I was all set to be moving to Adelaide in Oct 2008 when my boss threw millions and millions of dollars and jewellery at me to stay on a bit longer! um well maybe it didn't exactly go down like that haha but to cut a long story short I'm now blessing NZ with my presence for the next 6mths instead of 3mths!  The move is now set for Feb 2009....  Look out ADELAIDE here I come! :)

Click the link above to download an exclusive free Undertow tune titled Infinity...

Nice and chilled summer vibes....Make sure you crank it up!!! It's all about the bass ;)

Check back for more free Undertow mp3s over the coming months, plus more news on my debut EP.

http://www.ccj.org.nz/massah/

In this issue:
* Paul - Founder of Christianity, or faithful Jew?
* Is it Possible to Teach the New Testament without being Anti-Semitic?
* Jewish - Christian Relations in Israel
* NZ Women's Interfaith activities

Happy reading

Dave

While browsing the Vodafone website this morning, I decided to see if there was any change in the plans given the general disappointment by the public (see here* and here*). To my surprise there has been a change in the listed plans(!), but not a change I was expecting.

So lets play spot the difference...

The listed plans today:

And the plans announced on July 8:

As you can see above, and for yourself on their iPhone plans page, Vodafone have ceased advertising their exorbitant 1GB data plan - you now have to visit a store to find that one.

So why the change? I can only conclude that Vodafone are EMBARRASSED by their own plans to the point that they are trying to hide the true cost to "heavy" data users. I say "heavy" as I believe that is complete bollocks by the way - 1GB per month is a mere 33MB (or so) a day and trivial to burn through given the richness of the internet. Furthermore, paying $6,000 for 24GB over two years is plainly insane when my ISP can offer me 50GB in one month for $40. Go figure (coz I can't).

So yeah, SHAME ON YOU VODAFONE - firstly for pricing your data ridiculously high and secondly for trying to hide it.

(* WebCite links to the Stuff.co.nz articles here and here)

Congratulations to Wayne Burt of Christchurch. Wayne will have the chance to sit at the helm in a 52 tonne Centurion tank while a car gets completely crushed.

Furthermore he and his guest will have the most comfortable stay imaginable at Oaks Smart Stay Apartments on Cashel Street in Christchurch.

Wayne, as a fully registered member of JOBX is able to find jobs easily with our job search functionality such as finding part time jobs, and the career networking facilities. We are now able to help Wayne find employment through our job search and other facilities JOBX provides.

Keep an eye on updates such as video clips, photos and blog posts about their experiences here in Christchurch courtesy of JOBX, Oak Smart Stay Apartments on Cashel Street and Tanks for Everything.

Wayne Burt - JOBX Tank Star Competition winner (left), receives congratulations from JOBX New Zealand CEO Andrew Mcleod (right).

Do I want a job or a date?

Undertow - July Dubstep Mix - 76:48

The Jamaicans :: Ba Ba Boom
Skream :: Dub Period
Undertow :: Infinity
Obeah :: Noise for OHOI!
Undertow :: Guerilla Tactics
Benga & Walsh :: Dreamscape 24
Coda :: Illusionz
Caspa & Rusko :: Custard Chucker
Skream :: Irie
Undertow Ft Jayji :: Untitled
(Reso :: Filter Tip)
Ruf :: Rudebwoy Riddim
6Blocc Ft Big Daddy Kane :: Rawer
Si Begg :: My Style
Optimus Gryme :: A Milli
P-Vans :: Black Sheep
Undertow :: Nowhere To Run
(Skream :: Sandsnake)
Digital :: Spacefunk
Kode 9 & Spaceape :: Portal
Undertow :: Lost
Reso :: No Such Thing As Fate
(Martyn :: Broken)
Thievery Corporation Ft Sister Nancy :: Originality
Flex :: Last Man Standing
Tes La Rok :: Round The World Girls
Kode 9 :: Magnetic city
The Sandman :: Transformers
Roni Size :: Child Of The West (Switchdubs Remix)
Bar 9 :: Murda Sound
Undertow :: Onslaught
Skream :: Make Me
Rob Sparx :: Two Face Rasta (Reso Remix)
Undertow :: Knuckle Sand Witch
Hindzy D :: Dub Cott
Frosty Boy :: Cookies
Collie Buddz :: Come Around (abZ Remix)
Ed Solo & Skool Of Thought :: Sludge
Massive Attack :: Teardrop (Vibraslut Remix)
Aphex Twin :: Flim

http://www.aotea-breaks.co.nz/undertow/public/Undertow%20July%20Dubstep%20Mix.mp3

