It's been a fairly eventful week, especially in the realm of the news. I even got some money I was owed.
In international news, the big event was the elimination of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers. That these people still have the support of the expatriate Tamil community is beyond me. The Tigers were a band of unprincipled brigands who should have faced the justice system a long time ago. I only hope that they get fair trials, which something else to be concerned about. The Tigers, according to CSIS and the RCMP, extracted by various coercive means, CAN$1 million every month from Torontonian Tamil businesses alone. Some of this was along the lines that non-compliance would earn that person a black mark in the community, while other methods were of the more threatening variety. I think everyone should be glad that the Tamil Tigers are gone, and so should the Tamils themselves.
Another event I've been following closely via the CBC website is the trial of Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien. After the 1st week, we've heard from Terry Kilrea, the man O'Brien is accused of attempting to influence, and John Baird, a current Cabinet minister who was responsible for political appointments at the time of the mayoral election. According to analysts, Kilrea maintained his ground and Baird's testimony corroborated Kilrea's affidavit partially. Kilrea had been grilled for days by Mike Edelson, the defence attorney, while Baird's testimony was rather brief, lasting barely a day. Baird essentially confirmed the part of Kilrea's affidavit where Kilrea maintained that the discussion of a parole board appointment never came up in a meeting they had. While this may score some points with Kilrea's credibility, it doesn't really add any new evidence, but not all witnesses have testified yet. All I can say is that this trial is becoming curiouser and curiouser by the day.
There was big news in the world of biology with the unveiling of Darwinius masillae, a lemur-like primate supposed to be one of the missing links in the hominid evolutionary chain. It lived about 47 million years ago, was the size of a smallish cat, had a long tail, opposable thumbs and fingernails, as opposed to claws. The fossil was discovered in 1983 but its significance was not established until 2 years ago. It's just one more thread in the tapestry that is the story of human evolution.
A curious bit of news was the referendum in Western Australia (WA) over whether or not to adopt daylight savings. WA trialled the system until this year when a vote was held on it. The No side won 55%-45%, which means that during the summer, WA, like Queensland, will not go forward 1 hour. That will put 3 hours behind Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart in the summer; those cities are all in jurisdictions which have daylight savings. I think, if you look at it, daylight savings makes sense since the day (09:00-17:00) is planned around 13:00, not 12:00. On the long summer days, it actually makes more sense to have sunrise and sunset "later" than they would normally be, though really, not daylight is "saved" by daylight savings. WA has always been a little strange though and they are the only state with a reasonable separatist movement; they're like the Québec of Australia.
I mentioned money earlier on and it was the long-awaited back pay from the government approved ACTTAB EBA. I got about $400 and was very happy about it. I bought a few things I needed, among them, a new pair of black cleats for $109.00. This is for AFL umpiring work and training. They're pretty comfortable and I had great run in them at training of Thursday. They grip the ground really well and I was able to get a lot of speed while running. These will last me for some time.
Following on from that, I have some aussie rules news. In my picks for game winners, I had a perfect round guessing 8-of-8, boosting my record to 39-17. At a game today, I also had an encounter with a player who voiced his disagreement with one of my calls. The ball was on the ground close to the goal posts when the player in question kicked the ball, but just as he kicked it, a player from the defending team touched it which meant it was a 1-point behind, not a 6-point goal. When I signalled this, the player ran over and told me in no uncertain terms that he disagreed with my decision. I just remained calm and continued about my business. The defending team was awarded a free kick at the center circle as a result and if the player had continued his vocalizations, I might have reported him. It's all part of the game and you can't let it get to you.
I also happened upon a curious irony. In Mandarin Chines the name for the Germans, "do gwo ren" translates to "the moral people"; do gwo is a transliteration of "Deutsch", the word Germans call themselves. When I first heard this I laughed hysterically. I then suggested that an alternate name, which still preserves the transliteration slightly, would be "da sha ren", meaning "the genocide people". I can have a very dark sense of humour.
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