Posts by Dylan Reeve
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
I like the Dead Cat theory and I'm convinced it's used at times... But I don't think this was one.
I think this was an opportunity to both score points against the opposition and also to re-frame the detainees to limit public sympathy for them (and by extension those opposition parties who are supporting them).
The 'truth', as spoken by the Prime Minister and soon widely reported by the media, is that the majority of the detainees are violent sex offenders. The PM even has a document to prove it, although he doesn't think he'll be able to make it public.
Not sure how opposition parties can fight against that now. They are unlikely to have useful data to refute it.
-
I can't help thinking that Apple's embracing of ad-blocking on iOS is only going to make things worse.
We ask a lot, but we're willing to trade very little in return. I balk at a paywall and apparently I don't want to see ads either, but by god they'd better not get rid of any of those journalists, how dare they!?!
-
Hard News: Not yet standing upright, in reply to chris,
Why publicly present a shortlist of 40 if only presenting 4 for the vote?
That's an interesting question actually - was there public consultation after the longlist was published? I don't remember any being promoted.
If not, what was the point of that?
-
Hard News: Not yet standing upright, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Everyone seems to think it’s important that a child could draw the flag.
Nothing horrifies me more. What are you trying to do, indoctrinate your children into blind loyalty to a flag? It’s been done before a whole bunch of times, with horrifying results.
It's a shorthand for simplicity.
Think instead about the many mediums in which it might be desirable to be able to reproduce the flag - from embroided to painted on a face... even baked in a cake. In monochrome or with a limited palette.
Basically a flag should be easy to reproduce from memory, with simply implements even when constrained by materials.
(The same usually goes for logos too)
-
Hard News: Not yet standing upright, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
“Wow, look at all these votes with “THIS SUCKS” written on them. I had no idea people felt this way. This is a serious wake-up call. Let’s just scrap the referendum.”
- No one, 2015
And yet that is exactly what Winston Peters is suggesting...
At the whim of the PM we’ve been saddled with a $26 million flag debate.
He’s going all out to get rid of our flag, which carries the Union Jack.
On the other hand, he brought back a colonial relic – knighthoods.
He wants more visits from the royals.
He’s given Prince Charles three military honours.
Yet he loves Hawaii, which has the Union Jack on its flag.
All rather odd.
And instead of being neutral for the debate he has been loud and clear he favours the silver fern.
Four designs today, and the silver fern dominates!
What the PM wants, he gets.
We say write Keep Our Flag, or KOF, on the referendum voting paper.
With many making the vote invalid there will be no good reason to continue with a second, costly referendum. #KOF- https://www.facebook.com/winstonpeters/posts/1188564987836293
-
Hard News: Not yet standing upright, in reply to Kumara Republic,
I hate the spoiling the ballot campaigns. It's literally the same as not voting.
Sure, your protest can be quantified in a way with the "informal" total, but you may as well have not voted at all, because the actual decision will be made by everyone else who did vote properly.
If you want to protest vote then the koru design makes sense. It's generally the least likely and seems most likely to fail to get popular support in the second vote.
-
Hard News: Not yet standing upright, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Too bold for some narrow-minded people. For them it’s a symbol of separatism.
And I don't think adopting an existing design with strong meaning associated would be a good idea - but the koru it features is a strong and appealing design. Unlike the one on hypnoflag.
-
Hard News: Not yet standing upright, in reply to Stephen Dickson,
No mention of the fact two of the final four are in fact copyrighted. I’m sure the owner will sell them to us, but the question is why didn’t the panel even pick that up???
They're all copyrighted. You make something, you get the copyright. It's just that Kyle Lockwood already commercially exploits the copyright in his designs.
However from memory (can't find them online anymore) the terms of the submission process declared that you would gift the rights to your design to the government if it was selected to be the flag or something.
-
After all this contemplation, we seemed to have wound up with what you’d get if you hadn’t really thought about it.
This.
This is exactly the problem. These are the designs you'd get in the first two minutes of a discussion on a new flag. They are the most obvious and least thought out.
I dislike all the silver fern ones. I think they immediately fail the simplicity goals of a flag - especially the "could a child draw it" test.
And the koru we've been presented with isn't an appealing koru at all. It's thin and inconsistent. The Tino Rangatiratanga koru design is much bolder and more appealing, as is Andrew Baker's design that you've highlighted.
-
That sounds like a genuinely good royalty structure - I hope it's successful.