Slashdot Mirror

Step 2. Move to New Zealand.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10381404

...

For the Johns Hopkins study, 30 middle-aged volunteers who had religious or spiritual interests attended two eight-hour drug sessions, two months apart, receiving psilocybin in one session and a non-hallucinogenic stimulant - Ritalin - in the other. They were not told which drug was which.

One-third described the experience with psilocybin as the most spiritually significant of their lifetime and two-thirds rated it among their five most meaningful experiences.

In more than 60 per cent of cases the experience qualified as a "full mystical experience" based on established psychological scales, the researchers say. Some likened it to the importance of the birth of their first child or the death of a parent.

The effects lasted for at least two months. Eight out of 10 of the volunteers reported moderately or greatly increased wellbeing or life satisfaction. Relatives, friends and colleagues confirmed the changes.

The study is one of the first in the new discipline of "neurotheology" -the neurology of religious experience. The researchers, who report their findings in the online journal Psychopharmacology, say that, though unorthodox, their aim is to explore the possible benefits of drugs like psilocybin.

Google has more on neurotheology

The timing relating to certain issues is not good.

The timing relating to certain issues is not good.

While on the one hand getting feedback in this manner is good, satirizing them is also important. So its one step back one step forward for the New Zealand government.

What kind of country are we living in, where wearing the wrong thing to the airport has a decent chance of getting us killed?

Having said that, wearing a fake-bomb in an airport (no matter how close to the real thing it is) wouldn't have been a very smart move prior to 9/11 either.

Actor Temuera Morrison is being used as the face of a nationwide campaign against film and television piracy.
Secondary schools throughout New Zealand have been sent movie posters featuring Morrison for their classrooms as part of a campaign launched in Auckland today.
The posters show Morrison appealing to school children to do their part by only buying legitimate copies of their favourite films.
The 4000 posters recommend students "Buy Original; See Original" and have been distributed to over 2700 secondary schools across the country.
The campaign is the initiative of the New Zealand Federation Against Copyright Theft, supported by the Ministry of Education.

It is well known that that quote is a mistranslation, either deliberate or not.

It's not well known. That is one political opinion. In fact, the European Union disagrees with your assertion:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id =2&ObjectID=10352469

Apparently the leaders of the United States (obviously), Russia, ex-Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan also disagree with your statement:

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/425822/622940

Too me, it is splitting hairs as both interpretations threaten the existence/right to exist of Israel. Perhaps it is acceptable, to you, to make such threats. I wonder how you feel about Iranian President Ahmadinejad's willingness to sacrifice half of Iran to destroy Israel?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1689559/p osts

Parhaps you read too much propaganda and are absolutely completely clueless as to how the real world looks :)

Attach ad hominem. Asshole =)

USA supported various groups in southern America that did things like throw over elected governments, torture and dissapear people who didn't agree with them, kill and loot randomly and what not.

No one is arguing that. In fact, it seems like your changing the subject as your previous arguments where mostly fallacy and unsupported assertions. If you want to have a conversation about the US's actions during the Cold War that's an entirely different subject with its own gray areas.

As I read the rest of your post I am struck by a realization: You honestly believe (along with many in today's world) that the US is somehow just as bad as Iran. I find your talk about propaganda interesting, because I can't see arriving at this conclusion unless you the buy the Iranian propaganda hook, line, and sinker.

It may be falling on deaf ears, but let me explain why the United States is nowhere near Iran, no matter the US's actions.

1. A mostly free media. Say what you want about 'propaganda', in the US any whack-job with an opinion can express it. Just look at me. The only reason we know about Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, secret CIA prisons, torture, Iran Contra, the Americas, etc, is because of a mostly free media. While you see those things as failures of the US, I see the fact that they were revealed as the system working. Evil people WILL get into power and WILL make mistakes. There MUST be a system that can correct for that.

