A judge in the Court of Appeal had stated that a policeman in London should not be offended by being aggressively sworn at by a criminal. This should not be construed as 'resisting arrest'.
I wonder how the judge would feel if the same criminal addressed him in court? No doubt the accused would be held in 'contempt of court'. Suppose such a person were to let off a stream of invective in an old person's home populated by old ladies born in the 1920s? My mother would be offended and so would I.
One of the current cases being considered by the Football Association concerns the English Football captain, John Terry, who it is alleged, abused the Queen's Park Rangers' defender, Anton Ferdinand, by the words, "F---ing black c---". Excuse me if I do not spell it out. Anton Ferdinand is a member of a large footballing family which includes Rio, a former England captain and well known twitterer, and Les, a previous England centre forward who is now a coach at Totenham Hotspur. He is also an evangelical Christian who has led prayer groups at his former clubs. Who would not be offended by being described by such an epithet?
John Terry is a yob who cuckolded former full back, Wayne Bridge, (a rather intelligent Southampton lad, who happened to play as a schoolboy against my son), and who withdrew from the International game because of the incident. Terry's elder brother, recently had an affair with another footballer's girlfriend, leading to the footballer committing suicide.
There are plenty of decent minded footballers around. I hope we have seen the last of Terry and his kin. Cappello, the England manager, has a reputation as a strictly moral boss who stands no nonsense. Let us hope he does not let us down.
Showing posts with label Sport. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sport. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Racism in Sport
South Africa-born former England cricket all-rounder Basil D'Oliveira has died at the age of 80. Fifty years ago South Africa was in the grip of Apartheid and Basil, by far the best cricketer in that country was, as a 'cape-coloured', not allowed to play cricket officially. He wrote to the English Cricket commentator, John Arlott, in green ink to ask if it was possible for him to play in England. Within 2 years he was an England international. He finished with a Test batting average over 40 an unusually high average for an all rounder.
Eventually Basil was a major catalyst for the ending of apartheid in South Africa, still the greatest success for the anti-racist movement worldwide.
This all sets the current 'crisis' about racism in football.
In a sense the racism battle has already been won. When I was married in 1967 I caused a little bit of squirming by choosing an ethnic Indian as my best-man. He was actually a Kenyan whose parents had left Goa, a former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India. He was also a Christian.
In Switzerland Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president has upset some English footballers (and David Beckham) by suggesting that racial insults on the pitch should be forgiven and forgotten with a handshake at the end of the game. Blatter has since apologized and withdrawn his statement. It goes to show that it is unwise to comment on a situation that you are not really part of.
FIFA was already in bad odour because of widespread belief that delegates within the inner circle are irredeemably corrupt and by a silly refusal to allow English and Welsh players to wear embroidered poppies on their shorts for international matches played over Armistice weekend.
There are two current issues in the English Premier League under consideration. In one the Liverpool player Soares, who is Spanish is accused of calling the Man U, French player, Patrice Evra, a 'nigger', though this may be a language problem between French, English and Spanish. I did watch this match, though, and felt that Saurez spent the whole match trying to niggle Evra including with foul tackles from behind which went unpunished.
The other case involves John Terry who reportedly was abusive to Anton Ferdinand, the brother of former England captain Rio Ferdinand. Both the Ferdinands are of mixed race and I don't thing it is the racial content of the insult that is the greatest offence of it. Terry reportedly used the 'C' word to describe Ferdinand. Terry is a London lout with a history of bad behavior; it runs in his family. Since both Terry and Rio Ferdinand are reaching the end of their careers and have been vying for the England captaincy, one can easily see where the tensions lie.
I suspect most readers, unless vehement supporters of the various clubs that the players are attached to, will regard this as a storm in a tea cup. I remember the days when fans used to take inflatable bananas to football matches to imply that black players were descended from monkeys. Things have greatly improved in England, though no doubt there are still places where racism persists. The number of black faces that one sees on television and in parliament suggests that the great prejudice about race that did exist when I was a boy has largely been dissipated with succeeding generations.
