The Silver Fern

@sparky said in Reds v Blues:

@Canes4life Roigard, Funaki, Ratima.

Excellent options at Half Back for the next few years.

Hotham should also improve and Vijoen will come into the fray in a couple years.

De Groot, Harman and JR-K were the pick of the Highlanders. IMHO.

@Frank come back at me whenever your team has won 14 titles champ, I’ll hold onto that as well for now…👍

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@Machpants He said a stint in Super Rugby so I see no reason why he can't be thrown in with either the Force, Landers or Moana Pasifika.

@Crazy-Horse said in Waratahs v Chiefs:

One day it'll go wrong for Finau. Hopefully it's not when he is in the Black jumper.

So far he's four or so smashings for zero penalties - to me that's a ratio I would be happy with in black

I feel Norths are trying to steal our draft picks

If anyone wants to dig into the math, this is super interesting.

Aug 15, 2023 What do I think about Community Notes? What do I think about Community Notes?

Key takeaways for me is you can review the notes voting and see why it was surfaced or hidden. That sort of transparency is crucial for a context based system like this.

Algorithmic based fact checking is a great way to handle the current polarisation where each side is trying to promote its own facts.

In any case, this is a dramatically better system than the previous regime.

The avalanche of new features is also a benefit to the app for me. Some will hit, others won’t.

I’m tempted by the grok summary of news events and how they are going to expand that. Some interesting kernels of features starting to emerge.

We had a good ten years of very little innovation, certainly not the case anymore. Almost too much to keep up with.

Another nice afternoon for some club footy today, that, in contrast to all the tight games last week, this week saw some bigger scores in all games.

I went along to watch Hora Hora host Mid Northern who alongside Kamo & Moerewa/United Kawakawa still remain unbeaten after 6 rounds.

Game started well, and the home sides loose trio of Rory Woods, Jaycob Matiu and Terrell Peita were keeping HH in the game, with Peita and Woods in particular prominent on both sides of the ball.

For Mid Northern, thier pack set the platform, led as always by Jordan Olsen, playing at 8 today.

Jade Stewart at 10 controlled the game well, while thier locking duo of Terepai King and Darcy Holwell were busy on both sides of the ball.

MN were up 28-7 at the break, although the game was closer than that, but the 2nd half saw the injection of Rob Rush who made his impact felt at the first few rucks he cleaned out and showed his step up in quality.

HH hit back early in the 2nd half when Peita bagged a double, but MN hit back immediately, and then a 4 try spell in 15 mins from about 60 mins put the game away, although HH 8 Rory Woods had the final say as they went down 51-19.

For HH, Woods and Peita were prominent in the 1st half, while Woods maintained this, Peita was a bit quieter in the 2nd, Kobie Scutt and Kobie Walters both had thier moments for the home side.

MN seem to be playing well as a team, with no real standouts in the 1st spell, Kiwi Duncan had his moments but sometimes his decision making lets him down, although scored a cracker of a solo try in the 2nd spell with great stepping off both feet to beat defenders and gas to finish.

In the 2nd half, centre Zac Shanks who is usually a loosie showed some classy with ball in hand and deceptive pace, while Jade Stewart had a good game guiding them around at 10, while Rob Rush was into everything as you'd expect with a player of his calibre, props Lemisio and Apoua both had thier moments to show thier running skills while they ensured MN had a dominant set piece.

All the other results were as expected, although score lines bigger than I'd expected and a couple blowouts, none moreso than the MUKK v Waipu where the scores were tight at 17-13 at half time.

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@Bones said in The thread of learning something new every day:

If Bon Scott hadn't removed himself with drink and drugs we probably wouldn't have known Brian Johnson

Sounds like someone needs more Geordie in their life….

@Old-Samurai-Jack said in Crusaders v Rebels:

@Crazy-Horse I would start either him or Papalii at 7 if Ardie is at 8 (which he will be).

I could be wrong but I think he’s been playing plenty at 7 in Japan. I’m intrigued to see where Razor likes him.

