No Surprise

It is no surprise that our latest convicted murderer, Haiden Davis, has the all the usual hallmarks - out on bail for a previous crime when he committed the murder; a string of previous convictions.

It is no surprise that he graduated from shoplifting to theft to stealing cars to violence before killing.

It is no surprise that he owes thousands in fines.

It is also no surprise that he yelled obscenities at the Judge and no surprise nothing is added to his sentence for the outburst.

A superb piece of reporting by TVNZ last night when they revealed that Davis had ignored his home detention, he was consorting with people he shouldn't have been with, he was in a stolen car which they lost when it took off at high speed through a red light, he was seen with trial witnesses and so on.

What will be done - we all know - nothing! What a surprise. 

Meantime the father of the boy Davis murdered asks why he can't take the Government to Court as they could him in his business if he allowed somebody to be killed. Good point.

Meantime our other killer, Bailey Kurariki is back in Court having breached his bail conditions again (how many time six, seven or more?). We saw film of him striking and spitting on a TV cameraman. Why wasn't he charged - you and I couldn't do it!.

Why don't we follow the American pattern of having bail conditions applied to a monetary amount. They should have to put the $$ up front and lose it if need be. Of course the do-gooders will say it favours the rich, which is true, but what else can we do as they just ignore the conditions. Again if they are not considered dangerous, not liable to approach witnesses etc and have no previous convictions then they should get bail.

On Radio NZ today they said we have more appeals to our Supreme Court than Germany does to theirs. Why? We pay (Legal Aid) and in Germany the time awaiting any appeal does not count towards the time spent in jail - that is if sentenced to 10 years and they appeal the sentence doesn't start until the result of the appeal is handed down.

The Government have just announced their scheme for expanding Broadband. I will see what it says before commenting.

Animations

I have been looking into putting animations (GIF's) into a Blog. Finally decided to look into it and the simplest way seems to be -

Find the animation you want by going to the appropriate blog or website.

Open another browser.

Sign into your Blog and open a document that you are creating (that is a new posting).

Click where ever you would like the animation to go in this posting.

Click on the animation and simply drag the image to your blog post that is also open on the screen.

You must re-size the two browsers so that both can be open on your screen at the same time. This can require a bit of playing about with.

Seems to work OK.

I've always liked this cancer one.

Earth Hour Day

It was Earth Hour Day last night when cities all around the world switched off their lights for one hour from 8.30 PM. We did our bit. One of our long life bulbs gave up the ghost and we didn't replace it until this morning!

However, we realise that we can't just dispose of the old bulb - but what do we do with it.

The Council website says nothing and in fact it warns that if a bulb breaks then special measures must be taken; measures which it says are not printed on the packets in NZ.

Crazy!!

It does say that you can contact a firm to dispose of them but this is only suitable for large organisations who have hundreds.

Coming and Going

Coming - TIVO the recording device similar to Sky TV's My Sky has been bought by TVNZ . But in another bit of marketing brilliance it will be disabled so that it doesn't skip ads, although it will fast forward at 30x times speed. Why then get it, as opposed to a Hard Drive Recorder?? And don't they understand that the 12 year old kids will soon hack it so it does skip ads.

In the States they have had a conference about DRM in DVD's etc and it was brought up how Obama gave Brown some DVD's but because of the restrictions on playing in another country, (zone), Brown can't play them!! The industry continues to shoot itself - not in the foot but in the wallet.

I see that the Christian Science Monitor newspaper is to close. (Thats a misnomer if there ever was one - the word 'science' in their approach to medicine).

Newspapers are sadly an almost doomed industry - well at least the paid versions are; although I still think the niche market versions will survive. When we were in the UK the Metro (a Swedish idea) was the giveaway newspaper and we thought it was great.

Whats going? Illness.

Sarah was sick but she is much better now thanks to the drugs she was prescribed.
However, the lead up wasn't so good as she picked up the medicine and took one dose but didn't feel any better. She came around to our place and Christine didn't think it seemed right so looked up what she had been given, on the Net. It wasn't the correct drug.

So after some discussion with the hospital it turned out they used an old name and the chemist just thought it was a slight spelling mistake (one letter different) from another. However no harm done thank heaven and the new one has worked a treat.

