Mmm x2

Since my last post, Bliar has given up one PM role only to take on another though I'm not sure if the Palestinians on the street view him as a Peace Mediator or a Provcative Mediator (one to add to the oxymoron list) given his not so closeted closeness to the Bushman and the Israelis. Once again, I feel his delusional sincerity coming to the fore.

Brown, Bliar's successor has said it's time for change, it remains to be seen what form this change will take. However his plans for change have had to be put on the backburner for the timebeing given the recent events in London and Glasgow. Bliar believes that those behind the events have a false sense of grievance regarding what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Portugal has not had any similar events, but then again, they aren't part of the so called coalition of the willing - coincidence, I think not.

The DoJ (Dept of Justice) in the US is looking into whether BAE was in compliance with anti-bribery laws regarding the Saudi arms deal, but that hasn't stopped the latter winning US defense contracts - there really is no such thing as bad publicity in the world of arms dealing. The UK's SFO (Serious Fraud Office) is going to question BAE executives, under caution, with regard to other deals in Europe and Africa.

At least one US newsreader has cojones. Faced with what she considered to be a trivial news story, she went against her producer wishes and eventually shredded the story. But then again, she's a serious journalist who's father was Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor.

I wonder what was the thinking behind the CIA's decision to divulge its covert operations between the 1950s and 1970s. The current CIA director said "....unflattering but part of CIA history" as if covert operations are no longer part of their modus operandi.

The scramble for Africa's oil is well under way with the US wanting to setup military bases to safeguard their interests. Africa is projected to provide a quarter of the US imports within a decade. Fortunately, all the countries that were asked, have said no.

Thierry Titi Henry has gone to his spiritual home and he will don the number 14 shirt, in homage to the player he admires most. Au revoir Titi, buena suerte and thanks for the memories.

It's a mark of the standards that Lewis Hamilton has set in his fledgling Formula 1 career that his 3rd place finish at Magny Cours was regarded with something approaching disappointment in the British media. Expect him to be on top of podium at his home Grand Prix this weekend.

It would appear that our summer occured in the month of April as it's been rainy and quite cool since summer officially started on June 21. The rain has wreaked havoc at the so called world's best tennis tournament. Venus has done what she needs to do in the matches she has played so far, relying on her experience and mental strength, but she will really have to step it up against Maria Sharapova as her serve and forehand have been consistent in their inconsistency. Serena injured her calf in her 4th round match so it looks as if their sister act in the doubles will have to be abandoned. Her incredible mental strength was on display as she limped to a quarter final meeting with Justine Henin. The Swiss Maestro is not only making serene progress, winning all his matches in three sets, but his 4th round opponent has pulled out so he's already in the quarter finals. El Pirata is in the 5th set of his 3rd round match which has been abandoned because of the elements. He should win the match, but he faces having to play matches on consecutive days which should test even his much vaunted fitness levels.

Tyson Gay looks like the man to beat at next month's World Athletics Championships after posting the fastest times of 2007 in the 100m & 200m, at the US trials. He ran 200m in 19.62s, the 2nd fastest time after Michael Johnson's 200m world record of 19.32s. His time for the 100m was 9.84s.

Stay dry.

Mmm

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others especially if you are Real Madrid and you would like to have your influential Malian midfielder play in a La Liga determining match as opposed to playing for Mali in an African Cup of Nations qualifier. FIFA is always trumpeting on about how countries take precedence over clubs, but in a complete volte-face, FIFA instructed the Malian federation to release Mahamdou Diarra and Frederic Kanoute (who plays for Sevilla). JS Kyblie, an Algerian team, that wanted their international players released to play in a cup final had their request turned down. BTW, Mali beat Sierra Leone 6-0 to top their group.

David Beckham finally got his hands on a La Liga medal after Real Madrid beat Real Mallorca 3-1 yesterday.

Well, I predicted awhile back that Lewis Hamilton would win the Formula 1 Driver's Championship in his inaugural season and he's going about it in the right way after following up his Canadian Grand Prix win with one at the US Grand Prix.

Tiger Woods maintains his consistency of not having won a major coming from behind.

The "first watch" disappeared from the "first hand" of the "first man" aka the Bushman during a meet and greet in Albania. If Secret Service detail, can't keep a watch thief at bay, well....

Controversial

Is it just me or has the word controversial become ubiquitous in its mainstream usage. It's quite amazing how many news articles (written and reported) are prefaced by the word controversial. I thought news was supposed to be objective in its reporting, but by labelling an article controversial, the news networks and newspapers are telling us what to think. Noam Chomsky has researched this extensively and his DVD, Manufacturing Consent illustrates how pervasive this is.

