+Crazy +Australian

On a whim, I decided to see what would pop up if I entered the words "crazy" and "Australian" into Google, and happily stumbled upon a list of nutty Australian sporting events. Enjoy!

Just to be fair, I entered the words "crazy" and American" into Google, and came up with a list of Crazy American News Stories , a list of Crazy American Laws, but nothing as interesting as the "Coolabah Goat Races" or the "Dunny Derby".

Australia Day

Yesterday was Australia Day, a national holiday commemorating the arrival of the British First Fleet in Sydney Harbour. This was undoubtedly the start of bad times for, literally, boat loads of people - not to mention the folks that were already here - but for better or worse, a generally unified and prosperous nation now thrives.

Here's what went down:

John Howard took the opportunity to criticise Australian history education as being simultaneously non-existent and too cuddly and apologetic. Seems he feels that since Australians spent a few years locked in their rooms appreciating diversity, they're now allowed to get back to dates and places and straight-forward nationalism. I applaud his emphasis on history (as I got the impression no one knows the origins of Australia Day), but I'm a bit skeptical of his curriculum.

Some indigenous Australians took the opportunity to burn the Australian flag in protest, kicking off a nationalistic debate ala the U.S. as to whether this should be a criminal act (Howard voted "no"). Meanwhile, an artist who had a piece containing a burned Australian flag had his work seized last Friday in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray despite the fact that no infraction was committed. Apparently, someone was offended.

Researcher Ian Frazer was named (along with his Scottish accent) Australian of the Year for his work in developing a vaccine to prevent human papilloma virus.

Nicole Kidman was named a companion in the Order of Australian, the nation's highest civilian honor, for her work in the arts and charitable giving. Kidman is now set to become a UN goodwill ambassador.

Victoria continued to burn.

And let's not forget the beer, barbies, and fireworks.

Not being Australian and, more importantly, because it was freakin' hot (again), we hid out in the air conditioned confines of our apartment and watched tennis.

Understatement

One of the headlines in todays' Washington Post read: Hamas Win Complicates Mideast Peace Efforts .

Uh, yeah. Well, this should be interesting. . .

Man of the Hour

As mentioned earlier, Uta and I managed to catch the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis getting some practice hits in during the Australian Open qualifying rounds two weeks ago. Little did we realize that Baghdatis would become the most exciting thing about this year's Grand Slam. The 20-year old was a juniors champion and managed to make it to round 4 during last year's open. This year, however, he raised many an eyebrow as he handily defeated #2 seed Andy Roddick during round 4. He stunned thousands as he came from behind to defeat #7 seed Ivan Ljubicic during the quarterfinals, and after last night's semi-final victory over #4 seed David Nalbandian, the tennis world is in awe.



The government of Cyprus is sending Baghdatis' parents to Australia to watch the final. In one tournament, he has managed to double his career earnings. If he manages to pull off a victory in the final he'll quadruple them. Needless to say, his string of victories is doing wonders for his world ranking.

Meanwhile, Nicolas Kiefer has a chance to do what Tommy Haas couldn't, and defeat Roger Federer for the other slot in Sunday's final. Martina Hingis' big comeback was ended during the quarterfinals by Kim Clijsters, who subsequently withdrew from her semi-final match with Amelia Mauresmo. Justine Henin-Hardenne knocked out Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova in turn, leaving Mauresmo and Henin to do battle in tomorrow's final.

More Scenes from the Australian Open

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Originally uploaded by BLP.

Check it Out Here!

Freakin' Hot

With temperatures in excess of 40C over the weekend (including temps above 35C before 9am on Sunday), life in Melbourne was pretty much unbearable. Approximately 80 people collapsed from heat stress on Sunday, while Victoria's energy use was 45% above normal. Meanwhile, hot dry weather often encourages the Australian landscape to do what it does best - BURN!! Victoria is the hotspot at the moment, with at least four fires raging.

