Hard News: Watch your step?
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Just a Heads-up: it's entirely possible this has been mentioned before, but the submissions deadline for the copyright bill has been extended to the 9th of March. The parliamentry website still gives two dates, but I gave them a call and they confirmed the 9th is the correct one.
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Doesthe Unicef report report on the number of young people killed on the roads?
Ou lunacy of allowing 15 year olds to drive must contribute a high percentage of death and injury raising the the tol in comparison to those who do not allow young adults to drivel.
Raise the driving age to 16,17 0r even18 when science suggests the brain is better equipped to deal with analysing danger more effectively might reduce the toll.Only of course if it can be efectively policed. Now would that not take a brave politician!!
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merc,
I don't think we should allow adults to drivel either. Mind you it would be a brave politician who could enforce that!
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That Gregory Isaacs clip is a wonder. I saw him at a London Reggae Sunsplash, circa 84/85 and he was truly mesmerising, and I got to meet members of the Roots Radics about the same time....although I was told by others I was with that he was well off form..serious substance problems at the time, not that I could tell. It's always bemused me how such a bad boy can have such a voice, but I guess that is simply part of the attraction....the voice of an angel with a flick knife in his back pocket
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Read my first bit of Investigate today in the doctors waiting room, waiting for a double dose of penicillin in my butt. I imagine Wishart would have been bitter about everything about that. Taking drugs intravenously. Letting a man see my butt. Finding that it didn't hurt as much as people say it does. Probably having the state pay for some of it (wouldn't know). Not being at work during.
The article claimed to be exploding myths about Palestine/Israel. All that actually exploded was my patience for reading something with zero citations of any factual nature at all. A glossy rightist blog without comments to keep it sane.
Then again, the Economist was starting to sound just the same, which is scary. It used to be a good read.
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What are the sides in the Hero debate? Het/homo? Dom/sub? In/out?
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Brrrrring! woah, yeah...... Tenor saw, the soundboy killer... thanks for that. Made my day. And re - Great Blend - its not right without a barbie.
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merc,
Great Blend Barbie? She wasn't there?
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What are the sides in the Hero debate? Het/homo? Dom/sub? In/out?
On past form, there's my side and the side that's adjudged to have won. Bah, mumble, etc ...
I do actually enjoy speaking for gay audiences - you really get full value for your jokes. It helps if the jokes are dirty, of course.
MOOT IS: That "wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others" .... Oscar Wilde
Affirmative team is:
Lianne Dalziel
Steven Gray
Charles ChauvelNegative team is:
Chris Carter
Russell Brown
Jeremy Lambert -
merc,
Apparently we are all innately gay, it's just social conditioning that makes us otherwise.
Only a Catholic knows that pleasure deinied is pleasure indeed. And that may mean catholic in the broader sense of taste... -
A Catholic is more capable of evil than anyone.
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Apparently we are all innately gay, it's just social conditioning that makes us otherwise.
And how does that work in evolutionary terms?
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It's the Pink Evolution, dahlin'.
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merc,
Hehhe, I was joking, but Juha saved me.
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Raise the driving age to 16,17 0r even18 when science suggests the brain is better equipped to deal with analysing danger more effectively might reduce the toll.
Since we've just removed a bunch of license requirements from the elderly, who are scientifically proven to be lower and less acute than the young, and are the fastest-rising group of ftalities and injuries on the road, that would be a bit of a contradiction of policy trends.
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"be lower" should of course read, "have lower response times"
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Re Gregory Isaacs
..although I was told by others I was with that he was well off form..serious substance problems at the time, not that I could tell. It's always bemused me how such a bad boy can have such a voice
Unfortunately over the last 10-15 years Gregory has continued to suffer and you're more likely to get the off night nowadays. He's pretty shot up apparently, especially his once wonderful voice, and is magnificent some nights, and non-existent others.
