Charging Above

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My son looking up at a diorama from the now closed "The Great War Exhibition" created by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, Peter Jackson and WingNut Films. The exhibition was held in the former Dominion Museum and National Art Gallery in Wellington.
Boy looking up at a diorama

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Regulatory Standards Bill: Explanation & Submission [Updated]

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You've done your Treaty Principles Bill submission , and that was a piece of cake eh. If that's what all Bill submissions are like then bring it on, the voice of the masses can be finally heard. Hmmmm, seems it's different for each Bill, which sort of makes sense. The Treaty Principles Bill is something that's not going anywhere no matter what happens, so it's been made very much a, "Tell us what you think and what could be done", expecting a tsunami of, "It's crap, throw it away". The response is gonna be, "Ok, we asked and we're gonna throw it away, as we were gonna anyway." There are Bills that have some substance to them, and the relevant Select Committee really do want to know what "we" think. In particular they want to know what the view of experts on that Bill's subject. This is the majority of normal Select Committee work, and tbh most of us just let that chug along coz, well, they know best and it's fo...

Regulatory Standards Bill: Submission Guidance & Assistance [Updated]

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Submission form: https://consultation.regulation.govt.nz/rsb/have-your-say-on-regulatory-standards-bill/consultation/intro/ *phew*, this is hard work. Unlike the Treaty Principles Bill which has a tonne of templates and publicly available submissions for you to copy/amend/submit, the Regulatory Standards Bill has very little out there. Which is unexpected as this is the fourth time this Bill has been put forward. But riding in to save me all the hard work is the  Proposed Regulatory Standards Bill : Explainer & Submission Guide , written by Jen Bennett and Melanie Nelson with contributions from several others. I found this via RenRen and my new online friend (she doesn't know it yet), Melanie Nelson and her Substack posts . To get your submission juices flowing here's two to have a read of: 18. The ACT Party has tried to pass this legislation three times and has failed. As a fervent supporter of a “three strikes” approach when dealing with sentencing, it should apply the s...

The Difference Between One Million And One Billion

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It feels like a billion is just a bit bigger than a million. Obviously it's bigger but it fits on the same scale as a million, surely. It doesn't. A billion is so so so much bigger than a million. I've trawled the internet finding graphics and videos that show the VAST difference between one million and one billion. Oh, and just to finish with a different misconception about space starting with the classic opening line from the great Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy : “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

Regulatory Standards Bill: What Is A "Person"

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Apart from the timing and the large set of questions (which you don't have to answer, just send in the submission for you want), the most insidious part of the Bill is the use of the word "persons". I take this from the extremely helpful and detailed, Proposed Regulatory Standards Bill : Explainer & Submission Guide , written by Jen Bennett and Melanie Nelson with contributions from several others. What does “individual” or “person” mean in this Bill? Most government action should think about all of us - not just some of us. The Regulatory Standards Bill (RSB) focuses on individual interests. In the Bill the term "individual" or “person” includes not only everyday citizens but also corporations, large businesses, and other legal entities - but does not include the public, specific communities or all of us as a whole. This means that powerful companies are granted the same rights and protections as people. In effect, they would have more power than people as ...

Do The Shake 'n' Vac And Put The Freshness Back

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How advertising jingles influence our buying choices (and why we can still sing them decades later) Recent market research found that several of the ten most recognisable jingles for UK adults dated back three or even four decades. While comparison site Go Compare topped the list, Mars’ “work, rest and play” jingle (axed in the mid-1990s) and even Shake ‘n’ Vac “put the freshness back” (1980) are still buzzing about in the heads of those polled. ... Research has shown that the period when we are around ten to 25 years old tends to be remembered most vividly. Music cues are also best at tapping into memories of this period, which is known as the “reminiscence bump”.

"Right Wing" Comedians

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Too many people comfortably plump themselves into an army of one type or another . Surrounded by those that sound like you, listen to you intently whilst nodding, and echo your thoughts on why the fight is a good fight and that the other side are such bad terrible people. I used to be more like that than I am nowadays ... hmmmm, aren't we humans meant to become more conservative and reactionary as we age, strange Mike. These thoughts have me thinking of two UK comedians that have been tagged as "right wing", which is putting them into an army for the benefit of someone but, I suspect, not them. First up,  Simon Evans who makes me laugh when he's talking about his family, kids, and life in Brighton. He then hit my ears big time with: Simon Evans Goes to Market , has had six seasons, delighting audiences with his witty and insightful take on the comedically unpromising territory of economics, all of which prove among the most popular downloads on the Sounds App. On the...

2025, The Theme Is "Backfill"

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It's quite the moment when you're pondering, cogitating, think think thinking about something and then, *pop*, the answer comes into your mind. 2024 was a "Foundational" year for me. One of working out what I want to do with the final third of my time on this planet. And that has worked out well, I have moved on from tech and finding my feet in sustainable "community work". I want 2025 to be less, dramatic. I've been reflecting for the past few days what it should feel like and it slooooowly dawned upon me, I want this year to be a bedding in year. A quick Google of the stages one goes through when moving a tree from one spot to another and the word "backfill" is used a lot. Once you've uprooted the tree, put it into its new hole home then you need to backfill with soil and compost, pat it down, give it water, and settle it into its new place. That's me. Over 2023/4 I have uprooted the tree of my life and I'm now safely / happily in...

One Hundred Proofs That The Earth Is Not A Globe

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The best thing about  bonkers "science" books like this is that they're so old it's free to download and actually read them. So I did. INDEX. 1 The aeronaut sees for himself.   2 Standing water level.   3 Surveyors’ “allowance.”   4 Flow of Rivers—the Nile .  5 Lighthouses—Cape Hatteras.   6 The sea-shore.—“Coming up.”   7 A trip down Chesapeake Bay .  8 The model globe useless.   9 The sailor’s level charts.   10 The mariners’ compass.   11 The southern circumference.   12 Circumnavigation of the Earth.   13 Meridians are straight lines.   14  Parallels of latitude—circles.   15 Sailing down and underneath.   16 Distance round the South.   17 Levelness required by man.   18 The “level” of the astronomers.   19 Half the globe is cut off, now!   20 No “up” or “down” in nature?   21 The “spherical lodestone.”   22 No falsehoods wanted!   23 No proo...

Regulatory Standards Bill: Irony

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Oh, this is astounding how Seymour wants to have smaller government and yet has created a whole new department and is wrapping so much shite around a system that works just fine. It's all libertarian bollocks eh, just like they always publicly shout that the government should stay out of everyone's lives, especially in "the market", but siphon off as much of the public purse as they can and go running back to their Nanny State when it all gets a bit too hard.

The Cookie Time DC-3, I Found It

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Every Kiwi that has ever been on a roadtrip up / down State Highway 1 knows about the Mangaweka Cookie Time Douglas DC-3 café. You may stopped off and had a look around inside, the kids and I certainly have. But in 2021 it was suddenly gone, what happened? Well, it seems the plane was owned by two Mangawekan (?) business people who had a falling out. One dark and stormy night one decided to ship it away without the knowledge of the other (sort of). Shifting the plane meant they had to take the wings off first and now the body lives in Shannon at 2 Ballance Street, just next to the Club Hotel / bar.  Apparently it's being restored and will go back .. it won't. The wings, well who knows where they disappeared to but I understand they're not gonna be joining the body anytime soon. A little history lesson for us all: ZK-APK was delivered to the RNZAF in August 1945, then sold to the newly-formed National Airways Corporation (NAC) in 1947 and given the name Poaka. NAC was New Ze...