May 4, 1886: About a dozen deaths at a labour rally in Chicago when dynamite was thrown into a police line. They retaliated by shooting at the crowd. A memorial was unveiled this week (reports from New York Times report | Chicago Tribune).

Historical information:
Chicago Public Library
Revolutionary Worker Online
Library of Congress
Northwestern University’s homicide website
Chicago Historical Society
Wikipedia

Blog comment:
Laboring away at the Institute
B12 Partners Solipsism

Frustrated with the refusal of John Howard to cut and run into retirement? Try doing the following to relieve some of the election frustration:

1. Create a “new folder” on your computer.
2. Name it “John Howard”.
3. Send it to the trash.
4. Empty the trash.
5. Your computer will ask “Do you really want to get rid of ‘John Howard’?”
6. Answer calmly “Yes” and press the mouse button.
7. Repeat as required.

(Source: Crikey’s subscriber newsletter.)

JWH gave the opening address at the 19th World Energy Congress in Sydney last week. A bit like having Count Dracula talking to a Plasma Preservation Convention. While I haven’t been able to find a complete transcript of his speech, Agence-France Presse did run a story on it.

The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science were handed out last Tuesday week. But the Prime Minister wasn’t there to present them. He was at the Dally M Awards, presenting the NRL’s player of the year award to Newcastle’s Danny Buderus.

JWH needed the assistance of Holmesville’s Own Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins (seen here in another engagement) in presenting the award.

Last Sunday, the press-conference-mistakenly-called-a-debate between Howard and Mark Latham. One debate is not enough, and it’s absurd that it should happen four weeks before the election. Latham won the “worm” verdict, which led Howard to say that “it’s just as well the worm doesn’t vote”. Pity the people who voted on the worm do, eh John? Here’s the transcript of the “debate”.

Christopher Shiel’s Back Pages does a wrap of the debate with links to other comments. I didn’t watch the debate and have only just read the transcript. But at least, unlike Peter Costello and his kids, I didn’t watch “Australian Idol”.

Twenty-two days to go. Imagine if the Coalition lost by one seat and Howard lost Bennelong.

Stop laughing…

Three home runs by Aramis Ramirez as the Cubs beat the Reds 5-4 on Thursday night. Blog reportage from Al Yellon.

The Cubs (80-64) are now one game behind the Giants (82-65) in the NL wildcard race. San Francisco beat the Brewers 4-zip. Bonds, despite going 3 for 3, is still 699 not out. Here’s an account of Wednesday night’s game from a Brewers’ perspective (sort of).

Interesting stat highlighted on ESPN.com today: Ichiro Suzuki of the Mariners has 233 hits so far this season. The record is 257, set by George Sisler of the St Louis Browns in 1920. Tim Kurkjian of ESPN The Magazine outlines some other obscure records that deserve breaking.

The Frisco Rough Riders are one game away from the Texas League title after beating the Round Rock Express 7-3 at the Dell Diamond on Thursday night. I listened to some of this game online, special guest was Cat Osterman from the US gold medal-winning olympic softball team. She threw out the first pitch, and the commentator while I was listening expressed surprise that she did the pitch overarm, and not an underarm softball pitch. Yes, girls can pitch just like the boys, you know…

Back to the Cubs, and the Lansing Lugnuts are changing camps! They will be a Toronto affiliate next year. The Lugnuts were eliminated in the Midwest League playoffs this season. The Peoria Chiefs will be shifting allegiance from the Cards to the Cubs in 2005.

Sigh.. let’s sing the Lugnuts song one more time!

The Albuquerque Isotopes ended their second year in the Pacific Coast League with a 67-77 record, stone motherless in Central Division, in fact. Olympic gold-medal Sandvolleyballer Misty May threw the first pitch on August 27. The Isotopes catcher (now recalled by the Marlins), Matt Treanor, is her fiancee.

Dropping in on the Isotopes website means that I am now aware of the Native American All-Star Tournament at Isotopes Park this Saturday and Sunday. Northern Pueblos, Southern Pueblos, Gallup, Sliprock. Who do I follow? I’ll do a wrap on this next week.

This post by Daigo Fujiwara to the Christian Science Monitor’s “We’re Just Fans” sportsblog as a background to the Japanese industrial dispute. I’ll follow up in my next blather.

Finally, Frank Francisco is currently number 8 on the Yahoo! Buzz Sports Index.

Cork beat Kilkenny in the final of the All-Ireland Hurling Championship at Croke Park last Sunday. I won’t stop bemoaning the fact that this wasn’t on television in Australia and apparently will not be shown at a later date.

Cork’s victory was something of an upset, the final score being 0-19 (19) to 0-7 (7).

Reports on the game:
RTE report (includes video news footage)
“A forgettable hurling final”: comment by Adrian Logan of the Belfast Telegraph
“Second-half rout sees Rebels end Kilkenny’s reign” GAA.ie match report
“Redemption in Cork’s tour de force” Irish Examiner via Ireland On-line
“Final signals end of hurling All-Ireland as we know it” Irish Examiner via RebelGAA.com, a Cork fans website
“Cork canter to 29th title” Hoganstand.com match report

Blog entries referring to the All-Ireland Hurling Final from:
The Scrapie Files
Shannon goes to Boston

It seems that the game was available for live screening in the pubs. In Sydney, this would mean the Gaelic Club in the City. There were also pay-webcast facilities available through setanta.tv, though it is telling me that I wouldn’t be able to use it through Mozilla. Ha!

In the Minor Hurling final, Kilkenny 1-18 drew with Galway 3-12, replay on Sunday the 19th. Before that, on Saturday, the under-21 final between Kilkenny and Tipperary.

Cork will play Tipperary in the camogie final at Croke Park on Sunday. Cork have announced their team. The Tipperary GAA website has a photo of the Tipperary Camogie Team of the Century. Good coverage of this week’s pre-final press conference on the GAA.ie website, but for all things camogie, you probably shouldn’t go past www.camogie.ie.

Latest odds on the All-Ireland Camogie final (source: Paddypower) Tipperary 1.91, Cork 2.10, draw 8.50.