The Museum Of Modern Thinking

From The Telegraph: All parents to sign ‘behaviour contracts’

Wow. Just, wow. In addition to being probed, monitored, pestered and harassed by the ever-burgeoning state, Labour are proposing that all parents sign these contracts before the start of term. More than likely, each term. Parents face fines (which is all Labour know) if they break these contracts, which I sincerely doubt would stand up in court.

I am lucky (well, luck’s got nothing to do with it) to have a son who is well-behaved 90% of the time. I expect the school to discipline the very moment he steps out of line, rather than leave it up to me well after the event. I do, of course, also discipline him as well. These contracts are being foisted on people because some lazy, ignorant, stupid parents are unable to teach their children how to behave and teach them what is expected of them. Then again, they are probably Labour’s core vote.

Also, these “contracts” will have to be monitored and enforced, which means (you guessed it!) more State jobs – as if we didn’t have enough already. The State has expanded massively under Labour, busybodies that they are.

Dear Government: Sod off and leave me alone.

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Now, get your minds out of the gutter!

Incidentally, I’m a big, big fan of Singing In The Rain

A bit of fun:

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Due to the fact that it’s a bit difficult to get out for a run as a family, my wife had a temporary mental aberration and bought a treadmill. It’s a Bowflex Series 3, which is good enough for a gym – it’s no Life Fitness or Tunturi, but it’s pretty good.

Anyhoo, after a few runs on it (well, my version of running [jogging]), I’ve started doing tabata or interval training on it. You pick a period of time, e.g. 30 seconds / a minute, and then walk for that period of time, then jog, then run, then back to walking, etc. Basically, you cycle through walk / jog / run for the period of time, repeating as many times as you want.

It gets your heart rate up quicker, and gets you used to short bursts of activity (e.g. martial arts), but with the added benefit of improving your overall stamina. I’m feeling the difference already, but I’ll still be doing long jogs as well.

So, give it a go! There’s some more information over on Wikipedia; it would appear I’m using the fartlek (snigger) approach to interval training.

Here’s an entertaining video of a Muay Thai fighter kicking an ash, then maple baseball bat, both of which require over 750lbs of force to break:

It’s a bit of a long watch at almost ten minutes, but worth it. Makes you realise that conditioning is as important as correct technique – the guy’s shins have been toughened over years of striking hard objects (mostly other people’s shins), and have hardened as a result. I’m now off to bash my shins with a glass bottle, haven’t done that for a while