Virtuality

The Weirdness Of The Virtual

eBay says they won't allow the trade of virtual game goods... except those from 'Second Life'. Still, here's the article excerpt:

Does eBay see Linden dollar signs? The company has banned the sale of virtual game items, but made an exception for items from Second Life, owned by Linden Lab. Second Life (SL) is a 3D virtual world that anyone can join, and participants (called avatars) buy and sell virtual goods using a virtual currency called Linden dollars. Users can purchase virtual Linden dollars with real money (including PayPal) - and then use those Linden dollars to buy virtual goods, such as clothing, furniture, buildings and land.

eBay says it "pioneers communities built on commerce, sustained by trust and inspired by opportunity." Does the SL virtual world, also called a metaverse, inspire opportunity for eBay? I can only speculate, but eBay founder Pierre Omidyar was impressed enough with SL to have invested "real" money in the project. And there is precedent for eBay to follow Pierre: eBay invested in MeetUp, a social networking site backed by eBay's founder.

At the time, an eBay executive was quoted as saying, "Meetup.com and eBay share a focus on using the Internet to connect people and create communities."

It's not a stretch to think eBay would be interested in ecommerce in a virtual world - or Microsoft, Google and Yahoo, for that matter. Companies have already been brainstorming on how to market to Second Life participants. The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School held a two-hour panel discussion in Second Life in June entitled "Avatar-based Marketing: What's the Future of Real-Life Companies Marketing to Second Life Avatars?"

Besides marketing to avatars, there's real money to be made on SL, though it's impossible to say how big the opportunity is, and how sustainable it could be. According to a January 22, 2007 article in Fortune magazine, "In December, Linden Lab estimated that 17,000 residents had positive cash flow in Linden dollars, with about 450 generating monthly income in excess of $1,000 (that's U.S.)"

There you have it. You can work off your rear end in the real world to own a virtual reality Supercar, and eBay will be a vendor in that market.

Was Watching... Roger Federer Again!

Sometimes Too Good Is Just Enough


Coming into the final, Fernando Gonzales was playing a pretty mighty game of tennis. Yet, in front of Roger Federer, he ended up being second best on the day as the Swiss champ staked another Grand Slam Final in 3 sets. This may actually be the year he wins all four Grand Slam tournaments. He's certanly started off right by winning the Australian Open for the third time.

Federer has won 36 consecutive matches over all, and six of the past seven major titles. No other active player has won more than three Grand Slam titles. Federer is tied for fifth on the career list with Bill Tilden, who won his majors between 1920 and 1930. Pete Sampras is atop the list with 14.

Federer, still only 25, is moving rapidly into range, and Sampras has already said that he is convinced that Federer will pass him, perhaps sooner than later.

Tiger Woods is not yet convinced he will lose his race with Federer. Woods, who met Federer at last year’s United States Open, has befriended him. According to Federer, Woods often teases him that he is going to break Jack Nicklaus’s career record of 18 Grand Slam golf victories before Federer breaks Sampras’s record. Woods is six victories from his target, Federer is four from his.

“He loves it; he likes to beat me up,” said Federer, who spoke with Woods while he was in Australia. “He says he’s going to break it first. I hope just to get close to it. He is more, I think, driven than me. I’m maybe more laid-back in terms of looking at all these records and matches, but he really is so driven by the majors and by beating Nicklaus’s record.”

He added: “But I always hope well for Tiger, and not that I’m going to break the record the first. I hope he breaks it as well. I hope we both do.”

Well, Tiger's got a tougher job if there are 6 more to go on his table. Federer's got a good chance of picking up 2 more just this year, maybe 3 and possibly all 4. Tiger will win more over his career because he's a golf player and so the longevity will allow him to stretch that number into the 20s. If Federer could win another 10, that would be a totally amazing feat.

Was Watching... Roger Federer

There's Good, Better, Excellent...


...and sometimes all the superlatives in the world don't suffice. I've seen dominant players over the years, but tonight's performance by Federer takes the cake.

Roger Federer continued his defence of his Australian Open title with a superb 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 victory over sixth seed Andy Roddick in the semi-final.
Federer, yet to lose a set in the tournament, briefly found himself on the back foot in the first set despite breaking Roddick in the first game of the match. Four unforced errors in succession allowed Roddick to break back just three games later, tying the set at 2-2, and the American appeared in good form as he moved to a 4-3 lead on the back of some effective net play.

But Federer broke again in the ninth game of the set and never looked back, winning the next nine games straight and only committing one unforced error in a definitive second set showing. Roddick refused to surrender meekly, breaking the run and taking two more games the final set, but in the end Federer needed less than an hour and a half to tie up the win.
"I was really worried going into this match he had been playing so well," said Federer. "I played incredibly well. I had one of those days where everything worked. It's just unreal, I'm shocked myself, I don't know what to say."

The match was over in 83minutes. 83 minutes!
Andy Roddick is not a bad player. If anyting he's been better than I've ever seen him and genuinely looked like the player to beat for the last 8 days. The way he disposed of Marat Safin and Mardy Fish were enough to say he was on a roll. That, with Jimmy Connors working in his camp, getting technical aspects of his game sorted out; frankly, he looked to be in excellent form. Well, so much for all of that jazz. My old coach used to say that when crunch time comes, champions find that extra gear. Federer it seemed found an entirely new gear box.

Meanwhile, Andy Roddick described Jimmy Connors' reaction to his new protege's bad night. "He gave me a beer."

By the way, I HATE the way the Australian commentators have been referring to Andy Roddick as 'A-Rod'. Are you kidding me? The real A-Rod is still alive and well, playing 3B for the Yankees, thank you very much. Andy Roddick can claim the 'A-Rod' moniker when he earns more than US$252million. :)

Megafauna Find

Scary Pre-historic Monsters

There are lots of those that fit that moniker, but for the moment consider this: the most frightening, land mammalian carnivore may not have been the lion, but the marsupial lion.

The largest creatures to fall into the caves were giant wombats weighing about 200 kilograms and similar-sized giant kangaroos. This may have been the maximum size of creature that could fit down the small chimney holes.

From the pristine condition of the remains it is thought the holes must have been sealed for hundreds of thousands of years.

Nonetheless, the bones the scientists found were extremely fragile and had to be hardened using a chemical process before being wrapped and removed from the site in hard plastic cases.

All but one of the species of lizards that fell into the caves still scurry around the plain today.

Most of the small mammals - which included possums, dunnarts, antechinuses, bandicoots and bilbies - are also still alive, but do not all live on the now-denuded Nullarbor.

Two species of parrots were also found. This "suggests the presence of hollow-forming trees useful for nesting", Prideaux says.

Altogether, the remains of 11 marsupial lions, Thylacoleo carnifex, were found in the caves, which have been named the Thylacoleo Caves in their honour.

