General Debate 18 April 2017

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Captain Mainwaring

Australia’s Northland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurukun,_Queensland

Time our race relations performance was put in perspective.
Aboriginal relations is Australia’s best kept secret.
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April 18, 2017 8:05am
- Kimbo
  
  But colonisation isn’t a factor/cause/reason for the problems!!! 😉
  
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  April 18, 2017 8:10am
  - GoVege
    
    Of course it isn’t.
    The indigenous people are just behaving as they have for thousands of years, except now westerners are observing them.
    
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    April 18, 2017 9:07pm
- mikenmild
  
  Not exactly secret. Watch this film, and many more like it:
  https://vimeo.com/167556065
  
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  April 18, 2017 8:23am
  - sam green
    
    Obviously Pilger is a bit too challenging mikenmild. People might learn something.
    
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    April 18, 2017 9:27pm
brett68

Just saw this

The deal will cost the Government more than $500million a year when fully implemented in five years, assuming it is signed off by union members and the Cabinet.

It is understood that for the primary litigant, rest-home caregiver Kristine Bartlett, it will mean an increase from about $16 an hour to about $23 an hour – more than 43%.
The deal allows for annual increases over five years to $27 an hour.

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/women-set-big-pay-rise

Why are taxpayers subsidising care workers? wtf National?
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April 18, 2017 8:09am
- Paulus
  
  Election Year !
  I doubt if many care workers will vote National anyway.
  As I understand it is the union’s belief that care workers should be on a par with Prison Officers rates of pay – and they are getting very close if not par.
  
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  April 18, 2017 8:14am
  - oldpark
    
    They will get more than some teachers with mega years service.
    
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    April 18, 2017 8:43am
    - Paulus
      
      Correct but will allow Teachers to claim equal pay or parity with anybody !
      
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      April 18, 2017 8:50am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    “I doubt if many care workers will vote National anyway.”
    
    With this bribe, maybe they’re about to.
    
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    April 18, 2017 9:06am
- Happychappy
  
  Maybe with our aging population we are going to need good caregivers to give these people quality in their last stages of life.
  
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  April 18, 2017 8:19am
  - Random T Person
    
    Ageing populations will be effectively managed with better technology – automation, machine learning, etc, will make doctors/healthcare workers far more efficient and effective.
    
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    April 18, 2017 9:56am
- brett68
  
  Just to make sure I’ve got this correct.
  
  The government is going to subsidise care workers to the tune of half a billion a year.
  The workers will still be paid around minimum wage by their employer and the taxpayer will top up their pay from $16.00 to anywhere between $23.00 to $27.00 per hour.
  
  These employers are multi-national companies who make massive amounts of profit will be subsidised by the taxpayer, fucking hell this is bullshit.
  
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  April 18, 2017 8:35am
  - Happychappy
    
    Where did it say they were going to subsidize the Private sector,
    
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    April 18, 2017 9:21am
  - Dafixeruppa
    
    Where’s my face-palm emoji?
    Government is only going to pay public service care workers more.
    This should have a flow on effect of increasing the rates for private care workers too.
    If the private companies go to the wall, then the government can pick up the slack by building more aged care facilities from the public purse and hire the workers from private that all lost their jobs when the private care companies decided it was not worth paying more for workers without skills.
    PLEASE NOTE: for all those that will take this the wrong way. I think that most aged care workers do a thankless task for less than they are worth. The ones that looked after my grandmother (from overseas in most cases) were absolutely amazing. They made her last few weeks much easier and I think they are worth far more than they get paid.
    I also recognise that most of the workers there, were unable to get higher paid jobs due to lack of english, lack of other skills etc. BUT they had something that is missing here regularly – Empathy!
    
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    April 18, 2017 2:16pm
- PJ39
  
  3 things are certain.
  For the public sector, taxpayers pay.
  For the private sector, consumers pay.
  This will ratchet up male pay and the cycle will begin again.
  
  When you increase pay costs without more value being added, there is no free lunch. Potential disaster.
  
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  April 18, 2017 8:40am
- cmm
  
  “The deal will cost the Government more than $500million a year ”
  
  The deal will cost the government nothing. Only us taxpayers.
  
  There are probably only around 200k effective tax payers in NZ. It will cost us $200 per month each.
  
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  April 18, 2017 9:05am
- GoVege
  
  Surely we are all better off if workers are paid decent wages?
  Less incentive for the poor to make a career in baby farming?
  
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  April 18, 2017 10:24am
Viking2

Yep, look what that is going to cost. We will have the highest wage rates in the world and more unemployed people all paid for by those taxpayers that are left.

National are losers first class.

But they will all have their pensions soon.
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April 18, 2017 8:15am
- MCos
  
  “We will have the highest wage rates in the world”
  Where are you writing from?
  
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  April 18, 2017 8:27am
Nukuleka

DPF is to be congratulated on running a blog in which he allows a plurality of views and debate to range freely across the spectrum of views. There is very little moderation goes on here in contrast with seemingly paranoid interventions apparent over on The Standard and at WO.

The numbers of posts, comments and commentators over on The Standard seem to have dropped off significantly over recent months- the same folk preaching to the same chapel members. At WO we have always known that Slater himself is great at dishing out the dirt but not so receptive to taking it, and his moderator in chief seems to be affected by the same insecurity. In recent days several WOers have questioned the WO policy of always referring to List MPs as ‘scum’ and suggesting that they don’t all deserve that opprobrium. Seems that the WO response to such temerity is to wholesale ban such renegades not only from commenting but from actually accessing the WO site.

For a blog that makes much ado about free speech and is so critical of the current ‘snowflake’ propensity to take offence at the slightest perceived insult WO is as weak as gnat’s pee in exactly the same area. Hypocritical?
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April 18, 2017 8:20am
- VicParking
  
  He is no different fron the Standard. Criticise him or his team and you are banned. He only wants praise and money.
  
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  April 18, 2017 8:31am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    And merchandise to sell
    
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    April 18, 2017 8:38am
    - Shaun the Sheep
      
      To be fair the man has to support himself and his family and no one is forced to buy the T-shirt.
      
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      April 18, 2017 5:57pm
      - sam green
        
        He could get a caregiving job.
        
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        April 18, 2017 9:31pm
  - Paulus
    
    It’s his Blog so he can do with whatever he likes.
    PS.
    I have been banned for years now by disagreeing with him.
    
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    April 18, 2017 8:52am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      It is and he does
      
      The thing is full of ads which you can remove for a fee, the begging bowl kitten and now the WO merchandise extravaganza
      
      Posts generally do not have the robust content that can be seen and countered here, responses are fairly mild in the extreme so not to offend, like that bothers just about anyone here!
      
      I go and look at some of the features and will read some of the articles but I am also banned for not brown nosing enough by daring to have an opinion different to the mainstream
      
      Thank you for this forum DPF
      
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      April 18, 2017 9:09am
    - 3-coil
      
      Paul’s 8:52am – I suspect Slater is ignorant of a lot of the visitors who’ve been banned. His offsider (Pete?) was always at it last time I looked, though admittedly quite a while back now. I was banned for having a crack at Hagar!! I gave up waiting to be reinstated – I still can’t comment or even uptick other comments, so I don’t even bother to read it now.
      
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      April 18, 2017 9:24am
      - Tarquin North
        
        I had much the same thing happen, and I only made a tasteless joke about Jacinda!
        
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        April 18, 2017 10:12am
      - Paulus Gnome
        
        Did you mention the toothpaste advertisers wet dream, the extensive chip wrapping business experience, the consistent appearances in the women’s mags or her sidekick, whatshisname, the road tripping whiskey drinking buddy?
        
        All good fodder, amongst other material, for a robust piss take!
        
        Why? Because you can!
        
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        April 18, 2017 10:20am
      - 4077th
        
        Also banned and no big deal for me. I suspect the comments are just part of what remains of what used to be a blog and is now aiming at, or in some people’s opinion, aspiring to be a main stream news outlet. Courting controversy in the comments does nothing to further the message of the post, in fact, posts are 100% preaching to the converted so the comments are redundant either way and a contributing factor to why I am not fussed about being able to comment.
        
