Alden Bates' Weblog

Yeah, another political post. This will be the last one for a while, hopefully. I hate politics.

Recently the NZ government has been working towards a Free Trade deal with China. A bunch of people, including the Green party, have said the Trade deal should be thrown out due to the way China keeps killing Tibetans, and their crumby human rights record in general. Also, there's talk of boycotting the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

Leaving aside the fact that the Olympics are actually nicely bringing attention to Tibet (and I'm sure some of the athletes will defy the ban on mentioning Tibet), I point you to Statistics New Zealand's External Trade Statistics page.

In 2005, New Zealand imported 3.67 billion dollars worth of stuff from China. In 2006, it was 4.44 billion, and the projected total for 2007 is listed as 5.28 billion. For contrast, in 2006 we exported only 1.74 billion dollars worth of stuff to China, and in 2007 the projection was 1.88 billion. So we're already dropping a fair amount of money into the Chinese economy, and whether or not we get a free trade deal with them isn't likely to change that. We'll go on buying their stuff and giving them money, and they'll go on doing what they're doing.

Or is there something I'm missing?

No, not the US elections, the New Zealand ones. For while the Americans try to decide whether they want Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or John "Dubya II" McCain as president, New Zealand is gearing up for the 2008 elections. Unlike the US elections we vote all at once, so the buildup is purely campaigning.

Last election I posted about the current political parties so I guess it's time I did so again...

Continue reading "Predicting the election outcome"

Why is the focus necessarily on cutting personal tax rates. If they took some of the tax off petrol, or necessary food items such as bread, they could probably help a lot more...

A thing of the past - this old-style NZ phone box graces Post Office Square in Wellington. I took this picture on Saturday, after the book launch for Newtons Sleep.

I should start a photo blog category, really.

I've noticed a few of these along State Highway 2 on my way home:

Not the 2 shield, the thing under it that looks like a bunch of grapes (Yes, I stopped and took a picture. Because I could).

I couldn't find anything about it on the LTSA's page concerning signs. On the back was a sticker indicating it had been manufactured by Approach Signs Ltd, as did the 2 shield. I couldn't find anything about it in their catalogue, but brown appears to be the colour for touristy signs.

Current best theory is that it's a reference to the Wairarapa vineyards as there aren't any vineyards in either Upper or Lower Hutt. I would have thought that the Wairarapa would be a bit far for informational signs like that though...

Second best theory is it means "1,000 point Pacman bonus ahead".

Edit: Aha! It looks like it's The Classic New Zealand Wine Trail!

It was a criminally nice day on Friday, after weeks of dreary weather. I therefore walked to the middle of Melling Bridge and took some pictures of the Hutt River.

In the one looking south (on the bottom) you can see Wellington on the hills in the distance. I also tried using my camera's stitch feature to do 180° views, but this met with limited success. Here's the stitched together view from the north side of the bridge anyway:

These chaps, last week, started setting up scaffolding down the side of our driveway at work, telling us that they would try to do as much work as possible on that side of the building, so that they could get the scaffolding down in a week or so. See if you can spot them:

Evidently I was wrong - they're not cowboy builders; They're ninja stealth builders! Seriously, I haven't seen that scaffolding used once since it was put up.

*plays taps*

Recently, a bunch of workers moved in to work on the building next door to where I work. Between the two buildings is a driveway and our parking places. The building wasn't in the best of shape so I had been thinking it was about time it had some work done on it.

However there were signs all wasn't well. At one point a builder was throwing bits of wood off the second floor onto a trailer parked in the driveway mere feet from our cars. Words were had and they stopped. Next thing, the builder was at it again, though this time another of the builders was standing between the trailer and cars, presumably to stop anything hitting them. None of the builders, I should add, were wearing hardhats or visibility clothing.

After more checking by my boss, it turned out that they didn't actually have the building consents required by the council. Cue the Man from the Council with a Cease and Desist order.

Not that it actually stopped them working. They just did it when no one was looking.

I suspect they weren't too happy about the whole thing. Last Tuesday they decided to repaint their cargo container which they were using for a site office. This involved using an industrial-strength grinder on it. Since my car was parked about ten feet away from it, I came out after work and found it covered in a layer of paint and/or metal sandings. I've been parking elsewhere since...

More news as it (hopefully doesn't) come to hand.

I was walking back to work from a shop this afternoon when a random passerby asked "Are you into feijoas?" and opened his bag to show off a plastic bag full of them. At that point I was starting to wonder if I'd stepped into a bizarre Twilight Zone where fejoas were illegal street drugs and was going to ask if they were pure. Instead I opted to say "Uh, no thanks" and walk on before he started pushing oranges or something. Surreal!

Cannon Point walkway has a sign at the bottom of it which is misspelled - leading to one of the few times you can say "It's not canon!" and normal people won't look at you funny.

...I'll get my coat. :)

Yeah, only a week late...

Photos and commentary in the extended portion of this post (to save bandwidth!)

Continue reading "Wellington Armageddon 2007 pictures"

The liquor store down the road from work recently renamed itself from "The Mill" to "liquor.co". Looks like whoever put up the sign on the side of their building may have been sampling their wares beforehand:

I hadn't noticed before, but they put the "u" up backwards...

I had to take my real camera today, because:

OK, I get they're happy about winning a people's choice award, but I dunno really if using the ol' hammer and sickle along with hordes of identical red-and-black clad "workers" is all that appropriate. What's next? The Burger Führer?

... the footpath is for people, not cars.

There was about 6 inches of clearance each side. What a thoughtful and considerate parking job. You'd expect better from the AA really...