Watch out Queensland, Blues on their way!
It was another titanic clash, but this time, for once, despite so many 50-50 calls coming up Queensland's way, New South Wales have managed to take themselves into the lion's den of Suncorp Stadium and come away with a superb victory!
It was a magnificent second half effort in defence that proved the decisive factor, although NSW will surely regret some missed opportunities when they were on top to extend the lead. Dragon superstar winger Brett Morris was superb in defence in the 2nd half despite hurting his shoulder when scoring in the first half! His effort to prevent Darius Boyd from tying the game up could be long remembered - if NSW win the series.
There was no question that the key for NSW was Jarryd Hayne, a constant menace in attack, very heavily involved, while also defusing numerous Queensland raids with aplomb. How good is this man?!
Queensland played well, although they probably lost some of their fluency in attack due to Cronk's injury. Cherry-Evans looked far from overawed though and will only be better for the run. I can't imagine too many NSW fans thinking anything other than this is going to be a tough task to get that second win and clinch the series
I was thinking in the first 20 minutes that maybe the intensity of this game wasn't that far above that of an ordinary game, but it just got tougher and tougher as the game went on. Josh Reynolds, who performed capably in his first game as a starting five-eighth, seemed a little awestruck when commenting immediately after the game about just how tough it was, how he'd never played a game like it. Reynolds has played a grand final, he's played big games, but even so this was something else.NSW haven't been good enough to win very often this last 10 years, but very few of those losses have been thrashings. So often they've given us hope.
Origin provides a level of the game that is simply unmatched, as is perhaps reflected in how many players get injured, there was no shortage of walking wounded among those who didn't end up in hospital. I thought the Bulldogs players in the NSW side were superb, with the partial exception of Tony Williams, a player that one is always expecting to destroy an opposition with his obvious pace and power, only to be disappointed by how rarely it actually happens. I do wonder though, what price will the Bulldogs pay for the obvious intensity that their players brought to this contest. In 2011 St George were going swimmingly into Origin, half our team got picked and after the series our season imploded. And that's hardly a rare event for teams that are heavily involved in Origin.
Well, we're onto Sydney, it's been 11 years since NSW took Game 1 in Brisbane, and we won that year. Could this be a turning point in our long period of inferiority to the Cane Toads? Go the Blues!
Wednesday 28 May 2014
Tuesday 27 May 2014
Lindsay's Movie of the Week: Field of Dreams: A 25th Anniversary Retrospective.
Field of Dreams was my brother Peter's favourite film. Peter is notorious amongst the brothers for being a sucker for any film that has a boat or plane in it and consequently his opinion of films doesn't always get a lot of respect from his 3 younger brothers. Thus his high opinion of Field of Dreams didn't exactly have me rushing to borrow the VCR off him. It was baseball and I didn't really like baseball, and I certainly didn't like Kevin Costner. Several years later, possibly many years later, in a period of extreme boredom in those pre-Internet days, I finally decided to borrow the VCR off him.
It turned out that I was enchanted. Kevin Costner was engaging and charming, ideal for the role, Amy Madigan was superb, James Earl Jones was strong and dynamic, Burt Lancaster's brief appearance was a show-stealer, the acting was flawless, the music accompanied the story so beautifully. What really enchanted me wasn't the acting, it was the quality of the story and the film. This was a film that was willing to take chances, that was willing to treat the journey of the heart seriously. A film that was prepared to say that dreams matter, and that those dreams can be very personal and not world shattering. As someone who didn't have a great relationship with his own father, the ending held special power for me.
Watching it again, I found the movie was, if anything, even more powerful. Burt Lancaster's scenes strike home to an older man, I can look at moments in my own life where I didn't realise that it was one of the "most significant moments of my life" that was happening. Kristy's first RSVP contact with me, waiting for the results of the pregnancy test, my life has changed and Field of Dreams is very honest about change.
I look at the relationship the couple had in the film and identify with it - I think Kristy would let me build that field, her support of me is strong, even when she may not agree with me. I'd always wanted to be a good father. Now that I am one, that desire to get it right, to have a better relationship with my children than I had with my father is even more pervasive.
My copy of the DVD includes a wonderful documentary about the making of the film and I have found the documentary to be almost as watchable as the film itself. Discovering that the director and script adapter Phil Alden Robinson found the whole process of making the film to be incredibly stressful and that despite its success, he's carefully avoided making films subsequently adds nuance to the tale being told.
Discovering that it took years to make because most studios were understandably concerned that a film of this nature wouldn't work at the box office, that the part of Terrence Mann was specifically written for James Earl Jones, that tourists have visited the movie site in Iowa from 1990 to this day, that all the cast members seemed to remember the film with much greater affection than an ordinary film simply adds to one's affections for this great film.
The coup de grace was was the revelation that the character of Moonlight Graham was closely based on the real Moonlight Graham, who truly only played one innings of 1 Major League Baseball game before retiring to become a beloved doctor in Chisholm, Minnesota. Would that man have ever imagined, when taking time out to watch a Burt Lancaster film, that he was watching a man who would one day portray him?!
Field of Dreams continues to be a film that moves me and I can only agree with Timothy Busfield who pointed out that there are very few films that move men in the way that this film does. The Shawshank Redemption comes to mind, but it's a rare thing. It's that ability to tug my heartstrings that has made Field of Dreams one of my favourite films of all time.10/10.
It turned out that I was enchanted. Kevin Costner was engaging and charming, ideal for the role, Amy Madigan was superb, James Earl Jones was strong and dynamic, Burt Lancaster's brief appearance was a show-stealer, the acting was flawless, the music accompanied the story so beautifully. What really enchanted me wasn't the acting, it was the quality of the story and the film. This was a film that was willing to take chances, that was willing to treat the journey of the heart seriously. A film that was prepared to say that dreams matter, and that those dreams can be very personal and not world shattering. As someone who didn't have a great relationship with his own father, the ending held special power for me.
Watching it again, I found the movie was, if anything, even more powerful. Burt Lancaster's scenes strike home to an older man, I can look at moments in my own life where I didn't realise that it was one of the "most significant moments of my life" that was happening. Kristy's first RSVP contact with me, waiting for the results of the pregnancy test, my life has changed and Field of Dreams is very honest about change.
I look at the relationship the couple had in the film and identify with it - I think Kristy would let me build that field, her support of me is strong, even when she may not agree with me. I'd always wanted to be a good father. Now that I am one, that desire to get it right, to have a better relationship with my children than I had with my father is even more pervasive.
My copy of the DVD includes a wonderful documentary about the making of the film and I have found the documentary to be almost as watchable as the film itself. Discovering that the director and script adapter Phil Alden Robinson found the whole process of making the film to be incredibly stressful and that despite its success, he's carefully avoided making films subsequently adds nuance to the tale being told.
Discovering that it took years to make because most studios were understandably concerned that a film of this nature wouldn't work at the box office, that the part of Terrence Mann was specifically written for James Earl Jones, that tourists have visited the movie site in Iowa from 1990 to this day, that all the cast members seemed to remember the film with much greater affection than an ordinary film simply adds to one's affections for this great film.
The coup de grace was was the revelation that the character of Moonlight Graham was closely based on the real Moonlight Graham, who truly only played one innings of 1 Major League Baseball game before retiring to become a beloved doctor in Chisholm, Minnesota. Would that man have ever imagined, when taking time out to watch a Burt Lancaster film, that he was watching a man who would one day portray him?!
Field of Dreams continues to be a film that moves me and I can only agree with Timothy Busfield who pointed out that there are very few films that move men in the way that this film does. The Shawshank Redemption comes to mind, but it's a rare thing. It's that ability to tug my heartstrings that has made Field of Dreams one of my favourite films of all time.10/10.
Monday 26 May 2014
NRL Thoughts - Steve Price - This is the end.
This time it's my club that's pulled the pin on a coach and fired him. After 6 losses in 7 games, with the last three being absolute thrashings characterised by shoddy ball control and feeble defence, St George Illawarra sacked head coach Steve Price this morning, effective immediately, with assistant coach Paul McGregor stepping into the head coach position for the remainder of the season.
This wasn't an unexpected decision, despite St George's history of not sacking coaches mid season - they haven't done it before. Ever. They've sacked premiership winning coaches at the end of a season, but they normally do it at the end. It's been clear for a long time that they weren't happy with what Steve Price had to offer, having made a huge offer to Craig Bellamy last year in a bid to entice him to sign. Price was only given this season after Bellamy knocked them back. I read stories last year stating the most of the recruitment decisions for this year were made by Peter Doust and Craig Young with Price having minimal input into those decisions. Nevertheless, as is usual in professional sports, he's the one who gets the axe.
As an interested but not obsessed fan, there's hasn't been a lot to indicate that Price had the makings of a top class coach, he didn't seem to know how to use Jamie Soward and there wasn't a lot of imagination in attack over his first two seasons. Whilst we now have a Rolls Royce backline, the forwards are weak, and the overall package isn't working. Consequently I don't have any major issues with the decision, the last 3 games indicated that we were a long way off being competitive and I think that the side should be competitive with that roster. There was a lot of talk in Price's first season about maintaining our defensive culture, but it was obvious even then that it had gone and wasn't coming back.
