Posts by st ephen
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Who knocked the manuscript into shape? Who compiled the list of sources, and who checked it against the author's own notes? Was the manuscript read page by page?
Don't famous authors with jobs in academia get grad students to compile all the local colour and historical stuff, so they can just stick to plot and character development and a few literary flourishes? Maybe his little helpers accidentally lumped some of their offerings together under a single reference?
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Even Kevin McCloud on Grand Designs just called wood sensuous.
Yes, but he'd just been talking about how steel framing was long, and rigid and strong, and wood was....well...cheap. Makes you wonder what he got up to during the commercial break.
(Also amusing to hear the long, detailed explanation of the mysterious technology of...weatherboards. And they had to resort to "softwood" in place of the expensive cedar (which is also a softwood).
Memo to NZ radiata pine marketing department - ditch "softwood", it sounds limp. Go with "Gymnosperm".
Memo from Marketing - OMG yes! We can totally work with that! But do we need the "no" in there?) -
oh go on, st ephen, take another swing - you know you want to
nah, I'm all done with calderising myself...
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ChCh PAS readers all live within a suburb or two of the Uni
No they don't.Right. Good to have that settled. Personally, if I had to live back in ChCh and Islander wouldn’t give me asylum on the Coast, I’d choose a nice multi-cultural ghetto near the uni. After all, if you had to live in Texas or Georgia, who wouldn’t pick Austin or Athens? ;-)
people from ChCh think they live in a city
And now you know what I think based on where I live...Of course I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking: I bet he went to St. Thomas’.
They persist with the whole “first four ships” and “what school did you go to?” crap.
...not what I say, which you don't appear to be able to hear. So there's not a lot of point in me continuing to talk.Well I did read the bit where you deduced an awful lot about someone’s life from their hairstyle. But hey, it’s Friday. Peace and love to all the good people of Christchurch. I have many times admired your Hagley Park and your Botanic Garden. Your convenient access to the Southern Alps and West Coast, and …. um….those rubber mats at Bottle Lake Forest that make it easy to ride up sand dunes?
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OK, we get it - ChCh PAS readers all live within a suburb or two of the Uni, and gee there are some great noodle houses around now...
There is something different about Christchurch though. The locals there certainly think so. It’s our most parochial town in our most parochial province. Sure, there’s the ‘Naki, the Bay, or Southland, but only Christchurch has the scale to sustain its parochialism beyond irony. Other provincials know full well they’re from Hicksville – people from ChCh think they live in a city. An English City (not British, or European, mind). Specifically, Home-Counties-1950’s-English, before mass migration from the New Commonwealth. They persist with the whole “first four ships” and “what school did you go to?” crap. It’s all designed to reinforce the social hierarchy, which is one based on a particularly narrow definition of ethnicity. You can be a wealthy neurologist living in Fendalton with all your kids at Middleton Grange, but if you surname is Gunasekera you (and your kids) will never hit the top rung.
So yes - there are nasty racists up and down the country. But stabbing an Afghani taxi driver is such a quintessential Christchurch crime. I think it’s because it’s only in Christchurch that the notion of a hierarchy with white English-bred people on top has been so blatantly nurtured for decades by the local middle-class and media. It’s no wonder that the more bone-headed citizens seek to cement their own place in that hierarchy by picking on victims who are decidedly “other”. They just want to be loved.
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The question I remember went something like "Congress is to gubernatorial as senate is to ...?"
I think the answer to that question would be "gubernatorial", but it really makes no sense.
True, maybe it was more like "Senator is to Gubernatorial as President is to...?". But the point is really that you can coach people to pass this sort of test, just like you can coach 12-year-olds to win Spelling Bees or kids to pass National Standards tests. But a high GRE score (or knowing what 'gubernatorial' means, or even recognising common adjectival suffixes) is not a useful predictor of success in grad school and beyond. Just like getting a higher proportion of kiwi kids to spell tricky words correctly is not going to help John Key with his plan to...er...(what was his plan again? Something to do with cows and our beautiful scenery?).
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"...the GRE is a test of willingness to study and at worst it is a test of middle class resourcefulness."
Hey, I'm with Danielle - don't knock middle class resourcefulness, it's all some of us have got.
(The question I remember went something like "Congress is to gubernatorial as senate is to ...?". And James thinks this is an IQ test?) -
The coaching change - that's nuts.
Nah, it's genius - everyone knows they were getting stale. Next step is to swap Rodders and Milsy round. Joe must be gutted he didn't think of swapping with whoever wears No. 9 these days.
The stuff story quoted Henry as saying that he hadn't coached forwards for some years so it would be a bit of a learning experience for him. FFS.
And that's why the journos hate Henry - they can't tell when he's taking the piss either. Plus he gives them the "Headmaster look", and instantly they revert to being 14-year old schoolboys who aren't smart enough or sporty enough to impress the Head, and aren't cool enough not to care.
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...since 82 (when Hungary potted ten against El Salvador)...
They came right in the rest of their pool games though (imagine the shimmying if NZ held the defending champs to 0-2), and in the end only conceded one more goal than that rabble from Oceania...
And they drew the rematch.
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Hilary - re. the 'sceptical' Nigel Latta and Sensing Murder : try this
... took the script, didn't fill it, and she was better three days later.
I believe the Norwegians are on to this. In these cases, they hand out antibiotic prescriptions which can only be filled three days after the consult. Of course, by then the piece of paper has worked its magic. Similarly, when I was last admitted to hospital my miraculous recovery started the moment the GP put on his serious face and mentioned the ED as a real option. There's nothing like having your suffering validated. (A hug from a hippy isn't going to do it for me - those people will hug just about anyone).