Glorious failure, with glorious multi-angle slo-mo.
Two divers from the Philippines taking part (sort of, anyway) in the recent South East Asia games in Singapore.
Nul points.
Category: sport
I might give this a go
I’ve never used Vimeo on-demand before. But at $4.99 for a rental, this from director Luke Huxham, looks worth a watch:
[vimeo clip_id=”130079908″ width=”678″ height =”381″]
…promises to be one of the most beautiful and in-depth looks at one of the deadliest races in the world. An annual event that’s taken place for over a century, the TT is a complex road course that spans the majority of its namesake isle, where top-tier superbikes and their riders go all-out — often just inches away homes and people. On-board footage from motorcycles in the race can be terrifying enough to make you queasy.
There have been a number of attempts at making this sort of film before and none of them have really worked. The general suggestion is that this one will be a bit different. It comes out on June 26th.
To the best of my knowledge, there was “only” one rider death during this year’s TT – that was Frenchman Franck Petricola.
Wonky
And so yes, I’m up in the UK for a little while, doing hometown glory and family stuff. Google Now has gone mad, giving me bus timetables, suggesting things to do and making me cry over the exchange rate. It also suggested that I “explore” my local area. That might include the Sandygate Road ground – the oldest football ground in the world and the home of Hallam FC, the world’s second oldest football club.
Something tells me that their groundsman might not be too happy about the Google Maps shot of that historic pitch though:
That halfway line… It’s… It’s a bit wonky, isn’t it?
I wonder if it’s like that every week or if someone had had an off day just before the satellite passed over? Also, I wonder how noticeable it is/was at pitch level.
What if the left winger got substituted at half time because his manager thought he hadn’t crossed the halfway line enough, not realising that it was further up than it should have been? (On the flip side though, he was delighted with the unusually good penetration on the right.)
I’ll pop up to Hallam later this week and peep over the wall.
Fikile – u ok hon?
Here’s a statement by our erstwhile Sports Minister, Fikile Mbalula over the weekend:
and here’s a letter which has popped into the public domain this morning:
Of course, even though the $10 million payment was made to Jack Warner, it wasn’t a bribe, in the same way that that body of water at Nkandla isn’t meant for any purpose other than fighting fires.
And if it was a bribe, why would they have made that huge PR effort and the big song and dance about such a generous donation to such a worthy cause?
Nah, this totally seems legit.
Comedy moments
Today in politics:
Firstly, Sports Minister Fikile “Fickle” Mbalula (see blog passim) reacted to the FIFAgate scandal and the allegation that the SA Government had paid a $10m bribe to bring the 2010 World Cup to South Africa, with this gem:
Yep. No corruption in this nation. Absolutely not. None.
Here are some other ridiculous things he said, helpfully illustrated by high class rag The Times.
Glad we’ve got that sorted.
Then, Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko told us that the R250m upgrades to the President’s residence in KZN were necessary for security purposes and therefore, JZ doesn’t have to pay for them.
You might think that this is fair enough, but let’s just see how much they had to stretch to get some of the less obvious “security” upgrades into the “security upgrade” bracket:
And good job too, because those chickens could obviously pose a definite danger to Number 1. And in the event of an emergency, where else are you going to be able to assemble if not in an amphitheatre?
It does rather make you think that they’re taking the piss now. I mean, the signs that they’ve been taking the piss have been there for a while, but we definitely do seem to have crossed yet another line of pisstakery with today’s events.
Quoth Tom Eaton (in a post/column written (I think) ahead of the FIFA or Nkandla developments mentioned above):
They know we’re watching, but they don’t care. We’re just scenery to them now, a fleeting impression to be remembered one day when they’re lying on their private beach, laughing about the old days when they were making their pile.
Yes.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get off home to build an animal enclosure next to the firepool to stop the beagle crapping in my amphitheatre.