Open mike 20/02/2012

44 comments on “Open mike 20/02/2012 ”

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1. Descendant Of Smith 1

   20 February 2012 at 6:49 am

   The silence from the Auckland Council and the mayor in the POAL dispute has been deafening – at least in the media.

   Maybe, if true, this is why-

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/6443147/Mayor-demands-monopoly-rent

   At the time, the port was earning a return on investment of about 6 per cent. The report, which the council refused to release to the Sunday Star-Times last week, recommended the port should be able to double its profitability to achieve a 10 to 12 per cent return “at the very least,” McKay said.

   On the basis of that advice, the council’s “political wing” – its elected representatives – set the port company the goal of lifting its return on investment to 10 to 12 per cent over the next three to five years. That led the company to review its costs and propose new working arrangements for its wharfies, leading to the recent series of strikes on the wharves.
   • tc 1.1

     20 February 2012 at 7:27 am

     Yes the reporting over this has been typically slack, how about the labour costs in tauranga, you know the model port, being higher than akl when they both have similar turnovers.

     Add the contract costs to wages and that contracting out model costs more overall. Also Ive heard the POAL are seeking an injunction to stop leaflets being handed out WTF is wrong with that and a good example of someone fearing the spread of information, wonder why.
2. phillip ure.. 2

   20 February 2012 at 8:34 am

   http://whoar.co.nz/2012/200000-test-tube-burger-marks-milestone-in-future-meat-eating/

   “…Project funded by anonymous individual aims to cut number of cattle farmed for food and reduce greenhouse gas emissions…”

   phil-at-whoar.
3. lprent 3

   20 February 2012 at 8:48 am

   Well I got nothing done on the site during the weekend.. A combination between having another look at some irritating inelegant code for work, getting a late call to analyze some political data, and too much unavoidable socializing (friends post chemo remission party and my mother heading into hospital for her knee job).

   I did upgrade my computer with a better 5.1 sound system. The inboard does 5.1 but only if you got a 5.1 front case module grr. Got a creative USB 5.1 with Dolby and the like. Can’t program without access to good sound. It is how you get through the tricky and boring bits.

   Plus of course the weekend mundanities of washing, shopping, and cleaning.

   Looks like I need to schedule the urgent site tasks like the mobile issues for a few evenings this week.
   • phillip ure.. 3.1

     20 February 2012 at 10:43 am

     i actually noticed the lack of moderation..

     ..and thought you were experimenting with a more relaxed regime..

     ..to see what would happen…

     ..and hey..!..nobody bled..!..eh..?

     ..and think of all those weekends/that time you will get back..?

     ..eh..?

     phil-at-whoar.
     • lprent 3.1.1

       21 February 2012 at 8:23 am

       Moderation waxes and wanes with whatever time we all have. It is always there, but the delays, types of response, and who is doing it varies.

       I read almost every comment. But what I do with them tends to change based on time available. During the weekend I was reading them on an iPad tethered by bluetooth to my phone. The editing is a pain. So I was releasing or killing auto moderated and auto spam, and only hitting extreme comments. I’d be far more likely to simply ban than leave warnings. Happily nothing required it.
   • The Baron 3.2

     20 February 2012 at 11:04 am

     Does sorting out mobile issues include reinstating the full feed via RSS?!
     • lprent 3.2.1

       21 February 2012 at 8:15 am

       Slightly different issue and a more time consuming one

       The key to that is to prevent the RSS feed bloating out our use of overseas bandwidth. Either restrict what can access to RSS feed to a few aggregators so I can stop the spam bots accessing it, or figuring out how to maintain a hot replicated server in the US with a lot less traffic than last year.

       I have a set up VPN system for the latter, but haven’t had time to test it under load. I also have a plugin sitting there doing the image updates and code updates that replaces the rsync I was using, but haven’t tested it under load.

       Problem is that I am in the path to doing the final release on the code for work. So I can’t take time off if anything goes wrong. These are waiting for when I can live test them under load and can roll it back if there is a problem.
4. travellerev 4

   20 February 2012 at 9:33 am

   Agenda 21 for Dummies or do they really want to kill 6 billion people?
   • The Baron 4.1

     20 February 2012 at 9:41 am

     That evil United Nations again! Where to they get off – between encouraging sustainable development via Agenda 21, to trying to eradicate poverty, peacekeeping and famine relief, it is clear to me now that it is all a dastardly plot.

