Archive

A short introduction to Iraq and the rise of ISIS

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Matty Stroller

Earlier this year I had several promising job leads surface in Kurdish Northern Iraq. As a student of Middle Eastern politics, Iraqi Kurdistan (effectively an independent state in all but name) represents the perfect compromise: it’s relatively safe, yet close enough to the region’s “hot-spots” to Read more...

The master cleanse

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Josie Adams

For nearly 70 years, the Master Cleanse has existed to “detoxify” and shed unwanted pounds. Stanley Burroughs, who is conspicuously missing a “Dr” from his title, created it in the 1940s. Regardless of whether or not detoxing is a legitimate concept (it isn’t), the Master Cleanse has been at the Read more...

Alien speculations and human chauvinism

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Lucy Hunter

On 24 June 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing a string of nine, shiny, unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds of over 2,000 kilometres per hour. He described the objects’ movement as being “erratic, like a saucer skipping over water.” A newspaper journalist Read more...

From flat out to flatmate

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Mandy Te

Despite Knox College’s desperate attempts at securing third year residents for 2015, all 80 second-year returners have felt that two years is long enough. It’s time to move on from residential advisers banning an open vessel of V (the constant fear of wondering if a security guard will reprimand us Read more...

Original and dark fairy tales

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Anonymous Bird

Fairy tales, we have all been exposed to them. Whether it was a toned down Disney adaptation, a dramatic retelling like Maleficent, or even a book collection from our childhood, we’ve all experienced fairy tales at some point in our lives. They inform our understanding of right and wrong as Read more...

Long time lurker

Posted 4:38pm Sunday 14th September 2014 by Josie Adams

Forget TV and print, the place to be popular right now is the Internet. It’s not just for young people anymore, either: my parents use it to research, read, form friendships, and campaign for the Labour Party; and they’re, like, 100. Unlike the rest of my family, I am singularly terrible at being Read more...

New Zealand general election

Posted 4:38pm Sunday 14th September 2014 by Critic

Behold, Critic’s election analysis! Taking a panel of experts from the University’s staff and beyond, Critic was able to graph the extent to which each party is best for students in different areas. Before you continue reading, know that we acknowledge that this analysis has a single focus, Read more...

Have mic, will yell

Posted 11:52pm Sunday 7th September 2014 by Isaac Yu

It's 8:10pm on a Saturday night. I can see my breath misting in front of me as I sit in my room getting ready. Outside in the cold Dunedin weather you can hear the mating call of the male Scarfie as they proclaim their readiness for town to passing freshers. I go through the checklist in my head: Read more...

Social hair

Posted 11:52pm Sunday 7th September 2014 by Lucy Hunter

By looking at a person’s hair you can make assumptions about their age, ethnicity, gender, occupation, political views, their taste in music, income, lifestyle, religion, health, and sexuality. All from something that makes you want to puke if you find it in your meal. Hair matters. For Read more...

Scarfie confessions

Posted 11:52pm Sunday 7th September 2014 by Max Callister-Baker

We had to keep our voices down. It was a Thursday night and the four of us were crammed inside one single residential hall room. It was past 1am, which meant that if an RA came by they could dish out hefty $20 fines to each of us. But it wasn't easy speaking quietly – after having four or five too Read more...

The calcium curse

Posted 5:55pm Sunday 31st August 2014 by Mahoney Turnbull

Oh dairy me, what can the matter be? The dairy industry in China is in a state of disarray. At the same time, the world’s fastest growing nation not only wants their milk, but they would like the kiwi liquid gold from the land of milk and honey, without the pipeline botch ups, if you please. That Read more...

Geocaching

Posted 5:55pm Sunday 31st August 2014 by Josie Adams

When I was young, I used to draw maps and mark an X on the spot where I wanted to find treasure. There never was any, but today there are more than 2,500 hidden treasures in Dunedin. Every day in our city these treasures are found, swapped around, and put back for you to find by a whole community of Read more...

Returning Home

Posted 5:55pm Sunday 31st August 2014 by Loulou Callister-Baker

I have to hold my beanie down as I walk from the airplane across the tarmac. I also have to clutch my backpack to my chest. Both hands occupied, I am left to pretend that my skirt isn’t ballooning up in the wind leaving my butt on display to the old couple behind me. Yeah, Wellington. I get it. Read more...

