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December 31, 2009 8:57am by David Farrar

General Debate 31 December 2009

Today is the end (except for pedants) of the first decade of the new millennium.

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General Debate

Comments (23)

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Brian Smaller

Call me a pedant then.
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December 31, 2009 8:58am
Viking2

Top award takes Clark by surprise

She said the award came as a surprise. “I really didn’t expect it. But the reality is that, generally, people from previous administrations have been recognised, so I guess the same traditions apply.

So she still doesn’t know when to stop lying.

Helen Clark – who said she wasn’t really missing NZ

Well guess what, eh we don’t miss you and clearly NZ is the better for you leaving. At least we have someone with a pleasant disposition to talk to now.

Go away again soon.
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December 31, 2009 9:24am
andrei

If intellectual rigor equates to pedantry then mea culpa.

But then intellectual rigor is out of fashion and post modernist absurdity rules.

Exhibit: At the start of the 21st century men began to marry other men and women to marry other women an odd exercise in futility since such pairings are sterile.

Exhibit: We are about to be obliged by law (which means whether we want to or not) to buy the right to emit gases which exist in trace (that is means minuscule) amounts in the atmosphere. The emission of said gases play a fundamental role inf energy transport in biological systems and have done since at least the Cambrian explosion but for reasons lying in the western worlds fight from rationality they have become equated with “pollution”.

Exhibit: A little old lady who uses knitting needles to deface a billboard calculated to offend is equated with a savage tries to self detonate on a crowded airliner.
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December 31, 2009 9:39am
KiwiGreg

Brian, you are a pedant. Anything else you need?
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December 31, 2009 9:46am
pdm

andrei – one more:

Exhibit: – a lowlife who shoots at (probably with intent to kill) and injures a policeman is given bail.
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December 31, 2009 9:50am
fatman43us

Better a Pedant than a Peasant!
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December 31, 2009 9:51am
Brian Smaller

Brian, you are a pedant. Anything else you need?

Some painkillers. I broke my toe last night. Faced with hours in A&E waiting to be seen or fixing it myself I chose the latter. That book on home surgery I got before moving to the country wasn’t a wasted Christmas Gift after all.
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December 31, 2009 10:02am
Pita

So France ditches its carbon tax legislation two days before it was to come into effect, deemed unconstitutional.

I wonder if our government will have the same “road to Damascus” revelation at some stage give that Australia (Shelved) USA (expected to shelve…mid term elections brewing) and now France…who next?
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December 31, 2009 10:03am
KiwiGreg

“Some painkillers. I broke my toe last night.”

Ouch – you made the right call skipping A&E they wouldn’t do anything for it other than give you painkillers, and that’s why god invented red wine.
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December 31, 2009 10:06am
MikeNZ

Ok got that.
Red wine and Pheasant.
I’ll send some up for your recuperation.
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December 31, 2009 10:12am
Brian Smaller

Ok got that.
Red wine and Pheasant.
I’ll send some up for your recuperation.

Red wine and pheasant for a pedant peasant. Works for me.

Heading back to the farm today. Man I love the new place – moving out of town best thing I have ever done.
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December 31, 2009 10:16am
Whafe

Abgree Viking, she is still a lier….

It stuns me as to why she would get the highest order of merit.

Best I go and put my head back in a Potato or Onion paddock.
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December 31, 2009 10:49am
Elijah Lineberry

I would like to express my disappointment with the death of Paul Sapsford, former All Black and Dunedin Dentist, who was tragically killed in a boating accident earlier in the week.

A good man who was a splendid dentist and overcame some personal issues successfully.

My condolences to his family.

http://www.odt.co.nz has more details
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December 31, 2009 11:04am
Inventory2

Brian Smaller said “Red wine and pheasant for a pedant peasant. Works for me.”

Sounds pleasant 🙂
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December 31, 2009 11:23am
Zapper

It appears the Victorian Labour Party has the same attitude towards voters as the NZ Labour Party.

They promised to roll out the new myki ticketing system by the end of the year, so they roll it out on tuesday…but you can’t buy a ticket in Melbourne or use it on trams or buses (you will get an infringement if you have a valid myki on a tram but not a metcard). They also promised to roll out a new train by the end of the year. So they bring it out yesterday, make a big announcement, send it out to Glen Waverley and back…and then send it back to the workshop for a month. Hey, but they kept their promises!

