Posts by George Darroch
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
First Starbucks I ever had was at Vancouver Airport, in 2006. I've done the Starbucks thing a couple of times since, all overseas, all as a last resort. Once, shamefully, in Jakarta, a place that has a ridiculously good indigenous coffee. A friend asked to meet there, across the road from her work.
But in NZ? Never.
-
Die Antwoord, performing the BDO:
And (NSFW, but mindblowing) as much penis as I've ever seen in a music video - Evil Boy.
There's a bit of back story (Pitchfork interview with 'Ninja')
Ninja: Another element in his verse is about how the real Xhosa men with the circumcised penises are unbelievably fucking homophobic. Wanga doesn't give a fuck-- we're not anti-gay, we're just like, "whatever." The rap is actually a taunt, when he says, "Don't touch my penis/ I'm not a gay." That's pretty much the worst insult to Xhosa men-- who are anti-gay yet they take 19-year-old boys' penises into their hands.
For a conceptual zef rap-rave group, they're holding up pretty well.
-
YEah, but the weird thing is that Naboo has an elected monarchy -- with term-limits, no less. (Why the frak do I know this shit? Can't remember my own cell-phone number but this...)
There are plenty of them, apparently. Why do you know? See above ;)
-
I thought the antonym pairs were: fangirl, fanboy; fangurl, fanboi.
Which you all are.
-
I can't tell you about the Waitemata, but silting from farming-induced erosion is a major problem on the Manukau. Places which were sandy beaches 20 years ago are now muddy flats. I'm not happy about the people still ruining my harbour.
-
Nick, I advocate state subsidies for bicycle purchase, but that's another thread. A private good with a high price tag is a categorically different thing to a public good with a reasonably low one.
-
Pools are _fun_.
Are we that wedded to utilitarian rogernomics that everything must be justified by its ability to conform to rigid economic analysis and fit onto a spreadsheet? Sure, there are other reasons, and they might be important ones. But can we not, as a society, also go: the pleasure of the population is a benefit, and one worth paying (publicly) for?
What's valued in NZ has been pretty severely limited, in deliberate ways, for a long time. We're scared of them.
-
Fascinating Hayden, thank you.
-
I don’t know why anyone writing these reports thinks that people choose it on purpose.
I will vote for any party that promises to make every member of the Welfare Working Group live on the income of a beneficiary for 12 weeks.
-
I am currently jobless. It is a horrible experience. Being, as I am, in Australia, I receive no assistance and am currently living on the goodwill of close friends. It's something that I've had to deal with a number of times in the last few years for various reasons, but that doesn't make it easier.
In many ways it's sometimes harder in New Zealand - you hardly receive enough to survive, but have to live in that gap in-between
Full employment is a very worthy goal. One which is not pursued by any party in NZ. I think that it is also worth considering that the effect of high unemployment is to give employers considerable choice in choosing their next employee. This may indeed mean that they have the best person for the job, but it has a countervailing effect in keeping people ill-suited to their current role in jobs indefinitely - and with the introduction of 90 day fire at will laws, this effect is intensified. This definitely lowers productivity, as does the low price of labour (yes, there is total factor productivity, but that's a measure which puts the cart before the horse).