor, even the actual roof can be pre-built in 2 halves in a factory whether it be tiled or colour steel clad and bolted into place using L plates,

    With the right planning such housing could be erected in a day after the foundation and floor was laid and all that would remain is for the wiring, plumbing and outside cladding to be attached and any organization planning such a venture would only need one qualified builder along with a labouring gang to achieve such an outcome,

    Maurice goes on in His little gush to point out that Kiwis would have to get used to living in houses that were much the same, aaaah derrrr Maurice, the place i am in at the moment is one of a whole street full of houses that are ‘the same’, the differing fences gardens and other added bits and pieces tho would mean you have to look hard to ascertain such similarity…

    • Macro 8.1
      16 August 2013 at 4:32 pm

      NZ already has the capability far and away more advanced than what Maurice is describing…
      http://www.go-homes.co.nz/
      is but one example.
      I have one which I have had for 5 years on two different sites! When we sold lifestyle block the new Overseas purchasers didn’t want the Go Home – all the NZ enquirers wanted it but not the eventual buyer – who does not live on the property. It was just to be land banked. So we moved the Go Home to a coastal site and enjoy it still. It takes all of one day to resite it and then move in.

      Why these are not being considered for those unhoused in ChCh I cannot fathom…

  9. Winston Smith 9
    16 August 2013 at 12:07 pm

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10913071

    – Finally somethings being done about this and why was it suddenly envoked?

    • Draco T Bastard 9.1
      16 August 2013 at 5:14 pm

      Something tells me that that ruling is going to result in a lot of people innocent of charges finding themselves out of a job and persecuted by the community.

  10. Ennui 10
    16 August 2013 at 12:11 pm

    Just read Trotter on http://thedailyblog.co.nz/category/bloggers/chris-trotter/ He makes the point that Key runs rings around the likes of Shearer. Can the next Labour leader please be a common garden type who is inarticulate in a Kiwi kind of way but speaks decisively about how to catch snapper, and can draw analogies that feature darning socks with number 8 wire.

    • Winston Smith 10.1
      16 August 2013 at 12:22 pm

      Sounds like Shearer…

    • Boadicea 10.2
      17 August 2013 at 9:58 am

      +1 Ennui
      And be someone who has proven themselves in Parliament
      And be someone who has won a seat by winning direct votes from the Public.

      And not a former parliamentary office boy/girl.

  11. Rosie 11
    16 August 2013 at 1:53 pm

    Yesterday this petition was posted in the comments on The Daily Blog:

    http://www.change.org/petitions/the-governor-general-of-new-zealand-dismiss-the-national-led-government-of-new-zealand

    And I asked this question:

    “Hi Denni. I receive change.org regularly in my in box, but haven’t seen this as yet. Is this really really really for real? Serious question.
    Does it have to reach 100 signature’s before change.org will put it out on their international mailing list or something?”

    I heaven’t heard back. Does anyone know anything about this and whether it’s legit?

    Seems like a great idea but in reality even though Key is arse and the decisions, lies and legislation of his govt are arse, can he actually be removed from the office of P.M? Or is is just a wonderful fantasy?

    • Murray Olsen 11.1
      16 August 2013 at 3:20 pm

      It’s a fantasy. It’s a waste of time. Even if he had the power to do it, why on Earth would the ex head of the GCSB and great servant of the Empire that is our GG get rid of Key? I wish people would stop dreaming such useless rubbish.

      • yeshe 11.1.1
        16 August 2013 at 6:47 pm

        yes, the appt of our current GG is going to come back to bite us .. this was well-planned by thems as wish to hold power regardless.

        • Rosie 11.1.1.1
          16 August 2013 at 7:38 pm

          Thanks Murray and yeshe. As expected. It was the (apparently) sudden appointment of such a military man that raised many an eyebrow, and for what? To protect the agenda.

          He has nice digs though, if you ever get the opportunity to visit.

  12. Draco T Bastard 12
    16 August 2013 at 2:12 pm

    IS THE “NATURAL RATE” OF UNEMPLOYMENT AN OUT-OF-DATE CONCEPT?