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Peter,
yes I agree. I used to be something of an Isaacs complete-ist some years back, and own about 40 albums I guess, but the downward spiral that began back there, whilst it was arrested somewhat (as he was too, several times) during the quite wonderful Gussie Clarke era, was always evident, especially as he headed into the mid nineties.One of the stories I heard from the Roots Radics was that there was never any money to settle up with the band after a tour, as GI had spent it all. They were continually lured back with the promise of settlement and the odd part payment or advance on the next album, only to be let down again. It was an ongoing cycle, but as was pointed out...he was Gregory...and in Jamaican musical terms he was the closest thing they had to royalty.
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Regarding the debate, it sounds interesting, I like the idea of fighting the wowsers and fun police in New Zealand.
But, do they purposely shy away from more controversial topics, like say,is homosexuality a choice?
should gays and lesbians receive positive discrimination (aka affirmative action)You'd really get two opposing sides in for a debate like that .. not so great if you want to be at the least civil to each other.
Lots of heat and not much light no doubt, but it would be a laugh! -
Sort of off-topic, but also I thought appropriate given the general level in intelligent discourse amongst punters here. This link is Malcolm X at presenting at the Oxford union - and I thought his closing comments spoke to some - eloquent as he often was.
In keeping with random youtube type links and in light of the UNICEF report too.
The oculture site has plenty of other good stuff to chew on.
http://www.oculture.com/weblog/2007/02/malcolm_x_at_ox.html
“I read once, passingly, about a man named Shakespeare. I only read about him passingly, but I remember one thing he wrote that kind of moved me. He put it in the mouth of Hamlet, I think, it was, who said, ‘To be or not to be.’ He was in doubt about something—whether it was nobler in the mind of man to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune—moderation—or to take up arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. And I go for that. If you take up arms, you’ll end it, but if you sit around and wait for the one who’s in power to make up his mind that he should end it, you’ll be waiting a long time. And in my opinion, the young generation of whites, blacks, browns, whatever else there is, you’re living at a time of extremism, a time of revolution, a time when there’s got to be a change. People in power have misused it, and now there has to be a change and a better world has to be built, and the only way it’s going to be built—is with extreme methods. And I, for one, will join in with anyone—I don’t care what color you are—as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth.”
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The Cake Kitchen - now there was an incredibly under-rated band: great live, very good ep and first few albums, too.
Is Graeme Jefferies just back from Europe for a visit, or permanently ?
*Wistfully dreams of This Kind Of Punishment reforming*
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In keeping with random youtube type links and in light of the UNICEF report too.
Yeah baby. That one paragraph you quoted is such a bloody tasty morsel of rhetoric in itself.
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*Wistfully dreams of This Kind Of Punishment reforming*
I know what you mean. That's the way I first read the email alert - both the bro's. It would be really cool to hear 'Beard of Bees' revived live. Chris Matthews would have to be there too, of course.
I could go on about how I was living in the house where 'Beard of Bees' was recorded, but hey ...
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I've seen lots of arguments about US copyright law (against extensions), most of which trace back to the statement in the US constitution which states that copyright law is specifically to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts". It's a fairly straightforward (albeit ineffective) argument that constantly extending the copyright term probably doesn't provide an incentive to create new things as much as to keep living off the old things.
In New Zealand Law, from a layman's perspective, I've had some trouble finding a written justification for having intellectual property laws at all. There's a lot of documentation about what IP laws are, but it's unclear why they're good to have or what the reasoning is for having them. The best New Zealand based explanation I can find is given by MED on their website, where it's stated that:
This exclusive right is justified on the grounds that IPRs give creators and innovators an opportunity to make a return on their investment in creativity or innovation, and provide an incentive for creative or innovative activity that might not otherwise take place.
Even having seen this, there aren't any sources clearly provided so it's difficult to tell if it's the actual reason for IP laws, or if it has simply been written by a lawyer in an attempt to justify laws that we already have.
Sorry if this is a silly question, but can anyone point me to some references in New Zealand that authoritatively justify IP laws for New Zealand's benefit?
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