Posts by George Darroch
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And about the music... these posts just keep filling me with new things. I look forward to Fridays now.
I'm so down with the new XX right now. Lovers' music.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Better Bit…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Ah, that works. I pay by the hour here, so I've given to working out how long things will take, and going from there. I get about 360mb/h when traffic is light, less when everyone else is using the same connection.
We're waiting patiently for competition here. In 2002 they gave over a 15 year monopoly (since cut to 10) to Timor Telecom in exchange for coverage of 98% of the population of this small, poor, mountainous country. We got it, and things aren't slow compared to how they could be, but we certainly pay for our privileges.
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We're at an interesting moment with the transfer to cloud-based services. Much of the world doesn't yet have the speed or bandwidth to support such things, and the assumption of both is becoming more pervasive.
How much of your data-cap did refreshing 3000 songs take?
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Oh, and the same for books. Except I keep acquiring foreign language dictionaries, big huge things that cost hundreds of dollars in many cases. I'm a sucker for the comprehensive. They come in handy, and often count against whatever else I put on airport scales. Anything else in print acquires bible status or is given away.
No doubt once my life acquires permanency this will change. But hopefully not dramatically.
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I'm not a collector. The pain of giving up a lot of full boxes of CDs the first time I moved to Australia put that in the past; I couldn't do it, and severed my love for physical objects. Since I now pretty much live under the 18/20/23kg weight limit, this attitude serves me well. I don't want things accumulating dust in a parent's garage, and there isn't any point in buying if you're just going to sell again soon, is there?
here I am, 41 years after I, as a mid-teenager, acquired the very first EMI NZ copy brand new on the day of release, buying yet another copy, one that is unlikely to get played more than once or twice, and one that I even hesitated unwrapping from the plastic seal. I was, crushed by the burden of addiction, absolutely unable to resist buying this.
Simon G's blog about being on the other end of the spectrum is still something to enjoy. Tragic and warm and funny at the same time.
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Not much to add, other than this collection makes me very happy.
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A few weeks ago I saw many photos from friends posted to the Pacific Island Forum, having a great time in-between pointing their microphones and sitting at their computers. Not that I'm criticising; there are plenty of photos on my Facebook of me having fun in tropical locations while doing Important Things. Having access to those in the centre comes with the territory. Theirs is a life very much chosen (much like those of the rest of us who get to choose what we do for a living - something many NZrs are denied by circumstance).
Bloggers merely sit at their computers, and if productive they send OIAs and ask those they know for pertinent information. They're not often in the middle of things, and if they are must maintain a degree of caution or anonymity and risk the repercussions of either failing, something which must be approaching inevitability.
I'd also argue that the gap has closed considerably in the last decade, and New Zealand media . When I'm back in Auckland I have to cringe through the editorialising and opinion layered over the reporting of almost anything. In politics it has become especially overt. Whatever happened to "We Report, You Decide" (tm) and the false air of impartiality? At least in Soviet Russia the pro/anti reporting on any given day was defending a regime. Here? Ratings, and the egos of reporters who've been given the power to shape public opinion.
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A late reply, as always.... this is perhaps the best selection of music in a PA column this year. Since I don't have access to the radio in the same way (and the tubes are charged hourly here), I've been relying on the taste of others more than ever; especially to keep in touch with NZ's bloody brilliant music scene.
Here's one I stumbled across last week. You'll either love or hate this one. This was the perfect soundtrack for a drive down a bone-dry coast between brown hills and crystal blue waters.
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A strong social sanction on providing cannabis to young teenagers would help a lot.
It’s actually this kind of social prohibition that has helped turn around the meth boom. The P-pipe became a very uncool thing.
Absolutely. It's also worth noting that for all the ubiquity of alcohol in NZ society, it's very rare to see adults giving young (<15) kids large amounts of alcohol. You don't regulate social sanction, you do so by empowering people (and disempowering those who actively harm). Those kinds of conditions can be created under prohibition, but they're not created by prohibition. Me, I used to do Lots of Things, but stopped doing them when it became clear that some of them had very clear links to mental harm, and that others had slightly weaker links that because of my genetic background I'd be unwise to test.
We have a situation now in which people (often rightly) distrust harm messages because they perceive them to be part of a general condemnatory atmosphere of prohibition.
I see the same here in Timor-Leste, in which societal shame and fear of sexual behaviours prevents people from internalising information and change which would reduce their risk of HIV/AIDS. The tragedy is already happening, but a lot more is incipient.
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In conclusion, cannabis has been shown to have a range of effects on lung function that are different to those found with tobacco. Acute inhalation of cannabis produces bronchodilation, but chronic use is associated with bronchitic symptoms, central airway inflammation, and increased large airway resistance to airflow. There is also evidence for lung hyperinflation, but no convincing evidence that cannabis smoking leads to airflow obstruction and COPD. Despite the case reports of emphysematous bullae among heavy cannabis users, it has not yet been proven that cannabis causes emphysema. Cannabis also contains many carcinogenic substances but it remains controversial whether it is a cause of lung malignancies.
The above concludes a fairly comprehensive review of the evidence on lung function. The authors note a 'paucity of research' though, so feel free to dismiss their conclusions.
(For completeness, they also state:
It is beyond the scope of this article to consider whether these harms are best reduced by maintaining the illegal status of cannabis, decriminalization, or by legalising and regulating its use. What we can say is that cannabis is harmful to lungs and that drug policies should take this into consideration. We also recommend that future policies should encourage further research into the health effects of smoking cannabis.
Which is entirely in line with a sensible evidence-based discussion.)