David Farrar notes with some alarm a story on Jury Trials in Auckland, where the claim is made that very few people bother to turn up (1 in 10), others never make a contribution (and there is doubt that they...crack for zipoff
The Black Caps have beaten Australia in the cricket again, winning the series 3-0. After letting Hayden smash 181 not out and get Australia to a total of 346/5, the New Zealand middle order batsmen rallied brilliantly to chase down...crack for zipoff
New Zealand has just won the second game in the Chappell-Hadlee series, thus giving them the series 2-0 with one game to go. A dismal bowling performance saw Australia get 336/4 off 50 overs, but brilliant batting from Taylor (117...crack for zipoff
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After winning the toss and bowling first in the first Chappell-Hadlee Trophy game in Wellington, NZ have dismissed Australia for a miserable 148. The last time Australia had a ODI first innings run rate of less than 3 (total of...crack for zipoff
Continue reading "Well done the Black Caps" » crack for zipoff
So the New Year's Honours List has been published today, and Lloyd Geering has been made a member of the Order of New Zealand. However, I have to ask, what has he actually done to make him worthy of New...crack for zipoff
So the Government has announced that they prefer a new stadium on the waterfront rather than an upgrade of Eden Park. While a well-designed new stadium there may be great, I have a number of concerns about this proposal: 1)...crack for zipoff
Alan seems to be somewhat worried about the Human Rights Commission drafting a national statement on religious diversity. While I share some of his concerns, I think that he is a little off the mark with others. HRC: New Zealand...crack for zipoff
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A couple of JPs in Hastings supressed their own names during a routine court hearing this week. One of them later stated to the Herald that the order was made to ensure their own personal safety in the courtroom, although...crack for zipoff
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So says the president of the PPTA in a statement opposing performance pay for teachers. And of course we all know differently. Anyone who has gone through our schooling system can testify that some teachers were simply much better than...crack for zipoff
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If you're into the habbit of watching early morning TV, you may have seen a short segment on Orion Health on Wednesday morning. You can watch the clip here (10MB AVI). It relates to Orion winning a contract with the...crack for zipoff
A few weeks ago, a child who had completed the meningoccal B vaccine program, died of meningitis. Whaleoil implies that the $200m spent vaccinately children was wasted. I think that this is rather naive. It has never been claimed that...crack for zipoff
Harmeet Sooden has a bit of a rant in the Dominion Post today against the New Zealand government and press for their involvement in Afghanistan and coverage of Iraq respectively. But he appears to be no better at spin than...crack for zipoff
TVNZ has started screening series 7 of The West Wing. The first episode was last Friday night at 11pm, not the most friendly of hours. I had fortunately just got home and noticed it was about to start. Mind you,...crack for zipoff
A bit of shocking story on Fair Go tonight. A guy on an invalids benefit lent his car to a friend whose car had broken down. The friend had some unpaid fines and so the Court Baliff came around to...crack for zipoff
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According to the NZ Herald, Transpower is unhappy at suggestions from an independent report that it should give special treatment to sites where a failure would have a bigger impact. Specifically they are referring to the Otahuhu substation, which is...crack for zipoff
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It was a much improved performance from the All Blacks last night, in the first test of the Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup. I must admit that I thought that there was a reasonable chance that Australia would win it -...crack for zipoff
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No wonder everyone seems to hate the IRD. A group of people managed to invest in a scam run by a man called Donald Rea, where (as per usual) large rates of return were promised. However, Rea simply paid them...crack for zipoff
I've avoided blogging on the Kahui twins tragedy thus far but when it seems that some politicians just don't get how our justice system works, and why it works that why, I think I need to say something. What happened...crack for zipoff
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Telecom has announced that they are going to separate into independent retail and wholesale operations. They seem to have released few details so far but have investigated how this has been done by both British Telecom and Telstra. This is...crack for zipoff
The New Zealand government is contributing $500,000 to shutdown a Soviet-era Russian nuclear reactor, and to help create a replacement fossil fuel power plant instead. So, we have power cuts and shortages here, but instead of fixing them, we fund...crack for zipoff
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The All Blacks have beaten Argentina in Buenos Aires by 25-19, but it was not at all convincing. There were way too many dropped balls by the ABs - admittedly it was drizzling a little, but I would have expected...crack for zipoff
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Sutff reports that Wellington Zoo is hiring out its pair of cheetahs for events - obviously under controlled circumstances. A few animal rights activists are rather upset about this, claiming that the Zoo is putting money ahead of animal welfare....crack for zipoff
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From the NZ Herald: A bomb scare at Auckland University yesterday morning disrupted several examinations. Police said they received a report of an explosive device in one of the university buildings around 9.15am. A sniffer dog found a small package...crack for zipoff