Cricket Jessie Ryder (the boy from Naenae) has scored another ton - in fact a double ton.

Role Models

I didn't realise until a few days ago that the two idiots (there must be other words - cowards, scumbags etc) that violently attacked the Prime Minister on Waitangi Day were related to Hone Harawira. I see that that they are pleading Not Guilty.

Didn't they do it?? Of course they did - so how can they plead that they didn't. The 'Justice' system is crazy.

Hone has defended them because they are 'Maori and family'. How can anybody defend criminals even if they are your family. Even if it was your child that attacked somebody you should be telling them in no uncertain terms that they are wrong.

And worse, he has today invited them to lunch at the Beehive. What sort of impression does this give - criminals feted by an MP. He is saying it is OK to be a criminal. Of course he may argue they haven't been convicted yet and they have pleaded not guilty. I say again - did they not do it. Is it a case of mistaken identity by 50 people and was it not them that were grabbed by the people with the PM.

At least the Indian shopkeeper who defended himself against the thugs that attacked his shop and stabbed him has now been told that he doesn't have a case to answer by the JP's. Why did we waste our money on charging somebody defending himself?

It looks as if Clarke is off to the UN. One thing you can say about her is that she is competent. Bit of a different type of role model.

Rugby - Matt Goddard - 5 Yellow Cards one Red (Red derserved). What an abysmal performance. Chiefs - Blues great game - great refereeing - Mark Lawrence of South Africa.

Poor Monty

We were around at Sarah and Joe's on Wednesday night and Monty did not seem too well; not feeding properly and sleeping a lot so she took him to the hospital.  It turned out he had a hernia and had an operation on Friday, Hopefully he will be home today (Saturday). 

With the talk about health care I can only say what a great experience she had. Immediate attention and getting a top person (a Professor) out of bed at 2 in the morning to come in to carry out the examination etc.  

I was reading an American blogging on and on and complaining about 'Socialised Medicine'  in the UK.  He didn't seem to have a clue - he seemed to think it was compulsory to go to a NHS hospital not understanding if a person was wealthy then they could go private if they wished - exactly as in the US. While, if they were poor they would get looked after at no cost to them in the UK 'Socialised Medicine' system whereas in the US they could have huge costs or not be looked after at all.

They are the only industrialised country with a private system - everybody else is wrong.

The thing I can't see is how they continue to put up with paying overall twice as much as any other industrialised nation with half the outcome.  

Actually I can see why! The problem is that they are held hostage by the extremely wealthy health industry wanting to greedily make money at the expense of the average American. A couple of weeks ago Obama said the US Health 'system' should try to solve what is wrong with a sick person - not just carry out test etc to run up bills!! 

Last week we watched a BBC documentary about people arriving at a hospital at some ungodly hour like 2 AM to join the queue (hundreds long) to get seen by a doctor. One woman with cancer couldn't pay a cent so it was tough - just have to die with no medical help unless she could find a charity hospital to look after her. She couldn't and that was why she was at the hospital they were filming. Sickening is the pun. 

Do I have faith that Obama will fix it. No -  the lousy ratbags who run the 'system' will be too strong.  I hope I am wrong. 

PHF

Looking around amongst my stuff I found a photo taken when I got awarded my Paul Harris Foundation Fellowship way back on 15 December 2003 some 3 years before I stated blogging. So to keep the picture in perpetuity (maybe) here it is.

Net, Nuts and NATO

Net. The above cartoon sums up the Net situation as the NZ politicians want it (at present). Just click it to read it properly. Basically it shows how the industry have always opposed innovation and change which every time has increased their profits. How much does Hollywood make from Videos and DVD's?? As I understand it they opposed the Pianola.

Nuts - looking around for higher interest rates I can't understand how with the Government Guarantee why some companies are paying a lot lower than others. Well I can understand it - they are of course making safer loans and when the Guarantee goes (if it does) then the higher rate companies will have problems. On way of assisting the better firms would be the Government not guaranteeing the interest payments.

We - the taxpayer - have already had to pay out once and for a company that should never have been approved.

NATO - France have rejoined. There is a story about a conversation between General de Gaulle as President of the French Republic, telephoned Pesident Lyndon B Johnson, to inform him that France had decided to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty alliance.

