Posts by BenWilson
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Hard News: An open thread while I'm down…, in reply to Richard Aston,
not that you have a choice not to but
Well I could run away from responsibilities, I guess, but I don't expect a medal for not having done that to my own beloved child. I'm certainly not a superdad, either - that's quite an unrealistic thing to expect of anyone, although I take my hat off to the many parents of much more severely autistic children who have made really big efforts to learn how to maximize the potential happiness of their children. Mostly, I'm just lucky in the support we've had, and Marcus is a poster child for early intervention by trained professionals.
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I've been waiting for anyone to pick up on the upcoming ban on synthetic cannabinoids. I guess my 2c will be that it seems quite lame, that the brief taste of what was almost like dope being legal in NZ did not lead to the collapse of society. Going to the corner dairy to buy some harmless fun was quite pleasant, and led to practically the only real interaction I've ever had with my local guy, who was able to talk helpfully about the various ones on sale in much the same way the vendors did in Amsterdam coffee shops. Or how tobacco smokers do it with the diary guys, when they sell their slow-death-in-a-convenient-stick. Or boozers when they buy their two-is-fun-6-isn't-8-is-a-bastard-12-will-kill-you in convenient bottles. And totally unlike all the furtive fucking around with gangsters that will be business as usual in NZ next week.
If there is any good outcome, it is that the long term effects of those substances are less well known than actual cannabis, so people switching back to real weed, as they most certainly will, is probably healthier. I confess to not having really liked those drugs, but the convenience and absence of justified paranoia were occasionally compelling on the increasingly rare occasions that I felt like getting high.
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Hard News: An open thread while I'm down…, in reply to Richard Aston,
But what of play, imagination, creativity , socializing .. um .. being human?
Indeed. My boy is doing great at school, at National Standard for everything, despite the large dead part of his brain that years of therapy have been directed at mitigating the consequences of. But those standards don't account for his most dire need, to increase his socialization, and physical development. In fact, I fear that in some ways pushing for those standards increases his isolation, because they give the impression that all is well.
I do not blame the school, which has been absolutely fantastic. It's more that the big focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic that pervades our thinking about the purpose of schooling is really, at best, only half the story. It was rather hard to convey any of this to the doctor who assessed him on Tuesday, because all of the doctor's thinking, probing, testing seemed geared towards the cognitive development angle. It takes quite sophisticated assessment to lay bare an autistic child's needs.
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So the Nats think encouraging KiwiSaver is worth considering. I'm actually glad they're doing this, because it makes fucking sense. Pity Labour didn't have the guts to get there first, and now coming out with a better scheme is behind the 8-ball. But I think that the CGT move might have forced this out of the Nats.
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I was 10 during the Tour and remember almost entirely vicariously. Watching the field invasion live, and Dad explaining what it was all about. He then explained at dinner how he felt about it, that it was a very hard choice, given that he both loved rugby and had strong opinions against law breaking, and found it very hard to see the police as an enemy, his best friend being a cop. Also he worked for the government. Yet he decided that he was against the tour because the cause was righteous and the government needed to listen. He attended every march in Auckland in whatever the "medium danger" crowd was, basically trying to push the police backwards with weight of numbers was his description.
Years later he was called for jury duty in a case against a bunch of people arrested and charged with inciting a riot during the Eden Park protests. He was not sure whether he should be required to excuse himself from the case, when during the evidence he saw himself in some of the prosecution footage. But the judge directed the jury wisely, stating simply that he knew that the Tour had been extremely divisive and that people would have many opinions about it, and that they need not fear that having been involved with protesting excluded them, indeed, one of the main reasons for juries was so that such people could be fairly represented in the justice system. Furthermore, none of that should be relevant to what they were then to decide upon, which was about whether the accused had actually incited a riot, a crime with quite a high threshold and severe penalties. Dad argued quite strenuously that this threshold had not been met and managed to convince all of the jurors to acquit all of the defendants.
For me and the other ten year olds, it was our first memories of any political consciousness, brought home by the broken noses and black eyes and broken arms of our parents, but also the amazing sense of unity produced by it, the feeling of a righteous struggle that could actually be won. I often wonder where that feeling has gone in NZ politics - the apathy everywhere is depressing.
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Hard News: An open thread while I'm down…, in reply to George Darroch,
Hot water, a drinking implement, and something to strain with.
Strainer is unnecessary...just let it settle.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to Katie R,
Just my two cents anyway
Can we have the full dollar? :-) Sounds like you could contribute a lot to this debate.
However, I think an area we scientists can work on is our eagerness to claim success when we are promoting new technologies, especially agricultural ones that aim to increase productivity. I do think that success at what cost may be a more useful way of approaching things.
That's a tough one for all innovators. I don't do science (much), just write software, but claims of increased productivity are legion in the industry. Of course we're proud of what we do and wish to make claims about that. Of course we want to make a mark, for our developments to be meaningful. We also want them to make money, although for the technicians, this is often far less of an issue than simple personal pride in their work.
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Hard News: How much speech does it take?, in reply to Russell Brown,
but really, who gives a shit?
Yup, if they've got something to actually say, it's an open forum.
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I presume the above post is not actually by Russell Brown. Just noting for any overseas readers before it gets confirmed in the morning.
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Field Theory: All Blacks v South Africa…, in reply to Hadyn Green,
We've got to get over this francophobia.
My greatest fear is the early season peaking we've suffered from before. For once, we want to be at the peak of our game, right on the World Cup.
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