Remote - An island in a sea of startups

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Sarah Ley-Hamilton

When you hear the word “remote,” it doesn’t exactly conjure up feelings of prosperity, abundance and opportunity – feelings that we are told to look for in our chosen career paths. However, for some of us, not putting on suitable office attire (or even pants) and logging on from the comfort of our Read more...

Trans Life

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Lucy Hunter

Gender identity is so ingrained in our culture that we often don’t think about it until we meet somebody who doesn’t conform to traditional ideas of a “masculine man” or a “feminine woman.” Even with advances, such as the legalisation of same-sex marriage last year, being trans* presents legal and Read more...

The freedom mission

Posted 12:53am Monday 18th August 2014 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Bell Murphy’s eyes light up as she tells us the story about the homemade pumpkin wine, which had flooded the floor at Black Star Books when left to brew over a weekend. On the ground between Bell and I, a woman carefully paints a banner for an animal rights protest to be held in the Octagon the Read more...

Hello and welcome to my Soft Grunge wonderland

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Alex Blackwood

Whatever Soft Grunge is, it seems to have originated on Tumblr around 2010. The hideous progeny of original Grunge and the Internet, Soft Grunge, unlike its parent, is less about music and all about image. Grunge, on the other hand, has a rich and complex history and ideology, avoided fashion and Read more...

The original Goth

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Josie Adams

"Emo", short for “emotional,” was a phase some of us may have gone through in high school. If we were particularly angry, we might have been called “scene.” The dark hair and clothing, the misguided misanthropy, the multitude of heartbreaks; only a few people will pull through these phases to become Read more...

Bizarre cultural practices and local traditions

Posted 9:16pm Sunday 10th August 2014 by Anonymous Bird

You know how everyone has those little bits of useless trivia that they like to pull out at any given opportunity? Well, this is probably going to be a list of those types of facts – random bits of bizarre information about the rest of the world that we would find strange; an amalgamation of odd Read more...

That one time I got a Tinder date to rescue me from another Tinder date.

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Sophie Edmonds

People always ask, “aren’t you afraid you’ll meet creeps or douche-bags on Tinder?” To which I always say, “I haven’t so far and I’ve been on more Tinder dates than I care to remember.” My time had clearly come. Remember when your parents told you to forget about people’s feelings and Read more...

Cyber-chondria

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Lydia Adams

Imagine yourself sitting on a cold, metallic, fold-up chair. One of the chair legs is off-balance and the air in the room you’re sitting in is crisp. There are other people in this room, eight of them, to be precise. All eight are perched uncomfortably on chairs that are equally as cold and metallic Read more...

A case for animal rights

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Lucy Hunter

It is easy to assume that “clean, green New Zealand” is a better place to be a farmed animal than in other countries. But the hidden camera footage recently released by Farmwatch from three New Zealand pig farms is as bad as a nightmare or a horror movie. In one farm, a sow lies on her side, alive Read more...

Welcome to the gun show

Posted 9:43pm Sunday 3rd August 2014 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Standing in the kitchen of my flat, I turn to my flatmates and ask them how many firearms there are in New Zealand. One replies, “80,000.” Another - deciding to push his guess - replies, “about 100,000.” When I tell them that there are, in fact, approximately 1.1 million firearms in New Zealand they Read more...

Modern art - A modern weapon

Posted 10:15pm Sunday 27th July 2014 by Josie Adams

Russia and America. The U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. They played on the same team during World War Two, but only because the captain of the opposition was the more immediate asshole. In the reconstructive, politically tumultuous post-war years, their distaste for each other solidified; the Cold War had Read more...

The four women at central library

Posted 10:15pm Sunday 27th July 2014 by Max Callister-Baker

Scarfie culture: it’s a beast that thrives in this fine province that people from all around New Zealand, and the world, come to. It pushes us to go crazy on Thursdays and Saturday nights, and challenges us to challenge the limits of our bodies and the limits of our laws. But when it comes to Read more...

Mourning [a] son

Posted 10:15pm Sunday 27th July 2014 by Dr Sandy Callister

With both the 100-year anniversary of World War One and OUSA Art Week in mind, Dr Sandy Callister – author of The Face of War – looks at the haunting realities of war for New Zealand communities and the importance of photography to the ritual of remembering. Around 25,000 books and Read more...