I always feel sympathy for the fallen in these situations. By all accounts, Steve Price is a hard worker and a very good, kind, man. I have no doubt that he's poured his heart and soul into the job these last 2 and a bit years and that the lack of success has hurt him as much as anyone. Failure is always hard to deal with and being declared a failure in such a blunt manner has to hurt. I hope that he finds his way back into an assistant coaching position at another club, it may well be that he is more suited to those at this stage of his coaching career. He probably won't get another NRL position, but he's young enough to develop more skills and hope that luck comes his way.
Looking forward, I'm hoping that Saints can find an experienced coach to take them forward and that they can develop a long term recruiting plan, there's been little evidence of a plan in recruitment decisions in recent years. I'd be happy with Bennett returning or Bellamy changing his mind. I probably wouldn't be that keen on Paul McGregor getting the job as he's not experienced at head coach level, and we've tended to struggle with inexperienced coaches. That said, if results turned around, he'd have to be a chance of getting the job. Nathan Brown's record wasn't too bad actually, but he may have managed to win premierships had he possessed the experience he has subsequently acquired. If the Tigers don't want Michael Potter, I'd love to have him back.
Somewhat unusually for a sports fan, the long awaited premiership in 2010 really did sate my appetite, and the fact we've taken a big tumble hasn't particularly bothered me, it's a tough competition to win and if you have to risk subsequent seasons to get that win, well it's worth it. Steve Price was unlucky and hopefully his successors will have better opportunities to achieve NRL success!
This wasn't an unexpected decision, despite St George's history of not sacking coaches mid season - they haven't done it before. Ever. They've sacked premiership winning coaches at the end of a season, but they normally do it at the end. It's been clear for a long time that they weren't happy with what Steve Price had to offer, having made a huge offer to Craig Bellamy last year in a bid to entice him to sign. Price was only given this season after Bellamy knocked them back. I read stories last year stating the most of the recruitment decisions for this year were made by Peter Doust and Craig Young with Price having minimal input into those decisions. Nevertheless, as is usual in professional sports, he's the one who gets the axe.
As an interested but not obsessed fan, there's hasn't been a lot to indicate that Price had the makings of a top class coach, he didn't seem to know how to use Jamie Soward and there wasn't a lot of imagination in attack over his first two seasons. Whilst we now have a Rolls Royce backline, the forwards are weak, and the overall package isn't working. Consequently I don't have any major issues with the decision, the last 3 games indicated that we were a long way off being competitive and I think that the side should be competitive with that roster. There was a lot of talk in Price's first season about maintaining our defensive culture, but it was obvious even then that it had gone and wasn't coming back.
I always feel sympathy for the fallen in these situations. By all accounts, Steve Price is a hard worker and a very good, kind, man. I have no doubt that he's poured his heart and soul into the job these last 2 and a bit years and that the lack of success has hurt him as much as anyone. Failure is always hard to deal with and being declared a failure in such a blunt manner has to hurt. I hope that he finds his way back into an assistant coaching position at another club, it may well be that he is more suited to those at this stage of his coaching career. He probably won't get another NRL position, but he's young enough to develop more skills and hope that luck comes his way.
Looking forward, I'm hoping that Saints can find an experienced coach to take them forward and that they can develop a long term recruiting plan, there's been little evidence of a plan in recruitment decisions in recent years. I'd be happy with Bennett returning or Bellamy changing his mind. I probably wouldn't be that keen on Paul McGregor getting the job as he's not experienced at head coach level, and we've tended to struggle with inexperienced coaches. That said, if results turned around, he'd have to be a chance of getting the job. Nathan Brown's record wasn't too bad actually, but he may have managed to win premierships had he possessed the experience he has subsequently acquired. If the Tigers don't want Michael Potter, I'd love to have him back.
Somewhat unusually for a sports fan, the long awaited premiership in 2010 really did sate my appetite, and the fact we've taken a big tumble hasn't particularly bothered me, it's a tough competition to win and if you have to risk subsequent seasons to get that win, well it's worth it. Steve Price was unlucky and hopefully his successors will have better opportunities to achieve NRL success!
Sunday 25 May 2014
How to make a website less useful and fun: The PGA Tour website revamp.
One of the sites I have followed faithfully for the last 14 years is the US PGA Tour website. I first hooked into following the Pga Tour carefully after reading John Feinstein's magnificent A Good Walk Spoiled which is one of the finest sports books I have ever read.
Feinstein gave me a taste for following the lesser players who are battling to make it in golf and it's a habit I still have today, with my favourite player being the little known Australian, Gavin Coles, who has won several times on the secondary tours over there, but has never managed to keep his playing privileges when he's played the main tour. Gavin's only 5 foot 5 and wears glasses more befitting a university academic than a professional athlete, which only adds to his appeal for me!
My primary method of following these players has been via the PGA Tour website, which provided articles, video clips and live leaderboards! It's a habit of mine on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings to check the scores on the varying tours.
The site was well laid out and provided a simpler leaderboard if you had trouble with the main leaderboard that had a few more bells and whistles. Both leaderboards usually loaded quickly. The mobile leaderboard was actually better as that provided the full record of the player's round with 1 click, you could read through every shot the player had made, on every hole, as just the player's scores don't give you a great picture of the sort of round that they had. Was it a par where they missed a 3 foot birdie putt? Or a par where they hold out from a bunker? Same result, but a very different path to it. I never quite understood why that wasn't added to the main site but enjoyed it as a perk when I was reading the site on my smartphone, which I usually do as checking the sites is largely a morning thing due to the time difference between USA and Australia.
The layout had been much the same for a long time now, so it wasn't a total surprise to log on to a new site one morning. It was a surprise to find just how much functionality was sacrificed with the upgrade. The new leaderboards are far slower to load, they're also gigantic compared to the others, so the amount of scrolling required is considerable, so it's very time consuming. Finding articles and videos is much harder as the the site has also been made considerably larger, which means seeing things at a glance is much harder as there's less to see.
The latest 'improvement' is that they make the bells and whistles load for whoever is leading. I can make my own damn decision about whose details I want to see! And the bells and whistles are quite clunky and sloooooow so I rarely use them even though the information is good. It was such a shock yesterday to click on the Senior PGA Championship leaderboard and have it all up in a second or 2, with only a small touch required to view the leaderboard from top to bottom!
The bottom line is that I'm not visiting the site as often, nor am I clicking on the leaderboards as often and I'm reading less articles than I used to. This has become a permanent shift. Most website upgrades do take a little while to get used to. This revamp involved so large a loss of functionality that I can't adapt to it without a frontal lobotomy to remove my memory of when the site was quick, simple and easy to use!
Are there any website upgrades that have pissed you off? Let me know in the comments
Feinstein gave me a taste for following the lesser players who are battling to make it in golf and it's a habit I still have today, with my favourite player being the little known Australian, Gavin Coles, who has won several times on the secondary tours over there, but has never managed to keep his playing privileges when he's played the main tour. Gavin's only 5 foot 5 and wears glasses more befitting a university academic than a professional athlete, which only adds to his appeal for me!
My primary method of following these players has been via the PGA Tour website, which provided articles, video clips and live leaderboards! It's a habit of mine on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings to check the scores on the varying tours.
The site was well laid out and provided a simpler leaderboard if you had trouble with the main leaderboard that had a few more bells and whistles. Both leaderboards usually loaded quickly. The mobile leaderboard was actually better as that provided the full record of the player's round with 1 click, you could read through every shot the player had made, on every hole, as just the player's scores don't give you a great picture of the sort of round that they had. Was it a par where they missed a 3 foot birdie putt? Or a par where they hold out from a bunker? Same result, but a very different path to it. I never quite understood why that wasn't added to the main site but enjoyed it as a perk when I was reading the site on my smartphone, which I usually do as checking the sites is largely a morning thing due to the time difference between USA and Australia.
The layout had been much the same for a long time now, so it wasn't a total surprise to log on to a new site one morning. It was a surprise to find just how much functionality was sacrificed with the upgrade. The new leaderboards are far slower to load, they're also gigantic compared to the others, so the amount of scrolling required is considerable, so it's very time consuming. Finding articles and videos is much harder as the the site has also been made considerably larger, which means seeing things at a glance is much harder as there's less to see.
The latest 'improvement' is that they make the bells and whistles load for whoever is leading. I can make my own damn decision about whose details I want to see! And the bells and whistles are quite clunky and sloooooow so I rarely use them even though the information is good. It was such a shock yesterday to click on the Senior PGA Championship leaderboard and have it all up in a second or 2, with only a small touch required to view the leaderboard from top to bottom!
The bottom line is that I'm not visiting the site as often, nor am I clicking on the leaderboards as often and I'm reading less articles than I used to. This has become a permanent shift. Most website upgrades do take a little while to get used to. This revamp involved so large a loss of functionality that I can't adapt to it without a frontal lobotomy to remove my memory of when the site was quick, simple and easy to use!
Are there any website upgrades that have pissed you off? Let me know in the comments
Friday 23 May 2014
A considered assessment of the 2014 Budget
My response to this Budget has been a real slow burn. It was the deceit that got me going initially, but a Budget could be totally deceitful and still be good. So I've taken my time to read up on it, to get different perspectives about what it's done, to understand it better, to consider what the underlying philosophy is. Having done so, I've been able to come to a considered conclusion about it:
This Budget is about taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich. That's the underlying philosophy, pure, plain and simple. If there's a better rationale for what they've done, I'd like to see the evidence for it. They aren't serious about cutting spending or else they wouldn't be carrying out a whole lot of additional, new, spending, most of which is of little benefit to the country and is certainly not critical!
