Posts by George Darroch
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But at any rate, it looks fairly sophisticated. They had clear strategies. I'm now thinking that perhaps it was that people didn't care enough about their message.
They share that in common with the Tea Party folks. Enough money and enthusiasm to create these platforms, but not enough sophistication to realise how their campaign sounds outside their echo-chamber. There's a real lack of self-awareness there, sufficient that claims of dictatorship are made with ease.
I know this because you are reading these words and that means that you care. Please, please, please never give up caring. Never stop being a responsible citizen, never stop voting, never stop raising your voice and being heard.
I almost feel sorry for these people who feel so completely marginalised. But then I realise that they're not marginalised at all, they've had their time in the spotlight and dominated the national conversation on a number of issues, far beyond their small numbers. They're just so convinced of the righteousness of their issues that for them to have lost a political battle must have been the work of those who ignore the population and act like an elected dictatorship.
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I kinda feel for them. I know how hard it is to organise a march that gets hundreds of people, let alone thousands. The key is utilising networks of people, or having a topical issue with a clear goal in sight (eg stopping a war, the moratorium on GE release).
These people had neither. They also wasted money advertising to the nation rather than their base. This was not only stupid, it also suggests that they believe that the depth of feeling in the community is much greater than it is.
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Paul Buchanan ('Pablo') puts the boot into the University of Auckland for its comparative treatment of himself and Ihimaera.
In Mr. Ihimaera’s case it appears that, upon hearing that news of the plagarism was about to go public, the University rapidly pushed through an “investigation” of the matter apparently involving his HOD, the new Dean of Arts (who was not the Dean the fired me) and Mr. Ihimaera. No disciplinary board with colleagues outside of the HoD and Dean was apparently convened. Mr. Itimaera gave apologies and assurances, and the case was closed.
I really do feel for the academics of the University of Auckland who have to deal with this management. I saw enough under Dr Hood to be suitably concerned, and I was only on the outside.
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Wow. That is awesome.
Thank you, and everybody who has been a part of this.
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Hmmm, now that I think about it, I've got quite a few anecdotes. None involving the Speaker's chair or actual members of Parliament though...
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Heh. But seriously, I do. All the time.
People have a tendency to generalise from their own experience. We all do, it's a fairly human thing to do.
The problem is that anecdata isn't all that useful for generalising from if it's coming from a non-typical sample.
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But if you were in your eighties and the bestsellers you wrote 40 years ago went out of copyright, so that copies were being sold everywhere and films being made, of which you got not a cent, you might think otherwise.
Good law strikes a balance between competing interests.
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I'm also angry about TRIPS, which for me redoubles the need to prevent ACTA from being signed.
It might be worth getting a group of copyright-holders together to meet with the Minister and opposition to express opposition to ACTA, and support for better copyright laws...
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Like hell they are. Death-plus-50 is no improvement on death-plus-70 in any material sense.
For some reason this morning I thought it was 50 from publication.
Death plus 50 makes me quite angry. If I publish something now and live into my 80s or 90s, it's going to be 2110-2120 before it falls out of copyright. That is just ridiculous.
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Will the actual Dr Bollard be there? Cause that would be, you know, awesome.
Ten points for each copy you sell to an actual employee of the Reserve Bank.