Posts by Rich of Observationz
-
Only accessing Facebook in "pr0n mode" (aka Private Browsing/Incognito Window) might be the way to go.
Functionality is emerging in browsers to have multiple profiles with their own set of cookies that don't move outside the sandbox. It would be feasible for a browser maker to provide this such that certain "untrusted" sites were always sandboxed thus - which would stop them acting as an identity provider, break like buttons, etc.
If Google did this and defaulted FB into the blacklist, would they get sued for antitrust? And would users migrate away, disable the new functionality, or embrace it?
-
.. Helen Clark was patron of the Mt Albert Rugby League Club since forever... and she never hesitated to use the fact to burnish her own class credentials...
I never knew league was such a big sport amongst Waikato farming families, or indeed Auckland University lecturers. I wonder if she's been finding time to go and see the US league-topping New York Knights in her spare time over there. Or to visit Wigan or Bankstown for a British or Aussie game? Somehow I think not.
Let's face it, politicians all engage in various pastimes, not for personal joy, but because they reckon it'll help them engage with their public. For Labour politicians, it's standing in a damp stadium on a winter day watching some blokes throw/kick a ball/themselves around. For Tories, it's wearing a Nazi uniform while snorting coke off hookers breasts.
Each to their (public's) own.
-
But it's electioneering even if the candidate talks about his cat. Indeed, if the political strategy is to damp down discussion and sleepwalk to reelection, after the fashion of Bob Parker, then talking about ones cat is the best strategy.
-
OnPoint: Set it on fire, then, in reply to DCBCauchi,
Actually I'd regard such unpleasantness as inevitable (not desirable, just inevitable) once the capitalist system collapses under resource exhaustion and the (failed) globalisation of affluence.
The only chance to avoid it and have a nicer outcome is if we can move beyond current capitalist/authoritarian models and construct an alternative cooperative order. But people in most societies are far too deluded and selfish for that to work out, really.
-
There is a circumstance where torture could be a humane choice.
Post-revolution, there are going to be a large number of reactionaries amongst the bourgeoisie and lumpenproletariat. In order to avert a counter revolution, it will typically be necessary to liquidate these people. An alternative would be to select various prominent righties and torture them to death, posting the results over whatever communication organs are popular at the time. This might have a deterrent event in convincing the masses away from counter-revolutionary actions and avoid their consequent demise. So the horrible death of a few thousand might avoid the greater evil of millions having to be killed (albeit more humanely).
Of course that's in a different situation to today - in a pre-revolutionary situation, torture can never be justified.
-
were Victoria University to devolve various student disciplinary matters to a student-body-organised council
Oh, while we’re at it, why not have sororities and fraternities? And wierd patriarchy-boosting secret societies? And professional athletes given a waiver of academic requirements and paid ten times as much as professors? And a college motto in fake ancient Greek? And a secret language, with words like frosh, varsity and upperclassman?
Also; have undergrads study an interesting, diverse, but ultimately useless range of disassociated topics, ensuring that three further years of expensive postgrad study is required before commencing any professional career.
-
the principle is not about the money
So, why can't universities fund the student association out of fees? Individual students can then choose to be take up free membership or not?
-
I object to the way some of the money I spend on phone bills, groceries and the like go to fund organisations like the EMA and the Business Roundtable. How about a ban on companies contributing to employers organisations?
-
Why not make all university fees optional:
- why should students have to pay for the VCs house/car/foreign travel and other emoluments?
- why do students who never use the library still have to pay for it?
- a lot of money must go to opening the building for 9am lectures. If you never go to those, shouldn't you get a discount? -
parties don’t have uniform support, and that, on the whole, things mostly work out
That's what I mean by "coincidentally proportional".
It's possible for STV to deliver a proportional result (and indeed for FPP to do so, in a few cases). But it isn't in any way guaranteed by the design, unlike MMP.
Under STV, if I vote for a party that has wide support throughout NZ, then my vote has less value than if I vote for a party that gains all its votes from one small area.