I have common ground with the desire to reduce the Budget deficit. While it's not a huge percentage of GDP and we don't have much government debt, it doesn't take long for these things to spiral out of control, especially given we haven't had a recession in 21 years and we currently have quite a few economic clouds on the horizon. Also, there's common ground that the previous government's Budgets were going to blow out big time to accommodate additional spending for education and health. We also have a growing problem with welfare payments due to the ageing population. More people are needing welfare but a smaller proportion of people are going to be earning the revenue that pays for it.
The Rudd-Gillard governments actually did cut government spending in several of their Budgets. The primary cause of the deficits was their insane decision to match the Howard income tax cuts, it shattered the revenue base as taxation fell from 25% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product - the total value of all the paid for goods and services produced in a country over a year) when they came in to 21.5% of GDP in 2010-11, which was the lowest level of taxation since the Whitlam government! No wonder we had deficits!
The majority of the planned return to surplus is the Abbott government re-building the tax base back up to 25% of GDP. Most of the money obtained by the spending cuts are being re-allocated to extra spending such as the health research fund so we can spend money on curing conditions we don't know about instead of spending it to treat people with conditions we do know or on preventative strategies that we know work. It's also being spent on 58 brand new, untried, unproven, fighter planes so we can go and bomb anyone who gives us trouble, like asylum seekers.
The government is also going to set up an additional Paid Parental Leave system so families earning 100 000 dollars or more a year can get 50 thousand dollars extra for having a baby and poor people having a baby can get stuff all because it's important to make sure that wealthier people get more money for their children.
The government is also spending billions on new roads because brand new roads are the best way to get more traffic on the roads and create bigger traffic jams. A government that was serious about spending cuts would not be introducing so much new spending, spending that wipes out most of those cuts.
The cuts force the bottom 20% of people to lose about 5% of their incomes, and ask the top 20% to lose 0.3% of theirs, with that 0.3% to be removed in 3 years and to be totally eradicated if you happen to be having a baby in that time! This is not fair, just or moral! If this is "sharing the burden" I'd hate to see what not sharing it looks like.
As for the utter disgrace that is introducing co-payments to visit the doctor I would like to point out that I make a contribution to going to the doctor, it's called tax. If the tax isn't enough, raise the tax! But don't penalise people for doing what they're supposed to do if they're sick, which is going to the doctor and finding out before they get very sick. Co-payments don't even save money - they're expensive to administer and some of the people discouraged from going to the doctor will get much sicker and treating them will be far more expensive than it would have been.
This isn't a Budget designed to reduce spending and balance the Budget, it's a Budget designed to reduce the income of people who the government doesn't approve of. I'm wary of that, for I was a child raised in a single parent family. I went to university and paid cheap, accessible fees, with financial support from the government due to my mother's low income and subsequently endured a period of unemployment, where I received unemployment benefits that assisted me whilst I waited to re-do a failed subject in my course. Without that support, my life would have been considerably more difficult. The government is now going to make life considerably more difficult for people in situations I was once in, and they seem to be keen on making it tough for people in situations I may find myself in down the track! There's very little being done to make life more difficult for those have a lot easier than the poor, however, and that's at the core of my disapproval.
I am, you are, we are Australian. That means we need to look out for all Australians, not just those who can make huge donations to our political party!
This Budget is about taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich. That's the underlying philosophy, pure, plain and simple. If there's a better rationale for what they've done, I'd like to see the evidence for it. They aren't serious about cutting spending or else they wouldn't be carrying out a whole lot of additional, new, spending, most of which is of little benefit to the country and is certainly not critical!
I have common ground with the desire to reduce the Budget deficit. While it's not a huge percentage of GDP and we don't have much government debt, it doesn't take long for these things to spiral out of control, especially given we haven't had a recession in 21 years and we currently have quite a few economic clouds on the horizon. Also, there's common ground that the previous government's Budgets were going to blow out big time to accommodate additional spending for education and health. We also have a growing problem with welfare payments due to the ageing population. More people are needing welfare but a smaller proportion of people are going to be earning the revenue that pays for it.
The Rudd-Gillard governments actually did cut government spending in several of their Budgets. The primary cause of the deficits was their insane decision to match the Howard income tax cuts, it shattered the revenue base as taxation fell from 25% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product - the total value of all the paid for goods and services produced in a country over a year) when they came in to 21.5% of GDP in 2010-11, which was the lowest level of taxation since the Whitlam government! No wonder we had deficits!
The majority of the planned return to surplus is the Abbott government re-building the tax base back up to 25% of GDP. Most of the money obtained by the spending cuts are being re-allocated to extra spending such as the health research fund so we can spend money on curing conditions we don't know about instead of spending it to treat people with conditions we do know or on preventative strategies that we know work. It's also being spent on 58 brand new, untried, unproven, fighter planes so we can go and bomb anyone who gives us trouble, like asylum seekers.
The government is also going to set up an additional Paid Parental Leave system so families earning 100 000 dollars or more a year can get 50 thousand dollars extra for having a baby and poor people having a baby can get stuff all because it's important to make sure that wealthier people get more money for their children.
The government is also spending billions on new roads because brand new roads are the best way to get more traffic on the roads and create bigger traffic jams. A government that was serious about spending cuts would not be introducing so much new spending, spending that wipes out most of those cuts.
The cuts force the bottom 20% of people to lose about 5% of their incomes, and ask the top 20% to lose 0.3% of theirs, with that 0.3% to be removed in 3 years and to be totally eradicated if you happen to be having a baby in that time! This is not fair, just or moral! If this is "sharing the burden" I'd hate to see what not sharing it looks like.
As for the utter disgrace that is introducing co-payments to visit the doctor I would like to point out that I make a contribution to going to the doctor, it's called tax. If the tax isn't enough, raise the tax! But don't penalise people for doing what they're supposed to do if they're sick, which is going to the doctor and finding out before they get very sick. Co-payments don't even save money - they're expensive to administer and some of the people discouraged from going to the doctor will get much sicker and treating them will be far more expensive than it would have been.
This isn't a Budget designed to reduce spending and balance the Budget, it's a Budget designed to reduce the income of people who the government doesn't approve of. I'm wary of that, for I was a child raised in a single parent family. I went to university and paid cheap, accessible fees, with financial support from the government due to my mother's low income and subsequently endured a period of unemployment, where I received unemployment benefits that assisted me whilst I waited to re-do a failed subject in my course. Without that support, my life would have been considerably more difficult. The government is now going to make life considerably more difficult for people in situations I was once in, and they seem to be keen on making it tough for people in situations I may find myself in down the track! There's very little being done to make life more difficult for those have a lot easier than the poor, however, and that's at the core of my disapproval.
I am, you are, we are Australian. That means we need to look out for all Australians, not just those who can make huge donations to our political party!
Sunday 18 May 2014
NRL Thoughts
Well, this wasn't a good week for Saints fans, it's one thing getting thumped by the defending premiers and competition leaders in consecutive games, it's another conceding 36 unanswered points to the reigning wooden spooners! A title we may well be putting in an application for if this form continues.
I thought Benji Marshall did OK for his first week, his involvement was good and he made some solid moves in defence, if his effort and commitment are there, I think he'll find some form. But it's very hard to win games when the ball control is so weak. Even harder when defence is non-existent. One wonders how long Steve Price has with this sort of form.
And gee, well, Canberra finally manage to at least get close to their opponents whilst still managing to add another loss to their cupboard full of them so naturally Ricky Stuart goes off on a tear and blames the referee. Yes, Mr Stuart, I'm sure that Canberra's Dragon like defence and dreadful completion rates are all the fault of the referee. How can you expect your players to take responsibility for their mistakes or to think that they have control over their results when you so consistently allow them to lay the blame somewhere else?!
I seem to recall that St George Illawarra suffered a close loss to Melbourne the other week partly due to some questionable refereeing at the end and my response was to point out that we'd led by 14 points with 14 minutes to go so we might want to look in the mirror before we started blaming anyone else for our problems!
I thought Benji Marshall did OK for his first week, his involvement was good and he made some solid moves in defence, if his effort and commitment are there, I think he'll find some form. But it's very hard to win games when the ball control is so weak. Even harder when defence is non-existent. One wonders how long Steve Price has with this sort of form.
And gee, well, Canberra finally manage to at least get close to their opponents whilst still managing to add another loss to their cupboard full of them so naturally Ricky Stuart goes off on a tear and blames the referee. Yes, Mr Stuart, I'm sure that Canberra's Dragon like defence and dreadful completion rates are all the fault of the referee. How can you expect your players to take responsibility for their mistakes or to think that they have control over their results when you so consistently allow them to lay the blame somewhere else?!
I seem to recall that St George Illawarra suffered a close loss to Melbourne the other week partly due to some questionable refereeing at the end and my response was to point out that we'd led by 14 points with 14 minutes to go so we might want to look in the mirror before we started blaming anyone else for our problems!