Climate Bling

Thanks to Newley for pointing me in the direction of BET's (Black Entertainment [or Exploitation] Television) piece on climate change and black folks, which draws on the the carnage of Hurricane Katrina to make a point about the disproportionate vulnerability of blacks to the effects of climate change.

Granted, some nuances are neglected by the author. For example, I'm quite sure Katrina can't be blamed for black poverty in urban areas below sea-level and inadequate flood defenses. Further, I'm fairly sure the author refers to Antarctica when he means the Arctic, and although blacks do consume less energy and fossil fuel per capita than their white counterparts, I don't think that can be attributed to any sort of environmental ethic within the black community. Nevertheless, BET does a commendable job of identifying a previously ignored source of greenhouse gas emissions: ". . .asking Black folks to give up gas-guzzling SUV's and other bling is a tough sell." Yes, yes - we must do something about those "bling" emissions. What percentage of the U.S. greenhouse gas inventory can be attributed to "bling"? How do we incorporate "bling" into market-based mitigation measures? Is it time to start thinking about a cap on U.S. "bling"?

Hasta la vista Hewitt

Australia's darling, Layton Hewitt, crashed out last night during Round 2 of the Australian Open - losing to the Argentinian Juan Ignacio Chela in four sets, much to the disappointment, I'm sure, of tournament promoters.

The newspapers have been quick to engage in the time honored Australian tradition of standing up for its heroes up until the point of failure - and then trashing them. This morning there was no shortage of editorials critiquing Hewitt and Australian tennis in general. Attention now abruptly shifts to the three remaining Australian competitors.

The End or the Beginning?

NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies has released its assessment of global temperatures for the 2005 calendar year, concluding that 2005 was the warmest in the instrumental record - but statistically similar to the previous record-holder 1998.

Meanwhile, James Lovelock, responsible for the "Gaia Hypothesis" (i.e., the world is one big self-regulating organism) is set to release a new book, ominously called The Revenge of Gaia, in which he argues that climate change will generally bring about the end of the world as we know it (see his piece here from The Independent).

The Australian on-line magazine Crikey! contacted CSIRO for a response. Due to a few absences, we were unable to turn around an official reply, but a couple of us went freelance as independent, free-thinking citizens (who just happen to coincidentally work in the field) to craft this commentary. Unlike Lovelock, who sees climate change as the end, we argue that, adverse impacts not withstanding, there's reason to be cautiously optimistic that we're starting to see the beginning of a concerted global effort to manage the problem.

Chocolate City

New Orlean's mayor C. Ray Nagin has demonstrated that, when pressed, he's capable of offending everyone.

In apologizing for his remarks stating that God wants New Orleans to be a "chocolate" [African-American] city he had the following to say:

"How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about. . . New Orleans was a chocolate city before Katrina. It is going to be a chocolate city after. How is that divisive?"

Right on, Ray - sounds tasty to me!

So does this mean I live in a "chocolate" home? And when we start to breed, can we call it the "chocolate factory"? HA!

Green Machine

An interesting article appeared in The Age over the weekend, discussing the savvy use of technology in Greenpeace's public relations campaign to "save the whales" in the Southern Ocean.

Thanks to satellite internet and embedded journalists, Greenpeace's PR machine is capable of providing real-time images of its ongoing battle with Japanese "research" vessels currently engaged in annual "data collection". Although the number of whales saved over the past two months is some number less than 1, Greenpeace's efforts have led to outrage, and, of course, outrage leads to action. I'm confident that any action is acceptable, but I'm sure Greenpeace doesn't mind if you channel your action through online donations (readily accessible via plentiful links on the Greenpeace weblog).

Over the short-term, the distribution of benefits appears to be a bit lop-sided: Japan's getting the whales, Greenpeace is getting press and donations (while burning about $9000 a day in diesel - a fossil fuel if I recall). According to Wikipedia, "Paul Watson, who parted ways [with Greenpeace] to found Sea Shepherd, once called Greenpeace 'The Avon ladies of the environmental movement,' because of their door-to-door fund-raising that relies on the media exposure of deliberately orchestrated and highly publicised actions to keep the name of Greenpeace on the front pages."

