Archive

Love Is Blind | Issue 2

Posted 3:28pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Lovebirds

Critic’s infamous blind-date column brings you weekly shutdowns, hilariously mis-matched pairs, and the occasional hookup. Each week, we lure two singletons to Dog With Two Tails, ply them with food and alcohol, then wait for their reports to arrive in our inbox. If this svounds Read more...

Sexcellent | Issue 2

Posted 3:26pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Sexcellent

Hi Sexcellent, I’m in second year and my girlfriend and I have been together since Year 13. She’s awesome and I love her but for the past few months she hasn’t been as interested in sex and I’m feeling a bit hard done by and unloved. How can I get her interested in sex Read more...

Something Came Up | Issue 2

Posted 3:20pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Isa Alchemist

It's that time of year again when the streets and pubs are alive with freshers ! So great to see them. If you’re new to the student scene, the Ori week may have treated you harshly. Tanking up with alcohol can make you feel like the dregs of the glass, especially if you’re a newbie Read more...

Matters Of Debate | Issue 2

Posted 3:10pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Otago University Debating Society

This column is written by the Otago University Debating Society, which meets for socail debating every Tuesday at 6pm in the Commerce Building. Affirmative, by Old Major A B.Com will turn your brains to shit. For instance, if you take Economics at Otago as a Commerce degree you are never Read more...

Michael Woodhouse | Issue 2

Posted 3:02pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Michael Woodhouse

Imagine you’re a shopper in Tokyo. New Zealand lamb is for sale in the supermarket beside Australian lamb. Both products presently have a 38.5 percent tariff applied to them. Those who enter the TPPA will have that reduced by 9 percent, then eventually eliminated.  If Australia enters Read more...

David Clark | Issue 2

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by David Clark

Labour has a long commitment to international trade. Eighty years ago, the first Labour Government pushed for increased trade access and the opportunity to grow international markets.  Generally countries only give up barriers to trade when they believe it makes good sense for them to do so. Read more...

Dear Ethel | Issue 2

Posted 2:49pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Student Support

Dear Ethel, Every time we walk up Castle Street to go to New World, we get harassed. We’ve started to detour and walk via Cumberland Street but I really don’t see why we have to do that. My friend was driving down Castle Street last week and had a bottle thrown at her car. We’re Read more...

The Weekly Doubt | Issue 2

Posted 2:46pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Wee Doubt

Last week I mentioned healing crystals as an example of the placebo effect, where something can make you feel better even though there is no logical reason why it should. I think crystals are beautiful and I own a few of them.  However, I don’t buy into the people who propose different Read more...

Cull's Column

Posted 2:36pm Sunday 6th March 2016 by Dave Cull

For many of you, a new year on campus will also mean a new student flat to live in.  As you have likely discovered by now, Dunedin has a large number of properties – including student flats – that are not warm or dry enough to keep people healthy and comfortable at a reasonable Read more...

Editorial | Issue 2

Posted 10:20am Sunday 6th March 2016 by Hugh Baird

It’s been a week in which the University of Otago and, more so, the students associated have been the focus of national headlines and the debate that comes with it.  Many of the headlines have been centred on the University’s plans to install surveillance cameras in the student Read more...

Love is Blind | Issue 1

Posted 2:41pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Lovebirds

Critic’s infamous blind-date column brings you weekly shutdowns, hilariously mis-matched pairs, and the occasional hookup. Each week, we lure two singletons to Dog With Two Tails, ply them with food and alcohol, then wait for their reports to arrive in our inbox. If this svounds like you, Read more...

Science, Bitches | Issue 1

Posted 2:37pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Author Name

Stanley Milgram wanted to see exactly how far people would go when ordered by an authority figure to cause physical pain to another. In the 1960s, he gathered some volunteers and told them that he was conducting a study about the effect of punishment on learning. The volunteers would be the Read more...

Sexcellent | Issue 01

Posted 2:27pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Sexcellent

Dear Sexcellent, Does every woman REALLY have a g spot? Because I cannot find mine, and not from lack of looking. I have dedicated hours - possibly DAYS - over the past couple of years searching for the little fucker and I swear there just doesn’t seem to be anything there. All this has Read more...

