Open mike 24/09/2010

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 24th, 2010 - 46 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post.

It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

Comment on whatever takes your fancy.

The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner).

Step right up to the mike…

46 comments on “Open mike 24/09/2010 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Lazy Susan 1
    24 September 2010 at 7:38 am

    This is very, very grubby but highly predictable. Expect much more as the Super Shitty circus rolls into town.

      • Lazy Susan 1.1.1
        24 September 2010 at 8:55 am

        …or this

      • Bill 1.1.2
        24 September 2010 at 9:01 am

        Is it reasonable to assume that if the right are running a scam, then those who have been re-registered at ‘new’ addresses will be predominantly left leaning voters and visa versa if the left are running a scam?

        That way you get a nice ‘two for one’. ie a false vote plus a vote lost to your opposition, rather than a mere transference of your own potential votes across boundaries or a ‘plus 1’ situation from stealing the vote of non-voters.

        Or is it as equally reasonable to assume that whoever is doing this just isn’t that organised.

        • comedy 1.1.2.1
          24 September 2010 at 9:13 am

          Bill I think it’s as simple as some of the Indian community see a job on the council as an invitation to do very little and sit around a big trough for a number of years………… hard to argue with their thinking really.

          And the Momentum thing pah government departments and councils have been too lazy to hire their own staff for years, apparently they don’t have the internal expertise and staff to run the process themselves – acute laziness coupled with the “it ain’t my money so who gives a fuck” syndrome.

      • Salsy 1.1.3
        24 September 2010 at 10:12 pm

        We haven’t seen corruption like this in our electoral system, probably ever,” Mr Grey said.

        Where the bloody hell is Winston? Its another juicy section to add to his trip to the third world speech

    • AndyB 1.2
      24 September 2010 at 9:04 am

      $7900 to recruit a manager is pretty damn cheap really. Considering some recruitment firms get paid many times that amount to find managerial positions.

      • toad 1.2.1
        24 September 2010 at 9:15 am

        If you are recruiting one mid-tier manager, you’re probably right AndyB. But here they are recruiting 45 of them, and there are (or should be ) significant economies of scale, particularly relating to advertising (because several positions can be advertised together) and CV and refererence vetting (because some applicants will apply for multiple positions).

      • Lazy Susan 1.2.2
        24 September 2010 at 9:32 am

        Toad beat me to it re: economies of scale.

        In addition, is Momentum offering value for money considering their recent sorry track record?

        Finally, there is of course Boag’s conflict of interest. Mark Ford and the ATA could have chosen more wisely but they chose not too.

      • Carol 1.2.3
        24 September 2010 at 9:37 am

        So the Papatoetoe case is a very local scam to do with a couple of local ward canditates? And the supercity rort is part of widespread cronyism and assett grab? So far, isn’t it looking like the scale of the wrong-doing is far different in the two cases? The Papatotoe scam seems like an amateurish effort while the Momentum one seems a much more sophisticated attempt to scew the system, without necessarily committing an easily identifiable crime.

  2. freedom 2
    24 September 2010 at 9:29 am

    ‎”prompting a walkout by representatives of the United States, 27 European nations, the European Union, Canada, NEW ZEALAND, Australia and Costa Rica.” sounds very choreographed, and why are we walking out when it was America that was criticised ?

    • comedy 2.1
      24 September 2010 at 9:39 am

      ‘But, as in prior years, he used the General Assembly meeting to issue comments that generate controversy and media attention. This year’s speech came against the backdrop of commemorations of the attacks and a swelling anger against Islam in the United States.

      The United States Mission to the United Nations quickly issued a response to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech. “Rather than representing the aspirations and goodwill of the Iranian people, Mr. Ahmadinejad has yet again chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable,” the mission said in a statement.

      Mr. Ahmadinejad framed his comments about Sept. 11 as an examination of opinions, an approach he has used in questioning the Holocaust, as well.

      “In identifying those responsible behind the Sept. 11 attacks, there were three viewpoints,” he said. “First, that a very powerful and complex terrorist group able to successfully cross all layers of the American intelligence and security carried out the attack. This is the prevalent viewpoint which has been supported mainly and advocated by American statesmen.

      “Second: that some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order to save the Zionist regime. The majority of the American people, as well as most nations and politicians around the world agree with this view.

      “Third: it was carried out by a terrorist group but that the American government supported and took advantage of the situation. Apparently, this viewpoint has fewer proponents.”’

      I agree why walkout when it’s a perfect chance to heckle the stupid little fucker from the stands.

      • Vicky32 2.1.1
        24 September 2010 at 5:20 pm

        Comedy, I hope you know that Admadinejad’s ‘questioning of the Holocaust’ is as big a lie, as his supposed statement that Israel should be wiped out?
        It’s an American view that he’s a “stupid little fucker”… he’s being portrayed that way in order that he can/will become the next Saddam Hussein. Actually, the worst of the things he’s actually said are no worse than the most idiotic statements of Sarkozy, Berlusconi and dare I say it, JonKey?
        Deb

      • BLiP 2.1.2
        24 September 2010 at 5:21 pm

        I agree why walkout when it’s a perfect chance to heckle the stupid little fucker from the stands.

