January 19th 2007
How exciting!
The first announcement for the Big Day Out 2007, check out the BDO website for press releases:
And the line up thus far:
Tool
The Killers
Muse
Violent Femmes
My Chemical Romance
Peaches
Spank Rock
Jet
Scribe
Evermore
Shapeshifter
Eskimo Joe
The Mint Chicks
The Veils
The Tutts
Minuit
Open Souls
A friend alerted me to this a while ago, but I completely forgot to post it!
Apparently this little baby was ‘discovered’ recently in a auction on e’bay, and was found to be a new species.
Quite exciting stuff, but a little bit concerning as some of these collectable creatures may be the result of illegal dredging, their popularity might just spell bad news for the urchins and other animals in their habitat.
It certainly is beautiful and looks almost as if it’s too unusual to be real, I look forward to learning more about this one…
Read more here on the Guardian website: The Guardian
The End of Suburbia. An article dealing with issues regarding how we can become more prepared for it now, was published in a local northland paper, and was posted here on stuff.co.nz.
Aljazeera has more background on the political nature of the imagery here, which is probably more of a concern for Coca Cola.
A site with both national and international news, information and action surrounding the GE debate. Updates on major international issues, GE soy, corn etc. as well as local information, such as GE free foods and producers in New Zealand.
This site is worth a look, and you can sign up for the newsletter (out every two weeks).
At Whitecliffe College, Auckland, New Zealand, Aotearoa, student’s assignments must be submitted as MS Word documents, the lecturer then submits the files to Turnitin.com. Should 25% or more of the content of the essay be highlighted by Turnitin as coming from another source, regardless of whether it is correctly referenced and cited, the student must resubmit their assignment, -no discussion. The highest grade a resubmitted essay can then receive is a C-, a pass grade.
My issues with this are:
The school is spending student fees on this service, with out any consultation with the student body. Lecturers and students ought to work together on this issue.
Indirectly it is assumed that all students must be plagiarising unless proven otherwise, using Turnitin’s software.
Student must submit MS Word documents, making purchase of this software compulsory, we must either purchase, or in most cases, pirate a copy.
The hardline taken, particularly in this trial period is unnecessary.
Computers and technology fail us everyday, so why invest so much in this system, it is fallible just like other technology.
Turnitin retains all the data it collects, maintaining the monopoly, if stopping plagiarism was really their goal the data would be available for other uses free of charge. Do we want our assignments being used by a corporation to increase their market share and make make more money?
Is there anything we can do about this?
Some interesting articles and sites have further information on such issues, including a case where a student who refused to submit his essays through Turnitin had his case upheld in court.
Students can still pay for someone else to write their essays without being pick up by Turnitin.com
There were two Iwi representatives, and a couple of geologists who took us around and related some of the history of the area and it’s past inhabitants. The geologists also noted the damage that has happened to the cone due to cattle grazing, inappropriate access to the cone and road damage. Two councillors also had a little speel, one of which spoke strongly of banning buses and other heavy vehicles from accessing the cone, as most us there would, but when he suggested his great idea I became more than a little concerned. He wants to install a small train that would transport those that may not be able to make the walk to the summit themselves. For a place with such a rich cultural heritage, not to mention the sacredness of areas like the cone itself, this would seem somewhat disrespectful and conjures up images of theme parks and fun rides.
Visit this site to find out how you can have your say: Auckland city website
You could say an overdose of Kiwiana. What with jandles and Watties sauce at the Zoo, Minties, potato salad and a good old bbq at the Bowler, I think everyone had a smile on their face.
That was the sum of my Waitangi Day, working all day from 7.30am I was relieved to come home to a party, bbq, and a bar tab. One of the benefits of living at a bowling club, occasionally you can slip into the crowd and enjoy the show. Pluto played along with special guests Andrew Fagan and Jordan Luck. Even Helen Clark turned up, I am impressed that our primeminister can relax at an event such as this, I counted only four over dressed men with ear pieces, without an armoured vehicle and a military escort.
It will be interesting to see how the new radio station goes, as it is another CanWest MediaWorks product, along with stations like good old More FM and The Rock, two of the most mind numbingly middle of the road stations churning out the same old crap day in, day out. Lets hope the new brand will go easy on the cheese and do it’s bit for New Zealand music and musicians.
Read more about it here
and here
From the site:
Free from the shackles of censorship and government control Aljazeera has offered its audiences in the Arab world much needed freedom of thought, independence, and room for debate. In the rest of the world, often dominated by the stereotypical thinking of news �heavyweights�, Aljazeera offers a different and a new perspective.
