January 2005

Over-the-top publicity stunt of the week No.1

Submitted by rickeyre on

It was a spectacle of surrealist theatre that brought back memories of the Lillehammer Winter Olympic closing ceremony. But the unveiling of the Airbus A380 in Toulouse yesterday was such an overblown spectacle, so much so that Sky News, BBC World and CNN International were all sucked in to taking this live informercial as a "breaking news" event during their 9pm AEDT bulletins last night.

Service interrupted... but you knew that

Submitted by rickeyre on

I'm in the middle of an upgrade from Wordpress 1.2.2 Mingus to Wordpress 1.5-Beta-2005-01-17 (which has already been replaced by Wordpress 1.5-Beta-2005-01-18 as if I care). There are quite a few structural changes for the better, but because I am using a beta release, and a nightly build at that, upgrading is not a simple task. In particular, I have to rebuild most of the page templates and style sheets.

There will be a better structure at the end of this, as well as... wait for it... podcasting! But I'll finish this off after a good night's sleep, if such a thing is possible.

Golden Globe Awards

Submitted by rickeyre on

Unlike last year, the Golden Globe Awards are not being televised live in Australia today. Channel 10 is replaying them at 8.30 tonight, while E! (on Foxtel Digital, which I do not have) is doing hours of pre-game and post-game shows. Ugh. The awards show starts at midday Sydney time on NBC in the States.

The official web site of the Globes is www.hfpa.org, as in Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

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Congratulations Bangladesh!

Submitted by rickeyre on

^BAN_ZIM: 64.2 Enamul Haque jnr to Mpofu, OUT: Allover! tosses up, outside off and spins away, tries to defends it on the front foot, gets the outside edge and Ashraful takes a good sharp catch at silly point
^BAN_ZIM: Zimbabwe 154/10, Partnership of 9
^BAN_ZIM: CB Mpofu c Mohammad Ashraful b Enamul Haque jnr 5 (9b 1x4 0x6)
^BAN_ZIM: DT Hondo 6* (12b 1x4) Enamul Haque jnr 22.2-5-45-6 (4nb)
^BAN_ZIM: That's it, Bangladesh won this match by 226 runs
^BAN_ZIM: Bangladesh have made history - a first Test win after a long wait

Canterbury's tree is gone

Submitted by rickeyre on

The lime tree inside the boundary at St Lawrence's Ground, Canterbury is no more.

The 290 year-old tree, which was expected to have to come down in the near future, was blown over during wild storms on Friday. According to today's Telegraph, the Kent CCC is yet to decide whether to replace it with a sapling planted by the late Jim Swanton in 1999, or to have a boring old tree-less outfield the same as everyone else. At least we still have the VRA Ground in Amstelveen for arborial diversity.

Australia by 9 wickets

Submitted by rickeyre on

In the end it took about an hour short of four days for Australia to wrap up the series. Not quite as close as the equivalent Test on the SCG 32 years earlier which set alight my interest in the game.

I was out at the SCG on Day Four as a guest of the Cricket New South Wales Ford Volunteer Program. Not quite the crowd of earlier days of the Test, about 14000, and the Bradman and O"Reilly Stands remained closed all day. A pretty warm day in Sydney, but I had a good vantage point in the shade beneath the large scoreboard (and without its distraction).

Bangladesh on the brink of history

Submitted by rickeyre on

As I write this, Bangladesh are four wickets away from their first-ever Test win. It might be tempting to think that a win over a youthful Zimbabwean eleven cheapens the honour a bit, but I for one am not going to scoff at that. Cricket should be expanding its constituency, not clinging on to an exclusive post-imperial elite club. As with the inauguration of the ICC Intercontinental Cup last year, a Bangladesh Test win can only be a positive in expanding the game's horizons.

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