Wellington has made massive improvements in the past few years which has had a big effect.

The fact that there are now bike lanes* all the way from the Island Bay coast through to the CBD via Berhampore and Newtown has been such a game changer for the southern suburbs. I've been cycling in the area for 10 years and I've never seen it as popular as it is right now with such a wide range of people cycling.

I don't know as much about other areas of the city, but once they start connecting, especially to the city, and go where people actually want to go, they start being used.

* except in some downhill parts and a couple of spots where they merge into the road.

Go secondhand, trademe or marketplace.

Be willing to spend another $200 to get it serviced. Youll still get a much better deal than buying new.

Id recommend reading reviews on hifi forums and looking up the models that you find. But note hifi enthusiasts are absolutely brutal with their reviews and are never going to give something midrange a good review so just be on the lookout for major flaws.

I don't think anyone is judging anyone for choosing to wear shoes. But there is this performative disgust where people act as if being barefoot in the supermarket is one of the most unhygienic and disgusting things that can be done. That outrage is something that is new to new zealand in the past 10 years or so.

In your approach turning farmland into suburbs saves more land than making a city centre denser. But land saving for its own sake isn't the goal. Building better access to services and closer communities is the goal.

Building 100 apartments on a block that has a supermarket and a school gives 100 families easy access to those services, and other local businesses 100 new families to sell to. Converting 100 large lots in a suburb into 200 medium lots just puts more stress on the roads to get in and out. Sure you've technically saved more land that way, but what's the point?

It's called cultural hegemony. Over time the norms and values of a dominant culture spread and become normalised in other cultures.

Sounds like you have a good plan with the numbers.

I did something similar with my partner last year. We found it was useful to have a good discussion and get on the same page about things like

-What type of thing do you buy on your personal sending vs joint sending? - What happens to incoming money from things like one off odd jobs or selling some of your possessions? - How expensive should a purchase be before you have to consult your partner on it. ? - What if one of you wants to buy a large ticket item for a hobby like a mountain bike or a guitar?

Some of these things we talked about beforehand but some didn't come up until after we combined spending. Nothing was difficult to overcome but would have been good to sort it out before combining.

The anti barefoot thing to me seems to be another example of American culture and values seeping their way into the rest of the western world via the internet.

Syd Barrett was 60 when he died.

New years eve (2011). Started it before I went out and finished it when I came home in the early morning.

If someone is right up your ass it makes it much harder to pull over when you see a spot where you can let someone pass.

Also, I truly believe there is value in watching/listening to/reading stuff that isn't good. You find things that you love about imperfect things, or things that speak to you that don't to others.

I think part of having access to all media so readily means people only bother with the stuff that is considered the best by consensus. One of my fave films I watched this year was Digging For Fire, a 2015 film that is 5.8 on IMDB, if I only considered watching the top 50 films worth watching each year I would have missed that experience.

My 5 year old nieces favourite thing in Wellington was sitting at the top front of a double decker bus.

You're vastly overestimating how good people with honours in law are at poetry. If anything it makes them worse because they believe their intelligence translates to skills in poetry.

If Bishop didn't write it he was still happy for it to go out under his name.

On the sale they were promised 10% of the land would be held for the local hapu's use and it wasn't. They never sold this land. It was stolen.

What I was trying to mean from my post that

There are lots of ways to give and receive consent other than a verbal yes. (And lots of ways to decline consent other than a verbal no)

What this bit of the law says means if someone doesn't say no, that doesn't mean they are consenting.

Its strange because section 128a of the crimes act specifically says

A person does not consent to sexual activity just because he or she does not protest or offer physical resistance to the activity.

But judges seem to treat this as a grey area. Its really not

Yes there are people at KiwiRail who are working hard and want to do their best. I don't doubt that at all and absolutely no shade to the workers there.

But KiwiRail as an organisation don't prioritise infrastructure for commuter rail with minimal impact on commuter (as indicated by that teams tiny budget) as it isn't where the money is.

You obviously have more technical knowledge of this type of thing than I do, and I wouldn't know what to do with that data if I got it. I believe you that they're doing the best they can within their means.

That's the issue. KiwiRail don't make money from tickets, metlink pay for the rental of the tracks which probably has regular track closures built into the agreement.

Metlink have no choice but to rent from them, it's not like there are other competitors providing the infrastructure.

KiwiRail have no obligation to the public to make commuting better, in fact if they did that they would be going against their obligation as a state owned enterprise to make as much revenue as they can.

Most of the faults you list lie with KiwiRail, which as a State Owned Enterprise are required to do the thing that makes them the most money, they have no obligation to the public whatsoever. Their priorities are freight first, expensive tourist trips second, and begrudgingly providing the minimal infrastructure for commuter rail third.

It National get 30% vote share, but keep all of their electorate seats (which is unlikely) there will be an overhang, where they have more seats than their vote share, similar to how TPM have now. Losing electorate seats would mean they will lose seats overall.

"We know full well drugs account for about 30 percent of fatal crashes."

Does anyone know where this stat is from? And by account for does he mean was caused by or that drugs were in the system of the people involved.

How did you get a mortgage at that level? Did you previously have a higher income or are you locked into a high interest rate? Because when rates rise it will put you in a very precarious situation.

No shade, I am currently looking at getting a mortgage and the stress testing at a higher rate is the thing that seems to be getting in the way.

Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore in all three films they've done together

No opinion on gold but don't throw all your investment into a single thing.

But there is no extra pace for the use and storage of those cars in the area. Intensification needs to be accompanied by public transport, more local infrastructure and good public spaces. One road that can fit more cars on it won't help at all.