Posts by JackElder
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This tech-writer thing is starting to get a wee bit scary.
*cough* Another tech writer here. Though I did dabble in governance/compliance at my last job. Got into it as several other people did: the old "What do you do with an MA in Philosophy?", realised that the chance of finding anyone willing to pay big bucks for analyses of meta-ethical positions was low, and ran with the analytical skills/teaching/tech support stuff that'd carried me through varsity. Boom, one tech writer.
My school regime lurched through several countries, leaving me with a fairly non-standard set of test results. I did pretty well on the SAT, for instance, which is absolutely no bloody use to anyone when you get back to NZ in time for 7th form. Didn't wag, particularly; I used to clear it with my teachers whenever we wanted to, for example, go see William Gibson speak at the lit festival. Ah, youth.
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Paranoia
Trust Santa. Santa is your friend.
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I have no idea when the picture of our house was taken, but I have a good idea of what I was doing when it happened - I was coming down the drive in our car. Action shot!
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The best Robin Hood-related story I know is one that I heard a few years back when I was playing a villager/merry man (same costume, different coloured tights) in a panto. Maid Marion swore blind she'd been at this wedding. This was about, oh, 1991-92 or so. You may recall some Robin Hood-related media activity at that time, complete with Annoying Song That Stayed In The Charts For Ages. Anyway. A friend of hers was getting married, and decided that she'd like to walk into the church to the tune of that bloody awful song. So she asked the DJ, "can you play that song from Robin Hood?" "Yes, but are you sure?" came the reply. "Of course!" Come the wedding day, bride is about to walk into the church, father of bride gives the nod to the DJ to start the record. And lo! Out it blares! "Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Riding through the Glen..[etc]". Bride is forced to break into a near-trot to keep pace, hilarity ensues, and the world is saved from another dose of bloody Bryan Adams.
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the Logan's Run remake which has had so many changes of director and screenwriter that it looks hopeful it'll never be made.
Now, a remake of Logan's Run I'd go for. The original book (yes, there was a book) was great - contrasting the supposed wide-open nature of a world where everyone can go anywhere they want and do pretty much anything, with the claustrophobia of them then being killed at age 21. Moving the age from 21 to 30 is just one of the many mistakes the movie made. Brilliant 70s "fear of the young" stuff.
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Actually, I'd have to say that you could get a pretty good result by simply a) legalising gay marriage and b) decriminalising bigamy. Bang, everyone can marry whoever they want, as many times as they want.
I'd vote for it. Only objection is, as mentioned, that it's going to get very, very complicated in terms of messy divorces.
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Also, don't forget that polygamy is a very one-sided concept. One man, many wives. Never the other way around.
Not to nitpick, but that's polygyny, not polygamy. Polygamy is just the having of multiple spouses. Polyandrous societies (one woman, multiple men) are much rarer than polygynous ones, but have existed. Fraternal polyandry (where multiple brothers marry the same woman) is probably the most common. The popular conception of polygamy is very much the "one man many wives" one, though.
That's not marriage as an equal partnership between two people, that's marriage as a contract of ownership (and, in many contexts, that's precisely what it is).
No, it's a contract of association between mutliple partners. Who may or may not be equal, just as the participants in a conventional two-partner marriage may or may not be equal.
It's not ownership any more than a normal marriage is.And what's the problem here? If two women and a man want to get married, and assign all their legal benefits to all the other members of the trio, why not? If two women and three men want to, why not? As long as everyone involved is going in with their eyes open, go nuts.
I think there would be a few practical problems, mind. What if a married couple want to add a third person to the marriage? What happens when one partner leaves - do the others automatically stay married to each other? How would you work out alimony?
As with so many things in life, this would be easier if I had a whiteboard to draw diagrams.
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Indeed, laws should change over time to reflect contemporary culture. The origins of law are kind of beside the point - yes, that tells us how we got to where we are, but it doesn't answer the question of whether where we are is a good place to be.
Basically, laws are like a Hollywood scriptwriter in a meeting with a producer. Look, baby, we love the stuff you've done for us, you've always produced high quality product for us, but what have you done for us lately? I mean, I'd love to keep you on the books, but you've got to be giving us the good stuff right now, you know?
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Er... ancient Greece?
All together now: "THIS! IS! SPARTA!!!!!!!1!!!!!ELEVEN!!!"
Ahem. On preview, what Emma said.
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How can you have a blue cloud James? Apart from anything else, it would very difficult to see against the background.
So how do you know there aren't blue clouds? Maybe there's lots of them, but you've always mistaken them for part of the sky.