Posts by 81stcolumn
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vivat crescat floreat "may it live, grow, and flourish!"
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On the other hand, 81st Column, you seem to be ruling cultural diversity out of your own definitions. What are these "cultural values that act against nationhood"?
Sorry- my bad, I was really struggling to get round value laden terms like ghetto etc. Perhaps I should put it from my own rather more naive perspective. I don't get the need to be either immigrant or expatriate and recreate what has been left behind. It seems counter-productive and disrespectful to my hosts.
I might add that I still struggle with useful concepts of culture perhaps because with the exception of a Wales I've never stayed in one place long enough to integrate fully with the culture.
In this context it just doesn't make sense to me to have anyone say this is what you have to accept in order to be an X. This quickly comes down to semantics. If I understood his point correctly I think Che makes a useful distinction between the goals of a nation and setting out identity on an I am you aren't basis.
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I agree that the concept of "paganus" doesn't seem any more acceptable than that of the "kiwi way". I am also very wary of laying out cultural definitions as goals (not sure what Dr Che would say). In particular it makes no sense to me to put a frame around national (*cultural ?) identity and say that is the X-way or Xyness. These are things that do not stand in aspic and are products of place and time.
I don't think it long before there is a group of kiwi's who think that grass is the stuff that grows in the cracks in concrete and it serves no great purpose to dismiss them as jaffas. Having seen it at work I am equally suspicious of "multiculturalism" and "Liberte, Egalite et Fraternite" the British back pedalling has been particularly interesting as has been French paralysis.
The bits I wrestle with are - importing poverty and the development of cultural values that act against nationhood and it is at this level that political rhetoric makes no sense at all.
I would expect that in the long term Keys's mantra will focus on Nats Shiny - New ! Good ! Labour, Old- Tired, bad (repeat until elected).....
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Sport is partisan get over it and get with the commentary.....try being Welsh
Personally I would far rather see the black caps beat the Aussies anyday but.....
Wickets....wickets....wickets...and a shocking system for keeping and developing talent will keep NZ cricket down.
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This looks a bit off topic placed here - so by all means drop it in another thread if you like but it is connected to that Listener front page.
Yes self help does sell well off the news stand and so has it always been. My wife has just been looking through a 1970’s copy of “know your own IQ” by Hans Eyesenk -who was in his day a respected academic. There was a time when some, though by no means all self help books were indeed written by academics. This is less the case now because many of those in a position to do so rarely have time or support write for the wider community. This is what makes the stuff by Dawkins et al. so valuable. No, this isn’t self help, but it is Science written by people who have looked at the evidence and probably know more about science than selling ideas. I digress…….
The self help thing really doesn’t bother me. The self help thing with no sensible evidence to support it bothers me somewhat. The self help thing with no evidence being adopted by teachers and policy makers - makes me want to rant a lot and use the c word. It upsets me most because it highlights a failure of education and the triumph of marketing. I’m sure this will sound like a an oft repeated bleat but the “dumbing down” of higher education and the desire for more “vocational content” comes at the expense of teaching people how to obtain, evaluate and use evidence (research). I’m not saying everyone needs this training or indeed that this should constitute the backbone of higher education (I wish), but a few people outside of academia that can do this might be of use. We certainly could do with fewer government advisors and teachers who don’t fall for the Mobiles and Mozart bullshit. But lets face it, in a world of expedience if you can buy Mobiles, play Mozart and feel like you are doing good, then why bother reading to your kids ?
The funny thing is that I have some sympathy for the Left/Right brain, VARK stuff, not because it does what it says on the cover, but because it makes people put more effort into what they do (how they teach). Just think if the right information was put into the right hands what a difference this would make.
* As a footnote I should add that I view most IQ/psychometrics in the same way as moviegoers probably view Terminator movies - difficult to kill and there will always be the possibility of a ridiculous sequel.P.S. The moral marketing of drugs being another case in point but that’s for another day. I think John Key has finally found some truth to cling on to. The Herceptin decision probably was a money driven one and quite rightly so. I’ll be a little more generous about this when drug companies put as much effort into supporting campaigns to reduce the needless prescription of antibiotics so there !- yah boo sucks I’m off to mow the lawn around the base of my Ivory Tower.
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I see a great future for Coddingsn*t in America; lets look at the pattern: Take a lie that sounds true – distort some statistics repeat until someone believes you….get elected blah blah blah.
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<quote>As Dawkins points out, he's not saying that god doesn't exist ... he's just saying that based on the evidence we see in the real world it's incredibly unlikely that god exists. And the chance that a putative "god" looks anything like the Jewish or Christian god is even lower.<quote>
I'm sorry to labour this point but....
I think Dawkins does go further than this and it explains why he has taken this argument forwards at this time. Theism in many areas of science leads us to the mucky philosophy of "If it can’t be explained then god did it". Such an approach means to say in the long run that we have to invoke god as a part of engineering, technology and so on. At which point progress as we have come to understand it will probably slow if not stall.
Hence when confronted with such a concept as intelligent design and its presentation as a legitimate alternative to a relatively successful branch of science of the last 100 or so years, it is of no surprise that a vigorous response needs to be mounted.
I’m not sure this debate would be going on if there hadn’t been the rise of Christian fundamentalism and its associated dogma.
I don't care how many special friends live in peoples heads I do care when people make them substantial and base scientific decisions on them.
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I’d have to agree here IPods are pretty shoddy equipment at all levels…I have always gone with Creative….
This slight of hand where Apple uses DRM to hold people to a hardware platform is pretty shoddy too - yes I know it can be gotten round but that doesn’t defeat the issue in principle…
A warning about crap Zunes; the first generation will probably be crap, but then again so was Xbox and so was Windows CE.
M$oft has a remarkable capacity to make inroads into a target Market over time. You have been warned !
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My wife wearing her Tangata Whenua hat rather waspishly suggested that perhaps Maoridom couild apply the same logic to send erm um DHC back and Brash and Clarkson...I had to stop her there before she started on me....
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This had me and her in fits of giggles…
The shortlist:
Stranglers – No More Heroes (pretentious)
Depeche Mode – Walking in My Shoes (even worse)
Primal Scream – Loaded (Cheesy)
Stranglers – Hanging around (nobody would get the joke)
Wilson Pickett – I found a love (bit gospel)
The Jam – The place I love (gushy)
Captain Sensible – Happy talking (oh dear)
Hoodoo Gurus – What I like (mmmmm)Finally:
The Banana Splits Theme – All right !