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Do the young really lack concentration?
Written By: lprent - Date published: 1:23 pm, March 1st, 2015 - 85 comments
Categories: admin, blogs, humour, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, The Standard
Tags: statisticsNow that I can no longer call myself young, the old adage that younger people simply lack concentration does appear to me to be correct. I look to the numbers on The Standard to see if there is a correlation and if I can argue a causation based on age. Are the younger readers without concentration, or are they just busy…
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Search upgraded (yet again)
Written By: lprent - Date published: 12:47 am, March 15th, 2010 - 4 comments
Categories: admin
Tags:My absence this weekend from moderation and posts has partially been because of going to the excellent Fabian seminar today. However it has largely been due to trying to get a workable search system running. One that didn’t bring the whole server crashing around my ears every few months and cut the issue of everyone having to stop receiving data for up to a minute when someone used search. One that allowed comments to be accessed as easily as posts.
It looks like it is finally working correctly, but I’d like feedback on any errors that show up.
Updated: Several different server and site updates.
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The New Zealand dollar traded in a tight range as the European Central Bank confirmed it will end its quantitative easing programme at the end of the month, despite a gloomier economic outlook. ...54 mins ago - NZ shares rise as optimism over US-China trade deal lingers
New Zealand shares rose for a third day as investors around Asia remained optimistic that trade tensions between China and the US will ease, removing a risk to global growth. ...1 hour ago - How people seeking asylum in Australia access higher education, and the enormous barriers they face
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Hartley, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University Accessing higher education is critical for many people seeking asylum. It’s not simply a means of acquiring the qualifications and skills ...1 hour ago - It’s not so easy to gain the true measure of thingsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cris Brack, Associate professor in forest measurement and management, Australian National University I teach measurement – the quantification of things. Some people think this is the most objective of the sciences; just ...1 hour ago
- Morrison’s health handout is bad policy (but might be good politics)Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Director, Health Program, Grattan Institute The A$1.25 billion Community Health and Hospitals Program Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced this week should be awarded a big policy fail. The move sets ...1 hour ago
- Our cities fall short on sustainability, but planning innovations offer local solutionsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sebastien Darchen, Senior Lecturer in Planning, The University of Queensland Thirty years after the landmark Brundtland report, the debate on urban sustainability continues. Urban planners are still grappling with the challenges of ...1 hour ago
- Monday’s MYEFO will look good, but it will set the budget up for awful trouble down the trackSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Warren Hogan, Industry Professor, University of Technology Sydney An appallingly perfect storm is brewing for the federal budget: a government with much more income than expected a federal election ...1 hour ago
- Vital Signs: No, Joe, America should not be copying Australia’s ‘asset recycling’ misdirectionSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics and PLuS Alliance Fellow, UNSW Anyone who has been to La Guardia airport in New York can attest the dire need in the United States for infrastructure ...1 hour ago
- Friday essay: back to Moore River and finding familySource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aileen Marwung Walsh, ARC Laureate Research Scholarship, Rediscovering Deep Human History, Australian National University Untangling the web that is the history of the stolen generations is a very satisfying process. In October, ...1 hour ago
- Oram: Beware the beef with smoked bacon
We are not facing up to the food and farming challenges ahead, writes Rod Oram from the Polish climate change summit. ...3 hours ago - The Bulletin: Govt’s all things to all people drug reforms
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Government pushes in two different directions with drug reforms, nitrogen runoff tool has serious flaws, and finance minister outlines ‘wellbeing’ budget.The government has launched a range of drug reforms, which somehow ...3 hours ago - The murky meth mess: why we still don’t know how much P is too much
Howls of indignation over state housing evictions based on spurious meth testing have masked the reality of New Zealand’s two-speed P standard.Veronica Crichton admitted that she and her friends had been smoking meth in their Gate Pa, Tauranga home. She ...5 hours ago - Cute news! The Spinoff readers really love having friends a lot!