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The All Blacks have beaten Ireland by 27-17 in the second and final test. But it was far from convincing. They had a brilliant start, and got out to a 17-0 lead early on (one try probably shouldn't have been...crack for zipoff
So there's a massive power cut in Auckland at present due to a fault in Transpower's network (probably weather related), meaning that a large part of Auckland has no power. We've just sent pretty much everyone home from work, as...crack for zipoff
The sedition trial of Tim Selwyn begins tomorrow in the Auckland District Court, relating to him smashing a window of the Prime Minister's electorate office back in 2004, which was unoccupied at the time. However, this is not for the...crack for zipoff
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So Xtra's network was down a few weeks ago for about four days, making the internet inaccessible for all their customres (a significant portion of NZ internet subscribers) for quite a while. So they said that they would refund all...crack for zipoff
So the Crusaders have won the Super 14 final. Again (well, sort of). They bet the Hurricanes by 19-12 at Jade Stadium in Christchurch. But the final was not exactly the best game of rugby to watch - and that's...crack for zipoff
The new captain of the All Blacks will be announced on Saturday - it will be a major surprise if this is not the current vice-captain, Richie McCaw.The announcement is at the Christchurch Rugby Club, so it seems unlikely to...crack for zipoff
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As you probably heard, there was a tsunami warning for Gisborne for yesterday morning after an early morning earthquake near Tonga. The center in Hawaii issued a warning around 4am after the earthquake, which was of course picked up by...crack for zipoff
Well, I must say I am very pleased with the package of broadband changes announced by the Minister on Wednesday afternoon. While it may still be another year before they are implemented, it will definitely provide much better competition, as...crack for zipoff
There's a suggestion in the Herald this morning to demolish the Auckland Harbour bridge. It's from the chairman of the Auckland City Council's transport committee.Well, that's one way to solve congestion problems - until everyone on the shore moves back...crack for zipoff
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That's right. A carpark in central Auckland sold for $78,000.About the same price as a reasonable house in Invercargill.Fortunately I get a free car park at work.Hat Tip: David Farrar...crack for zipoff
The Herald has an article about Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard and his support for tolling despite huge objections to it. He is quoted as saying: "there are times in leadership where one has to be prepared to take the people...crack for zipoff
The Auckland City Council has voted to do further research into tolling Auckland's roads. However, Citizen's and Ratepayers Now member Scott Milne managed to get through an amendment that would prevent any implementation of road pricing until all vehicle fuel...crack for zipoff
Today is Anzac Day when we remember those New Zealanders and Australians who died at the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915 and in other conflicts. There were cermonies around the country today, and it was very moving watching the ceremony...crack for zipoff
The Law Commission under their new President Sir Geoffrey Palmer, has called for Truth in Sentencing, saying that the amount of parole at present (eligible after serving a third of the sentence) is too much.Sir Geoffrey said that the current...crack for zipoff
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Former Indian High Commissioner, Harish Dogra, is set to return to India soon according to his lawyer, and will not claim asylum in New Zealand. However, his wife and son have apparently decided to settle down in New Zealand as...crack for zipoff
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As you may have heard, the Father of a girl who was being bullied at school has been found guilty of assault on the bully, and been fined $500. He grabbed the bully by the scruff of the neck, poked...crack for zipoff
Well, the Indian High Commissioner has now been sacked after previously defying a recall order from the Indian Government. His successor is on his way and expects to take up the office around the middle of next week.There is now...crack for zipoff
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The Indian High Commissioner, Harish Kumar Dogra, has been in the news quite a bit recently. He has been recalled by the Indian Foreign Ministry, but has so far refused to return home, claiming that he has been given no...crack for zipoff
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A man gets drunk at a bar, and tries to steal someone's cellphone, ripping their jacket pocket in the process. The (almost) victim was an off-duty police officer, who promptly arrested the would-be thief.While walking him back to the station,...crack for zipoff
Lewis Holden has written an article about New Zealand's Prime Ministers. It's fairly interesting (for those actually interested in that sort of thing) and he rates them each on various characteristics....crack for zipoff
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As previously rumoured, we now have a new Governor-General, Anand Satyanand, who will take office sometime after Dame Silvia Cartwright's term ends on 4 August.I'm sure this is the cue for a rant from Lewis Holden about why the Governor-General...crack for zipoff
We live more or less across the road from the Auckland Central Playcentre. My wife, who is currently working at home writing up her PhD, had noticed that it had quietened down recently.Maybe this is why....crack for zipoff
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The Herald on Sunday reports how Auckland City parking wardens now work around the clock, issuing 27,000 a year between midnight and 7am.As David Farrar points out, this is rather ridiculous. The reason for having parking regulations is ensure that...crack for zipoff