     Thanks for opening our eyes to the truth yet again Eve. Why have a sensible debate when instead we can buy into hysterical hyperbole and conspiracy yet again?
     • travellerev 4.1.1

       20 February 2012 at 5:54 pm

       Hmmm, 400 FEMA camps build in since 2006, being activated and the NDAA now allowing the US army to declare the US a battlefield which will enable to arrest any citizen any time and keep him/her detained for as long as they want anywhere they want without a trial.
       The no-fly list doubling in the last month and those allowed to fly subjected to humiliating and dangerous radiation procedures. Road blocks on more and more American roads and TSA doing checks on train and bus stations including dehumanising and invasive pat downs of dying cancer patients and beauty queens and billions of lost revenue because people are not travelling to the states because of the “red tape” while the economic collapse is preventing millions of people to travel to holiday destinations abroad.
       Maybe I’m mistaken but 95 year old female cancer patients and beauty queens don’t strike me as your prototypical terrorists and 400 FEMA camps strikes me as pretty over the top unless you think that there will be a sharp increase in crime (The US already has the highest per capita incarceration rate) or perhaps they know something we don’t
       • McFlock 4.1.1.1

         20 February 2012 at 6:11 pm

         The fact they all got shafted for having their pants down around Katrina has nothing to do with the camps, of course.
            
         Although the no-fly list and flight security regs are dumb, I’ll give you that.
         • travellerev 4.1.1.1.1

           21 February 2012 at 6:12 am

           You might want to check this out: http://www.prisonplanet.com/fema-camp-rendition-hubs-discovered.html

           That coupled with the fact that the US army can now hold anybody any time for as long as they want without a trial should scare the shit out of any one.

           I have a friend. A 67 year old woman who lived in the states for 20 years and loved living there. She got lost on a road trip in Florence, Arizona and ended up at the end of a gravel road against a fence with barbed wire and she decided right there and then to leave the US and come back to NZ.

           She said it was just like a German concentration camp. You tell me why victims of a natural disaster all off a sudden require to be locked up in a concentration camp like structure. For their own safety? FFS!
           • travellerev 4.1.1.1.1.1

             21 February 2012 at 6:24 am

             And added to that; why do the US need 30.000 unmanned drones some with militarised insurgence detecting equipment on board in their airspace? To find the next 19 hijackers? Or to assert control over 300 million angry Americans when the wake up to the biggest heist in the history if humanity.

             The no-fly list and flight security regs aren’t dumb, they are part of a pattern. More control for the elite and less freedom for you!
   • marty mars 4.2

     20 February 2012 at 8:44 pm

     Well I watched the video and this is what they said

     sustainable development = socialist control mechanisms

     agenda 21 apparently lists what is not sustainable including

     private property
     fossil fuels
     golf courses
     ski lodges
     consummerism
     irrigation
     paved roads
     commercial agriculture
     herbicides and pesticides
     farmland and pasture and grazing of livestock

     I pretty well agree with that list so i suppose i am a socialist but I knew that anyway.

     I didn’t see the bit about killing all the people.
     • travellerev 4.2.1

       21 February 2012 at 7:32 am

       Here is a link to some more information about the agenda.

       I, by the way, use no insecticides or pesticides live within my carbon footprint, seriously have my doubts about unending rights to own as much as you want but getting perhaps a meter on a water tank I paid for myself and paying rent to the government in the form of rates (not opposed to paying tax) while the 1% earn more and more hitting us with Carbon tax sort of gets on my wig a bit.

       And funny enough the control of water for the next derivatives water high on the agenda of the 1% is killing tens of thousands of people around the globe just like their incessant wars and austerity measures for the middle classes and the poor.

       Private control of water would never happen in NZ? Think again!
5. Craig 5

   20 February 2012 at 9:43 am

   Back to the Scientology dosh scandal. Turns out COGS has been generous with taxpayers money when it comes to Drug-Free Ambassadors, a Scientology front group. , while local Sth Akld A&D relief organisations struggle for funds, and despite Scientology’s deeply dodgy track record- including disregard for the need for pharmaceutical aid to those who need it:

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/6443289/Drugs-education-link-to-Scientology-church

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_controversies
6. The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 6

   20 February 2012 at 10:23 am

   Looking forward to Rudd coming back. I just love the way his tongue flicks out over his lips periodically in the manner of a lizard.
   • phillip ure.. 6.1

     20 February 2012 at 10:37 am

     english does that too..

     ..but with him it is more the eyes..and the stance/holding of the kneck..

