James Newton-King : Interesting

Bizzaro Referendum

James Newton-King — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 10:26:31 GMT

There is a referendum currently being voted on in New Zealand under the strangest circumstances.

Background

A couple of years ago New Zealand politicians voted to remove “reasonable force” as a defence for violence by a parent against their child. Both sides were very passionate with cries of “Won’t someone think of the children?” from supporters of the law change and rendering of clothing and gnashing of teeth by opponents, who dubbed it the “anti-smacking bill”.

Referendum

Fast forward to now and opponents to the bill have gathered enough signatures to force a non-binding referendum to be put to New Zealanders. The referendum question is:

Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?

Opponents of the law change to remove reasonable force are urging people to vote no it shouldn’t be a criminal offence, supporters of the law change to remove reasonable force are urging people to vote yes, make it a criminal offence.

What makes the referendum bizzaro is when the reasonable force clause was removed as a defence, an additional clause was added.

To avoid doubt, it is affirmed that the Police have the discretion not to prosecute complaints against a parent of a child or person in the place of a parent of a child in relation to an offence involving the use of force against a child, where the offence is considered to be so inconsequential that there is no public interest in proceeding with a prosecution.

I read that as if you the parent smack your child, as part of a good parental correction, the New Zealand police aren’t going to do anything. What the referendum is asking for is already exists! (there is some difference but the end result is the same: you don’t go to jail for a light smack).

Bizzaro

So the bizzaro situation we are in is that opponents of the current law (reasonable force is not allowed as a defence) are showing their opposition to the current law by voting to keep the current law. Supporters of the current law are showing their support for the current law with a vote for change (all smacking illegal).

Bizzare!

Sunday Podcasts 2

James Newton-King — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 05:17:21 GMT

This American Life - Classifieds

This American Life is a fantastic weekly podcast about everyday aspects of life. Each week’s show has a theme and then a number of stories around that theme.

This episode is based on stories gathered from classified ads, all found from a single single newspaper on a single day. A man who posted an ad about a missing dog, a personnel ad to win back a lost love, and my favourite: assembling a disparate group of musicians from classified ads to form a band for one day only and record a song – Rocket Man.

Jon Langford and the One Day Band - Rocket Man.mp3:

Hanselminutes – Visiting Fog Creek Software and Joel Spolsky

Scott Hanselman interviews Joel Spolsky about technology, business, blogging and shark jumping. I can’t say I agree with many of Spolsky’s opinions on programming (eww) but he has a good head for business and marketing.

While Fog Creek is most known for a project management tool called Fogbuz they also have created a remote desktop service called Copilot. A DVD I brought not long after I started my first software development job is a documentary about Copilot called Aardvark'd: Twelve Weeks with Geeks. Aardvark is a fun little movie about the software and the small group of interns who made it. Recommended.

Sunday Podcasts

James Newton-King — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:32:36 GMT

Hanselminutes - Mo Interviews Scott Hanselman

One of my highlights of TechEd NZ 2008 was meeting Scott Hanselman. Chatting about random techie things in the speakers room and working side by side to prepare our presentations was a lot of fun. Here Mo, Scott’s wife, interviews him about what it is like being The HanselMan.

Econtalk - Wales on Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a fantastic example of harnessing the cloud to collaboratively create something amazing. Jimmy Wales talks about what has made Wikipedia successful, dealing with conflict and how Wikipedia is a self managing entity.

Dungeons & Dragons Podcast – Penny Arcade Episode 1

The Penny Arcade guys are always funny and listening to them play D&D is hilarious. The first of episode of many.

The Paradox of Choice

James Newton-King — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:51:00 GMT

I haven't read The Paradox of Choice but this talk by the author makes me want to.

Interesting!