Mmm

Yesterday belonged to a couple of early twenty somthing year olds. First, Rafael Nadal became the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win the French Open for the third consecutive time when he defeated Roger Federer. Then Lewis Hamilton claims his maiden Formula 1 Grand Prix win in Montreal and by doing so, he's extended his lead atop Formula 1's drivers' championship by 8 points. Given that they are so young, they can only get better which isn't good news for their rivals.

The destination of this year's La Liga title will remain unknown until the last day of the football season in Spain. Real Madrid and Barcelona have the same number of points, but Real are top because of a better head-head record against Barca. Lionel Messi emulated his idol, Maradona, to a tee when he scored the first goal with his hand and went onto score a legit second goal, in Barca's penultimate match against Espanyol - let's hope that's as far as he takes his emulation.

Bliar attended his last G8 summit and in Berlin and there was the obligatory munificence show towards Africa. This time the headline grabbing figure was $60 billion, but when you drill down, it's not as generous as it sounds, especially when you consider that the $50 billion boost to aid for Africa, announced at the G8 summit in 2005, has not been honoured. "Trade not aid" is what Africa needs.

In the wake of the furore surrounded BAE, a former Lord Chief Justice has been appointed to head an independent review of BAE's business practices. How independent the review will be remains to be seen considering BAE's contribution to Britain's national coffers. Consider this, even after Haliburton was found by the US Army's Auditor General to be overcharging the US military for petrol in Iraq aka war profiteering (which is a felony), their contract to supply the US military in Iraq was not terminated.

The US wants to set up a missile defense shield in central Europe which has sent temperatures plummeting in its relationship with Russia.Russia has offered the US joint use of a radar station in Azerbaijan, which borders Iran and it remains to be seen if the US will take up this offer.

Till next week.

Mmm

Liverpool failed to successfully convert the chances they made and Paolo "One Club" Maldini's two howlers went unpunished. Surprisingly, Stevie G didn't make Maldini pay as he shot too close to Dida. Well done to Milan though, for Liverpool, the rebuilding continues.

So David Beckham has finally been deemed worthy to put on an England shirt - I can't believe that he wasn't considered one of England's 23 best players for 10 months, up until his recall on Saturday. If Phil "The Donkey" Neville can be in the England team, how is it possible to leave Beckham out? David Beckham has made a career out of proving people wrong and he will continue to do so, LA Galaxy move notwithstanding.

The mainstream media in the US is mostly supine with very few papers and no TV networks critical of the White House administration - one could venture to say that the media in the US is state controlled in all but name. Hugo Chavez has determined that one of the TV channels in Venezuela, RCTV is trying to destabilise his government and has decided not to renew its TV license. RCTV will stay on air, but it has lost its public broadcast frequency so it will no longer be able to reach as wide an audience as before. He has also put a second TV channel, Globovision, on notice. Given that Chavez was temporarily deposed in an externally engineered (no prizes for guessing who was behind it) in coup in April 2002, who can blame him?

Did you know that when the US makes a food aid donation, it insists that the food has to be sourced in the US despite the enormous cost involved in shipping it to the latest famine hotspot. Analysts have argued that the US would be better off making a cash donation which would allow the famine afflicted country to source the food locally and would be much cheaper as well. You can read how US food aid donations have destroyed Malawi's maize production here.

¡Hasta luego!

Pot calling kettle black

Transparency International has in the recent past labelled Nigeria as the most corrupt nation on earth. I'm not sure where the US ranked or the UK for that matter, but if one is looking for corruption on a monumental scale, one need look no further than what Haliburton is doing in Iraq. Paul Wolfowitz was caught with his hand in the cookie jar - he influenced/intimidated the powers that be to ensure his Iraqi girlfriend got jobs in Iraq and later at the State Department. In Kenya, we call that nepotism, the World Bank's board, calls it acting in good faith because the guidelines weren't clear. The board of the World Bank should tender their resignation with immediate effect because any integrity they may have had, has gone along with their absolution of Wolfie.

Whoever sang that war is good for absolutely nothing, got it totally wrong as the profit earnings of Haliburton and KBR can attest. Haliburton was awarded contracts on the basis of their links to Dick Cheney and despite this, they still overcharged the US Army when it came to fuel, as the US Army's own Inspector General discovered. I thought war profiteering was a felony - evidently the some animals are more equal than others rule applies here. In the UK, the AG halted an investigation into how BAE came to win a contract with the Saudis for fears it would jeopardise future multi-billion pound contracts. BAE, a significant contributor to the UK's GDP, exerted considerable pressure on Downing Street to halt the investigation.

