SBS Blogs

The Circus - March 11

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +1100

The Circus asks: How many million rupees would Michael Clarke be fined if he was a Pakistani cricketer?

Whack, whack go the Paks
It was a terrific summer Down Under for Pakistan's touring cricket team. They failed to beat Australia in any Tests, one-day internationals or Twenty20 matches, despite being world champions in the latter form of the game. Hapless skipper Mohammad Yousuf had to deal with a fractious team and his own poor form, players openly rebelled against team selection plans, and acting captain Shahid Afridi decided to take a chunk out of the ball with his teeth during the Perth ODI.

Now the Pakistan Cricket Board has brought down its findings after an inquiry into the fiasco – and in typical take-no-prisoners sub-continental style has performed the bureaucratic equivalent of burning Yousuf and former skipper Younus Khan in effigy, banning them from ever representing their country again. Their crime? Infighting that resulted in "bringing down the whole team", man. Like, not cool, dudes.

Afridi was fined three million rupees, which sounds like a whole lot*, and put on probation for six months. Kamran Akmal, who publicly declared he would not accept being dropped from the team for the final Test, but still was, has also copped a three million fine and a six-month probation period.

Little brother Umar Akmal, who was accused of faking an injury to not play in the Test, but still did, also faces scrutiny for the next six months and has to cough up two million rupees. Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Shoaib Malik fared even worse, each being suspended for a year from all national teams for unspecified indiscipline.

Imagine what would have happened to Michael Clarke if he were Pakistani!

* It is, in fact, about $38,500

That's just not cricket
It's day three of England versus Bangladesh A at the time-honoured Zohur Ahmed Choudhary Stadium in beautiful downtown Chittagong. The tourists would quite like to have another bat before the first Test, so they decide to encourage their hosts to declare early with a little bowling of juicy long hops.

The result? Bangladesh A's world-renowned Shuvagoto Hom and Dolar Mahmud add a trifling 195 runs off nine overs and the locals do call a halt to the slaughter, giving the Poms a nice little stint at the wicket. The only casualties are the first-class bowling averages of skipper Alistair Cook, who is walloped for 111 runs off five overs, and Michael Carberry, who is positively miserly in giving up only 78 off four. And cricket's ever-diminishing credibility, of course.

Hair today, gone tomorrow
Boston Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis is a fine baseballer, with a history of fine facial hair. He is also a fine fellow, and to gather funds for charity he is asking fans on his personal website to vote for the fuzz he should sport on the fast-approaching opening day of the Major Leageu Baseball season – goatee, moustache, Fu Manchu or, perish the thought, clean shaven. Each vote will raise a dollar for Youkilis' children’s foundation. Here at The Circus, we're rooting for the Fu Manchu.

The big bang
Casey Rogers is an 11-year-old Texan boy with an impressive CV. A former foster child adopted as an infant, he founded his own charity after seeing a homeless man begging on a Dallas street. He also won an essay contest sponsored by Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (mmmmm … macaroni and cheese). The prize? Casey gets to blow up the home for the past 38 seasons of the Dallas Cowboys, 65,000-seat Texas Stadium, on April 11. That'll get his mind back on the sort of things an 11-year-old should be doing.

The numbers game
1994 – year in which Marion Jones was starting point guard in North Carolina's national title-winning basketball team
2000 – year in which Jones won three sprinting gold medals at the Sydney Olympics, which were later stripped for doping offences
2003 – year in which Jones was drafted by WNBA's Phoenix Mercury
2010 – year in which Jones hopes to make her WNBA debut after signing with Tulsa Schock

Quote of the day
"Sometimes you move your fingers. It was nothing. We are not considering it, it was nothing."
- Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez defends his captain Steven Gerrard after the midfielder offered a two-fingered salute to referee Andre Mariner during the defeat to Wigan. Sometimes club owners also move their fingers to sign documents dismissing managers who don't meet lofty expectations.

Headline we'd like to see
Bungling bride Bingle beats it to Bungle Bungles

:: More of The Circus

Penguin's vision of books on the iPad doesn't look anything like books

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +1100

Take a look at what digital books from megapublishers like Penguin will be like on the iPad.  Children's books that are games, interactive anatomy books, and an augmented reality intergalactic GPS system.  This is the future we've been waiting to see.

The excitement over the iPad? It's this precisely kind of stuff that people are wetting themselves over, little slices of our tablet dreams. What is a book anymore, in this format? The ePub format that'll be the vessel of choice for ebooks sold in the iBooks store is designed to translate traditional books to a digital format. Which is why, Penguin Books CEO John Makinson says that "for the time being at least we'll be creating a lot of our digital content as applications for sales in app stores in HTML, rather than as ebooks. The definition of a book itself, as you can see, is up for grabs." Great comments.

http://gizmodo.com/5485150/penguins-incredible-vision-of-books-on-the-ipad-doesnt-look-anything-like-books

Natascha Kampush: 3096 Days in Captivity

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1100

John Birmingham looks at the chilling case of Natascha Kampush and wonders why,in situations so horrid, curiosity often surrounds the tormentor and not the victim.

Hannah Arendt's phrase "the banality of evil" – used to characterize the prosaic, workaday nature of the Nazi regime – was so apt and so popular that it ended up being overused, becoming, according to one critic, a "worsened word".

You can't help but hear echoes of the phrase, however, while watching Austria's Natascha Kampusch lead viewers through her 8 1/2 years of captivity at the hands of an engineer named Wolfgang Priklopil.

Taken on the way to school at the age of ten, Kampusch is an eerily composed victim of a grotesquely malevolent kidnapping, and although she has forgiven her jailer you can't help but wonder whether she will be imprisoned by him for the rest of her life.

Priklopil is unavailable to shed light on their weird, pathological relationship, having thrown himself in front of a train a few hours after learning that Kampusch had escaped.

The mind reels back from considering what he did to the girl and her family, even though she has resolutely refused to go into personal and intimate details since her escape.

The horror of her ordeal is possibly thrown into harsher relief because of the banality of the moments leading up to her capture, the fight with her mother, the prosaic details of the morning of the kidnapping and how pure chance played a part in her ill fortune, her mother having offered to drive her to school that day.

Banal too, the setting in which it all takes place, an unremarkable suburb of aesthetically worthless tenements and semi-detached houses. It could be anywhere.

But the longer Kampusch is on screen and the more she speaks of her ordeal - her fears that Priklopil might die and leave her to staff in her heat in the cellar, his dire warnings that the exits from the house were booby-trapped, the understanding she gives us of just how much control over a young, mind a malignant character like him can have - the greater becomes our appreciation for just how strong and resilient this young woman is.

Since her release many people have openly speculated that she is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, in which she came to identify with her tormentor.

There may well be an element of that in the relationship, although her failure to escape over 8 1/2 years is just as easily explained by the power an adult can wield over the imagination and worldview of a child.

In the end we can never know. Although Kampusch has chosen not to flinch away from public view, there is much she will not reveal about her time in the cellar.

And a legitimate question would be why anybody would want to know those details anyway other than for sensation's sake?

Natasha Kampusch was a survivor. She lived and even flourished, managing to educate herself in the dark, when many others would simply have shriveled up and wasted away.

For that reason alone she is a fascinating study in human nature, probably more worthy of our interest than the man who held her prisoner.

Cricket's shot in the arm

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +1100

The Clarke/Bingle saga has only added to an already fiery series of one-day cricket, writes Tom Findlay.

The banner in the crowd captured the essence of a series that has been overshadowed by yet another Bingle bungle: "Clarkey", it shouted, "Where the bloody hell are ya??"

A trio of grinning, boozy New Zealanders surrounded the sign - the latest in a varying series of broadsides, from the humorous to the vitriolic, between the two camps. All fired within the boundaries of good sportsmanship.

It is a jocular slanging match that started with the New Zealand journalist who joked "we've got plenty of sheep to share" at the airport to Australia coach Tim Nielsen, reached its zenith when Mitchell Johnson head-butted Scott Styris, perhaps foolishly, in the helmet during the first one-dayer and is carrying on through the Clarke/Bingle saga.

Of course, we could all do without the Bingle aspect and if reports in Wednesday's papers are any sort of guide, Clarke may have come to the same realisation. But the playful jest has provided a boon for cricket and in particular the 50-over form of the game.

Forget for a moment that for the first time since the start of the Australian summer, fans are actually being treated to some good, closely contested cricket, it is more the trans-Tasman rivalry that is keeping interest bubbling along nicely like a champagne glass at a wedding reception.

Clarke, for the time being has had to leave one drama for another, as he seeks to establish what is more important: his fiance's career or his. It is a defining moment for a man long-considered our next Test captain.

For many of the fans who have commented on various articles about Clarke bailing on his country in the heat of a battle, the damage has been done.

For me, this situation is the first true test of Pup's captaincy credentials. I'm not saying he should necessarily give Bingle the flick, but he has sent a mixed message to his teammates and fans by abandoning the New Zealand tour to be with her and his next move could well be the defining moment in his career.

:: More from The Interchange

The Circus - March 10

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +1100

Pup comes home with tail between his legs, and Lance Armstrong's passport is almost rejected in South Africa. It's all in The Circus.

Pup blurs the lines of sport and gossip
Sports fanatics are waking up this morning scratching their heads and gossip queens are twirling their hair in a state of confusion. Well, more than normal anyway. Yes, it seems gossip is sport and sport is gossip more than ever before and everyone wants everyone else's piece of the newspaper while the cornflakes are dolled out.

There are implications for Australian cricket in this mingled tale of Bingle and Clarke, but the colourful social life of model Bingle and the celebrity of sportsman Clarke have ensured this is a yarn for both ends of the paper. A nude photograph and a meathead ex-fling have been mixed in for good measure.

The Circus, while more literate in the sporting side of such dramas, would be lying if it said it was disinterested in a "disheveled" Bingle making a rude hand gesture to the media. However, debate about whether Clarke has damaged his chances of captaining Australia has piqued most interest, and the recent views of past Test cricketers have been most enlightening.

This from former captain Ian Chappell: "The first thing you need in an Australian captain is someone who is going to be there all the time. In other words, you can't afford to have someone who gets injured a bit, like Michael does, or has other issues that occasionally need to be sorted out."

Mark Waugh also weighed in: "I'm sure Michael would like to lead a much quieter life, but it's not possible with the arrangement he's got. There's always going to be that balance between playing and off-field dramas.''

But it was the razor sharp pen of Circus favourite Peter Roebuck that best summarised the vice-captain's pickle. His reference to the aforementioned ex-fling as a "dickhead" was also on the money.

Armstrong's passport too full to travel
Little like saying the wallet's too full to squeeze in that fiddy, or there's no space in the display garage for the latest Aston Martin V12, but we're here to listen, Lance.

You see, the poor bloke's spent so much time seeing the world on his two-wheeler (admirably, often victoriously and downright legendarily we might add) that he arrived in South Africa with no room for a visa.

Nothing a quick tweet couldn't fix and Lance was through the gate and ready to compete in the Cape Argus, the largest mass participation cycling event in the world.

Capello the visionary
Last week The Circus opined Fabio Capello could be destined for a political career after he muted his players in the wake of the John Terry scandal. Capello didn't want any "whispers in corners" you see.

Well, while England players haven't been talking about their ex-captain's love life for the past week it may not be long before they're simply not talking.

A crafty undercover operator (or indeed an industrious fan looking for a quick quid) has recorded England players and management in private conversations reported to be "dynamite".

By "dynamite" we mean details of potential player bonuses if the England side is successful at the World Cup. Given the genuine dynamite Fleet Street has been lapping up in recent times it's no wonder the papers weren't willing to pay up and publish such fantastical tripe.

The Numbers Game
4 – Australians nominated at Wednesday's Laureus World Sport Awards
2 – Australian surfers – Stephanie Gilmore and Mick Fanning – nominated in the action sportsperson category
2 – nominations Lance Armstrong has received for comeback of the year, for one win (2000)
5 – nominations Armstrong has received for World sportsman of the year for one win (2003)

Quote of the day
"Well, made it in to SA. Not the friendliest welcome I've ever received but we've all seen immigration officers like that."
- Lance Armstrong tweets about his South African experience.

Headline we'd like to read
Passport full, NZ blocks Pup's return

:: More of The Circus

Newspaper and magazine publishers already having an iPad crisis moment

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +1100

As expected, the tricky question of "How we gonna get paid?" has reportedly become a sticking point in Apple's negotiations with newspaper and magazine publishers. Put simply, subscriber information is deeply valuable, and Apple doesn't want to to share it.

Demographics are everything to magazine (and blog) publishers. It's how you sell ads. Under the iTunes model, content producers receive sales numbers, and the money that goes with them. No credit card numbers, no addresses, no hint whatsoever of who's buying what. This does not sit well with publishers. Also, while the 70 percent split makes book publishers giddy that they're controlling their own destiny since they can set prices (good luck with that, guys) newspaper dudes are understandably less thrilled about giving away a third of the subscription, since it's an ongoing payment. "Thirty per cent forever changes the economics," one exec told the Financial Times. Apple won't move on this point at all, apparently. Magazines are basically like apps to Apple.

http://gizmodo.com/5472886/newspaper-and-magazine-publishers-already-having-an-ipad-crisis-moment

What happened to the future of food?

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:01:28 +1100

Last week, American magazine Popular Science released its entire 137-year back catalogue onto the Internet, for free. Since discovering this, I've been obsessed about mining the back catalogue for bad (and at times, oddly prescient) predictions about the future of food. As with any good prediction, they’re equal parts portents of doom and Jetson’s-like techno-cornucopia. On doom end of the spectrum, JF Lyman surveys the state of American food production in 1912 and finds it lacking. Fish populations are falling, there are less tasty buffalo and pigeon, wild berries, fruits and nuts are no longer important to Americans. While corn production in America could feed the populace at a very basic standard of living, Americans didn’t like it.

The American, however, in general has never appeared to relish corn as a direct article of food. A prejudice has prevailed that corn was unfit for human food and useful only in the barn and stable for their less discriminating occupants...But we shall learn to eat more corn, not because of its nourishing qualities but because it will be prepared in an attractive form and because it will be cheap.

It may have taken a hundred years to come to pass, but corn is now the basis for the entire American diet, completely because corn is now prepared in an attractive form that is possibly cheaper than the cost of its production. As food writer Michael Pollan explains the current state of American fast food:

Take a typical fast food meal. Corn is the sweetener in the soda. It's in the corn-fed beef Big Mac patty, and in the high-fructose syrup in the bun, and in the secret sauce. Slim Jims are full of corn syrup, dextrose, cornstarch, and a great many additives. The “four different fuels” in a Lunchables meal, are all essentially corn-based. The chicken nugget—including feed for the chicken, fillers, binders, coating, and dipping sauce—is all corn. The french fries are made from potatoes, but odds are they're fried in corn oil, the source of 50 percent of their calories. Even the salads at McDonald's are full of high-fructose corn syrup and thickeners made from corn.

But a corn-packed diet is not really the common vision of where the future would be. Edwin Teale’s “New Foods from the Test Tube” from the July 1934 edition is probably closer – envisioning scientists as the “crack army that fights in the laboratory is producing new foods, pure foods, foods with increasing nutrition”. It runs through the fantastic advances in reducing foods to their component parts with breathless hyperbole – dried coffee as good as the real thing and convenient as tea; milk that won’t curdle; a new food that may “increase the stature of undersized children or even, in the realm of the fantastic, produce giants”.

So when did the utopian view of the future of food fail, and become less like The Jetsons and more like The Road? Why no more desire to grow gigantic children?

Although I’m only up to the mid-Fifties in the PopSci archive, the future of food predictions post-WW2 are less utopian and far-reaching. While previously I would have put the more dystopian elements in future food prediction down to the rise in environmentalism in the 70s, my theory now is that two events happened in the 50s that influenced Popular Science's view of future food.

Firstly, the mythical “meal in a tablet” was delivered with the launch of dehydrated army rations. Rations weren’t exactly in pill form, but they were in a smaller format than fresh food and both modern and unappetising. Secondly, people went into space and the experience of food there was not so positive.

Crouch, touch, pause, ENRAGED!

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +1100

Rugby Union referees have as much influence on matches as each of the players on the field, and it's not good for the game, writes Tom Findlay.

I am a liar. For years I have been telling all and sundry I am a self-confessed sport tragic. 'You name it, I follow it', I proudly proclaimed to anyone who would listen.

But last weekend my true colours were revealed. I am a fraud. Hell, I'm paid to follow sport and offer some sort of insightful analysis on it, but for the life of me and with my wife as witness, I simply could not see out the Brumbies/Lions Super 14 match – and by all reports this was one of the better games so far this season.

That I preferred to watch a taped episode of So You Think You Can Dance – a heads up to said spouse for that one – is neither here nor there, but perhaps is an indictment on the state of a code that once professed to be 'the running game'. No less, 'the game they play in heaven'.

At this point it's worth noting that the Waratahs tried to play the running game during their recent two-match tour of South Africa and were suitably spanked. They resorted to the more en vogue penalty-milking, point-scrounging game on the weekend, got the result, then were fittingly booed off the park by their own fans. I know, I could hear the chorus of discontent from my balcony as Bonny Lithgow delivered a similarly scathing verdict to one of the aspiring Dance contestants.

Herein lies my point: rugby has become so bogged down in its own rules, and what's more the way a referee interprets them, that a game which was once the domain of the fleet of foot, the fast of hand and the sharp of wit, has become as exciting as a State Dept Recovery notice.

During the Brumbies match referee Steve Walsh became fed up with the Lions scrum infringements so he awarded a penalty try. I thought it ironic that the first points of the match came from a referee, who, by sheer virtue of the number of infringement rules at the breakdown and in the scrum, had inadvertently become the most important person on the field.

The ref dictates the play and, with so many things 'open to the referee's interpretation', governs which way the momentum will sway and what is right and wrong. I saw more close-ups of Walsh during 20 minutes of the Brumbies match than I've seen of the referee in an entire NRL season. By the way, this was a match that featured some of the country's best rugby talent, such as Matt Giteau and Rocky Elsom.

Sure, I've got thoughts on what the code can do to fix this mess, (for a start reduce the value of penalty kicks) but that rant is for another blog.

Suffice to say, the game's arbiters are making it very difficult for sport geeks like me to lay any sort of claim to being a 'purest' when I can't even stomach an entire match.

:: More from The Interchange

The Circus - March 9

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +1100

British tennis goes lower than previously thought possible, and Michael Clarke, where the bloody hell are you? It's all in The Circus.

Just a little PR Bingle
Later today, Australia will face the nasty taunts of all those nasty people from nasty New Zealand in nasty Hamilton during the third ODI, and perhaps learn what it is like for visiting teams to play in Australia.

The Aussies will go into the match without vice-captain Michael Clarke, who has returned to Australia for "personal reasons". In an amazing coincidence, Clarke's betrothed Lara Bingle is concurrently embroiled in a controversy over a photograph taken of her in the shower. Less amazingly, she was naked at the time.

Could the two be linked? Cricket Australia is keeping mum on the issue but if they are, it is unlikely to enhance Clarke's reputation amongst a public who, apparently, don't like him anyway; especially as Ms Bingle has reportedly already pocketed $200,000 out of the 'scandal'.

Clarke's father is crook and The Circus believes he is entitled to as much privacy as any other Gillette-shaving, Bonds-wearing superstar. But perhaps a man with obvious designs on becoming Australia's next Test captain could at least provide some context for his decision to bail out of the team mid-tour, whether he is obligated to or not?

In any event, Clarke – who has so far averaged 16 at a strike rate of 58 in the Chappell-Hadlee series – is sure to be sorely missed.

All out of Love
You did not have to watch the recent Four Corners expose on the state of Australian tennis to know that the game is struggling in these here parts. But take comfort in the fact that, for all the local backbiting and plummeting rankings, the Brits have it even worse.

'A new low for British tennis' is how the English media is looking upon team GB's defeat at the hands of not-so-superpower Lithuania.

