The Herald are reporting that Tony Veitch has (once again) attempted to take his life. The story is very sad but did get me thinking about whether suicide is ever a rational response. There is some literature (here, here and here) on this very topic. The most interesting thing for me was that an attempt […]
The other night I caught the film ‘Second Skin’, showing at the World Cinema Showcase. Second Skin an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game – think World of Warcraft or Second Life) documentary about virtual worlds and the real lives they effect. It’s a decent watch. On the film they interviewed a “virtual world […]
Foodstuffs have recently announced that they will voluntarily introduce a 5c charge per plastic bag consumed through their New World and 4 Square supermarkets, with the revenue generated being used for an “environmental initiative” (previous post on the issue here). Foodstuffs account for over half of all supermarket sales in New Zealand through their New […]
As rightly pointed out over at Kiwiblog, when you make something free you distort incentives around use of that good or service. The previous Government introduced a Supergold card, offering concessions and discounts on various goods and services. In all their wisdom, they offer free off-peak travel on certain public transport. One such service was […]
In the face of increasingly uncertain economic times, the latest trend in France is for workers unhappy with their company’s position on labour to boss-nap,. Boss-napping entails workers disappointed with redundancies or payouts taking their bosses hostage as a bargaining tool! Recent kidnappings have involved 3M France’s industrial director and Sony France’s CEO and HR […]
I heard an interview with the CEO of the metals firm last night in the middle of the immigration furore on Radio NZ. His point was that he had employed specialist Filipinos to fill roles for which there was no local supply. This was during boom time. Local people, on the other hand, were undertaking […]