It seems that video game only applies to video recordings for games though? Not programmers, artists etc.

So I imagine it would cover cut scenes in games, and maybe performance capture?

But not Television…….interesting….

Yeah, I don't…

Very interesting, and quite applicable to the Equity dispute.

More and more foreign governments are sponsoring such excursions for lawmakers and their staffs, though an overhaul of ethics rules adopted…

Of course not, we should be paying for the senior staff of influential US federal legislators to subvert their own ethics rules instead. Don't hold your breath waiting for Campbell Live or Seven Sharp to lead with…

But.

Here in the Employment…

Someone at Actors Equity might want to tell "organizer" Phil Darkins that calling potential members/allies "patsies" is a less than entirely constructive way to do that. There were actors on that march, and one I've talked to today isn't impressed.…

I don't disagree with any of that.

And, frankly, how many Americans knew who Ant Starr was before he got the lead in Banshee? Or Jay Ryan before the CW started the hype machine up on the __Beauty and the…

How much better would Robyn Malcolm have looked calling for "a…

Particularly the case with the Vincent Gallo fiasco. The creative theme in the Steinlager Pure ads series was craggy, cool Americans who liked our beer. Arguing that Gallo wasn't…

Small note: 'WETA' is not a synonym for 'Peter Jackson's Film Production Company'. WETA Digital is a Visual FX company, WETA Workshop is a design and practical effects company ... I expect neither were involved in any of this…

And that's fine – I'm totally with Russell that the latest documents 1) probably aren't going to shift anyone's mind on this, and 2) don't reflect particularly well on any of…

The Hobbit documents released: Jackson's frustrations revealed

It suggests that there never was a plan to shift production out of NZ...

A later email between Ms Blackwood and Mr Brownlee showed that New Line Cinema did not plan to film The Hobbit in a different country,…

NZ actors aren't missing out on these parts they…

Oooh, I'm trying so hard not to get drawn into this again ... but this bit made my jaw drop when I saw it in the papers. For Equity to…

Less of the passive-aggressive stuff, please. Just say what you want to say.

I’m not even sure it was a gun fight before Equity arrived – just a couple of guys hanging around with guns tucked in their belts.

She brought the skills that had been woefully missing from the union side, and did well with the shambles she found. (It’s incredible that Simon Whipp of MEAA __went on…

Not wishing to stir but whateva. I learnt that National are still the Party that I still can't stand. With Joyce and Brownlee being the same person acting as two. The performance by them in the house today confirms that.…

Instead they’re now bringing a knife for a shanking.

Particularly disappointing – and bitterly ironic:

"When an actor performs in a screen production, quite often that will be a very short period of filming. There…

My view exactly.

Although it's striking how many people can't bring themselves to acknowledge that…

Warner Brothers, Newline Cinema and Wingnut Films issue a warning… to no avail!

But when the organisation claiming to represent the workers isn't properly instituted, claims not to have actually called for a black-list... but then a day or two later, publicly…

The Hobbit Saga was underpinned by the CTU and Actors Equity, or whatever it was, they were calling themselves over playing a hand they did not have a right to hold as at the time of the blacklisting the actual…

Those documents are fascinating, and I don't think they support a black-and-white analysis of the dispute on either side. There were plenty of players and it got nasty.

Did anyone OIA those meeting notes????

Heh, I’m not actually that bitter.

Didnt mean to infer you might be even the slightest bit that way Sir.
Perhaps I should have worded it 'what went on'... or something.

To that end, I’m reasonably optimistic about the future of the world

Fantastic, I wish the feeling was infectious.…

Great analogy, Ben.

Ditto. Spot on.
And there's an element of our worst side in secretly hoping the Aussies do "fuck up badly." Who would that be good for, really?

Great analogy, Ben.

Heh, I'm not actually that bitter. I think we still live in a paradise. Technology and the steady improvement of things generally has counteracted the decline of Western capitalism. Perhaps that's all tied into the decline – when life gets…

Eek! Flashback!

Ben Wilson & andin – your comments need more thought from this disgruntled person (but I agree..)

We havent even scratched the surface of what went wrong.

