Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: And on into a whole new year

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  • Milly Swan,

    Hmmm, under the Education Act, the name 'University' is protected. SIT is not and never has been a University. It is an Institute of Technology and a member of ITPNZ - Institutes and Polytechnics NZ...

    Wellington • Since May 2007 • 8 posts Report Reply

  • philipmatthews,

    Re Tom Cruise remixes -- have a look at these. The top two -- the Hillary/Cruise and the Craig Ferguson -- are especially good.

    http://gawker.com/349857/the-ultimate-tom-cruise-scientology-parody-video-roundup

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2007 • 656 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Amy Gale digests Titus Andronicus in lolcat. Genius.

    BLOODY CLEVR. YOOVE FINISHED? TRY TEH SKINHEDD HAMLET!

    HEREZ TASTE:

    ACT I
    SCENE I

    The Battlements of Elsinore Castle.

    [Enter HAMLET, followed by GHOST.]

    GHOST: Oi! Mush!

    HAMLET: Yer?

    GHOST: I was fucked!

    [Exit GHOST.]

    HAMLET: O Fuck.

    [Exit HAMLET.]

    LOL

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Quote of the week from that graffiti artist's response:

    so concerned with fences, i think we forget whats behind them

    Buy that young man a spray can, hope he spreads that message around.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Gareth Ward,

    And off same site (linked through hiphopnz I believe he said):

    but at least we got him at “the starting point” before he “jumped on the criminal treadmill”. aint that right lord mayor of Manukua city, Mr Brown.

    Cuttingly accurate.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report Reply

  • uroskin,

    Doris Kearns Goodwin? Lordy, she's the one accused of plagiarism in her presidential biographies(by the Weekly Standard, but hey, she hasn't been invited back since by PBS to appear as an expert presidential historian on the News Hour.

    Waiheke Island • Since Feb 2007 • 178 posts Report Reply

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    Something that stood out from that graffiti blog entry was this:

    Graffiti is a problem because most people think it’s poor, violent, brown people trawling their streets tagging fences. ... The truth is graffiti in your neighbourhood is made by people from your neighbourhood, if there’s tagging in Epsom it’s by kids from Epsom.

    It was a major revelation for me when I realised that of all the times I'd seen kids tagging around Mt Eden, it was all white kids, and ones who looked pretty well off, and yet I'd had this really dumb idea it was brown kids from South Auckland.

    But when you think about it, what 12-year-old is going to travel halfway across the city to write their name on a fence. Yeah...

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    I think she admitted to unwitting plagiarism - blamed it on her research assistants or something? It's a bit fuzzy...

    I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that there is a blog called Longest Drink in Town. That giraffe cup is basically one of my favourite things about New Zealand (yes, I am a weirdo).

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    Before this thread gets on topic I'm wondering if any of youse saw this in today "Harold"

    A police pursuit ended with two people jumping from a stolen car before it crashed into the Herald building in Albert St last night. Patrons at the Shakespeare Tavern watched as the man and woman then fled the scene.

    So. The Herald Building is "The Shakespeare Tavern"?
    I can see the scene now,
    O'Sullivan, from behind a lipstick smeared half empty beer glass "You know what's wrong with this country George?"
    George, propping up the bar with a leather patched corduroy elbow "PFFFraaaaarp"

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

  • Idiot Savant,

    I'm not aware of a comparable petition to our own government.

    So perhaps its time someone started one.

    New Zealand has troops in Afghanistan. We're propping up the people supporting this obscenity. We should be using whatever influence we have - including the threat to stop propping them up - to stop it.

    Palmerston North • Since Nov 2006 • 1717 posts Report Reply

  • douglasof240,

    From WIki

    Claims of Plagiarism
    The January 18, 2002, issue of The Weekly Standard made a case for Doris Kearns Goodwin as a plagiarist, arguing that her book, "The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys," used without attribution numerous phrases and sentences from three other books: "Time to Remember," by Rose Kennedy; "The Lost Prince," by Hank Searl; and "Kathleen Kennedy: Her Life and Times," by Lynne McTaggart.

    In a March 24, 2002, interview with the Associated Press, McTaggart said, "If somebody takes a third of somebody's book, which is what happened to me, they are lifting out the heart and guts of somebody else's individual expression."

    Once this was made public – and the almost identical phrases in Goodwin’s book were placed in numerous newspaper and magazine articles side by side with the originals in question - Goodwin admitted that she had previously reached a large "private settlement" with McTaggart over the issue.

    An August 2002 Los Angeles Times story by Peter King reported that there were many passages in Goodwin’s book on the Roosevelts ("No Ordinary Time") that were apparently lifted directly from Joseph Lash’s "Eleanor and Franklin" and Hugh Gregory Gallagher’s "FDR’s Splendid Deception," as well as other books. (See Timothy Noah, "Historians Rewrite History: The Campaign to Exonerate Doris Kearns Goodwin, Slate online, Nov. 13, 2003.) The claims of plagiarism have damaged her reputation; however, many in the academic, literary, and entertainment communities have continued to support her and her assertion of innocence.[1]

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    That giraffe cup is basically one of my favourite things about New Zealand (yes, I am a weirdo).

