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It was an interesting day three. It started with Jason Holder blasted 69 runs from 39 balls to finish unbeaten on 82. That he ran out of partners before he had the chance to reach a century - but after his team had passed the follow-on mark - was partly due to the guile of Josh Hazlewood, who finished with 5-38.
Australia began their second innings with a 179-run advantage. Even though David Warner was at the crease for the first 36 overs of the second innings his presence did not have the overtly positive effect on their scoring rate that it usually days. He put on a century opening stand with Shaun Marsh. Both of them fell between 60 and 70, although Marsh's failure to reach three figures could be more consequential given his duel with Chris Rogers for the right to partner Warner at the Ashes and select Mark Waugh's comments (see below) about the need for the left-hander to convert his starts.
Shortly after Steve Smith cruised to a half-century captain Michael Clarke surprised by declaring nine runs shy of a 400-run lead, which gave his team eight overs to bowl to end day two. Mitch Starc removed openers Kraigg Brathwaite and debutant Rajindra Chandrika in the first over, while first-drop batsman Darren Bravo, having been given out leg-before, was the beneficiary of an extremely generous interpreation from Hawk-Eye that the delivery from Nathan Lyon that struck below his knee role would have passed over the stumps.
The West Indies will resume at 2-16, with Shane Dowrich alongside Bravo. The home side either needs 392 to win the match or to survive (assuming good weather, as is forecast) 180 overs in the last to secure a draw.
Our man on the spot in Jamaica, Chris Barrett, will be filing all the news and analysis back to our websites for your perusal.
Thanks for joining us. Our coverage of day four will begin at 12.45am AEST.
"They (Glenn McGrath and Josh Hazlewood) are both country boys, so they were brought up in tough environments. I think they've got similar styles of bowling. They get close to the stumps, they present a very straight seam. I think Josh Hazlewood is probably a fraction quicker than Glenn McGrath. If he's as good as Glenn McGrath you've got a serious bowler. He has just got to stay injury free. He's had a few little injuries already in his career so that's one area he needs to work on. Glenn McGrath hardly got an injury. If he stays injury free he won't be far off Glenn McGrath at the end of his career with Test wickets."
"He (Josh Hazlewood) has been very good since his introduction to Test cricket. A no-nonsense type of bowler who's got a very economical action. he gets close to the stumps, hits the seam and does all the basics well. He's got that height as well and he's quick enough, about the 140km/h mark. He is just a really consistent bowler. Nothing can really go wrong with that action. He puts the ball in danger areas all the time, with a little bit of nip either way - and good pace."
"He (Jason Holder} has got to bat No.6. He's good enough to bat No.6 in this team. He'll give you a bit more balance. You'll be able to play an extra bowler as well, so more depth in the bowling. He's a good, clean hitter. He just took no prisoners, backed himself. We haven't really seen a lot of the [West Indies] top-order players back themselves - they've been a bit nervous - but he is a fine young player. He's bowled really well in this game as well and took a good catch. He gets a big tick."
"He (Shaun Marsh) is an experienced player, a very good player, and those sort of fifties you need to convert them into hundreds when you have been in and out of the side. You've got to make the most of your opportunities. It was a very good innings . . . and if you said at the start of the day 'Would you be happy with 69?' he would probably take that, but given the context of the bowling attack it was against and the nature of the pitch there was a hundred there for the taking."
"He (Shaun Marsh) played really well. He'd be disappointed not to have made a hundred . . . he did all the hard work and he looked in total control. It was a very good track to bat on today. There wasn't much swing for the faster bowlers so . . . it was probably the best day to bat, today. He looked in total control the whole innings, nine fours and a six. He did hit a lot of balls to the fieldsmen. There were a lot of dot balls in that innings and he probably should have been closer to 100. When he got out it was a big surprise. It was a very good catch at short mid-wicket."
"He (Mitch Johnson) has probably dropped 3 or 4 Ks from last year in pace, but that's probably [due to] wear and tear and playing a lot of cricket. But his record is still very good. His past 10 or so Test matches he's taken about 50-odd wickets. He's still getting wickets, he's still good in all conditions - particularly on these sort of pitches where he can bang it in and get that low, sliding action. He's still the head of the Australian attack - but he's getting a lot of pressure from the younger guys. Hazlewood and Starc are bowling really well. I think it's a good combination. You've got the experience of Johnson and the two young guns as well."
"We saw a little bit of reverse[-swing] there towards the end, so we're hoping for [more of] that tomorrow."
"I think he's probably about the best fast-bowler in world cricket at the moment - red or white ball. At the start of last season in Australia in Test match cricket he wasn't quite there - I don't think he had the self belief - and then all of a sudden he bowled a couple of good spells. And then the World Cup came along and he bowled as good as anybody, and now he's carrying that on with the red ball."
MARK WAUGH on Mitch Starc
"He (Michael Clarke) declares when people least expect it . .. it came probably 10 or 15 minutes before it was expected, and I think that got the West Indies players a little bit off guard. They probably weren't mentally prepared as maybe they should have been . . . I think it's a good tactic and it worked for the Australians."
MARK WAUGH, former Australia batsman and now selector, on the match TV coverage.
While Australia's bowlers were in the comfortable position of having 391 runs to defend there was no complacency from them, especially from Mitch Starc.
STUMPS: West Indies 2-16 after 8 overs, trailing by 376, with Darren Bravo 8* off 27b (1 six) and Shane Dowrich 1* off 16b.
Cracking delivery from Lyon to finish, floating a ball in to Bravo that spins sharply away from the left-hander who was lunging forward trying to block, with enough spin to clear the outside edge.
Well, fair to say I didn't expect that! Bravo thumps Lyon high over long-off.
Three balls to go. Bravo still on strike.Back to top
Nathan Lyon to bowl the final over.
Mitch Johnson being given the final over from Starc's end.
Don't know how that was calculated to be going over. Baffling.
Thoughts? LIVE: http://t.co/dbIHFSzkOM #WIvAUS pic.twitter.com/UTOrPqQ3xX— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) June 13, 2015
Not out! Overruled! Hawk-Eye suggested the ball would've passed over the stumps. Looks a crazy interpretation to me, but good for Bravo and the West Indies.
WICKET! Lyon beats the inside edge of Bravo, trapped lbw. Given out. He challenges but this will surely be out.Back to top
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Johannesburg, Mar 15 (ANI): Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has backed suspended vice-captain Shane Watson and said that Watson had worked hard as any other player in his team, in the midst of the crisis surrounding the touring team in India.
Dismissing Cricket Australia's (CA) high performance manager Pat Howard description of Watson as 'sometimes' team player, Ponting said that he had loved every moment that he had played with Watson and added that Watson is a very good team player and a great 'bloke' to be around with, Sport24 reports.
