Random Raves 54: You will succeed. It is inevitable.

[Sommerswerd]

Same video from another angle... it shows the Speaker/Chair being all stuffy and super annoyed, which makes the whole display even more satisfying... it also shows other MPs present joining in, just staying in their spots rather than taking the floor

 

[Gori the Grey]

In Civ V (which I've been playing a lot lately), the Polynesian UU is the Maori Warrior and its special promotion is the Haka dance, which inspires fear in enemies and thus reduces their combat strength by 10%. I don't know, mathematically, if that is any different from just giving a unit a 10% bonus, but I think it's cool, and when I roll Polynesia I try to build as many Maori Warriors as I can during antiquity, so I'm terrifying my opponents all through the game. I've never made it to modernity with Polynesia (their other unique isn't terribly helpful on the Pangaea maps I play), but if I do, I'll imagine the members of Parliament doing this dance.

 

[Plains-Cow]

In Civ V (which I've been playing a lot lately), the Polynesian UU is the Maori Warrior and its special promotion is the Haka dance, which inspires fear in enemies and thus reduces their combat strength by 10%. I don't know, mathematically, if that is any different from just giving a unit a 10% bonus, but I think it's cool, and when I roll Polynesia I try to build as many Maori Warriors as I can during antiquity, so I'm terrifying my opponents all through the game. I've never made it to modernity with Polynesia (their other unique isn't terribly helpful on the Pangaea maps I play), but if I do, I'll imagine the members of Parliament doing this dance.

Big difference if fighting a stronger opponent, but if your UU is already base strong, it would be better to be boosted 10% itself. I never found the Maori Warriors to be very good, but the Haka dance promotion stays forever, so upgrading them is very worthwhile. I also like the idea of a tank doing a Haka dance.

 

[danjuno]

Big difference if fighting a stronger opponent, but if your UU is already base strong, it would be better to be boosted 10% itself. I never found the Maori Warriors to be very good, but the Haka dance promotion stays forever, so upgrading them is very worthwhile. I also like the idea of a tank doing a Haka dance.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Metro Diary

Planting, Interrupted​

Dear Diary:

We had recently moved into a prewar apartment in Chelsea when I volunteered to do the plant containers and window boxes in front of the building.
I missed working in what I considered to be a traditional garden as I had done at our old house in New Orleans, but I was apprehensive about creating my floral vision on a busy New York street.
The possibility of people bothering me as they walked by made me ill at ease. For me, gardening had always been a private and quiet activity.
“Well,” my husband said, “at least you’ll get to play in the dirt again.”

Putting on my headphones to discourage the possible interruptions of passers-by, I got down to business.
When the plants and flowers were finally in place I stood back on the sidewalk, sweaty and dirty, to admire what I’d done.
A dapper young man stopped and looked at my arrangements and then at me, as if he wanted to say something.
Slightly annoyed, I took off my headphones.
“That’s beautiful,” he said. “If you were in Brooklyn, you’d definitely win their flower box contest.”
I smiled. His compliment had quickly changed my sour attitude.
“Really?” I said. “Thank you!”

Later that day, an older man smiled as he looked at me and my floral creation.
“I’d marry you if I wasn’t already married,” he said. We both chuckled.
The next week, a woman stopped to admire my display while I was watering.
“I started walking down this street just to see your flowers,” she said.

I don’t wear my headphones anymore.

— Jeannie Glisson

 

[Sommerswerd]

another angle... I can't get enough of this... this one shows a little more of what happened immediately before

 

[Zardnaar]

This is hands down the most awesome, incredible, inspiring thing I have ever seen happen in a Parliamentary body. Youngest member of New Zealand Parliament leading a Haka (ancestral, traditional native Maori dance) in protest of proposed legislation by New Zealand (AFAICT) Conservative party. The three MPs who took the floor were suspended for weeks as punishment for the display.

I've watched this at least 20 times and I'm not ashamed to say it gave me chills down my spine every time I listened to it and brought me to tears multiple times... This is... awe inspiring. I don't even know what they are chanting, obviously and I still relate to the feeling behind it. They are protesting the attempt to trample their indigenous identity, rights and culture.

Backstory AFAICT:
Apparently the founding document of New Zealand contained some agreement whereby the European settlers agreed with the indigenoues people living there, the Maori, that they could coexist on the island as long as the colonists agreed to respect and let them have privileges to preserve their native culture in perpetuity, and this has been developing over time... so it seems that now some of the non-Maori (whites) have grown weary of the treaty and they want to roll back some of the privileges the Maori have under the treaty and the Maori, some of whom are actually serving in Parliament (Maori are 20% of the population in New Zealand) are having none of it. @Zardnaar IIRC you are kiwi... I'd love to hear your thoughts.

EDIT: I love how that much older Maori MP woman sitting next to her is obviously so proud and mic drops her phone when she knows what is coming, as if to say, "Nicely done, good respect for the traditions...Oh, you're really, REALLY doing it? Well done young lady, I'll stand up for this"... I also love how the female MP in front of her (sporting what I assume is a Maori face tattoo) immediately eagerly stood up and joined her and the male MP in front of her, also Maori threw his glasses off like he was ready to throw down. All three were expelled from the chamber and suspended. The MPs who chanted along from their seats were not suspended.

Lots of stupidity all around. It was essentially political grandstanding (virtue signaling) by minor political parties. The bill was never going to pass.

Riles people up though. The minor right wing parties knew it would fail that's beside the point. It dominated the news waves and drowns out everyone else.

It was a tactical win for the left I suppose the bill was defeated. They could have done nothing and got the same result though.

It drowned out the mainstream left parties for the most part. Strategic won for the two right wing parties. Lots of press coverage for 15% combined. The two leaders of said parties are very good at getting screen time. Ones a left over from the early 80s.

Most recent poll rights up slightly.

They got suspended for breaking Parliamentary rules.

ACT and NZ first tend to draw support from older voters, rural folks and crackers.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Big difference if fighting a stronger opponent, but if your UU is already base strong, it would be better to be boosted 10% itself. I never found the Maori Warriors to be very good, but the Haka dance promotion stays forever, so upgrading them is very worthwhile. I also like the idea of a tank doing a Haka dance.

Do you know what other difference it makes? I just rolled them, and I decided to play because of Sommer's post. The promotion is that a unit's defense is down 10% if it is adjacent to a Maori warrior. That means that if I move my warrior next to an opposing troop, all of my CBs do extra damage when they shoot at it!

Isn't that right, Theodora, with your oh-so-fearsome pikemen?

 

[Sommerswerd]

Found a clip with an angle showing the crowd in the upper gallery joining in the haka in NZ Parliament

 

[Birdjaguar]

Nice Place​

Dear Diary:

When I lived in Park Slope over 20 years ago, I once had to call an ambulance because of a sudden, violent case of food poisoning.
Two paramedics, a man and a woman, entered our third-floor walk-up with a portable chair. Strapping me in, the male medic quickly inserted an IV line into my arm.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see his partner circling around and admiring the apartment.
“Nice place you’ve got here.” she said. “Do you own it?”
“Yeah,” I muttered, all but unconscious.

Once I was in the ambulance, she returned to her line of inquiry.
“Do you mind me asking how much you paid for your apartment?”
“$155,000,” I croaked.
“Wow! You must have bought during the recession.”
“Yeah” I said.

They dropped me off at Methodist Hospital, where I was tended to by a nurse as I struggled to stay lucid.
At some point, the same medic poked her head into the room with one last question:
“You wouldn’t be wanting to sell any time soon, would you?”

— Melinda DeRocker