These 100-kilogram creatures were Australia's fiercest predators, with the most powerful bite of any known animal, including the sabre-toothed tiger, hyena and Tasmanian devil.

Interesting find. Let'ds call it a' landshark' instead... only kidding! :)

VICTORY!

Of Sorts...
For quite some time, this weblog has taken the position that Senator Ian Campbell is of borderline intelligence and his logical faculties are not substantial enough to warrant being a Federal Senator, let alone cabinet Minister for the Environment. More to the point, he is criminally stupid and is the winner of the 'escaped mongo' epithet on these pages.
Today, we find that the Coalition government agrees with our verdict too, and has dumped Ian Campbell from his portfolio.

Senator Ian Campbell has been dumped from the environment portfolio and Amanda Vanstone has quit the ministry altogether in a shakeup of the Prime Minister's team leading into an election year.

Campbell will take on human services, while his environment brief will go to Malcolm Turnbull.

It's still not good that he is still a minister of something so important as Human Services, but we'll chalk this one up as a victory for these pages.
Hooray! I won. :)

In other news, Amanda Vanstone finds herself on the outer with the cabinet reshuffle. It's about time somebody put a bullet into that career too. Good riddance.

Another Shark Attack

What's Better Than A Poke In The Eye?


A diver was partially swallowed by a shark when he poked it in the eye.

A man who managed to fight off a three-metre shark by poking its eye is being operated on in Wollongong Hospital after being mauled by a white pointer shark.

Eric Nerhus, a 41-year-old professional diver is in a serious but stable condition, and is expected to survive, after being half swallowed by the three-metre shark at Cape Howe, near Eden, on the NSW south coast, about 9.30am today.

The shark seized Mr Nerhus by the head, crushing his face mask inwards and breaking his nose, said friend and fellow diver Dennis Luobikis.

"He was actually bitten by the head down, the shark swallowed his head,'' Mr Luobikis said.

Taking a second bite, the white pointer clenched its jaws around his torso, tearing deep lacerations in either side of his body.

Against the odds, Mr Nerhus, a well-known local diver of more than five years' experience, managed to free himself from the shark's jaws, and was pulled back aboard the boat by his son.

Two other young divers in a nearby boat rendered immediate first aid and one radioed his father, who was flying overhead in a spotter plane, to call for emergency help.

He was flown to Wollongong Hospital instead of the closer Canberra Hospital because the Snowy Hydro Rescue Helicopter carrying the man must fly low to ground.

"He was diving so we have to fly low to the ground, and there are mountains on the way to Canberra,'' Snowy Hydro spokeswoman Debbie Lowry said.

"When you dive you have got to a minimum of two hours adjusting ... it's decompression. The oxygen in your lungs need time to readjust or you get the bends.''

She said the diver had told the helicopter crew that he had managed to get free after the shark bit down on him, then poked the animal in the eye.

Aiyah. That's Shark Attack No.3 this summer.
So, what is this notion that shark attacks happen only once a decade or so? Seems to me they happen with scary regularity.

Fall Out

Here's the latest on the Chinese satellite-missile test.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill raised the issue with Chinese Foreign Ministry officials during a weekend visit to Beijing, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.

Hill was told the Jan. 11 test was ``not meant as a threat against anybody and it's not meant to spark a race to militarize space,'' said McCormack, who urged China to be more ``transparent'' about its space program.

The U.S., U.K. and Australia raised concerns with China following the test and said debris from the destroyed satellite could be dangerous to other space installations. Japan called on the government in Beijing to explain its actions.

``We would encourage greater transparency as to exactly the specifics of this test, the intent behind it,'' said McCormack yesterday, according to a transcript. ``It has been a continuing topic for us as well as others in the region to encourage the Chinese to become more transparent in terms of their military spending and their military programs.''

U.S. officials have expressed concern that other countries may be acquiring capabilities to attack civilian and military space systems.

Well, presumably, they would. After all, who likes knowing that America is peeping in on them 24/7? It's th kind of capability that one would expect to be developed by somebody out there.

A Bully By Any Other Name

...Is Still A Bully

Just look at that yobbo clutching his flag will you? A tattoo on his bare chest, the look of ecstatic longing and adolescent hostility, the very image of rebel without a clue. The very flower of Australian Youth. ....*ugh*

The rush of politicians who suddenly have a media splash to make is pretty disgusting. They've all lined up to get their 15minutes of free airtime strutting their patriotic colours by plumping for the flag. If somebody actually gets hurt at the BDO because some flag-wrapped hooligan takes this as a signal, it will be the BDO organisers who would be held responsible; not the crappy pollies lining themselves up trying to look like honorable men. Vomit bags, anybody?

In turn, the organisers have 'backed down' (what ever that may mean because they never actually banned the flag - They just asked for restraint). So for once we can see politicians of all colours and creeds for what they are: media sluts without self-restraint. Really folks, this is a truly disgusting turn of events.

Faced with a withering assault from state and federal politicians, event management said founder Ken West had been misrepresented and was only "encouraging" people not to bring flags to Thursday's Sydney leg, for safety reasons.
However, as the organisers back-pedalled, one Australian act on the Big Day Out bill and many fans reported concerns about an outbreak of flag-waving hooliganism at the 2006 Sydney Big Day Out, held soon after the Cronulla riots. One group of men was reported to have marched around demanding people kiss the flag or be punched.

Callers to youth radio network Triple J were divided on the issue yesterday, with some supporting a ban and many saying such a move would make the flag the preserve of the red-neck rump.

Organisers still urged fans to leave flags at home. "In recent times, there has been an increased incidence of flags brandished inconsiderately and this has led to increased tension," they said. "Our only goal in discouraging this activity at the Big Day Out is to ensure that our patrons are not subjected to or inconvenienced by this behaviour."

Mr Howard, however, would not let the issue go. "The proposition that the display of the Australian flag should ever be banned anywhere in Australia is offensive and it will be to millions of Australians," he said.

Shannon Kennedy - aka Ozi Batla, from popular local act The Herd - said he was disturbed to see a huge increase in the number of Australian flags at last year's Sydney event.

"Obviously, you can't ban the flag," Kennedy said. "However, it was a worry to see the flag being misused by violent hoods last year and if these politicians could see the behaviour of some of these people wrapped in Australian flags they'd be disgusted and ashamed."

So today, the politicians are probably feeling mighty proud for their handiwork. These are the same politicians who sent troops to Iraq, who create concentration camps for Illegal Immigrants, who won't bother reading the prosecution's case for David Hicks, and won't sign the Kyoto Protocol, or insist on Anti-Sedition Laws or create conditions whereby citizens can get wrongfully deported, but ban the flag? No way!
The same politicans who waste public money and make croney-appointments and dig useless tunnels and build costly freeways that always seem to gouge the public purse. But with an election coming up, would they eschew a cheap shot? No Way!

