Posts by BenWilson
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Cracker: Review: The Oyster Inn, Waiheke…, in reply to Russell Brown,
It would’ve been safer to just order pizzas all round.
Kind of what GPK is all about, isn't it?
The young waiter apparently didn't grasp what I was saying when I drew attention to it.
And in these enlightened times beating a young man with a tough steak so that he viscerally feels the difference just isn't cricket.
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Hey Geoff, in FB, it says Friday, Feb 1.
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Hard News: The mathematics of marriage, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
If someone is really firmly opposed to state recognition of polygamy, and one also believes that allowing same-sex marriage will make the argument against polygamy harder to win when we finally get to it, then it is perfectly logical to oppose same-sex marriage.
Not really. It's a possible strategy, at best. If you're opposed to polygamy, but think same sex marriage should be allowed, then even if you think that same sex marriage makes polygamy more likely, you don't have a clear course laid out for you by the impartial majesty of logic. Your ideal situation is that one passes and the other doesn't, so allowing same sex marriage is a possible strategy too. It really depends on how strongly you feel about each, and how closely connected you think they are, and how much you think one can be opposed/blocked despite the other, and indeed it depends on a whole lot of your ideals and principles about things like fairness, justice, process, etc.
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And yes, I do love being a dirty incrementalist
Like Russel, a lot of them are incrementalists. Take this step, then find a core of marriage-equality proponents who are not strict monogamists to keep the battle rolling.
Which is precisely the slippery slope that McCroskie is talking about. Just because it's an invalid argument doesn't mean that it won't go that way.
I think Graeme even made this kind of point on Dimpost. Don't admit to being an incrementalist, it lends warrant to the slippery slope (the hypothesis of the slope itself in this case, not the point that the argument is of this form - see how confusing the analogy is?).
I'm inclined to just say "yeah, I'm an incrementalist, and if it is a slippery slope, then great", but then I'm not trying to get gay marriage through*, so I keep quiet out of respect too. But I'm mindful of Graeme's point - no one is really fooled, at least not about my opinion. I'm a liberal, and this is the sort of thing it means.
*ETA Gah! By which I don't mean I'm opposed to gay marriage, or even ambivalent. I'm very much in favour! But I don't have a dog in the fight, is what I'm saying. I can see why people want to see that one onto the bat before worrying about the next volley.
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It's curious that "it's a slippery slope argument" isn't a knockdown rebuttal, considering it's an informal logical fallacy. Many seem to find them compelling, even more so after finding out that it's such an argument. Which is part of the reason I've always hated the term. Somehow, the imagery it conjures actually strengthens it - one doesn't care to take the first step down an actual slippery slope. To make it clear that a particular slippery slope argument is bad, you have to say "but it's not really a slippery slope at all", which is confusing as hell, indeed it makes you appear to contradict yourself.
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Tried so hard to capture the black backed seagulls updraft-soaring at Pt Chev Beach today. It's amazing to watch, but hard to make a good shot of. Basically they hovered effortlessly, lazily sweeping from one end of the beach to the other without flapping except to make tiny corrections occasionally. I got the impression some of them weren't doing it for any purpose other than fun. It's like sailing, but in the sky. I've only ever done it in a flight sim with a glider, but it's easy to see the appeal. They're careful to stay in all the right zones - if you go too far past the apex, you get caught in downdrafts, and have to either make a run with the wind for the next peak, fighting like hell for altitude. If you go too far forward of the slope, the updraft just dies off, and you're back to flapping. So what they do, to minimize all effort, is big circles. Ride the draft as high as possible, then start falling forward and sideways off it, making up for low altitude with high speed, and sweep the entire length of the beach (probably looking for fish), before banking back and up, to rinse and repeat. Or they just sit up on the ridge like a cushion of air, wafting left and right. Occasionally they appear to go in formation, although it's chance meetings and makes me think it's the mechanics of the soaring process that lead to that illusion. Maybe, like following someone who is speeding on the open road, it's just a way of looking a little bit into the future - if the leader drops suddenly then it's probably a gust to watch for. Can pay less attention to flying and more to fishing.
Sometimes one would appear to be making a long haul towards Te Atatu, but after about a kilometer, they'd sweep around and absolutely race back before the wind, and then rest back on the updraft cushion. Perhaps they saw something that looked like a school of fish, and just went to check it out. Maybe that's a team effort thing, everyone has to take their turn.
However, to a camera, it's a bird, flying against a white backdrop. Usually blurry. Meh.
Then my 3yo started squealing in excitement "Whale! Whale". I looked seawards, but could see nothing. He turned me, and showed me what he'd been working on. I asked him if he drew it on purpose, or had just found it, or accidentally drawn it, which he simply answered by adding the spout you can see.
ETA: I had to resist the urge to ask him "Sperm whale?". It's like one of those diagrams from sex ed.
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Hard News: On Freedom, in reply to Rob Stowell,
It might get in the way of getting a job, but while you have to declare it when you apply, the the chance of something like that actually standing in your way is remote. The things to be be avoiding were dishonesty convictions.
Declare convictions? Or having used illegal drugs at some point in your life or not? 'Cause the first is on record anyway, and the second seems like just the kind of thing it would be very tempting to lie about, encouraging dishonesty.
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Hard News: On Freedom, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
A drug possession conviction will not prevent you from being admitted as a lawyer.
Seriously? Every law student I know was terrified of being busted, because it would preclude them from the bar, so they said. Did this change (this was the 90s), or were they just wrong? If so, it was Law School itself telling them the porkies.
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Cracker: Review: The Oyster Inn, Waiheke…, in reply to ,
"Affordable" is pretty subjective
It is indeed. I would call $100 on lunch "expensive", and would expect very good food and service for it.
Or in this case, writing down the drink order and giving it to someone whose sole job is to open the bottle and pour it.
If there's a person who is just on drinks it's even less excusable. That person should be looking around at the drinks on the tables pretty much all the time.
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I guess I’m a bit OCD or something, but when I’m waiting for something to turn up that is long overdue, I find it impossible to relax. It basically ruins things for me.
Maybe it's a little anal, but that doesn't let the restaurant off the hook for failing at the most basic service. A drink is a particularly poor thing to be kept waiting for, considering the service involves opening a bottle and pouring it.
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