[viddler id=a4f0d42d&w=545&h=349]

der youtube link hat leider nur den anfang vom video drauf, ich werd mich noch mit ein paar anderen video sharing seiten beschaeftigen und schauen ob ich das ganze video online krieg.

He said (something like), "While they are there they will be concentrating on the sport that they are there for.  ... NZ ... aren't sending people to China to protest about what is going on in Tibet ... the expectation [of the New Zealand public and those who support the athlete]  will be that they do well at the Olympics.   What I would expect ... that they go over there to do their best for their country on the sporting field and leave the polititics to the polititians."  (emphasis mine)

What a dangerous and odd point of view.

Quite apart from the absurdity of Dick Quax imagining that no part of NZ society expects its representatives at the Olympics to hold and express views critical of the Chinese government in relation to Tibet (and other matters), and quite apart from his implied narrow view of what it would mean to "do well" at the Olympics; Quax seems to be suggesting that politics is not the business of citizens.

Of course the other extreme is that politics is far too important to be left to polititians.  I think that is true, although I do not mean this as a put-down of polititians; it is simple an affirmation that politics is about, and the business of, all of us.  Indeed China there has been a tradition of politics being seen as the exclusive realm of those in power; but we do not support that view of the world in NZ, and we should not expect our international sporting representatives to forget their democratic and justice values just because they are in Beijing for their sport.

I do completely understand that some athletes will simply focus on their event and neither consider nor comment on issues of politics or justice.  That is their right and it is easily understood when a person has prepared for the Olympics as their focus for several years.  The athletes did not choose for the Olympics to be hosted by China, they are simply participating in what for many will be a once in a life-time event that could be anywhere.

But to justify that focus on sport by proposing some principle that politics should be left to polititians is to dishonour all who work for change within NZ, within China and throughout the world.   We simply must not leave politics to polititians, and we normally don't in this country.  We elect polititians, we lobby polititians and we hold polititians accountable.   We also recognise that we are each ethical beings with personal and collective choices that can make a difference.  All of that is politics.  Dick Quax, chose to focus on the sport in isolation if you wish, but don't undermine the political ecosystem that includes robust protest and considered participation and that provides the context of freedom for you and your fellow athletes.

It was heartening that the programme on which Quax voiced his opinion also had other voices that recognised that some athletes would make other choices, and that the Beijing Olympics could not be isolated from the political context in China and the world.

It is also heartening to hear of some athletes (in Australia at least) seeking information and resources in preparation for their visit to Beijing.

The Australia Tibet Council said it had had inquiries from some current team members as to how they could best protest China’s treatment of Tibet.

The radio interview with Quax and others can be found (at least for a while) as an mp3 download or podcast, here.
Graeme

Mike Moreu is a cartoonist for local rag The DomPost.* His blog profile on Stuff says

Mike Moreu is a full-time editorial cartoonist with a passion for using funny pictures to make serious points.

Which would seem a fairly textbook description of a political cartoonist, yes?

So I can only assume I'm missing a) the funny and b) the point:

It's, um, funny because people are dead. Specifically, Israeli people? And, um, the implied irony of Israelis releasing live prisoners and Hizbollah executing prisoners is, I guess, really hilarious? Or just smirk-worthy? And the point ... is that Hizbollah are bad and Israel is totally morally in the clear with regard to Middle Eastern conflict? Wow, what breathtaking insight. What an amazing, incisive depiction of complex situations that's truly made me think about the situation in a new light - oh, sorry, no, my actual response was "Wow, if we're just going to incite more conflict, could we at least have some kind of punchline?"