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The Herald on Sunday has an article today about a drug house in Otara. There had been weeks of calls to the police telling them exactly where the drug house was operating. People had visited the police station to tell...crack for zipoff
The NZ Herald has an article this morning about further rate rises in the Auckland area, all of which are well above inflation (currently running at 3.2%). The lowest increase is in Manukau (4.9%), with the highest in Franklin (9.5%)....crack for zipoff
The Herald on Sunday today has an article examining problems with the scholarship exams this year (after the debacle last year). Scholarships are awarded to the top 3% of students in the exams - in the calculus exam, scholarships were...crack for zipoff
That's right - former All Black and NZ Maori player Bill Bush (1974-79) has called for the Treaty of Waitangi to be extended to rugby. He wants a 50% Maori quota in the All Blacks. In addition, he wants a...crack for zipoff
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The Ministry of Transport has come up with a number of tolling options for Auckland to try and improve the traffic congestion situation. Some of them are fairly decent ideas, but all have potential drawbacks.However, I have two main objections...crack for zipoff
New Zealand has won the first test against the West Indies in Auckland. They cleaned up the last two wickets this morning fairly quickly, with Bond completing his 5 wicket bag.It ended up being a fairly exciting match to watch....crack for zipoff
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The Economist Intelligence Unit has just released a study claiming that a 50% increase in the broadband uptake rate within 10 years would add $7.2 billion to GDP over the long-term, and doing the same within 5 years would add...crack for zipoff
The NZ Herald has a number of articles today about Sam Morgan, TradeMe, and its sale to Fairfax. One of them in particular focuses on TradeMe's so called secret - its numbers. It has more users than any of its...crack for zipoff
Dame Silvia Cartright's term as Governor-General comes to an end in August, and so of course the government is currently looking at a replacement. In our system, the Governor-General is appointed by the Queen of New Zealand on the advice...crack for zipoff
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The Libertarianz have organised a fire-breather to incinerate their census forms this evening at the Botanical Gardens in Wellington. They claim that it is a gross violation of privacy and should not be tolerated.While it may be a pain to...crack for zipoff
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Stuff reports about a problem with rates being written off on Maori freehold land. Freehold land cannot be sold, and so the local councils are not able to force the land to be sold to settle the debts. An estimated...crack for zipoff
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Well done to Sam Morgan for managing to sell off TradeMe for a cool $700 million to Fairfax (of the DominionPost, The Press, Sunday Star-Times, etc.). He remains as CEO for at least another few years, but should be well...crack for zipoff
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Stuff reports that an Auckland Catholic Priest is attempting to prosecute CamWest to broadcasting the 'Bloody Mary' South Park episode under section 123 of the Crimes Act - the blasphemous libel section - which I didn't know even existed.Of course,...crack for zipoff
The NZ Herald has a report this morning about a really dumb robber.He first robbed a bank in South Auckland in December, but didn't get much money. So he called the bank manager, identified himself, and complained that he didn't...crack for zipoff
Continue reading "Another really dumb robber" » crack for zipoff
As many have heard, the New Zealand Warriors rugby league franchise has been fined over $400,000 and had 4 competition points deducted due to salary cap breaches over the past few seasons (of over $1 million).The board and owners are...crack for zipoff
Internet NZ has now released its submission to the minister on Reforming the Telecommunications Framework, and the need for local loop unbundling. It looks pretty good - hopefully cabinet will not be scared off this time by Telecom and will...crack for zipoff
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Scott Mackay from Deep(ish) Thought is having fun with Massey University trying change the 'k' in his surname from upper to lower case in time for his graduation.My wife recently changed her name at Auckland Uni but they didn't seem...crack for zipoff
The Attorney-General, David Parker, announced today two new judicial appointments:The Honourable Noel Crossely Anderson as a Supreme Court Judge (previously President of the Court of Appeal).The Honourable William Gillow Gibbes Austen Young as President of the Court of Appeal (previously...crack for zipoff
The NZ Herald has an article this morning about a jury in a fraud case doing their own research using the internet. Specifically one of them looked up answers.com for a definition of 'burden of proof' and 'beyond reasonable doubt',...crack for zipoff
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Canterbury University seems to have had a major screw-up and left all student records open to absolutely anyone with a valid login. This meant that anyone could view student records, results, IRD numbers, medical conditions, etc.I've never been a student...crack for zipoff
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There were a total of four streakers at the Twenty20 game the other night - rather a high number for a short cricket game. I have been to quite a few cricket and rugby games previously, and there have been...crack for zipoff
The NZ Herald has an article today with Theresa Gattung (Telecom's CEO) claiming the Telecom's new broadband prices are competitive and local loop unbundling is not needed.Let's go through this slowly.First of all, their new 'competetive pricing' for business broadband...crack for zipoff