The Spinoff partnered with UMR to survey the attitudes of our readers, and the nation as a whole. Today, how social are The Spinoff readers? And how much do we suck at chores?Turns out The Spinoff readers love having friends ...5 hours ago - A tribute to Leighton Smith, by Leighton Smith (also Leighton Smith & Leighton Smith)Today one of the true veterans of NZ radio hangs up the headphones to complete three decades as the morning host at Newstalk ZB. To mark the occasion we asked a number of Leighton Smiths if they had a message ...5 hours ago
- The Spinoff Hot Take Advent Calendar: December 14Every day in the lead-up to Christmas, open the door to reveal a Spinoff writer’s short, sizzling commentary on a weighty subject. Our arbitrary and strictly enforced word limit: 365. Today: Mark Kelliher on attitudes of New Zealanders who’ve returned ...5 hours ago
- Grattan on Friday: Unions likely to be more challenging for a Shorten government than boatsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In this week’s Newspoll 55% believed Labor would win next year’s election, compared with just 24% who thought the Coalition would. These are figures to ...9 hours ago
- Fiji warns ‘selfish’ countries amid Paris Agreement climate rulebook deadlock
Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama … urging world leaders to summon the courage and political will to make the switch from dirty to clean energy. Image: Fiji Times Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Talks to draft the Paris Agreement rulebook ...10 hours ago - MFAT boss defends NZ-China relationship
Top foreign affairs official says there are no "alarming signals" from Beijing about bilateral ties. ...10 hours ago - Spying warrants under scrutiny by watchdog
The watchdog of the country's spying agencies has taken issue with aspects of their approach to getting warrants for intelligence gathering, under a new law passed last year. ...13 hours ago - A tale of two media reports: one poses challenges for digital media; the other gives ABC and SBS a c...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne Two reports out this week – one into the operations of Facebook and Google, the other into the ...13 hours ago
- House of Drag power rankings: The all-white rap challenge
House of Drag breaks out of the Drag Race mould with an all rap-challenge, with mixed results. Look. It’s not racist to do a rap challenge with an all-white cast, but it’s something that I might give a little pause to before continuing ...15 hours ago - The proposed National Integrity Commission is a watered-down version of a federal ICACSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yee-Fui Ng, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Monash University The federal government has announced it will establish a Commonwealth Integrity Commission. This new commission will be the peak body to detect and ...15 hours ago
- Many people have a hard time swallowing. Help them to ‘eat, drink and be merry’ this ChristmasSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Hemsley, Professor of Speech Pathology, University of Technology Sydney Swallowing food, drink, and saliva is a central part of our lives. It’s something we do about 900 times a day, yet ...15 hours ago
- In long-awaited response to Ruddock review, the government pushes hard on religious freedomSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anja Hilkemeijer, Lecturer in Law, University of Tasmania Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Attorney-General Christian Porter have released both the Ruddock Panel Report on Religious Freedom and the government’s response. Given the ...15 hours ago
- The suburbs are the spiritual home of overconsumption. But they also hold the key to a better futureSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Alexander, Research fellow, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne Suburban affluence is the defining image of the good life under capitalism, commonly held up as a model to which all ...15 hours ago
- Why cutting Australia’s migrant intake would do more harm than good, at least for the next decadeSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter McDonald, Professor of Demography, Centre for Health Policy, University of Melbourne Australia’s population is among the fastest growing in the OECD with an increase of 1.7 per cent in 2016-17. In ...15 hours ago
- The women wanting Kiwis to invest in the US share marketBusiness is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff, in association with Callaghan Innovation, in which host Simon Pound speaks with innovators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Natalie Ferguson and ...15 hours ago
- I moved to London, and now I finally care about ChristmasWhen she lived in New Zealand, Elle Hunt never really understood the fuss about Christmas. That all changed when she moved to London, she writes in the latest instalment of her Elleswhere series about life as a New Zealander in ...16 hours ago
- We have a Christmas comet: how to spot 2018’s interplanetary baubleSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jake Clark, PhD Candidate, University of Southern Queensland We’re in for a pre-Christmas treat this weekend, as the cosmos entertains us with two equally exciting gifts: the Geminid meteor shower and the ...16 hours ago
