A rose by any other name

Yeah, I was expecting something insightful, but it's just an Ethereum promo. Nothing against Ethereum (although I'm personally not very excited about/interested in it).

I'm strongly of the opinion that democracy will never flourish in the Middle East. Any attempts by the US and its allies to impose democratic systems are naïve (although I suspect those at the top are well aware, but just won't admit so).

Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan all need secular dictators who can keep the populations under control.

I like the technology and pricing model, but I don't think that it is being put to its best use. I think a better use would be for news sites that require a login to view articles. At present I usually just go without viewing many as I can't afford to sign up to 10 different sites where I might view a couple of articles each week. If I could make a one off payment per article then I'd be all over it.

Originally it was going to use a Falcon 5 Air, and later a Pegasus II. Both projects were cancelled.

Exactly. I'm in Australia and have no idea how Uber and taxi prices compare. I use Uber because of the quality of their product.

Not a big fan of Uber as a company though. If Lyft of another viable competitor set up shop here then I'd be open to switching.

I can give a very small sample of data. Uber is $30-33 to my suburb on a Thursday night. I even had a $28 once which is ludicrous (I calculated the theoretical minimum cost of the route to be around $27.50 so it was almost a perfect run).

I've caught taxis on the exact same route twice because my phone was dead and I couldn't order an Uber. One was $48 and the other was $55. I believe it's more on a Friday or Saturday (they have some 'off-peak' fee or something), but Uber obviously has the occasional surge on those nights too.

Using Taxis, in Melbourne at least, seems to be lighting money on fire.

Christchurch should be pretty safe now with all the dangerous building having come down and new buildings being built to high seismic standards. I personally would never consider Wellington as I believe the earthquake risk is too high.

A few others have pointed it out already, but you're quite misinformed (not uncommon, most Australians assume NZ has worse internet connectivity).

NZ has a nationwide copper network owned by NZX listed company Chorus, and there is a gigabit fibre network nearing completion (Chorus and about 3 other companies). Network owners are prohibited from retailing and must provide retail ISPs access on fair terms (wholesale pricing is regulated).

There are a few Australian owned ISPs, but none that operate in both Australia and NZ.

Supply (particularly in Auckland) has been a big issue. The government has recently been working to rezone more land for development/higher densities.

You wouldn't be allowed to build a new house today without proper insulation and double glazing.

Right, so the new high density housing would be completely unaffordable for most NZers, as those are both still luxuries.