This picture is from the Japanese earthquake and it shows they are getting on with it.Rugby: The Hurricanes are just crap - even worse than usual. We decided not to have Jamie Joseph as coach as he wasn't good enough - and the Highlanders with him as coach are going great guns being the surprise package of the competition while we languish last in the N Z conference.
Playing numbers of registered players is a surprise -
1 England 2.5 million - they say more people pllay in England than the rest of the world combined excluding SA.
2 South Africa 630,000 - much more than I thought. The blacks playing must have expanded dramatically.
3 France 237,000 (less than I thought)
4 N Z 137,000
5 Japan 122,000
6 Sri Lanka 103,000 Whatttttt.......... and what have the IRB been doing for SL rugby??
7 Argentina 103,000
8 Australia 86,000 - they have fallen away
9 USA 81,000 (up 350% over past couple of years)
Kipp has started playing Ripper Rugby. Has his jersey, socks, boots etc and here he is in all his glory. Plus with Monty.
Wrongful Conviction: We, the taxpayer, have just paid an autistic guy $350,000 for a couple of years in prison for rape he didn't convict. They told him it was his DNA - it wasn't - and they didn't check out his alibi. As per usual no hard questions are asked. What about the complainant who 'fingered' him. What happens to her. It would seem nothing. The Detective has been 'spoken to and relieved of detective work'.
Gagarin: The 50th anniversary of Gagarin's first flight was this month. The Yanks won the race but maybe not long term as they are now doing nothing and have to use Russian rockets. Certailnly an indication that there country is going down as they are now not so much as putting little into science but letting science be influenced by the religious zealots.
Who will be the first person on Mars. My bet is that he or she will speak Chinese.
Quiz: Back into it and a couple of 3rds. Did learn something - the turkey can reproduce without mating.
Internet: The politicians have passed an anti file sharing law to protect the Copyright (read entertainment industry) from losing business (read - from being forced into moving into the late 20th century). The point is that it has always been illegal to steal a copyrighted item so why the change. Well apart from the vastly increased penalties (better to kick somebody's head in than download a song) the thing that galls me and the entertainment industry want is that you are guilty and have to prove your innocence. Maybe we should change that premis and reverse the hundreds of years of ' innocent until proven guilty, to everything. Probably they will in the next 50 years.
