Hard News: Standing up and calling bullshit
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If they can find me some outraged amputee veterans to quote I'll reconsider my position, but somehow I doubt that's going to happen.
I couldn't promise you there are none, but there didn't seem to be any in the half-dozen outrage stories I looked at.
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And:
A month old
I forgot to thank George Dubya.....
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Ross - my mother who has severe arhtritis and who had polymyalgia rheumatica (that goes away eventually, with prednisone) was helped by both the ACC Fall Prevention programme *and* a course of Tai Chi.
The latter isnt total woowoo at all...but I wish the ACC Falls prevention programme wasnt being axed. For purely selfish reasons (osteo arthritis is an increasing problem for me - it's even getting in the way of my fishing. Grrr!) -
Islander. Yes. Group therapy is cheaper???
I will be asking the Minister to demonstrate the efficacy of it compared to the Otago programme.
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I AM waiting for Russell to mention the dropping of the ACC Fall Prevention Programme that the instigators suggest has halved the number of falls since it was started.
........oh...and the fact it has been replaced by......Tai Chi.
Oh dear....
I smell magnetic underlays coming through again.....The dropping of the fall prevention programme seems unfortunate to me, given its apparent success.
But I don't think that tai chi is really magnetic underlays territory. And neither does The Mayo Clinic, which recommends tai chi exercises to reduce stress, develop balance and co-ordination ... and prevent falls.
I suppose this is the point where I point to studies for you to dismiss because they can't possibly be correct.
Here we go then:
Intense tai chi exercise training and fall occurrences in older, transitionally frail adults: a randomized, controlled trial (American Geriatric Society)
And:
Tai chi outperforms traditional stretching exercises for arthritis sufferers in a small trial.
There are quite a few others, but, clearly, they can't be true either.
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Now most teachers don't know how to use apostraphes and have Forest Gumpesque intelligence.
Is that so?
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I will be asking the Minister to demonstrate the efficacy of it compared to the Otago programme.
Which is quite a different proposition to the claim that tai chi exercise is sham therapy, which is what you seemed to be claiming there.
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when you deal with enough dead babies and pregnant women in severe physical and emotional truma you reach for whatever coping mechanism that doesn't leave you in your own version of Nurse Jackie. But black humour in the break room is one thing; in front of patients and families. Hell no.
I used to work for an inner London social services office in a support capacity. Which was quite enough involvement with the more unpleasant side of human nature for me to cope with without having to do home visits as well.
Took me a while to work out why people outside the office didn't appreciate me passing on the hilarious 'dead baby' jokes I heard at work.
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Re: Jimmy Carr, it's probably worth noting the joke is about but isn't at the expense of amputees. Which distinction tends to be lost as the blood rises.
There will be about who thing you shouldn't make jokes about some things as well, but I can't say as I recall ever agreeing.
Mind you, in assessing my opinion on this you may want to take into account that I also think The Chaser's Make-A-Realistic-Wish Foundation sketch wasn't at the expense of kids with cancer either.
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I'm pleased to say that we've just confirmed Mark Broatch for this week's Media7, to discuss his new book, In a Word: The essential tool for finding the perfect word.
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I too am keen to find out what the deal is with those appalling Party Political Broadcasts for Bill English for TVNZ 7 (which I've seen on other channels as we don't have Freeview yet)...
And I agree on Jimmy Carr, seemed pretty pointedly funny to me.
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And I note that banner ads to support Plain English are running on this site.
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I too am keen to find out what the deal is with those appalling Party Political Broadcasts for Bill English for TVNZ 7 (which I've seen on other channels as we don't have Freeview yet)...
Um, I'd suggest folks take a deep breath and remember TVNZ&'s branding has been blue since the days of the eeevil Liarbore Dykeocracy. and English is the MINISTER OF FINANCE, people.
Though I've got to admit the monstrously twee strapline "The Economy in Plain English" makes me want to snort some insulin, I think you can put that down to a over-stimulated punny bone rather than political bias.
And I note that banner ads to support Plain English are running on this site.
Shit, Russell, you've been rumbled as a tool of the VRWC. Fall back to Safe House Alpha, tune your mind control chip to setting two, and await instructions. :)
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Now most teachers don't know how to use apostraphes and have Forest Gumpesque intelligence.
So tell us, Brickley, how exactly does one use an apostraphe? And who the hell is Forest Gump? Curious minds want to know.
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Heck, even about underwear. If your panties have a waist, you're wearing them wrong.