So the next time the US and the UK see fit to lecture another country on corruption or lack of transparency just say Haliburton, Wolfowitz or BAE.

****UPDATE****
It has since emerged that BAE has been accused of paying ONE BILLION POUNDS STERLING to a Saudi prince, over a 10 year period, who saw to it that BAE was awarded their biggest weapons contract. What's more, it was done with the full complicity of Britain's Ministry of Defence - more details here.

Mea culpa

If I haven't achieved what my talents indicate I should,
it's solely down to the choices I have made
and the decisions I haven't.
The buck as they say, stops with me.

If the truth be known, I've done things on my own terms
which in reality means that it can take longer
to get to where I want to be.
The buck as they say, stops with me.

Living in the moment

I've resolved to live in the moment, the here and now,

the past is gone and who knows what the future holds?

That isn't to say that I'm not planning for the future,

but best laid plans can go awry.



So my primary objective is to live in the present,

I'll hold onto my dreams and put plans in place,

but as I've experienced life's volte-face

realism will now serve as my essence.

Mmm

Wolfie has finally bowed to the remarkable united stand of Europe and less than lukewarm support from Africa and resigned from his role as President of the World Bank on condition that he's absolved of any wrong doing. Well, a Channel 4 investigation shows that he got his girlfriend a job in Iraq that she should not have been able to get on account of the fact that as a foreign national, she wasn't eligible for the requisite clearance to get the job - Wolfie made sure her name went on the clearance list. I don't know about you, but methinks he put l'amour before national security. To paraphrase the L'Oreal ad, "because she's worth it". This does raise the question as to whether the World Bank and the IMF have outlived their usefulness. Hugo Chavez seems to think so and he has a lot of support in Latin America and amongst developing nations. "Trade not aid" said Museveni and if developing countries were giving fairer trade terms, they wouldn't need to borrow loans with conditions attached in the first place.

The Bushman (apologies to any San or Khoikhoi readers) and Bliar are still in denial about the monumental folly that is Iraq. I wonder if that will still be the case when Bliar goes on trial in the Hague for his illegal occupation of a sovereign nation.

Think it was fitting that DD scored the goal that won Chelski the FA Cup. He really is indefatigable. Liverpool will bring down the curtain on Maldini's illustrious career when they beat AC Milan in Athens.

The Swiss Maestro finally got the better of El Pirata in Hamburg, but this was a fatigued El Pirata and he's still a sure bet to win the French Open in my book.

At last the athletics season is underway. There was a meet in Carson, LA where numerous world leading times were set, notably in the women's 100m where the first three ran under 11s. There was a world leading mark set in the men's javelin too. Old stager, MO "The Kansas Canonball" Greene failed to make the final of the men's 100m where Tyson Gay ran a wind aided 9.79s for another world lead. Across the Atlantic in Loughborough, there were a number of world class performances notably in the women's javelin and the men's 4x100m.

Adios from Tenjo, Colombia till next week.

Mother Nature's canvas

Every now and again (infact, more often than that), I marvel at the visual spectacles that Mother Nature likes to paint on an ever changing canvas.

NYC

For continuous pulsating energy, NYC is hard to beat which is why it is one of my favourite cities.

In and around Berlin

Spent the weekend in Berlin and took some snaps along the way.

Mmm

One wonders how he went from Bambi to Bliar to Bomber in the space of 10 years. Listening to his farewell speech last week, what struck me was how earnest and sincere he sounded (nothing changed there then!) despite the delusional aspect of some of what he was saying. The salient point of his speech was when he said that "....10 years is long enough for me and for the country." However, as he had taken spin to a new art form, it is worth noting that he went before he was pushed.

El Pirata continues to go from strength to strength as he notched up his 77 consecutive victory on the "dirt" by doing a threepeat at the Rome Masters. The Swiss Maestro on the other hand is going through something of a turbulent patch after losing in Rome (his 4th defeat of the year and he only lost 5 times the whole of last year) and he has now parted ways with his coach.

Lewis Hamilton is leading the F1 drivers' championship after coming second in Barcelona and setting a host of records along the way (youngest driver to lead the championship, the first driver to finish on the podium in 4 consecutive races). He's keeping his feet firmly on the ground and no doubt continues to frighten his father as he notches up feat after impressive feat.

Tiger Woods is nothing if not consistent, continue to toil at the Players Championship which at least gave Lefty a chance to shine.