Book of the Week: The Racket - How Abortion Became Legal in Australia by Gideon Haigh
Gideon Haigh is best known as the premier cricket writer in the world, but his interests and skills stretch far beyond cricket, as his absorbing and confronting account of abortion in Australia demonstrates.
The Racket is a history of abortion practices in Melbourne prior to decriminalisation. Haigh explores the relationship between the police and abortion and demonstrates how it wasn't a law that the police regularly enforced due to a mix of heftty, payoffs, difficulties in obtaining convictions and a feeling that it wasn't as important as some of their other duties.
The books greatest strength is Haigh's trenchant exploration of the reality of abortion when it was banned. A piece of paper declaring it illegal wasn't going to stop women who did not want the baby from not having the baby. What it did very well was force them to abort themselves in dangerous, unhygenic manner or work with abortionists who would do the job for them, often in a dangerous, unhygenic, manner for a great deal of money. Many abortionists charged according to how expensive your car was.
I did find it difficult to identify with any of the characters from the book, possibly because the major characters were largely dead when Haigh wrote the book and a great deal of their motivations and concerns could only be inferred. Consequently the book was slow going at times and it wasn't an easy book to read in any case due to the subject matter. Nevertheless, it comes highly recommended as an account of what illegal abortion looks like in practice.
At time of writing, the book could be found on sale here
The Racket is a history of abortion practices in Melbourne prior to decriminalisation. Haigh explores the relationship between the police and abortion and demonstrates how it wasn't a law that the police regularly enforced due to a mix of heftty, payoffs, difficulties in obtaining convictions and a feeling that it wasn't as important as some of their other duties.
The books greatest strength is Haigh's trenchant exploration of the reality of abortion when it was banned. A piece of paper declaring it illegal wasn't going to stop women who did not want the baby from not having the baby. What it did very well was force them to abort themselves in dangerous, unhygenic manner or work with abortionists who would do the job for them, often in a dangerous, unhygenic, manner for a great deal of money. Many abortionists charged according to how expensive your car was.
I did find it difficult to identify with any of the characters from the book, possibly because the major characters were largely dead when Haigh wrote the book and a great deal of their motivations and concerns could only be inferred. Consequently the book was slow going at times and it wasn't an easy book to read in any case due to the subject matter. Nevertheless, it comes highly recommended as an account of what illegal abortion looks like in practice.
At time of writing, the book could be found on sale here
Thursday 15 May 2014
The 'Honourable' Tony Abbott, Prime Minister of Australia.
We are privileged to live in Australia, in a great country, in a representative democracy, where we elect men and women to make most of the decisions about leading the country for us whilst asking us to pass judgement on them at each election. We expect those men and women to keep us informed about the decisions that they make and to act with integrity in the execution of their duties. The higher up the chain of representation that an MP progresses, the more important it is that they demonstrate honour. That is why all Australian ministers are given the style "The Honourable" and referred to accordingly. Similarly, we expect an Opposition to give us some idea of what they will do in government, whilst understanding that, as our representatives, they are entitled to make changes to those policies in response to circumstances.
Some policies will change after an election. The previous government, having promised that they would place a price on carbon via an emission tradings scheme prior to the election, found themselves in a minority government post election and in exchange for their support, the Greens required that they start pricing carbon with a tax instead. The government had said that they would not place a direct tax on carbon prior to the election. As an emissions trading scheme is a tax by another name, this was not a major violation of precedent in Australian politics. This was not a case of Paul Keating's L-A-W tax cuts, which were a major plank of his 1993 election victory, when he reneged on them afterwards, his chances of winning the 1996 election took a well deserved nosedive.
Tony Abbott's Opposition, ably supported by the mass media, made out that the policy change was a major breach of trust. He ran a lengthy campaign, pounding away at the Gillard government over the carbon tax lie. He scored enormous political capital through his repeated thrusts about trust, honesty and how he could be trusted when his opponents could not be. A short list of his oft repeated promises includes no cuts to health, no cuts to education, Gonski will be implemented, NDIS will be implemented, no cuts to SBS and the ABC. All of those promises, along with many others were resoundingly broken in this week's Budget.
It turns out that those who said that Tony Abbott was simply saying whatever he felt was necessary to win an election were absolutely right. He didn't have the fallback position of previous governments that the Budget figures were wrong, as accurate Budget figures were provided during the election campaign, which was only a few months after the previous Budget anyway. He intentionally made those promises, knowing the situation of the Budget.
The campaign was effective. He won the election. Won it convincingly. Won it because because he had lied both comprehensively and effectively. Tony Abbott is Prime Minister today because of a deliberate, systematic, intentional campaign of deception.
I was disgusted with his approach prior to the election and I am straight out appalled now. There are serious discussions that we need to be having as a society about our expenses.We have an ageing population, so healthcare and welfare costs go up while the percentage of people working to provide revenue for those costs goes down. We have housing prices that are at unprecedented levels as a percentage of median income, with more people than ever needing two income households to pay those mortgages. If the unemployment rate goes up and some day it must, quite a few of those people will end up losing their houses, if enough people lose their houses, our financial institutions that have grown fat on mortgage loans that looked safe in the good times, will also end up in trouble as it's not like they have used those fat profits to buffer them for difficult times. Will those debts also have to be paid by the taxpayer?
It has been twenty three years since we had a recession, do we think we'll never have one again? Our economy is tied to Chinese prosperity and they've blown housing and building bubbles to make ours look mild! There are storm clouds on the horizon. Every year we burn and sell more of our coal, more of our oil, sell more of our gold, more of our uranium, more of our nickel, more of our aluminum, more of our zinc more of our diamonds and more of our other minerals! None of them can be replaced! Every time we sell some or use some, they're not available for our children and our grandchildren. Those profits for selling *our* natural resources have been lightly taxed and considerable portions of them are sent overseas, despite the fact that billions of *our* dollars has been spent on assisting these companies to mine and sell those resources. Norway has built the largest sovereign savings fund in the world with its natural resources - we're spending the fucking lot on middle and upper class welfare! We are living high on the hog and expecting our children to pay the price.
These are critical issues that need to be discussed, they don't get discussed because there isn't enough trust within the community to tackle these issues. Our representatives are unable to trust each other and we are increasingly unable to trust them. And trust is critical to a democracy.
Mr Abbott has set a very shoddy example, the next time I have to deal with a child at school for being dishonest, which isn't exactly unheard of amongst children, what precisely should my response be when the child says "Well the Prime Minister lies on purpose all the time and he seems to be doing OK?" because I don't think that "I have higher expectations of children than I do of the elected leader of my country" is a fair response!
The next time my wife and I walk back from the car into Woolworths to point out that Cassie didn't give me the cold meat that we ordered at the cashier's so we need to pay for it, will they be even more shocked than they were the last time? Instead of half of the railway ticket sellers being surprised at my asking for a ticket for 4 year old Cassie as she still looks 3, will they all be surprised? Will all of my friends be shocked the next time I get robbed and don't make an insurance claim because I left the big window open, in blatant violation of my insurance policy?
I do these things because I believe that personal honesty and integrity matters, and I believe it matters even more when you are the Prime Minister of this country! If it's good enough for me to accept difficulties in the name of being honest, than it can be good enough for you!
Mr Abbott, if you wish to convince me that you have introduced this Budget to benefit Australians because you are so concerned about the deficit, then *you* will need to take responsibility for *your* decision to take the Prime Ministership of Australia by deceit. Barry O'Farrell resigned because he didn't recall receiving a bottle of wine yet he had received it. He had been dishonest, so he resigned. There was no memory lapse on your part, just contempt for the people that you purport to represent. We need better than that from our leaders and since you clearly can't provide it, the best thing you can do is to make way for someone who can. Only by leaving your office can you restore the honour to it that your actions have taken away from it.
Some policies will change after an election. The previous government, having promised that they would place a price on carbon via an emission tradings scheme prior to the election, found themselves in a minority government post election and in exchange for their support, the Greens required that they start pricing carbon with a tax instead. The government had said that they would not place a direct tax on carbon prior to the election. As an emissions trading scheme is a tax by another name, this was not a major violation of precedent in Australian politics. This was not a case of Paul Keating's L-A-W tax cuts, which were a major plank of his 1993 election victory, when he reneged on them afterwards, his chances of winning the 1996 election took a well deserved nosedive.
Tony Abbott's Opposition, ably supported by the mass media, made out that the policy change was a major breach of trust. He ran a lengthy campaign, pounding away at the Gillard government over the carbon tax lie. He scored enormous political capital through his repeated thrusts about trust, honesty and how he could be trusted when his opponents could not be. A short list of his oft repeated promises includes no cuts to health, no cuts to education, Gonski will be implemented, NDIS will be implemented, no cuts to SBS and the ABC. All of those promises, along with many others were resoundingly broken in this week's Budget.
It turns out that those who said that Tony Abbott was simply saying whatever he felt was necessary to win an election were absolutely right. He didn't have the fallback position of previous governments that the Budget figures were wrong, as accurate Budget figures were provided during the election campaign, which was only a few months after the previous Budget anyway. He intentionally made those promises, knowing the situation of the Budget.
The campaign was effective. He won the election. Won it convincingly. Won it because because he had lied both comprehensively and effectively. Tony Abbott is Prime Minister today because of a deliberate, systematic, intentional campaign of deception.