There is no doubt that prejudice does still exist. In London we are seeing a trial of two white guys who allegedly murdered a black man at a bus stop. That was 19 years ago and at the time the London Police Force was declared to be 'institutionally racist'.. With large waves of ethnically different immigrants, particularly in London, since then, one might have expected the situation to get worse. Yet it is difficult to make that judgement honestly. Police are prejudiced against criminal and large numbers of young black men are criminals, as the London riots in the summer have confirmed. It is clearly wrong to racially stereotype people, but then it is probably inevitable. Stopping and searching old white (or black) ladies would be a waste of police time. Topping and searching young men in parts of East London makes more sense if applied to white youths (there are very few black youths there) but in West London, most young men are Asian and in South London, Afro-Caribbean or Nigerian.
In Scotland the main divide is sectarian between Catholic and Protestant. This too spills out onto the football pitch. The recent fine of £34,000 that EUEFA imposed on the Bulgarian Football Association for chanting abuse at black England footballers at a EUEFA qualifier demonstrates that Racism has not been eliminated from football, but it has been reduced by a great deal while I have been watching the game.
Eventually Basil was a major catalyst for the ending of apartheid in South Africa, still the greatest success for the anti-racist movement worldwide.
This all sets the current 'crisis' about racism in football.
In a sense the racism battle has already been won. When I was married in 1967 I caused a little bit of squirming by choosing an ethnic Indian as my best-man. He was actually a Kenyan whose parents had left Goa, a former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India. He was also a Christian.
In Switzerland Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president has upset some English footballers (and David Beckham) by suggesting that racial insults on the pitch should be forgiven and forgotten with a handshake at the end of the game. Blatter has since apologized and withdrawn his statement. It goes to show that it is unwise to comment on a situation that you are not really part of.
FIFA was already in bad odour because of widespread belief that delegates within the inner circle are irredeemably corrupt and by a silly refusal to allow English and Welsh players to wear embroidered poppies on their shorts for international matches played over Armistice weekend.
There are two current issues in the English Premier League under consideration. In one the Liverpool player Soares, who is Spanish is accused of calling the Man U, French player, Patrice Evra, a 'nigger', though this may be a language problem between French, English and Spanish. I did watch this match, though, and felt that Saurez spent the whole match trying to niggle Evra including with foul tackles from behind which went unpunished.
The other case involves John Terry who reportedly was abusive to Anton Ferdinand, the brother of former England captain Rio Ferdinand. Both the Ferdinands are of mixed race and I don't thing it is the racial content of the insult that is the greatest offence of it. Terry reportedly used the 'C' word to describe Ferdinand. Terry is a London lout with a history of bad behavior; it runs in his family. Since both Terry and Rio Ferdinand are reaching the end of their careers and have been vying for the England captaincy, one can easily see where the tensions lie.
I suspect most readers, unless vehement supporters of the various clubs that the players are attached to, will regard this as a storm in a tea cup. I remember the days when fans used to take inflatable bananas to football matches to imply that black players were descended from monkeys. Things have greatly improved in England, though no doubt there are still places where racism persists. The number of black faces that one sees on television and in parliament suggests that the great prejudice about race that did exist when I was a boy has largely been dissipated with succeeding generations.
There is no doubt that prejudice does still exist. In London we are seeing a trial of two white guys who allegedly murdered a black man at a bus stop. That was 19 years ago and at the time the London Police Force was declared to be 'institutionally racist'.. With large waves of ethnically different immigrants, particularly in London, since then, one might have expected the situation to get worse. Yet it is difficult to make that judgement honestly. Police are prejudiced against criminal and large numbers of young black men are criminals, as the London riots in the summer have confirmed. It is clearly wrong to racially stereotype people, but then it is probably inevitable. Stopping and searching old white (or black) ladies would be a waste of police time. Topping and searching young men in parts of East London makes more sense if applied to white youths (there are very few black youths there) but in West London, most young men are Asian and in South London, Afro-Caribbean or Nigerian.
In Scotland the main divide is sectarian between Catholic and Protestant. This too spills out onto the football pitch. The recent fine of £34,000 that EUEFA imposed on the Bulgarian Football Association for chanting abuse at black England footballers at a EUEFA qualifier demonstrates that Racism has not been eliminated from football, but it has been reduced by a great deal while I have been watching the game.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Convalescing
How have I been spending my time while convalescing? I have been watching films, sleeping and reading.
I am still ploughing (plowing?) through the book on Bayesian statistics, but that has been a little heavy. I have also decided to attack 'A Game of Thrones' the first novel in George R. R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels. I believe it is being serialized on TV, but that is on one of the few TV channels I don't have. Still I have always preferred the book to the movie.
