New Zealand Listener Issue 5 2021

The game is up for social-media giants. Whatever else can be said about their suspension of Donald Trump, QAnon supporters and others posting inflammatory content, they have finally crossed the Rubicon and admitted they bear social and legal responsibility for publishing that content. The rush by Facebook, Twitter and others to lock down their platforms against further incitement of violence in the wake of the Capitol Hill siege was rightly controversial. It raises freedom-of-speech and censorship concerns and risks emboldening the ugly repressiveness of cancel culture. As critics including German Chancellor Angela Merkel point out, no one elected a handful of billionaire tech owners as trusted guardians of publishing standards, fit to judge what is dangerous hate speech and what is not. The tech giants’ moves were clearly legal triage to avoid…

Colin James (“Beyond Jacinda”, January 16) gives a masterly summary of political, economic and social change during the latter half of last century. The choice for the present Government is between incremental or radical change. The young are pushing for the latter. Middle-aged New Zealanders mostly remain cautious. James does not take into account the sizeable number of retirees who support radical change. As with Sir David Attenborough, we have witnessed the decline of species, the soiling of rivers and the plastic pollution. As with climate scientist James Hansen (author of Storms of My Grandchildren), we worry about the future of our children and grandchildren. Both James and the Government underestimate the size, knowledge and force of this age group. Many of us support the young in their clamour for change. Viola Palmer(Waikanae) Thank…

John McLeay, Hamilton FINALISTS “One and a half men chasing two birdies …” – Bill Heffernan, Canterbury Tiger Woods: “Go straight, son. I had a bad time when in the rough.” – Clarke Isaacs, Dunedin Tiger: “Stay cool, Charlie. The paparazzi can’t tell the Woods from the trees.” – Dean Donoghue, Papamoa Beach “The Tiger and his Cub.” – Clive Squire Tiger: “You look a proper Charlie in that outfit.” – Tom Hepburn, Waiheke Island Tiger: “This is the putter I used to win the Masters, son.” Charlie Woods: “And this is the putter Mom used on your SUV.” – James Elliott Caption Competition {listenercaption@aremedia.co.nz} TO ENTER Send your captions for the photo above to listenercaption@aremedia.co.nz, with “Caption Competition No 394” in the subject line. Alternatively, entries can be posted to “Caption Competition No 394”, NZ Listener, PO Box…

“I feel like I just took down my decorations from the last impeachment.” – Stephen Colbert“These two were inseparable and now it’s come to this? It feels like Dr Frankenstein breaking up with Igor.” – Jimmy Fallon on Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani“Giuliani was blindsided by the decision – though when you have hair dye in your eyes, it’s hard to see anything coming.” – Jimmy Fallon“This country has socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor.” – Martin Luther King Jr“I can’t see the sense of making me a Commander of the British Empire. They might as well make me a Commander of Milton Keynes. At least that exists.” – Spike Milligan, quoted in the Week“A team of five million, yeah, but I got carried off the field.…

1. True or false? A widow of an American Civil War veteran was still living in 2020. ❑ True❑ False 2. How many people have walked on the Moon? ❑ 2 ❑ 12 ❑ 48 ❑ 96 3. True or false? New Zealand is the only country in the world without native terrestrial snakes. ❑ True ❑ False 4. A motte-and-bailey is an early form of what kind of structure? ❑ Theatre ❑ Cathedral ❑ Lighthouse ❑ Castle 5. What is the title of the last Roald Dahl book to be published in his lifetime? ❑ Esio Trot ❑ Fantastic Mr Fox ❑ James and the Giant Peach ❑ George’s Marvellous Medicine 6. Peter the Great is remembered for greatly expanding the territory of which empire? ❑ Swedish ❑ Byzantine ❑ Russian ❑ Spanish 7. Who wrote an autobiography titled The Story…

Is there the same amount of water on Earth as there has always been? At school we are taught that although water is constantly shape-shifting between ice, liquid and vapour, and moving between oceans, clouds and raindrops, the total amount on Earth never changes. However, the truth is that over the past four billion years, our planet has lost a quarter of its H₂O. Water in the clouds gets buffeted by the sun’s rays, which break some of its molecules into their constituent parts, hydrogen and oxygen. Oxygen is heavy enough that it is pulled back to Earth by gravity, but hydrogen atoms are so light that some of them float away out of the atmosphere and into space. That leaves us with less hydrogen with which to make water, and so…