April 5, 2025 - Personal blog of Rick Giles

$20,000 Robo Turtle

By NZB3

“Meet Cornelia, the Kiwi-built robo-turtle”says Newstalk  ZB newsvertising. “It looks like a turtle and swims like a turtle, but this Kiwi-built green machine is more robot than reptile.” Because, Jamie Morton (reporter,) it is 100% AUT robot turtle and 0% reptile. But you were going for a Star Wars riff and I can respect that. […]

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August 9, 2023

Christian Software Patch: Uninstall

By NZB3

The Roman era is different to the Christian because of the object of sacrifice. Like primitives, the Romans held that gods both large and small determined forces of nature and that they were personal and could be appealed to. Food or drink, the lives of animals or children or slaves were taken in the name […]

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August 6, 2023

Happy to let itself be ruled

By NZB3

This information interferes with several of their cherished beliefs… “The greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do. Provided the rulers do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly happy to let itself be ruled. […]

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August 5, 2023

Optimus Prime Toaster

By NZB3

Returning home last night from watching the film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts I took a tangent away from an image-editing job. This was a kids movie and a kid persuaded me to see it with them. Even movies I do not enjoy can be deconstructed and diagnosed but this film was at least watchable […]

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July 23, 2023

Indiana Jones 4

By NZB3

As a very late Generation X, and for other reasons, I was excluded from being a part of the culture of my cohort. A bit like not being in on the joke except it’s no joke, it’s generational identity. When it comes to films, I was too late to be part of things like Ghost […]

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July 2, 2023

Measurement, Epistemology, Politics

By NZB3

Here is a question I found interesting from an unknown person wanting a connection between measurement, epistemology, and political groups to be elaborated upon. This association seems to explain the different points of view that Conservatives, Libertarians, Progressives, and Woke Leftists have about reality itself. And, it maps right on to the basic textbook learning […]

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June 25, 2023

Vodafone Rebrand

By NZB3

Q: What do you think of this. Am I missing something: Vodafone to block child pornography sites? Or is it a warm up for hate speech? A: It’s copying Countdown’s branding. Remember how Countdown supermarkets brought in Kiri Hannifin came in to re-brand them as the Social Justice supermarket chain? Gone the assuring white male […]

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June 24, 2023

Judith’s Return

By NZB3

You want healthy cynicism at the meta-level about New Zealand politics from an Anarchist not afraid to go out on a limb with bold, testable, predictions? You’ve come to the right place! Judith Collins, previous leader of the National Party, defeated at the 2020 election by Jacinda Ardern’s incumbent Labour 6.0, is coming back. Nobody […]

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June 13, 2023

Are We Running Out Of Things To Call Racist?

By NZB3

Are We Running Out Of Things To Call Racist? Nah. I think we already did run out and have been getting more creative for years now. Aggression became Micro-Aggression. Watched the first Angry Birds Movie again and it reminded me that ‘Hate Crime’ once occupied the space long since taken over by ‘Hate Speech’ and […]

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May 5, 2023

They’re All Grifters Aren’t They?

By NZB3

The post from Peter Cresswell’s blog Don’t feed the grifters (March 2023) accurately identifies a species of Tourist Grifter that New Zealand receives from time to time. Posie Parker put in a little effort visiting Auckland and walked away with publicity and extra donations that money can’t buy after the stationary riot in Albert Park. […]

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April 26, 2023