Posts by giovanni tiso
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giovanni, well, the Italians can claim those biscuits with flies in them.
I'd rather claim the Renaissance (oh yes, I was there) but I guess we'll take what we can get these days.
Regarding the Scots and their inventiveness...It all comes down to a long tradition of equal access to education. They had the original knowledge economy.
Pity they couldn't invent an alternative to frying all their food.
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Great stories, let's see if I can lower the standard.
Even before my induction at the Scuola Elementare Pietro Micca, which looks like a military compound and is named after a suicide bomber (don't believe me? check out the adorable mascotte, a barrell of TNT with tiny legs and arms), I figured that it was going to be the end of my childhood. That's because my notion of what school was was based on my sister, who being nine years older at the time was in her first year of high school, aka medieval boot camp, aka we'll crush you, adolescent scum, aka let's see how you can handle the fundamentals of Greek philosophy in the original.
As it turns out, the homework wasn't quite as crushing as I had anticipated, but I did have a ghoulish old teacher who tried to correct my left-handedness and who sent me home in tears one day on account of the fact that "there was no room in her classroom for people who made mistakes". But thankfully she retired at the end of the first year, to be replaced by an experimental programme with four young teachers and it was really a lot of fun. So I have nothing much to complain about.
My most enduring memory of primary school is that of my best mate, holding a football and crying his eyes out on account of the fact that on that particular day we couldn't play soccer during the morning break. They were burning a pile of rags on the middle of our concrete pitch, it was really quite a raging fire, but he reckoned we could play around it. I'll always love him for that.
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telephones
See, you and I are going to have to strongly disagree on that one. It's a well known fact that before uttering the phrase "Watson, come here, you handsome thing you," Bell telephoned Antonio Meucci, who had owned a teletrofono for quite some time.
golf
Now I know whom to blame.
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I'd like to thank you all for directing me to the Kiwiblog thread.
Seriously, thanks a bunch.
(Reaches for a bottle of hard liquor.)
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Gerevich's record was...
...and won Gold...Holy crap.
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Is the idea that one should only "debate" from a position of broad agreement with the general leaning of a forum?
When you taunt rather than argue, willfully ignoring the points raised against your assertions in favour of handpicking the few volleys that you can return (generally by means of non-sequiturs or accusations that you're being ostracised), then it amounts to trolling, yes. You could accuse PA of being a community of broadly similar, moderate left-leaning views, but there are some very notable exceptions and besides there's nothing wrong with shared values.
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So far, for what claims to be a thinking man's forum, this place has done little but dodge.
Other than demonstrating the logical fallacy of your premise, and providing countless examples of present and past situations where a non-existent or diminished welfare state leads and led to people starving as opposed to full employment and economic/social progress.
But by all means, keep trolling if you feel that it's a good use of your time.
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And the opening ceremony is always showbiz..it's a production, pure and simple and should be treated as such.
I'd have to disagree. Sure, it's a spectacle, but it's not as if values and ethics and politics don't enter into it, given the broader significance of the event that is being introduced. I admit to finding the use of aboriginal imagery in the Aussie ceremony more disturbingly exploitative than the fake singer in Beijing, but it wasn't a proud moment for the organisers, no.
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If so, thats tragic.
Turns out it was just one woman. Still tragic, but I admit I was relieved.
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declare my name
Did he actually say that, or did they write it down wrong? The Dom today offered the headline "Women dies at train station" so I'm putting my money on the latter for now.