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Donnie B.
Skeptic Friend
417 Posts |
 Posted - 02/04/2002 : 11:43:48 [Permalink]
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Slater, your reference to Outback Steak House is off the mark too. It's not Australian. Just some American outfit that paid some marketing genius to come up with an idea, which turned out to be a faux-Aussie theme. If its customers are silly enough to fall for it, don't blame the Australians!
I, for one, have met some very nice folks from Oz online, and what little I know of the lifestyle sounds pretty nice. They even speak English, after a fashion...
Maybe I'll go down under myself some day. Just so long as I don't have to crush beer cans on my forehead to be welcome there...
-- Donnie B.
Brian: "No, no! You have to think for yourselves!" Crowd: "Yes! We have to think for ourselves!" |
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gezzam
SFN Regular
Australia
751 Posts |
Posted - 02/04/2002 : 15:50:32 [Permalink]
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quote:
What do you think of Terry Irwin, his wife?
She shows a little dignity, Steve is just so way over the top Aussie it makes us over here cringe to watch it all. That said though, he does pour a lot of money into wildlife conservation.
quote:
Maybe I'll go down under myself some day. Just so long as I don't have to crush beer cans on my forehead to be welcome there...
DonnieB, and the rest of the SFN, if any of you folk ever come to Melbourne, we have a spare bedroom in our house and I'd be glad to show you guys around. The beer can crushing is optional, however if my fiance and I take you to our favorite bar, It could well happen......lol.....(we even have Budwieser here)
"Damn you people. Go back to your shanties." --- Shooter McGavin |
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Zandermann
Skeptic Friend
USA
431 Posts |
Posted - 02/04/2002 : 19:01:47 [Permalink]
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| ......just as long as you don't make me eat Vegemite! |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 02/05/2002 : 10:55:30 [Permalink]
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quote:
the british people, being most civilized and cultivated, but not quite so much as the french, correctly note that soccer is really boring. starting a riot is much more fun and one gets to expand one's circle of acquaintences. soccer is not worth watching unless the british club fans are in the stands to provide a much needed diversion from the game.
ice hockey is a bit more efficient, since the sport is built around fighting. the players do most of the fighting, to relieve the monotony of a bunch of men skating back and forth. thus the fans are spared the need to fight amongst themselves. this sporting innovation originated with the FRENCH-canadian hocky clubs i do think.
by the way, welcome to sfn.
comrade billyboy
Edited by - comradebillyboy on 02/01/2002 20:11:13
Ah, yes. Especially since there are such divisions as the Norris division. (AKA the Chuck Norris division.) But still, ya gotta hand it to Rugby. An organized fistfight.
Personally, I happen to like NASCAR racing. Yup, 43 rednecks driving around in a circle appeals to me. GO MARK MARTIN!
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 02/05/2002 : 11:08:57 [Permalink]
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Ah, yes. Especially since there are such divisions as the Norris division. (AKA the Chuck Norris division.) But still, ya gotta hand it to Rugby. An organized fistfight.
Personally, I happen to like NASCAR racing. Yup, 43 rednecks driving around in a circle appeals to me. GO MARK MARTIN!
Very well paid rednecks.
Anyway you have to go dirt track with outlaws or figure 8's. Grew up in the pits out at a track that doesn't exist anymore because they started building really big houses for the Californian's moving here. Or top fuel dragsters. I remember Bandimere when there weren't any seats put in yet sitting on top of the concrete wall with my fingers in my ears yelling 'Daddy that's really loud!' at about 4 or 5.
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There is no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our world. It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've known. Sagan |
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Bradley
Skeptic Friend
USA
147 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2002 : 14:54:51 [Permalink]
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I dont get how you guys can go on and on about how you think some sports are stupid but then you go on and on about other ones. Maybe it's just me.
It's not just you. I've always been of the opinion that anything involving grown men chasing a ball (or similar object) up and down a field (or similar millieu) must have been invented for guys too dumb to appreciate the arts and sciences. Prolefeed, to use an Orwellian term.
And before anyone calls my patriotism and sexuality into question, allow me to admit up front that I may be a little biased here. Back in high school, I was a nerd, the jocks used to harass me, and the cheerleaders wouldn't f- oops - I mean, go out with me.
"Too much doubt is better than too much credulity."
-Robert Green Ingersoll (1833 - 1899) |
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Lars_H
SFN Regular
Germany
630 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2002 : 15:41:36 [Permalink]
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I personally dislike soccer and have never even understood most of these US-only ballgames.
I just wanted to point out that 'Germany' is not a club but a national team. There are a lot of really bad clubs here, Bayern München being in my opinon the most hateable of them.
The Concept of a National Team might be a bit hard to undertand for a British seeing that they have several of them.
