What to watch for: 

Hometown favorite Caleb Truax fights for his first title, taking on a risky opponent in Kerry “The Great White” Hope.  Don’t you just love that ring name?  Hope isn’t a big banger, but he is strong and fit and skilled and confident.  Truax and Hope will contend for the WBF International middleweight belt. 

Mohammed Kayongo, sparring warrior, finally gets a good opportunity against highly touted youngster James Todd, who not-so-coincidentally is a gym-mate countryman of Kerry Hope.  Kayongo has had just two fights in the last four years, but as mentioned before, he is an in-demand sparring partner, so he shouldn’t be too rusty.  The winner of this scrap gets the IBA Americas junior welterweight belt, which is more than a trinket but less than a big-time belt.

In what may be a sleeper pick for Fight of the Night, former amateur standouts Michael Faulk and Ryan Soft, both excellent athletes with good pop, square off in a bout to be contested somewhere between welterweight and middleweight (the Fistic Mystic doesn’t have good info on the class).

Charles Meier looks to pay back a favor to all-action Mexican import Marvin Rodriguez, who put the only blemish on Meier’s record back in January of this year, a split decision in Meier’s professional debut.  Rodriguez has proved himself to have a stone jaw in his four professional fights, and die-hard boxing fans are catching on that what he lacks in artistry, the super-tough Rodriguez makes up in excitement.

Elite referee Mark Nelson, a Twin Cities native, is currently at the WBA’s annual convention in Medellin, Colombia (www.wbanews.com), but will be departing early from that event so that he can referee Friday night in Saint Paul.

• Caleb Truax (13-0 with 9 kayos) -vs- Kerry Hope (12-2 with 1 kayo), middleweights, scheduled for 10 rounds
• Mohammed Kayongo (14-2 with 10 kayos) -vs- James Todd (2-1-1 with no kayos), light welterweights, scheduled for 8 rounds
• Michael Faulk (1-0 with no kayos) -vs- Ryan Soft (1-0-1 with 1 kayo), junior middleweights or middleweights, scheduled for 4 rounds
• Charles Meier (3-1 with 2 kayos) -vs- Marvin Rodriguez (2-2 with 1 kayo), super middleweights, scheduled for 4 rounds
• Two MMA bouts will round out the card.

If you can make it to Brit’s Pub (http://www.britspub.com/) in downtown Minneapolis at 6pm on Thursday night, do it!  The weigh-in may be a great spectacle or a boring chore, but it’s at least worth it to see how some real Welshmen react to a fake British pub and restaurant!

Sharp-eyed Boxrec watchers have already noticed that Kerry Hope’s name has replaced Carl Daniels in the opponent slot for Caleb Truax on November 20th.  According to Tony Grygelko, proprietor of Seconds Out Promotions, contracts have been signed and the fight is now for a WBF Intercontinental title instead of the IBA title that had originally been in play.

Stay tuned for more news!

With The World Blogging Forum 2009 now at an end I can finally chill out and look at everything that happened in these few very interesting days. I have to say that this is the first post that I’ve ever written in English so please signal any mistakes in the comments below. I have to mention that this is the WBF the way I saw it, the point of view of a member of the Romanian team that organized this event.

The Palace of the Parliament, a.k.a. Casa Poporului

As I’ve become more and more interested in blogging and new media the idea of the WBF sounded very interesting to me from the beginning (I have to admit that I was a tiny bit worried that we would screw something up, but that’s just my usual paranoia) and when Mihaela Draghici (ASLS’s current president) asked if I would be interested in the project I immediately said yes.

The first day (I’ve already posted a very brief article about the first day in Romanian) was more about getting the location ready, greeting the bloggers at the airport and taking them to the hotel.

Some minor preparations

Tuesday we really got into it. The location was already set up so the talks started immediately. We delegated people for every aspect so the ASLS team was covering just about anything you could think of. We really did our best to make everything as good as possible.

After Traian Basescu’s speech the media, in their traditional manner, stormed out. Basescu did not impress me personally and I cannot share any political view on this matter as I am apolitical. The foreign bloggers on the other hand seemed to be impressed with his speech and the fact that he knew anything at all about new media. Loïc Le Meur was surprised to see that Basescu is using twitter and they even shared a couple of tweets. Austrian blogger Ritchie Pettauer , who maintains Datadirt dot net said that if this happened in Austria the president would just show up, wave a bit and leave, so he was surprised as well. (Ritchie Pettauer is one of the most sociable persons I’ve ever met, really enjoyed chatting with him).

The coffee and lunch breaks were a welcome pause in the terribly poor moderation of Dumitru Borțun. I repeat, this is my personal opinion, so if you liked the way that mister Borțun uttered his loud viewpoints that’s fine with me. Still, wtf?