I did watch a spy thriller on BBC TV last night called 'Page 8'. For a thriller it was rather gentle but the cast was stellar. Perhaps it could have done with a real film director. David Hare's strong views about rendition failed to allow the equally valid view that fighting bad guys with one hand tied behind our back leads to the triumph of evil.
I finally got around to watching the movie "The time traveller's wife". I read the book some time ago and preferred it to the film. Brad Pitt owned the rights and his mate Eric Bana starred as the beefcake. It was less complicated than the book.
I have also watched The Apostle starring Robert Duvall and one to stand alongside Tender Mercies which I saw a long while ago.
Miss Pettigrew lives for a day is also a heartwarming RomCom starring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams and set in a London just before the second World War where night clubs and West End musicals are all that a young girl thinks about until she meets a couple of survivors from the first world war, who takes life a little more seriously.
Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont stars Joan Plowright as an elderly widow signed in as a long-term resident at a private hotel in London for the genteel poor. She expects her grandson to call but he never does. Instead after a fall she is adopted as a grandmother by a nice young busker on the London underground. As the friendship blossoms she finds she has more in common with him than with her own family.
Apart from the films, I have watched to football. Already after 3 games Manchester United are top of the league and Manchester City second. Both had big victories over London clubs at the weekend with United's drubbing or their closes competitors over the past 20 years, Arsenal, sensational. They won 8-2. I should h8-2 be an Arsenal supporter at present!
I am still ploughing (plowing?) through the book on Bayesian statistics, but that has been a little heavy. I have also decided to attack 'A Game of Thrones' the first novel in George R. R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels. I believe it is being serialized on TV, but that is on one of the few TV channels I don't have. Still I have always preferred the book to the movie.
I did watch a spy thriller on BBC TV last night called 'Page 8'. For a thriller it was rather gentle but the cast was stellar. Perhaps it could have done with a real film director. David Hare's strong views about rendition failed to allow the equally valid view that fighting bad guys with one hand tied behind our back leads to the triumph of evil.
I finally got around to watching the movie "The time traveller's wife". I read the book some time ago and preferred it to the film. Brad Pitt owned the rights and his mate Eric Bana starred as the beefcake. It was less complicated than the book.
I have also watched The Apostle starring Robert Duvall and one to stand alongside Tender Mercies which I saw a long while ago.
Miss Pettigrew lives for a day is also a heartwarming RomCom starring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams and set in a London just before the second World War where night clubs and West End musicals are all that a young girl thinks about until she meets a couple of survivors from the first world war, who takes life a little more seriously.
Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont stars Joan Plowright as an elderly widow signed in as a long-term resident at a private hotel in London for the genteel poor. She expects her grandson to call but he never does. Instead after a fall she is adopted as a grandmother by a nice young busker on the London underground. As the friendship blossoms she finds she has more in common with him than with her own family.
Apart from the films, I have watched to football. Already after 3 games Manchester United are top of the league and Manchester City second. Both had big victories over London clubs at the weekend with United's drubbing or their closes competitors over the past 20 years, Arsenal, sensational. They won 8-2. I should h8-2 be an Arsenal supporter at present!
Monday, August 08, 2011
Football season begins
The Charity Shield is a pre-season football match between the League Champions and the FA cup winners, which is usually used as a last training run before the season opens. It is seldom a proper match, but yesterday's event was more than that. For one thing it was a grudge match between the two Manchester Clubs, City who have been taken over by an Arab who owned one fifth of the Word's oil reserves and United who are the most successful British Club ever.
City have bought established players from around the world while United have bought young British players. The result was an injury time 3-2 win for United. What made the game exceptional was a wonder goal conjured up by the new boy, Tom Cleverly, together with old (but only 25) stagers Rooney and Nani. Man Utd policy of training up very young players and retaining them as long as they are happy seems to pay off. In their squad are seven strikers: Rooney, Berbatov, Owen, Wellbeck, Diouf, Macheda and Hernandez as well as Young and Giggs who have played there. Midfielders now include Giggs, Fletcher, Anderson, Carrick, Nani, Cleverly, Young, Park, Gibson and Valencia and defenders include the two Da Silva twins, Smalling, Evans, Vidic, Jones, Ferdinand and Evra and there are three goalkeepers in DeGea, Kurszczak and Lindegaard. There are a few who may be on their way out like Obertan and Bebe, but 9 other youngsters are signed up for the 1st team squad.
