Posts by Marcus Turner
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Hard News: Interview: Glenn Greenwald, in reply to Paul Campbell,
Remember when most of the country did not want NZ troops in Vietnam. They went anyway
An then years later it turned out that LBJ had secretly threatened to cut off all our trade ties if we didn’t go and our (National) government acceded without a peep
This is really interesting: can you provide a reference?
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A factor in all this that keeps disappointing me is the role of news organisations. Besides assorted internet news sites, my main source of "audio news" is National Radio. I've been disappointed with how much presenters seem to have been concentrating on who "scored points" in a debate. I presume that there's research showing this sort of thing can influence elections, but can't help wondering if this is partly because news organisations make a feature of it.
And even though media organisations seem to acknowledge the "horse race" nature of election coverage, it doesn't appear to have actually caused them to change the style of their coverage.
While some people are having "great fun" with politics and the election process, decisions are being made about my personal freedoms and opportunities.
I hope I'm more likely to be swayed by facts than rhetoric: I'd like to see more of this reflected in news coverage, and less about "who won on points" or who made whom look silly.
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If you're looking to make some sort of start in learning Maori, you might like to try this page http://kupu.maori.nz/. One of the ways you can use it, is to receive one word every day by email.
For other languages, you might like Duolingo, though Chinese or Japanese for English speakers aren't available. For those, you could try Memrise.
All of these services allow you to choose your own pace, and begin with non-intimidating bite-sized pieces.
(And if you do want to learn code, you could similarly use Code Academy.)
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Hard News: The Mayor's marginal enemies, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Upright citizens, though, Ian.
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Hard News: The Mayor's marginal enemies, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
Graeme: I have to say that went through my mind, too.
ETA. Just read Russell’s reply. Fair enough, but it still might look a bit ad hominoid to newcomers.
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Hard News: How do you sleep?, in reply to BenWilson,
I endorse this: both the part about meditating all night if necessary, and the part that you probably won’t.
It’s my understanding that Zen meditation is carried out with eyes open. (Maybe not in all groups: I’m not sure.) There’s some story about the founder ripping his eyelids off.
Edit: Here's the story: http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhistworld/chan.htm
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I've been telling people for years that the "Hogamus Higamus" poem was composed by somebody writing down something they'd dreamed in the night. That turns out to be probably untrue: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/03/28/hogamous/
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A couple of pieces of advice I was given, that work for me:
1. Train yourself to associate light with being awake and dark with being asleep. When you can't sleep, turn the light on. When you want to try to go back to sleep, turn the light off. If you can't sleep, turn the light back on. I eventually found that turning off the light helped signal to me that dark was sleep time.
2. Keep something by the bed to write down any thoughts, so you won't be worried that you'll forget something. Once it's written down, you won't forget it, so there's no need to dwell on it.
Some other things that have helped:
Making sure the bed is a well-kept, nice place to be.
Taking care to be comfortable before going to bed: make something of a routine of carefully preparing for bed, and winding down.
And, of course, medication. (I slept right through a bluegrass band right outside the tent, playing most of the night, after taking one pill. And we're talking banjos here ...) But I don't think it's recommended for more than occasional use.
Being physically active for a period each day also helps.
I've found the problem with reading in bed is that I just don't have the self-discipline to stop.
I've found meditation techniques very useful, adapted for going to sleep.
The fact that I use all these methods shows that nothing is guaranteed to work. I expect everyone has sleepless nights sometimes.
Worrying about it caused a feedback loop, that made the problem worse. At various times, some of the above techniques have overcome that.
In contrast to some people, I've found the issue easier to address as I've aged.
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Yes. That's understandable, and I can understand why people would get hurt by someone discussing in the abstract what they've personally experienced. It's a distinct risk in a public forum and I'm quite sure it makes interaction with other people extremely hard for those who've been traumatised.
But I'm not quite clear how the line has been crossed in this thread, sometimes.
For example, here's an exchange I just can't make any sense of at all:
SAILOR RIPLEY, YOU GET ME SOME MUSIC ON THAT RADIO THIS INSTANT! I MEAN IT! (Sorry, that’s all I’ve got.)
That pretty much sums up how I feel about where this thread has gone as well
I've really no idea what's going on here.
And what does this mean?
If my Facebook feed is any guide, it is day two and we are already in a full Mazengarb event.
Great. Looking forward to a mob inspired murder coming to my neighborhood.
I don't even understand some of the paremeters of this discussion.
I don't think I have anything to add to the discussion that others haven't expressed better, but there's a lot here I'd like to understand better.
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I'm having difficulty in discerning what people think IS appropriate to discuss/say on this thread. Russell has provided some guidelines and Emma and one or two others have given clear positive suggestions.
But it seems a number of people have strayed from what others think is appropriate. Is all this just a matter of personal opinion, or is there some commonly accepted frame of reference here?
As a sometime comments-poster and most-times lurker, I frequently have the impression that many of the regular commenters know something about each other, and the ongoing discussion, that I don't.
What is appropriate on this thread? (I mean this particular thread.)