- Resignations likely at NZTA, and Ministry under spotlight
More resignations at NZTA are likely, as Phil Twyford says the Ministry of Transport's role in the regulation scandal will also be reviewed. ...16 hours ago - Mental fatigue becomes major focus in govt’s workplace strategyThe government is changing its approach to health and safety, with a greater focus on mental fatigue in its strategy for the next decade. ...16 hours ago
- Discretion the question in synthetics response
The Government's response to the surge of synthetic deaths has won some praise - but is greater police discretion the answer? ...17 hours ago - Spinoff readers are giving meat-eating the cold shoulder
The Spinoff partnered with UMR to survey the attitudes of our readers, and the nation as a whole. Today, how much meat is the country eating? And is that changing? You’ve probably got stereotypes in your head about vegetarians. You’ve definitely ...17 hours ago - MBIE officials grilled on terms of Westland Milk loan
Not knowing how much interest Westland Milk is paying on its $9.9 million loan from the government’s Provincial Development Fund leaves parliamentarians no means of assessing how much of a subsidy the dairy company is getting, said National MP Paul ...17 hours ago - Hear ye, hear ye: these are the 20 best novels of 2018
All week this week we present the best books of 2018. Today: the 20 best novels.Previously: the best kids books, poetry books and non-fiction books of 2018.Past Tense by Lee Child (Bantam, $38)Reacher.Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber, $33)Was the Irish ...17 hours ago - The Real Pod: A star (baker) is bornThe Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s.This week on the Real Pod, we suck back an ice cold taurine fizz and tackle another week of reality television. ...18 hours ago
- Trade Me suitor Hellman & Friedman drops out
Trade Me suitor Hellman & Friedman has dropped out of the race to buy New Zealand's dominant online marketplace. ...18 hours ago - Morrison wants Religious Discrimination Act passed before electionSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government will introduce a Religious Discrimination Act to protect the rights of people of faith, with Scott Morrison declaring he would like the legislation ...18 hours ago
- Hydrogen not a short-term option for Huntly
Hydrogen may be the ideal fuel to provide dry-winter power supplies but it may not be economic before 2030, MPs heard today. ...18 hours ago - The Spinoff Hot Take Advent Calendar: December 13
Every day in the lead-up to Christmas, open the door to reveal a Spinoff writer’s short, sizzling commentary on a weighty subject. Our arbitrary and strictly enforced word limit: 365. Today: Sam Brooks on why cocktail snobbery is for losers.Look, ...18 hours ago - Treasury forecasting annual wage growth above 3% over next five years
The New Zealand economy is forecast to deliver annual average wage growth of more than 3 percent a year during the next five years, although economic growth rates are seen falling gradually over that time. ...19 hours ago - Parents shouldn’t be embarrassed to talk to their kids about pornParents surveyed for research on their attitudes to children viewing pornography has shown some are embarrassed to talk to their children. Family Planning National Health Promotion Advisor Amanda Hargreaves gives some tips on approaching the issue of relationships, sexuality, and ...19 hours ago
- Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel intends to stand for a third termLianne Dalziel says the decision to stand for another term wasn't an easy decision to make. ...19 hours ago
- I choose freedom: on being a young woman who travels aloneWhat does it mean to step out into the world on your own as a young woman?Three days after my 21st birthday, I jumped on a plane and went to Europe. I spent five months in London studying for a ...19 hours ago
- Fiscal policy to slow growth over next five years
The Labour-led coalition government will run a tight fiscal policy, keeping a lid on economic growth over the next five years, the Treasury's half year fiscal and economic update says. ...20 hours ago - The great unknowns: The best NZ music of 2018 with
Gareth Shute digs around to create a best-of-2018 music list with one criterion: the tracks all have less than 1000 streams on Spotify.One cruel thing about online music services like Spotify is that they instantly put a number next to ...20 hours ago - Solid growth underpins govt spending plansA solid economy is expected to underpin the government's spending plans. ...20 hours ago
- Robertson holds fire for Wellbeing Budget
Finance Minister Grant Robertson is keeping his powder dry for the first full Budget he will be able to put his own stamp on. ...20 hours ago - Treasury sees $27b of surpluses over 5 years
The books are looking good but the Government is still holding back on much needed spending on housing and health. ...20 hours ago
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