You seem to like the Cold War; I'll point to Stalin's Gulags as a perfect example. They weren't revealed by a media. There wasn't a free media in Russia. The entirety of Soviet society was unaware their comrades were being shipped to their deaths in Siberia. If it weren't for the unilateral actions of Soviet President Kruschev, those crimes against humanity may not have been revealed.

The little that does leak out of Iran paints a picture of a society destroyed by years of theocratic rule. Women are subject to honor killings. Art, music, and literature are officially suppressed. Unemployment stands at 25%. The economy is crumbling due to criminal mismanagement.

During the previous president's rule (Khatami) dozens of independent newspapers were opened. However, since President Ahmadinejad rose to power most have been closed on "technicalities". Peaceful demonstrations are not allowed. Just this March police beat hundreds of its civilians for gathering to support International Women's Day.

2. The separation of church and state. How much different would things be if it were the Mormon States of America, or the Catholic Republic of the United States? Religion plays a tremendous role in American politics, but at least it isn't officially sanctioned.

Your assertion that Doing the later would actually

Over a month ago (26 June 2007), this decision was made.

On 6 July 2007, one of the 2 major politic parties decided to rethink the ban after media companies gave the NZ parliament the finger.

Over 3 weeks later, after talkback radio and online discussions have done to death, it gets posted to Slashdot.

That's right, it happened in the waters of New Zealand.

Well, they were able to identify some people's body parts http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id =2&ObjectID=10409027

In a recent poll of international travellers, commissioned by Discover America Partnership, a coalition of US tourist organisations, 70 per cent of respondents said they feared US officials more than terrorists or criminals. Another 66 per cent worried they would be detained for some minor blunder, such as wrongly filling out an official form or being mistaken for a terrorist, while 55 per cent say officials are "rude."

Maybe ignoring them totally is a lesson they will learn from.

Very interesting concept. Should work great. Just right after the next Star Wars trilogy. Yeah, right after that, and another X-Men flick. Yeah, then we'll start ignoring them, just right after those, and the next Lord of the Rings...

The MPA says that in 2005, piracy cost U.S. studios $6.1-billion (U.S.). In Canada, the CMPDA estimates its members lost $118-million the same year.

I feel your pain. I believe the only thing left to tell these people is "Piss off!"

Kind of. The media don't want NZers to think of that as being even an option, though. Take the article in the New Zealand Herald, which probably has the highest circulation of any newspaper in the country: "Pupils suffer in schools computer row". The idea that any alternative at all to MS Office isn't even mentioned until the seventeenth paragraph. Someone (naming no names), I think, wants this to be seen as just a great big OMFG THINK OF THE CHILDREN panic.

On the other hand, it's worth noting that there's quite a bit of pressure towards FLOSS in NZ government departments. And what's more, I have a sneaking suspicion that the ministers themselves are the source of much of it.

Which is why there are no massive offshore spam server farms, piracy groups, or other such activities?

I believe those groups have some mighty big backers. The "piracy" groups, for example, are insuring market share for the ??AAs and big software companies where none would exist without it. And the producers are getting kickbacks from it as the authorities shake down the "pirates". The corruption goes all the way to the top. The pharmaceuticals derive some benefit from the spammers, there can be no doubt. To believe otherwise is to see not even half of the story. Rwanda? How long will your servers last before machete wielding Tutsis or Hutus come tear the place down? The hired help put into place to protect them will want control of it also, if they want to keep that protection. Russia and China will come around as soon as the states offer up some numbers in their favor. In fact, that whole copyright story is a non story. The content producers are looking for a bigger cut. The present situation nets them plenty already. Everybody is getting paid, maybe just a little more "indirectly" than you think, but money is changing hands, or, quite simply, allofmp3.com would not exist. Or they(Russia, China) will take over the planet and act in an identical manner. But the US must disparage them in public to maintain appearances that they are in some kind of competition, and protecting the interests of the public. Well, they aren't. The back door deals going on are insuring record profits for all those people behind the scenes. In fact, I believe all these publicly made complaints are pure show, as diversionary as American Idol.