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        April 18, 2017 10:56am
      - KevOB
        
        Never made the WO ban: I left before before my internal aggro meter got too high.
        The free ranging here is much more agreeable. At 77 I’m probably hard to contain and I hope to occasionally inject some observations from experience. I may even modify my opinion. Thanks for the tolerant company.
        
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        April 18, 2017 2:09pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Thanks for the tolerant company.
        
        Until they find out you are a Muslim! 😉
        
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        April 18, 2017 2:13pm
      - Southern Raider
        
        I got banned trying to make my first comment. For the life of me I can’t think what I even said to make this happen. Like others I waited a few weeks, found I was still banned and so moved on with no regrets
        
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        April 18, 2017 9:43pm
- Shaun the Sheep
  
  WO has become a ‘Fawning Sycophants Only’ clique. I used to enjoy the high standard of moderation there but the routine failure of the foul-mouthed, insult-slinging, all-about-me blog-owner to follow the rules disgusted me, especially when it was accompanied with periodic dogma-chanting “No one is bigger that the blog”
  
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  April 18, 2017 11:30am
VicParking

Syria, Iraq, Iran. All were prosperous and had open Western style demoracys. All now are down the Gurgler.
Egypt is sinking fast and now Turkey is the next to slip into a dictatorship.
What have all these Countries got in common?
Is it that they pray five times a day?
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April 18, 2017 8:26am
- mikenmild
  
  Please tell me when Syria, Iraq or Iran ever had ‘open Western style democracys (sic)’?
  
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  April 18, 2017 8:30am
  - VicParking
    
    people voted, they had parliments, women could walk around by themselves and wear togs at the beach. People could drink, dance and party. You could buy shares in companies and own you own house buy paying off a loan that had interest charged against it. Sounds Western to me.
    
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    April 18, 2017 8:39am
    - fernglas
      
      Or you could be summoned back from exile on a pretext of safety and be butchered by the son of the head of state in front of that person and numerous others. Or you could use poisonous gas on entire villages, or violently persecute and relocate groups of people. Or your secret police could imprison, torture and kill citizens who opposed the leader’s policies. Still sound Western to you?
      
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      April 18, 2017 9:02am
      - VicParking
        
        You are only talking about when they were on the slide and democracy had gone. I’m talking about between the 40’s and 60’s. Syria was the Monti Carlo for the west. The place to holiday and party. What you are talking about is when they had slipped into where Turkey and Eygpt are at now. The next step is either they go like Iran and become hardline Moslem or Iraq… say no more. The same will happen to the Gulf states when either oil runs out or it is not needed any more.
        
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        April 18, 2017 9:24am
    - GoVege
      
      Six hundred males could be rounded up in a single night in Baghdad by SH’s sons and murdered in the city centre.
      Remember what they used to call him?
      
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      April 18, 2017 9:43am
      - VicParking
        
        Before his time. I’m talking when the Sunni and the Shia lived in peace with other. It seems that the history of the world only started in the 70’s for a lot of people. Bagdad was the party capital of the world. When air travel became the rage for the rich and famous the middle east was as far as a plane could take you in a reasonable time. Bagdad, Damascus and Tehran were the places to go.
        Dancing girls with jewels in their belly buttons, hooka, young boys to enjoy they had it all. Open 24hrs and far enough away that the european press were absent. Now………….
        
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        April 18, 2017 10:15am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    For Syria, consider the 12 years between 1946 to 1958
    http://sam.gov.tr/the-fall-of-democracy-in-syria/
    
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    April 18, 2017 8:45am
- holysheet
  
  Could it also be that they follow the teachings of a paedophilic leader or are all decended from a tribe of nomads that slept with goats and camels?
  
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  April 18, 2017 8:32am
  - Andrei
    
    Henry the VII of England’s mother was 12 when she married his father and a 13 year old widow when she gave birth to him.
    
    And in the extremely likely event that you have no concept of historical timelines this was over 700 years after the prophet Mohammed had died
    
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    April 18, 2017 9:06am
    - Andrei
      
      Now why would anyone downtick a factual comment?
      
      Takes all sorts
      
      On the subject of child brides though we could continue with Isabella of France – “The she wolf of France”
      
      She was 12 or 13 when she married Edward II of England, who, as we are told, was more interested in pretty boys than girls
      
      Later on Edward came to a nasty end, at her behest, involving a red hot poker so the legend goes.
      
      Come on fellows downtick this
      
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      April 18, 2017 9:20am
      - holysheet
        
        The difference is the age. At 12 or 13 girls are at the age for breeding, not that we agree with it now. but who are we to out guess nature. As an old butcher on the beef chain at the Moerewa freezing works said to me once, “if they are old enough to bleed, then they are old enough to butcher”
        
        The paedophile had a bride at age 8 I think.
        
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        April 18, 2017 9:39am
      - GoVege
        
        All true Andrei, so I upticked you, but it was over 500 years ago.
        Plus the west has never had quite the same level of brutality as the east.
        
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        April 18, 2017 9:40am
      - Andrei
        
        Actually Holysheet Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII was first married at age three!
        
        Though that marriage was later annulled so she could marry Edmund Tudor at 12
        
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        April 18, 2017 9:43am
      - Kimbo
        
        Isabella of France – “The she wolf of France”
        
        Wasn’t that Margaret of Anjou, married to the hapless and sometimes mad Henry VI of England?
        
        Margaret of Anjou was the first queen of England to be nicknamed the ‘She-Wolf of France’ and, in spite of losing this name to Isabella of France, she is still remembered as a notorious queen. Portrayals of Margaret over the years show her as a vengeful and ambitious woman who brought war and misery to England and it is in Shakespeare’s portrayal of her as an adulteress and warmongerer that she is best remembered. As the leader of the House of Lancaster, Margaret
        participated in one of the bloodiest civil wars that England has known and her actions certainly helped prolong the war by almost a decade. However her actions, in support of first her husband and then her son, are entirely understandable and without the benefit of hindsight she can never have realised just how futile her actions were. Margaret of Anjou genuinely acted with the best possible motives. She was not a bad woman, in spite of her terrible reputation but, as the wife of an ineffectual and doomed king, she was forced to take on a role that, for a woman, was deemed to be savage. Margaret of Anjou was forced to take the course of action she did but, in the eyes of her contemporaries and many later historians, this did not redeem her.
        
        http://erenow.com/biographies/she-wolves-the-notorious-queens-of-medieval-england/14.html
        
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        April 18, 2017 9:47am
      - Kimbo
        
        … Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII was first married at age three!
        
        Yes, but it was a form of betrothal/marriage contract. Was common for nobility in the Middle Ages as marriage was a type of business merger, with consummation to follow around age 14 or 15 I think.
        
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        April 18, 2017 9:51am
      - Liberty
        
        “Now why would anyone downtick a factual comment?”
        I suspect the same people who advocate all muslins are evil.
        Yes there are fundamental muslins who are evil to the core.
        But not all muslims.
        There are also fundamental Christians in the USA who are just as Manic.
        The scary part is they have just help elect a president.
        
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        April 18, 2017 2:14pm
      - DifferentPerspective
        
        Good comparison Andrei.
        
        Unless of course you point out that the followers of Islam still adhere to the primate 6th Century teachings of the pedo prophet and the British don’t advocate pedo marriages (well apart from for Uk Muslims).
        
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        April 18, 2017 2:45pm
    - VicParking
      
      Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby
      She first married when she was 1 or 3 years old (in dispute).
      Then again ( as above) at 12.
      Then again at 18 and again at 29.
      Only hade one son Henry (as above) at 13.
      Busy girl/woman. What you got in those days for having the right breeding.
      
