Still trying to figure out cricket. It's not as easy as one might let you think. For instance, here's the intro on wikipedia:

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The bowler, a player from the fielding team, bowls a hard, fist-sized cricket ball from the vicinity of one wicket towards the other. The ball usually bounces once before reaching the batsman, a player from the opposing team. In defence of the wicket, the batsman plays the ball with a wooden cricket bat. Meanwhile, the other members of the bowler's team stand in various positions around the field as fielders, players who retrieve the ball in an effort to stop the batsman scoring runs, and if possible to get him or her out. The batsman — if he or she does not get out — may run between the wickets, exchanging ends with a second batsman (the "non-striker"), who has been waiting near the bowler's wicket. Each completed exchange of ends scores one run. Runs are also scored if the batsman hits the ball to the boundary of the playing area. The match is won by the team that scores more runs.

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Sounds pretty easy doesn't it? Well keep reading:

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The aim of the bowler's team is to get each batsman out (this is called a "taking a wicket", or a "dismissal").^[3] Dismissals are achieved in a variety of ways. The most direct way is for the bowler to bowl the ball so that the batsman misses it and it hits the stumps, dislodging a bail. While the batsmen are attempting a run, the fielders may dismiss either batsman by using the ball to knock the bails off the set of stumps to which the batsman is closest before he has grounded himself or his bat in the crease. Other ways for the fielding side to dismiss a batsman include catching the ball off the bat before it touches the ground, or having the batsman adjudged "leg before wicket" (abbreviated "L.B.W." or "lbw") if the ball strikes the batsman's body and would have gone on to hit the wicket.^[4] Once the batsmen are not attempting to score any more runs, the ball is "dead", and is bowled again (each attempt at bowling the ball is referred to as a "ball" or a "delivery").^[5]

The game is divided into overs of six (legal) balls. At the end of an over another bowler from the fielding side bowls from the opposite end of the pitch. The two umpires also change positions between overs (the umpire previously at square-leg becomes the bowler's umpire at what is now the bowling end, and vice versa). The fielders also usually change positions between overs.

Once out, a batsman is replaced by the next batsman in the team's line-up. (The batting side can reorder their line-up at any time, but no batsman may bat twice in one innings.) The innings (singular) of the batting team ends when the tenth batsman is given out, leaving one batsman not out but without a partner. When this happens, the team is said to be "all out". (In limited overs cricket the innings ends either when the batting team is all out or a predetermined number of overs has been bowled.) At the end of an innings, the two teams exchange roles, and the side that has been fielding bats.

A team's score is reported in terms of the number of runs scored and the number of batsmen that have been dismissed. For example, if five batsmen are out and the team has scored 224 runs, they are said to have scored 224 for the loss of 5 wickets (commonly shortened to "224 for five" and written 224/5 or, in Australia, "five for 224" and 5/224).

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Strange that the recent decision to pull Australian troops out of Iraq received hardly a mention down under. Nor on the U.S. news sites. It's obviously not good news for the Bush coalition. But I fail to understand why they aren't talking about it here either. 'Let's just slip away quietly' seems to be the message.

Finally found a reference, on a website in India. 

Happy Australia Day - celebrating the landing of the first group of European colonists (actually convicts that the British were trying to get rid of) at Sydney Cove in 1788.

Wherein we ingest large quantities of alcoholic substances and roast all manner of meat products on the BBQ.  

Care for a kanga steak, mate? No? That's OK, we've got bangers and burgers too.  

Coulda' sworn I saw a notorious hotel heiress in the foyer this morning. But then reality set in and I discovered it was somebody else - of course. You see, sometime in the last several months it seems that Ms. Hilton magically went from 'small and perky' to about a 38DD (dinner for 6) cup size; likely requiring an entirely new wardrobe as she would've literally busted out of any of her old rags.

Dang. Must be about 5 kilos of silicon in those things. Surprised she doesn't fall over.

The girl I saw was a dead ringer except for a) the distinct lack of bling, and b) the lack of such extreme cleavage.

Though I should note: One of the more pleasant aspects of living in Australia is that 'small and perky' is as alien a concept as American football.  

The latest headlines over here mostly revolve around one Corey Worthington; an otherwise unknown 16-year old boy in Victoria. 

His parents went away and left him alone for the weekend. What do you expect happened next?  

Well, duh! The kid threw a party and invited all his friends. Then they invited friends. Before you know it, there are 500 teenagers doing what teenagers do when the 'rents are away. Par-tee!

The police were called in due to alcohol, vandalism, and I presume noise complaints. The kid is now facing not only criminal charges, but a $20,000 fine for the excess police that were needed to clear things up. I guess he can forget about wiping up the spilt beer and keeping it a secret from his parents.

They found out on ABC news.  

The summer has brought out all manner of strange creatures I've never encountered before. Huge black nasty bugs that look like they bite, and they try incessantly. Worse than the flies, and they look downright dangerous. One thing you learn quickly here is that anything that looks dangerous - probably is. 

Curl worms - we've found a bunch of these in the yard. It's a grub, but these things are monstrous, half an inch thick and three-four inches long. Similar to the tomato bugs you'd find on occasion in the states. I hear the aborigines eat these when there's nothing else in the bush to live off of.

Think I'll pass.

Next, I think they're called 'cicadas' (sp?)  - which are the loudest cricket like things I've ever heard. If you wander through a grove of trees, the sound level can approach the threshold of pain. You can't sleep if one of these decides to sit outside your bedroom window.

I've already described the 'R2D2 bird'.  But the summer has brought even stranger noises. There's a 'crying baby' bird that sounds like a newborn kid with soiled britches. And now - all day I've been hearing the sound of a 56k modem connecting and establishing sync. It's coming from outside the window. Walking around the campus, it turns out that it's coming from the treetops, not from an office window. I'm just gonna' call it a 'modem bird' until I figure out a better name...

China has moved to ban ultra-thin plastic bags as a packaging material, citing environmental concerns.

This move on the surface sounds laudable. However I note that here in Australia, the skinniest plastic bags are sought out by consumers as opposed to the more durable bags and wraps manufactured overseas.

I was informed it was because those manufactured here, especially the micro-thickness bags - are in fact bio-degradable. Perhaps they're cellulose instead of poly-eth or poly-prop. I haven't researched it enough to know. But perhaps there might be potential for a booming export market in bio-degradable containment materials.

I think that the Sydney Harbor fireworks display takes the cake as being the world's best. What is interesting is that they manage to maintain the title year after year and leave the competition in the dust - when you would think that at some point somebody would start to catch up. Apparently the way to stay on top is to double the amount of explosives every year. Last night's display was totally awesome. 

What you would think of as an awesome grand finale anywhere else in the world is just the background display here. What's more, that's what's happening on just one barge in the bay. Now imagine taking your most awesome spectacle, and having it happen simultaneously on five or six barges in a line down the harbor, all of them completely synchronized - to each other and to the background music. 

Then if that weren't enough, you've got the display on the harbor bridge itself - the centerpiece. The spectacle here is completely over the top.  Some of us were surprised to still see the bridge standing at the end. Wave after wave of synchronized streams of light shooting into the sky along the length of the bridge.   

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part2

...One has to wonder if the U.S./Baghdad campaign might have turned out differently had the Sydney pyros been put in charge of the 'shock-and-awe' part.