Posts by Bart Janssen
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Legal Beagle: Think it possible that you…, in reply to Russell Brown,
his argument with a straw man
You are of course quite right, and I didn't even notice that part.
But to be fair when I asked Toto to stop advertising with Radio Live I did imply it would affect my future dining decisions.
That is NOT what Gio did, but I suspect many people like me extended the questioning of advertisers desire to be associated with Radio Live to what would amount to a change in purchasing behaviour (a boycott by any other name).
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Argh sorry but I couldn't ignore this
but to contact their switchboards, and flood the airwaves with the views of those appalled at their treatment of Amy
Again have you somehow come to this world from another reality? This has been done before. Do you know what the response is? Because such campaigns result in a surge in viewer/listener numbers the media companies respond by encouraging their hosts to be MORE provocative, to select more extreme callers and to espouse more extreme views.
It PROMOTES rape-culture.
Because the hosts and producers control the selection of callers they limit the number of those simply calling to express calmly sensibly and logically an opposing view an instead select "a balance" of callers ie those who support the hosts.
Your suggestion DOES NOT WORK.
Maybe advertiser boycotts are not ideal but they created are far stronger message that "rape-culture" is not acceptable. You argue that we shut down discussion, well I'd argue the reverse, there was far more discussion of what rape-culture actually is because of the boycott, certainly in our tea room and in the media I saw.
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OK a couple of things.
First you appear to be utterly detached from the real world. I totally understand the logic and philosophy of your argument, however, it fails utterly the test of reality. In our real world there is almost no broadcast program that does not consider the ability to earn money from advertising while it is being made. Advertising for good or ill is an integral part of most of what we watch and hear whether we realise it or not.
To suggest that one is genuinely separate from the other is to imagine a world that does not exist. As a thought experiment it is fine but as a justification for arguing against advertiser boycotts it is simply pointless.
Second, you seem to imagine that the men involved were simply exercising free-speech when they victim-shamed Amy. This is not true. They were, and are still, PAID to attract an audience and as a result to attract advertisers. Their speech is a product marketed to consumers and advertisers. To argue that it is somehow for the good of society to allow them to continue to be paid for that is not the same as arguing that they be allowed to speak their opinions.
Finally this straw man
were hoping to silence the speech
which you effectively demolish is false, at least for me. I in no way wanted to silence the speech. My aim in applying my tiny amount of pressure to advertisers was to stop the broadcasters and their parent company FROM PROFITING from that speech.
Oh and from someone prone to long posts my personal feeling is that if you have to write 10 pages to justify your position it's worth taking a long hard look at your position because you are probably wrong.
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Our building is about to be renovated. I say "about to" bearing in mind that it has been planned for at least 20 years. As a result we are being decanted (project management speak for moved) out of our labs and offices to a new lab and office space while the building is being renovated and then sometime later back in again into brand new labs and open plan offices.
In the process of both moves we've been told many times we won't need so much shelving and storage because everything will be electronic. But my shelves have boxes of primary data from my thesis 25 years old. My oldest lab books are up there with my awful handwriting and cryptic abbreviations.
And while in my heart I know very well I will never do anything of significance to any historian, the idea of throwing that stuff out ... I can't. Yes I know nobody, least of all me, will ever read those lab books but what if someone wanted to ...?
The reality is that things will get thrown out ... but not those lab books, I just can't. They are scientific letters from me to me, even if I never read them.
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Hard News: Housing: the Feudal Model, in reply to James Bremner,
more of the same
Really? You must have lived in a different Auckland city than the one I’ve lived in for 40 years.
What we have done in Auckland for decade after decade is open up greenfield subdivisions on the edges of the city that is what we have actually been doing that has led to the current situation. At the same time local councils have again and again voted to protect one fifth acre blocks against intensification … except for ghetto apartment blocks in the city centre.
Pretending that by stopping the stupid expansion this council has suddenly created a crisis is disingenuous at best.
What you are proposing is more greenfield development … but this time with a financial structure that ensures even more of the risk is taken by the council and even more of the profit goes to the developer.
You are arguing for a continuation of the planning the stuffed up this city with the bonus of giving more money to developers.
What intelligent non-corrupt town planners have proposed is medium density development throughout the city. An end to stupid protection of one fifth acre sections and a planned build up of density along major public transport routes. Such housing will be lower cost and will be affordable because rich folks won’t want to live in it. Of course rich folks also don’t want it anywhere near their backyard. But it is the kind of development that will actually increase the supply of low cost affordable housing within the city as it exists now.
Developers will suffer (my tears are falling) land speculators on the edge of the city will suffer (more tissues needed).
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Hard News: Housing: the Feudal Model, in reply to James Bremner,
trying new ideas, such as MUDS
The problem is that while MUDS may be new to you and new to New Zealand they are in fact not new at all. They have been used in many places. Uniformly they have resulted in very rich developers and very shitty housing.
