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Of cabbages, kings and a meeting of Blog war protagonists
Leon Bertrand and I have a face to face meet up with Scott Bridges planned for today which should be quite interesting to say the least, because how often do you get a chance to meet up with your online “enemy ” after a decade long blog war?
Hold on comrades this could be an interesting ride
Death of Aussie athletics in a photo
(by Ray Dixon ~ no longer a proud Australian)
Genevieve LaCaze gets her “little bit of fame”
If Athletics Australia is looking for answers to our worst Commonwealth Games results since 1986, they need look no further than the antics (and comments) of one Genevieve LaCaze, the self-admitted attention-seeking GenY so-called “athlete”, who after only finishing 5th in a less-than-inspiring performance in the 3000m steeplechase felt, nonetheless, entitled to her “little bit of fame” by making world-wide headlines ‘Stage Bombing’ Kylie Minogue’s closing ceremony performance.
All for attention:
Australians stole the show at the closing ceremony for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games with the baton for 2018 handed over to the Gold Coast.
Jessica Mauboy and Kylie Minogue performed on stage with one surprise Aussie guest: steeplechase runner Genevieve LaCaze hopped on stage and danced alongside Minogue and other performers, waving a miniature Australian flag.
The athlete, who is celebrating her 25th birthday on Monday, was centre stage for nearly a minute before being gently ushered away by security.
“I just wanted a little bit of claim to fame,” LaCaze told Channel Ten after the ceremony.
“I wanted a little bit of TV time, I am turning 25, so why not.” LaCaze said that, while she still did not know if she would be disciplined for her actions, she had no regrets.
‘‘The opportunity to dance with Kylie Minogue doesn’t come around every lifetime, so I took it,” she told Brisbane radio station B105.
And making matter worse the report goes on to inform us that:
Twitter erupted in cheers for the cheeky LaCaze.
“In cheers”? Am I the only one who sees the problem here? Who sees what’s happening with our current crop of athletes caught up in the selfie culture of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other forms of various social media hero (and self) worship?
I am reminded of Paul Newman’s famous line from the classic movie Cool Hand Luke, “What we have here is a failure to communicate” …. only in reverse. What we have here is an over-communication and a failure to focus (on the job at hand). What we have here is a generation (called “Y”) brainwashed and brain-deaded by the lure of so-called fame on their little iPhone screens. Addicted to the applause and ‘you-go-girl’ accolades from their fellow ‘friends’ and followers (who are nobodies in themselves) for just being a jerk. I’m only surprised that LaCaze didn’t take a selfie while she was up there with Kylie.
These same distractions caused by addiction to social media were pinpointed as a major reason for Australian athletes underperforming at the 2012 London Olympics too. Especially our swimmers, who were constantly being “cheered on” (without achieving anything) by their adoring and misguided followers. Why didn’t we learn that big heads don’t win races?
Before you call me an old grump stuck in the past and point to the likes of Dawn Fraser’s post Olympic Games antics in Tokyo in 1964 (when Dawn climbed up a flag pole and stole a flag), well yeah, if Dawn were of this time and era she might have done the Genevieve thing too. But there’s a difference – a bloody big difference. Compare and contrast the two:
- Dawn Fraser had just completed her 3rd multi-gold medal winning Olympics. She was our greatest ever female swimmer, world record holder and a totally committed & focused athlete just letting off some well-earned steam. Genevieve LaCaze is an under-achieving good-time girl. A nobody on the rankings and (at 25) unlikely to ever win a major event.
- Dawn Fraser was promptly banned from competitive swimming (anywhere in the world) for 10 years, effectively ending her stellar career. Genevieve LaCaze is likely to get off with a slap on the wrist, if that. And she’s being “cheered” on Twitter?!!?
But yeah, it’s a real hoot, aint it Gen-Gen (Y)? You got your ‘One minute of fame’ but it’s a pity you didn’t decide to do that on the track. You see, “the opportunity to dance with Kylie Minogue doesn’t come around every lifetime (sic)” and neither does the opportunity to do something of real meaning and worth. Maybe you should have taken that instead?
(PS to Iain: I don’t use Twitter but you’re welcome to send Genevieve a tweet with a link to this post. Someone needs to tell her … and Athletics Australia …. that this ain’t good enough)
Proof positive that the Poms are popping Peptides
(by Ray Dixon ~ Internet Sports Scientist)
I demand an inquiry!
(Apologies for the Facebook style post)
By the numbers
Its a good thing that the use of signature for electronic transaction is coming to an end, as far as I’m concerned
But advocates for the elderly and disabled still have concerns about the new system.
‘‘The purpose of this is better security but for some people it will have the reverse effect,’’ Council on the Ageing Australia’s chief executive, Ian Yates, said.
The council has had reports of bank staff advising elderly people with memory problems to carry a written record of their PIN.
‘‘I’m sure that’s not the official bank position … but that’s what some people will do,’’ Mr Yates said. ‘‘The security implications are worrying.’’
