Archive

Beer, Glorious Beer

Posted 5:14pm Sunday 15th July 2012 by Zane Pocock

As someone who’s all too familiar with the epic nights of a student and spent the prior night sinking piss at a work function, going Gonzo for a feature on beer didn’t seem like a great concept, but my trepidation was brief. I had forgotten that real beer need not be associated with slabs of SoGos Read more...

State of The Nation

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 8th July 2012 by Michael Neilson

Before getting started, I must admit that, as a fourth-year Politics student, assessing the National Party’s second term in government for my first feature is like a dream come true. A sad dream (and a confession likely to diminish my chances of getting laid for a while), but a dream Read more...

The Dunedin Dictionary

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 8th July 2012 by Anonymous

The only thing worse than hearing people casually fling around trendy words and phrases you’ve never heard of is realising you’re so out of touch you still use the word “trendy”. Luckily, help is at hand in this blatant Urban Dictionary ripoff, which handily explains a few of the terms you might Read more...

Get (Re)Oriented

Posted 5:13pm Sunday 8th July 2012 by Staff Reporter

OUSA and Radio One have teamed up again to bring you a huge line-up for this year’s Re-Orientation. Here’s what you can hit up over the next week: WednesdayClubs DayClubs and Socs Centre, 10am – 3pm (and it’s FREE!) Clubs Day is back! Head on down to the Clubs and Societies Centre Read more...

Dunedin Through International Eyes

Posted 8:39pm Sunday 3rd June 2012 by Anonymous

I estimate that as I endure my stressful daily routine - sleeping, eating, considering going to lectures, deciding in the negative, sleeping, Facebooking, quick trip to Sav Jap, illegal downloading, sleeping again - I spend about 94.6% of that time thinking about how much I hate Dunedin (the other Read more...

Last Breath Left

Posted 8:39pm Sunday 3rd June 2012 by Zane Pocock

Suicide is an issue that hits close to home for too many New Zealanders. We have the highest suicide rate in the OECD, and an estimated 3% of our population considers suicide every year. Debate rages in the media about how we should approach and treat this problem. Critic's Zane Pocock delves into Read more...

Depression: The Hidden Illness

Posted 8:39pm Sunday 3rd June 2012 by Katie Kenny

Sufferer’s descriptions of the experience of mental illness can be as varied as the individuals themselves. “[I feel] as though I don’t have the right to be depressed”; “like being on the opposite side of a glass wall”; “out of control”; anxious”; “sleepy”; “cold and numb”; “like I’m going Read more...

Wasted Time

Posted 7:40pm Sunday 27th May 2012 by Anonymous

A couple of years ago, Tommy was at a birthday party in an Auckland hotel room. It was someone’s 18th, and by all accounts it was rowdier than an average Saturday night in the Botans. Lots of people texted their friends, who texted their dodgy friends, who texted their even dodgier friends. The Read more...

Dare to be Wise?

Posted 7:40pm Sunday 27th May 2012 by Katie Kenny

CONTROVERSY AT CANTERBURYIn 1993 Canterbury Master of Arts student Joel Hayward completed his thesis, entitled The Fate of Jews in German Hands: An Historical Enquiry into the Development and Significance of Holocaust Revisionism. Although the content is as controversial as its title suggests, his Read more...

Altered States

Posted 7:58pm Sunday 20th May 2012 by Zane Pocock

Lets face it, listening to mainstream radio feels more and more like getting Rick-Rolled. An alternative is vital, both for your sanity, and to maintain any sense of culture in society. Threatened with sale last year, Otago Uni's other student voice - Radio One - has come under a lot of fire. Read more...

Breaking and Entering

Posted 7:58pm Sunday 20th May 2012 by Lauren Wootton

It’s not easy being a musician. An artist. There’s constant pressure – to write new songs, record, release an album, tour (and tour well) and just be an all-round GC. And there’s even more pressure if you’re a musician in New Zealand; the music industry just isn’t that big. New Zealand Music Read more...

Justice Kate O'Regan

Posted 7:58pm Sunday 20th May 2012 by Bella Macdonald

Justice Kate O’Regan was invited to speak at the annual New Zealand Law Foundation Ethel Benjamin Address on April 23. The address is held in memory of Ethel Benjamin, who in 1987, was the first female Otago University graduate admitted to the bar. Justice O’Regan’s experiences as a woman working in Read more...

ARE DRUGS COOL?

Posted 7:08pm Sunday 13th May 2012 by Staff Reporter

THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF PEOPLE AT OTAGO UNIVERSITYThe first type, often a Castle Street resident, is septum-deep in their “drug phase” – that sacred, rarefied time in most people’s lives in which drugs are the pinnacle of cool, and the user believes themselves to be equally cool by association. They Read more...

Up in Smoke

Posted 7:08pm Sunday 13th May 2012 by Sasha Borissenko

The Ministry of Health recently issued a paper calling for $100 packets of cigarettes, in an effort to make NZ smoke free by 2025. Combined with moves to plain packaging, and a massive and continuing advertising campaign to get smokers to quit, it appears smokers are under siege in the land Read more...

TRANS

Posted 12:51am Monday 7th May 2012 by Zane Pocock

Imagine you are five again. Sitting on Santa’s lap, you ask in a whisper for the one thing in the world you truly desire: A Barbie. Christmas morning rolls around; you run to the tree, sliding around the corner like a scampering dog in your excitement. And under that tree you find, with baited Read more...

The Birth of Student Loans

Posted 12:51am Monday 7th May 2012 by Katie Kenny

Happy birthday to you Born in 1992 Happy birthday Student Lo-OANS. Happy birthday to you. Alright, that’s my attempt at turning this topic into an “engaging” feature. When delegated a brief on the 20th anniversary of New Zealand’s student loan system, I was less than excited. I Read more...

Jack Rivers

Posted 12:51am Monday 7th May 2012 by Rebecca Rutherford

When you hear the phrase “giving marijuana to disabled babies” something along the lines of “child abuse” probably springs to mind. Not for Jack Rivers though. For three years Rivers has been working on his PhD here at the University of Otago, researching how marijuana-like substances could be used Read more...

The Adorable Mr Hughes

Posted 12:51am Monday 7th May 2012 by Staff Reporter

Last week Critic caught up with Green MP Gareth Hughes, who was travelling the country holding huis with fellow MP Catherine Delahunty to discuss the impact of drilling, mining, fracking and coal extraction in the hopes of rallying an urban Greenie force. Drilling, mining and coal are Read more...

Eighteen and Pregnant

Posted 4:56pm Sunday 29th April 2012 by Anonymous

Like most of my friends, I’m not a total stranger to the pregnancy scare. The sudden realisation that my period is late reminds me of the sudden realisation that I might have overdone it on the stimulants. Beads of sweat form on the brow, the heart starts ricocheting around the torso like a pinball Read more...

A Failing System

Posted 4:56pm Sunday 29th April 2012 by Charlotte Greenfield

WARNING: The following article contains graphic discussion of rape and sexual violence.It’s the legal system’s worst-kept secret: When it comes to prosecuting rape and sexual offending, justice is eluding us. Research and statistics – a lot of them – prove this. For example, it is estimated that Read more...