Me and Val Vladescu

The discussions took a very different turn with the guest speaker from the Netherlands, Ramon Stoppelenburg who shared with us his very inspiring travel story. You can find more details about Ramon from his English blog and his travel website. As I said before, I was sitting at the round table so I had a microphone in front of me so I thought “Hey, I should totally participate” so I waited until Ramon was finished so I could talk about the amazing blog Mongolia.ro, which has a very unique story of a Romanian photographer that traveled from Romania to Mongolia and back using his beloved motorcycle and money he got from selling off the story of every 500 km that rolled under his wheels (I’ve followed his journey in Romanian and became a huge fan). American blogger, David Sasaki picked up on this, liked it a lot, and included it into a post on his blog. (David really impressed me with his speech in the second day, so his blog and website is a must-see)

Ramon - the grandfather of couchsurfing

After this, the focus went back on the social side of things with more talks about citizen reporting. Excepting some minor periods of down-time, not more than 10 minutes long, the wireless connections that were especially set up for the forum were remarkably fast, chiefly on upload. The bloggers had positive feedback on this aspect as well. Come to think of it, the minor complaints (some needed more power sockets to plug in their devices) were resolved in decent time. Don’t get me wrong, the technical set-up could have been better – a lot better. The projector was kind of a mystery to me in the beginning but we got it to work half of the time . Sorry for any technical setbacks, next time we’ll try to be better prepared.

Tuesday evening, after leaving the Palace of the Parliament the VIP guests were taken to Carul cu Bere for some traditional food and music. They had a good time but when I arrived, much, much later, it was almost time to go back to the hotel. I managed to have a nice chat with Petru Terguta, the journalist and blogger from The Republic of Moldova, nice guy. This just meant that I got a few more hours of sleep, welcome rest indeed.

The second day of actual discussions was Wednesday. The focus shifted to a different side of new media, the future of blogging. Guest speakers included the blogger from Hungaria, Dobó Mátyás, an IT expert. Ritchie Pettauer, who told us about the monetization of blogs, had a very interesting presentation. I really was interested in what they had to say so from the very beginning I found a spot at the round table between Ramon from the Netherlands and Erkan Saka from Turkey. Just as I was about to ask a question, the moderator Dorina Guţu (who did a pretty good job, by the way) rushed the speakers for the lunch break so I didn’t get to ask anything. No matter, I got my answers during the lunch break in the hallway. The catering was to my taste on both forum days, the coffee was strong and the fruit fresh, the staff friendly, nothing to complain from me.

The translation was pretty good. I went around and asked a few of the participants to rate the translations. Feedback ranged from good to very good. Kudos again to the translation team (the team was not made up of professionals, but of students and fresh graduates) that managed to do a good job even with really bad English, fast talking, difficult subjects and a lot of non-native speakers. For the next forum (can’t wait for the next one) we really need to get people to help out on more of the languages (Chinese blogger was really hard to understand due to bad English, sorry for that).

WBF translation team

On Wednesday I got to ask questions twice. First was after Helge Fahrnberger’s presentation. It turns out that blogging under the cover of anonymity is illegal in Austria. From what Helge told us, every blog needs to have a contact page by law. Most of us were intrigued by this and it got tweeted a lot afterwards. Twitter was actually a big part of things. My allies were ipod touch and Twitterrific, so I followed most of the tweets on wireless and didn’t have to carry around heavier devices. The ipod had an unfortunate accident. It slipped out of its leather case with force and slid about 3 m on the marble floor after crashing loudly. I am amazed that it still works and that it only got a few scratches on its screen, tough device. The bloggers turned twitter red hot and the #wbf2009’s were flying back and forth. Behold the power of microblogging that I’ve only started using a couple of weeks ago….starting to get the hang of it.

I know that this post is getting waaaay to long, but hey, don’t read it!
Andrea Vascellari, the finnish-italian blogger made a very interesting presentation and at the end of it I got to ask him his opinion on consumer trends. I asked about his opinion on the development of the “prosumer” (a term I had picked up from my older brother a couple of years back and that to me, at least, means a consumer that researches a specific product or service before spending money on it) due to internet penetration. His response satisfied my curiosity.

Me and Ana Istodorescu. I don't look like a dork in this one, yeeeah!

I have to say I usually only discuss trivial stuff but that evening my throat got sore from talking and talking and talking about serious matters, mostly with one of three italian journalists (the one that spoke good english), and the american photographer they were befriending. Won’t go into details here, can just say it was really fun and interesting. Had some beer, had some delicious cake and then left with the hired bus that took a part of the guests to the hotel (the rest stayed to party some more).

Getting ready for a group photo. This pic is courtesy of Ritchie Pettauer, thanks!

I sadly don‘t know much about the last day, the day that most of them left Romania, but for a few tweets.
That’s it!

If indeed you’ve had the patience to endure such a long article I shall make a few more suggestions:

Jeff Jedras’s blog has some great articles.
Sorin Rusi’s blog has pictures from WBF
Piticu’s blog has a guestpost about #wbf2009
Oana Raluca Brătilă posted on her blog
Ritchie Pettauer also blogged about day 2 of the event here.
Romanian blogger Chinezu posted this after attending the forum.
Great reporting in French from Eric Dupin.
This is an interesting post in Romanian as well.
Pictures from Andrea Vascellari.
Pictures on Flickr from Zola.
Luca Sartoni took a beautiful set of pictures.
These are a just a few links i’ve found. For videos search YouTube.

The pictures i’ve posted are courtesy of Dana. Hope to get more as soon as possible.

If you wish to contact me, check out my contact page.

All the best,
Dani.

again they took my passport and told me to wait about 2 hours ago from mobile web

În timp ce unii conaționali Web2.o critică din greu World Blogging Forum 2009, Wael Abbas, unul dintre cei mai mediatizați bloggeri-jurnaliști din lumea arabă, are iar necazuri cu autoritățile. El încearcă încearcă doar să revină de la București la Cairo, fără să fie arestat. Asta, după ce-a făcut la Palatul Parlamentului o prezentare cât se poate de clară a freedom of the speech din țara sa și formele ei de reprimare. Prezentare care n-a fost pe placul oficialilor egipteni.