Then there was this. Now, I don't know how y'all are feeling about the New Yorker "Obama is a flag-burning African princeling and Michelle Obama is a scary Black Panther time-traveller" cover, but my personal take is that, if you have to keep shouting "IT'S A SATIRE, HONEST" then you aren't doing it right.

Um ... I guess it's funny if you honestly believe the New Yorker cover in question a) isn't offensive or b) isn't a really, really pathetic attempt at "satire"? It's funny because all Muslims are automatically Arabic and look like extras out of Disney's Aladdin? All Obama supporters are irrational white men now? And the point is ... that Muslims and Obama supporters just don't have a sense of humour? Or just that Obama supporters = violent terrorists?

Still, this is the work of the man who thought this would be not only appropriate but funny:

Get it, get it? Because TVNZ is like a woman who was hospitalised with four broken vertebrae after being repeatedly kicked by her ex-partner! IT'S SO FUCKING EDGY!

Of course, Mike has to admit, in a blog post literally entitled "A hard-hitting topic"**

However, Andrew at The Press didn’t quite concur. He thought, while it was definitely provocative, that the battered woman crossed a line of good taste and that it in fact detracted from the message since readers would have a hard time getting past the picture and seeing that I was talking about TVNZ’s image – despite the words clearly on her shirt.

It is truly saddening to see this man's pointed commentary being possibly censored all because some over-sensitive whiners might overlook the words clearly on her shirt and find the image of a beaten woman disturbing. In centuries to come, our descendants will wonder why we could not give this man free rein to explore the outer edges of making abuse funny.

But have no fear, in case you were thinking, "Hey, Andrew at The Press, good job drawing a line against tasteless exploitation for the sake of "humour"!" Because he and Mike got together and reached a compromise - after all, this was "too important a topic not to tackle".***

So just to make the point clearer for the thickies, the final result was this:

Oh, this is so much better.

That's Mike Moreu, ladies and gents. And lest you are not yet quite convinced of how much he deserves to get paid to do this full-time, let us not forget his ability to condense the ordinary poo joke into a comedic tour de fucking force of hard-hitting political analysis:

*Dominion Post for those of you playing outside of Wellington/NZ.

**DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PUNS ARE AWESOME! ARE YOU NOT BLOWN OVER BY HOW BRILLIANT HIS WIT IS???

***Please to remember the cartoon is meant to be a commentary on TVNZ's reaction. Not, you know, domestic violence, the covering-up thereof, or the effect of any of this on the actual victim.

This wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't in my last two weeks at the non-profit organisation I have been working in for the last 11.5 years.  Yes folks, I gave notice two weeks ago.  And my replacement has been appointed and starts on Monday.  And I have a million things to do between now (ie the day before yesterday, when I went on sick leave) and Monday.  This is all I need, quite honestly.

Still, I think the Augmentin is working and I WILL be back at work on Monday.  Meanwhile I have had two days with no computer at all, I curled up with Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers, an old favourite that I more or less know word for word.  I chose that one because I visited Oxford recently with someone who actually knows his way round. Have visited Oxford many times, but not with insider info before. It was interesting to reread Gaudy Night in the light of my new found knowledge.

I had my leaving do from said place of work the other night.  We went to Finc on Wakefield Street.  It was a good venue - great food, non-obtrusive waiting staff, good atmos.  I was given some NZ Art :) three stunningly beautiful lead crystal waka.  I will need a place to put them where the light will pass through.  I love them because they're beautiful, they're uniquely NZ and they have connotations of travel, of heritage, of the sea and of the land.  And they are not life size.  That of course is important for future enjoyment thereof.

Am going back to bed now (sniff)

I'll set the scene - a promise of a whole term's worth of salary was announced by the arrival of a payslip on Monday after several long phone calls to Payroll in Wellington the previous Friday. We should expect the money by Wednesday at the latest! Hooray! Aonghas has been patiently waiting for his Nintendo Wii (the money for which he had saved up from Birthday and Christmas) since we got here. But as we had no television and we had spent his money (dreadful parents that we are!) we said that he would have to wait. The television problem was solved when his friend Hong's Mum and Dad lent us their old one but we still had no money! We promised him that we would buy it when I got paid which we thought would have happened weeks ago!! So he was very excited when it looked like he would be able to have his Wii this week for the holidays. Not so! No money on Monday, no money on Tuesday, checked the bank account just about every hour but still no money on Wednesday! On Thursday I phoned Payroll who said that the money had gone from there and should be in my account, so they suggested I phone school. On phoning them and checking my payslip more carefully we found that the account number was wrong by one digit - so my money was somewhere in the ether - possibly in someone else's account! Several frantic phone calls later by the wonderful accounts staff at school to Wellington and I now have a promise that the money will be in MY account by the end of today. I won't hold my breath!! Just keep checking the account....

