Posts by Gabor Toth
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to Angus Robertson,
Only a select few Americans (vetted by the ATF) are allowed to buy a full-auto machine guns
Though actually quite a few do (Google "OFASTS" for an example). The procedure is not too dissimilar to the process that target pistol shooters in NZ need to go through buy a pistol. However as many Americans consider this an affront to their "rights" (with both the owner and the gun having to be registered with Federal authorities) it is a relatively niche area compared to the huge numbers that buy Military-style semi-auto rifles.
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Hard News: You down with TPP?, in reply to Graham Dunster,
Rod Oram's recent SST column was rather interesting about the agricultural/dairy access to the USA. (No link as I can't unscramble Fairax's Stuff site.)
Press Display folks.
Most municipal and university libraries subscribe to it and offer free access to library card holders. Go to your local library's website and check their list of databases.
Ta Dah! -
Also worth a look is Labour's remarkable cinema / television campaign advertisement from the 1969 election. Admittedly it didn't work quite as well as Labour hoped as they lost the election but in terms of its message, the extraordinary multiple split-screen technique on 35mm film (very innovative for the time) and a catchy song that didn't suck, it marked the start of a new era of political advertising.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/video/labour-party-tv-ad-1969
Labour must have had a great deal of faith in Kirk to keep him as their leader after losing the 69 election. These days losing an election normally means it curtains for the Leader of the Opposition. -
The last time I played video games, these were at the top of my list (in all their 8-bit glory)
Vanguard was pretty neat- especially with a base-heavy arcade game cabinet (and it had a voice synthesizer which was way-cool...)
Rally X was good for a while but could sure as hell get on your nerves after 15 minutes or so. I recall a group releasing a funky jazzy version of the tune and calling it "Cheeseburger"
Best of all was Gyruss (in part because I was actually quite good at it). It was the first (and probably last) time that Bach's Toccata and Fugue played such a major role in a game's soundtrack
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Should I pronounce it "Media Three” or "Media Cubed"?
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Speaker: Why Auckland, and New Zealand,…, in reply to Sacha,
...the Central Station in Courtenay Place
is that why that street is so wide?
Almost - but not quite. The City Council bought up all the land on the northern side of Courtenay Place and demolished all the buildings on it around the turn of last century. This enabled them to widen the street and turn Courtenay Place into a public transport hub to coincide with the electrification of the trams in 1904 and the gradual extension of the tramlines out to the suburbs (particularly with the completion of the Hataitai tram tunnel in 1907). The number of tram lines running through the city meant that any thoughts of running (steam) trains into the city were soon discarded (electric passenger rail units did not arrive until 1938).
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Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Actually Islander you can get Freeview, just maybe not the terrestrial HD signal. The satellite service uses the same Optus D1 bird that Sky uses.
Yup. Sky will leave their satellite dish behind when a subscription is cancelled as it is not worth the cost to them to send out a technician to remove it from the house (though theoretically they still own it). If a previous occupant had Sky (or if you did and have since cancelled it), all you need to do is plug in a Freeview satellite receiver (c$150 retail or substantially less than that on Trade Me) into the cable that was left behind and you're away. Those small beach communities with few permanent residents and large numbers of holiday homes may appear to be huge fans of Sky TV but you'll probably find that a fair proportion of homes are simply using the dishes to view Freeview.
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Giggles has nothing to do with Suzy...
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Hard News: The digital switch-off, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Jeeze, what are the poor kids going to do with the other 12 hours a day, poor souls.
;-)We never saw TVNZ6's Kidzone as a means to occupy our four-year old for 12 hours a day. It was however brilliant to know that we could sit our wee-one down to watch a moderate bit of telly any time between 6am and 6pm knowing that the programmes would be worthy, age appropriate and often quite educational. Absent would be the three-frames-per-second style of cartoon common on commercial TV consisting of an orgy of destruction by enormous robots (or similar). Also absent were the commercials and commercial tie-ins where programmes are simply an extended advertisement for overpriced plastic merchandise for sale at your local Toy World. Along similar lines, I've witnessed preschoolers talking in American accents as a result of watching nothing but Playhouse Disney on Sky.
Kidzone's host presenter, Kayne Peters was probably the hardest working man in television (I have no idea how he kept up that level of energy and enthusiasm). Not only is our wee girl is bitterly disappointed at the loss of TVNZ6, she was also pretty upset the other day when in 60 seconds on TVNZ7 we went from "Giggles" at 7.59am to scenes of devastation and distraught people in Christchurch on the 8am news and Te Karere (we were out of the room at the time but this was something we had been trying to avoid exposing her to).
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An alternative if you don't have any alcohol gel is methylated spirits. You can use it from a big bottle but it is easier to transfer it into a little squirty bottle with a cap (an empty tomato sauce bottle will do nicely). About a teaspoon in the palm and then rubbed all over does the trick. If you find it too harsh on your hands, you can dilute it so that it is about 70% - 80% meths and 30% - 20% clean water - or just use a hand moisturiser occasionally. I have heard some people using neat Vodka but I'd much rather drink the stuff.
If your bathroom is still intact, an alternative to straddling a trench in the garden is to line your toilet bowl with a large rubbish bag / bin liner. This is particularly good if you have young children or elderly residents in your household and means everyone can do their business with a bit of dignity. Fold the edge of the bag over the rim and bring the toilet seat down to trap it into position. This can hold about two days waste for a small family (blokes can do number ones against the garden shed). It won’t actually won't smell too bad until you move it when the bag fills up (then it certainly can be a bit wiffy). Bury the bag in the garden noting the position (if the bag is tightly closed and tied, you can leave just the top sticking up). Once rubbish collection (or poo collection) services are restored you can retrieve the bag and dispose of it properly. A line of Vicks vapour-rub under the nose will mask most smells and prevent gagging when you move the bag from the toilet to the garden. Otherwise a peg with a slack spring on the nose will work and will leave both hands free. Vicks under the nose will also help if you have to work around sewage or if you are involved with (let's hope not but...) body recovery. The gagging reflex to odours can be so strong that it can result in incapacitating vomiting so this is a useful trick to keep up your sleeve if you ever need it. Tiger balm is OK at a pinch but not as effective as Vicks.
I crunched some figures a year or so back were I worked out that 20 maximum-length 160 character txts involved sending roughly the same amount of data over the network as one second of talking on a cellphone voice-call. So yeah – send txts – don’t talk.