Posts by Rob Stowell

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  • Hard News: You've gotta hand it to Steve,

    Any moves away from DRM are good, but I tend to agree with posters vis-a-vis "two cheers for Emi" . NZ itunes store isn't great; I'm silly enough to prefer mp3 despite quality/bitrate issues, just 'cos it's "platform independent"; and I'm still waiting for the music "industry" to wake the f*** up. The old model was seriously unfair for most musicians and great for "the industry". But it's dead. And there's a great opportunity for a label to jump on the wave simply by charging $2 or $5 or something significantly cheaper for re-released albums- and giving a decent amount - say 40%- to the artists. Even if it didn't work, it'd be a great gamble - and ain't they always rumbled about being in a risky business? The worst possible action is to cling to the corpse of the dead model. (Apologies to any dead models out there). I'm not an illegal downloader, but the way this is going, it's starting to seem inevitable that one day I will be. </rant>

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Stories: Life in Books,

    Sendak is terrific at his best. There's a delightful video animation of most of his picture-books with songs and lovely bluesy music by Carol King. I'm not such a fan of Russell Hoban's adult novels (sorry Riddley- good but not great) but his children's books are near perfect. The Francis books and "How Tom beat Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen" are classics. And the funniest children's books ever written by a Methodist minister have to be the "Uncle" series. For journalistic slime, Stephen Cook has nothing on Hitmouse.
    I think it's a matter of temerament, but I also don't get Tolstoy. Invading Russia seems easy compared to wading through War and Peace. For me, Dostoyevski's the man (my Dad says he's writing for adolescents, and grown-ups like Tolstoy. Hrm) Brothers Karamazov is terrific, ditto Crime and Punishment and The Idiot.
    Similarly, I can't stomach Joyce, but love Beckett. Not the plays, on the whole- although the best of Beckett is the Faber "Collected Shorter Works" - bite-sized dramas with bite- for a range of media (radio, tv, & film, as well as stage). But the novels are great too. For the truely masochistic, there's the infamous trilogy, ending with "the unnamable", widely known as "the unreadable"- you can go thirty pages without so much as a full-stop, let alone a para indent!
    Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez are both terrific in very different ways; Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow ranks with Catch-22 as a couple of the best things to come out of America at war.... and and- must stop! But Maurice Gee- even though some of his books are too dark for me- has to rate a mention.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Southerly: If You Don't Hit Them, You…,

    Stephen: it seems your reference to

    all the fundamentalists here

    was to the fundamentalists from both sides in this debate while I took it here to refer to PA. To that extent your comment was more ambiguous than illogical. You do, however, seem to equate the whole tarnation-difficult and time-consuming business of "raising a child" to a simple question of how a child is disciplined which is almost as annoying!
    While "repeal of s59" is more accurate, I don't mind it being called the anti-smacking bill. As you say, while there's no likelihood of arrests etc happening, the intent is broadly anti-smacking. And the pro-smacking lobby are not, of course, necessarily pro-beating with heavy metal obects. Wide support for the Burrows amendment suggests that.
    What you don't seem to acknowledge is that in the end it doesn't come down to problems with the logic of either side. It comes down to differing opinions about what are the legitimate rights of children and parents- and how the law can best and most profitably interact with the largely private and very personal business of bring up kids.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Southerly: It's Sad that You're Leaving…,

    Yay the kindie teachers!
    And good luck aDavid- sounds exciting!
    With regard to research funding: been working with Simon Brown from nanoclusterdevices at UC . He's got quite an interesting take on it, and would be worthwhile chatting to. Current govt policy seems still to contain a measure of "we can't pick winners" thinking. But what they call "the valley of death" - the big gap between a great idea or an academic research project and having products developed that are ready for venture capitalists to move in- is littered with the bones of once enthusiastic inventors.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Southerly: If You Don't Hit Them, You…,

    Stephen, see if you can parse the modality of:

    There's an assumption common to all the fundamentalists here: that there's only one broadly legitimate way to raise a child

    and somehow get to: "There's an assumption common to all those in favour of the Bradford Bill: that there's one broadly illegitimate way to discipline a child and that's by hitting them." Good luck.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Some Politics,

    An interesting interview with the US Attorney who more-or-less sparked off the story of the "purge"- David Inglesias. He comes across as a decent man in a bad spot.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Some Politics,

    James, I quite argree about the futility of the echo chamber. That's why I've spent a fair bit of time hanging out at Right Reason - I figured, partly correctly, that it might be possible to have constructive disagreement with folks on the other side of the "culture war"- and who better to argue with than philosphers? (Not that this is a meme I've brought up before, but it's also where I've encountered the conservatives debate about Giuliani- there are a few contributors in the comments who claim they'd never vote for him.)
    I also have an unhealthy obsession with US politics- talk to my therapist. (In NZ, this is the person who gets pist with my therapin.) I read articles and blogs and scan youtube and scan blog-comments far too much. That in part is because, although I have kiwi citizenship as well, I was born in the US and retain citizenship. Got cousins uncles aunts etc are scattered from Pensacola to Seattle. So I could say- James, you're a bloody kiwi, how can you possibly understand us Americans?
    But that's just another version of an argumentum ad verecundiam- and rightly dismissed, if the authority is not relevent. Simon- a kiwi in Indonesia?- is clearly better informed than either of us!
    I agree that it's valuable and insightful when talking about a people to be among them. But as you've pointed out, the US is a vast place- and with respect, New Orleans ain't at the centre (in fact it seems in danger of being dropped off the edge.)
    Returning to the point!: you seem to be echoing a beltway consensus that the Democrats look petty pushing the Plame affair and the USA firings- as if they just want Rove's scalp 'cos they're pissed off. What most Americans see is an administration that has crossed the boundaries of incompetence and corruption, and desperately needs to be held accountable.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Feeling good,

    Thanks for the link, Linda- good to know there's some web access to these stories. I'd better not start watching them at work, however... there's only so much time you can kill without injuring employer/employee relations ;-}
    Ben- yeah, I think this is quite right. We have a son with Down syndrome and ASD and I know I don't give him all he needs. It's not like we've given up, but (like most kids) however much you give, you can still feel you could give more. Quite a lot of it involves not lowering your expectations (too much) and keeping an open mind- while generally struggling to know WTF to think. (There's a real parallel to teaching in low decile schools.)
    I could give a lot of excuses, but "it's just too hard" ain't a good one. Luckily he's had some great teachers!
    So be proud indeed.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Students vs Dunedin,

    James- good point about the comodification of "student life". I sort've want some of "that" for my kids- not that I want to know the details, understand! Nice post: it's just worth noting that the only-half-restrained indulgence of adolescence may be a part of becoming a grown-up. I know a few people who missed that stage (kids before 20) who have become quite inappropriately adolescent in their 40s once the kids moved out!

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Solipsistic Left,

    Small excerpt from above ref:
    "I saw extremely similar behavior and extremely similar problems in an Islamic insurgency in West Java and a Christian-separatist insurgency in East Timor," he (Kilcullen, Australian army captain who did a PhD on counterinsurgency operations and now works for the Pentagon) said. "After 9/11, when a lot of people were saying, 'The problem is Islam,' I was thinking, It's something deeper than that. It's about human social networks and the way that they operate."

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

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