Posts by James Green
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Well since you wish to bring a cute wee strawman out of his hidey hole.
Profits from pokies are also 'plowed back' into the community in non-trust areas. Licensing Trusts, like Gaming Trusts, are required to do this by law. It's not altruistic.
But back on topic. I grew up in a trust area in the South Island, and as far as I can tell, Trusts are core purveyors of the stupid drinking ethic that is the problem. Their bread and butter is big barn style drinking, reminiscent of the 6 o'clock swill, or the bar that Jake the Muss frequents in Warriors. And trusts typically prevent restaurants and cafes having licences, the kinds of places you'd expect to see a better drinking culture.
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Rather than changing the law, use the provisions and use them hard.
They are using the law rather better than before. I seem to recollect an acquaintance making laminated ID cards for an enterprise that featured a date of birth. IDing is clearly more vigorous, and to a better standard of ID than before the law change. Anyone remember the old paper driver's licence?
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Oh wait. I neglected to mention that you should order the pizza with the artichoke from Serafino.
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two small new buildings near the rail station at Morningside. One is a tiny little liquor outlet which will be opening soon.
Pray it's not a Betty's Liquor Store. They're popping up everywhere. Corporate as.
Hell Pizza, which doesn't sell alcohol, creates more of a nuisance.
Hell seem to be blanding out with expansion. I'm sure a few of the most frowned on sins have made their way off the menu. Adultery happened to be quite a good pizza. We now refer to them as Heck Pizza, and fear that the may soon be downgraded to Gosh Darn Pizza.
As it happens, there is a great non-franchise pizza place in Belmont called Serafino, on Lake Road between Maccas and Heck. My favourite was we went in to pick up our pizza, and he was like 'You ordered a large meatlovers?'. If only I'd had the wisdom to crack back 'Yes, with extra barbeque sauce'...
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The solution to problem drinking in this country remains what it always has been: to make wine and beer a normal, unremarkable part of civilised life
I still tend to think that this is the answer, but I've yet to see anyone come up with a plausible strategy for doing this. It would be a very long term social project. It would require some peculiar thinking perhaps. Perhaps limiting the quantity for purchases of cheap for alcohol content (only allowed to buy 4 cans of Big Can Ran for example, or small bottles of cheap spirits).
The 150 sqm thing is pretty laughable. I was trekking round various friends in Europe last year, and more struck than ever by the drinking divide there. I was pretty over the drinking culture after my time in Bath & Dublin, but overwelmed by the civility of Lugano, Paris & Bordeaux (yes it is a tough life I know). The ability to pop downstairs and buy fantastic bottle of wine for between 3 and 10 new zealand dollars, or a sensational bottle for $30 (mmm Medoc) from the same small shop that sold fruit or baguette or fromage or saucisse.
To really make progress from what someone artfully called a dry culture to a wet culture, flexible pricing signals and a long term advertising strategy would probably be required. But don't expect it to work in a single generation.
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Interesting discussion on compare and contrast. As someone who is occasionally guilty of using this phrase while setting questions, yes the definitions are similar. I think that while compare can involve pointing out differences, contrast is really about going to where the nub of the difference is (the ONZED uses 'striking differences' in its definition)
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On higher education. It seems that with the shift to a more commercialised environment the emphasis have changed. People pay fees in order to enrol, and they now see it more as a purchase transaction, that they are buying a product, rather than receiving an education. I'm not saying abolishing fees is the answer, but we need to move away from this commodified version of higher education.
I wonder if in a perverse way, despite not paying at high school, the breaking knowledge into discrete acquirable chunks has also lead to commodification. -
Hey can somebody explain the chucking thing?
It's also sort of inline with my thesis that sports exists by codifying strange and often impractical things. I mean if there is a game that exists where you can't throw the ball in the direction that you want to go, or one where you have to move through the water in the most hilarious fashion possible, why shouldn't there be one where you have to deliver the ball with a straight arm. Next, someone who thinks that running is a bit naff, will decide to introduce competitive walking...
Personally, I'm looking forward to a ballsport where you are only allowed to move backwards. There's a whole unexplored niche.
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Other experience should also indicate that having independently verifiable performance measures are not the panacea they prefer to be. They tend to mean that organisations or organisms (in this case children) are assessed against that which is easiest to quantify, despite it being the more intangible, subjective and difficult-to-measure things representing a better yardstick.
It sees whole organisations bent toward that which is measurable, rather than what is best. Or as I like to refer it the triumph/cult of reliability over validity.
Whether it be needle exchanges measured in terms of needles exchanged, rather than increased health.
Or academics in terms of citation metrics.
Schools in standardised test scores. -
The blog is really interesting. Pity the weather, and er, the New Zealand team haven't been quite up to it. Enjoyed Taylor's batting performance yesterday, despite it being a bit chilly.