I am here - or am I?

You may or may not have heard of Gary McKinnon. He is, in his own words, a "bumbling computer nerd" who managed with embarrassing ease to hack into the computer systems of NASA and the Pentagon. He did all this from his flat in London. He has never denied doing what he did, or that it was illegal, but always maintained that his purpose was not to damage these computer networks, but merely to carry out research into UFOs and his belief that the Americans were concealing access to alien technology. The question is, where did he commit his crime? Logic would suggest that he did it here, in this country, sitting at his computer in London. The Crown Prosecution Service however, for whatever reason, have not brought charges against him. So that should be that, shouldn't it? Well, apparently not so. The US have determined that - although he has never set foot there - he has committed a crime in the US, and have instigated extradition proceedings. He has unsuccessfully appealed against these to the courts here and to the European Court, and it looks likely that he will indeed be sent to America to face charges there. So...? Well, quite apart from the very real possibility that the American courts will seek to "make an example" of him, it raises the very vexatious question of just where a "computer offence" is committed. Given that most of us these days are connected to the internet, and accessing sites in other countries as a matter of course, this is something which badly needs sorting out, and I don't think this case helps at all.

Well said.

All credit to Helen Mirren for coming out with some very sensible comments about so-called date rape. Is it too much to hope that, coming from a high-profile woman, some notice will be taken of them? I fear not, because the usual suspects have already lined up to belittle and criticise her remarks. None-the-less, thank you, Dame Helen, for saying what needed to be said.

Carry on, Henry.

Henry VIII had six wives - right? Everybody knows that - and most people know the mantra "divorced-beheaded-died-divorced-beheaded-survived". But did he? It all depends on how you define a wife. He certainly went through six ceremonies of marriage, but four of those marriages were annulled (OK, a couple of them were annulled by Henry himself by virtue of his self-declared position as head of the Church of England, and are therefore not accepted as such by the Catholic Church) but whoever and whatever, in law an annulled marriage has never in fact taken place, so you can make a good case for Henry only having had two wives - Jane Seymour and Katherine Parr. Another of those interesting facts...

Bat and ball.

Americans will tell you that baseball is a native American game invented by one Abner Doubleday in 1839. Tosh - utter tosh and they know it! There is plenty of documentary evidence that baseball originated in England in the mid-1700s. Another myth however is that baseball is a derivative of rounders (if you really want to annoy an American, tell them that their national game is essentially a game for girls!). However more modern research suggests that it is more likely that rounders emerged as a derivative of baseball rather than the other way round. Or indeed that both games originated independently - we tend to forget in today's information age that back then things could be going on in the next village of which you could be completely unaware. Any road up, baseball was definitely introduced to the Americas by settlers from over here.

To everything there is a season...

Can't believe it's September tomorrow - what the hell happened to the summer? I seem to remember we had a decent week or two in May I think it was, but that was it. The rest has been pretty dismal. Of course, there's always the chance of an Indian summer, but time is fast running out, the nights are pulling in, and the leaves will be falling before we know it. I know there are people who love autumn, but for me it just means winter is round the corner, and I can't find anything to cheer about in that. Roll on next spring!

The greatest? (2)

In our search for an alternative Greatest Olympian, you could argue that the closest any single event comes to the Olympic ideal of citius, altius, fortius is the decathlon for men, and the heptathlon for women, so a good case could be made for people like Daley Thompson, Roman Šebrle or Carolina Kluft. Then again, being top of your chosen sport over a long period might well be seen as a measure of greatness, and that brings Steve Redgrave into play - gold at five successive Olympics, although once again the point needs to be made that these were team rather than individual achievements. But my choice would be Emil Zatopek, if only for his refreshing "let's have a go and see what happens" approach. At the 1952 Olympics he was entered for the 5km and 10km races, both of which he duly won. But then, on a whim as it were, he decided to run in the marathon, never having run one before. There's a story that at about half distance, he turned to those he was running with, and asked "are we going fast enough?". Anyway, he won in what was then an Olympic record time. He must be the only person who for at least a short time had the marathon record of - Run 1, Won 1. For me, the fact that he was prepared to put his considerable reputation on the line for fun, as it were, makes him my personal Greatest Olympian.

The greatest?

Michael Phelps has been given the accolade of the "Greatest Olympian". Well, he is certainly statistically the winner of the most gold medals, both in total, and at a single Olympics, but does this justify his title as the greatest? For starters, it's worth pointing out that half his gold medals came from his participation in relay races rather than from individual events. Secondly he's a swimmer, and proportionally there are more medals to be won in the pool than just about anywhere else - it's no coincidence that the previous holder of the most gold medals record was also a swimmer, as indeed was the one before that. So he's a talented athlete in a field where there are plenty of medals to be won. But the greatest? It depends how you choose to measure greatness doesn't it? More tomorrow.

Show me the money.

So this was our most successful Olympics for a hundred years or so. That's got to be good, hasn't it? Well, I'm not so sure because it's clear that our success was purchased - I think I read somewhere that each gold medal "cost" us the thick end of £10m. So it's just another sad example of the fact that in the modern world sporting success follows the money - or to put it another way, you've no chance unless you are prepared to put your hand in your pocket big time. Our potential for medals in 2012 is already being directly related to how much we are going to be prepared to spend. And I for one, find this pretty depressing.

The Olympics

Now that it's all over, am I alone in thinking that the Olympics have outlived their usefulness? Time was when you looked forward to the Olympics because it was the only chance you got to see competitors with unpronounceable names from countries you'd never heard of, but those days have gone now that we have regular international sporting competitions of all sorts. The Olympics these days are just an excuse for the host city to show off, and for the chance - if you're interested - to see some of the more bizarre minority sports like beach volleyball, taekwondo and BMX racing. I'm sure it will continue, but I'm far from sure that there is really any point in it doing so.

Book Post

(see post dated 18/11/06)

Here are my latest ten reads -

David Gibbins - Atlantis - 5.5
Lisa Gardner - Gone - 9
Scott Frost - Point of No Return - 8
Linda Fairstein - Likely to Die - 6
P. J. Tracy - Want to play? - 8.5
Tess Gerritsen - The Mephisto Club - 7
Harlan Coben - The Woods - 8.5
Dick Francis - Under Orders - 8
Mark Billingham - Sleepy Head - 7
Peter James - Looking Good Dead - 8