Wanderlust

Posted 5:12pm Sunday 20th July 2014 by Nina Harrap

Why is it that every young Kiwi wants to travel the world? Nina Harrap explores the concept of the O.E. and how you can go on yours as soon as possible. travelling the world as a young adult has always been an integral part of Kiwi culture; if you haven’t been away for at least six months by Read more...

Three Institutions

Posted 5:12pm Sunday 20th July 2014 by Lucy Hunter

As citizens of New Zealand, most of us take our personal freedom for granted. Within the boundaries of the law we are largely free to go where we like, eat what we like, talk to whom we like, and do what we like. Even at work or school we have, at least in theory, the freedom to get up and walk out. Read more...

Right in the Nutcracker

Posted 5:12pm Sunday 20th July 2014 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Loulou Callister-Baker takes a step back to look critically at the age-old tradition that is the annual Selwyn Ballet. An elegant foot brushes across the polished floor of the stage. Classical music fills the auditorium. Laughter teeters throughout the audience as a line of young, muscular Read more...

Everywhere / Nowhere

Posted 6:52pm Sunday 13th July 2014 by Alex Lovell-Smith

For three weeks earlier this year I travelled across the United States of America. This encompassed the Coachella Music Festival, most of the western seaboard in a frantic 72-hour driving mission, a pit stop in to see old friends in Kansas City, and an epic eight-day adventure in New York City. Read more...

Picking up strange vibrations

Posted 6:52pm Sunday 13th July 2014 by Anonymous Bird

It was in my first year at Otago when I first discovered the hilarity of looking at strange sex toys. I was innocently perusing the pages of Tumblr, with my flatmate at my side, when I came across a page called “Weird Ass Sex Toys.” I sheepishly turned to my flatmate and questioned whether I should Read more...

#PageantLife

Posted 6:52pm Sunday 13th July 2014 by Josie Adams

One day on George Street, two women intercepted me. The older one stared with such intensity that I felt sure she was a relative I’d forgotten about, and I slowed to meet her. “Excuuuse me,” she said, “I’m from Miss Universe New Zealand Otago.” Her voice was enduring, and loaded with upwards Read more...

Success without excess

Posted 1:08pm Sunday 6th July 2014 by Simon Hoffman

Simon Hoffmann provides a researched account on local and international food waste and gives suggestions on how each of us can minimise this worldwide crisis. I’m sure that at one time or another every one of us has felt a pang of guilt as we’ve binned an old carrot that slid to the bottom of Read more...

Kant, lies and polygraphs

Posted 1:08pm Sunday 6th July 2014 by Lucy Hunter

In the summer of 1999 four teenage boys were camping in the backyard of one of their family homes, and two of them were so scared they were crying. They had only agreed to go camping again because they didn’t want to look like sissies who were scared of a ghost. The ghost had made its presence known Read more...

ACCess denied

Posted 1:08pm Sunday 6th July 2014 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Following the recent conflicting and confused news reports about New Zealand’s Accident Compensation Corporation scheme, Loulou Callister-Baker undertook her own investigation. With the aid of Acclaim Otago, she identified several disturbing issues with ACC; expelling the delusion and clarifying the Read more...

Tainted Lull

Posted 2:07pm Sunday 25th May 2014 by Josie Adams

After being whipped, branded and hungry, Critic sexpert Josie Adams recounts her night at Dunedin’s Fetish Ball. It was a dark and quiet night on Crawford Street. The darkness was warm and lit by the still streetlamps, and even the shadows glowed with beckoning comfort. It was an empty night, Read more...

Knowing nano and when to say "no"

Posted 2:07pm Sunday 25th May 2014 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Technology and medicine at the nanoscale has the potential to solve countless issues from climate change to cancer. But the uncertainty surrounding this area also poses serious questions for regulators about if and when to draw a line. Clothing, household appliances, food packaging, sunscreen Read more...

High off the moral ground

Posted 2:07pm Sunday 25th May 2014 by Anonymous

Purchasing illicit substances off the internet is risky business at the best of times. An unnamed writer breaks down the process - ultimately begging the question as to why it should be such a mystery in the first place. The art of buying drugs face to face during these times of prohibition Read more...