The defeat by a country that has a total of three players with world singles rankings mean the Brits must now face Turkey just to stay in the third (and second-to-bottom) tier of the competition.

The UK Telegraph summed up the despair without recourse to hyperbole or adjective: "Britain is now officially worse at tennis than Lithuania and Ireland." Ouch.

Of course, the last time England went into battle with Turkey, Peter Weir made a film about it. But this time it's unlikely they'll find any Australian volunteers willing to fight it for them.

Strike three
What follows is a transcript of one side of a telephone conversation The Circus overheard while hiding in the air conditioning ducts* of Major League Baseball's HQ:

"Yeah, hi. Is this one of three umpire supervisors who has been involved in baseball for over 40 years? It is? Great! You're fired . . . Look, it's not you, it's me . . . Well, it is you actually. You suck . . . Why? Because of all those botched calls in last year's post-season, that's why . . . The human element, you say? Respected by football, you say? Oh, you mean soccer! Yeah, well, we're all for the human element too – except for when the specific element in question keeps on getting things wrong . . . No, I'm afraid I've never heard of Billy Bowden . . ."

*The Circus was in the air conditioning ducts of MLB HQ for "personal reasons".

Mascot watch
Mascots matter. If you don't think so, consider this: In 1998, Japan's gold medal haul at the Nagano Winter Olympics was five. In 2010 at Vancouver, it was zero.

Perhaps this is why:

Um . . . what in god's name is that thing?

Numbers game
2 – goals scored by Australia in defeating Pakistan in the last group game of the hockey World Cup in India.
1 – position Australia finished in group B, despite losing the opening match to England.
0 – goals England scored against Spain in its last group match, consigning it to second place in the group.
1 – position currently held by Holland in group A, England's likely semi-final opponent.

Quote of the day
"It's ridiculous."
- Melbourne Victory captain Kevin Muscat wastes no words in describing his feelings toward the scheduling of his team's matches in the Asian Champions League. The Victory play tonight, just two days after defeating Sydney FC in overtime in the A-League major semi-final.

Headline we'd like to see
V8 supercar designed with Avatar software performs just like movie: fails to win

:: More of The Circus

Contador's brush with the future

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1100

Stage one of the 2010 Paris-Nice and stage three of the 2009 Tour de France may point to a difficult future for Alberto Contador, writes Philip Gomes.

If stage one of Paris-Nice tells us anything, it's that there is no certainty in bike racing and that Alberto Contador may have had a brush with the near future.

Late in a stage marked by strong cross winds, massive splits and a few crashes, Contador went down (with 3km to go) along with Cervelo's Heinrich Haussler, luckily one of the Astana faithful was there to quickly sacrifice his bike for the Astana team leader.

Contador was very impressive in getting back on to the second group (with a little help from the Rabobank team car), but he had missed the decisive split with the front group containing Alejandro Valverde, whose Caisse d'Epargne team set out to shatter the peloton, race leader Lars Boom (who was very impressive in bridging to the Valverde group), Jens Voigt and Roman Kreuziger.

The reason I mention this is that the racing we saw on stage one of Paris-Nice may be similar to what we'll see in the first week of the Tour de France; where the peloton will be travelling through the Netherlands and Belgium and in some cases over cobbles.

Sure it'll be summer in Europe and conditions may not be the same, but Contador has shown in the past that he's vulnerable to aggressive racing in difficult weather, similar to what was seen on the roads to Contres.

Remember stage three in last years Tour de France?

Mark Cavendish won after his HTC-Columbia team opened the taps, splitting the peloton on a day that saw heavy cross winds. Guess who missed the split?

Yep, the eventual Tour de France winner, Contador. And guess who didn't? Yep, Lance Armstrong.

"When you see what the wind is doing and you have a turn coming up, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you have to go to the front," said Armstrong at the time.

"Every one was worried about Columbia coming through, when you see a team at the front like that you have to pay attention when they are all lined up. It is a bit of experience and good positioning with a little bit of luck."

And quite a few riders blamed Contador for the split, including Francaise des Jeux' Christophe LeMevel who said, "When the split happened I was right on (behind) Contador's wheel, it was him who caused the split."

Now fast forward to the near future and to stage three in the 2010 Tour de France, one which may present similar difficulties for Contador.

"This is unquestionably one of the highlights of the first week of the race, and a major first for this stage start and finish. Cobblestones haven’t been negotiated on the Tour since 2004," said race director Christian Prudhomme in describing the 207km stage from Wanze to Arenberg Porte du Hainau.

"There will be 7 cobbled sectors over a total of 13.2 kilometres, including the Haveluy sector, only ten kilometres from the stage finish. The finish line will be located at the entrance to the notorious Arenberg Trench, the legendary backdrop to Paris-Roubaix."

I don't know about you but I smell trouble for Contador if he and his team aren't attentive to the dangerous possibilities that stage presents - it's certain his more adept, experienced and opportunistic opponents will be awake to them.

In fact, an ambush similar to stage three in the 2009 Tour de France may be their only opportunity to put a serious gap between themselves and last years winner.

It's true that no two stages and races are the same, and Contador wasn't the only GC capable guy to miss the HTC-Columbia ambush in 2009, Cadel Evans, Denis Menchov and defending champion Carlos Sastre all failed to respond in time.

But Contador's situation is different to the Evans, Menchov, Sastre troika, he is without question the best stage racer in the world, and quite possibly on his way to being the best ever having already won four Grand Tours.

Everyone is looking for signs of weakness in the seemingly impregnable Contador, and maybe I'm clutching at straws looking for a seriously competitive Tour de France, but hopefully you get my point.

Cobbles plus a local Arenburg finish may not be to Contador's style but he'll have no choice but to be at the front of the 2010 race's third stage conclusion, otherwise, given this history, the entire race may be lost to him before it really started.

What goes through your mind?

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1100

From Descarte’s theory on Dualism for Philosophy 101, to music and upcoming races, training cyclists have a lot of time to think, here Angus Morton gives us a glimpse into his on road thoughts.

Angus Morton rides for Australia's Drapac Porsche continental team, here he writes about life as a cyclist.

After making my return to racing at the deep end of the Australian Championships, the past month has been a slow one.

With no racing I had the opportunity to put in a big block of training - coupled with the task of moving house.

The fair share of five and six-hour rides my coach prescribed gave me a lot of time to think, more than enough in fact.

And as my mind wandered I came finally to think of an answer to the regular question cyclists are faced with. Exactly what is it that I think about when I go training for hours and hours completely alone, day in and day out.

So after giving it some thought I catagorised my training ride thought process, as it can be complex.

The first thing that runs through my mind as I settle into the ride is the daily admin of my life.

Boring stuff like leg sensations, where I’m going training, iPod track list, calculating what time I’ll be home, what I am going to be doing after I train and what I have forgotten to do the day before and have remembered now that I cannot do a thing about it. This generally takes an hour or so.

When school’s in I then move onto university assignments or other necessities, like this blog for example, and begin writing character synopsis and shot lists for Film Production or analyzing Descarte’s theory on Dualism for Philosophy 101.

This takes anywhere from barely a minute right through to the mid-ride coffee stop, generally another couple of hours down the road.

After coffee I begin the final phase of my training ride thought regime. I liken this segment of thought to the weekend or party section of my ride where I let my imagination run wild.

In this section I create a character in my mind and I become them.

I can be anyone, from a peasant to a billionaire. However, I generally select one of two personalities I’d most like to be in life – a musician in a rock band or a film writer/director.

Depending on my choice I then take a trip with my character and I create everything.

If I’m the rock star, I pick my set-list, I think about what I would say in the pre-show interviews, I imagine walking on stage, I imagine the show and I imagine the after party.

If I am the film director I write a story then I pick the perfect actors and then I imagine watching my movie play out.

I imagine every single little detail and sometimes I can go for three or four hours not wanting my training ride to end, totally caught up in my made up world until, sadly, I reach the end of my ride and the end of my wonderful journey - at least until tomorrow.

So there you have it, my answer to that question so many bike riders are asked – perhaps this is nothing of what you think about when you ride, or perhaps it is.

On the actual racing front half the Drapac-Porsche team finished the Tour de Langkawi in style with Stu Shaw grabbing the final stage!

And the remaining boys and myself have just arrived back from Singapore after the OCBC Cycle Singapore Criterium which was a tough, high-stakes race which was won by new-found road sprinter Benny Kersten.

It was the first time I had been to Singapore and I had a ball! Next week it is off to the USA to begin a four month stint of overseas racing.

Until next time, let your imagination run wild and enjoy your bike riding.

Live Oscar blog

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:19:10 +1100

Follow our live coverage of the 2010 Academy Awards below...

"Let's acknowledge that the Oscars are bullshit and we hate them. But they are important commercially...”
- LA Times film critic Manohla Dargis.

What’s Oscar night without a bit of controversy? And there’s been plenty of that in the lead up to today’s awards.

The Hurt Locker v Avatar competition was already intense as the archetypal David v Goliath, with each bringing a swag of industry awards to date. But an unusual personal element has put a new slant on the Oscar race this year, given that the creative forces behind those two front-runners happen to be a former husband and wife. Then came last week’s ill-advised email campaign from a Hurt Locker producer that broke Academy rules by slagging off its billion-dollar blockbuster competitor. Said producer won’t be at the Kodak Theatre to witness the results in person, but his actions have upped the ante even more, and intensified the competition between these two films.

But there are eight other films in the running this year, which could very well be an upset in the works, though that’s a remote possibility, according to most pundits and armchair experts….

The Hurt Locker is widely tipped to take out the best film and director double; the latter because of The Hurt Locker’s success to date in peer-voted awards such as the writers, producers and directors guilds (Avatar’s main successes to date have come from journalist-voted awards such as the Golden Globes); secondly, many are suggesting that the tiered nature of Oscar voting is like to favour The Hurt Locker when preferences are taken into account.

Read the full form guide here, and stay up to date with breaking news below, as we’ll have the live results as soon as they’re announced....

The show opens with a lavish musical number from Neil Patrick Harris on the subject of having two hosts. They're going the razzle dazzle route, over the traditional comedy intro. Flanked by Fan dancers, he introduces co-hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, who proceed to land some zingers on nominees Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren (SM: there's damn Helen Mirren... AB: er, that's dame Helen Mirren); rehash details of James Cameron/Kathryn Biglow's marital woes (Baldwin: "She was so pleased to be nominated in the same category as him, she sent him a gift basket with a timer"), and engage in curious stare-offs with George Clooney.

First award - Actor in a Supporting Role

Nominees:

Matt Damon in Invictus
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

Hot favourite is Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds...

WINNER: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

"Oscar and Penélope that's an über bingo. I always wanted to discover some new continent and I thought I had to go this way, and then I was introduced to Quentin Tarantino, who was putting together an expedition that was equipped by Harvey Weinstein and Lawrence Bender and David Linde, and he put this script in front of me and he said, "This is where we're going, but we're going the other way."

So Brad Pitt helped me on board and Diane Kruger was there Melanie Laurent and Denis Menochet and Bob Richardson and Sally Menke and Adam Schweitzer and Lisa Kasteler. Everybody helped me find a place. Universal and The Weinstein Company and ICM and Quentin, with his unorthodox methods of navigation, this fearless explorer, took this ship across and brought it in with flying colors and that's why I'm here.

And this is your welcoming embrace and there's no way I can ever thank you enough, but I can start right now. Thank you."

---

Cameron Diaz and Steve Carell intro an animated film montage - interviews with Fantastic Mr Fox, Coraline etc.

Nominees...Animated Feature Film

Coraline Henry Selick
Fantastic Mr. Fox Wes Anderson
The Princess and the Frog John Musker and Ron Clements
The Secret of Kells Tomm Moore
Up Pete Docter

WINNER: Up

Pete Docter: "Boy, never did I dream that making a flip book out of my third grade math book would lead to this. Boy. It's incredible being here, it's just me right now, but please picture this whole stage full of the most amazing cast and crew you've ever experienced. Jonas Rivera, producer. Bob Peterson, co-director. You guys should all be up here with me. Thanks so much to Disney and to Pixar Animation Studios for believing in this oddball film.

It was an incredible, incredible adventure making this movie, but the heart of it came from home. And to our families, in my case, to my wonderful parents, they were so supportive. My kids, Nicholas and Ellie, and my amazing wife Amanda, you guys are the greatest adventure. Thank you."

---

Amanda Seyfried and Miley Cyrus intro best songs...No live performances of the songs this year...(someone should have sent that memo to Neil Patrick Harris...)

Music (Original Song)

Almost There from The Princess and the Frog Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
Down in New Orleans from The Princess and the Frog Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
Loin de Paname from Paris 36 Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
Take It All from Nine Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart) from Crazy Heart Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

WINNER: The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart) from Crazy Heart Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Ryan Bingham: "Thank you so much. I'd like to thank my wife Anna, I love you more than rainbows, baby. My uncle Clay, my band, Jack Whigham, Scott Cooper, the cast of Crazy Heart, Jeff and Maggie and Colin and Mr. Bob. Everyone at Fox Searchlight and Mr. T Bone Burnett and Stephen Bruton. Thank you all so much."
---

Tina Fey and Robert Rowney Jr (in what appear to be Real 3D glasses), on writers/actors awkward collaborations, to intro original screenplay.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

The Hurt Locker Written by Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds Written by Quentin Tarantino
The Messenger Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
A Serious Man Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Up Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

WINNER: The Hurt Locker Written by Mark Boal

Score one to Hurt Locker. This one was considered a good chance for Tarantino.

Mark Boal: "Oh my god. Wow, thank you Academy. You honor me and humble me with this. More than, more than you know. I was a reporter back from Iraq with the idea for a story about these men on the frontlines of an unpopular war.

I thought it might make a movie. The result wildly exceeded my expectations. And that is thanks to so many people. To Summit Entertainment. To our amazing cast and crew, and most of all to one extraordinary individual and visionary filmmaker. Kathryn Bigelow, this belongs to you.

I would also like to thank and dedicate this to the troops, the 115,000 who are still in Iraq, the 120,000 in Afghanistan and the more than 30,000 wounded and 4,000 who have not made it home. And to my father, who didn't live to see this, but inspired me and got me up here. He passed away a month ago. He would've really liked this a lot. Thanks, dad. Thank you."

Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick take the stage for a personal tribute/montage to the late, great John Hughes. Broderick cracks wise about the lasting legacy of Ferris Bueller.

Zoe Saldana and Carey Mulligan navigate the tricky staircase to present a montage of short films, demonstrating career trajectory of a short filmmakers. Taylor Hackford and John Lasseter reminisce about their short oscar wins.

Short Film (Animated)

French Roast Fabrice O. Joubert
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte) Javier Recio Gracia
Logorama Nicolas Schmerkin
A Matter of Loaf and Death Nick Park

WINNER:Logorama Nicolas Schmerkin

Nicolas Schmerkin: "Good evening. It doesn't look like, but it's a French film. Sorry about the accent. I'm the producer of the film, so I have to thank the 3,000 non-official sponsors that appear in the film. And I have to assure them that no logos were harmed in the making of the project.

This award has to be shared with the incredible people who made the film. All the team and especially, the three directors that are with us in the theater tonight: François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain. You can applaud them, the directors.

Thanks for them. They have been working for a very long time on this film. It took, like, six years to make this 16 minutes, so I hope to come back here with a long feature film, in about 36 years. Thank you very much. Bon soir."

---

Documentary (Short Subject)

China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
Music by Prudence Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
Rabbit a la Berlin Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

WINNER: Music by Prudence Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett

clumsiest awkward acceptance speech so far...

Roger Ross Williams: "Oh my god. This is amazing. Two years ago when I got on an airplane and went to Zimbabwe, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I'd end up here. This is so exciting. This is so exciting. So exciting..."

Elinor Burkett: "...Let the woman talk. Isn't that the classic thing? In a world in which most of us are told and tell ourselves that we can't. Liyana, the band behind this film, teaches us that we're wrong. Against all odds they did, so we can. So the bottom line is, to me, my role models and my heroes, Marvelous and Energy, Tapiwa, Goodwell, the whole rest of the band and especially Prudence..."

Roger Ross Williams: "...And Prudence who is here. Who is back there. Prudence is here tonight. This is for Prudence."

---

Short Film (Live Action)

The Door Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
Instead of Abracadabra Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellstrm
Kavi Gregg Helvey
Miracle Fish Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
The New Tenants Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Good luck to Australian nominee Luke Doolan on this one..

WINNER: The New Tenants Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Joachim Black: "Whoa. I just don't know if I should dance or if I should... Well, this is just pretty much amazing and I just want to say thanks to everybody who's been on this project and to our beautiful cast and my producer Tivi. And it's pretty much... a ride, I must say, I can't say anything else, but I just want to thank Sam Bisbee, Jackie Kelman and Russell Icke. I hope you guys are watching. Edelman, Pawel Edelman, beautiful. But anyway, thank you very much for everything."

---

Ben "blue-face" Stiller speaks na'vi...translated "that scene worked better in rehearsal", to introduce make-up, despite fact Avatar's not nominated in this category...

Nominees: Makeup

Il Divo Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
Star Trek Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
The Young Victoria Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

WINNER: Star Trek Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

District 9 Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
An Education Screenplay by Nick Hornby
In the Loop Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
Up in the Air Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

This one's probably an Up in the Air victory but it'd be great to see the bleep-riddled In the Loop clip in the broadcast.. Ditto Precious!

WINNER:Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher

Second of the night's upsets... sign of things to come?

---

A recap of last year's Governer's Ball winners..

---

Robin Williams with a double entendre: "The Governors Ball is just one of many balls being held tonight in Hollywood..."

Presents supporting actress noms montage. Mo'Nique is the clear favourite for this one...

Actress in a Supporting Role

Penelope Cruz in Nine
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire

WINNER: Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire

---

Sigourney Weaver to present Art direction. Getting an Avatar star to present...hint at winner, perhaps?

Art Direction

Avatar Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
Nine Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
Sherlock Holmes Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
The Young Victoria Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray'

WINNER: Avatar Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair

No surprises there.

Rick Carter: "Jim Cameron, this... this Oscar sees you. Clearly, your vision is so deep..."

Robert Stromberg: "You know, 13 years ago, the doctors told me I wasn't going to survive and I thought that this dream of standing here would never come true. And, here we are. I owe this to my amazing wife, Lizz, my two kids Reese and Remy, for supporting me. Brooke Breton and Rick Carter and the hundreds of people that it took to make this film. Thank you. Special thanks to Jon Landau.

Jim, every day we went to work. We knew we were working with a genius. We really were. We all felt that. Thank you so much."

---

Costume design, introduced by Tom Ford and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Second Australian nominee in this category...

Costume Design

Bright Star Janet Patterson
Coco before Chanel Catherine Leterrier
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Monique Prudhomme
Nine Colleen Atwood
The Young Victoria Sandy Powell

WINNER: The Young Victoria Sandy Powell

"Wow. Well, I already have two of these. So I'm feeling greedy. I'd like to dedicate this one to the costume designers that don't do movies about dead monarchs or glittery musicals. The designers that do the contemporary films and the low-budget ones actually don't get as recognized as they should do, and they work as hard. So this is for you, but I'm gonna take it home tonight. Thank you."

"I already have two of these"... noone likes a gloater, Sandy!

---

Cue Horror film montage for no apparent reason (other than to drive interest DVD back catalogues?), led by a very funny Paranormal Activity send-up of Steve and Alec bunking together pre-Oscars.

Sound awards, introduced by Mr Voice of God himself, Morgan Freeman...

Sound Editing

Avatar Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
The Hurt Locker Paul N.J. Ottosson
Inglourious Basterds Wylie Stateman
Star Trek Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
Up Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

WINNER: The Hurt Locker Paul N.J. Ottosson

closely followed by mixing...

Sound Mixing

Avatar Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
The Hurt Locker Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
Inglourious Basterds Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
Star Trek Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

WINNER: The Hurt Locker Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett

A return trip to the stage for Ottosson and his win makes 3 out of 3 for Hurt Locker

Paul N.J. Ottoson: [To Ray Beckett] You have to say something. Again, thank you so much. It's a little bit embarrassing. And to quote Kathryn, "spoils of riches."