De data asta, Wael ar fi trebuit să intre fără probleme. Nu mai e un pericol public. Calculator nu mai are. Autoritățile  l-au confiscat în iulie. Încă-l studiază. La București, n-a putut face nicio prezentare web. A păstrat însă niște linkuri offline către experiența lui, pe care nu v-ați dori-o niciodată.

Iată mesajele transmise pe Twitter de Wael Abbas.

just landed in cairo airport about 3 hours ago from mobile web

waiting in the passport control line, ya mosahhel about 2 hours ago from mobile web

7alawet el zobbat we homma maskeen seb7a about 2 hours ago from mobile web

again they took my passport and told me to wait about 2 hours ago from mobile web

they are stopping algerian people who came 4 the match too at passport control about 2 hours ago from mobile web

still waiting, it’s been 30 minutes so far about 2 hours ago from mobile web

i argued with an ameen shorta about 2 hours ago from mobile web

they now took me to a waiting place about 2 hours ago from mobile web

i met a lawyer called tarek el beltagy, he recognized me, he told me he is a human rights lawyer about 2 hours ago from mobile web

he was coming back from Jordan, and they stopped him 4 an hour and a half about 2 hours ago from mobile web

i think i’m sitting in front of state security office about 1 hour ago from mobile web

a77a howa feeh eeh! I’m really tired and sick! Eeh welad deen el kalb dool! about 1 hour ago from mobile web

a77a howa feeh eeh! I’m really tired and sick! Eeh welad deen el kalb dool! about 1 hour ago from mobile web

el zabet shtam wa7ed min elly a3deen 3ashan alloh en ba2alo sa3teen about 1 hour ago from mobile web

argued with a high ranking officer about 1 hour ago from mobile web

he is giving me nonsense about tashaboh el asmaa2 #a7a about 1 hour ago from mobile web

modeer el amn hina wel zobbat metkahrabeen about 1 hour ago from mobile web

World Blogging Forum 2009 e un eveniment care mi-a mers la suflet. Și despre care am scris foarte puțin. Aș fi vrut să scriu exact așa cum îmi sugerează Marian într-un comentariu…

Ai datoria să vorbești atât de detaliat despre WBF până voi crede că am fost acolo.

Eram de aceeași părere. Mi-am schimbat-o la citirea posturilor de după.

Blogosfera românească a fost pe altă lungime de undă. Motivele sunt simple. Micile orgolii autohtone au iesit șifonate. Geniile dâmbovițene s-au văzut ignorate. Acum ripostează, pentru că…

• La WBF n-a existat o ierarhizare.
• Nu s-a rostit sintagma bloggeri influenți.
• Pe lista guest speaker-ilor nu s-au aflat nume autohtone.
• Nu s-au dat premii pentru celebrități.
• Nu s-a vorbit despre influență on și offline.

Bloggingul nu a fost tratat ca un mod de a face bani, ci ca o cale de exprimare a opiniilior. Nu atât în folosul propriu cât pentru anumite cauze. S-a vorbit despre libertatea de exprimare, dreptul de a face uz de ea și cazuri în care a fost frecvent încălcată.

Pe scurt, WBF a fost mai mult e-freedom decât e-commerce. Iar cei care-au stat pe la casele și calculatoarele lor vizualizându-și traficul n-au înțeles asta. Așa cum n-au înțeles nici ideea.

Cam atât ar fi de spus. Restul, în interviurile anunțate, interviuri în care bloggerii respectivi vor spune cum și mai ales de ce fac ceea ce fac.

World Blogging Forum 2009 a ajuns la final. Au fost doua zile de discutii privind nu doar micro/bloggingul ca atare, cat libertatea de exprimare a internautilor, fie ei jurnalisti online, citizen bloggers sau bloggeri pur si simplu. S-a vorbit mai putin despre branduri personale, trafic si cheia succesului, si mai mult despre ce s-ar putea face pentru a pastra aceasta libertate.

X-list obsession

Am avut ocazia sa cunosc bloggeri, jurnalisti sau nu, din zone de conflict sau state nedemocratice si sa ascult povestile lor.  Nu scriu pe blogurile personale pentru bani si nici pentru a-si masura popularitatea. Nu concureaza intre ei, ci se aliaza pentru cauze comune. Cativa sunt corespondenti ai unor institutii media consacrate international. Sunt jurnalisti, scriitori, freelanceri, all in one. Si mai ales, sunt cei care conteaza…

Niciunul dintre ei nu si-a afisat vreodata traficul pe blog, nici n-a tinut sa remarce cati bloggeri vor fi executati inainte sau dupa. Exceptand cazurile in care era vorba de executii adevarate.

Uneori au suficiente colaborari platite cat sa-si asigure o perioada existenta la standarde inalte. Alteori abia se iveste ocazia de a-si face meseria.

Despre toate acestea, pe larg, in cateva interviuri viitoare, puse la cale la WBF. La fel, si despre bloggingul din Republica Moldova, excelent sintetizat de Petru Terguta.

WBF Statement

Cat despre finalitatea WBF… aveti mai jos detaliile oficiale sau semioficiale.

