Hard News: Reasons to be cheerful
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@ stephen walker and others
Because I grew up in the Ngaio hills of Wellington, I didn't learn to ride a bike until I moved to Tokyo at age 10, and then we rode our bikes everywhere. When my parents got me a 21 speed for my 13th birthday, they insisted that I get a front basket, no matter how uncool I thought it was, because we did all our daily shopping via bike. We mostly rode on the footpath, but from the embassy to Shibuya main was down sweet expensive suburban hills, so I could free-wheel in the middle of the road. The only time I ever worried about my safety on a bike was watching my mother who never braked on cross-roads,
Um anyways, what was my point? Oh yes, we never wore helmets and we rode on the footpaths and those are the reasons that I'd be too scared to ride my bike in Wellington, unless there was a totally dedicated bike lane all the way from my house to work.
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Shutting down CIA detention is great. Last torture loophole to close would be 'extraordinary rendition'.
Yeah, it's a helluva great way to kick off the inaugruation afterparty.
I'm actually interested in how Obama will tackle the US's judiciary system in general- he was, after all, president of the Harvard Law Review and one of the leading experts in constitutional law before he ran for political office. It's going to be fascinating to watch actually- not least considering the sheer work he'd need to do- and quickly- to unravel the gross politicisation of the justice system that occurred under George W Bush, from the Supreme Court downwards. It's gonna be a long treck back, for sure.
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Far freakin' out. So Americans now get a whole five days to examine the text of "non emergency" legislation before it's passed. Some bits of democracy appear to be still coming ...
So we and the Americans share the same time frame for 'emergency ' legislation.
I wonder what ya could slip through...
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@Joanna
my steepest hill when i used to ride to work was going along the side of Yoyogi Koen towards Harajuku. that would be considered a flat piece of road in welly, no?
one road i would never ride on, ever, is Yamate Dori. that would be hell. Khyber Pass x 200!
personally i don't think anyone on a bike over 12yrs should be compelled to wear a helmet. but, if you intend to ride fast and aggressively, not wearing one is stupid, imo.
(btw, friends of mine worked at the embassy in the 90s...) -
@stephen walker
If your friends had kids at the embassy 91-95 I babysat them, if they didn't. then I sold them drink tickets and topped up their glasses at parties and they could have witnessed my girl/woman status struggles
In crowds such a Yoyogi Koen, I would dismount and ride. Yamate Dori I mostly traveled in a school bus, initially only months after their "American" part of "School in Japan" was covered up due to the fear of terrorism in retaliation after the first Gulf War and Americans had been instructed to say that they were Canadians.
Incidentally I was in Hamilton in 1999 when a bus went past me, and it was an ASIJ bus, all still marked out in all its livery and painting. Gave me the hell of a fright, I tell you. Seriously, if any of you ever sell a vehicle second-hand, please remove any of its defining markings in order to avoid causing traumatic flashbacks for people please. Thank you!
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Stephen
I don't know what the road code says these days, but riding on the footpath seems to be turning into policy. Roads are only for cars, you know.
So long as they mean 'riding slowly on the footpath'. Riding fast on the footpath led to the only serious accident I ever had on a bike. Roads are safer for that.
Islander
I disagree that cyclists should stay off the highways, but absolutely they should be doing what they can to stay alive, and that means following the rules (electrics included). The curious war that some cyclists seem to want to wage against cars is littered with their dead bodies, and some dents on vehicles.Christopher
People are in a hurry sometimes. Whilst your advice to slow down is a perfectly good general life principle, another good one is 'teaching people to slow down is not worth dying for'. So being considerate is your best advice of all. -
Have you seen the state of footpaths in the Auckland region? If I were suicidal enough to cycle I'd prefer my chances on the tarseal.
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Re Obama, I got the following from my father, apparently a quote from Chris Rock: "Excellent black people have always been compensated for excellence. Always. The real equality is when we can have a black president as dumb as George Bush. That's when we're really equal. That's when the dream has come true."
With appropriate substitutions, this is why I always felt a bit sorry for Christine Rankin.
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@Joanna
91-92, used to go to the monthly Friday night drinks reasonably often.
"the good old days" (yes, i'm a certified codger)
i was pretty disgusted they canned that monthly social meetup in the late 90s. bastards were too lazy to run it anymore.
never see other nz-ers nowadays unless it's close friends. bit boring really.
(and you probably did babysit the kids of a former university classmate...)LOL about the ASIJ bus! OMG! i can see that would be a horror movie moment. "they've hunted me down, all the way to mooloo land!)
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..... can bitch about pop stars all he likes, but if this doesn't melt your heart you don't have one ...
Checks chest for beating of internal organ which facilitates movement of re oxygenated blood around body.
Yep still there. OH you meant the other heart, the one in your head.While the song has a beauty, Beyonsis's rendition lacks something. (Perhaps I prefer those who want to evoke an emotion in me to actually have experienced some deeper emotions, other than sycophancy and covert ambition, themselves.) Yes Im saying I find her shallow.
And the gushing of emotions that I see streaming from the audience borders on the toxic. But hey maybe thats just me.
And I find things like this more inspiring
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v5581876CT9rmEgIf Obama and his team can turn around the mess they have inherited mebbe humanity will have a future longer than another few thousand years. But hey no pressure.
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And the gushing of emotions that I see streaming from the audience borders on the toxic. But hey maybe than whats just me.