The papers have good reason to make us believe it's all out of control. I don't believe it. Yes, the pirates* fight amongst themselves also, like challengers to the alpha male. But over all things are looking pretty good for them, and they are afraid of the internet, and are desperately trying to control it. They are the ones trying to make it a one way street where only those authorized by them are allowed to upload anything. Our only remaining hope will be community wireless mesh or cloud with mobile, untraceable servers, like scud missiles. But the papers are yelling the sky is falling so that we will give up even more to the authorities. The stories about lumber and steel are smokescreens so we don't get mad over the price fixing that is really being done. All this needless complexity of giving a different name to the word "skimming" is really unnecessary. All they need to do is skim a little deeper into the service provider's river of money, and the providers can adjust their prices accordingly. But the control factor is very important to keep anybody from peeking into the smoke filled rooms where the dirty deals are being made. Any attempt to clear the smoke will meet with strong resistance.

It is fruitless to discuss any disagreement amongst the major power players here, as there really isn't any. I believe everything is going rather smoothly, with the possible exception of the control issue(as long as we remain on the wire, that's not a real issue either), despite what the screaming ninnies are all yelling about in the mass media.

*the real ones, the ones who make the rules. The ones people vote for to make the system work. The small timers you hear about in the news are insignificant fleas. They are "off the books" distributors. They are one reason that this and this happen virtually every single year.

I got your piracy economics right here, pal!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=1 501165&objectid=10440080

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id =2&objectid=10436518

Also from May 1 BoingBoing:

"US war on terror is a war on tourists, too
America is rated the world's most unfriendly destination for foreign travellers in a recent global poll. The War on Terror (which includes a $15 billion fingerprinting program that humiliates every visitor to America's shores and has yet to catch a single terrorist) has destroyed America's tourist industry, killing $94 billion worth of tourist trade, and 194,000 American jobs.

        In a recent poll of international travellers, commissioned by Discover America Partnership, a coalition of US tourist organisations, 70 per cent of respondents said they feared US officials more than terrorists or criminals. Another 66 per cent worried they would be detained for some minor blunder, such as wrongly filling out an official form or being mistaken for a terrorist, while 55 per cent say officials are "rude."...

        Such comments, and the poll results - which rate the US by a 2:1 margin as the world's "most unfriendly" destination for foreign travellers - are found in "A Blueprint to Discover America," unveiled in January by Discover America Partnership to halt a dramatic decline in foreign visitors.

        According to the blueprint overseas travel to the US has slumped 17 per cent since 2001, even as world travel to other countries reaches historic growth levels. The decline has cost US$94 billion ($127 billion) in visitor spending, US$16 billion in tax receipts, and some 194,000 American jobs. Many poll respondents said that visiting the US had become a hassle and that they would take their holiday money elsewhere. "

Sarkozy could have said "if you vote for Royal, the terrorist's sister wins" and he would have been right

So these are the guys who should be credited for downloaded photos of Prince Harry from the internet

"We have printed out many photographs of him from the internet and given them to all other groups. They know the Prince is their main objective and I have every confidence he will be targeted and attacked."

Among the findings was a growing trend to circulate embarrassing video clips of young people getting changed after school PE sessions. The images are being captured on mobile phones and passed onto classmates' video iPods. The clips were accompanied by sound tracks of critical comments from laughing tormentors about their victim's body shape or physical attractiveness.

A group of youths allegedly punched, kicked and humiliated a 16-year-old Hastings boy in what police described as a "repugnant" attack which was filmed and then posted on the internet.
That posting led to two youths, aged 14 and 16, being arrested yesterday and charged with assault. They will appear in the Hastings Youth Court on Friday.
Between 20 to 30 youths - some as young as 12 - watched as the victim was attacked in a Hastings park on March 30.

