As a cricketer, James Hird is one of this country's finest Australian Rules players. Seen here bowling for the Essendon Football Club in a corporate six-a-side match against the Australian Test team. You know as well as I do who won :-)

Considering that Test cricket in Australia is sponsored by a mobile phone company, it can't be long before we will have this to endure:

Submitted to Poynter Online's Media Tidbits by Monique Van Dusseldorp:

While the world sings "peace on earth", Palestinians living in Bethlehem are not allowed to go to work, school, or hospitals. They might be able to see light stars in the sky above the town, however, there is a great chance that they might see Israeli Apache helicopters instead.

Leave that shahtoosh alone. And no we're not buying a tiger cub for the kids. The World Wildlife Fund has released its list of Ten Things Not To Buy For Christmas. (Why they've left their Christmas anti-shopping till December 21 is beyond me.)

Full text of the WWF press release follows:

Ten things not to buy for Christmas

Gland, Switzerland – Looking for that elusive gift or sumptuous dining experience as the festive season approaches in many countries?

December 17, 1971: Bangladesh proclaimed its independence from Pakistan following a civil war that was resolved with military intervention from India. Dhaka's Daily Star produced a special Victory Day supplement last Thursday containing a number of accounts of the events of the time.

By sheer chance I happened to watch on BBC World last night the second part of a two-hour documentary produced for BBC Two's "This World" program called "One Day of War". It was a quite fascinating account of sixteen people in each of sixteen trouble spots around the world, all filmed on the same day, 22 March 2004.

If ever any proof was needed of Time magazine's irrelevance as a chronicle of current events, it comes with the announcement that G.Dubya Bush has been named its Man of the Year for 2004.

Al-Jazeera's English language website is one of my primary sources for world news on the web these days, giving as it does a different, professional and independent perspective on world events from the Middle East angle. When they draw their attention to Australia, you can be sure it is unlikely to be in a positive light, but it makes for a worthwhile benchmark of our perception overseas.

Disturbing report in Sunday's Washington Post claiming that the Bush Administration has been bugging the telephones of IAEA director-general Mohammed El Baradei ("IAEA Leader's Phone Tapped"). It's all about looking for dirt to use to block El Baradei's reappointment for a third term.

Oh dear. I guess it had to come. http://www.bayareaseg.com/Polo.htm