Congrats to DD for staying on his feet and becoming the Premiership's top scorer in the process. It would be fitting if he could fire Chelski to victory next Saturday and thereby hand Mourinho the only trophy he is yet to win.

La Liga is set for an exciting conclusion as bitter rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona amassed the same number of points with 4 games of the season remaining. I would like the white shirts to win it so David Beckham will win something in his final season in Spain. A la Madrid!!

Over and out for this week.

Cycling

If you are looking for legitimate ways to raise your endorphin count, you need look no further than cycling. Of course, having a good bike definitely helps and with 24 gears and shock absorbers, she's better than good.

As cyclist, you are free to ride where you please and thank goodness Reading Council has deemed cyclists worthy and has created cycling paths for us. The only snag is, that sometimes these paths can end pretty abruptly and we are then forced to mix with the 2+ wheelers.

Pedestrians are the most unpredictable. You can be riding behind someone and all of a sudden, they will come to an abrupt halt and as you take evasive action to avoid a collision, they will decide to continue on their merry way oblivious to the mayhem they have caused. Pedestrians, like water, will fill any space and when they stand 3 abreast blocking your path while they have a natter, it's enough to give you pavement/sidewalk rage.

Then there are the 2+ wheelers who take exception to you whizzing past them and block your path - a bus actually did that to me so I was unable to surpass my then maximum speed of 34 km/h.

Since I got my cyclocomputer, I have reached a maximum speed of 69.2 km/h (I really can't remember going so fast!!) and clocked 404.27 km and which may not be enough to offset the carbon footprint I'll create as I fly to continental Europe, North America, Latin America and back, but it's a start.

I think I may need to invest in a rearview mirror because turning one's head is a bit of a no,no especially when you come to a roundabout T-junction. On Sunday, I had turned my head over my right shoulder as I approached the roundabout and saw a car indicating that it wanted to turn left. I knew I could cross the road before the car turned, but in the time it took me to face the front, another car had made a right turn at the roundabout so I had to make a sharp right turn to avoid any third party damage to my bike - I stayed on the bike so my sense of balance is pretty good.

Q: Why is a cyclist like the mother of a toddler?
A: They both need eyes in the back of their head

Mmm

Last week Hugo Chavez took back control of Venezuela's oil wealth from the likes of BP, Chevron, Conoco, Shell, Statoil through nationalisation. Back in January, he put the multi-national oil companies on notice of his intention to nationalise the oil industry and on May 1st this came into effect. Out of the 6 multi-nationals, it was only Conoco who had not signed the renegotiated terms, but they were expected to do so. An analyst wondered if Venezuela's state run oil company has the expertise to cope. 51 years ago, Britain and France wondered expressed similar sentiments when Gamal Abdel Nasser decided to nationalise the Suez Canal - the Egyptians managed fine and I'm sure Venezuela will too - Africa take note, the minerals belong to Africa and her peoples so make sure your peoples are the ones to benefit and not the rapacious, blood sucking, environmentally unsound, exploitative multinationals.

Brazil also decided to tell Merck where to go with regards to the patent for one of the AIDS drugs Merck manufacturers. Following Brazil's decision to break the patent, Merck offered to supply the drug at a 30% discount.

Chelski, Chelski, Chelski, what can I say?! Didn't I tell you we would rout you at Anfield?! Hell should have frozen over before Geremi was allowed to take a penalty and as for Arjen Robben, as he came off the pitch after the end of extra time, Mourinho asked him about penalty taking and the manner in which he waved his hand was a clear indication of his regard for the shootout - his gesture said whatever and lo and behold, he whatevered his penalty. We shut up Chelski and now it's time to shut up Gennaro Gattuso. Chelski can make Mourinho happy by winning the only trophy he hasn't won, the FA Cup. SAF was given a fine bottle of Italian by Carlo Ancelotti after Milan comprehensively dismantled TTFUTM at the San Siro. He hopes to toast Milan's success in Athens - that will be a forlorn hope because Rafa "The Master Tactian" Benitez is already working on a plan to nullify Kaka & Seedorf. I do hope Paulo "One Club" Maldini will be fit for the final because that would be just reward for his longevity and loyalty - I still don't think he's much of a looker, he's always remind me of an apparition.

The NBA playoffs are throwing up some interesting results as both last years finalists, the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat are out.

Have a good week.