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      April 18, 2017 10:25am
billmurray

Nukuleka, Well said. Both WO and the Standard have fallen flat and beaten by their failing moderation standards.
WO has the same hacks posting on most of their blogs.
Much the same at the Standard, plus they have the idiocy of le Prent to put up with.
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April 18, 2017 8:34am
- RF
  
  I have seen what I think is the creature.. Iprent. … a fat little podge. The way he hides behind his keyboard when he makes his numerous threats is a good indication he is a gutless little short arse.
  
  As I’m a short arse myself I have no hesitation calling out another.
  
  The contrast between the standard and Kiwiblog is remarkable as our host is a gentleman when compared to the other thing.
  
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  April 18, 2017 3:47pm
Paulus

Have just heard from Eastern Bay of Plenty that they are having difficulty with the tragic clean up. They need more workers on the ground with a shovel.

As the part of New Zealand that has probably the highest rate of unemployment among the young why are they not being put on notice by their whanau in Winz to get their arses into gear.
Transport is available from many parts to them so that is no excuse.
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April 18, 2017 8:56am
- cmm
  
  Here’s some experience from Christchurch:
  
  There was a Farmy Army and a Student Army. There was no Bludger Army.
  
  The busy and productive people put down their tools and headed through to help out bludgers in New Brighton even though the farmers got no help from the bludgers during the previous earthquake.
  
  If anyone goes to Eastern BOP to help out, it’s going to be farmers and productive people. Not the bludgers.
  
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  April 18, 2017 9:40am
  - jonar
    
    There’s lots of people living in New Brighton that have jobs, they’re not all unemployed out there. Nice for a KBer to describe students as busy and productive people for a change though.
    
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    April 18, 2017 11:36am
    - cmm
      
      “There’s lots of people living in New Brighton that have jobs”
      
      Unfortunately not enough of them to counter the number of bludgers.
      
      When I went help the Farmy Army mopping up I saw very few New Brighton people doing anything.
      
      I did see quite a few partying though.
      
      And there were quite a few complaining that we were not cleaning their driveways fast enough., or complaing that nobody had brought them food (when there was a free food place 100metres away).
      
      One woman came over and yelled that she had friends coming over to join her party soon in a low clearance vehicle and if the car got damaged going into the driveway it would be our fault.
      
      I politely said good bye, took my wheelbarrow and shovel and went to the next street. She kept on yelling abuse, “I know my rights” etc.
      
      Some real scum in the world…
      
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      April 18, 2017 2:35pm
      - starboard
        
        Er..barmy army I think it was called.?
        
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        April 18, 2017 4:11pm
  - Flash
    
    Yes. A group of 4 (and their truck) caught the ferry , and asked for overnight digs on the way up to Edgecumbe. They were inundated with offers – from farmers, some of whom were also going there.
    
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    April 18, 2017 11:46am
  - sam green
    
    The people you are talking about are either picking or packing in kiwifruit right about now.
    
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    April 18, 2017 9:42pm
    - Southern Raider
      
      Ah no. They would be islanders flown over for the season as the BoP locals are too friggin lazy
      
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      April 18, 2017 9:46pm
      - sam green
        
        I think there’s about 12 RSE workers in Edgecumbe.
        
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        April 18, 2017 10:39pm
Longknives

Seems Legit!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11839061

Of all the deceased spirits what are the odds Kelvin is contacted by a famous All Black? And given an opportunity to sell it as a headline?
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April 18, 2017 8:58am
- G152
  
  Its all a fraud. There is a Challenge (JREF) that any-one proving that psychic stuff is a reality gets $1,000,000…
  So far its never been claimed
  
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  April 18, 2017 12:08pm
- 4077th
  
  I wonder how Kelvin would do in the company of James Randi? Seems Uri Geller and James Hydrik might have a few warnings for “Kelvin the Magnificent”.
  
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  April 18, 2017 12:55pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Aussies don’t think that 100% renewable energy supplies are feasible.
http://www.sciencedirect.com.sci-hub.cc/science/article/pii/S1364032117304495

Greens aren’t ever going to live in a “carbon-neutral” world, it seems.
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April 18, 2017 9:08am
- cmm
  
  One of the biggest problems with renewables is that they don’t work all the time, so you need more of them and you need a back up.
  
  If you want a GW of generation from PV (solar) then you have to install 2 GW of capacity and still have a GW of conventional power sources on hand to pick up the slack when the PV is inoperable.
  
  That means you need 3x the capital cost for renewables. Great for corporate bludgers selling equipment, but not so great for the consumers etc.
  
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  April 18, 2017 9:45am
  - rangitoto
    
    Hydro works all the time. It’s fine for baseload supply.
    
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    April 18, 2017 10:08am
    - VicParking
      
      Trouble is for the greens that it floods land and drowns all the Powelliphanta snails
      
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      April 18, 2017 10:29am
    - cmm
      
      The problem with hydro is that it is very limited in where you can use it.
      
      The context of this discussion is Oz. They only have very few hydro sites and only generate 7% of their electricity that way.
      
      NZ is very lucky to have a lot of hydro sites available.
      
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      April 18, 2017 12:58pm
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        Generally agree about extra expense of night time power supply, but low latitude warm countries like Australia are better off when it comes to using pv as a year round power supply.
        
        Australia does have vast flat unproductive areas that could be used for pumped storage – even using seawater.
        
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        April 18, 2017 3:05pm
  - Ross12
    
    Another interesting , short look at the realities of wind power as a so called renewable
    
    http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2017/04/why-wind-power-does-not-greatly-reduce-fossil-fuel-use.html
    
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    April 18, 2017 10:10am
tusker

Not just WO and the standard. Try taking an opposing line to a stuff article. You’ll be ‘moderated’ quick fast. Unwisely I had another try recently in respect of an error riddled article, to do with my lifetime profession. Got the instant zapper. And I was very polite. I don’t read stuff comments knowing the heavy censorship that is applied. And WO comments are generally predicatable and a bit boring for that. Unlike KB where the contrarians are one of its enjoyable features that feed the libertarian soul.
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April 18, 2017 9:33am
- RF
  
  Stuff ignore my comments after I submitted a post critical of Andrew Little a few months ago.
  
  Precious snow flakes.
  
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  April 18, 2017 9:53am
RF

There have been recent comments including mine about North Korea parading mockup missiles to give the impression they are a force to reckon with.

Reminds me of a conversation I had years ago with one of David Langes security minders after they returned from a state visit to an African province. They were in a convoy of dozens of vehicles that screamed through villages, small towns etc with sirens blaring. Apart from 4 vehicles up front carrying VIPs etc the remaining vehicles that had dark tinted windows, were empty apart from the driver. Smoke and mirrors.
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April 18, 2017 9:38am
Andrei

All true Andrei, so I upticked you, but it was over 500 years ago.
Plus the west has never had quite the same level of brutality as the east.

There are none so blind as those that cannot see!

Do you think there has ever been an atrocity in the ME to match what happened at Dresden in 1945 for example

And the frying of people alive with electricity, something that continued into this century in the USA, does not seem to me to be particular marker of civilized behaviour though a little more high tech than boiling people alive in oil perhaps
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April 18, 2017 9:49am
- DifferentPerspective
  
  Wood…. Trees…… meh!
  
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  April 18, 2017 2:48pm
rangitoto

“Do you think there has ever been an atrocity in the ME to match what happened at Dresden in 1945 for example”

Many. Siege of Baghdad for a start. If you want to go further back, the Qarmatians massacred 20,000 Haj pilgrims in one raid.
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April 18, 2017 10:12am
- rangitoto
  
  And I should add the Dresden raids killed a handful of people when you compare to the middle age events, the weapons used and the population involved.
  
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  April 18, 2017 10:22am
  - Kimbo
    
    You don’t think what you’ve demonstrated it a classic example of…rationalising?
    
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    April 18, 2017 10:23am
    - rangitoto
      
      Andrei asserted that an event of the second world war was unmatched in the ME. An absolute statement. Mentioning some ME comparison examples is not rationalising.
      
      PS. You can add the Armenian massacre if you want a more modern example.
      
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      April 18, 2017 10:35am
      - Kimbo
        
        True. Although, in context, Andrei’s comment was a response to the dubious assertion:
        
        Plus the west has never had quite the same level of brutality as the east.
        
