issue 7

Issue 07

26 April 2010

Get on the Radio In Between Class!

Contact Radio is Hamilton’s student radio station, broadcasting from the Cowshed behind the Nexus offices. With a variety of specialist shows and more music range than you can shake a ukulele at, Contact is sure to have something for you.

Want to get involved? Email your details to Editor Art at nexus@ waikato.ac.nz and he’ll see you right!

There are parties, gigs and fun times to be had year long, so don’t miss out on having your voice heard over the airwaves on a non-commercial, non-sell-out radio station!

Tune in on Tuesday nights at 3-5 to hear Art and Dave present the Nexus Show, bringing you up to date with all the craziest news from around the world and the worst use of the English language you’ll ever hear!

Contact. 88.1FM. Real Students. Real Radio.

May 1st 2010 @ MK1

What to expect • Get 3 free comics each - over 30 different titles to choose from!

• Over 1500 comics will be given away by Mark One this weekend!

• Doors open 9am to 5pm Saturday and 10am to 4pm Sunday.

• Mark One - just north of Centreplace on Victoria Street - across the road from Kathmandu.

551 Victoria Street, PH: 07 839 3728 2

EDITORIAL

Get over it “Why are we commemorating a massacre of our troops, on the shores of Gallipoli, almost a century ago?”

Anzac Day is not important.

I know that this will probably piss off most members of the history department and those lecturers from other schools old enough to have fought in it, but I don’t care.

Anzac Day no longer has relevance to New Zealanders and I’m not afraid to say it.

Ninety-five years ago, in an attack planned by Winston Churchill, New Zealand, Australian, French and British troops landed in the Dardenelles in Turkey. They got it handed to them for ages, and then they left again, having achieved absolutely nothing. Oh wait; they achieved a sense of national identity for a small cluster of islands on the other side of the world. It really makes all of those deaths seem worthwhile.

Don’t get me wrong. I really hate the Turks for what they did to this country, before we were forced to invade them and turn their massive empire into one of the messiest places on Earth. Turkey, which used to own Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, did everything in their power to mess with us and they ended up getting taught a pretty severe lesson when we landed our young men on the wrong part of a beach on the other side of the world and promptly got machine gunned and shelled to death.

Hang on. Turkey didn’t do anything to us. Neither did Imperial Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the rest of the “baddies” from the First World War. Come to think of it, the Nazis didn’t do anything to New Zealanders either, at least until we went over there and started fighting them in the deserts of North Africa.

If England told us to go fight some guys in France or Africa or the Middle East now, we’d probably tell them to piss off. We already did it to America with the Iraq invasion.

Why are we commemorating a massacre of our troops, on the shores of Gallipoli, almost a century ago? At what point should we let it go and decide to focus on the here and now rather than been and gone? I can’t remember the last time there was a memorial service in New Zealand for the Boer War, or in France for the Napoleonic Wars.

So it’s time we stopped thinking about ANZAC Day and starting dealing with problems now, ones we can fix, rather than dwell on those dark days when New Zealand jumped at the chance to send our soldiers to die in other men’s wars.

PS. I still hate Nazis. Fuck Nazis.

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Credits: EDITOR: Art Robinson (editor@nexusmag.co.nz) DESIGN: Talia Musson (graphics@nexus-npl.co.nz) ADVERTISING: Ian Musson, Sarah Kelly (ads@nexusmag.co.nz) NEWS EDITOR: Grant Burns (news@nexusmag.co.nz) FEATURES EDITOR: Debrin Foxcroft (debrin.foxcroft@gmail.

5

Low Five!

com) WEB GURU: Jed Laundry (jlaundry@gmail.com) MUSIC EDITOR: Hollie Jackson (music@nexusmag.co.nz)

6-10

FILM EDITOR: Richard Swainson (films@nexusmag.co.nz)

News from here and abroad!

BOOKS EDITOR: Kevin Pryor (books@nexusmag.co.nz) GAMES EDITORS: To be decided by virtue of content

12-17

WSU Pages!

18-19

Stupid people getting angry in Lettuce!

20-25

Technology is Killing Humans!

submission (games@nexusmag.co.nz)

Contributors Dirty Old Blair Munro, Pretty Funny Emma Edwards, Dirty Little Hollie Jackson, Dirty Hipster Kevin Pryor, Sean With The Goatee Castle, Erin “it’s my hair, not a fire” Macfarlane, Loud American Mackenzie McCarty, Whoever Takes Photos at 101 or The Outback, James “Towlie” Manning” Judy’s Sweet Legs, Dr Richard Swainson, Aunty Emma Abrahams, Ross McCleod, Owen “Beef” Hinton”, Nisha Ravji

27

Fight the Puzzles of the Ancients!

Nexus is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA). Or at least, we think we are.

28-33

Beautiful columns by awesome people!

34-37

Reviews of everything from movies to books to video games!

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS PUBLICATION ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE VIEWS OF NEXUS PUBLICATIONS 2003 LTD, ANY OF OUR ADVERTISERS, THE WSU, APN, THE EDITOR, OR ANYONE. WE THINK THAT SALIENT GIRLS ARE BABES AND WE PASHED THEM ALL WHEN WE WERE IN WELLINGTON.

38

A Guide to Gigs with Sam and Luke

39

Loose Units Getting Loose in Busted!

WANT TO ADVERSTISE WITH NEXUS? EMAIL ads@nexusmag.co.nz OR call 07 838 4653

NEXUS IS LOCATED AT Ground Floor, Student Union Building, Gate One, University of Waikato, Knighton Road, Hamilton PHONE: 07 838 4653 FAX: 07 838 4588 EMAIL: editor@nexusmag.co.nz POSTAL: Private Bag 3059, Hamilton

INTERVIEW: LO 5

Lo 5

Interviews by Erin

LO QUESTIONS 1. Do you have a nick-name for your Vagina?

2. If your Vagina gave a monologue, what would it be about?

3. Phallic symbols are everywhere. Do you think we need more Vagina symbols?

4. Are you going to the Vagina Monologues?

5. Would it undermine your masculinity, if you were a man, to listen to women talk about their vaginas?

Michael - English and Theatre

Eloise - Law

Stevie - English & Psychology

Kiri - Teaching

Emma and Ime - Computer Graphic Design

5

NEXUS NEWS ISSUE 07

Uni Games

By Jack Lowe

Waikato University sportsmen and women braved the cold over the holidays for the annual Uni Games held in Invercargill. The Tribe ended up coming forth overall and Otago University took the shield with every university in the country being represented in over 20 sports.

74 students made up the Waikato University team which participated in 11 events and bought home a total of two Gold, two Silver, and four Bronze. The results for the Waikato team were: gold in Women’s football (for the 3rd year running) and gold in Men’s 20/20 crickets, silvers in women’s tennis doubles and cycling, bronzes in women’s hockey, mixed touch, mixed ultimate frizzbe, and cycling; other events included lawn bowls, squash and golf.

Also, at the same time road up the road at Lake Wahola in Dunedin, the Uni Games rowing was taking place. Waikato University had 17 rowers participating in all different races finishing up fifth overall. Notable results were a 2nd in the championship men’s double with Matthew Glenn and Richard Harrison, who were also selected to row for the trans-Tasman

University squad 8’s against Australia later this year, and two 3rd places in the super mixed eight.

Overall, the 2010 Uni Games was a complete success for Waikato University with team managers Kenton Quick and Crystal Kaua thoroughly pleased with the Tribe.

“The whole thing was a big success; Uni Games fully lived up to its potential. The social atmosphere was awesome, it was well-planned, and other than the weather, we had a great experience,” said Kenton.

“We would also like to personally thank the WSU, Uleisure, and the Waikato University for all their financial and administrative help. Without them we wouldn’t have been the best looking, most well organised team at the competition. Cheers,” said Crystal.

This Thursday 29 April is the Post Uni Games Party at Bar101 from 7:30pm with awards to be handed out on the night.

Government Set to Wean Addicted Students Off Loan Teat

By Candida Smylie from Critic

The Government has planned significant changes to student loan eligibility, which include cutting loans to students who take too long to finish their undergraduate degrees and introducing a requirement that students pass half of all their courses to remain eligible.

Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce believes the changes would stop failing students acquiring more debt. “You would have a 50 percent pass rate over two years and then there would be a lifetime limit of X number of years where you would say, ‘You can’t keep borrowing on your student loan after that period.’”

The changes will be announced in the May Budget, and aim to save over $20 million annually. Canterbury University Vice-Chancellor Rod Carr, a former deputy Reserve Bank governor, said an alternative option would be to adjust student loans for inflation, which would save up to $200 million a year. However, Joyce has stated categorically that this was not an option currently being considered by the Government.

Joyce has also recently suggested lifting the cap on tuition fees for highcost courses, which will affect medical students in particular. Under the

current fee maxima rules, tertiary institutions must seek permission from the Tertiary Education Commission to raise course fees by more than five percent a year, but Joyce argues that the maxima creates distortions in the market. Tertiary institution pricing was “last looked at in the mid-‘90s and some of them are getting highly distortionary relative to the actual cost of providing the course,” Joyce stated.

Prime Minister John Key backed Joyce’s comments at his Monday press conference. “No one’s underestimating the cost of becoming a doctor, but the rewards on a number of fronts are quite great,” he said. Key did not think fee rises would restrict the number of people working in the relatively lower-payed medical positions, as the Government had programmes to bond doctors and nurses to understaffed rural areas. “I don’t think you’re making it more difficult; you’re just making it slightly more expensive.”

A 2008 study in the New Zealand Medical Journal found the average graduating student loan of domestic medical students totalled $63 880, while 13 percent had debts of over $90 000.

$24 Haircuts Male & Female Colours on consultation

Stockist of 6

Open: Monday - Friday 9:30 - 4pm Phone: 07 856 9154 Email: campuscuts@xtra.co.nz Campus Cuts is on

NEXUS NEWS ISSUE 07

King for a Day

By Grant Burns

As the only organisation in the entire world to celebrate Kingitanga Day, Waikato University and the WSU pulled off a fantastic day of fun, games and history last Wednesday, continuing to build the special relationship between the Waikato University and the Maori King Movement.

Beginning from 11am with festivities on the Green, there were t-shirt stalls, greenstone and jewellery, sweet kai, with all attendees grooving to some chilled out dub beats. In lecture halls all around the campus there were seminars and guest speakers talking about the history and significance of Kingitanga and what it means to Waikato University.

