Infotainment! posted:

On my phone so can't link but I'm really enjoying everyone (including the police lol) freaking out about masked, armed gangstalkers at Parnell train station based on what is clearly some lovely viral marketing for a lovely student film.

A human heart posted:

People say this all the time and it's meaningless because the world isn't magically going to become left wing when the boomers all die off.

Infotainment! posted:

On my phone so can't link but I'm really enjoying everyone (including the police lol) freaking out about masked, armed gangstalkers at Parnell train station based on what is clearly some lovely viral marketing for a lovely student film.

El Pollo Blanco posted:

Conservative millennials are going to be worse than the boomers by the time they're 40.

Butt Wizard posted:

There's been more than one complaint over the last few weeks if I'm reading that article properly.

If it is bullshit they will almost certainly be getting more than a warning now.

Infotainment! posted:

http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=589_1422342736

Definitely lovely viral marketing.

quote:

@drod2070 I carry a gun on me at all times even though it is a felony.. If I get arrested with it my lawyers are the best lawyers around and they will get me out of it. When I do use it in a situation like this my lawyers will justify my shooting after putting these shits 6ft under.

SurreptitiousMuffin posted:

Holy poo poo the comments.

quote:

Cabinet minister Nick Smith has chartered another helicopter for television cameras - this time using tax-payer cash set aside for the families of the Pike River victims.

Infotainment! posted:

http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=589_1422342736

Definitely lovely viral marketing.

Wandle Cax posted:

Marketing for what Infotainment?

Anyway, the "Twins of Atticus" have come forward and been given a good talking to by police.

WarpedNaba posted:

Considering what happened in France, people're probably pretty drat jumpy about armed dudes in public.

SurreptitiousMuffin posted:

Has anybody considered the possibility that it's a pair of bogan teenagers dressing up scary "just to piss people off"?


Because I was a bogan teenager and I totally woulda done something like that if I'd been only a tiny bit stupider.

quote:

A prominent New Zealander has appeared in court facing multiple charges, but all details of the case have been made secret.

The man appeared this morning in a district court and was granted name suppression, along with sweeping other suppressions covering details and facts of the case.

He was remanded at large to reappear in court for a disputed-facts hearing next month.

SurreptitiousMuffin posted:

Would that I could be a fly on the wall when Cameron Slater goes barging in shouting "FREEDOM OF SPEECH", finds out it's a member of the National Party, then quietly slinks away into the night.

Butt Wizard posted:

Whale Oil has been hinting there's been some pretty vile things to come out about a National Party MP and openly asking why they aren't doing anything about it. It's probably better to ask what he has to gain by them finally getting the arse.

quote:

Two-thirds of more than 160 monitored river swimming spots in New Zealand have been deemed unsafe for a dip.

Information released to the Green Party by regional councils and unitary authorities showed 66 per cent of the sites had a Suitability For Recreational Grade (SFRG) of either poor or very poor during the 2013/14 summer.

The data covered all of the country's monitored rivers except for those in Auckland, Waikato, Northland and the West Coast, where councils did not use SFRG indicators in the period.

...

The Greens claimed there had been a deterioration over recent years, with reports from the Ministry for the Environment showing 61 per cent of monitored spots were unsafe for swimming in 2013, compared with 52 per cent in 2012.

...

Last night, Environment Minister Nick Smith said neither he nor the ministry had been able to properly assess the figures, but felt they should be treated with caution.

"Just comparing the results from one year after another does not give a long-term trend on freshwater quality."

Dr Smith also felt it would be "false" to draw conclusions around the country's overall freshwater quality from what he considered a "narrow data set" that wasn't representative of all freshwater bodies.

Butt Wizard posted:

It's probably better to ask what he has to gain by them finally getting the arse.

Ivor Biggun posted:

quote:

"Just comparing the results from one year after another does not give a long-term trend on freshwater quality."

In the past twelve months I have travelled to England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Sweden, Spain, Canada, the United States, Australia, Brazil, and most recently India, attending literary festivals and helping to launch foreign-language editions of The Luminaries. To be read and received in different contexts around the world is an unbelievable privilege, one that is constantly shaping and reshaping my relationship with New Zealand, with my book, and with myself. My Maori character’s storyline took on a new significance for me after reading to First Nation elders in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I thought about the Hokitika gold rush differently after exploring the Brazilian coastal town of Paraty, where Brazilian gold, dug by slaves many miles inland, was once shipped out by the ton to Portugal. Talking about astrology in India, and about the nineteenth-century novel in Sweden, and about fiction born of philosophy in France, altered my sense of how The Luminaries fits in with other literary traditions and cultural histories around the world. I have seen also how the novel itself changes according to context: its social and sexual politics, its formal preoccupations, its attitude to history, its language, all become more or less audacious, more or less difficult, more or less successful, more or less interesting, in different parts of the world. The degree of familiarity that international readers have with New Zealand culture and history varies greatly, but one thing remains a constant: everyone I meet who has a personal connection to New Zealand will make sure to tell me all about it, sometimes at length and into a microphone of which they will not let go. I love these moments of connection and the conversation they bring. I am proud that the book is read by people whose lives do not resemble mine, and I am grateful for the opportunity to speak publicly about reading and writing, two of the things I love most. Like everybody I sometimes say things I don’t mean and mean things I don’t say, but throughout the hundreds of interviews that I have conducted since The Luminaries was published I have been conscious of my role as an ambassador—of my country, yes, but also of my gender, of my generation, and of my art.

The New Zealand mainstream media, though quick to flare up over a condensed record of remarks made last week in Jaipur, are in general altogether behind the ball: I’ve been speaking freely to foreign journalists ever since I was first published overseas, and have criticised the Key government, neo-liberal values, and our culture of anti-intellectualism many times. One reason why my remarks have not have been noticed in New Zealand until now may be that in most modern democracies a writer expressing an opinion is not considered, in itself, shocking. The truly shocking thing would be the writer who only spoke in praise of her country; who was unequivocal in gratitude and platitude; who swore fealty to her government, rather than to deep-felt values or ideals; who regarded arts funding as hush money and a part-time teaching position as an intellectual gag. I hope that that author does not exist today; but if she does, she is the one who should make the news.

In future interviews with foreign media, I will of course discuss the inflammatory, vicious, and patronising things that have been broadcast in New Zealand this week. I will of course discuss the frightening swiftness with which the National Party and their allies move to discredit and silence those who question them, and the culture of fear and hysteria that prevails. But I will hope for better, and demand it.

Ghostlight posted:

Catton for office.

Ghostlight posted:

Catton for office.

Ghostlight posted:

Catton for office.

Ghostlight posted:

Catton for office.