Matters Of Debate | Issue 1

Posted 2:12pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Otago University Debating Society

This column is written by the Otago University Debating Society, which meets for socail debating every Tuesday at 6pm in the Commerce Building. Affirmative, by Old Major Why should we accept more refugees you might ask? Charity begins at home you might say. The government should be feeding Read more...

The Weekly Doubt | Issue 1

Posted 2:06pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Wee Doubt

Of all the strange things I encounter in indulging my love and hate of alternative ideas, the placebo effect is the strangest. A guest writer covered this last year but I wanted to revisit it to hammer home just how weird the placebo effect is. What marks the placebo effect out from other wacky Read more...

Dear Ethel | Issue 1

Posted 1:55pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by Student Support

Dear Ethel, How can we get last year’s bond back? Our landlord from last year won’t answer any of our texts. So broke for Ori. Can’t wait for course related costs… -Cut My Bonds Dear Cut My Bonds, It sounds like you’re all still together this year, which makes Read more...

David Clark | Issue 1

Posted 1:48pm Sunday 28th February 2016 by David Clark

I enjoy life on campus, and all that goes with it.  I wouldn’t have spent so many years as a student here otherwise. Nor would I have returned to take up my previous job as the head of a residential College.  Otago University has been very good to me. One of the best bits about Read more...

Editorial | Issue 1

Posted 10:42am Sunday 28th February 2016 by Hugh Baird

Come late February, there’s no better smell throughout North Dunedin than burning couches and stale alcohol. It tugs at my heartstrings in a similar way to fresh cut lawns in spring, or pine trees at Christmas. It can mean only one thing, that the academic year has began and the students are Read more...

Love is Blind | Issue 26

Posted 3:51pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Lovebirds

Critic’s infamous blind date column brings you weekly shutdowns, hilariously mismatched pairs, and the occasional hookup. Each week, we lure two singletons to Di Lusso, ply them with food and alcohol, then wait for their reports to arrive in our inbox. If this sounds like you, Read more...

From the Back of the Class | Issue 26

Posted 3:48pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Finbarr Noble

On 20 May 1861, Gabriel Read, a lonesome prospector, tried his luck in a gully near modern Lawrence. Heaving away the gravel, he exposed the creek bed and saw, in his words (poetic for an itinerant gold miner), “gold shining like the stars of Orion on a dark, frosty night”. This Read more...

Dear Ethel | Issue 26

Posted 3:46pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Student Support

Dear Ethel, What’s the story if I can’t sit an exam? My dad recently had an accident and is in intensive care. It looks like I may have to go home to be with him if things get any worse. I’m worried that I’m going to miss my exams. If I have to go home and miss exams, what Read more...

Something Came Up | Issue 26

Posted 3:44pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Isa Alchemist

Back in the day when I was a student, things were different. There were no student loans and if you were from a non-university town, your boarding allowance paid all the hostel fees. Bursary was the icing on the cake. Our class was infamous for its bad behaviour. We threw darts, and shouted abuse. I Read more...

Science, Bitches | Issue 26

Posted 3:42pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Sam Fraser-Baxter

Last time, I argued that the most urgent environmental issue confronting us lies in the environmental perceptions and values we hold today. While global warming, species extinction or deforestation may lead to the eventual collapse of the earth’s ability to sustainably support life, skewed Read more...

Sceptic Schism | Issue 26

Posted 3:40pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by Wee Doubt

This morning a friend sent me a link to an article called “Bad Diet the Number One Cause of ADHD”. The author claims food colouring causes ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) in children and that the condition does not exist in countries that do not use the dyes. I Read more...

David Clark | Issue 26

Posted 3:38pm Sunday 4th October 2015 by David Clark

Many of you will be preparing for exams. Good luck! After that come some fond farewells, summer and new challenges. Some of you will be flatting for the first time in the New Year. Some of you will be starting new courses. Some of you will be entering the job market. Whatever the change, I Read more...