Oxymorons

The greatest misnomer there is, is common sense. For example, I tend to hang out at a cafe that provides free WiFi access. As the battery on my iBook is knackered, I plug my adapter into a socket all the time. Infact I was there for an hour this morning before heading off somewhere. So it was to my surprise this afternoon that the receptionist informed me that a morning management decree (I was there shortly after they opened) meant that I could no longer use their electricity. When I asked to speak to the manager, her rational was as follows; she said that if she invited me to her house, would I expect to use her electricity? Bemused, I thought, firstly, there is no way on earth that I would accept an invitation to her house and secondly she must be paying the cafe's electricity bill, otherwise how else do you explain her preponderance for keeping tabs on every milliamp of electricity used?! However, what I don't get is how a cafe can provide free WiFi access yet deny the said WiFi users electricity access. I suggested she put up signs saying power usage is not allowed to go with the No Smoking ones!!

Civil war - ain't nothing civil about war. War, what is it good for, absolutely nothing.

Delusional sincerity - see here

Friendly fire - if only the fatalities of this misnomer could let us know what degree of friendship is required to kill someone

Fuzzy logic - I always thought logic was pretty clear cut, either this or that, but apparently it can be pretty unclear or fuzzy.

Magic realism - Colombia's renowned writer Gabrierl Garcia Marquez is an exponent of the genre. I'm told that Love in the Time of Cholera is very illustrative of this.

Organised chaos - my favourite

Mmm

FIFA are already talking about a contingency plan for South Africa 2010. As I recall, Athens 2004 was beset by myriads of problems over construction, squabbling amongst the organising committee yet to my mind, if the IOC had a contingency plan, they sure as hell didn't let the rest of the world know in 2001! Thabo Mbeki, if there's one thing that should galvanise you to GET INVOLVED, it's South Africa 2010. Germany did a good job in 2006 and South Africa should look to tap into their expertise to ensure teutonic efficiency is brought to bear on the various projects that need to be done. For the stadium construction, look to the Chinese as they are experts in that particular field. For logistics, look to the English. But above all, let it retain its South African identity inspite of the global input.

The news from across the pond is that the Chicago Bulls have swept the defending NBA champions aka Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs - maybe it's time for Shaq to retire his size 22 shoes.

Liverpool will rout Chelski at Anfield especially since Ricardo Carvalho is injured and Michael Essien is being played out of position. TTFFUM will see their dreams of a treble crumble at the San Siro - lets hope the second leg is as scintillating as the first.

All hail the clay court king aka El Pirata aka Rafael Nadal who has extended his winning streak on clay to 72 matches after winning the Barcelona Open for the 3rd time. I'm going to put a bet on him winning the French Open AND Wimbledon. He reached the Wimbledon final last year when noone gave him a chance and I'm sure he can go one better this year.
Vamos Rafa, vamos!!

I espied an article in a newspaper last week which said that Iraqi oil reserves are double what had previously been thought. This means the American troops won't be leaving anytime soon as American interests have now doubled. Did you know that the US Baghdad embassy is the biggest in the world - WHY?

The Bushman has shown himself to have a sense of rythm, his own!! However, he seems to know how to hit a drum, perhaps that's because he marches to his own beat!!

A la semaine prochaine.

Bye for now

Parting is such sweet sorrow,
because who knows about tomorrow?
So I'll harness the inspiration and creativity you engender
and hope that when we meet again, you'll remember.

Facts

Einstein, when asked the speed of light, responded, "I don't bother to fill my head with facts that I can easily find in books." Well how he was able to do that, I would love to know because my brain gathers up facts the way a Dyson vacuum cleaner hoovers up dust! I'm especially attracted to facts of the historical and numerical variety.

There was a magazine called Look and Learn that I used to read every school holiday. It was a great source of factual information and here are some of the myriad facts that have accumulated in my grey matter:

• the speed of light is 300,000 m/s, but so far the speed of thought has not been measured
• it was while Winston Churchill was Secretary of State in 1921 that the Kurds of Iraq were first gassed - do you think that's where Sadaam Hussein got the idea from?
• at the height of his power, ie when he was Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte had a net worth significantly more than Bill Gate's current net worth
• Thierry Henry can run 100m in 10.75s. When Marion Jones won the 100m Olympic title in Sydney 2000, she stopped the clock at 10.78s.

I find that juggling helps with my factual recall. Something about focusing on a mechanical act while whatever it is does the search and retrieval.

Mmm

Chelski want to crush TTFFUTM's title aspirations in their backyard which is understandable, lets just hope they don't bottle it. At least that would allow DD to get one over Twinkle Toes after he pipped DD to the PFA Player of the Year Award. On balance, Twinkle Toes deserved to win it, but I think DD would prefer to win the Premiership than individual trophies - he's the consummate team player. Now, if only he would do something about his hair!!