It's just politics, though of a profoundly more pleasant sort than what's infested that part of the world of late. Don't let it distract you from your creeping Jesus posturing.
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So long as they mean 'riding slowly on the footpath'. Riding fast on the footpath led to the only serious accident I ever had on a bike. Roads are safer for that.
And not riding at all on the footpath at all in Christchurch, thanks, which has lots of lovely wide roads with appropriate cycle lanes. Especially since the majority of offenders are elderly people who don't bother with helmets and aren't awfully quick to avoid pedestrians. Oh, hey, and those two kids I nearly killed turning into my driveway one winter evening who were riding down the footpath sans lights and helmets with one of them perched on the handlebars.
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Off subject now but if anyone is interested
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Or one could start at the beginning. page one
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Lucy, ditto that anywhere in Auckland that there is a decent bike path. Which is actually a steadily increasing number of places. But no amount of town planning is actually going to make the place flat.
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Lucy, ditto that anywhere in Auckland that there is a decent bike path. Which is actually a steadily increasing number of places. But no amount of town planning is actually going to make the place flat.
No, and I wouldn't presume to comment on Auckland riding conditions, yhaving never biked there. I just didn't like the implication that it was becoming *generally* more acceptable to ride on the footpath, rather than in specific conditions and places. I've seen some astonishingly cavalier cyclist behaviour here (including, but not limited to, riding the wrong way down the road) and it's just not good for anyone - cyclists, pedestrians, or drivers.
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91-92, used to go to the monthly Friday night drinks reasonably often.
"the good old days" (yes, i'm a certified codger)I would have been the 11 year old at the reception desk selling you drink tickets for cans of Rheineck or Waikato Draft then, Ah internets, how small you make the world!
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Lucy: I don't want to give you the impression that I approve of cycling on the footpath. I'm just noting that to me it seems to be becoming policy.
That's why we see these stupid "cycleways" that are actually footpaths with a strip of paint down the middle, with pedestrians roaming all over them, safe for nobody. Recent planning for roads in Auckland and Wellington seems to assume that they are only for cars, and everyone else will just have to share whatever surface area is left. Example.
At bottom we have a chicken and egg problem. Roads are safe for cyclists and pedestrians when there are lots of them; cyclists and pedestrians tend to avoid unsafe roads.
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That's why we see these stupid "cycleways" that are actually footpaths with a strip of paint down the middle, with pedestrians roaming all over them, safe for nobody. Recent planning for roads in Auckland and Wellington seems to assume that they are only for cars, and everyone else will just have to share whatever surface area is left. Example.
That actually makes me weep a bit for humanity. Or at least the section of it involved in transport planning.
Now you mention it, I do recall said "cycleways" in Oriental Bay, and thinking at the time they were kind of useless. However, since I wasn't biking anywhere at that point, I didn't pay much attention to the wider implications.
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As a Yank living downunder, I'm just glad I don't have to make excuses for what's good about America any more... The old "we aren't ALL like Bush" and so forth. Feels very nice indeed to know Obama's in the Oval Office.
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the section of it involved in transport planning
Honestly, I feel very sorry for the transport people. They have to figure out solutions that piss everyone off the least.
Suppose you are trying to make it safe for people from Onehunga/Royal Oak etc to bike into town (or at least to Newmarket). I don't see any alternative corridors to Manukau Road, and I also predict that any attempts to limit people's ability to park on the side, or to partition off a continuous cycle lane, will provoke howls of outrage from the motorists.
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I also predict that any attempts to limit people's ability to park on the side, or to partition off a continuous cycle lane, will provoke howls of outrage from the motorists.
Well, actually I wish they could do more of that on the main corridors.My experience with traffic on Dominion Rd is like playin' chess. A bus/cycle(go figure) lane and parking does not for even traffic flow make. Move the parked cars to the side streets (of which are many in Ak,( just sit in the chaos yesterday to witness that) and walk the few metres to main road. Also my friend who contracts to Transit has heard from me on many an occasion about this.
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Don't let it distract you from your creeping Jesus posturing.
Ah I see you didnt look at the link.
Bit of a non sequiter there Joe, or do you just like accusing people of having a jeebus complex cause it sounds good. Dick. -
Reason to be cheerful:
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Matthew,
It's wonderful, and surprisingly Pinter-esque too, in the best sense of the word, as well, as in parts, being oddly moving in its depction of the father-son dynamic of the two leads. Of course, it's also filthy and un-PC as all get out, and Bruges the village looks as gorgeous as Clemence Poesy. And the ending makes a lot of cosmic (and karmic) sense.
Yeah, it was excellent. Highly recommended to anyone here who hasn’t seen it yet. You’re right, too, that McDonough’s an excellent writer who can direct competently, but not actually an especially gifted director.
I wouldn't be surprised if Slumdog Millionare takes out the top award, and it's a film I've been wanting to see for some time, not least because I'm a fan of Danny Boyle: patchy as his post-Trainspotting filmography, he's proved himself an eclectic and talented genre filmmaker, seeming as comfortable in zombie horror pics (the superb 28 Days Later which counts as the decade's most imanaginitive evocation of London outside of Children of Menand Eastern Promises and "hard" sci-fi (Sunrise). The Beach and A Life Less Ordinary were dogs, though.
Agreed on Boyle - interesting director. I’m wary of Slumdog Millionaire for some reason, but I will check it out.
I’ll bet you a Monteiths that (unfortunately) Benjamin Button takes out the Oscar for Best Pic.
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