The Inter-School touch tournament began at 12pm with students and staff from all different faculties battling it out in 3 on 3 touch. The tourney was eventually won by Tuhoa.

Hell Pizza provided the free lunch with free slices of pizza for students and a pizza eating competition held on the Green.

The day was wrapped up on the Village Green with the biggest Pukana Wave (nod of the head) and free cake. Whilst walking around I bumped into WSU President Deni Tokunai and asked him how he felt they day went.

“It has been a wonderful day of diversity and fun. It has been great to see a mix of cultures around campus participating and learning about Kingitanga. It’s great to celebrate the people of the land and continue our special relationship.”

Student Choice vs. O-Week

By James Manning

The Waikato Student Union is under scrutiny by watchdog group Student Choice for its loss of $102,000 on orientation events over the past 3 years.

Challenging WSU’s handling of funds, Student Choice asks how losing over $100k can be described as a service to students. Using this as their reasoning, they stated that students should have a choice between whether or not to pay for orientation events, speaking on behalf of ‘the many’ students who cannot afford to pay for O-Week, an event which costs each student approximately $3.50 from their compulsory $100 What was left out of the various press releases is that the WSU returned an overall surplus of $100,000 for each of the years concerned. Also, the ‘loss’ is not of any secret whatsoever, with financial statements being on the internet at societies.govt.nz for everyone to access.

Attacking primarily O-Week, a festival-like event vital in creating a sense of community, Student Choice forgets that it is not the only thing that WSU provides for its students. Clubs, a cheap recreation centre, hardship

AMATUER STRIPTEASE

COMPETITION

services, academic and personal advocacy, and even the magazine you’re reading are all funded by the WSU. Along with fellow right wing group Young Nats, Student Choice supports the Freedom of Association Bill to make student union membership voluntary, of which was introduced by MP Roger Douglas.

What is really witnessed here is just another of the many press releases over the past few months attempting to shine a negative light on all Student Associations. Don’t be fooled like all the other sheeple, pull through the wool that’s in front of your eyes!

$1300 IN CASH PRIZES TO BE WON!!

Date: Friday 30th April 8pm Place: Lynden Court Chartwell Interested in having a go? Call or text Melissa 0210600588

NEXUS NEWS ISSUE 07

Amnesty Seeking Rebels Without A Cause Not a rebel? Read this anyway. Go on.

Are you looking for an escape from mind numbing academia? Do you want to work for human rights at the grass roots level? This is your calling to be a part of an organisation that won a Nobel Peace Prize for promoting Human Rights.

Amnesty International at Waikato University is a small group of human rights enthusiasts who are actively seeking recruits for 2010. We are targeting the loud, the bored, the creative, the passionate and the rebels who are currently seeking a worthy cause. As a local branch of the global Amnesty movement, Amnesty at Waikato is here to raise awareness and take action for human rights!

We intend to take effective action by organising protests, campaigns, movie nights, talks from human rights activists, letter writing and so much more. Presently, we are working towards the launch event of Amnesty at Waikato and we are seeking recruits to sign up and be a part of this exciting movement.

What you need to do is send a quick email to uw.amnesty.international@ gmail.com and register your name and contact details. We will keep you in the loop with our upcoming meetings. Sign on and jump on board! We look forward to meeting you all!

Culture Day this Wednesday

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The annual WSU Culture is to be held this Wednesday 28 April on the Village Green from 12:00pm – 2pm. There will be singing, dancing, eating, and cultures from all around the world.

Stalls and markets will be set up for students to geez at and play with.

Throughout the celebrations there will be specific cultural dances and routines such as the haka, sword fighting, and Latin tango.

All ethnic clubs will be on show with history about their culture, native dress, and authentic food. Some of the clubs include: the Samoans, Filipino, Spanish, Maori, and many many more.

P. 858 3947 A.136 SILVERDALE RD

The Culture Day is sponsored by the WSU, the University of Waikato and Uleisure. Classes run as usual for the day so Nexus encourages all students to check out the Culture Day and try something new.

NEWS FROM NOWHERE BY GRANT BURNS

INTERNATIONAL NEWS Iceland – land of the long black cloud

Eyjafjallajokull, a volcano in Iceland, last week erupted, causing international airport closures (the worst since September 11). From Britain to Belarus, air passengers have been in limbo while the ultramassive ash cloud smokes over central Europe.

Air traffic had only just begun flying when I started writing (Wednesday 21) and thousands of passengers had been stranded around the world causing major chaos and costing millions in lost profits.

However, a funny side to the story is that journalists all around the world are eating their salty words trying to pronounce the name of the volcano.

To show how culturally incentive and generally retarded the western world is, it is now just being referred to as ‘that Icelandic volcano’.

Cops burn world’s largest hash cake attempt The 420 Times and a local Los Angeles collective have announced that, in the interests of clients and readers, construction of The World’s Largest Pot Brownie will be rescheduled for a future date, but the observance of “420 Day” will continue on April 20th, 2010.

“Our friends in the medical marijuana community are alarmed about what appears to be increasingly aggressive targeting of medical cannabis establishments in Los Angeles,” explains The 420 Times editor Dave Brian. “By characterizing ordinary transactions as ‘nuisance activities’ without providing a clear definition of what that means, law enforcement has created a very uncertain environment for patients.”

Designed to observe the traditional “420 Day” holiday by making a statement about the expanding personal liberties and respect of medical marijuana patients, The World’s Largest Pot Brownie was intended to be an exercise in free expression and a celebration of evolving public understanding of the issue.

“This is a pivotal year as Californians will vote on marijuana legalization in November,” reminds Brian. “But, the regulatory climate remains so cloudy at this time, we decided not to give authorities any excuse to come between medically-certified cannabis patients and the therapy they need.”

NATIONAL NEWS Dakta Green and the Cannabus tour New Zealand for Cannabis Law Reform Dakta Green, Auckland spokesperson for marijuana law reform organisation NORML NZ, is currently on the road with Mary Jane the Cannabus doing an ‘Armistice Tour’ to urge the Government to change its stance on our out-of-date and failed drug laws.

Mr Green - the founder of Auckland’s Daktory cannabis club – started his two week tour last Friday April 16, a tour that will see him and the Cannabus cover the North Island, inviting everyday Kiwis to come and discuss the best way to repair the Misuse of Drugs Act. “Everybody is allowed to have their say on changes to the drug laws recommended by the New Zealand Law Commission”, said Dakta Green, “and we will be gathering as many public submissions as possible while we go.”

Public submissions to the Commission close on April 30. The Armistice Tour’s destination is Wellington where Dakta Green will personally deliver the collected submissions to the Law Commission himself, before celebrating International J-Day at Frank Kitts Park the following day on May 1.

With a fortnight left to go, NORML already has more than 600 completed submissions calling for the Commission to recommend an end to the criminalisation of cannabis smokers.

The two-week Armistice Tour will see the Cannabus drop into heartland communities like Patea, Whanganui and Palmerston North, sparking

discussion on law reform and making further plans to establish Daktories nationwide, spreading the Daktory ethos of “live like it’s legal”.

Dakta Green says the tour is a call to action for everyone who wants fairness, justice and compassion rather than the continuation of a failed and futile Prohibition policy.

“Prohibition didn’t work for alcohol and it’s certainly not working for cannabis” he says. “We’re wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer’s dollars a year arresting, processing and prosecuting ordinary New Zealanders for choosing to use a drug that is proven to be far safer than tobacco and alcohol.”

“It’s time for clear and rational thinking on this matter. The Law Commission has already made some constructive recommendations in its discussion document, particularly with regards to allowing medical cannabis. On the Armistice Tour we’ll be publicly debating this vital justice issue and encouraging our fellow New Zealanders to have their say.

NEXUS NEWS ISSUE 07

The Opium Wars 1839-1842 & 1856-1860

“If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development’ – Aristotle A wise history lecturer once told me that you can sum up any event in history in one sentence and it is a trick you and I can use at anytime. For example, if you want to simplify New Zealand history for a foreigner you just say “the Maoris occupied Aotearoa, the British wanted it for their empire, there was fighting but in the end the British won and renamed the land New Zealand.”

However, not many would know how to term the beginning of modern Chinese history. Well, how about “the Chinese had drugs (opium), the British wanted to get high, genocide, the British control Chinese ports, the Opium trade from the East, and bring about the end of dynastic China.”

Yeah, history is awesome.

Background Since 2070BC, there have been 24 dynasties in the land we now know as the People’s Republic of China. Living in isolation from the Western world, these Eastern civilisations lived their own humble lives under sometimes ferocious emperors. However, during the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1912) and following the creation of the British company, The East India Company, China’s isolation began to come under threat from pesky Pakehas. The threat came in the form of opium and its cultivation and distribution through China, a country which prohibited the opium trade by law. When the Chinese Emperor tried to halt all British opium imports in 1839 things quickly became nasty. So I shall tell you a tale about a forgotten, avoidable genocide which happened under the so-called sophisticated reign of Queen Victoria, a dark tale death, destruction and drugs.

The First Opium War 1839-1842 Following the British occupation of Bengal, the opium trade had grown substantially. In an effort to save their countrymen from a growing evil, the Qing Dynasty appointed a man named Lin Zexu to administer a “war on drugs”. Zexu’s main incentive was to block all British trade at Chinese port which he did in a sort of Chinese Boston Tea Party affair except instead of chucking the British officers tea in the sea, they chucked in their stash instead. This immediately angered the most powerful army 10

Secret History of the World

By Grant Burns

in the world at the time and basic logistical reasoning of the time proved the British had guns and the Chinese did not, so with only 19,000 troops versus 91,690 Chinese militia, the British invaded China in 1839.

The result was genocide. The Chinese never stood a chance and the British soldiers showed no mercy, showing exactly what evil men can do with technology. Over 20,000 Chinese people including women and children, farmers and fisherman, were massacred by British troops who only lost 69 men in the engagement. As a result, the British inititated the first of the “Unequal Treaties,” by setting up the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, allowing free trade for Britons to get high. These treaties unsettled the Chinese people immensely and there was no peace.

