NZ houses more expensive than UK, USA

Current house prices coverted into NZ dollars:

NZ Avg Price in NZD = $405,235
US Avg Price in NZD = $369,839
UK Avg Price in NZD = $347,992
OZ Avg Price in NZD = $623,107



I knew it. The myth has been finally dispelled! Read More >>

Italian Soccer Demotivational Poster

 

Italian Football Team, World Cup (De)Motivational Poster

Italian Submarine Tactics

'Dive Dive Dive'

World Cup: New Zealand robbed of a win over Italy by diver!

C'mon, surely for anyone who saw that must realise that Italian player Daniele De 'Diver' Rossi won the Italian side a penalty through some pitch theatrics.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald :' Daniele De Rossi flopped to the deck in the All Whites penalty area, alleging he'd been pushed by 20-year-old Kiwi innocent - Tommy Smith.'

Could it simply have been a nicely timed theatrical performance in order to save face? if so, then why would any referre allow such a thing?

Ryan Nelsen was highly critical of the referee in this morning's incredible 1-1 draw with Italy, saying he got "stars in his eyes" and ruined the match. NZ Herald

The New Zealand draw against the reigning world champions is brilliant, but it could have been something more.....something so much more epic!

My good mate put it quite well "The All Whites kicked em' in the meat'a-balls."

Auckland Beats Sydney in Quality of life Survey.

Having lived in Auckland since August 2006 after moving from Wellington, and Sydney before that I have to admit, I certainly do prefer Auckland over Wellington because if its size and variety. However, its ranking as the worlds 4th most liveable city must surely draw some questions from people in other cities such as Sydney and even from people in Auckland itself.

I am one of the people who do often compare Auckland to Sydney given their similar geographic layout and I have to say that as a tourist, Sydney wins hands down over Auckland in every area when it comes to things a tourist would want to go, see and photograph. Lets face it, no one comes to visit the world famous Auckland Harbour Bridge or take a walk around the coveted Auckland Tank Farm.

But what about the differences as a resident.

Getting to the beach in Sydney can be a real mission. You can never get parked and the beaches are always busy, whereas in Auckland you can often find a space without too much trouble and it never really takes more than 20 minutes to get to one.

Auckland is beautiful, but it takes a while to realise it because Auckland frustratingly does not take advantage of it. Where Sydney has built amazing buildings and parks all along it's waterfront, Auckland has only built ports, industry and a red fence. Much of the coastline of the North Shore is dominated by private development and there is very little in the way of beachfront reserves compared to Sydney.

Sydney has the Botanic Gardens, Hermitage Foreshore, Watson's Bay, the Gap Park, Ashton, Bicentennial and heaps more all along its waterfront. With the exception of Mission bay, Takaparawha, and the recently purchased Queens Wharf, Auckland has very little access to the waterfront from the main city. (IMHO)

 Please note I tend not to include the concrete jungle that is the viaduct harbour.

When I lived in Sydney, I did notice that the number of homes with bars over their windows was high (I am not kidding) whereas I don't think I have really seen this in Auckland (I am sure there will be come areas that have them).

There is of course also the eternal argument that Sydneysiders are not very friendly compared to Aucklanders and

Somebody over at the Sydney Morning Herald is a little grumpy about it.... with good reason perhaps?

Britain's New Government

Well, its not what I would have wanted for the UK but it has happened wether we like it or not. The Tories are back in power, sort of.

Gordon Brown's exit was very good I thought and I do hope that history will be kind to him, even though the people and the media over the last few years have not.

David Cameron certainly appears to look the part and I am glad that Nick Clegg is there to keep him honest (I hope),

Good luck Britons!

Is New Zealand a 3rd World Country ???

This was written in 2007, not too long ago. I wonder if the author is onto something?

Email Etiquette : People Who Respond to Email's with a Completely Different Subject are Rude!

Here is how it goes. You send an email out to a few people at your workplace or club, or whatever. The email in question has a particular subject heading and the email is on a specific topic. (as most emails are)

The nice people will respond to your query or comment and things get done.

But then your inbox beeps with a message from some rude bastard who decided to completely ignore your original email topic and replies to you on a completely different and often whimsical matter! ..... AND, they make no effort to even change the Subject Line.

At least change the bastard subject line if you are going to just ignore my email and ask me something completely different!

RUDE! I tells you RUDE!

Scotland's Winter Wonderland 2009 : 2010

This is easily some of the best aerial footage I have seen. Scotland got dumped on big time this past Winter with so much snow that it was dubbed a 1 in 30 year event. I missed it! :-(

Samsung ST500 High Resolution Images : Examples

I have been testing out the Samsung ST500 and I have found that it is really very good for a Point and Shoot Camera.

Yes, the camera has the funky front LCD screen and you could argue that this is simply a gimmick, however I have found it quite amusing and somewhat helpful, especially for the countdown timer which displays nice large numbers on it. If you are the type of person who likes to take shots of yourself then you will surely love it.

The camera can go to 12.2 mega pixels however the 9 mega pixel wide setting is the best. It fills the entirety of the rear touch screen which at 3 inches is pretty great.

The images are a little bit noiser than a half decent DSLR but after a little bit of downsize sharpening, the final result is pretty damn good.

I decided to upload 5 example images which I have copied directly from the camera and uploaded to Photobucket Imgur. Unfortunately this compresses the images and destroys all the EXIF data, but they have retained their original resolution.

I did absolutely no post processing on these images whatsoever. Other than the compressed upload, they are exactly what you get from the camera.

Well, it seems as though Imgur also resizes my images. The first image below seemed to be preserved at its original size, but I noticed the rest of my images were shrunk slighly. I give up.

Enjoy the samples below from the ST500. The images you would get yourself will be slightly larger and have 20% better JPEG compresson.

Boris, our Cat
Click Image to Download Full Resolution

New Zealand Fire Service Trucks
Click Image to Download Full Resolution

Itajai Express Cargo Ship
Click Image to Download Full Resolution

Auckland City Ferry Terminal
Click Image to Download Full Resolution

Dove Myer Park, Auckland
Click Image to Download Full Resolution

All Images are copyrighted to Murray Douglas but are completely free to use with attribution.

Guatemala Sinkhole Photoshop Job! 'C'mon!

C'mon guys, seriously. Is this image a photoshop job or what?  Being a somewhat avid Photoshop user, I would suggest hell yes.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly do believe that the  Guatemala Sinkhole exists, but the first image below suggests that it seems to have a perfect cylindrical shape and ends in a giant cave under the Earths crust!

What do you think guys? am I being too skeptical?

 

Guatemala Sinkhole Fake or Real ? 

But this one looks real.... Guatemala Sinkhole 

Guatemala Sinkhole, Hmmmmm