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"The happiness-consumption myth is interestingly analysed in relation to neurological mechanisms. The myth is co-created by the marketers and us." Brian Walker, Hot Topic. These couple of lines are very important to my mind. I got involved in marketing through my business and was a…
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Tweedledum and Tweedledee were a bit slow off the mark responding to the news that Don Brash is looking to take over ACT. Took the Nats a while to get their lines together but have decided, on balance, they want ACT dead. And that will…
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How much of the "news" that we consume and the "research" that it is based on is bought, paid for, and subservient to, corporate masters? Historically tobacco and drug companies are well known cases where corporations have poured huge amounts of money and energy into…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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"Fallen soldier records free to access over Easter" is the headline in a Herald story today promoting a special free access to a website. I went to look at it because three of my four uncles were shot down in combat during World War 2.…
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One of the corollaries or supporting ideologies behind Neo-Liberalism is the cult of Management. The idea that individual shareholders, managers or directors are the main contributors to the success of a corporation, and thence the economy. And deserve the greatest share of the rewards. The…
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Don Brash has thrown his hat in the ring for leadership of the ACT party according to the dominon post and, with an ACT council meeting next Saturday, I'd say the challenge is a serious one. It's understandable that ACT would want rid of Hide…
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What is important to voters? Good policy that gets results? Competent, well managed execution of government? A leader who is perceived as friendly and accessible? Some vague overall general impression? I'm moved to ask because of a bizarre comment in one of DPF's posts at…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Buckingham Palace cleaners aren't even paid the London living wage while the British taxpayer will have to pay for the royal wedding cleanup. That's one reason why I'm a republican. The Globe and Mail reports: The cost of cleaning the streets of Westminster the day…
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The Herald has summarised a report in the new Metro on the New Zealand SAS's role in arresting Afghanis and handing them over for torture. Delivering prisoners for torture is as culpable an act as torture itself. It is a war crime. Everyone who wants…
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Here's a photo of the emergency housing that families in Japan were moving in to about a month after their quake: Here's a computer generated graphic of housing that families in Christchurch might get to move in to at some point in the future (currently…
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The Herald asks: "Is Kate Middleton the best looking UK royal ever?". I say: what about Mary of Orange? Phwoooar! Get a load of that! Seriously, who gives a fuck that some dickhead who might some day be the nominal boss of our figurehead vice-regent…
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Leader of the opposition John Key in 2008: Tomorrow, Helen Clark will tell us what she thinks about the state of our nation. In all likelihood, she'll remind us how good she thinks we've got it, how grateful she thinks we should be to Labour,…
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An anonymous editorial in The Herald earlier this week was remarkable for two things. First for clear and succinct way it summarised some interesting data relating to educational outcomes, and second for the way that it absolutely failed to understand the meaning of that data.…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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I've long held to the principle of owning your mistakes and as such I've gotta say I was wrong about one aspect of the "stop asset sales" campaign - the signs are authorised. That said they still risk running across transport laws. Which means, to…
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Weekend social is for non political chat. What's on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can't we all just get along?
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I heard David Cunliffe on Morning Report on Tuesday, and he was superb. But as soon as he finished I knew the Right would try to deflect from the substance by writing it off as leadership ambitions. And sure enough we have Audrey Young, making…
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The Nats' attack on early childhood education (ECE) is starting to bite. As surely as night follows day, the cuts in funding for childcare centres are showing up as increased costs for parents. This graph is based on CPI data from Statistics NZ. The y-axis…
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Key's helicopter rides. Huge waste of money for what? A V8 photo-op then a golf club dinner. Why are we paying this guy $7750 a week to do nothing but photo ops? Where's the recovery package for the West Coast? Where's the Chch plan? Where's…
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Expansionary austerity is the idea that cutbacks in government spending can stimulate economic growth. Sounds weird doesn't it, but here's the theory as argued by Britain's current Chancellor of the Exchequer: Osborne insists that Britain will enjoy what he calls "expansionary austerity", because the knowledge…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Asset sales. Nobody likes them (except the few elites who stand to gain from them) which means stopping asset sale is a good thing right? Right. Unless you decide to go about doing so in a way that potentially infringes on traffic law and on…
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A while ago Irish wrote a post about right whingers: the poor wee fullas who aren't happy to simply take a bigger and bigger share of the pie but want to cash in on grievance as well. It seems National's blogger David Farrar didn't get…
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Bernard Hickey speaks about “The Plan for the Productive Economy” Venue: Ellen Melville Hall, High Street, Auckland. Time: 6:30pm, Thursday 21 April.
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The Family Court as far as I'm concerned is the only court that tries to act as the gate before the cliff, rather than the grave digger at the bottom. Even the youth court usually winds up as merely a ambulance driver. Families, when they…
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I was going to write on this, but as is often the case, I/S has already said it far better. -- r0b Earlier in the month, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment called bullshit on the government's "20% by 2020" target, pointing out that under…
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Rex Widerstrom has been a commentator and occassional guest poster here for a while. He has a unique point of view on the political process and its place in society that you can also see at his blog Shift Focus. In this guest post he…
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The government's books are tight. We shouldn't borrow more, so there need to be reversals of the tax cuts and spending cuts. What matters is what is cut - all cuts are not the same. I'd like to see the $110 billion dollars of subsidies…