Posts by Kyle Matthews
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Because as you say, bFM has always had a cool factor that all those other 'marginal' radio stations didn't, and the ad agencies knew it.
I don't know bFM, but I presume it's the same as Radio One in Dunedin, in that they make a conscious decision by attaching themselves to the cool gigs and sponsoring the hippest things and organising parties etc, of being cooler than everyone else in town. There's some brand association of having your brand alongside with something that has managed to build that up.
I don't know if bFM has a membership card, Radio One has had one for many years and it always sells out. Radio stations aren't always just radio stations I guess.
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So you're saying it's up there with "may interfere with our navigation systems"?
I think Toby Ziegler shot this down within about 2 minutes of the first episode of the West Wing.
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From my limited understanding, I believe that U.S. troops are allowed (are almost expected to in some cases) to refuse to obey illegal orders.
My point was made in response to the claim that they're 'volunteer actions'. Which is a pretty broad statement to apply to the training that US soldiers go through.
There's plenty of famous experiments that prove that you can make volunteers do things against their will via applying authority. The military command structure is partially designed to force underlings to follow orders that they don't understand and which might place them in considerable danger, for some perceived greater good.
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No one made him to do, ultimately it was a voluntary act by a volunteer soldier.
Soldiers get court-martialled for not following orders. From boot camp, they have it pounded into them that they have to follow orders, no matter what they think about them personally.
Sadly, when those orders turn out to have been a really bad idea, they end up being at the end of the line when it comes to apportioning blame, as the soldiers at My Lai, Haditha, Abu Ghraib, and no doubt these ones will find out.
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It kills community and I love the way everywhere here in Asia, and across much of Europe & in places like NYC, community thrives, people communicate and life bubbles until late around shops, cafes and the streets.
I was fascinated by that in NYC. I arrived there at about 7pm, went shopping for three hours after checking in at the hotel, and had a wonderous dinner at 11pm. Then went on a bus tour at midnight. When we went home at 2pm the streets were still packed.
It makes our night life look about 10 steps back on the evolutionary scale.
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Indeed, Martin. You know, the idea of a pluralistic society where anyone would question why we all should honour Christian religious festivals thanks to, effectively, a historical accident is really fucking appalling. Just because I'm a devout Catholic doesn't mean you should have to be.
It does raise the question of, if public holidays were to be tokenised, as has been suggested, which of the current ones would people take?
I would still probably take easter, as it makes a long enough weekend to leave town, but I wouldn't give two hoots about queens birthday. Christmas and New Years would be 100% holiday, as I spent it with my family. Labour Day, Waitangi Day, I might betray my side of the political spectrum and trade them in for a more convenient time.
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Off topic, Damian, do you what we're likely to have to do to get a seat at the Dunedin Back Benches special? Turn up at any particular time? Pre book? I'm imagining it will get full, the political parties have been pushing it a bit.
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That's the only proper way to do something like this.
But the playing field could be leveled. There could be two questions: 1. What voting system would you like?, and 2. how many MPs do you want? The increased MPs wasn't particularly tied to the voting system by the Royal Commission.
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But didn't the Royal Commission recommend 120 whatever the system, and the government then screwed with it putting 120 MPs in the MMP option, and 99 in the FPP option?
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Karl from CactusLab's two year-old daughter's first five minutes with the iPad
That's way cool. Now I want one to play with.
Also, that two year old has about 20 times the technical ability with computers than some of the academics that I have to provide support for.