I was disgusted with his approach prior to the election and I am straight out appalled now. There are serious discussions that we need to be having as a society about our expenses.We have an ageing population, so healthcare and welfare costs go up while the percentage of people working to provide revenue for those costs goes down. We have housing prices that are at unprecedented levels as a percentage of median income, with more people than ever needing two income households to pay those mortgages. If the unemployment rate goes up and some day it must, quite a few of those people will end up losing their houses, if enough people lose their houses, our financial institutions that have grown fat on mortgage loans that looked safe in the good times, will also end up in trouble as it's not like they have used those fat profits to buffer them for difficult times. Will those debts also have to be paid by the taxpayer?
It has been twenty three years since we had a recession, do we think we'll never have one again? Our economy is tied to Chinese prosperity and they've blown housing and building bubbles to make ours look mild! There are storm clouds on the horizon. Every year we burn and sell more of our coal, more of our oil, sell more of our gold, more of our uranium, more of our nickel, more of our aluminum, more of our zinc more of our diamonds and more of our other minerals! None of them can be replaced! Every time we sell some or use some, they're not available for our children and our grandchildren. Those profits for selling *our* natural resources have been lightly taxed and considerable portions of them are sent overseas, despite the fact that billions of *our* dollars has been spent on assisting these companies to mine and sell those resources. Norway has built the largest sovereign savings fund in the world with its natural resources - we're spending the fucking lot on middle and upper class welfare! We are living high on the hog and expecting our children to pay the price.
These are critical issues that need to be discussed, they don't get discussed because there isn't enough trust within the community to tackle these issues. Our representatives are unable to trust each other and we are increasingly unable to trust them. And trust is critical to a democracy.
Mr Abbott has set a very shoddy example, the next time I have to deal with a child at school for being dishonest, which isn't exactly unheard of amongst children, what precisely should my response be when the child says "Well the Prime Minister lies on purpose all the time and he seems to be doing OK?" because I don't think that "I have higher expectations of children than I do of the elected leader of my country" is a fair response!
The next time my wife and I walk back from the car into Woolworths to point out that Cassie didn't give me the cold meat that we ordered at the cashier's so we need to pay for it, will they be even more shocked than they were the last time? Instead of half of the railway ticket sellers being surprised at my asking for a ticket for 4 year old Cassie as she still looks 3, will they all be surprised? Will all of my friends be shocked the next time I get robbed and don't make an insurance claim because I left the big window open, in blatant violation of my insurance policy?
I do these things because I believe that personal honesty and integrity matters, and I believe it matters even more when you are the Prime Minister of this country! If it's good enough for me to accept difficulties in the name of being honest, than it can be good enough for you!
Mr Abbott, if you wish to convince me that you have introduced this Budget to benefit Australians because you are so concerned about the deficit, then *you* will need to take responsibility for *your* decision to take the Prime Ministership of Australia by deceit. Barry O'Farrell resigned because he didn't recall receiving a bottle of wine yet he had received it. He had been dishonest, so he resigned. There was no memory lapse on your part, just contempt for the people that you purport to represent. We need better than that from our leaders and since you clearly can't provide it, the best thing you can do is to make way for someone who can. Only by leaving your office can you restore the honour to it that your actions have taken away from it.
Tuesday 13 May 2014
Movie of the Week: ESPN 30 from 30 - This is What They Want
ESPN 30 for 30: THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT
Lindsay's Label: 8/10In 1991, the 8 time Grand Slam champion, 5 time US Open champion, the 174th best player in the world, Jimmy Connors, on the brink of his 39th birthday, needed a wildcard to gain entry into the tournament after having missed almost all of 1990 due to a severe wrist injury.
Having not exactly cut a swathe through world tennis in his 1991 expeditions, little was expected of Connors at the US Open. But part of the joy in sport is that what you expect isn't always what you get, after spending a couple of hours getting clobbered by Patrick McEnroe, Connors turned his 1st round match around to win 6-4 in the 5th, thumped his next couple of opponents, celebrated his 39th birthday by beating friend and regular hitting partner Aaron Krickstein, who happened to be a 5 set expert, in an epic 5th set tiebreak.
This vintage run, which included one of the most dramatic points ever played in his following match against Paul Haarhuis, is the subject of ESPN's 30 from 30 documentary, This is What They Want. The title came from a Connors quote at the start of *that* 5th set tiebreak against Krickstein, when he looked into the camera and said "This is what they came for, this is what they want!"
Connors, his son, several commentators, Patrick McEnroe, his older brother John, Aaron Krickstein and his ultimate conqueror, Jim Courier are among the people interviewed for the movie. Barring one over zealous commentator who was allegedly there to provide a comic touch, all the participants speak intelligently and thoughtfully, their pieces are skilfully combined with cuts from footage of the tournament, the directing is slick and the pacing excellent.
The directors included some comments of their own as a part of the film and made it quite clear that they were Connors fans and adored his run at the 1991 US Open. Consequently, I found it fascinating that Connors himself came across very poorly for mine, he seems to be a very selfish and hard man who makes no apology for anything that he did during his career. Some of those things included calling the umpire in the Krickstein Connors match an abortion so perhaps there could be the odd thing that he might regret. Despite the fact that Krickstein was his friend, after winning that epic match, he never again spoke to him. I found that to be quite extraordinary and would have liked to have seen Connors pressed more about that.
Anyone who remembers the 1991 US Open is going to like this film, it's a wonderful retrospective of the Connors run. I can't recommend it highly for non tennis fans though, I think that if you don't have a prior interest in the sport or the participants in this documentary, then you may find the movie struggles to hold your interest.
At the time of writing, the preview for this film can be found here
Sunday 11 May 2014
The week ahead for the Went Report
I've been blogging regularly for the last week and a bit and I've really been enjoying it, none of my posts have attracted a lot of viewers yet but there's been the odd look and I expect this will increase over time. As I'm enjoying it, there's a fair chance I'll keep doing it and that should help me find an audience!
There's a number of posts in the pipeline for this week, I watched another of those thoroughly absorbing ESPN sports documentaries last week about Jimmy Connors' 1991 run at the US Open tennis and I'll be putting up a review about that. I'm currently reading Gideon Haigh's confronting account of pre-abortion Victoria, the Racket, and I'll be reviewing that once it's done as well.
One of my Facebook obsessions in recent years has been Bejeweled Blitz so I'm putting together a guide to playing it. This is already a long post and I haven't even finished the first section yet. So it'll be divided into several sections once finished and posted over a number of days. I have hopes that this series will eventually attract a good number of readers, Bejeweled Blitz has over 6 million followers and I'm hoping a few of them will end up reading my posts.
Improving at chess is one of my current obsessions, after a decade of playing it with no attempts to improve, and I'll be putting together a post about my plans to do so, that will probably appear next week.
I've been keeping my powder dry about the upcoming Australian Budget, but there's going to be quite a bit in there for me to take aim at, and I anticipate a long, fiery post or 2 about it! And there should be time for several short posts about whatever crosses my keyboard at the right time.
I am just so stoked to finally be out there writing regularly, even without much of an audience yet, this is a drug! The more I'm getting , the more I want.
There's a number of posts in the pipeline for this week, I watched another of those thoroughly absorbing ESPN sports documentaries last week about Jimmy Connors' 1991 run at the US Open tennis and I'll be putting up a review about that. I'm currently reading Gideon Haigh's confronting account of pre-abortion Victoria, the Racket, and I'll be reviewing that once it's done as well.
One of my Facebook obsessions in recent years has been Bejeweled Blitz so I'm putting together a guide to playing it. This is already a long post and I haven't even finished the first section yet. So it'll be divided into several sections once finished and posted over a number of days. I have hopes that this series will eventually attract a good number of readers, Bejeweled Blitz has over 6 million followers and I'm hoping a few of them will end up reading my posts.
Improving at chess is one of my current obsessions, after a decade of playing it with no attempts to improve, and I'll be putting together a post about my plans to do so, that will probably appear next week.
I've been keeping my powder dry about the upcoming Australian Budget, but there's going to be quite a bit in there for me to take aim at, and I anticipate a long, fiery post or 2 about it! And there should be time for several short posts about whatever crosses my keyboard at the right time.
I am just so stoked to finally be out there writing regularly, even without much of an audience yet, this is a drug! The more I'm getting , the more I want.
Some NRL Thoughts
I wasn't pleased to see the Dragons humbled by the Dogs today, but not totally surprised either. Our defence is very weak this year and consequently good sides are creaming us. I didn't think the Roosters were that good in demolishing us 2 weeks ago.
The attack is very promising and while I feel Benji Marshall has quite a bit to prove after his last 2 seasons, if he gets serious that attack will have enormous potential. Unfortunately, the ability to score points matters little if your forwards can't get you upfield into scoring areas or if your defence consistently leaks 20-30 points a game! This appears to be our problem currently.
I was happy to see Steve Price retained for this year as I felt he hadn't been given much of a chance with a team on the slide after winning the premiership in 2010. Unfortunately the claims about maintaining the culture established before he took over have not eventuated. The only pride in defence they are showing is pride in their ability to get set under the goalposts in a hurry so the kicker can convert! I don't think his position is solid and will be surprised if he's still coaching the team next year. Possibly he can join Ricky Stuart in looking for a job. Canberra must already be regretting that decision, they were a team that was considered to have potential! It's one thing to get thumped by Manly, but to have the Warriors put 50 on you?!! Please!