Describing Watson's disciplinary breach as a minor mistake, Ponting said that he does not think of the task given as homework as Watson simply did not complete his tasks given to him by his coach.
Watson, who was initially thought to be considering his Test career, has returned to Australia to be with his wife who gave birth to a son on Thursday.
Watson, along with Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Usman Khawaja, was suspended for the third Test in India after failing to respond to a request from Australia's management for feedback on how the team could be improved, the report added. (ANI)

subset: commoncrawl


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ComicsAlliance Reviews 'Steel' (1997), Part One
As we continue our in-depth look at super-hero movies, Chris Sims and David Uzumeri take on the Superman film franchise. Even this part.
Chris Sims: With 1997's Steel unavailable on DVD, we originally thought we were going to have to go ahead and move right into 2006's Superman Returns, but… well, it seems miracles do happen. Just before she left ComicsAlliance, Laura Hudson found the Shaquille O'Neal classic and sent us a digital version for review. I have to say, it's pretty fitting that her last official act as CA's Editor-in-Chief was to give us a crappy movie to watch. It's her lasting legacy.
David Uzumeri: The VHS copy really adds to the … halo surrounding the film, since I can't imagine Shaquille O'Neal in his Kazaam!-era prime without the moving Instagram equivalent of scanlines and EP videocassette recording.Chris: Exactly. I want to apologize to all of our readers for our screenshots in this review being so grainy and not up to our usual crisp DVD quality, but at the same time, I feel like it's the only way to truly experience this movie.
David: What's funny about this movie, and the character of Steel, is that – I was always a DC guy. So it took me becoming an adult to realize that one of these archetypal characters who affected me as a child was actually just pretty much Iron Man in the DC Universe.
Chris: That's a good enough way as any to segue into a little background on the film. 1997 was a pretty weird time for DC in terms of movies. Steel is, of course, ostensibly a Superman character, but it had been ten years since Superman IV flopped, during which the character had gone on to a pretty respectable run on TV with Lois & Clark. In the meantime, the Batman film franchise had pretty much run its course: Steel came out only two months after the release of Batman & Robin.
David: There's even a Batman Forever arcade machine in Noah's Arcade as the movie goes on! Shaq was a new multimedia star and big Superman fan, and this came out in the middle of projects like Kazaam! and the Shaq-Fu videogame, which was about Shaquille O'Neal knowing kung fu.
Chris: I'm going to go ahead and say it: Probably the single best concept of the SNES era.
David: So part of it was this, Steel. Who was fairly recently coming into his own, having his own series, the creation of Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove from the seminalish "Reign of the Supermen" crossover.
Chris: I'd argue that Steel is hands down the best character to come out of the Death and Return of Superman arc. He's a really good concept, and his motivation for becoming one of the Replacement Supermen is really solid, once you get past the whole thing where he used to manufacture super-flamethrowers called "Toastmasters."
David: The thing is that John Henry Irons's story, as presented in Reign of the Supermen, was basically Tony Stark's. What made it interesting was the fact that he was interacting with Superman, and the way John Henry became Clark's friend. It's a relationship Morrison made a point of building into the very kernel of Superman's story in his new Action Comics. But just on his own, played as, and by, a well-meaning goofball, it suffers. Largely because it takes like literally half the movie for him to put on some f***ing armor.
Chris: It's also worth noting that at the time, Warner Bros. really seemed to be courting (ha ha) basketball stars. This was only a year after Michael Jordan teamed up with Bugs Bunny to stop aliens from conquering the world in Space Jam, a movie that actually came out and isn't something we made up. Guys like Shaq and Charles Barkley were huge stars, especially coming straight out of their gold-medal win at the '96 Olympics. I've never watched a basketball game in my life and I know exactly who these dudes are. Unfortunately, they're not exactly what you'd call great actors.
David: Well, at least Space Jam focused on Jordan's main talent – shooting mad hoops. Here, we're supposed to emote with, and feel for, Shaq. Including when he drags a screaming woman out of a veteran's hospital to the cheers of the populace, but we'll get to that.
Chris: Of his three major talents, the other two being basketball and, of course, rap music, acting is probably Shaq's weakest area. One more thing before we get started, something that really surprised me: Quincy Jones produced this movie. And on the long list of amazing things Quincy Jones has produced, Steel definitely falls short of, say, Thriller.
David: I think Kevin Grevioux's voice is what did me in.
Chris: Well, there's no putting it off any longer. Let's get started with Steel!
David: But anyway, we start out in the middle of Modern Warfare 2 while -[R33Lst33lJHI]- tests out the new sniper weapon class he downloaded in .wad form with his clan.
Chris: I would like to point out that the very first thing someone says in this movie is "that's enough, that's enough! My ass is on fire!"
David: So yeah, Irons's colleague Burke shows off their sweet-ass Ulysses Klaw supergun to their entire military unit, where they shoot a building and it reflects and it hits themselves and Shaq's buddy Sparks gets hurt in some rubble, which he lifts her out of like he's John Henry lifting himself out of the rubble in a good story.
Chris: I can tell how much you don't like this movie by how fast you're glossing over plot points. For the record, John Henry Irons (Shaq) is a military scientist working on developing non-lethal weapons for combat, and Sparks is a lady with whom he does a bizarre kind of handshake where they draw a circle in the air and then rub their index fingertips together. And yes: It is as erotic as it sounds.
David: I guess I assumed too much knowledge, because – the thing is, Irons is actually true to character here, for the most part. He's a man with knowledge who was young and had his research misused, and then he had a change of heart regarding weapons policy. But that's basically Iron Man. What makes Steel interesting is his context, you know? And this movie is just about Shaq hitting stuff with a hammer, and that takes like half the movie. And his conscience, which is portrayed so goofily by O'Neal it's hard to take seriously.
Chris: Right, he's more or less defined by being a living example of Superman as an inspiration. They actually make each other better characters, in a way, and when you remove Steel from that larger context, the character suffers for it. Here, his logic is pretty dubious: After a miscalibrated "non-lethal" weapon accidentally kills a senator and paralyzes his friend, he decides that instead of making better non-lethal weapons, he's going to just go ahead and leave it to machine guns and rocket launchers. The logic is a bit… lacking.
David: It's true to his comic origins, but it's also a serious about face for him in the context of the movie. Granted, he's supposedly woken up from his ethical sleep by the actions of Burke, his research partner who overloads the gun and has it reflect off of a nearby building and demolish the beam's point of origin, because he is a brilliant scientist but also a complete idiot who can't conceive two blinking, beeping red dots. Or he can but wants to overload the gun on purpose, to show how it can … backfire? It's confusing. Shaq's buddy/love interest Sparks gets caught under some ceiling, and there's an uncomfortable amount of film dedicated to Shaq lifting it. It kind of echoes the comic book version of his origin, in that he's struggling with some concrete, I guess.