And Joe Wylie – I had totally missed the fact your mother had died recently – aue aue taukiri e! My condolences…

Same from…

Jacqui -no sneaky editing!…

Well indeed, it... or they, only hold as long as there is support on both sides (government and voters, or a voting bloc. Muldoon had a significant social contract with the…

True – whereas many of the previous generation have superannuated lifestyles that rely on freehold housing to reduce their living expenses even if they don't have an…

I particularly liked the "unneccessary questions, dramatic pauses, and irrelevant personal reflections" bit.

[Pause to reflect]

ETA: ps I miss Neil Burnside and the Sandbaggers!
Actually, I do remember that, although my time was more The Professionals.

ETA2:…

If there's much more of this sandbagging, we'll have to throw in the towel.

laughs, like a drain....
:- )

ps I miss Neil Burnside and the Sandbaggers!
(the spooks between Danger Man, / Callan and, well, Spooks )

I'm tiring of hearing from people who are quite unrepresentative of any generalised "boomer" experience how unjust it is that they are being lumped in with a whole generation.

Damn there goes my book deal idea...

We should be able to discuss such broader issues

And learn from our mistakes.…

Apparently not. But these photos are certainly attention grabbing, as me bestest drives over the harbour bridge. Hopefully it has cleared by the time she comes back.

Ah, so we’re talking about the storm now?

(I’d suggest that this be nominated from here on in as the designated general discussion thread, but the nature of PAS discussions might not be containable by such means…)

If there's much more of this sandbagging, we'll have to throw in the towel.

Oh, *that* explains the flooding.

All I can say is;

"Good grief, gimme strength." It must be my sense of in-title-meant.

It's an old joke, but reasonably fair, I think. It's not a contract if (as I understand modern contract theory) there isn't 1. An offer, 2. Acceptance of the offer, 3.…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLSgk78IfNM

"Yes, I think blaming the whole modern condition on baby boomers goes way too far. They’re as much victims of the times as anyone else. It’s them who will need the health care and pensions that can’t be afforded,…

I've just re-read what you said, Islander, and have to say that something must have fallen out of my brain over the past few days, given my (quite wrong) responses…

Sorry to hear that. Would it be wrong of me to say at this point that I had an awesome time?

the Germans probably have a word for thatt

I would have asked Rammstein, but they were too busy blowing shit up…

I've been looking for another of his I heard once on bFM – laughed so hard I missed half of it – but it was a swipe at the Royals, and in particular, Prince Philip (the Greek!). Can't find it though. I like his one about…

it did begin to look a bit personal.

I offer an abject apology if it ever was like that, to you Kyle or anyone watching.

Yeah fair point.

Despite your objection it's not exactly a new social construct, and I'm not sure if the obvious issues with lumping together people born across 20 years into one bucket make it completely…

Well, that was probably my worst BDO ever.

Apart from the rain, which eventually beat me, sending me home after Phoenix Foundation, who were my highlight of the night, things just didn't seem to go according to…

I'm not his biggest fan, but at least I…

That's commitment

I really liked Pi. The only other Aronofsky film I’ve seen is his second, Requiem for a Dream, which was overwrought, and not in…

I am old I am old
I can't reach the bottom of my trousers*
To roll, cause my sciatica is killing me,
And the grounds really muddy,
What with all this rain and so on.

*This is poetic licence, cause I rolled them before leaving home.

A multiplicity of secretions! The mind biggles!

ETA: And now who's being silly?

the Germans probably have a word for that

I don't know, but I am fairly certain we could find an audience for that show.

Really? Where do you perform – or is this an inappropriate question?

(The Languishing Lactator is also my stage name, strange to say. ;) )

I can see how that would resonate with you…

Whatever do you mean?

That Tool Aronofsky has a lot to offer and has made some fine movies, including Pi (can’t find the symbol on my keyboard), the Wrestler and Black Swan.

Thank you, is all I can say for pointing…

Looks like there's a few of us heading along later, then.

See you down the front, as they said in my…

As the person that usually provides fuel for the resident 'Onan the grammarians', it's a bit rich of me to comment.

