Tiny Planet

If you’ve followed the professional soccer world at all in the last decade, you’ll be fully aware that some of them are on outrageous money. John Nicholson advocates a move away from huge set wages to a performance-related scheme, and the man speaks the truth:

A player’s agent will be quick to ask for more money for his player after one good season – but if he has a bad season will not expect his wages to drop.

The time has come to change this.

We need a large element of their wages to be performance-related and on top of that if you’re injured, your money must be cut radically. Players can easily insure their income to cover themselves for periods of lay-off – it should not be a burden the club has to bear. Players expect win bonuses but not loss reductions. Why not? That’s just having your cake and cramming it in your gob, son.

I meant to have the Dubai posts up, along with one on Fujairah, but I’m in the middle of moving house and so this has been delayed. Soon, dear reader, soon.

While Georgia declares a state of war and seeks a ceasefire, Gavin looks at what may be next for the region following what Russia calls its “peace enforcement operation”.

I spent the day in Dubai, so there shall be some photo posts to come. In the meantime, I invite you to watch this peculiarity:

What a disappointment. It was no secret that it would have nothing to do with the conspiracy plots of the series but that foreknowledge didn’t help. A weak script and really unoriginal plot, along with what seems to be the complete disregard for how the series ended, add up to a very poor movie from Chris Carter. I wanted to like it — had it not been The X-Files I may have happy enough with it as a by-the-numbers serial killer story — and I can’t say I hated it; just that I was let down. The evolution of the Mulder-Scully relationship is pleasant enough but the film captures none of the essence that the TV show had at its peak. Even the “unusual” aspects of the case are humdrum; there were far more original takes on similar things in the early seasons of the show.

My recommendation: wait until it’s broadcast on television. Don’t bother paying to see it.