        No winners. No “betters” in this comparison. Massacres, Pogroms, ethnic cleansings and genocides such as the Armenians, the Holocaust, Cambodia, the Balkans, Rwandans. Irrespective of race, religion, creed…or location, Humanity has a capacity for both awful brutality, and, when they do it, the ability to rationalise it.
        
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        April 18, 2017 10:59am
      - rangitoto
        
        As Andrei’s besty Joe Stalin said “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic”
        
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        April 18, 2017 11:03am
      - Kimbo
        
        I think Andrei rationalises that Uncle Joe wasn’t representative of “real Russian values”. No true ~~Scotsman~~ Russian. And according to the fine print Stalin was a Georgian.
        
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        April 18, 2017 11:09am
      - rangitoto
        
        Coincidentally there is an article in the DE today about the “Baedeker Raids” on English cities marked out with three stars in a tourist guide. We might want Auckland taken off the most desirable city list. No reason to draw any kind of attention.
        
        http://www.express.co.uk/news/history/793037/Baedeker-blitz-Nazi-bombing-raids-Canterbury-Norwich-York-Bath-tourist-guidebook
        
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        April 18, 2017 11:26am
      - fernglas
        
        “The death and destruction during the 13th century Mongol conquests have been widely noted in both the scholarly literature and popular memory. It has been calculated that approximately 5% of the world’s population were killed during Turco-Mongol invasions or in their immediate aftermath. If these calculations are accurate, this would make the events the hitherto deadliest acts of mass killings in human history.”
        
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        April 18, 2017 11:41am
      - kowtow
        
        Georgian Joe was not Russian.
        
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        April 18, 2017 12:13pm
      - MCos
        
        In these ‘who was the most evil bastard?’ sort of arguments it seems that statistical gymnastics can be used to prove that everyone is a winner.
        
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        April 18, 2017 1:12pm
Jack5

The decline of the media is about more than just the internet providing a superior, cheaper means of information delivery.

The Hooerald illustrates this today with its printing of a commentary from a radio source. The writer’s analysis of the North Korea-United States stand-off is that it’s a “pissing contest”.

The owners of the Hooerald hope to be part of a national news monopoly.

Is this the depth of news that will result?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11840062
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April 18, 2017 11:24am
Hugh Pavletich

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
NEW ZEALAND MINISTRY OF BUSINESS INNOVATION & EMPLOYMENT … MBIE failing to meet self-imposed targets … Radio New Zealand News

MBIE failing to meet self-imposed targets | Radio New Zealand News

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/328975/mbie-failing-to-meet-self-imposed-targets

… extract …

‘ … The ministry also wanted housing to be more affordable.

Mr Smol said housing affordability was not where the ministry would like it to be but pointed out that interest rates were low.

“There’s definitely a challenge in Auckland where house prices have risen quite sharply.

“That’s partly offset by very low interest rates so it means that someone on a given level of income can borrow more than would have been the case with higher interest rates.

“So by some measures the affordability hasn’t deteriorated all that much since the middle of the 2000s,” Mr Smol said.

The annual Demographia housing survey found Auckland had the fourth-least affordable houses in the world, with prices more than 10 times the median income.

That’s up from 6.4 times the median income when National took office in 2008.

It found houses in Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin were all severely unaffordable too.

Co-author Hugh Pavletich said housing has become far less affordable and mortgage rates have nothing to do with it.

“What the gentleman from MBIE is saying really is confusing housing affordability, structural housing affordability, with mortgage affordability, and they are two entirely different subjects.

“New Zealand is considered to have some of the most unaffordable housing in the world.”

Mr Pavletich said New Zealand was on the brink of a housing market crash.

Labour’s Grant Robertson said nearly all of MBIE’s indicators were going backwards – and massively so – on housing affordability.

“Well I think that’s the greatest failure of this government, unfortunately housing is getting less and less affordable. We’ve seen increases in the prices of 15, 18 even 20 percent over the last few years,” Mr Robertson said. …’

… Back September 2015 Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Graeme Wheeler said …

… extract …

‘ … But Mr Wheeler this afternoon told MPs the faster house prices rose in Auckland, the greater the likelihood of a steep price reversal.

He (Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Graeme Wheeler) said Auckland house prices were not sustainable.

“The house price to income ratio for Auckland is at nine. It’s twice that for the rest of the country,” he said.

“A ratio of nine puts you, according to Demographia figures, in the top 10 most expensive cities in the world.

“This is just dangerous territory.” …’

… NOW … THANKFULLY … WITH HOPE ON THE HORIZON ! …

Bernard Hickey of Newsroom reported Thursday …

https://pro.newsroom.co.nz/articles/1629-newsroom-pro-s-8-things-at-8-trolling-millennials-is-easy-defamation-retrials-loom

7. Just in case you missed it…

One curious coda to the RMA debate that concluded last week was that the Opposition parties plus ACT and United Future all voted again during the third reading debate for amendments that would have abolished Rural Urban Growth Boundaries and allowed the financing of infrastructure bonds paid for with targeted rates.

The amendments were defeated by National and the Maori Party.

The irony of a Government that has railed against restrictions on land development by councils voting against removing those restrictions should be noted. And also that the proposal for infrastructure bonds was backed by the right-leaning New Zealand Initiative and voted for by the Greens and Labour. Strange times indeed.

… BUT WITH THIS GLOBAL – LEADING CONSENSUS … WHERE IS THE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP ? …

NEW ZEALAND’S HOUSING CONSENSUS: WHERE IS THE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP ? … HUGH PAVLETICH … NOT PC

http://pc.blogspot.co.nz/2017/01/auckland-worlds-fourth-hardest-to-buy.html
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April 18, 2017 11:39am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Here we go againnnn ………. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
  
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  April 18, 2017 11:49am
- Nermal
  
  Blah blah blah
  
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  April 18, 2017 12:46pm
- mikenmild
  
  It’s not really news that Mr Joyce’s super ministry has been a super failure.
  
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  April 18, 2017 2:42pm
Jack5

A Nigerian immigrant and multiculturism activist lectures NZ on Stuff about multiculturism and praises Sonny Bill Williams.

Sorry, Mr Tayo Agunlejika, you are wrong when you talk of “Treaty-based Multiculturalism in Aotearoa New Zealand.” The Treaty was about biculturism, though such a concept was not then developed.

There’s no mention of “multiculturalism” in the Treaty document’s versions. In fact the neo-Marxists didn’t come up with the concept of “multiculturism” for another century.

Stuff says Agunlejika has been “executive director of Multicultural New Zealand (New Zealand Federation of Multicultural Councils) for three years”.

He is described as “currently studying international development at Massey University”.

I guess he’s another of the economic spin-offs for NZ of multiculturism, another diversity dividend.

In the meantime, perhaps Agunlejika can tell us about multiculturism in Nigeria, such as Muslim guerrillas capturing Christian schoolgirls for forced marriage.

And, no doubt, Agunlejika will be all in favour of restrictions on free speech to prevent questioning of multiculturism’s alleged benefits.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/91647943/an-open-letter-to-sbw-thank-you-stay-strong-says-multicultural-nz-chief
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April 18, 2017 11:41am
- Jack5
  
  The difference between tolerance and diversity on the one hand, and multiculturalism, on the other, is interesting.
  
  Multiculturalism as a concept comes with intellectual baggage from its origin in neo-Marxism. It follows the view of some anthropologists that all cultures are equal.
  
  That would imply the culture of the Fore people, of Papua New Guinea, entailing kuru disease from eating brains, was the equal of Western culture that led to current advanced medicine.
  
  I suspect that the network of “multicultural councils” that have sprung up around NZ owe much of their founding to the work around the country of former Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres, known for his international Leftist background. The councils now exist from Auckland to Southland. Auckland and Wellington each have three.
  
  An interesting view of the background of Joris de Bres:
  
  http://keywiki.org/Joris_de_Bres#Involvement_with_electoral_reform
  
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  April 18, 2017 12:09pm
  - mikenmild
    
    Oh, a fan of Trevor Loudon.
    