Ray Beckett: Thank you to the Academy. This is the crowning achievement of my career. Thank you to Kathryn, the whole production team. Thank you to my team in Jordan, Simon Bysshe and... thank you all. Thank you.

---

Sandra Bullock to present cintmatography...probably an Avatar one for the 3D shoot

Cinematography

Avatar Mauro Fiore
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Bruno Delbonnel
The Hurt Locker Barry Ackroyd
Inglourious Basterds Robert Richardson
The White Ribbon Christian Berger

WINNER: Avatar Mauro Fiore

"First of all, I want to thank the Academy for this unbelievable honor. It's a pleasure to be here. I want to thank the visionary Jim Cameron for an amazing vision of the film. My parents, Lorenzo and Romilda, who came to this country with four suitcases and a dream. I want to thank everybody in Chicago, Omaha. I want to thank my crew, everybody in New Zealand. Un gran saluto a Italia. Viva Italia. Gran abbraccio. I think I forgot a bunch of other people. Jon Landau, Colin Wilson, my crew, everybody. Thank you very much. Incredible honor. Thank you."

---

Demi Moore appears, to the strains of the Ghost theme, Unchained Melody. Cue the In Memoriam montage...

---

JLo and a bespectacled Sam Worthington intro the original score category... with accompanying So You Think You Can Dance-like interlude... Why didn't best song contenders get their time to shine too?

Music (Original Score)

Avatar James Horner
Fantastic Mr. Fox Alexandre Desplat
The Hurt Locker Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
Sherlock Holmes Hans Zimmer
Up Michael Giacchino

WINNER: Up Michael Giacchino

"Thank you, guys. When I was... I was nine and I asked my dad, "Can I have your movie camera? That old, wind-up 8 millimeter camera that was in your drawer?" And he goes, "Sure, take it." And I took it and I started making movies with it and I started being as creative as I could, and never once in my life did my parents ever say, "What you're doing is a waste of time." Never. And I grew up, I had teachers, I had colleagues, I had people that I worked with all through my life who always told me what you're doing is not a waste of time. So that was normal to me that it was OK to do that. I know there are kids out there that don't have that support system so if you're out there and you're listening, listen to me: If you want to be creative, get out there and do it. It's not a waste of time. Do it. OK? Thank you. Thank you."

---

Visual Effects

Avatar Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
District 9 Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
Star Trek Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

WINNER: Avatar Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones

Joe Letteri: "Thank you, on behalf of all of us here. Avatar is a film about learning to see the world in new ways, and for that extraordinary inspiration I have to thank our director, James Cameron. Jim, it was an honor to work with you on this. It was amazing. Also, Jon Landau. Jon, you were such a champion of the film. Thank you very much for that. Everyone at Lightstorm who was so helpful. Eileen Moran and everyone at Weta Digital for your talent and creativity. John Kilkenny, all of our friends at Fox, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, all of our great cast, thank you for trusting us with your performances. I know that couldn't have been easy.
To everyone watching, thank you for the great appreciation you've shown for our film. And just remember the world we live in is just as amazing as the one we created for you. Thank you."

---

Matt Damon to present doumentary feature...

Documentary (Feature)

Burma VJ Anders Ostergaard and Lise Lense-Moller
The Cove Nominees to be determined
Food, Inc. Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
Which Way Home Rebecca Cammisa

WINNER: The Cove

Film Editing

Avatar Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
District 9 Julian Clarke
The Hurt Locker Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
Inglourious Basterds Sally Menke
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire Joe Klotz

WINNER: The Hurt Locker Bob Murawski and Chris Innis

Another Hurt locker win...

Bob Murawski: "Wow. This is definitely the night to be here, a tribute to horror films and now Roger Corman. It's unbelievable. And my wife.

Chris Innis: Thanks to my co-editor, Bob Murawski, my amazing husband, and to Sam Raimi, who gave us both our first cutting jobs. To Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, all our amazing crew. Our assistants, Sean Valla, Rupert Lloyd".

Bob Murawski: My mom who's here in the audience and Chris's sister.

Chris Innis: Everybody. We love you guys.

Bob Murawski: "And thank you to the Academy for giving this award to a movie that was made without compromise. We didn't have any preview screenings or focus groups or studio notes. Everybody made the movie we wanted to make and it turned out great, so I'm glad everybody liked it."

---

Pedro Almodovar and Quentin Tarantino double-up to present foreign language film...

Foreign Language Film

Ajami Israel
El Secreto de Sus Ojos Argentina
The Milk of Sorrow Peru
Un Prophete France
The White Ribbon Germany

WINNER: El Secreto de Sus Ojos Argentina

Argentina's entry upsets the favourite, Michael Haneke's palme d'Or/Golden Globe- winning The White Ribbon.

Juan José Campanella: "It is on behalf of a crew and cast that comprise mostly of people that I love and that are very close to my heart that I want to thank the Academy for not considering Na'vi a foreign language, first of all. And for letting us spend three great days in the company of incredible filmmakers.

On a personal note, I would like to thank my producers Gerardo Herrero, Mariela Besuievsky, Vanessa Ragone, Axel Kuschevatzky and Telefe. Tom Bernard... Sorry. In English, it's more difficult, it's a little slower. No! No, oh no, countdown. Tom Bernard and Michael Barker from Sony Classics. And Cecilia, you found a guy stuck in development hell and made something watchable out of him. Thank you so much. I love you. I owe you."

Best actor time... following last year's lead, a bevy of past co-stars and colleagues toast/roast the nominees: Michelle Pfeiffer for Jeff Bridges; Vera Farmiga for George Clooney;Julianne Moore for Colin Firth;Tim Robbins for Morgan Freeman; Colin Farrell for Jeremy Renner

Not a fan of this presentation technique - peer acknowledgment is all well and good but it drags out an overlong ceremony, and has all the hallmarks of a wedding reception/21st party.

Actor in a Leading Role

Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Colin Firth in A Single Man
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

WINNER: Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart

"Oh! Thank you, Academy members! Mom and dad, yeah, look! Whoo!

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for turning me on to such a groovy profession. Oh, my dad and my mom, they loved show biz so much. I remember my mom, getting all of us kids to entertain at her parties. You know, my dad sitting me on his bed and teaching me all of the basics of acting for a role in Sea Hunt.

They loved show biz so much and I feel an extension of them. You know, this, this is honoring them as much as it is me. I wanna, I wanna thank Scott Cooper, our wonderful director, for his knowledge of film and country music and for his ability to instill self-confidence in his actors. I thank you for that. Scott, where are you? Raise your hand, man. Yeah! Scotty! Thank you for that, Scott man! And thank you for assembling such a wonderful cast. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin, wherever he is backstage. And Bobby Duvall, so wonderful you guys brought your heart and soul. I want to thank Barry Markowitz, our wonderful DP, he did such a brilliant job. Judy Cairo, our producer, and Fox Searchlight, our wonderful, our wonderful distributor. Thank you guys for keeping us all together and for making it all happen. T Bone Burnett and Stephen Bruton for bringing all of that great music and those wonderful musicians to the party, man.

My wonderful team that's kept me together. Jean Sievers, David Schiff, Rick Kurtzman, CAA, Bob Wallerstein, Loyd Catlett, Tarra Day and Roger Love, man.

Thank you, guys. And I especially want to thank my gorgeous wife, Sue, we've been married 33 years. We have a beautiful family. Three girls, Isabelle, Jessie and Hayley. Thank you, guys. I wouldn't be up here without you. Thank you so much."

Second verse, same as the first... now the best actress nominees get their personal serenade: Forrest Whittaker for Sandra Bullock; Michael Sheen for Helen Mirren; Peter Sarsgaard for Carey Mulligan; Oprah Winfrey for Gabourey Sidibe; and Stanley Tucci for Meryl Streep.

Actress in a Leading Role

Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

WINNER: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side

Directing now, and Barbra Streisand to present... looks good for KathrynBigelow...

Directing

Avatar James Cameron
The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow
Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire Lee Daniels
Up in the Air Jason Reitman

WINNER:The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow

"The moment has come.." Babs says Fitting that Oscar history finally takes place on International Women's Day.

Kathryn Bigelow: "This really is... There's no other way to describe it, it's the moment of a lifetime. First of all, this is so extraordinary to be in the company of such powerful, my fellow nominees, such powerful filmmakers who have inspired me and I have admired for, some of whom, for decades. And thank you to every member of the Academy. This is, again, the moment of a lifetime.

I would not be standing here if it wasn't for Mark Boal, who risked his life for the words on the page and wrote such a courageous screenplay that I was fortunate enough to have an extraordinary cast bring that screenplay to life. And Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty. And, I think the secret to directing is collaborating and I had truly an extraordinary group of collaborators in my crew. Barry Ackroyd and Kalle Júlíusson and Bob Murawski, Chris Innis, Ray Beckett, Richard Stutsman and if I could just also thank my producing partners, Greg Shapiro, Nick Chartier and my wonderful agent, Brian Siberell, and the people of Jordan, who were, such a... so hospitable to us when we were shooting. And I'd just like to dedicate this to the women and men in the military who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world. And may they come home safe. Thank you."

---

And it's Tom Hanks, with obvious orders to wind it all up - doesn't even bother to name the ten nominees..!

Best Picture

Avatar James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
The Blind Side Nominees to be determined
District 9 Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
An Education Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
The Hurt Locker Nominees to be determined
Inglourious Basterds Lawrence Bender, Producer
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
A Serious Man Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
Up Jonas Rivera, Producer
Up in the Air Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

WINNER: The Hurt Locker

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So there you have it. Steve Martin ends with a quip that the ceremony's gone on so long that Avatar's now considered a period film...

Apocalyptic director sets his sights on the Bard

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:37:10 +1100

A filmmaker with a penchant for epic destruction is turning his attention to a literary conspiracy theory. 

Roland Emmerich takes on Shakespeare. That’s a sentence I never thought I’d write, but the Bard is the subject of the latest effort from the director of disaster epics 2012, Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow.

The German-born filmmaker has wanted to shoot a movie about one of literature’s great conspiracy theories – that Shakespeare’s plays were actually written by an aristocrat named Edward de Vere – for more than eight years.

He’s finally getting the chance to make the film, Anonymous, thanks in part from a financial contribution from German regional funding agency FFF Bayern. Shooting starts this month in Berlin with a pretty decent cast: Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Elizabeth, David Thewlis as William Cecil, the Queen’s closest confidante, and Rhys Ifans as his son-in-law de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford; there’s no word yet on who’ll play the Bard.

The scriptwriter isn’t someone you’d normally associate with Emmerich’s modus operandi: John Orloff, whose credits include A Mighty Heart; Legend of the Guardians, director Zack Snyder’s animated fantasy being produced in Sydney; and two episodes of HBO’s miniseries Band of Brothers. Orloff spent two years on the script before Emmerich came aboard.

Asked what had attracted him to the Shakespeare project, Emmerich told Empire mag, “It’s a mix of a lot of things: it’s an historical thriller because it’s about who will succeed Queen Elizabeth and the struggle of the people who want to have a hand in it. It’s the Tudors on one side and the Cecils on the other, and in between [the two] is the Queen. Through that story we tell how the plays written by the Earl of Oxford ended up labelled 'William Shakespeare'.”

This will be the first film Emmerich, a graduate of the University of Television and Film in Munich, has made in his native Germany for more than 25 years.

De Vere wrote, directed and acted in plays around the same time as Shakespeare. Some Oxford scholars believe he used the pseudonym of Shakespeare to avoid breaking the convention against aristocrats publishing poetry and plays and to escape the consequences of the subjects he tackled. They claim Hamlet was an autobiography about the Earl’s life and that Cecil was the prototype for the character of Polonius

After completing Anonymous, Emmerich aims to tackle his long-awaited movie based on Isaac Asimov's Foundation books which span about 500 years and focus on humans who are scattered on planets throughout the galaxy, living under the rule of the Galactic Empire. It’s being scripted by Robert Rodat, his collaborator on The Patriot. He plans to make the film entirely in CG and 3D motion-capture.

Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos augmented-reality maps

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:09:26 +1100

Blaise Aguera y Arcas is the architect of Bing Maps at Microsoft, building augmented reality into searchable maps.

He's also the co-creator of Photosynth, software that assembles static photos into a synergy of zoomable, navigatable spaces. Photosynth itself is a vastly powerful piece of software capable of taking a wide variety of images, analyzing them for similarities, and grafting them together into an interactive three-dimensional space. This seamless patchwork of images can be viewed via multiple angles and magnifications, allowing us to look around corners or "fly" in for a (much) closer look. Simply put, it could utterly transform the way we experience digital images. When applied to mapping it opens up an entirely new world. (Gee, and just when you thought you were getting the hang of the old one.)

http://www.ted.com/talks/blaise_aguera.html

Decisions, decisions

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +1100

Dubious decisions in rugby, difficult decisions in horse racing, and deciding what to do after scoring a goal. It's all part of The Hangover.

Home ref advantage
For a Sydney-born sports fan, and therefore a NSW supporter by default, it was a relief to see the Waratahs get their second win of the Super 14 season with a tense 25-21 victory over the Sharks.

However, even the most one-eyed Tahs fans would have to admit the home side got all the favours from the home ref.

Since the inception of the referee merit pool in 2009, Super 14 referees are not necessarily neutral, which was the case at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday night when Australian whistleblower Paul Marks officiated.

Super 14 referees are appointed on a merit basis, not by nationality, which leaves officials open to allegations of "bias" and "favouritism".

Marks made some dubious decisions on Saturday that may have cost the Sharks the match. Had a neutral New Zealand referee made those calls, they would still be classed as contentious, but without the nationalistic controversy.

Should the best available referee be placed in charge, or the best available neutral referee?

Ironic horse name
The machinations of the 2010 Golden Slipper continue, with the Clarry Conners-trained Decision Time winning the Black Opal Stakes over 1200m at Canberra on Sunday.

The two-year-old has won four from four, and it's now decision time for owners as the gelding is not nominated for the $3.5 million Slipper, to be run on Easter Saturday at Rosehill Gardens.

However the only horse to have ever completed the Black Opal-Golden Slipper double is Catbird in 1999, and the late entry fee to get Decision Time a start in the race is $150,000, a fair amount more than the 'on time' entry fees of $31,850.

The final field for the Slipper will comprise of 16 horses, with prize money distributed as follows: $2 million for the winner, $620,000 for second, $310,000 for third, $190,000 for fourth, $130,000 for fifth, and $50,000 each for the 6th to 10th placed horses.

Decision Time's sire is Foreplay, and it seems a bit of foresight by owners may have gone a long way to saving some cash for an entry into the richest race for two year olds in the world. It's decision time indeed.

Celebrate good times
Football players do some strange things when caught up in the euphoria of scoring a goal. Here are three notable goal celebrations from over the weekend:

Melbourne Victory's Robbie Kruse kicks things off by silencing the home fans after opening the scoring with a cracking goal against Sydney FC. Kruse employs the intelligent tactic of running over to "The Cove", Sydney's posse of die-hard fans, and putting his finger to his mouth basically saying "Shut the hell up". Instead, Sydney fans have their own single-finger gesture for Kruse.

Mikel Arteta celebrated his opening goal for Everton against Hull with the 'rock the cradle' gesture in honour of his wife and eight-month-old son the crowd. Arteta had not scored a goal at Goodison Park for over a year, and his son Gabriel was born with an eye condition that has required ongoing medical attention.

It was a touching tribute from Arteta, but was outdone for weirdness by Jack Rodwell and Landon Donovan who celebrated Everton's final two goals in their 5-1 romp with the former lifting the latter up and cradling him in his arms. Not sure if was in reference to any children in the crowd though.

Finally, national team wrecker John Terry reminds everyone that he is still the captain of Chelsea, even though he is no longer the captain of England, after scoring against Stoke in the FA Cup. Thanks John, but an arm band doesn't maketh a man.

:: More from The Hangover

The Fruit Tree Register

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:30:18 +1100

Back in 2007 assessors from Slow Food Italy came to ‘audit’ the town of Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, NSW. The local Slow Food convivium headed by Anne Elliot had applied to Slow Food Italy to be branded cittaslow or ‘slow city’ – a region committed to maintaining its local and environmental heritage, one that supports the production of organic and non-genetically modified food and encourages artisan food practices.

One of the key projects that swung in Katoomba’s favour was the local Fruit Tree Registry. Anne had the idea for the project when she discovered that the local council were in the throes of compiling a noxious weeds register. Detailed map in hand, Elliott began scouring the mountains in search of fruit trees. Intrigued locals offered support, reporting their sightings – a tree in a friend’s backyard, the local park, a median strip or beside the railway line.

The register stretches from Penrith, at the foot of the Blue Mountains, to the town of Lithgow 98 kilometres further west.

Heirloom apple trees are listed, including the 67 apple varieties in Katoomba Community Gardens’ apple walk (pictured), some varieties dating back to the 15th century. The garden was planted in 1995 by a group of locals keen to grow, and share, their own food. Over the last 15 years they have created a food forest on a six-and-a-half acre plot given to them by council. There are veggie patches, peach and cherry trees, and chestnuts just a few weeks away from harvest.

Single trees dotted up and down the mountains also rate a mention on the registry. There’s an apricot tree on the driveway of the historic Cooerwull Infirmary at Lithgow, avocadoes and cherimoya’s at Springwood, gooseberries at Katoomba, and downy peaches at Lawson. The register also includes nuts: almonds and hazelnuts at Katoomba and chestnuts and walnuts at Bill and Ruth Scrivener’s beloved 70-year-old nut grove at Kookootonga, Mt. Irvine.

The idea is to share or barter – fruit, nuts and skills – a box of quinces in exchange for a few jars of jam.

Anitra Nelson now facilitates the registry and in addition to keeping it up to date, she also coordinates volunteers to assist elderly growers. “We have a list of people happy to pick fruit and prune trees for the elderly. Recently we had a blackberry blitz at Blackheath. Our host nicknamed the half dozen of us who turned up the 'FTLF - Fruit Tree Liberation Front'.” She explains, “there were blackberries choking a plum some apples, a pear and an orange tree. We were able to gather the crop and share it between us.”

The register is updated online, with tree owners issuing an invitation to members when their trees begin to fruit. Volunteers and keen bakers and bottlers then make contact and negotiate a picking and sometimes a pruning session.

The registry can be viewed online at bmfruitandnuttreenetwork.blogspot.com and the Blue Mountains Fruit and Nut Tree Network also run workshops teaching people how to bottle and jar.

Slow Food Blue Mountains run preserving, bottling and jam making workshops in the same area.

The Circus - March 8

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +1100

Football remains in the dark ages after rejecting the notion of goal line technology. That story and more in The Circus.

The human touch
If you still navigate by the stars and watch movies on DVD instead of Blu-ray, then rejoice: the Luddites have had a victory.

The use of 'TECHNOLOGY' to resolve contentious goals or non-goals (as the case may be) has been rejected by the International Football Association Board.

According to Jonathan Ford, chief executive of the Welsh Football Association, 'TECHNOLOGY' endangers the "human element" in the game and should be viewed through the same narrowed eyes as Snuggies and skyaking (see below) are. Genealogy research to discover if Mr Ford is related to Henry Ford, pioneer of mass production, is ongoing.

In a twist so ironic it could normally only be found in the stories of Philip K Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, Andrew Bolt or other writers of far-flung futuristic fiction, the decision came on a day when Birmingham was denied a goal in its FA Cup tie with Portsmouth that 'TECHNOLOGY' (or officials blessed with the gift of sight) may well have seen awarded.

Football is a sport that, more than any other, hinges on a single moment. It doesn't matter how many chances a team creates, it's the ones taken that matter.

And who wants 'TECHNOLOGY' to come along and make sure that every chance taken is actually within the rules of the game? Certainly not Thierry Henry.

Dystopia watch
Of course, the watchdogs at FIFA and elsewhere are right to be guarding the beautiful game from 'TECHNOLOGY'.