What's really stupid on top of all of this is the idiotic sight of a teenager walking around with an Australian flag around his body like some cape. You'd think (and I certainly do) that act alone is more disrespectful to those who fought under it.
What they really should be doing is just draft every kid who turns up to the BDO wrapped in the flag, straight into the Army, hand them an assault rifle and send them to Iraq. You know, make them put their money and body and lives where their mouths are. Make them prove their cheap claims to patriotism.

"I Don't Believe Australia Is A Racist Country"

It really gives me the creeps when politicians in Canberra kind of puff their chests and say this line.

As I've posted before, in a legal sense, Australiaa isn't. It says so clearly in laws that protect people from vilifaction. But those laws are relatively new. By comparison, Australia did have the White Australia Policy until 1967. Wikipedia in fact lists the end as 1982!

The White Australia Policy refers to a range of legislative Acts of the Australian Parliament which all but excluded Non-European immigration into Australia. The three key Acts which are the Immigration Restriction Act (1901), the Pacific Island Labourers Act (1901) and the Naturalisation Act (1903). The term "White Australia" emerged in the 1890's as an ideal to strengthen racial homogeneity and the overwhelmingly European character of the population. The Federation of Australian colonies in 1901 made the realisation of the White Australia Policy possible. Previously to this the six Australian colonies had to implement separate and at times inconsistent legislation. Australian Federation made it possible for the Australian Parliament to enact legislation which covered the entire continent. While the "White Australia Policy" was usually regarded as a policy of immigration restriction, or exclusion, the deportation of thousands of Melenesian people from Queensland before 1907 was also considered an important aspect of the initial policy.
Discriminatory immigration policies were gradually removed between the end of World War II and 1982 with racially discriminatory aspects of the Migration Act officially overturned in 1973.
In contemporary Australian public and academic discourses, the term 'White Australia Policy' is commonly used to refer to the conception of Australia in ethno-nationalistic terms.

Aborigines were not legally considered citizens until after the 1967 referendum. So for at least 2/3rds of the 20th Century and over 50% of its history since Federation, Australia was comfortably a racist by its own laws. A lot of these polticians were born in a time when racist laws and poilicies were accepted and laregly unquestioned.

That includes you, Mr Rudd, who happens to be a Queenslander, so you'll have to pardon me if I exercie my prejudice and won't exactly believe your credentials of not being a racist. Not until you come out swinging hard against the racists who do live in our society. Instead I read your pronouncement more as an indication of your own bland hypocrisy. Which is all the more repugnant to me because you'd rather get that red neck vote than stand for something worthy. Why even run for office as a progressive?

Mr Howard too has said this line. The problem I have is that when he says it, he says it mincingly. He doesn't proudly declare it to the world. He sort of says it like he secretly wishes it still were. And rightfully the neighboring countries are suspicious of Australia. Year after year, you look at what the government actually does and look at the outcomes and you can only shake your head. How could the world not think it? The Pacific Solution? Does he even know what that sounds like?

"I don't believe Australia is a racist country" sounds like they're hoping. Wishing. Praying that Australia doesn't get found out for its true colours. And it is this very uncertainty in the phrase that opens the door or the jack-booted rednecks to come marhcing in, wrapped in their flags.
Which, quite clearly, they think is quite okay.

Flags Of Somebody Else's Fathers

Flags Don't Kill People...


The issue of flags has just gone berserk in the media. Mr Iemma looked really hot under the collar on TV. It's quite strange.

Prime Minister John Howard has called the move stupid and offensive, while Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd says it is "political correctness gone mad".

But Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett says the Big Day Out organisers have made a sensible decision because some people misuse the flag in a racist way.

"There are people that seek to excuse extremely objectionable and dangerous sentiments simply by wrapping it in the flag," he said.

"If people love the flag genuinely and are proud of their country as we should be, then we should be concerned about misuse of the flag and should be supporting efforts to prevent the misuse of it."

Senator Bartlett says Australians need to accept that there have been times when the flag has been abused.

"We've seen it abused and people that refuse to acknowledge that, I think, are frankly doing the flag a disservice," he said.

"People can and have misused it and the Big Day Out organisers have recognised that."

Yes, well, the notion that's now being raised by the idiot pollies is that it's not flags that kill people; it's people who kill people. So most flags are just ornaments then?
The flag above is of course the Eureka stockade flag which kind of got co-opted by the Republican Movement in the 1990s or so. But once aupon a time it was a flag that also stood for kicking out the Chinese from the gold fields, so it could be seen to be an offensive flags by some parties.
While I'm not particularly fond of it, I don't really mind it.


The Jolly Roger used to be a scary flag, and rightfully so. All it is now is a cipher for piracy and a bygone era. If you draped yourself in one of these at the Big Day Out, I think people would think you're just hot for Johnny Depp.
On the other hand, below is a flag that many (including me) find offensive:

And rightfully so, because to the best of our knowledge it stands for racism, slavery, intolerance and all things Southern USA. How red is your neck if you like this flag? Leathery, Beet, or just plain blood red? Predictably ratbag rednecks and bikie gangs are often seen sporting this flag.

My favorite flag is this one:


It is the Imperial Japanese Navy Flag. I quite like it, but I'm sure if I wore it down the street in Australia, I'd get accosted and may be even assaulted. So I guess you could say I exercise a bit of 'social diplomacy' and would never wear it. But you know, it doesn't take a lot of will-power not to do so. The kinds of people who would wear it in Japan as a fashion statement are a little loopy; or historical revisionists. But you do see defaced versions of it worn by white boys in Sydney who think it's kind of manga-anime-chic. Nobody's angry about those assholes.

Which is all to say, a preoccupation with the flag of any cause is probably a bit daft.

ISRO Space Capsule

Strange But True

Indian scientists are working on a return capsule.

Indian scientists for the first time have safely guided a space capsule back to Earth.
Indian space agency ISRO said the capsule splashed down in the Bay of Bengal. It added, efforts are underway to locate it and bring it ashore.

Scientists will see if all experiments have gone as planned and most importantly if the ceramic tiles served their purpose.

Only three other countries, Russia, America and China have mastered this complex technology.

It is seen as India's first steps towards undertaking a manned mission.
The 550 kg capsule was planned to land 140 km east off the coast of Sriharikota.

On splashdown, a giant balloon keeps it afloat, while a green dye and a homing beacon will help Coast Guard ships and scientists from ISRO locate the capsule.

The capsule re-orients and four tiny rockets on it will help de-boost it. Upon re-entry the capsule faces temperatures as high as 1200 degrees.

Three parachutes were planned to slow down its speed five km above sea level. Finally, when the capsule splashes down it travels at 36 km per hour.

The spindle shaped space capsule that was launched on top of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or the PSLV is India's first attempt to see if orbiting objects can be safely brought back to earth.

