David R

I reckon the first one could work, would depend on the colour and the "look" you're trying to achieve.

Wasn't a serious stereotype, just slightly dumbfounded at your "I'm going to claim this outrageous statement as a fact until you can prove me wrong" attitude. If you're going to restrict cannabis sales to over-18's then that somewhat nullifies your statement about there being less problems if young people smoked pot instead of drinking booze. I'm not some uninformed out-of-touch amish forming an opinion based by what I've read in the newspaper. One of the smartest people I've ever met was an american guy in his mid-20s who was over here studying metaphysics who had smoked regularly since about age 18. On the flip side, I've worked with people who have smoked heavily from a young age and basically watched them turn into cabbages, I guess it effects people differently. I will watch the video, but there are still many issues regarding the legalisation of it that do not, in my mind, add up. -would it actually remove the black-market if it was sold and taxed at a rate that is representative of the harm it does (as tobacco and alcohol are)? -how would you avoid a repeat of the "binge culture" we see with alcohol? -how would you avoid a repeat of the problems we have with under-age drinking despite having age limits in place? -given the difficulties in proving the potential harm caused by long term effects (causation vs correlation) how will you inform and educate the public on potential harms? -how would you ensure the safety of people in industries like mining, construction, anything involving heavy machinery etc, given the effects of cannabis aren't always as obvious as alcohol? Daily drug tests? Increased random drug tests? Who pays for all that? I certainly wouldn't want to be working with guys potentially under the influence in my job... etcetera etcetera.

Thats a pretty cool build, I really like the idea of a concrete tank (wife says not in downstairs bedroom tho). I really like this one too; link Looks nice, kinda hard to see how big it is tho... this one shows the scale a bit better... 6.0x1.7x1.0 meters, going to be stocked with rays, wild discus and asian aros...

Any kind of LED will give you the 'shimmer effect' (I love doing that with my phones torch too!) so you could either browse trademe for a cheap spotlight type thing, or build yourself a simple unit. I'm planning on using LEDs to light my next big tank and will certainly have a 'moonlight' option with just a couple of dim LEDs spreading out from one point over the tank. Something like this *click*, just without the rays and G. winemilleri

On the list, never seen it here though, sadly. All the things that come in instead of aren't anywhere near as cool IMO...

There's a difference between an alcoholic who relies on it daily to get thru the day and a binge drinker who might not touch it during the week and then have 21 standard drinks in one night. I'm not sure on the French statistics but can vouch for the completely different attitude in Germany. Drinking in public isn't uncommon, I watched two middle aged businessmen both drinking beers around lunch time on the train, presumably on a lunch break, walking down the road with a bottle of beer in hand isn't an uncommon sight at all. The beer gardens are fantastic, and the halls are frequented by locals who keep their own steins in a locked vault so they can take it out for a Sunday afternoon session, and the session beers are usually brewed to a lower ABV (3-4%) so you don't get plastered as quickly. Despite all this messy drunks seemed few and far between. Getting as smashed as possible isn't the goal with drinking there, NZ has a lot of growing up to do in that regards...

Not with a hobby like fishkeeping, not many landlords will let you turn the basement into an aquarium!!! mind you, many wives are just as bad... :lol: luckily mine isn't one of them!

Not passing a drug test and spending money on a drug habit will sure help that... :facepalm: :facepalm: Just heard on Motorway Patrol that the effects of cannabis use include memory loss, lung cancer and a love of Jack Johnson, is that really what you want?!? :lol:

stoner logic... :facepalm: I fail to see how more young people with bi-polar and depression aren't problems....

I think you need to google what the work "fact" means, or start producing some serious factual evidence (or did you just mean opinion?).

Berliner Pilsner is a popular German beer (probably equivalent to our Steinlager, but actually worth drinking because it has some taste) and it certainly wasn't expensive, €3.50 for a glass with €0.50 refundable when you return the plastic cup. Germans (and probably a lot of Europe) has a far more mature approach to drinking than NZ, like you highlighted with the Netherlands and their 'cafes'. NZ's binging culture is why I am in favour of more restrictions on booze and other drugs, not less.