Support for detained bloggers all over the world
World Blogging Constitution Wiki

O bila alba ASLS pentru idee, organizare si atmosfera prietenoasa. Si un gand tovarasesc bloggerilor autohtoni, care deja cauta bilele negre ale Forumului, desi sau nu au fost acolo, sau nu impartasesc principiile discutate.

Acum am ajuns si eu in camin cu autocarul care a dus o parte din bloggeri (ceilalti inca se mai distreaza la Cafeneaua Presei) la hotel. Gata cu WBF2009. Stiu ca am zis ca o sa postez despre a doua zi de WBF. M-am razgandit. O sa postez un overview cuprinzator, dar o sa il postez in engleza… e mai potrivit, data fiind natura evenimentului. Anyway, mai dureaza pana fac asta, dar sper sa reusesc cat mai repede. Sper ca Ritchie sa apuce sa-mi trimita poze in seara asta. Noapte buna!

Unii bloggeri sunt amenintati ca sa isi inceteze activitatea. Altii sunt arestati direct, daca autoritatilor nu le place linia politica adoptata. Acuzatiile nu sunt de genul celor care ar leza libertatea presei, ci vizeaza mai degraba sfera dreptului comun.

Povestea de fata nu se intampla in Romania, ci in Azerbaidjan, si a fost prezentata azi la World Blogging Forum de catre Parvana Persiyani.

A doua zi a WBF va fi marcata, maine la ora 13, de un moment pe care bloggerii reuniti la Bucuresti il vor dedica celor doi colegi din Azerbaidjan, arestati inca din vara. Aveti mai jos povestea lui Adnan si Emin, care ii incurajeaza pe conationalii lor sa fie liberi, sa construiasca un regim democratic si sa priveasca dincolo de granite. Procesul lor va putea fi urmarit in paralel pe Twitter, sub hashtagul #EminAdnan.

Bloggerul din China si cel din Egipt ne-au uimit cu povesti despre dimensiunile cenzurii aplicate internetului si bloggerilor din tarile lor. Liveblogging de la World Blogging Forum Romania.

Astazi au sosit bloggerii. Jumatate de echipa ASLS a avut grija sa se ocupe de ei, cealalta jumatate a avut de ingrijit sala.

Astazi la Casa Poporului am obosit incercand sa intram. Am ocolit imensitatea de 70000 ori pana sa ne indice intrarea pe care aveam noi voie sa o folosim, ce jandarmi…draguti. A, si am trecut prin detectorul de metale de un miliard de ori.

Inside am cascat gura la cat de mare e si la dimensiunile imense ale candelabrelor. Am ras de frescele printate si lipite pe pereti, cu pixelii la vedere. Am aranjat ce era de aranjat. Am stabilit ce era de stabiit. Am stricat aproape toate badge-urile, sadly. Am umplut mapele cu hartiile necesare….the works.

Seara am chill-uit la Meu Cafe cu bloggerii invitati. A fost foarte tare. Am mancat si am baut o apa cu bule, si am stat de vorba cu unul dintre austrieci, cu egipteanul, cu neamtul si putin cu francezul. A fost foarte foarte interesant. Au inrosit baietii twitterul cand au ajuns la hotel. Oricum, prea multa lume de cunoscut intr-o singura seara….

Maine trezirea la 5:45 pentru Ziua Z

World Blogging Forum 2009 se apropie. Nu rata cel mai tare eveniment online din 2009 in Romania. Confirmarile au sosit, puteti intalni bloggerii participanti aici. Puteti urmari si pe twitter: @wbfromania

Rezerva-ti perioada 9-12 Noiembrie pentru WBF!

Bloggeri din peste 30 de state se vor reuni la București, în cadrul primei ediții a World Blogging Forum. Dincolo de oportunitățile de marketing și publicitate, caracteristice unui astfel de eveniment, așteptările sunt mult mai mari decât cele legate de media tradițională… și asta, având în vedere că printre participanți figurează nu doar bloggeri din statele democratice, ci și cunoscuți militanți pentru libertatea presei și apărarea drepturilor omului.

Printre ei…

• Wael Abbas, unul dintre cei mai mediatizați bloggeri-jurnaliști din lumea arabă, arestat în vară de autoritățile egiptene
• Zhou Shuguang – veteran al luptei împotriva cenzurii Web2.0 made in China
• Onnik Krikorian, britanic stabilit de 11 ani la Erevan, expert new media din sudul Caucazului
• Georgianul Giorgi Jakhaia, alias cyxymu, care a fost recent ținta primului cyber-attack pe Twitter. Blogul său a figurat în topul surselor de relatare a evenimentelor desfășurate vara trecută în Ossetia de Sud, în perioada războiului ruso-georgian.
• Petru Terguță, cel mai tânăr jurnalist moldovean premiat vreodată de Clubul de Presă din Chișinău, autor al primului blog de profil din Moldova de peste Prut.

Detalii pe larg de la dezbateri, săptămâna viitoare…

Yes. I have a french Bulldog named Maxinus-T. But don’t let your Gaydar go up I’m a total West LA hetero. Max is a total alpha dog and he likes to fight with Roomba our robotic floor cleaner. this is funny. Who’s next, Mayfield!!!

