Posts by Sam F
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Is there such a thing as a Turing test for satire?
Not sure, but you did remind me of someone's argument that sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
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By the way, didn't you also tell those kids in Otaki that shouldn't get angry over something like the "h" issue? Now the people of Wanganui (according to you) are "angry, upset and disappointed". Maybe they should just get over it and start worrying about important issues like child abuse and child murder.
Oh snap .
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Although if someone presents an argument in a wacky accent claiming they come from the Moon, surely that's fair game?
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Danielle: that was simply superb. Thanks for the link.
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Cheers. I get by with the help of my support group.
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Careful, Russell, you might have just pulled off a Candyman.
Watch out, this sly double entendre will only enrage Bolton further ("normal Nazis don't do that sort of crap", etc).
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That's a wicked find. I love it when people dig up this sort of thing.
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Initial reaction is unsurprising:
A New Zealand Geographic Board ruling that Wanganui must take an 'h' is "racist", city Mayor Michael Laws says.
"It is another racist decision, no question about that," he said on his Radio Live show this morning.
He said he would make no further comment until a press conference this afternoon.
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Speaking of the state of our rugby culture, does anyone want to try and parse this kids' book, from the NZRU online shop?
Coaching & Education>Education>"It's OK to be a boy "
Boys love to climb trees, trade cards, have messy bedrooms and fight with swords.
But they are not always allowed to do these things.
Rugger reckons there are a lot of things that boys can do.In fact, it’s OK to be a boy!
Is this some kind of blast against our anti-wild child nanny state? What, in fact, is a boy to do when all of those things are denied him? Are girls allowed to do all of these things, or none of them, or do they simply not exist in this particular kids' sporting universe? I think we should be told.
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Sorry for the diversion - it all reminds me of this (culled from an old paper hiding on my USB drive). Only slight relevance but a nice touch of grisliness...
[Through the 13th century in Europe] such independence was reinforced by the immunity that many university students and masters had from both secular and religious authorities. The mobility of universities also allowed them to pressure local authorities through the tactic of cessatio or strikes; thousands of students and staff would simply cease teaching and move to another town.
The University of Paris is perhaps the best example of this extraordinary power and the ways in which it could be brought to bear. University students at Paris were protected both from secular punishment by their clerical status and from local ecclesiastical punishment by a special order of the papacy. After students clashed with the Provost of Paris in 1229, the university declared a six-year ban on teaching and studies in the city, and several thousand students and masters left Paris. The cessatio was lifted two years later after the Pope interceded with the King of France on the university's behalf and the masters’ demands were met.
On another occasion, the Provost hanged two students in 1304, only to be forced by a cessatio to take the decaying corpses down two months later, "kiss them fairly on the mouth, and bury them with his own hands in hallowed ground."