Happy New Year accountants!

As it's March 31, I thought this was topical.

Doesn't this smack of lefty churlishness, envy and jealousy.

Barry had as a Senator, prior to becoming Prez, sponsored legislation to rid the world of tax havens. Despite all of them being completely outside the sovereign realm of the United States, he's keen to completely ignore that fact and continue to rid the world of them, with the help of the OECD.

Not for anything laudable as financial reform though, but simply collecting more tax. There's as estimated $7T (yes, T) they're missing out on in taxable cash. Many of these 'tax havens' simply have flatter or simpler you might argue, tax laws. Wiki has an interesting article on the subject which even mentions NZ.

Sure, lots of crooks hide money this way, but who else of those who are operating legitimately will be caught up in such a drift-net approach?

Channeling the anger.

TVNZ are in a little spot of financial bother, as we know. Revenue’s down, profits are down (but not hugely when you drill down) and over on the Your Views page at the Herald, much vitriol has been written about whether lots of people should be fired. The tone of many comments suggests only managers should be fired of course, and not ‘the workers’.

Sticking up for the poor saps for a moment; despite the downturn they’re still making a profit, albeit smaller.

When I were a lad, they only had the one channel. Dougal read the news, later it was Mr. Sherry. We watched 5 year old episodes of Coro. The Six Million Dollar Man probably cost about that much per ep to buy first-run, so we saw 5 year old episodes of that too. There was only slightly less advertising then as there is now (about 8 minutes per hour versus 13) but I bet it cost a lot more then than now, relatively. You can imagine, as it was then more government department than SOE the waste was likely worse.

They now have a tremendous amount of competition. Sky TV for example features as much advertising as TVNZ yet also pulls in over $40M a month in subscription fees. Despite the clear advantage of choice Sky has, and the fact they have all the sport (sorry, netball isn’t a sport, kids) TVNZ still dominates ratings. TV3 struggles to make the top 5 in any category, timeslot or demographic, despite now being around nearly 20 years.

Why is that? Are TVNZ really that bad?

Several questions about Climate Change

1. Why was it Global Warming before, but now Climate Change? Is this a bob each way in case it actually gets cooler?

2. If the Arctic Ice Shelf is melting, how can that possibly increase the sea level without ice/water displacement occurring?

3. Why is the hole over the ozone layer at its worst over Antarctica, where no one lives?

4. Indeed, why isn’t this hole over the Arctic, closer to all the Northern Hemisphere pollution?

5. Two degrees warmer by 2020..So? Does that mean it’ll be 27 C in summer instead of 25 C? Or 10 C in winter, rather than 8 C? Will it be -28 C in Antarctica instead of -30C? Will that be noticeably warmer? Really?

6. Even it was, is that so bad? Don’t crops need heat to grow? Is that why crops don’t grow in Antarctica or the Arctic, because there’s little in the way of heat there?

7. Less pollution in the world would be an excellent thing. I support that! Why don’t ‘warmists’ hold this up as a laudable goal in itself, rather than making up stuff about the end of the planet to justify it as a position?

I’d really appreciate it if anyone could provide me with some explanations or answers for these.

Underbelly

I’ve been watching this show, only I tape it cause it’s on the same time as Lost, so it would always come second, but I think it’s very good so far.

Matthew Newton’s New Zealand accent is a little clunky I agree, but he mostly gets it right. He seems to at times be making an odd sort of extra effort to sound New Zealandish.

Gossip monger Rachel Glucina mentions its’ controversial nudity has been criticized in Australia following screenings there. I might’ve thought all the people being shot in the head would be more concerning than Anna Hutchison’s hooters (which you do see a lot of I will say, certainly in this week’s episode) but that’s one of the great oddities of TV programming criticism.

It's Friday

And no doubt you'd rather be off water skiing or playing golf or something than thinking about work.

For that meeting you've got coming up on Monday, why don't you try some these tips:

Stand up and act indignant. Demand that the boss tell you the 'real' reason this meeting has been called.

Spill coffee on the conference table. Produce a little paper boat and sail it down the table.

During a meeting, each time the boss makes an important point, (or at least one he/she seems to consider important), make a little noise like you are building up to an orgasm.

Stay behind as everyone else, including the boss, leaves. Thank them for coming.

Give a broad wink to someone else at the table. In time, wink at everyone.

Sometimes shake your head just a little, as if to indicate that the speaker is slightly crazy and everybody knows it.

Arrange to have a poorly-dressed young woman with an infant quietly enter the meeting, stare directly at the (male) speaker for a while, burst into tears, then leave the room.

Bring a hand puppet, preferably an animal. Ask it to clarify difficult points.

When there is a call for questions, lean back in your chair, prop your feet up on the table, smile contentedly, and say, "Well, here's the way I see it, J.B..." (or any other impressive-sounding initials that are not actually your boss's.)

Complain loudly that your neighbour won't stop touching you. Demand that the boss make him/her stop doing it.

Bring a small mountain of computer printouts to the meeting. If possible, include some old-fashioned fanfold paper for dramatic effect. Every time the speaker makes a point, pretend to check it in one of the printouts. Pretend to find substantiating evidence there. Nod vigorously, and say "uh-huh, uh-huh"

Then see how they all like those apples.

Welcome in, take off your shoes an' set a-spell.

Hi, we're new!

We're here to talk about what's great about the world, stuff to do, stuff to buy, and our views on things, from around the world, and from where we live, New Zealand.

By the way, the pic above is Lake Elsmere in the Southern Alps of NZ. In the back ground is Mt. Cook.