So what you are suggesting is to try something that has been proven to be very bad for the city and very bad for the majority of people with the sole gain being to the bank balances of a small number of developers.
To me that goes beyond stupid and well into the world of corrupt.
As for opening up more greenfield development, again the record shows that such developments are uniformly for the building of expensive homes for the rich by rich developers. It is easy to see why the (corrupt) right wing advocates would favour that solution. It is easy to see why the "left" ie those concerned for the wellbeing of all parts of society including the poor, would be opposed to such a strategy.
Simplistic supply and demand theories do not fit with observed results hence your theories are bollocks.
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Hard News: Housing: the Feudal Model, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Schools are also built and funded via bonds and repaid via the same taxes on the homeowner.
So while I was living in Tucson a bond for a local school failed because, well, most of the rich folks in the area were retired and didn't need a school since their kids had long since graduated.
The consequence of course was the children of poor folks took buses to overcrowded crap schools.
A model we want to emulate? yeah ... nah.
Oh and having lived in Texas for 13 months of my life that I will never ever get back can I just say unless you plan to do the exact opposite then looking to Texas for examples of how to do things ... anything ... is just plain stupid.
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We drive past the house a lot. It is a lovely old house from the outside and that's from someone who has a generally low opinion of old houses in Auckland.
It's neat to see the inside.
BUT it sits on a busy corner of a busy road and I would fear for the safety of our cats even if we could afford it.
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Just thought I'd pass this on from Toto in response to the e-mail I sent them. I presume others got the same letter and apologies if this is a repeat.
Good response.
Good Afternoon,
Toto Restaurant as advertisers have had a long relationship with Radio Live. That does not extend to our business having any editorial influence over the content of the programmes in which our advertisements appear. As a general rule, we believe it is important that editorial and advertising functions are best kept separate.
We were disturbed by the tone of last week’s interview of Amy by Willie Jackson and John Tamihere. The use of phrases such as “mischief” to describe alleged serious sexual misconduct trivialised a very serious issue.
Once we understood what had transpired we immediately contacted the management of MediaWorks - Radio Live to review our relationship and have decided to cease any advertising and or sponsorship forthwith. We fully endorse MediaWork’s decision to stand Messr’s Jackson and Tamihere down and as a result will consider advertising on the network again.
To all of our friends, loyal patrons and future guests we sincerely convey that the views and expressions of Messr’s Tamihere and Jackson were not those shared by the Owner, Management or Staff of Toto Restaurant.
Kind regards,
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I sleep pretty well now. But while I was struggling with depression I slept terribly, 2 hours was a good night. It’s one reason I started playing WoW since it’s better than disturbing my partner at 4 am and I wasn’t functional enough to do anything challenging. It also meant that not sleeping felt a bit less catastrophic, “hey I can’t sleep I’ll just play”.
My therapist, a very smart man, recognized pretty early on that he needed to give me facts I could understand before he could move on to sort out my emotional issues so he gave me some reading about stress and sleep.
So IANA neurobiologist but this is what I understand. The major sleep hormone is melatonin, most sleeping pills mimic melatonin, you need to have sufficient melatonin to be able to sleep well. Melatonin is derived from vitamin D, which you get from sunshine. The catch is along the synthetic pathway to melatonin is serotonin. That’s a hormone associated with happiness (and bowel movements but that’s probably not relevant), but it’s also a hormone closely related to stress, a lot of antidepressants target the serotonin receptor.
Under situations of stress serotonin gets used up … none left to make melatonin and you don’t sleep. That of course makes you tired and (for me anyway) grumpy, a state of mind pretty much guaranteed to induce stress the next day, which uses up serotonin …
It’s a vicious cycle. Obviously the long-term solution is to figure out how to interact with the world and people without being overwhelmed by stress. But some short-term solutions are obvious once you know what is going on. Get out in the sun and eat your veggies, both things will help you make serotonin and melatonin. If you are stuck in a cycle of not sleeping then sleeping pills can help break the cycle, but only as a short-term solution. For me they never give the same quality of sleep but at least I could function and cope better the next day.
And reduce stress, hah! Like that’s easy. But getting some exercise seems to help, hard to worry about someone at work when all you are focused on some kind of exercise, exercise out in the sunshine is a double bonus.
I love good coffee but I can’t drink it after about 1 pm or I’ll pay the price that night. I love nice wine but again there is a price to be paid. I always read in bed but if I want to sleep I have to read with dim lighting on my iPAD. If I get stuck in a thought pattern I practice “corpse pose” from yoga, basically the bit where you chase thoughts out of your brain while concentrating on relaxing each muscle and breathing, meditation by any other name. Essentially what Ben said, but just a note it does take practice to learn to do well.
All things that do make sense, and of course all things that may not work for everyone.
So yeah I sleep reasonably well now, less than I used to, but that’s a sign of maturity right?