Archive

Critic Scandals Through The Ages: An Inexhaustive Account

Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Brittany Mann

Now in its 89th year, Critic is widely known as an upright and distinguished Publication, where people turn for only the most rigorous of journalistic standards. LOL, JK. Brittany Mann takes a look at the scandals that have shaped Critic over the years. It seems like the height of Read more...

Why Do Soldiers Weep for More Cowbell?

Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Sam McChesney

“There’s a rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash, if they have a sentimental bond with the product. “My first job, I was in-house at a fur company, with this old-pro copywriter, a Greek named Teddy. Teddy told me the most important idea in advertising is new. Read more...

Calling the Cranks

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Jack Montgomerie

While reporting the news, I’ve come to learn that some so-called “important” people will always be in demand for comment. Ministers, businesspeople and academics are forever having cameras and dictaphones shoved at their overexposed gobs. Meanwhile, more marginal characters get passed over for media Read more...

Big Brothers-At-Arms

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Josie Adams

We live in an age of surveillance, in which our lives are policed by social norms and groupthink. These social norms can use technology to imprison us – but we can also use technology for our own ends, and fight back. “You can do better than that,” barks Winston’s telescreen in 1984. Read more...

Wanking Anonymously: The Rise of Hacktivism

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Kathleen Hanna

Like it or not, hacktivism is the political movement of our time. The movement’s technological savvy, libertarian outlook and mischievous methods are inspiring an otherwise apolitical generation. But where does the movement come from, and is its vision a sound one? It Began With a WANKIn Read more...

All As Are Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Ines Shennan

Ines Shennan obtained the University of Otago Grade Comparison Report for 2012, which outlines Standout Papers across all levels of undergraduate study. What was born out of a desire to present greater transparency regarding grading soon ballooned into a consideration of far deeper issues: Why are Read more...

The Shit Show Chateau: From P-lab to Penthouse

Posted 4:15pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Lindsey Horne

Rank flats and ranker landlords bring us students together. These flats give us something to talk about even in the most awkward of lab pairings and unite us in a general disdain toward the dreaded landlord (scum level equal to Dennis from Jurassic Park). But while we league together in our Read more...

From the Crypt: Flatting Horror Stories

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Staff Reporter

Flatting can be one of the most enjoyable experiences of a student’s life. But what about when it goes horribly wrong? Critic readers open their scars and share their most horrific tales of flatting misadventure. The Witch of Union Street EastBy Baz Macdonald Gather round, my fellow Read more...

Suits, Skylarking and Scarfies

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Sam Reynolds

Things change. Ten years ago the Bowler (a pub known only to few elderly students) was BYO crate before 6:00pm on Saturday nights. Twenty years ago a jug at Gardies was $3.80. Just over fourty years ago, boys and girls were banned from flatting together. In my first year I watched in disdain as the Read more...

Should Dunedin Impose Higher Flatting Standards?

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Aaron Hawkins

Aaron HawkinsEveryone deserves to live with dignity in a warm and healthy home. For the tens of thousands of Dunedin people living in flats, from students in the north end to families in the south, this means putting together minimum standards for rentals across the city. This will save tenants Read more...

How to Choose Flatmates

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Sam White

If you’re a first-year, you’ve probably started the flat-hunting process already. But chances are the people you’ve chosen to flat with are dicks, and you’ll end up wanting to kill them. Sam White shares some handy hints for picking your crew and avoiding any awkward homicidal incidents. When Read more...

The Scourge of Property Managers

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Brittany Mann

Property managers are an increasingly common phenomenon in Dunedin, their purpose to negotiate between the needs of tenants and landlords. However, Brittany Mann found herself inundated with stories of property managers acting as absentee landlords' stooges and trampling on tenants' rights. What Read more...

The Unfunny Business of Funny Business

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Jasper Jones

I went to watch comedy. It wasn’t very good, much like this standfirst. Years ago, Comic Addiction and its “Crack-Up Den” was a platform for the funny folk of Dunedin to hone their stand-up skills. Some became national favourites, and some moved on with their lives. Unaware of the underground Read more...

