There's a new shop in my local shopping centre. It's quite small and, so far, has a limited-looking range of New Zealand / Aotearoa themed goods. I hope it lasts ( Read more... )

It's well known that opinion survey results can depend on the way questions are framed.

Nein-msn's current poll question is "Do you believe in capital punishment?"
I believe that it exists, but I don't support it.

The result so far is very close, with "no" ahead by a small margin.
I wonder how many of the "yes" votes took the question the other

At the end of a longish, wettish winter Perth's surface water storages hit a 5-year high of 42% full. Last year's peak was 37 ( Read more... )

If you read, but are not yet familiar with ASif! then please ( read this. )

It's heartbreaking to see misguided people devoting their lives to the development and marketing of what they truly believe to be free energy machines.

When you have a third umpire sitting in an office watching the replays, you'd think there'd be a copy of the rules lying around too.

The Pakistan skipper was run out in controversial fashion by Steve Harmison when the fast bowler threw down the stumps off his own bowling and Inzamam, in avoiding the ball, momentarily lifted his foot and left the ( Read more... )

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I love it when someone is bowled without offering a shot.

Monday's 4Corners is repeated tonight and is worth watching for Health Minister Abbott's response to the suggestion that urban planning trends have contributed to child obesity:

TONY ABBOTT, HEALTH MINISTER: "Um, obviously we should have, ah, plenty of parks and I jogged through much of south-western Sydney on the weekend, so I have seen these ( Read more... )

Apparently, according to last week's TV, the US and/or UK soldiers in Iraq have been praised for behaving "non-confrontationally" on duty, for example by patrolling without helmets. An unhelmeted patrolling soldier explained that the helmet was a powerful symbol, and that to wear it would give the impression that the soldiers expected trouble. So ( Read more... )