Then again, it's tactics such as these that led to the 1982 international moratorium on whaling in the first place. Plus, since Sea Shephard just had to abandon their own chase of the Japanese whalers (leaving Greenpeace to soak up all the glory), it looks as though they could do with some donations themselves. Here's hoping that, over the long-term, the whales themselves get a piece of the pie.


UPDATE (1/19/2006): Greenpeace's German contingent has taken the concept of odd publicity stunt to new highs this week after dumping the carcass of a whale on the doorstep of the Japanese embassy in Berlin. According to Deutsche Welle:

"After the 10 to 20-year-old whale died on the Baltic Sea coast on Saturday, Greenpeace offered to transfer it, at their own cost, to the German Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund for testing. The environmental group now admits the move was a trick, and said they did not inform the Oceanographic Museum of the fact that they had planned to used the cadaver as a political protest."

Very sneaky - sounds like the kind of clever plan that could only be crafted under the stimulatory effects of heaps of booze.

Cartoon Sketch Snares Robber

From The Age:

Cartoon Sketch Snares Robber
"A man who allegedly robbed a renowned Victorian cartoonist has been caught, thanks to a detailed caricature drawn by his victim."

Australian Open: Round 1

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Originally uploaded by BLP.

Uta made it to Tuesday's matches by 1:00 pm, but I didn't arrive until 6:00.

After I appeared on site, we watched a five set battle between unseeded Russian-born American, Alex Bogomolov, and 9th seed, Fernando Gonzalez, from Chile. In a match featuring jubilant Chilean fans and out-and-out trash-talking between the competitors (which was awesome), Alex managed to hold on to victory - his first Round 1 victory in a Grand Slam.

We subsequently watched as Emma Laine (Finland) took apart Spain's Nuria Llagostera, followed by a grumpy Kenneth Carlsen (Denmark) against Fernando Verdasco (Spain).

We finished off the night watching the first set of Juan Carlos Ferrero(Spain) against Tomas Zib (Czech). Ferrero won that set and went on to take the next two 6-0, 6-0. I guess we didn't miss much. . .

Back in Black

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Originally uploaded by BLP.

After a four year leave of abscence, I ventured back into a dojo tonight, training with the Victoria JKA. Due to a mix up on times, I arrived early and joined in the instructor's training session, which I was woefully unprepared for - I was seeing stars within 20 minutes. The second hour of general training was more my speed given my current state - although even then I had more than my share of embarrassing lapses in memory on technique. I have a long way to go to get back to where I was, both mentally and physically.

It's On!!!

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Originally uploaded by BLP.

Our friendly neighborhood sporting event known as the Australian Open is now underway - Uta is beside herself with excitement.

We checked out some of the qualifying matches on Sunday, including that of Lesley Joseph - a South Carolina native who played for the University of Georgia before turning pro. Unfortunately he was defeated in the third set - he seemed to be quite distracted by Australia's affectionate flies.

We also saw the Cypriot Marko Baghdatis as well as some of the Russian contingent of female players getting in some practice hits. We'll be getting tickets for Tuesday night to see some of the first round action.

New Additions

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Originally uploaded by BLP.

On Saturday we became proud owners of a mid-19th century map of Australia - a Christmas present courtesy of Ma Preston. We picked out the relic at Brighton Antique Print and Maps. The map was created by the German mapmaker Carl Ferdinand Weiland and is allegedly from the 1860s. However, given that Weiland died in 1847, either the date or the creator is in question.

We also acquired some greenery for the balcony on Sunday - olive and lemon trees, along with a couple of rose bushes.

G'Day Sunshine

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Originally uploaded by BLP.

I often find my wife's tendency to rise early in the morning a bit disagreeable, but today I was compensated with a great sunrise.

Jaws II

Tragically, Sarah Whiley become the first shark fatality of 2006, after being attacked off Amity Point (spookily similar to the beach town, Amity, in Jaws) in Queensland. As shark attacks and beach closures are never good for tourism, the Queensland and New South Whales governments are now under pressure to reevaluate their shark defenses around popular beaches.