The Second Opium War 1856 – 1860 The 1850’s saw a rapid growth of imperialism during the Industrial Revolution. That means the British wanted to expand their opium trade through China who were at this time ultra pissed. Britain wanted China to fully legalise the trade through Chinese ports and start trading other supplies and also allowing their mates, France and the United States, to take a cut. China said “no” and boarded a ship called the “Arrow”, arresting British officials caught smuggling. This became known as the “Arrow Incident” and the beginning of the Second Opium War. Soldiers from the British and the Second French Empire declared war on China in 1856. The Emperor of the Qing Dynasty at the time, Emperor Xianfeng, took on the challenge. To put it in Raymond Richard’s terms, the Chinese once again stood absolutely no chance against the British and the French, and after the Emperor fled Beijing and the Summer Palace, Dynastic China was defeated and dissolved. Following this defeat, the Convention of Peking (18 October 1860) brought about the end of the Second Opium War and a major modernization movement known as the Self Strengthening Movement which saw China become a Republic in 1912 and bought the Eastern world kicking, screaming, and stoned into the Western world.

Dr Raymond Richards

WSU PRESENTS

UniGames Post Party Date: Thursday 29th April Time: 7:30pm Place: Bar101 Pre-drinks at Momento from 5pm

Vagina THE

MONOLOGUES

By Eve Ensler

Directed Kate Magazinovic

V-DAY WAIKATO UNIVERSITY 2010 Starring: Date: 28th, 29th, 30th of Kelsey Tills Tia Barret Kate Magazinovic Alanna Henderson Lucy Wilcox Emily Campbell Pania Witoko Tegan Morris Aimee Wilkinson Shannon Turnbull Nicola Gaastra

April 2010 at 7.30pm

Place:

Telecom Playhouse, WEL Energy Trust Academy of Performing Arts

Tickets:

Tickets available at the Box Office and online at www.ticketek.com (BOOKING FEES APPLY) This show contains language and situations that are not suitable for children.

YOUR: WSU

Prez Sez: Experiences of a Cannibal’s Great-Grandson As a result of my column last week (My Great-Grandfather was a Cannibal), I’ve been inundated with responses and enquiries—ranging from the bizarre to the reasonable.

It seems most of you want to hear more about cannibals, 10 foot sharks, and sinking canoes instead of tertiary education policy and sector-wide issues. So here we go.

One of my earliest memories is playing on a beach on a Sunday morning when out of nowhere lunges an 8ft saltwater crocodile.

My 5yr old body wasn’t on the menu, it was the giant of a sow not too far away from me that was. I recall nobody touching the ocean for the next two weeks. An uncle of mine ended the croc’s life—with a spear between the eyes. Almost like Crocodile Dundee meets Lake Placid.

I mentioned last week that I dug up 700 turtle eggs once. Small clarification, it was for dinner. True story. One thing we don’t eat is

dugong, or manatees as you may know them. No real reason—that’s just the way it’s always been. I remember spear-fishing one day then turning around to receive the biggest shock of my life: a dugong staring back at me with equal surprise. Dugong and I shared some sort of connection that day that transcended species. I’ll never forget it.

A couple of weeks later, we got word that the neighboring village (traditional enemies) had speared and eaten three dugong. They had a big feast—and all of them ended up excreting bloody diarrhea for the next three weeks. Karma?

The Japanese used to be on my island. If you’ve been watching Spielberg’s blockbuster television series, The Pacific, the marines should be almost home in about a couple episodes. The Japs left behind a series of WWII wrecks and war memorabilia. Two tanks sit in 6ft of water preserved for

perpetuity a stone’s throw from my house, which by the way, sits on top a series of limestone tunnels blasted by the Japs for protection from air strikes. Jungle has reclaimed most it now and not a tourist has heard about it—amen.

I tend to smile to myself when I see New Zealand crabs. Relatively moderate sizes. We have coconutcrabs—crabs that climb coconut trees and have the ability to throw coconuts at you. True story. I’ve seen them do it. I reckon some of them would give Vettori a run for his money. Selecting a coconut crab might even benefit the Black Caps.

P.S: Congratulations to Tireni who won $40 cash and a free lunch at Momento shouted personally by me for last week’s answer.

Deni Tokunai WSU President

Glen’s VP Speak It’s time for the Tauranga to get up close with 12 Waikato University student vaginas: 7:30pm, tonight (Monday) at Baycourt. Hamilton will get their chance on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 7:30pm at the WEL energy Trust Academy of Performing Arts. Last week saw yours truly at the Windermere campus promoting Vaginas on a PA system: thankfully the majority of the students, staff and public appeared to have no problem and many appeared to be enjoying the banter, even joining in on the festivities.

While there will always be some knockers and what more could you expect from a city that kept Winston in parliament for such a looong time, it was a great opportunity for your WSU to get out there and been seen and heard in Tauranga. I don’t know how else you are supposed to promote The Vagina Monologues without using the word vagina. Other words, many of which were provided to us by the students on campus that we used such as Pussy, Crack, Vajayjay, and Fish Lips seem to be just as offensive to some. A

special thanks to Tania for putting up with us.

On another note I represented the WSU at the ANZAC Day Dawn ceremony this year and put a wreath on behalf of our students.

This does lead to the question of ‘do we ever learn?’ Every year we remember the sacrifice made by young people so that we would be able to have a better life, do we?

OPEN: 8.30am-4.30pm PHONE: 07 856 9139 WEB: www.wsu.org.nz 13 13

YOUR: WSU

ON THE

VILLAGE GREEN This semester, the WSU has decided to take upon the task of feeding hungry students.

As a result, we will be offering yummy food during cultural hour until the end of the semester. This means that if you come down to the Village Green (in front of the shops, by the lake) between 1 and 2 on a Wednesday, there will be free food for you to enjoy!

This week, for instance, we are offering Vagina Cupcakes.

Make sure you come on down and grab one of these delicious beauties to munch on. Next week (5th May) we will be providing Nachos, and the week after that will feature Soup! So make sure you come on down, meet the WSU Directors and grab a bite to eat, courtesy of the Waikato Students’ Union.

PICTURE

LOG

Uni Games 2010

14

WSU Service Spotlight: Sports and Recreation Support As we discussed last week, one of WSU’s key services is to support clubs, given that clubs are a great way for you to meet new people with common interests. Sports clubs are a special type of clubs, and receive extra support from the WSU. One key way this is done is through a dedicated Sports and Rec Office on the WSU Board.

Dan Morales is this year’s WSU Sports and Rec Director, and as a result has the key responsibility of bringing sports-related issues to the WSU’s attention, as well as setting up events to help encourage sport participation around the uni. Dan also works heavily with University of Waikato Sport (UW Sport), who are a division within U-Leisure. For those of you who don’t know U-Leisure is the company who owns the gym. They also organize events throughout the year such as the Great Race, the Weetbix Triathlon, Tertiary Challenge and Social Sport.

Luckily for students, U-Leisure is jointly owned

by the WSU and the University, which is why the gym membership fees are reasonably cheap.

A key person within UW Sport is the UW Sport Manager. Through this person, UW Sport runs events like Tertiary Challenge, Snow Games and Varsitonians. The UW Sport Manager also works with the WSU to sort out the Waikato UniGames team (The Tribe). This year’s Uni Games was held during the Easter recess, with 74 Waikato Students competing in 11 different sports.

After four days of intense competition, the Tribe placed 4th overall: Congratulations! Special mentions should go out to the Women’s Football Team and the Men’s 20/20 Cricket Team – both of whom won Gold.

If you are keen to be involved in sport, or want to learn more about how the WSU supports sports (and clubs in general) then either email Dan (WSU Sports Officer) at sports@wsu.org.nz or Crystal Kaua (UW Sport Manager) at crystal@ uleisure.co.nz

YOUR: WSU

Board Talk:

What have the WSU Directors been doing for YOU? Heaps of events and activities are in the works as we finish off April and start moving into May. The biggest of these is The Vagina Monologues, which are on this week! If you’re in Tauranga, make sure you go down to Baycourt Theatre on Monday 26th April. If you’re in Hamilton, make sure you’re at the Performing Arts Centre on Wednesday 27th, Thursday 28th or Friday 29th April.

Charlie and Luke are still busy organising the WSU Noho Marae. This is an event for students who are keen to experience authentic Maori

culture at a local Marae. Email Charlie at international@wsu.org.nz if you are keen for more info, otherwise, look out for the Noho Marae posters on campus for the full details.

Dan is back from Invercargill after looking after UniGames. There is going to be UniGames Post Party on the 29th of April: email Dan at sports@ wsu.org.nz for more details.

WSU Directors were also busy helping out on Kingitanga Day, which was a great success.

Thank you to all of those who came along, as well as to those who participated in the Touch Tournament.

Do you like the Sweet Taste of Vagina ...

Cupcakes?

The Vagina Monologues are on this week! Make sure you get out and support women at Waikato University who are performing Eve Ensler’s hit show. The show is basically a series of true stories (or monologues) on topics related to vaginas, ranging from stories about hair to stories about the words for vaginas to stories about orgasm noises.

The shows are on this Monday at Tauranga (Baycourt Theatre) and Wednesday-Friday at Hamilton (University of Waikato Performing Arts Centre). All shows start at 7:30pm. Tickets can be bought at the door if not sold out. However, last year’s shows sold out fast so we advise that you get online (Hamilton shows are at www.ticketek.co.nz; Tauranga shows at www.

UPCOMING EVENTS: Vagina Monologues (TGA) 26 April Vagina Monolgoues (HAM) 28-30 April Free Vagina Cupcakes 28 April Culture Day 28 April UniGames Post Party 29 April Open Day 30 April (Free Milo) Free Nachos 5 May

ticketdirect.co.nz) or at the respective venues.

Tickets are $10 for students; $15 for everyone else. Booking fees apply.

As part of our shameless promotion of the Monologues, WSU will be providing free vagina-related products during Cultura Hour.

So on Wednesday at 1pm, get your vagina (and perhaps an accompanying penis) down to the Village Green. There will be (free) yummy Vagina Cupcakes, made by the Vagina Monologues team. You can also grab useful things to look after your vagina, such as condoms, cool charm products, and other exciting things that are so cool you’ll have to come to find out what they are!

Free Soup 12 May Noho Marae 21-22 May Disabilities Day 2 June

OPEN: 8.30am-4.30pm PHONE: 07 856 9139 WEB: www.wsu.org.nz 15

YOUR: WSU

Kate Magazinovic: Women’s Rights Officer Hello there lovely students, my name is Kate Magazinovic, and I am your Women’s Officer for 2010. I’m returning after working for the WSU for the second half of 2009, and I’m stoked to be back on the WSU – thanks so much to those who voted for me! I’m currently in my second year of a BA in Theatre and History, and loving every minute of my time at Waikato.