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    April 18, 2017 12:20pm
    - Jack5
      
      Keywiki does have extensive records of Leftists and Leftism, Milky.
      
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      April 18, 2017 2:30pm
      - mikenmild
        
        Trevor Loudon never saw a bed that didn’t have a Red under it.
        
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        April 18, 2017 2:36pm
      - Jack5
        
        Milky, are you challenging the Keywiki biographical details of Joris de Bres? If they’ve got something wrong, let’s be fair. Please tell us what the error/s are.
        
        http://keywiki.org/Joris_de_Bres#Involvement_with_electoral_reform
        
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        April 18, 2017 2:40pm
      - mikenmild
        
        I’m sure Mr Loudon is correct when he notes that Joris de Bres was in favour of MMP.
        
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        April 18, 2017 2:44pm
      - Kimbo
        
        In October 1973, de Bres was joint organiser of a march from the Auckland Town Hall to the Central Post Operations building protesting the Chilean coup which saw the overthrow of the marxist regime of Salvador Allende.
        
        Damning.//
        
        But not as bad as
        
        In 1996, de Bres was chairman of the board of Wellington East Girl’s School,where his twin daughters Julia and Helena became school duxes.
        
        To quote Sean Connery’s James Bond, “Shocking. Positively shocking!”.
        
        Is former self-confessed Marxist David Garrett on Trevor Loudon’s “enemies list”? 😉
        
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        April 18, 2017 2:46pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        And clever girls they are (they lived at the end of my street in Island Bay).
        
        Dr Julia de Bres is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at The University of Luxembourg.
        
        Dr Helena de Bres is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College, Massachusetts
        
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        April 18, 2017 3:23pm
      - Kimbo
        
        …so the “Long March” continues to the next generation?! 😉
        
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        April 18, 2017 3:26pm
- Jack5
  
  Will Tayo Agunlejika, the executive director of “Multiculture New Zealand,” comment on the details emerging of why Ayaan Hirsi Ali cancelled her tour of New Zealand and Australia?
  
  Threats to her, and Muslims leaning on insurance companies, among other things.
  
  I doubt you will hear anything from “Multiculture NZ” on this. If she had been a Left wing Muslim apologist, however, and cancelled her tour, the multiculturists would have been spouting. For them, it’s any culture but Western culture. How they reconcile this with mass migration to the West is puzzling.
  
  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11831609
  
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  April 18, 2017 2:29pm
  - mikenmild
    
    What does her organisation have to do with that tour?
    
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    April 18, 2017 2:31pm
    - Jack5
      
      As much as it does with Sonny Bill Williams’ rugby jersey.
      
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      April 18, 2017 2:35pm
Nukuleka

The Standard has a post discussing the ‘strange selection’ of a devout Christian, Simeon Brown, as the National candidate in Pakuranga. Imagine if the Labour candidate selected were a ‘devout’ Muslim, the Standardista would have been falling over themselves with praise.

What an odd parallel universe they exist in.
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April 18, 2017 11:49am
- Longknives
  
  Read Yesterdays post on the Standard about Sonny Bill Williams..
  They are positively gushing about him- What an ‘Outstanding Role Model’ etc etc
  It’s fucking bizarre! They clearly know nothing about who he associates with (Mundine, Mufti Ismail Menk etc)
  They even throw some shit in to McCaw and Carter (I suspect because they are known National voters?)
  They live in another Universe alright!
  
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  April 18, 2017 12:46pm
- jonar
  
  You should read the article more carefully. They’re talking about a fundamentalist Christian being a strange choice for the National Party, especially one replacing Maurice Williamson who was a supporter of the Marriage Equality Law. I doubt they have any problem with Bill English being a Catholic.
  
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  April 18, 2017 12:46pm
  - Nukuleka
    
    So now a ‘fundamentalist’ Christian (whatever that perjorative term is meant to mean) is a ‘strange choice’!! And this ‘fundamentalism’ is based upon what? His opposition to abortion and same sex ‘marriage’. For heavens sake what views do you think a ‘fundamentalist’ Muslim would have on either issue. My point remains wholly valid! Of course I read the article CAREFULLY!! It is you my friend who are being diversionary and wilfully thick.
    
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    April 18, 2017 4:34pm
SPC

In the spirit of Anzac Day, some advice to Dingo Incorporated, ARU, keep the Force and cut the Rebels.

Then transition the Brumbies home base from Canberra to Melbourne over a couple of seasons – a few games in Melbourne in 2017, half in 2018, most in 2019. Canberra is not a state capital, it gets too cold for night games, and its legacy thus moves to a new city (as occurs with American sport franchises). Reduce Canberra to the base for one of the club teams in the end of season nationwide club competition.
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April 18, 2017 12:24pm
- Kimbo
  
  Disagree about Canberra’s location and size. Doesn’t stop a small place like Green Bay being the home of the Packers. They are an outstanding franchise with a great history.
  
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  April 18, 2017 12:27pm
  - SPC
    
    The Brumbies franchise continues …
    
    A strength of our franchises is that each takes games away – Highlanders to Invercargill, Crusaders to Blenheim/Nelson, Hurricanes to Palmerston North/Napier, Chiefs (now) to New Plymouth/Tauranga/Rotorua, Blues to North Shore and Whangarei.
    
    The Brumbies could still play in Canberra, while moving onto Melbourne.
    
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    April 18, 2017 12:40pm
    - Kimbo
      
      But in seeking to expand the supporter base you risk diluting what they have…just as the expansion of franchises has done to Australian rugby 😉
      
      If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Canberra is the outstanding Australian rugby success story of the last 20 years, and, along with the Raiders, an opportunity to maintain a niche between the over-crowded Sydney and Melbourne sporting franchise glut. And your regional comparison with our franchises overlooks the raison d’être for the city of (capital) city Canberra – it is not Sydney, and it is not Melbourne and it had to be built halfway in between, hence it has an independent spirit. That is what has made the Brumbies work. Mess with that and you mess with the formula.
      
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      April 18, 2017 12:46pm
      - SPC
        
        How, by taking players from NSW and Queensland, and putting them before bureaucrats too posh to watch league?
        
        The same players would have done as well playing in Melbourne, so just move the franchise.
        
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        April 18, 2017 12:51pm
      - Nostradamus
        
        Kimbo:
        
        You’re not on a commission-based retainer as the “Go Canberra” ambassador by any chance?
        
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        April 18, 2017 12:53pm
      - Kimbo
        
        How, by taking players from NSW and Queensland, and putting them before bureaucrats too posh to watch league?
        
        Was done some 21 years ago. They are…the Brumbies. But the location and the spirit of the place and the buy-in from the locals was a key part of that success.
        
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        April 18, 2017 12:54pm
      - DifferentPerspective
        
        Very well put. Brumbies are the real success story in Super rugby. Something from nothing franchise.
        
        And “watering down” is why it’s so relatively dull compared to the early years of super rugby.
        
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        April 18, 2017 2:56pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Very well put.
        
        I don’t accept endorsements from trolls, so move along, thanks very much. You’ve forfeited the courtesy and privilege of engagement…
        
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        April 18, 2017 2:58pm
  - Pateke
    
    Good point. The Green Bay team is 100% owned by its own community as well.
    
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    April 18, 2017 1:06pm
- VicParking
  
  Rugby…. A game so complicated they need laws about laws. Tribuals to run it, video Refs and everyone gets concusion, smashed knees and dislocated shoulders. We ran a series of rucks/malls in slow motion a couple of weeks ago and in each one their were multiple rule violations. The poor refs cannot watch everything so most go unpunished.
  Not worth watching. (Watch the down ticks come flying in)
  
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  April 18, 2017 4:01pm
  - Kimbo
    
    No downticks. Judiciaries and assorted craap forensic paraphernalia came from league.
    