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@Chris I have. They were good at scrum time against the lesser sides. I support MP as well and watch every Drua game so I watch plenty of the lesser sides haha.

Their scrum was terrible last night. I'm wondering if they had the wrong studs in last night like the Force last year because they were going backwards at a ridiculous rate.

I would assume they will start from the bench. Halfpenny is pretty descent goalkicker, could come in handy.

@voodoo said in Political Memes (memes only):

@Victor-Meldrew said in Political Memes (memes only):

@booboo

It's a trans representation of Alec Salmond (the former SNP leader who left to form a different party) who's key in any no confidence vote to keep the SNP in power in Scotland. Add in it was the SNP's abortive Gender ID laws which started their downfall and it's a very, very clever meme - though not up to @Tim standard.

Ae you sure it’s not the much-admired ex-leader of our northern Australian comrades?

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That's who I thought it was

@voodoo said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@MN5 said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@voodoo said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@MN5 said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@voodoo said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@MN5 said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@voodoo said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@voodoo said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@antipodean said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@voodoo said in What are you listening to, right now................:

Calling all guitarists on here - anyone have one with a Floyd Rose bridge? The lad has one, and we attempted the first string change the other night with youtube assisting. Fair to say it did not go well...

Anyone got a good resource or advice for working with these things? Bloody nightmare!!!

Any chance you watched this one?

No, didn't see that one - will watch now, thanks.

Would note that I am already 1 min in to his 20min clip and he has already admitted to having "pre-done" about 5 steps and he has laid out the kit in this manner:

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I suspect that Fess was not exaggerating.

Edit - that pic includes a number of tools that he has designed and made himself to fill a gap in the market.

Fess is going to be taking a bit of my $ over the next few years

Fuck all of that.

Trade it in and buy him an imitation Fender Strat. They look and sound better anyway.

( this is all just my opinion of course, kids playing music is always awesome, encourage him anyway you can )

This all sounds very complicated, I had no idea there was so much involved with them !

155 bucka seems ridiculous.

He has a Strat already (not an imitation) - he bought that a few years ago, and the new Ibanez is a recent upgrade from that (with his own savings 💪)

It’s a wicked guitar, looks and sounds incredible - just a little tricky to change the stings apparently

Nice, good work. A genuine strat isn’t cheap !

My only other suggestion is to become his roadie and do this if disaster strikes….

That’s good work! And yeah, I have every intention of retiring to be his roadie/manager at some point. Just a couple more years…

Final suggestion.

Switch to bass, we never change our strings.

He has a bass too…and you’re right, I don’t think we have ever changed the stings on that and he’s had it 2 years

I was on a bass group on FB and it’s amazing how feral and “internet tough” everyone started getting particularly over lockdown arguing over, of all things, how often to change strings on their basses !

Then there was the whole criticism of Cliff Williams ( AC/DC bass player ) who plays about two,sometimes three, notes per song. All the technical nerds would lament his lack of technical ability, all the “purists” would point out his class and restraint.

( AC/DC bass lines are seriously beginner level stuff but I digress )

The fern is amazingly sane in comparison.

The simple way to prove Boks also hold the 'unofficial world title' The simple way to prove Boks also hold the 'unofficial world title'

Two weeks ago, a Kiwi colleague with a penchant for riling South Africans put together a piece on rugby’s “unofficial world titles”...

Managed to bag another reasonably major press piece. This time one owned by World Rugby

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@Dan54 said in Tech Questions:

Ok fellas, got a question not tech that leads to another.
1 As I planning trip overseas later in year, I have set up a Wise debit card, seems good, has anyone heard bad things about them>
2 I can have a digital card etc, but if I want it in google wallet I have to set screen lock, is there anyway I can have a lock (pin ) just for Google wallet. I don't want to lock screen on phone all the time as I find it a complete pain in the arse!!

Haven’t used the travel digital card thing. but I can definitely vouch for Wise - I’ve been using them for years, really efficient, great rates etc