RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A LURKER: October 2009

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

What better way to celebrate Halloween then with the .
brilliance of Thriller.

I watch and listen to it every year at this time.

Obviously this year it has a much greater significance.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Federer, Nadal weigh in on Agassi drug admission

MIAMI (Reuters) - Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both voiced their displeasure at Andre Agassi after the former world number one revealed he took the recreational drug crystal meth in 1997 and lied about the reasons for a positive test.

"To me it seems terrible," world number two Nadal said at an awards ceremony in Madrid on Thursday. "Why is he saying this now that he has retired?

"It's a way of damaging the sport that makes no sense.

"I believe our sport is clean and I am the first one that wants that.

"Cheaters must be punished and if Agassi was a cheater during his career he should have been punished."

World number one Roger Federer, who beat Agassi in the final of the 2005 U.S. Open, also spoke of his sadness at the eight times major winner's admission in his new autobiography "Open."

"It was a shock when I heard the news." Federer said at a sponsors meeting at Kilchberg near Zurich.

"I am disappointed and I hope there are no more such cases in future.... our sport must stay clean."

AMERICAN Defense

However Agassi found support at home with fellow American and Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick saying the 39-year-old remained his hero despite the revelations.

Roddick, the leading U.S. men's player who lost to Federer in this year's Wimbledon final, was one of many compatriots who remained unfazed by Agassi's admissions.

"Andre is and always will be my idol. I will judge him on how he has treated me and how he has changed the world for (the) better," Roddick wrote on his Twitter page.

Roddick said Agassi's letter to the ATP, in which he told the governing body he had failed a drugs test because his drink had been spiked, came at a time when the player was far from his peak.

"To be fair, when Andre wrote the reported letter, he was well outside the top 100 and widely viewed as on the way out," said Roddick.

Source: Reuters

Interesting reactions from both guys. Federer is Mr. diplomatic as usual whereas Nadal is a no nonsense kind of guy.

And then of course there's Roddick ever the staunch defender of a fellow American player. But I gotta say I'm siding with him on this one.

I'm not saying it's right by any means, but I still don't see the big deal with players who dope up, it would be a different story if they were taking performance enhancers.

Boy, did Agassi ever get lucky though. I don't know how severe the punishments for taking drugs were back in '97.

But I'm sure it wouldn't have been pretty with something like crystal meth.

Certainly brings a whole new perspective on the whole Hingis, Gasquet thing doesn't it?.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

World's weirdest statues

Statue of a giant piece of shit (Ponta Grossa, Brazil) LOL

Bronze statue of writer Franz Kafka (Prague)

Mazinger Z (near Tarragona, Spain)

A contemporary representation of Charles La Trobe in central Melbourne (This temporary installation was removed at the end of June 2006 and has been acquired by La Trobe University).

"Fluegelauto", on top of the historic armoury "Zeughaus" (Cologne, Germany) Those totally remind me of Asterix

In front of the Bukcheon Museum (Seoul, Korea)

Keukenhof (Lisse, Holland)

(Singapore)

Salt Lake City

"Iron Lady", in front of the building Regentes (Netherlands)

"The Shark" (Headington, Oxford)

(The Institute for Microbiology, Tübingen University, Tübingen) EWWW

(Springfield, Missouri)

(Potsdam, Germany)

(Santa Fe, New Mexico)

Statue in the Guadalquivir river, near La Mezquita, (Cordoba, Spain)

Car park markings continue up the wall of the building where a Morris Mini is parked. The head- and taillights light up at night. (Westenbergstraat, Netherlands)

(Oslo, Norway)

(Prague)

A Mona Lisa made of computer chips (ASUS headquarters)

The "Magic tap" (found in "Aqualand" of Cadiz, Spain), which appears to float in the sky with an endless supply of water. Actually, there is a pipe hidden in the stream of water that holds the whole structure.