Posts by rodgerd

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  • Hard News: Monster Weekend,

    I certainly hope not, because it's complete and utter bullshit.

    Just need a friendly lawyer and you can secure the kids' fincancial future with a defamation suit!

    (And yes, I know defamation suits are mostly a waste of time and energy with little or no return, but one can dream...)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report

  • Hard News: Grateful for 'Rain',

    The aspect of the modern "bach" that I find most striking is that they have lost any respect for their environment.

    The one I find most striking is how much they've turned into McMansions. The classic batch, is, after all, something that it looks like dad and a few mates put together with the assistance of some dodgy tools, a few slabs of beer, and a council inspector willing to look the other way.

    Most of the newer ones are moments to excess. There's a whole microcosm of less desireable aspects of New Zealand's culture change of the past 25 - 30 years.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report

  • Hard News: Castoffs of Waiheke,

    Even magazines with more humble goals than The New Zealander end up being a mirror on the world they were part of, and in ways they probably didn't expect.

    My wife ended up going through a huge number of the old School Journals at one job. It was really, really interesting - the older ones were far more respectful of Maori and Maori culture than you might expect, right through the 1920s and into the 1930s, and then started becoming less and less so, into a postwar England, England, Uber Alles line of "Maori bad, New Zealand Bad, Worship the Glory of England!"

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report

  • Hard News: Never let the facts ...,

    Of course, if you suddenly find you're liable for the lifetime costs of an employee who gets shot in your carpark...

    Then your legal and risk analysis teams need firing. Besides, while 'crippled for life by a bullet' is a pretty unlikely event, I can't imagine there are any shortage of other ways you could end up with an employee in the same state in a meatworks.

    And, let it be reinforced that AFFCO aren't paying his full costs, only about 10% of them. The rest of us are picking up the other 90%, after AFFCO have spent years paying nothing into the communal pool. Someone's getting ripped off, all right, and I don't think it's AFFCO.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Daily Embarrassment,

    Could the Herald possibly get someone with some credibility to write on this issue?

    Why? They're doing a fabulous job as the PR wing of the National party.

    That's what they are, right? A party political organ?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report

  • Hard News: About a Cat,

    the wandering around the house with the live beastie still chirping away in the cat's mouth

    When you have two they can play cicada rugby.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report

  • Hard News: Random,

    the colonial nature of the term/box/brand 'science'.

    The what?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report

  • Hard News: Random,

    I think its reasonably plain that anecdotes are not "science", but anecdotes are still evidence, and frankly it is absurd to claim otherwise.

    It's also absurd to claim all evidence is equally good.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report

  • Hard News: Random,

    Surely most people have had some exposure to an event that can't be explained by any conventional means.

    Cargo Cults arose because planes were beyond the 'conventional means' of pacific tribes. Hell, I suspect many people in NZ would struggle to explain the principles of jet engines or why wings work the way they do. This does not mean we should start building bamboo control towers.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report

  • Speaker: Insert Token Here,

    you think that means you know what they're thinking and what they've experienced.

    I think the more profound problem is thinking it's OK to dismiss and belittle people, or elevate and venerate, based on such ephemeral traits as gender and skin colour. Inverting 19th century notions of racial and gender supremecy is not, I submit, the new hotness.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report

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