Umamiblog

Stephen Franks on a book review of The City That Became Safe:

One year I noticed a peak in the Central Police district homicide figures (Wanganui, Manawatu, Hawkes Bay) and had a statistician friend check for me – that district did indeed have a higher murder rate than New York.

While purely subjective, I often feel safer in London than I did in NZ. Heather Mac Donald’s book review here.

NZ Legislation shifts file-sharing from bittorrent to tunnels:

The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. Legislation will never be able to keep up with technical innovation.

What happens when you change the law and the market can’t/won’t/isn’t offering an easier solution.

Self-determination for New Zealand is not a choice, it’s a reality. No one is going to look after us.

- Lloyd Morrison. RIP.

Nat at Simple & Lovable on the first fatality-free holiday road toll:

As someone on the road who, just by being in a car has a chance (albeit a small one), of winding up a statistic, I appreciate their efforts.

Nice work five-O.

Via Bryce Edwards at Liberation, quoting Horizon:

Horizon Research shows 6.4% of New Zealanders 18+ do not have a landline telephone at home. This rises to 19.6% among 18 to 24 year-olds; 18.8% for those earning $100,000 to $200,000 a year and 12.5% for those earning less than $20,000 a year.

Basic findings; if you’re poor, young, or rich, you’re less likely to have a landline. This is only going to head in one direction. Expect more bias in polls.

Gareth Morgan, opinion piece for Interest.co.nz:

We continue to live it up like we are right up there with the world’s richest. And of course you can only drink champagne on a beer budget by selling your assets or raising more debt.

We do both.

I really only see one way this is going to go for NZ. Yawn.