TagMeInSkipIGotThis @ TagMeInSkipIGotThis @lemmy.nz

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331

Joined

2 yr. ago

Until Musk has the market captured and then hikes the price because there's nobody you can buy a similar service from.

From what I understand its a couple of nights a week while he's in Wellington for say cabinet meetings, or a session in the house. Its much more like a hotel you go to regularly than an actual house.

But, its basically a tax free allowance of NZ$52k, I think I saw someone calculate it out as being around NZ$80k that a regular person would need to earn to have that much money after tax.* In terms of the cost to the taxpayer its nothing, the issue is that it was basically a rort, because the actual cost to himself for that mortgage free apartment is nowhere near the $52k - and we have to pay for the upkeep of the Prime Ministerial apartment whether he uses it or not. He was also the first Prime MInister in about 30 years to claim the benefit; and in that time there's been a couple who also owned their own homes in Wellington but didn't claim it.

His claim is that the official lodgings are really bad, but he won't let any media in to take footage of it to see how bad it really is; and just over a year ago Jacinda Ardern lived there when she was in Wellington often with her toddler child - so the assumption is that it can't be that bad. One suggestion I heard was that his private apartment doesn't have to keep a register of guests so he could meet with anyone there. But I think the truth is that he's just a classic rich ex-ceo, book every expense against the company (or now the country) and milk the job for all its worth while you're there.

*This is more than the median wage in New Zealand, so its a pittance for a guy worth millions like Luxon, but a lot of money for a regular Kiwi.

I've not thought to do a ph test; I kinda live by Leone's quote "Botulism? Nobodies ever died of botulism. ?"

But I prefer a fairly vinegar forward hot sauce, and the brine is also salty so i've not noticed any problems. After about 13 months it can start to discolour a bit, but i've usually got a new batch ready by then so I just biff that.

Xantham is a bit tricky to use, you really don't need much but you also kinda need to sprinkle it in, it can clump quite a bit and if you use too much while running a blender too high it can capture air bubbles. I made a ketchup and it just kinda got foamy so even though it tasted good the mouth feel was really weird.

Look he's just entitled to the entitlements man, what could he do - its his entitlement, he's entitled to it.

Hmm, I haven't weighed how much I use but a normal sized bag o' beans usually lasts me around 10 days or so, and I have 2 coffees every day, with my partner having a couple a week. So that's about 25 coffees a bag maybe.

I grow my own chillis every summer, just to make a big batch of hot sauce for the coming year. I do a lacto-ferment following the Brad Leone method he did on his It's Alive youtube show. Its mostly cayenne, with about a 1:6 ratio of habanero for the fruitiness.

Takes a couple of weeks to ferment, then I separate the brine from the chillis, then blend the chillis in some of the brine, pass it through muslin so im left with just the liquid. Then its a matter of balancing the brine & distilled white vinegar, and a final stabilisation with a very small amount of xantham gum.

I don't know how long it should be safe to use for, but I keep it in 2x 1.25L jars in the bar fridge once its done, and top up a small bottle for the main fridge and i'm still using the last of last year's batch - not dead yet!

Yeah I'm a massive fan of the books - have even read all of the spinoffs from Brian? Herbert to "finish" reading the universe.* And I enjoyed the movie for sure but wished it was more. But then i'd rather have these two pretty good Dune movies than all the other versions i've seen on screen before.

*Assuming he hasn't written more since the last lot I got.

I have to wait until i'm off on-call to go see it next week, psyched to watch it at the movies, and then at home as soon as I can find some service with a 4K HDR version.

OK fair enough I did say that, but I was clear it was based on a quick google only and to be fair it was about 2023 Rangers, and you've pasted spec sheets about 2019 Rangers. So I don't think either of us are getting everything perfectly right.

Meanwhile, this side discussion about whether a Ranger is heavier than a Leaf kinda ignores the finding of the study that prompted this whole discussion.