昨日までは満足できていたものが、今日になると満足できなくなる、そんな瞬間はいままでも何度かありましたが、今回はそんな話です。

8月10日は、バレエ三昧の妻にご招待いただきまして、行って参りました上野の東京文化会館、第12回世界バレエフェスティバル（Bプロ）！！

見てください、この燦然と輝くスターたち。これは、否が応でも期待感が高まります！

まず、僕のバレエ遍歴を少し。これまで、ウィーンで「ジゼル」を、ロンドンで「白鳥の湖」を、その後、東京でマラーホフが東京バレエ団で客演した「ジゼル」、吉田都がKバレエで踊った「海賊」、そして（オレ様ナニ様）熊川哲也様がKバレエで踊った「ジゼル」と、全幕ものを何度か観賞し、最近はスカパーのクラシカジャパンと妻のDVDコレクションで、かなり僕自身もバレエ三昧（でも詳しいことは何も知らない）になってきていました今日のこの頃ですが、劇場でのガラ形式はこれが初めて。こっそり楽しみにしていました。

三年に一度開催されるこのガラの面白いところは、なにはともあれ出演者が超一流なこと。みんな、いつも全幕ものでは自重しながら踊っていても、こういう機会では出番が一瞬ですから全力で踊るんですね。いやー、すごいすごい。

コンテンポラリーものは基本的にまだ理解出来ないので、ちょっと眠くなってしまったものもありますが、古典ものは知ってるのが多かったので、楽しく観ることが出来ました。以下、当日のプログラム。

第1部

1. 序曲「戴冠式行進曲」
2. 「チャイコフスキー・パ・ド・ドゥ」マリアネラ・ヌニェス　ティアゴ・ソアレス
3. 「コッペリア」ヤーナ・サレンコ　ズデネク・コンヴァリーナ
4. 「アレクサンダー大王」ポリーナ・セミオノワ　フリーデマン・フォーゲル
5. 「海賊」より寝室のパ・ド・ドゥ　シオマラ・レイエス　ホセ・カレーニョ
6. 「白鳥の湖」より黒鳥のパ・ド・ドゥ　上野水香　デヴィッド・マッカテリ
7. 「パリの炎」　マリア・コチェトコワ　ダニール・シムキン

第2部

1. 「ナイト・アンド・エコー」エレーヌ・ブシェ　ティアゴ・ボァディン
2. 「スリンガーランド・パ・ド・ドゥ」アニエス・ルテステュ　ジョゼ・マルティネス
3. 「白鳥の湖」第3幕より　ルシンダ・ダン　レイチェル・ローリンズ　ロバート・カラン
4. 「マノン」より第1幕のパ・ド・ドゥ　アリーナ・コジョカル　ヨハン・コボー
5. 「アパルトマン」よりドア・パ・ド・ドゥ　シルヴィ・ギエム　ニコラ・ル・リッシュ
6. 「ベラ・フィギュラ」　オレリー・デュポン　マニュエル・ルグリ

第3部

1. 「海賊」ナターリヤ・オシポワ　レオニード・サラファーノフ
2. 「ル・パルク」ディアナ・ヴィシニョーワ　ウラジーミル・マラーホフ
3. 「ブレルとバルバラ」エリザベット・ロス　ジル・ロマン
4. 「エスメラルダ」タマラ・ロホ　フェデリコ・ボネッリ
5. 「オネーギン」より第3幕のパ・ド・ドゥ　マリア・アイシュヴァルト　フィリップ・バランキエヴィッチ
6. 「ドン・キホーテ」スヴェトラーナ・ザハロワ　アンドレイ・ウヴァーロフ

特に良かったのは三点。まずは、以前も観たことのあった貴公子ウラジーミル・マラーホフ様とディアナ・ヴィシニョーワの「ル・パルク」。モーツァルトのピアノ協奏曲（だと思う）は僕の大好きな曲でしたが、切ないピアノの調べに乗って、美しい二人が蒼い世界の中で何とも官能的に踊る、これはもう、何とも高尚な芸術に触れることが出来た、という満足感でいっぱいでした。こんな美しい舞台みたことなかった、ですよ。

もう一つは、マリア・コチェトコワとダニール・シムキンの「パリの炎」。実は、ちょっと眠たくなっていたところだったのですが、このシムキンくんのしなやかな体つきと柔らかな技さばきっぷりに、なんとも目が覚めてしまいました。劇場全体も甘い歓声の嵐。なんだか、この人だけ動きがちがうんです。この人、たぶん他の星の人なんじゃないか、ってくらいすごい。（ちょっと調べたら彼はTwitterしてるじゃないですか。さっそく、Followしておきました。）

それから、いつもながら生のオーケストラの演奏はやっぱりいい。今回のコンテンポラリーものでは、録音してある音源を流す場面も多かったので、どうしても生演奏と音の比較をしてしまいます。管弦楽器の音が素敵で、劇場で音楽を聴く良さを改めて実感しました。

ということで、様々なダンサーや演目に触れることの出来るガラは、これまでの知ることのなかったバレエの新たな魅力を教えてくれた気がします。なによりテレビではなく生で観ることの良さも再認識しました。オペラグラスを通して観ることの出来る姿は、やはりテレビの画面で見る世界とは違います。なんていうか、自分にわかる表現で言えば、これはデジタル一眼と銀塩一眼の違いに近い。うん。デジタルは便利でいいけど、アナログには敵いません。

最近はどうしても、3.5インチのiPhoneと13インチのMacBook Airの世界に入り込んでしまっていましたが、やはり劇場の空気感はいいなぁ、と思いました。と、芸術の楽しみ方を学んだ世界バレエフェスティバルでした。

実は、この「芸術の楽しみ方」には続きがあります。次回は自宅編、お楽しみに。

Vernon Forrest Killed

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090727/ap_on_sp_bo_ne/box_forrest_killed

Source: http://sports.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090204.wsptlobby4/GSStory/GlobeSportsOther/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20090204.wsptlobby4

The owners of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) are concerned that it could come under federal regulation in much the same way as boxing, if a new commission is established by a boxing bill currently before Congress. The bill’s House sponsor is Representative Peter King, (a New York Republican who previously tried to pass a similar bill in 2004). That time it succeeded in the Senate, but not the House.

