Cricket Update!!!

The BBC wrote:

…the report relates specifically to the bowler’s action when delivering the doosra…

The words I read ran down my spine as if someone had walked on my grave.

Under the ICC’s bowling review process, Harbhajan, who was also reported and cleared in 1998, will undergo analysis of his action by human movement specialists within 21 days. A bio-mechanical review of his action should reveal whether his action falls within the 15 degrees of permitted elbow straightening.

Good God!!! Don’t they know there are twenty points riding on this in the pool!?!?. If I have said it once I have said it a thousand times: STRAIGHTEN YOUR DOOSRA, HARBHAJAN!!!

Smart Tories

I will not say this kind of thing often so pay(-ish) attention (it is after all only me): the Tories did at least one smart thing this weekend:

On Friday, one of Leader Stephen Harper’s emissaries at the merger talks, Scott Reid, backed a resolution that would have allowed ridings with more party members to send more delegates to conventions. The move enraged many former Progressive Conservative members, including Harper’s deputy leader, Peter MacKay, who seethed visibly as he warned that the proposed change put the party in ‘real jeopardy.’ Reid, an Ontario MP, spoke in favour of the proposal Saturday, while MacKay urged it be voted down to preserve “kindness, generosity and equality” in the party. Delegates overwhelmingly rejected the change in a show of hands.

By reaffirming the equality of each part of the grassroots both the Reform and Progressive Conservative legacies should be satisfied. If you are ever going to attract my vote – which is a swing vote – you will have to show that you are viable and that you reflect a major part of Canadian society. Reflecting each part of Canada would help.

Spud Economics 101

Sad to see the farmers of PEI suffering from the market glut and low prices for potatoes. Here are some acreage stats on the reality of the North American market from this agricultural consultancy firm:

And speaking of potatoes…

  • Slight dip in US potato acreage since 2003
  • This year, total potato acreage across the United States is down 7% – or 88,300 acres. This year’s total is 1,184,300 vs. 1,272,600 last year.
  • Dramatic 5-year shift in potato acreage distribution in Canada
  • since 1999, P.E.I.’s potato acreage has shrunk by 7000 acres.
  • All other provinces’ potato acreage has increased by 68,000 acres.

How introducing only a cap at the present 106,000 acres in addition to the practice of crop destruction in such a small part of the total continental market will effect the desired change is not clear to me – but it is not like there is really an answer to the whole situation.

Yes To Inquiry

The appeal period will have to run out before any decisions are made but this statement by the son of one of those lost in the Air India disaster is entirely correct:

“This was not an aviation accident. This was not an in-flight accident,” said Susheel Gupta, an Ottawa lawyer who was 12 when his mother died on board Air India Flight 182 on a June morning in 1985. “This was murder, pure and simple,” said Gupta. “Murder in any system of justice demands just that – justice. And if the murder of 329 innocent people … doesn’t deserve a public inquiry, then we ask: what does?”

Robots On Wheels

Here is Hitachi’s entry into the robot WARS!!! race and one that points out an actual use for the Segway concept. Why have all those chunky walking technology worries like nightmarish future soldier Honda’s Asimo.

Hitachi had a press conference introducing them yesterday:

Two wheel-based Emiews, Pal and Chum, introduced themselves to reporters at a press conference in Japan.

How nice. It kind of looks like Pal…or Chum…is holding a flamethrower Swiffer-brand duster to get at those difficult areas.