    Or as Farmer puts it:

    “A theory like this, which cannot be falsified by any set of observations, is closer to religion than science.”

    • Colonial Viper 12.1
      16 August 2013 at 2:25 pm

      Yeah its a totally false mathematical construct to justify throwing some people on the waste heap of unemployment

      • Draco T Bastard 12.1.1
        16 August 2013 at 3:22 pm

        Economist Michal Kalecki’s amazingly correct prediction

        Basically, Kalecki said that the full employment delivered by Keynesian policy would eventually lead to a more assertive working class and weakening of the social position of business leaders, causing the elite to use their political power to force the displacement of the Keynesian policy even though profits would be higher than under a laissez faire system: The erosion of social prestige and political power would be unacceptable to the elites despite higher profits.

        I think we can say that that is exactly what has happened over the last few decades.

        • McFlock 12.1.1.1
          16 August 2013 at 3:30 pm

          Marx beat him to it, methinks.

          From my understanding, the conservative blowback was the main reason Marx felt that incremental change was futile, and eventually the proles would simply pack a sad and have a revolution. But then of course the transitional dictatorship of the proletariat might end up wanting to preserve its elite status and forestall the completeion of the revolution (which is the main reason some communists I’ve met claimed that communism had never been tried – but it smacks as being the flipside of spylands’ argument that reason the country has tanked is simply because the neolib reforms of the last thirty years didn’t go far enough. An irrefutable proposition is a profession of faith, not an evaluation of fact).

          I never really got into the hegelian dialectic thing, though I do think that Marx outlined the problems of capitalism thoroughly and robustly.

          • Draco T Bastard 12.1.1.1.1
            16 August 2013 at 5:20 pm

            (which is the main reason some communists I’ve met claimed that communism had never been tried

            According to the academics communism lasted about 50 days after the Russian Revolution. As far as I know, no other “communist” country even got that far instead going straight down the oppressive/dictatorial route following Russia.

            • McFlock 12.1.1.1.1.1
              16 August 2013 at 5:57 pm

              Academics are not a homogeneous mass 🙂

              Marx’s argument though was that communism was the culmination (“synthesis”) of history, so it couldn’t “last” for a period and then fail. Basically if a community or nation is not genuinely communist now, then there never has been. Ergo none of its faults can be blamed on communism, because if it were communist everything would be pretty grand.

              Like I say, a bit too semantically perfect for my liking.

    • richard 12.2
      16 August 2013 at 3:14 pm

      “A theory like this, which cannot be falsified by any set of observations, is closer to religion than science.” – A good description of economics in general. Though, it is a stretch to think of economics as anything like a science.

      Phillips, of the curve fame, was another Dannevirke product.

  13. aerobubble 13
    16 August 2013 at 2:16 pm

    Bob Jones is an idiot, saying neo-liberalism works because it got rid of restaurant vetos, like bad law is now no longer possible, or that no regulation is good for the economy. what a twerp.http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20130816-1006-sir_robert_jones_-_nz_businessman_and_author-048.mp3

    He spent his time talking about boxing, basically all sport is about clan affiliation, your team, your hero sportsman, etc. Yet then he goes on to call the winner economic view as neo-liberalism, like it hadn’t been pretty well crushed as bluster. Neo-liberals make a false claim, that the wealth we’ve experienced in the last thirty years was an effect of their economic views, when in fact the rush of cheap high density fuels would have engaged any democracy, and rewarded any open economy. The question is of course neo-liberals believe in one ‘perfect’ economy, and ignore the reality that no economy will or is perfect, or run by perfect ayran economists.

  14. BLiP 14
    16 August 2013 at 2:22 pm

    ‘

    Interesting opinion piece from Christian Christensen over at Al Jazeera . . .

    . . . My point is that the mainstream press in countries such as Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom, have (more often than not) failed to engage in critical investigations into, and analyses of, the accumulation and utilisation of power. And, it is this failure that has created a vacuum filled, at least in part, by WikiLeaks and Anonymous . . .