And I'm not at the BDO either -…

Does anything else think that PAS threads are cross-pollinating?

Oh they always do

...just as long as the bees-in-our-bonnets
don't get colony collapse disorder
or a colonic collective new order...

Are you claiming other non-sentient beings have achieved higher consciousness? Houston, we have lift off.

Oh they always do

While I was watching, I was thinking – especially towards the end – that this…

The Fountain's theme of fear of death is "a movement from darkness into light, from black to white" that traces the journey of a man scared of death and moving toward it. The film begins with a paraphrase of…

While we…

...odd that Gertrude's last name means Stone
but it's Alice's cookies that get you there!
a joint effort perhaps?

She had an amanuensis

I think they prefer to be called personal assistants.

PA could stand for Philosopher's Amanuensis...

Though in this case...

Came the deathbed scene – the amanuensis whispered “What is the answer?” The dying response was “What was the question?”

... it's…

I was going to say "the 1220s or 30s, right?" but look, in English it's used up until the last century. You could have knocked me down with a quill.

Oh – bugger! I've just used that as an excuse for not remembering the second referendum on MMP.

And thanks for your words. I appreciate it very much.

I think they prefer to be called personal assistants.

I’m rather glad you said this, as I suspect I read your earlier response to mine as being aggressive.

I have been deliberately tart (as Islander said I think) sometimes I fell ashamed to have even shared a planet with some, who…

In particular, Ben, who didn't want to be drawn into thinking about all this stuff – sorry, Ben – it must be a bit tedious.

Nah, it's fine, I like hearing what other people think on the subject. But I've found dwelling on it to have been a very unproductive…

Mum used to talk about the "post-war baby boom" (I was born just after the war) so the term might be a late invention, but the idea of a bulge in births all about the same time being given a term isn't…

The BBC article treats boomer as if it's a purely cultural label. Not true. Public policy and planning has to consider the big impact of the post-war demographic bulge regardless of what you call it. And the subsequent generational…

Roger Douglas?

Go with a bang.

I thought myself…

As long as you don't end up like this. Dog bites man?

The 80's the era of the long lunch, people living "high on the hog". (I think we should give them name the NZStay-at -homes?).
I heard all about…

We are receivers tuned to
the easy living channel,
surfing the crest of time waves, among
the froth obscuring the big picture...
(I can't see…

Likewise ditto. I was told it was just my imagination – can’t say I agreed at the time. I haven’t had the experience lately though.

It is a product of your semi conscious state. As others have said it usually occurs in a semi sleep state. It has been leapt…

Because that’s what happened in this country when the 40 year olds of the Lange government took over from the 60 year olds of the Muldoon one. And we’re still seeing the political reverberations with Winston and others now.

And that time should be highlighted/seared in our minds. The 80's…

Sacha seems to have answered this for me.…

Please define “IT”

the wonderful No Energy Left Behind programme
I figure I'll end up in the compost division
light to heat and unusable states
matter on the way to being
in no particle place
spinning down
sugars and space
a carbon n ferrous error
flattened…

Likewise ditto. I was told it was just my…

It’s a feeling of being everything, as in enormous, and yet really tiny – as in one-celled. I described it once to a group of people, and one person approached me later and said she had had the same experience.

I often get this same feeling, usually when I'm drifting…

Has it now? Because frankly contemporary theories of mind seem pretty convincing to me, and they don't have all that much trouble in talking about consciousness in concrete terms.

But finding "IT" in a living person has proved absolutely fruitless, so if "IT" is not there in a living person, "IT" most certainly wont be there in a corpse.
Please define "IT"

We were talking about something pretty vague, hard to ring fence with definitions, but IT was "their…

Well I have satisfied myself there is no “there” after life.

Can you tell me how you did this? Without having died yourself?

Is that supposed to be funny? If you have any religious affiliations please declare them now. And it would take more time than I have to…

I think establishing lack of any kind of consiousness in human corpses is a very easy matter

Sure, but establishing that it's not in the corpse is not the same as establishing that it's ceased to exist. If it's gone to an afterlife, the corpse could be irrelevant.

