Posts by Steve Curtis
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Polity: A week on from the housing controversy, in reply to Rob Salmond,
f someone has a quote of Twyford pitting all Chinese house buyers, resident and offshore alike, against hard-working NZers, let’s see it
he refers to offshore chinese investors or foreign buyers or combinations of those words about 10 times
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Speaker: Identification strategy: Now…, in reply to Russell Brown,
I’m fairly sure that’s not our spellchecker. I think it’ll be your American-made web browser.
Are you assuming its 'American' ,because of your belief that Americans 'spell funny'. They could be Canadians.
This meme has revealed deeper xenophobia than we thought.After all , who knew 'Australians' are the brains behind Google Maps
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/03/you-are-here-the-australians-who-built-google-maps-and-changed-the-world-forever/ -
Polity: House-buying patterns in Auckland, in reply to David Tong,
Exactly. Apparently I’m Chinese now?
No one has said that, A large group has been allocated ethnicity based on surnames.
A similar method is used for decile ratings of schools. Student addresses are matched to mesh blocks, which then provide an average income. This method matches an income based on the street you live in. It DOESNT presume to know your household income.
Your neighbours may be ‘dinks’ ( the demographic kind) but you are a single income with 3 kids. Its average over all the pupils to give a rating ( 1-10).
The problems with school decile ratings are that parents presume it means ethnicity.
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Cant we clear this up by taking a reasonable sample of the names, looking up the property register and then finding out if the resident or non resident category is 5% or up to 50%.
After all the type of analysis that Tywford has done is not that far off from that done by the Ministry for decile gradings for schools. Which is look up address, get the average income for that mesh block and 'assign a $ value ' for that pupils parents income.
In both cases the 'real income' or 'ethnicity' doesnt come into it. A large group of persons have a numerical value or ethnicity which may or may not be be their actual value.
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Dont we have an existing 'Skypath' under a motorway bridge- Mangere Bridge motorway
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Polity: Government votes not to improve MMP, in reply to Idiot Savant,
Given that the Electoral Commissions proposals would reduce the overall proportionality of Parliament, I’m not exactly unhappy about this.
Say again
. Reducing the threshold INCREASES proportionality as those who are between 4-5% are now included. Of course having no threshold is even more proportional but of the Weimar kind ?Labour had separated their desire to kneecap national’s coalition partners from the straight democratic argument in favour of a lower threshold
Labour had previously benefited from coattails before and they could again. ( Dunne and MP could support Labour).
The lower threshold isn't a democratic argument, thats only proportionality. The non democratic part is when coattails mean some votes count more than others plus distort proportionality. -
Germany isnt strictly speaking a similar system to ours as they operate a 'regional MMP' version. Lists and electorates are bundled by the federal states. This normally produces a overhang for the CSU who only contest seats in Bavaria, winning all of them, while their partners the CDU stay well clear.
A regional MMP is used in Scotland as well, even though its not much bigger in population than NZ, the result is to give SNPa majority with around 53% of the seats but only 45% of the votes.
This is the kind of reform National will be most interested in -
"Let’s grow up about this. And when we’ve grown up, perhaps we can talk like grown-ups "
He says, dripping with paternalism, mixed with some I know it all and then inhaled with a glint in your eye.
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Hard News: Nelson Street: Not too…, in reply to Rickai,
No concrete native flora motifs!
Absolutely. A bit like the motorway bridge north of Orewa with its 'Pukeko legs'
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I saw this list of 15 things not to say to a person in a wheelchair.
1. “I’m in a rush, I only parked there for a few minutes.”
2. “Do you know what’s his name? He’s in a wheelchair too!”
3. “Why are you in a wheelchair?”
4. “Can I pray for you?”
5. “It’s good to see you out and being productive.”
6. “I had to use a wheelchair once, so I identify with what you are going through.”
7. “Everything happens for a reason.”
8. “You are good-looking for a person in a wheelchair.”
9. “That’s great! You picked those things up so fast.”
10. “Can you pop a wheelie?”
11. “You are truly inspiring.”
12. “How fast does your wheelchair go?”
13. “Is your partner in a wheelchair too?”
14. “I’m so glad I’m not in a wheelchair.”
15. “I’m sure you will walk again, stay positive.”
I suppose the 16th one should be : Dont tip protesters out of their wheelchairs as has happened in London by the Police