Otherwise, who knows what the future might hold?

Love in at the United Nations
On-field violence has been sadly lacking in cricket since Harold Larwood almost killed Bert Oldfield at Adelaide in 1933 but, thankfully, that's all changing. First, Mitchell Johnson did not let Scott Styris's head protection stop him from perfecting his Liverpool kiss, and now, English 'keeper Matt Prior has tackled Bangladeshi batsman Aftab Ahmad to the ground during the teams' one-day clash in Chittagong.

Why? Perhaps it was because Ahman had the ball trapped in his pad. Or perhaps Prior just likes him. A lot. In any event, amidst a South African tackling a Bangladeshi and another South African being cuddled by an Irishman, England won its ODI series 3-0.

Possibly inspired by an Indiana Jones movie
Every now and again, someone comes up with an idea so obvious and so good it inspires a bout of rueful head shaking and the thought: why didn't I think of that? Just like jumping out of an aeroplane in a kayak.

Skyaking takes white water rafting and sky diving and marries them in a way so eminently logical that it's a wonder Mr Spock didn't berate Bones and Captain Kirk in a Vulcan monotone for not having a kayak or two on board the Starship Enterprise on which he could skyak his pointy ears off.

Of course, the undoubted rush of thrill seekers to this new sport will be looking for somewhere wet enough to land. The Circus suggests Flemington racecourse.

And the Oscar goes to . . .
As the world prepares for the 82nd Academy Awards, The Circus would like to present the gong for most puerile celebration involving a captain's armband to . . . John Terry for his preening strut after scoring a goal against Premier League mid-rangers Stoke.

Numbers game
240 – combined minutes played by Wellington Phoenix, Newcastle Jets, Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC in each of Sunday's A-League semi-finals.
4 – goals scored in each of the matches.
3 – extra-time goals scored in both of the matches.
0 – Sydney FC fans who admire the quick thinking of Victory captain Kevin Muscat in setting up the crucial goal for teammate Archie Thompson and think he's a top bloke.

Quote of the day
"I knew nothing. I don't need to clarify it, extend that answer. I knew nothing."
– Steve Williams, caddy of Tiger Woods, before clarifying and extending his answer by saying: "In some people's perception, I'm involved with it, and I've committed a crime or done wrong. If the shoe was on somebody else, I would say the same thing, it would be very difficult for the caddy not to know. But I'm 100 per cent telling you, I knew nothing, and that's that."

Headline we'd like to see
Technology-free football replaces balls with severed heads of executed criminals

:: More of The Circus

Brian Hill on First films, docu-soaps and innovation

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1100

Renowned documentary filmmaker Brian Hill speaks to Kylie Boltin about his extraordinary career.

English documentary filmmaker, Brian Hill is an innovator extraordinaire. The BAFTA Award winning pioneer of the documentary musical and docu-soaps has just been in Australia for the inaugural F4 First Factual Film Festival in Adelaide. As part of the program, Hill’s Saturday Night (1996) screened alongside the national premiere of his recent documentary, Bigamist Bride (2009).

Hill’s 1996 documentary, Saturday Night (1996) is a portrait of a city, or as Hill says from his home in London, a documentary about the “changing face of Britain.” As one of the filmmakers hand-picked by the BBC for its documentary strand, ‘Modern Times’, Hill spent three months “casting” characters who “reflected what was happening in Britain at the time”. Says Hill, “I saw hundreds of people. Going out to clubs and meeting all sorts of people – homeless people, mad people, bad people, old people, young people, rich people, poor people. I think that one of the things I’m very particular about with films is the casting of them. If you put the effort into finding the right characters it makes your life a lot easier when it comes to shooting the film.”

At the end of the casting process, Hill selected four characters. “A wealthy, self-made businessman, a middle-class woman hosting a dinner party, a junkie who was a violent criminal and a transvestite.” While the documentary started off “being about what people do on Saturday night” in the edit, Hill found what the film was really about. Drugs. “Literally in one of the characters and at the middle-class dinner party there was alcohol and there were metaphorical drugs in terms of transvestite dressing up – that was his drug.”

Shot in black and white, Saturday Night marks the first collaboration between Hill and multi-award winning poet and writer Simon Armitage who wrote the distinctive narration of the documentary. While Hill knew the film required narration, he didn’t want to venture down the well-worn path of “factual narration about Leeds and about the people in the film”. Rather, he found that the film needed poetry! “It was quite a step to take. I think, quite by chance I was reading a newspaper and it had an article about Simon Armitage. It mentioned that before he became a full-time poet he’d been a Probation Officer working on the Estate that I grew up on in another Northern town called Rochdale. Also that he lived in West Yorkshire near Leeds. There seemed to be this connection. I got in touch with him. I went to meet with him to talk about the film. He said he’d like to do it. He had this idea that he wanted to write something that would offer an alternative to what you were literally seeing on the screen. A Leeds of the mind. When he talked about it I wasn’t too sure but when he started to write it I thought it was brilliant. I thought the whole idea of an alternative view of reality was incredibly inventive.”

Saturday Night is the first film in the evolution of the documentary musical. Says Hill, “We did Saturday Night and then we made our next film which was Drinking for England (1998). In that film we asked how we could use poetry differently in a new film? We came up with the idea of getting people to speak verses about our own lives and Simon would write based on interviews with those people. In the course of making the film I discovered that two of our characters could sing!”

The “complete revelation” that two characters could sing led the pair to their next film, Feltham Sings (2002) in which every character sings. The film won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Flaherty Award for Documentary and the 49th Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Music for Television, 2003. Hill and Armitage have since collaborated on Pornography: The Musical (2003), Songbirds (2005) – a documentary musical filmed in Downview Prison, in Sutton, England, The Not Dead (2007) and the yet-to-be released feature documentary, Climate of Change (2010) with music by Nitin Sawhney and narration by Tilda Swinton.

While the F4 is billed as a “documentary showcase of first films from emerging Australian filmmakers and critically acclaimed masters” Saturday Night was not in fact Hill’s first film. Hill’s first documentary was the landmark series, Sylvania Waters. Shot in the Sydney suburb, Sylvania Waters is often billed as the world’s first foray into reality television. Hill however refers to the series as “the first docu-soap”. Says Hill, “when Noelene and her family were cast we knew that it was a large extended family with three different households. There were lots of different characters so we could do inter-cutting between the different households and characters to get different story lines. It was just like a soap opera.”

Hill compares his affection towards the central character of that series, Noelene to the central protagonist of his recent feature documentary, Emily Horne. “For all her ways, I admired lots of things about Noelene. I liked her spirit and her gustiness and I could see there was an attraction to Noelene. But with Emily it was very difficult to find anything like that. She can barely open her mouth and tell the truth. That’s why it was difficult.”

The Bigamist Bride: My Five Husbands (pictured) follows five times bigamist bride, 30 year-old Emily as she approaches the court date for her crime.

Will BMC get a Tour wildcard?

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1100

While it looks like Cadel Evans' BMC team has a wildcard start in the 2010 Tour de France, there are other teams that have strong claims to a starting position, writes Matthew Keenan.

While Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde, Luis Leon Sanchez and Samuel Sanchez are racing to the sun in Paris-Nice, the battle that will get just as much of my attention is the race for Tour de France wildcard spots.

And despite Cadel Evans not being here it could be one of the most important races of his season.

As both the Tour de France and Paris-Nice are organised by ASO, the next week of racing will be critical for teams targeting a wildcard spot into cycling’s Holy Grail.

There’s a general air of confidence in Australian quarters that BMC will get a wildcard due to Evans being the current world champion and his past podium performances at the Tour.

It’s a confidence I share, to a degree. It’s just that I don’t want to count the chickens before they hatch.

Consider the strength of the competition and the history of wildcard selections having a strong French bias.

Also factor in that BMC will be riding Tirreno-Adriatico instead of Paris-Nice. The simple reason for this being that they don’t have the depth to field two teams capable of genuinely competing at this level.

Sure the BMC front line is impressive, with Evans, George Hincapie, Alessandro Ballan, Marcus Burghardt and a few others but the talent dries up pretty quickly and they can’t afford too many injuries.

Plus giving BMC the wildcard would make it four American registered teams in the race. Not a winner with the French public.

In addition, it’s not exactly clear how ASO will make the selection of the 22 teams for the Tour due to changes in ProTour status affecting a number of French teams.

The 19 teams with what appears to be a guaranteed start are the 18 ProTour teams of AG2R La Mondiale, Astana, Caisse d'Epargne, HTC-Columbia, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Francaise des Jeux, Footon-Servetto, Liquigas-Doimo, Milram, Quick Step, Rabobank, Saxo Bank, Omega Pharm-Lotto, Garmin-Transitions, Katusha, RadioShack, Team Sky, Lampre plus the Cervelo Test Team.

So with that in mind, lets take a look at the teams riding Paris-Nice that BMC is up against for one of those three remaining Tour wildcards spots.

BBox Bouygues Telecom: They’ve got French favourite Thomas Voeckler who held the yellow jersey for 10 days in 2004 and won a stage last year. Plus there’s Pierrick Fedrigo who also won a stage last year and is one of the best among the French in the peloton. A pretty safe bet for July in my opinion.

Cofidis: Loved by the French and always in the breakaways with Stephane Auge and former stage winner Samuel Dumoulin. They have a strong argument but they’ll be nervous.

Saur-Sojasun: Another French team but the strongest selling point is the charismatic Jimmy Casper. As entertaining as the little sprinter is surely it’s not enough to get a start.

Vacansoleil: This Dutch team has done some smart hiring purely aimed at the getting to the Tour. Former yellow jersey wearer Romain Feillu and younger brother Brice, who won the mountain top finish in Andorra and wore the polka dot jersey last year, have been added to the team. Plus their sprinter, Borut Bozic, won a stage at the Vuelta a Espana last year. Add to that the Tour starting in Rotterdam. I can’t see them missing out.

Skil-Shimano: Despite having performed well at the Tour last year they don’t have a selling point that can match their rivals and you can’t imagine two wild cards from Holland ahead of one of the French teams. Vacansoleil is far more likely to get the nod ahead of them in 2010.

I would have BMC in along with BBox Bouygues Telecom and Vacansoliel. Unfortunately I’ve got no say in it.

If you were the ASO selector who would you prefer to see receive the three wildcard spots, and who would miss out? Is there a ProTour team that doesn't deserve to be there?

Garmin Nuvi - In Car Navigation

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:25:11 +1100

Satellite Navigation is something that is becoming so common there are a lot of people ready to upgrade their unit, let alone the many looking to buy for the very first time.

For the last month I've been testing out the Garmin Nuvi 1260 and 1390T. These units are not exactly entry level pricing at $349 and $549 respectively (See final line for a note on pricing), but they certainly do pack a lot of punch.

The most important thing with any SatNav is the map interface - is it easy to see, easy to use. Certainly, one very impressive part of these units, and common to many new models across the sector is the Touch Screen interface. Very responsive and not temperamental.

You can scroll around the map and pinpoint a destination just like you would perhaps on Google Maps or similar - which is quite useful when you just don't know the address but know where the destination is - you're just looking for the unit to fill the gaps between start and finish!

The screenshot facility meant I could post real images here on this article which is great, because one of the most impressive features is the 'Junction View'. I discovered this not by reading the box, or a press release, or heaven forbid the manual - I was driving over the Harbour Bridge here in Sydney, and all of the sudden a PHOTO appeared on screen. The street signs were all in it, yet many were greyed out, and one highlighted as was the lane I was supposed to take! This is vital in a place like that and will become a huge feature.

This is a feature of the WhereIs maps - and is across many different brands - frankly it should be in all WhereIs enabled devices - but as with the 1260 many units need to hit a lower price point - so features that are not hardware based, instead simple software 'toggles' are not included.

The 1260 lacks this photo feature, as with Lane guidance generally - and you have to think - WHY? - the only explanation is trying to reduce the price.. It's hard to fathom..

In fact, if you compare these two devices on the Garmin Website - You'll see that once you get past the actual physical device (size, weight, screen) There are actually only TWO differences. The one I've mentioned and another that I found quite frustrating, the inability to choose the type of keyboard layout you like to use - so on the mini 1260 you have ABCDEF etc, not QWERTY - which is understandable given the size of the screen.

You're looking at the extra price for the 1390T for a bigger screen (4.3inch plays 3.5inch) - so, is that worth it? Yes, if you can afford it, it's worth it - plus don't forget the 80+ locations where you'll get that Photo Lane guidance.

There are numerous other features in these units - image viewer (I'm not sure who is bothering to load photos onto these so they can show friends!), Eco Calculator - This is very handy, especially if you are on the road a lot for clients - enter the fuel consumption of your vehicle and the price of fuel and you can get trip pricing!

Of course there is a huge database (driven by WhereIs/Sensis of Points of Interest) so you'll never miss parking or petrol again.

Here's another simple thing - when you turn the car off - they notice the loss of power, and offer to shut down in 30 seconds, do nothing and they power down - VERY handy!

And then there is the route information - I'm not talking about which way to turn, I'm talking about Speed signs posted on screen at all times, alerts - both audible and visual for Red Light and Speed cameras, and - to top it all off - Live Traffic information, showing alerts on the route for heavy traffic. These Garmin units are using the SUNA FM traffic system - and your route can be updated in real time just by pressing the traffic button. Excellent stuff!

All that said I think you'll struggle to find these listed at the RRP - so shop around, you might find a remarkable bargain!

Let me know what you look for in a SatNav system, or what you're favourite is - comment below or follow me on twitter - @trevorlong

Don't cry for me, Argentina

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:20:42 +1100

Why Robert Grasso fancies Diego Maradona's Argentina for World Cup glory.

So here we are, with less than 100 days to go until FIFA lifts the curtain on the first World Cup on African soil and it’s not the top short priced favourite, in my mind at least, who will prevail in 2010.

It’s been 24 years since Argentina last won the World Cup under then captain Diego Maradona and according to the “albiceleste" coach, in South Africa, the circle will be complete.

Here’s a nation not expected to do much, especially after struggling to qualify for the finals during CONMEBOL qualification.

Maradona’s side brought a new meaning to the term “leaving it late”, only booking their ticket for the tournament in their final match.

So why Argentina I hear you say? Why not traditional heavyweights such as Brazil or red hot favourites Spain, the current Euro 2008 champions whose recent demolition of France on French soil brought up their 42nd win from their past 45 fixtures.

Three things.

Talent, fate and a complete lack of expectation.

As their recent friendly against Germany proved, you know you have an abundance of riches when you can leave both of your in-form goal poachers out of the starting eleven and still win.

I’m talking about Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez and Inter Milan’s Diego Milito. One, a player who on his day is as lethal as any striker currently in the game, the other, a forward who has helped keep Inter at the top of the Serie A ladder and in contention for a place in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals.

Sure, it was only a friendly and coaches are always reluctant to show their cards before the World Cup but it certainly speaks volumes of the depth at Maradona’s disposal.

Old heads. Young guns and talent to burn. It’s an irresistible concoction.

Lionel Messi. The man even coach Diego himself calls “My Maradona”. Winner of the 2009 Ballon D’Or awarded to the European Footballer of the Year. Faster than a speeding bullet. Able to rip apart rival defences in a single bound.

Then there’s 35 year-old veteran Juan Sebastian Veron, a midfielder and strategist par excellence whose vision and pairing with Javier Mascherano has proved a winning combination.

Where the South American’s do have a weakness is in defence, most notably highlighted in qualifying following their humiliating 6-1 hammering at the hands of Bolivia – their worst loss in 60 years.

However Gabriel Hienze, the powerful, no nonsense defender coupled with Inter’s Walter Samuel, who doesn’t mind venturing forward, are starting to find form and add real starch at the back. They’ll certainly need both to be on top of their game.

Greece, Nigeria and South Korea should provide few problems in Group B. From there it’s possibly a repeat of their 2006, Round of 16 showdown against Mexico before facing Germany in the quarter-finals. Spain awaits in the Semis provided both get that far.

When it comes to the World Cup, more often than not it seems that a nation under siege with their back to the wall, tends to draw deep into the well of resolve.

Take France losing Zinedine Zidane through suspension in the opening stages at France ’98 and Italy and the infamous Serie A match fixing scandal which overshadowed their 2006 campaign.

Maradona, in keeping with his drama plagued days as a player, brought his side right to the brink of elimination and back again. Just as befittingly, he even managed to give his detractors the bird in the process.

“You can suck it and keep sucking it” may have been his infamous catchcry in the aftermath of World Cup qualification for South Africa and it may well be the same words uttered to the doubters at the tournament’s completion.

Indian Summers and Pregnant Sows

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:10:32 +1100

Tassie often boasts an Indian summer. An autumn of warm days nearly as balmy in March as January. Today, as I write, it’s 25 degrees, the paddocks are hazy from the sun, and a moody fog was burnt off the hill tops not long after dawn. It won’t last. Under 20 and rain by the weekend they say. But ‘they’ have been talking about rain for weeks.

RV’s fill up the roads, slowing down traffic to a crawl. Those no longer, or not ever, bound by the inflexibility of school holidays have made their way into the Huon Valley. Some come to pick apples. Most to see the sights.

Today, I will dip sourdough soldiers in the runny yolk of a Plymouth rock egg. I will soak barley in water for Tinkerbell, the sow whose belly is so round and proud that it looks like it may soon touch the ground. I’ll make yoghurt from Maggie’s milk and cook corn from the garden and bake brownies (again) for a recipe I’m testing.

When the wind drops, it’s magnificently peaceful in this part of the valley. Yesterday I spent an hour under the quince tree, picnic rug unfolded, devouring a novel in the dappled light. Jobs abound – including way too many in the office rather than in the grand outdoors, but you have to take the time to revel in your surrounds. I tried the bay tree, first, but realised that the chooks have ready access to that particular patch of grass, so moved my lazy afternoon inside the house block.

The winter garden is planted. Purple broccoli. Red Russian kale. Carrots. Spuds. Brussels sprouts. I’m a bit worried by the leaves of many though. Think it’s white cabbage moth. The ewes have all been seconded to a boyfriend in Margate, leaving behind their three lambs. It seems they were already weaned, because there was no bleating or baaing from the youngsters. In a few weeks they will become roast.

The calf is now t-bone, mince and shanks. It was very hard to say goodbye, it’s even harder to accept her as meat. I sometimes feel that this life – where animals are constantly dying, be it from illness or from my desire to rear my own meat – is suffocating. And then I taste a piece of my own bread, with my own butter, on my own eggs, and know that in reality I’m much better off knowing where my food is coming from.

What price integrity?

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:10:39 +1100

Hollywood's trade 'bible' is embroiled in a Church & State stoush over a 'For Your Consideration...' campaign.

The well-documented slump in advertising dollars within the publishing business has had an enormous impact upon the print media sector over the last two years. Particularly brutalized have been the once-lucrative ‘trade papers’, notably the iconic ‘Showbusiness Bible’, Variety and its long-time competitor, The Hollywood Reporter.

From its humble beginnings as a New York-based stage paper to its current offices on Wilshire Boulevard in the heart of the LA film industry, Variety has been the voice the international film industry for over a century (as recognised by this website, which subscribes to Variety’s international news feed). Until the ad market imploded in the early 2000s, the paper had always been a profitable enterprise, with its unbiased and fearless editorial content providing the integrity upon which its sales people can seek advertisers.

The newspaper’s adherence to a strict ‘church-&-state’ policy with regard to its advertising and editorial content is legendary – editorial content can’t be used to sell ads, and advertising sales representatives can’t promise editorial coverage to prospective clients. It is a policy in which I am well-versed, having served as Variety’s Asia-Pacific Sales Manager for six years (under Asia-Pacific Bureau Chief and fellow SBS Film contributor, Don Groves, who worked for Variety for three decades).

With the traditional Award-season ‘For Your Consideration...’ ad market continuing to decline and the international festival circuit looking to fresher forms of advertising than the traditional marketplace print editions, the last thing Variety needs at this point is to have their ‘church/state’ policy brought into question. Yet that is exactly what director Joshua Newton is doing in the wake of a failed US$400,000 Oscar campaign in the pages of Variety for his film, Iron Cross.

