Posts by George Darroch
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One thing I wanted to say - free speech does not mean we have any obligation whatsoever to provide people we find objectionable with a platform to perform their speech.
We owe them the right to speak. We don't owe them the right to be provided with an audience for that speech.
Some people seem unable to understand this.
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Many years ago (<sigh> here he goes again) when I was a kid doing a bit of sound engineering with the NYT we got a one hour mandatory session at the beginning about volume. And what it did to your ears. Too much makes you deaf...
So occasionally I'm at a thing where it really is loud and nasty. You can tell if the tech has had too much of their own art when they wind up the mid / top-range: it sounds like there's some white-noise/broken-glass sound involved.
You can't hear what is being shouted at you unless it's straight in your ear, and your ears ring when you put your hands over them. It genuinely is hurting you - and you won't notice the damage until a significant other leaves you because they've been driven wild by you constantly saying "what" and "pardon".
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defend yourself, so take some ear-plugs. It makes the world of difference, and the next morning you don't have Tinnitus.
Amen. I never leave the house to see live music without them. Proper ones that knock out 35 decibels. If I can't get any, I won't go. I think that loud music is a major unrecognised health and safety issue. A venue should not injure its patrons.
I'm only 25, but already I've lost a good amount of my hearing. I don't want to lose any more. I miss hearing the higher frequencies.
At least my dad can excuse his hearing loss on the basis of working with chainsaws in the 1970s and 1980s, using the most rudimentary of earmuffs.
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I'm of the opinion that patrons who are being clearly offensive to the artist and the audience should be expelled. I often quietly and politely seek to have them removed.
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Gordon Campbell's argument from free speech is a weak one. Having the right to say something, as Beenie Man (what a ridiculous name), David Irving, and c. 1992 Ice T should have, is not the same as it being incumbent on us to provide a platform from which they can speak. I've replied to his comments.
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I'm not sure "one-handed reading" quite fits here.
That's why it has a stain-proof cover.
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Where is NZ ranked in the world?
83rd, according to FIFA. But don't let that worry you: South Africa, the hosts of this World Cup and therefore automatic entrants, are ranked 85th, and qualifiers Korea DPR are ranked 91st.
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Because, of course, criticising an MP is just like a pack of Klansmen torturing and murdering black folks. And he's got the gall to accuse DPF of "dog-whistling" Dixie?
And if you disagree with Lynn Prentice, you're a pig-f***er who looks up skirts.
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Paul, I think so. I missed the game proper, just saw the highlights.
I was in Melbourne when Australia qualified for the first time, against Uruguay in 2005 (penalty shootout!) and the city just went electric. It's funny how that happens - I've never seen that with rugby yet.
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If you are in Wellington, I hope you are on the streets.
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Lambs to the slaughter.
I'm not going to count New Zealand out of winning this. By virtue of its low scores, football is a game where statistically the weaker team is more likely to produce an upset than most others, and the best side does not always win - a significant reason for its popularity.
Saudi Arabia were very unlucky not to progress. They've been strong in the last few years, and got a bad draw. Nevertheless, they are out of the competition. If New Zealand does scrape a win against Bahrain, they'll go to the mens world cup and be knocked out almost immediately. There isn't a single team that has qualified that I think New Zealand could beat, even on a very good day.
The Oceania Football Confederation is almost meaningless, and means that New Zealand and the rest of the Pacific have no experience playing strong teams. You need to play teams stronger than you to improve, no matter how bad you are - winning against terrible teams teaches you nothing. The sooner it is abolished the better. That will have to wait until Asia gets strong enough for rearranging confederations, which might be a while.