How TTFFUTM's makeshift defence will cope with AC Milan's Kaka and Seedorf is one of the more intriguing
matchups. Think Maldini will use all his vast experience to thwart Twinkle Toes and Shrek - it will be Istanbul all over again in Athens.

Oh Nigeria, Nigeria, Nigeria, how could you let us down so?! This was supposed to be your big chance to show the world that you can have a smooth transition of power. But instead, we have ballot box napping, ballot boxes being stuffed and intimidation at the ballot box. You would have thought that with all the resources available to the PDP, they would have been able to win without resorting to such skulduggery.

Last Monday, 33 lives were stolen in Virginia, USA and 200 lives were stolen in Baghdad, Iraq. Guess which lives were deemed more worthy of media coverage? We see this happening all the time. Round about this time in 2001, 10,000 lives were lost in Gujerat as a result of an earthquake, 5 months later, just under 3000 lives were lost in New York and the western media and politicians would have us believe that the world changed on September 11. PLEASE, lets have some sense of perspective. The world changed for the victims' family and friends. For the rest of us, what changed was the gradual erosion of our civil liberties, John Ashcroft used September 11 as a pretext to pass the PATRIOT Act which meant that libraries could be forced to divulge what books were being borrowed. Then we had the diversion that is the invasion of Iraq. Now as chaos and anarchy reign supreme, Tony Blair has the bloody cheek to say no mea culpa. In the meantime, the Taliban have become emboldened in Afghanistan and the death toll of the NATO troops continues its steady rise.

The singularly American regard for authority was on display again when a chap took a fatal exception to his performance appraisal and killed his appraiser before killing himself.

El Pirata dispatched the Swiss Maestro in a manner which should make him an odds on cert to retain his French Open title next month.

So the Windies & England wait until they are eliminated from the Cricket World Cup before they put on an entertaining spectacle - its such a shame that Lara was run out like that, but to answer his question, he did entertain us.

Have an entertaining week.

Cuatro, Four, Quatre, Quattro

What is it with the Lefties?

What do Brian Charles Lara, Diego Armando Maradona, Rafael Nadal, Martina Navratilova have in common? They are either left handed or left footed and have all bamboozled, befuddled, bemused and bewildered opposing players on a regular basis, whilst holding spectators in their thrall.

The Swiss Maestro had a staggering win/loss of 82/5 last year, but 4 of those 5 times he lost to El Pirata. El Pirata has not been beaten on clay since 2005 and is currently on a 65* match winning streak. When Diego dribbled, it appeared as if the ball was glued to his left foot and opposing players resorted to underhand measures to dispossess him. Martina Navratilova bowed out of competitive tennis after winning her 59th Grand Slam title, at last year's US Open, at the age of 49. Brian Lara is the finest batsman of his generation and currently holds the record for the highest Test innings, the most Test runs and the highest first-class runs.

The left side of the brain is responsible for creativity so don't lefties have an advantage to begin with?!

Strangely enough, I'm right-handed, but left-footed.

*he could extend this to 67 if he wins in Monte Carlo this week.

In Maradona's footsteps

Many have been called the new Maradona, an unfair tag if ever there was one, but even the great man himself acknowledges that Lionel Messi is something special. Like Diego in Japan, in 1979, Lionel inspired Argentina to triumph at FIFA's U-20 World Cup in the Netherlands, in 2005, where he was voted the tournament's best player aka MVP (John Obi Mikel was 2nd and Taiye Taiwo was 3rd). He also picked up the Golden Shoe for top scorer - Diego was 2nd highest top scorer in '79.

Diego had a rather unhappy time at Barcelona, where he moved after his exploits in Japan, but found his feet at Napoli where he led them to 2 scudettos in 1987 and 1990. Messi has already won La Liga twice with Barça and in Germany last year, he tantalised us during his all too brief cameos for Argentina - it was mystifying, to say the least, when Jose Pekerman decided to substitute him in the game against Germany.

Maradona's 2nd goal against Enland in the 1986 quarterfinal match has been labelled the best World Cup goal, even though the English players seemed spellbound and didn't make any decent tackles. To my mind, this makes Messi's goal against Getafe better because he skipped past some committed tackles. It was fitting that in the post match interview, Messi paid tribute to Maradona and wished him a speedy recovery.

Messi to lead Argentina to victory at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa in 2010 - you read it here first.

