In a Pyongyang state of mind

Auckland mayor Len Brown says it's up to the team to decide how it wants to celebrate and the city will put on a victory parade if that's what the players want. He says Aucklanders must show their support and he hopes to see a
large gathering at the airport on Sunday for the team's arrival. The team will meet members of the public at an event later in the day.

Sod off, Len. What our Mayor fails to recognise is that we citizens are under no obligation whatsoever to show support for a team that has won a sporting contest. We are not interested in basketball. It is an American game with very complicated rules, played by abnormally tall young men: even the Small Forwards are enormous. We do not understand the offside rule, which  – to complicate things still further – is called the over-and-back rule:

When a team has possession of the ball in the frontcourt it may not move the ball across the half-court line into the backcourt. A violation of this rule -- commonly known as the over-and-back rule -- turns the ball over to the opposing team. A violation does not occur if the ball is knocked into the backcourt by the defensive team and recovered by the offensive squad. Likewise, if a rebound is tapped back across midcourt and the previous offensive team gains possession, it’s not a violation because the rebound is considered a loose ball, and not in possession of either team. But if a dribbler in the frontcourt loses possession of the ball on his own and it crosses into the backcourt without being touched by the defense, the offensive team still technically has possession and cannot be the first team to touch the ball in the backcourt.

On Auckland's Queen Street you will find not-very-tall young men who wear Boston Celtics shirts. Most of these men are not very celtic, but then neither are the Celtics. Ask them to explain the offensive three-second rule and they are unlikely to tell you:

This rule states that an offensive player is not permitted to remain in his part of the free-throw lane between the end-line and the area extending 4 feet past the end-line and the furthest edge of the free throw line while the ball is in his/her team's possession for more than three seconds. If the player is in the act of shooting as the third second ends, allowances are made. If the ball subsequently misses the basket, the three second count will be continued.If this rule is violated, the opposing team will be awarded possession at the sideline.

They just like the shirts. Put on a victory parade and they will stay away, for  fear of someone asking them to explain the differences between the FBA, NBA and NCAA rules. Everybody else will stay away because we do not like being told what to do by our Mayor. We will not be waving little flags because of the Mayor's latest enthusiasm. We are not like that.

Of course, if the Mayor were to build a train line to the airport, then things might be different. We would go there and cheer anybody he wished.

In other news, the Space Jam website is still  out there, unchanged since 1996. Here's a song by Stereolab that is not about ping pong:

Everything you know is wrong

"MANY people say my design was inspired by the sailing yachts in the harbour or by seashells. This is not the case. It is like an orange, you peel an orange and you get these segments, these similar shapes. It was like this in my models. It was not that I thought it should be like sails in the harbour. It just so happened that the white sails were similar. I was influenced by the sails only to the extent that my father was a naval architect and I was familiar with big shapes.

Jørn Utzon revealed the truth about the Sydney Opera House to Eric Ellis way back in 1992; yet still, people say it is all about sails. Worse, architecture students say it in the essays I mark. If only they were to read this blog, then they would know how to avoid humiliation and failure.


The following video is an interpretation of Game Theory's Like a Girl Jesus.  It includes every special effect available to its creator.

The writing of history

For that occasion the Government entered the sphere of publishing, and in the two large volumes of its pictorial Making New Zealand, the eleven volumes of its Centennial Surveys, and Sholefield’s Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, gave the country a celebration such as no other British dominion has had. But nothing written then, nothing else probably written in New Zealand so far, is the equal of one book which may be classed as history, if it can be assigned to any class at all. This is H Guthrie-Smith’s Tutira (1921) - ‘The Story of a New Zealand Sheep Station.’

New Zealand. Dept. of Internal Affairs. Historical Branch. 

Introduction to New Zealand. 

Wellington: Dept. of Internal Affairs, 1945.

p177 

Ugly birds for pleasure and profit

Look at this. It is the Vice-Chancellor's Commercialisation medal.  Isn't it nice? It  comes with a plinth.

This medal is awarded annually to a University staff member who (as it says here in the latest issue of UniNews)  has made "an outstanding contribution to industry and society in particular for commericalisation or contract research." You can be in to win one of these medals if you hold a salaried academic or research position at Auckland University and if you have an excellent commercialisation or contract research record with UniServices. In short, if your research has made an outstanding contribution to Auckland University's funds, then you can win a medal, on a plinth.

I wonder if there is an award ceremony. Does the Vice Chancellor pin this medal to the heaving chest of the outstanding contributor; or does he hand it over, on its plinth or in a box full of velvet? Do they have a special dinner, with uniformed waiting staff serving special dishes, such as mess of pottage on a bed of wilted spinach?

And what are those birds?  Do they have legs or do their bodies taper erratically to a tip? Why are their beaks so large and so prehistoric? Are they some form of flying platypus? And why do they fly so dangerously close? Could the artist have been inspired by the classic Fly United t-shirt of the 1970s?

I think we should be told.




Here is Steve Miller in a truly awful 1976 promo. I do not know what he is sitting on but it looks very uncomfortable.

Letter to the Editor

Hello!
You have very much interested me.
It will be pleasant for me if you want with me will get acquainted.
It will be very pleasant for me to find the friend or second half through the Internet.
We can exchange photos.
You can write to me the letter on this electronic address Seerebrova@yandex.ru
I wait for your answer.

My name is Tanya.
Good-bye.