I don't…

#3 ” is claiming more than evidence can show”
well, I can definitely demonstrate an end of consiousness…

Is this any different to the “is there a God?” issue?

Not much.

Most people don’t believes in the tooth fairy, Leprechauns or the Norse gods just because they can’t prove they don’t exist/have never existed.

Sure, but those are particular instantiations, random and arbitrary, as Gio says. That's not…

Erm, yes.

Maybe it’s a case of: on what basis would one conclude otherwise?

But, Andin, that’s the point. You won’t know until you’re there!

Yup, I think Occam’s razor is taken too far. Just because you don’t, and can’t…

I guess I should point out I majored in Philosophy, so I've spent, IMHO, far too much time thinking about these things. No answers, of course.

Oooh....nice!

"At one"?

I only hope nobody gets upset at this sort of discussion – like Ben not wanting to think about these things. It's not really worth raising the blood pressure. Just have to keep breathing and enjoy being alive.

Can you tell me how you did this? Without having died yourself?

No. It's a feeling of being everything, as in enormous, and yet really tiny – as in one-celled. I described it once to a group of people, and one person approached me later and said she had had the same experience.

So this is probably threadstealing, rather than threadjacking.

if we are talking about getting into "Heaven"
threadneedling might be more apt...
...watch out for camels!!

Not stolen, just repurposed...

I have had, in the past, strange – what I can only describe as…

But, Andin, that’s the point. You won’t know until you’re there!

Yup, I think Occam’s razor is taken too far. Just because you don’t, and can’t possibly, know about something, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Well I have satisfied myself there is no “there” after life. But I expect no…

Would your list of feelings include any of these? :)

Ooh, is it a threadjack? Isn't this the thread that has woven itself in and around Life, the Universe and Everything?

Any idea who it would be? It won't be Giovanni Tiso, any more than I was Jacqui Dunn before I was born, and doubt I will after death. Just the body that carried me around.

I have had, in the past, strange – what I can…

But you could get a surprise!

But, Andin, that's the point. You won't know until you're there!

Yup, I think Occam's razor is taken too far. Just because you don't, and can't possibly, know about something, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It's just not a subject of scientific inquiry. It can only be speculated about.

But…

But, Andin, that's the point. You won't know until you're there! No fantasy really.

I do understand…

I would like to be able to make that decision when it suits me, and not have medical staff trying to keep me alive in whatever state until my body gives up.

It's funny, nearly everyone I've ever spoken to about this feels the same way. But it's not a…

Who knows, perhaps when we get there, we’ll find that the secret of dotage is life/awareness in a different dimension?

this could explain the dementia dimension ...
all the disorientation is caused by blood
crossing the brane-barrier, taking
all 5 senses into the fifth dimension

Having already asked you at least once not to make personal attacks against me, I won't bother responding further.

Therein lies the dilemma – it's when we slip into dotage that we lose the power to make such choices. Catch 22. Life is full of them.

I agree, generally. I'd rather go fast. But then again,…

Maybe you should wait until you get there. From the sounds of it, you're quite a way off.

Who knows, perhaps when we get there, we'll find that the secret of dotage is life/awareness in a different dimension? A real cosmic joke!

I love life, but have no wish whatsoever to live into dotage.

at least we survived the dot.comage...

Ditto. I love life, but have no wish whatsoever to live into dotage.

If the state takes a lien out against their property, it’s means the kids inherit less,

I think you’ll find something along these lines is already in place. If my experience with my Grandmother is typical. One thing Im not sure of, if it was driven by the rest home…

Blame aside, they (we?) have had a rather longer run at the top than previous generations, and possibly those now taking their places.

Could be, definitely the average lifespan increased a lot. But I think that the long run of the baby boomers is still trumped by the colossal fuck-ups…

BTW the worst thing that could happen here in the near future would be a resurgent Grey Power.

I personally have $10 on Winston getting back into parliament in this year’s election.

I'm sorry, I cannot see what our lives and world views have in common beside coincidence of birth year.
And coincidence is all those of us born after the war have in common.

That's a stereotype?