Among the findings was a growing trend to circulate embarrassing video clips of young people getting changed after school PE sessions. The images are being captured on mobile phones and passed onto classmates' video iPods. The clips were accompanied by sound tracks of critical comments from laughing tormentors about their victim's body shape or physical attractiveness.

A group of youths allegedly punched, kicked and humiliated a 16-year-old Hastings boy in what police described as a "repugnant" attack which was filmed and then posted on the internet.
That posting led to two youths, aged 14 and 16, being arrested yesterday and charged with assault. They will appear in the Hastings Youth Court on Friday.
Between 20 to 30 youths - some as young as 12 - watched as the victim was attacked in a Hastings park on March 30.

This story in the NZ Herald today says that Ribena sales are falling sharply. This'll be a textbook case on how to kill a brand (and in NZ, Australia and I think the UK Ribena is a very strong brand going back decades).

Personally, I was always put off by the "Ribena Berries" ad on TV where the berries are all drinking Ribena. Which if you think about it is berry cannibalism. Disturbing indeed.

If you are going to claim that Product X contains a certain amount of substance Y, then isn't it up to you to ensure that it is so? The latest spin from GSK claims that the lack of vitamin C is limited to Australasia. That it was because their testing methods were not sensitive enough to track the rate of decay of vitamin C. I call bullshit. GSK are a PHARMACEUTICAL company. Shouldn't they be tracking the *actual* amount of Vitamin C.

And further, as pointed out by a scientist, "If they're properly sealed ... the vitamin C should be fairly stable. I'm not convinced by that argument at all. Anyhow, there's use-by dates on those things. If that is really the reason, and I seriously doubt that it is, then there's something wrong with the use-by date." This is a company that manufactures drugs for fsck's sake! Surely ensuring that at least the minimal stated amount of vitamin C is present, up to the 'use by' date is a no-brainer?

It's also quite interesting that as soon as the New Zealand situation came to light, GSK voluntarily admitted to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that's its claims about vitamin C content in Ribena may have been misleading. Was it altruism or spin-control? You be the judge.

Ribena adverts in New Zealand & Australia claim:

A. Blackcurrants contain four times more vitamin C than oranges.

B. Ribena is made from blackcurrants.

Technically, both statements are true. This from Ribena New Zealand's website

Well, combine that with this four-nipple cousin, plastic surgeons will be able to serve two clients with one sheep.

Sorry, there's already a precendent for that, just not in America.

Your question seems sincere (unlike most of the 'wtf why would you buy this' trolls).

I believe there is a psychology behind people who like to 'Early Adopt'. They are risk takers, and people who understand perfectly that the technology won't perform exactly as expected or hoped. These people are more apt to take chances than maybe what other people could be comfortable with. Just because you might have a miserable experience playing with untested and unrefined software, other people get a thrill of being the first to adapt and enjoy the self education of trying something new.

Here is an interesting article on the 'psychology of desire'.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5 &objectid=10426888

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id =2&objectid=10428695

nzherald really seems to rock: Strange but true...

The ad received 60 or so complaints in NZ, and wasn't pulled. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid =000019F4-D247-15DE-ADCE83027AF10110

Unlike many readers on Slashdot, I remember the 1970's. After a couple of severe winters involving blizzards, news reports extensively covered the coming of the next ice age. It was featurd in time magazine ( http://newsbusters.org/node/6546 ), where they stated, "However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age." I remember being worried about it, which is why I am not worried about global warming now. Don't tell me it never happened. By the way, it snowed in Malibu yesterday. ( http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id =2&objectid=10419760 )

... government is not after you.

That's a lame excuse for violations of your rights and it does not save you from real harm. When you give government the power to intimidate and harass, they might use it on people who are fighting for your rights.

Some interesting reading:

1. Atlantic on MLK wiretap
2. A better article on the same subject, drawing parallels to current policy.
3. An LA Times article on just how bad things got.
4. UK harassment of nonviolent protesters
5. The UK police state. The power to abuse has not stopped crime or terrorism.
6. Secret prisons, how bad it has gotten today.
7. They will take your laptop, just a small reminder of how it works.