Puma Gear

Due to the discovery over the weekend of a 50% clearance sale at Rebel Sport, we now have heaps of Puma gear.


UPDATE (18/1/2006): Courtesy Tony

Letterman to O'Reilly: "60% of what you say is crap"

From Crooks and Liars: Letterman to O'Reilly: "60% of what you say is crap"

Worth a laugh. . .

Intelligent Redesigning

From the Washington Post:
Board Rescinds 'Intelligent Design' Policy

Thank god!

Fire Down Below

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology reported today that average temperatures for 2005 were a record 1.08C above the 1961-1990 baseline average, making last year the warmest since records began in 1910.

White (hot) Christmas

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Originally uploaded by BLP.

After a week of R&R in South Australia, we returned to Melbourne on Sunday, well-fed, rested, and a shade or two darker.

We spent a rather chilly (relatively speaking, of course) Christmas in Adelaide, lodging in the newly acquired palace of the Morrows and occupying what will be the nursery as soon as their as-yet-gender-unknown (but future professional athlete) offspring enters the world. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we feasted repeatedly with the greater Morrow and Morton families, respectively.

Post Christmas, we all participated in some Adelaide sightseeing. We peered down on Adelaide from Mount Lofty; fed the roos and missed the feeding of the Tasmanian Devil at Cleland Wildlife Park; and ventured to a beach outside Adelaide which I don't remember the name of, so I'll just call it "The Beach of Misfortune" due to the lousy weather and the loss of one of our comrades' wedding bands in the surf.

Uta and I then drove off in a generously donated vehicle to the wilds of the Fleurieu Peninsula (which to be honest, I'm still not sure how to pronounce) south of Adelaide. The chilly Christmas was rather quickly forgotten as temps in South Australia topped 40C (for those of you only familiar with Fahrenheit, that's about a million degrees), undoubtedly making this the warmest Christmas I've ever experienced. We spent four days traversing the towns of Victor Harbor, Middleton, Port Elliot, and Goolwa and getting Uta used to driving on the wrong side of the road. We occupied ourselves during much of the daylight hours lounging on Goolwa Beach, which Uta preferred due to it's apparent similarity to the North Sea beaches of Germany, and we sampled much of the local cuisine, all of which was labelled "gourmet" and "award winning" (coastal South Australia appears to be big on awards). Our most memorable meal was at the newly opened "Stranded" in Port Elliott - still suffering through opening hiccups, but the food was well worth it. Our most memorable non-meal was not obtained at what I'm now unaffectionately calling "The Catch-22 Cafe" in Victor Harbor, where we were repeatedly informed (by the proprieter who, to keep the conceit going, we'll call a major major major major asshole) that we could only order items on the menu, yet none of the items on the menu were available. We ended up grabbing bratwurst from "Klause's German Sausages" (Wir haben gehoert dass Klaus aus Kiel kommt, aber er war nicht da, so wir haben ihn nicht getroffen - schade).

To ring in the New Year, we had a picnic on the beach in Victor Habor, which was disturbed temporarily by the police telling us that alcohol was not permitted (which was a surprise to us given the large display of unmitigated drunkenness among Victor Harbor's youth, who were incidentally quite friendly and eager to chat with foreigners). The police were good sports though, and said, "we're going to wander off over here for a couple of hours - if we come back and you're still drinking we'll have to fine you." Needless to say, all alcohol was safely deposited in our blood streams before that deadline was reached. Nevertheless, the picnic was ultimately disturbed permanently by the rising tide.

We stuck around for the fireworks display, which was quite respectable for a town of just 12,000 people. We then retired to our hotel, where Uta slept while I laid awake listening to scores of those friendly drunken youths who decided to turn our hotel into party central. They gave it a good try, but I think they all ran out of steam before dawn.

And so ended another year. . .

Click on the Lindt (or here) for photos of all the action.