Random thoughts not worthy of a thread (Part I)

[chugginon]

Replaced with pies for the cricket season ...

With sauce . What brand , though? Oh dear , edited to say " What brand pie " ?

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

With sauce . What brand , though?

Brand? KFC makes it with chicken.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

I just want to reiterate something I posted here a month or so ago.

A recent study (long term) into video game violence found zero link between violent games and aggression and violence in people. In fact it showed a slight negative trend. Those who played them were less inclined to commit a violent act

 

[DarkPhoenix]

With sauce . What brand , though?

KFC pies. They have a Kentucky and a zinger one. The Kentucky one is awesome

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

I just want to reiterate something I posted here a month or so ago.

A recent study (long term) into video game violence found zero link between violent games and aggression and violence in people. In fact it showed a slight negative trend. Those who played them were less inclined to commit a violent act

But we are led to believe the absolute opposite. For shame.

 

[kangaspurs]

I'll probably be shot down hard for this but.....


Ok I've never played GTA but one Christmas a few years ago a younger cousin got it and was playing while all the kids watched. I watched about 5 minutes and in that time a hooker was dragged out of a car, punched several times and then shot in the face with a shotgun (Is my memory correct or exaggerating?).

There were kids ranging from 4 to 18 watching and I decided to put my breakfast beer down and asked them to turn it off.

Now I grew up on horror movies in the 80's so I don't mind a little Scanners head exploding but now that I'm a teacher I see and hear about kids in my class (primary school) watching movies like Hostel and Mamma and Insidious.

When I was kid and there was a fight at school we all gathered and watched including me so I'm not preaching but kids these days start fights so their friends can record it and during the fight chant 'stomp on his head'.

Earlier this week a boy in my class asked my why it's so easy to push girls around and when asked he thought it was ok to punch a girl in the face if she hits him first. I grew up being told 'under no circumstances do you hit a girl/lady'.

I know if kids are raised properly you don't get these issues but so many parents are failing and having access to images/games/movies like the one above isn't helping and I don't see why we need games where people are being killed so realistically.

Ok rant over and now I feel really old

I understand what you're saying but these games are rated R 18+ for a reason. I know this is hard to follow sometimes when kids want to play these games but at worse you should be at least 16 before you play, or watch people play, these types of games. They really are for mature audiences and if young kids are accessing them then it's really on thgeir guardians, not the developers of the game or the retailers.
As for people talking about the study into the lack of correlation between video games and violence, here is an article on it:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...t-video-games-and-youth-violence-9851613.html

And then there's this shit:

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/pa...-kids-greens-say/story-fnet08ui-1227141319300

This woman is a sitting member of Parliament.

It's beyond a joke.

I actually agree with the premise of the argument that the MP is making here but she really expressed it in a very sloppy way and that's why the outrage has been widespread. This discussion started when there was a photo of a young girl who liked playing with action figures and toy trucks and similar toys being disappointed that they were being exclusively marketed to boys. I don't think parents should stop buying gender based toys for their kids, but if a young girl wants to play with trucks and toys that are traditionally 'male' then they shouldn't be actively discouraged from it and told that girls are 'supposed' to play with dolls. The same goes for young boys that want to play with toys that are traditionally 'feminine.' Kids should be able to play with whatever toy they like, no matter the traditional gender role that's attached to that toy.
The stigma attached to gender roles across the wider community, not just kids and their toys is a serious issue. It's why there are far fewer female politicians and business executives than male and why many of the trades are male dominated industries. The same goes for males in industries that have been traditionally dominated by females. It also contributes to mental health issues in the transgender and intersex communities and indeed the LGBTQI community at large. It's just not very fashionable to engage in discourse around the effect that gender roles have and probably why there is a lot of ignorance surrounding the problem.

 

[JD-Roo]

They what?????

I'm not the biggest fan of take-away (mainly because I'm a stinge and there is none around my area) but that double with a hashbrown was majestic

The alphabet does not have enough letter combinations to cope with how much I agree with this statement.

