The flooding isn't just because of rain falling on flockton basin. Edgeware rd floods each time because water is spraying in miniature geysers out of the storm drains in the middle of the street - there has to be water flowing to this part of town and pooling here.

Wait, linking funding to child progress sounds like a great idea - more money for those schools making slower progress, right, because they need the extra resources?

Right?

The bit that leaves me boggled is, how the hell do you go from 'the candidate has personality type X according to a test' to 'will fit in in a department?'

I mean let's say i'm outgoing and bubbly - what rigorous mechanism are you going to use to decide that this is suitable for the job? Is a psychologist actually testing the department and manager as well and using evidence to decide that type A and type C personalities get on well? Are there double-blind studies that test this?

I mean all of this 'fit' talk seems to assume that the way to produce an effective team is to bring together a bunch of people with similar personalities. Why is that necessarily true?

We all SUSPECT that what's actually happening is the hiring manager is being handed a test result in exchange for a pile of money, and they're just picking based on their own biases.

In short, not getting a job because a dumb test thinks you have the wrong personality, and then being told this is a 'good outcome' for you, is the most infuriating thing I can imagine.

I love Build That Wall - one thing that makes it lovely is that you encounter it in game in a very quiet, peaceful context, when you meet a girl singing it to herself in a glade. You'll probably whistle it to yourself for a while, and associate it with a moment of quiet in a messy world.

But, when you look at the lyrics, it's actually a song that is ALL THREAT. It's an angry song about revenge, and when you realise that it's amazingly jarring.

There is going to be a *lot* of opposition to a new cricket ground in Hagley Park. I'm half thinking it's there as a sacrificial duck.

And because I haven't seen this mentioned here, this is the funniest thing I've heard in ages:

http://www.radiolive.co.nz/AUDIO-John-Banks-denies-Dotcom-relationship-cites-marriage-as-impediment/tabid/506/articleID/27665/Default.aspx

The traffic cones thing is pretty amazing. On the way to work today I passed ~150 cones. I didn't see one without a flower.

Is Athfield still involved? I thought he'd said he was walking away unless his conditions were met in advance.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/4798499/Architect-Athfield-holds-ground