Episode 16: Relax on this, Mr Key.

John Key reckons that if he wins the next election he’d like to sell a bunch of OUR hard-earned assets, didn’t sound like a great idea to us, but we got a couple of pros – in the form of the inimitable misters David Farrar and Keith Ng – on the show to argue it through, just to make sure. Still sounds like a dumb idea, but now we’re really super sure about that. We also talk about Android finally (and inevitably) climbing to the top of the smartphone heap, learning to live with danger as a consequence of biology & physics, the ANZACs and the Turks (who are bloody good sports, considering they let us have a huge gathering to celebrate the time we tried to invade their country, in their country), mooted Queen St car ban (and other proposed council plans), the mondayification of a couple of our little holidays. And in possibly one of the best segments we’ve ever had on the show, we had Hady Osman on to tell us all about what’s happening in Egypt, things have been grim but are hopeful, and at least in part thanks to the behaviour of the Egyptian armed forces keeping things cool on the ground.

Fair warning, but after making such a brilliant show this week, Ben and I are going to be insufferably smug bastards for the next few days.

Live show in sunny Wellington? How is this possible!?

It’s still not entirely locked in, but on Saturday 19th of February at about 3pm there might be a live show, in person, with an audience (if you come), maybe at the Wellington Town Hall, or maybe at a nearby venue. Be there don’t be there, but only if we confirm it’s actually happening. (A lot of stuff has to go right between now and then.)

Tell a friend!

Remember how dull your Thursdays were before you discovered Discourse? Just think of the joy you’ll be bringing into the world by sharing it around.

• Discourse Guest: David Farrar, Kiwiblog
• Discourse Guest: Keith Ng, Public Address blogger and Nerdcenary for Hire.
  • NZ govt debt won’t worry agencies until it hits 30% of GDP, and it will only reach 28.5%, PM Key says (Interest.co.nz)
  • List of sovereign states by public debt (Wikipedia)
  • List of countries by external debt (Wikipedia)
  • External debt stocks, total (DOD, current US$) (World Bank)
• Android Overtakes Symbian as World’s No. 1 Smartphone Platform (DailyTech)
  • Android tops everyone in 2010 market share; 2011 may be different (Ars Technica)
  • Google Hiring Android Devs To Close the ‘Apps Gap’ (Slashdot)
• 250 a year die in domestic mishaps (NZ Herald)
• Military career of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (Wikipedia)
• Queen St car ban touted by Council (NZ Herald)
  • Len, isn’t it time to bring back the Hero Parade? (Tumeke)
  • Concert Review: Laneway Festival (NZ Herald)
• PM not keen on ‘Mondayising’ holidays (NZ Herald)
• The Discourse Weekly Show Urban Dictionary Word of the Week
  • Ignoranus
• Discourse Guest: Hady Osman
  • Egypt (Wikipedia)
  • Egypt Situation Gets Worse, People Reporting Internet And SMS Shutdown (TechCrunch)
  • Egypt Shuts Off All Internet Access (Slashdot)
  • Egypt Leaves the Internet
  • How to Foil a Nationwide Internet Shutdown (Life Hacker)
  • Egypt’s army promises no force against protesters (3 News)
  • United States Foreign Military Financing (Wikipedia)