You might have noticed that this semester I’m directing and producing The Vagina Monologues. If you heard about how fantastic it was last year, I’m sure we will see you there!

It’s a show all about that most awkward part of the female anatomy, and is part of a global charity raising funds and awareness of violence against women. If this sounds interesting (and I promise the guys will enjoy it as well as the

girls!), it will be performed by a fantastic cast at the Baycourt Community and Arts Center in Tauranga on Monday 26th April, and the WEL Energy Trust Academy of Performing Arts in Hamilton from the 28th to the 30th of April.

That’s this week, so I hope to see you there!

I’m also working on some ideas for next semester, but if you guys have any ideas about what I should do for you on campus, flick me an email at kam65@waikato.ac.nz. Remember – I am here to support and represent women on campus, so if you have any issues, ideas or questions, just get in touch.

Hope you had a fantastic semester break, don’t let the essays catch up with you, and you’ll hear from me again soon!

View from the Mount Carl Halberg

Hey everybody, welcome back, welcome back, welcome back, where did that two weeks go?

I got soooo much study in, or was that sleep, pretty much the same sometimes aye?

Tauranga campus is all go this April, on the 21st we celebrated Kingtanga day which acknowledges the relationship between the UOW and the Kingitanga or the Maori King Movement; it is also a celebration of the realationship between the BOP and the UOW. Presentations, Kapa Haka, Maori art and Ta Moko Exhibition and a Hangi (Yum) were all planned for the day, so I hope that you enjoyed it.

Monologues is the story of what we all know is really “down there” from issues of hair and flooding to orgasm noises, so come along and enjoy the event, 7.30pm @ Baycourt Community and Arts Center. Tickets are available from www. ticketdirect.co.nz Me and Lisa have been busy working on VSM and looking to establish a weekly culture hour happening this term starting after Kingitanga day so look out for us. You should be getting back the results from those first tests and assignments this week so I hope it all went very sweet for you all.

The Mount’s the place to be! Be cool you all.

On Monday, a movement to end violence against women and girls hits town. The Vagina 16

Lettuce Write to Win! SEND LETTERS TO: Send your letters to editor@ nexusmag.co.nz

WEEKLY PRIZE: The letter which we choose to be the best each week wins a $20 Bennett’s voucher!

FORUM LETTERS: Letters may also be sent via the letters thread at forums. nexusmag.co.nz.

We always have space for more letters, whether it’s a complaint or a high five or

Stupid Boy Is Stupid!

Dear Nexus My lettuce on lettuce, although I usually love reading peoples poorly written and un-thoughtthrough opinions on a Monday morning I’ve grown tired of them. All lettuce has become is a way for angsty brats to complain about people they’re too scared to complain to and provides a battle field for the theists and the atheist’s war that’s been going on since a holy entity allegedly nailed an Israeli chick then later allowed his creations to nail his bastard child to a cross…but I digress. As I was saying; All lettuce is providing is a forum / garbage bag for people to advertise their stupidity or hatred for other people or groups of other people, to complain when there is nothing to complain about and to hate people who are going about life their own special way. So today readers of nexus I present to you LETTUCE on a bun with a delicious hunk of prime flame grilled beef, more lettuce and drizzled in hot sauce served with a refreshing cup of opinion and a fresh serving of hot controversy fries and ketchup.

Now that your expectations have reached unreasonable levels that I cannot hope to reach I will just hate on some poor soul I’ve seen around campus. Dear kid that hangs out at the village green with a green day top on, eye liner and ridiculous hair that gives Yugi Motto a run for his money; I HATE YOU!

LETTERS POLICY: Nexus welcomes and encourages debate through the letters page, serious or not. Letters should be received by Wednesday 5pm on the week prior to publication.

We’ll print basically any letter, but the editor reserves the right to abridge or refuse correspondence.

We won’t correct your spelling and grammar either, so it’s up to you how much of an idiot you look like. Pseudonyms are okay (all correspondence must include your real name and contact details – they won’t be printed if you don’t want them to be). Send letters to nexus@waikato.ac.nz

18

Come pick up your $20 Bennetts book voucher at the Nexus office in the WSU Building.

You’re a university student, you are trying to be different and awesome and nonconformist but your attempt at all of that is incredibly fail.

Your first mistake: unless you’re 14 and hate your parents and think you know what politics is YOU SHOULDN’T LIKE GREENDAY or at least not advertise it and if you must listen to Greenday listen to dookie. Also: 8 different hair colours a week?! WTF! You also position yourself and your tweenie friends right in front of the sushi place so you ruin my appetite you little bastard! I feel so bad for you, if you want to be alternative / punk listen to some real punk, like or Toxic Holocaust or Crass! Speaking of epic music tune into contact fm regularly, there are some seriously awesome metal shows starting in the coming weeks! I don’t hate you kid, I know what it was like, I used to be like that (when I was 14) but you must move on, if you’re still angry and angsty move up to some better angrier music and don’t dress like that because you think it’s cool. You young people don’t know the history behind that style of clothing. Move on, evolve, listen to better music and a personal message to you kid; go home, take a shower and wash off the shame (and eye liner), start tomorrow with a new approach, listen to some good music and don’t be a poser. Because posers suck, so do Green Day, Paramore and Panicatthechemicalfallout.

Signed Varkin

BUSINESS BEEFS! Dear Nexus It was simple, I had been blind to what was so obvious to see, oblivious to the excessively crude and gittish. It was every working Joe’s home time from their nine to five benign slavery.

The city streets would be awash with the suit and ties and my naivety caught the better of me to so foolishly assume that all these people were of a different generation and that I would not see a peer of mine, but no: the workforce has torn down the divide and punishment of youth, and let in people that I was rubbing shoulders with only a few years ago.

I don’t know how this happened but somewhere along the line beefcakes got this major advantage from somewhere that said to employers, “I’m well presented and therefore I am intelligent and obviously suitable for your business”. Every single one of these fuckers has a predetermined notion of themselves as “the American psycho”, a poignant role model I must say as he did such great things during the film. And this is how I have come the conclusion of why beefcakes are such massive overly aggressive assholes. It’s all because of this martyr and highly esteemed role model that has been conditioned into the generations of beefcakes throughout our time.

YOUR: LETTUCE

You can start writing about religion now Hey, I’m a first year student at the uni studying computer science. This letter (as unwanted by the nexus people for its content) is about religion. Have i ever studied philosophy...no, have i read the Bible or any other religious material...no, (from reading the material in the March version of nexus) have i ever heard of Richard Dawkins...no, so right now your are probably thinking I’m some uneducated student thinking once again Ive got good solid comments about religion like the hundreds of other people, and your probably right, but i view these topics from a view that others don’t, and i hope that these questions and views make you all think more about the topic like you haven’t before.

First of all why are you all still at the point of asking each other to “prove” whether the God is true or not, why not ask each other why he should exist and why he was created in the first place, gods in all religions.

Back in the day you have all these settlements and civilizations of man kind all living and prospering in the world with minimal knowledge of the world around them, advancing in technology to a degree where they think all that there is to know, and anything that they can not explain they put down to a little thing called “religion”. (simple examples) Egyptians thinking that there was a sun God, Ra, because they could not explain what the heck the sun was, or the Greek Gods of the elements in the world, Poseidon Lord of the sea, Hades King of the underworld, again resorting to making gods in a religion for things that they could not explain.

These days however we have a much better understanding of these things, as technology has advanced to a point where these can be explained. And so are there any modern day religions being created? now that we have

explored the entire world, know roughly what the sun is, what space is and all the elements of the world, should we make a religion explain the so called sighting of aliens? are we saying gods said to be are aliens of old? Should we even need to have answers to all these questions? why do we need the topic all at!? everyone is so caught up in being one or the other, why not be neither and think above that state.

what will happen if they don’t. They get so caught up in the whole idea of religion that it just consumes their mind to that point where nothing else matters, when they find “inner peace”. It’s not called inner peace because they think they have and understand themselves to a point above all others, its inner peace because they have shut out all other conscious solutions and their mind is corrupted in this religious cycle where they are mentally unfit. Thus

To think if you put a group of people with no prior knowledge of whether there are gods or not and they have no opinion on the matter at ALL, on some land and leave them there to evolve and advance etc. for thousands of years do you think they would create their own religion? of course, as they would be in the same place we were where we didn’t have the answers to all the questions surrounding them.

Saying that makes should make you think that hundreds, thousands, millions of religions would be made if the world was 5000 times bigger and there was more bases of civilizations around. So which one is “right”? should any of them be correct and true? could our civilization work without the concept of religion? no, sadly it would not, not because it is true or not, just because its a stage in development and something that just happens.

leading to the mental disorder.

I once heard this saying “religion is a mental disorder”. At first sure its seems a bit harsh, but when you think about it its is fairly true. People are so afraid in this world of being the odd one out, not being in a group at school, being a loner, like people joining gangs to be someone, this applies to religion because people are afraid, yes people have fear in their hearts of going to “hell”. There aren’t more religious people these days then in past days because more people “believe” (will come back to this point in a sec) in religion, its because they fear

If Christians had a reputation of being people who caused havoc and were hated by the world do you think they would be as popular as they are today? i would think not. But this is why its religion and not a cult. A cult is similar to a religion, the people in the cult fully understand what they believe in, its how they where taught it and go about it is different, but the idea of it is exactly the same.

So putting all these things together you get a religion, not very pretty is it. i would greatly write more, but already i am not sure how much i have already wrote, and whether it is under the limit, so I’m going to finish it up here. You join a religion for a few simple reasons, a bit of fear in your heart, a weakened mind (thought to be superior to those who are in the mental state already), evolution and a sense of being a someone in a popular group.

I’m not sure how this whole writing to nexus thing works, do as you please to this email i have sent you, i just hope someone reads it at least, and can make valid points against it, thanks, Jonathan Megchelse Student Village at the University of Waikato!

THE NEXUS LETTER OF THE WEEK WINS A $20 BOOK VOUCHER FROM BENNETTS WAIKATO UNIVERSITY BOOKSHOP!

PH 07 856 6813

FAX 07 856 2255

ADDRESS Gate 5 Hillcrest Road

WAIKATO UNIVERSITY BOOKSHOP

EMAIL wku@bennetts.co.nz 19

FEATURE: LIFE

A digital connection Debrin Foxcroft 20

FEATURE: LIFE

You can try to avoid it. You can say no to every Facebook request, every Farmville invite and to your nieces MySpace page. You can resist the

But by far her favourite site has become Facebook.

