Posts by st ephen
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Jolisa,
Just to be absolutely clear what (and whom) we’re talking about here: Danyl is extrapolating from a single summer school paper taught by Otago to the 100% negative utility of the study of the humanities at large in Aotearoa?
No, the negative utility statement came first. The single summer school paper was brought up by someone on the other side of the argument, no doubt causing Danyl to push the ledger even further into the red.
For the record, I did an applied science degree. Much of the material covered was essentially ephemeral, and not much use to me or the economy today. The way we covered it still provides direct benefits to me, the government and the private companies I work for. But if you accept the proposition put forward here previously that Non-exporters are freeloaders, then I suspect that Danyl can lump me in with the BA (Eng Lit) majors now...
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keep it down you lot! Mention public artwork and this is what you'll get…
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Busytown: A new (old) sensation, in reply to Islander,
I'm not surprised that not everyone is keen on publishing! Looking though the exhibition in Okarito this summer felt a little stalky, but at least it went two ways - I was very conscious that some of the people in the photos were almost certainly watching us go in and out of the building, it not standing right behind us in the room. In a big city gallery, on Facebook or in a book the vibe would be very different.
Still, the project does present an interesting (or sad) transition from South Island from the Road kitsch, to knowing retro-Kiwiana to generic glossy House magazine. -
Hard News: The Wall and the Paper, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Out of interest, why would you want to buy the ODT in Wellington when you can already read Doug Wright's fabulous shipping news column online? Fifty-five years of interesting visitors...
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Field Theory: Hospital Pass, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
I’d imagine any England pool game would be impossible here...
er, maybe you should let the organisers know so they can move this one:
Sat Sep 24 Pool B England v Romania Dunedin
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Christopher Dempsey,
This isn't really the place to make generalisations about people from Christchurch, and I'll note that apparently the most unusual thing about the demographics of Canterbury is that in terms of age, ethnicity, qualifications, industry and occupation, Canterbury is 'more typical of New Zealand' than most other regions. (see http://www.motu.org.nz/files/docs/MRU_issue_06.pdf).
But yeah, to a Cantabrian Auckland may as well be Perth or Darwin. I wouldn't be surprised if Auckland gets the recent migrants to Christchurch (apart from the Brits who'll go home), the home-grown workforce opts for Australia and the beneficiaries spread around the South Island.
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Back in about 1984 I was whisked off the street to do a bit of consumer testing of a proposed TV show. They had impressive-looking story boards to flip through to show the concept, which was based on a trawl through the TVNZ archives looking for hilarity (Commuters wearing hats! Newsreaders in flares! Peter Sinclair!), in a format that borrowed heavily from Not the Nine O'Clock News. In place of edgy UK comedians they were proposing Billy T James.
I'm glad it was your version that got the go-ahead.
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NZ Sign Language is one of this nation’s three official languages.Why on earth should anyone have to beg for it to be part of publicly-funded functions like this?
Sadly, I think you just answered your own question with the elephant-in-the-room that is the third official language...
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One problem will be striking a balance between getting things built quickly and building quality things to last. My understanding is that the response to the September quake was to cut the red tape so that developers could knock things up quickly. That doesn't preclude adherence to earthquake codes, but might count against involvement of all stakeholders in conversations about design principles etc. I worked for 15 years in a prefab that had been set up as temporary office accommodation many years before (and it's still there 10 years later), so I can see a real challenge in transitioning from rubble to exemplary without going through something fairly nasty on the way.
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Speaker: Medical Journal, Chapter V, in reply to Islander,
I have driven a 1997 Mitsubishi Delica Spacegear Jasper ...
Oooo I have one of those - it has 4WD and bull bars, so it's the people mover of choice for middle-aged men in denial. When people see me dropping the kids off at music or picking them up from sports practice I see them thinking "Now there's a man who could drive over the median strip if he felt like it".