Editorial | Issue 26

Posted 10:37am Sunday 4th October 2015 by Josie Cochrane

That’s a wrap! 26 issues, several bizarre dramas, and many all-nighters later, we’ve done it.  Looking back on old issues from the last 90 years, there’s been some damn cool stuff Critic has covered — from the Springboks tour to discussing mixed flatting to Read more...

Love is Blind | Issue 25

Posted 2:34pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Lovebirds

Critic’s infamous blind date column brings you weekly shutdowns, hilariously mismatched pairs, and the occasional hookup. Each week, we lure two singletons to Di Lusso, ply them with food and alcohol, then wait for their reports to arrive in our inbox. If this sounds like you, Read more...

ODT Watch | Issue 24

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Steph Taylor

If you haven’t heard, the uni has a new proctor scoping the campus out. Having served in Afghanistan and the Solomon Islands will no doubt prepare him for the battleground of Castle Street. A British court has convicted a man of plotting a chemical attack and planning to kill Prince Read more...

From the Back of the Class | Issue 25

Posted 2:17pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Finbarr Noble

A head of one of the world’s many religions died in the last fortnight with little international fanfare. Max Gesner Beauvoir was the spiritual leader of Haiti’s voodoo faith, a biochemist as well as a voodooist. Beauvoir became the Supreme Servitur in 2008.  Voodoo originated in Read more...

Science, Bitches | Issue 25

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Sam Fraser-Baxter

People often ponder what is the most urgent environmental issue confronting us. Is it climate change, species extinction or human overpopulation? The answer could be any of these. It is hard to predict which environmental issue may lead to an irreversible collapse in the planet’s Read more...

Something Came Up | Issue 25

Posted 2:11pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Isa Alchemist

The exam cycle is coming around again — following closely will be a nudge up in the average level of stress throughout North Dunedin. It seems like two out of every three students have that haunted look, as if the grim invigilator is two steps behind them (and the third just hasn’t Read more...

Unzipping the Myths | Issue 25

Posted 2:04pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by T. Antric

80 percent of all sexually active adults will get an sexually transmitted disease (STI) at some point in their lives. STIs are stigmatised and shamed, which simply contributes to them being spread more. Having an STI is not a death sentence or something to be ashamed of, but they can be quite Read more...

Sceptic Schism | Issue 25

Posted 2:02pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Wee Doubt

Conservatives are a bunch of meat-eating, game-hunting, tax-decreasing, hard-drinking, Bible-bashing, black-and-white-thinking, immigration-hating, oil-fracking-loving, morally dogmatic philistines. Liberals are a bunch of bike-riding, tree-hugging, whale-saving, big-government-promoting, Read more...

David Clark | Issue 25

Posted 2:00pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by David Clark

Healthcare in New Zealand has been underfunded to the tune of $1.7 billion in recent years, according to independent economics advisory firm, Infometrics.  If you are studying health sciences, you may be directly affected by changes in our health system. The lack of funding and the loss of Read more...

Dear Ethel | Issue 25

Posted 1:58pm Sunday 27th September 2015 by Student Support

Dear Ethel, Shit! It’s only two weeks until exams. I’m streeesssssed out. I really don’t know if I’m going to make it. I feel like dropping out.  What can I do? Y ou’re not alone … exams are really stressful — for some students more Read more...

Editorial | Issue 25

Posted 10:27am Sunday 27th September 2015 by Josie Cochrane

Last week, we published the blurbs for the 2016 OUSA executive candidates. They sent us their blurbs so that you could have an idea of what they stand for. To those campaigning, you are trying to be student politicians. Can’t you rise above the dirty politics? Most students don’t care Read more...

Love is Blind | Issue 24

Posted 2:50pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Lovebirds

Critic’s infamous blind date column brings you weekly shutdowns, hilariously mismatched pairs, and the occasional hookup. Each week, we lure two singletons to Di Lusso, ply them with food and alcohol, then wait for their reports to arrive in our inbox. If this sounds like you, Read more...

