This Is Not A Joke

A new ball game - with tasers.



Hat-tip : The Volokh Conspiracy

According to The Daily Caller, Eric Prum, one of the founders of Ultimate Tak Ball, said, “It’s not technically a police grade Taser. That being said, the first thing the (players) will tell you is that they hate getting tased. Those things really do hurt.” Apparently, players aren’t concerned about the danger associated with being shocked since the Tasers used in Ultimate Tak Ball only produce a 300,000-volt stun, which is significantly less than what would be required to kill. The shocking apparatus used in Ultimate Tak Ball do not fire probes like the Taser models popular with law enforcement and the self-defense community.

Mr Moore Is Salaried....

Another snippet from Whats My Line...What kind of work does Bobby Moore from London , England do?

If the Premiership Was Decided On FPTP

I'm getting a bit tired of all these "If sporting events were decided under AV then..." arguments from the NO campaign.

Because election races aren't really athletics races. If they were, they wouldn't let men and women compete in the same elections. And they aren't really horse races either, because if they were, the Lib Dems have won Orkney and Shetland so many times they would have to be given a big handicap in the next contest. And they aren't really boxing matches, because if they were Cyril Smith would have been in a separate election all by himself.

And election races certainly aren't football matches. But if football competitions were decided on the first round, this is how the Premiership would have been decided this season:

Premier League table snapshot

As it stood on 14 Aug 2010 23:59 UK
Position Team P GD PTS
1 Chelsea 1 6 3
2 Blackpool 1 4 3
3 Aston Villa 1 3 3
4 Wolves 1 1 3
5 Blackburn 1 1 3

Like I said, I'm tired of these sporting comparisons.....

All Hail The All Whites!

Not a bad world cup for me personally , as I had Holland in the office sweepstake...

But the gane that riveted me most was New Zealand 1 Italy 1 - a defiant performace by the All Whites.

And am I the first person to point out that New Zealand were the only team to leave the World Cup Finals unbeaten?

West Ham Olympic

I love the suggestion of West Ham United moving to the Olympic Stadium and renaming themselves West Ham Olympic

Just think :

* The club doctor would be Doctor WHO
* Opposing fans could never chant "Who are ya?" again. Instead Irons fans could sing "We are WHO"
* The Doctor Who theme tune would be a great piece of music for the players to run out to...

Anyway, how did Marseille get the name "Olympique Marseille" when the Olympics has never been in the south of France?

Here's To You , Mr Robinson

Like maybe 99.5 % of Europeans, I'm not a baseball fan, and I had barely heard of Jackie Robinson until last week. I'm now aware that he was the guy who broke through the colour barrier in baseball in the late 1940s.



The reason I know more about him now is that I stumbled upon this account of his fight before he was famous. A fight to sit where he liked on an army bus. A gripping story...

What Would Jesus Do On the Basketball Court?

The Covenant School of Dallas, Texas operates under the mission statement

"The Covenant School exists to glorify God by equipping students with the tools necessary to pursue a lifetime of learning so that they may discern, reason, and defend truth in service to our Lord, Jesus Christ. . ."

It's got itself some bad publicity - not for it's science teaching -

"Various supplementary articles will be provided throughout the year to provide information about current findings in science and to support a Biblical worldview of origin topics."

- but for it's girls basketball team.

As the Likelihood of Success blog reports it:

A Texas high school girls basketball team has apologized for winning big. The Covenant School, a private Christian high school in Dallas, defeated Dallas Academy last week in a blowout: 100-0. . . .

During the lopsided Jan. 13 game, spectators said the Covenant School ran up the score, playing aggressive offense, even with their 59-0 lead at halftime. The girls kept on the pressure until they scored the 100th point.

The Dallas Academy, a small private school with 20 girls, is for students with learning disabilities.

But the coach didn't agree with the apology , and has now quit.

I'm a definite believer in competitive sport at school. But it's interesting to see a case where competitiveness is pushed too far....

There's a whole load of stuff about this on the ESPN website here. With some heated audio debate here.

Four Days Before Fifty Years -Sport

Here's one of my favourite sporting memories - the 1991 World Athletics championships. Black, Redmond, Regis and Akabusi take on the USA....

All Good Things Must Come To An End. But Do They Have To End After One Season?

Southend are down.

A Football Post

Well, I'm still seething about the World Cup, and I place the blame firmly on the shoulders of Mr Eriksson. We paid this man 25 million pounds and he can't even take enough strikers with him.

Let this be a lesson to all those who believe that you need to pay vast sums to get the right top people for a company or other organisation - Eriksson got about ten times the salary of the French coach.

I went to Lillywhites last night - England shirts have 70 percent off! I didn't see any Walcott shirts, but probably they're not ready yet.

Anyway, on a brighter note, Southend United are up into the Championship this season. The team have been out in Bermuda, as part of the "good-bye" to Bermuda and Southend player Shaun Goater, who is retiring. They've just beaten the Bermudan national side 3-2 in a friendly , and I've got to say it seems a very classy and thoughtful way to thank the squad for last season's efforts and to prepare for the season to come.

The club have just made two new signings, who coincidentally have one international cap each - the Leeds striker Michael Ricketts, and Motherwell left-back Stevie Hammell. I must admit I hadn't heard of Hammell before. What's interesting about Hammell's signing was that it was the quality of life in Southend that clinched the deal. The Evening Echo quotes him as saying:

My little boy is just 7 years old and his eys just lit up when he saw the seafront and the rides and amusements. Equally importantly, my girlfriend liked the place too, especially all the shops in the High Street

Essex Triumphant

Coca-Cola Football League One Table:

1. Southend 82
2. Colchester 79
3. Brentford 76
4. Huddersfield 73
5. Barnsley 72
6. Swansea 71
7. Nottm Forest 69

If my father was still alive (he'd be 104!) he would be very proud.... he was so devoted he wouldn't get married on a Saturday because he didn't want to miss a reserve game.

A Perfect Sunny Afternoon

Went out this afternoon delivering some Focus leaflets in one of the rural parts of our district ward. Ate a few sun-warmed blackberries, chatted to a few people, then saw the end of the cricket at my colleague Ron's house.

It's been great to see such an epic battle between two superb teams , who a) respect each other and their fans b) have tremendous talent and c) both deserve to win. Cricketers aren't angels, but make much better role models than most top footballers.

The nice thing about cricket , compared with football, is that it isn't just the richest club that wins...