Churchill, Disraeli and Nelson

Winston Churchill, voted the Greatest Briton in a 2002 BBC poll, and Benjamin Disraeli, Britain's only Jewish Prime Minster and the man who did much to lift Queen Victoria's spirits after the death of her beloved Albert in 1861, are to be joined in bronzery by Nelson Mandela, freedom fighter turned statesman, in Parliament Square, after Westminster Council finally agreed on a home for the latter's statue. The Mayor of London, Ken Livingston, had wanted Mandela's statue to be erected in Trafalgar Square, facing South Africa House, the site of numerous anti-apartheid and free Mandela rallies.

....we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.... - Winston Churchill, 4 June 1940

...During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. - Nelson Mandela, 20 April 1964

Numb3rs

Yesterday I bought a CatEye Vectra Wireless cyclocomputer for her, which provides me with all sorts of statistics such as my speed and how far I've travelled. According to the gizmo, the maximum speed I have attained is 34.0 km/h (21.3 mph) and the distance I have cycled so far is 22.1 km (13.8 m).

That got me thinking about the impressive numbers we are capable of generating. For example;

• the fast bowlers at the Cricket World Cup can generate ball speeds ranging from 136 to 150 km/h (85 to 95 mph). Shoaib Akhtar aka The Rawalpindi Express holds the fastest bowling record at 161.3 km/h (100.2 mph).
• In tennis, A-Rod (not that one!) aka Andy Roddick can serve the ball at 248.8 km/h (155.5 mph). On the womens's side, V holds the record for the fastest serve, at 203.8 km/h (127.4 mph).
• Titi can cover 100m in 10.75s, which works out to 9.3 m/s, Asafa Powell's 100m world record is 9.77s or 10.2 m/s.

Lets hear it for the self generating speed merchants.

Emotional Intellligence

Last night, I watched a programme, Battle of the Brains, that reaffirmed for me just how overrated vanilla IQ is. One of the experts on the programme defined EIGHT types of intelligence which are all measurable. However if one is to succeed in life, then one needs to work on their Interpersonnel and Intrapersonnel Intelligence, collectively known as Emotional Intelligence. The programme measured the eight categories of intelligence for the seven participants who were considered leaders in their fields; artist, chess grandmaster, dramatist, fighter pilot, IQ expert, musical prodigy and quantum physicist. While the fighter pilot performed consistently well and even scored highest in one of the intelligence test, the overall winners were the dramatist and the quantum physicist. The dramatist didn't start school until she was eight and she took seven years to finish her English degree at university. However her emotional intelligence is very much to the fore and that came across in the programme. The quantum physicist had a sense of humour that was evident and his emotional intelligence came across too.

Daniel Goleman's book, Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ, illustrates how developing one's emotional intelligence as a child can serve one in good stead later on in life. In his book, he asks why it is that people who excelled academically at school and university weren't necessarily able to transfer that academic excellence into similar success in the real world? How is it that people who didn't excel academically or stopped their formal education at an early age, such as Richard Branson (he left school at 16), went onto achieve great success? It's down to their emotional intelligence. In E IQ terms, Richard Branson is a genius (E IQ > 180).

Ironically, the man we now all acknowledge to be a true genius, Albert Einstein, was labelled a dunce early on in his academic career - his grey matter was probably bored to tears.

So people, develop your emotional intelligence by engaging the left side of your brain, the creative side. Let your children develop social skills because how they interact with others will determine their degree of success or failure later on in life.

Mum's the word

Q How do you get 500 people to keep a secret?

A By using onion layering

Onion layering is one of the most effective methods of implementing security because even if you get through one layer, there's another layer underneath, and another one and another one etc until you eventually reach the inner sanctum. However that takes a lot of time and only the really determined would put in the requisite effort.

By the end of the Second World War about 500 people worked in the Cabinet War Rooms, but by using another security principle called need to know the actual number of people who really knew what was going on was limited to a handful.

The original axis of evil, Germany, Japan and Italy did not have a flippin' clue about this room from where Britain plotted the demise of the Third Reich. Don't the British know how to keep schtum?!

The Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Museum are well worth a visit and you can see the ingenuity of the Royal Engineers on display.

Churchill was an admirer of the Desert Fox aka Erwin Rommel - he admired his professionalism as a soldier. FDR was the glue that held Stalin and Churchill together so when he died on 12 April 1945, the fractious relationship between Stalin and Churchill re-emerged. Churchill did not have as close a relationship with FDR's successor, Harold S Truman.

Oh, why was I there? To attend an information security seminar - what a way to combine business and pleasure?! I'm a history buff so the tour after the seminar was the proverbial icing on the cake.

