Posts by Rich Lock
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If memory serves, there was a three or four part series broadcast a few years back called something like 'a history of New Zealand music'.
There was a section in one episode that focussed on 'how bizarre', including some interviews. I recall one of the interviewees mentioning that the reason Pauly had to fly back to the UK was because the track slipped a few positions in the charts, and so he was told he might as well go home - it would never climb back up the charts again, because they never did.
But it did, and so he had to head back to the UK for another round of promo.
There was another interviewee who recalled living in London above a building site, where the workers would bawl out 'buy the rights!' in sync at the appropriate point every time the song was on the radio.
I've been looking for the clip online, but I can't remember what the programme was called or who made it. I'm sure someone on here has a better memory than me.
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I liked this 'Invictus' review.
In the many masterfully shot martial arts scenes Eastwood is clearly paying homage to the Hong Kong film directors who influenced his work in films such as Unforgiven and The Bridges of Madison County.
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I'm a bit wary of re-activating this thread. However, I think these articles, published earlier this week, are deserving of a wide circulation.
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Phyllis Watson of "The Kraken Wakes"
From memory, she is also the one who 'saves the day' for her family by having the foresight to build an enormous secret bunker full of food, thus ensuring they can comfortably ride out the rising waters of the melting icecaps apocalypse.
The 'calm, intelligent, sensible woman' theme does seem to be a favourite of John Wyndham's. It's strongly present in my favourite of his books: "The Chrysalids". Which is also notable for having New Zealanders as the technologically advanced heros coming to the rescue of the main characters.
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Not too early to start the drummer jokes then???
Here's one that's apparently one of Dave Grohl's favourites:
Q: What's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?
A: You only have to punch the information into a drum machine once.
I caught a portion of a programme the other night, about improving the fare at Little Chef roadside 'restaurants' in the UK. That would be an uphill battle. I had possibly the worst meal in my life at one near Nottingham a couple of years back.
Little Chef is where the chefs that fail the airline food cooking course end up.
Seriously. Scrambled eggs that you cooked, then froze, then thawed, then cooked again. How did you ever expect anything good to come from such evil?
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Imagine the eager jostling of cub reporters..
Jiggling and bouncing like puppies in a sack...?
I'll get my coat.
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Don't get me wrong - I've been swerved at quite deliberately, and it's fucking terrifying. But, at the end of the day, most people aren't actually going to deliberately run into you.
I had a woman on customs street try to crush me against the side of a bus once. She took exception to me cutting up the inside of her even though the traffic was stationary (there was just enough room between her and the car in front for here to move forward and to the left).
But that was a fairly isolated incident. Most of the adrinaline spikes from road riding in Auckland seem to occur because most people don't realise how completely bloody terrifying it can be to have a couple of tons of steel pass you at speed at a distance of not more than several inches.
Apropos of nothing at all to do with my story above, some cyclists may be interested to know that car windscreens aren't actually as strong as they look, and when struck sharply several times with the underside of a clenched fist, have been known to crack, and in extreme cases, end up in the drivers lap.
You needed a sense of enterprise to get through that giant roundabout at Elephant & Castle, that's for sure.
The surprising thing about London is that there are actually a lot of ways to avoid travelling on the major arterials. I used to do a daily trip from home (south london - dulwich) to college (central london - kensington) which was around 10 miles each way. If you're prepared to get a bit creative where required (a couple of hundred yards the wrong way down one way streets, cutting through the ends of cu-de-sacs that have pedestrian access at the closed end, that sort of thing), you can stay off the main roads more or less entirely.
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Well, that's the thing. He isn't really portrayed in the film as very autistic at all.
He comes across in the film as (to quote wiki) 'introverted and eccentric'. He is bullied because of it.
Hugh Grant 'help[s] Marcus to fit into the modern adolescent world by taking him shopping to buy shoes.' As a consequence of his newly found fashion sense, he becomes friends with the cool kids at school. All ends happily.
Take home message: only by conforming can you be happy.
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I have a deep, deep loathing for 'about a boy', mainly because the underlying message appears to be: 'only by conforming can you be truly happy'.
How that would fit in with the aspie angle (if at all) I don't know.
Plus it has Hugh 'well, er, gosh!' Grant in it.
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Onto the central point ... the argument - that prisoners who can't ever be paroled have no reason not to kill guards - sounds plausible in theory, but does it stack up?
We're not the first country to introduce three-strikes or life without parole. By how much did prisoner on guard violence increase in California after three strikes was introduced? I've seen a lot of people make this argument, but none of them has pointed to any evidence that suggests the fear is well-founded.
There is anecdata that supports this, but I don't know if it has ever been studied. However, in searching for something concrete, I came across this site.
Polaschek et al (2005) provide a description of similar programs focusing on cognitive skills in New Zealand’s Rimutaka Prison, housed in the Violence Prevention Unit (VPU). Treatment intensity is 330 hours, spread out over the course of 28 weeks. It is conducted in groups, including possible participation by family members, but individual treatment is also available. The program emphasizes “participant contribution,” as well as modeling, rehearsing, and practicing new skills.
The program has proven to be effective in that it reduces recidivism rates among those who successfully completed the program, and doubles the time to reconviction for those that did not survive compliance. It does not work as well, however, in nonviolent offenders, and there still needs to be more research done in this area to conclusively lay out a cognitive-behavioural framework for preventing violent and nonviolent re-offending.
Now, if you're not going to release someone, you won't bother treating them with programs like the one above.
If you don't treat them, they stay violent. If they're in jail, there are only really two targets for that violence: other prisoners or guards.