Posts by BenWilson
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I'm quite surprised that Danyl's almost throwaway aside that the Concert program needs to defend itself or at least address the strange imbalance in favor of the old music of one subcontinent has formed most of the discussion on this topic. The power of a controversial statement to dominate discourse demonstrated once again.
I doubt this is the piece that the Nats want to cut. It seems more likely that the 'creative and flexible' rhetoric is more likely to simply be about how the existing operation can cost less and deliver more. If I know my Nats, their answer to their own self-imposed crisis will be that their own people managing the place is really what is needed, and that's about all that will change. One of their people will come in, and become a strong advocate for keeping their new empire as large as they can, and business will continue as usual, but the suits will be a bit bluer. It will probably be forgotten or ignored that this process itself will account for the majority of new costs, because a more creative and flexible radio station will borrow money to cover the shortfall.
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Dunne is already the square root of 2 major parties. The original irrational number.
There are more irrational numbers than rational ones. Fact.
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If those things were replacements for radio, radio would have died with the Walkman
Hell no, most of the things I listened to on the Walkman came from the radio. My Dad, an avid Concert Program listener had a huge library of tapes.
Can't stand it any more though, it was well thrashed out when I was a kid. Now most of the classical I listen to is non-European. If Concert Program put some of that on I'd listen again, I'm sure. Mostly I get my stuff from the library.
Seriously I'd love to hear a station that played classics from every culture, without ads. Concert program just ain't it. I've heard it all sorry, and Dad's even got the tapes.
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It also has some of the worst ones. Nobody has ever denied that elitist education works for the elites, you know?
Or that an idle wealthy class system often produces genius. The point is that the genius of the other classes is wastefully and unfairly squandered by such a system. Then there's the other 99% of the population, who also could benefit themselves and society through better education, without fitting into the genius category.
I'm taken back to debating for Auckland University at Princeton when the World University Debating tournament was there. We nailed every American team we met, very narrowly beat an Irish team, and only got knocked down by a Canadian team, and some amazingly articulate Australians. This was not because I and my partner were brilliant - the Americans were just uniformly awful. Nice people though, very good sports. It was a surreal experience, having struggled on what money a student could scrape up to get ourselves to Princeton via the most harrowing cheaparse path we could manage, passing through some of the grottiest industrial wasteland I've ever seen in New Jersey, we land in the snow in a virtual island of privilege the like of which I've never since experienced. To find that rich kid jerks are the same the world over. And you have to tip everyone in America. Don't complain, just factor it in as a tax, about 15%. You'll like the place a whole lot more if you do.
It was weird to watch the final, in which a team from New South Wales convincingly beat the Oxford team, half of which was Australian anyway. These famous colleges ain't so great after all, once you got past being shit scared of them because of the reputation, at the end of it all, they were all just kids, like me, and a bad argument is still a bad argument no matter where you are from.
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I'm the last person to complain about epic posts. Having forged through Gordon's, I crystallize one main plea, to remain open to different ideas for education. Which is fine. I hope that this plea also applies to the government who are actually in control of the education system as much as it does to blogs discussing it.
I don't think blog discussions are especially conducive places to brainstorming, though. Nearly everyone wears a "black thinking hat" as Edward De Bono might put it. But black hats are useful, for what they do, criticizing - it's a part of the creative process. Just not by any means the only part. It is a big challenge to ask anyone to put their ideas for how NZ might be better educated down in this forum, daunting in the extreme for most people.
Thank you Gordon for trying. Now, where is my black hat?
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One of them was also named Mick, so your name kind of jumps out. Most likely they get asked if they have anything to do with you a lot too. Had to ask, as you were, everyone.
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I'm glad to hear from Nick every time. Whatever he gets in arguments here will surely find their way into arguments with his colleagues. So the aim is surely to make those arguments high quality - if it helps to make ACT just a little bit more moderate or realistic, then real good is served.
But naturally he has to expect to be treated as a hostile witness a lot of the time.
Nick I've been wanting to ask this for ... ever. Is there waterpolo in your family?
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They were remarking about the lack of road signs in this country.
Tell them to look on the left side of the road?
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What views would have been blocked, Sacha? Currently when I walk along that area, all I see is a massive pile of containers, some gigantic unloading vehicles, and some enormous ships. If I move back, or to the side, or higher, I can see more, just as it would be with a stadium. But with the stadium, I'd also see the stadium (which might have been more to my taste than an industrial zone), and I might even be able to go there. Presumably I might even have been able to walk around it. Also, inside it, I might have been able to have a good view of something too.
Yes, the consultation was weak. But that could have been improved, more time could have been spent. It was being railroaded because, as it turned out, time was pressing. Unfortunately the whole thing turned into something that everyone saw as a cheap (and strangely multipartisan) opportunity to have a crack at Labour, and they lost their bottle. The real losers were actually us. Or were we that way in the first place? It left me feeling quite bitter on Auckland and NZ, to be honest. We will never get an opportunity like this again, especially when the world sees what an appalling effort was made for an event of the magnitude of the RWC.
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"There's not a single, solitary chance that as long as I'm the Minister of Justice we'll be relaxing drug laws in New Zealand," he said.
Somehow that actually seems more honest to me than "There is a chance, after I weigh up all the evidence, that any drug shown rigorously and scientifically to cause no harm whatsoever to anyone ever, might not get banned, if I feel like it, after all that". That just seems like a more effective way of stonewalling.
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