Debrin’s guide to keeping safe online

temptation of Amazon and turn your back on TradeMe. You can piously stand there on your soapbox as a doom merchant, predicting the end of the world, as we know it, because the Internet has taken over.

“I used to think Facebook was a load of crap,” she says. “But we had a family get together at Christmas and the kids were talking about things on their Facebook pages. I’m a social creature and I wanted to be part of the discussions so I joined.”

For all the warnings, and all the embarrassing revelations, people are still exhibiting unsafe behaviour on the Internet. Not just unsafe – stupid. Come on people – it’s not that hard!

And you can scream that you will have no part in it.

But think about this. Whether you are on Facebook or not, whether you play Second Life, Sims, Farmville, or whether you live a virtual existence elsewhere, there is no escaping reality. Over the past two decades our lives in this world and our lives online have become ever more intertwined.

Banks, dating services and social networking are only the beginning.

These days even supermarkets have begun to offer digital shopping with physical outcomes.

Need a kilo of bananas? Hop online to Foodtown’s website and they can deliver.

University results can be found electronically and classes can be given through Skype.

Reject the web all you want but so much of our lives start and end there.

Melanie, an adult student at the University of Waikato who didn’t want to share her last name, came of age long before the Internet was born. She is making up for lost time now.

“Online banking, ordering stuff, email, tickets – if I had more money I would do a whole lot more on the web,” she says.

Melanie says 99 per cent of her friends (she has 130) on Facebook are people she has some connection with.

“I like to know what’s going on in their lives,” she says. “And I have people at work who will go past me on the stairs and say ‘hello Farmville friend’. So it suits my personality”.

The online game is Melanie’s not so secret addiction.

“Farmville gives me a sense of control. My farm is my version of agricultural heaven, the way its set up is a reflection of my personality,” she says. “So much of our lives are out of control – but my farm is the way I like it. I can position the trees the way I want, if I want to turn my cows around I do. It’s mine.”

• Protect your PC (or Apple Mac) by installing anti-virus, anti-spy ware.

• Avoid online rip-offs (if it looks too good to be true – it probably is) • Take care of your identity and privacy – you don’t want to end up paying for someone else’s sex toys.

• Remember, if something is written on your wall – it is in the public domain. You may trust your 300 friends, but that doesn’t mean they are trustworthy.

• Think for a second before you accept new “friends”. Do you really know them – do you really want them to know everything about you?

But she does recognize there is a downside to her digital life.

“You can become a little bit of a voyeur, a bit of a stalker,” she says. “And, for me, one of the saddest things is that I can see my family but I can’t reach out and touch them. For all its benefits, the Internet doesn’t replace the physical connection.”

She also says things said online can be misinterpreted – there is no facial spasms to 21

FEATURE: LIFE

help you understand the deeper meaning of what someone is saying.

“That can be hard,” she says.

With the advantage of knowing what life was like before the digital age, Melanie questions those that claim the Internet has spelt the end of our age.

“Maybe it indicts a culture, it should expand a culture but I don’t see how it could kill a culture,” she says. “There are people who spend a lot of time online and that’s sad. It shouldn’t replace your social life – it should enrich it.”

University of Waikato Student Sarah Kelly agrees that people have begun to use technology to avoid human interaction.

“The web is good because communication is easier,” says the advertising student. “But I think sometimes people use it to avoid talking to someone face to face and they use Facebook to spy on people they went to high school with.”

Freelance journalist Sean Gillespie says the internet is not a matter of good or bad.

“It’s awesome,” he says. “History will be more accurately documented, there’s unlimited information at your fingertips, personal and business productivity levels are way up and I can share my photos with people.”

He admits that there is a push back against this technology.

“Some people might say it makes you lazy, but I think people would be lazy regardless. But now

22

they can get more done while sitting on their bums. “ For travelers the Internet has become a mixed blessing.

“The only downside is it’s hard to escape,” says Gillespie. “The first time I travelled in foreign countries was before the Internet had taken off.

I felt so exposed to the reality around me and disconnected from my life before leaving. It was a spiritually powerful experience. However, now when I travel, it’s hard to reach that level.”

But for all the friends and nuggets of information that are simply a Google click away, there is a growing sense of alarm over what this digital world has done to our culture.

Over the last few years a wave of opposition to the Internet’s expansive reach has begun to build – online of course. Commentators have set the blogosphere alight bemoaning the impact of our digital lives.

Andrew Keen, author of 2007 hit Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is killing our culture, argues that the Internet is not an improvement to modern society, it’s the opposite; a challenge.

This is, of course, a strange argument from a man who has made his millions working in the belly of the beast. In 1995 Andrew founded Audiocafe.com, a popular first generation Internet music company. He was the executive producer of the new media show “MB5 2000” and, between 2001 and 2007, worked as a executive at several Silicon Valley based technology start-ups including Pulse, Santa Cruz Networks and Pure Depth. For all that he owes

FEATURE: LIFE

the Internet, he now wars against its invasive presence in everyday life.

“You can be critical of technology and love technology at the same time,” says Keen in an interview posted on his web page. “I am someone who pushed against the religious quality of the Web 2.0 and the Silicone Valley utopians who believe technology could change society and could change individuals.”

It’s the self-publishing revolution kicked off by Google that Keen has taken particular issue with. Particularly when it comes to blogs.

Keen admits he has a Twitter page, Facebook account and multiple blogs. But, he believes the commentary should be left in the hands of professionals, such as himself.

“The Web 2.0, implicitly at least undermines the whole concept of professional journalism because now we have the technology for all of us to become commentators,” said Keen.

“There’s a lot of noise but the problem is there’s not a lot of truth.”

And that is Keen’s underlying criticism of the current Internet revolution. When everyone has something to say, how do you filter the truth from opinion?

In a 2009 diatribe on the importance of gatekeepers in journalism over unedited blogs, Keen wrote that “even a child can see the difference in quality between the thinly cacophonous Huffington Post and reliably high quality online newspapers like The Telegraph, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.”

Keen has recently trained his sights on social networking ant it’s impact on modern society.

“For better or worse, social media is the rock ‘n’ roll of the early 21st century generation,” he says.

His next book is called Digital Vertigo: Anxiety, Loneliness and Inequality in the Social Media Age. But it’s not just disaffected journalists who have something to say on the impact of the digital revolution.

Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE, Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford and Director of the Oxford Centre for the Science of the Mind, recently presented a paper for BBC on her concerns with the web’s effect upon the human being’s adaptable brains and behaviour.

“What fascinates me very much is if human beings, occupying as we do more ecological niches than any other species on the planet, do so because we adapt so brilliantly to the environment; if that environment is about to change, as I think everyone in this room seems to agree it is, then will the brain change in unprecedented ways too?” she asks. “And I think we need to sit back as a society and consider this because on the one hand like with all technology it can be good, and on the other hand I think it could be very bad if we get it wrong.”

One of the Baroness’ main concerns is what the flashing lights and sound of the Internet will do to the developing minds of young children.

“Of course I don’t want to give a value judgement,” she says. “You have to ask, is it 23

FEATURE: LIFE

“Farmville gives me a sense of control. My farm is my version of agricultural heaven, the way its set up is a reflection of my personality,” Facebook

nation

• 1,217,400 New Zealanders are on Facebook • More than half of these people are between the ages of 18 and 34 years old.

• Over 57 per cent of New Zealand Facebook users are female Facebook world The top ten Facebook countries 1. United States: 94,748,820 2. United Kingdom: 22,261,080 3. Turkey: 14,215,880 4. France: 13,396,760 5. Canada: 13,228,380 6. Italy: 12,581,060 7. Indonesia: 11,759,980 8. Spain: 7,313,160 9. Australia: 7,176,640 10. Philippines: 6,991,040 Total Facebook population: 316,402,840 Google usage • 34,000 searches per second (3 billion per day) Tweets on Twitter • 600 Tweets per second (50 million a day)

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more important and interesting to have a here and now experience, to have a process, to have the thrill of solving an abstract problem versus the rather lack lustre sensory-poor notion of turning pages for example in a rather clunky way, but having something that actually changes the way you will see the world in a much more perhaps deep or extensive way.”

Ten years ago, Greenfield was already showing her concern with the digital age.

In a 2000 article published in The Guardian she outlined her concerns and her interest.

These risks, she argues in The Too Much Information Society, include the potential loss of imagination, the inability to maintain a long attention span, the tendency to confuse facts with knowledge, and a homogenisation of an entire generation of minds.

These risks could even actually change the physical workings of the brain, she says.

Net users who develop shortened attention spans will probably not have fewer connections between the brain cells, and their links may have a different layout.

“It’s possible that [the brain cell connections] will not develop in the same configurations,” Greenfield expands. “The tendencies with how they work together and the assemblies [of neurons] they form might be different.”

Young readers may struggle their way through the long form story or novel because of the way the narrative is presented.

“A novel is a narrative [with] a beginning, a middle and an end. It takes you through something. Whereas the Net, you pop into it, you pop out of it. There is no obvious narrative line.”

Novels, she says, also force readers to use their imagination to fill in the blanks - an important type of mental exercise they might not get from the Net. In a novel, “you’ve got the characters and they are very real, but you don’t know what they look like as such,” Greenfield explains.

“You don’t know what their face looks like, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to paint them - yet they are very real.” Greenfield worries that imagination might not develop “if you have someone else’s images given to you all the time on a VDU”.

Local researcher, Sean Castle, is delving into the neurological implications of World of Warcraft and he is part of the Game Study in the Screen and Media Department at the University of Waikato. He has been watching the debates swirling around games in general and the reasons people give for playing them.

“There are a lot of reasons, escapism for example, to get away from everything in life. But in opposition to the escapist argument is that there is also a social element to games. People can get addicted to connecting to others on things like Facebook.”

Castle admits he has become a bit addicted to the World of Warcraft game.

“I used to think it was just weird but now I’m getting hooked myself,” he says.

Melanie says there is now way to catagorise the ‘typical’ Facebook user. She says she is smart, she is doing her masters but she still loves lining up her cows in Farmville and talking to others who are doing the same.

Its about a connection for her, as well as an escapism.

“And I am a fantastic farmer.”