Re. American Football -- I think the most interesting part of it are the cheerleaders.
The attempt to import American Football to Europe resulted in something called "NFL-Europe"; a name clearly invented by an american.
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gezzam
SFN Regular
Australia
751 Posts |
Posted - 02/13/2002 : 04:35:04 [Permalink]
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quote:
It's not just you. I've always been of the opinion that anything involving grown men chasing a ball (or similar object) up and down a field (or similar millieu) must have been invented for guys too dumb to appreciate the arts and sciences. Prolefeed, to use an Orwellian term.
I feel that is a rash generalisation, I have played football for 28 of my 35 years, however, I do have a love for nature and science. Sport has kept me fit and trim and I have met a great number of people playing representative football acreoss the country.
Plus, the piss-ups when you win a Grand Final (or championship) are sensational and have been known to last up to a week.
"Damn you people. Go back to your shanties." --- Shooter McGavin |
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Tokyodreamer
SFN Regular
USA
1447 Posts |
Posted - 02/13/2002 : 06:26:40 [Permalink]
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I've always been of the opinion that anything involving grown men chasing a ball (or similar object) up and down a field (or similar millieu) must have been invented for guys too dumb to appreciate the arts and sciences.
Tell that to the ancient Greeks! 
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Sum Ergo Cogito |
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Bradley
Skeptic Friend
USA
147 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2002 : 14:14:12 [Permalink]
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Tell that to the ancient Greeks!
The classical civilizations did indeed have a balanced valuation of physique and intellect, however, judging from the pervasive atmosphere of anti-intellectualism in Western society, I would conclude that the Athenian ideal was lost in the shuffle somewhere along the line.
"Too much doubt is better than too much credulity."
-Robert Green Ingersoll (1833 - 1899) |
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Bradley
Skeptic Friend
USA
147 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2002 : 14:21:49 [Permalink]
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I feel that is a rash generalisation ...
Hey, I did admit up front that I may be a little biased on this subject.
"Too much doubt is better than too much credulity."
-Robert Green Ingersoll (1833 - 1899) |
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Bradley
Skeptic Friend
USA
147 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2002 : 14:31:42 [Permalink]
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quote:
Tell that to the ancient Greeks!
The classical civilizations did indeed have a balanced valuation of physique and intellect, however, judging from the pervasive atmosphere of anti-intellectualism in Western society, I would conclude that the Athenian ideal was lost in the shuffle somewhere along the line.
"Too much doubt is better than too much credulity."
-Robert Green Ingersoll (1833 - 1899) |
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Lars_H
SFN Regular
Germany
630 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2002 : 15:55:23 [Permalink]
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The classical civilizations did indeed have a balanced valuation of physique and intellect,
I really do hope you are not reffering to something like 'a healthy mind in a healthy body'. I have had this 'mens sana in corpore sano' quotet at me so often, that I am about to tell the next one who tries something about quoting out of context.
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Donnie B.
Skeptic Friend
417 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2002 : 18:31:16 [Permalink]
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I really do hope you are not reffering to something like 'a healthy mind in a healthy body'.
So what's the rest of the quote? maybe something like "... is basically unattainable for most people, and a waste of time for the rest." ?
-- Donnie B.
Brian: "No, no! You have to think for yourselves!" Crowd: "Yes! We have to think for ourselves!" |
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Lars_H
SFN Regular
Germany
630 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2002 : 19:03:11 [Permalink]
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quote:
So what's the rest of the quote? maybe something like "... is basically unattainable for most people, and a waste of time for the rest." ?
The full quote by Juvenalis from his Satire X goes:
"orandum est, ut sit mens sana in corpore sano"
Losely translated as:
"It is to be prayed for a sound mind in a sound body"
He wrote in his tenth Satire, that it is stupid to pray for favour from the gods, because obviously the gods new a lot better what was good for their followers then their followers themselves.
He concludes that people should stop praying for stuff, that they did not need and would not make them happy anyway. If they had to pray at all they should pray for something like a healthy mind in a healthy body.
Somehow the last few words are today used by a lot of people to imply that only in a heathy mind a healthy body can live.
People somehow despite all evidence on the contrary find that this makes sense. They hear that it is a quote -in Latin no less- from a guy who has been dead for almost two millennia and they automatically find that it must be right. Nobody brothers to check about the context. Nobody brothers to check it against reality. Nobody ever thinks that it is possible to say something stupid in Latin.
Sorry for the small rant here. But I think this is a good example for an argument from authority and quoting out of context to make your point.
The stuff about the prayers is probably also of interest to a skeptic.
I feel better now.
Edited by - Lars_H on 02/15/2002 19:10:13 |
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