PS: Stalin killed a lot more people than Hitler, 20 million to 6 million, so why is Hitler the more vilified? Is Hitler's continued condemnation based on how society values human lives? We all know an African life isn't worth very much. Or could it simply be that as Stalin was on the victorious side, he was entitled to his spoils of war?!

Can you miss what you never had?

You gave me additional consonant in my surname
and then there's the indelible memory that just won't fade.
There were the Maths and French books that I put to good use
and I'm told you taught me to read so thankyou.

But as you were not around to protect me,
I regard you somewhat ambivalently.
That was pretty apparent when you died,
at your funeral, I read a paper to help time pass by.

I wonder what I'll say to you when we meet face-to-face,
I still remember to keep my cards close to my chest.

Stolen lives

To all the young people, across the world, whose lives have been stolen because of adult folly, this posting is for you.

He was always such a nice boy*

The quiet one
With good intentions
He was down for his brother
Respectful to his mother
A good boy
But good don't get attention
One kid with a promise
The brightest kid in school
He's not a fool
Reading books about science and smart stuff
It's not enough, no
Cause smart don't make you cool, whoa


He's not invisible anymore
With his Father's 9 and a broken fuse
Since he walked through that classroom door
He's all over primetime news


Mary's got the same size hands
As Marilyn Monroe
She put her fingers in the imprints
And danced Chinese Theater Show
She coulda been a movie star
Never got the chance to go that far
Her life was stole
Now we'll never know


No no no no oh


They were crying to the camera
Said he never fitted in
He wasn't welcomed
He showed up the parties
We was hanging in
Some guys puttin' him down
Bullying him round round
Now I wish I woulda talked to him
Gave him the time of day
Not turn away
If I woulda been the one to maybe go this far
He might have stayed at home
Playing angry chords on his guitar


He's not invisible anymore
With his baggy pants and his legs in chains
Since he walked through that classroom door
Everybody knows his name


Mary's got the same size hands (Oh)
As Marilyn Monroe
She put her fingers in the imprints (Ooh)
And danced Chinese Theater Show
She coulda been a movie star (She coulda been a movie star, oh)
Never got the chance to go that far
Her life was stole
Now we'll never know
(Now we'll never know, oh)


Greg was always getting net from 20 feet away (20 feet away)
He had a try out with the Sixers
Couldn't wait for Saturday (Saturday)
Now we're never gonna see him slam
Flying high as Kobe can
His life was stole (Stole)
Oh now we'll never know


Now we'll never never never know
Mmm now we'll never never never never know
Stole (Stole)
Oh whoa yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah


Mary's got the same size hands (Same size hands)
As Marilyn Monroe (Oh)
She put her fingers in the imprints
And danced Chinese Theater Show (She was gonna be a star)
She coulda been a movie star (Oh no)
Never got the chance to go that far (Never got the chance)
Her life was stole (Stole, stole)
Oh now we'll never know
(Now we'll never never know, no)


Greg was always getting net from 20 feet away (He had game, oh)
He had a try out with the Sixers
Couldn't wait for Saturday
Now we're never gonna see him slam (Never see him)
Flying high as Kobe can
His life was stole (Stole, oh)
Oh now we'll never know
(Now we'll never never know)


Oh no no no
Yeah their lives were stole

To those left behind, cherish and hold on to their memories.

*Lyrics to Kelly Rowland's profound Stole

Here's your new joiner's gift

In Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine, there's a bank in Virginia (Virginia has the most liberal gun laws in the US) that provides new customers with a rifle to say thanks for joining.

It is easier and quicker to buy a gun in the United States than to obtain a library card - my card for a public library took two weeks to arrive and I had to show proof of address etc, one can purchase a gun in three days, provided one has no criminal record.

In Switzerland where every male over the age of eighteen has a gun, the number of gun fatalities is infinitesimal compared to the US.

The 2nd amendment of the US constitution decrees that US citizens have the right to bear arms, well they bear then and then some!! Charlton Heston, president of the NRA from 1998-2003, while accepting a presentation rifle in 2000, brandished it aloft and said, "From my cold dead hands" , a reference to him being willing to defend his right to bear arms even if it costs him his life. The NRA wields enormous political clout and has used that clout to consistently stymie attempts by the Congress and the Senate to reform gun laws.

An American commentator on the BBC pointed to the singularly American regard for authority.

In Columbine, 12 people died, at Virginia Tech, 33* people died. Are they waiting for a 50+ death toll before they have the cojones to do something?

*this could rise

Right at Caversham Bridge

Today I took a right at the bridge and had an incident free ride (the dog in the picture behaved).