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Tessa Jowell hints at new deal for cricket, elevating it to a reserved sport, meaning that home internationals have to be free to air. The problem though is the money. The FA can afford to subsidise the home football internationals, but I don’t think the ECB can - the home Test Series are the only thing that keeps cricket going in this country…

I’m sure I’m not the only one who can’t understand what the hell happened in New Orleans. The stories coming out are unbelievable. Is there a subtext that we in the UK don’t get, or is it simply a matter of appalling unpreparedness and incompetence?

“We found a young girl raped and killed in the bathroom. Then the crowd got the man and they beat him to death.”

It’s hard to imagine this happening anywhere in the world, let alone the US. What is going on?

To say it’s OK in one medium but not another is a dangerous snobbery of
form over content, suggesting, as it does, that the literate man is less
likely to become a serial sexual killer than his thick clod of a
web-watching cousin. An unwise assumption, if ever I heard one.

There is a real problem with the England set up, highlighted by poor Chris Tremlett’s situation. Having tagged around after England all summer he’s not named in the squad for the Oval, and it’s lack of competitive cricket that’s cited as the reason. The same happened to Anderson under Hussain, and troubled Gloucester’s season earlier this summer with Lewey getting messed about in the same way. Not sure how we fix it, but it’s hard to take for the players and can cause long term damage. And as for selecting Anderson as an alternative for Jones? Madness, but it makes me more confident about Jones’ fitness…

Also in the news today is Richie Benaud’s announcement that this is his last summer broadcasting in Britain. It’s a shame that he’s going, but it’s for the right reasons:

But he opposes non-free-to-air coverage and immediately discounted a switch to Sky, which will have live coverage of home England Tests from 2006.

And finally… Essex spank the Aussie bowling. What a way to prepare for your most important match of the last 20 years. You can’t help but laugh…

More on the ongoing spat between Microsoft and Google…

At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: “Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I’m going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to fucking kill Google.”

This gets more entertaining by the day
Found at waxy.org

Who will buy my records?

The company’s new directive may explain its recent acquisition of Celera Genomics, the company that mapped the human genome, and its buildup of a vast army of laser-equipped robots.

This is a particularly nice piece about real life implementations of Plone.

The BBC asks who could replace Simon Jones if he remains injured. We’ve had Chris Tremlett in the side for 4 tests and he’s ended up 12th man for each one. Surely if he was in the squad he should play if there’s a space? If not, why the hell has England been mucking him around all summer?

Having said that, my vote would be for none on the list. Dominic Cork has been playing superbly all summer with both the bat and the ball, and he really gets up the Aussies’ (and frankly everybody elses) nose. He’s due one last heroic performance in an England shirt. It’s sometimes hard to remember when he was England’s bad boy all-rounder, but he was, and when he was he was very very good. The way he’s played this summer makes him the ideal choice for such a pressure match in my book.

Anyway. It’s all Duncan Fletcher mind games. Jones is fit and well and will be punishing the Australians one last time this summer, I’m sure of it.

…but not a lot.
Found at MeFi