Chris: Except that he's already making non-lethal weapons for the military, so his starting point is that he's an idealist who doesn't even want to kill enemy soldiers. There's nowhere for him to go, and it makes his decision to quit the military even more bizarre, especially when he gets exactly what he wants at the following trial, when Burke is booted out. The best part of this, though, is that Burke is played by Judd Nelson, who looks to be somewhere around two feet shorter than Shaq, but still has to play scenes where he gets mad and gets up in his face. Or up in his chest, as the case may be.
David: Literally everybody in this movie is comically shorter than Shaq.
Chris: It's seriously fantastic.
David: He looks like Hodor or Hagrid or something. Like a man with giant's blood in a regular world. But he totally plays himself as a regular, put-upon dude.
Chris: And when he goes back to the old neighborhood after he quits the military, there's a joke about how he actually sucks at basketball! Get it? Because in real life Shaquille O'Neal is very good at basketball?
David: Look, he just can't make free throws, okay? I dunno, all I know about Shaquille O'Neal playing basketball, I learned from him being literally on fire in the middle of NBA Jam. And the way the movie's shot, it's worth mentioning, is like an episode of a '90s sitcom. The quick-acting music cues and funk soundtrack, the gratuitous guest stars…
Chris: On the subject of music cues, I love how there's so much mid-90s hip hop just dropped in. The theme song for Shaq going back to Los Angeles is "Bust a Move." I imagine having Quincy Jones as your movie's producer makes it a lot easier to get music clearances.
David: Shaq comes home to his sassy grandma and his rambunctious cousin, because literally everything in this movie has to be a '90s sitcom cliche. His Grandma Odessa and cousin Martin greet him back at L.A, where John Henry has decided to celebrate his newfound civilianism by wearing a Hawaiian t-shirt.
Chris: His little cousin could not be more of a walking cliche if this was done on purpose. I guarantee you that if you have seen more than, say, five movies in your life, you will be able to predict what this kid is about to say with 100% accuracy
David: He's like… look, I know I make a lot of Wire comparisons, but I really can't take any "prepubescent kid is trying to avoid getting involved into a gang" storyline seriously after David Simon's masterpiece. And this is so goddamn trite.
Chris: To be fair, I think wanting Steel to be on the level of The Wire is expecting a little much, but yeah. Martin sounds exactly like a middle-aged white dude trying to write an authentic inner-city black kid and basing it entirely on cartoons from the '90s. He's seriously one "that's wack!" away from just collapsing under the weight of it.
David: I had to stop the movie and cry in the bathroom as soon as he quoted the chorus of "C.R.E.A.M." But the original Simonson/Bogdanove story was actually pretty progressive for the time, and this is definitely based on the basic story of that. On the other hand, we get "Black and Bleu," Grandma Odessa's French/African-American fusion cuisine restaurant.
Chris: Credit where it's due: I think the idea of the soul food / haute cuisine fusion restaurant sounds amazing.
David: Meanwhile, we're told that Martin's in danger of hanging out with GANGS, the ultimate danger in mid-'90s Hollywood depiction of any inner city.
Chris: Meanwhile, despite offers from various "weapons builders," John Henry has decided to take a job in an actual steel foundry. Which…
Chris: I mean, I get that he doesn't want to build weapons anymore, but isn't this dude still an electronics genius? He made a portable laser rifle that can disable a tank and a sonic cannon that can knock down a building! Why is he working at a miserably hot foundry when he could basically write his ticket in any part of the tech industry?
David: Well, look, as we'll find out later, Shaft can get him ANYTHING he needs off the back of ANY truck. But for now, we catch up with Burke, who's decided to team up with a local videogame arcade mogul to start supplying the gangs that hang out at his arcades with these sonic superweapons. No, really.
Chris: I love this dude who is, as Judd Nelson describes him, a "hot weapons" dealer. Not only does he smuggle his guns by duct-taping them to the insides of arcade machine cabinets, but he's also the prototypical version of the '90s long-haired scumbag bad guy on every episode of Walker: Texas Ranger.
David: Like, he sells arcade machines and… submachine guns. And, of course, all the arcade machines are Warner Bros. properties, so I guess they're linking themselves to inner city super-crime with experimental military weapons?
Chris: I just love that this thriving criminal empire is contingent on the continued existence of arcades. Out of curiosity, how many arcades do you think were accidentally blown up when he tried to pack hand grenades into Dance Dance Revolution machines?
David: John Henry and an old friend who's become a police officer take Martin on a sort of 'scared straight' ridealong, and on the way there's a robbery caused by the gang outfitted with the sonic guns created by Burke, Irons and Sparks's research. And only now do I get the joke in Irons and Sparks creating the steel armor. The very obvious joke, or they'd probably call it symbolism.
Chris: Look, let's not start talking smack about puns when our starting point was a guy named John Henry Irons becoming a super-hero named Steel. That's like half a notch above "Turner D. Century," and you know it. Anyway, I question the wisdom of taking two civilians along for the ride when you're going to an actual violent bank robbery, though. I mean, the seven foot-tall former Army lieutenant, maybe, but his 14 year-old cousin? Probably not a great idea.
David: In the case of Irons's cop buddy, I'm pretty sure she expected a few idiots with AKs, though, not the amalgamation of Marlo's gang and the scientific achievement of Ulysses S. Klaw.
Chris: You've already done a Klaw joke. ONLY ONE KLAW JOKE PER COLUMN. YOU KNOW THE RULE.
David: Look, there are clearly five Klaw jokes per column, one per each finger. The cops manage to round up most of the gang members, but one of them, Cutter, keeps bagging loot and runs off on his own, followed by Shaq. What follows is basically the train graveyard sequence near the end of Midgar in Final Fantasy VII, as trains move at glacial speeds in a like five-minute sequence of nothing but dudes jumping over, and avoiding, couplings. And I really think we need to take a second to recognize the soundtrack of this film, because it's seriously just awkwardly-cued generic funk music over badly directed action sequences.
Chris: You say Final Fantasy, but there is no way that this entire sequence was not based off a platformer. They seriously went into this thinking "how can we make a movie that we can translate directly to the Super Nintendo?" And this was their solution.
David: You sound like a man who never beat Final Fantasy VII.
Chris: Son, I beat Emerald Weapon so don't come in here with that.
