Posts by Bart Janssen
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This policy is just weird. Are they adding more money to the pool?
Or are they simply taking control of the money away from the youth?
How do they expect the kids to learn how to budget if everything is done for them? I learnt the hard way how to budget when I was a student, not that I'm advocating punishing this generation because I had to learn the hard way but I can't see how they will learn at all with this system.
And over all I can't figure out what is the aim of the policy? Is this meant to get them to want to get jobs so they can mange their own money?
It just seems like a very confused policy, do they even know what they are trying to do themselves or just trying to make soundbites?
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Hard News: Media7: A new censor -- and a…, in reply to Sacha,
Seems rather impressed with himself, that man.
Well he has reason to be.
But it still doesn't seem to make him an easy interviewee.
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Hard News: Media7: A new censor -- and a…, in reply to Russell Brown,
I found Winston fairly grumpy too
Kind of my impression from the audience as well. I'm not sure having Professor Gluckman there as well helped since they seemed to be performing a bit for each other, like interviewing children who are showing off for each other rather than focussing on the questions.
It also seemed as though he was not interested in engaging on the topic and instead preferred to shift to his own interests. Nothing unusual in that but in the end it felt less than it everyone hoped it would be.
However, Mike Joy was a star and I thought the perspectives from the Maori scientists was interesting.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to Creon Upton,
Bearing in mind that rather a large amount of wine has been drunk tonight, Creon is right, science ultimately for it's own self. That it also creates things that we all find valuable and useful is remarkable, however it is also unpredictable. What is predictable (always) is that really good science is worthwhile. Sadly it seems hard to trust in that.
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Wow and I thought I'd taken this thread off the rails by talking about GM. How naive I was.
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Hard News: Friday Fun with Brickface, in reply to Jackie Clark,
Just in case you're all thinking I was being the big staunch man - it made me cry. It was about comfort shared, that's what friends do.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to Steve Barnes,
we can just have ill informed opinion
Heh even well informed opinion can be wrong, that's why scientists will almost always come off looking weasily, because we're aware that we can be wrong. Folks like James don't have that awareness so they are comfortable with absolutes, hence their statement can be stronger and more emotive.
As I said earlier to Sasha it is for that reason that I use absolute terms when I'm talking about ridiculously improbable events. It is not something that comes naturally to me as a scientist but it something I think is necessary because what I mean by probably is quite different from what the general public understand it to mean, most of the time :).
Interestingly, when you look at climate scientist's statements from the perspective of assuming they are being cautious and conservative about their statements (as I believe is likely) then the scariness of global warming becomes somewhat greater.
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Hard News: The Orcon Great Blend 2011 in…, in reply to Megan Wegan,
Just, you know, when you’re ready. The rest of us aren’t waiting with bated breath, or anything.
Emma has been giving Russell lessons in being a tease, however it turns out, that was the degree Russell was doing when he spent some of his time at Ak Uni, B.Ts hons.
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Hard News: Friday Fun with Brickface, in reply to Brent Jackson,
I'll echo Brent's comment.
Very moving and I am in awe of the creative talent that produced it.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to 3410,
on what do we base major decisions
Don't be silly we should just trust the nice man in the suit, he'll look after our best interests.