Posts by Bart Janssen
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Put the label of Asperger's on her, and would the reading inevitably become open to something more distasteful...
But isn't that the art of comedy? To me the very best, most enjoyable comedy is that which exposes what it is to be human, in its sometimes embarrassing detail. And surely being on the autistic spectrum is part of being human.
Done well, comedy is both funny and thought provoking and can make one group or another feel slightly embarrassed.
Done badly it can be sexist, racist, nasty and incredibly not funny as they say dying is easy.
I think BBT rides that balance with us geeks. Does it cross a line with the mother, not for me and not at this time but you are right what may be funny now may be incredibly bad taste in 40 years.
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Good Jelly the Nun?
Nuns in jelly?
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already pwned by World of Warcraft
Well the wearable art did come first.
However, a surprisingly large number of women play WoW.
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But what would beauticians, cosmeticians and plastic surgeons do for a crust?
Not mutually exclusive Sasha. No reason you can't enjoy something and still want to make some changes (checks love handles).
I also knew women who were happy to be nude but would never be seen without make up (shrug).
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Your parents clearly rule.
Yeah I think so.
One issue was warning my friends from school that if they came to visit my house there was a fairly high probability (in summer) of seeing my parents naked. And unlike hollywood, my parents were normal 50 year olds with normal 50 year old bodies.
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When I was about 3 my parents found my older brothers in the back-yard tent with a couple of neighborhood girls playing "doctors". By some curious twist of logic my parents decided that to resolve my brother's er curiosity, the family would join a nudist club. Which meant I grew up spending all my summers running around nude with my friends.
So I was always more than a little puzzled by the boys in the swimming changing rooms who would wrap towels around themselves to avoid having any other boy see their "naughty" bits. And bemused by the attempts to see naked girls especially when we were all 10 and I knew girls looked pretty much the same as boys.
So to see shame about nudity is kind of odd for me. It is part of our culture, exposing genitals in public is wrong in our culture, in much the same way as exposing hair is wrong in other cultures. I get clothes, I understand that clothes can make someone look good, even better than they look naked. But the idea that the naked body is somehow shameful is a pity.
I'm very glad I grew up as a nudist, my friends and I grew up knowing that every body is different and age has real and normal consequences. I don't want to imply that there should be any shame about being body-shy. But equally these are the only bodies we have and enjoying what you have for what it is should also be something that isn't shameful.
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unhealthy vanity thing
Jackie! Hang your head in shame. Not about wanting to show off your silhouette but for thinking for a second your vanity is unhealthy.
Repeat after me "I am gorgeous and enjoying that is NOT unhealthy!"
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Surprised by the number thinking the death penalty is acceptable.
But overall it just shows that morality is diverse.
Because of that diversity of opinion it is very difficult to define what New Zealanders believe is "moral" and even more difficult to use democracy or public opinion to guide law making.
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it does seem to imply a kind of top-down, shadowy cabal, kind of deliberate manipulation.
God no. Didn't mean to imply that. It isn't a shadowy cabal just accountants maximising the amount of money made in the media. that it no longer meets the wants of the public is irrelevant to them so long as they can sell the product.
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If a majority of the public really wanted better journalism, wouldn't we have it?
I don't think the public have much say in what the media presents. I'm not an expert - if only there were someone here who had years of experience in the media...
My understanding is that the media as we have it today is a product, marketed like any other product. Market research is used to figure out what will sell and then accountants play with numbers to compare costs of production versus revenue. In the end what we see is the product with the lowest cost that still brings in the revenue.
That may not be what the market research said the public wanted but instead may be what will have the highest return on investment.
When you add into the equation the factor that many media people believe the public can be convinced to want something they don't otherwise want...
Well I doubt very much that the media we see at 6pm and in the newspapers is even close to what the public want. It is instead the highest profit product that can be made for the lowest cost.
That is starting to change as more people use teh intertubes to find information.