Blame it on the vuvuzela ...

Why has this blog been slient?

Thousands ask me. Indeed millions

Bl*&dy liar

Simple ... The Vorld Cap ...

First I followed Nu Zulun ... till they went home.

Then I followed England ... and they've gone home.

Who now do I follow ...?

I feel deserted.

England decimated by Germany. At least good old Nu Zulun did not lose a match!

Didn't win one either.

Where to now?
Scotland ... na they're not in it.

My Spanish roots ... don't have any ...

But I was pleased to note that in the England - Germany match, the Vuvuleza was getting some good competition from the excellent singing of 1000s of England fans. "Land of hope and glory..."

Fat lot of good it did them!!

Did you notice that singular fact amidst the destruction wrought on England??

eeeh thas nought like an English crowd lad.


Who can I turn to ...?

"I dreamed a team in days gone by ...." 
but

"put your teams away for another day, darling ....."

hey hey hey beautiful Sunday ... this is our our our beautiful day....

The epic and long awaited duel between Race Walking Aucland and Calliope took place yesterday (June 13) At the Ngataringa Bay course.

Teams of  6 from each club line toed the starting line just after 8:30 am on what appeared to be a beautiful Sunday - that is until the rain torrented down and the gales roared in the latter laps of the 8 lap race.

10 km lay ahead for each dedicated and semi-extinguished athlete. (Though some opted for 5 km).

Each had estimated their time and now the task was simple. Which team could be cumulatively closest to their estimated time? The suspense was palatable. Watches were gathered up and competitors walked with naked arms.

Calliope demonstrated the the experience of its athletes in the guessing domain. But I hearing you crying for more. Give the detailed results you cry - who cares about the world cup!

So here they are:

You will note that yours truly was only 3 seconds out. Mind you, I had to slow to a crawl on the last lap to achieve this. However, the day belongs to one Bill Fell who showed all the experience of  his many years as a top athlete.

Note: The TOTAL (time discrepancy) is the sum of the absolute values of each time descrepancy.
For example absolute value of -2:12 = |-2:12| = 2:12! (Exciting stuff isn't it?)


The man needs to get a life!

I would if I had one of those credit cards!  hey Chris What are ya goona do with yours?

Hey big spender . spend a little time with me ...

It is the only possible song for today folks...

Take it away Shirley! Peggy Lee Sang it too!

I see labour has some big spenders  ... living the good life ... on tax payers ... on my money (being one of your standard model tax payers).

Shane Jones list of expense looks impressive

Perhaps I should introduce Dame Shirley Bassey to Shane Jones.

I can't introduce Peggy. One of the great Jazz artists of all time is no longer with us.

That's the trouble with credit cards and debit cards ... it is too easy to fork out 700 bucks for golf equipment. Perhaps if they had to deal with cold hard cash they'd think 2x.

But I shall refrain from moralising.  I just want moi money back! Plus the interest.

I have often walked down the street before ...

I have to come out of the closet and confess that I watch Coronation Street.

Heaven knows why ... it is awful ...but that's the nature of insanity.

Ken Barlow (William Roache) is currently as I speak moving down that certain road to another of his many infidelities or is it adulteries. Does that make him an infidel?

The Street operates its story line on a numbers of cycles (not bicycles!). The episode cycle, the weekly cycle, the monthly cycle and so forth up to a ten year cycle.

I have done the research and I know!!!!

Which means you can follow the story if you only watch once a month or once every ten years.


But folks why are they called Soaps or Soap Operas?

It is because the story lines are written by people when they have having a bath. Yes it is true. Max Cryer told me!

No seriously folks ... it is because the early sponsors of the genre were soap manufacturers. It's true ... you check it out then if you don't believe me ... go on!

Finally if you don't like soap operas you have to put up this sign ....

And its one, two, three strikes your out at the old ball game ....

To warn  ... to caution
Race walking is one of those events that has to be judged. And believe you me, judging is a constant cause of consternation among walkers, official and judges alike!

First of all in New Zealand, a judge is presented with a judging sheet the distinguishes between a warning and a caution. Now in my book, these words are pretty well synonymous. However, in race walking they mean different things. A caution is not as serious and a warning. A caution is given by individual judges to the walker concerned that he or she is either lifting (both feet seen as visibly off the ground - wavy yellow paddle) or bending the knee (right angle yellow paddle).

A walker could be potentially cautioned once by every judge to no ill effects. Each judge can caution each athlete only once for an offence.

A warning is a different affair. The judge does not warn the athlete, but rather sends a red card to the chief judge. This is the judge's "proposal for a disqualification". These proposals are then marked on a board at the start/finish line for each lap for the walker to plainly see. These then constitute a warning. Once three of these reds are up on the board, the athlete will be disqualified. The chief judge will show them a red paddle.

Each judge must also record all her/his determinations on a judging sheet which is given to the chief judge after the event.

Give me five minutes more, only five minutes more ....

It is the song of the Derby County football team. The team went into the premier league a few season back but they couldn't hack it and fell back into football league championships where they languish just below half way down

It seem England are being given good odds (5/1) in some quarters to win the world cup - at this stage a tad behind Spain (4/1).

I don't like odds and prefer to convert them to pobablities; England 1/6 (.1667), Spain 1/5 or .20 and Brazil 11/2 which is a probablity of 2/13 or .1548.