The attack is very promising and while I feel Benji Marshall has quite a bit to prove after his last 2 seasons, if he gets serious that attack will have enormous potential. Unfortunately, the ability to score points matters little if your forwards can't get you upfield into scoring areas or if your defence consistently leaks 20-30 points a game! This appears to be our problem currently.
I was happy to see Steve Price retained for this year as I felt he hadn't been given much of a chance with a team on the slide after winning the premiership in 2010. Unfortunately the claims about maintaining the culture established before he took over have not eventuated. The only pride in defence they are showing is pride in their ability to get set under the goalposts in a hurry so the kicker can convert! I don't think his position is solid and will be surprised if he's still coaching the team next year. Possibly he can join Ricky Stuart in looking for a job. Canberra must already be regretting that decision, they were a team that was considered to have potential! It's one thing to get thumped by Manly, but to have the Warriors put 50 on you?!! Please!
Thursday 8 May 2014
New NSW trains
The NSW government announced today that they will be replacing the old intercity trains with new trains. See here and here for details.
As a non-driver who loves public transport, I'm always excited to hear about new trains! Trains are awesome! I rarely use intercity services but with the exception of the Oscar trains serving the routes, the others are old and quite horrible. I find the seats to be uncomfortable and movement inside the carriages is restricted, making getting on and off at peak times difficult.
I love the fact that the government is going to pay for the trains itself, probably getting its own loans for it. Public/private financing is simply a way of keeping government debt off the books and funneling huge amounts of taxpayer money into the hands of lawyers, consultants, financiers and the like. The private institutions have to get a loan anyway and the rates they are charged are higher than what the government would be charged, ensuring that the overall costs will be higher. Also, if the project happens to make money, the private companies will keep it, in the far more common outcome that it doesn't the taxpayer ends up on the hook for it as the infrastructure needs to be finished.
The proposed design for the trains seems OK, double deckers fit the network and 4 seats across the width of the train allows for more width in the seats, which is also fine. I'm not a big fan of the idea of premium seating, the journeys aren't that long.
I would prefer if the trains were built here and feel that surely the Waratahs could be adjusted to suit the purpose better. Why send so much money overseas? Surely it will do more good paying our workers and their families? I do have some sympathy with the government's desire to buy a train off the shelf, we've been ordering new trains for decades in NSW and they constantly come in well after proposed delivery dates and well over budget. New trains take a lot of testing to get right.
As a non-driver who loves public transport, I'm always excited to hear about new trains! Trains are awesome! I rarely use intercity services but with the exception of the Oscar trains serving the routes, the others are old and quite horrible. I find the seats to be uncomfortable and movement inside the carriages is restricted, making getting on and off at peak times difficult.
I love the fact that the government is going to pay for the trains itself, probably getting its own loans for it. Public/private financing is simply a way of keeping government debt off the books and funneling huge amounts of taxpayer money into the hands of lawyers, consultants, financiers and the like. The private institutions have to get a loan anyway and the rates they are charged are higher than what the government would be charged, ensuring that the overall costs will be higher. Also, if the project happens to make money, the private companies will keep it, in the far more common outcome that it doesn't the taxpayer ends up on the hook for it as the infrastructure needs to be finished.
The proposed design for the trains seems OK, double deckers fit the network and 4 seats across the width of the train allows for more width in the seats, which is also fine. I'm not a big fan of the idea of premium seating, the journeys aren't that long.
I would prefer if the trains were built here and feel that surely the Waratahs could be adjusted to suit the purpose better. Why send so much money overseas? Surely it will do more good paying our workers and their families? I do have some sympathy with the government's desire to buy a train off the shelf, we've been ordering new trains for decades in NSW and they constantly come in well after proposed delivery dates and well over budget. New trains take a lot of testing to get right.
Tuesday 6 May 2014
Movie of the Week: The Announcement
Lindsay's Label:7.5/10
This is an absorbing and moving documentary about the famous NBA star Earvin 'Magic' Johnson and his diagnosis with AIDS. It spreads its tentacles beyond the actual announcement to look at Magic's life before and after the announcement and is more of a documentary about him and how being diagnosed with HIV changed his life than it is a film about HIV and HIV related issues. This is a good thing.
Johnson's grace and charm are evident throughout the film, which he narrated, with his family, personal doctor and close personal friends from in and outside of basketball all being interviewed. Unsurprisingly, the film presents a very positive impression of Johnson, who is, in any case, so charismatic that director Nelson George would have found it quite the challenge to make a boring film with this man as his star.
The fact that Johnson was so willing to go public once he was diagnosed amazes me, as most people in 1991 only went public with their diagnosis after they collapsed in hotel lobbies (Rock Hudson) or were hounded by the paparazzi to the point of madness (Freddie Mercury). George takes the time to explain why Johnson has survived when the diagnosis was a death sentence when he received it.
Nelson George succeeds in re-creating the drama and tension of the moment whilst presenting a sympathetic portrayal of how one man learnt to cope with the most feared diagnosis of the age in a very public space. 90 minutes long, the film doesn't overstay its welcome and is strongly recommended, even if you don't know the people involved.
At the time of writing, you could watch the film in its entirety here
The preview is listed below.
This is an absorbing and moving documentary about the famous NBA star Earvin 'Magic' Johnson and his diagnosis with AIDS. It spreads its tentacles beyond the actual announcement to look at Magic's life before and after the announcement and is more of a documentary about him and how being diagnosed with HIV changed his life than it is a film about HIV and HIV related issues. This is a good thing.
Johnson's grace and charm are evident throughout the film, which he narrated, with his family, personal doctor and close personal friends from in and outside of basketball all being interviewed. Unsurprisingly, the film presents a very positive impression of Johnson, who is, in any case, so charismatic that director Nelson George would have found it quite the challenge to make a boring film with this man as his star.
The fact that Johnson was so willing to go public once he was diagnosed amazes me, as most people in 1991 only went public with their diagnosis after they collapsed in hotel lobbies (Rock Hudson) or were hounded by the paparazzi to the point of madness (Freddie Mercury). George takes the time to explain why Johnson has survived when the diagnosis was a death sentence when he received it.
Nelson George succeeds in re-creating the drama and tension of the moment whilst presenting a sympathetic portrayal of how one man learnt to cope with the most feared diagnosis of the age in a very public space. 90 minutes long, the film doesn't overstay its welcome and is strongly recommended, even if you don't know the people involved.
At the time of writing, you could watch the film in its entirety here
The preview is listed below.
Monday 5 May 2014
Book of the Week: Seven Deadly Sins by David Walsh
Seven Deadly sins is the superb account of David Walsh's long struggle to demonstrate that Lance Armstrong cheated his way to seven Tour de France titles whilst consistently bullying any people who were silly enough to oppose him.
Walsh has been a long time sports journalist for the Sunday Times, who lost a million pounds when Armstrong sued them for libel and won due to Britain's very tough libel laws. The Sunday Times are now in the process of suing Armstrong to get their money back.
The true heroes of this story are the people who stood up for honesty in cycling at great personal cost, as the leadership of professional cycling and the majority of the media had little interest in unearthing the truth. Walsh is excellent at explaining how the lack of enforcement regarding drugs placed great pressure upon cyclists and he presents a balanced view of why it was often difficult for journalists and members of the professional cycling community to seriously challenge the status quo.
He explains how his love of cycling and some of the cyclists led him to soft pedal an Irish cyclist who was taking drugs too. If you have any interest in how Armstrong escaped consequences for so long and how his actions finally caught up with him, this is the book to get. You can find it here at Booktopia.
Walsh has been a long time sports journalist for the Sunday Times, who lost a million pounds when Armstrong sued them for libel and won due to Britain's very tough libel laws. The Sunday Times are now in the process of suing Armstrong to get their money back.
The true heroes of this story are the people who stood up for honesty in cycling at great personal cost, as the leadership of professional cycling and the majority of the media had little interest in unearthing the truth. Walsh is excellent at explaining how the lack of enforcement regarding drugs placed great pressure upon cyclists and he presents a balanced view of why it was often difficult for journalists and members of the professional cycling community to seriously challenge the status quo.
He explains how his love of cycling and some of the cyclists led him to soft pedal an Irish cyclist who was taking drugs too. If you have any interest in how Armstrong escaped consequences for so long and how his actions finally caught up with him, this is the book to get. You can find it here at Booktopia.
Sunday 4 May 2014
May the 4th Be with You
To celebrate the upcoming release of Episode VII in the Star Wars series, I spent a thoroughly enjoyable day re-watching the original trilogy with Allan McGregor at Event Cinemas George St in their wonderfully comfortable Vmax cinema!
Only $25 a person but as they sold out, they'd have grossed over 10K for the day which isn't a bad return. Watching the films with a sympathetic audience is so much more fun than sticking them in the DVD player for another re-run, clapping and laughing and cheering added a great atmosphere to the viewings, with one brilliant interjection of "Don't do it!" just before Leia kisses Luke on the lips in Empire.