  15. bad12 15
    16 August 2013 at 2:24 pm

    And then there is this, also from last nights Campbell Live, the rest home workers made ‘redundant’ by a paper shuffle which changed the name of the company running the rest home but to all extents and purposes the same people who owned the previous company are the ‘new’ owners,

    Excuse my language but this is simply f**king fraud, a fraud designed to have the employees re-apply for their jobs where they will be offered a lower rate of pay,

    RING RING, is anyone home over at :Labour, it is obvious from the actions of this company in particular that the Law has to be re-written so as to define for what are essentially criminal employers what is and what is not redundancy,

    While your at it why not include some criminal sanctions like 5 years jail for employers that attempt to circumvent the Law surrounding redundancy it might just act as a deterrent,

    Shuffling paper work also allows these same people to avoid orders from the various Tribunals where knowing that they are likely to have to cough up cash as the result of a Tribunal order these same ‘oh so honest’ people simply change the name of their company and resume trading the next day suffering no penalty what-so-ever,

    All Tribunal orders made against a business entity should also make the beneficial owners of that entity responsible for the orders express wishes and where the beneficial owners have registered their business entity in people that are not the beneficial owners they too should end up parked in a jail cell…

  16. bad12 16
    16 August 2013 at 2:34 pm

    Rock and Roll, wasn’t that a decent quake, not a shake the s**t of the shelves model but bigger than any of the previous in the series felt out here East of the City…

    • vto 16.1
      16 August 2013 at 2:37 pm

      a long wobble felt here in chch. would have been a doozy. hope everyone’s ok.

      • Rosie 16.1.1
        16 August 2013 at 2:39 pm

        Not sure if ground still moving or my nerves are shattered…………..

        • vto 16.1.1.1
          16 August 2013 at 2:46 pm

          Hang a small weight on a nylon thread in a window you can see from where you spend most of your time. Watch for the wobble on that. My eyes have spent a lot of time in the last 3 years peering intensely at such a device.

      • bad12 16.1.2
        16 August 2013 at 2:40 pm

        6.9 according to the rickety scale, no damage what-so-ever here but in the City might be a different story,

        The thing with these ongoing series is the damage to the bigger buildings that is not necessarily visible, all of the shakes will be stressing steel in various ways, and continued stressing will weaken structures…

    • Rosie 16.2
      16 August 2013 at 2:37 pm

      Yes, it was big up the top of Newlands bad12. Got on the ground this time. Ground took a while to stop rolling. And it was rock n roll. It usually jolts and shakes up here on the rock. Everyone ok?

      • bad12 16.2.1
        16 August 2013 at 2:45 pm

        LOLZ, i deliberately sat in the chair to see what it felt like but fear got the better of me in the end and i parked my carcass in the doorway for the last bit,

        Out here we are all good but i feel for anyone in the tower blocks downtown, felt as a ‘dip’ here followed by a shudder then a long rolling motion…

      • miravox 16.2.2
        16 August 2013 at 2:54 pm

        Central city and can still feel it rocking. I’m leaving next week – don’t know whether to be worried my family will still be here, or happy to be getting out of it.

        • bad12 16.2.2.1
          16 August 2013 at 3:20 pm

          LOLZ, in my guise as a labourer i worked on a lot of Wellington’s tower blocks but always quit once they started getting off the ground, if the piles start going on them you can feel free to blame me, l worked for years for a piling firm,

          I only ever go into the City these days if i absolutely have to…

          • miravox 16.2.2.1.1
            16 August 2013 at 3:42 pm

            We live on the edge of the centre of the city, lol. So getting out is not an option. Not near any high rises though, and our building is earthquake strengthened (phew) – so you’re safe from blame from me.

