Posts by Kong

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  • Hard News: Greetings from the Garden City,

    How bizarre, my wife has been calling our newborn the "Milk Vampire", and when I told her there was a TV series about just that she said she wanted to see it. Just yesterday!

    Since Jul 2009 • 89 posts Report Reply

  • Should creation be taught in schools?,

    Could depend what is meant by 'taught'. If taught means the teacher maintains that Creationism is true, then I'd say absolutely not. If it means the teacher makes students aware of a number of hypotheses, the reasoning behind them, and indicates who generally believes each one, then sure. I'd rather my kids know of Creationism. I'd insist they know of the mainstream scientific alternatives. History of science is a very important part of scientific understanding - it makes much more poignant the lessons of the more famous experiments and discoveries. It also teaches one of the most important scientific precepts, that science is about competing hypotheses, not known facts, and deciding between them has never been simple. It has always involved a huge amount of work.

    Should it be taught in science classes, or something else, like, say, social studies? Again, it depends what is meant by taught. My memory of science classes as a child was that they would actually be very poor places to teach it, since they were never places of discussion of 'general' theory. 4 years of high school science seemed entirely geared to teaching us the current scientific orthodoxy. Perhaps that makes sense, in the same way that training for art usually involves mastering realism before trying other forms. There really is an awful lot of science to learn, without getting too bogged down in the history of it at the start. But then I never got to try it the other way to see whether it might actually have made a lot more sense to me.

    I wouldn't expect a lot of time to be spent on any particular creation myth. Just enough to say what it is, where it started, how old it is, what scientific evidence there is for and against it. Could be as short as one class.

    Since Jul 2009 • 89 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: Take Strictly, as Directed,

    This parallel universe you inhabit must be a very strange place.

    Sounds like a stink place too.

    Since Jul 2009 • 89 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Where your money goes,

    Black is OK, so long as it has white reflective stripes. But I guess the modern way of keeping kids safe on the road is to keep them in the car.

    Since Jul 2009 • 89 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: Take Strictly, as Directed,

    Had to look up 3 acronyms just to understand this post. BDSM, LGBT, and NSFW (which I had always thought was New South Fucking Wales). But I still don't really understand it. It started off being about how Emma tells people off for not being funny because of PAS, and ends up being about sexual practices that no one is qualified to say a word about, even the practitioners. Is that why no one is funny?

    Since Jul 2009 • 89 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Remembering the Chartists,

    Opinion polls seem to support your contention that our nation thinks baby seals are indeed delicious.

    Actually I was speaking metaphorically. My real contention was that there are a lot of people in this nation who love to see greenies getting a serve. And celebrities, for that matter. Key's 'advice' could seem prophetic in the shortest time, if Keisha's handlers don't prep her well enough.

    OTOH, actors can make good politicians. By good I mean successful. They're already well honed in half of the skills. I haven't seen anything to suggest Keisha can't go a long way. Front people don't actually have to know much about issues, and when you become a one-issue pony there's not that much to learn.

    Since Jul 2009 • 89 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Remembering the Chartists,

    Sacha, indeed. Key's unforced error (as DPF puts it), is the NZ equivalent of catching some sealers bashing in little fluffy white baby seals on film. They love that shit. What they don't get is that humanity is chock-full of carnivores.

    Since Jul 2009 • 89 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Remembering the Chartists,

    Kong, what is it exactly that makes you presume Keisha Castle-Hughes doesn't know what she's talking about? How would you know unless you're willing to engage?

    To be quite honest, there's no reason to engage even if she does know heaps about it. You'd probably just use a different brush off. But has anyone, herself included, ever intimated in the slightest that she is a climate change expert?

    Time will tell whether Key is hurt by this. Keisha needs to play her cards tight. Greenpeace will surely be able to help, they're old political hands. It could backfire horribly - I doubt that the true costs of their aim to cut our emissions will look good right in the middle of the deepest recession in modern history. Not to the people who voted for the right anyway.

    Since Jul 2009 • 89 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Remembering the Chartists,

    I can't see this discussion really going anywhere. We have differing ideas on the level of respect that should be afforded by the PM to anyone who has an opinion, regardless of training. The huge spectre of Greenpeace standing behind Keisha is reason enough to treat her as a hostile witness right from the get-go.

    Since Jul 2009 • 89 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Remembering the Chartists,

    That was the point...Did you miss it?

    Not at all. It was loud and clear. It was probably partially heartfelt too, I'm glad you got it off your chest. Now lets all sit around and hold hands whilst completely disagreeing with each other, and discuss something neither of us knows shit about.

    Since Jul 2009 • 89 posts Report Reply

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