     ..i wd actually argue that english is more shapeshifting-lizard-like…

     ..than rudd is…

     phil-at-whoar.
   • LynW 6.2

     20 February 2012 at 6:57 pm

     Brash does that too!
7. CnrJoe 7

   20 February 2012 at 12:11 pm

   y’all know about the livechat with Fran @ the mo?
   • lprent 7.1

     20 February 2012 at 1:46 pm

     Interesting, I’ll have a look at it…
   • Carol 7.2

     20 February 2012 at 2:08 pm

     Geez, she’s on a MISSION! Why is she trying so hard to promote the sale to Shanghai Pengxin?

     And does someone opposed to the sale get to conduct a live chat, select the questions and have the privilege of final say in the answers?
     • Carol 7.2.1

       20 February 2012 at 2:23 pm

       PS. It’s not like she’s taking an impartial analytical approach to the issue. The transcript of the chat reads like O’Sullivan is a PR/marketing spokesperson for Shanghai Pengxin.
       • felix 7.2.1.1

         20 February 2012 at 2:41 pm

         Yep, and she’s not even trying to hide it anymore.
         • newsense 7.2.1.1.1

           20 February 2012 at 9:02 pm

           did any standardistas ask questions?

           It was fairly tame.. I wonder how many of those questions were patsys.
           • lprent 7.2.1.1.1.1

             20 February 2012 at 11:21 pm

             All over when I got there.. Damnit..
8. Te Reo Putake 8

   20 February 2012 at 12:43 pm

   Ak readers may want to join the wharfies this weekend at Teal Park, Tamaki Drive. Music, fun, food and a chance to show solidarity with port workers and to send a message to the council that the port is not for sale.
    
9. Draco T Bastard 9

   20 February 2012 at 2:05 pm

   Missed this one.

   RNZ interviewer Simon Mercep : When you look at the benefits, to what extent do you take into account any disadvantage coming from the sale of foreign land going overseas that affects the New Zealand current account deficit and its international liabilities ? Do you look at that?

   OIO manager Annalies McClure : No… the benefit to New Zealand test is framed in very positive terms. So we don’t take detriments into account.

   Mercep : Shouldn’t you have an overall view that takes into account [the] detriments?

   McClure : We have looked at this question previously, and interpreting the Act that’s certainly the view that our legal advisers have taken.

   It appears that the OIO fails to balance the scales when hocking off our land.
   • aerobubble 9.1

     20 February 2012 at 2:28 pm

     Worse. Foreign investors don’t have more rights in a mortgagee sale. Rather they hav emuch less rights since obviously its against Nz interests for big money to pick off the failed companies because they have so much and local buyers won’t. Over time the policy setting will leave us renters in our own land. Any owner of businesses in NZ must reside in NZ. Any major shareholding must be NZ. Take back the banks.
   • vto 9.2

     20 February 2012 at 3:29 pm

     ha ha ha ha… everything gets more stupid by the day.
10. William Joyce 10

    20 February 2012 at 2:44 pm

    Chickens, home, roost,

    The Government’s accounts are in worse shape than predicted in the pre-election forecast in October.
    The operating deficit for the six months to the end of December was $9.4 billion, nearly 40% more than the $6.8 billion deficit forecast before the election.- Link

    Can I just take the time to thank those valiant servants in the main stream media who so tirelessly exposed the dodgy promises, “back of the envelope” budget predictions, and inept governance by the National led coalition. Without your efforts we may have re-elected this cadre of criminals.
     
    Thanks Dunc, Paddy, Sean, Holmesy, and good old dimples Espiner.
     
    You have served us well.
    • vto 10.1

      20 February 2012 at 3:25 pm

      So let me get this straight …..

      Four months into the six month period they were measuring, the operating deficit could not be calculated to an accuracy with a margin of error of less than 40%???

      And we let these people manage the accounts?

      That is either complete incompetence or wilful deceit. What else could it be?
      • cardassian 10.1.1

        20 February 2012 at 4:50 pm

        Incompetence and wilful deceit?
        • Herodotus 10.1.1.1

          20 February 2012 at 6:50 pm

          Perhaps some here could be better educated instead of being mere cheerleaders na dpuppets. For a start the exchange flucuation effect on investments such as NZ superfund, Cullen Fund or ACC should be backed out- And what is the result of OBEGAL of just $3m difference and our year to date deficit $499m short- With these KPI’s I am surprised the forecasts were so on to it or is that just chance ;-). But why should the facts get in the way of a good story !!!
          http://business.scoop.co.nz/2012/02/20/updated-nz-govt-1h-operating-deficit-in-line-with-forecasts/
          Look at the Balance of trade figures that have never been great, even during the rich period of the 5th Lab govt. and we will be paying for the poor performance for many future generations.
          http://www.tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/balance-of-trade
11. Morrissey 11

    20 February 2012 at 3:13 pm

    Stand by me!

