defenestration is amusing... ideally one uses tall buildings, but using the ground floor window is plenty amusing without those pesky murder/manslaughter charges...
heck, get someone else to draw/photograph something non-identical but similar enough that it still does the job of illustrating the point. (mileage may vary based on point.)
not sure if that'd work... on the one hand it makes it safer to do, less chance of it going bad... on the other hand if you DO lose, you're even MORE screwed... and it's possible to lose what should be an open/shut case in your favour with the way these nonsense laws are set up and some of the people who are in charge of judging them...
the AP article as reported by 3News is even worse.
the headline ran something to the effect of 'Norwegian mass murder played World of Warcraft'... it then went into some detail about the guy and what he did, mentioned something about playing CoD or whatever as 'training'... and happens to mention somewhere in the article, a single sentence 'he also played World of Warcraft' or something like that.
there's NO link between him playing WoW and any of the other things, even in the article, it appears in ONE sentence, and somehow it's the headline?
(this'd be more accurate if i was looking at the article as i type it, but the issue was there.... i even went on a big rant in their comments section about it... not sure if that made it past moderation or not though, their site makes it Really hard to get back and see an article again later and reloading reloads the page in the same state (all comments until yours was posted plus 'thank you for your comment, come back later to see it.)
I'm just hoping this is FINALLY the nail in the coffin that puts an end to the National party (the current NZ government)
they were pretty much going to lose the last election but somehow Earthquake = incumbents have advantage despite not doing a damn thing beyond stripping the inhabitants of the affected area of a number of rights and democratic processes for the duration (non-specified). add in incredibly corrupt reporting and/or opinion polls and they SHOULD have been out on their ears last election.
I'd like to think that such a blatant waste of resources and corrupt action against private citizens in the name of foreign interests would do them in. i'm probably dreaming though.
(I'd LOVE a Green/NZ First/Conservative coalition. never going to happen, but when you get the pro-freedoms, pro-citizens and 'change only stuff that would actually HELP' parties all lined up, and they happen to be (in spite of the name of the last one) the ones with the most radical economic policies (necessary at this point) that aren't suicidal AND they've all picked up a middling-strong nationalist vibe (as opposed to Labour's globalist or National's Pro-USA and China angles, not racists/anti-regionalist/anti-imigration nationalism) ... let's just say that it'd be as close to perfect as we could get here without a monarch actually willing to do their damn job and , figeratively speaking, sit on the idiots who keep selling out the country and it's citizens in favour of stupid ideology or pure greed and keep the whole lot in line...)
isn't the official US policy on terrorists to blow up everything in their general vicinity? (read: any instance of more than two buildings in close proximity within the entire country based on random die rolls :P)
TPP started off as between NZ, Chile, and Korea, if memory serves? might have been someone else. small entites (mid-size on the pacific scale) looking to tidy up their trade arrangements, so far as i can tell.
then the USA got involved.
the USA who either HAVE free trade deals with those countries already or refuse to sign such deals because it's more productive to hold the possibility that they MIGHT over the heads of the governments to make them do Stupid Things for the mere possibility of such a worthless agreement.
no one gets Anything out of US involvement except more headaches. I'm not really sure how they ended up part of it to start with.
the NZ dollar was getting on toward being worth US80c at one point... (not sure what the current rate is)... paperbacks Still cost 17(really rare) to 30 NZD... (20-25 being most common.)
then again, i'm always baffled by the value of the US dollar... the things that are cheaper or more expensive often seem to make no sense, even allowing for cost of living vs income based maths rather than exchange rate maths...
it is a 'science', but it has more in common with the weather and earthquakes than it does gravity and the laws of motion. current economic theory keeps trying to treat it as the latter Anyway, Ignores that the consumers are not necessarily rational actors AND that, unlike with motion and such, the consumers have Minds, observe the results of the economists' experiments, and then Change Their Behaviour (in admittedly predictable ways) in response.