We have spent a few pleasant mornings in the museum this week keeping busy and being entertained. What's wrong with that, I hear you say? Well, nothing really except when you come out and go back to the car to find that someone has got into it and stolen all your CDs! No apparent sign of forced entry (I had checked that it was locked before leaving it but as it has central locking I only checked the drivers door trusting that the central locking worked), and fortunately no damage to the car. They also took the registration documents and the insurance details from the glove compartment. What else was in there I don't know - my sunglasses, and other bits of junk. My guess is they just tipped the contents of the glove compartment in a bag and ran. Not sure if it is worth making a claim but when you count up the cost o 20 or so CDs you suddenly realise that that is quite a lot of money. Had to phone the insurers to ask them to send out a new policy document so will see what our excess is and work out whether it is worth claiming.  Spent the next hour at the police station reporting the theft and getting the car brushed for fingerprints.  Nothing positive came up so I'm guessing it'll just be another one to put down to experience!

As I have already blogged we have spent the last couple of weekends getting excited about looking at houses and even found one we think we could put an offer in for once our sale comes through. But - yes, you've guessed it! Six weeks after making an offer our buyer has pulled out - SIX WEEKS!! He claims it is because builders reports state that there is too much work to do. However he had builders round there BEFORE he put in his offer. We know that because in the course of doing that he switched the water on, left it on and as a result caused a leak which luckily our friends found when they went to open the windows to air the house. It resulted in our friends having to fit a new water tank and clean up all the mess. It also caused our next door neighbours problems, but I won't go into that as it is far too complicated! We suspect that he has had problems getting a mortgage and is using building repairs as an excuse. He was already getting the house for considerably less than the market value even given the depressed state of the market. How can he decide now after 4 or 5 months (he first viewed it back in Feb.March) that it is not what he wants? Grrrr! VERY frustrating! Okay, rant over ....

So if anyone out there knows of anyone who wants a substantial Victorian family home in Ingleton North Yorkshire please make us an offer. (3 bedrooms, large living kitchen, large living room, copious amount of boarded out, dry cellar space, mature garden (probably quite overgrown by now but it is lovely underneth!!), 2 garden sheds, outdoor ex-toilet now shed! Off road parking. It is the former mine manager's house from when Ingleton was a thriving mining village. The three cellars are dry, centrally heated, and used by us as a children's play room, a study and a storage area for all our caving, climbing, camping, walking gear so there is plenty of space! The kitchen is the hub of the house - we unearthed a big hearth and stone lintel before we left but had no time to do anything with it so there is scope to devlop that. But the kitchen is big enough for a large dining table so we spent most of our time in there! The sun pours in in the afternoon and late evening making it a really sunny spot to be. The living room is the same size as the kitchen and again the light comes in afternoons and evenings. Upstairs there are three bedrooms and a bathroom, the master bedroom has fully fitted wardrobes. All looking a bit sad now that no one has been living there for six months so it desperately needs a happy family to keep it company again! We look forward to being inundated with offers!!

TVNZ is calling for contestants from around New Zealand to be on the show.
Those selected will be flown to the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? studios in Melbourne where the series will be recorded in front of a Kiwi audience and fronted by a New Zealand host (yet to be announced).

"TVNZ is thrilled and proud to bring Kiwi viewers the first New Zealand version of this phenomenally popular show," says Andrew Shaw, TVNZ General Manager of Commissioning, Production & Acquisition.

