Posts by giovanni tiso

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  • Field Theory: Long Weekend,

    Don't forget "sleeping giant" and "she/he has a big engine" and "winding it up now"

    That would make the game effectively lethal.
    I have to say the guy did a much better job today though. Almost didn't spoil the event.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Long Weekend,

    Nooooooo... they're recyicling the cycling pursuit commentator for the triathlon.

    Cue drinking game: you take a little sip every time the guy says protocol or physiology; the prize is a guaranteed trip to A&E.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Up Front: Not Such a Hard Word After All,

    I won't hold my breath waiting

    That seems a very wise course of action.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Long Weekend,

    Swimming at the Olympics needs a serious scythe taken to it. A ridiculous number of medals, and a ridiculous number of relays.

    Yes, and what's with all the different styles? I'm sure that Bolt would probably win the 100 metres starjumping too, but he's not given that option.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Long Weekend,

    I liked the Guardian's mach report headline: All Blacks manage crisis.

    I'm printing T-shirts with the phrase: If only all our crises were like All Blacks crises.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Olympic Eye Candy,

    Anyone else notice that the TV One news repeatedly mentioned how confused everyone was after the women's double sculls, and despite showing the finish of the race 3 times, didn't once play Pete Montgomery's race-end commentary?

    I've seen it replayed at least three times. And I too thought the Germans had won purely on the basis of their flag appearing first, which is what happened with the winner of every other race. I think we could probably let PM off the hook on this one, you go and call it live like that. And, as others have remarked, he did sound like Noel freaking Coward compared to the commentator of the cycling pursuit.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Up Front: Not Such a Hard Word After All,

    Yes, just a teeny bit too late.

    It's not so much that, it's the fact that they pardoned him. The Onion's Pope Forgives Molested Children piece as usually was not that far removed from reality.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Up Front: Not Such a Hard Word After All,

    I think the previous Pope's "pardoning and rehabilitating" of Galileo takes some serious beating in terms of non-apology apology.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Up Front: A Short Word Before We Begin,

    Special thanks to Giovanni. Your reference to the speech to the TED Foundation by Sir Ken Robinson is an absolute gem.

    The principal of my son's primary school put me on to this a couple of months ago and I've since become positively evangelical in bugging people about it. The witnesses of Jehovah have nothing on me, I tell you.

    But since I didn't really explain what it was about: Sir Ken's central contention is that our public education systems (and he means worldwide, really - sweeping statement backed by pretty good first-hand knowledge I suspect) are designed to un-teach creativity, and that we should be doing just the opposite. It's not a radically new idea, but when you happen to find somebody who knows how to communicate it, boy, it does inspire. Plus there are jokes aplenty, it's good fun.

    I'll even repost the link.

    Could I also interest y'all in a copy of The Watchtower?

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

  • Hard News: Just marketing to the base,

    Dickens may be useful to historians with the deatil of his descriptions.

    I wouldn't underestimate the part where he makes the middle class aware of what the hell is going on. But that's just me.

    I've been busy applying slices of ham to the screen to cover Craig's last few posts on this subject. He's entitled to his opinion, etc., ça va sans dire, but sometimes I'm just too sensitive. So before I start shouting "la-la-la-laaa I can't hear youuu" with hands firmly applied to my ears I just wanted to copypaste the following paragraph from Hard Times.

    It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but, as matters stood it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled. It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of buildings full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness. It contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and tomorrow, and every year the counterpart of the last and the next.

    Too fucking right, Charles. Too fucking right.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report

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