Newton was working frantically to finish his Holocaust-themed drama in time for Oscar consideration when he took a call from a Variety salesperson at his office at Calibra Pictures. As reported on industry website TheDefamer.com, Newton claims that the salesperson informed him that the paper’s Editor-in-Chief, Timothy Gray, had listed Iron Cross as a potential Oscar nominee (the film was Roy Scheider’s final appearance and told of Newton’s father’s experience during the Holocaust).

It was exactly what Newton wanted to hear – his deeply personal film was being taken seriously as an awards contender by the leading trade paper – and he was sold on the campaign, which included print ads and inclusion in the Variety Screening Series (Oscar-friendly showings of the film in LA, New York and San Francisco, accompanied by filmmakers Q&A’s). Seems everyone was happy – Newton had generated much-needed buzz, and Variety had secured a princely advertising campaign.

Then Variety published its review of the film. Freelance contributor Robert Koehler, a respected and long-time reviewer, savaged Newton’s work. He attacked the production’s behind-the-scenes contributors – “Tech package aspires to the heyday of Europudding thrillers but doesn't hit the mark”; he denounced the plot as "hackneyed," "preposterous," "mediocre," "choppy," and "uncertain"; and had a shot at the director himself – “Newton doesn't know when to let up, and his habit of cross-cutting...devolves from a cinematic device into an annoyance.”

Joshua Newton admits that editorial consideration never came up in the selling of the ad space, but he is of the belief that a US$400k ad-spend should at least buy protection against any negative representation of his film in the paper. "We weren't just simply advertisers," he told TheGawker.com. "We did a joint venture with Variety to promote Iron Cross. It was not a decent thing to do."

It is on this point that Newton is wrong, and why the ‘church/state’ principles are so important. Quite simply, advertisers buy ad space, they don’t buy words. In my past ad-sales function, I often had to tell prospective clients that, ‘no, we aren’t going to write a piece on your film/TV show/lead actor/whatever… the only influence you have over what goes into Variety is what you put in the space you pay for’.

Up to this point, and despite Newton threatening ongoing legal action, it would seem Variety had done nothing wrong. Timothy Gray’s piece highlighting Iron Cross went to press prior to the sales division’s reach-out to Newton, so it wasn’t published as part of negotiations with Newton – it is and remains merely Gray’s opinion; Koehler was just doing his job as a reviewer (the fact it was scathing surely indicates no collusion between ad and edit divisions); the Variety salesperson was following up on content that provided a sales lead, which is an entirely acceptable practice (if he/she hadn’t, their competitor at The Hollywood Reporter would have; and what if Newton hadn’t been given the opportunity to follow-up on the buzz Gray’s column created for the film, and regretted not spending big ad dollars when it was too late to do so?).

But Variety did something very unusual when Newton cried foul – they removed Koehler’s review from their website, Variety.com. Why? This act, more than any of Newton’s sour-puss accusations, represents a muddying of the ‘church/state’ waters. No evidence existed that a deal had been struck between the ad salesperson and Newton to protect his film from negative coverage, so why back down? A newspaper that has proudly espoused journalistic ethics for over a century – in fact, has staked its reputation upon such traditional values – is now seen to be excising content because an advertiser is unhappy with it.

Variety publisher Brian Gott, a friend of mine and past colleague with a level of experience and knowledge that belies his young age, would only offer the comment to TheGawker.com that "Unfortunately, Variety does not comment on internal matters. I hope you understand."

TheGawker.com did access a long email from Joshua Newton that sheds further light upon his bitter disappointment at Koehler’s review, but it does not implicate Variety staffers in any wrong-doing (though perhaps does rightly question Koehler’s degree of research). The most distressing matter here is not whether advertisers should be allowed a free ride if they spend big, it is how big do they have to spend to sway editorial policy? In the grand scheme of Hollywood financing, US$400k is a pebble in the pond. If Universal or 20th Century Fox decided to pull a year-long campaign in light of a bad review, yearly projections would crumble and heads would roll.

In this crippling economic environment, when decades-old business models are being torn up and profit margins are unprecedentedly small, have the men behind Hollywood’s business-2-business trade papers identified journalistic integrity as the first place to save money?

Would you pay for this?

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:37:32 +1100

Love him or hate him, but Rupert Murdoch maybe onto something with his plan to charge users for online content.

"We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary product"
Steve Jobs – Apple Chief Executive

No, this isn't just another blog about the iPad.

Every year Steve Jobs appears at Macworld, giving his key note speech and unveils what's usually the gadget of the year - inevitably setting the benchmark for all his consumer electronic competitors.

But it's the 2010 announcement of the iPad which has everyone raving – in particular the publishing industry.

Is it yet another genre changing device from the brilliant mind of Jobs? Or is it simply an over-hyped gadget?

While the device's launch may have been the worst keep secret of 2010 (save Brett Lee's 'shock' retirement from cricket or the Tiger Woods apology), some argue the device – much like the iPod (not the world's first portable MP3 player) – is really nothing new.

In fact, it's the Voltron of Apple's big hitters; the brain of a Macbook, the functionality of an iPhone and the ability to play music on the go like the iPod.

Its imminent release is forcing the publishing industry and news providers to scramble for potentially lucrative content deals on the new device.

The boom in e-book readers is also forcing book publishers to think outside the square.

Shona Martyn from publishing house Harper Collins outlined some of the issues in a recent interview I did with her for a World News Australia story.

The rise of the e-reader has forced her to rapidly evolve her business model beyond negotiating paperback book deals. Instead her staff are madly adding clauses to the contracts with all their authors, to ensure their next potential best-seller is available digitally.

And if that isn't enough, many are even beavering away in the archives in a bid to get the digital rights to all back listed novels.

Love him or loathe him, News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch claims he's on the cusp of a digital dynasty and his brigade of big-thinkers have been nutting out the finer details of a paywall for the online content that millions of users have so far enjoyed for free.

While the existing paywall has been in place with high-end publications like the Wall Street Journal, will the online masses simply go elsewhere when he erects a cash only toll booth?

The media billionaire is already eyeing prime real estate in the world of e-readers and has even suggested the iPad - along with major Amazon competitor the Kindle – will be "unloved and unsold" without the input of News Corporation.

I'm not sure about that Rupert.

After all, there are literally thousands of apps set to transform Apple's iPad into far more than a digital book, as exemplified by digital trends expert Mike Walsh, who has highlighted five ways the device could be used especially as a 'social remote'.

Multitasking and social etiquette aside, Murdoch has used the 'p' word unashamedly, and it isn't hurting his bottom line either.

Earlier this month News Corp raised its quarterly dividend by 25 per cent to 7.5 cents per share – a move not seen for over two years.

It's too early to say, but 2010-11 may just be the final test for Rupert's illustrious career.

Sure he splashed out a cool $US5.6 billion to buy Dow Jones, but will the media mogul be able to change the face of online news…. again?

Maybe devices like the iPad could become empty vessels without paid content from publishers?

For tech business lovers like myself, the success or failure of these products in Australia (or anywhere else in the world) depends on what content providers do with them, whether or not they do it well and finally (and some argue most importantly) if, and how much, they end up charging users to do it.

That said, there's still nothing better than paying just a couple of bucks for a wad of paper to enjoy 'all the news that's fit to print'.

The Circus - March 5

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +1100

The Circus breaks out the blue and red cellophane to watch some 3D sport, and cops an eyeful of a nude ad campaign.

Sport you can almost feel
The future of sports coverage is 3D telecasting and the revolutionary next generation leap is almost upon us.

American sports network ESPN has already tried the cutting edge technology by filming a college football game between USF and Kansas, with the opening match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup between South Africa v Mexico set to be the first 3D sports broadcast.

Networks and fans alike are busy working themselves into a lather over the endless possibilities of the new format.

Imagine being able to stare down the pitch as express Aussie bowler Shaun Tait unleashes a thunderbolt or stand beside Roger Federer as he rips a forehand cross-court winner.

Of course there will be some teething problems. It's hard to imagine just how male 3D viewers would be affected by a repeat of the baseball incident that saw former Seattle Mariner Adrian Beltre's testicle blow up to the "size of a grapefruit" last summer.

If a footballer mucks up in a forest and nobody's there to see…
The Circus suspects the vast majority of sportspeople caught doing something morally questionable, committing a crime, or just making asses of themselves are more upset at the media who broadcast their misdeeds than they are at themselves for their own lack of judgement.

Tiger Woods' much-dissected 'apology' contained more than one veiled reference to the media scrutiny he's been under, while their was a whiff of 'they're out to get us' about AFL club Carlton's initial response to the media's reporting of the drunken pre-Christmas antics of its players.

Having a pesky media contingent primed and ready to splash your illegal or immoral dalliances across the front page is a vexing issue for sporting identities, but the good folk at American college Texas A&M-Commerce's football program may have finally hit on a solution.

It seems two scallywag footballers had the misfortune to be arrested on drugs charges, but the inventive response of the team was to promptly steal every copy of the university newspaper which contained the article blowing the lid on the whole sordid affair.

Genius!

The only catch was the blowhard editor who pulled them up on their shenanigans by alerting the college brass. Unperturbed by the setback, coach Guy Morriss labeled the stunt "the best team building exercise we have ever done".

Wipe down the bench
The Circus sniffs a viral marketing campaign after recent videos of sports stars exercising naked appeared on the web.

First former UFC fighter Chuck Liddell was caught with his pants down as he was filmed through a window working out in the buff with his girlfriend.

Now a new video of Cincinnati Bengals star wide receiver Chad Ochocinco running naked through a Los Angeles park has the cyber world all a twitter.

The footage is suspiciously well-crafted, all the privates are tastefully blurred out and, you guessed it, there is a common theme – all the nudies are wearing Reeboks.

Watch this space for the next installment.

The numbers game
78,000,000 – predicted sales figures of 3D televisions by 2015 in the US alone
2700 – estimated average starting price of 3D sets in US dollars
12 – number of networks with 3D programming in pre-production
5370 – estimated percentage increase in television ratings for women's beach volleyball world tour

Quote of the Day
"Last year didn't feel right and if it doesn't feel right it doesn't feel right – it's as simple as that."
- Words to live by from Western Bulldogs' star Jason Akermanis.

Headline we'd like to read
It just felt right: Akermanis (on the Bulldogs' barnstorming 2010 grand final win)

:: More of The Circus

What Screen Australia wants to know …

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1100

Kylie Boltin gives a rundown of the major issues being addressed as the Australian film industry's chief funding body, Screen Australia, takes to the road.

Screen Australia’s senior management team is currently on the road talking to Australian independent screen practitioners about their funding policies. The agency’s aim is to hear what their ‘stakeholders’ have to say before a review is submitted to the federal Government. So, what did the industry have to say? The answer is plenty.

Screen Australia started their presentation with the six points they that see as having a major relevance to their stakeholders.

1)   Equity and sustainability of businesses (ongoing slates not one-offs).
2)   Attract foreign finance (their examples were Daybreakers, Lionsgate).
3)   Bring back Australian key creatives (their examples were screenwriter Stuart Beattie and directors Peter Weir, Phillip Noyce and Stephan Elliott).
4)   Increase size of industry (to reach critical mass).
5)   More audience engagement (market door).
6)   Generate new productions.

One of the major points of consideration within these points is the ‘producer offset’, which was a measure introduced three years ago as part of the Government’s ‘film package’. While Screen Australia asserts that from the Government’s point of view the offset has “delivered as planned”, the agency’s data on the offset reveals a gap in effectiveness for ‘midrange’ feature films in the 15-30 million dollar bracket. While this is an area that the agency wants to address, with independent producers also questioning the role of private investment in this range, the industry’s most pressing concerns on the day were low budget features and distribution.

Currently, the offset doesn’t kick in until a feature hits the $1 million mark. This means, at this budget, the producer is potentially eligible for a 40% rebate. What the industry wants to know is whether the agency is prepared to lower this to 500K.

For Screen Australia this appears to contradict a key factor in their ability to deliver Government policy. Their concern is that at this budget, features are “unlikely” to gain theatrical distribution, a fundamental criteria in their decision making process.

While the agency requires “evidence” of a future theatrical release, numerous independent producers argued the case for a redefinition of distribution. One argued that the agency needs to be motivated by “innovation” in their definitions asking why there needs to be certainty of distribution in the form of a theatrical release? (In practical terms, the support of a theatrical distributor at development stage.) The industry pressed for more interrogation of how films can be distributed in multiple platforms. In effect, the industry wants the agency to adapt to the changing terrain of this area. Another question that was raised by the industry concerned the definition of SAC (Significant Australian Content) another key criteria for the agency. The industry asked for examples of this to be made public, to which the agency agreed.

The Screen Australia roadshow continues with sessions in Hobart and Sydney this week. Representatives from the agency are set to visit Perth, the Northern Territory and the ACT in coming months. It’s not too late to have your say in this debate. Contact Screen Australia directly or the various guilds operating to service the industry, such as the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA), the Australia Directors Guild (ADG) or the Australian Writers Guild (AWG). And do it quickly.

Would you buy Tom Boonen's meat?

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1100

It's not that the Broom Wagon likes to pick on Tom Boonen, it's just that there is so much to work with when it comes to the Belgian cycling powerhouse.

Would you buy meat from Tom Boonen? (link via ciclismoespresso)

The Broom Wagon would, and not just because the brand of the meat is 'Fresty Fresh' – a trademark which speaks of quality and hygiene, and not at all of having been stored under the armpit of an overweight Belgian kitchenhand with a lung problem and a number of strong opinions about the French.

No, the Broom Wagon rushed to Fresty Fresh's website and ordered six cartons of Minced Horse Organs de Tommeke because Boonen is a man you can trust.

This is a man who, just to recap, missed the 2008 Tour de France after testing positive for cocaine use. Vowing that fans "will soon be able to count on my unreserved commitment," he was caught again a year later, demonstrating that 'soon' can also mean 'probably never'.

The second time round, Boonen explained that he'd had the white stuff safely locked away until a night on the booze. "Someone must teach me to understand what happens when I drink too much," he said, also demonstrating that he has never seen much of Shane MacGowan.

Not only is Boonen clearly the right sort of chap to vouch for the quality of your rissoles, but as his recent record suggests, he knows about the importance of preparing things on clean surfaces.

Kuurne-Bruxelles-Land-of-Oz

Boonen may as well have spent the weekend with a box of goose liver for all the time he spent on the road as the Belgian season kicked off. In Omloop Het Nieuwsblad he punctured near the end, allowing Team Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha to win and stake his claim as a Tour of Flanders favourite.

On Sunday Boonen was one of many withdrawals as Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne went ahead despite a storm that killed 47 people on the French Atlantic coast. Rubbish bins flew into the peloton and trees came down. Stuart O'Grady described the day as one of the three worst he has experienced on the bike.

The few riders to finish the race did so only after returning from a technicoloured world populated by lions, scarecrows, tin men and short-statured people who gather in groups and terrify midwestern peasant girls with their song.

Thank god that Paris-Nice kicks off this week. Race to the Sun? The Mediterranean couldn't come any sooner.

Rolling drunk

Riding your bicycle in a pub is not usually the cleverest of ideas, at least according to Sergei, the bouncer at the Broom Wagon's local, the Old Phlegm and Gristle. But that may all change if the people behind Rollapaluza have their way.

Rollapaluza lets two drinking patrons clamber up onto bikes mounted on rollers and 'race' each other over an imaginary 500m. The similarities with Lollapalooza, which was one of the world's biggest annual music festivals, should be obvious.

Despite resembling a D-grade ride at a carnival, the concept seems to be taking off in Britain – perhaps because of the rule that any mundane activity can be converted into top-quality entertainment if you are drunk. For riders, it is also a great way of testing whether you are sober enough to ride home.

The only losers are likely to be traditional pub pursuits, like pub trivia, pub poker, pub karaoke nights and playing the poker machines.

The Broom Wagon's grandfather claims people used to go to pubs to have a drink and talk to each other, but as he also claims people once skipped work to go and watch one-day cricket, we don't believe him.

Dispatches from the Twitterverse

What is the best sandwich @iamtedking has ever eaten? If you guessed Minced Horse Organs de Tommeke, you would be wrong

@CadelOfficial's BMC Racing team pulls the brim of its hat down low and scouts the route of the Giro d'Italia's team time trial

"20€ for a massage @ home! I love Italy," chirrups @bdlancaster. No one tell him about Thailand.

Other then the river of cow manure, Kenyan-born Sky rider @chrisfroome has an enjoyable day in the sun

@bradwiggins learns why Uncle Moon Landing Conspiracy Broom Wagon used to say that nutrionists were the modern man's witch doctor

Saxo Bank star and occasional beat poet @andy_schleck is at the airport. Possibly. Wherever he is, he has lost all his punctuation

Classic YouTube

If Tom Boonen can't sell you meat, what about skin lotion? It's just the thing for road rash.

The Tabouleh War

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:54:02 +1100

Tabouleh is one of the more recent foods to have been caught in the culinary-rights war between Israel and Lebanon, a war adjudicated by the Guinness Book of Records wherein proponents in each country attempt to make the largest, record-breaking dish to stake their claim on ownership. It’s also happened with the chickpea dip, hummus, and the ellipsoid balls of cracked wheat and meat, kebbe. Lebanon has currently taken the lead; Israel is yet to respond with an ever-larger platter of greenery.

Amongst the dead seriousness of geopolitics, there is something loosely whimsical about nations challenging each other to make giant food to assert their possession the entire history of a foodstuff, as if the sheer weight of a dish can suck in the gravity of a food’s past. It is like claiming that the Big Banana is not just the spiritual home of Australia’s bananas but the actual origin of all the world’s bananas due to its ludicrous immensity. When you look at any of the traditional foods cooked throughout the Middle East – from borek to zaatar – it is difficult to find any particular national origins. National and regional variations maybe, but no clear origin that can be pinned down to particular states. .

Modern politics is the only possible reason to make a salad that weighs three and a half tons. You don’t make friends with salad.

As I mentioned in at least three previous posts, I’ve been meaning to cook more vegetables from the SBS food back catalogue instead of just plumbing its depths for charred meat dishes. The Lebanese Food Safari recipe for tabouleh is spot on. Until I’d cooked this recipe, I viewed tabouleh as superfluous filler that soaked up extra yoghurt sauce inside a greasy kebab. The kebab bulk filler is generally made with as much cracked wheat as possible with flecks of greenery and the occasional tomato somewhere submerged amongst the grainpile. This version is the polar opposite.

Tabouleh is a salad that I get from the garden to show off my unfading sense of smugness about what I can grow. Yes, my tomatoes are on their last legs and the parsley went to seed about two months ago, but I’m one ingredient away from zero food miles, hippies. If I planted out my front lawn with wheat, I’d probably yield enough for a single salad.

As for the recipe, soaking the cracked wheat (burghal) in the lemon juice is nothing short of revelatory as are the proportions in the dish – more tomatoes and greens than previous taboulehs.

The Circus - March 4

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +1100

England manager Fabio Capello gives new captain Rio Ferdinand the silent treatment, and Mitchell Johnson headbutts a man wearing a helmet. It's all in The Circus.

Capello takes a new tack
After the media whirlwind that surrounded the infidelities of former England skipper John Terry, who could blame national team manager Fabio Capello for taking a little time away from his players?

Rio Ferdinand, that's who.

The England centre half told The Guardian that he only found out he had been appointed the nation's new captain via the TV.

One presumes the pair has since had a conversation, given that the Poms faced off in a friendly against Egypt this morning (for a 3-1 win, as it happened) but nonetheless it's a strange situation for a manager to put his players in.

Still, Capello has been a master of man-management throughout his decades in the game and if he thinks the silent treatment will do the trick, who are we to argue?

Meanwhile, the innocent victim in Terry's extra-marital shenanigans, former Chelsea teammate Wayne Bridge, reportedly had little trouble making his feelings known to the Blues skipper after Manchester City's 4-2 win at Stamford Bridge.