I have done a small analysis of the probabilities of winning by group.

It is pretty clear to see that group A will be very hard fought with so many teams with similarly low probabilites,


By contrast, group H should se an easy win for Spain. New Zealand in group F with a 0.001 probability of winning will have their work cut out against Italy with a 0.0909 probability of winning.

Money makes the world goes round ...That clinking clanking sound Can make the world go 'round.

Liza Minelli cavorted on stage singing this one.

Shortly Bill English will "cavort" in the "house" and give his budget address. It is budget day in old Nu Zulun.

Now call me irresponsible, call me unreliable, throw in undependable toooooooo....

But the Budget day is the biggest, unadulterated bore of the year. Now I am not saying Bill is boring  ... that is too kind ... too kind  .... just tooooooo kind.

The evidence suggests that more New Zealanders start losing the will to live on budget day than any other day of the year.

Turn off the radios   ... switch off the teles  .... and don't buy a newspaper on Friday morning.

Sit down and be thrilled by the sensation of watching      paint dry ....infinitely more charming than listening to a budget address. Watch reruns of Gone with the Wind and The Lost Weekend.

Anything to avoid the budget will be a gud bet.


And then at long last another budget will be....

I can see clearly now the rain has gone ....

I found a fascinating article called Induction, deduction, and the scientific method: An eclectic overview of the practice of science by one Irving Rothchild.

Now it sounds rather heavy stuff for the usually lighter tone of this blog!

But it is a good article that begin by examining the relationship between induction (often viewed as reasoning from the particular to the general) and deduction (reasoning from the general to the particular).

Towards the end he outlines in simple terms the keys steps in the scientific methods. The steps are applicable in part to any research project or indeed problem solving activity.



So I will list them here:

1. Making observations: "Whether in the field, the library, the laboratory". Rothchild goes on to say "how these observations are collected, classified, interpreted and used as a base for theorising is more or less what science is about".

2. Point of view: "In science, the importance of our point of view   when examining information of any kind cannot to be strongly emphasised, for how we look at things determines what we see."

3. Asking the right questions:  Rothchild reminds us that Alexander Fleming "did not look at his moldy cultures and ask, 'How can I get rid of these pesky molds?' Instead, he asked, 'why are there no bacteria near the molds?' and penicillin was conceived."

4. Theorizing: "It doesn't matter whether it comes as a question, a hunch, a hypothesis, or a theory .... Theory is more important than facts, Einstein told Heisenberg, because theory tells us what the facts mean."
Often theorising involves hunches and Eurekas (I have found it).

5. Experimentation: (Gathering more information).

6. Statistics: Now of course this in only relevant to a quantitative problem. You may be relieved to know that Rothchild suggests that "Statistical tests should only be used as aids in resolving uncertainty about whether a difference between one condition or another is important." I don't entirely argue with this especially in the case of exploratory statistics.

Irving Rothchild is Emeritus Professor of Reproductive Biology  at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Cleveland, Ohio

It's Impossible It's impossible, tell the sun to leave the sky, it's just impossible. It's impossible, ask a baby not to cry, it's just ...

The results of taking the first few chapters of Genesis literally are manifold.

Not the least is the old hoary: where did Cain’s wife come from?

Another is being forced into a position of defending the Bible as a scientific document.

And of course one is left with an extremely anthropomorphicview of God (God confined to human form walking and talking).

To these and countless other dilemmas, innumerable books and commentaries have been written to defend the indefensible - a literal six creation and then God resting (now that's got ta be metaphorical if nothing else folks).

Wise folks know not to argue the merits of a 10,000 year old literal creation with me. It is the proverbial red rag to a bull.

But here’s the one that annoys me the most.

My antagonist says: “don’t you realise that us coming into being by pure chance is utterly minuscule?”. The probability of blah blah blah is next to zero”.

But that is daft post hoc nonsense.  The probability of almost any event after the fact is also minuscule.

Do you realise that the probability that particular button ended up on your shirt in that position is also infinitesimal?

But that is entirely the wrong use of probability.

Dawkins classic definition of evolution includes the non-random selection of random variation. That takes a bit of unpacking. Part of the reason is that the word 'random' in mathematics and scientific reasoning  means something quite different from its everyday use.

Now folks, I am not a great Dawkins fan. His brand of atheism/agnosticism suiteth me not.

I think Genesis read with due consideration for much of the metaphorical content points us to a deep understanding of that ultimate reality that we call God. It points us beyond words to an encounter with "the name that cannot be named".

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat .....

Well okay it's a bugle


One motto of the Calliope athletic club that is etched in the minds of all members who have been with the club over many years is this:

" No run has ever or will ever be cancelled on account of the weather"

We were forced once by the Auckland City Council to cancelled an event because of a so-called Tsunami.

World War II forced us to cancel events.

This coming Sunday ( May 9th)  Calliope and Race Walking Auckland (RWA) were to challenge one another over a 10 km race walk.

Last night we older members Bill, Murray and myself arrived at the club to discover that the event had been postponed because of Mother's Day.

Who had perpetrated this ghastly deed we asked. Must be RWA. But no!!! It was, unbeknown to us, some members of our own dear club!

Bill reeled, I found myself gasping for breath and Murray was simply inconsolable.

It was a defining moment.

A watershed.

It spoke volumes about past and present values.

It hit at the very foundations of our athletic careers.