David: But seriously, Irons moves through the joining train couplings like Mega Man dodging the laser beams in Quick Man's stage. Shaq basically fakes his death by letting a train car "drop" on him, open doorway first.
Chris: I genuinely hope that was an idea Shaq brought to the set. "Guys, I'd really like my performance to be inspired by Harold Lloyd."
David: Because the kid he's chasing is an idiot, Shaq just threatens him with more punching and finds out that the random street gang outfitted with Modern Warfare 4 weapons has leaders that hang out in the back of a random arcade.
Chris: You say that as though you wouldn't confess to any crime you were suspected of if a man the size of Shaq was going to punch you. I mean, look at this way: When the dude shoots Shaq from behind, it's with the rockets that we've seen take out a tank. For Shaq – or at least, for John Henry Irons – it presents a minor inconvenience. I don't even really see why he needs armor at this point.
David: Or why he has to protect his identity. He has no problem pissing off everybody he's got a beef against as John Henry Irons, why even bother pretending to be a dude named Steel? Like, "I'd better protect myself to prevent these guys I've already pissed off from thinking I've pissed them off!"
Chris: It's a pretty great disguise, though. How are they ever going to figure out which truly gigantic person is messing with their operations? We're still a ways out from that, though.
David: Sparks is feeling sad in a veterans' hospital, so Shaq makes her do things by forcibly picking up her wheelchair (that he apparently bought) and carrying her out of the hospital to the ongoing applause of everyone else in the building.
David: I really have no idea what to make of this scene, since the camera actually lingers on the celebrating residents as Irons carries her down the stairs. It's utterly bizarre.
Chris: I like that due to Shaq's slightly limited acting ability, he comes off as immediately confrontational and pissed off towards his friendly who's dealing with being paralyzed. "Didn't you get my letters?!" And then he gets up a few seconds later and punches a window open. It's hilarious.
David: It's like, apparently just introducing her to fresh air wakes her out of what I can only call her post-traumatic stress disorder? She thought she was going to die, I'm pretty sure you can't fix that AND everything that comes along with losing the use of your legs just by belting a Venetian blind.
Chris: And then there's the fact that while he's picking her up, she's struggling and yelling "No! Let me go!" It is the weirdest damn thing. Like, you're exactly right, there is no sane way to interpret this scene.
David: But apparently, forcibly abducting her and dragging her to a junkyard to hang out with Shaft is the missing raison d'etre she needed to keep on moving. That said, if I were any age between zero and like forty, being abducted to live in a junkyard with Shaft sounds like the beginning of the world's greatest adventure. I mean, or the world's most macabre Madame Tussaud's exhibit.
Chris: That's right, everybody, we haven't been typoing all this time. Meet Uncle Joe, as played by the star of Shaft, Richard Roundtree. In a beret. For reasons I do not quite comprehend.
David: Uncle Joe actually lives in what I can only describe as a Fallout 3 trading outpost. While John Henry Irons ventures out into the wasteland to glean bottlecaps from radscorpions, Sparks is stuck trying to acclimate not only to living on her own in a wheelchair, but doing so in a junkyard palace which her ex-coworker had made wheelchair accessible before abducting you from a veterans' hospital.
Chris: As much as I love to see Richard Roundtree getting work, there's no getting around it: the old junk-man who can produce anything you need because it "fell off the back of a truck" has got to be the most uncomfortable cliché in the entire film.
David: The thing is, Uncle Joe doesn't only produce an uncomfortable cliche, he provides a reason why two ostensible supergeniuses could build what's basically an Iron Man suit out of scrap armor. And here's the thing: this is a story about a dude who develops a conscience after his inventions are used for dangerous and destructive purposes, so he fashions himself as a modern-day scientific knight to right his former creative wrongs.
Chris: This movie wouldn't really lose anything without him, though. I thought for sure that the reason they had John Henry Irons working in a foundry was that he was going to literally build the armor there, but it all happens in Uncle Joe's junkyard. All things considered, I'd rather have Jeff Bridges shouting "Shaquille O'Neal built this in a cave!"
David: Well, let's be fair, all things considered, I'd rather have the first Iron Man flick than a whole lot of summer blockbuster movies. Or planned blockbusters, as in this case. Either way, similarities to Iron Man aside, Burke's long since taken control of the entire arcade / superweapon amalgamation business by sticking everyone but him and future New Warriors writer Kevin Grevioux in a sabotaged elevator. Martin's friends have recommended he get a job at the arcade, and Irons is happy, because this means a straight job as opposed to whatever gangs do in PG-13 movies from the late '90s. This leads him to become Burke's right-hand man, I guess because Burke wants to keep an eye on Irons.
Chris: Clearly, paralyzing his best friend, injuring his cop buddy and then selling his weapon designs to street gangs wasn't enough to make things personal between Burke and Irons. After that, we get a suit-building montage set to this genuinely awful song about how you need to "steel yourself" that includes a slow close-up on Shaq's Superman tattoo. It also says "MAN OF STEEL" around it. You know, just in case you didn't quite get it.
David: Well, what were they supposed to do, cover the text up? That tattoo's for real. The best/worst part is that it transferred itself into Irons's character in the comics.
Chris: Did it really?
David: Yeah, I'm pretty sure he even had the S-symbol arm tattoo in 52. And at least it didn't cut from the tattoo to Shaq's junk like it would have in a Schumacher joint.
Chris: Huh. I guess there's no reason for him to not have one. Hell, If you saved me from the Black Racer during a battle against Mongul and Darkseid, I'd probably get "U Z U M E R I !" on my knuckles.
David: Shaq is now Steel, and he looks pretty much like the comics version, except without a cape and with a ridiculous MF Doom mask that exposes his mouth and, well, looks kinda cheap in comparison to the rest of the costume and the general conception of the character, even in this movie. And he gets a big hammer because, as Sparks says, "a man named John Henry's just gotta have a hammer." Roundtree states that he "especially likes the shaft." Get it, guys? Shaft? Richard Roundtree? Weirdly uncomfortable phallic subtext?
Chris: The best part is Shaq's reaction shot.
Chris: I take back everything I said about him being a bad actor
David: I wonder if that line was actually ad-libbed, and that was genuine surprise.
Chris: I'm pretty sure it wasn't, if only because I feel like Shaq would've cracked up at that line. I'll admit to groaning through a laugh myself.
David: If nothing else, I think this movie passes our consistency test. It's written and directed by the same dude, and while it's not particularly… ept, that shows. And sometimes that comes across in ridiculous moments like that shaft line.
Chris: Oh, it's very consistent. Unfortunately, it's consistently awful.