I can't see that spending £32 million and breaking the wage structure for Wesley Sneijder from Inter is a good idea. With this squad they should see off both Chelsea and Man City for the foreseeable future.
The season starts anew next weekend.
City have bought established players from around the world while United have bought young British players. The result was an injury time 3-2 win for United. What made the game exceptional was a wonder goal conjured up by the new boy, Tom Cleverly, together with old (but only 25) stagers Rooney and Nani. Man Utd policy of training up very young players and retaining them as long as they are happy seems to pay off. In their squad are seven strikers: Rooney, Berbatov, Owen, Wellbeck, Diouf, Macheda and Hernandez as well as Young and Giggs who have played there. Midfielders now include Giggs, Fletcher, Anderson, Carrick, Nani, Cleverly, Young, Park, Gibson and Valencia and defenders include the two Da Silva twins, Smalling, Evans, Vidic, Jones, Ferdinand and Evra and there are three goalkeepers in DeGea, Kurszczak and Lindegaard. There are a few who may be on their way out like Obertan and Bebe, but 9 other youngsters are signed up for the 1st team squad.
I can't see that spending £32 million and breaking the wage structure for Wesley Sneijder from Inter is a good idea. With this squad they should see off both Chelsea and Man City for the foreseeable future.
The season starts anew next weekend.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The Mighty are fallen.
Surpassing even the visit of President Obama, the news has been dominated by injunctions obtained by the rich and famous to stop newspapers publishing gossip about their sexual indiscretions. In France, as we have seen, private things are kept private. In the UK libel has always had a public interest defence. The newspapers are confused by what it is in the interest of the public to know, usually 'them' misusing our money, and what the public would be interested to know, namely scandal and gossip. It is this that sells newspapers.
Of course, injunctions issued by English courts have no power over different countries and once the news is out somewhere else it soon spreads to England. In the latest case Ryan Giggs, a Manchester United footballer of high reputation and a married man with children, is alleged to have had an affair with a former Miss Wales. Coincidentally he has been the best footballer for Wales for many years.
I suppose most people would be more concerned over whether Ryan Giggs plays well in the Champion's League Final against Barcelona next Saturday at Wembley and this publicity may well unsettle him. I guess if Manchester United win, all will be forgiven; if they lose he may well be blamed despite his 12 Premier League titles.
I wonder how Lance Armstrong feels at the moment?
Of course, injunctions issued by English courts have no power over different countries and once the news is out somewhere else it soon spreads to England. In the latest case Ryan Giggs, a Manchester United footballer of high reputation and a married man with children, is alleged to have had an affair with a former Miss Wales. Coincidentally he has been the best footballer for Wales for many years.
I suppose most people would be more concerned over whether Ryan Giggs plays well in the Champion's League Final against Barcelona next Saturday at Wembley and this publicity may well unsettle him. I guess if Manchester United win, all will be forgiven; if they lose he may well be blamed despite his 12 Premier League titles.
I wonder how Lance Armstrong feels at the moment?
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Record
A few days ago I commented on the fact that no white man had ever run the hundred meters in less than 10 seconds. It seems that my information was slightly out of date. Three weeks ago, the new European Champion, Christophe Lemaitre from France, became the first white athlete to do so, recording a national record 9.98 seconds at the French Championships.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Wimbledon
Gary Lineker once said that the best way to watch Wimbledon was on teletext. He was speaking about the soccer club AFC Wimbledon, home of mute movie star, Vinnie Jones. But he could have been talking about tennis. I mean Veneria versus Senus - who cares?
But nice to see the Lions give South Africa a stuffing. Notice how many South Africans play for the Cheetahs?
But nice to see the Lions give South Africa a stuffing. Notice how many South Africans play for the Cheetahs?
Monday, August 25, 2008
BBC caught out again.
From this morning's Independent: "The BBC was forced to apologise yesterday after admitting that its flagship news bulletin had inadvertently misled viewers (my italics) over the withdrawal of the Chinese athlete Liu Xiang from the Olympics."
"The bulletins showed Liu withdrawing from the race - he had an Achilles tendon problem - then appearing to kick a mat in frustration. But the footage of the athlete in the warm-up zone was filmed before he had entered the Bird's Nest stadium."