The space capsule has been orbiting the earth at a height of 625 km.
When it re-enters the earth's atmosphere it will be traveling at over 28,000 km per hour.

There you go. It has in fact splashed down safely.

The Space Recovery Experiment-1 (SRE-1) splashed down in the waters of the Bay of Bengal at 9.45 a.m., about 140 km from where it had taken off into space at the Sriharikota launch station in Andhra Pradesh.

'Its speed at the time was about 40 km per hour, the speed of a car,' said an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), adding that it was located by a Coast Guard helicopter and recovery efforts were in full swing.
The satellite will be towed first to an area off the Ennore harbour, north of Chennai. The Coast Guard vessel will then slowly navigate northward to Sriharikota and reach the station by night.

The space industry just keeps on changing.

Jorge Posada

School Stories

Here's an article on Jorge Posada before he was drafted by the Yankees.

Introducing Posada to Gongwer might have helped both players more than Frickie imagined.

“Knowing people like Steve helped me so much,” Posada said.

Gongwer helped immerse Posada into campus life. They played table tennis with other players at the Calhoun gym and joined in pick-up basketball games. They lived next door to each other at the Cabanas.

Many of Calhoun’s players went home on weekends, but because Gongwer came from Atlanta, where he couldn’t travel home and back easily, he stayed. So did Posada.

When Gongwer did go home, he often took Posada.

On Friday, when Posada traveled back to Alabama, it was Gongwer who drove him from the ACCC ceremony in Montgomery to Decatur.

During the ride, Gongwer called his mother and told her that he had Posada next to him. Posada took the phone and told her, “I miss your spaghetti.”

They also worked out together, and that’s when Gongwer found out exactly how much talent Posada had.

“I hit .286 my freshman year,” said Gongwer, who now lives in Birmingham, “and I always felt like I was a good player who worked hard. Others might have more talent, but nobody would outwork me.

“But here was this guy with all this God-given talent, and he worked three times as hard as I did.”

The experience of working out with Posada made Gongwer call home to tell his father that he wouldn’t focus too much on baseball and forget about his degree. When his father asked what brought this about, Gongwer said “because I have met a Major League player, and now I know what one looks like.”

Cool story. There's also a little bit on his nickname 'Sado'. No, it's not inreference to the Marquis, but to the mistakee the announcer made on hiss first day as a Yankee [ - Surprisingly, it's a bit like why team mates call Adam Gilchrist 'Church'.]

I Hate Thick Pollies

Who Said "Ban The Flag"?
No, they're not banning the flag at the Big Day Out. They're asking people not to bring them.
In response, the usual chorus of idiots and mediots have suggested that it might be best to throw out the baby with the bathwater instead:

ORGANISERS should cancel the Australia Day eve Big Day Out concert in Sydney rather than ban the flag at Thursday's event, parliamentary secretary for immigration Andrew Robb said.
NSW Premier Morris Iemma and the RSL also condemned the decision to ban the flag, describing it as "outrageous" and "unbelievable".

The Daily Telegraph today reported that organisers of the Big Day Out at Homebush had decided they would confiscate any flag or bandana featuring the national symbol at the gates.

Event organiser Ken West was quoted as saying fans' behaviour last year in the wake of the Cronulla riots and the recent ethnic violence at the Australian Open tennis tournament had forced his hand.

"The Australian flag was being used as gang colours. It was racism disguised as patriotism and I'm not going to tolerate it," Mr West said.

BDO organisers issued a statement this morning saying the flag was not banned, but they said they did not want concert-goers taking it into the event.

"We are not banning the Australian flag but are simply discouraging its use for anti-social purposes at the Big Day Out," the statement said.

The issue has prompted a chorus of disapproval from top politicians, including Prime Minister John Howard, and the RSL.

Mr Robb said the flag was not the problem and should not be banned.

"If they have got a security problem, they need to deal with that, not with the flag. The flag is a symbol of unity," he told Channel 9.

"To compare the flag to a gang colour I think is just outrageous, and totally unacceptable."

Which bit of the events in Cronulla didn't Mr. Robb understand? Or did he actually approve of that crowd that draped itself in the Australian flag as it ran as a mob? Did he think their use of the flag was highly commendable? Patriotism is always the first refuge of the scoundrel, and these pollies are nothing if not but scurrilous. Otheriwse, the only other interpretation of their position is that they do want people to drape themselves in the national flag and commit violent crimes.

However, it's not just the conservative morons who are complaining; it's also opposition leader Kevin Rudd.

"Organisers have got it plain wrong when they try to hide our flag as if it's some symbol of shame. It's not. We should fly it with pride," he said on Channel 9.

Is Kevin Rudd completely stupid? Does he think it would be better for Australia to have gangs dressing themselves up as patriots? If so, then he's actually lining up with the Nazis and brownshirts; because that's where things lie in the history books.

If he's characterising what the organisers are doing as being ashamed of the flag, then he is a willful dingbat and a very bad student of history. After all, my interpretation of the BDO organisiers is that they are in fact so proud of our flag, they would rather not let rightwing morons and racist hicks and rednecks hijack it for their sad little cause; that they are trying to preserve the dignitiy of the flag.

I guess there isn't much of a 'youth vote', but a great big 'xenophobia vote'. It seems to me the people most upset by the Big Day Out decision are indeed the most scurrilous of the lot.
As the Japanese say, there's no ointment you can apply to the stupid.

Sydney Councils' Sex Spies

Nice Work If You Can Get It

Sydney's municipal councils are paying private detectives to go and have sex with prostitutes in order to ascertain if a brothel is legal or not.

Nine councils have paid up $25,000 over three years for the detectives to gather evidence against the illicit operations, News Ltd reports.

The onus of proof is on councils to show a business is operating illegally.

Ku-ring-gai Council has spent $7,000 in the last month but mayor Nick Ebbeck said it was a necessary expense.

The detectives had to actually have sex with the prostitutes to provide reports to satisfy the courts, he said.

"The only difference between us closing down an illegal panel beating shop and a brothel is we must prove they are doing the act and this is where it gets interesting," Mr Ebbeck told the paper.

Two brothels have been shut down this month on the basis of investigators' evidence, and five more premises are under investigation.

At a cost of $3,500 per case, the detectives provide an affidavit, a detailed account of the transaction and sometime video footage.

Willoughby Council has shut down one brothel this month, after paying $1,500 for detectives to pay it two visits.

North Sydney Council has forked out $4,800 to shut down three unlawful establishments, with the third case due in the Land and Environment Court later this month.

Sutherland Shire Council paid $800 last October for a detective to investigate an illegal brothel.

This is turning out to be a bit of a PR problem.

A councillor with Sydney's Willoughby Council says it is worrying councils have had to pay private investigators to have sex with prostitutes, so they can gather enough evidence to shut down illegal brothels.