    Sure, there are a lot of laws, but they coalesce around the distinctive that differentiates union from league – there has to be an even contest for possession, and a balance kept between winning possession, maintaining possession and defnding. Looked at in that light, most “technical infringements” at scrum, line out, ruck and maul are common sense, and if not to enable an even contest for possession, then they are there for safety.
    
    Four most important laws:
    
    Onside
    Keep your feet in a ruck
    If off your feet, including tackled or as tackler you are out of play and roll away. That also means releasing the ball if you are tackled
    Enter ruck and maul from the rear.
    
    Get those right and it is a good game. The two All Black vs Springbok contests at Johannesburg in 2013 and 2014 were about the best games of rugby I have ever seen. Brilliant games show-casing all that is good about the game when it is played well – and with the right attitude. And that was the key – both teams went out with a positive attitude, not a negative one, and obeying the laws took care of itself and the penalty count was negligible, and if technical infringements occurred, the ref let them carry on if it did not affect the play. If there is a problem in the way rugby is played, it is not the rules, nor the refs, it is the cynical attitudes of coaches and players trying to obfuscate and muddy the waters about their attempts to cheat.
    
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    April 18, 2017 4:14pm
Kimbo

@ Nostradamus

I’ve played rugby in Victoria and have great admiration for how they keep the game going there. Is easy to be a rugby supporter in NZ. They have real dedication.

But as much as it sluts me to say it as a Kiwi, credit where it is due from a rugby fan: when Aussie rugby gets it right – Ken Catchpole, Mark Ella, David Campese, John Eales, the Brumbies – it cannot be improved.
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April 18, 2017 12:58pm
Rachael Membery

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11839560
Race faking?
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April 18, 2017 1:31pm
- Kimbo
  
  Hmm. And the difference between Rachel Dolezal’s mentality and transgenderism is…?
  
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  April 18, 2017 1:37pm
  - Longknives
    
    I find it odd that the Media absolutely gush over Caitlyn/Bruce Jenner and his obvious confusion yet Rachel Dolezal is seemingly the Devil Incarnate?
    
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    April 18, 2017 1:52pm
    - Rachael Membery
      
      Even ours with Bruce, tv one Breakfast last year?had a mosaic, he was centre of it, personally I would have preferred Grumpy Cat lol.
      
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      April 18, 2017 1:58pm
Happychappy

I see trade me have stated they have had a 15.6% surge in job advertisements so the economy must chugging along quite nicely and what will Sweet cheeks and Labour have to say about more jobs be coming available.
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April 18, 2017 1:59pm
- 4077th
  
  I know what Phil Twatford will be saying..the only jobs available are for Indian students and people with Chinese sounding names.
  
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  April 18, 2017 3:05pm
waripori

Sometimes it sucks to be President, like when you have told everyone only you can fix everything. In his second moment of truth telling ( the first was when he admitted he did no know health care was complicated ) Trump has said that a ten minute chat with the Chinese has alerted him that the Chinese cant tell the North Koreans what to do. Now he has to decide what to do.

He has presumably been told the Koreans wont give up their nuclear weapons because they have plenty of recent examples of Americans laying waste to countries that don’t have them. He must now know that neither the Chinese or the South Koreans want the North Korean economy to collapse. He must have been told the Koreans have missiles with conventional war heads capable of striking Japan and Seoul tucked away in caves all over their country and that it will be nearly impossible to hit them all with a preemptive strike, even if that did not result in thousands of North Korean troops pouring over the DMZ .

At the same time Trump cant really let Kim Jong Un just keep on working towards a weapon that will threaten the US mainland and he can hardly just withdraw his “armada” or leave it there indefinitely.
He probably also cant just let the Chinese off the trade hook in order to buy their cooperation having made American jobs the centrepiece of his campaign.
Welcome to the world of no good options.
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April 18, 2017 2:04pm
- SPC
  
  No one wants the USA to resolve it, and yet if they do not resolve it NK will have missiles that can hit the American mainland with a nuclear warhead.
  
  Once that point is reached what then remains of US/GOP commitment to blocking Iran getting nukes that can hit Israel?
  
  Puts the GOP hard-line on the threat of Iran having nukes that can hit Israel into perspective.
  
  Once NK can hit the USA, SK and Japan are dependent on Chinese restraint of NK. This suits Chinese ambition to drive the US out of the region, hegemony over Taiwan and the South China sea lanes etc.
  
  Similar Iran getting nukes destabilises the Gulf/ME region, suits the higher oil price settings that Russia seeks.
  
  Thus Russia and China see strategic advantage from nuclear proliferation.
  
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  April 18, 2017 2:37pm
- KevOB
  
  The USA: what a mess. I thought it had become ungovernable but not quite so spectacularly so. Hillary who knows government and how to make money from it has been outvoted by Trump who knows money making but not statecraft. Executive decisions ultimately involve people not poker chips. Tax, revenue gathering, health and social security have always between equitably intertwined and with over 100 000 pages of IRS law its the place of a law draftperson’s nightmares. Simple for simpletons? A heart in the right place is not sufficient.
  
  Is it naive to job-out massive unsupervised bombing decisions to the military when some feel they have been unemployed and unloved? Do military contractors not need supervision too?
  
  There is a problem with North Korea but is it not our problem too if Trump USA unleashes nuclear hell on what would then be the former Pacific?
  
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  April 18, 2017 3:10pm
EAD

I thought it was bad in the Trayvon Martin case when the MSM tried to paint the Latino Jew George Zimmerman as being “white” when he shot Martin in self defence but in the case of the Cleveland shooting, I think I’ve seen it all now:

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2a84ff4c9bf1b1a5e92f910f0d35990c49dbe0a02f698102ec5a0c619c3317ab.jpg

It won’t be long until the MSM start telling us that high achieving whites have pale black skin….
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April 18, 2017 2:36pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  Darker shade of pale rather than a lighter.
  
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  April 18, 2017 2:47pm
- Nostradamus
  
  EAD:
  
  “It won’t be long until…” Mikenmild responds to your comment! 🙂
  
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  April 18, 2017 2:51pm
  - EAD
    
    @ Nosty,
    
    The public “service” I’ve heard take afternoon tea from 2.30pm-3.00pm.
    
    He will be back to blogging shortly before knocking off for his 4.30pm drive home ostensibly “to beat the traffic”……
    
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    April 18, 2017 3:00pm
- Longknives
  
  Looks like Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince…
  
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  April 18, 2017 4:19pm
- cha
  
  I think I’ve seen it all now:
  
  Yeah, but you’re a gullible fuckwit.
  
  @BasedMonitored This image did not originate from FOX8. It was altered. This is a distraction from us trying to help authorities locate a murder suspect pic.twitter.com/aAIKCrpwxe— fox8news (@fox8news) April 17, 2017
  
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  April 18, 2017 9:50pm
chiz

“Dad, how comes my sister is called Teresa?”
“Because your mum loves Easter and it’s an anagram of Easter”
“Thanks dad”
“No problem Alan”.
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April 18, 2017 4:17pm
- Nostradamus
  
  A “dad joke” in more ways than one 🙂
  
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  April 18, 2017 5:05pm
  - dad4justice
    
    Now, now, Nostra be nice you know I leave the turd tapping to unsavoury types likes Peter D or Tim B.
    
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    April 18, 2017 5:35pm
    - Nostradamus
      
      Heh – “Dad joke” and “dad joke” are two very different things old chap!
      
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      April 18, 2017 5:38pm
      - dad4justice
        
        I understand my friend I just I’d throw my fan club a bone to chew on 🙂
        
        2 3
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        April 18, 2017 5:45pm
      - mikenmild
        
        How’s your bone today, D4J?
        
        4 4
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        April 18, 2017 5:48pm
      - dad4justice
        
        Oh silly mikey my number two fan after bigot blouse, hook, line and sinker.
        
        4 2
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        April 18, 2017 5:50pm
      - Nostradamus
        
        D4J:
        
        Do you know anything about this?
        
