Rather locked down than living within a controlled experiment

As a dual national, I hope there’s some exaggeration or selective quoting in the Bristol Post about its report of former police officer Mike Rowland, who’s stuck in Auckland with his wife Yvonne. Apparently, New Zealand is in ‘pandemonium’ and he feels like he’s in ‘Alcatraz’.    As we are most certainly not in pandemonium, […]

Read More… from Rather locked down than living within a controlled experiment



The team approach

At the end of the last century, the National Government announced its Bright Future programme. Their research had identified that one thing holding back our national competitiveness was our devotion to the team rather than the individual, when in fact there have been many times New Zealand individuals have made immeasurable contributions and had not […]

Read More… from The team approach



Boris Johnson is hardly Churchillian

I’ve heard world leaders describe the fight against COVID-19 as a war, and there are some parallels.    As any student of history knows, there was such a thing as the Munich Agreement before World War II. I’ve managed to secure the summarized English translation below.    For those wondering why the UK initially thought […]

Read More… from Boris Johnson is hardly Churchillian



A quick look at COVID-19 on a per capita basis

Virusncov.com I don’t think it’s easy for most of us to make sense of the number of COVID-19 infections, especially as we’re recording more new infections daily. This website has some useful stats, and I was interested to see how we compared per capita.    I know others might get more utility seeing how we […]

Read More… from A quick look at COVID-19 on a per capita basis



Twelve things I do to keep balanced while working from home

When I was 13, my father became self-employed after being made redundant at his work. By choice, my mother did the same when I was in my early 20s. They both loved the lifestyle and I imagine it was inevitable I would do the same in my career, beginning at a time when I was […]

Read More… from Twelve things I do to keep balanced while working from home



The British approach to coronavirus: by Grabthar’s hammer, what a savings

Still from AFP video I’d far rather have the action taken by our government than the UK’s when it comes to flattening the curve on coronavirus, and the British response reminds me of this 2018 post.    Just because the chief scientific adviser there has a knighthood and talks posh isn’t a reason to trust […]

Read More… from The British approach to coronavirus: by Grabthar’s hammer, what a savings



Coronavirus: the weakening of globalization, and the lessons to learn

A generation ago, I don’t think many would have thought that globalization could be brought to its knees by a virus. They may have identified crazy politicians using nationalism as a tool, but probably considered that would not happen in developed economies and democracies sophisticated enough to withstand such assaults.    This course correction might […]

Read More… from Coronavirus: the weakening of globalization, and the lessons to learn



Human-centred peripherals should be the norm

I’ve had a go at software makers before over giving us solutions that are second-best, because second-best has become the convention. While I can think of an explanation for that, viz. Microsoft packaged Windows computers in the 1990s with Word and Outlook Express, it’s harder to explain why peripherals haven’t been human-centred.    I thought […]

Read More… from Human-centred peripherals should be the norm



The standard Chinese New Year news report

Janos Perian from Pixabay Every year, I hear or read a news report along these lines here: It’s Chinese, or the lunar, New Year today, and Asian communities all over New Zealand are coming together with their families to celebrate. It’s the Year of the Rat, which means it will be a lucky and prosperous […]

Read More… from The standard Chinese New Year news report



No longer a customer, Lumino still gives me reason to be wary about how they handle my private data

An email sent by me on March 27 to the head office of Lumino (the dentists). Link added for readers’ reference. I’ll let you make up your own minds. Hi Josephine: How are you?    I hate to bother you once more, as you had done everything you could to resolve the privacy issues I […]

Read More… from No longer a customer, Lumino still gives me reason to be wary about how they handle my private data