Posts by Tom Beard
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the fantasy of so many nz'ers that religion is 'used to suppress thought' is highly amusing, to say the least!
I see what you mean. After all, it only took the catholic Church 367 years or so to apologise to Galileo. And there hasn't been a heresy trial in NZ for, ooh, decades.
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Also, on the so-called Loudness War in music. Check out the animated gif at the top of the page, showing the same Beatles song re-mastered 4 times in 20 years.
I'm not sure that the gif shows audio compression, given that in the early examples even the peaks are far from full volume? With my limited experience of audio engineering, I'd have thought that one wouldn't want to waste any precious bits and introduce unnecessary digitisation noise.
Oh, but I had to laugh at people complaining about a Metallica album being too loud and distorted!
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Cycleway is turning into a series of Great Rides (puntastic title at least) for $500m.
$500m or $50m?
I wouldn't mind if it was being spent on actual commuter cycle lanes rather than recreational routes of dubious appeal. But then, creating safe cycle paths in dense urban areas (at least in Wellington, with narrow roads) requires not just money but either:
a) demolishing properties, and that's highly undersirable (oh, except when there's a motorway involved), or
b) taking lane space away from cars, and can you see that happening under Nact?
Besides, only hippies and weirdos cycle to work, whereas Great Rides will be ridden by tourists, with their lovely overseas currency...
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Suburbism is when a Palmy motelier bans people from Waikanae.
No, that would be ageism. The ban was on people from Wainuiomata, which might be suburbism disguising classism and racism. And possibly exorcism.
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@Tom and the others who nearly support the Greens
That bit in my comment where I said that I give my party vote to the Greens? I think that's a bit more than "nearly".
My support for them is based largely on their emphasis on sustainability, but also on foreign policy and social justice issues where I consider Labour to be very compromised and populist. I am a Greens supporter, and I don't think there's a line that I need to get over. But no party will ever appeal 100% to every individual, and there are certain policies and individuals that make me less comfortable.
I don't want to pick on you Tom, but the broccoli comment is kind of typical of the response - it's like people have some childhood resistance to being "told what to do."
That may make me sound like I'm exhibiting a sort of Actoid resistance to imagined Nanny-statism, but it's more a reaction to specific policies and a certain demeanour. I'm in favour of regulation to shape urban form, improve energy efficiency, encourage a shift to more sustainable transport and fight obesity. But there's a sort of Calvinist, smug, suburban, babyboomer "oh, it's organic, don'tcha know" attitude to some of their food policy that I'm not going to "get over" any time soon. It reminds me of the cover feature in about every third Listener: "If you don't get enough Omega 3, you'll need plastic surgery and you'll never afford a mortgage in a good school zone" or some such.
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I'm perfectly happy to engage with the Greens. Heck, I've even leafleted, voted for them. But the Kedgley wing is a big part of the reason why I don't join, and I think it's a perfectly legitimate one to be frank.
I party vote Green, but give my electorate vote to Labour because I always get the impression that Kedgley will try to make me eat my broccoli. I consider myself an urban greenie, since I believe that compact cities, high-quality public transport and renewable energy sources are vital, but there's a thread of Thoreau-lite anti-urbanism, 60s-hangover mysticism and pursed-lipped tut-tutting about some greens that puts me right off. I suppose you could say that I'd prefer them to be more bright green than dark green.
Ooooooooooh, those miserable sodding bastards. They're running it along part of the designated rail corridor. That has two effects.
1) No Avondale-Southdown line in the foreseeable future, because the path it would've taken will now be occupied by a motorway, and
2) The designation of at least some land is already done. Opponents, eat yer hearts out!Oh crap. Bye-bye rail.
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being a fan of the more absurdist and wordist realms
I'm surprised there are no Mighty Boosh boosters out there,
it's is the closest thing I've seen to a modern day, visual Goon Show. with a touch of a more cerebral Young OnesGood comparisons, especially to the Goons, though I understand that The Boosh see themselves more as a contemporary Goodies.
the new Reggie Perrin
Oh no, I hadn't heard of that! Only yesterday I was discussing with someone about how quintessentially 70s Reggie Perrin was, and unless any update is truly updated to respond to current social trends, it will be a horribly irrelevant mess.
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I went and saw Dylan moran on Saturday night. He is on the cutting edge of comedy, and a very funny man.
I agree he's very funny, though I wouldn't say he's on the "cutting edge". It's pretty conventional stand-up, and some of his grumpy-old-man youth-bashing is a bit predictable, and it's more his persona and delivery that makes him stand out. But stand out he does.
I thought whilst fresh and funny he wasn't properly prepared for a New Zealand audience and several of his jokes - easily modified for local consumption if he had done his homework - fell flat. Which only goes to show even the very best can struggle to get it right for the full show.
I saw him on Sunday, and he certainly had a lot of localised content. We all laughed heartliy at his Invercargill jokes, but I wonder whether he tells the same ones in Auckland as Wellington jokes...
I think that local references can go too far, and we can be a bit scared of overseas content. Granted, I'm still English enough to understand references to Curly Wurlies, but there's a whole lot of recent British comedy that seems never to have aired here AFAIK. I can understand (but not forgive) that the references to obscure back-bench Tory politicians in Have I Got News For You, or clips of Top of the Pops performances from 90s rave one hit wonders on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, might be enough to put off the programmers. But I know enough non-Anglophiles who have wet themselves with uncontrollable laughter over both, so surely they could take a punt. And there's no excuse for not showing Brass Eye or QI, for god's sake.
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How many of you have a cop in your circle of friends
Not directly, but I know a couple of women who have dated serving policemen, another friend has an ex-cop as a colleague, my ex-wife's best friend is a (somewhat famous) former policewoman and I have an ex-cop as a (gulp) boss.
I can think of one thing that could lead to police officers mingling less with "general society", and that is shift work. When I was a weather forecaster, I tended to socialise mostly with other meteorologists, and to a lesser extent people such as nurses, doctors and pilots, simply because we were all out of sync with the usual social calendar. There may be other forms of camaraderie that keep cops toegether and perhaps apart from wider society, but something as simple as working hours and lifestyle can make a difference.
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It was an armoured vehicle that allowed them to retrieve Len Snee's body under fire. I can't see the point of risking anyone else's life on the basis that an armoured vehicle might unnerve some people.
Exactly. The sight of them on the street is pretty disturbing, but the situation they were dealing with was even more disturbing, so it seems like a case of the right tool for the right job. Note that that's not a reference to Greg O'Connor, who's clearly the wrong tool in the wrong job.