FEATURE: LIFE

Online With

Online

Art

Society

As Debrin has already mentioned, there are a plethora of opportunities to leave the real world behind and get your geek on, interacting with, killing and rooting as any alter-ego you choose.

Here are just a few of the more widely known ones: Second Life Quite possibly the largest online society, Second Life is populated with a wide range of people, from nerds and complete social outcasts who want to be good looking beefcakes, to that hot girl from your local dairy who likes to pretend she’s a fat black guy.

Linden Dollars are the currency in Second life, earned through the sale of in-game items and services or by investing money through your credit card. It has featured on several TV shows and been brutally parodied in 2009’s film Gamer.

Xbox Live Is used through Microsoft’s Xbox360 and is an amalgam of online software store and chat room, enabling gamers to find people they want to beat the hell out of online. It is making headlines at the moment due to the nature of the interactions between gamers of Call of Duty: World at War. Red Light Centre Is just like Second Life, but with a more explicit angle. The aim of Red Light Centre (available through free download from their website) is to find other peoples avatars which you find attractive and have sex with them.

It’s essentially interactive animated porn for wealthy people. While it is free to download and play, access to the more risqué areas can set you back a lot of cash.

Pros: good for people who get off on the idea of two characters from the Sims going hard out at each other. Free to start playing.

Cons: the chick you’re having sex with may be another dude. That’d make you a gay person.

Pros: the hot chick you’re hanging out with in Second Life, and are going to meet at the old abandoned mill later tonight, may actually be a hot chick.

Cons: she’s probably not and you’re going to get raped by a dude.

Pros: A good place to find Nazis to shoot online.

Cons: Full of actual Nazis. Getting the crap beaten out of you by an 8 year old kid from Taiwan is going to leave you with self-esteem issues.

World of Warcraft Created by Blizzard, the same assholes who have permeated the web with Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft. World of Warcraft is responsible for several students at Waikato claiming gaming addiction as a reason for failing assignments.

Nexus thinks the reason they failed is because they’re douchebags who would rather be “Thunderchild the War Troll” than “Tim the Guy Who Has Sex With Real Women”.

Farmville -Mafia Wars/Anything by Zynga Is just like crack, only free. I am only just weaning myself off of Mafia Wars. These games mostly just add another layer of interaction to Facebook, but are also completely free to play.

Pros: Makes Facebook a more interesting.

Cons: Makes Facebook a more interesting, resulting in you Facebooking all day every day, which is douchey.

Pros: You can pretend to be tough and magical.

Cons: You’re a failure of a human being.

25

Left Eye Brought to you Mighty Friends of Nexus: Skycity Cinemas and Popcorn Dispensary!

WHAT TO DO

Go and see Kick-Ass! It’s possibly the best movie of the year! Enjoy many treats! Find names of superheroes in the word jumble! Don’t cross the road with looking!

First one dropped into the Nexus office gets a double movie pass and a chance to be a guest on the upcoming Nexus radio show!

Batman Aquaman Thor Rogue MightMouse Spiderman Daredevil Hawkgirl Ironman Hellboy

Wonderwoman Superman Wolverine Hulk Thing Flash GreenLantern Cyclops Rorschach Kate

27

COLUMNS:OTHER

LOUD AMERICAN’S TIPS 101

By Hollie Jackson Mackenzie McCarty Hydro 33 Jellicoe Dr, Hamilton East My plate arrives: a collage of chunky smoked salmon, juicy fat caper berries, mound of rich cream cheese speckled with parsley, red chutney and warm fresh bagel ($12.50). His is Eggs Benedict prepared to perfection; smooth, creamy hollandaise with just a hint of lemon tang, fat hunks of good quality bacon, crusty bread, delicately poached eggs, and a spattering of greens ($18). We eat in near silence, savoring the flavors and enjoying the atmosphere of outside seating on a sunny morning.

One table over, a set of twins is celebrating what looks to be their tenth birthday party, and the two are resplendent in identical pink tutus and tiaras, giggling over new matching mermaid Barbie dolls. Everyone seems happy to be here- even the staff, who smile easily whilst balancing plates piled high with sausages, French toast, muesli and scrambled eggs.

My coffee arrives, and it is so good I lose myself for a moment in a daydream involving Italian cafes on the waterside in Venice, being brought perfect coffees by smoldering, tanned baristas whilst operasinging gondoliers paddle honeymooners down the rippling canals at our feet. This is of course a serious case of stereotyping, but it is, I hope, an adequate way of describing how bloody good this coffee was.

Wonderfully mixed, the coffee is not burnt nor is it too milky. My only complaint is that I didn’t order another one.

We finish our food and a little line of antique cars pass by, honking their cute rubber-ducky horns and waving at us as they putt their way down the street. The food is so good, and the morning so lovely, we don’t even mind that some of the previous diners’ used glasses haven’t been collected from our table. Hydro is expensive, it cannot be denied.

But if ever there was a good place to have breakfast, this is one.

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Lecture 6: Music to study to.

Last week I brought you the best procrastination websites, this week it’s all about when you actually really have to start studying. So, here are some ideas for music to listen to while you’re getting your study on. Some people like to listen to background music, some don’t, but if you’re like me and find listening to music helps you get through pretty much anything, read on.

You may have heard sometime in your life that classical music is best to study to... and it probably is, if you’re into that sort of stuff. Made famous amongst the tweens in its cameo appearance in sparkling vamp movie Twilight, Debussy is actually really nice to listen to while studying, along with Mozart (which is said to increase your memory by 20%) and pretty much anything along those lines.

Personally, I can’t stand classical music. Apparently one of the reasons why it is good to study to is the lack of vocals; we tend to sing along to lyrics and get distracted from the line of work. So with this in mind, a great band to study to would be This Will Destroy You; their songs are more on the alternative side and are completely instrumental, perfect to study to if you’re wanting something modern.

However, Pink Floyd is, by far, my favourite band to listen to while studying. Their songs aren’t overloaded with vocals and the ambient quality of some of their work help to put your mind on the task at hand.

Their songs are generally quite long, too, so you don’t have to keep getting up to change it as often, which is good.

Really it comes down to whatever works for you, but if you don’t know what yet, these musicians are a good place to start. Any music can be study music, just try and avoid songs with lots of lyrics, up-tempo beats, and turn the volume down just a tad.

COLUMNS:OTHER

Owen’s View With Owen the Minor

Editor’s Note: Owen is a guy who makes ME listen. He has amazing stories from his travels all over the world and Nexus welcomes him to its pages. His column, tentatively titled “Owen Has Ginger Hair (But He’s Actually a Nice Guy)”, beginning next week.

Peter Fend is a guy who makes you listen.

In the hours that I’ve spent hanging out with him at his gallery, our conversations have generally been one way. Partly because he has so much to say on subjects I know nothing about, and so I have nothing to contribute. Partly because within the circles that he mixes in, he’s a worldwide name and so commands a bit of awe, but mostly I think because he mumbles a lot and doesn’t really finish talking about one subject before he launches into another.

It’s almost like chatting with my 3 year old nephew: He knows exactly what he’s talking about, while I’m not so sure.

Despite his eccentric behaviour, Peter Fend is easily the most interesting person I have met of late, and I feel lucky to have chanced upon our meeting. His art work is displayed like an extension of himself: slightly incoherent, somewhat overly technical, but given time, pervasive and enlightening. This isn’t something you can get a quick fix off of. His work cannot be condensed to a tweet or a status update. You might have to spend some time. FUCK, you might have to focus on one thing at a time.

That’s a tough one for me.

In his struggles to make an impact on the world, Peter Fend has come up against what I consider to be truly frightening foes. Exxon has shut down his works once. The C.I.A has pressured him. A colleague of his in Germany has been car bombed.

This isn’t gangstas, or drugged out street kids. These are intelligent, educated and drastically sober people. It’s scary.

It’s scary because there are people who are committed to maintaining our current course. And they will maybe try to kill you if you upset them too much. As a good friend of mine said when he came to look at the exhibit ‘it’s hard to beat the system’ Well motherfuckin word you, and you can see that in the faces of the people who walk by the situation room. They’ll look in... Slow down slightly... maybe approach the door. You make eye contact with them and say hello... they bail. It’s just too hard. It has nothing to do with what’s for dinner tonight, how much alcohol they’re going to drink on the weekend, what’s happening on Shortland Street.

And it’s not all, ‘Save the planet cos u shud’ wank. Peter Fend espouses the need to create alternative economies. Aquacultures, biofuels. It’s still about making cash, it’s still about doing what you want to do, but relying less on fossil fuels and most importantly relying less on the hegemonic oil companies.

I feel like I live in a very lethargic and apathetic society. Oh don’t get me wrong, I don’t consider myself any better than anyone else, Today I woke up at midday, lurked /b/ and laughed at all the inappropriate humour, masturbated to some porn, and then had a sugary coffee which due to my dependence on the substance picks me up to about normal operating speed. Part of the anger in this is directed at myself.

It is hard to beat systems that are in place mostly I think because it’s hard to know where to start. So go along to the situation room, listen to Peter Fend for a bit, stir up a bit of disruptive thinking in yourself, argue with him, tell him he’s full of shit for all I care. Use your education for more than just getting a job in real life world of Warcaft and exercise some democracy by kicking up a fuss.

391 Victoria Street. Situation room. Opposite the Fox and Hounds.

Open until May 1st. Tell them Owen sent you and receive a 100% discount on the entry fee!

DISCOUNT

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COLUMNS:OTHER

BLAIR IS ACE

BEAUTY SCHOOL

It’s deadline again, and with no column, I’ve been caught with my pants around my ankles. I’ve always wondered about that phrase, to be honest. Caught with your pants down by whom, exactly? Why did you have your pants down in the first place? What possible combination of the two could have lead to this situation warranting a phrase being created?

Make up

With Blair Basil-Forthright the 4th

I’m phenomenally hungover at the time of writing this, so you’ll have to go with me on this one. I mean, being sprung by your mother giving yourself a handshake? That’s pretty bad. Busted by your flatmates doing the same thing? Marginally worse. Being sprung by your mother, while having one knocked out for you by a flatmate? That’s really not great. Being caught by your flatmates, while having one knocked out for you by your mother?

You get the idea.