A number of Sydney councils have reportedly paid thousands of dollars in fees to private investigators who visit the brothels and then provide affidavits which are used in court.

Councillor Trevor Morgan says it is wrong the burden of proof is on councils to prove that illegal activity is taking place on the site of unlawful brothels.

He says councils have no choice but to take such measures.

"Unfortunately, sometimes you have to take these courses because the law forces you take it," he said.

"The only way to do it is change the law and to give councils the right to enter these premises outside of trading hours and say, 'What is going on with all this set-up of type of premises,' but we can't do it."

I guess that won't wash well with the ALP who must make sure the prostitutes don't lose their jobs. Had the disgraced former Liberal Leader John Brogden been the premier... well, he wouldn't want to be shutting down brothels either.

So, who wants to be a Private Dick?

Chinese Star Wars

Blowing Up Satellites
China managed to destroy a satellite with a medium ballistic missile. The immediate ramifications of that are obvious: they can knock out the aerospace intelligence capability of her enemies.

The satellite was some 500 miles (800km) above the earth.

At the very least, it represents the first significant escalation in the space weapons race in 20 years.

Only the United States and the former Soviet Union have previously destroyed targets in space and that was back in the 1980s.

Although this time China used a relatively old-fashioned ballistic missile to target the satellite, it is also thought to be working on far more sophisticated laser technology to do the job.

US officials have been alarmed by the test itself and the failure of China to announce what it was doing either publicly or privately.

A White House spokesman said the "development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of co-operation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area".

He said both the US and other countries were concerned.

Talk about setting cats amongst the pigeons.

The Force?

Captain Jetes & Mace Windu



This is a funny little skit from a while back that got dug up by Peter Abraham on his blog. I thought I'd drag it here too.

Space Elevator Rationale

Some Reasons Why We Should
Here's a link.

I think the argument that continuing our civilization's current carbon based energy regime cannot meet the environmental restrictions even if (and it is a big if) we can wring another few decades or a century out of it by using forms such as oil shale, tar sand etc (see Bjorn Lomborg on how that can be done). It is equally clear that while the dire predictions of the Club of Rome have not come true as predicted, we must sooner or later face sever shortages of minerals - raising the price of some of them beyond what our societies energy regime can afford - eventually threatening even out globalised society with collapse (as laid out by Jarred Diamond in his seminal work 'Collapse: How Societies choose to succeed or fail').

If our society did collapse, we would have to expect this to occur globally as our now world spanning economy and political structures fight it out for the resources they need to sustain themselves just the same way the chiefs did on Easter Island or the Aztec Nobles and Kings did in Central America. The trouble would be that with this occurring globally we could expect the collapse to be world wide as well and our heirs to be unable to rebuild a society like ours for many centuries (if ever) because we had already exploited all the easily recovered mineral resources and they would lack the technology or global organisation or both, to go after the scraps we leave them. The scraps we are increasingly turning to now ourselves (as recommended by Lomborg). We therefore should equate such a potential collapse with near extinction of our species (& many others) for planning purposes. I believe we must plan to avoid it at all costs.

So we have a knotty problem, or at least a major crisis of how our society works and collapse within 100 years is a very real possibility, however high on the hog we may seem to be riding as the West sees it. Part of the solution will surely be utilizing every 'alternative' clean energy source we can. Part or it will be new technologies to replace minerals we lack with alternatives and better extraction to go after reserves no-one would have touched previously but this only buys us time as we tighten our belts and still consume more of the geological legacy the Earths past has left us - and which can never be replenished (except over Millions of years) and which we therefore CANNOT use *sustainably*.

This of course leads us back to my original assertion that we need resources beyond those of the Earth in order not to face near extinction. We also need energy to be sufficiently environmentally clean (including greenhouse neutral) plentiful and affordable to run our ongoing civilization on it. This will be hard enough if we keep the high standard of living for the current developed West only but China and India are determined that that will not be how it goes.

I do recommend you read on.

Today's Guff

Six-Party Talks A Failure
This news didn't get enough coverage, really, but John Bolton is saying that the Six-Nations Talk process was a failure and all we could really hope for was for the North Korean regime to collapse all of its own accord.

John Bolton, who left the U.N. in December, said the United States and Japan should enlist China and South Korea in efforts to put further pressure on North Korea, which he said has no intention of verifiably giving up its nuclear weapons program.

“The only answer ... is the collapse of the North Korean regime and the hopefully peaceful reunification of Korea, and that should be our objective,” Bolton, now a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told reporters.
The latest round of the six-party talks – including the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia – ended in December with no agreement on disarmament or a new date for further talks.

Bolton said the North's missile tests in July and its first nuclear test, in October, showed the communist regime was determined to develop a weapon and greatly embarrassed its top ally, China.

Even if North Korea were to promise to give up its weapons program, Bolton said it was highly unlikely the regime would submit to invasive verification of its nuclear sites to make sure it was not cheating.

“If my conclusion that the six-party talks have failed is correct ... that means we have to switch to a new policy,” he said at the Japan National Press Club.

Not the most encouraging news to hear.

"A Credit To His Race"

This is a bit of a worry.

A DVD of preachings by a radical Australian sheikh, in which he refers to Jews as pigs and calls on Muslim parents to offer their children as soldiers to defend Islam, has been labelled "offensive, unacceptable and outrageous" by the Acting Attorney-General.

Sheikh Feiz Mohammad, Amir of the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Liverpool, makes the controversial comments on several DVDs, called the Death Series, which are available for purchase in Australia, overseas and on the internet.

His preachings drew concerns following the airing of a British documentary, Undercover Mosque. Its producers bought one of his DVDs from children selling Islamic CDs and DVDs at a car park behind a mosque in England.

The Australian Federal Police said it was aware of the DVDs and was making enquiries into the matter.

Sheikh Feiz, who is an Australian citizen now believed to be in Lebanon, is shown in the documentary preaching jihad.

"The peak, the pinnacle, the crest, the highest point, the pivot, the summit of Islam is jihad," he said.

He criticises Muslim parents for being too cautious about letting their children receive jihad teachings.

"Today, many parents they prevent their children from attending lessons. Why? They fear that they might create a place in their hearts, a love, just a bit of the love, of sacrificing their lives for Allah."

He goes on to talk of his desire that children be offered "as soldiers defending Islam".

"Teach them this: that there is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a Muhajid.

"Put in their soft, tender heart the zeal of jihad and the love of martyrdom."

In another DVD excerpt shown on Undercover Mosque, Sheikh Feiz makes pig-like snorting noises when he refers to Jews.

"They will be [snort, snort] - all of them. Every single one of them."