Since its foundation nearly two decades earlier, Nato had had its headquarters in France. Now Nato would have to move.

Furthermore, de Gaulle added, it was his intention that all American service personnel should be removed from French soil.

"Does that include," Johnson is said to have replied, "those buried in it?"

Probably not true as it has been said many times in a similar vein as Colin (or is that Co-Lin) Powell when asked about US intentions to colonise Iraq said they will only leave the same troops behind as they did in Europe, those in graves.

Battle Hill

Went for a walk today to Battle Hill with a group from Rotary. Sadly not many turned up on what was a magnificent day.

On a cold August morning in 1846 the first shot was fired in a confrontation between Government forces and around 300 of Te Rangihaeata’s Ngati Toa near the summit of Battle Hill. It was one of the last engagements of the Hutt Valley Campaign.

It seems it was another lousy decison to try and take land from the Maori.

It was a bit of a steep climb but I got there. We took Rhett but we should have looked it up online as dogs were not allowed, however we had no problems even though the Police were there. But they had other problems as there was a large gymkhana on, well away from where we were, and they were there keeping control.As it was a steep climb Christine stayed back with Rhett and Garry's wife June and lazed about until we returned just over an hour or so later.

Sport - Finally we beat the Indians and the result of the round was the Reds beating the Sharks. Funny how the Sharks record in NZ is good but not in Australia.

A good response

Have been playing around with my Soundsold blog which so far hasn't been cancelled. A good article in the Herald by Chris Barton answering the Record Industry Association of NZ defence of the new Act. A shortened version is :

The Chief executive of Rianz, is disingenuous when he says: "Internet service providers are in a unique position to help us protect creative content online."

What he really means is: "We want internet providers to be our vigilantes - cop, judge, jury and executioner - to hunt down illegal music downloaders and cut off their internet."

Isn't that job of the police and the courts? And what about due process - don't people accused of wrongdoing deserve a fair hearing? Not according to those who are pushing for one of the most stupid, unjust pieces of legislation this country has ever seen. Thankfully, even though it voted for Section 92a National has decided to put the section into abeyance until March 27.

It's possible it could just sit forever in a kind of legal purgatory - a reminder to politicians the world over of how not to make legislation. The politicians who voted for this law should hang their heads in shame. Rejected by the select committee process, Section 92a was re-inserted at the last minute by the real villain in this sorry affair, Judith Tizard.

You have to wonder whether our politicians have really thought at all about what they are trying to achieve in this copyright law.

Do they really want to pass a law that makes children criminals and stifles creativity? That's not what copyright is all about. It's supposed to give people the independent means to be a creator, to provide a structure of incentives for artists. But much of the act passed into law does just the opposite.

Section 92c is the sort of law that stops a mother putting a video on You Tube of her baby dancing to Prince's Let's Go Crazy because the copyright holder doesn't authorise it.

The kind of law that stifles debate by preventing spoofs of political campaigns.

It's also a law that stops a multi-media savvy teenager remixing original video, music and graphics to create something new to share with friends on Facebook, because it might breach copyright in the original work.

The lawmakers say they are trying to stop abuses of copyright but have got so narrowly focused that they have become copyright abusers themselves - distorting the fabric of copyright to such an extent that they limit creativity.

It's relatively easy to identify who is uploading or downloading what - it's also relatively easy to spoof IP addresses and disguise who's actually online.

If Rianz want to hunt down the downloaders let them do their own dirty work. And follow standard due process.

But what our politicians should really be looking at is whether passing laws like this is an appropriate means of promoting copyright. When there is such widespread thumbing of the nose at copyright via the internet, isn't it perhaps time to ask whether there may be another way to deal with the problem?

Isn't it time to say banging a square peg into a round hole doesn't work? What is really required is a radical rethink of internet copyright, the deregulation of amateur and non-commercial creativity and probably some form of collective licensing to enable sharing economies to function in way that allows artists to be rewarded.

What we also need are politicians to make just laws for the people, not legislation that shows they are captured by vested interests.

Breaking News - Rugby World Cup 2011

The Rugby World Cup 2011 venues have just been released and Wellington will get 5 matches including a Quarter Final. To show what a backwater Dunedin has become is that they will only get 3 games like New Plymouth, Rotorua etc.