The list of current issues goes on and on. When you allow government to abuse you, it will.

Although the bill passed with an overwhelming margin, that doesn't mean a lot of the MPs will support it next time it comes up for vote. In New Zealand MPs often support a bill in its first reading because they feel it requires more thought and debate.

For example recently a bill to raise the New Zealand drinking age to 20 was passed in its first reading by a large margin before being voted down in the second - MPs back off from drinking age hike

I also remember that mixing the vegetable oil with (bio)diesel solves the temperature problem.

Besides losing the wow factor of running entirely on lightly processed garbage, that also has the problem of not being very effective. That's just dumping some oil into the existing fuel tank. In any decent quantity, and possibly even in small quantities, it has the same problems as running 100% SVO, but it just takes longe for the symptoms to manifest. That's all coming from an armchair quarterback, though; I've never had the opportunity to try it myself.

The problem here that I see is that we are theoretically close enough to fuel cells and electric cars powered by them that it doesn't seem worthwhile to pursue biodiesel or other renewable/eco-friendly carbon variants. This creates a problem for adoption, why should I adopt a fuel that's not widely circulated when the base tech is going to be obsolete Real Soon Now?

I'll address my skepticism on electric cars later. As for adopting BD, you're looking at a question of "Why not?". It's a drop-in replacement. For VO, I'd like to see the conversions more consumerized, but it would still be a niche market, and if made easier the market for free waste oil would saturate quickly -- which would be good. One big step would be nice, but a series of baby steps would be nothing to sneeze at too.

Had we switched out for biodiesel in 1920, it would be a different story, and we could have done so. I don't know if the chemical process was known at the time, but I suspect it was.

There was no reason to back then. There wasn't the pollution problem. There wasn't the supposed (and maybe correct) limit to the supply of dino-juice. There certainly wasn't the issue of political problems and possibly wars related to it. If I understand correctly, the primitive crude oil refining was going to produce what we call diesel fuel whether or not anybody wanted it, and if it wasn't burned then it would have to be discarded. These days, advanced refining techniques can change the ratios of output of different products, although you're probably still stuck getting a significant portion of diesel.

In any case, the infrastructure needed to support it isn't as dramatic as people put it.

Indeed, not at all. Biodiesel is as much a drop-in replacement as the Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel that is now being dropped in; both scare some people, can damage a minority of engines (and BD's damage is cheap to repair), and otherwise just plain work.

I agree with everything you said about algae farms. Don't forget the (amazing, to me) thing about algae farming of raw sewage that makes biodiesel and safe-to-dispose cleaned sewage. From http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1 &ObjectID=10381404 which was posted to /. as http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1 &ObjectID=10381404 - "Aquaflow's algae, however, were derived from excess pond discharge from the Marlborough District Council's sewage treatment works. Algae take most chemicals out of sewage, but having too many of them taints the water and produces a foul smell. Creating fuel from the algae removes the problem while producing useful clean water, said Mr Leay. The clean water can then be used for stock food, irrigation and, if treated properly, for human consumption."
AFAIK, we currently have no way to recycle sewage.

If we have alternatives that don't require big oil companies and politicians, then we won't have the companies and politicians (a good goal in and of itself).

Now there's some unrealistic idealism. When that happens, we'll also mine champagne from the ground and eat rainbow stew. Sounds good, but it

I also remember that mixing the vegetable oil with (bio)diesel solves the temperature problem.

Besides losing the wow factor of running entirely on lightly processed garbage, that also has the problem of not being very effective. That's just dumping some oil into the existing fuel tank. In any decent quantity, and possibly even in small quantities, it has the same problems as running 100% SVO, but it just takes longe for the symptoms to manifest. That's all coming from an armchair quarterback, though; I've never had the opportunity to try it myself.