The Great Annual Critic Fish & Chip Review

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Ines Shennan

Ines Shennan spent her afternoon wandering around the realm of North Dunedin, grease gradually building up in her stomach as she sampled the various fish and chips offerings. Here are the results. The cheapest scoop of chips and cheapest piece of fish was selected from each store. Golden SunI Read more...

Polyamory: Fun for you & me & him & her etc.

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Loulou Callister-Baker

It Started With a KissOne night I was out drinking with my friend. As the night progressed we decided to join another group of friends to see a gig on the other side of town. As my friend and I walked we verbally stumbled onto the subject of polyamory – a lifestyle choice with which he identified. I Read more...

This Train Carries Lost Souls

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Kathleen Hanna

Film festivals always churn out some black sheep. However, few have been as eagerly anticipated and controversial as this year’s Thomas, a live-action adaptation of Thomas the Tank Engine directed by Darren Aronofsky. The film has bitterly divided critics: while some have hailed it as “surprisingly Read more...

Mona Larry?

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Sam O’Sullivan

My burgeoning interest in the nature of gender identity began in Patong – a detestable tourist haven in Phuket, Thailand. In the company of good friends and the comfort of a pleasant alcoholic haze I decided to see what Patong nightlife had to offer. It wasn’t long until we stumbled into a Read more...

From Banter to Intimidation: Drawing the Line

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Clare Curran

When I was younger and walking home from work one night I was attacked. It was a classic “man leaps out from behind a bush and confronts woman, then grabs her, his intentions clear” situation. New Zealand has the highest rate of rape and domestic violence in the OECD. Often these assaults are Read more...

The Cosmo Cock-Tales

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Josie Hallas

Bombarded with messages from "sexperts" about their inadequate sexual expressions, Josie Adams and Tristan Fernando gave in to Cosmopolitan magazine’s tips for spicing up their sex life. Armed with questionable advice, the two Cosmonauts embarked on a weekend of terrifying sexcapades. Here, in Read more...

Sniffles and Sex: The Dark Truth about Student Wellbeing

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Baz Macdonald

In my time at university I have had an unfortunate number of conversations in which a fellow student has described their common cold as bronchitis, or has lamented over a patch of eczema while wondering which fatal illness it may be symptomatic of. Sure, these examples are a tad hyperbolic, but the Read more...

Obscure Sports Are Obscure

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Irrelevant Irvine

Critic is bringing back its sports coverage – but because our incredibly lanky editorial team is all hipster and shit, we’ve decided to bring you a roundup only of the world’s most obscure sporting endeavours. If you’ve ever wondered what Bo-taoshi is, or whether being a stoner is a sport, or who Read more...

Dreaming of Electric Sheep

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Sam McChesney

Fantastical new inventions are just around the corner, and we enjoy an ever-increasing ability to solve the problems nature throws at us. But is the dream of a technological utopia realistic, and is it wise? Sam McChesney dons his sci-fi specs and his philosopher’s beret, and takes a hard look at Read more...

3D Printing is a Thing

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Zane Pocock

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is the act of building three-dimensional objects from a digital model. As opposed to traditional manufacturing, which involves moulds and the removal of material, 3D printing produces no waste material – which seems so obvious when you think about Read more...

An Island is an Island

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Stuck on an island that even a film crew for Survivor found too rugged (or dull) to film, Loulou Callister-Baker’s head has become swamped with thoughts of the existential-crisis variety. In a quest to maintain her relevance, Loulou explores what it means to be both psychologically and Read more...

A Weekend Trolling

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Ines Shennan

Ines Shennan attempted to teach herself in a day how to become an Internet troll. Employing techniques from the utterly pretentious to the obviously ignorant, what follows is an account of what happens when someone tries to abuse Internet anonymity. It all started with Tunnel Bear. An Read more...

Life Online - It's a Beach

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Loulou Callister-Baker

A MetaphorHow I use and regard Facebook is similar to the experience of driving alone down a very long street. A person alone in a car is isolated from society by the physical barrier of the car, but that person must still carefully abide by certain rules. The street, called Facebook, is crowded Read more...

www. Online Hookups 4 Students .co.nz

Posted 6:05pm Sunday 7th July 2013 by Brittany Mann

The concept of online dating has quivered menacingly on the edge of my consciousness ever since a friend of mine began using it a few years ago. While I am yet to overcome the mental hurdle of actually signing up to one of the numerous sites on offer, I found myself intrigued by fellow students who Read more...

