Why Thailand's Generals Will Root for Man U - TIME

Why Thailand's Generals Will Root for Man U - TIME

Interesting article, though ultimately it doesn't tell us much we didn't already know. Although shinawatra is accused of human rights abuses, and is probably guilty of a least some, at the end of the day the institution that would have carried out the abuses are the military that replaced him in last years coup, and are trying to pursue him through the courts here. It is a bit reminiscent of the situation in russia, where there is no party that a western liberal could point to as the one to support, unfortunately they are all corrupt in one way or another. And money, who controls the economy is almost always at the heart of events

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/08/17/sfnnev117.xml

An interview with probably the most underated English footballer of the last twenty years in the telegraph. Unfortunately it is more about his determination to play for England for as long as he can. When you look at his increasing injury proneness over the last couple of years, and the state of the national team, that have actually got worse under Maclaren, I would have thought he is more better off thinking about one more crack at the champions league.

Rio talks About Scholes:

"Anyone who says they've not been shouted at other than Paul is probably lying. He can't be shouted at, he's too good to be shouted at. He doesn't make mistakes, he's just a great player. We've got a lot of great players but Paul Scholes is a fantastic footballer. You just say 'Paul, you do this' and that's it. Paul's loved as a footballer by his fellow professionals. For him not to have won the PFA Player of the Year or the Football Writers' Player of the Year is a travesty for someone of his talents."

You can't argue with that.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/08/16/blanc_brings_brilliance_to_bor.html


Larry White the next United manager ? It was a pity we didn't buy him earlier in his career when we had the chance, because even though you could see he was past it when he eventually did come to United, you could also see what a player he must have been in his prime.

Latest music listened to

1. The cinematic orchestra - Motion : I really loved this. i am not sure what to describe it as, for me it has elements of film score, funk and ambient techno, this was their first album. I will be checking out the rest of their stuff.
2. Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger : The critics have a problem with Adams because they think he is inconsistent and underachieves. They are probably right, but he is still worth listening to, and this is ok without being anything special.
3. Parliament - Chocolate city : I am a big fan of the other half of George Clintons P-Funk collective Funkadelic, but haven't really listened to much Parliament. This was the more commercial group, thats why it never appealed to me as much. This is a good album, but i would have to say i was right to think that Funkadelic would appeal to me more.
4. Aim - Means of production : A compilation of earlier stuff, i read an internet article comparing him to DJ Shadow. It is not as experimental as he is but a good listen.

T.V
1. The Shield - building up nicely again
2. Cape Wrath - I have to say i lost interest with this over the last three to four episodes, it seemed to me to be trying to be a UK version of Lost. The fifth and then penultimate episode didn't go anywhere storywise, and could have been done away with altogether and the last episode would still have probably made as much sense. The last episode was quite good, until the very end, with everything left unresolved. I don't mind vague puzzling endings, but it just looked like they were following Lost again by setting it up for another series.


Books
1. Italy- From revolution to republic 1700- 1994 by Spencer Di Carla
I bought a fair few second hand biographies and history books from book fairs and second hand book shops about fifteen years ago, and I still have a load to get round to reading. Having read loads about the Nazi and Soviet regimes, I decided I would like to find out about Italian Fascism. But to get a better grip on that I would have to go back and read about the unification of Italy ( risorgimento ). This book contains all of that, being a general history, so seemed the best place to start. It was an excellent place to start, when you read a history of a country that you think you know a bit about, you rapidly find out that you knew nothing at all. When you look at the industrialisation of the north, it was pretty amazing to find out that Italy has no natural resources. No coal, iron ore, no gas, no oil, for me it is when you look at countries like Italy, Spain, Ireland and maybe over the next twenty to thirty years Poland, that you see what an important institution the European union has been ( i am no Eurosceptic obviously ). It was good on the north south divide, but i thought he brushed over organised crime in the south, or rather how it developed. I am going to read a biography of the statesman most instrumental in the unification in the last century, Cavour next.

An article in the guardian by economics man Larry Elliot. I have got a lot of time for his views, he is not impressed by our over reliance on the city and dependence on supposed financial guru's latest fads for trying to gamble with everybody else's money to make the super rich even richer. Instead he believes in the old fashioned values of actually making things that people want to buy, i.e manufacturing.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/larry_elliott/2007/08/the_global_financial_markets_h.html