Left hand down a bit – oh, bugger, it looks like Italy is closer than we thought

The short distance between ship and shore is what most amazed Alf, when he checked out the Daily Mail’s pictures of the cruise ship which capsized off the coast of Italy.

The Costa Concodia overturned after hitting rocks or a sandbar.

But it was only just off the coast.

It finished up so bloody close to a nearby village that it was in serious danger of becoming a road hazard.

This proximity to dry land makes nonsense of the accounts given by some passengers of this being like the sinking of the Titanic.

The magic of building Rodney’s Super City – the costs are mystifying but “miniscule”

Rodney Hide is gung ho about what he has done and is doing for the restructuring of local government in Auckland and bringing relief to ratepayers.

He’s much too gung ho for Alf’s liking, actually, and is bound to come a cropper.

The final legislation setting up the rules and responsibilities of the Super City has been passed into law after Parliament passed the Bill that finalises the roles of local boards and the council’s management of its companies.

More ominously, as TVNZ reports:

There are claims this morning that the costs for setting up the Auckland Super City are spiralling out of control.

Great stuff for Fox but what do Kiwi taxpayers get back for their investments in a blockbuster?

A bloke called Luke Malpass raises a bloody good question in the Sunday Star-Times today: it’s whether taxpayers should be pumping money into our film industry.

Malpass is a Policy Analyst at The Centre for Independent Studies.

His question is something that Alf tried to bring up with Gerry Brownlee, our Minister of Economic Development. He didn’t get far.

The question was triggered for Malpass by news that the film Avatar had overtaken Titanic to become the highest grossing movie in history by raking in about $US2 billion.