While King comments that he can appreciate why UFC are worried, he has said there was no intent to cover mixed martial arts when the bill was drafted, and he has no intention to detract the focus away from boxing in order to streamline its passage through Congress. Apparently, President Barack Obama has yet to take a position on the bill.

The proposed legislation would establish a U.S. Boxing Commission under the Commerce Department, charged with protecting the health, safety and general interests of boxers. The commission would oversee all professional boxing matches and license boxers, promoters, managers and sanctioning organizations.

Essentially, by pushing for the bill, King is saying that he doesn’t trust the governance of National and International bodies like the International Boxing Federation (IBF) or the World Boxing Federation (WBF) to regulate the sport. If this position is true, I would think that UFC has every reason to be worried given the mixed reaction lawmakers have had to the sport.

Controversy hit the Dresden Olympiad towards the end when Ivanchuk refused to take a drugs test.

This press release comes from Chessbase.com

Alexei Shirov: ‘Let us ban FIDE!’
02.12.2008 – “I don’t know how many times I have said to myself,” says the world class GM and world championship runner-up, “that it makes no sense at all to keep getting involved in chess politics and that I should just concentrate on my work. But the recent FIDE ‘developments’ possibly made many late great champions turn in their graves. That means the living chess players should speak out.”

He went on to say: ‘IOC has never guaranteed that chess would become the Olympic sport, so the FIDE policy in licking their posterior is at least questionable. After the success of Intellectual games festival in Beijing it’s time to STOP trying to get into the Olympic movement. I personally feel guilty for participating in the Olympic exhibition in Sydney 2000, but at least then it seemed that the chessplayers were going to be welcome with open heart. As it hasn’t happened we have our way and we cannot lose our best representatives like this.’

In the 2002 world championships in Montreal, bridge truly joined the world of sport as it ‘stripped’ Hjordis Eythorsdottir of her silver medal for refusing to take a drug test. If you are the typical unpoliticised bridge player who could not care less that this happened and could not even care if drug testing is brought into your local club, well stop right here. But that’s exactly how this whole sorry state of affairs happened in the first place – player apathy. I’m hoping a few people will stay for this story of how drug testing works in bridge, why it is there and what it means for all of us.

I’m guessing that the story starts in the 1970s. Sport was beginning to get big government subsidies in the West, and chess wanted to jump on the band wagon. Naturally, bridge followed. To the uninitiated, this may seem a peculiar struggle.

Scene: pub anywhere in Australia. Group of middle-aged, overweight men light up cigarettes while somebody buys the round. ‘Well, of course it’s sport’, says Joe, pausing to take a drag on his fag. Murmurs of agreement all round, though a couple of those turn into hacking smoker’s coughs. ‘Hope Fred hurries up or we won’t be able to fit in another round before we have to play.’ Beer and fags, dinner and drinks – I don’t know if the average elite sportsperson would recognise the way elite bridge players prepare for bridge.

But still it’s sport! And over the years since the 1970s it has sometimes been, on the back of chess, defined as a sport and given a little money. And then it gets redefined by somebody else.

Somewhere along the track of attempting to make the people giving out the money see chess/bridge as sports, somebody had the idea of doing it through the Olympic Games. Get the IOC to define chess/bridge as a sport and use this to convince governments.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only person to whom this spelt potential disaster. Both chess and bridge have their own Olympiads. Why would we want to join an Olympic movement which is increasingly commercial and corrupt? A movement which has lost its purpose. An organisation so vast that bridge would be completely lost in it. Where bridge would become one of those sports which is ignored save for the potential humorous content. Which sport has the largest number of balding men? We all know the answer to that one.

On top of these general considerations came the burning issue of drug testing. So completely has the Olympic movement lost its way that now the overriding definition of being a sport is drug testing. No drug testing, cannot be a sport. Now that just leaves me gob-smacked.

The implications for bridge cannot be underestimated. What is performance-enhancing in bridge? What is the goal of drug testing in bridge? Never mind anything, the sheer cost involved of hundreds of dollars per test are an issue. Yet bridge, like chess, seems to have jumped on this bandwagon without the slightest consideration of what drug-testing actually means.

In chess, which is about to hold an Olympiad (2002), there is unease at national levels around the world and, needless to say, at a personal level. Already we have seen in the US, I understand, a Supreme Court case which was about the forcible drug testing of children in school chess clubs. This sort of thing is inevitable if the WBF continues to support drug testing. Don’t think that it doesn’t affect you.

‘What’s the problem’ you ask. ‘If you aren’t cheating you have nothing to hide.’ Well, that attitude got Bush started. What makes it particular rot in the context of bridge is that there is not a single drug/substance which definitively enhances the performance of mental tests. There are some which general scientific opinion sides with – glucose is the obvious one. But even if a group of students on glucose counted backwards in groups of 3 more easily than the group not given glucose, it’s a far leap from this to the idea that the performance of a complex bunch of tasks, intellectual and emotional, as bridge is, will be enhanced.

