Our heartiest congratulations to the mighty Loren Schoenberg. Loren is the winner of the glamour prize at the 47th annual Grammy Awards, that for the Best Album Notes.

Loren wrote the album notes for The Complete Columbia Recordings Of Woody Herman And His Orchestra & Woodchoppers (1945-1947).

(Remember that next time you visit the Royal Easter Show.)

The Jets beat North Sydney 28-4 at Henson Park tonight in their Premier League trial match which doubled up as the first leg of the Frank Hyde Trophy.

Newtown scored seven tries to one, with kicks at goal not being taken in this game. Newtown are a feeder team for Cronulla this year, while Norths have become a feeder for the Melbourne Storm.

It wasn't a bad crowd at Henson Park for a mid-February trial game, probably 500 or so.

It must be a slow news day in the United Kingdom when the BBC can devote hours on end to social announcements.

If only we all received hours of air time on all the news channels plus analysis from constitutional law experts when we got engaged.

Best wishes to Chas and Cammie, and commiserations to Lleyton and Bec's publicists.

Soup or Bowl thirty-nine is in progress in Jacksonville, Florida. The Fill a delphia Bagles are leading the Boston Patriot Act 7-0 with 8:30 remaining in the 2nd quarter as I speak. All I want to add is that The Guardian are doing live comms.

Yawn.

"Justice is distorted, and our economy is held back, by irresponsible class actions and frivolous asbestos claims..."
- GW Bush, State of the Union address, 2.2.05

I'll say just two words - 1: James. 2: Hardie.

(Thanks to Rahul Mahajan for drawing my attention to this.)

We know it had to come. His place at the Cubs had become untenable at the end of the 2004 season. But the trade came rapidly this week. Sammy Sosa is now a Baltimore Oriole.

The Prime Minister of Georgia, Zurab Zhavnia, has died as the result, apparently, of a gas leak at a friend's place, with whom he was staying. This is a story worth following. Here's the BBC report, including a video clip.

Imagine being asked to vote in an election where two-thirds of the candidates were not identified. What sort of democracy could give you the right to vote, but not the right to know who you are voting for?

February 2 is World Wetlands Day. Celebrated every year, it is the anniversary of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands at the Iranian Caspian seaside city of Ramsar (and it's also known as the Ramsar Convention).

Information on WWD at the Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage, and on the Ramsar Convention website.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

More later.