it's also one of the few (perhaps the only) 'science' where 'reality does not match the model' results in 'reality is doing it wrong' as the accepted correct response rather than 'clearly we need a new model'. the usual response to 'this model produced erronious results!' is 'well, it doesn't account for (90% of EVERYTHING), which you have to compensate for, but it's still right.
basically there's a lot of useful data fragments about how certain sub-componants of it interact, but that's about it.
you want actually USEFUL economic data and theory? employ a bunch of compitent statisticians and historians to work it out for you. avoid economists at all costs.
well, this IS the same government that reacted to wide spread (and international) protest against a copyright law change by... supposedly removing the objectionable section...
then sticking it back in and passing the thing without any public consultation when parliament was sitting under urgency, Supposedly to deal with the Christchurch Earthquake (which is it's own great big pile of fail.)
honestly, very little in the way of 'screwing over the common citizen in ways that don't even seem to benefit Themselves, over all' type actions from these guys surprises me anymore.
same reason they 'allow' representative democracy rather than some variation on Absolutisim.
not out of any interest in the public's opinion, but because they've found they get more of what they want, and beheaded in messy revolts less, if they take it slow and sneaky.
On the post: Insanity: CISPA Just Got Way Worse, And Then Passed On Rushed Vote
Re: Re: Re: Hey wait!
probably unlikely though.
On the post: Insanity: CISPA Just Got Way Worse, And Then Passed On Rushed Vote
Re: Re:
... really bad.
hehe.
defenestration is amusing... ideally one uses tall buildings, but using the ground floor window is plenty amusing without those pesky murder/manslaughter charges...
On the post: The Chilling Effects Of Copyfraud: Blocking A Researcher From Fair Use... And Scaring Him Into Staying Quiet About It
Re: Can the research work without that one image?
heck, get someone else to draw/photograph something non-identical but similar enough that it still does the job of illustrating the point. (mileage may vary based on point.)
On the post: The Chilling Effects Of Copyfraud: Blocking A Researcher From Fair Use... And Scaring Him Into Staying Quiet About It
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: The Chilling Effects Of Copyfraud: Blocking A Researcher From Fair Use... And Scaring Him Into Staying Quiet About It
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Human Unstoppable
On the post: Breivik, The Press And The Ongoing Myth Of The 'Violent Gamer'
the headline ran something to the effect of 'Norwegian mass murder played World of Warcraft'... it then went into some detail about the guy and what he did, mentioned something about playing CoD or whatever as 'training'... and happens to mention somewhere in the article, a single sentence 'he also played World of Warcraft' or something like that.
there's NO link between him playing WoW and any of the other things, even in the article, it appears in ONE sentence, and somehow it's the headline?
(this'd be more accurate if i was looking at the article as i type it, but the issue was there.... i even went on a big rant in their comments section about it... not sure if that made it past moderation or not though, their site makes it Really hard to get back and see an article again later and reloading reloads the page in the same state (all comments until yours was posted plus 'thank you for your comment, come back later to see it.)
anyway, yeah, bad reporting.
On the post: Another Error By US Officials May Kill Megaupload Prosecution
Re: Great...
they were pretty much going to lose the last election but somehow Earthquake = incumbents have advantage despite not doing a damn thing beyond stripping the inhabitants of the affected area of a number of rights and democratic processes for the duration (non-specified). add in incredibly corrupt reporting and/or opinion polls and they SHOULD have been out on their ears last election.
I'd like to think that such a blatant waste of resources and corrupt action against private citizens in the name of foreign interests would do them in. i'm probably dreaming though.
(I'd LOVE a Green/NZ First/Conservative coalition. never going to happen, but when you get the pro-freedoms, pro-citizens and 'change only stuff that would actually HELP' parties all lined up, and they happen to be (in spite of the name of the last one) the ones with the most radical economic policies (necessary at this point) that aren't suicidal AND they've all picked up a middling-strong nationalist vibe (as opposed to Labour's globalist or National's Pro-USA and China angles, not racists/anti-regionalist/anti-imigration nationalism) ... let's just say that it'd be as close to perfect as we could get here without a monarch actually willing to do their damn job and , figeratively speaking, sit on the idiots who keep selling out the country and it's citizens in favour of stupid ideology or pure greed and keep the whole lot in line...)
