Posts by Stephen Judd
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I'm not certain if flawed historical conjecture equates to racism.
It's true that many people, not just racists, are drawn to pseudo-history.
However, in NZ (and indeed in the US -- see speculation about "Kennewick man") there is a kind of racist, generally your classic Blut und Boden Nazi sympathiser, who loves theories that show that the indigenous people were not in fact first but preceded by another group, which in their minds destroys any claims based on indigenousness or being their first.
They like the idea that Maori are the recent descendants of Chinese sailors and Melanesian prostitutes because that suits their theories about who the tangata whenua really are, and they love Doutre's nonsense about red-haired Celts being the aboriginal inhabitants of NZ even more.
You don't have to be a racist to find crackpot history appealing -- but it helps.
Incidentally, it is startling how extreme political theories and pseudo-science seem to attract the same people (eg hollow earth theory and the Nazis).
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On mature reflection, I am all for making a nicer cruise ship terminal. But: I also think about New York. JFK is a shithole. La Guardia is a pain in the butt. The ferry terminals are shitholes. Every transport option into Manhattan is scary for the uninitiated. But who cares? New York! You don't go there for the disembarkation experience.
On the whole, I feel we get the best value by spending money in ways that make our cities nice to be in (which, note, might include facilities that would be handy for the RWC). That automatically makes them nicer for the inhabitants as well as the visitors. Dedicated facilities just for tourists need a very solid justification, I think.
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"We need to make a bigger priority of providing cruise ships and their passengers with a profound sense of arrival"
That's why Queen St is filled with confused passengers asking each other "are we still on the boat, dear?" And the ships are all anxious and unhappy not knowing whether they've done the job or not, their rivet-studded faces all dismayed like unhappy marine versions of Thomas the Tank Engine.
*ahem*
Are people reluctant to come to NZ because the port facilities are inadequate? I'd actually like to know that.
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Well, we all know what Tolley means. Don't we?
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... low poverty schools are only 3 times more likely to be high performing than high poverty schools on the single-year definition, they are 22 times more likely to be high-performing on the definition that requires consistency over time. Using data on schools with high minority populations he finds that, on the more demanding definition, the “likelihood that a low-poverty-low-minority school is high-performing is 89 times greater than for a high-poverty-high-minority school”.
But you see attacking poverty and racism isn't what National is about.
TOUGH ON EDUCATION. TOUGH ON THE CAUSES OF EDUCATION.
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For various reasons I’ve been thinking a lot about schools that beat the odds lately (schools with high need student populations but which get high achievement out of them). My inclination has been to agree with people who think that if we could figure out which schools do beat the odds we might learn something useful from them (the best argument against this was recently put to me by an expert on whole school reform who said that finding out what naturally occurring schools that beat the odds do would not tell us anything about what policymakers could actually make schools do, which is the useful thing we are trying to learn). But are there, in fact, any schools that beat the odds, and if so do we know which ones they are?
It seems that the answer to the second question really is no.
Very interesting post which I commend to you all. The cherry picking of students comes up.
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Nobody has ever denied that elitist education works for the elites, you know?
Quite. The financial model for Ivy League schools -- Harvard, famously, is a college attached to an investment fund -- is to beg money from privileged alumni on the basis that their mediocre offspring will be able to inherit the same privilege, coasting on the reflection of the few talented proles who are allowed in.
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the Finns have an attitude to public responsibility and state intervention that would never wash here
That's defeatist talk, Geoff. There IS an alternative -- lots of them, in fact. And at various times and places in NZ those alternatives have enjoyed wide popular support. There is no reason that they can't again.
One of the things that is currently driving me nuts about the handwringing comparisons to Australia, never mind Finland, is that no one in Opposition seems keen to mention the higher minimum wage, the stronger union movement, the superior conditions for workers, and the generally more regulated environment. GRAAAR.
It may take us a while but we can still get there.
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At the risk of sounding like an emotionless Vulcan, a glaring problem with Hill Cone's example of the economists is that they are studying the influence of feelings on behaviour, not using their feelings to reach valid conclusions. This is a case of feelings being an important object of study, not of them being an important tool. She seems quite confused about this.
I wonder if she's ever seen seen the Colbert shtick about truthiness? Her whole column is basically a plea for truthiness over thinking.
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A rabbit is hopping happily through the forest. On his way, he meets a giraffe who is about to smoke marijuana. The rabbit says to the giraffe, “Giraffe, you shouldn’t pollute your neck and hurt your lungs inhaling that harmful stuff! Let’s breathe in the fresh air as we jog through the forest.” The giraffe pauses, drops the marijuana, and follows the rabbit.
A little further through the forest, they meet an elephant about to snort cocaine. The rabbit says to the elephant, ‘‘Elephant, why do you want to ruin your precious trunk with that sinful powder? Sniff the spring flowers instead. Come jog with us and enjoy Mother Nature.” The elephant spills out the cocaine and jogs with the rabbit and giraffe.
Then they meet a lion who is about to shoot heroin. The rabbit says to the lion, ‘‘Lion, you’re the king of the forest! Isn’t that enough of a high for you? Join us for an invigorating jog on this lovely day!”
The lion puts down the heroin, punches out the rabbit, and, “Dammit, rabbit, I told you not to hassle me about jogging with you every time you drop Ecstasy!”
(via Mark Kleiman, who funnily enough has a lot of interesting things to say about drug policy.)