A big argument is on in the city at the moment about getting a new all weather stadium in Dunedin and there is a lot of local opposition. The choice is there's - if they don't do something then places like Palmerston North, Tauranga, New Plymouth and the like will move ahead of them. Hamilton has already done so.

This, that and a bit cooler

A bit cooler with the weather heading into winter.

As it happened Rhett was due for his haircut (actually with him it is a fur-cut) and this was done yesterday, just as the temperatures dropped, so we have put a little woollen coat on him. It wasn't cool in Hamilton at the India NZ cricket - India are on fire. Sehwag is in incredible form - the 7th fastest 100 of all time. We are not in the hunt. One thing about the cricket this year is that it is a drought breaker. Whatever team we have played - even in Oz - it has rained.

The above cartoon sums up Rhett - all bark no bite.

While Rhett was away getting his fur-cut we spent most of yesterday morning with Sarah so we had Kipp and Monty with us at the Library playground.

To prove beyond doubt logic does not prevail I went to log into the TV3 website (why bother having a log in system anyway??) but couldn't. Sent them an email and they advise I was registered at TV3 News not TV3 !!! Crazy as it seems they can't link the two - not that I even realised there were two different sites.

A good Friday

It was a good Friday as I took part in helping Rotary raise funds for our local Hospice, Te Omanga, through a Golf tournament. I didn't take part in the golf, not being a golfer, but assisted on the treasurers side. Incredibly we raised $10,000 which was the same as last year. With all the doom and gloom about we had visions that we would struggle, but it all turned out well.

Luckily the weather held up and we only got a little of the rain that spoilt the Black Caps versus India game - well, spoilt it for India as they were on their way to a massive total.

As for the attack on the Sri Lankans cricketers what can one say. We don't know yet who carried out the attack but I gain the impression that it was the usual fundamentalist Islamics rather than the Tamil Tigers. It also gave an impression that some in the security forces were aiding the terrorists.

Read an interesting line the other day that an American thought all the cameras in London were the result of 9/11, until it was pointed out that was to track attacks by the IRA. The comment ended with

' that was when Americans supported terrorism - now they seem to have changed their tune'

On the day of the attack I watched the CBS news from America to see how much importance they gave to the tragedy and it was about the 10th item, all of about 15 words!! There is also tragedy in Zimbabwe where the 'Prime Minister' (really the leader of the Opposition who should be the leader of the country) Morgan Tsvangirai's wife has been killed in a traffic accident.

Hmmmm... coming from Zimbabwe the immediate thought is, that was no accident, but it seems as if it really was an accident.

3 March 2009 was a square root birthday day

Did you know that the 3rd March this year was Square Root Day, a rare birthday that when the day and the month are both the square root of the last two digits of the current year. Numerically, 3 March 2009, can be expressed as 3/3/09, or mathematically as √9 = 3, or 3² = 3 × 3 = 9.

"These days are like calendar comets, you wait and wait and wait for them, then they brighten up your day--and poof--they're gone," said one square rooter who organised a contest intended to publicize the event.

My brother is one of those elite having the 3rd March as his birthday.

Square Root Day occurs only nine times in a century. The last one occurred on February 2, 2004, and the next will occur in seven years on April 4, 2016. The entire list is -

01/01/XX01
02/02/XX04
03/03/XX09
04/04/XX16
05/05/XX25
06/06/XX36
07/07/XX49
08/08/XX64
09/09/XX81

Computing Experts

Hard at 'work'.

Banking

It seems incredible that the 8th biggest bank in the world is now Westpac as all the big US, UK, Japanese and EU banks have got into difficulties through stupid lending. How the Royal Bank of Scotland who used to have the most conservative policies have struck trouble is beyond me.

The top banks are now
1. Canada 2. Sweden 3. Luxembourg 4. Australia 5. Denmark 6. Netherlands
7. Belgium 8. New Zealand 9. Ireland 10. Malta

I don't see how we could rate lower than Australia as ours are all Australian owned except for Kiwibank, which is state owned and the TSB which is very small and has a Government Guarantee anyway. US banks rate 40th just ahead of the UK. Although how Ireland rates so high makes me wonder. I have never liked the US system of Banking with small operations in amongst the giants preferring a multi branch British style.