How stupid do they think voters are?

http://www.theage.com.au/national/new-train-catch-it-if-you-can-20091230-ljxj.html
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December 31, 2009 11:58am
alex Masterley

EL, your 11:04.
Well said.
I remember Paul playing for Otago and the All Blacks.
He was a good bloke.
May he rest in peace.
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December 31, 2009 12:23pm
Chicken Little

Sir David Farrar (maybe next year aye?)

Thanks for a good year, most enjoyable.

Party on.

cheers

CL
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December 31, 2009 6:39pm
Viking2

Well stands a good chance. A few bottles of fine wine to this party should do the trick.

Note down these names, they are the members of the Cabinet Appointments and Honours Committee, John “Smiling Assassin” Key (Chair), “Karori” Bill English, Gerry “Salad Dodger” Brownlee, Simon “FIGJAM” Power, Tony “Wardrobe” Ryall, Anne “Closer” Tolley, Christopher “Tinkerbell” Finlayson, David “Brown Envelope” Carter, Murray “Charlie Wilson” McCully, Hon Georgina te Heuheu “Grub”, Pansy “Ting Tong” Wong, “Private” Heather Roy, “Aunty” Tariana Turia, Peter “Rothmans” Dunne.
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December 31, 2009 7:06pm
Viking2

End of the road for car registration stickers

* Amanda O’Brien
* From: The Australian
* December 31, 2009 12:00AM

THE days of scraping car rego stickers off windows are over in Western Australia, which tomorrow becomes the first state to abolish them.

Cutting-edge technology being used by West Australian police has made the stickers redundant, saving millions of dollars.

Police superintendent Lance Martin said hand-held computers were now providing officers with instant advice on registration expiries — as well as an extraordinary amount of other data — simply by tapping in a request.

A car’s owner, previous owners, registration status, even the engine number, were all available within seconds to officers on the beat.

“We can also do detailed searches on people, we can access the criminal records of every person in Australia, we can bring up their mugshots,” he said.

“I can even have an officer carrying one of these hand-held devices in the middle of Broome (1660km from Perth) and pull up an electronic mapping system to track where that officer is in real time, accurate to about five metres. It’s amazing.”

Western Australia is the only state with the hand-held TADIS-lite computers, which have revolutionised life for officers on foot patrol, horseback, pushbikes and motorbikes.

They were rolled out over the past few months.

Superintendent Martin said the expanded access to computers was “the tipping point” for getting rid of car stickers and motorbike tags. Previously, if police spotted an expired registration tag, they had to radio through to base and then wait for someone to run the registration on the land-based computer system.

“It was a very time-consuming approach,” he said.

“Today they just type in a registration number (from their hand-held computer) and within seconds they’ll have all of the information associated with that vehicle.”

The innovation had made the visible stickers irrelevant.

The West Australian technology is fast becoming the envy of forces across the nation, many of whom have sent delegations to Perth to examine it.

It began with larger TADIS computers fitted to police cars, reportedly the most advanced in Australia, and progressed this year to the unique hand-held version.

“Other states are particularly interested in the hand-held units,” Superintendent Martin said.

“This is far bigger than the registration stickers.

“Just in the metropolitan area now with our mobile data devises, we can do over six million enquiries a year. It’s massive.”

The West Australian Department of Transport, which administers vehicle registrations, confirmed it also had been approached by other states about the decision to phase out registration tags.

To ensure drivers were comfortable with the change, they can now phone a hotline or check online to clarify the status of their registration.
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December 31, 2009 7:35pm
TripeWryter

Why is anyone a pedant for maintaining – correctly – that the end of the decade was not to day, but still a year away?

Why is it that if anyone is correct about something they get called a pedant?

What is it about the New Zealand psyche that everybody has to be pulled down to the same level?

The midnight 10 years ago did not signify the end of a decade / century / millennium and the beginning of new ones.

Those happened a year later on the midnight of 2000 / 2001.

Happy new year, but the happy new decade will have to wait a year.
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December 31, 2009 10:38pm
Ryan Sproull

Why is anyone a pedant for maintaining – correctly – that the end of the decade was not to day, but still a year away?

It’s pronounced WESTKIT.
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December 31, 2009 10:42pm
Ryan Sproull

Also, happy New Year, everyone. I wish us all good times and a conclusion to Doctor Who that somehow saves last week’s abomination.
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December 31, 2009 10:50pm
Luc Hansen

Just imagine, as we head into a new year, that if instead of:

Genesis 1:28 That God gave to man a dominion over the inferior creatures, over fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air…

It read instead:

Genesisi 1:28 That God gave to man a guardianship over all creatures, over fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air…

Not to mention guardianship over the air as well.
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December 31, 2009 11:08pm

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