Author Archive
Taylor Swift at the Grammys
This girl has got it. (And what a production number!) Note for the Flash-less: A (sadly, much lower quality) video clip of the performance is available here at YouTube. – P
An update on Michael Williams and the Howick Local Board
For those interested, a move to get the Howick Local Board to even discuss the pending drink-driving and related charges against the Board’s chairman Michael Williams FAILED at last night’s Board meeting. As previewed in the Howick Pakuranga Times (Challenge to chairman to stand aside), board member Lucy Schwaner attempted to raise as Extraordinary Business […]
Cycling John Key
From the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Twitter stream: @johnkeypm: I rode the Queenstown Trail today. It is part of the NZ Cycle Trail Network. http://t.co/8pg3gMgU
Jemima Khan’s must-read article about Julian Assange
In this insightful, articulate article, Jemima Khan addresses some of the issues and events surrounding Wikileaks and Julian Assange … and echoes one of my perennial themes: tribalism and how it blunts understanding. On the subject of Assange, pundits on both the left and the right have become more interested in tribalism than truth. The […]
Can Bob Jones hear himself?
Relating to the controversial boxing match between Sonny Bill Williams and Francois Botha: “The whole performance was degrading to the sport of boxing. It was a joke.” Oh dear.
So who CAN afford a house?
It can be good to challenge assumptions. Here’s an article by my pal (and fellow investor and author) Andrew King, president of the NZ Property Investors Federation. Andrew examines the subject of the ‘Housing Affordability Crisis’ — a contentious political issue at present — and finds it mislabelled. According to him it’s more a ‘Housing Expectation […]
Top posts – January 2013
Some of the most-viewed posts at ThePaepae.com in January … Bunfight at Howick Local Board Spoofing David Fisher What I didn’t say at the Howick Local Board last night Farewell Aaron Swartz Top 10 NZ property investment books – Auckland City Libraries About The Paepae Mr Phil Jones: re-heating cold horseshit Is Android catching up? […]
Who do politicians think they actually work for?
Read today’s editorial in the NZ Herald about the Official Information Act … and ask yourself. The Minister of Justice, Judith Collins, wants MPs to remain in total control of their own information. The Government’s response to the report has shamefully and summarily dismissed opening Parliament to the act. “The government does not agree with the Law […]
‘Don’t mention the war.’ Or Waitangi?
Of course John Cleeese’s ‘Don’t mention the war’ is regarded as classic comedy … … but when it comes to the Treaty of Waitangi, there are other, not nearly so satirical calls to avoid discussing contentious topics. Indeed, there are attempts to continually dismiss calls for redress — of genuine, documented, historic injustices (including large […]
The predictable unsavoury and racist kerfuffle that greets Waitangi Day
This, from local Twitter luminaries @ColeyTangerina and @Megapope, is a wonderfully world-weary and efficient summary of the tripe that’s scooped out of the racist bucket in New Zealand around Waitangi Day and spread around thick like the ugly goop that it is. In many cases these tired tropes are trotted out as ‘debate’ or ‘talking […]
Let a little air in, @BarnsleyBill
This evil-looking device (right) is a Trocar self-piercing ventilation tube, used in medical procedures where inserting one of these into a patient’s infected body will help save their life through ‘aeration’ or by helping with ‘drainage of secretions’. I bet inserting one of these hurts like hell. But it beats suffocating … or festering in […]
Sometimes you have to just KEEP GOING until you get good
From Ira Glass. Another angle on the ‘resistance‘ we talk about here from time to time … Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo. Wonderful. – P via Andrew Sullivan
What if Marco is right about an “iPhone Plus”?
A crazier prediction: iPhone Plus is real, and huge — Marco Arment. Worth a read if you’re interested. – P