None of this seems to have bothered the WBF in the least. The WBF simply took the path of testing for everything on the IOC list of substances. The consequence of this was that in Montreal the WBF tested for an enormous number of drugs which can be presumed to be non-performance enhancing – maybe even performance damaging – and tested for not so much as one bridge-performance-enhancing drug. How could they, if we don’t know of the existence of any?

I suppose the WBF knows it is in deep water on this one. When I asked it various questions after Montreal regarding the treatment of Hjordis Eythorsdottir and the operation of its drug testing I received the public statement I wanted, but it refused to answer any of my specific questions. This is typical of the way the WBF operates at the top. Actually, it’s a group which will fit in well with the IOC as we understand the reputation of the IOC.

One of the questions I asked was whether it tested for alcohol and marijuana. I was refused an answer!

Eventually, after being unable to find anything on the WBF site or Montreal site guiding competitors to how drug testing would work, I was given an obscure .pdf file address by the WBF Webmaster. Evidently I had to click on the general rules of contest. If you wade through this tedious document, on page 10, buried between ‘official language’ and ‘ethics and deportment’ the following can be found:

6. Doping Regulations
All players are required to accept the regulations determined by the Olympic Movement Anti Doping Code. Details of these can be found at www.olympic.org or by contacting the International Olympic Committee.

How jolly helpful. As it happens I know the Anti-Doping Code off by heart. Well, not quite, so I follow the link. There isn’t actually anything on the Olympic site that I can find on the subject of drug testing, but it does provide a link to www.wada-ama.org This is the beast that has been set up to make sport clean. I believe that it stands for World Anti-Doping Association.

And dealing with it is a bit like dealing with confession as a Roman Catholic. Nobody would dare go to confession without a little sin in hand and WADA ain’t going to believe you if you say your sport’s clean. By definition – by becoming a sport – bridge has to confess its sins. We have to weed out those drug cheats and make examples of them. The notion that they might not exist is simply not to be countenanced.

Eventually one finds one’s way to a long list of substances and ‘methods’. Even if you knew what they all meant, every category concludes with a general coverall ‘and like substances’. A logistical nightmare for a sportsperson.

Back to the alcohol and cannabinoids issue. The wada document says that ’Where the rules of a responsible authority so provide, tests will be conducted….’ The same line is used for both recreational drugs.

Let’s stretch the point and call the WBF a ‘responsible authority’. Presumably there is an onus to reveal whether it is testing for these drugs. But it declined to answer my questions. Presumably, then, competitors were completely in the dark as to whether the use of alcohol or cannabis was legal.

Somebody reading this is jumping up and down. But alcohol and cannabinoids aren’t performance-enhancing for bridge or physical sports. So, why might they be tested at all? The Olympic Games, by the way, tests for cannabis but not alcohol. How tediously predictable. So a drug might be non-performance enhancing and completely legal in your own place of residence and yet make you a drug cheat out there in the spick-and-span world of the Olympic Games.

Well, whoever asked this question – why test non-performance-enhancing drugs – you’ve asked a jolly good one. And the answer is disturbing.

Let me digress, just for a second. The net consequence of the attempts of chess and bridge to become Olympic sports is turning out to have completely the opposite effect. The IOC is in the process of defining them both out of the contest permanently and completely. It hardly had a choice. If the Olympics are a chance to survive they’ve got to make them a sensible size. Not being in the Olympics never did make a sport not a sport, but bridge is going to feel like that is the consequence.

In a way, though, one would assume with a sense of great relief, that this means we can stop the whole senseless drug testing policy. Instead, in the press release I asked the WBF to make, it said the following:

Paris, 10th September 2002
At its Meeting held on Friday 30th August 2002, the Executive Council of the World Bridge Federation resolved to disqualify one of the players in the McConnell Cup. The player was informed that she was not eligible to take her place on the podium, receive a medal nor be entitled to any Master Points.
The WBF wants to remind to those concerned that:
1. The WBF was recognised as an International Sports Federation by the International Olympic Committee in 1999 on condition that it adopts:

a. the Olympic Charter
b. the court of arbitration
c. the anti doping regulations
All of the above have been incorporated into the WBF Constitution and By-laws
2. It is the absolute belief of the WBF that the anti doping regulations are:

a. to protect the players’ health
b. to ensure the integrity of the competition
and would have been enforced anyway even in the absence of IOC recognition.
3. It is recognised that some substances can enhance concentration and stamina at bridge, as well as be also injurious to the person or persons using them
4. The regulations as they are published in the 2002 General Rules of Contest are mandatory for everybody and that the refusal to take a drug test is consequently subject to penalties.

So the WBF has been hoist on its own petard. The WBF can hardly say now that the anti-doping program was to suck up to the IOC and it was going to drop it. Instead this magnificent insistence that it is being done for our own good. Disqualifying a player in Montreal was for her health and for the integrity of the competition. We can’t have players willy-nilly taking non-performance enhancing drugs. It’ll give us a bad name.
To repeat the crux of this statement:
5. It is the absolute belief of the WBF that the anti doping regulations are:

a. to protect the players’ health
b. to ensure the integrity of the competition
and would have been enforced anyway even in the absence of IOC recognition.