David: It really can't be stated enough how awful Shaq's performance is. He's the least intimidating guy in the world, and never is this more clear than when he saves the Penguin's parents from Batman Returns from the tyranny of an indie guitarist with a switchblade.
Chris: This is our first look at Shaq in costume, too, and if you've ever wondered what would happen if Phoenix Jones and RoboCop had a baby, it would look exactly like this:
David: Oh my Lord, I've been trying to place what the costume reminds me of, and you're dead right, it's Phoenix Jones. Steel goes after the thief and nails him to a shipping container in a generic dockyard, leading to his assistants remarking that the thief must now be "born again." He then apologizes to the really rich people on behalf of the people of Los Angeles, returning their money.
Chris: And then, in the single most amazing moment of the film, he steps backwards onto an escalator that seems to appear out of f***ing nowhere and says "Y'all be cool, now." I cannot tell you how hard I laughed at this. It is the greatest thing.
David: Seriously, was the escalator written into the script? I have to wonder if it was originally supposed to be jetpack boots, like the comic version.
Chris: I swear, it's like they were in a meeting going "What do super-heroes do after they do a good deed? They fly away, right?" "Well, we don't have the budget for that. What if he just rode up an escalator instead?" It's shot in the exact same style of the classic "Superman flies away" scene, and there's even a gust of wind as he goes up the escalator. It's… I love it. Pure, unironic love. It's the best.
Chris: Well, okay. Maybe a little ironic.
David: And then, right after saying it, he just spins around and starts walking up. As John Henry fights crime, he's helped out by Sparks and Uncle Joe, and I can pretty easily see why so many commentators compared Sparks to Oracle for a while now. She basically sits there on comm and tells John exactly what to do, just like Oracle did to Batman for like a decade.
Chris: Wait, are you saying you think the redhead computer genius in the wheelchair who guides the super-hero from her headquarters is comparable to Oracle? I'm not sure I follow your logic there. Or maybe I'm just distracted because Shaq has to hold his right arm in this weird position because, if he doesn't, something will definitely fall off that costume. Really, guys? Sixteen million bucks in the budget and you couldn't slap some duct-tape on it for the shoot?
David: To be fair, maybe it was just to hold himself up after absorbing the treat of being "smoked like a blunt." Steel's armor is also so bulletproof that it doesn't just, like, protect him, he can actually just stand there like Superman and wag his finger at the vintage luxury sedans.
Chris: The fight with the gang members is pretty rough, but — aw dammit, you had to mention Joel Schumacher earlier, didn't you? That's like saying "Bloody Mary" into a mirror, except that you've conjured up a close-up shot of Steel magnetizing a gun and some knives to his ass.
David: Can I just say how great it is that he magnetizes his own hammer? Well, I mean, it's already magnetized, but he just stands there like "yeah, whatever, I can take it." I'm sure this was practiced over years on the court, but Shaq's pretty good at a smug, patronizing grin.
Chris: Eventually the cops show up and Steel escapes with a grappling hook in a shot that completely justifies the movie's decision to go with an escalator earlier.
David: The cops just stand there and watch, too — isn't this LA? Aren't they supposed to just unload their clips at anything that looks even slightly suspicious? Steel's jumping from rooftop to rooftop, ineptly, when the cops corner him and he seems to jump off, actually just grappling down, except the grapple line frays and breaks and he conveniently lands in a pile of garbage.
Chris: Then he gets on a motorcycle – and I'm honestly not clear on whether it's his motorcycle or if he just found it in the garbage, no kidding – and makes his escape. The cops give chase, but fortunately for Steel, whoever wrote this movie was under the impression that the police had to stop for red lights when they were chasing a suspect.
David: Sparks helps him escape the cops by manipulating the traffic lights, leading her to declare that "it ain't easy being green." Because Kenneth Johnson thought that was a clever Muppets reference, apparently. Of course, Steel has a sweet junkyard secret entrance for his motorcycle like he's one of the Three Investigators.
Chris: And naturally, the police don't think to investigate the junkyard. You know, the junkyard full of bizarre metal sculptures? Why would you look there for a dude wearing bizarre metal armor?
David: They even remark on how he might have escaped to "the Batcave." Like, did none of the helicopters catch the secret door that opened into the junkyard?
Chris: With that, we have our hero (sort of), our villain (more or less), and our plot (such as it is). So join us next week as we finish up what I can promise you is the Internet's most exhaustively in-depth review of Steel!
ComicsAlliance Reviews the Superman Films:
Superman (1978), Part One
Superman (1978), Part Two
Superman II (1980), Part One
Superman II (1980), Part Two
Superman II (1980), Part Three
Superman III (1983), Part One
Superman III (1983), Part Two
Supergirl (1984), Part One
Supergirl (1984), Part Two
Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, Part One
Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, Part Two


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Meet the Dean: Ross University of Veterinary Medicine
Dr. Elaine D. Watson came to RUSVM to take it to the new level, and hasn't stopped.
Courtesy Ross University School of veterinary medicine
Elaine Watson is the dean of Ross Unversity School of Veterinary Medicine.
Dr. Elaine D. Watson began her role as dean of the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in February 2012 and has since worked hard to take the school "to the next level." This includes strengthening the use of research as part of the educational program, internationalization of the student body and developing postgraduate Master's and Ph.D. programs. Watson has published more than 300 scientific papers and abstracts in the area of veterinary reproduction, as well as contributing chapters to several books.
Q. Why did you enter veterinary medicine?
A. Before I was 10 years old, I knew I wanted to become a veterinarian. Initially, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do, which was to work with horses. However, while attending the University of Glasgow, I began to explore the many opportunities that the veterinary world offered and I realized I wanted to do more—research, teach, gain global experience, influence the world around me and contribute to the future of veterinary medicine.
Q. What was your first veterinary job after graduation?
A. After completing both my veterinary degree and a Masters in veterinary reproduction at the University of Glasgow, my first position was as a Veterinary Research Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Cattle Breeding Center at Shinfield, United Kingdom, where I studied infertility in dairy cattle on a number of the farms serviced by the Artificial Insemination Center. The work I did there was at a very applied level, such as optimal timing of insemination in dairy cows, as well as more developmental work on the use of milk progesterone as a management tool in cattle breeding.
Q. How and why did you move into academia?
A. After working for about five years on bovine reproduction for the Ministry of Agriculture and for the Agricultural and Food Research Council, I wanted to switch fields to equine. I also had interest in teaching and performing clinical work, as well as research. I was advised by one of my mentors, Lord Soulsby, to start by undertaking a Ph.D., which I did, at the University of Bristol.
