"The private party, thrown by Stake.com co-founder Bijan Tehrani, was held at 29 St Georges Rd on Monday night with “every hot influencer in Melbourne” there, along with US rapper YG who put on a private show for guests.

Mia Fevola, Jordan De Goey, James Hachem, Tommy Bugg, Sam Guggenheimer, Jasmine Tavares, Hannah Dalsasso, and Shaun Wilson and Tess Shanahan"

Is that our a Thomas Bugg who we had for 10 min??

Final game of the season.

Final votes of the season.

3, 2, 1....

The Diamonds/Rinehart spat is dominating the environment thread but it has nothing to do with the environment or climate change.

Bubbling along at the same time are Pat Cummins’ anti-Alinta stance, Saudi Arabia’s use of golf to try to improve its image, the ban on Russian athletes, and now the Socceroos’ powerful criticism of Qatar’s human rights abuses:

https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/wo...6b46f6b317

Going back in time there are the Olympic boycotts, Peter Norman’s support of the Black Power protest, athletes taking the knee in support of Black Lives Matter, the Springbok protests and eventual ban on South African sport.  I guess the dreadful Munich Olympics tragedy could also be included as could Hitler’s use of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  Then there’s tobacco, alcohol, gambling, etc advertising.

The old adage, “sport and politics don’t mix” seems to be more honoured in the breach.

Discuss …

Thry’s comments about the etymology of Gallipoli got me thinking about Cyprus.  I’ve never been there but it’s a place I’d love to visit.

My late brother served with the United Nations Civilian Police on Cyprus in the late 1960s.  His stories of grenade attacks, Roman and Greek ruins, and the cultural links that joined the Greek and Turkish communities were fascinating and played no small part in my career choices.

My brother had a gift for languages and was fluent in Turkish and Cypriot Greek (he also learnt Swedish and was able to give a keynote speech in Swedish after 10 days in the country).  When we attended ANZAC Day marches together, his encouragement of the Greek and Turkish contingents was always reciprocated … and his dark complexion had both contingents claiming him as one of their own.

In more recent times, several of my mates/colleagues have Cypriot heritage and they are very interested in hearing about my brother’s experiences.  One close friend’s husband recently published a wonderful book called Tales of Cyprus.  It details the close relationship between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, a relationship that has been torn apart by 20th century geopolitical machinations.

My friend’s husband’s latest effort is an exploration of Greek Cypriot language.  Many Greek Cypriot words/phrases have Turkish or Arabic origins, as you would expect given Cyprus’s location and the expansion and contraction of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires.  I suspect that the Norman colonisation of the Mediterranean was also a factor.

So, what does this all mean?  Nothing apart from trying to understand the local geopolitical situation.  Attempting to explain events in other parts of the globe at other times through the Cypriot lens doesn’t work.  It is a fascinating example of cultural processes at work.

Final round of the season. Officially out of finals.

I believe its our 4th friday night match in a row and 5th in 6 weeks.
Add in our Thursday night opener and that is 6/10 Thurs or Friday night games this season. I can't imagine we'll get the same treatment next year.

It's potentially the last game of a few well known players (and potentially a coach).

Hopefully we put up on a solid fight.
I'm not optimistic as i think the dogs have a better side.

Started well, couldn't keep up.

Who deserves 3, 2, 1 this week.

George was brave, Haney too classy again. Ill make a bold prediction that this young kid (23) will go down as the GOAT.
Boxer versus Fighter, boxer prevails.

3rd Friday night game in a row. This time its the later game.

Gold Coast are definitely gettable, but will be pushing hard for finals. Whereas after R8, our hopes have all but gone.

Brilliant for a quarter. Went missing from then on.

Who deserves the 3, 2, 1?

It's interesting how the mass media focusses on Growth and Interest rates.

I appreciate these are very important measures for some, and if you are retired you want high rates with low inflation, but the reality is growth and interest rates are only the primary focus of one version of global economics, and it's a pretty old version controlled by banks and old money. Some might claim it's a fairly myopic approach, because in reality it only measures one very narrow aspect of wealth.

While much of the world trembles and baulks at the idea of a recession, there are large regions that will sail on through "the terrors" simply because progressive leaders have already moved away from the growth model, and it seems they are killing it in terms of outperforming the rest. You don't even have to be a country to make this move, some individual states and regions have changed how they measure progress from growth, GDP and the like towards efficiency measures and they are reaping the benefit.

As I understand the problem is that the growth model is driven by greed, more sales, more widgets, more resources, more consumption means fatter wallets ............... for some. But it doesn't mean it is really more profitable, just the same percentages of a bigger number, full of all the same percentages of wasted resources as well!

The efficiency model changes from gearing wealth to the growing size of the pie, and starts making the slices go further by eliminating waste and improving efficiency. It's is a movement strongly opposed by the old world money.

The modern efficiency model is a bit like the Christian parable of "The Loaves and The Fishes."

Anyway, if the shizen is to hit the fan, I thought a venting thread might be quite useful for some! ;D