One often gets a little leery of media-beat-ups, but this one might just be true. This guy may have made videos promoting jihad and racial vilification and suicide bombings - and sold them. And I'm not inclined to say "so what?" or claim "cultural misunderstanddings". I'm more inclined to string him up by the balls and haul him into our law courts and try him under the vilification laws.

5 Minutes To Midnight

The End Is Closer

Thanks to the efforts of Iran and North Korea, the world is closer to nuclear holocaust.

We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age. Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices. North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a renewed U.S. emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia are symptomatic of a larger failure to solve the problems posed by the most destructive technology on Earth.

As in past deliberations, we have examined other human-made threats to civilization. We have concluded that the dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons. The effects may be less dramatic in the short term than the destruction that could be wrought by nuclear explosions, but over the next three to four decades climate change could cause drastic harm to the habitats upon which human societies depend for survival.

This deteriorating state of global affairs leads the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists — in consultation with a Board of Sponsors that includes 18 Nobel laureates — to move the minute hand of the “Doomsday Clock” from seven to five minutes to midnight.

Thank you Kim Jong-Il and Ahmedinejad.

Voight-Kampff Tests

Skin-Jobs On The Loose

This is a hilarious link from DaBrew where a journo asked a bunch of politicians running for office, the V-K empathy test questions from Blade Runner.

With Willie Brown finally leaving his gold (plated), diamond-encrusted throne, there has been no shortage of hats thrown into the mayoral ring. San Francisco politics are now a microcosm of California’s own, greater gubernatorial “challenges.” Rather than confuse you with endorsements, position papers and other outmoded means of political influence, we’ve decided to get to the bottom of the only question that matters: Is a particular candidate human or an insidious replicant, possessed of physical strength and computational abilities far exceeding our own, but lacking empathy and possibly even bent on our destruction as a species?

The only reliable method that we know of for sniffing out replicants is the Voight-Kampff Test, created by Phillip K. Dick in his book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and later used by Harrison Ford’s character, Deckard, in the film Blade Runner. The test uses a series of questions to evoke an emotional response which androids are incapable of having. By the candidates’ responses to this line of questioning, we feel we can say with some certainty whether or not they’re replicants. However, we’re stopping short of recommending that you vote for them or not. After all, though a replicant mayor may be more likely to gouge a supervisor’s eyes out with their thumbs, they have another quality that could be great in an elected official: a four year life span.

You MUST read on at the answers and decide for yourself whether these wannabe-governors are indeed replicants from the Tyrell Corporation.
You know what? I'd love to have administered these questions to our pollies.

Do It Right

...If You're Gonna Hang Somebody

They hung the half-brother of Saddam Hussein, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti today. By all accounts, the hanging wa botched and resembled more of a decapitation than a hanging.

The day which started with the pre-dawn executions of Saddam Hussein's half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and former head of the Iraqi Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bandar, has not ended well.

The official announcement of the executions made much of the lengths the authorities had gone to in order to prevent any abuse of the condemned men this time after unofficial video shot on a mobile phone at Saddam Hussein's hanging had shown him being taunted on the gallows.

All those present at the latest executions had signed a document saying they would behave according to the rules.

There were apparently fewer witnesses on this occasion. They were searched more thoroughly, particularly for cameras or other recording devices.

And, said officials, there were no abuses, no slogans, no insults, no violations.

But then came the bombshell of these executions - the admission that the head of Barzan al-Tikriti had been ripped from his body as he was being hanged.

It was described by officials as a rare incident, something that can sometimes happen at hangings, an act of God.

As acts of Gods go, that's one hell of a prank by Allah. You really wish these people would at least do the right thing.

...If You're Gonna Trade Somebody

In one of the weird twists of fate, David Beckam is going to LA to play his sport. Here's an interesting column on that notion. Beckham seems inaccessible to even thouse who want to write nice things about him, but the knives are flying thick and fast. It's not his fault that he has considerable value off the pitch, even in America.

In terms of how all this impacts on Real Madrid, the truth is that the issue of his exclusion (not the transfer) has split the country down the middle. I was in Santiago at the weekend, and everyone was talking about it. Back here in San Sebastian, and I've just come back from the bar after watching Madrid beat Zaragoza, people were still talking about it.

One chap with a scary moustache, who'd spent the game muttering darkly about Van Nistelrooy's inability to either control or pass the ball - Es un buitre, joder! Que se dedique a esto, y nada más! (He's a poacher, for God's sake. He should just stick to doing that!) then began to chat with the barman about Beckham (who'd just appeared on camera, sitting in the stands watching his mates play). 'I can't understand it!' he shouted. 'So Madrid need to clean out the old ones, and start from new. I can understand that. But to punish the guy like that is just nasty. It shows a lack of class. Beckham's alright. He's always worked his nuts off. The club's gone to the dogs. You can't treat people like that'.

Radomir Antic, writing in the tabloid 'AS' said something similar, qualifying the action as symbolic of a dying institution, one that no longer has the dignity to even know who its most loyal servants have been. And he has a point. Ronaldo's sullen and unpredictable behaviour over the past two seasons should have guaranteed his exit long before now, but now Beckham has been lumped in with the 'clean-up', which includes the troublesome Cassano - a most unholy trinity, since the Englishman's behaviour has been exemplary.

He even praised Capello as a manager last week and pledged that he would continue to fight for the cause, words that have been rewarded with a kick in the nether regions, further down than Ferguson's flying boot. It's true, of course, that Beckham has occasionally been required to ask permission to go and film some ad somewhere, or endorse a product, or whatever chaps like Beckham are required to do, but Real Madrid signed him precisely for that purpose, even grabbing 50% of his image rights - based on deals that Beckham had cut before he ever trod the Bernabéu.

All this goes for me towards arguments why I still hate soccer. One day when all is said and done, a lot of people are going to sit up and realise Becks was a pretty special player even without the hype; and just because he married a silly spice girl, or just because he has that silly accent does not mean he isn't actually, y'know, a very GOOD player.

Then there's stuff like this:

"He signed his contract before he spoke with Madrid and for me that doesn't seem right," Capello said after Madrid's 1-0 home victory over Real Zaragoza, a game Beckham watched from a spectator box along with his mother, Sandra.

"If a player has a contract (with another club) it isn't right that you continue to treat him as just another player."

In an interview with Spain's Onda Cero radio, Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon also took issue with Beckham's conduct.

"We have been given the run around for the past two months," Calderon said. "We were never told that he had signed for another club, that he had the house bought and had everything ready to go. That, to me, is not right."

Oliveira said Beckham had made his intentions clear to club officials in a meeting before signing with the MLS club.

"We've done everything above board," Oliveira said. "We made our intentions clear to Real Madrid that David wasn't staying at the club before meeting with the Galaxy."

Beckham joined Madrid from Manchester United in 2003. The team hasn't won a single major trophy since, and the former England captain was mainly a substitute this season..