On the post: Another Error By US Officials May Kill Megaupload Prosecution
Re: Re: Re:
I CAN"T DECIDE!!!!
*breaks down in manly tears*
On the post: Another Error By US Officials May Kill Megaupload Prosecution
Re: *Mission Accomplished*
hummm...
*evil pondering*
On the post: Hollywood Loses Its Big Copyright Lawsuit Against ISP iiNet Down Under
Re: Re: Re: Re:
if only partially in some cases.
even if it did require blatant opportunism and abuse of the system using disaster relief as a mask...
grrr...
On the post: EU Commissioner Kroes Speaks Out On Internet Openness; Says We Cannot Allow ISP Disconnects
Re: There is no freedom unless it's without control
but it's bad form to encourage revolution in allied nations.
On the post: EU Commissioner Kroes Speaks Out On Internet Openness; Says We Cannot Allow ISP Disconnects
Re: It's like...
analogies: inherently broken, whether i agree with you or not :D
(Note: i do agree with your point.)
On the post: Countries In TPP Negotiations Begin To Wonder Why They Should Let The US Push Them Around
Re: Re:
the USA has been an empire for a Long time.
it's really just a matter of how long it takes for all the unbalanced forces to catch up with it.
On the post: Countries In TPP Negotiations Begin To Wonder Why They Should Let The US Push Them Around
Re: Re: Shame?
then the USA got involved.
the USA who either HAVE free trade deals with those countries already or refuse to sign such deals because it's more productive to hold the possibility that they MIGHT over the heads of the governments to make them do Stupid Things for the mere possibility of such a worthless agreement.
no one gets Anything out of US involvement except more headaches. I'm not really sure how they ended up part of it to start with.
On the post: If Publishers Can't Cover Their Costs With $10 Ebooks, Then They Deserve To Go Out Of Business
Re: $10 for an ebook???
the NZ dollar was getting on toward being worth US80c at one point... (not sure what the current rate is)... paperbacks Still cost 17(really rare) to 30 NZD... (20-25 being most common.)
then again, i'm always baffled by the value of the US dollar... the things that are cheaper or more expensive often seem to make no sense, even allowing for cost of living vs income based maths rather than exchange rate maths...
On the post: If Publishers Can't Cover Their Costs With $10 Ebooks, Then They Deserve To Go Out Of Business
Re:
On the post: If Publishers Can't Cover Their Costs With $10 Ebooks, Then They Deserve To Go Out Of Business
Re: Re: Re: I'm with you, but...
it's also one of the few (perhaps the only) 'science' where 'reality does not match the model' results in 'reality is doing it wrong' as the accepted correct response rather than 'clearly we need a new model'. the usual response to 'this model produced erronious results!' is 'well, it doesn't account for (90% of EVERYTHING), which you have to compensate for, but it's still right.
basically there's a lot of useful data fragments about how certain sub-componants of it interact, but that's about it.
you want actually USEFUL economic data and theory? employ a bunch of compitent statisticians and historians to work it out for you. avoid economists at all costs.
On the post: Supreme Court To Review If It's Legal To Resell A Book You Bought Abroad
the USA doesn't WANT an economy :P
On the post: Is TPP To Blame For The Continuing Delay In Passing New Zealand's 2008 Bill That Excludes Software Patents?
then sticking it back in and passing the thing without any public consultation when parliament was sitting under urgency, Supposedly to deal with the Christchurch Earthquake (which is it's own great big pile of fail.)
honestly, very little in the way of 'screwing over the common citizen in ways that don't even seem to benefit Themselves, over all' type actions from these guys surprises me anymore.
On the post: ACTA Rapporteur's Recommendations: Reject Treaty, But Ask European Commission To Come Up With Replacement
Re:
not out of any interest in the public's opinion, but because they've found they get more of what they want, and beheaded in messy revolts less, if they take it slow and sneaky.
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