I italicized the 'inadvertently misled viewers' because this is a repeat of the error that led to Peter Fincham losing his job as BBC1 controller earlier in the year. On that occasion they showed a video clip of the Queen apparently flouncing out of a photographic appointment because of the photographer's apparent impertinence. Careful editing had created a story where there was no story.
It is clear to me that the Liu Xiang was made to seem unsporting and a bad loser by piece of inventive editing deliberately to enhance a story. No wonder the BBC was not keen to publicize the attempts by Hezbollah to enhance their stories with photoshop editing last year. They clearly feel vulnerable on these techniques.
It is a sad day when the BBC's reputation for fearlessly telling the truth has been so besmirched of late by cheap tricks by post-modernist twerps who have no regard for right and wrong.
"The bulletins showed Liu withdrawing from the race - he had an Achilles tendon problem - then appearing to kick a mat in frustration. But the footage of the athlete in the warm-up zone was filmed before he had entered the Bird's Nest stadium."
I italicized the 'inadvertently misled viewers' because this is a repeat of the error that led to Peter Fincham losing his job as BBC1 controller earlier in the year. On that occasion they showed a video clip of the Queen apparently flouncing out of a photographic appointment because of the photographer's apparent impertinence. Careful editing had created a story where there was no story.
It is clear to me that the Liu Xiang was made to seem unsporting and a bad loser by piece of inventive editing deliberately to enhance a story. No wonder the BBC was not keen to publicize the attempts by Hezbollah to enhance their stories with photoshop editing last year. They clearly feel vulnerable on these techniques.
It is a sad day when the BBC's reputation for fearlessly telling the truth has been so besmirched of late by cheap tricks by post-modernist twerps who have no regard for right and wrong.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
It's not all you see.
The American media are full of someone called Phelps who has won a lot of gold medals at the Olympics. They don't seem to be interested in Rebbecca Addlington who has large headlines in the Times of London and other British newspapers. Normally British gold medals only occur in couch potato sports where we can win sitting down - sailing, rowing, canoeing, horse riding and cycling - though we may get some losers medals for sports where we an lose sitting down, like boxing. Miss Addlington, it seems, has won two gold medals for swimming - sport where you sort of lie down in the water, and in one race has broken the longest standing world record (held by an American, Janet Evans) by 2 seconds. It has got me thinking about fraud. Not, I hasten to add, because I think there was anything fraudulent about Miss Addlington's world record, not Mr Phelps's, but of course we don't really know because we were informed of these things by television.
These Olympics are been beset by simulation. The Opening Ceremony was apparently spectacular (I never watched it - too busy with real life) but we have since learned that the beguiling nine year old was miming to the words of 'China the Beautiful' or 'China uber alles' or whatever it was called (I don't understand Chinese) as they were sung by a seven year old with a beautiful voice, but too ugly to be put on display. If this has overtones of the movie "Singing in the Rain" it should not be too surprising since the weather also interfered with the Opening Ceremony; it was too foggy to see the fireworks at their best, so the world's media were fed a pre-recorded version, some of which were computer-generated. In addition the parade of the various regions of China with local ethnic groups waving their local flags was in fact populated by the majority Han tribe. Given that empty seats are being filled by yellow-shirted 'cheer-leaders' bussed in for the purpose; it is clear that the Beijing Games were following the Los Angeles experience - not the 1984 Games; I mean Hollywood.
I heard on the wireless this morning a spoof on the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Games. The spectacular display of flying by the Red Arrows Display team had been cancelled because of the price of fuel and had been replaced by a fly past of 20 Spitfires - all computer-generated. The trouble with such a spoof is that already someone will be working on the simulation and the story will be denied by government ministers, so that everyone will be certain that it is going to happen. And who's to say they will be disappointed.
We have lost the distinction between truth and reality. In part this is down to the post-modern movement which denies that there are absolutes; in part it is because of laziness; in part it is due to the ease with which the electronic media may be manipulated.