I was then recruited by Dick McFeely to the University of Pennsylvania as assistant professor of Equine Reproduction and head of the Endocrine Laboratory. This move probably proved to be the most influential in shaping my career, giving me clinical reproduction and teaching experience in an environment that nurtured and rewarded research and leadership skills. This was also when I realized the importance of gaining international exposure in broadening one's professional experience and outlook.
I later joined the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and led in various capacities as head of reproduction, head of postgraduate and research and then dean in 2003. In 2012, I was recruited as dean of Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, specifically to take it "to the next level."
Courtesy Ross University School of veterinary medicine
RUSVM's 55 acre campus includes classrooms, laboratory space, large animal teaching facility, a small animal clinic and more than 350 teaching animals with a view of the Caribbean ocean and a backdrop of exotic mountainous rainforest.
Q. How do you keep up on the state of veterinary medicine?
A. One of the key strategic initiatives of RUSVM is the internationalization of the program. I have always been interested in the state of veterinary medicine on a global scale. I am involved in various professional organizations and universities throughout the world and have served on many professional boards in the U.K.
With one of our Research Centers focused on One Health, and having been a senior figure in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at Edinburgh, I am also interested in the state of human health and the interactions and influences of animal health on human health—and vice versa. In fact, we are hosting an international One Health Conference, "Bridging the Divide" at RUSVM in November.
Finally, understanding the profession from the students' perspective is vital to the future of veterinary medicine. We are training the next generation of participants and leaders in the global healthcare team—with all of the looming challenges they will face in the mid-21st century. I engage frequently with our student government association to gain knowledge of what is impacting our students and its relevance to the current state of veterinary medicine. This also provides me some insight into what challenges and opportunities the future generations of veterinarians may face on a personal level.
Q. What does your school look for in choosing students?
A. The ethos of Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine has always been to "give students a chance." A number of states in the U.S. do not have their own program, and existing schools are oversubscribed and reject students who have the potential to become good veterinarians. While academic success is important, RUSVM prides itself in accepting a well-rounded student—character counts—could they be influential in the global veterinary world, are they willing to take calculated risks for the benefit of animals and humans, do they have interest in conservation medicine and wildlife that would make an educational experience in St. Kitts even more rewarding, do they have passion for veterinary medicine and research? All of these are considerations when RUSVM chooses students for our program. RUSVM carefully monitors student attrition, and we lose less than 2.6 percent (2012-2013 academic year) of students from the program, while maintaining high academic standards. This low attrition rate means we carefully select students who are able to succeed in the RUSVM program.
RUSVM looks for students who seek an opportunity for a global education in an AVMA-accredited program. We have students, faculty and staff from around the globe, and renowned researchers with experience at the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and from some of the world's top universities. RUSVM has students from as far afield as Asia and Australia and as close as the U.S., Canada and South America.
Courtesy Ross University School of veterinary medicine
RUSVM students working with the Dr. Lesroy Henry, veterinarian at the St. Kitts Department of Agriculture, on ambulatory rotation at local porcine farm. RUSVM students gain unique experience studying zoonotic diseases that afflict livestock and other domesticated animals throughout the tropics and developing world.
With an annual intake of well over 450 students, admitted in three semesters, RUSVM offers an accelerated program, with course work totaling just [a little more than three years]. Most of our students have already completed a three or four-year science degree, however the most talented students can join the program after a two-year pre-veterinary training period. We have recently successfully gained approval to offer a dual degree DVM/Masters program, and so will further be extending the choices for our most qualified applicants.
Q. Many veterinary students graduate today with about $160,000 in loan debt. Can anything be done to reduce that burden? Does your school offer any advice to students about loan debt?
A. The accelerated program offered by the school—with students graduating in just over three years—allows graduates to enter the workplace almost a year earlier than traditional two semester programs. Student debt also remains at the forefront of our minds at RUSVM, and the school is focusing on ways to produce a value-for-money veterinary education, whilst not detracting from the educational experience. With this in mind, I recently appointed an Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning and one of the primary focuses of the position is to develop an effective, preclinical curriculum, mindful of controlling costs of tuition and student debt, while achieving the best learning environment and experience for RUSVM students.
RUSVM provides individual counseling to students via our financial aid office. The financial aid administrators recently received an organizational award from DeVry Education Group for a bespoke program they created to educate RUSVM students on financial management. Additionally, as a part of classroom instruction, Veterinary Professional Foundations includes a module focused on debt management and employment contracts, as well as cover letter and resume/CV, interview skills, salary negotiation, selecting a first position and corporate career opportunities.
Q. Does your school encourage students to go into underserved areas, such as large-animal medicine?
A. We have a very diverse student community at RUSVM, some from non-traditional backgrounds and some from underserved areas themselves. While many of our students become small animal practitioners, I believe that RUSVM encourages students to consider non-traditional, and global veterinary opportunities. Yes, that does include areas such as large animal, but also includes the wider opportunities for veterinarians such as undertaking research in a developing region or considering careers in public health, agricultural practice, corporates, industry, government service and biomedical research.
Q. In recent years, has your veterinary school switched its focus or added new programs?
A. I joined RUSVM just over two years ago, initiating a strategic refocus of RUSVM's priorities—strengthening the use of research as part of the educational program, internationalization of the student body and developing postgraduate Master's and Ph.D. programs.
The high standards applied by the AVMA's Council on Education to both U.S. and foreign schools, along with the strong backing of the RUSVM Board of Trustees, and senior leadership at DeVry Education Group, have been pivotal in helping me, as dean, to transform the school. Through targeted recruitment of leaders in their field, collaborations and partnerships with top universities, institutes and practices, RUSVM faculty members now participate in research projects totalling more than $21 million from grant-awarding bodies, industry, corporates and governments, and have authored almost 100 scientific papers in the past year. Our faculty, from some of the world's top universities and research organizations, are committed to providing students with the opportunity to become deeply involved in research. I'm proud that around 400 of our students now participate annually in research projects and all students now undertake a credit-bearing course on Principles of Veterinary Research.
Courtesy Ross University School of veterinary medicine
Conservation medicine is the focus of one of the four RUSVM Research Centers. Students have the opportunity to work with the St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network to participate in conservation programs, turtle tagging initiatives and community education sessions.
We have also developed four Research Centers, which are the primary avenues through which RUSVM interacts nationally, regionally and globally. Each center comprises a group of leading researchers working collaboratively in a clearly defined field of inquiry. The portfolio of our Research Centers project RUSVM's strategic intent of research excellence and contribute to the research culture of RUSVM, including training and mentoring postgraduate and doctor of veterinary medicine students.