Stereolab, encore 

But for the slush

You have drawn my attention to a site of acquaintances. I hope, as I shall like you. How I to you in a photo? The truth - pretty? :) But in a life I more nice!!! And as I cheerful, kind, sociable and fluffy! I like to go in for sports, read books, to listen to music. I love winter and summer. I do not love spring and slush. If I have interested you, with pleasure I shall tell about myself more in the following letter. I wait for the answer on qkzor@yandex.ru

Still being followed by the teenage FBI

My apologies, gentle reader, I have not been very attentive of late. I have been occupied with the thesis. But I want to assure you that Tove does not have me.

Despite this avowed intent by The Girl with the Moomin Tattoo, I have remained a free man. I am not held captive in a dungeon with Buchanan and other academics called Paul who have offended Dr Dentith. Nor have sundry products of the Acme Corporation been launched against me. My life has remained uneventful in respect of attempts on it.

Quite what grievance she has against me is a mystery to me, but she might at least have spelled my name correctly. And Dr Dentith, being an expert on conspiracy theories, might have advised her that making such announcements in public on the Twitter rather gives the game away.

Death and the Maiden

This bouquet has an enchanted garden look that people are enjoying this summer. It’s about drinking wine under big sweeping trees and being surrounded by beautiful flowers. We’re very organic with our love of nature.
For me, this would be great for if I had a party with friends. If you had a bit of a feast, an old-fashioned pagan sort, and had this on a countertop or on an old wooden table, it would look lovely.
This bouquet symbolises rebirth; it’s a bit theatrical. We change our look with the seasons. We’re a fashion store. There are soft colours, a bit of shabby chic. There is lichen and sticks of wood. The lime green over the skull is dramatic.
I’ve tapped into the minds of people who go hunting. The goat skull is a gift from a girl who works here, whose partner is a hunter. That skull’s at the bottom. At the top there’s a deer skull.
One of the girls here makes jewellery out of skulls. Juliet Moore. She makes necklaces out of bird breast bones. Skulls represent the circle of life; their alternative meaning is knowledge.
You’re learning as you get older and when you’re with someone, the knowledge you have grows with each other.
There’s always a balance with love; with love you’ve got to take the good and the bad. It’s not overly romantic.
I included red rose buds which are true and lovely. They also symbolise secrecy. And there are some full blown roses. Dahlias, which I really love, mean instability. They are next to the skull of knowledge and reflect all the journeys you go through in your relationship.
Ivy is used at a lot of weddings. It symbolises fidelity and marriage. Jasmine is for friendship. There are lots of different varieties but I’ve gone for a general one, a lovely pink one. The orchid is elegant and contrasts with the rawness of the skulls. There’s a frail fineness to them. It’s not necessarily about roses.
I’m married and if I’m given treats of flowers. I like the leftovers at work that didn’t make the bouquet. Maybe two things and a bit of greenery. My husband likes to go out in the garden and sometimes he brings me a treat, like some weeds. But it’s the beauty of nature.

By Manuela Lipsham of Flowers Manuela;  From How do I love thee?, in which four florists were asked to reinterpret the Valentine's Day bouquet. Sunday magazine, Sunday Star Times
10 February 2013

Whatever happened to...

Then:

Permitting a girl as young as 11 to have an abortion without her parents’ knowledge is a form of child abuse, Maxim Institute told a select committee hearing today. 

The provision is contained in Section 37 of the Care of Children Bill. 

Maxim researcher John McNeil told the hearing into the Bill that there is growing evidence worldwide that abortion has significant health risks, at least as great as those which are now being recognised in the case of hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

Now:

      A Christchurch Christian journalist has admitted making intimate videos of a student at home and a 5-year-old girl at a church expo. 

John Raymond McNeil, 67, was granted home detention at his Christchurch District Court sentencing, but his internet access will be blocked as part of the sentence. 

He was found with 1000 child-pornography images on his computer, which he had viewed on the internet, and three videos he had made. 

He had admitted three charges of making intimate visual recordings and 40 charges of possessing objectionable publications - images and stories. 

Update: yes, sceptics, John McNeil of Maxim and John McNeil of Challenge Weekly are one and the same; Dave at Big News told us that he had moved from the one to the other, back in 2006.

The most democratic town hall in the world

p7 For all our virtues, we citizens of Greater Christchurch have our foibles, not the least noticeable of which is a penchant (those who do not care for us might even define it as a mania) for arguing the pros and cons of civic developments to a point where progress is slowed, or even halted. Examples of projects over which differences of opinion, ranging from polite disagreement to bitter wrangling, have occurred are almost legion. Among them are the siting of roads, railways, tunnels ports, canals, statues, memorials, sports facilities, an art gallery, a floral clock - and Town Halls. If this is democracy at work, then the magnificent Town Hall which this booklet commemorates is surely the most democratic town hall in the world. 

Let it be clearly understood, however that once the present site was nominated by an overseas expert, Metropolitan Christchurch witnessed an accord unsurpassed in the city's history.

...

It is almost incredible that the oldest (by charter) and largest actual city and, at least musically and architecturally, the leading cultural community in New Zealand should have existed without an adequate and publicly-owned town hall for the whole of its 122 years.

...

Now, at long last, we have provided ourselves with a real Town Hall, it has proved in site, concept, design and construction, an architectural gem. This Town Hall complex, the first stage in what will ultimately be a magnificent Civic Centre, has features unsurpassed in this and, dare we suggest, in many another country. It may be selfish but entirely understandable to be glad that a smaller, less striking building was not erected twenty, forty or eighty years ago.

Brittenden, William James Arnold.

  A Dream Come True : The Christchurch Town Hall.  

Christchurch: Christchurch Town Hall Committee, 1972.