Photoshop allows scientists to fake pictures of gels in their experiments. Back in the 1980s. Consider this from a paper I wrote in 1981:
The latest shocking revelation concerns the spectacular Mark Spector and the respected biochemist Efraim Racker. Their work was so elegant and so important that it was tipped to win a Nobel prize. They seemed to have discovered a cause of cancer. They postulated that a viral gene incorporated unto the host DNA produces a protein kinase which awakens a dormant kinase cascade. This in turn amplifies the signal and causes the phosphorylation of cell mebrane ATPase. This then acts less effectively and the cell membrane assumes cancer cell characteristics. Alas it seems that Spector was cooking the experiment. Radioactive iodine appeared where radioactive phosphorus should be and Racker banished Spector from his laboratory
With Photoshop all that mucking around with radioactive chemicals would have been unnecessary. Peer Review of scientific articles is most unlikely to detect fraud. You naturally assume that they are not cheating. Unless you are doing the same experiments you are unlikely to suspect dishonesty. (A remarkable exposure of scientific fraud concerning global warming can be found on this link, however.)
A famous use of Photoshop occurred during the war between Israel and Hezbollah last year. Fake Israeli atrocities were generated that deceived the world's press (though not the blogosphere).
But I wander. Back to the Olympics. Since we mostly watch it on television, and television coverage is concentrated on the competitors of the same nationality as the broadcaster, it should be possible to by 2012 to broadcast tailor-made performances for each nation. By enlisting the help of Pixar we should be able to produce pictures of winners from any nation to order. Imagine sitting watching the Olympics on TV in a hotel in Astana. The reporter focuses on the swimming pool with the headline, 'Kazakhstan swimmer denies Michael Phelps his 29th gold medal'.
These Olympics are been beset by simulation. The Opening Ceremony was apparently spectacular (I never watched it - too busy with real life) but we have since learned that the beguiling nine year old was miming to the words of 'China the Beautiful' or 'China uber alles' or whatever it was called (I don't understand Chinese) as they were sung by a seven year old with a beautiful voice, but too ugly to be put on display. If this has overtones of the movie "Singing in the Rain" it should not be too surprising since the weather also interfered with the Opening Ceremony; it was too foggy to see the fireworks at their best, so the world's media were fed a pre-recorded version, some of which were computer-generated. In addition the parade of the various regions of China with local ethnic groups waving their local flags was in fact populated by the majority Han tribe. Given that empty seats are being filled by yellow-shirted 'cheer-leaders' bussed in for the purpose; it is clear that the Beijing Games were following the Los Angeles experience - not the 1984 Games; I mean Hollywood.
I heard on the wireless this morning a spoof on the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Games. The spectacular display of flying by the Red Arrows Display team had been cancelled because of the price of fuel and had been replaced by a fly past of 20 Spitfires - all computer-generated. The trouble with such a spoof is that already someone will be working on the simulation and the story will be denied by government ministers, so that everyone will be certain that it is going to happen. And who's to say they will be disappointed.
We have lost the distinction between truth and reality. In part this is down to the post-modern movement which denies that there are absolutes; in part it is because of laziness; in part it is due to the ease with which the electronic media may be manipulated.
Photoshop allows scientists to fake pictures of gels in their experiments. Back in the 1980s. Consider this from a paper I wrote in 1981:
The latest shocking revelation concerns the spectacular Mark Spector and the respected biochemist Efraim Racker. Their work was so elegant and so important that it was tipped to win a Nobel prize. They seemed to have discovered a cause of cancer. They postulated that a viral gene incorporated unto the host DNA produces a protein kinase which awakens a dormant kinase cascade. This in turn amplifies the signal and causes the phosphorylation of cell mebrane ATPase. This then acts less effectively and the cell membrane assumes cancer cell characteristics. Alas it seems that Spector was cooking the experiment. Radioactive iodine appeared where radioactive phosphorus should be and Racker banished Spector from his laboratory
With Photoshop all that mucking around with radioactive chemicals would have been unnecessary. Peer Review of scientific articles is most unlikely to detect fraud. You naturally assume that they are not cheating. Unless you are doing the same experiments you are unlikely to suspect dishonesty. (A remarkable exposure of scientific fraud concerning global warming can be found on this link, however.)
A famous use of Photoshop occurred during the war between Israel and Hezbollah last year. Fake Israeli atrocities were generated that deceived the world's press (though not the blogosphere).
But I wander. Back to the Olympics. Since we mostly watch it on television, and television coverage is concentrated on the competitors of the same nationality as the broadcaster, it should be possible to by 2012 to broadcast tailor-made performances for each nation. By enlisting the help of Pixar we should be able to produce pictures of winners from any nation to order. Imagine sitting watching the Olympics on TV in a hotel in Astana. The reporter focuses on the swimming pool with the headline, 'Kazakhstan swimmer denies Michael Phelps his 29th gold medal'.
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