Posts by Stephen Judd
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I agree with Jack about drivers only looking for certain things, and I think this is plausible going by the research that shows that as the number of cyclists goes up, the rate of fatal accidents per cyclist goes down -- car drivers get used to cyclists being around and start to "see" them.
(It's possible of course that as conditions become safer, more people cycle, and that the causality actually goes the other way, but I understand this is not the standard explanation.)
I also think drivers AND pedestrians don't turn their heads far enough to the right when they look, so they miss cyclists vooming along the left-hand side of the lane.
Apropos Ben's paean to motorised transport: for the next five minutes I found myself checking out beginner motorcycle models. I already have a motorbike learner license from my scooter days...
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A cop will actually visit the house of those people who agree you should have the licence and talks to them for like 15 minutes.
Yeah, it's the nearest thing we have to a certificate of sanity.
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a men-only suicide prevention conference where all the quoted sources say they're fine with it
Actually, I think that's very interesting. At least as newsworthy as if some did object.
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Scratch seems very appropriate for a younger child. But I think at 15, things aimed at little kids are demeaning and toy-like. By that age you should have the intellectual horsepower and stickability to tackle "real" programming if you want to. There's a bajillion easier or more interesting pursuits out there if not.
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Heh, actually he may also enjoy Try Haskell. Although Haskell is not for everyone...
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Apropos Ruby -- Russell, have you pointed him at Try Ruby! ?
(I also took the liberty of forwarding your request to the NZ Python User Group).
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Ah, the sweet sweet allure of the Freikorps.
Cool it, chaps. Does ACT have an armed paramilitary force breaking heads in the streets of Auckland?
Hide isn't Hitler. He's Quimby.
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One of the policies proposed in Mark Thomas' People's Manifesto collection is that goats are to be released into the debating chamber, but the members are forbidden to refer to them.
But perhaps the parliamentary camel just stuck his nose in. As you know, once you let the camel's nose in...
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An electorate that voted a party in on the basis that it was time to give the other side a go for a change is hardly one that really thinks about the future. I don't think enough voters are future-orientated to make a difference.
Once GST rates have actually come in, once the supercity is a complete fuckup, then people will turn on National. Until then, nothing will happen in the polls at all.
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There but for fortunate genetics and an applied brain go I
I have probably said this before, but anyway...
Dad's been doing a lot of digging into the family history.
Once you get past grandparent level, the ancestors are very largely poor workers. Illiterate London bootmakers, Volga river raftsmen. Judging by census data, the UK ones were in fact wretched. For example, my great-great uncles were abandoned boys who were *glad* be sent to the training hulks on the Thames. When my great-grandfather was married, only one of the four parents signing the register could write their name.
Every generation of my family from, say, 1900 until the present has had a greatly improved condition and prospects compared to the previous ones. Universal education, sanitation, labour laws and the welfare state are what allowed our completely invisible potential to be expressed. Genes don't enter into it.