Archive

The Phone Games You Haven’t Thought About Since 2013: A Review

Posted 11:32pm Sunday 18th April 2021 by Denzel Chung

The year was 2012. The Prime Minister was everyone’s favourite blokey Uncle John (just your average BBQing, beer-drinking multi-millionaire investment banker with a Hawaiian holiday home). “Going into debt” meant a $5 loan from my parents for Maccas in town. Lunchtimes seemed to Read more...

The Wheel Slim Shady: Getting Around the Walk Your Wheels Policy

Posted 11:13pm Sunday 18th April 2021 by Asia Martusia King

The day that Otago University implemented its “Walk Your Wheels” policy was a dark time for all. I’ll never forget cycling into Uni in 2019 and being met with that hideous, mocking sign.  I’m a self-confessed pavement cyclist, the bane of Dunedin News. I like to go Read more...

Shaky At Best: The New Zealand Earthquake Forecasting Page With Links to Pseudoscience

Posted 10:09pm Sunday 18th April 2021 by Acasta Gneiss

At first glance, NZ Earthquake Community is a reputable Facebook page. It’s filled with content from GeoNet and advice about earthquake safety. It’s also only six clicks away from a crackpot’s RV in New Mexico.  Information on the page comes from two sources. If you follow Read more...

Dunedin’s Vegan Food Review

Posted 2:04pm Sunday 11th April 2021 by Keegan Wells

Jitsu I tried out the spicy tofu pirikara and the spicy katsu vegan meat bento. The spicy tofu, although not all that spicy, was great due to the sheer size of the ‘fu. It was a A slab of pressed soy you could build a shithouse out of.  To say my life was changed forever after the Read more...

The Committee: A Tale of Cash, Cocktails, and Conspiracy

Posted 12:10am Sunday 11th April 2021 by Elliot Weir

It’s August 2018. You’re in Year 13. You’re covered in pimples, you don’t know how to blowdry your hair, and your fashion sense is what can only be described as preppy-grunge. Your on-and-off high school girlfriend has just broken up with you because you had a Skype call with Read more...

Locked In: what happened when RAs were locked down in residential colleges

Posted 10:41pm Saturday 10th April 2021 by Annabelle Vaughan

Lockdown exposed problems with residential colleges. Residential assistants (RAs, this year known as Sub-wardens) had heavy expectations placed on them. Whether it was managing first years’ mental health or fighting for fair pay, lockdown placed a spotlight on conditions of work in residential Read more...

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Field Trips of Otago Uni

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 28th March 2021 by Sean Gourley

Critic asked students about the highs and lows of their University field trips over the years. We sorted through the field trips, past and present, and compiled this choose your own adventure, so students with boring degrees that don’t involve field trips can find out what life is like outside Read more...

Feathery Friends & Funky Fiends: A guide to finding wildlife in and around Dunedin

Posted 4:16pm Sunday 28th March 2021 by Elliot Weir

Friends, it’s time to see some wildlife other than the stray cats on Leith Street and the cockroaches in your bathroom. Leave North Dunedin, and experience the natural world at its finest. Even David Attenborough reckons you should.  We are surrounded by some incredible ecosystems in Read more...

Mythbusting: Academics take a crack at misconceptions in their field

Posted 3:58pm Sunday 28th March 2021 by Fox Meyer

It’s really easy to pretend that you know what you’re talking about. We know this because at Critic we’ve been calling ourselves “journalists” for nearly 100 years. Not being a scientist doesn’t stop people from getting on TV and filling a scientist’s Read more...

How to Get a Refund From Your Drug Dealer

Posted 2:41pm Sunday 21st March 2021 by Fox Meyer

A surprising number of students have been able to get refunds from their drug dealers, after buying what they thought was MDMA. Sales of ‘MDMA’ are still common in New Zealand despite the fact that there’s very little pure MDMA in the country. It’s all getting stuck at the Read more...

Female Viagra vs Catholic Guilt

Posted 12:32pm Sunday 21st March 2021 by Asia Martusia King

Men have Viagra. I have years of repressed Catholic guilt. This is incredibly unfair, and I decided to fix it by testing out all the female-libido drugs I could get my hands on.  Catholic guilt might sound bizarre to anyone who isn’t Catholic or recovered, considering Catholicism is Read more...

The One Who Didn’t Get Away: Talking about drugs with a drug dealer who got caught

Posted 12:24pm Sunday 21st March 2021 by Erin Gourley

Daniel* was in his third year at the University of Otago, studying computer science, when the police came to his flat to search for drugs. “By the time the police actually came to search my house, I expected it,” he said. “I did care whether I was being investigated, but I Read more...

Why Are There So Many Shit Drugs in Dunedin This Year?

Posted 12:15pm Sunday 21st March 2021 by Sean Gourley

Molly took one and a half Red Bull pressies at Electric Avenue. She couldn’t sleep for 36 hours. In the following days she had one of the worst come-downs of her life.  “I'd spent the money so I took it. I would not have paid for it if I’d known it wasn’t Read more...

Forbidden Fruits Around Campus: What They Are and Where to Find Them

Posted 12:46am Sunday 14th March 2021 by Susana Jones

If you’re anything like me, you’re perpetually hungry, but you’re also a hopelessly broke student. You don’t have enough time to prepare anything to eat between meals, and are too broke to simply run to the local New World or dairy and grab something quick without it putting Read more...

The 20th Annual* Critic Fish and Chip Review

Posted 12:15am Sunday 14th March 2021 by Alex Leckie-Zaharic

*Disclaimer: Critic did not review Dunedin’s greatest fish and chips in 2020 because there was a lot going on.  Chip and fish. Fish and chip. It can be average as fuck or it can be the food of your dreams. That all depends on where you choose to go. Critic ordered two fish (of Read more...

Blood On Our Hands: Local climate activists taking on big corporations

Posted 11:42pm Saturday 13th March 2021 by Elliot Weir

It’s easy to think that the future is already fucked. Activists of New Zealand past have lived and died fighting for nuclear disarmament, environmental protections, and the return of stolen land to tangata whenua, fed up by the unjust world they saw around them. But we still face apocalyptic Read more...

Indoctrinating Myself With Life FM

Posted 9:57pm Saturday 6th March 2021 by Sean Gourley

FM Radio is like your mate’s parents who you didn’t realise are quite Christian until you started talking about strip clubs in front of them: easy to get along with until Jesus enters the picture. For a bit of a project in O Week, I forced myself to listen to our country’s most Read more...

Spitballing With Scientists: Identifying The Eating Disorder Genes

Posted 9:23pm Saturday 6th March 2021 by Asia Martusia King

Trigger warning: Disordered eating. Maybe you’re born with it. Maybe it’s anorexia nervosa, and you were also born with it. Did you know that alongside environmental influences, eating disorders are significantly predisposed by your genetics? I didn’t, but it sure would have Read more...

The Great Annual Flo and O Week Party Review

Posted 8:35pm Saturday 6th March 2021 by Elliot Weir

  Flo Week and O Week felt more like Slo Week this year. But that’s okay, because people change, and so do annually held fortnight-long parties.  The idea of Flo and O Week is that second and third years can revel in nightly parties free of freshers. However, this year's Read more...

Strength in Numbers: Looking After Your Mental Health as a Pasifika Student

Posted 3:58pm Tuesday 2nd March 2021 by Susana Jones

I remember walking in to Student Health as a fresher many moons ago, feeling crook as fuck in all ways possible, just needing some help. I looked around for a brown face or name. There were none in sight. My name, pronounced incorrectly, was called out by the Caucasian doctor, summoning me to their Read more...