The Circus suspects that even if the anecdote isn't true, Bridge has Buckley's chance of refuting the story. And honestly, why would he want to?

Just a pretty face, and not for too much longer
Mitchell Johnson has proven to be many things in his rise to the elite level of international cricket – terrifyingly quick with the ball, destructive with the bat and a genuine match winner.

However, Mitch's propensity to completely lose the plot – see the Lord's Test match against England last year – still has some Aussie fans uncertain about his ability to handle the mental side of the game.

Following the events of last night's ODI against New Zealand, those fans have reason to wonder whether Johnson is just plain mental.

After all, performing a Liverpool kiss on an adversary wearing a peaked cricket helmet isn't the smartest way to get one's point across.

To rub salt into Johnson's wounded pride, Scott Styris struck a match winning six in the final over but he later confessed he didn't know the shot had cleared the rope as he was too busy sledging the Australian players.

Memo Cricket Australia – any chance of recruiting Styris for the Aussie team? Sounds like our kind of cricketer.

Who need lawsuits when you've got Twitter?
If you've got even a modicum of interest in all things golf, no doubt you've heard that John Daly's PGA Tour rap sheet was made public earlier this week.

Obviously, Long John wasn't too happy about this state of affairs and in his infinite wisdom, he did the only thing a social media-savvy sport star can do these days – put out a call to action on Twitter.

Daly posted the contact details of the journalist, Garry Smits, on his Twitter feed and urged his fans to harass the man who laid his misdemeanours bare for all to see.

However, it appears that someone – his manager? His drinking buddies? – got into Daly's ear and the Twitter posts have since been removed.

Smits received 30-odd messages on his phone in the meantime, but he said none of them were terribly threatening.

Unfortunately for Daly, his success rate in stoushes with the Florida Times-Union mirrors that of his recent on-course form.

The two-time major winner was last year ordered to pay the newspaper $US272,000 in legal fees after losing a defamation suit.

No wonder he opted for Twitter this time.

The numbers game
$50,000 – the reported weekly losses of North Queensland Fury owner Don Matheson this season
$16 million – the combined loss of the A-League's three least-financial clubs (Sydney FC, North Queensland, Gold Coast)
$20 million – the combined loss of the 10 A-League clubs in 2009/10
1 – A-League club that will report a profit this season (Melbourne Victory)

Quote of the day
"Hopefully, there's no more. I was hoping there'd be no more after Danny Wicks so I'm not game to say that."
- Newcastle Knights CEO Steve Burraston can't guarantee anything after a second Knights player was forced to quit the club following drugs charges.

Headline we'd like to read
World Cup-winning England hails mute manager Capello

:: More of The Circus

Larger threat is seen in Google case

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:07:49 +1100

When three Google executives were convicted of violating Italian privacy laws, it was the first case to hold the company’s executives criminally responsible for the content posted on its system.

The verdict, though subject to appeal, could have sweeping implications worldwide for internet freedom: It suggests that Google is not simply a tool for its users, as it contends, but is effectively no different from any other media company, like newspapers or television, that provides content and could be regulated. Ay, carumba.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/technology/companies/25google.html

Truffle Season

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:58:27 +1100

Izzie and Sunny are the Wine & Truffle Co. most esteemed employees, so valuable no insurance company will cover them. Sunny is a kelpie labrador cross, a combination renowned for ceaseless energy and hunting prowess. Izzie is a beagle, a breed known for their noses.

The pair walks 42 kilometres each week (84 kilometres in season) checking on the progress of the tuber melanosporum—French Perigord black truffles—that, hopefully, lie beneath the soil.

There are 70 varieties of truffle. The black French Perigord truffle is considered the most aromatic and flavoursome and is the most common choice of farmers hoping to cultivate them.

13,000 hazelnut and oak trees were inoculated (dipped in a solution that contains tuber melanosporum spores) and planted in Manjimup, Western Australia in 1991. It takes six to seven years before truffles appear.

It is tricky business. Some trees take the spores, producing truffles along their roots, others don’t. Luckily for the WA truffle pioneers the first truffle arrived on schedule in 1997. The yield has grown steadily each year since. Last year 890 kilograms were dug up, this year they could reach a tonne.

The truffles retail for up to $4,000 per kilo, and these Western Australian truffles are exported to Europe, providing a steady flow to restaurants in between France, Spain, Italy and Croatia’s seasons.

It is not winter, so it’s not truffle season, in fact it’s baking hot in Manjimup. I am here because it is so hot that the truffles are starting to show their heads through the ground.

As I wander the rows of hazelnut and oak trees I spy several that have erupted through the soil. The dogs confirm my find’s dancing around the spot. Still too early to unearth, sand is sprinkled on top to create a blanket that will ensure the truffles don’t get sunburnt—certainly not a problem in the forests of Europe.

Fran Lee, a dog trainer by trade, decided she should expand her kennel and training expertise beyond security and obedience dogs and turned her hand, and her dog’s noses, to truffles. Fran worked at emerging truffle farms at Orange in New South Wales and in the Southern Highlands near Canberra before moving with her dogs to Manjimup a month ago to take up the position of Truffle Manager, an enviable task.

Fran accompanies the dogs on their rounds checking the trees daily and when it’s harvest time, digs them out. What is the secret of raising a truffle? Terrior is the main consideration, but only some elements can be controlled.

“There is a big element of luck,” says Fran, “you can dig up a truffle that smells like diesel or mouthwash, and the tree right next to it has a truffle with the most wonderful perfume.”

Follow Sunny and Izzie’s truffle snuffling adventures on Twitter.

Recipes Truffle Butter Tagliatelle with truffles

Further Reading The Wine and Truffle Co.Taming The Truffle: The History, Lore and Science of the Ultimate Mushroom by Ian R. Hall, Gordon Brown, Alessandra Zambonelli

The Circus - March 3

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +1100

The PGA Tour allows the public to get into John Daly's pants, and can John Howard lead the ICC even though he can't bowl?

Daly's failings released in white paper … and compact disc
It is a credit to the colourful John Daly that his list of golfing misdemeanors can be contained within a 456-page rap sheet. From trashing hotel rooms while on tour to hitting golf balls off beer cans, Daly's bad-boy form has been as consistently good as his golf has been, well, consistently bad.

But while the breakdowns have been public, the PGA Tour's disciplinary measures have always been private, until now. Daly's file has become public because of a court order to hand it over to a publishing firm, but there are some glaring omissions.

More on that later, but here's what they haven't missed. Daly has been given five PGA Tour suspensions, fined more than $US65,000 and ordered seven times to enter rehab or undergo counselling.

Scuffling with fellow players, swearing at his competitors and playing shirtless and shoeless are some of the other classic Daly moments preserved in the PGA white paper.

But what of the pants? Literally hundreds of pairs of pants that, while entering The Circus's nightmares from time to time, can also be purchased and indeed worn by others (gasp!).

There is also the imminent release of Daly's new CD, I only Know One Way, which includes such seminal tracks I'm Drunk, Damn Broke and All My Ex's Wear Rolexes [sic].

We can't blame the PGA for not squeezing that one into the 456 pages, but come its release date of March 15 The Circus expects action, public or private.

Howard appointment gets mixed reaction, but Bingle effort applauded
Speaking of ill-advised career choices late in life, many a scalp has been scratched following former PM John Howard's nomination for cricket's highest office.

Australia and New Zealand were required to jointly nominate a candidate for the post of ICC president from 2012 and it eventually became a cross-Tasman battle between two Johns: one who rewrote the ICC articles and committee manual and one who bowls like this.

Sir John Anderson, an ICC board representative since 1995, was New Zealand's nomination, while Australia, not satisfied with the talent within its cricket administration, sought out cricket tragic Howard for the role.

Revered scribblers think Howard can give the ICC political clout within the game, but believe he will need to address his lack of cricketing expertise, as displayed above.

Already on display, however, are Howard's revered diplomatic skills, the long-serving PM sending a message of support to Michael Clarke's fiancé Lara Bingle after, well, you've seen it.

"I know Michael and Lara very well," Mr Howard said. "She's a very nice young lady and I could understand how she might be upset by it."

England players muted
A move into politics may well be on the cards for England soccer boss Fabio Capello. Communications minister perhaps.

Capello has banned his players from talking about the John Terry scandal, with an insider revealing the manager didn't want any "whispers in corners".

Seeing as none of his players dare mention it, The Circus thought it necessary to exercise our democratic rights one more time and mull over the ins and outs of the former national captain's extra-marital affair.

The Numbers Game
507.5 – billion pounds sterling Manchester United is in debt
1 billion – rough valuation in pounds sterling of United
0 – rough estimation of United fans happy with American Malcolm Glazer's ownership of the club
10 – years supporter group MUST, headed by the mysterious 'Red Knights', has been operating, with a view to eventually bidding for the club

Quote of the day
"We are not setting a precedent here, we strongly advocate players being solid family-wise so we will cross that bridge when we come to it. There are all kinds of possibilities with the birth of a child. It could be at any stage."
- England cricket selector Geoff Miller says Kevin Pietersen will be allowed to dash back to England from the West Indies when his first child is due, whenever that may be.

Headline we'd like to read
Pietersen caught in Windies, baby not out

:: More of The Circus

An Aussie repeat in Langkawi?

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1100

Can the Tour de Langkawi regain its former glory, and can an Australian repeat the feat of inaugural winner Damian McDonald? Asks Anthony Tan from Malaysia.

It’s fair to say the Le Tour de Langkawi has been through a rough patch. And it’s still not out of the woods.

Political infighting, a change of Prime Minister, missing prize money, reduced budgets, lack of big names, its place in the calendar – elements that separately or in unison, have all contributed to an ebb and flow of interest in what was once the fourth richest stage race in the world.

That’s right: in terms of prize money awarded, the Tour de Langkawi was once second to only the three Grand Tours.

Little wonder ‘90s super team Mapei used to like coming so much, and after Australian Damian McDonald’s win in the inaugural edition staged in 1996, the Aussie national team has continued to send a squad each year, team manager Brian Stephens now part of the Langkawi furniture after 14 editions. Tragically, three years ago on March 23, Damian was killed in a collision in Melbourne’s Burnley Tunnel.

Like all races, first and foremost, it is the quality of teams and depth of those squads that create interest.

This year, among 20 participating teams, just one ProTour squad, Footon-Servetto-Fuji, has decided to come, and they only arrived the day before the race started – given them next to nil time to acclimatise to the sweltering heat of the tropics.

The biggest name, though, does not come from this Spanish-backed squad, but a rider from one of two participating ProContinental outfits: ISD-Neri’s flyweight Venezuelan, José Rujano.

However, since his breakthrough season in 2005, where he finished second overall in Langkawi before going onto third overall in the Giro d’Italia including a magnificent stage win to the French ski village of Sestrière, the 28-year-old has been lost in the wilderness, and never realised his true potential.

Time is fast running out for Rujano, so this race is a solid litmus test for his major season objective, the 2010 Giro – provided his team is granted a wildcard start. There, he could be one of Cadel Evans’ biggest adversaries.

With the Malaysian Sports Ministry now in control and 7.5 million Malaysian Ringgit worth of government funding and a further RM1.5 million from sponsors, the Tour de Langkawi has a shot at rebuilding itself.

Yet if its desire is return to its former glory and be among the world’s top races, there needs to be a lot more moolah from where that came from.

Two Australian squads are here: Jayco-Skins and Drapac-Porsche.

In 2009, the national team had Jumpin’ Jai Crawford at their disposal, where he rode brilliantly to finish second overall to José Serpa. With one stage win already under the belt courtesy of Michael Matthews, does Stephens possess as good a team this time round?

“I think potentially. We knew Jai was a top-flight climber and was going to be up there on the GC. This year, we’ve got a few… one, Pat[rick] Lane, is a good climber and potentially as good but he’s a bit untried,” Stephens told me on the race’s opening day, before Matthews won the stage to Kuala Berang.

“All these flat stages, we’ve got some pretty fast guys as well, so I think we’ll concentrate on the stage finishes for the early part, and Pat’s just going to make sure he keeps himself up in the mix. And as we get closer to Genting, we’ll concentrate more on [helping] Pat.

“Richard [Lang]’s more of the sprinter type and Pat’s more of a climber, but the rest of them are pretty much all in the mix for fast finishes and breaks. So that’s sort of the team we wanted to come here with, that sort of style of racing, because that’s how it will turn out.”

Drapac-Porsche has also tasted success in Malaysia, with Mitchell Docker taking the leader’s jersey two years ago and climbing well enough to finish sxith overall. “We’ve come here with an equally good team,” their team manager, Agostino Giramondo, assured me.

“Hopefully, the race [for GC] will form into a breakaway situation. We’ve noticed this year there’s a lack of good sprinters, and for us not having a designated sprinter, we don’t think it will be a problem this year because we believe the race will be won at Genting Highlands.”

So who are they banking on?

“We’ve brought two out this year – Lachlan Norris and Peter McDonald,” Agostino said. “Peter McDonald went really well here two years ago, but he was assigned to work for Mitchell Docker.

"This year, without a designated sprinter, Peter and Lachlan have free reign to have a go during the week and also on Saturday [Stage 6] to Genting Highlands.”

Auspiciously, their rider David Pell made the winning break on Tuesday’s second leg. Although he finished last in the sprint, the stage won by South African Jay Thomson, he’s one of three riders now three minutes in front of the rest of the field; five seconds off the lead in second overall, Pell’s got a great chance of taking the race lead.

Still, for an Aussie to stand a chance against what looks like a rejuvenated and in-form Rujano, they’ll probably need a few more minutes than that.

Australian tennis cops a serve

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +1100

Tennis in Australia has got the blues and changes at the top are long overdue, writes Philip Gomes.

While there are always complexities to any argument, the Four Corners investigative report into the parlous state of Australian Tennis stands as a pretty sad indictment of the sport in this country.

Expecting Australia to dominate tennis as it did in the 1950's, 60's, 70's and even 80's is unreasonable. That we have a problem in terms of development in the sport is obvious.

The world is too globalised and tennis is no longer the narrowly represented sport it once was, but for a country with such a rich history and legacy in the game to have hit the proverbial ditch in this way, well, questions have to be asked.

Four Corners played the ball deep, jerked Tennis Australia all over the court - serving up quite a few aces in the process.

The picture painted was one of a hidebound organisation, with far too many time servers, and a range of seemingly complex interests which need deeper analysis by an externally appointed body.

That there is a divide in the sport was also obvious, with a host of recently retired ex-professionals at odds with a long serving administration.

The report also highlighted an issue that bordered on comical farce - the branding of a court surface, the one used at the Australian Open. Apparently it was important that the surface be blue, as if that had meaning.

Which of course it did, in terms of corporate branding and sales. Ergo, money.

Tennis Australia farcically insist that key tournament hosting clubs (indeed all clubs) use their preferred surface, Plexicushion, which they see as Australia's national surface.

No, really. A national surface. Talk about governance and corporatism gone mad.

Thankfully Paul McNamee was there to put that into perspective.

"What happened out of that change was this fixation that we now have a national surface - Plexicushion - that's our national surface.

"And this... with the blue colour, and that clubs and centres around Australia should aspire to having this surface, when pretty much everyone knows it's not a surface for player development. It helps, certainly, but 90 per cent of the top men and women in the world grow up on clay."

The court issue is illustrative of a lack of foresight when it comes to development in Australian tennis. That the game has progressed in a manner different to the Plexicusion vision is obvious.

If you can't play on clay at the highest levels, you can't play anywhere. The centre of the tennis world has shifted, once it was grass, then cement, now it's clay.

Clay court performance has become the real pathway for junior development, and Tennis Australia's failure to recognise that is reflected by their enforced court choice. A decision destined to cruel further development.

Realistically there are only two men in the hot seat - president Geoff Pollard, and the man in charge of development, Craig Tiley. Pollard has been at the helm of Tennis Australian for 20 years while Tiley's tenure now sits at five years.

In that time it's obvious to any interested observer the development of elite players has clearly stalled, and possibly declined. So why are they still in their positions?

That's the question a number of ex-players and State federations are pointedly asking and, in the case of a man that is probably our best administrator - Paul McNamee, challenging.

It's time for a house cleaning.

Someone like McNamee would bring to Tennis Australia an entrepreneurial spirit, given his creation of the wildly successful Hopman Cup in Perth, and strong management skills after 12 years in charge of the Australian Open.

But more than that, McNamee's appointment to the top tennis job in Australia should bring new energy and leadership, make the tent bigger, and possibly add a bit more colour to the sport. Because blue is getting boring.

:: More from The Interchange

The Circus - March 2

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +1100

Canada's ice hockey gold gives the Winter Olympics a feel good ending that not even Nickelback could ruin, says The Circus.

The good
In the end, it happened. The finish every Canadian (and a good many neutrals) was hoping for transpired when the men's ice hockey team took out the United States to win the glitteriest gold medal of any handed out at the Vancouver Winter Games.

That is not to be dismissive of the other world-beating efforts on display during the competition, but for the home nation – a country in the perpetual shadow of its southern neighbour – this was the one that mattered more than any other, perhaps more than anything else in Canada's sporting history.

The scenes in the stadium and across the country following wunderkind Sidney Crosby's overtime goal were uproarious, but were they a sign of celebration or relief? Did Canada's fear of losing this seminal match outweigh its desire to win it?

Hockey is the national id, Canadian poet Richard Harrison once observed and certainly the national identity was uppermost in the mind of the Vancouver Sun when it opined that Crosby's OT shot had saved the country from a nervous breakdown.

Whatever. These games had the tragedy of Nodar Kumaritashvili, the bravery of Joannie Rochette and the artistry of Virtue and Moir. But Vancouver's defining moment came – as it was destined to – in the very last act.

Whether it caused greater relief than triumph for Canadians is a mute point – it still made everybody feel so good they even enjoyed Nickelback in the closing ceremony.

The bad
Canada was able to have a laugh at itself in yesterday's closing ceremony to the XXI Winter Olympic Games. "We are, after all, home to the funniest people on the planet" said the local press. And the Canadians proved it by putting Nickelback on the bill.

Alanis Morissette, Avril Lavigne and even William goddamn Shatner got a gig. So where the hell was Men Without Hats? WHERE? For shame that Olympic organisers did not see fit to include the geniuses who gave us The Safety Dance and . . . um . . .

Well, the lack of an obvious second hit did not stop MWH releasing a 'best of' album entitled: The Silver Collection. As the home nation set a new Winter Olympic record for gold medals won, perhaps the Hats' absence is understandable . . . a little bit. But just remember to dance. Because if your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance, then they're no friends of The Circus's.

The indecipherable
"The fans do not lose hope that piggy national team at the last day of competition still be added yet another award," say our good friends at IT Chuiko. And The Circus thinks they summed it up rather elegantly.

After all, "the main decoration of the Olympics will be the final game of hockey tournament in which teams come together Canada and the United States."

Who could argue with that?

A picture paints a thousand words
The future Mrs Michael Clark, Lara Bingle, is suing footballer and raconteur Brendan Fevola over a photo he allegedly took and distributed with his mobile phone. The Circus has seen the picture. It seems to show Ms Bingle on the cusp of uttering a swear word, but we don't think it was "bloody".

Numbers game
18 – points scored by Melbourne Storm against Leeds Rhinos in the World Cup Challenge match
10 – points scored by Leeds
2 – consecutive losses Leeds have had in the Challenge match
0 – qualms Leeds had about blaming its loss on match referee Richard Silverwood

Quotes of the day
"Great ones do that, and you never quite know why the chance ends up on their stick, but it does."
- The Vancouver Sun eloquently expresses the nature of greatness in sport after 22-year-old hockey star Sidney Crosby sealed his team's and country's hockey win with an overtime goal.

"It feels like shit."
- The man Crosby got past to score, US goalie Ryan Miller.