The problem here that I see is that we are theoretically close enough to fuel cells and electric cars powered by them that it doesn't seem worthwhile to pursue biodiesel or other renewable/eco-friendly carbon variants. This creates a problem for adoption, why should I adopt a fuel that's not widely circulated when the base tech is going to be obsolete Real Soon Now?

I'll address my skepticism on electric cars later. As for adopting BD, you're looking at a question of "Why not?". It's a drop-in replacement. For VO, I'd like to see the conversions more consumerized, but it would still be a niche market, and if made easier the market for free waste oil would saturate quickly -- which would be good. One big step would be nice, but a series of baby steps would be nothing to sneeze at too.

Had we switched out for biodiesel in 1920, it would be a different story, and we could have done so. I don't know if the chemical process was known at the time, but I suspect it was.

There was no reason to back then. There wasn't the pollution problem. There wasn't the supposed (and maybe correct) limit to the supply of dino-juice. There certainly wasn't the issue of political problems and possibly wars related to it. If I understand correctly, the primitive crude oil refining was going to produce what we call diesel fuel whether or not anybody wanted it, and if it wasn't burned then it would have to be discarded. These days, advanced refining techniques can change the ratios of output of different products, although you're probably still stuck getting a significant portion of diesel.

In any case, the infrastructure needed to support it isn't as dramatic as people put it.

Indeed, not at all. Biodiesel is as much a drop-in replacement as the Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel that is now being dropped in; both scare some people, can damage a minority of engines (and BD's damage is cheap to repair), and otherwise just plain work.

I agree with everything you said about algae farms. Don't forget the (amazing, to me) thing about algae farming of raw sewage that makes biodiesel and safe-to-dispose cleaned sewage. From http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1 &ObjectID=10381404 which was posted to /. as http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1 &ObjectID=10381404 - "Aquaflow's algae, however, were derived from excess pond discharge from the Marlborough District Council's sewage treatment works. Algae take most chemicals out of sewage, but having too many of them taints the water and produces a foul smell. Creating fuel from the algae removes the problem while producing useful clean water, said Mr Leay. The clean water can then be used for stock food, irrigation and, if treated properly, for human consumption."
AFAIK, we currently have no way to recycle sewage.

If we have alternatives that don't require big oil companies and politicians, then we won't have the companies and politicians (a good goal in and of itself).

Now there's some unrealistic idealism. When that happens, we'll also mine champagne from the ground and eat rainbow stew. Sounds good, but it

Except you missed out the important bit: the thorough debunking of Monckton's article on realclimate.org.

Even a non-expert can see that there are real problems with Monckton's article. The `smoking gun' Battle of the Graphs compares global average temperatures versus with temperatures in Europe alone, for example. It is known that the European `little ice age' was caused by slowing of the Gulf Stream current (although why the current slowed down is still a mystery), which makes this effect very specific to Europe and certainly does not contractict other studies that measure global climate at the same period that don't show a similar cooling.

For another example, his claim that a Chinese naval squadron sailed around the north pole in 1421 and found no ice, has been debunked by historians for a long time. Did you notice, even the timing of this event (1421) falls within the European Little Ice Age cooling period he shows in the graph just above it? It seems he didn't even notice his own contradiction!

From the NZ Herald story. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid =00055C1C-29AC-1562-A69383027AF1002A

Jackson dumped from future Tolkien projects

11.30am Tuesday November 21, 2006 By Joanna Hunkin

New Zealand director Peter Jackson will not be making The Hobbit or a second Lord of the Rings prequel, according a letter posted on LOTR website Theonering.net.

The letter, from Jackson and partner Fran Walsh was posted this morning and states that New Line are actively seeking another director.

A spokesperson from Wingnut Films confirmed to nzherald.co.nz this morning that the letter was genuine.

