Monday, August 16, 2010

Random thoughts

# Looking through all the footage of the Pakistan floods, one thing sticks out. Where are all the women? There's a few dotted throughout the coverage, but it's mainly men and children in the lens. I can't escape the possibility that many women were abandoned to the waters in much the same way as the Tongan ferry sinking.

# The first thought that jumps into my head over the legal challenge by the newly minted charitable trust Climate Science Coalition against NIWA is the Scopes Monkey Trial. The second thought that jumps to mind is from the Book of Heroic Failures:
[I]n 1897, the General Assembly of Indiana passed a bill ruling that the value of Pi was four. This ensured that all mathematical and engineering calculations in the State would be wrong. It would, for example, mean that a pendulum clock would gain about fifteen minutes every hour.
# Judging from noises coming out of Key and cabinet over liquor reform, it seems that the age of purchase is set to go to a conscience vote in parliament. Not that it will make a blind but of difference to drinking habits, pre-loading or otherwise, but something must be done and this looks like something. Good luck with that. What will 18 year olds do on a Friday night now?

# Compulsory superannuation looks almost a certainty as well. Doing so will partly neutralise noises from Cunliffe, but also to shut down any resurgent NZ First platform too. Even after emptying several magazines of silver bullets into Winston Peters prior to the last election, the old wolf will not die. Perhaps starving him of political oxygen might keep the beast at bay. Whatever happens, it'll be Generations X & Y picking up the tab.

# And finally, an alternative opening scene to Return of the Jedi has surfaced, showing how much potential the third episode had, before merchandising and those fucking Ewoks ruined everything. Full story here: