Mr. Corporeal, how is a weight limit unworkable? Just weigh them.
Because it's not the weight that has changed so much as they're actually in better physical shape. Someone like Oz Du Randt would still be one of the heaviest players in international rugby.
You'd have to really clamp the weight limit down to make much different, and the main effect would be the players that are especially tall (unless you really had a low limit in).
In literal terms you could do it and make it into boxing with the dehydrating pre-weigh in etc. But I don't think it's going to make much difference in what you're looking for tbh.
Mr. Corporeal, how is a weight limit unworkable? Just weigh them.
Incidentally, that's the exact opposite problem F1 has. Button, for example, is relatively tall and can't put on any muscle (or fat) on whatsoever because the weight would cost him too much (because the weight limits are too tight, and going to get tighter next year).
Edited extra bit: fun fact - gladiators were pretty fat. This helped to put on a good show, because fat bleeds a lot and looks dramatic, and it gave them a little bit more margin between a nasty cut and being mortallty wounded.
Speed TV (RIP) last year had a 1 hour feature at Watkins Glen where Tony Stewart and Lewis Hamilton swapped cars with each other. Tony Stewart (5' 9" and about 190lbs) took a minute to get nto the F1 car. Lewis likewise had a spot of bother initially - Nascar vehicles don't have doors and you climb in through the driver's window.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but F1 could probably learn from Nascar in terms of preventing things like Vettel winning every week and making F1 actually interesting to watch.
Before you ask - NO - I am not a Nascar fan. It's like leaning over a highway overpass and watching traffic. But then at present, so is F1.
I don't even dislike either Vettel or Red Bull - the team was started by Jackie Stewart.
It's like golf 10 years ago when Tiger Woods was winning every major in sight. Now he isn't, watching majors is much more fun. No, I don't dislike Tiger either, although for some reason people keep asking me what's wrong with him.
Thing is iirc, viewing figures go up for dominant champions. Whether it's Tiger or whomever, someone dominating a sport gets name recognition and more people watching. Different guys winning every time maybe more fun, but less advertising $.
The YouGov polling on support for renationalisation of the railways and utilities is interesting, but should be treated with caution, because:
1. it could well just be an extension of the current public dissatisfaction with the status quo, rather than a positive endorsement of a socialist agenda
...
The motivation from the public isn't socialist. People can understand how free markets and competition might work out better in the long run but also understand that a private monopoly or cartel doesn't provide free markets and competition - plus on top of that if you have the situation where you can't physically do something yourself any more (like building nuclear power stations) then you end up paying a massive premium to the people who can.
If you had a list of the industries a majority are in favour of re-nationalising and the ones they're not then you'd see a clear pattern. The ones where competition is physically the hardest to achieve will be the ones with the biggest numbers in support of nationalization.
edit: also it's not bad for the looters. they can re-nationalize, put a lot of public money into them and then sell them off cheap to their mates again. rinse and repeat every couple of generations.
If you don't want to discuss policies or indeed betting, why come on the site?
You've been whining about mythical 70p tax rates for weeks , now you are whining about the system that operates to control it, All you do is whine, whine, whine, its a bit rich to criticise me when all you do is whine.. You are earning loads , you must be to have to have your code restricted,...., live with it. Most people would love to earn what you do.. its typical of lefty doublethink. Recently I have been pointing out hypocrisy to certain people, they don't like being criticised for exactly the same thing they criticise others for.
Thanks for your measured feedback.
It is measured because you are whining about simplicities, if you can't cope with a tax return, get an Acct, it'll cost you a couple of hundred quid at most.
There was a poster called MTF on here who moaned about his pension and Gordon Browns part in it for three years straight. God was he dull
Well he probably had a point, Brown fecked everyone's pensions.
So what do you say to your 19 year old son who has managed to make it to the tip of being a professional rugby player but just cannot handle the pressure involved and so has jacked it all in?
Take his time, make sure he's comfortable about the decision and it's not just a snap thing. Then support him in said decision.
Thank-you. It's obvious when you see it written down. But I guess we had all invested so much in the process that to have it suddenly end is a bit of a shock. But as long as he is happy with what he has done, that's the end of it.
No problem. I was a rugby boy myself (nowhere near pro, but I know guys who were on that track at one time or another and the sort of stresses it puts them under) I think as fitalass says, ask if he wants to drop back down into the hobby side of it (if he's come close to being pro I'd guess he enjoys playing at least, and it keeps his hand in if in a short while he changes his mind). But sometimes guys want to get out of it altogether and go a completely different way.
I think he'll keep on playing. He was just not liking playing at the level he has been at this season. Rugby is a great game, but once you hit a certain standard there is a necessary intensity that you just have to possess in order to take the next step and then the next one. Right now he feels that he does not have it, so instead of pretending he has made a very big (and I think brave) decision to recognise that.
Pro rugby is now bloody dangerous. The players are too big and the hits too intense. Look at Dan Carter.
At least you are spared the worry he might emerge from a scrum in a wheelchair.
Good luck to son and father.
There needs to be a weight limit. The game is in an arms race on body weight and it's injuring too many players too often.
Mass x Acceleration
A load of massively beefy blokes wheezing from cigs and pints is one thing but American football sized blokes running at American Football speeds is another thing entirely.
The NFL recently came to a $675 million settlement with current and former players for medical issues resulting from playing football, primarily concussions.
Football is an incredibly macho sport. Players would have head to head contact, and one of them would lie prone on the field for a few minutes before coming too. He would walk to the sideline, sit out a few plays, say he just had his bell rung, and go back to playing. I have sat high (meaning way up) in the stands at NFL games and heard the loud crack of helmets colliding. Helmets do not prevent or mitigate concusions - they merely prevent your skull from fracturing. Troy Aikman has no memory at all of one of the Superbowls he won - and he was voted its MVP.
The result of multiple concussions, (or more worryingly after a single concussion, subsequent head trauma less than a concussion), can be something called CTE - Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. It is a progressive, degenerative brain disease. There have been several high profile deaths of NFL players from mutiple concussions: google Mike 'Iron Mike' Webster and Junior Seau.
The focus now has moved to the college level, where estimates say 3000 student athletes a year get a concussion playing football. High school football estimates are even higher.
If you wish to play high school football (mainly a southern thing), you cant play until you have had a 'concussion baseline assessment'. If you have a subsequent concussion you will not be allowed to play again until you again match the baseline.
College is beginning to do the same, and the NFL is front and center on this. There are also concussion issues in hockey.
I assume rugby codes and soccer (to a lesser extent) will have the same issues. They need to address it.
No, I don't dislike Tiger either, although for some reason people keep asking me what's wrong with him.
...that's because you live in Georgia...
OK, I'll bite - what does living in the Peach State have to do with it?
A rather obvious jab at your state's history, nothing cleverer than that I'm afraid
Fair enough - it wasn't one of the state's finer moments.
I am currently going through the PGA numbers to see what, if anything, actually is wrong with Tiger, and there may be a bit of truth in the question. Watch this space...
Normally I am not jealous of your trips, not being particularly interested in Luxury.
But fly in Safaris to a Norman Carr protege, I am greener than an emerald!
I bumped all the way from Malawi in a mates Landcruiser, along dirt roads for eight hours in the dust. He knew his animals and birds though, so well worth the trip.
You may be interested in this book, about a weird bit of colonial history, it does not seem to be on kindle yet though:
Foxinsox - I was with a protege of the sainted Norman Carr, at Mfuwe
If you think Luangwa is remote, try Kafue. It is the size of Belgium and gets 10,000 visitors a year. Total. And most only reach the easy bit in the middle.
By contrast the Kruger, slightly smaller, gets one MILLION visits a year.
At the top of the Kafue is the Busanga Plains. It's like the Okavango only no one goes there. Just 30 beds in 1000 sq km. they had to fly me in and out. It's flooded half the year. But you get 100,000 mammals to yourself.
And at sunset the crested cranes do their eerie, haunting courtship dance, all alone on the prairie. I will never forget it. You are right: Zambia is fab.
The NFL recently came to a $675 million settlement with current and former players for medical issues resulting from playing football, primarily concussions.
Football is an incredibly macho sport. Players would have head to head contact, and one of them would lie prone on the field for a few minutes before coming too. He would walk to the sideline, sit out a few plays, say he just had his bell rung, and go back to playing. I have sat high (meaning way up) in the stands at NFL games and heard the loud crack of helmets colliding. Helmets do not prevent or mitigate concusions - they merely prevent your skull from fracturing. Troy Aikman has no memory at all of one of the Superbowls he won - and he was voted its MVP.
The result of multiple concussions, (or more worryingly after a single concussion, subsequent head trauma less than a concussion), can be something called CTE - Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. It is a progressive, degenerative brain disease. There have been several high profile deaths of NFL players from mutiple concussions: google Mike 'Iron Mike' Webster and Junior Seau.
The focus now has moved to the college level, where estimates say 3000 student athletes a year get a concussion playing football. High school football estimates are even higher.
If you wish to play high school football (mainly a southern thing), you cant play until you have had a 'concussion baseline assessment'. If you have a subsequent concussion you will not be allowed to play again until you again match the baseline.
College is beginning to do the same, and the NFL is front and center on this. There are also concussion issues in hockey.
I assume rugby codes and soccer (to a lesser extent) will have the same issues. They need to address it.
The appliance of science to physical fitness - ok for sprinters, dangerous for contact sports.
"I noticed in last night's thread you cited Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Walsall as the kind of places the Tories need to attract.
It must appal you to realize that in these seats, those Nottinghill Hill, out-of-touch, elitist metropolitan PPE-tainted fops achieved amongst the Conservatives' most spectacular results in 2010:
GREAT GRIMSBY - 10.5% swing Lab-Con CLEETHORPES - 7.8% swing WALSALL N - 9.0% swing WALSALL S - 8.2% swing"
I'm well aware of where the biggest swings were in 2010 and they certainly weren't in the places you expected them to be.
But let me explain that those swings were of the anti-Labour variety rather than the pro-Conservative. Issues such as deindustrialisation and immigration being topical in those places even though Cameron and Osborne showed no interest in them. That you assume that the swings were because of Cameron just reveals your complacent ignorance.
Perhaps you thought that there had been a sudden interest in increasing overseas aid in Walsall or that the electorate of Grimsby wanted to vote blue to go green ?
I dare say you were appalled though that such unfashionable places saw bigger swings than the likes of Tooting, Hammersmith and Westminster North. Constituencies where Cameron's hand picked candidates assumed that they only needed to turn up to win but instead suffered humiliating defeats. .
Arguably that's just a London effect, where high earners are much more likely to vote Labour than elsewhere. It's hard to beat Labour in a Labour city.
You know that and I know that. And so does anyone else who looks at election results.
But the Cameroons and their cheerleaders still expected a huge swing in London in 2010 and it was London constituencies that many of Cameron's hand-picked candidates were given.
For managing to get the wrong end of the stick and then drawing the wrong conclusions when looking at things afterwards the Cameroons and the Conservative election strategy of 2010 take some beating.
Labour is involved in a new cover up row after it emerged that the key witness in the alleged Falkirk vote-rigging scandal has changed her recollection of events for a second time.
The Standard's depiction of the New York race tomorrow sounds intriguing - the favourite (Bill de Blasio) is said to have what you might call a Guardian full house: - Favours higher taxes > £312,000 to subsidise schools - Opposes stop and search laws - Opposes free schools - Supports rent controls - Describes himself as an unashamedly left-wing Democrat - Married to an activist former lesbian poet - Has communist parents who were investigated by McCarthy
His opponent, Joe Lhota, is described as favouring doubling of free schools, stop and search and tax cuts.
ED MILIBAND's deafening silence and refusal to tell the voters what he knows about the way a constituency Labour Party has been run has all the hallmarks of a squalid cover-up. For the Leader of the Opposition to keep schtum and hope that the lurid allegations of vote-rigging in Falkirk would go away is not what we are entitled to expect from a man who would be Prime Minister. He has also let down, and let down badly, Johann Lamont, the leader of Scottish Labour.
The Standard's depiction of the New York race tomorrow sounds intriguing - the favourite (Bill de Blasio) is said to have what you might call a Guardian full house: - Favours higher taxes > £32,000 to subsidise schools - Opposes stop and search laws - Opposes free schools - Supports rent controls - Describes himself as an unashamedly left-wing Democrat - Has communist parents who were investigated by McCarthy
His opponent, Joe Lhota, is described as favouring doubling of free schools, stop and search and tax cuts.
De Blasio is 45 points ahead in the polls.
Today's NY Post had a front page colored red, with a hammer and sickle, plus pic of de Blasio, and the full page headline "Back In The USSR".
ED MILIBAND's deafening silence and refusal to tell the voters what he knows about the way a constituency Labour Party has been run has all the hallmarks of a squalid cover-up.
If it's supposed to be a squalid cover-up, it's not covering up very well...
On topic, rising house prices are not really so great for the middle class baby boomers who benefit, as they simply have to use the profit to help fund their childrens' first steps on the housing ladder
Also, had an amusing evening with Andy Parsons from 'Mock the Week' on his stand-up tour
The NFL recently came to a $675 million settlement with current and former players for medical issues resulting from playing football, primarily concussions.
The result of multiple concussions, (or more worryingly after a single concussion, subsequent head trauma less than a concussion), can be something called CTE - Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. It is a progressive, degenerative brain disease. There have been several high profile deaths of NFL players from mutiple concussions: google Mike 'Iron Mike' Webster and Junior Seau.
College is beginning to do the same, and the NFL is front and center on this. There are also concussion issues in hockey.
I assume rugby codes and soccer (to a lesser extent) will have the same issues. They need to address it.
I know, I follow the NFL quite closely (go Chargers), iirc the settlement is only to former players, it's possible there could be a second one coming down at some point because there's a generation of players between the ones that got the settlement and the ones that are playing now and regarded as informed about risks.
The key question is how much it filters down to parents letting their kids play pop warner and high school (whether high school football really will retreat to a southern thing) and also how insurance companies react to it. Could get very expensive for places that really can't afford it (not least if you need to get into newer helmets ASAP).
I've also played very low level American football in this country and honestly shocked by the head trauma you feel during it. I think at Virginia Tech they're the ones really at the forefront of some research, putting accelerometers in helmets and measuring the forces people take (and the kinds of blows) which gives you some frightening numbers.
That said it's all still a long way behind, until recently there's more emphasis paced on protecting young (baseball) players arms than their brains.
The early research on rugby (and it is way behind the NFL) suggests the same issues to a somewhat lesser extent than American football, but equally far further behind on concussions. Still the mentality of wake him up, dust him off, send him back on. The shoe hasn't really dropped on it though.
The Standard's depiction of the New York race tomorrow sounds intriguing - the favourite (Bill de Blasio) is said to have what you might call a Guardian full house: ... De Blasio is 45 points ahead in the polls.
Oh, goody, we'll have another case study to display next to the French specimen. Particularly useful that de Blasio wants to demonstrate how disastrous it would be to reverse Gove's reforms.
ED MILIBAND's deafening silence and refusal to tell the voters what he knows about the way a constituency Labour Party has been run has all the hallmarks of a squalid cover-up.
If it's supposed to be a squalid cover-up, it's not covering up very well...
I think they've got the "squalid" bit down.....
"All political organisations have their moments. Local disputes that turn nasty, candidate selections in which gossip curdles into libel and slander. So it is important to be clear. The allegations about the Unite union trying to control the selection of a Labour parliamentary candidate in Falkirk is not a moment like that. It is far more serious.
Falkirk is not a local difficulty that has turned into a national scandal. It is a national scandal that is reflected in a local difficulty. Falkirk's candidate selection has produced the resignation of Labour's campaign chief....."
The NFL recently came to a $675 million settlement with current and former players for medical issues resulting from playing football, primarily concussions.
Football is an incredibly macho sport. Players would have head to head contact, and one of them would lie prone on the field for a few minutes before coming too. He would walk to the sideline, sit out a few plays, say he just had his bell rung, and go back to playing. I have sat high (meaning way up) in the stands at NFL games and heard the loud crack of helmets colliding. Helmets do not prevent or mitigate concusions - they merely prevent your skull from fracturing. Troy Aikman has no memory at all of one of the Superbowls he won - and he was voted its MVP.
The result of multiple concussions, (or more worryingly after a single concussion, subsequent head trauma less than a concussion), can be something called CTE - Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. It is a progressive, degenerative brain disease. There have been several high profile deaths of NFL players from mutiple concussions: google Mike 'Iron Mike' Webster and Junior Seau.
The focus now has moved to the college level, where estimates say 3000 student athletes a year get a concussion playing football. High school football estimates are even higher.
If you wish to play high school football (mainly a southern thing), you cant play until you have had a 'concussion baseline assessment'. If you have a subsequent concussion you will not be allowed to play again until you again match the baseline.
College is beginning to do the same, and the NFL is front and center on this. There are also concussion issues in hockey.
I assume rugby codes and soccer (to a lesser extent) will have the same issues. They need to address it.
The appliance of science to physical fitness - ok for sprinters, dangerous for contact sports.
Not really. This isn't a thing that's just come round recently with athletes getting bigger/faster/stronger, it's been around for decades before the growth of sports science but it's only now we're realising it.
I would expect Boris will be licking his lips at a de Blasio win, with both NY City and Paris under left-wing Mayors and Presidents the prospect of London as the financial and business capital of the world will only grow stronger
The early research on rugby (and it is way behind the NFL) suggests the same issues to a somewhat lesser extent than American football, but equally far further behind on concussions. Still the mentality of wake him up, dust him off, send him back on. The shoe hasn't really dropped on it though.
It will.
I'd have thought NFL would be worse than either rugby code actually - the presence of helmets means you lead with the head. And you can/will hit harder with your head than you would have done in rugby where you are typically going to put it to one side. Ok head collisions do occur in rugby - but they are not by design rather incidental/accidental to the game. I think NFL head trauma would be far more frequent than rugby.
It is interesting that there are very few Independents in Devon but thousands in Cornwall. I suspect that many voters in Cornwall vote Indie in locals but Lib Dem in Generals.
The early research on rugby (and it is way behind the NFL) suggests the same issues to a somewhat lesser extent than American football, but equally far further behind on concussions. Still the mentality of wake him up, dust him off, send him back on. The shoe hasn't really dropped on it though.
It will.
I'd have thought NFL would be worse than either rugby code actually - the presence of helmets means you lead with the head. And you can/will hit harder with your head than you would have done in rugby where you are typically going to put it to one side. Ok head collisions do occur in rugby - but they are not by design rather incidental/accidental to the game. I think NFL head trauma would be far more frequent than rugby.
It is much worse, and college is worse than the NFL. The scary thing is nobody is sure how bad the situation is at high school and Pop Warner etc, but everyone thiks it's even worse.
This is just getting utterly embarrassing now for Ed Miliband and the Labour party. I note that Labour politicians are all being told to spin the line that this hot potato of a Falkirk Report has been upgraded to so 'Confidential' it cannot possible see the light of day, or any kind of public scrutiny for that matter. I have got to be honest, I am really disappointed in the Guardian, its been happily leaking classified UK secrets with abandon, yet it cannot manage to find and leak a copy of this Labour Report on Falkirk. It was Ed Miliband who instigated this investigation, but to now see him trying to hide behind Johann Lamont is just the behaviour of a coward.
If I was a cynic, the reluctance of the Labour party to either publish their Report, or re-open their Inquiry into the Falkirk scandal might suggest that it would now reflect very badly on them in light of their capitulation to Unite before these latest revelations came to light. What are they trying to hide, their embarrassment at not standing up to their largest donor Unite's tactics while global company INEOS did? If so, that really does shoot the Labour fox when it comes to standing up for ordinary voters against big organisations. I said last night that Labour was not in control of this story, but rather trying to hide from it in the hope its going to go away.
"However, Labour said that she is now reverting to a sworn statement she made in September in which she dropped the complaint.
It said it would not be opening a fresh investigation into the candidate selection process despite calls by senior party figures including Alistair Darling, the former Chancellor, and Jack Straw, the former Home Secretary.
The apparent shift in Mrs Kane's position came after Iain McNicol, the General Secretary of the Labour Party, telephoned her to discuss her new comments."
Labour is involved in a new cover up row after it emerged that the key witness in the alleged Falkirk vote-rigging scandal has changed her recollection of events for a second time.
The Standard's depiction of the New York race tomorrow sounds intriguing - the favourite (Bill de Blasio) is said to have what you might call a Guardian full house: ... De Blasio is 45 points ahead in the polls.
Oh, goody, we'll have another case study to display next to the French specimen. Particularly useful that de Blasio wants to demonstrate how disastrous it would be to reverse Gove's reforms.
You might wish to check an interesting experiment in this country. Some states are increasing taxes and business regulation to boost their economies, and some are reducing taxes and regulation to do so, and becoming 'right to work' states. Some states are mulling over getting rid of personal income state tax completely.
The early research on rugby (and it is way behind the NFL) suggests the same issues to a somewhat lesser extent than American football, but equally far further behind on concussions. Still the mentality of wake him up, dust him off, send him back on. The shoe hasn't really dropped on it though.
It will.
I'd have thought NFL would be worse than either rugby code actually - the presence of helmets means you lead with the head. And you can/will hit harder with your head than you would have done in rugby where you are typically going to put it to one side. Ok head collisions do occur in rugby - but they are not by design rather incidental/accidental to the game. I think NFL head trauma would be far more frequent than rugby.
That's what I said? 'rugby has same issues, to a lesser extent than American football'
"Ms Lamont said today she was concerned about the claims.
“I think we certainly have to look at that because obviously there is a concern if the investigation wasn’t entirely complete,” Ms Lamont told BBC Radio Scotland.
“These matters are ongoing and we know some complaints have been given to the police.”
Ms Lamont insists she has been working closely with Labour officials at a UK level to ensure the issues were fully investigated and has the read the Labour party’s internal report into the Falkirk row - but played down calls for it to be made public.
“No political party when it investigates these matters publish the reports,” she said."
So Ed Miliband couldn't bring himself to raise the Grangemouth closure announcement at PMQ's, and now the NEC didn't think to raise the issue at their meeting yesterday? Why is everyone in the Labour party now trying to avoid any discussion on Falkirk, apparently it was the talk of the Labour Conference not long ago. LabourList - The web we have woven in Falkirk "A sprinkling of chutzpah was even brought into play: McCluskey’s old friend Tom Watson, who ended up resigning over the fallout, said Miliband should apologise. Further, BBC Radio 4 even made an extraordinarily wrong-headed documentary about how this had all been a storm in a tea-cup, in which the chief defence witness was none other than far-left journalist Seumas Milne. Unite and the Labour Party, it seemed, had pulled it off.
The trouble was that no-one really believed them. Conference was full of stories about what had actually happened. The word was, in fact, that the press stories about membership abuses had all been true, and worse. That the complainants had been influenced and cajoled into withdrawing.
But the line held. It was all going well…until Grangemouth."
The NFL recently came to a $675 million settlement with current and former players for medical issues resulting from playing football, primarily concussions.
Football is an incredibly macho sport. Players would have head to head contact, and one of them would lie prone on the field for a few minutes before coming too. He would walk to the sideline, sit out a few plays, say he just had his bell rung, and go back to playing. I have sat high (meaning way up) in the stands at NFL games and heard the loud crack of helmets colliding. Helmets do not prevent or mitigate concusions - they merely prevent your skull from fracturing. Troy Aikman has no memory at all of one of the Superbowls he won - and he was voted its MVP.
The result of multiple concussions, (or more worryingly after a single concussion, subsequent head trauma less than a concussion), can be something called CTE - Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. It is a progressive, degenerative brain disease. There have been several high profile deaths of NFL players from mutiple concussions: google Mike 'Iron Mike' Webster and Junior Seau.
The focus now has moved to the college level, where estimates say 3000 student athletes a year get a concussion playing football. High school football estimates are even higher.
If you wish to play high school football (mainly a southern thing), you cant play until you have had a 'concussion baseline assessment'. If you have a subsequent concussion you will not be allowed to play again until you again match the baseline.
College is beginning to do the same, and the NFL is front and center on this. There are also concussion issues in hockey.
I assume rugby codes and soccer (to a lesser extent) will have the same issues. They need to address it.
The appliance of science to physical fitness - ok for sprinters, dangerous for contact sports.
Not really. This isn't a thing that's just come round recently with athletes getting bigger/faster/stronger, it's been around for decades before the growth of sports science but it's only now we're realising it.
The NFL recently came to a $675 million settlement with current and former players for medical issues resulting from playing football, primarily concussions.
College is beginning to do the same, and the NFL is front and center on this. There are also concussion issues in hockey.
I assume rugby codes and soccer (to a lesser extent) will have the same issues. They need to address it.
The appliance of science to physical fitness - ok for sprinters, dangerous for contact sports.
Not really. This isn't a thing that's just come round recently with athletes getting bigger/faster/stronger, it's been around for decades before the growth of sports science but it's only now we're realising it.
So recently then?
Broadly speaking. I mean the phenomenon of being punch-drunk has been noted in boxing for decades. That it's a major issue now in the NFL etc is down to an improvement in diagnosis rather than anything else. NFL players have and would have had it for decades, but undiagnosed.
On the topic of what TV to watch, The Killing series 3, The Bridge series 1, and Borgen series 1 and 2 all arrived today from the UK.
Which should I watch first?
I would probably watch The Killing 3 first.
IMO the first two are the more distinctive - Borgen is an engaging Scandi-West Wing, well acted but more familiar. The Killing is an exceptionally good thriller, while The Bridge has interesting, flawed heroes and ethical dilemmas. On the whole I like The Bridge best, but I think most people go for The Killing.
Could tomorrow's elections finally provide the wake-up call that conservative Republicans need to demonstrate that they shouldn't sacrifice the good for the perfect (i.e. focus on electability rather than purity)?
Mentioned this before but some generous person on predictious, the bitcoin-only Intrade clone, is offering McAuliffe at 80%. This is a race everybody is already talking about in the past tense. Cuccinnelli has led in exactly zero polls, and the proper polls have the lead around 7%/8%. Republicans are furiously tweeting a poll with a 2% lead, which turns out to be from an undergraduate polling society. (Who knew that was a thing?) McAuliffe should be more like 95% or higher. Fill your boots.
"But as with his energy price freeze, so with his gimmick to promote the ‘living wage’: superficially, it may sound hugely attractive, but it betrays a breathtaking ignorance of basic economics and the way the real world works."
"But as with his energy price freeze, so with his gimmick to promote the ‘living wage’: superficially, it may sound hugely attractive, but it betrays a breathtaking ignorance of basic economics and the way the real world works."
Thanks but if we want to read random Daily Mail comments we'll read the Daily Mail.