 

[miss_kate18]

Parental responsibility....since when is it okay to come up and abuse teachers in the playground? I copped it yesterday :/

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

Parental responsibility....since when is it okay to come up and abuse teachers in the playground? I copped it yesterday :/

Some people are idiots.

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

Parental responsibility....since when is it okay to come up and abuse teachers in the playground? I copped it yesterday :/

I hope they weren't threatening physical violence because you gave a kid 80 instead of 81 ...

 

[Hearts to hearts]

Parental responsibility....since when is it okay to come up and abuse teachers in the playground? I copped it yesterday :/

Since never. Hope your principal can look after you there.

And the gender toy thing was typically blown out of proportion and distorted by some conservative media (wonder why they'd be running distractions now?).

The sensible point was that it's healthier if kids can choose toys they like, not be railroaded even as toddlers by some adult's idea of what is appropriately feminine or masculine enough for them. It was never saying girls liking Barbie or boys playing with cars should be discouraged. Although the sickening follow up publishing a photo of the senator's daughter in a fairy dress as a "gotcha" article of course missed that point.

And there is a secondary point, backed up by research, that families and societies which have very rigid rules about what is ok for boys to like and girls to like are also the ones where girls tend to wind up as second class citizens. So it's better for society as well as children's happiness that they be allowed to choose for themselves. It's a mystery to me why anyone is arguing about it.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

I hope they weren't threatening physical violence because you gave a kid 80 instead of 81 ...

You'll be surprised that some students at uni level do that over 5%.

 

[miss_kate18]

I hope they weren't threatening physical violence because you gave a kid 80 instead of 81 ...

I've had threats over my grades before, yes! Although they come from the kids.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

I understand what you're saying but these games are rated R 18+ for a reason. I know this is hard to follow sometimes when kids want to play these games but at worse you should be at least 16 before you play, or watch people play, these types of games. They really are for mature audiences and if young kids are accessing them then it's really on thgeir guardians, not the developers of the game or the retailers.
As for people talking about the study into the lack of correlation between video games and violence, here is an article on it:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...t-video-games-and-youth-violence-9851613.html


I actually agree with the premise of the argument that the MP is making here but she really expressed it in a very sloppy way and that's why the outrage has been widespread. This discussion started when there was a photo of a young girl who liked playing with action figures and toy trucks and similar toys being disappointed that they were being exclusively marketed to boys. I don't think parents should stop buying gender based toys for their kids, but if a young girl wants to play with trucks and toys that are traditionally 'male' then they shouldn't be actively discouraged from it and told that girls are 'supposed' to play with dolls. The same goes for young boys that want to play with toys that are traditionally 'feminine.' Kids should be able to play with whatever toy they like, no matter the traditional gender role that's attached to that toy.
The stigma attached to gender roles across the wider community, not just kids and their toys is a serious issue. It's why there are far fewer female politicians and business executives than male and why many of the trades are male dominated industries. The same goes for males in industries that have been traditionally dominated by females. It also contributes to mental health issues in the transgender and intersex communities and indeed the LOGBTQI community at large. It's just not very fashionable to engage in discourse around the effect that gender roles have and probably why there is a lot of ignorance surrounding the problem.

Suggesting that gender stereotyping of toys is leading to domestic violence is moronic.

Agree that kids should be free to play with whatever toy they like to.

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

I've had threats over my grades before, yes! Although they come from the kids.

I got an extra shudder from reading that.

 

[kangaspurs]

Suggesting that gender stereotyping of toys is leading to domestic violence is moronic.

Agree that kids should be free to play with whatever toy they like to.

Completely agree, as I said I think the MP expressed herself in a very poor way.

 

[Engimal]

If people are so worried about kids being exposed to games like GTA, why not just make them only available to people over the age of eightee...

Oh wait, it already ******* is. If you don't want your kids playing GTA, don't buy it for them.

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

If people are so worried about kids being exposed to games like GTA, why not just make them only available to people over the age of eightee...

Oh wait, it already ******* is. If you don't want your kids playing GTA, don't buy it for them.

Didn't know we could say the f word ...

