Archive

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...