    “From the first day I was detained, I always expected I would be released, that one day, someone would work to free me” – Nael Al Barghouthi, a Palestinian released after 31 years of imprisonment.
    • Morrissey 11.1

      20 February 2012 at 3:17 pm

      It isn’t nice!

      This video of a memorable song by Barbara Dane is accompanied by footage of Palestinians resisting Israeli occupation. Barbara sent the following email “At the end of this video please give credit to the writer of the words, who was a beloved singer/activist here in the SF Bay Area: Malvina Reynolds. Malvina was inspired to write the song in 1964 after taking part in a sit-in at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, which was refusing to hire black people.”
12. H.Crown 12

    20 February 2012 at 6:54 pm

    Can someone please tell me what Jenny Shitly, sorry Shipley is doing or achieving for Christchurch now she is supping at the trough, called CERA review panel @ $1000 a day + expenses + this + that.

    Saw some survivors tonight on the news doing their own thing trying to get on with life, Why do we have to have parasites like Shipley on a seat collecting money that could go to help these type of people.
13. Jackal 13

    20 February 2012 at 7:49 pm

    Tenants in our own land

    There’s been a lot of talk recently about whether Pengxin Group has financial backing from the Chinese government. There’s no doubt that China has an agressive policy of using the financial advantage the recession gave them to secure resources and assets from other countries. It is no wonder then that at least one of the Crafar farms is going to be occupied…
14. shorts 14

    20 February 2012 at 10:10 pm

    “Where in the developed world do rich people pay the least in taxes? To Americans these days, this question would seem to have an obvious answer.

    The most rich people-friendly nation at tax time simply must be the United States, a land where the mega rich pay taxes at lower rates than their secretaries and a White House hopeful with a quarter-billion-dollar fortune pays only 13.9 percent of his annual take-home in federal income tax.

    But that obvious answer would be wrong. The rich people-friendliest developed nation in the world just happens to be New Zealand.”

    http://toomuchonline.org/trickle-down-in-the-other-down-under/

    great if you’re rich I guess… me, I just feel betrayed by all our political parties
15. Dave Kennedy 15

    20 February 2012 at 10:18 pm

    The bottom of the South Island is under siege and much of it is happening under the radar. We haven’t had the Chinese try to buy up our farms but German interests have already quietly bought up many. We have 5,000 hectares of prime farmland bought by Solid Energy to turn into opencast lignite mines. New Zealand’s most significant and internationally recognized wetland, the Waituna, is about to flip due mainly the rapid growth of dairying and fracking is already occurring in the region. Finally, a road tunnel for tourist buses has been approved in principle to go through the mountains from the Dart Valley to the Hollyford valley so that wealthy tourists can save a few hours bus travel. This is in the middle of a World Heritage Park and the project fails on so many levels: http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/milforddart-tunnel-submission.html
    • Colonial Viper 15.1

      21 February 2012 at 12:42 am

      We have 5,000 hectares of prime farmland bought by Solid Energy to turn into opencast lignite mines.

      I’d have less of a problem with this if Solid Energy, and hence the farms, stayed 100% NZ owned.
16. Dave Kennedy 16

    21 February 2012 at 12:28 am

    We are being dug up, dug through, fracked, our farms industrialised and our water compromised. Isn’t it about time we regained control over our own future and made sure our children will be able live in a province they can be proud of? http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/southland-is-under-siege.html
17. logie97 17

    21 February 2012 at 12:34 am

    What is it about the Kiwi psyche that we go on the defensive so readily when someone dares to comment on things in Godzone. One of the long standing questions of a visitor has been (as they stepped off the boat/plane), “How do you like it here.” What a shame some of those earlier visitors had not been more direct and honest – “Country’s lovely but the standard of journalism is shit …”

    So Stephen Fry comments on broadband speeds as woeful and immediately the Herald finds the most unflattering photograph of him to append to the article. Perhaps it’s because Fry has touched a nerve and we feel he should keep his comments to himself.

    Most of us know deep down that he is absolutely right – Jo Blo’s broadband sucks … and promises from Joyce that by 2030 we should all be zooming along is laughable in an era when technology is developing exponentially.

    (Or perhaps broadband itself will be a quaint little passing technology in a couple of years time and Joyce knows it and is saving us from the projected expense … mmmm)

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