[gaelic football] irish incensed at australian ‘thugs’

Australia-Ireland International Rules football is in doubt after a violent contest marred last night's 38-point Australian victory. Irish team manager Sean Boylan accused the team of “thuggery” in the spiteful contest, which left Ireland's Graham Geraghty in hospital and saw Australian captain Barry Hall and Irish captain Kieran McGeeney both sent off in front of a sellout crowd of more than 82,000 at Dublin's Croke Park. However Irish officials are fuming after several fights broke out in the first quarter, including one before the starting siren sounded. Boylan claims the Australians deliberately targeted their players, and was ready to call off the match at quarter time. Gaelic Athletic Association marketing manager Dermot Power said the entire series was now in doubt. “Quite a lot of people think we shouldn’t be doing it. Quite a lot of them think we should concentrate on our own games. Quite a lot of people feel that it’s not fair to put amateurs out against professionals.'' The Australians were just thugs. Poor Ireland – they don’t like it when the thuggery is against them. Who would Britain support in this one?

[casino royale] first bond reviews by the press

Times: Every decade gets the Bond it deserves and we are living in some pretty scary times. Craig combines Sean Connery’s athleticism and cocksure swagger with Timothy Dalton’s thrilling undercurrent of stone-cold cruelty. While the rather foppish Pierce Brosnan had the bland chiselled looks of a male catalogue model, Craig’s face is endlessly fascinating. Mirror: Easily the best Bond film since Golden Eye, it's 144 minutes of non-stop, end-to-end action that proves there's plenty of life in the world's longest-running movie franchise. Dark, gritty and surprisingly violent, the suave, smooth-talking secret agent of old is replaced by a steely-eyed killer with a dash of vulnerability. Mail: Daniel Craig is probably the best and most serious actor to have been cast as 007 and this film makes full use of his range. He's also the toughest and most virile leading man since Russell Crowe's Maximus in Gladiator. Will Casino Royale be a huge hit and continue the franchise? I think it will.

[prejudice] sometimes there’s a grain of truth …

I have never held with the PC blanket ban on prejudice. Quite often, there is indeed some basis for it, if perhaps the reaction leaves something to be desired. Bryan Appleyard tells it as he sees it and I for one appreciate that. He states: At the London School of Economics, Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist, is in trouble over his conclusion that low IQ, not poverty or disease, is the primary cause of Africa's problems. In Ethiopia, for example, the average IQ is 63 and life expectancies are in the mid-forties. People are upset about this because it seems racist. Bryan concludes: For, if Africa is locked in low IQ misery from which it can only be rescued by institutional and educational systems developed by the high IQ nations, then a new colonialism would seem to be the most rational and humane response. Now I don’t howl for BA’s blood here. I think we should think this through. Do read his piece and while you're at it, you might stumble over to this piece on prejudice as well.

[whistleblowers] heroes or traitors

Most people, especially the Russians, regard Alexander Solzhenitsin as a patriot and a hero. What did he essentially do? He told on the Soviet Union. He was a whistle blower.

Many Russians regard Vladimir Rezun as a traitor. What did he essentially do? He told on the Soviet Union. He was a whistle blower.

Half the Americans regard Daniel Ellsberg as one of the most important figures in Nixonian America and the man who blew the whistle on Vietnam. The other half accept, in varying degrees, Henry Kissinger’s assessment of the man: A fanatical drug-crazed sexual pervert, the most dangerous man in America, who has to be stopped at all costs.

Mordecai Vanunu told the world about Israel’s nuclear weapons. He was a whistle blower. Hero or traitor? Here are their stories.

[debunking marconi] how to waste thousands of dollars

On Dec. 12, 1901, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi made history by using a kite and some copper wire atop Signal Hill in St. John's to receive a wireless signal from across the Atlantic Ocean. More than a century later, a group of radio scientists in Newfoundland are conducting a series of tests aiming to debunk Mr. Marconi's claim to fame. "We're essentially setting out to prove it wrong," said Joe Craig, a physicist and director of the Marconi Radio Club. I love some of the reader comments:

While we're at it, let's debunk the biggest scientific fraud...
Perhaps the scientists would get a better understanding by listening...
Poor Marconi, he should have discovered global warming instead...

The full report is here.

[ashes] hi tech, instant-response assault teams

Explosive scanning devices, sniffer dogs, high-tech surveillance cameras, opening the gates two hours before the start of play to allow time for comprehensive bag searches, zero tolerance on poor behaviour, anti-terrorist exercises - cricket will never be the same. Is it all necessary? Zero tolerance of poor behaviour now. What - yelling out, ‘Bloody convict!’ or ‘Pommy bastard!’? Does this constitute poor behaviour and justify being dragged away for a few rounds of electro-torture and simulated drowning? The Public Safety Response Team will spearhead the security operation for the first Test at the Gabba which starts on November 23 and my understanding is that these are boys you don’t want to mess with.