Opinion

By Richard Griffin Baseball Columnist Fri., May 25, 2018 Major-league baseball is becoming a young man’s game. Every week it seems some team is bringing one of its top young prospects to The Show and tossing him right into the fire. One commonality is that you don’t want a youngster sitting on the bench, so teams that promote a future star are going all in. Consider the number of 25-man roster players, plus those on disabled and restricted lists, who are younger than 24 years old. As of Thursday, there were 61. Young high school draftees and international free agents are fast-tracking to the majors more and more, promoted to the big club during the season — in order to preserve that extra year of control before free agency — after spending less than a full season at either Double-A or Triple-A. I have long been of the belief that bringing potential stars to the majors at a younger age, without the traditional full season at each … [Read more...] about How calling up Vladimir Guerrero Jr. could go down for Blue Jays

By Vinay Menon Entertainment Columnist Fri., May 25, 2018 Even while handcuffed, Harvey Weinstein was smiling. On Friday morning, amid a crush of TV cameras, the disgraced mogul arrived at a police station in Manhattan to shoot the latest scene in his real-life drama. Even on this day of reckoning, in which he was charged with sex offenses, including rape, Weinstein looked neither anxious nor remorseful. I’ve seen people looking more stressed out while waiting for the bus. On the way into the station, Weinstein smirked. On the way out, now cuffed and headed to court to be arraigned, he grinned. It was as if he was playing a character on the big screen, an impresario wrongly accused of heinous crimes who knows, deep down, he will beat the rap. It was as if he still can’t see the monster we all see. There were three perp walks on Friday and each was theatrical. Article Continued Below As a producer, Weinstein was a stickler for details. He … [Read more...] about Why is Harvey Weinstein smiling? Even in handcuffs, he still doesn’t get it

These celestial treasure hunters are searching for meteorites to sell on a burgeoning international market. Equipped with a “very strong” magnet and magnifying glass, retired physical education teacher Mohamed Bouzgarine says that discoveries “can be more valuable than gold”. The price “depends on the rock’s rarity, its shape and its condition”, the 59-year old adds, sporting a dark blue tracksuit, lighter blue scarf and sunglasses. “Rocks coming from Mars are very expensive, sometimes as much as 10,000 dirhams (Bt32,000) per gram,” he says. Bouzgarine stops in front of a hollow, hoping it could be a crater formed “very long ago” by extraterrestrial matter. “It’s a first sign,” he says, ready to get down to work, in the township of M’Hamid el Ghizlane. For four years now, he’s been sifting rocks in the sand, inspecting them for telltale signs of burn incurred during fiery journeys … [Read more...] about In Morocco’s desert, meteorite hunters strike it rich

The soft balancing makes use of institutional mechanisms such as the Asean Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit, and the Asean Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus. These platforms as well as negotiations to craft a Code of Conduct all play a part in efforts to restrain Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea. Soft balancing refers to the restraint of a threatening power using institutions, limited ententes and economic sanctions to delegitimise its policies. Hard balancing is based on military power and formal alliances to deal with such a state. In recent years, however, fears have been expressed about the inability of such soft balancing efforts to produce concrete results, especially at a time when Asean members are increasingly divided, with some even possibly pursuing soft “bandwagoning” (ie not actively opposing expansionism while reaping economic benefits) vis-a-vis China. Critics rarely come up with alternative proposals, other than that the United States and … [Read more...] about S China Sea as a zone of peace

It’s not “news” that self-exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra wants to return to Thailand, though some people are agitated about it. In recent days Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, another ex-premier, joined a slew of others in confirming what everyone already knew – that Thaksin is clamouring to return to his homeland but remains at a loss over how it might come about.  If we can somehow resolve the “how”, then democracy might get another chance to flourish here. Thaksin won’t come back until he gets a guarantee that he won’t have to spend “even a single day” in prison. He was sentenced in 2008 to two years in jail after being found guilty of abuse of power in the infamous Ratchadapisek property-sale case. He claimed the verdict was a conspiracy against him, even though he’d fought the charge and lost the case while he was still in power. The facts of the case have always been blurred due to the … [Read more...] about In a real democracy, bad people are punished equally