"The opportunity to share the studio, set, lighting, computer system and production expertise of Channel 9 makes this New Zealand version possible," says Shaw.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is the multi-award winning quiz format created by 2waytraffic. The show launched in the UK where it quickly became a ratings phenomenon. Since then the format has been licensed or optioned to every major territory in the world.

The format has unparalleled play-a-long-at-home appeal, with viewers either on the edge of their seats or with their head in their hands, hanging on to the contestant's every answer.

To apply, go to tvnz.co.nz/millionaire and take the test.

Amazing pictorial of practice stream for the 2008 World FF Championships. A post from the Romanian Flytying site. Again, excellent and provocative images.  

http://www.flytying.ro/pescuit/article.php?id=211

- Owen Walker, aka AKILL, the Kiwi bot herder who was stupid enough to get caught, couldn't stop smiling in court when the judge called him a "very bright young man."

- He spent over two years building bot nets- not a person who was a mule but someone who actively recruited people for his A Team- and would have kept going if not stopped. The judge still sees no criminal intent on his part, just curiosity.

- Even the prosecution called for leniency. So much for the vaunted FBI operation Bot Roast.

- He controlled 1.3 million computers around the world yet escaped conviction (also video) since it might ruin the prospects of using his skills in a positive way. No doubt those 1.3 million people are thrilled at that prospect as is UPenn, which he crashed for a couple of days with an accidental distributed denial of service attack

- All he got was a fine of $9,526 or about US$ 7,300 for damage that runs into millions of dollars because all the police actually proved was the UPenn attack.

OK, so he was 16 when he started and suffers from mild Asperger’s syndrome but what message does the sentence send to bored teenagers? That the Internet is a lawless wild west? That if you're stupid enough to get caught, don't worry, there's not going to be a hanging? Instead, the police and overseas companies will line up to give you a job? That all you're going to get is a fine that you can probably pay from your first month's salary (as you've already blown the $40,000 you've made)?

From the news coverage, it seems to me that all of the hinting that he might work for the police is just a red herring.

Owen Walker was not that good a programmer, even though the police think so (video), just a person with a very relaxed sense of right and wrong.

The message is physical crime is not worth it- you actually do get sent to jail and no prosecutor is going to ask a judge to discharge you without a conviction. The Internet is where the smart guys go to- it seems that everyone is on your side then.

On TV (video) they aren't willing to speak out against the sentence. So what's next? A book deal? An invitation to speak at the RSA Conference a la Frank Abagnale?

Ridiculous.

Do we get the crime that we deserve?

The last few days were quite nice. I've been to an island, actually a vulcano, in Auckland harbour that is just 600 years old! The Maori actually saw it being born. Wow! It's a magical place, with enchanted forests and full of black lava rocks. And nothing beats eating while sitting on a plank a few metres above the sea at night when all the streetlights and the cars going over the bridge are mirrored in the water - beautiful.

Stay tuned! :)

For example:

Dim varMyValue as Variant
varMyValue = NULL
MsgBox IsNull(varMyValue + 2)


This will return TRUE.

However, it is often the case that we would like this expression to "ignore" the NULL value and return the value 2.

We can achieve this using the NZ function.

The syntax of this function is as follow:

Nz(variant, [valueifnull])

Thus we could ignore the NULL value and substitute it with 0.

e.g.

Dim varMyValue as Variant
varMyValue = NULL
MsgBox NZ(varMyValue,0) + 2


Here the NULL value is replaced with the value zero and our message box displays the value 2.

We could also use the NZ function in other ways.

If we have a variable containing a string , for example, the country of a purchaser (e.g. UK, US, PL) and we use this to calculate a postage rate for goods sent to this purchase we could use the NZ function in the following way to replace a NULL value with a suitable message or calculation.

e.g.

strPostage = NZ(strCountry,0) ' if we wanted to set the postage value to zero if it is NULL


or

strPostage = NZ(strCountry,"No Country Code Given") ' to maybe use in a MsgBox if strCountry is NULL


We could also use the NZ function in an Access SQL query.


SELECT [Surname], [FirstName], [DOB], NZ([Address],"No Address Available")


Note, however, that this function is only available within Access and not within any of the rest of the Office suite. Also, other variants of SQL may not support this function.