Posts by BenWilson
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
I like to watch but have never played, beyond backyard matches when I was very small. It's rough as heck. My Dad pretty much didn't recommend it, despite having (by his own confession) having only done 7th form so that he could play in the Kelston 1st 15, and being a lifelong rugby lover.
Perhaps it was the timing - I was about the age to start rugby in 1981 and he was strongly anti-tour (although he sneakily watched every game in the delayed coverage, after coming back from demonstrations). But more to the point, I was anti-tour as probably my first true political decision (of course strongly parentally influenced) and I found much to dislike in the attitudes of the rugby players amongst my peer age (who were, ironically, mostly PI and Maori). Also, it was exactly the same time that NZ was building up to that glorious time we got into the soccer world cup, so soccer was a natural choice. I played that until the day that I got fucking sick of the annoying team manager and quit on the spot.
I switched to Judo, then later Tae Kwon Do. My father would not accept either choice as sufficient for the sporting side of my development, despite the fact that he was an accomplished Judoka himself. When I showed talent at Waterpolo, he pushed really hard for me to continue, and I reached a high standard, playing it competitively, but still for fun, until well into my 30s.
I think it was a good call of his - by sport, he meant team sport. There are a lot of very positive aspects of team sports that I got a lot out of throughout my life. To this day some of my best friends are people I played waterpolo with. This has never been the case for the martial arts, even though I've spent at least as much time doing those over the years, and still do them now for fitness and fun.
I don't think we can generalize my experience or my father's wisdom to all people, though. Some just hate team sports and will never enjoy them, and yet might have a lot to gain from physical training of a more individual kind. And I acknowledge that health-wise, the jury is probably out on the true benefit of sport. Quite aside from the counterbalancing aspect of serious injury, there is that thing that people tend not to do team sports once they are beyond competitive age, whereas individual sport can be for life (even martial arts can be continued indefinitely, so long as you don't compete in brutal competition). And individual physical training need not be sport - even more enduring is healthy habits, which I think are actually negatively influenced by sport, particularly professional sport. In this regard, I think our obsession with sport does us a dis-service, and all the more so because that sport happens to be rugby, a game which has a particularly big toll on the human body, a particularly specific body type and mentality required, and a historically male-oriented culture.
-
Hard News: A better thing to believe in, in reply to andin,
I kid myself it might be groovy if two million yrs in the future our descendants are around to watch as this galaxy merges with the Andromeda galaxy.
I think that's pegged for more like 4 billion years, so if we're still in this hood we probably won't want to be relying on our sun for much, since it will be turning into a red giant by then.
But yes, it would be groovy if we could make it to the 2 million year mark. I doubt we'd be in anything like our current form, though.
-
Really enjoyed it, thanks to all the people for putting it on. Loved the official proceedings, particularly Tonnon. But as always with PA events, it was the chatting around that was most enjoyable. Really nice to meet Maria, and I barely noticed the cold whilst chatting to Martin - we both looked up from some deep discussion to realize night had fallen, the entire place had cleared out, been replaced with new patrons, and we were both shivering with the cold, and looking forward to jumping on pushbikes straight after. Fortunately for me, it was only to my van. Martin was going all the way back to our mutual 'hood on his crazy .... I don't even know what you call it .... delivery bike?
-
Up Front: Stand for... Something, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
LOL, nice, dude. That's a better message. Sadly, our prime minister employs IT people so it wouldn't slip through the cracks.
I can't see the NZ, though. I see a silver fern.
-
Up Front: Stand for... Something, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
This one?
That's evil man. 666 is in there, plain to see if you're a computer.
-
Hard News: A better thing to believe in, in reply to Briar Ingledew,
When you're an All Black the whole country loves you; but when you're an MP half the country hates you. Well said that man.
Yes (although it overstates support in both cases). Particularly the moment they open their mouth on policy. I don't think countless appearances before an adoring media is any preparation for being torn a new one by even one difficult interviewer, much less going head to head with an experienced politician.
-
Hard News: A better thing to believe in, in reply to 81stcolumn,
I’m not sure if this is paywalled or not.
It is. An unfortunate consequence of academic professionalism. One point for rugby - delayed broadcasts are usually free :-)
-
Hard News: A better thing to believe in, in reply to Katharine Moody,
But of late one can only wonder how All Blacks management have allowed this politicisation to get quite out-of-hand. It denigrates the team and the sport.
Yes, it seems to me that rugby has a lot less to gain out of the National Party than vice versa.
-
Hard News: A better thing to believe in, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
Up to this point in my life, I genuinely had no idea that people played rugby for pleasure.
Surely that's hyperbole? What ulterior motive were you ascribing to all the people who aren't professional that play it, which is 99.99% of them?
-
This is obviously ridiculous. The law should not automatically suppress the fact that police have shot and killed someone. Not only should it not automatically be suppressed, I’m not sure it should ever be suppressed. The death of someone at the hands of those exercising state power is an issue of the highest public importance.
I totally agree with all of this. It's both impractical (we all knew within a few hours anyway), and not clear what kind of public interest it is in. The basic undisputed facts should be made known almost immediately. I can understand a law against claiming or speculating that it was suicide, but that's where the public interest ends, so far as I can see. If anything, the secrecy harms not just the public interest, but the police's interests too, because speculation of an unjustified killing is even more likely in the absence of official facts.
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 129 130 131 132 133 … 1066 Older→ First