Posts by Chris Waugh
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Buy the Police some tow trucks so they can instantly confiscate the vehicles of offenders.
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to Matthew Poole,
They’re no less lethal, and infinitely more dangerous.
And they would seem to be involved in a lot more death, destruction and general mayhem than are firearms.
One thing I've seen on main roads entering Beijing - way out on the border with Hebei, so a long way before the city - is the traffic cops putting huge concrete blocks in the road that force absolutely all drivers to go through a checkpoint. It's a pain in the arse coming back from my brother in law's place because the traffic is so heavy, but coming back from a different part of Hebei over CNY it was quite amusing to see a big billboard warning truckies they're about to find themselves in a world of trouble if they're overloaded.
Imagine if the NZ Police did that, simply blocked the road so that nobody could avoid a checkpoint.
Oh, and cameras that can see if you've got your seatbelt on or you're using your cellphone while driving. I saw an article reporting Victoria and New South Wales were looking at buying similar cameras.
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to Stewart,
Chris, you’ve been away too long…
Yeah, maybe, but aren't people caught driving while disqualified or otherwise without a licence usually prosecuted? Still, would be nice if they were caught before they crash.
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to Stewart,
That's why we have police - y'know, to like, enforce the rules?
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to Islander,
Generally, these are tourist groups...
Oh, yes, had a lot of trouble of that nature last summer out in Yanqing, expecting more such trouble once the weather warms up. The county government put up signs marking some of the rural roads as a cycle touring route, which is a great idea, except that the tourists don't pay any attention to the fact that the roads are shared use and have many cars, buses and trucks, and have no separate cycle lane. And I know they're tourists because they aren't dressed like they're on the way to or from their fields and aren't carrying farming tools. Turn a corner and slam on the brakes because some fool of a tourist is riding in the centre of the lane completely ignoring the fact there are also motor vehicles on the road. Couple of polite toots to let them know there are cars coming up behind them and they might wish to move over, as is the custom here, a local would move over, but the tourists just sit there in the middle of the lane. I've got no problem slowing down and waiting for a safe spot to pass, but it helps a lot when the cyclists cooperate and cycle like they actually want to get home in one piece.
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Hard News: Television and the Public Good, in reply to Joe Wylie,
I don't know about the 80s Japanese TV series, but the Chinese TV series of the same era seems to be on constant repeat here, to the point where I think I've seen the whole thing, but never in order, and not on any one channel.
and while I’ve read that purists feel that he took liberties with the text, it’s still a more rollicking read than later scholarly English-language versions.
Translation is a very difficult job that often requires one to take liberties with the text.
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Present from home. Seems my mum is loving having a granddaughter, although we do get constant reminders to shift our arses to the right side of the equator. But it's the coolest counting book I've ever seen, builds a story into it, too, when most just have 1 apple, 2 bananas.
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Hard News: Television and the Public Good, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Nice one. Geez, I wish I could translate as well as that.
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Beautiful and very human photos.
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Capture: Roamin' Holiday, in reply to JacksonP,
Somehow that makes me think werewolves.