The perplexity of sin

Posted 4:32pm Sunday 18th May 2014 by Lydia Adams

We've all heard of the big, bad Seven Deadly Sins, but where did they originate? Lydia Adams has a glance at their history, religious parallels, and possible modern-day alternatives. As I sat there at my dimly-lit desk, thinking of all the possible things I could have done in my life to Read more...

The underbelly of Dunedin streets

Posted 4:32pm Sunday 18th May 2014 by OUSA Feminist Group

With street harassment posing a constant threat of intimidation to the women of Dunedin, the OUSA Feminist Group presents a call to action for both bystanders and victims. "I was walking down George Street with my boyfriend one night when a group of guys walking behind me kept talking aloud Read more...

Irrational riches

Posted 4:32pm Sunday 18th May 2014 by Lucy Hunter

The perceived distance between money and reality is such that it can result in anything from fraud to online shopping binges and irrational approaches to TradeMe auctions. Lucy Hunter investigates why we struggle so much with what seems like a basic concept. Chances are you are terrible with Read more...

From anonymity to local

Posted 3:11pm Sunday 11th May 2014 by Loulou Callister-Baker

As more people feel the need to slow down and connect with the world around them, organic and local food choices have become increasingly important. Loulou Callister-Baker sat down with an organic farmer to work out how her lifestyle could influence the Dunedin student community’s food choices. Read more...

The golden games

Posted 3:11pm Sunday 11th May 2014 by Josie Adams

Arcade games have been around for a while now. With their near-certain demise playing out since the 1980s, Josie Adams explores Dunedin’s final bastions of vintage electronic entertainment. In 1770, Europe and America were spellbound by a machine. It was called the The Turk, and it was an Read more...

Where art thou, muse?

Posted 3:11pm Sunday 11th May 2014 by Adrian Ng

Dunedin musician and Critic music editor Adrian Ng explores the phenomenon of the artist’s muse, from greek and roman mythology to the early musical influences of his childhood. Having released two records around the start of the year, I was unfortunate enough to be the only individual Read more...

A love letter to literature

Posted 4:20pm Sunday 4th May 2014 by Anonymous Bird

I confess. I am a book addict. In my flat I have about 1500 books – give or take a few (they make shifting hard for me). Literature has always been a passion and interest of mine. Recently, I’ve given a lot of thought as to what initially sparked the flame that has led me to do an English degree. Read more...

The reality of conspiracies

Posted 4:20pm Sunday 4th May 2014 by Lucy Hunter

The problem with laughing at conspiracy theories is that they actually happen. Governments, corporations, and regular people sometimes do horrible things to each other for personal gain. They sometimes even manage to keep it secret. By definition, a conspiracy is a secret plan by two or more people Read more...

They walked the streets that we do

Posted 4:20pm Sunday 4th May 2014 by Nina Harrap

Dunedin has been impacted by its writers, but how have the writers been impacted by Dunedin? Nina Harrap examines the lives of Janet Frame, James K. Baxter and Charles Brasch, the city’s instrumental place in their writing, and the legacy they’ve left behind. It wasn’t until halfway through Read more...

Climaximum

Posted 1:58pm Sunday 27th April 2014 by Josie Adams

For such a sexually active group of people, the student populace knows surprisingly little about the end goal: orgasm. Critic’s Josie Adams explores the body areas and methods for having the best time. For many of us, sex is simple. We want it, look for it, have it, and then start all over Read more...

The great annual Critic pub review

Posted 1:58pm Sunday 27th April 2014 by Critic

With the likes of regular student jaunts Monkey, The Cook and Metro now out of business, it’s not quite so easy to plot an evening through town. We’ve certainly seen a trend of “out with the old,” but the question still begs: what, exactly, is “the new?” Ever sacrificing our limited free time for Read more...

The art of faking hypochondria

Posted 1:58pm Sunday 27th April 2014 by Loulou Callister-Baker

With limitations on how much genuine clinical experience a medical student can expect to get, there exists a high demand for trained medical actors. Loulou Callister-Baker investigates Dunedin's very own Simulated Patient Development Unit. She sits in the waiting room. She feels Read more...