Later today, Pim Verbeek will be announced as the coach of the Australian national football team. This comes after he was recommended to the FFA by former manager Guus Hiddink, and another Dutchman, Dick Advocaat reneged on his contract. So Australia is staying Dutch, so to speak. Verbeek has extensive experience in Asia, which was certainly a major factor in his selection. The other main contender was Phillippe Troussier, a Frenchman who also has experience in Asia, leading Japan to an Asian Cup win. Although Troussier is pretty highly regarded (he is more experienced than Verbeek at international level), I think the FFA’s decision to stay Dutch is a good one. We haven’t yet firmly established a particular style of play. But having come so far down the Dutch path, it might be counter-productive to try playing a different way. Keep in mind that the FFA’s technical director, Rob Baan, is also Dutch. With a Dutch national coach and technical director, at least we should be assured of continuity in the style and method adopted by our national teams, and hopefully the technical director has some success in embedding this style and method at the grass roots level of the game in this country.
So, the last day of Movember has arrived, which means, tomorrow, my mo disappears. I’m in the awareness raising game rather than the money raising game this year, because I couldn’t get my act together. Maybe next year. Anyway, if you feel like donating some money to the Movember cause, I’m sure Michael and/or Jim would love a last-minute sponsorship.
In the wake of international criticism following its banning of the computer game Mass Effect and the subsequent lifting of the ban, Singapore’s Media Development Authority have released a hip hop video in which its executives rap about the role of the Authority. Ever wondered how to fit “service oriented architecture” into the lyrics of a hip hop song? No problem for the MDA.
Kevin Rudd and Labor have out-Liberaled the Liberals by saying they’ll spend $2.3 billion in their campaign launch compared to Howard’s whopping $8.5 billion. All I can say is good on them. Massive government spending in a time of real inflationary pressures is, as Kevin 2.0 puts it, reckless.
I’ve noticed the Greens have been taking out half page advertisements in mX. In Thursday’s edition (mX, page 11, 15/11/2007), their advertisement headed “Stop Climate Change” says “2° degrees of global warming is our limit” and “Scientists say if global warming passes 2° degrees there will be disastrous consequences for our planet and society.” I’m sure that in each case they meant to say “2° Celsius”. I know it’s not a huge blunder, but it still makes you wonder about the thoroughness of their party machine, and to screw up on a topic on which they’re supposed to be authoratative is a bit worrying. I don’t think it will hurt them, though. The 2007 election will probably be one of their best yet. For what it’s worth, I’m no longer a member of the Greens.
So Android has been released. As I suspected, Google has not actually released a phone of their own. Could be an interesting platform for researchers in the mobile/ubiquitous computing space who want to develop prototypes quickly. One of the creators of the platform hopes that someone develops an application that can help interpret his wife’s thoughts…
I’m fascinated by the idea of ordinary football fans being able to own a football club and collaborating to decide on which players to buy and sell. This idea is very close to reality as MyFootballClub has agreed terms with Ebbsfleet United FC to buy a controlling share of that club. MyFootballClub members get a say in the running of the club, including picking the team from week to week. This takes Fantasy Football to a whole new level! At £35, it’s very tempting to buy my own share of the club…
One might imagine the idea of letting the fans pick the team could drive the manager crazy, but here’s the reaction from Ebbsfleet United’s manager, former Ireland international Liam Daish:
Everyone has worked wonders to get this club into the top half of the Conference. We all agree the club needs something extra to take it to the next step. As a football fan, I think the MyFootballClub idea is fantastic. And as the coach, I look forward to the challenge of working with thousands of members to produce a winning team. Alan Kimble and myself are 100% committed to making this work.
I think “challenge” is the key word in that quote.
Mum’s “official” birthday follows Karen’s by exactly a week each year. Here’s a photo of her and Xander at Victoria Point today, where we celebrated her birthday.
Just in case you missed it the first time I blogged it, here’s the Hipster Shuffle video. Equally funny the second time around!
Sometimes one has a moment to turn around and look back along the path they have walked, and remember the good times, the bad times and everything in between. I’m truly lucky to be able to say that so far my life has been filled with happiness and hope, in no small part due to my parents and my brother, and more recently my darling angel Karen and my son Xander. But there are those whose lives have not been so fortunate, some of whom are very close to me, and it is for them that I post this beautiful montage about hope. It’s set to one of my favourite Cat Empire tracks (which is how I came across it). It’s a little bit religious, but that shouldn’t dissuade you from watching it.
I like this.