Not long after Imran was voted as one of the world's most handsome, or sexiest, men (I can't remember exactly) he was playing in Australia and felled by a low blow. He slowly buckled over and tried to relieve some of the pain in his groin and ended on his knees, face on the pitch.

Richie Benaud : That shouldn't happen to a Prince. There will be tears in the eyes of young girls all over the world tonight.
Rod Marsh: Well I should think there's a few tears in Imran's eyes too Richie!

Methods of getting out in Cricket: Laws 30 to 39

Bowled
Timed out
Caught
Handling the ball
Hitting the ball twice
Hit wicket
Leg before wicket
Obstructing a fielder
Run out
Stumped

A "wide" in simplest terms is when the ball is bowled so far to the side or above the wicket that batsman is denied a reasonable opportunity to score.
In other use: "The Slashdot Editor's life looks like being called a wide".

It is for now, Unobtanium. ;)

Local records office is full of them. Went there to submit house plans and though I had a go, I found I lacked the skills to even manipulate one to the counter. They seemed to be aimless and uncontrollable which is probably why the local authority had them stored in the one building. I am fairly sure that 150k would be a bargain for a new one. A lot of these were older models and possibly cost as much as that to maintain annually. Fully autonomous advanced models for their day though, so I left fervently hoping that the powers would let them all loose soon during a value-for-money drive.

Well I would like them to find a way to make Pizza taste as good the day after. Nothing you can do with it seems to bring back the consistency, aroma and taste that it has when it first hits the table.

I confidently make a prediction that this will never happen.

Mr President, we simply cannot allow afford a closed die forging press gap!

Yahoo buying useful applications and then stuffing them royally has been a hallmark!! Remember the MusicMatch thing as well? Took a popular MP3 player/library and tried to replace it with a total piece of shit they developed in house in a half-arsed effort to transfer the customer base to their own failed adver-bloat offering.

What sort of a company buys up a superior product simply to remove competition to their failed product? Oh......... I'll just walk away now. :)

PS. Reckon she could get someone to look at reversing some of this damage? Pah! Dreams..sigh.

Look up "Australia NBN". I think you'll find plenty of articles and discussion on the points you raise.

In a nutshell:
Govt forms a company in which it initially holds 100% shares - it's called the National Broadband Network (NBN)
NBN borrows capital on open market to fund construction. Borrowing guaranteed by Govt.
NBN uses income from network to pay back debt as network is rolled out.
Success of project is guaranteed by granting a monopoly for fixed communications network to NBN co.

Project: The three technologies.
NBN lays FTTH to all premises reachable in towns with population > 1000.
High speed fixed wireless is provided to more sparsely populated areas.
High speed duplex satellite is provided to remote populations.

NBN co. cannot retail services - only wholesale to ISPs and other large users (utilities?)
Retail service providers may not own or compete with NBN co fixed infrastructure. No vertical integration allowed.
After project is complete (10+ years) Govt. sells off its holding of NBN co shares. Shares to be sold at a commercial rate that recoups investment + profit for Govt outlay.

Political views (abridged and rough)
Left and centre-left, and centre-right, "brilliant, finally a government doing something that needs to be done"
Right and far right, "communism, pure and unadulterated socialist attack on the freedoms of all"
Technophiles, "OMG finally something nearly right, but the interfaces aren't quite right and opportunities are being missed."
Rupert Murdoch, "this is a direct attack on my media, cable tv, telephony empire. Change the government now".
Opposition parties, "it's too expensive, under costed, inefficient and we'd do the same thing but not as good, but cheaper and anyway you only want it to watch porn and I have an ipad anyway, so there."

It is generally agreed that to attempt the same project in the USA would be laughable. Something about the constitution et al.

"third world country like Australia"

fug.......................

While most television aired in the US undoubtedly manages to portray foreign events deeply, fairly and truthfully, there may have been one or two liberties taken in the report referred to.

No Aboriginal treaty/treaties exist in Australia therefore crapping over them becomes ridiculously hard. There is a song about "Treaties" that was very popular though. It proclaims the need for a treaty such as that exists between the Maori and Pakeha of New Zealand. View here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7cbkxn4G8U
Rainforest around suburban Sydney hasn't existed in general since the local glaciers melted 20k years ago.
One State Government comparatively recently spent 30 million dollars gently de-sexing koalas to reduce their numbers as local over-population was severely degrading the natural environment. Others have spent far greater amounts constructing tunnels and overpasses for them for them to use in post-arboreal nocturnal perambulation (walkabouts).

Perhaps there is a point here in that if the Aboriginals were to be encouraged to go back to eating koalas (lack of predators leaves only disease and habitat as population controllers) there'd be more chance of cultivating rainforests around the suburbs. Note for Man vs Food fans: Koalas are rumoured to have a strong eucalyptus flavour that disagrees.

Disclaimer: I currently live in a suburb that has many koalas happily harvesting the local sclerophyll forest. They are common in this locality. We have internal plumbing to crap upon and this makes up for a lack of treaties to disrespectfully soil.

It's simply convergence. Think of the television as a large smartphone. In the near future when you sit down at the Christmas feast you will be able to share with friends and family in far flung places. You'll be able to attend meetings and interact at lectures. You can already do this at your pc? Then you already understand, just think of interacting in the lounge-room rather than the basement. The television is just an oversized monitor now, it's just getting incrementally smarter (and bigger).

Need to see a doctor or receive post-hospital care at home? Your internet connect television/ip phone allows this to happen in your home. You will be able to plug your auxiliary medical kit into the usb slot and your practitioner will see your vital signs directly.
It's Jetsons but sadly without the flying car.

The television has become the focal point of media in the home. Making it the communication device as well is a very simple step in the digital age.

Seriously, that's the best rant I've seen in a week.Cheered me up immensely. Kudos sir!

I have a car, a V6, that by the flick of switch (factory installed) changes from LPG to petroleum and back again. There is zero detectable performance difference. I stomp the pedal it throws you back in the seat. It goes up mountains just fine. Fuel injection, oxygen sensors and timing chips are the great advantages in modern engines. The only noticeable difference is that LPG is half the price and if you keep the car in idle for a couple of minutes it automatically switches fuel until you get moving again.

If it requires a heavyweight truck to transport these things then doesn't being on a train actually add security? It's not like somebody isn't going to notice you trans-shipping the "item". I figure that it would require at the very least a container forklift. If it's already on a truck on a highway it must be easier to just make it disappear?

When using a sextant you take 2 sights at sunrise (and sunset). These are known as first limb and second limb. Been like this for centuries I'm told. I'm sure you can infer when these are taken.