The point is, I haven’t got any content to speak of this week, so I’ve dragged you all on a bizarre ramble that’s probably going to leave you confused, while I try desperately to scrape together 330 words from the bottom of the barrel that I have gone and stuck my head in. I’d like to remind you, I am phenomenally hungover at this point, as it’s Kīngitanga day. Now, I’m all for “recognizing the unique and distinctive connection with Tainui and the Kīngitanga, and celebrating the importance of Kīngitanga in our community,” but with all the culture of a turnip under my belt, I find that these things don’t affect me.

They don’t affect the bottle of whisky in my bedroom either. The only culture I have experienced recently was drinking with Scottish people.

Someone told me that I should go and see The Vagina Monologues, because I might learn something.

In the meantime, however, I have my head in a barrel, and my pants around my ankles. Given that this is university we’re talking about, you probably couldn’t pick me out of a crowd.

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With E. Kartal

Foundation: When buying a foundation the best type to choose is light coverage compared to heavy. Heavy coverage blocks the pores and sinks into the lines of your skin, making you look older than you are.

You’re probably saying “but it doesn’t cover the blemishes”. This is where your concealer comes in. Note: if you can’t afford a concealer, dab some of your foundation on your hand, add some loose powder, mix and voila you have concealer. It’s the perfect shade and works a treat.

Blush: You wouldn’t think so put blush is very important. It help frame your face, gives it structure. If you want a solid frame to your face, make a fish face and from to the top of you cheek bone work your way down (this is when you use cold tone colours like plum). If you want more of a natural look smile and slightly brush on your cheeks kind of where your noise is, don’t go lower than that, because you’ll look like you’ve been bitch slapped ( use warm tones like pink or coral).

Eye shadow: If you colour your hair you should also change the shade of eye shadow you use. if you’re a cool tone (face and hair colour) like dark brown, use browns, purple, grey and black. For warm tones like light brown and soft reds, use warmer tones like pale pink, coral, and silver. I know that heavy eyeliner under the eyes “looks hot” but it creates bags under the eyes and makes you look much older. If you’re going to go OTT on black eyeliner, blend it with a colour eye shadow under the eye.

There are heaps of online make-up help. Look up M.A.C cosmetics, they have a section where they show the new colour range and how to apply it. Search make-up tips on Facebook and there are a shit load of help pages. Look through a few because some are talking out of their ass.

prize

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COLUMNS:OTHER

Auteur House With Richard Swainson

The question of whether humour dates or not has been on my mind this week. Both myself and the hired help have been recommending some new acquisitions to Auteur House, starring vehicles for a gentleman who could be thought the finest sound comedian in history: WC Fields. So far we’ve had few takers.

misanthrope, he either played con men or hen pecked husbands. He always has a scheme or two on the go to defraud the gullible, a category of citizen he sees as being in majority. Two of his film titles - which, like most of his screenplays, he wrote himself, reflect this view - “You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man” and “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break”.

Like all the greats, Fields’ humour is grounded in character. By the time he became a substantial star the former vaudeville juggler was well

Fields’ lack of sentiment or self pity put him at odds with most of 1930s cinema. His weaker vehicles suffer, like those of those of the Marx

into his fifties and in the decade or so when he enjoyed most success - basically from 1932 until 1941 - his body deteriorated to a point of no return. Drinking a bottle of gin a day will do that to you. Fields was the first openly alcoholic star. Boozing was a key part of his persona. His most celebrated one-liner declared “A woman drove me to drink and I didn’t even have the decency to thank her”.

brothers, whenever studio interference enforced conventional romantic and/or musical subplots closer to the spirit of that age. The man who said “anyone who hates children and animals can’t be all bad” and who swore off the consumption of water because “fish fuck in it” is best seen pure and unfettered. In a stroke of genius, he died on Christmas Day, a holiday he loathed.

With Fields the implication is always that the world is so awful that it demands constant, if sly, swigging from the hip flask. An arch

Richard Swainson owns and operates Auteur House, an independent movie-hire store, at 555 Victoria Street, Hamilton. Pop in for a look, especially if you’re after something you can’t find elsewhere.

Tales from Tinseltown With Emma Edwards

Whether you love him or hate him, Larry King has made a name for himself on CNN. However, this week, he has become more famous for his personal life rather than his ‘hard-hitting’ journalism. This week, Larry King and his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick are filing for divorce. After thirteen years of marriage, King, 76 and Southwick, 50, are dividing their assets and the custody of their two sons. This will be King’s eighth divorce, and Southwick’s second.

Another potential divorce is also taking place, between Tiger Woods and his wife Elin. It appears that Elin has not forgiven Tiger’s infidelity; instead, she is filing for divorce. Elin has already met with her lawyer, has purchased a house in Sweden, and is currently staying in Sweden with her family.

Southwick’s reasoning behind the divorce lies her belief that King has been in an affair with her sister, Shannon Engemann for at least five years. Southwick confirmed her fears this week by discovering King’s Visa statements, which included expensive gifts given to Engemann, such as a car worth $160, 000, and jewellery from Cartier. Engemann denies any inappropriate behaviour, however, she did admit to receiving gifts from King. However, Southwick is not perfect either. There are alligations that she was also in an affair with her sons’ baseball coach, Hector Penate, for a year.

Tiger believed that his recovery in rehab for sex addiction would fix marriage; however, it only worked temporarily. Divorce is predicted to be imminent, yet many factors will make this a tough separation, including the multiple properties in Florida, California and now Sweden, the bribery imbedded in pre-nuptial agreement that would give Elin between $2-80 million, depending on the length of their marriage; Tiger’s sponsorships, and the custody of their two children. Stay tuned!

The outcome appears cloudy at this stage, for there is an estimated $144 million fortune at stake, no pre-nuptial agreement, and multiple properties, including three that were signed over into Southwick’ s name.

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COLUMNS:FOOD

Student Foods

With the beautiful Auntie Emma Baberahams!

Feijoa & yoghurt crumble cake Ingredients

140g butter, softened 1c sugar 2 eggs, at room temperature 1t vanilla essence 3/4c plain yoghurt (or milk) 2c plain flour

Topping ingredients

3t baking powder 1/2t baking soda 1c chopped feijoas

1/2c firmly packed brown sugar

Method Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 25-cm spring-form or loose bottomed cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Beat in yoghurt. Add sifted dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined.

Spread in prepared tin and evenly sprinkle over chopped feijoas. Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over feijoa layer. Bake until golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes.

Stand 15 minutes before turning out. Allow to cool before cutting.

Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve with a dollop of yoghurt.

Feijoa & yoghurt crumble cake

Feijoa season is here but won’t hang around for long, so make the most of it with this deliciously moist yet crunchy-ontop cake recipe.

1/2c slivered almonds or chopped walnuts 4T flour 1t ground cinnamon 60g butter, melted

hip hop and zumba

Ingredients 2c stewed feijoas (or other fruit) 1-2t cornflour (optional) 1/2c flour 1/2c brown sugar 3/4c rolled oats 1/2c coconut 1t ground cinnamon 1/2c chopped or slivered almonds 75g butter, melted

If you’ve still got feijoas to burn, give this feijoa crumble recipe a go. It’s a perfect dessert for a crisp autumn evening.

Method Preheat oven to 160°C. Scoop flesh out of feijoas, or, if they are small and hard, cut the skin off instead so you get more flesh. Stew in a pot with 1T of water on medium till softened (about 4-5 minutes), stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Pour into a large (30-35cm), shallow baking dish. If the fruit is very wet, sift 1-2t cornflour over it and mix through. Combine the rest of the ingredients to make crumble topping and sprinkle evenly over the fruit. Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until golden. Accompany with vanilla custard, whipped cream or vanilla icecream.

keeping

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REVIEW:GAMES

I was therefore excited when I heard the new Assassin’s Creed tore the old one a new ring piece, stabbed it repeatedly and did unmentionable things to its broken corpse

Assassin’s Creed II Review by Sandwich Face

I’ll say it now; if you didn’t play the original Assassin’s Creed you missed out. It was an fresh idea backed up with an amazing system for stabbing random people, let down by having to do the same repetitive mini-games before you got to get on with the people you were supposed to stab, (of

the rib removal. Right from the word go it shoves you into the action, simultaneously coercing a hard-on at the amazingly rendered cityscape around you.

which there wasn’t enough.) and a bunch of small annoying issues not least that your character could swim as well as a man with concrete shoes.

Even more surprising is that the action didn’t break for its expected if unwelcome mini games and lengthy conversations with dead bodies.

Instead Ubisoft opted for nearly 20 solid hours of stabbing shit, freeing prisoners, stabbing shit, roof chases, hookers and stabbing shit, all nicely broken up with vehicle sections and a paper mache flying machine that might lift an anorexics lunch.

I was therefore excited when I heard the new Assassin’s Creed tore the old one a new ring piece, stabbed it repeatedly and did unmentionable things to its broken corpse. Usually anyone that listens to the grapevine should blow themselves but I was stunned to find Creed 2 was well worth

He won’t leave!

Aroha lives in a flat and the Tenancy Agreement is in her name. She has a difficult flatmate and she has asked him to leave but he gets abusive and she is concerned for her safety. What can she do?

Aroha needs to put in writing that she wants him to vacate the flat by a certain date. She does not need to give him 72 days notice because he did not sign the Tenancy Agreement and therefore is a flatmate with no legal rights.

Aroha can book a free legal appointment with the CAB (ph 8380395), or if she feels it is more urgent go to the police The Hamilton Area Citizens Advice Bureau provides advice and information from four locations. They are at 55 Victoria Street, 70 Kent Street Frankton, at Garden Place and the Cowshed at the University. They also have legal, advocacy and consumer services available where you can get more specialised help.

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Talking about stabbing shit, killing has been drastically improved in the 15 century. Not only is there a hell of a lot more of it, but you can do it in new and more interesting ways. Some, like the poisen knife seem a bit useless and never get any use but things like double assassinations never get old.

Something that kept me amused was that although you have learned the trick to floating in full equipment, the guards of the Venetian canals forgot to attend their gym class and will often follow you into the water kamikaze style, rather than fail their Templar leaders.

However much the design team chopped the bad bits of the first game like a eunuch in training, it can’t be all good and no. It’s not, all good. For one, the difficulty is permanently set just below the midget limbo record with no way to change it. And although I like the series unique story, it makes the DaVinci Code look like a history book. I can only hope that the designers of the unlockable glyph puzzles went on an acid trip while walking through a museum because with any other excuse they should be committed.

Regardless of the fact that anyone who makes Dan Brown’s research look compentent deserves a slow and painful demise, (preferably involving snakes.)