A year ago, RUSVM launched its Master of Science by Research (MSc) and Ph.D. degrees in Public Health, Global Animal Health, Tropical Animal Health, Conservation Medicine and other research areas supported by RUSVM and its partner institutions. The management of the postgraduate program and its regulation are structured according to the frameworks set by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (United Kingdom). RUSVM's geographical location in the Caribbean, its existing focus on One Health, and its global partnerships will appeal to those interested in pursuing knowledge and understanding of public health aspects of all species, rigorous scientific methodology, and the control and prevention of diseases affecting humans and animals in tropical regions.
In September, we plan to launch an online Masters program on One Health.
Global trends will influence the future of the veterinary profession and how veterinary researchers serve society and how veterinary professionals define their role in a rapidly changing world. RUSVM is focused on internationalization of the student body, bringing an even more diverse learning perspective to our academic program. I believe there is no better way to educate students about One Health or to encourage them to become leaders a part of the global health care team than to immerse them in that environment. Our efforts include bringing students from across the globe into the program—U.S., Asia, U.K. and even Africa—and increasing the proportion of international students by 10 percent in the next two years. Today's world is a world of global connectivity. As veterinary educators we must prepare tomorrow's veterinarians to practice in a global society, where human and animal health care providers are partners.
Q. Discuss any patents, technologies or procedures your school has had a hand in recently.
A. Through RUSVM's Research Centers, we have been able to forge new research collaborations in academia, government and industry that have laid the foundation for exciting new projects in the field. With our unique setting, RUSVM's research faculty are working on 21st century solutions to global problems including:
- Review of the possible use of immuno-contraceptives in managing invasive species such as non-human primate populations.
- Design of synthetic baits that could carry new biologics to reach free-ranging wildlife and vaccinate them against selected diseases.
- Development of sensitive and specific immuno-histochemical tests to improve the detection of emerging pathogens in a rapid and economic manner.
- Creation of relevant laboratory animal models for the testing of human products that will have improved purity, safety, immunogenicity and efficacy, such as monoclonal antibodies.
Q. What are you most proud of about your school?
A. I was brought in to "take RUSVM to the next level." Within the first three months of my arrival we underwent an extensive strategic planning exercise which involved faculty, staff and students in identifying the school's priorities and devising a roadmap of how to deliver the vision. I am very proud of the high quality new faculty, staff and administrators we have attracted, who share in that vision for RUSVM and are excited to be pioneers in a changing school. But I am most proud of those existing faculty, administrators and staff members who were here when I arrived, who have embraced the vision, supported change and played an active role in reaching where we need to be. Along the way, we have formed strategic partnerships with organizations that complement the potential for impactful research at RUSVM. Organizations such as Moredun Research Institute, Global Alliance for Rabies Control, EcoHealth Alliance, The Roslin Institute, The Wistar Institute, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services and some of the world's top universities now work with us, and are collaborating with us in research and in grant proposals. It is a great time to be a part of such an ambitious, globally-focused school.
Biography At-a-Glance
Name: Elaine D. Watson, BVMS, MVM, Ph.D., DSc, Dip ECAR, FSB, FRCVS, ARAgS, dean, Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine; vice president, DeVry Medical International
Age: 58
Degrees and Schools:
2002 – DSc, Ovarian and uterine function in Mares, University of Edinburgh
1986 – PhD, Endometritis in the Mare, University of Bristol
1979 – MVM in Reproduction, University of Glasgow
1978 – BVMS, University of Glasgow
2014 – Fellow, Society of Biology
2013 – Associate, Royal Agricultural Societies
2001 – Founding Diplomate, European College of Animal Reproduction
1991 – Fellow, Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (FRCVS)
Family: Son, Marcus (17 years)
Frigate Bay, St. Kitts (current)
Ayr, Scotland (birthplace)
Dr. Elaine Watson began her role as dean of the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in February 2012. She graduated from the Glasgow Veterinary School and continued her studies to complete a Master of Veterinary Medicine in Reproduction in 1979. After working for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and then the Agricultural and Food Research Council in the area of bovine fertility, she completed a Ph.D. at Bristol University in 1987 on endometritis in the mare. Watson then moved to the University of Pennsylvania as assistant professor of Equine Reproduction and Head of The Endocrine Laboratory.
Courtesy Ross University School of veterinary medicine
RUSVM launched its new Master of Science by Research program in August 2013. Dr. Esteban Soto (left), Associate Professor of Veterinary Bacteriology and Mycology, is working with an MSc student on a research project focused on emerging fish disease.
In 1991, Watson returned to Scotland as Head of Reproduction at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, was awarded a Personal Chair in Veterinary Reproduction in 1999, and received a DSc from the University of Edinburgh in 2002 for her studies on ovarian function in mares. A European Specialist in Equine Reproduction, Dr. Watson was elected president of the European College of Animal Reproduction in 2005.
Watson has served on editorial boards of various scientific journals and is a regular reviewer for research councils in the U.K. and U.S.A., was a member of the RCVS Council, Education, Policy and Specialization Committee, and Fellowship sub-Committee from 2003-2011, was Chief Examiner for the RCVS Diploma in Veterinary Reproduction, and was a Trustee of the BVA Animal Welfare Foundation.
She has published over 300 scientific papers and abstracts in the area of veterinary reproduction, as well as contributing chapters to several books and delivering invited talks at many international conferences. She was dean of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies from 2003-2011, and successfully initiated and led a more than $171 million capital development project and fundraising campaign for the school transforming the Veterinary Field Station into the Easter Bush Veterinary Centre, one of the largest concentrations of veterinarians, students and animal scientists in the world. In addition, she initiated the first strategic partnership between a pharmaceutical company and a veterinary school, established educational programs for veterinarians in China and India, and instituted articulation agreements with programs in Japan and Hong Kong. She was also responsible for gaining funding from a Swiss Trust and other sources to establish the world's first International Centre in Animal Welfare Education. Dr. Watson is an Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh.


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khaled mishal
Tensions mount over the death of a Hamas official last month in Dubai. Israel remains tight-lipped over accusations that its intelligence service Mossad was involved in Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's assassination. Julian Manyon of ITN reports. Continue reading
The mysterious death of a Hamas military official in Dubai has raised suspicions that the murder was an Israeli operation. Margaret Warner talks to a reporter for more. Continue reading


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For weeks leading up to their fight, power punchers Fernando Montiel and Nonito Donaire took turns predicting a knockout. Turns out they were both right. Their fight did end in a beat down. But only Donaire was the one satisfied.
Donaire, who was born and raised in the same Philippines city as another elite puncher, Manny Pacquiao, landed a stunning counter left hook in the second round that floored Montiel as if he had been hit with a hammer. It was a shocking end to a fight which was expected to be filled with fireworks. As it turned out, the first missile launched was all that was needed to close the show early.
