Posts by George Darroch
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Dyan, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know the age of competition in gymnastics has been raised to 16 by the IOC. Hence the complaints by the American team that the Chinese appear 'underage'.
That still doesn't mean they're not pushing them to the limit before this age of course, but that could equally be said for swimming, or a host of sports where intensive training from the pre-teens is a requisite to compete at the highest levels.
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the gymnasts SHOULD be naked
The point Dyan makes above is a very good reason why they shouldn't!
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Can someone explain this to me please? Hadyn? Is there some cost-benefit formula here, or is it always faster to stay underwater as long as possible
I know that in the swimming they've only been allowed to swim for 15m underwater since 1998. It creates much less turbulent flow.
Underwater running. Now there's an Olympic sport with novelty value.
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But then I thought how these guys (the PMs group, and guide) obviously doing what they love and there are worse ways to go than that.
I love that we have (for the moment at least), a Prime Minister who is so passionate for life, so damned adventurous.
It's possibly one part of her life where she can take the bold moves and risks that New Zealand politics denies her. Labour's safe ship is one of careful management and incremental change, and it works for the most part.
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I thought that the Australian women's hockey team were positively glistening in the Beijing heat. Damian has the right idea about mestizo Cubans too. Beach volleyball is just too slow for my tastes.
And as GayNZ highlights, the Spanish mens water polo team are damned hot...
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Trevor Loudon's conspiracy blog New Zeal is back up again. It's rather entertaining if you know the people he profiles as reds under the bed - perhaps half of the things he says about people are true, but usually out of context, and usually confused. He's promised to expose the communist core of the Greens in the next few months, which will be fun!
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Ok, off topic, but since we're discussing historic English authors, not ridiculously so - Geoffrey Chaucer Hath An Extreme Blog: Go England! It ys Rad!. I haven't laughed so much in weeks.
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I'm just not the kind of utopian who thinks any government (and that includes one where John Key is sitting at the head of the Cabinet table) is going to eliminate "everyday grief and hassle." I'd love to live in that world, but it's not this one.
No, neither do I. But they can do a lot to make the problem better or worse, and in many cases the grief and hassle that accumulate with certain policies is quite predictable, because similar policies in other times and places have caused much of exactly that.
Mind you, there's a section of the population that thinks that giving grief and hassle is a brilliant thing.
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Who said anything about leaving women and children to fend for themselves.
So where are these; people looking after children, sick, unemployed, invalid, and people otherwise unable to work, going to get their money from? Beg their families to support them, like people used to have to do? Become beggars on the street? Depend on the unpredictable generosity of kind strangers? Sell their bodies?
These are all things that happen quite regularly in countries that don't have welfare systems to protect those in need. I'm quite glad we have the option of not having that problem - we're not Bangladesh for goodness sake, and most of the population agrees.
And we're not Denmark either, for that matter. We're actually pretty parsimonious, pretty retributive, and pretty restrictive, compared the happiest nation on earth.
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No Grant, the burden of proof is on you.
Where are they, these more than 99% who don't really need their benefits? Are 99% of people on the unemployment benefit actually pretending they can't find a job? Are 99% of people on the sickness benefit pretending they are sick? Are 99% of people on the invalids benefit actually capable of working? Are 99% of people on the DPB not actually devoting their time to raising a child?
Are more than 99% of people able to hide savings and income from the IRD and WINZ, who demand proof of penury before handing over a cent?
Where's your fucking evidence?