        But comedy, you’re missing the point. The walk out will get wall-to-wall media coverage. C’mon, man, get with the programme.

    • Vicky32 2.2
      24 September 2010 at 5:14 pm

      Exactly! (Especially as many of us have had thoughts along the same lines as Ahmadinejad…
      Deb

      • comedy 2.2.1
        24 September 2010 at 6:44 pm

        Um no, fuck all people have the same thoughts as that loon

        • Vicky32 2.2.1.1
          24 September 2010 at 9:21 pm

          I was referring to his theories about 9/11… I remember it all happening, 24 hour saturation TV and radio coverage on what was actually the 12th here – my son who 14 at the time coming home from a half day at school, telling me the teacher had told him to expect a death toll of 10 000. Then in subsequent months, all the inconsistencies, all the oddities, the bombing and invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq – the announcement of what was even then called a permanent war on terror…
          One of his theories as stated in the American article you link to, must be true. I favour the second, although the third also has merit.
          Deb

  3. Carol 3
    24 September 2010 at 10:18 am

    Hide keeps comparing Garrett’s resignation from parliament, with Chris Carter not resigning, as though the situations were exactly the same.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10675765

    Carter was elected to represent an electorate, while Garrett was elected as a list MP to represent the party. Seems like different situations to me, and differenet kinds of transgressions.

    • Draco T Bastard 3.1
      24 September 2010 at 12:17 pm

      Just like a RWNJ, which Rodney is, to try to create confusion and misdirection by claiming two things are the same when they aren’t.

  4. Joe Bloggs 4
    24 September 2010 at 10:23 am

    Just what planet is Chris Carter on?

    Carter – 22/9/2010: “I consider myself to be a Labour MP, still…”

    Goff – 22/9/2010: “It was deceitful, it was treacherous, it was dishonest and it was utterly unacceptable to every member of the Labour caucus.”

    Carter’s had two months of work on sick leave at the expense of the taxpayer, but is clearly still completely delusional and in a state of total denial.

    It’s time he garretted himself and resigned from parliament. And his former employers may also wish to accept some responsibility for the counselling and mental rehabilitation that he so clearly needs.

  5. joe90 5
    24 September 2010 at 10:34 am

    An eye opening article about The Secret Lives of Big Pharma’s ‘Thought Leaders’

    Mass-media advertising can be expensive. What if there were a way to avoid the masses and simply concentrate on the special people? Today the pharmaceutical industry uses the terms “thought leader” or “key opinion leader”—KOL for short—to refer to influential physicians, often academic researchers, who are especially effective at transmitting messages to their peers. Pharmaceutical companies hire KOL’s to consult for them, to give lectures, to conduct clinical trials, and occasionally to make presentations on their behalf at regulatory meetings or hearings.

  6. felix 6
    24 September 2010 at 10:58 am

    I wonder whether John Key considers himself “rich”.

  7. Pascal's bookie 7
    24 September 2010 at 11:22 am

    Stuxnet

    On his website, Langner lays out the Stuxnet code he has dissected. He shows step by step how Stuxnet operates as a guided cyber missile. Three top US industrial control system security experts, each of whom has also independently reverse-engineered portions of Stuxnet, confirmed his findings to the Monitor.

    “His technical analysis is good,” says a senior US researcher who has analyzed Stuxnet, who asked for anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the press. “We’re also tearing [Stuxnet] apart and are seeing some of the same things.”

    Other experts who have not themselves reverse-engineered Stuxnet but are familiar with the findings of those who have concur with Langner’s analysis.

    “What we’re seeing with Stuxnet is the first view of something new that doesn’t need outside guidance by a human – but can still take control of your infrastructure,” says Michael Assante, former chief of industrial control systems cyber security research at the US Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. “This is the first direct example of weaponized software, highly customized and designed to find a particular target.”…

    ….Langner zeroes in on Stuxnet’s ability to “fingerprint” the computer system it infiltrates to determine whether it is the precise machine the attack-ware is looking to destroy. If not, it leaves the industrial computer alone. …

    …Stuxnet’s ability to autonomously and without human assistance discriminate among industrial computer systems is telling. It means, says Langner, that it is looking for one specific place and time to attack one specific factory or power plant in the entire world.

    “Stuxnet is the key for a very specific lock – in fact, there is only one lock in the world that it will open,” Langner says in an interview. “The whole attack is not at all about stealing data but about manipulation of a specific industrial process at a specific moment in time. This is not generic. It is about destroying that process…

    Crikey.

    Seriously, read the rest.