After hitting Donaire with a right hand, the Mexican left himself wide open and never saw the counter shot coming. Donaire hit him with a short, precision punch that sent the defending champion down to the canvas, and for all practical purposes the fight was over. The game Montiel, who had never been knocked out in 48 previous bouts, somehow got to his feet and just beat the count. Referee Russell Mora let the fight continue, but Donaire rushed Montiel and landed a quick two-punch power combo and the ref waved it off with 35 seconds left in the round.
Donaire, whose 5th round TKO of previously unbeaten Vic Darchinyan in 2007 was named "Knockout of the Year," clearly made an early case for the best KO of 2011. What was most impressive was that the blow was not a flashy, roundhouse shot, just a quick flick of the left hand, so great is Donaire's power.
The Filipino came into the fight with only one quality victory in his 26-bout career, the win over Darchinyan. But with the best fighters steering clear of him - for reasons made painfully obvious to Montiel - doubts lingered about Donaire. After this fight, all questions about Donaire's ability to beat the cream of the crop were answered. Montiel (44-3-2) is a certain future Hall of Famer, and had been 17-2 in championship fights. Donaire dispatched the heralded Mexican as if he was a club fighter.
"I hit him with the left hook and I looked down, and I saw that his legs were twitching, and I knew that the fight was over," said Donaire, who improved to 26-1, with 18 knockouts. "I had a premonition that this would happen. I told my trainer, Robert Garcia, in camp, before Christmas, that it would be a second-round knockout."
Montiel was examined at a local trauma center and released, saying, "I knew that we both had the power to knock each other out. But I made the first mistake, and I paid for it."
The knockout came after a feeling out first round. Montiel had vowed to be the aggressor in the fight, but seemed reluctant to commit to his attack, which apparently was sound thinking. The first time he went on the aggressive, he was stung. Montiel, who is one of only five Mexican fighters to win titles in three weight divisions, will still be enshrined one day among the sport's elite. Where Donaire will fit in the scheme of things remains to be seen, but clearly his future is bright and the one-punch power he demonstrated against Montiel will make him a crowd favorite.
In the first fight co-feature, unbeaten welterweight Mike Jones (24-0) won a unanimous decision in a rematch over Jesus Soto-Karass (24-6-3). Jones had won a disputed majority decision over Soto-Karass last November. In that fight, Jones thought he had a knockout in round two and went all out to get it. It did not come and he burnt himself out. After that he had to gut it out to earn a majority decision. This time around, Jones worked behind a crisp jab and stuck patiently to his plan to outbox the game Mexican. Soto-Karass' chances were compromised in the third round by a head butt which was ruled from a punch, but replays show it came from an accidental head butt over his left. A second cut was opened over the Mexican's right eye and by the final rounds he was fighting behind a mask of red.


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Sri Lanka A have won the deciding One Day match against New Zealand A by three wickets to take the series 2-1.
Having won the toss and opted to bat first, New Zealand had seven players make scores of 25 or more and were led by Colin Munro with 50.
Munro and Luke Ronchi (31) had their side in a strong position at 166 for four, before both fell in the space of three runs. Fortunately the lower-order wagged for New Zealand, with Andrew Ellis (46*), Daryl Mitchell (25) and Ronnie Hira (30) all making solid contributions to ensure a competitive total.
Ramith Rambukwella caused the visitors the most problems with the ball and finished with figures of four for 30 from tens overs.
In reply Sri Lanka were once again led by their opening batsman Dimuth Karunaratne (70). The home side also had a number of batsmen make starts, but wickets at important moments meant that New Zealand were still a chance for much of the innings.
In the end middle-order batsman Ashin Priyanjan took control for Sri Lanka, making an unbeaten 47 and seeing his side home with nine balls in hand.
Adam Milne maintained his good form with the ball, taking two wickets for 44 runs from 10 overs. Andrew Ellis also had two scalps, while an impressive effort in the field brought about two run outs.
This was New Zealand A's last game of the tour and they'll now return to New Zealand.


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General Electric's research arm and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (Darpa) have joined forces to develop an entirely bio-based jet fuel to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. The main challenge is to make the conversion process efficient. The project envisions a conversion efficiency, by energy content, of crop oil to JP-8 surrogate of between 60 and 85 percent. The current focus is military, but commercial aviation might well reap some fruit eventually.
The program is called "Highly efficient bio oil conversion to jet fuel." GE and Darpa plan initially to deliver some 100 liters (26 U.S. gallons) of fuel to the Department
of Defense for evaluation. The fuel is intended to meet military JP-8 specifications. The research partners will also address how to qualify and commercialize such a fuel.
According to a spokesman for GE Global Research, the $3 million program will last two years. "We really want to understand the characteristics of the fuel–how it is made and what the economics are," he told AIN. Other research team members include Peter Cremer North America and Petrotech. The former is said to have extensive biodiesel commercialization experience, while the latter claims to be an expert in hydroprocessing.
GE and Darpa want to integrate "two mature technologies"–gasification and hydroprocessing. Gasification produces synthetic gas from feedstock, and hydroprocessing converts the gas into liquid fuel.
The product has low levels of sulfur and aromatic hydrocarbons, so its emissions are less polluting. However, aromatics serve to lubricate, so researchers must find additives to achieve the specified lubricity.
Under the joint research program, the minimum conversion efficiency, by energy content, of crop oil to JP-8 surrogate should be 60 percent. However, GE and Darpa are talking about "process optimization to achieve circa 85 percent." For example, researchers will look for optimized catalysts to improve reaction yield.
GE and Darpa expect the biofuel to be affordable and its processing to require no external energy source. According to the defense agency, the conversion process should be compatible with oils from a broad range of crops. These might include new crop stocks selected specifically for their oil harvest.


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The Stand Strong Women's Conference will be held Friday and Saturday at the Packinghouse, 27165 San Bernardino Ave., Redlands.
The Friday session begins at 7 p.m., and the Saturday session is 9 a.m. to noon.
Speakers include pastors' wives Jean McClure, Cathy Caldwell and Johanna Hale speaking on courage and standing strong in a hostile world. Special music and worship will be by Grammy-nominated Christian artist Kim Hill and by Chelsea Moon.
There will be special featured testimony and interviews with Naghmeh Abedini and Sandra Hansen. Abedini is the wife of Saeed Abedini, a pastor who has been imprisoned in Iran for his Christian faith for more than a year. Recently, President Barack Obama wrote a letter to the Iranian president asking for Abedini's release. Sandra Hansen is the wife of a Navy SEAL.
No registration is needed for the free conference, however a freewill offering will be taken.
For information, call 909-793-8744 or visit www.thepackinghouse.org.