Posts by David Haywood
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Coskriedictory
Definition:
The state of simultaneously lobbying for two contradictory outcomes.Common examples:
1. Marching to support freedom of speech while simultaneously lobbying for increased censorship.
2. Condemning child abuse while simultaneously offering support to people who beat their kids. -
Part five of a twelve-part series looking at energy. This week: How Canals and Coal Mines Changed the World......
NOTE: References, further information, and a complete transcript of this week's episode are available here.
This episode of Public Address Science was originally broadcast on Radio Live, 3rd November 2007, 5 pm - 6 pm.
Public Address Science dedicated RSS feed and story archives.
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Kevin Hicks wrote:
The only conclusion possible is you really are desperate to defend our ruling junta who have left us with little more than pineapple lumps...
There is one other conclusion possible, as per this entry in the Oxford English Dictionary:
SATIRE:
The use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Kevin Hicks wrote:
I have no problem with people expressing their views I just thought it amusing that (a) its a frivolous topic and (b) all she does is attack the messenger instead of debating it anyway as you guys will be the first to criticise usually.
On the other hand, if you view it as satire -- rather than an attempt at a serious political essay -- then it all begins to make sense...
Personally I enjoy Anke Richter's left-leaning satire (she writes a column for Taz, and used to write for Playboy). And I also enjoy P.J. O'Rourke's satire from a right-wing perspective. They both use humour to make some clever points for their respective political positions.
But one should always remember that it is humour -- you'll really tie your brain in knots if you view it as serious political/news commentary or analysis.
Of course, with some of the people writing in the blogosphere (the kiwiblog comments section springs to mind) it really is genuinely difficult to tell if they are brilliant satirists or just seriously misguided.
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Craig Ranapia wrote:
... even vile fucktards I wouldn't let anywhere near my children unless supervised by a sane person with a taser
It is kind of strange how the people who shout the loudest about 'family values' always seem to end up in court on kiddie-fiddly charges.
I remember one of my relatives raving about how Graham Capill would make a wonderful prime minister because he had true "family values". Personally, I think the world could have done without Capill's personal interpretation of that phrase...
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Sorry, Paul, I misunderstood RE: Ransome. I stand corrected for the third time today.
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I stand corrected for the second time today, Kyle...
I've never had cause to actually write the word before now. In my naiveté I had naturally assumed that the word was derived from 'noble'... rather than "a small protrusion". Perhaps I really am an optimist, after all.
Emma Hart wrote:
I inherited my brothers' old copies of Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine adventures
One of my regrets about the demise of Wayne Mapp from his role as 'Spokesman for the Eradication of Political Correctness' is that I never got around to sending him a copy of Saville's 'The Gay Dolphin Adventure'. I think it would have really spoken to Wayne.
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Kyle Matthews wrote:
What sorta weird-arse lingo are they teaching energy engineers these days?
Did I say 'nobbed'? I meant 'became romantically involved with'...
By the way, Evgenia was as much a critic of Ransome's work as Paul Campbell. I blame her for discouraging Ransome from finishing his last book... she hated 'Picts and Martyrs'...
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Stephen Judd wrote:
If you read about Barrie, you discover that he had an absolute horror of a childhood... Lucky for him that Victorian sensibilities were so receptive to what are essentially healing fantasies for the abused.
Yes, and not to mention the death of his brother, etc. which, I think, Humphrey Carpenter makes a big deal about in 'Secret Gardens'... the original model for the boy who never grew old.
Perhaps I didn't express myself very well. It seems to me that a test (but, of course, not the only test) for children's literature is that it can also be read as literature by adults. For me, Barrie doesn't stand up as well (even putting aside the 'of the time' claims of racism and sexism) as some other children's writers of the same period -- -- such as Nesbit and Grahame, or (somewhat earlier) children's writers such as Carroll and MacDonald.
To me (disappointingly) Barrie's work seems much less good as an adult than as a child, whereas the other writers seem equally as good but in a different way...
But, hey, as noted earlier, I'm just an engineer (now working as a journalist -- all commissions accepted, by the way)...
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Jolisa Gracewood wrote:
It’s all there, folks, in black and white, and sometimes? In invisible.
Many apologies for not reading between the lines, Jolisa. In fact, it was my shortcomings in this department that caused me to abandon my undergraduate literature studies (but for my inability to see Wordsworth's daffodils as ejaculating phalluses the world would have one less energy engineer).
So I stand corrected...
If he wasn't so smoochable and downright funny, I'd have to sell him to the circus.
This is an outrageous and deeply offensive statement for a parent to make -- I'm shocked! Don't you realize that a child's behaviour is entirely the parents' fault. If only you'd just let him scream in agony for hours until he lapses into unconsciousness... that would have solved his (and your) problems in no time.
By the way, just out of interest, what do circuses pay as the going rate for a baby these days?
Craig Ranapia wrote:
The one thing that shocks me about Barrie - as opposed to the Disney-fied bowdlerizations that are more commonly available - is how infantile his work is, how 'growing up' is seen as little more than a living death; the 'real' world is, at best, indifferent and cruel or outright malicious.
I tend to agree with you here, Craig. Although I can see why Peter Pan has become a classic, I find that the Victorian sentimentality makes it difficult to see Barrie's literary merit in comparison to his contemporaries such as Nesbit or Grahame... rather than the issues of racism and sexism, per se. It's interesting to compare Peter Pan with The Story of the Treasure Seekers (published a decade before the PP book). Nesbit is head, shoulders, and torso better than Barrie as a writer (in my energy engineer's opinion, of course).
Paul Campbell wrote:
I read S&A to my kids (it was really hard to find in the US), got through the next one but we didn't make it much further - it became hard going - the first one had all that mystery that kind of got lost later - and in some sense it's a period piece
Well, Paul, after my duel-to-the-death with Bart Janssen, and after my scheduled "rumble"-to-the-death with Jolisa -- and presuming that I survive both encounters -- then you're next on my hit list...
Are you mad? Ransome is one of the great children's writers! He's just warming up on the first S&A and continues to improve throughout the series (my personal favourite is 'Picts & Martyrs', the second-to-last one he wrote). It "became hard going", my arse. Peter Duck and Swallowdale are brilliant: it's not possible to have too many pirates, treasure, and/or water spouts in a book; and secret valleys are almost as good...
And read the beginning of the chapter 'Snow' in Winter Holiday and tell me that Ransome can't write great prose.
I pity you for your taste in children's literature, Paul*. When would be a convenient time for a duel -- and do you prefer flintlocks or cutlasses?
P.S. Did you know that when Ransome was the Daily News (and later the Observer) correspondent in Russia he used to play chess with Trotsky and nobbed Trotsky's secretary? He later married the secretary, by the way.
* Just kidding here, Paul. Everyone's taste is different, of course. Wouldn't it be terrible if we all agreed?
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Nice work, Leo! I particularly enjoyed the twin's prank. The reactions of their victims were so very German -- nothing like those Hollywood people on 'Punked'.