I think that its worth noting on a Political betting site that the Daily Mail like the Telegraph is this week now using key word 'gimmick' to describe this latest Miliband policy. If this begins to stick in the public's mind, then Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have yet further problems with their economic credibility in the run up to the next GE. Apologies if providing a link and the option to read a political comment in one of the UK's biggest circulation newspapers in print and online annoys you. But you can always just skim past these links from other posters to newspapers you dislike rather than sarcastically attempting to dismiss the messenger.
"But as with his energy price freeze, so with his gimmick to promote the ‘living wage’: superficially, it may sound hugely attractive, but it betrays a breathtaking ignorance of basic economics and the way the real world works."
Thanks but if we want to read random Daily Mail comments we'll read the Daily Mail.
I think that its worth noting on a Political betting site that the Daily Mail like the Telegraph is this week now using key word 'gimmick' to describe this latest Miliband policy. If this begins to stick in the public's mind, then Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have yet further problems with their economic credibility in the run up to the next GE. Apologies if providing a link and the option to read a political comment in one of the UK's biggest circulation newspapers in print and online annoys you. But you can always just skim past these links from other posters to newspapers you dislike rather than sarcastically attempting to dismiss the messenger.
"But as with his energy price freeze, so with his gimmick to promote the ‘living wage’: superficially, it may sound hugely attractive, but it betrays a breathtaking ignorance of basic economics and the way the real world works."
Thanks but if we want to read random Daily Mail comments we'll read the Daily Mail.
You'll keep us posted if it turns out the Pope is Catholic, right?
As the Labour party and Unite try to brush the Falkirk/Grangemouth scandal under the carpet.. Arnie Graf and Jon Cruddas in the Guardian - To transform Britain, Labour must first transform itself "That is why we are working together to build a one-nation politics by reforming the party and widening involvement in policy-making. Building a dynamic market economy for working people, conserving our common life, and pushing more power down to people requires an active political movement organising for power. To change the country, we must first change the party."
I think that its worth noting on a Political betting site that the Daily Mail like the Telegraph is this week now using key word 'gimmick' to describe this latest Miliband policy. If this begins to stick in the public's mind, then Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have yet further problems with their economic credibility in the run up to the next GE. Apologies if providing a link and the option to read a political comment in one of the UK's biggest circulation newspapers in print and online annoys you. But you can always just skim past these links from other posters to newspapers you dislike rather than sarcastically attempting to dismiss the messenger.
"But as with his energy price freeze, so with his gimmick to promote the ‘living wage’: superficially, it may sound hugely attractive, but it betrays a breathtaking ignorance of basic economics and the way the real world works."
Thanks but if we want to read random Daily Mail comments we'll read the Daily Mail.
You'll keep us posted if it turns out the Pope is Catholic, right?
I think that its worth noting on a Political betting site that the Daily Mail like the Telegraph is this week now using key word 'gimmick' to describe this latest Miliband policy. If this begins to stick in the public's mind, then Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have yet further problems with their economic credibility in the run up to the next GE. Apologies if providing a link and the option to read a political comment in one of the UK's biggest circulation newspapers in print and online annoys you. But you can always just skim past these links from other posters to newspapers you dislike rather than sarcastically attempting to dismiss the messenger.
"But as with his energy price freeze, so with his gimmick to promote the ‘living wage’: superficially, it may sound hugely attractive, but it betrays a breathtaking ignorance of basic economics and the way the real world works."
Thanks but if we want to read random Daily Mail comments we'll read the Daily Mail.
You'll keep us posted if it turns out the Pope is Catholic, right?
I think that its worth noting on a Political betting site that the Daily Mail like the Telegraph is this week now using key word 'gimmick' to describe this latest Miliband policy. If this begins to stick in the public's mind, then Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have yet further problems with their economic credibility in the run up to the next GE. Apologies if providing a link and the option to read a political comment in one of the UK's biggest circulation newspapers in print and online annoys you. But you can always just skim past these links from other posters to newspapers you dislike rather than sarcastically attempting to dismiss the messenger.
While the Daily Mail clearly represents a large section of British public opinion, I'm not convinced its really communicating to anyone who hasn't already made up their mind about Ed Miliband. Their circulation is large, sure. As for the online presence, I think both theirs and the Guardians is chiefly made up of clicks from outraged Guardianistas reading the Mail comments (outrage porn) and vice-versa. That, and deciding whether middle-aged famous women are a) looking rough and should get some botox b) looking great for their age c) looking good for their age only because of botox d) all of the above in the same woman on different days.
Having said all that, I don't live in the UK, and you do. So our perceptions are sure to differ.
As the Labour party and Unite try to brush the Falkirk/Grangemouth scandal under the carpet.. Arnie Graf and Jon Cruddas in the Guardian - To transform Britain, Labour must first transform itself "That is why we are working together to build a one-nation politics by reforming the party and widening involvement in policy-making. Building a dynamic market economy for working people, conserving our common life, and pushing more power down to people requires an active political movement organising for power. To change the country, we must first change the party."
Well I don't know about you, but that looks like progress beyond Blairism. Each of those three sentences contains a verb, for a start.
When the current Labour party comes up with a credible and sustainable economic policy that isn't a gimmick, that might then be the time to check with the Vatican to see if the Pope is suddenly having any major doubts about the religious choices he has made.
I think that its worth noting on a Political betting site that the Daily Mail like the Telegraph is this week now using key word 'gimmick' to describe this latest Miliband policy. If this begins to stick in the public's mind, then Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have yet further problems with their economic credibility in the run up to the next GE. Apologies if providing a link and the option to read a political comment in one of the UK's biggest circulation newspapers in print and online annoys you. But you can always just skim past these links from other posters to newspapers you dislike rather than sarcastically attempting to dismiss the messenger.