It hardly seemed likely that Real Madrid needed Beckham if they sat him so bloody often. He took the hint and left. What idiots.

Mailbag

Oil Interest Blues
Here are some articles from Chela Elaine. All are from the Independnent in the UK.

1. About the crappy oil deals we gave the Iraqis.

But it doesn't demand the fevered imaginings of a conspiracy theorist to think that this law, struck while the beleaguered Iraqi government is facing opposition from all quarters, protects the interests of oil wealth (which is so well represented in the White House) more than it does the Iraqi people. Production sharing agreements don't apply in most other major Middle Eastern oil producers because they are widely thought to grant greater control to companies than governments. With economies so heavily dependent on oil, it's hard to see how countries can truly be self-governing if they sign away influence over their almost exclusive source of wealth.

Legitimate questions must be asked. How did this decision come to be made? How much pressure was President Nouri al-Maliki placed under to bend to the American corporate interests? Conservative US thinktanks such as the Heritage Foundation have been plotting the wholesale privatisation of the Iraqi oil industry for years. Since 2003, the supposed reconstruction of Iraq by US companies has left a bitter taste with most Iraqis who see a symbiotic relationship between the US military and big business that would make a British district commissioner in imperial Africa blush.

Well, clearly the Bush admin folks just don't give a toss.

2. About 'Peak Oil' Dick Cheney and his war.

"In all," says Chris Skrebowski, editor of the Energy Institute's 'Petroleum Review', "40 per cent of the world's oil is coming from areas where production is in clear and substantial decline." When the figure reaches 50 per cent, he adds, the world as a whole will have reached the "peak oil" tipping point.

The world's first oil well was dug on the Greek Island of Zante around 400 BC, but it was not until 1859 that the Pennsylvania Rock Oil company struck the black gold 69 feet below ground, setting the scene for the oil age.

Little more than 7,000 barrels of it were produced in the whole of 1860, the first full year of pumping. Since then, it is generally agreed, the world has burned nearly 1.1 trillion barrels. But nobody knows how much is left and can be economically recovered.

So while everyone agrees that some day oil production will peak - since there is a finite amount of it on the planet - there is wide debate over when this will be. At one extreme, some experts believe that time has already arrived. Professor Kenneth Deffeyes of Princeton University - who worked with M King Hubbert - plumped for the astonishingly precise date of 16 December 2005. At the other extreme, analysts at Cambridge Energy Research Associates in Massachusetts think the peak will not come until the 2030s.

But a growing number of experts are coming to believe that it will be upon us disturbingly soon, at around 2010 or 2011. Mr Skrebowski, once sceptical of the more pessimistic estimates, is among them. "All the work I have done suggests that you just can't get it beyond then," he says..

So there we have it in the press. One wonders if the world will jump to fix the problem or just sit on their fat rear-ends like they did with Global Warming.

3. What the Oil is actually worth.

The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.

The huge potential prizes for Western firms will give ammunition to critics who say the Iraq war was fought for oil. They point to statements such as one from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. "So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies," he said.

Oil industry executives and analysts say the law, which would permit Western companies to pocket up to three-quarters of profits in the early years, is the only way to get Iraq's oil industry back on its feet after years of sanctions, war and loss of expertise. But it will operate through "production-sharing agreements" (or PSAs) which are highly unusual in the Middle East, where the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world's two largest producers, is state controlled.

The thing about the Iraq war is that basically you have a bunch of first world nation hooked on Oil, looking for a fix. It's more than a little bit like heroin-addicts with guns, breaking down the doors to the house that stores a mountain of heroin.

From The Pleaides Mailbag
1. Here's a video of Olbermann having a blast at GWB. Check it out.

2. Here's another article about 9/11.

The two airplanes that struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11 flew directly into secure computer rooms in both buildings. Is that simply a coincidence or were the computer rooms equipped to play a role in the crime?

Were there homing devices, for example, in these rooms that guided the planes to their targets? Were there pre-placed explosives or Thermite on these floors to destroy the evidence and assist with the collapses?

Kind of scary.
3. While we're on scary, Pleiades has sent in this link.

This evening I computed something that troubled me. George Bush's plan to send a 'temporary surge' of extra troops to Iraq is a wheeze. Under the guise of sorting out Iraq before eventual withdrawal, it's equally likely that the troops are being sent there to hold Iraq down while Israel attacks Iran. The Shi'a majority in Iraq will not be pleased by seeing Iran attacked. They have a dual sentiment toward Iran: in one sense Iran is a Shi'a brother, and in another it is a Persian big brother to the Shi'a Arabs, who have deep-seated mixed feelings about this. The history of power oscillations between Mesopotamia and Persia goes back longer than the history of most nations' very existence. As we know, Iraq is a powderkeg.

I understand that Israel has around 200 nuclear devices, of which perhaps 50 might be available for use in Iran (the rest need retaining for defence, or are inappropriate for use in the Iran context). Now Israel's position is complex. Its powers-that-be, who have relied since the nation's founding on an 'iron wall' military defensive-aggression strategy, are desperate to keep the 'iron wall' show on the road - otherwise social and political change comes, and with it their downfall and the shift of an historic mindset.

I don't know how much of an expert analyst this guy is, but it's pretty crazy to start talking about this by counting the nukes.

4. About Hawks and Doves.
This bit, I found funny:

Excessive optimism is one of the most significant biases that psychologists have identified. Psychological research has shown that a large majority of people believe themselves to be smarter, more attractive, and more talented than average, and they commonly overestimate their future success. People are also prone to an “illusion of control”: They consistently exaggerate the amount of control they have over outcomes that are important to them—even when the outcomes are in fact random or determined by other forces. It is not difficult to see that this error may have led American policymakers astray as they laid the groundwork for the ongoing war in Iraq.

Indeed, the optimistic bias and the illusion of control are particularly rampant in the run-up to conflict. A hawk’s preference for military action over diplomatic measures is often built upon the assumption that victory will come easily and swiftly. Predictions that the Iraq war would be a “cakewalk,” offered up by some supporters of that conflict, are just the latest in a long string of bad hawkish predictions. After all, Washington elites treated the first major battle of the Civil War as a social outing, so sure were they that federal troops would rout rebel forces. General Noel de Castelnau, chief of staff for the French Army at the outset of World War I, declared, “Give me 700,000 men and I will conquer Europe.” In fact, almost every decision maker involved in what would become the most destructive war in history up to that point predicted not only victory for his side, but a relatively quick and easy victory. These delusions and exaggerations cannot be explained away as a product of incomplete or incorrect information. Optimistic generals will be found, usually on both sides, before the beginning of every military conflict.

Not ha-ha funny, but black-irony-filled funny.

Jeter's Holiday

Cheeky!

I was trawling the net and found this pickie above.
Life is good when you're Derek Jeter. That's an awfully tight bikini on Jessica Biel.