    • lprent 7.1
      24 September 2010 at 2:55 pm

      Real interesting. I’ve been hearing some rumors about this for a couple of months.

      • RedLogix 7.1.1
        24 September 2010 at 6:19 pm

        Yes it directly affects our operation and we’re taking it seriously. Fortunately the primary vector was Seimen’s SCADA/HMI software which is not in common use in this part of the world… but the details were disturbing. Interestingly the target appears to be the Seimens PLC system itself…and that’s way disturbing because they are the systems that actually do all the real control work.

        No more open USB ports for a start.

    • lprent 8.1
      24 September 2010 at 2:15 pm

      I can see that link was put there for burt 😈

      • BLiP 8.1.1
        24 September 2010 at 2:26 pm

        Hey, its Friday afternoon and all my trucks are away, there’s a beer on the desk and the boss has shot off early. Plus, the usual Standard “Friday Funny” hasn’t appeared yet so, heck, why not have a go at winding up our resident Tory mates?

        • lprent 8.1.1.1
          24 September 2010 at 4:29 pm

          …the usual Standard “Friday Funny” hasn’t appeared yet…

          Don’t look at me.. I barely have time to scratch at present (at that stage in the current project).

          I have a pile of half-written posts and an accumulating set of links on my various desktops.

    • TRUEBLUE 8.2
      24 September 2010 at 3:37 pm

      E F A

    • Blue Boy 8.3
      24 September 2010 at 5:36 pm

      What about EFA for being retrospective.

      • BLiP 8.3.1
        24 September 2010 at 5:44 pm

        So all National Ltd™’s pissing and moaning about the EFA was hypocrisy? That makes sense.

      • Draco T Bastard 8.3.2
        24 September 2010 at 10:33 pm

        The EFA wasn’t retrospective. It was passed early December and came into effect on the following 1st of January.

  9. LinkedSin 9
    24 September 2010 at 1:46 pm

    Bully Bennett at it again – the Broadcasting Standards Authority this time.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10675638

  10. Vicky32 10
    24 September 2010 at 6:15 pm

    Just hearing Patrick Gower on 3 News creaming his jeans about Hilary Calvert – who has guaranteed that she will back Hide.
    Her business skills are indisputable, he says. That’s a recommendation, and a required skill for MPs? Why?
    Deb

  11. john 11
    24 September 2010 at 10:25 pm

    We are seemingly isolated, a long way away from anywhere here in New Zealand but we are being changed by overarching historical forces : We are now in the age of contraction, the end of growth certainly the end of neo-liberalism:- We are being changed by a changing climate and oil depletion plus an environment degraded by over exploitation plus as we all know overpopulation. This Great Change is a Fact and is not in dispute yet most people have inklings but haven’t woken up to its full implications.The following article explains what’s happening. It’s strange that we’re a supposedly intelligent species yet we can’t come to grips with Macro Change of this scale.

    http://www.countercurrents.org/ahmed230910.htm

  12. Draco T Bastard 12
    24 September 2010 at 11:17 pm

    America Aping Britain’s Historic Decline Through Free Trade

    One of the most inexcusable things about America’s ongoing economic decline by means of free trade is how clear the historical portents are. For example, we are today treading the same path trodden by a nation that Americans know reasonably well: Great Britain. It is easy to forget that until about 1850, Britain, not the U.S., was the world’s leading economic power. But then, of course, they blew it. There were, of course, many causes of this decline, but free trade was undoubtedly a major one.

    An interesting dissertation and rather simplified which can be expected of such a short essay.

    Britain, like the U.S. and every other developed nation, initially rose from agricultural backwardness by way of mercantilism, the opposite of free trade.

    Mercantilism isn’t the opposite of free-trade per sé. Although it has protectionism from other countries it also has internal free-trade (Usually limited by capitalists). It’s about importing wealth, generally without paying full price for it, so that that country becomes richer. It’s still around today but it’s hidden behind rhetoric about the “free-market”. It can be found in such statements as export led recovery (importing money and holding on to it usually in exchange for, interestingly enough, exporting all the actual wealth) and the old rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer (The poor produce the wealth and the rich abscond with it).

    The clarity of British thinking was not helped by the fact that certain vested interests had fattened upon free trade and established a grip upon the levers of power that was hard to break. The British establishment, seduced by the City of London’s financiers, turned towards wealth manipulation rather than wealth creation, a story familiar to us on Wall Street today.

    Which can most definitely be seen in today’s politics. Wall St. got the multi-trillion dollar bail out but the people are going hungry, losing houses and jobs. Here we have the SCF getting the bailout while Chch residents are told, effectively, to harden up. And, to top it off, our own PM (a financier) is suggesting that we become the back office for other nations without producing any wealth ourselves – the result of which will be a large pool of poverty topped by a very small pool of extreme wealth.

    Mercantilism didn’t work and neither does the free-market. Time to try something else.

    hattip: Bernard Hickey

Links to post

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.