Visual Intelligence

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 26th May 2013 by Brittany Mann

Visual Intelligence, a boutique, high-end tattoo and art studio located on the west side of Princes St, was established in 2004 and is a registered tattoo studio. Owned and operated by Aaron and Macaela Manuel, Visual Intelligence has a two-year waiting list that befits Aaron’s more than 15 years’ Read more...

Curious Insights

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 26th May 2013 by Ines Shennan

Ines Shennan chats with a handful of Otago University lecturers to find out what makes them tick. She discovers that exploring the local neighbourhood at a young age was a common theme, as is surfing and visiting the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Read on to discover some curious insights. Read more...

21st Century Fertility

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 19th May 2013 by Fertile Myrtle

One in six New Zealand couples has fertility problems, and many have turned to egg or sperm donation in the quest to have children. For these couples, the procedure is undoubtedly life-changing. But what about the donors? Fertile Myrtle (no, that’s not her real name) is a student who donated eggs to Read more...

May the sports be with you

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 19th May 2013 by Gus Gawn

On 25 May (6:45am 26 May NZ time), Europe’s top two sides will battle for the most prestigious prize in club football: the Champions League title. Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich are both in the final at Wembley after pulling off semi-final upsets – Dortmund saw off nine-time winners Real Madrid Read more...

Fairtrade Fortnight: Food for Thought

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 19th May 2013 by Baz Macdonald

It seems clichéd, but university is a good place to question things. I’m sure that for most of you, this very notion has conjured the image of wankers in berets writing in coffee shops, but this isn’t necessarily so. Many of the people we see trashed on Thursday and Saturday nights (this may be you) Read more...

Balls Deep in the Arab Spring

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 19th May 2013 by Matty Stroller

For as long as I can remember, I have had a weird infatuation with all things Middle Eastern. In late 2011/early 2012 – after a year and a half of soul-crushing wage-slavery – I excitedly embarked on a three-month tour of the “Arab Spring.” It is one thing to read about a situation on your laptop Read more...

Get Out of the Ghetto: Queenstown Edition

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Brittany Mann

When Phoebe Harrop of “Get Out of the Ghetto” fame found herself unable to “research” this feature, she selflessly passed the torch on to me. Go to Queenstown for the weekend, I was instructed, and try out some of the fun stuff on offer. I was forcefully reminded of how awesome this job is. Read more...

Getting Around the Orthodoxy

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Loulou Callister-Baker

There is a possibility that I wrote this entire feature in order to begin with the fact that I was in New York over the summer break. With that in mind, I was in New York over the summer break. One night, I found myself in a SoHo loft, deep in conversation with an architect. In an alignment of Read more...

Mann vs. Wild

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013 by Brittany Mann

Although the prospect of doing so was all that got me through the experience, it has taken me months to work up the nerve to write about what I now refer to, usually in a sepulchral whisper, as “the worst eight days of my entire life.” The following is an account of my experience climbing Mount Read more...

The Boston Marathon

Posted 4:00pm Sunday 5th May 2013 by Carys Goodwin

University of Otago student Carys Goodwin is on exchange at Boston College. In true Otago style, she was engaging in some mid-afternoon drinking when she heard about the bombings just five miles away. She gives a first-hand account of the aftermath. It was my mum who first informed me about Read more...

A Game of Faculties

Posted 4:00pm Sunday 5th May 2013 by Anonymous

The Seven Kingdoms of Dunderos and the Free Cities of Taerios are lands of sadistic mediocrity. When you play the Game of Faculties, you neither win nor die: in the end, there is only the swift abandonment of convenient tutorial-based friendships and dismal remuneration. School of Business Read more...