It was, of course, the 'special" edition and while it's now 17 years since I last saw them on the big screen, my overall dislike of the changes remains - which I think is testimony to the fact that the initial barrage of complaints from Star Wars fans wasn't just a beat up. The additions generally slow up the films, and the first 2 in particular are so beautifully paced that there was no need for additions. And in several cases the changes made the storytelling worse, Greedo shooting first still jars, Solo was too smart to allow that, Darth Vader growling "Bring my shuttle!" was a fabulous reflection of how pissed he was that Luke had slipped his clutches.
The celebratory sequence in Jedi is OK, but what was wrong with the original? I don't think the change improved the story and it reduced the personal element that Jedi's original finish emphasised, showing Luke privately burning Vader's body was moving. Using Iain McDermaid to re-record the Emperor sequence in Empire was an excellent decision, it improves the scene and the storytelling. Some of the additions of new visuals in the background work well too, eg the cityscape image when Lando Calrissian is telling the citizens of Cloud City to leave. Overall though, I prefer the original cut by a considerable margin.
I found Palpatine's attempts to seduce Luke to be utterly woeful when compared to the subtle, complex web that he constructed over many years in order to ensnare his father. By the end Palpatine was relying purely on force to keep his empire together, but he'd built his empire through his ability to develop alliances and play politics. In Jedi he rejects his alliances and isn't trying to build any more. Absolute power had corrupted him absolutely and thus these scenes work better with the addition of the prequel trilogy, the weakness of Palpatine's efforts to seduce Luke become a demonstration of how much damage has been done to Palpatine by how he chose to live, rather than a poorly written script that made one question how a character of Vader's strength and power would ever choose to serve this man. The Dark Side has betrayed him too, as he could have been a great and loved Chancellor, instead of this feeble, hate riddled, shell of a man.
Anakin had been moved to save his life once because he saw that he needed him to save his loved ones and because he viewed Palpatine as a good man in a difficult situation, that mask had been blown by Jedi, which meant that the basis of Vader's loyalty was no longer solid. Now that Palpatine was seeking to kill Vader's loved one, it became an easy decision for him to intervene. Too easy for mine, I consider that Vader's saving of his son's life fails as an act of redemption, most people would save their own children, no matter how sick and twisted they are generally. This is a man who killed children and other civilians for fun, and who had proceeded to spend decades with minimal respect for life, he killed on whims. Does saving one life, that of his only son to boot, truly balance the scales for him?
Speaking of Star Wars, I saw a totally hilarious Harry Potter v Star Wars mock battle on YouTube the other day, made by 2 Adelaide brothers, it's brilliant! Hope you enjoy it!
Only $25 a person but as they sold out, they'd have grossed over 10K for the day which isn't a bad return. Watching the films with a sympathetic audience is so much more fun than sticking them in the DVD player for another re-run, clapping and laughing and cheering added a great atmosphere to the viewings, with one brilliant interjection of "Don't do it!" just before Leia kisses Luke on the lips in Empire.
It was, of course, the 'special" edition and while it's now 17 years since I last saw them on the big screen, my overall dislike of the changes remains - which I think is testimony to the fact that the initial barrage of complaints from Star Wars fans wasn't just a beat up. The additions generally slow up the films, and the first 2 in particular are so beautifully paced that there was no need for additions. And in several cases the changes made the storytelling worse, Greedo shooting first still jars, Solo was too smart to allow that, Darth Vader growling "Bring my shuttle!" was a fabulous reflection of how pissed he was that Luke had slipped his clutches.
The celebratory sequence in Jedi is OK, but what was wrong with the original? I don't think the change improved the story and it reduced the personal element that Jedi's original finish emphasised, showing Luke privately burning Vader's body was moving. Using Iain McDermaid to re-record the Emperor sequence in Empire was an excellent decision, it improves the scene and the storytelling. Some of the additions of new visuals in the background work well too, eg the cityscape image when Lando Calrissian is telling the citizens of Cloud City to leave. Overall though, I prefer the original cut by a considerable margin.
I found Palpatine's attempts to seduce Luke to be utterly woeful when compared to the subtle, complex web that he constructed over many years in order to ensnare his father. By the end Palpatine was relying purely on force to keep his empire together, but he'd built his empire through his ability to develop alliances and play politics. In Jedi he rejects his alliances and isn't trying to build any more. Absolute power had corrupted him absolutely and thus these scenes work better with the addition of the prequel trilogy, the weakness of Palpatine's efforts to seduce Luke become a demonstration of how much damage has been done to Palpatine by how he chose to live, rather than a poorly written script that made one question how a character of Vader's strength and power would ever choose to serve this man. The Dark Side has betrayed him too, as he could have been a great and loved Chancellor, instead of this feeble, hate riddled, shell of a man.
Anakin had been moved to save his life once because he saw that he needed him to save his loved ones and because he viewed Palpatine as a good man in a difficult situation, that mask had been blown by Jedi, which meant that the basis of Vader's loyalty was no longer solid. Now that Palpatine was seeking to kill Vader's loved one, it became an easy decision for him to intervene. Too easy for mine, I consider that Vader's saving of his son's life fails as an act of redemption, most people would save their own children, no matter how sick and twisted they are generally. This is a man who killed children and other civilians for fun, and who had proceeded to spend decades with minimal respect for life, he killed on whims. Does saving one life, that of his only son to boot, truly balance the scales for him?
Speaking of Star Wars, I saw a totally hilarious Harry Potter v Star Wars mock battle on YouTube the other day, made by 2 Adelaide brothers, it's brilliant! Hope you enjoy it!
Saturday 3 May 2014
NSW Politics
I confess that I am completely disgusted by how blatantly our NSW Parliamentary representatives have been in the pockets of the rich and how cynically they have been exploiting rules aimed to help them be more effective representatives!
However, my purpose in writing this little piece isn't to ramble on about their many shortcomings but to ask a question. Is NSW politics full of corrupt politicians who are not to be found in the other States or is just that NSW is the only State with an Independent Commission Against Corruption that can investigate these matters and therefore catch them?
Are your Federal representatives being investigated for such links? Or are they able to investigate themselves?
However, my purpose in writing this little piece isn't to ramble on about their many shortcomings but to ask a question. Is NSW politics full of corrupt politicians who are not to be found in the other States or is just that NSW is the only State with an Independent Commission Against Corruption that can investigate these matters and therefore catch them?
Are your Federal representatives being investigated for such links? Or are they able to investigate themselves?
Friday 2 May 2014
The Went Report
As part of updating the blog, I've named it properly as The Went Report!!!
The Went Report was the name that I gave to my opinion pieces that I wrote about rugby league when I was back in Year 5. I would finish my work, ask for a piece of art paper and go write a report about what was happening in the game. The title was stolen from Geoff Prenter, who was the editor of Rugby League Week at the time and wrote a weekly column titled the Prenter Report.
The Went Report recurred in some other guises during my high school years and I've retained a fondness for the title, hence its selection as my blog.
As a perusal of the archive will show, I set up the blog 6 years ago and entertained varying visions of becoming a prolific blogger, now that I'm not entertaining such visions, I've finally organised the blog and started telling people about it.
The main purpose for the blog is to give me a space to write longer spiels than fit in a Facebook status post. Sometimes I'll include updates about my family and career, other times I'll write about my interests. I expect that most posts will be fairly short and that lengthy spiels will be irregular.
My interests include books, current affairs, sports, sustainability issues, science, education and so most of my posts will relate to one of those. However, I will write about whatever I feel like writing, irrespective of whether I have promised to write about it previously. I don't intend to make money out of the blog and I'm not particularly concerned about how large the audience is, which frees me to write as I please.
I'm not certain as to how regularly I will post, so rather than making any grandiose claims that subsequent events will disprove, I will simply post as I feel like it and see how many posts I make.
There are still a few things I have to do with the updating process so there's a good chance that additional changes will occur here.
I've finally made the blog look presentable and I'm sharing it with people I know - this is rather exciting!
The Went Report was the name that I gave to my opinion pieces that I wrote about rugby league when I was back in Year 5. I would finish my work, ask for a piece of art paper and go write a report about what was happening in the game. The title was stolen from Geoff Prenter, who was the editor of Rugby League Week at the time and wrote a weekly column titled the Prenter Report.
The Went Report recurred in some other guises during my high school years and I've retained a fondness for the title, hence its selection as my blog.
As a perusal of the archive will show, I set up the blog 6 years ago and entertained varying visions of becoming a prolific blogger, now that I'm not entertaining such visions, I've finally organised the blog and started telling people about it.
The main purpose for the blog is to give me a space to write longer spiels than fit in a Facebook status post. Sometimes I'll include updates about my family and career, other times I'll write about my interests. I expect that most posts will be fairly short and that lengthy spiels will be irregular.
My interests include books, current affairs, sports, sustainability issues, science, education and so most of my posts will relate to one of those. However, I will write about whatever I feel like writing, irrespective of whether I have promised to write about it previously. I don't intend to make money out of the blog and I'm not particularly concerned about how large the audience is, which frees me to write as I please.
I'm not certain as to how regularly I will post, so rather than making any grandiose claims that subsequent events will disprove, I will simply post as I feel like it and see how many posts I make.
There are still a few things I have to do with the updating process so there's a good chance that additional changes will occur here.
I've finally made the blog look presentable and I'm sharing it with people I know - this is rather exciting!