"A great player made a great play. I think both teams are winners, and maybe more than anything, hockey in general."
- US (and losing) coach Ron Wilson. A word of advice from The Circus, Ron: don't ever bother applying for any jobs in Australia.

Headline we'd like to read
Maxine McKew beats John Howard for ICC vice-president gig

:: More of The Circus

Water-cooler effect: Internet can be TV’s friend

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:04:44 +1100

Remember when the Internet was supposed to kill off television?

That hasn’t been the case lately, judging by the record television ratings for big-ticket events. The Vancouver Olympics are shaping up to be the most-watched foreign Winter Games since 1994. This year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched program in United States history, beating out the final episode of “M*A*S*H” in 1983. Awards shows like the Grammys are attracting their biggest audiences in years. Many television executives are crediting the Internet, in part, for the revival. Blogs and social websites like Facebook and Twitter enable an online water-cooler conversation, encouraging people to split their time between the computer screen and the big-screen TV. Do you ever find yourself emailing friends about what you're watching on television while you're watching it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/business/media/24cooler.html

A measure of success

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1100

National success is measured as much on the small personal victories in minor races as it is on the big stages of the ProTour, writes Philip Gomes.

National success is measured as much on the small personal victories in minor races as it is on the big stages of the ProTour, and for Australian road cyclists plying their trade in Europe and around the world it has been a solid two weeks of racing.

Michael Matthews' first stage performance in the Tour of Langkawi in Malaysia is the latest of those small victories, and for Australian road cycling count as much as Michael Rogers overall win in theVuelta a Andalucia last week.

These performances show a growing depth in the sport off of what can only be described as a small base compared to the traditional sporting codes played in this country.

Results from the first two months of the season show that Australian cycling at an international level, continues to punch above its weight.

For Matthews it was a surprise first up win as a professional: “It’s unbelievable. I came here wanting to win but not expecting it, so it’s really good.”

The Canberran rides for the Jayco sponsored Australian Institute of Sport team and has a developing palmares which includes two podium finishes in the Under 23 road and time trial events at the 2010 Australian National Championships.

While Matthews may not be as well know as his aged peers - riders like the Meyer brothers Jack Bobridge and Leigh Howard - his first win in Malaysia signals that we could see him eventually joining their ranks in the European peloton.

Another of the twenty-somethings plying their trade in the lower levels of Europe is Victorian Simon Clarke who rides for the ItalianISD-Neri team.

The 2008 U23 road champion Clarke was the best placed Australian finishing in 12th place at the Classica Sarda Olbia-Pantogia, where he played an important role in leading out teammate Giovanni Visconti to the win.

Several of the old hands also played their parts in the early stages of the European season and a couple were knocking on the door of a win.

For seasoned riders like Brett Lancaster and Matthew Hayman it was just another day at the office in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.

Crevelo's Lancaster placed a solid 18th while Team Sky's new signing, super domestique, Matthew Hayman drove right to the end crossing the line the 26th and final place in a race marked by some of the most difficult conditions ever encountered by a professional peloton.

Not to be left out was 2009 World Champion Cadel Evans, who, building for a serious challenge at the Giro d'Italia, just missed the podium at the GP Insubria in Italy, placing 5th.

Two riders did come close to joining Rogers on the top step of a podium, Rabobank's Graeme Brown picked up a third in the Clasica de Almería, while Australian-German Heinrich Haussler went one better in the first semi-classic of the season, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, finishing second.

Following on from good results in the January and February warm weather races in Australia, Qatar and Oman, the international Australian contingent are clearly building to even stronger results for the rest of 2010 and the October World Championships, which will be held their Geelong backyard.

Is it too early to call it a "best ever" season?

The anatomy of a handshake that never was

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:08:06 +1100

Wayne Bridge may have lost his girl and lost a mate, but he’s managed to keep that most precious of commodities: clarity. The same can't be said of John Terry.

It was probably the most anticipated meeting of two men since the Munich Agreement in 1938 but John Terry, unlike Adolf Hitler, didn’t come away from Stamford Bridge over the weekend having fooled anyone, least of all Wayne Bridge.

There was a welter of criticism of Bridge last week for having opted to make himself unavailable for the World Cup in South Africa. That he should have put national duty before personal issues, had let down his teammates and compromised the England campaign.

What a crock.

Because of Terry’s staggering prepossession, his failure as a leader not just in his betrayal of a friend but his stubborn refusal to apologise, Bridge was left with no choice to pull out. He cited his presence in the team as being “untenable and potentially divisive” but he might as well have been talking about his morally desolate captain. Indeed, he probably was.

In a just world, Terry would have offered his resignation as captain, not have it taken away by his manager. He would have mooted the idea of his not going to South Africa at all, making it plain he was cognisant he had committed an atrocity upon a friend and was prepared to wear the consequences. He would have at least delivered an apology, sincere and without fine print.

He did none of those things. As a leader, he came up short.

So what choice was Bridge left with but to rebuff Terry by not extending his hand during the traditional file-past,

Protocol had already been tweaked to save the Chelsea captain maximum embarrassment.

He could have offered it, then withdrawn, but that would have made him look churlish and immature and switched public sympathy to Terry.

He could have taken Terry’s hand, too, but that would have been interpreted as a sign of forgiveness, something Bridge clearly is not even thinking about at this point in time. His instincts were probably to knee him in the balls.

By brushing his former England teammate and one-time friend, Bridge has cleverly stripped Terry of the privilege of being able to see out the remainder of a tightly contested Premier League season – and then go to the World Cup – in the right frame of mind.

That is hardly treasonous. It’s an exercise of power. Bridge might not be going to the World Cup but he’s got the one thing Terry cannot have: a clear conscience.

And if you think Terry’s on top of his demons, you only need to look at his performances over the past few weeks. Even his club boss, Carlo Ancelotti, admits he’s out of form.

Which proves you can have all the money in the world, all the trappings of success and fame, but unless it sits right in your heart and head it all means nothing.

Bridge might have lost his girl and lost a mate, but he’s managed to keep that most precious of commodities: clarity.

Hollywood's secret formula

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:30:00 +1100

An American academic reckons he’s figured out why many blockbusters are successful: they follow a mathematical formula.   

A Cornell University boffin with way too much time on his hands studied 150 films of various genres, shot by shot, released between 1935 and 2005. His conclusion: Many of the recent hits have average shot lengths which correspond to the typical person’s attention span.

Movies as diverse as Pretty Woman, The Perfect Storm, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and Quantum of Solace all have an almost perfect 1/f ratio, according to Dr. James Cutting, a cognitive psychologist at Cornell.

By that he means their shot structures coincided with the average attention span measured by a team of researchers from the University of Texas, Austin in the early 1990s. Working with students Jordan DeLong and Christine Nothelfer, Cutting found that that movies made after 1980 were much more likely than earlier works, to approach the universal 1/f ratio.

“The pattern of shots in movies is getting closer and closer to what we generate endogenously -- you know, in our heads," says Cutting. “Filmmakers have got better at constructing shots so that their lengths grab our attention. The rhythm of shot sequences in film is designed to drive the rhythm of attention and information uptake in the viewer.”

Reporting his findings, the journal Psychological Science observed that the average shot length in films has been slashed from 8 to 10 seconds in the 1960s to 3 to 4 seconds in 2005. Cutting measured Quantum of Solace’s average at just 1.7 seconds, typical of many contemporary films.

Cutting didn’t explain the significance of his research which showed that classics such as 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause and Hitchcock’s 1935 masterpiece The 39 Steps had very similar 1/f rhythms to recent blockbusters.

And the journal rather undercuts his theories by noting there is zero connection between 1/f and the film ratings measured on the popular website IMDB.

New Scientist claims the attention theory chimes with other recent studies such as one by Dr. Tim Smith of Edinburgh University, who discovered that the editing style of modern films resulted in more people being focused on the same areas of the screen at the same time.

The mag predicted, “Given the gargantuan cost of blockbusters like Avatar, it wouldn't be surprising if Hollywood's next step is to use brain scanners to get inside the head of moviegoers.”

That prospect sounds like bad science fiction. And I’m willing to bet that no one told James Cameron he should aim to hit that mythical 1/f ratio.

Shake well before opening

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +1100

The most watched non-handshake in sport, a fairytale Golden Slipper chance, and Twenty20 upstages 50-over cricket once again.

All bets are off
At a poker game with friends on Saturday night the play was stopped for a side bet.

The Premier League match between Chelsea and Manchester City was about to begin, but the bet wasn't about who would win between the first and fifth placed teams. It was of course all about former teammates Wayne Bridge and John Terry.

Would Bride shake Terry's hand before the match?

Half the guys at the poker table bet he would, out of custom and sportsmanship. The other half bet he wouldn't out of spite and disrespect.

A cheer went up when Bridge totally ignored Terry's outstretched hand, but no chips were handed over.

Those who lost the bet claimed they never shook on it.

A chance buy
The early-market leader and sentimental favourite for the $3.5 million Golden Slipper is a nuggetty filly by the name of Chance Bye.

Little-known Kembla Grange trainer Michael Tubman had eyes for the yearling at the 2009 Inglis Classic Yearling sale, but had to enlist the help of owner Jack Knight to actually pay the $15,000 price – which is peanuts in terms of the multi-million dollar thoroughbred racing industry.

The pair had a prior trainer-owner relationship with a horse called Geiger Spirit, so Knight decided to give Tubman a half share for sourcing Chance Bye, who is a Snitzel filly out of Rouge Femme.

''I won a couple of races with Geiger Spirit, and Geiger's mother and Chance Bye's mother are half-sisters,'' Tubman told The Sydney Morning Herald.

''She also had an arse like Geiger Spirit.''

Ridden by Kathy O'Hara, Chance Bye led all the way to thrash her rivals in the Silver Slipper at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday and has now won three races from three starts, amassing $473,000 in prizemoney.

Tubman plans to send his star filly straight into the Golden Slipper on Easter Saturday where the winner will receive $2 million, second place $620,000 and third $310,000.

Win or lose, it's another one of those fairytales that often pop up in the world of racing.

Twenty20 ramps up again
With the remote control of a certain pay TV organisation in hand on Sunday afternoon, I was able to flick channels between the Domestic one-day final between Victoria and Tasmania at the MCG and the second Twenty20 international between New Zealand and Australia in Christchurch.

While Tassie cruised through the first half of its innings without any loss of wicket, across the Tasman New Zealand's Brendon McCullum was taking the Aussie bowling attack apart.

McCullum scored 116 not out from 56 balls, expertly employing the 'ramp shot', also known as the 'lap sweep', 'paddle shot' or 'the scoop', which earned him multiple fours and sixes at extremely fine leg, or straight over the wicketkeeper's head. New Zealand finished with a huge 214 for 6 from 20 overs.

Meanwhile back at the MCG, the Tasmania innings was still going. Opening batsman Tim Paine scored 100 from 117 balls, with Tassie reaching 304 for 6 from 50 overs.

In Christchurch the Aussie run chase had already started and was fast heading for a thrilling finish. Captain Michael Clarke and big-hitting Cameron White almost guided the tourists to a memorable victory, falling one run short with the match tied at the end of 40 overs.

If McCullum was the Black Caps' hero with the bat, then Tim Southee was the man of the moment with the ball as he stifled the Aussie batting in his last two overs and then the 'Super Over' with some excellent full-pitched yorkers.

Unfortunately express-paced Shaun Tait could not do the same for Australia in the NZ Super Over, spraying a wide and offering batsmen McCullum and Martin Guptill too much width. It was a super win for NZ.

Back in Melbourne the match was meandering to a big victory for Tasmania. But it was late and I'd had my cricket fix so I didn't bother watching until the end.

:: More from The Hangover

How Google’s algorithm rules the web

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:02:46 +1100

When it comes to finding stuff, there's Google — and there's everyone else.

Want to know how Google is about to change your life? Stop by the Ouagadougou conference room. It is here at the Mountain View, California, headquarters of the world’s most powerful internet company, that a room filled with three dozen engineers, product managers, and executives figure out how to make their search engine even smarter. This year, Google will introduce 550 or so improvements to its fabled algorithm, and each will be determined at a gathering just like this one. All aimed at making your life (and your spending habits) easier to manage.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/ff_google_algorithm/

The Circus - March 1

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +1100

Bridge refuses to shake Terry's hand on the pitch, while the Canada women's hockey team party on ice. It's all in The Circus.

Once more unto the Bridge
As far as harmonious assaults on world domination go, England's dip at the 2010 World Cup is travelling about as smoothly as a union of super villains in a Batman flick – and one starring Val Kilmer at that.

One time England defender Wayne Bridge retired from international football rather than play with John Terry and even refused to shake his former skipper's hand before Manchester City took on Chelsea on the weekend . . . after all, he knows where it's been.

Manager Fabio Capello then included young centre-half Ryan Shawcross in the squad to take on Egypt on Wednesday, despite the Stoke player launching a challenge on Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey that would have started a war in less enlightened times.

If you are reading The Circus over your Weeties this morning do not click here. It shows the sickening aftermath of the Shawcross tackle, which broke Ramsey's leg in a world-record 3,287 places and led to the first red card of the defender's career.

There is some good news though: John Terry has a new haircut. Released of the burden of the national captaincy, Terry has taken the opportunity afforded by diminished responsibility to sport a 'do usually favoured by men much younger if not much stupider. The Circus would suggest that he ought to know better but clearly, any such proposal would be a waste of effort.

Fingers do the talking
The curse of technology is that, often, it arrives just after you need it. Take a recent application available for Apple's iPhone. The handy little gizmo allows senders of text messages to pre-determine a time at which the message sent is deleted from the recipient's phone, thereby making unwanted discovery of potentially salacious material much less likely.

And the name of this app? TigerTalk. The fact that a very well known golfer could have used just such a tool in recent times is purely coincidental, at least according to TigerTalk's creator who insists the app was named before the very public fall of the aforementioned superstar sportsman.

It's a shame because The Circus reckons ShaneSpeak has a real ring to it.

Now, if there was only an iPhone app that could cure Tiger Woods's alleged drug addiction as well.

Beer on ice and other bad mixers
Canada's victorious women's ice hockey team has been upbraided for drinking beer, smoking cigars and otherwise behaving exactly like a men's ice hockey team after defeating the United States in the gold medal match.

Winning skipper Hayley Wickenheiser was nonplussed about the fuss, stating: "all I have to say is 'get real, really get real.'" Really?

She is not without support either with at least one observer decrying the IOC's stance on the matter as paternalistic and sexist, a claim that will be put to stringent examination should the Canadian men emulate the girls and beat the US in the ice hockey final played this morning, Australian time.

With friends like these
Cronulla forward Paul Gallen is no racist; just ask him. Responding to last season's allegation of racial abuse, he said: "Half of my friends are black or Lebanese" . . . makes you wonder what the other half is. Gay? Mormon? Kyle Sandilands?

With Gallen being notoriously media shy, perhaps we will never know.

Numbers game
13 – gold medals won by Canada, at time of publication, in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games
9 – gold medals won by the US
3 – position Canada will finish on the medal table thanks to the home nation's quirky ranking method which counts total medals won, instead of gold medals
1 – medal most Canadians care about winning, the men's ice hockey gold

Quote of the day
"Kornheiser is one of those guys whose ugly side is his only side. But the fact that ESPN has suddenly taken to punishing Kornheiser for being an oozing bag of pus and venom raises more questions about the network than it does about the employee."
- Media analyst Jack Shafer can't find much love for television host Tony Kornheiser or his employer ESPN after the network suspended him for being critical of the outfit worn by colleague Hannah Storm.

Headline we'd like to read
Celine Dion loses voice and any prospect of performing at the Vancouver closing ceremony

:: More of The Circus

History beckons for Santa Cruz

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:34:00 +1100

Paraguay's campaign to have the remains of Arsenio Erico brought home sheds light on the value that South American football gives to its own history. Now their modern day star has the chance to do what Erico never did: play in a World Cup.

The leading goalscorer in the history of domestic Argentine football is not Diego Maradona or Gabriel Batistuta - hardly surprisingly, as they played so much of their football in Europe.

And the honour is also not held by one of the old time Argentine greats, from the era before the great drift across the Atlantic, such as Jose Sanfilippo or Jose Manuel Moreno.

Top of the list is a Paraguayan, Arsenio Erico, who scored 293 goals for Independiente between 1934 and 46. (Just over a decade later River Plate’s Angel Labruna retired on 292. Research carried out two years ago suggests that he had in fact scored one more, bringing him level with Erico. But the Paraguayan is usually referred to as the top man, especially in the land of his birth.)

This is topical because, almost 23 years after his death, the remains of Arsenio Erico have been brought back to the land of his birth. After retiring he stayed on in Buenos Aires, where he died in 1977. Now, in a blaze of pomp and ceremony, he has been taken home.

He was put on show in the Independiente clubhouse, so that supporters could bid him a final farewell - and thousands turned up to do it. Then he was taken back to Paraguay where, after a brief visit to the national Congress, he will be laid to rest in a mausoleum in the country’s major football stadium, the Defensores del Chaco in Asuncion.

The name of the ground commemorates the bloody and futile War of the Chaco that Paraguay fought with Bolivia from 1932-35, where thousands died either in the brutal fighting or simply of thirst in the harsh desert conditions. In an oblique way, the war gave a kick-start to Erico’s international career.

He was included in a Red Cross team which toured Argentina to raise funds for the wounded. Independiente snapped him up, and were handsomely rewarded.

The young Alfredo Di Stefano was a River Plate fan, and would go on to play for the club before moving to Colombia and then to Spain to change football for ever with Real Madrid. To the annoyance of his father, also a River Plate supporter, Di Stefano couldn’t help himself cheering for Erico.

“When the ball came to him at a height of two metres you never knew if he would head it, flick it on with a back heel or blast in an overhead shot,” he said.

Reports of the time stress the elegance of Erico on the field, as well as his prodigious leap.

When he died one of his contemporaries, Estudiantes striker Alejandro Scopelli, had this to say; “Like the Maracana commemorates Pele’s 1000th goal, every stadium should have a plaque in recognition of a spectacular goal scored by Erico.”

It is perhaps worth wondering whether Paraguay is an appropriate resting place for the great striker. He did play briefly for Nacional of Asuncion, but his real triumphs were in Argentina.

But the campaign to bring him back, with the involvement of the Paraguayan government, does shed light on the value that South American football gives to its own history. There are not many places where a footballer who has not played for over 60 years, and who was never seen at his best on home ground, can still be considered a national treasure.

And perhaps the presence of Erico in the Defensores del Chaco stadium will have an inspirational effect on his modern day equivalent, Roque Santa Cruz.

In that same stadium back in 1999 I recall a 17-year-old Santa Cruz leading the Paraguay attack in the Copa America, the first to have ever been staged in the country. It was a huge occasion, but Santa Cruz took it all in his stride.

With his long, slender build, and his strength in the air coupled with dainty ground skills, he was indeed surrounded by hopes that he might be Erico reborn.

At the end of the tournament Bayern Munich whisked him off to Germany, convinced that their new acquisition was on his way to being one of the top five players in the world.

A succession of injuries ensured that it was not to be. Santa Cruz has rarely been fit enough for long enough to fulfill his promise. But that ability is still there. The potential for greatness accompanies him every time he takes the field.

Paraguay will hope that it all comes good for Santa Cruz in South Africa. A star of club football, Arsenio Erico never got to play in a World Cup. But now he is back in Asuncion, maybe he can inspire his successor as Paraguay seek to reach the quarter finals for the first time.

Make or break time

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:50:00 +1100

Camp with the Socceroos on the Gold Coast, ahead of Wednesday's Asian Cup qualifier against Indonesia, has quickly become more competitive with the arrival of head coach Pim Verbeek.

After three days in camp with the Socceroos on the Gold Coast, ahead of Wednesday night’s decisive Asian Cup qualifier against Indonesia in Brisbane, the arrival of Pim Verbeek on Thursday night quickly changed the mood of the players.

Pim has been in Sun City, South Africa, for FIFA’s team workshop but Friday morning’s training session saw a raise in tempo as the players got stuck right in to their work.