Assassins Creed 2 is one of the best games I have played in a long time, and as such I am having to consider letting Ubisoft live. Definitely worth a hire, if not a purchase.

REVIEW:OTHER

Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse Review:

The Mighty X6 and its Trusty Sidekick, X8 Reviewed by The Three Amigos Normally we review games here. Games for Xbox360, PS3 and PC are the norm and reviews for hardware would find it difficult to earn a place here.

Then we got to play with a new Microsoft gaming mouse and keyboard and all the rules went out the window.

My favourite thing about this mouse, however, is that its blue laser it tracks with is not very picky about where it is used. Almost any surface I tried it out on managed to give the mouse enough ‘laser-grip’ to keep on moving.

You may be thinking to yourself: I already have a mouse and a keyboard and I can play games just fine, thank you very much. No, I say, no you don’t. Until you have this mouse/keyboard combo, you’re not really gaming.

If, like me, you only play games because it gives you the opportunity to kill digital Nazis, then this is the keyboard for you. You can program and record macros The first thing you’ll notice with the X8 Mouse and the X6 Keyboard from Microsoft’s Sidewinder range, is that they are huge. The wireless mouse is like a space bug from the future, but it has one feature I’ve always wanted on a mouse: sensitivity buttons. Three small buttons just behind the mouse wheel control how sensitive the mouse is to your movements. No more will you have to leave a game to make your rifle move at a faster rate to point at Nazis.

I’m going to be honest with you. I still don’t know what half of these buttons do. There’s twelve buttons down the left hand side which are programmable, meaning gamers in World of Warcraft, Warcraft 3and other micro-heavy games will be up to their elbows in sweet shortcuts.

Added benefits to this keyboard include a number pad which can simply be pulled off and attached at the other end of the keyboard, holding its place with magnets. The keyboard lights up and the amount of light can be increased or decreased (an important environmental concern for some perhaps?) easily with the use of a dial at the top of the keyboard. Next to this are more buttons which control media playing through Windows Media Player.

All in all, this is a very impressive keyboard, with more than enough functions to keep gamers and media-heavy computer users well satisfied.

RANDOM:COMIC

The Caring Understanding Nice Types Captain Cockblock strikes again

By Florian

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REVIEW:MOVIE

Kick-Ass Directed by Matthew Vaughn Reviewed by Susan B. Anthony I enjoyed Kick-Ass a bunch. It made me laugh.

The story is totally ridiculous, and I hope that no one without super powers actually goes out and attempts to fight crime while wearing tights, because I can imagine it ending very badly.

Dave goes to high school, his life is ordinary.

Dave does go out and attempts to fight crime and help people out while wearing tights and a mask. Kick-Ass is not like every other superhero movie, and it isn’t trying to be. I’m really glad it wasn’t trying to be every other superhero movie because it just wouldn’t work with this story.

The fact that it’s goofy and rough around the edges is what makes so hilarious.

Dave doesn’t know what he’s doing, while Mindy totally does. It proves that you do need money to buy the cool stuff and the time and dedication to train a bunch or you won’t turn

out to be a good superhero. Kick-Ass is also super violent, I actually had to look away from the screen at some parts so I wouldn’t throw up – but I’m a girl and don’t really deal too well with gore. The guy who was microwaved in the giant microwave for wood made me gasp, and then laugh. I’d watch it again almost just for that. But if I did a whole other bunch of stuff would entertain me too. Like Mindy and her dad trying out her new bulletproof vest, and the crazy fight scenes. I’ve read a few other reviews of this movie which don’t like Kick-Ass because it’s kind of confused about the kid trying to be a superhero without powers or fancy gadgets, but the only way they get through everything is because of fancy gadgets. Issues like that are things I tend to ignore, but if you can’t get past it maybe you should give it a miss. But you’d be missing out on a bunch of violent hilarious fun.

Kick-Ass is playing at Skycity Cinemas.

Leaving Directed by Catherine Corsini Reviewed by Richard Swainson Sensitive undergraduates be forewarned: there’s a lot of middle aged sex in “Leaving”.

Some of it is as bad as you’d expect from your parents and their generation: a medical patrician prefers that his spouse stays as still as possible whilst he shoves it in, enforcing the conjugal rights. For the most part though the bedroom gymnastics go a ways to show that there can be carnal fun after 45, particularly given that the liberated woman at the film’s heart is played by Kristen Scott Thomas, a luminous actress in the middle of a career renaissance.

By all (gossipy) accounts Thomas herself has found a new lease of life in French cinema after divorcing a dull physician husband. “Leaving” must have had much autobiographical resonance given a plot that sees her as the wife of a doctor who, Lady Chatterley like, becomes attracted to a Spanish jail bird doing manual labour on her property. Once they succumb to their base desire all bourgeoisie 36

bets are off: the wife abandons hubby, the two children and the opulent lifestyle to live off love.

Unfortunately, reality rears its ugly head soon after. Cut off without a penny, the woman is forced into drastic measures. Consequences follow.

Pitched somewhere between a true drama and a melodrama, “Leaving” falls short of being totally involving. There’s no faulting the acting, but the romance seems to proceed at too breakneck a pace and suffers because too little screen time is given to the lover’s motivations.

Clearly written as a vehcicle for Thomas, the focus remains doggedly on her character’s domestic situation. I could have done with one or two more scenes devoted to the development of the relationship. The film needs to be emotionally overwhelming to really work and it doesn’t quite get there, despite some mighty pretty images of the Spanish coastline and the sunlit vistas of Provence (one scene in which the lovers frolic nude and start shagging in the countryside seems to be a direct homage to DH Lawrence).

If “Leaving” also fails to live up to the film noir elements introduced at the start - it begins with a mysterious gunshot that implies that someone has been killed - there is still considerable tension generated by the love triangle. The raw, brave and physically revealing performance of Thomas is to be admired however unlikely some of her character’s actions may seem.

REVIEW:BOOK

Kevin Pryor Goes Down on Books Introducing Nietzsche Laurence Gane The ‘introducing’ series of books are a great way to delve into some of the key intellectual movements in history, and Laurence Gane does an excellent job in providing an overview of Nietzsche’s philosophy. All the major bases are covered in a succinct, easy to read fashion.

Best of all you can read this book without feeling like you’re taking a shortcut into a complicated subject area, because Nietzsche himself was a strong proponent of ‘intellectual light feet’ and a savage critic of academic overwrite and ponderous arguments. Indeed one of his many good lines is defining a successful academic as a person with a high threshold for boredom.

Now Nietzsche has had a pretty bad reputation for a long time because he was indicted at the Nuremberg trials for being one of the

key philosophical inspirations for the Nazis, who hijacked his ideas of ‘the superman’ and the ‘will to power’ for their own ends.

However that’s where any association ends, for Nietzsche’s celebration of radical individualism is totally at odds with the Nazi ideal of fanatical conformism.

He was indicted at the Nuremberg trials for being one of the key philosophical inspirations for the Nazis, who hijacked his ideas of ‘the superman’ In fact as becomes clear in Gane’s book, Nietzsche’s reputation and relevance is becoming even stronger in the the 21st century.

Unlike thinkers like Karl Marx who have been

completely discredited by history, and Socrates who’s underpinning of Western thought is slowly disintegrating, Nietzsche’s ideas remain highly influential. His celebration of irrational excess in the arts, criticism of the scientific method, deconstruction of pure reason, the famous ‘God is dead’ proclamation followed by a call to create our own values, all those are as topical today as when Nietzsche put pen to paper. Gane does a good job in showing us how existentialism, psychoanalysis, semiotics and postmodernism are clearly anticipated in his writings.

Hopefully when you get a hold of this book you will be inspired to draw on your own will to power and become a superman who lives beyond concepts of good and evil, creating an indelible mark on human existence.

The Haystack Jack Lasenby Reviewed by J Robinson

The Haystack won the New Zealand Post 2009 Junior Fiction Award. Set during the depression of the 30’s in the small Waikato dairying town of Waharoa the central character in The Haystack is Maggie, a young girl who is being raised by her dad. Her mum died and she can hardly remember her.

out the back and chickens in the coop which need feeding every day before school and which get killed for Christmas dinner. It also teaches kids about what happened in small town New Zealand during the Great Depression, but thankfully this story isn’t too depressing. It’s light and fun and totally suitable for kids.

Things aren’t particularly easy for Maggie and her dad; people from the town think that Maggie needs a mum in order to be raised properly and aren’t happy that her dad is trying to do it all by himself. But really she’s happy and healthy and they’re much better off than many who were around at that time. Members of the community help out by watching out for Maggie and a friend of her mother’s teaches her to sew and do other girly things.

It’s not a book I would have chosen to read as an adult but I would have totally picked it up from the school library when I was ten. The Haystack is definitely one I would recommend for a kid to read, or to be read to a kid. Reading this one together would probably work out better than reading it alone – some of the concepts and slang wouldn’t make any sense to someone that’s been alive less than 15 years and hasn’t taken a history class. The glossary helps with the slang, but knowledge of New Zealand in the 30s helps even more with understanding the society they live in.

The Haystack shows a side of New Zealand which doesn’t really exist anymore – with little towns built around one factory which will keep the community going, gravel roads, the dunny

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LOCAL:GIGS

The HCity Project Gig Guide Welcome to our brand spanking new Nexus feature – from this week onwards Luke P and Sam L will be bringing you everything you need to know about the ever developing and recently improved scene in Hamilton City. Each week we will feature one or two reviews of past gigs, as well as your week’s instalment of upcoming ones.

So, if you or anyone you know has a party/event/art expo/21st/wedding/bar mitzvah going on, email us with details at hcityproject@gmail.com – and we can make sure the word gets out.

Up and coming essentials: The Vagina Monologues

HCity J-Day

Organikismness

Midweek Madness

Knights/Tronic EP

OUR:HOUSE

The Pink Pound Experience

The Hustle

More Information

AMATUER STRIPTEASE

COMPETITION 38

$1300 IN CASH PRIZES TO BE WON!!

Date: Friday 30th April 8pm Place: Lynden Court Chartwell Interested in having a go? Call or text Melissa 0210600588

YOUR BUSTED PHOTOS STEP ONE: Party STEP TWO: Take pictures STEP THREE: Email them to us at busted@nexusmag.co.nz Seriously, do it! It can’t be that hard, people are (apparently) partying here all the time.

Embarrass your friends!

Display your ugly mug!