Archive

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...

Turning off the enlightenment

Posted 4:31pm Sunday 13th April 2014 by Hadleigh Tiddy

Exploring the three main obstacles on the search for enlightenment, Hadleigh Tiddy ventures back through his experiences of a meditation-fuelled spiritual quest. At some point in my first year of University, during a particularly bleak mid-winter-hide-under-the-covers-for-two-days binge, I Read more...

Lovemaking preachers and salvation at the checkout counter

Posted 4:31pm Sunday 13th April 2014 by Martin Baker

The reverend Martin Baker has practised as a minister for several decades and currently holds a position as the Assembly Executive Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand. But, despite his experience (or maybe because of it), it is still a simple interaction at a supermarket Read more...

The immorality of magical thinking

Posted 4:31pm Sunday 13th April 2014 by Lucy Hunter

Frustrated by how frequently those suffering will be told to "think positive" and pray, or be blamed for having bad karma, Lucy Hunter delves into the struggles of Zoe, a young woman living with a chronic auto-immune disease. Zoe was 15 when she was diagnosed with Granulomatosis Poliangiitus Read more...

What Is Happiness, Anyway?

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Allison Hess

As university students, we are at a defining time in our lives. We are furthering our worldly education, learning to be adults and earning degrees; all of which will propel us into the rest of our lives – jobs, careers and families. My own university career is very nearly coming to an end, which Read more...

The Great Wall of Internet

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Loulou Callister-Baker

With the news these days constantly filled by reports of governments exercising power and influence over the Internet, Features Editor Loulou Callister-Baker takes a step back to look at a country with years of experience: China. As a tool for democracy, the Internet is a threat to Read more...

Where the Wild Things Aren't

Posted 4:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 by Josie Adams

I am not a very good user of the library. I came once in first year for the comfy red couches, and I stayed because when you bump into people you vaguely know there and engage them in conversations, while they’re busy, they’re not allowed to yell at you – because you’re in a library. The library may Read more...

The Real Flatmates of Dunedin

Posted 7:01pm Sunday 30th March 2014 by Lydia Adams

When I asked students from around New Zealand what the first thing is that sprang into their mind when I said “Otago University,” the answers I received were all fairly similar. Most of their reactions were something along the lines of, “Ya’ll a bunch of Scarfies,” “Bad drinking culture,” and, Read more...

Journey Into "The Uncanny Valley"

Posted 7:01pm Sunday 30th March 2014 by Lucy Hunter

No person can claim they weren’t slightly disturbed by the near-human animation of the children’s film The Polar Express. Lucy hunter explores the mystery of something being both strange and familiar or, simply put, what it means to get "the creeps". Imagine coming home and putting your key Read more...

Life at a funeral

Posted 7:01pm Sunday 30th March 2014 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Loulou Callister-Baker explores the burial ritual and current, sometimes bizarre, trends within funeral industries around the world We reached Hamilton the day before Christmas. It was a reflective time - the drive was long and stuffy, another year was coming to an end and both of my parents’ Read more...

A House Without Books

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 23rd March 2014 by Sarah Ley-Hamilton

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past ten years you will have realised that there have been significant changes in the world around us. You will have heard people banging on about the “digital age,” or the “frontier” or “revolution.” You will have also heard that if you want to move Read more...

Antarctica On the Brink

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 23rd March 2014 by Thomas Raethel

New Zealand has never enjoyed a prime position in the international arena, and most of us are rather content with this. Our antipodean status has let us foster interest in unattended corners of the globe, and place great stress upon the importance of conservation. We have shot to the forefront of Read more...

Diary of Armageddon

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 23rd March 2014 by Josie Adams

Simon Pegg once said that being a geek is about “being honest about what you enjoy … It means never having to play it cool about how much you like something ... Being a geek is extremely liberating.” Armageddon is a national expo for New Zealand’s geek community; all these enthusiastic folk convene Read more...

Opinion entitled to hearing?

Posted 2:59pm Sunday 16th March 2014 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Troubled by recent stories of embezzlement in both government and university communities around the country, Loulou Callister-Baker addresses issues of corruption within New Zealand – ultimately advocating for the maintenance of transparency and for a turn away from complacency in the voting Read more...

Five surprising things I learned about psychopaths

Posted 2:59pm Sunday 16th March 2014 by Lucy Hunter

From James Bond to Hannibal Lector, individuals with psychopathic tendencies continue to captivate people around the world. Lucy Hunter explores the defining aspects of psychopathy and ponders whether she risks adopting the dark and charismatic traits she obsesses over. I wish I were a little Read more...

Barter, Banter and a Condom

Posted 2:59pm Sunday 16th March 2014 by Max Callister-Baker

While trading a good for another good of similar or equal value used to be an everyday practice, this type of exchange has now largely become a thing of the past. In a burst of nostalgia, Max Callister-Baker goes on a quest to resurrect bartering in the modern context of the Dunedin student Read more...

How to navigate the deep web

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 9th March 2014 by Zane Pocock

With Edward Snowden, the NSA and Bitcoin all gaining popular attention recently, you are almost certain to have heard of the “deep web” by now: the huge, anonymous mass of the Internet that you can’t reach conventionally. Whether you see it as a network for human traffickers, a threat to Read more...

The Future is Dead Humans

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 9th March 2014 by Josie Adams

Technology is advancing at a stupendously quick rate. We still don’t have flying cars, it’s true; but maybe that was a stroke of genius, an idea that’s just a little too crazy to be realised. We have the know-how and the wealth to produce a myriad of future gadgets: thin-as-air graphene armour; Read more...

Navigating Relationships in the Digital Age

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 9th March 2014 by Sarah Ley-Hamilton

We Tweet, we Snapchat, we’re friends on Facebook and, hell, we even match on Tinder – but where has that left us? Navigating the social media swamp isn’t easy, and that raises the question: has technology really been helping or is it hindering our romantic pursuits? Sarah Ley-Hamilton looks to the Read more...

Brothel

Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Hadleigh Tiddy

What I remember specifically about the first time I went there – not the first actual time but, like, the preliminary meet-and-greet type thing – was the lemon. Sliced, floating pale in a cool glass of water. The glass it was in was crystal and heavy and felt moneyed, somehow, cylindrical and Read more...

The Transfiguration

Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Hadleigh Tiddy

Now you’re dead. Lying facedown on the gravel somewhere along the Desert Road at four o’clock in the afternoon, skies overcast, your car wrapped around a power pole, your neck twisted too far backwards, your eyes still open. No one has come yet. You were driving alone. It happened so quickly– Read more...

Ross

Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Hadleigh Tiddy

Up through the swerving Brooklyn hill and over the crest past the dozy corner shops and winding all the way down through Happy Valley road; down past the gorse and toitoi, speckled sedge, chickweed, kawakawa, nasturtium, wild fennel, wild mint, borage, and flax; all the way down to the sea, behind Read more...