Posts by George Darroch
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"I felt then, as I feel now, that the politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organising nothing better than legalised mass murder."
- Harry Patch (until 2009, the last surviving man to have fought in World War One)
As long as there are armed forces, we won't have internalised the lessons of this or any other war.
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Hard News: How about that cricket, eh?, in reply to Russell Brown,
Australia certainly bowled very well, but the lack of desire and determination shown by India was just weird.
That was a strange and sad spectacle. Over after over of singles and dots. It was as if their strategy was "don't get bowled out", which they did anyway with precious little to show for it.
I went to bed at around over 35, when the required run rate had edged over 10.0 and there was no chance they would even approach the lead. Australia would not allow it.
This is how it is in cricket. In the sports I follow, wins are judged in seconds, sometimes hundreds of a seconds. All the competitors are strong. The score in cricket seems to be the result of ability and psychological voodoo.
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That photo of Elliott offering a hand to Steyn is interesting, if you watched it live on the telly Steyn petulantly pulls his hand away from Elliott, turns his back and refuses the hand up.
The disappointment would have been overwhelming.
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See also I’ll sledge India if David Warner won’t, says Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson.
Yeah, I don't see sledging as 'part of the game' or necessary. It makes something pleasant into something quite unpleasant. I know of a few sports where that kind of behaviour would see you heavily penalised.
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I got off the couch for the last over and watched it crouched down behind the coffee table. True story.
I am not a regular coffee drinker, but for some unknown reason had made a strong plunger last night. You can only imagine what the last half hour did to my heart.
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If this is representative, the people that they use for their ratings game are utterly pliable and thrilled to be made into 'stars'. It's not a talent show, it's an entertainment platform.
https://twitter.com/HungryPeachBoy/status/577956597705519105
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Ianmac, I think that people do care. Rhy Jones, the author of this post is a spokesperson with Ora Taiao, a prominent climate change & health lobby group.
These trees are emblematic of a number of issues. After agriculture, our largest emission source is transport, and this has increased massively since 1990. Our present transport path is not good for either humans or the atmosphere. They're about quality of life in the urban environment. And they are of course trees, but excellent represenatives of the class of trees, and as such more loveable than the millions of pinus radiata that have been cut down to make way for dairying in the last 10 years.
Given that this is a winnable fight, it's one worth having, even if "Riggles" the angry traffic engineer wins. I hope he doesn't.
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I had a look at the Pitchfork list a few days ago and felt completely out of touch. I knew about a tenth of the artists, and even few of their songs. I think we're living in a very diverse music environment. It's thrilling, and sometimes overwhelming.
I hadn't heard of War on Drugs. But I'm happy to join the consensus, and on initial impressions they're most like the Phoenix Foundation in my lexicon. Very smooth and warm instrumentation behind affected vocals.
On a slightly different tip, I've been enjoying Robyn and Kindness collaboration, in which they channel early-90s R&B and Kate Bush. (Not generally a fan of these kinds of videos, but the song carries this one.)
And this monstrous headbanger of gravelly synths, dirty bass, and Robyn's trademark emotion.
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I think that so much of our issue with sex stems from the fact that we've separated it from normal human behaviour.
You're having a party. You have people who are welcome; you may have decided that it's only by written invite. But that's only the beginning. There is behaviour which is acceptable with different people in different contexts. Bringing over a pig to roast might make you very popular in some circles, and be quite upsetting to a group of vegetarians. You're probably best to ask, and don't be offended if someone says no.
The problem is that there is a high level of assumed intimacy in sexual relations, and we're usually not very good at bringing up these matters without threatening that implied intimacy. Asking someone to bring the volume down a bit - it's 1am and the neighbours won't be impressed - reasonably easy. Asking someone to turn the volume down a bit... well, perhaps they never consented to quietness....
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From crisis comes opportunity - and if the worst result in generations isn't enough to allow a party to present refreshment and renewal, what is?