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rsmatthews

Listed below are comments made by rsmatthews between Monday, 21st April 2008 and Sunday, 23rd August 2009.

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Flintoff a very English hero 11:07pm on 23 Aug 2009 As the article says, Flintoff was better than his statistics suggest. That point is expanded by the first contributor and the second offers an explanation as to why that should be so.
But why all this emphasis on statistics in the first place? Statistically, we just lost the Ashes.
A glimpse of life after Freddie 00:12am on 22 Aug 2009 I've heard the word "momentum" used more in the talking-shop interludes of this series than ever before. But doesn't this series show that it has absolutely no application?
In other words, lots of people talk a lot of rubbish based on what has happened most recently.
And that unsurprising observation accounts for the Broad phenomenon - criticised one day by self-appointed experts who can see no further than the most recent past, and praised the next day by similar experts.
Aussies collapse to revitalised England 9:49pm on 17 Jul 2009 Girlondonblogger writes: "Never say never with the Aussies; they should never be written off."
Never say "never say never" and then say "never".
David Bain's Brain Strain 1:21pm on 13 May 2009 There are two elements of this scenario which appear to give difficulty: the timbers being replaced and it being done gradually.
If the timbers were removed from the Cutty Sark and not replaced (or taken to Glasgow) we would have the problem in a more stark form. When one timber is removed, we still have the Cutty Sark; when half have been removed, we are unsure how to answer; however, when all have been removed, we are certain that the Cutty Sark no longer remains.
And we would still conclude the Cutty Sark no longer remained even if the timbers had been removed over a long period of time.
This conclusion is not altered if, instead of just removing all the original timbers, we replace them. What we would then have is a replica. And we would still have a replica if it were done bit by bit over time.
Turning to what we would think if the original timbers were reconstructed in Glasgow: I'd be happy to call that the original Cutty Sark because I cannot see that dismantling something and reassembling it exactly as it was can in any way alter its identity. The fact that the reconstruction takes place in Glasgow rather than Greenwich is irrelevant.
The alternative Six Nations awards 11:15pm on 23 Mar 2009 Worst innovation that's gone on too long: crap music blasted out of the PA system after a try.
Worst commentators: the France 2 team for making me think Tommy Vance was playing on the wing for Scotland and that the French scrum-half was called Sebastian Cheeseboard.
Best statistic: Wales have lost a game when Gavin Henson started.
Colin Powell's America 1:24pm on 21 Oct 2008 I liked Proles' comment (6) because until I read it, I had been impressed by Powell's argument. But now I realise it was a piece of monstrous hypocrisy. That does not mean I disagree with what Powell said - it just means he shouldn't have been the one saying it.

And Seanspa's defence (12) of Powell against this type of attack, claiming that the fact that what he said "turned out not to be true does not make him a liar" is sophistry. His critics don't need to prove that he lied (although it is arguable that he stated what he did not believe) - they only need to accuse him of being reckless with the truth. And the 1.27 million deaths that have followed are attributable to his disregard for certainty and truth.
Don't make the mistake that because Powell has had a moment of decency and lucidity that that somehow makes him a good guy just as if he weren't in any way responsible for the blood of hordes of Iraqi men, women and children.
Getting angry 2:29pm on 12 Oct 2008 Elsewhere on the BBC website is a video of McCain defending Obama against the attacks of some of his Republican supporters. It sheds a very interesting light on a number of issues.
Towards the end of the video a woman in the audience starts to ask McCain a question. She says she does not trust Obama because - then there's a fairly long pause while she tries to remember the word - "he's an Arab". McCain, looking embarrassed that these are the sort of people who support him, replies that Obama is not an Arab, he is a decent family man.
Now McCain's response is either incoherent or racist (why is he contrasting being an Arab with being a decent family man?) And those alternatives show us why incoherent, racist people like the woman in his audience number among his supporters. She is overtly so; he appears to be contradicting her, but his language lets him down and reveals he covertly the same.
But the woman's remark also show us why getting Palin on his ticket was a smart move. There are a lot of dumb people in America and they want to vote for a dumb person like themselves.
Perhaps the media should spend less time studying the effect of the economic crisis on this election and more time trying to work out whether the stupid vote is going to swing it for the Republicans.
Stupidity plays a very important part in US elections, but nobody likes to say so. If you want proof of that, take a look at who has been a US president over the past 40 years and ask how many have not been either totally ignorant, immoral or a crook, and you're left with Jimmy Carter.
In other words, when America chooses it doesn't usually do so wisely.
Debate expectations 00:17am on 03 Oct 2008 Why are so many people querying whether Sarah Palin is up to the job?
Why the sudden seriousness from an electorate that put a chimp in the White House for four years - and then invited him back for another four?
And it's not as though Bush was an anomaly - Reagan and Ford were also intellectual pigmies, as was a recent VP, Dan Quayle.
So feel free to go ahead an inflict another incoherent idiot on the rest of the world - our expectations are low.
Clear brand 1:12pm on 21 Apr 2008 Good design makes things easier for the reader, not harder.
Unfortunately, your new design fails that test in at least two ways.
The increased leading and white space entails more scrolling. Did anyone actually say to you that the problem with the old site was there wasn't enough space between the lines? If not, why impose extra scrolling on your readers? It's not good for us!
And some of the sections don't work very well at all in pure design terms. For instance, if I look at the Sports page, at the moment I see part of a grey panel on the left, the headline and intro of the lead story and then some fragments of other headlines on the right. If I scroll across, the right hand column contains stories on the following subjects in this order: football, tennis, boxing, motorsport, snooker, cricket, football, football, football, tennis, motorsport, football. Where's the logic in that?
Now if I scroll down, I find a wob telling me the dates of the World Snooker Championship. Why? Underneath are some links and the reader finally realises that the wob must be related to these links, but the design is so poor you have to work it out for yourself. Below that is another ugly, grey panel containing a collection of features and comments. Below that is a fairly meaningless highlighted quote from a reader and at the bottom an afterthought section on tips and tactics.
There is no overall coherence to this design; there is nothing to guide the eye through the information in a logical way; in short, it is all over the shop and looks like a beginner's attempt at designing a page.
When these changes were rolled out, I didn't like them, but refrained from comment because I thought it was possible I'd get used to them.
However, they still look awful to me and I'd like you to change back, please. But don't do that just to please me - check your statistics and see whether as many inidividual stories are still being as read by as many people. My guess is that not as many pieces are being seen because of the extra scrolling to find the links and because of the chaotic presentation of some of the sections.

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