From the Back of the Class | Issue 24

Posted 2:43pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Finbarr Noble

Senator Hiram Johnson is supposed to have opined that the first casualty of war is truth. Hillary Clinton has said that “women have always been the primary victims of war”. I myself have stood in the war cemeteries of northern France and seen the white stakes above the graves of the Read more...

Science, Bitches | Issue 24

Posted 2:39pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Vibhuti Patel

"Koro” is an Indonesian word meaning “shrinkage”, which accurately describes what people fear when they have genital retraction syndrome, as it’s called in the Western world. People with this syndrome have an overpowering belief that their penis (though, it has been Read more...

Something Came Up | Issue 24

Posted 2:35pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Isa Alchemist

We were told as children not to pick at scabs, as parents and teachers believed that exposing wounds to the sun would speed up their healing. There was some wise advice in this because picking off scabs with sticky fingers may introduce fresh infection. But these days there is a newer direction Read more...

Unzipping the Myths | Issue 24

Posted 2:33pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by T. Antric

Pornography is a controversial subject, but it is now perhaps the most widely accepted and pop-culture-okayed controversial subject (although the discussion seems to be different for anyone who is not a boy). Nearly every boy I know is unapologetic about indulging in porn. Porn is so frequently Read more...

Sceptic Schism | Issue 24

Posted 2:30pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Wee Doubt

If you decide whether to have tea or coffee in the morning, there’s probably no radical analysis of the situation going on in your head. If you sense straight away that your friend is happy to see you, you don’t have to stop and slowly analyse their body language and speech patterns to Read more...

David Clark | Issue 24

Posted 2:27pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by David Clark

The story of Louise Nicholas is familiar to many New Zealanders. Her battle with the police force over accounts of rape and abuse as a teenager in the 1980s was fought publicly. Since then, she has become a strong advocate for sexual violence prevention. My colleague Clare Curran, the MP for Read more...

Dear Ethel | Issue 24

Posted 2:23pm Sunday 20th September 2015 by Student Support

Dear Ethel, I’m really worried about my friend. This guy, who’s kind of in our close friend group, sexually assaulted her at a party. I don’t think it’s the first time he’s done this either. The tricky thing is that we’re all at the same college and it’s Read more...

Editorial | Issue 24

Posted 10:16am Sunday 20th September 2015 by Josie Cochrane

This week the OUSA Executive candidate forums kick off with free pizza and too many hours spent listening to wannabe executive members say the same shit. “I will make a change.” “I will buy a student bar.” “I will not let our student culture die.”  Read more...

Love is Blind | Issue 23

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by Lovebirds

Critic’s infamous blind date column brings you weekly shutdowns, hilariously mismatched pairs, and the occasional hookup. Each week, we lure two singletons to Di Lusso, ply them with food and alcohol, then wait for their reports to arrive in our inbox. If this sounds like you, Read more...

From the Back of the Class | Issue 23

Posted 2:24pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by Finbarr Noble

I was going to write something different this week but, because I am a glutton for punishment, I ventured into the stuff.co.nz comments on a piece about the Tino Rangatiratanga flag — and what did I find? Only the same fucking idiots spouting the same fucking idiocy about Moriori that was Read more...

Science, Bitches | Issue 23

Posted 2:22pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by Sam Fraser-Baxter

Scientists recognise the Ross Sea as the world’s last pristine, intact ecosystem. The Ross Sea is a huge bay cutting into the Antarctic sea and continent. It is 4000 km from New Zealand, the most remote and southernmost fishery on the planet. Given its position, it is also completely Read more...

Something Came Up | Issue 23

Posted 2:19pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by Isa Alchemist

It dogs us in our teenage years, popping out to dampen a big night out. Severe acne can be a serious affliction that causes a normally sociable student to become shy and withdrawn. The good news is that all acne can be treated. Extreme cases will require a visit to Student Health, but options for Read more...

Unzipping the Myths | Issue 23

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 13th September 2015 by T. Antric

Ok, so you want to spice up your sex life a bit. You’re bored, it’s not exciting anymore, you want the sense of danger. Whether it’s at the back of the movie theatre or at the beach, everyone seems to have a story about it. This is all well and good, but bear in mind that a) public Read more...