Do they really expect us to believe that? And if we believe it, do they really think we’ll accept it? A bit of an invasion of privacy, wouldn’t you say, the WBF deciding what’s good for us.

WBF:
‘It is recognised that some substances can enhance concentration and stamina at bridge, as well as be also injurious to the person or persons using them’

Now guess what substance that would be – try nicotine. There are only three substances I’ve been able to discover that arguably might enhance the playing of bridge. They are glucose, caffeine and nicotine. Of these I’m guessing nicotine is by far and away the most likely to aid performance. And if the smoking of cigarettes were banned within the bridge world, not only would a potentially performance-enhancing drug be eliminated but, shucks, a whole bunch of us would feel better too.

So, why was the smoking of cigarettes not banned at Montreal? Because the WBF has no intention of enforcing their own avowed aims. Attempting to ban the notionally performance-enhancing-bad-for-our-health cigarette would have led to riot and boycott. (end of article)

I can’t imagine that FIDE and WBF are ever going to conduct actual tests to see what is actually performance enhancing in chess and bridge. Anybody who’s ever smoked a cigarette will know that nicotine is performance enhancing. There is much anecdotal evidence. After the above article first appeared I received an email from somebody who worked designing vessels for the US Navy. He recalled at some point a discussion of whether ashtrays should be provided on the watch. The answer was ‘yes’ not so much because smokers who are allowed to smoke perform better than smokers who aren’t allowed to smoke, but because smokers perform better than non-smokers. By preference the US Navy wanted smokers on their watch.

More recently, and less anecdotally, a test case has been written up here:
Psychoactive Drugs and Pilot Performance: A Comparison of Nicotine, Donepezil, and Alcohol Effects again demonstrating the performance enhancing aspect of nicotine.

Since I wrote that article various things have changed in the WADA list of performance enhancing substances. Even though clearly caffeine is performance enhancing it has been taken off the lists. I wonder if that is the power of lobbyists for the companies who advertise through sport? Selling caffeine based drugs as a socially acceptable performance enhancer has become big business. Cannabis has been banned altogether, even though one assumes it is not performance enhancing for anything unless there is some sort of couch potato endurance test in the Olympics. Nicotine is not even mentioned on the list which can be seen here.

I gather that chess is still using the lot with, according to Ian Rogers, ‘the single exception of the drug I should have been taking 6 years ago but was not allowed to. (The exception was created by Jana Bellin because of me but the damage had already been done and I had to stop playing entirely.)’ How sad is that.

FIDE and WBF: you should hang your heads in shame.

Na also, jetzt ist die Sache entschieden: Der Wissenschaftliche Beirat Funk (WBF) hat jetzt klar gemacht, dass Handy-Telefonieren nicht schädlich ist. Wir können also weiter bedenkenlos unser Telefon in der Hosentasche rumtragen oder stundenlang ans Ohr halten.

Oder etwa doch nicht? Die Ärztekammer Wien behauptet genau das Gegenteil. Da soll sich noch einer auskennen!

Von der Ärztekammer kam gestern eine Aussendung mit 10 (neu aufgelegten) medizinischen Handy-Regeln. Da drinnen steht gleich oben als erster Satz: “Die Strahlung von “HANDYS” respektive Mobiltelefonen ist nicht so ungefährlich, wie von den Mobilfunktbetreibern immer wieder behauptet wird.” Die Ärzte raten dazu, bei jeglichem Verbindungsaufbau das Handy so weit wie möglich vom Körper weg zu halten. Am Besten sollen wir überhaupt nur am Festnetz oder mit VOIP telefonieren. Generell soll beim Telefonieren alles Erdenkliche getan werden, um der gefährlichen Handy-Strahlung nur so kurz wie möglich ausgesetzt zu sein.

Die Ärzte werden das wohl kaum schreiben, um Festnetz oder VOIP zu bewerben. Also werden sie sich auf Studien stützen müssen. Genauso wie der WBF. Nur kommen beide erstaunlicherweise zu ganz unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen.

In einer WBF-Aussendung, ebenfalls vom 23.04., steht nämlich: “Es gibt keinen Beweis, dass es bei der Einhaltung der Grenzwerte eine gesundheitiche Gefährdung im Umgang mit dem Mobilfunk gibt.” Der WBF hat eine große Anzahl von internationalen Studien als Basis genommen, die strengen Kriterien genügen. Also auch unabhängig sind, weder von Industrie noch von Handy-Gegnern in Auftrag gegeben wurden. Und aus diesen geht scheinbar hervor, dass Handy-Telefonieren keine negativen Einflüsse auf unser Befinden hat, nicht Krebs auslöst, uns nicht impotent macht usw.. Dennoch wird zum vorsichtigen Umgang mit dem Handy geraten. Scheinbar ist auch noch nicht alles im Bereich Mobilfunk zur vollen Zufriedenheit erforscht und geklärt. Also sind das keine endgültigen Ergebnisse.

Die Ärtztekammer hat auf die Aussendung des WBF bereits reagiert. Man rät weiter zu Vorsicht, will noch weitere Ergebnisse abwarten. Allerdings wird jetzt erstmal nur mehr von einer potentiellen Gefahrenquelle gesprochen.

Tja, was soll man davon halten? Wahrscheinlich sieht sich jetzt wieder jeder nur in dem bestätigt, was er vorher schon gedacht hat .