The president of Blind Citizens Australia, Greg Madson, said many older members had never navigated a terminal keypad. ‘‘We will be advocating for some sort of uniformity across the design of these [terminals] so that people who are vision impaired … [do] not have to struggle around the keyboard,’’ he said.
The executive director of the Australian Retailers Association, Russell Zimmerman, said retailers were prepared for the switch and the majority welcomed it.
‘‘It’s going to be far more secure,’’ said Mr Zimmerman, who knows of one man who regularly signed for credit card purchases as ‘Mickey Mouse’. ‘‘Retailers just do not look at these signatures.’’
I have long thought that it was just too easy to copy a signature on the back of a credit card, so much so that I have long had “Pin only” written on the back of my credit card. To be honest I don’t think that there will be a substantive number of may fellow codgers who have problems with this change. Heck I think that many of them will have , like yours truly, already embraced the Paywave tech which makes the use of even a pin number largely obsolete.
Sometimes change is worthwhile but you won’t hear that said often from me.
Cheers Comrades
I have added a donation button the the blog, sadly It does not work if readers just wave their credit card over it …….
Scoring one for the good guys
Managed to get another one up on QandA last night, first one for a while:
Time is the one thing that so many latte sippers fail to give their children #qanda
— Iain Hall (@theiainhall) July 14, 2014
As my most obsessive fan was having the night off he will undoubtedly be spitting chips that he missed it.
My learned friend on the other hand was all over it like a rash… ah that brings back memories
Cheers Comrades
Ian Thorpe finally admits he swims for the other team, nobody is surprised, cares or thinks that it matters at all
As one of those who does not care who fucks who as long as the fucking is all mutually consensual and all of the fuckers are adults I can’t help thinking with the admission for Ian Thorpe that he swims for the other team “why the lies and bullshit Mr Thorpe?
Back in the spotlight: Ian Thorpe.
After years of dismissing speculation about his sexuality, Ian Thorpe has revealed he is gay.
Thorpe made the admission in a tell-all interview with Sir Michael Parkinson, News Corp reports.
The interview, which will air on Sunday night on Channel Ten, has been described by Sir Michael as one he had wanted to do for a long time.
“Ian Thorpe has always been near the top of my list to interview. The reasons are obvious. Not many athletes can claim to be the best of all time. Ian can.”
Before he retired for the first time at the age of 24, Thorpe broke 22 world records and won five gold and three silver medals and one bronze medal at the Olympic Games.
But despite his success in the pool, Thorpe’s career has been plagued with persistent rumours about his sexuality.
In his 2012 autobiography, This is Me, Thorpe confronted the speculation head-on: ”For the record, I am not gay and all my sexual experiences have been straight. I’m attracted to women, I love children and aspire to have a family one day … I know what it’s like to grow up and be told what your sexuality is, then realising that it’s not the full reality. I was accused of being gay before I knew who I was.”
Guess what I’m going to be watching tonight?
The odds may be against Queensland but I do hope that we do better than match one …..
Cheers reserved for later Comrades
NBA, Racism and Jeremy Clarkson
Those of us who read Orwell’s 1984 with a libertarian ethos will always have the greatest concerns about the notion of any thought being a crime but in the last few days we have seen some of the most egregious examples of the notion of the thought police being both real and crushing the face of humanity under the jackboot of political correctness.
The first example that I will touch on only briefly was that of the owner of a NBA franchise making a genuinely racist remark that was overheard, recorded and then broadcast on social media, as a consequence he has been stripped of his franchise, and “fined” millions of dollars. All of this has been loudly applauded on social media but I can’t help thinking that those who have been cheering so loudly may soon rue the day when it became a social crime to say something “offensive”. The reaction has been a rather horrible example of mob rule and the negative potential of social and mass media.
click for source
The next item in this litany of political correctness gone mad has been the bullying of Jeremy Clarkson for what can only be described as a slip of the tongue. Like Jezza I learned the eneny meany mineie mo rhyme in its original form where one caught the “nigger” by his toe and I also read the Noddy books as a child which had “golliwogs” as the the primary naughty toys. Such things learnt in childhood are the very last thing to go for the senile and for the the still cognitively functional such notions and well learned rhymes do not lend themselves to change without a great deal of conscious thought. Thus I have no trouble believing that what Clarkson said while trying to deliver his spiel was genuinely unintended and even if it had been intentional I don’t believe that there was any “racist intent” here. None the less the scions of political correctness have leaped upon this off air faux pas with a great deal of malice and spite. Anyone would think that Clarkson was a Kiddie fiddler from the amount of rancour vindictiveness expressed on social media when ion fact he is just a middle aged petrol head who has a good line in witty chat about cars.
By all means lets get upset at deliberate and blatant racism but the quest for linguistic purity that we are seeing in our age of social media is utterly obscene and if only the loudest voices calling for Clarkson’s sacking would think for just a minute they might just realise that what they are calling for will not make the tiniest bit of difference to the sum total of racism on the planet. All it will do is restrict free speech and honest discourse.
Cheers Comrades
Ah the sixties…
Iain Hall's SANDPIT 