            At least we’re not one of the workers in cars trying to get home right now…

  17. vto 17
    16 August 2013 at 2:51 pm

    Since 2.31pm this afternoon (20 minutes ago) there has been

    a 6.2 near Seddon
    a 5.7 near Seddon
    a 3.5 near Murupara
    a 4.4 near Seddon
    a 3.5 near Taihape
    a 5.3 near Seddon

    The place is going nuts. Seddon will be terrified.

    edit update: and a 3.6 near Wellington

    • Rosie 17.1
      16 August 2013 at 3:01 pm

      Thanks for the hot tip re the weight on a nylon line vto. Thats sage advice. Turns out the ground was still rolling after all with quakes coming in from the north and the south, only minutes apart. A real bombardment

      Husband whose a civil defence volunteer who works on the 16th floor of a building in town said they are considering leaving for the day. It was really bad for them and others no doubt.

  18. bad12 18
    16 August 2013 at 2:53 pm

    Apparently there has been two aftershocks measuring 5.7 and 5.3, havn’t felt any of those two, these are all centered south of Seddon,

    The 6.7 was felt in Auckland, ( Don’t tell anyone in case they unleash the men in white coats on me, but i quite enjoyed that one)…

    It is apparently still shaking big-time down Seddon/Ward way…

    • Colonial Viper 18.1
      16 August 2013 at 2:59 pm

      6.2

      • bad12 18.1.1
        16 August 2013 at 3:12 pm

        Yeah true, has been upgraded and then downgraded, cant those people get anything right, when Wellington gets it’s long overdue ‘Biggy’ i want to know immediately the minutae of destruction,

        Another one just as i am typing, that i would call moderate but seemed to be a side-to-side east west motion whereas the 6.2 seemed to be a south to north rolling…

  19. Rosie 19
    16 August 2013 at 3:12 pm

    Mental. It’s still rolling, like being on the ocean. Palms getting clammy……….

    http://www.geonet.org.nz/quakes/all

    • TheContrarian 19.1
      16 August 2013 at 3:31 pm

      I was out walking and didn’t feel a god damn thing

      • Rosie 19.1.1
        16 August 2013 at 3:37 pm

        In town Contrarian? Just listening to radio active. Apparently it’s mass exodus heading north out of town, Glover park is full of people drinking (nothing new in that though) and the pubs are busier than they usually are on Friday arvo, so they must be heaving.

  20. NickS 20
    16 August 2013 at 4:15 pm

    Huh? I’m getting stuck into auto-moderation for some reason.

    [Bunji: Seem to be having a little trouble today – quite a lot going into auto-moderation for no apparent reason]

  21. Greywarbler 21
    16 August 2013 at 6:03 pm

    This is the sort of thing that fuels Garth McVicar and his bunch.
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/9051400/Victim-lost-part-of-skull-five-teeth-in-beating

    A man received 5 years 9 months jail sentence.
    Taia beat up a St Albans neighbour, Vaea Lam, so badly that he had serious head and brain injuries and had to have part of his skull removed, and he lost five teeth.
    Crown prosecutor Deidre Orchard said the head injury almost resulted in Lam’s death, and Taia had an extensive, very serious and alarming history of violence.
    Lam was in court, and Taia called out, “Yeah but I didn’t start this, you should man up, man”.

    There apparently was provocation. But that doesn’t excuse violence, certainly not to this level. This man should be kept in jail for a long, long time. He is a danger to anyone round him and is sure to commit other crimes up to an surpassing this.

    Let half of our jail population with minor offences out after a month of intensive counselling, training, and life and trade skills orientation, the rest of their time to be suspended unless they commit law-breaking that is sufficiently serious. But keep people like this man in jail under safe conditions and away from other prisoners till he can handle anger and self-control issues and get a vision of making a better life for himself and others.

  22. Greywarbler 22
    16 August 2013 at 6:21 pm

    Here is a video of proxy voters who are being interrogated in the belief that it will give an indication of future voting preferences. They are all looking a bit uncertain and sheepish though.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcE5aDTszrY

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  • Focus on outstanding minerals permit applications
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  • Tenancy rules changes to improve rental market
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  • Boosting NZ’s trade and agricultural relationship with China
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