Namely, every driver saved by switching to an SUV or Pickup was balanced by 4.3 other people dying. And the main reason quoted for that 'While bigger cars typically are safer for their occupants, they pose a greater hazard to anyone or anything smaller they may collide with, a phenomenon known as “crash incompatibility.”'

If you take pedestrians and cyclists out of the statistics, we are still left with: "28%: Percent by which a collision with an SUV is more likely to kill a car’s occupants than one with another passenger car."

As I note above - that's for a single cab ute with no deck. This is far more representative of what is actually being sold in NZ and is 2232kg, with a 3250kg GVM:

https://www.drive.com.au/showrooms/ford/ranger/12db6d74afb32f1f/

Look I don't want to be a dick, but single cab utes aren't the big sellers that double-cab utes are (which tend to be heavier), and also when a ute is sold as chassis, I think it means it doesn't have a deck (flat or well-side). So yeah, that particular model is lighter sure, but its not really representative.

And to add one more thing, your weight comparison on Leaf vs Ranger doesn't ring true to a quick google. Kerb weight on the leaf shows up approximately 1570kg, looking at drive.com.au stats, there's no 2023 Ranger less than 2200kg. And then perhaps more importantly, Gross Vehicle Mass is just under 2000kg vs 3200kg+

I buy that with Utes; back in the 2000s and 2010s. But early on when SUVs were becoming vogue it was definitely a perception of safety, particularly for the urban buyers using it for around town, school and sports runs etc.

Nowadays a twin cab ute has fairly well taken over that spot, particularly for urban drivers but whether perceived safety is as much of a selling point for them I'm willing to concede.

Sure, a Leaf might weight something similar to a Ranger; but the big difference in danger from a Ranger is its height and particularly driving around town poor visibility for pedestrians.

And in any case, I'm not barking up much of a tree, read the study - it's pretty clear that Utes & SUVs in that study were a lot more dangerous. Also note I tied safety fears to SUVs, not Utes.

I think the truth is that very few media companies are actually making money outside of having a subscriber base and even those there's some big questions about whether they're really profitable and how sustainable that will be long term.

If you think about how it's worked traditionally, it's been relatively lucrative advertising, with companies trying to reach a large middle class with money to spend. As neo-liberal capitalism increasingly hollows out the middle class, reducing leisure time, spare cash and concentrating wealth in the hands of a few who's going to pay for the things advertisers are trying to sell?

Which one are you using, I haven't found one that clicked for me yet. I've started using Toot TUI for mastodon and its great. Extra steps if you want to open photos etc, but given its just a text medium it just works better for reading. A TUI for RSS feeds is probably the next thing to grab for me.

I like that idea - I really want to get organised to go see a launch from up in Mahia sometime; especially as I can combine that with getting some of the best tuatuas in the country :)

We used to have a public works that ensured we had a pool of expertise and then had a pipeline of projects always on the go to keep them in work. Now we do it all piecemeal, have no built in talent pool so have to contract & consult it all out.

This! So we under invest, and since the 80s have completely shat on public works and relied on private contracting & consulting to get things done.

Ideally we would reinstate the Ministry of Public Works and then slowly ramp up the spend on that $100B investment to give time to rebuild the experience and expertise that will eventually give us better value for the spend.

I read an article a few months ago, can't find it now unfortunately, but it was arguing that making simple GDP comparisons between countries was getting harder as the purchasing power in different countries is so different. What we spend building a road vs Asian countries per km is kinda eye opening.

Heh, yeah our first home we'd looked for months and then took a couple weeks to decide to buy it. Second one we got sick of driving from Wellington Hawkes Bay after the 3rd trip so just picked 2 houses we liked and rolled the dice on this one; had a verbal offer in by the time we'd hit Woodville on the way home :)

Culturally perhaps 1970s; but in terms of economics very much back to the 80s/90s neo-liberal reforms.

Luxon's speech yesterday spinning a $200B hole in transport funding and the rough state of government's books is a setup for more UK style austerity. The proposed replacements for 3 waters sets things up for privatisation of water assets. The only thing holding that back would be Te Tiriti, oh and what's happening in that space?