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I went to the Twenty20 game last night between New Zealand and the West Indies, which doubled as Chris Cairns' last international. On the whole it was fairly exciting.New Zealand won the toss and elected to bowl first, and were...crack for zipoff
Chris Cairns' last cricket game is this evening: the Twenty20 international between the Black Caps and the West Indies at Eden Park. I've managed to get tickets to see it, so am hopefully for some really big hitting from him...crack for zipoff
I wrote last week how broadband is currently really expensive in New Zealand compared to Australia, and how regulation (and ideally local-loop unbundling) was needed to make the market truly competitive, and provide good deals for the end user.Meanwhile, in...crack for zipoff
Allan Chesswas, an old friend of mine from back at Massey University, is giving up blogging for a while, or at least his social and political commentary. I unfortunately only found Allan's blog recently, and have enjoyed reading it immensely....crack for zipoff
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There are several cricket games on today. First of all, the State Shield final between Canterbury and Central Districts in Christchurch. CD batted first and reached 212/8 off their 50 overs, with Cairns getting 4 wickets, a run out, and...crack for zipoff
Two upsets last night. First of all, the Hurricanes managed to beat the Blues at Eden Park by 37-19, earning themselves a bonus point. They had a lot of possession throughout the game, but weren't able to take advantage of...crack for zipoff
The Super 14 kicks off tonight with the Blues playing the Hurricanes at Eden Park in Auckland. Being an original Wellingtonian, I hope the Hurricanes win, but I have my doubts.It's still very weird to be starting the rugby season...crack for zipoff
An interesting report - Berlin police booked a man for burglary, who then walked out of the police station, and drove off in a police car...He was subsequently re-arrested....crack for zipoff
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A Palmerston North woman stole $40 of chicken pieces from The Mad Butcher, but was caught on a security camera doing so. The owner of the shop then printed out the image, and put it on the window as "This...crack for zipoff
The NZ Herald has had a significant number of articles recently about how bad broadband is currently in New Zealand, and how this is unlikely to change too much until Telecom is regulated. Normally I am opposed to most regulation...crack for zipoff
My colleague Paul de Bazin has his own online rugby competition which has been running for about 6 years now. It allows picks to be made on the Six Nations, Super 14, Internationals, and NPC games, allowing competing both as...crack for zipoff
Unsurprisingly Fiji have managed to win the Wellington Sevens, but not as easily as I thought. They bet New Zealand easily enough (particularly after one of our players was sin binned for a high tackle), but the final was closer.With...crack for zipoff
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As expected NZ have lost to Fiji and so have been eliminated. Still, it is their best result so far this season so can't complain too much. Fiji play South Africa in the cup final at about 9pm....crack for zipoff
NZ recently won their game against Argentina quite comfortably so maybe there is still some hope. Australia only just lost to fiji so we will be playing our semi against fiji at about 7. I still think fiji will win...crack for zipoff
I'll post some of our photos when I get back to Auckland, but for now check out the photos at Scoop. They fortunately miss out the guys wearing nothing but aprons....crack for zipoff
All in all it was a fairly good day at the Wellington Sevens. The weather was pretty good up until about 7:30pm when it started raining a bit, making it quite slippery for the last four games.I thought it was...crack for zipoff
Well we're now at the sevens waiting for the first game (south africa vs tonga) to start. the weather in wgtn is great so hopefully we will have some good games....crack for zipoff
I'm watching USA play Argentina and some of the crowd starts chanting 'Where is Osama?'...crack for zipoff
Well, I'm off to the Wellington Sevens very shortly which runs tomorrow and Saturday down at the Caketin. Not sure how much time I'll have available for blogging, so it might be a bit quiet here until Sunday night.Go the...crack for zipoff
Stuff reports on Parachute '06 at Mystery Creek that winds up today, estimating that over 21,000 people were there.Parachute Music has its photo gallery online, but I'm unable to find any estimates on the number of people there.I've been to...crack for zipoff
I'm in Hamilton at present visiting my Grandmother in hospital. I didn't realise that Telecom has actually got a fair number of wireless hotspots around the country and our motel happens to be in the vicinity of one. The cost...crack for zipoff
CricInfo and the NZ Herald are predicting that Chris Cairns will announce his retirement from international cricket today. He was a great cricketer, but has lost form due to injuries over the last few years, so the timing is probably...crack for zipoff
The NZ Herald reports that an Auckland man is auctioning off a funeral on TradeMe. Apparently he won a $5000 funeral from a cafe (what does that say about their cooking) but isn't too keen to take it up. Bidding...crack for zipoff
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My name is Dave Bryant, the author and sometimes philosopher of this website. I've been writing about theology and apologetics for the last few years and recently starting rambling a bit about politics and software development as well. More about me or contact me.crack for zipoff
There is a complete archive of all articles I have written going back to 2000, and links to the most popular articles are available directly in this sidebar. New articles and other ramblings will first appear on the main page, and through the RSS feed (what is RSS?).crack for zipoff
Copyright © 2000-2009 to David Bryant.crack for zipoff