The Great Annual Critic Pub Crawl 2013

Posted 4:00pm Sunday 5th May 2013 by 2013 Interns

At last! It is time – the Great Annual Critic Pub Crawl has arrived. Last weekend, the Critic staff set off on a magical journey to ruthlessly assess the bars and watering holes of Dunedin, while welcoming Critic’s four news interns of 2013 – Josie Cochrane, Jamie Breen, Jack Montgomerie, and Thomas Read more...

My Summer in Corporate Purgatory

Posted 4:00pm Sunday 5th May 2013 by Callum Fredric

On Thursday, the big law firms will make offers of summer internships to students across the country. Callum Fredric gives the young clerks-to-be an unglamourised account of what a summer in a top-four law firm is actually like. Congratulations, aspiring summer clerks. On Thursday, you’ll Read more...

Baby Boom and Bust

Posted 3:14pm Sunday 28th April 2013 by Anonymous

With a readership of 269,000, the Listener is New Zealand’s most widely-read current affairs magazine – but it’s also the home of three tragically in-decline columnists. Callum Fredric and Maddy Phillipps document the writers’ undignified transformation into commentators both one-note and off-key. Read more...

Among Criminals

Posted 3:14pm Sunday 28th April 2013 by Loulou Callister-Baker

The criminal justice system has a complex set of rules and procedures, which many students experience first-hand every year. Loulou Callister-Baker interviewed several students who have come into contact with Dunedin law enforcement. Nothing in this feature (or Critic generally) should be treated as Read more...

Brittany Mann and the Abortion Protestors

Posted 3:14pm Sunday 28th April 2013 by Brittany Mann

In my other life, I moonlight as a receptionist at a medical centre. Arriving at work one afternoon, I found the building surrounded by men holding enormous signs emblazoned with disingenuous slogans and graphic photos of aborted foetuses, not dissimilar to the subject of Maddy Phillipps’ Read more...

Maslow's Hierarchy of Facebook Needs

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 21st April 2013 by Anonymous

Maslow’s pyramid illustrates the stages that human motivations move through as we satisfy increasingly sophisticated psychological needs. The most basic needs are at the bottom. The less urgent but still important needs are at the top. Previously, a couple of 100-level PSYC papers would have been Read more...

Lonesome World - Dunedin

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 21st April 2013 by Anonymous

Why Go?Most guides to New Zealand will tell you that Wellington has the culture, Auckland has the luxury, and Queenstown has the beauty. But savvy travellers have long since known that dynamic Dunedin does all three far better than the big, scene-stealing tourist traps. Home to the University of Read more...

The Little Foetus in the Pink Cap

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Anonymous

Earlier this year, a series of photos were posted on Reddit showing a woman holding a stillborn male foetus in her arms. The foetus was dressed in a pink knitted cap. This is his story. (See the foetus at critic.co.nz/NSFWfoetus – if you dare.) Once upon a time in the small hamlet of Gore Read more...

Three fables of Dunedin's forgotten flatters

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Callum Fredric

Over the years, Dunedin has been home to hundreds of thousands of students from across the globe. Earlier this year, a friend discovered a basement full of historic letters and books that, taken together, paint a picture of the lives of some of Dunedin’s previous inhabitants. Armed with some Read more...

Evidence of a Mid-life Crisis

Posted 5:49pm Sunday 14th April 2013 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Loulou Callister-Baker’s flatmate discovered some mysterious boxes in the attic, full of the possessions of a man who clearly experienced a textbook midlife crisis. Impressed by his adherence to Mills & Boon-level stereotypes, she tells the story of the man’s life. Sometime last month, I walked Read more...

Mapping Out the Friend Zone

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Sam McChesney

“You waited too long to make your move and now you’re in the friend zone ... if you don’t ask her out soon you’re going to end up stuck in the zone forever.” – Joey Tribbiani, Friends “The great irony is that the friend zone really doesn’t exist. The notion that once people make friends, they Read more...

The Strange Phenomenon of Christian Flatting

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013 by Brittany Mann

With Easter behind us and the mid-year break just around the corner, soon it will once again be the time of year to embark on that perennial venture we all love to hate: the flat hunt. For some, particularly newly-rounded freshers, decisions on flat group formation will involve fraught, Read more...