Yankee Hotstove

Bye Bye Randy, We Hardly Knew You

Reports are coming out that the Yankees and Diamondbacks have reached a tentative agreement on the Randy Johnson-to-D'Backs trade.

The teams informed the commissioner's office of the specifics of the trade, a baseball official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made.
Arizona would send pitcher Luis Vizcaino to the Yankees along with minor league pitcher Ross Ohlendorf and shortstop Alberto Gonzalez, another baseball official said, also on condition of anonymity. The Yankees also might receive another minor league pitcher, the official said, and would pay between $1.5 million and $2 million of Johnson's $16 million salary this year.
Teams are granted a 72-hour window by the commissioner's office to close tentative deals, but it was not clear when that time would begin.
"When we have been granted that window, we would be willing to discuss everything with the Diamondbacks," said Alan Nero, who represents Johnson along with Barry Meister. "Once that window is open, we will do our best to work out a deal."

No Micah Owings. No Nippert, Conor Jackson, nor Chad Tracy.
I guess the Yankees are not sending any money.

Talking To Kei Igawa
Kei Igawa is interviewed here by SI.com.

SI: Hideki Matsui is nicknamed Godzilla. What's your favorite Japanese film monster?
Igawa: I have none.

SI: Not even Mothra or Rodan?
Igawa: I never watch horror films.

SI: The Boston Red Sox made a Mechagodzilla-sized splash this offseason by bidding more than $51 million for the rights to Japanese ace Daisuke Matsuzaka and signing him to a $52 million, six-year contract. Did the hard-line shenanigans of his agent, Scott Boras, hurt Matsuzaka's image in Japan?
Igawa: I have no idea. Please ask Daisuke directly.

SI: How have you fared in head-to-head competition against Matsuzaka?
Igawa: We pitched against each other during the Inter-League season last year. I don't remember the details, but we both did our job as the starters.

SI: Are you guys friends?
Igawa: Since we pitched in different leagues, I've never talked to him at length. But we'll both have the opportunity from now on.

SI: Who's your favorite American ballplayer?
Igawa: I have a tremendous respect for all big leaguers. I do not have a particular favorite.

SI: How about a personal hero?
Igawa: The goalkeeper for Belgium's national soccer team.

SI: And your favorite historic figure?
Igawa: Mitsukuni Tokugawa, a feudal ruler known for his political influence in the early Edo Period.

SI: Tokugawa was a gourmand who claimed to be one of the first Japanese to eat ramen. What's the most exotic food in your fridge?
Igawa: Water.

SI: What has been the greatest embarrassment in your life?
Igawa: I've lost my wallet four times. I got it back every single time.

SI: What do you like most about New York City?
Igawa: The energy. People are filled with pride.

SI: And dislike?
Igawa: No manners in driving. Lots of horns.

SI: What did you spend your first paycheck on? Igawa: In Japan, I bought candy. In the U.S., I left tips at the St. Regis.

SI: What kind of hitters give you the most trouble? Igawa: Fast-running singles hitters. They make me throw a lot of pitches.

SI: What kind do you most like to face? Igawa: Free-swinging power hitters.

SI: What impresses you most about the American game? Igawa: The greatness of your baseball tradition. I'd like to learn the culture itself.

SI: What's the worst thing that has ever been written about you? Igawa: Ask the Japanese media.

SI: Your favorite film actor? Igawa: Ken Watanabe of The Last Samurai and Letters from Iwo Jima.

SI: Do you have a secret ambition? Igawa: That's secret.

SI: What is the question are you most asked at parties? Igawa: "When did you start playing baseball?"

SI: Your favorite book? Igawa: The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, Robert Whiting's book about Japanese baseball.

SI: What's the coolest part of your job? Igawa: Pitching complete games.

SI: And your motto? Igawa: Quest.

He seems devoid of a sense of humour. He's not even humanly interesting. Heck, he's downright boring. I think he'll fit right in.

New Years Goss

How To Make An Ass Of Yourself


I was in Adelaide visitng some friends and ended up at a dinner party for New Year's Eve in Blackwood.

There was a particularly articulate and argumentative elderly lady at the table there with whom I got into certain discussions about amongst other things, Rock Music and its place in history. I guess I get drawn into discussions and arguments easily, and this is a great personal failing on my part.

She seemed to think that all popular music was garbage and was waiting on the big comeback of classical music to happen. I explained the economic imperative of music over the ages and how performance music has always been trending downward from orchestras to smaller and smaller units until performance music itself was supplanted by recorded music. She then asked for a working definition of rock music in the broadest sense and I had to say it was the music of the electric guitar as invented and mass-marketed in the 1950s; and that it's era as a socially important form was drawing to a close.

Then we got into various discussions about the nature of water supply and greenhouse emissions. I steered right clear of expressing any opinion about 'Aboriginal Art' and yet managed to totally slag off on the National Museum in Canberra. I think I even got a few hits in on Kim Beazley's leadership and the failure of the Labor Party to recapture the middle ground. I had a particularly long discussion with her son Dermot, who seemed to be some kind of academic, about the negative consequences of the late 1980s Dawkins Reforms - and I wasn't particularly nice about it, I flat-out panned the current status of Tertiary Education in this country.

Dermot and his mother left around 10:30pm and it was only afterwards that I was informed that the elderly lady was former Senator Rosemary Crowley.

Hanging Saddam

Two Wrongs Making A Right?

I've commented here before that I actually disagree with hanging Saddam by his own crappy laws. Yes, they're the same set of Iraqi criminal justice laws that were used under his regime, but the swift hanging actually put him in a position to be more of a martyr than a common criminal. While it is on substantial public account and documentation that his crimes were vast, running him through a kangaroo court and swinging him from the gallows at top speed does not reflect well on the notion of a due process. The irony is sweet, but that's not exactly what we stand for, is it? Afterall, blowing him away in a hale of US Marine gun fire may have been more cinematic or poetic.

The trial actually had less gravitas than an episode of 'Judge Judy'. Indeed, the great judge Judith Sheindlin may have been a better judge than the sorrry excuse for a judge that presided over the trial. The grand irony of course is that the trial took place in the very land of the Hammurabi Law Code. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth and all that, if you've read your high school history books. And there, we let the Iraqis let a trial run - where three of Saddam's defense counsels were assassinated - run its sorry course. No mis-trial motions or declarations, no re-starts. It really makes us look grand, doesn't it? Add it to the list of crappy post-invasion administration choices by the Coalition of the Willing. You wonder how the likes of Tony Blair sleep at nights.
Anyway, such reservations aside, Iraqi officials hung Saddam Hussein.

In an amazingly morbid twist of our society, the footage is available at Youtube. I'd normally link to it but having seen it, I don't think it's something that even my bad taste can countenance - If you like, look it up yourself. It's pretty grim and gruesome.