 

[Higgins2Waite]

You'll be surprised that some students at uni level do that over 5%.

You would.

I remember when I was studying applied microbiology in my first year. Waltzed out of the mid semester test thinking "yep, 85% easy". The marks were posted on a notice board and I saw 35. I was pissed off...35 out of 50 marks...that teacher is messing with me. So I organised a meeting with him to discuss my mark. Turns out it was 35% haha. His exact words were "there isn't enough hours in the day to go over where you went wrong"

Turns out that sod refused to read 2 long answer questions because I made an error in the first few sentences of both. The result was 0 marks out of 25 haha. I thought...only a few weeks left just don't say anything. Next semester I had him for another unit...so I changed lecturers. Had a drink with him at a sundowner after my honours graduation. good bloke. Before that I hoped his office burnt down

 

[Flawed Genius]

Didn't know we could say the f word ...

We can't. Please don't evade the swear filter.

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

We can't. Please don't evade the swear filter.

Ah, thought so. I didn't pay attention to how it was done so I'll stick with phonetics.

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

You would.

I remember when I was studying applied microbiology in my first year. Waltzed out of the mid semester test thinking "yep, 85% easy". The marks were posted on a notice board and I saw 35. I was pissed off...35 out of 50 marks...that teacher is messing with me. So I organised a meeting with him to discuss my mark. Turns out it was 35% haha. His exact words were "there isn't enough hours in the day to go over where you went wrong"

Turns out that sod refused to read 2 long answer questions because I made an error in the first few sentences of both. The result was 0 marks out of 25 haha. I thought...only a few weeks left just don't say anything. Next semester I had him for another unit...so I changed lecturers. Had a drink with him at a sundowner after my honours graduation. good bloke. Before that I hoped his office burnt down

Won't lie -- laughed so hard during the first bit that I need a lie down after getting a headache.

 

[JD-Roo]

You'll be surprised that some students at uni level do that over 5%.

I was under the impression that the internet was FULL of examples of what students will do for extra marks.......

 

[JD-Roo]

Had a drink with him at a sundowner after my honours graduation. good bloke.

To go off on another tangent......

Apart from a really bad Aussie flik that my Dad loves :/ ..... what's a "sundowner"?

 

[Flawed Genius]

In any case, on the stuff that's been discussed in the past few pages:

kangaspurs put it very well about the issue with children and playing with gendered toys. Trying to restrict what a child can play with and saying your sons will only ever be allowed to play with trucks and robots because they're masculine, and that your daughters can only ever play with Barbies and fairies because they're feminine, is, in my view at least, a dumb way to go about raising your children. I'm not a parent so I don't speak from experience and am happy to defer to the more educated on this matter, but in future, if/when I have children, I'd like to think I'd give them the freedom to play with whatever toys they like during their childhood, given it's such an important part of the developmental process.

Heck, even JD-Roo who posted about his daughters playing video games - for a very long time there has existed the idea that video games are a male dominated world, and women are traditionally seen as "outsiders". That is the adolescent version of only letting your kids play with toys that are "traditionally" male or female, and that's effectively where the current "Gamergate" thing comes into play, which is, in as many words, young males who have never accepted women into the "gaming scene", attempting to drive them out under a banner of "ethics in video-game journalism".

Larissa Waters' attempt to link gendered toys to domestic violence, however, was a bridge too far in my view. Not sure it's a fair or proper link to make.

On violence in video games - I've played every Call of Duty since MW, I've played every GTA since Vice City, I've watched MA15+ & R18+ movies and I have never once had the inclination to go out and violently assault either a pedestrian on the street or a sex worker or anyone. TennisPlayerAndy and others are correct in pointing out that the inclination to incite and maintain violence comes from the way you are brought up as a child. Not that I can quote any literature on this, but I'd think if you see violence as a child, or you are taught that violence is acceptable, you will use it as a tool later in your life. It comes down to children either being given access to violent material AND taught that using it themselves is unacceptable, or barring them from viewing violent material entirely.

KFC pies are literally an abomination.