As the game gets closer, the intensity will pick up even more in a squad that has a good mix of experience and young talent.

There are quite a few new faces, like Adelaide young guns Mathew Leckie and Michael Marrone, and like any other team the more experienced players like myself have an added responsibility to help the younger players along.

Some people are concerned that it has become too easy to win a Socceroos cap at the moment but with our move in to Asia, and the number of games we have to play outside the FIFA calendar dates, I don’t see any alternative for Pim than to select the best from the A-League.

It took me a good five years ploughing away in Europe before my Socceroos debut in 2005 but the circumstances are very different now and the experience these young guys are getting now can only benefit the national team in the long-term.

It’s still too early to predict what starting side Pim will choose for the Indonesia game but I’m sure he already has a good idea of the formation and personnel he wants to employ.

I don’t mind what position I’m used in so long as I do the job Pim wants and that we get the result that we need to qualify for next year’s Asian Cup.

Solid foundations to build on

Losing to Newcastle Jets on penalties was a disappointing way to finish the inaugural A-League campaign with Gold Coast United.

I thought we dominated the game but we didn’t take our chances and when it was all locked up after 120 minutes it just felt that it wasn’t going to be our night.

That’s finals football and although I haven’t played in a finals series for more than 10 years it was great to be part of it.

Finals is an exciting time of year and it’s an Australian tradition that the fans seem to love.

Unfortunately the fans didn’t turn up at Skilled Park but as the Wellington Phoenix v Perth Glory semi final showed, the interest remains sky high in the big games at the business end of the season.

Now that we are no longer in the running I told my dad that he has to guide the Jets all the way to the championship.

Who said what?

To wrap up this week I’d like to address a column that SBS chief football analyst Craig Foster wrote in last Sunday’s press.

Craig quoted me as saying: ''Miron lets me do what I want,'' in relation to Gold Coast United coach Miron Bleiberg and his tactics.

Now I can tell you that this is not true. Miron is the boss and what he says goes.

I was used in various midfield and attacking roles during the A-League season, spending time on the flanks rather than my preferred central midfield position.

But that’s just par for the course as you need to do what is best for the team.

Griffiths bucks the China syndrome

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:49:30 +1100

Pim Verbeek may not rate Chinese club football very highly, but it is high time he took a closer look at the form of Joel Griffiths, who is on fire for Beijing Guoan.

Nicky Carle can thank his lucky stars he didn’t move to Shaanxi Chanba during the January transfer window for three reasons. One, the more the Chinese Super League match-fixing and illegal-betting investigation drags on, the more clubs are going down and so with it, arguably, the reputation of the league. Two, Pim Verbeek doesn’t rate China anyway. And three, since returning to England Carle’s virtually started every match Crystal Palace has played.

From looking a certain goner as a World Cup passenger before Christmas, the most talented footballer this country has ever produced (I wrote that just to spite some readers) looks a virtual certainty to be one of the 23 players picked by Verbeek for his final World Cup squad.

With some confidence back in his game from putting together a string of first-team appearances, Carle is beginning to look the goods in England. He’s shone against Villa in the FA Cup and while stuck in a team mired in the relegation zone he’s got an invaluable opportunity to play out the remainder of the Championship season without riding the pine.

Gaffers, even ones who don’t like you very much, have a habit of calling on their most creative players when the task is desperate and the stakes are high. It’s ironic that Carle will probably be wishing Neil Warnock, once his bete noire, doesn’t leave for Queens Park Rangers to make way for Gareth Southgate.

One guy who did choose to stay in China, however, was Joel Griffiths, who ran off at the mouth after being left out the Socceroos squad to face Indonesia in Brisbane and flipped a big bird to the Australia manager by scoring a cracking goal for Beijing Guoan against Melbourne Victory in the Asian Champions League this week.

It was a beauty, made even sweeter by the fact it showed up Kevin Muscat as being as slow, doddery and ineffective as Uncle Arthur. What was Captain Kev doing? Looking for some lost dentures? He was so accommodating he even threw his arms up into the air and sucked his tummy in to let Griffiths past. Obviously Muscat was trying to avoid an obstruction but whatever happened to just trying to get his foot on the ball? Bloody awful defending.

So does Griffiths have any hope of making the World Cup squad?

Unlikely. The player himself says it would be a “big call” and taking a swipe at Verbeek won’t have helped his cause one iota.

But our striking options aren’t great and Beijing is playing good football. If they can get out of the group phase in the ACL, which they couldn’t do in 2009, Verbeek should really look a little bit closer.

One colleague remarked to me during the week that they showed plenty of “terrific close skills stuff, great on the ball”, but just lacked (aside from the fiery Australian) decent finishing.

Perhaps the reason why they’re playing so well is that they have a great triumvirate of young Chinese internationals – Huang Bowen, Yang Hao and Yang Zhi – fresh from China’s recent EAFF Championship victory in Japan. They are riding high on confidence and adrenalin.

Another Chinese team also came through the first week of the ACL with another impressive result: Shandong Luneng’s 1-0 away win over Sanfrecce Hiroshima in Tokyo. In the other two matches featuring CSL teams, J-League champions Kashima Antlers narrowly pipped Changchun Yatai while Henan Construction provided the only disappointment from a Sinophile’s perspective, drawing with Singapore Armed Forces.

So perhaps Chinese football ain’t so bad at all, Pim. And perhaps Griffiths ain’t such a write-off either – so long as he keeps his trap shut.

Taking one for the team or letting the side down?

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +1100

Should an athlete's personal fears be put aside for the betterment of their team?

The Wayne Bridge and John Terry saga has taken another twist, with the England left-back making himself unavailable for World Cup selection.

Bridge announced that the fallout from Terry's alleged affair with his former partner Vanessa Perroncel has made his position in the England team "untenable".

"It has always been an honour to play for England. However, after careful thought, I believe my position in the squad is now untenable and potentially divisive.

"Sadly therefore I feel for the sake of the team and in order to avoid what will be inevitable distractions, I have decided not to put myself forward for selection."

So Terry, the villain in this story, gets the girl(s), and gets his opportunity to star at the World Cup finals in South Africa, while Bridge, the innocent victim, has sacrificed himself for what he feels is the good of the team.

However with incumbent England left-back Ashley Cole in doubt for the tournament with an ankle injury, Bridge's self-surrender leaves national manager Fabio Capello with a selection headache.

In thinking of team harmony, has Bridge let the squad down by further weakening an already injury-depleted defence? Should he put personal issues aside and get on with the job of representing his country on the greatest stage in football?

Meanwhile at the 2010 Winter Games, Netherlands bobsleigh pilot Edwin van Calker walked out on his four-man team on the eve of their event in Vancouver, saying that he no longer felt confident in safely guiding his vehicle and teammates down the infamous Whistler Sliding Centre course.

"For me, looking at my self-confidence and the way that I was driving in two-man, this was the right decision to make," said Van Calker, who suffered a crash in the two-man event.

"Some say it is a brave decision. Some say scared. For me, it's not about performing. It's about surviving."

But spare a thought for four-man crewman Timothy Beck – a dual-Olympian for the Netherlands after competing at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City and then running in the 4x100m relay team for at the 2004 Athens Games. Beck was also the flag bearer for the Netherlands team at the Opening Ceremony in Vancouver.

"I focused everything on this Olympics. This was my last. It was my goal to perform here. I've seen the track, I've touched it with my hands but never been down it at all," Beck said.

The most scathing reaction perhaps came from Dutch bobsleigh coach Tom de la Hunty.

"I've never seen someone get to a major event and not compete because they're scared. You keep your inner fears to yourself and do it. You go over the top together."

Team sports rely on each individual performing at their highest level in order to have the best chance of winning. It can be a cut-throat environment, with pressure to perform from your playing peers, and at the elite level pressure to win for your country.

An individual player may have an off-day and be carried by the rest of the team, but if they are mentally shot before the event has even started then it's not worth competing at all.

Bridge and Van Calker have fears of a very different nature, but both chose to deal with their demons rather than put others at risk. Isn't that what 'taking one for the team' is all about?

:: More from The Interchange

The Circus - February 26

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:30:00 +1100

Rafael Benitez refuses to admit he ate all the pies, and Dutch disqualification is a 'national tragedy'. It's all in The Circus.

Romanians tell Benitez to lay off the treats
Leading this edition of The Circus' Media Watch, the Romanian press have got a hell of a way of digging for quotes with one of the English Premier League's shrewdest media handlers.

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez lobbed in Bucharest amid claims his team's hit-and-run travel arrangements were disrespectful to Europa League opponents Unirea Urziceni. Well, the disrespect was mutual, with the media throng pushing Benitez on taunts he was on the verge of being sacked, asking how much money he would demand to coach in Romania and wondering aloud what was responsible for his portly dimensions?

"Mr Benitez," one scribbler inquired. "The last time I saw you was at the 2005 Champions League final, and your, erm, silhouette seems to have changed since then. Why is that?"

The response? Typically unruffled: "It is the stress of having to answer so many questions from the press. Thank you and goodnight."

Australian gold and Dutch metal
Olympic gold will get you on the front page of most of your nation's newspapers, most certainly when you win your country's second of the Games and fifth of all time.

Yes, we congratulate Lydia Lassila.

But the Dutch, inspiration for such phrases as 'Dutch courage', 'Dutch uncle' and a few others The Circus will keep in the can, have been reading about the winter games on their front pages for another reason.

The collapse of the Dutch coalition government has been bumped inside the local rags, with the disqualification of Dutch speed skating star Sven Kramer holding rank. Never mind the Dutch prime minister has stood down over the Netherlands' extended military presence in Iraq.

Kramer raced to a record time in his signature 10,000m event, but was disqualified for incorrectly changing lanes at his coach's insistence.

"It's a national tragedy. It's all anyone is talking about," a Dutch newspaper correspondent said.

He could well have been referring to an ongoing political crisis. He wasn't.

Somebody find me a drama-free left back
England manager Fabio Capello has shown he's not afraid to get involved in his players' off-field affairs and with his top two preferred left-backs now unavailable in the build up to South Africa 2010, he may just have to make some more personal enquiries when selecting a replacement for Wayne Bridge.

Scorned by former England teammate John Terry, Bridge has ruled himself out of national selection for the World Cup. But with Ashley Cole sidelined with a broken ankle (and embroiled in his own cheating scandal) Capello is in a pickle.

The four men at the front of the queue to replace Bridge are Joleon Lescott (Manchester City), James Milner (Aston Villa), Leighton Baines (Everton) and Stephen Warnock (Aston Villa).

All four are controversy-free, but The Circus deems Warnock and Milner the two most likely to avoid controversy from hereon in and therefore Capello's best bets for the vacant left-back position.

Our flimsy evidence? Well, back in April last year, Warnock presented flowers to the Liverpool Kop on behalf of the Blackburn Rovers to honour the 96 Liverpool supporters who died in the Hillsborough Disaster of 1989. Flower giving, unless it's to your Seattle-based mistress, is controversy free. Milner? Well, he has always been well grounded since his early days. Good enough for us.

The numbers game
28 – Age of Australia's newest gold medallist, Lydia Lassila
2 – knee reconstructions Lassila had either side of the 2006 Winter Games
214.74 – Combined score for Lassila's two gold-medal-winning jumps in Vancouver
13 – Australia's place on the Vancouver medal tally

Quote of the day
"Once I'm out on that field I've got a really deep desire. If I threw that away I don't know what I'd become. I don't think I'd be where I am now. I think the injuries would have killed me off a long time ago."
- England rugby star Jonny Wilkinson puts the fear of God into any budding union players who may be susceptible to injury.

Headline we'd like to read
Capello out of options, appoints Billy Elliot to left back

:: More of The Circus

Olympic venues past, present and future as seen from space

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:56:58 +1100

The Olympics have been held in some of the most scenic locations on earth, and this year is no exception.

Some of the most breathtaking moments of the games involve details captured in photo finishes in cross country skiing and hooked ski tips leading to crashes in the slalom seen in slow-motion video. All that aside, Vancouver is equally breathtaking from above. Vancouver beat out Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Salzburg, Austria, to host Canada’s third Olympics. The city has delivered beautiful, sunny weather that is unfortunately too warm for ideal snow conditions, giving the grounds crews some major challenges. Snow has been trucked in for some of the events. This gallery collects images taken from space by astronauts and satellite of a few of the more interesting and attractive Olympic host cities from 1900 to 2016. Breathtaking.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/olympic-cities-gallery/2/

Unwritten laws no more?

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +1100

In the brief season we’ve seen so far, atypical hostility seems to be shown towards Team Sky. And, writes Anthony Tan, it appears to be catching.

To recover after a hectic Tour Down Under, write a bunch of magazine stories from the race, then prepare for the upcoming Tour de Langkawi that starts next Monday, March 1, I decided to skip a February trip to the Middle East and miss the tours of Qatar and Oman.

However, like many of you I’m sure, I followed both races with interest. And although this is my second column that has something to do with Team Sky in the space of a month, I feel something more has to be said.

Quite clearly, many in the peloton – perhaps the majority – don’t like the presence of this British-backed powerhouse.

In Qatar, Sky spanked their rivals in the opening team time trial and let everyone know about it, Edvald Boasson Hagen taking the lead.

The next day, not one team appeared willing to help Sky in an organised chase of breakaways Geert Steurs (Topsport) and Wouter Mol (Vacansoleil), who attacked at the drop of the flag and amassed a maximum 23-minute advantage.

Instead, a series of counterattacks split the peloton and saw fragmented chase groups trying in vain to catch them. After Steurs and Mol crossed the line, 1:51 ahead of Roger Kluge (Team Milram), three groups came in before the first Team Sky rider, Ian Stannard, finished 3:33 behind in a group of 16.

The Belgian-Dutch pair rode defensively the rest of the week to finish first and second on GC, Mol winning the race by 35 seconds from Steurs and 1:45 from Tom Boonen (Quick Step), who won the previous two editions.

“Sky messed the whole race up for everybody,” Roger Hammond (Cervélo TestTeam) told VeloNews.

“I guess they knew they weren’t very strong when they came here, so they just let the front group go on the first [road stage]. "I don’t quite know what their tactic was. But now it seems like they knew they couldn’t ride at the front. So why chase the first day if they’re not going to do it the rest of the week?” Hammond asked.

Responded Sky sport director Scott Sunderland: “If that is their thinking, that it is up to someone else to do the work, well then they’re already defeated before the race started. If you want to win a bike race, you take responsibility when you see it necessary. You don’t put the blame on someone else. If they want to sit back and let everyone else do all the work and deliver it on a silver platter, that’s their prerogative.”

Boonen said they were counting on the normally fierce Qatari wind in the latter stages, which didn’t eventuate.

Then at the Tour of Oman, again with Boasson Hagen in the leader’s jersey, a slew of teams attacked the Norwegian road champ when he was taking a leak. This time, the desert winds were in full force and he never saw the front group again, finishing in 42nd place, 1:05 behind stage winner Leigh Howard (Columbia-HTC).

Apparently, other teams attacked because Sky rode at race speed through the feed zone. Boasson Hagen won the final stage time trial and still finished second overall to Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank), which provided some consolation – but really, he should have walked away with the top prize.

Reader comments on VeloNews included “Team Sky reaps what they sow; if you’re going to break the unwritten rules (i.e. speeding through feed zones), you have to expect your competitors to do the same (i.e. taking off when the race leader is peeing)”; “It sounds like Sky doesn’t have a lot of friends in the peloton. It is highly unusual for a race leader to be attacked during a mechanical or natural stop”; and “They are not making friends in the first year as a team. Cycling can be a cruel, cruel sport. If you don’t want to play by the rules, written and equally important unwritten, then you can’t complain.”

With the coming of Team Sky, are the unwritten laws no more? And how does this bode for the rest of the season?

Oman is an Island

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +1100

With the Jayco Herald Sun Tour changing dates, Tour Down Under teams will have a hard choice to make, take in the sights of Gippsland or opt for a place less exotic.

There was nothing wrong with the inaugural Tour of Oman, especially if you like straight roads and sand or our favourite abstract sculpture of the week – three concrete prongs holding what appeared to be a shed-sized copy of the qur'an.

Can Ghent-Wevelgem offer this sort of thing? It cannot, although it does have a better range of Tin-Tin comics.

For the cable TV viewer, Eurosport's half-hour highlights from Oman offered extensive coverage of the gulf nation's shipbuilding (the traditional dhows! The dug-out canoes! The palm-frond shashahs!) spoiled every so often by some racing.

If Oman and the even straighter, even flatter Tour of Qatar have any weaknesses at all, it is that local interest is of approximately the same level as the Broom Wagon's in the Winter Olympics.

We use the time to grout the bathroom and ask to be notified each time Evgeny Plushenko invents a new medal. They sink another oil well and stay away from the highways.

The news that the Jayco Herald-Sun Tour is, after all, to be rescheduled is therefore rather promising (ask Gerro).

Breaking 60 years of tradition to hold the race in February creates an embryonic Australian season which could, if we play our cards right, encourage a handful of big teams to forsake the gulf races in favour of a month down under.

The 2011 Jayco Tour will run from February 8-13, beginning 16 days after the Tour Down Under.

A 16-day gap between races is not ideal, with the Jayco start having been pushed back to accommodate the national track championships. But it is short enough for teams to only need to occupy a week or two with nearby tourist attractions such as Gippsland's giant earthworm.

In our more optimistic moments (5.25pm weekdays, just before the start of Deal or No Deal), we dream about a move like this powering Australia's transition into a bicycle-friendly country.

On the downside, Leigh Howard would no longer be able to sprint to his stage wins incognito.

Quickstep v Lotto – a convenient chart

Via cyclocosm

Skydenfreude

It's early in the season, but watching Team Sky self-destruct is already shaping as one of 2010's best new party games. Sky arrived in town all top hat and swagger, monocle a-gleaming and trousers bulging with 100-pound notes.

In Oman, Sky appeared to be cruising to victory until stage four, on which youngster Edvald Boasson Hagen was expected to defend his lead in what was assumed to be a group sprint finish.

How exactly things went pear-shaped differs depending on who you speak to.

Soon after the start a group of six broke attacked and gained seven minutes. Sky refused to chase the breakway and so, not unreasonably, did the remaining teams.

According to Cyclingnews, Cervelo's Roger Hammond claimed Sky put the hammer down at a feed station, forcing disgruntled riders to collect their energy bars at 65 kph. Hammond says he was misquoted.

What is clear is that roughly 50km from the finish, Boasson Hagen stopped to relieve himself and the bunch shot away.

With the likes of eventual winner Fabian Cancellara and Tyler Farrar setting the pace, Boasson Hagen was stranded and in strong cross-winds Sky were unable to close the gap. Howard took the victory with the Sky rider 65 seconds adrift.

Attacking while a man turns his bicycle around is obviously a rum sort of do, the type to be discouraged by a frown or two at the gentlemen's club.

On the other hand, sympathising with Team Sky is a bit like feeling sorry for Manchester City, or Kevin Pietersen. No matter how badly things go wrong for them, you can't quite suppress the feeling of gladness in the deepest, blackest part of your heart.

Dispatches from the Twitterverse (NSFW edition – except for the one with Charly Wegelius)

If @bradwiggins' reports are accurate, exploding shoes aren't the only things British airports should be concerned about

"Don't go too deep, Hendy" is a considerate Sean Yates' advice as @GregHenderson1 goes in for some work on a man's private place (not the place he uses to turn his bicycle around – the other private place)

Henderson channels HG Nelson in reply

A renegade cat sends @lancearmstrong man's-private-place-over-bandbox

There are words four-year-olds should know ('need' and 'toilet', for example), and words they probably should not know. 'Shart' is in the second category. @Vaughters disagrees.

@wegelius cobbles something together

Classic YouTube

With 15 million views and no appearance by keyboard cat, this parkour-style clip of Danny MacAskill around Edinburgh must be some kind of internet first. The bit with the tree at 3.10 is one of the greatest things we've seen on two wheels.