    It used to be for me until an unfortunate experience in Melbourne, boarding the last train from Warragul to the City after getting a bit sloshed. What was a mild desire to urinate quickly became an absolute imperative, but alas no toilets on that train. If I disembarked, it would have been a damned expensive taxi fare home. Fortunately in an empty carriage I discovered a used "Longest Drink in Town" cup. It was just enough.

    Now I can't shake the memory. I'm grateful for their awesomely large cup, but I don't want to drink from it any more.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Darel Hall,

    Milly is right. SIT is a polytechnic, not a university. Never has been and has never stated it wants to be.

    The Performance Based Research Fund and research incentives for tertiary education are not the issue for SIT from the different perspectives of the major protagonists: SIT (and friends of SIT), the Minister, and the Tertiary Education Commission.

    Christchurch • Since May 2007 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Doris Kearns Goodwin? Lordy, she's the one accused of plagiarism in her presidential biographies(by the Weekly Standard, but hey...

    Well, I'd even give The Nation credit where credit's due -- on the theory that even a broken watch is right twice a day.

    So. The Herald Building is "The Shakespeare Tavern"?

    Nope, but what self-respecting Lunchtime O'Booze is going to waste good drinking time by going any further than strictly necessary. The other side of Albert Street is as close as you can get without replacing the tea room coffee machine with a wet bar.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    So. The Herald Building is "The Shakespeare Tavern"?

    The tavern is directly across the road from the Herald building and would have offered patrons front-row seats for the commotion.

    But I'm surprised that such a dramatic event happened literally on the Herald's doorstep and yet they only reported it with a three-sentence article.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report Reply

  • Jason Kemp,

    It's Foo time!

    as a side bar or should that be a baaah - good to see that Foo is still on wicked pedia after all the fuss last year.
    Would be useful to hear what significant outcomes actually eventuated -
    * like changes to copyright legislation?
    * changes to Telco separation programme?
    * chance for MP's to mix with geeks?
    and what else was there?

    It seems like a programmers festival from the outside. Would be good to hear a bit more as things evolve.

    As someone who works with open source all the time it strikes me that there is still a need to sell that message of the brave new world.

    Will be looking forward to the reports.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 368 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Semmens,

    With the death of Sir Edmund Hillary and all the brouhaha on the best way to honour his memory and now all this talk of youth & education, I have been reminded of one of my huge personal bugbears - its a national disgrace that not one of our major educational institutions is named after C.E. Beeby. What Hillary was to the virile in our national character, C.E. Beeby was to our intellectual.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Che Tibby,

    Fortunately in an empty carriage I discovered a used "Longest Drink in Town" cup. It was just enough.

    Now I can't shake the memory. I'm grateful for their awesomely large cup, but I don't want to drink from it any more.

    bro. just throw away the cup, and get a new one.

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    douglasof240:

    Thanks for refreshing my memory, but I thought it was a little more serious than a Murdoch media beat-up based on a couple of quotes lacking citations.

    Anyway, before we start up a pity party for Dr. Goodwin, she might be off the speed dial at the PBS Newshour, but she still obviously has enough credibility out there to pick up the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for history and appear regularly on NBC as a news analyst.

    Probably helped that she's not in academia, where plagiarism isn;t (or shouldn't be) a good career move.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    The tavern is directly across the road from the Herald building and would have offered patrons front-row seats for the commotion.

    But I'm surprised that such a dramatic event happened literally on the Herald's doorstep and yet they only reported it with a three-sentence article.

    I know both buildings well, in fact if memory serves me well I have been ejected from both. It just seemed too good an opportunity to point out, yet again, the sloppyness of Harollds grasp of reportage.
    Many a granny from Waikikamukau will be thinking the Herald is run from a pub in Albert Street........................oh.hang on.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

  • Rogan Polkinghorne,

    I thought the graffiti blog offered the most poignant, and relevant opinion on the whole 'yoof crime/tagging etc' issue that's the moral panic du jour...

    Makes you wonder why Campbell, Sainsbury et al, with all of their writers and reasearchers can't come up with anything even slightly resembling an alternative angle on such a topic.

    A-town • Since Nov 2006 • 105 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    bro. just throw away the cup, and get a new one.

    LOL. Being a tidy kiwi I was tempted to dispose of it conscientiously, but the idea of carrying a full (to the brim) cup of piss in my hand all the way home to a toilet got less appealing as the minutes passed, and the train entered more populous areas. So it went onto the tracks. But it still plagues my dreams.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Jason Kemp,

    Tom - there is already a school - grouping that celebrates Ed's legacy in Manukau city. Hillary College has been around since the 60's but now it is joined by 2 other schools since 2001.

    From their website

    The new collegiate was launched by its namesake, Sir Edmund Hillary on December 4, 2001 and combines the resources of what was Clydemore Primary, Bairds Intermediate and Hillary College in partnership with Manukau Institute of Technology and The University of Auckland.

    Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 368 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Will be looking forward to the reports.

    Sure. Just about to go, but I'll try and get together something along the lines you suggest next week.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Idiot Savant,

    And while we're on the topic, it's worth remembering that Afghanistan isn't the only country which outlaws blasphemy. Take a look at s 123 of the Crimes Act...

    Shouldn't we remove the mote from our own eye and repeal this archiac, ridiculous, and theocratic law?

    Palmerston North • Since Nov 2006 • 1717 posts Report Reply

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