Posts by BenWilson
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Southerly: A Blog on Behalf of an…, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
Perhaps so, but I know Horan personally, so I've got some idea of how far superior he is to average Joe in intellect, ability, and integrity. I'd go with Joe.
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Southerly: A Blog on Behalf of an…, in reply to David Haywood,
the legislation is developed by elected professional politicians as now
Images of David Garrett and Brendan Horan flash through my mind. They're professional in so far as they get paid, but the line's not far from there, really. And these jurors would be paid, hence professional. I'd be amazed if there wasn't at least one person in a jury of 12 that's more eloquent than David Shearer.
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Southerly: A Blog on Behalf of an…, in reply to David Haywood,
As an idea, it's a slight improvement on our current system. I don't think the idea of age stratifying the groups makes any sense, but a participatory democracy for the upper house isn't a terrible idea. The numbers seem way too low, there's an unacceptably big chance of getting a non-representative group in there. Also, I don't see the need for the lengthy term, upon which the strange choice of demographic was founded. If it were, say, a month, then pretty much anyone could participate at some time in their life.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Partners in Vacancy, in reply to Chris Waugh,
That’s not a factor that’s important in urban China, but ease of getting shoes on and off in a society that requires you to swap shoes for slippers or jandals when you enter somebody’s home is.
It's sufficiently common here that it's a factor in my decision. My place is a no-shoes house.
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OnPoint: BTW, the NZ Police can use…, in reply to Colin Fleming,
Indeed, even if they're only keeping a few gigabytes of data on me, that's a few gigabytes too many.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Partners in Vacancy, in reply to Chris Waugh,
think you’ll find a lot more shoelace-free friends up here. Slip ons are quite popular in China.
I don't think any of that article was trying to generalize beyond the First World, as it was in 1990. I've never been to China, but I'd be amazed if the changes in cultural styling since the 90s aren't significant. I am personally more likely to look to China for future ideas.
I think you’ll find a lot more shoelace-free friends up here. Slip ons are quite popular in China.
I think that's part of the reason that it doesn't catch on. It's seen as a tacky made-in-China kind of idea, symptomatic of the disposal good lifestyle. It doesn't matter that they're actually better. They just say a little bit too loud that the shoe is a disposable item.
Also, I think there's some kind of attachment to lace tying, as the cultural touchstone of one's ability with knots generally. It's obviously impractical to still be tying up a shirt, so we use such things as buttons and zips and clasps and domes, but with shoes for men, it's like some last bastion of one's connection to being a creature of the great outdoors.
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As for new stylings, my decision to lead the trend of losing shoelaces altogether has never caught on, but I've grown accustomed to not having to tie my shoes on with string, and won't go back. It makes buying shoes a little difficult, but I'm determined, in an age where the sole lasts less time than the velcro, never to trip over another shoelace in my life.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Partners in Vacancy, in reply to Chris Waugh,
But on the other hand I do agree with some of the stuff in there
Yeah, it couldn’t possibly be that like civil aviation, the car industry is getting so closed to the aerodynamic ideal that massive style changes are impractical and, well, stupid.
Nah, I don't buy it. SUVs are ridiculously OTT vehicles, and the likes of Hummers take that into a whole new zone of stupid. But the stylings of these things really is in statis. Absent faded paint, a car from the 90s can pass as one from the late noughties. When I think how radically different even the cars from the 80s I have owned were, let alone the 70s and that horrible 60s car that was my first ever lemon, I'd agree that there is a real timidity in modern styling choices for vehicles. It's not down to aerodynamic efficiency when it's wings at the back of the vehicle, or interior fabric colouring. It certainly isn't when we're talking about the entirely monochrome exteriors.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Partners in Vacancy, in reply to Chris Waugh,
It's hard to even continue with an article that starts with:
Only 20 years ago the World Wide Web was an obscure academic thingamajig. All personal computers were fancy stand-alone typewriters and calculators that showed only text (but no newspapers or magazines), played no video or music, offered no products to buy.
I can distinctly remember that my VIC20, from over 30 years ago, was capable of music and non-textual graphics. 10 years later computers were pretty much in their current form, just a hundred times slower. The modern Windows doesn't really look any different to Windows 95. 20 years ago isn't that long. The World Wide Web was indeed in it's infancy, but it was not obscure. Abso-frikken-lutely everyone was getting on it as fast as they could because they could see how wicked it was. Buying stuff online was possible, since credit cards have been around since ... er ... well my whole life anyway.
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Hard News: This time it's Syria, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
wouldn’t even allow U2 overflights of the USSR without the aircraft being unmarked, unarmed and flown by a nominal civilian.
Yes, I consider Bono a weapon of mass destruction, frankly.
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