Thursday 1 May 2014
Chris Rogers
I was completely thrilled to read of his spectacular, match winning double century at Lord's overnight. For me, he's been the biggest feelgood story of Australia's recent Test cricket renaissance, a man who's worked hard his whole career to play just 1 Test in rather unflattering got an opportunity to spend some time as a real Test cricketer and has now scored 4 Test centuries and enjoyed the highs and lows of being a Test player. Chris's article about his debut Test was fantastic and showed that he may have a fine future as a writer about the game once he retires.
Khan Academy
One of the important parts of my tutoring is Mathematics. Currently I'm capable of teaching Maths up to Year 8. There are sections of the Stage 5 curriculum that I can teach as well, but I don't know all of it well enough to teach so I can't advertise myself as a K-10 Maths tutor.
I currently have some Year 8 students who I will lose at the end of the year unless I know the Stage 5 curriculum. So there's a financial and personal motivation to improve my Maths skills. They're all great kids who I love working with.
Consequently I've decided to do work to improve my Maths, I've picked up a copy of the fine instruction book Understanding Maths Years 9 and 10. I use some of their books with the kids anyway because they're well laid out and place a lot of emphasis upon clear explanations with fully worked examples. You can pick up a copy from http://www.understandingmaths.com/. I'll be using this to assist me in updating my skills in some of these topics.
The big focus of my efforts has been at Khan Academy. This is another site I use with my students and it's a fantastic site. It's completely free and is intended to remain that way. It provides Mathematics instruction from primary school level to the end of high school. It's also providing instruction in a few other subjects with the long term goal being to offer "A free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere". It's not there yet, but it's a hell of a good site even so.
The site offers activities for you to complete about varying topics, to pass an activity you need to correctly answer 5 questions in a row. Instructional hints and explanatory videos are included to help you understand the topic. To master a topic you need to go through 4 levels, but you can complete Mastery challenges on subsequent days rather than completing another full activity. Additionally, you earn energy points for every activity and those energy points help you earn badges of achievement. You also earn badges for varying other things, such as quick, accurate work, persistence on a difficult topic, consistently working at the site on a daily basis, participating in forums, among numerous other things.
I like the motivational side of it and rather enjoy collecting points - I have 160 000 so far and hope to become a millionaire one day :) The hints work very well at explaining something if I don't get it. I find that the videos are of mixed quality, some of them explain the topic at hand very well, some of them simply haven't explained it fully enough, they've explained one part of the topic but not that part that I didn't understand!
I'm currently visiting the site and using it on a daily basis and I expect that to continue for a while as I'm having fun. It's all very well to have the long term goal of being a better qualified tutor but that isn't going to be enough to motivate me to do the necessary hours unless I'm enjoying the process of improving my skills. And I am.
Part of that is because it's a chance to put right what happened over a quarter of a century ago to my Maths performance in high school. At the end of Year 6 I was in the top 4 of my primary school in Maths, by Year 12 I finished about 55th out of 60 in 2 Unit Maths! And 26th out of 26 in Physics! OK, that was largely because I didn't do any work, apparently you need to work hard at new material in order to learn it - who'd have thunk it?
Nevertheless, pointing out that I wasn't working is the superficial answer - the real question is why wasn't I working? I was certainly suitably dedicated in all my humanities subjects and achieved results that reflected that. I've thought about this many times over the years, as I was a serious student, I may have been a bit lazy with the odd homework assignment, but doing well at school was important to me, being "smart" was the dominant part of my self-concept so it was uncharacteristic for me to allow some critical subjects to go to pieces, it wasn't because I didn't value Maths in the way I didn't value Industrial Arts or some other subjects that weren't directly academic.
The problem was that I didn't know how to handle failure - I found some parts of high school Maths to be difficult and I didn't understand them, lacking anyone to explain them to me I decided giving up was better than admitting that I wasn't smart - 'smart' people should be able to get it right was my thinking. The idea that giving up on important subjects and failing them outright is the antithesis of smart never occurred to me :). I preferred to fail where I had a convenient excuse in that I didn't try as opposed to doing my best and still failing which was what I felt was happening.
That fear of failure leading to quitting something has turned up in other contexts subsequently so it's something I find I need to be watchful of when I'm trying to improve myself. But it hasn't been a problem so far because I have all these options to find out the information - beyond the resources offered by Khan Academy or my books, there's an ocean of additional resources a mere Google search away. So I feel very confident that if I can't work something out, that I'll be able to given some persistence.
Additionally, there's no pressure to pass exams and do a set amount of work every day, I'm doing it because I'm enjoying the learning. It makes little noises when I get a question right! Yesterday I was looking at the topics that I will be studying once I finish my current Khan Academy mission and I'm looking forward to them. I never did get the hang of trigonometry at school and I only understood certain parts of calculus and I am excited about the prospect of finally being able to say that I can do it!
The ultra competitive little know it all that I was in high school is still cut about having failed at Maths, it still burns that I couldn't stand the heat in that particular kitchen.There's a little bit of redemption going on every time I log on to Khan Academy.
I don't get that from Bejeweled Blitz.
I currently have some Year 8 students who I will lose at the end of the year unless I know the Stage 5 curriculum. So there's a financial and personal motivation to improve my Maths skills. They're all great kids who I love working with.
Consequently I've decided to do work to improve my Maths, I've picked up a copy of the fine instruction book Understanding Maths Years 9 and 10. I use some of their books with the kids anyway because they're well laid out and place a lot of emphasis upon clear explanations with fully worked examples. You can pick up a copy from http://www.understandingmaths.com/. I'll be using this to assist me in updating my skills in some of these topics.
The big focus of my efforts has been at Khan Academy. This is another site I use with my students and it's a fantastic site. It's completely free and is intended to remain that way. It provides Mathematics instruction from primary school level to the end of high school. It's also providing instruction in a few other subjects with the long term goal being to offer "A free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere". It's not there yet, but it's a hell of a good site even so.
The site offers activities for you to complete about varying topics, to pass an activity you need to correctly answer 5 questions in a row. Instructional hints and explanatory videos are included to help you understand the topic. To master a topic you need to go through 4 levels, but you can complete Mastery challenges on subsequent days rather than completing another full activity. Additionally, you earn energy points for every activity and those energy points help you earn badges of achievement. You also earn badges for varying other things, such as quick, accurate work, persistence on a difficult topic, consistently working at the site on a daily basis, participating in forums, among numerous other things.
I like the motivational side of it and rather enjoy collecting points - I have 160 000 so far and hope to become a millionaire one day :) The hints work very well at explaining something if I don't get it. I find that the videos are of mixed quality, some of them explain the topic at hand very well, some of them simply haven't explained it fully enough, they've explained one part of the topic but not that part that I didn't understand!
I'm currently visiting the site and using it on a daily basis and I expect that to continue for a while as I'm having fun. It's all very well to have the long term goal of being a better qualified tutor but that isn't going to be enough to motivate me to do the necessary hours unless I'm enjoying the process of improving my skills. And I am.
Part of that is because it's a chance to put right what happened over a quarter of a century ago to my Maths performance in high school. At the end of Year 6 I was in the top 4 of my primary school in Maths, by Year 12 I finished about 55th out of 60 in 2 Unit Maths! And 26th out of 26 in Physics! OK, that was largely because I didn't do any work, apparently you need to work hard at new material in order to learn it - who'd have thunk it?
Nevertheless, pointing out that I wasn't working is the superficial answer - the real question is why wasn't I working? I was certainly suitably dedicated in all my humanities subjects and achieved results that reflected that. I've thought about this many times over the years, as I was a serious student, I may have been a bit lazy with the odd homework assignment, but doing well at school was important to me, being "smart" was the dominant part of my self-concept so it was uncharacteristic for me to allow some critical subjects to go to pieces, it wasn't because I didn't value Maths in the way I didn't value Industrial Arts or some other subjects that weren't directly academic.
The problem was that I didn't know how to handle failure - I found some parts of high school Maths to be difficult and I didn't understand them, lacking anyone to explain them to me I decided giving up was better than admitting that I wasn't smart - 'smart' people should be able to get it right was my thinking. The idea that giving up on important subjects and failing them outright is the antithesis of smart never occurred to me :). I preferred to fail where I had a convenient excuse in that I didn't try as opposed to doing my best and still failing which was what I felt was happening.
That fear of failure leading to quitting something has turned up in other contexts subsequently so it's something I find I need to be watchful of when I'm trying to improve myself. But it hasn't been a problem so far because I have all these options to find out the information - beyond the resources offered by Khan Academy or my books, there's an ocean of additional resources a mere Google search away. So I feel very confident that if I can't work something out, that I'll be able to given some persistence.
Additionally, there's no pressure to pass exams and do a set amount of work every day, I'm doing it because I'm enjoying the learning. It makes little noises when I get a question right! Yesterday I was looking at the topics that I will be studying once I finish my current Khan Academy mission and I'm looking forward to them. I never did get the hang of trigonometry at school and I only understood certain parts of calculus and I am excited about the prospect of finally being able to say that I can do it!
The ultra competitive little know it all that I was in high school is still cut about having failed at Maths, it still burns that I couldn't stand the heat in that particular kitchen.There's a little bit of redemption going on every time I log on to Khan Academy.
I don't get that from Bejeweled Blitz.
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