Another Question, No Answers, About Spygate...

There's been a lot of hand-wringing about the possibility that the Patriots might have derived some advantage over the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI by taping the Rams' practice the day before the game. What I don't understand is why nobody mentions that the Buccaneers gained a clear advantage over the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII because Jon Gruden, the head coach of the Buccaneers and head coach of the Raiders the previous year, told his defense everything he knew about the Raiders' offensive schemes. Is Gruden a cheater, or were the Raiders at fault for not changing their offense? Is Belichick a cheater, or were the Rams at fault for not having better security at their practice?

Yes, there is a difference in the situations, but it's odd that what similarities do exist have gone completely unremarked.

The Scar (Mieville, China)

Is that Mieville or Melville? With the same neck-wrenching plotting used in Perdido Street Station, China Mieville takes us on a fishing trip/pirate ship/spy story/exile's tale full of similarly wild imaginations in all-new settings. The Scar is less of an editor's nightmare than Perido Street Station must have been, and Mieville refrains from the worst of his tendencies to write long, semicomprehensible passages in an alien life-form's first person view. In the end, the novel is an exercise in non-too-subtle metaphors for the title, but surprisingly, it works. And it's effective.