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Upgrades
I upgraded the site tonight. There have been a lot of security fixes since we pushed a test site together in August 2007. It was only meant to be a trial (as I keep saying plaintively to the posters), and it sort of got away…
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Archives · 2008-04-21 to 2008-04-27
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Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 1–28 of 28
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Mistakes, I’ve made a few
David Farrar's three more prominent weaknesses came together in a speculator PR disaster yesterday. The weaknesses are his ego, his trick of using pictures of naked women to boost hits on his site, and his reverse midas touch, whereby every he touches turns to, well,…
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Fairfax reporting staggeringly awful
This morning's Dom Post buys into National's "Aussie exodus" spin with a lead story claiming "A staggering one in 10 voters are considering a move to Australia" in the next twelve months. The facts, of course, are somewhat different. As we've shown before, as few…
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Helen Clark answers your questions
We're very pleased to have Prime Minister Helen Clark respond to your questions as part of our Interview the Leaders series. Question to all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? I am proud to lead a government which has worked so hard…
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If I were National’s campaign strategist
National will not win by running on its rightwing principles and policy. For 20 years, New Zealanders have consistently said they do not want to sell public assets, they do not want weaker employment law, they do not want tax cuts at the cost of…
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Roy Morgan
No real surprises in the latest Roy Morgan poll, but Gary Morgan's hilariously bad political analysis continues. You'll remember in the last Morgan poll our man Gary put the thirty percent increase in the Greens' support down to Earth Hour, and this week he's at…
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Bad Comics
So, one internet comic writer challenged another internet comic writer to draw 200 bad comics and this was the result. Awesome on so many levels. I especially like number 10. I wonder if that will be New Zealand come November.
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Clark’s answers delayed
We had hoped to have the answers for our ‘interview the leaders' series from Helen Clark today. I talked with the PM's office and they explained the questions are with Clark, she's been busy travelling, and we'll have them as soon as they come back.…
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Does money buy happiness after all?
In 1974, economist Richard Easterlin, published a study in which he argued that economic growth didn't necessarily lead to more satisfaction. In poor countries, gaining the necesseties of life raised happiness but beyond those gains there was no increase. This became known as the Easterlin…
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Flat-Earthers heart climate change deniers
The Climate Science Coalition is the last of a dying breed; a rabid, climate change denying lobby group. Of late, they have been performing a desperate, last-ditch attempt to slow the introduction of a carbon trading scheme. And, now, it looks like they've received some heavy-weight support in the form…
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50 ways to help the planet
Check out 50 ways to help the planet. My favourites? Shower with your partner Invest in your own reusable coffee cup Picnic with a marker pen
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A broadband world
So John Key has announced that a National-led government would spend "up to" $1.5 billion on fibre optic cable to the home. Well that's a good thing right? Even I can appreciate the importance of Kiwi homes and businesses getting access to high speed broadband (even…
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The cart before the horse
The internet is awesome; you can use email, learn heaps, and read sites like The Standard. Faster internet is awesomer; you can watch the Porirua market video without having to wait for it to buffer. Personally, I can't wait until I'm getting the internet through…
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I’ve got a solution, what’s the problem?
The junior doctors' strike is a difficult issue. On the one hand, these are highly valuable workers whom we can't afford to lose overseas and they do work long hours in difficult conditions. On the other hand, the pay rise they want would cost $50…
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Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand
The NY Times reports on the symbiotic relationship between media "military analysts" and the Bush administration. Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan…
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Extra weight
A reader pointed out a set of hidden spam links that had attached themselves to the footer of the site. I'd noticed them previously and thought that I'd corrected them (see comment). But they turned up again. Turns out it was from an interesting flaw…
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Twin peaks
We have all heard of the peak oil crisis that is already manifesting itself in fuel prices. Now, consider peak food, the point where our ability to produce food peaks even as demand grows. Wheat was the first plant to be domesticated, around 10,000 years…
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Owen Glenn’s secret shame
As Robinsod notes below in his insightful review of Wishart's Absolute Power it's abundantly clear that the author specialises in a particular brand of "idiocy, madness and paranoia". I was particularly intrigued by the sensationalist chapter accusing Owen Glenn of Mafia connections. The basis for…
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What would National do?: Emigration
Simon Power has hit on the fact that Stats New Zealand produces migration figures every month, and that means every month he gets to report the number of New Zealanders heading for Australia as if a) the number is unprecedented, which it is not b)…
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Clearly confused but no conspiracy
If there's one thing the confused saga of Mike Williams and the Labour Party's secret plot to use KiwiSaver and Working for Families pamphlets as campaign material has shown is that there never was a secret Labour Party plot to use KiwiSaver and Working for…
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Book review: Absolute Power
As regular readers will know, we've long refused to let Robinsod write for us due to his penchant for filth and gutter politics. But seeing as the book he's offered to review for us is written by Ian Wishart we felt it was somehow appropriate.…
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Emigration in perspective
Last year, 99.33% of New Zealand citizens liked their country so much they stayed. Some left for short periods, and some left forever but they were more than replaced by new New Zealanders who also think this is a great place to live. There really is nothing…
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Blogger sweatshop
(Via BoingBoing.net)
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Interview the leaders V: Maori Party
Even amateur, part-time bloggers sometimes make mistakes, and last week we didn't send Clark her questions until Wednesday, rather than Monday, due to a miscommunication between ourselves. So, we extended her deadline to this Wednesday. We'll post her replies when we get them. In the…
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National makes work rights the defining issue
National's strategy, the strategy of a weak party, is to present a ‘small target' by promising to change virtually nothing if they were in government. Problem is, their small target has a great big bull's-eye on it called work rights. With flip-flops on health, education,…
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Reading the tealeaves
One News reports on their Colmar Brunton poll showing a 19 point lead to National and Key ahead in the preferred PM stakes: Labour continues to trail National - There's more bad news for Labour in the latest ONE News Colmar Brunton poll. It's trailing…
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Conflicting polls
The two political polls on TV last night say far more about the limitations of political polling than they do about the likely makeup of the next Parliament. Last night's TVNZ poll, conducted by New Zealand's least reliable polling company, showed National gaining ground, Labour…
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Note to John: get a new lawyer
John Key: ' my lawyer actually does those things clearly [he] had the wrong information.' That's how Slippery John explained why legal documents showed him living at different addresses at the same time. For election purposes he had claimed to be living at his $1.1…