During the 18th and 19th centuries, England had a few issues with overcrowding in their prison system and set about ways to rectify the problem. Among a number of inventive practices, of which deportation to the colonies was a favourite, the idea of coverting old ships to floating jails became fashionable. This was a period in which the concept of crime and punishment was being explored. A popular topic of conversation among the highly educated, dramatic changes were starting to occur as it became evident that imprisonment was as much a punishment in itself as flogging, banishment, torture or any of the ways criminals were dealt with in the past. Jeremy Bentham, a prominent British philosopher developed the concept of the Panopticon , a new type of prison in which inmates would be housed in separate booths, unable to see each other, but under constant supervision by prison staff. Hulks were a response to this new form punishment as prisons became overcrowded. Their masts lopped o...
Interesting. When I saw the new SBS format, and how they had started interviewing experts and whatnot, I had high hopes that the show might take on a Jim Lehrer kind of take on news. Alas, no, it did not.
ReplyDeleteThe hour-long format was never going to work, there's not enough news to fill with the resources they have so they flesh it out with awkward interviews by Stan Grant and cheap imports from the ABC (America), CNN, Reuters and the BBC.
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly nothing approaching the quality it used to be.
Maaaaaaaary!!!!
ReplyDeleteYes in principle good on her & she's doing the right thing blah blah blah. But what about us? What are we gonna do without her unreal hotness, huh? She's pulled us through adolescence & laid us straight in our 20's. Are our thirties set to be filled with a barren parade of Jackie O types?? *shudder*
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mike. I too thought it might be an intersting Jim Lehrer type thing, but it is not. However, it remains the least bad news on televison. It was once a top news. Now Stan Grant... I can't even be bothered finishing this. woot on latest galaxy poll.
ReplyDeleteCIA - God help us from Jackie O and her ilk. She wears her vacuousness like cheap perfume - shudder indeed. But who DO we turn to? Ange Pippos? It's just not the same...
ReplyDeleteAnon - I hear you on the Stan Gra... fuck it, I can't be bothered either.
The Gallaxy poll though is VERY interesting. Don't you just wish we could jump forward three months - to verify a Labor landslide - and then return to the present to properly enjoy watching Howard and co fall apart?
I can't have too much fun just yet, I won't believe it till I see that concession speech. Now THAT will be a party!