And in here's a pic of the German-equivenant to a Coca-Cola van at a public event; Berliner Pilsner was the drink of choice. There was one of these vans every hundred metres or so at this particular event, and despite this there wasn't a messy/aggressive/vomiting/passed out drunk to be seen. Do you really think decriminalisation of cannabis here will magically transform people into responsible social smokers? And rightly so. You cannot compare drinks simply based on ABV, you don't find carparks and streets littered with bottles of 8wired Imperial Stout (10%ABV) or Epic HopZombie (8.5%), yet you want to lump them in the same category as things like 8% Woodstocks that are made as cheap, sweet and strong as possible and packaged and sold with mass-consumption in mind. livebearer_breeder, I am well aware of the point you're making, I was certainly not trying to portray the government as some wonderful loving caregiver trying to protect us from the evil world outside. If anything its more to do with financial reasons, although by that logic they would have banned smoking a long time ago. There reasoning may not always be logical, my point was just that you cannot expect to have all the freedoms of a libertarian society with the protection and support of a socialist one.

I certainly can see the benefits in simply decriminalising the possession of small amounts. In an ideal world we would all have the freedom of choice, and the personal responsibility that goes with it. Sadly, in 21st century NZ we seem to be lacking the latter and that is why I wouldn't support it in reality, despite being in favour theoretically.... And for the record I think alcohol should be subject to far tighter restrictions, despite being a home brewer and avid craft beer drinker. A minimum price would be a good start, and certainly not a blanket tax increase as the greens are proposing. NZ has a blooming craft beer industry that is finally starting to break the monopoly of the two big breweries and educate the general public that there is far more to beer than the insipid brown fizzy stuff they've been drinking for years, and a further tax increase would stymie that. Targeting cheap strong booze would go a long way towards reducing the harm caused by binging, as would enforcing the current law of bars not serving drunks. Doing that without punishing people like me who regularly pay $8-20+ for a 500ml bottle of 6-10% ABV beer to enjoy one at a time in the comfort of my own home is far easier said than done though...

Because the government provide things like health care and welfare and therefore are obliged to offer some form of protection of its people from what is deemed harmful (yes I know, then why is alcohol or tobacco legal, etc etc). Its actually called socialism, not communism. If you want to live in a society where the choice is yours I suggest you look up the Libertarianz party, if you wish to have the freedom to make what ever choices you want [providing they don't effect another persons freedom to do the same] then you must also be prepared to endure the consequences of those choices yourself. Sadly, though you and I may be rational and sensible enough to live in a world like that there are vast numbers of people who don't seem to be... Those figures are somewhat biased given that things like car crashes can be attributed to being drunk, but not being stoned. AFAIK there isn't a clear cut way to determine if someone is "under the influence" of cannabis at the time of an accident due to the time it lingers in your system, so they can't attribute many accidental deaths to cannabis as they do with alcohol. I would bet my left one there have been many cases where people have crashed cars and died while under the influence of cannabis, the statistics simply aren't recorded like they are for alcohol. Regardless, all of these points you are making isn't reason to legalise cannabis, more so to ban alcohol...

I don't buy into the "legalising it won't increase use" argument, as has been seen with the increasing number of liquor stores and extended hours availability plays a big part in consumption. You're right in your comparison of a drunk and stoned person, but those are only a few of the short term effects. The key difference, as I said before, is that you don't have to get drunk to enjoy alcohol. There is still much debate on the long-term effects of cannabis and potential cause of bi-polar, schizophrenia, depression etc, but you only have to try work with people who have been heavy users for a long period to see what it can do to a persons brain. Calling it the lesser of two evils is fairly naive, yes on the surface it may seem less harmful than alcohol (at least if compared to binge drinking) but overall there are some pretty negative aspects...