"But as with his energy price freeze, so with his gimmick to promote the ‘living wage’: superficially, it may sound hugely attractive, but it betrays a breathtaking ignorance of basic economics and the way the real world works."
Thanks but if we want to read random Daily Mail comments we'll read the Daily Mail.
You'll keep us posted if it turns out the Pope is Catholic, right?
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Comments
You'd have to really clamp the weight limit down to make much different, and the main effect would be the players that are especially tall (unless you really had a low limit in).
In literal terms you could do it and make it into boxing with the dehydrating pre-weigh in etc. But I don't think it's going to make much difference in what you're looking for tbh.
If you had a list of the industries a majority are in favour of re-nationalising and the ones they're not then you'd see a clear pattern. The ones where competition is physically the hardest to achieve will be the ones with the biggest numbers in support of nationalization.
edit: also it's not bad for the looters. they can re-nationalize, put a lot of public money into them and then sell them off cheap to their mates again. rinse and repeat every couple of generations.
A load of massively beefy blokes wheezing from cigs and pints is one thing but American football sized blokes running at American Football speeds is another thing entirely.
The NFL recently came to a $675 million settlement with current and former players for medical issues resulting from playing football, primarily concussions.
Football is an incredibly macho sport. Players would have head to head contact, and one of them would lie prone on the field for a few minutes before coming too. He would walk to the sideline, sit out a few plays, say he just had his bell rung, and go back to playing. I have sat high (meaning way up) in the stands at NFL games and heard the loud crack of helmets colliding. Helmets do not prevent or mitigate concusions - they merely prevent your skull from fracturing. Troy Aikman has no memory at all of one of the Superbowls he won - and he was voted its MVP.
The result of multiple concussions, (or more worryingly after a single concussion, subsequent head trauma less than a concussion), can be something called CTE - Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. It is a progressive, degenerative brain disease. There have been several high profile deaths of NFL players from mutiple concussions: google Mike 'Iron Mike' Webster and Junior Seau.
The focus now has moved to the college level, where estimates say 3000 student athletes a year get a concussion playing football. High school football estimates are even higher.
If you wish to play high school football (mainly a southern thing), you cant play until you have had a 'concussion baseline assessment'. If you have a subsequent concussion you will not be allowed to play again until you again match the baseline.
College is beginning to do the same, and the NFL is front and center on this. There are also concussion issues in hockey.
I assume rugby codes and soccer (to a lesser extent) will have the same issues. They need to address it.
I am currently going through the PGA numbers to see what, if anything, actually is wrong with Tiger, and there may be a bit of truth in the question. Watch this space...
Normally I am not jealous of your trips, not being particularly interested in Luxury.
But fly in Safaris to a Norman Carr protege, I am greener than an emerald!
I bumped all the way from Malawi in a mates Landcruiser, along dirt roads for eight hours in the dust. He knew his animals and birds though, so well worth the trip.
You may be interested in this book, about a weird bit of colonial history, it does not seem to be on kindle yet though:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Africa-House-English-Gentleman/dp/0140268340
Though this one is on kindle, and highly recommended for modern Zambia.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cocktail-Hour-Under-Tree-Forgetfulness/dp/184983296X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383604311&sr=1-2&keywords=dont+lets+go+to+the+dogs+tonight
let me know when the article is out.
http://www.cdc.gov/concussion/sports/baseline_test.html
But the Cameroons and their cheerleaders still expected a huge swing in London in 2010 and it was London constituencies that many of Cameron's hand-picked candidates were given.
For managing to get the wrong end of the stick and then drawing the wrong conclusions when looking at things afterwards the Cameroons and the Conservative election strategy of 2010 take some beating.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/10426247/Labour-accused-of-new-cover-up-over-Falkirk-vote-rigging.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2486893/Labour-MPs-hypocrisy-interns-Chuka-Umunna-employed-unpaid-staff-campaigning-fairer-salaries.html
Please labour,make this Guy your leader ;-)
- Favours higher taxes > £312,000 to subsidise schools
- Opposes stop and search laws
- Opposes free schools
- Supports rent controls
- Describes himself as an unashamedly left-wing Democrat
- Married to an activist former lesbian poet
- Has communist parents who were investigated by McCarthy
His opponent, Joe Lhota, is described as favouring doubling of free schools, stop and search and tax cuts.
De Blasio is 45 points ahead in the polls.
For the Leader of the Opposition to keep schtum and hope that the lurid allegations of vote-rigging in Falkirk would go away is not what we are entitled to expect from a man who would be Prime Minister.
He has also let down, and let down badly, Johann Lamont, the leader of Scottish Labour.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/10426469/Milibands-silence-has-all-the-signs-of-a-squalid-cover-up.html
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article3912126.ece
Unsurprisingly they back Lhota -
http://nypost.com/2013/11/04/joe-lhota-for-new-york-city-mayor/
Also, had an amusing evening with Andy Parsons from 'Mock the Week' on his stand-up tour
The key question is how much it filters down to parents letting their kids play pop warner and high school (whether high school football really will retreat to a southern thing) and also how insurance companies react to it. Could get very expensive for places that really can't afford it (not least if you need to get into newer helmets ASAP).
I've also played very low level American football in this country and honestly shocked by the head trauma you feel during it. I think at Virginia Tech they're the ones really at the forefront of some research, putting accelerometers in helmets and measuring the forces people take (and the kinds of blows) which gives you some frightening numbers.