        Christchurch residents frustrated by KiwiRail’s lease scheme for people encroaching on rail corridor
        
        Frustrated residents bordering the rail corridor have labelled KiwiRail’s review of lease agreements a “money making exercise”, and question how a piece of paper will keep them safe from a train.
        
        KiwiRail recently announced a scheme to charge an annual fee to landowners encroaching into the rail corridor, currently targeting abound 50 Christchurch properties. Fences, sheds and gardens have gradually crept over boundary lines and onto the 18,000 hectares of land KiwiRail own nationally. The company said they need to understand what residents were doing on their land to make sure everyone was safe.
        
        Those found to be using KiwiRail land would now be required to sign a license to occupy costing $350 plus GST annually, or must cease using the land. The fee has an annual fixed increase of 2 per cent.
        
        It sounds a bit strange. If it’s my land, then f-off KiwiRail. If it’s your land and I don’t use it, then f-off KiwiRail. Or am I missing something? The reference to a “review of lease agreements” suggests that there’s some existing arrangement ni place.
        
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        April 18, 2017 5:56pm
      - stigie
        
        You do have a huge following Dad and im sure its not from your “dad” jokes..?
        
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        April 18, 2017 5:59pm
krazykiwi

Socialist masterstroke … when the population is starving and restless, give 500,000 of them guns. And wait.

Embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced plans Monday to expand the number of civilians involved in armed militias as tensions in the crisis-wracked South American nation continued to rise.

Maduro said he hopes to expand the number of civilians involved in the Bolivarian militias created by the late Hugo Chavez to 500,000, up from the current 100,000, and provide each member with a gun.

What could possibly go wrong?
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April 18, 2017 5:01pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Almost time for a bit of international intercession, otherwise they could wind up as bad as North Korea in another 1-2 decades.
  
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  April 18, 2017 7:55pm
mikenmild

Nostradamus
The gist of rail corridor disputes is that it is Kiwirail land. When neighbours encroach on it, planting gardens or building sheds etc, Kiwirail is entitled to regularise that use by formal leases.
Some neighbouring property owners are upset, because they are just ‘tidying’ the land, or cutting the grass to reduce a perceived fire hazard. The solution for them is to stop doing that, but insist the Kiwirail maintaining the land if it is actually causing a problem.
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April 18, 2017 6:05pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Mikenmild:
  
  Thanks for clarifying that.
  
  I agree with your suggestion – landowners should insist that Kiwiblog maintains its land.
  
  It’d be interesting if (hypothetically) KiwiRail allowed vegetation to grow through lack of regular pruning, and a spark from a passing train triggered a fire that, in turn, caused damage to a property.
  
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  April 18, 2017 6:08pm
  - mikenmild
    
    Kiwirail claim that they take reasonable measures to prevent fires along the corridor, but they do happen.
    It reminds me of a similar dispute when the regional council tried to charge residents who had landscaped or plated ‘their’ side of the Hutt River stopbank. The response was a polite ‘fuck off’, and off the council fucked.
    
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    April 18, 2017 6:12pm
stigie

“landowners should insist that Kiwiblog maintains its land.”

Where do we sign up to buy some Nostra ole chap..?
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April 18, 2017 6:13pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Oops – you got me there Stigie – well done!
  
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  April 18, 2017 6:15pm
dad4justice

To do work in the kiwirail corridor you have to pass a written test and be approved by kiwirail. Blame stupid fucked up health and safety rules. Same rules see local councils not allowing the public to cut firewood in forest blocks. What a croc of shit the sooner WW3 starts the better.
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April 18, 2017 6:24pm
- Nostradamus
  
  D4J:
  
  To do work in the kiwirail corridor you have to pass a written test
  
  Doesn’t a professional gardening certificate or a post-graduate diploma in women’s studies cut it these days?
  
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  April 18, 2017 6:37pm
  - nasska
    
    Nothing that a hundred well laid out road cones & a speed restriction wouldn’t fix.
    
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    April 18, 2017 6:39pm
  - mikenmild
    
    I think it might be the written test that is the difficulty for him – too many big words.
    
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    April 18, 2017 6:41pm
    - Nostradamus
      
      Mikenmild:
      
      Mr Bean provides some helpful tips for those who might find the written test a bit hard-going!
      
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      April 18, 2017 6:48pm
- Lucia Maria
  
  Hi Dad,
  
  Agree with everything but this, “the sooner WW3 starts the better.”
  
  A massive war of destruction just makes things worse, for a long time. Maybe it does force prioritization back to what is important but at what cost?
  
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  April 18, 2017 6:46pm
  - Nostradamus
    
    Lucia Maria:
    
    A message from Johnboy: make love, not war. (He’s still obsessed with your leather boots.)
    
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    April 18, 2017 6:51pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      Nostra, you have a wickedly good memory. Do you have kids? They’ll get away with nothing!
      
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      April 18, 2017 6:55pm
      - Nostradamus
        
        Krazykiwi:
        
        ~~I remember more than I forget~~
        ~~I forget more than I remember~~
        Mr Google is my best friend!
        
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        April 18, 2017 7:05pm
dad4justice

Lucia the bureaucratic inertia is making no sense, one has to look at the fire on the port hills when dozens of firefighters watched houses burn because they were not briefed on health and safety issues. Do soldiers worry about health and safety when in a firefight? Maybe a war will balance out the insanity of the new health and safety industry?
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April 18, 2017 6:52pm
- mikenmild
  
  Of course they do – so they are trained to take care not to shoot each other, for example.
  
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  April 18, 2017 6:53pm
  - dad4justice
    
    Go away mikey you pathetic nerd.
    
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    April 18, 2017 6:57pm
- Lucia Maria
  
  Dad, there needs to be a balance. Remember the helicopter pilot who died putting out fires this year? Houses are not that important in relation to human life. Homes can be rebuilt, but humans can’t.
  
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  April 18, 2017 7:02pm
Lucia Maria

Hi everyone,

Happy Easter to all. You know, it goes on for 8 days? That’s why it’s called the Octave of Easter. Basically, it’s Easter every day until next Sunday.

Anyway, last Tuesday I was in Wellington Hospital for most of the day while seeing my oldest off for an operation for appendicitis (or something worse). Thankfully it was just a ruptured appendix that was cleaned up laparoscopically. It was one of those things where the doctor on Monday night wasn’t totally sure it was appendicitis and then the hospital overnight wasn’t sure either, but some head doctor decided it was worth operating that day and it turned out to be a great call.

I feel like I’ve been through the wringer on this.

Anyway, made the son take a walk up and down the street today. I think it’s going to take him a while to recover from the anesthetic as well as the surgery.

You know, they offered him his appendix in a jar. He declined. Apparently most that want the thing change their minds when they see it.
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April 18, 2017 6:59pm
- mikenmild
  
  Probably okay with some fava beans and a nice chianti.
  
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  April 18, 2017 7:01pm
  - Lucia Maria
    
    If we are talking about the appendix, you know it’s taken out because there’s a problem with it? My son’s was full of pus that had ruptured. He has a friend whose appendix was gangrened. Not really chianti material…
    
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    April 18, 2017 7:09pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Lucia Maria:
  
  Basically, it’s Easter every day until next Sunday.
  
  Yesterday Nasska declared: “That’s the Easter religious rites over for another year.” He’ll be devastated to know that there’s another 5 days to go!
  
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  April 18, 2017 7:16pm
  - Lucia Maria
    
    Nostradamus,
    
    That man protests too much!
    
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    April 18, 2017 7:17pm
  - mikenmild
    
    Sign me up for the extra chocolate.
    
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    April 18, 2017 7:24pm
- krazykiwi
  
  LM, our son had the same thing a few years back. Not nice. He had an emergency op in the middle of the night, and the surgeon informed us that had he been in that state 30 years ago he’d probably have died! I hope your lad recovers quickly. He’ll have had the diet talk by now I expect.
  
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  April 18, 2017 7:32pm
  - Lucia Maria
    
    KK, no diet talk at all. My son told me he tried to ask them about that, but they said appendicitis was random at his age and to eat whatever. It seems they’ve changed their minds about what to tell people as my friend’s daughter who had appendicitis a number of years back also had “the diet talk”.
    
