Posts by JackElder
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Personally, I'd rather the State was not positively interfacing with anyone's reproductive organs without obeying the third date rule.
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Informed consent?No, buying you at least two drinks first.
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I had a moment at lunch when a relative mentioned in passing that they follow me on Twitter. Very much a mental "Oh hell, have I been talking about anything embarassing recently?" moment.
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A topical note: sources in Uzbekistan suggest that this form of forced sterilization is still very much on the agenda in some parts of the world.
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I'm talking speedskating rather than cycling. Crazy builds.
Actually, I used to share an office with a dutch bloke who'd been a competitive speed skater in his youth. He reckoned that one of their training regimes was to line up at one side of a field, crouch down, then basically hop forward in a crouch until they got to the other side. Definitely one of those sports where you're really only using one big set of muscles.
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Or like someone's cut up pictures of various different people and mixed up the torsos and the lower bodies... waify emo kids above the waist, rugby players below.
Depends on the discipline. Serious roadies, fair enough, but mountainbiking uses a surprising amount of upper body strength. Competitive MTB'ers tend to be slightly more muscled than you'd expect. And then when you get to the trackies, some of them can carry around rather a lot of upper body muscle. For example, the 1k track sprint relies a lot on an explosive start - the race simply isn't long enough to let you get away with a slow kickoff. So the racers (such as Chris Hoy, a man who you definitely would not want to punch you) can get away with carrying more upper body muscle if it helps them wrench the bikes around to get up to speed fast.
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Personally, I'd be a lot more interested in the winter Olympics if they stopped arsing around and included cyclocross as an event.
But I've got a deep love in my heart for any event that ends up with people dancing around giant inflatable beavers.
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And when was the last time you saw someone at the RWC wipe out after hitting a dog?
I'm specifically referring to this, from the 2007 Tour:
Although you'll note that there was quite a problem that year. Also from 2007:
Note that in both cases, the dog gets up and walks off.
Now tell me you wouldn't want to see that happen on a rugby field, eh?
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Look: let's try and put all this RWC stuff aside, and see if we can get a slice of the really big pie. Yes, I'm talking about seeing if we can host (some of) the action from the world's 3rd most watched sporting event[1].
Yup: the Tour de France.
Think about it.
Loads of spectators - mountaintop finishes at Alpe d'Huez or Ventoux regularly have over a million spectators beside the road.
No single huge demand load on one place - the whole point of the tour is that it moves around, spreading the demand across the country in a thick layer of accommodation and food cash.
Awesome uniforms. One for Haydn there.
Now, I know that someone's going to be a spoilsport and point out the obvious: this isn't France. But! the TdF regularly leaves France. True, mainly it pops into Spain or Germany for short periods, but 3 years out of each 5 it starts out in a different country. For example, 2007 started with two stages in England , 2009 started in Monaco. We're not that far from New Caledonia. I'm sure we could make an argument for a prologue stage around Auckland, then a couple of other stages around the North Island.
Ask yourself: how often do you see swooping helicopter shots of gorgeous scenery as the RWC passes through town at 50kph? And when was the last time you saw someone at the RWC wipe out after hitting a dog? Never, that's when.
[1] There's a citation for this on Wikipedia, but I won't insult your intelligence with the link. As mentioned, these figures are largely made up anyway.
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even, in rare occasions, have friendly get togethers.
What - a kick-around at Christmas, that sort of thing?
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Crap teacher anecdote: in a parent-teacher conference when I was about nine or so (say, 1984), my parents raised the issue of my appalling handwriting. "Oh, that's OK," the teacher explained, "he can just learn to type."
As it happens this was correct, and I've been touch-typing since I was 12. But my parents were unimpressed with the attitude.