Hull Sharks v Leeds Rhinos (post mortem) and looking ahead to Leeds Rhinos v St Helens

Hull 12 Leeds 16

Leeds may be the world club Rugby League champions but Hull did not seem to realise it. The weather was not favourable to open play, it was teeming with rain and any advantage that Leeds would have in star players and classy backs would seem to be nullified. Hull came at Leeds as if determined to throw them into the nearby River Humber. Nevertheless Leeds showed their class and despite the Hull pressure it was the Rhinos who scored the only two tries of the half due to hard tackling in defence and slick professionalism in attack. In the second half Hull seemed to increase their fervour and though Senior scored for Leeds, finally Hull scored two tries to narrow the gap. It seemed as though Hull would manage to level things or even win in the last few minutes but Leeds hung on with desperate tackling to take the points.

Next Friday is a very interesting game as the Rhinos host St Helens. The Saints carried out a most convincing demolition of a strong Widnes side last weekend. They may have lost their British international Mark Gleason but they seem to have more than made up for that by recruiting Australian international Jamie Lyon. Last year they were let down by a lightweight pack but the recruitment of giant prop Paul Anderson from the Bulls has added the weight which was needed. The side is one to watch and Leeds will need to be on top form to take the points.

Very sad news about the murder of BBC producer Kate Peyton in Somalia. According to reports, she was killed within hours of arriving in the country by a gunman who shot her once in the back.

I wondered as I looked at her colleague Stuart Hughes’ weblog whether one of the stories she was in Somalia to cover was the reason for her killing:

Somalia: Government – looking at the physical infrastructure of a state that has been looted and smashed, ahead of the new government’s return. (WTV Commission)

Somalia: Telecoms – looking at how the telecoms industry has become the most developed and efficient in Africa in spite of, or rather because of a lack of government red-tape and regulation. (WTV Commission)

Somalia: Sharia Courts – looking at the role of Islamic justice in Somalia, and how it is in danger of becoming the new radical force. (WTV Commission)

Somalia: Warlord – Profiling a warlord and explaining why it is going to be so difficult for the new government to disarm them. (WTV Commission)

Nothing is going to bring Kate back. But I at least hope that one day someone answers the questions of who killed her and why.

Remember happy days spent in the music section of HMV? Well, not any more.

My mum decided to surprise me with a gift of a DVD and a CD, purchased at her friendly HMV store in Leeds, England. After paying about 35 quid for the privilege she began to wonder whether she could have got a better deal online. Sure enough, she found the same two items for $30 on Amazon with free shipping to me in New York to boot.

Unfortunately, when she took said CD and DVD back to HMV, they would not give her money back. She was told that it was store policy to give credit but not refunds. When she pointed out that surely a store the size of HMV could afford to give people their money back, she was told that it was because people were buying CDs and burning them.

“But this CD and DVD are still in their wrappers,” says my little ‘ol mum. “I haven’t even opened them.”

“Well,” came the reply. “It’s people like them that are ruining it for people like you.”

Would this be the same “thriving” HMV that recently announced a share buy-back programme and 30 per cent dividend rise after achieving a 23.3 per cent rise in interim profits and strong Christmas trading?

Actually, HMV, it’s stores like you that are ruining it for all of us. And you now have two fewer customers than you had before.

Someone brought this news story about a mohel suspected of giving three baby boys herpes to my attention at the weekend.

Under Jewish law, a mohel — someone who performs circumcisions — draws blood from the circumcision wound. Most mohels do it by hand, but Fischer uses a rare practice where he uses his mouth.

I really cannot believe that parents would allow someone to do this to their child. We spend so much time shaking our heads in disgust/disbelief at other cultures, and then find out that similarly grotesque practices are taking place in our own back yard.

According to the Journal News:

Twelve researchers, including seven from Israel, also considered the religious and cultural traditions behind the practice. They noted that the Babylonian Talmud, completed in the fifth century, required oral suctioning in order to remove health risks to the infant.

My feeling — and this is just a hunch, so bear with me — is that the Babylonian Talmud is slightly out of sync with 21st century health and child protection laws. If Rastafarians are not allowed to smoke marijuana, why are mohels allowed to apply their mouths to 8-day-old boys penises? And how did the good rabbi contract herpes in the first place?

This is the most embarassing confession to make, but a certain Mac geek friend of mine sent me this link to a football tunnel altercation and I had only a 50-50 idea of who the two players were. Can someone tell me who, why, where, and when? (In my defence, if it happened in the tunnel after a rugby league game I would know. But then again, rugby league players save their tantrums for on the field, not off it.)

Problem: A growing number of ready-to-roll stories with no home.
Solution: Citizen journalism and Wiki News.

If the choice is between not publishing, and publishing for free to an international audience, that’s no choice at all. The only problem is how to pay the bills.

Look out for a reporter/writer serving coffee in a Park Slope tea shop near you.