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    April 18, 2017 7:44pm
nasska

SOUTH AUCKLAND NCEA MATHS PROFICIENCY EXAM

1. John has 2 ounces of dope. If he sells a baggie to Hone for $50 and 2 bullets to Tracey for $25 per bullet, what is the street value of the rest of his stash?

2. Rangi pimps 3 girls. If the price is $85 per trick, how many tricks per day must each pro turn to support Rangi’s $800 per day P habit?

3. Willie gets $200 for a stolen BMW, $150 for stealing a Skyline, and $100 for a 4×4. If he steals 1 BMW, 2 Skylines and 3 4×4’s, how many more Skylines must he have to steal to have $900?

4. Wiremu got 12 years for murder. He also got $25,000 for the hit. If his defacto wife spends $250 per month, how much money will be left when he gets out? Extra credit bonus: How much more time will he get for killing the pro who spent his money?

6. If an average can of spray paint covers 2 square metres and the average letter is a quarter of a square metre, how many letters can be sprayed with three 250gram cans of spray paint with 20% paint free?

7. Henare got 3 girls in the gang pregnant. There are 27 girls in his gang. What is the exact percentage of girls Henare knocked up?

8. Bernie is a lookout for the gang. Bernie has a pitbull that eats 3 small cats per week at a cost of $15 per cat. If Bernie makes $700 a week as a lookout, how many weeks can he feed the dog on one week’s income?

9. Billy steals Joe’s skateboard. As Billy skates away at 25 kph, Joe loads his sawnoff shottie. If it takes Joe 15 seconds to load his gun, how far away will Billy be when he gets whacked?
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April 18, 2017 7:22pm
- Lucia Maria
  
  Nasska, are you able to post the answers as well? 😛
  
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  April 18, 2017 7:28pm
  - nasska
    
    No right or wrong answers nowadays Lucia Maria although points will be awarded for expressions of emotion & a knowledge of the Treaty. 🙂
    
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    April 18, 2017 7:35pm
    - Lucia Maria
      
      Impressive dodge there, Nasska. Looking forward to your emoting on this one then!
      
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      April 18, 2017 8:03pm
- mikenmild
  
  The examiners made this one quite tough.
  Question 1 presumes the students know how many grams in a baggie/bullet.
  Question 2 is impossible to answer without being told how much Rangi takes from each girl’s $85.
  Question 3 might confuse some, as Willie only needs to steal one more 4×4 to get to $900, but one more Skyline would take him to $950.
  Question 4 does not tell us how much interest Wiremu will be getting on the $25,000.
  Question 5 is very difficult and I could not even attempt to answer it.
  etc, etc
  
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  April 18, 2017 7:40pm
  - stigie
    
    You go to the top of the class Milky and Dad would say Norma would be proud..?
    
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    April 18, 2017 7:44pm
  - Nostradamus
    
    Mikenmild:
    
    Question 5 is very difficult and I could not even attempt to answer it.
    
    Ok, you realise there isn’t a question 5, right? 🙂
    
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    April 18, 2017 7:45pm
    - mikenmild
      
      Yes, it couldn’t get much more difficult, could it?
      
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      April 18, 2017 7:48pm
  - nasska
    
    Your naivety comes as a shock to me Mike…..every school kid knows that there’s 28g in an ounce & a bullet weighs one gram.
    
    I deleted #5 as I thought it might cause offence. 🙂
    
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    April 18, 2017 7:45pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  1. $729 if he’s selling the rest as baggies
  $1275 if he’s selling the rest as tinnies.
  
  2.Two of the girls can do 3 tricks, one will have to do 4tricks.
  
  3. 1 more skyline
  
  4.He’s got a sentence of 12 years, so will be out after 4 years… $13,000 left.
  No extra sentence… he’s got a loving defacto to support him
  5. I’m offended
  6. 153
  7. 11.12%
  8. 15 weeks
  9. c.105 metres
  
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  April 18, 2017 8:19pm
  - nasska
    
    Go to the top of the class Maggy! 🙂
    
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    April 18, 2017 8:25pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I want my NCEA Mathematics proficiency certificate.
      
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      April 18, 2017 8:27pm
    - sam green
      
      Funny – Maggy is at the top of the class. How she justifies her approval of this shit is beyond belief. In her own name even. ?
      
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      April 19, 2017 12:50am
      - GoVege
        
        Tell me about it, Sam.
        I have a theory or two…
        
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        April 19, 2017 12:30pm
  - Kimbo
    
    2.Two of the girls can do 3 tricks, one will have to do 4tricks.
    
    Wrong. As per the rich and varied insights and life experiences that dime has brought to Kiwiblog, you can factor the rate by 1.5 if dem ho’s do threesomes. Please re-calibrate…
    
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    April 18, 2017 8:45pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      There’s no such thing as wrong…
      If you check your marking schedule you will see that I have been awarded a Merit for that question.
      
      If I had answered 4…. I would have just got an Achieved.
      
      Because of my lower social status, I have had limited experience of exotic cultural pursuits and so I could not achieve Excellence.
      
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      April 18, 2017 8:51pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Sigh. So hard to inculcate true learning when they have to have a piece of paper prised out of their cold dead hands…
        
        4 0
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        April 18, 2017 9:04pm
      - GoVege
        
        I’ve got one you might like:
        If an abused Maori girl hangs herself from a tree in my street, how many dudes does it take to hold her up until the cops arrive?
        
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        April 18, 2017 10:59pm
      - GoVege
        
        What’s wrong with you lot?
        It really happened.
        Fortunately she survived.
        
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        April 19, 2017 12:34pm
- Kimbo
  
  How many honkie-oppressor farmers does it take to make a list criticising the mathematics skills of others…that omits the number 5 from the sequence? 😉
  
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  April 18, 2017 8:29pm
mikenmild

Anyone looking for a good film tonight could watch The Look of Silence on Maori TV. They really do have excellent docos.
It’s quite confronting though.
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April 18, 2017 7:45pm
- dad4justice
  
  Will you be watching it with Norma at the Bates Motel?
  
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  April 18, 2017 7:49pm
  - mikenmild
    
    I’ve seen it already – hence the recommendation. I think you can watch your Bates Motel on Netflix.
    
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    April 18, 2017 8:02pm
    - nasska
      
      …..”I’ve seen it already – hence the recommendation”…..
      
      Let me guess the theme……wet & revisionist? 🙂
      
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      April 18, 2017 8:09pm
      - mikenmild
        
        It’s the story of an Indonesian man confronting some of the perpetrators of the 1966 genocide.
        
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        April 18, 2017 8:11pm
      - nasska
        
        1966…..I remember it well. Expelled from boarding school, kicked out of home, got my drivers licence & lost my virginity.
        
        1967 was even better! 🙂
        
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        April 18, 2017 8:16pm
      - mikenmild
        
        The killings continued till 1968 – it is estimated that between 500,000 and 1 million people were murdered.
        
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        April 18, 2017 8:22pm
stigie

She is quite sexy ah Dad, does she give you a stiffy ?

http://pop-cultured.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Norma_Bates_in_Bates_Motel.jpg
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April 18, 2017 7:54pm
dad4justice

I think you’ll find that poor Johnboy stayed in room 4 at the motel, anybody seen or heard from him recently?
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April 18, 2017 7:57pm
stigie

He’s still in room 4 Dad having a great time getting molested by Norma !~
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April 18, 2017 8:10pm
Captain Mainwaring

Says it all really

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11840511

This guy makes Mugabe look like a schoolyard bully.
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April 18, 2017 9:17pm
cha

I guess we’ve found the King of Technicals.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8rViq3WAAIC-Uy.jpg
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April 18, 2017 10:40pm
Sponge

Has Starboard expired?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/91681320/nz-man-found-dead-in-bangkok-apartment
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April 18, 2017 10:58pm
- mikenmild
  
  Starboard lives in Christchurch, so no.
  
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  April 19, 2017 6:52am

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