That said it's all still a long way behind, until recently there's more emphasis paced on protecting young (baseball) players arms than their brains.
The early research on rugby (and it is way behind the NFL) suggests the same issues to a somewhat lesser extent than American football, but equally far further behind on concussions. Still the mentality of wake him up, dust him off, send him back on. The shoe hasn't really dropped on it though.
It will.
"All political organisations have their moments. Local disputes that turn nasty, candidate selections in which gossip curdles into libel and slander. So it is important to be clear. The allegations about the Unite union trying to control the selection of a Labour parliamentary candidate in Falkirk is not a moment like that. It is far more serious.
Falkirk is not a local difficulty that has turned into a national scandal. It is a national scandal that is reflected in a local difficulty. Falkirk's candidate selection has produced the resignation of Labour's campaign chief....."
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/leaders/article3913259.ece
Devon - local election results May 2013, by constituency:
Devon Central:
Con 10212, UKIP 5812, LD 4082, Lab 2622, Green 1719, Ind 1008, Others 84
Devon East:
Con 9052, UKIP 6262, LD 3816, Lab 2480, Ind 2228, Green 1114
Devon North:
Con 8003, UKIP 5245, LD 4516, Ind 3340, Lab 1694, Green 1417, Others 126
Devon West & Torridge:
Con 10006, UKIP 8129, LD 2852, Lab 2608, Green 1666, Ind 975
Exeter:
Lab 10191, Con 5161, UKIP 4265, LD 2715, Green 1563, Ind 110, Others 224
Newton Abbot:
Con 7335, LD 7058, UKIP 5562, Lab 1921, Green 743, Ind 347, Others 78
Tiverton & Honiton:
Con 10037, UKIP 5459, LD 3266, Lab 2542, Ind 2482, Green 1476, Others 385
Partial results for Devon South West and Totnes:
Devon South West:
Con 4374, UKIP 2130, LD 1074, Green 989
Totnes:
Con 5645, UKIP 3344, LD 2304, Green 2098, Lab 1986
http://www.scotsman.com/news/the-scotsman-cartoon-inquiry-in-falkirk-1-3173560
If I was a cynic, the reluctance of the Labour party to either publish their Report, or re-open their Inquiry into the Falkirk scandal might suggest that it would now reflect very badly on them in light of their capitulation to Unite before these latest revelations came to light. What are they trying to hide, their embarrassment at not standing up to their largest donor Unite's tactics while global company INEOS did? If so, that really does shoot the Labour fox when it comes to standing up for ordinary voters against big organisations. I said last night that Labour was not in control of this story, but rather trying to hide from it in the hope its going to go away.
"However, Labour said that she is now reverting to a sworn statement she made in September in which she dropped the complaint.
It said it would not be opening a fresh investigation into the candidate selection process despite calls by senior party figures including Alistair Darling, the former Chancellor, and Jack Straw, the former Home Secretary.
The apparent shift in Mrs Kane's position came after Iain McNicol, the General Secretary of the Labour Party, telephoned her to discuss her new comments."
'The decision came on a day the party's National Executive Committee met, but according to party sources the fraught Falkirk issue was not raised."
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/04/labour-alistair-darling-falkirk-inquiry
Which should I watch first?
Scotsman - Johann Lamont: New Falkirk claims need scrutiny
"Ms Lamont said today she was concerned about the claims.
“I think we certainly have to look at that because obviously there is a concern if the investigation wasn’t entirely complete,” Ms Lamont told BBC Radio Scotland.
“These matters are ongoing and we know some complaints have been given to the police.”
Ms Lamont insists she has been working closely with Labour officials at a UK level to ensure the issues were fully investigated and has the read the Labour party’s internal report into the Falkirk row - but played down calls for it to be made public.
“No political party when it investigates these matters publish the reports,” she said."
LabourList - The web we have woven in Falkirk
"A sprinkling of chutzpah was even brought into play: McCluskey’s old friend Tom Watson, who ended up resigning over the fallout, said Miliband should apologise. Further, BBC Radio 4 even made an extraordinarily wrong-headed documentary about how this had all been a storm in a tea-cup, in which the chief defence witness was none other than far-left journalist Seumas Milne. Unite and the Labour Party, it seemed, had pulled it off.
The trouble was that no-one really believed them. Conference was full of stories about what had actually happened. The word was, in fact, that the press stories about membership abuses had all been true, and worse. That the complainants had been influenced and cajoled into withdrawing.
But the line held. It was all going well…until Grangemouth."
Thank you, Carlotta, but definitely sub-Marf.
"But as with his energy price freeze, so with his gimmick to promote the ‘living wage’: superficially, it may sound hugely attractive, but it betrays a breathtaking ignorance of basic economics and the way the real world works."
Speaking of the NFL, the NFL Network is 10 years old today.
Arnie Graf and Jon Cruddas in the Guardian - To transform Britain, Labour must first transform itself
"That is why we are working together to build a one-nation politics by reforming the party and widening involvement in policy-making. Building a dynamic market economy for working people, conserving our common life, and pushing more power down to people requires an active political movement organising for power. To change the country, we must first change the party."
You never know. What are the odds on a double with Obama not being president.
(Or, also, that The USA is still part of Britain on account of George III not being the legitimate monarch, thus invalidating the treaty of paris
Having said all that, I don't live in the UK, and you do. So our perceptions are sure to differ.
Right, back to work. Adieu!