Join our zoo community

14 Years of Zoochat: A Retrospective

Discussion in 'ZooChat Community & Website' started by pachyderm pro, 10 Oct 2017.

  1. Pertinax

    Pertinax Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    5 Dec 2006
    Posts:
    20,707
    Location:
    england
  2. FBBird

    FBBird Well-Known Member 10+ year member

    Joined:
    15 Oct 2010
    Posts:
    3,617
    Location:
    Dorset, UK
    We've got more interesting (or at least more species!) in aviculture than NZ has.
     
    animal_expert01 likes this.
  3. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    10 Feb 2009
    Posts:
    7,702
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    Not sure how Canadians view Americans. However the honest truth is most Americans don't think anything of Canadians, either good or bad. It's almost as if the country did not exist. I suppose from Canada's perspective that might be a good thing.
     
    ZooBinh likes this.
  4. Hix

    Hix Wildlife Enthusiast and Lover of Islands 15+ year member Premium Member

    Joined:
    20 Oct 2008
    Posts:
    4,547
    Location:
    Sydney
    You're forgetting the New Zealand accent - the 'henges' he's talking about are those metal things that connect a door to the frame.

    :p

    Hix
     
  5. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,395
    Location:
    New Zealand
    except we still use stone henges. We haven't quite got the hang of metal yet.
     
  6. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,395
    Location:
    New Zealand
    that's not specific to Canada though :p
     
    Arizona Docent likes this.
  7. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Administrator Staff Member 20+ year member

    Joined:
    18 Oct 2003
    Posts:
    4,026
    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Jokes aside - for the benefit of our international members, you do need to understand that the relationship between Australia and New Zealand is very much like siblings - complete with sibling rivalry, specially when it comes to sports.

    Australians and New Zealanders will sledge each other mercilessly on the sports field and a foreigner may be mistaken for thinking there is no love lost between the two countries - and they would be right when it comes to sports.

    However, just like siblings, if someone else was to attack one of us, the other would stand up for the other immediately and would fight side by side to protect them.

    In Australia we regard the "ANZAC" tradition as being part of our core identity - the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps forged their identity in both world wars and other conflicts inbetween and we fight to defend our way of life as brothers and equals.

    Also, any Kiwi who is any good at anything is automatically claimed by Australians as their own - whether it be in sport, media, business - or even politics!

    Here's a short list of "Aussie" kiwis:
    • Russell Crowe (some people may wish to send him back across the ditch)
    • Lorde
    • Rebecca Gibney
    • Sam Neill
    • Keith Urban
    • Megan Gale
    • Crowded House / the Finn Brothers
    • Phar Lap
    • Weetbix
    • Pavlova
    Also, it is widely reported that the second largest city in New Zealand is the suburb of Bondi in Sydney :p
     
  8. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,395
    Location:
    New Zealand
    Yeah, it's basically just a fancy house. I would call it a mansion rather than a castle, I think.

    As for whether the country is English or Scottish or Welsh, it depends where you are I guess. Larnach Castle is in Dunedin, which is a Scottish city (hence the name - which for those not from the UK is derived from Dùn Èideann, which is the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh). Apparently tourists get confused as to how to pronounce Dunedin, which seems weird to me. Christchurch, in the region of Canterbury, is very English (again, hence the names). I'm not sure anywhere would be likened to Wales specifically.
     
    Pertinax likes this.
  9. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,395
    Location:
    New Zealand
    yeah, we love when you do that. Curiously, it doesn't seem to go the other way. Although we do sometimes claim The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) who spent a short period in his teens living in Auckland.

    I had to Google Megan Gale though. Never heard of her, and Wikipedia says she's Australian (born in Perth) although notes her mother is part-Maori. Presumably both her parents are New Zealanders?
     
  10. TeaLovingDave

    TeaLovingDave Moderator Staff Member 10+ year member

    Joined:
    16 May 2010
    Posts:
    14,735
    Location:
    Wilds of Northumberland
    Of course, there is more cause for the UK Zoochatters to claim Sam Neill as one of theirs than there is the Aussies :p
     
  11. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Administrator Staff Member 20+ year member

    Joined:
    18 Oct 2003
    Posts:
    4,026
    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    CGSwans likes this.
  12. pachyderm pro

    pachyderm pro Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Aug 2016
    Posts:
    3,365
    Location:
    Urbana-Champaign, Illinois
    Wow! This has suddenly become a zoo cafe thread!
     
  13. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,395
    Location:
    New Zealand
    Wikipedia says he has British citizenship! Unlike Russell Crowe who many times has said he considers himself to be both Australian and New Zealander (although his cousins, who are much more famous in New Zealand, are fully-committed to being New Zealanders), I think Sam Neill wouldn't want to be thought of as Australian. He has better taste than that.

    Citizenship is a funny thing. Imagine finding out that you're actually a citizen of a different country than you thought (as in Sim's links)! That would be so weird.
     
    jayjds2 likes this.
  14. FunkyGibbon

    FunkyGibbon Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    11 Jan 2015
    Posts:
    2,937
    Location:
    Birmingham, UK
    New South Wales perhaps :p

    [I can't access YouTube atm, but this would be a good time for Mitchell & Webb's 'Captain's Hat' sketch]
     
  15. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Administrator Staff Member 20+ year member

    Joined:
    18 Oct 2003
    Posts:
    4,026
    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Yes, some countries are a little different in the way they assign citizenship. The problem some of our members of parliament have had relates to citizenship by descent - where they are considered to be a citizen because one of their parents (or grandparents!) was a citizen, even though they were not born in that country and have never lived there.

    I think there may even have been a situation where the grandparents left a country and wanted to renounce their citizenship because they didn't like the way the country was being run and now many decades later, the country still considers the grandchild (now an older adult) to be a citizen - even though they never asked for it, nor has had anything to do with that country in the interim.

    For most people this means little - but the Australian constitution explicitly forbids you from being "beholden to another country" if you wish to represent our country in federal parliament and citizenship of another country is considered to be a deal-breaker.
     
  16. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,395
    Location:
    New Zealand
    did you fail Geography class again? :p

    However, it did introduce me to the humorous video you suggested:

     
    Brum likes this.
  17. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    I heard about the citizenship thing and Australian Parliament when it happened, and I couldn't help but think this is such a weird law. What if the North Korean government officially said that all Australian citizens were now automatically citizens of North Korea? Now no one can serve in federal parliament in Australia? That would be a great way to disrupt the Australian political system...

    I've just got to fully endorse this. Mitchell and Webb is amazing!!!
     
    Brum likes this.
  18. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,395
    Location:
    New Zealand
    I think that you're missing some important bits in the middle of that scenario...
     
  19. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    But my point is that any country could make the citizens of another country "beholden to another country" by just giving them citizenship. As I understanding it, the Australian MPs didn't want their NZ citizenship, but the fact that they had it meant they couldn't represent Australia in parliament. Any country can just give people citizenship...
     
  20. FunkyGibbon

    FunkyGibbon Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    11 Jan 2015
    Posts:
    2,937
    Location:
    Birmingham, UK
    I thought citizenship was something you can renounce?