Most of the time, yes. But there are such things as high-waisted panties. Don't ask me how I know these things. Nevertheless, it's a wasted metaphor.
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And I note that banner ads to support Plain English are running on this site.
Indeed. I trust you don't really expect me to ban them ...
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Seeing as I just saw it...
McSweeney's: An Interview with Dr. Cruelty Regarding the Supervillain Sense of Humor
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Russell.
I think the primary sentence of the AGS study tells me that this survey is insufficient to justify replacing (an alleged) successful programme.The results from this study show that a 48-week TC
intervention for transitionally frail older adults did not lead
to a statistically significant reduction in fall risk.Yes, I did note "the trend" but we need to be careful about extending "trends" until the data fits.
And be very wary of a survey that appeared to be designed to give the "expected result" where the authors practically admitted they thought TC would be better:
First, in determining the sample size
requirements, the authors did not anticipate the time delay
required for these transitionally frail persons to be fully
performing the TC forms and overestimated the TC benefit
over WE.My italics
The second is a Reuters news clip. Again hardly significant.
Lets wait and see.
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heh - sadly I have a W F Buckley voice somewhere in the back of my head (from years of boring PBS talk shows) but no Gore Vidal one
The crypto-Nazi and the Queer sounded unnervingly alike -- putting the P in patrician, even when they were hurling abuse at each other on live television...
Take that you pantywaists!
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So tell us, Brickley, how exactly does one use an apostraphe?
Apostrafing: hit-and-run assaults on minor issues of punctuation, delivered from on high.
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Equally, it's likely that the response was amplified by the fact that these were Grammar boys. Their school has long touted its own prowess at training young men for leadership, and its old boys have been known to display a raging sense of entitlement. So the flap was greater than it might have been had the students come from a less prominent school.
Grammar's an interesting case. Teachers at Grammar when I was there in the early '90s were, well, teachers, and like teachers anywhere tended to be left-of-centre. Sure, the head of the biology department was a fundamentalist Christian, and told us up-front on the first class of 7th-form bio that he didn't believe in evolution. But one of my Latin teachers was a card-carrying Marxist and used to show us Gore Vidal clips after we finished the course work each term. And certainly, if we'd done anything like those fucktards at the Museum did, we'd have expected a good chewing out in the Principal's office and some serious consequences.
But, that was under different leadership. Things may have changed now. I don't know. And certainly, my sense is that the socio-economics of the Grammar Zone have become even more exclusive than they were 15-20 years ago. There were still working-class enclaves in Mount Eden then. Not so now.
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The NZ media are largely a disappointment; I would add to the recent woe of lows the coverage of Debra Webber in relation to the drowning death of Aisling Symes and with the recent bus disruption the number of times it was called a strike when it was actually a lock out.
Can’t think, can’t spell, can’t read nor write what do you do, consider a career in media?
Bunch of wingnuts.
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Apostrafing: hit-and-run assaults on minor issues of punctuation, delivered from on high.
The price of pedantry is eternal vigilance.
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The second is a Reuters news clip. Again hardly significant.
Lets wait and see.
You might be more impressed by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians' Falls Prevention website, which says:
One type of exercise identified by a number of studies as particularly effective in reducing falls risk and preventing falls is Tai Chi (Wolf et al, 1996; Jacobson et al., 1997; Sun et al., 1996; Hong et al 2000; Tse and Bailey, 1992; Li et al, 2004, etc). Tai Chi is a system of low impact, cognitive and aerobic exercise for health and fitness. It contains weight-bearing and weight-transferring movements. It is characterised by circular and fluid movements flowing in a natural, smooth and ceaseless sequence. Tai Chi emphasizes the importance of dynamic balance, postural control, movement coordination and mental focus. This low-tech and moderate exercise regimen is demonstrated to be effective in counteracting the major amendable physical risk factors and preventing falls.
The idea that a balance-based exercise programme might aid balance isn't really that strange. I suspect if it were called "balanced-based exercise" and not some weird Chinese word, you'd be hailing its virtues.
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Took far too much searching on TVNZ to discover the programme is actually called In The Spotlight. First programme looks to be 9.10pm Nov 3.
monstrously twee strapline "The Economy in Plain English"
It looks like English or one of his trolls have pulled the wool right over the eyes of TVNZ. "Plain English" is the name of his recently resurrected newsletter for Clutha-Southland.
Gotta love Google cache which helps us see that as at 16 September, the thing hadn't been published for three years. Mysteriously the index has now been pulled and replaced with one edition on 23 Sept (and nothing since).
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