That is the crux of the issue, how do you prevent harmful binge drinking without a complete ban on alcohol? Bars can't legally serve drunk people (although we all know that is treated as a joke!), and as Alan suggested there are many merits to the idea of having "public drunkenness" an arrestable offence (don't think it is currently illegal here, but I believe it was once, not 100% sure). And the same goes for if you were to legalise/decriminalise marijuana; how do you prevent the wave of braindead stoners that are would potentially emerge if it were legal to go home and have a couple of cones after work every night? Obviously there is no magic cure, but the lack of a solution isn't justification for making it legal.

Your first sentence backs up the argument why it isn't legal [and shouldn't be]; it impairs ability to do many things [such as driving, operating machinery etc] and can't be tested for impairment of as can be with alcohol. We haven't yet figured out how to manage alcohol consumption so the responsible drinkers aren't penalised for the trouble-making bingers, so why would we release another harmful drug into the system to be abused? There are many indicators that heavy use can lead to various mental health issues, reduce learning ability and numerous other long-term health issues. Yes there are also positives from consumption for certain people, but until someone figures out a way to prevent a nation of people with a binge-culture (just look at our alcohol consumption and obesity statistics) then decriminalising or legalising would not be a good thing for NZ. So why alcohol is legal and not pot? History would probably be a big factor. We've grown up with it for generations now, and trying to ban it would simply never work, too many people enjoy it responsibly. And that is a key difference between alcohol and pot; you can enjoy a drink with out getting drunk, but the sole purpose for smoking is to get wasted. Would anyone smoke pot just for the taste if it didn't get them high? Unlikely. Yet huge numbers of people enjoy a glass of wine, a craft beer or a quality whisky simply for the taste and not for the buzz it gives them. The two aren't even really comparable IMO. Just my uneducated idiot opinion....

Now there's a good idea!! Actually it could have been repaired for the same amount that they're now spending on upgrading the passing lanes on the Napier-Gisborne road, which was announced the same day....

For starters I'd suggest you take your pic between the cories and the knifefish before it gets too big and ends up with one stuck in its mouth... I'd look at some medium sized peaceful cichlids like festivum, keyhole or blue acara to continue the SA theme with the knife and angels.

Yes I have done a bit of driving in the South Island, as well as around rural northland (which makes the south islands roads look flash!) as well as living in Auckland for the past six years, which probably puts me in a far less-biased and better informed position on this subject than someone living about as far away from our biggest city as possible.... If you think potholes are a problem try taking spending several hours trying to travel a short distance because a minor incident (say roadworks on one lane or someone with a flat tire) has slowed traffic to a stand-still, and thats not even at peak time.....

yep, its about time Auckland had its roading infrastructure dragged out of the 80's, instead of having the large portion of tax it pays being distributed to pay for roads around the country. Anyone who believes Auckland is propped up by the rest of the country is pretty naive, the bulk of Aucklands roads are on average far busier than your average small town or rural road, and subsequently generate more revenue in the form of fuel taxes and RUC.

It would be ridiculous, if it were actually true. :facepalm:

Still nothing compared to the environmental damage done by cats.... Ban goldfish, bring in more tropicals, win/win! :thup:

Agree with that, if he'll take pellets cut the meaty foods out all together until it is completely stuck on pellets as a staple diet, then start OCCASIONALLY offering things like prawn or that frozen meaty food if you want. I'd suggest the floating hikari sticks, I had a 2" pellet-eating dat nearly catch up [in size] to a prawn/meat-only eating dat that had about a good 6" head-start...

I think you certainly need more turn-over. 6000lph will be stuff all by the time you take into consideration the restriction from the plumbing, the head height, etc, maybe 2x per hour at best? Look at the Laguna MaxFlo pumps, perhaps 4200 would probably be a goer, at 5' head height you'd be getting close to 5x turn over, which is heaps for a big tank not crazily stocked (http://www.azponds.com/laguna_maxflo_chart.htm). There's two things with bio filtration, having enough surface area for the bacteria to colonise, and giving the water enough exposure to that bacteria to effectively convert all the waste. IMO we often over-do the surface area thing with huge quantities of noodles and bioballs, I think focusing more on exposure and oxygen levels in the bio media is more important.