"Last week, Mark Ordesky called Ken [Kamins, Jackson's manager] and told him that New Line would no longer be requiring our services on The Hobbit and the LOTR 'prequel'. This was a courtesy call to let us know that the studio was now actively looking to hire another filmmaker for both projects," wrote Jackson.

The announcement comes after an ongoing dispute between Jackson's Wingnut Films and New Line, regarding differing accounting practices, revealed during an audit of the income from The Fellowship of the Ring.

While New Line suggested Jackson agree to make The Hobbit in order to settle the lawsuit, the director refused.

-- Are they surprised????

Short Answer: Move along, nothing to see here, it's an unsubstantiated rumour.

Long Answer:

From a New Zealand Herald article, somewhat more authorative on what's going on in New Zealand than CNN.

Text language risky move in NCEA examinations

Friday November 10, 2006
By Claire Trevett

Students are being warned not to use cellphone texting abbreviations in NCEA exams after reports suggested the shorthand was to be allowed.

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority is dashing media reports that students could use text abbreviations in exams without penalty if their answers otherwise showed the required understanding.

...

Read the article for more. And get it while it's hot, as NZ Herald only allows access to non-subscribers for a week.

Comforting fact is that good schools would never put up with this shit. Every year more parents and kids realise the benefit of CIE programme.

The New Zealand Herald

Language Log also responds.

Bali Haque, deputy chief executive of the authority, said there had been no change to guidelines and there was no specific policy about text language. However, he warned: "If people are expecting they can come up with an exam script full of text and pass, then they're dreaming. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1 &ObjectID=10410066

Planting a forest only works if you're going to keep the carbon as wood.

When the tree dies it returns it's carbon to the atmosphere, much as the far-worse-than-carbon dioxide-by-mass methane. Now climate change can kill forests. In fact there is a danger that the mighty Amazon will go.

You really need to stop pumping carbon into the biosphere that hasn't been seen since the carboniferous era. Planting trees is just shuffling Carbon from atmosphere to wood and back again. (Although it does provide a nice place for birds to sit)

"Sir, please place your laptop computer on the table for inspection."
"OK"
"Please turn it on, Sir."
"Um.. er.. ah.."
"Turn on the laptop, Sir!" (Suddenly it grows quiet as everyone stares, particularly some armed security personnel)
"Er ah, OK." Click. zwinnngg zwikka zwikka bweet.
"Pornographic wallpaper, no problem. Thousands of mp3's, no problem."
"Um-er-ah.
sniff sniff sniff Arf! whine Whine Arf! Arf!
"What's this then!?!"
"Huh?"
"Sir, we're going to have to confiscate this laptop computer, our highly trained canine has detected the presence of a banned and extremely dangerous substance!"

Read about it here and here

It could be worse. One of the major channels in New Zealand "accidentally" had a caption that listed President Bush as a "professional facsist". I believe te official comment from the TV station essentially amounted to "Oops".

Both the military and the department of education are overfunded

General Pete Schoomaker, Chief of Staff of the Army, said his service could not fulfil its mission within the financial limits set by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

He wants US$25 billion more.

I, for one, welcome our Kiwi sewage to oil overlords. :)

It is kind of different in East Asia, though. There is more of an expectation that you will not seek attention to yourself.

The Japanese hostages in Iraq were treated much more harshly by public opinion than American or European hostages were in those countries. Keep in mind that they were aid workers who had gone to help the Iraqi people but the Japanese public were quite hostile to them after their rescue, and they had to apologise to the public for the trouble and embarrasment they'd caused the government. (News story here) (blog post here)

This despite the fact that the deployment to Iraq was itself unpopular, and most people opposed it. I think the hostages were seen as embarrasing the country with the attention they were getting, and seeking fame for themselves.

What you describe is just people leaping to judgement of who commited a murder, which happens in every society.

That's a common practice, and it can lead to some amusing events. One (sort of) lucky census collector got to briefly ride on one of the world's biggest cruise liners during NZ's census earlier this year.