As TechCrunch and others report, Google’s Eric Schmidt announced that the next version of Android (Gingerbread 2.3) will support near field communication. What?

Wikipedia explains that NFC refers to RFID and RFID-like technology commonly used for contactless smart cards, mobile ticketing, and mobile payment systems.

“ Near Field Communication or NFC, is a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology which enables the exchange of data between devices over about a 10 centimeter (around 4 inches) distance.”

The next iphone is rumored to have something similar.

Support for NFC in popular smart phones could unleash lots of interesting applications, many of which have already been explored in research prototypes in labs around the world. One interesting possibility is that this could be used to allow android devices to share RDF queries and data with other devices.

Is he really cricket's latest whistleblower? As I last understood the job description, whistleblowers reveal the rottenness of an entity they are a part of, usually at great cost to themselves. Rashid Latif outed several people in his own side in the mid-90s, including the captain. He was a whistleblower.

So far Zulqarnain has outed an Asian man who speaks a little Urdu. To the ACSU: good luck finding him in Dubai, which is short of neither Asians nor Urdu-speakers. ESPNcricinfo understands the ACSU has not been told a great deal more so far than what Haider has publicly said. This is not whistleblowing yet; this is finding an incredibly convoluted way of reporting an approach by a suspect personality.

The other revelation is concerning a domestic 50-over game from March 2009, and it isn't much of a revelation. Haider was dumped as captain of Lahore Eagles ahead of the game, against National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), because, he says, he refused to pick players imposed upon him. The scorecard has a bizarre, men-against-children look to it. Two players who played for the Eagles hadn't played before and have not played since; one of them conceded 78 runs in three overs. To squeeze into the narrative, the implication is that the game was fixed and that Haider faced similar threats; moreover an NBP side with Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Kamran Akmal is a fine bit of clinching evidence.

Why let the truth get in the way of a good yarn, eh? One of the players selected was no cricketer but no fixer either; his father is a local Lahore administrator who desperately wanted his son to play a representative game. It is the kind of forced selection that the subcontinent's domestic- and junior-level cricket is littered with. It is a problem, but of a different type entirely.

The Eagles, incidentally, are the poor cousins of Lahore, the second-string team in which play the second-string talent of the city. They had lost three games fairly convincingly before this one. Above all, the match wasn't even televised, and TV we know, is the oxygen of bookie-dom.

For now, Haider is simply an asylum seeker, not a whistleblower.

Much else besides should be questioned. Why did he leave updates on Facebook for all to see? And go to a TV reporter first instead of approaching the PCB or the ACSU? That, I find difficult to dispute, says more about Haider than it does about either the PCB or ACSU. The PCB is inept, incompetent, disgraceful, but to assume they may be in cahoots with the underworld is still a considerable leap. And Tim May's argument that the ACSU cannot be trusted to keep secrets is irrelevant here at best. The one thing that is blindingly clear is that Haider is not a man looking for anonymity.

Nor did he approach anyone in the team. It's been easy to forget over the last few months that there remain characters in and around Pakistan cricket untainted by such muck; could not even one, such as a Younis Khan, or an Abdul Razzaq be confided in? Haider says he wanted to protect the team by not telling them. Letting them find out after he has told the whole world is a strange kind of protection.

Why wait four days and one game before leaving? Why go to the UK and leave your family in the protection of the Lahore police, which, as every citizen of that beautiful city knows, is no protection at all?

Equally there is no need to be as dismissive and vindictive towards Haider as some of the reactions from the rumpus that passes for the cricket community here.

The approach itself is as believable as not. Who would still approach a side under such scrutiny? Or is it simply that the hooks are in that deep? But to swat it away, as some have, on the basis that Haider is no player of significance, is to be blind. He was the wicketkeeper, a position Pakistan should know only too well, is uniquely capable of affecting the course of entire matches. Approaching a wicketkeeper, in fact, makes immense sense. Calling into question Haider's mental health, as the team manager has done, is in outright bad taste.

What little I saw of Haider as a cricketer, I liked. He isn't a great wicketkeeper - and the bar has been set remarkably low by Kamran Akmal - but clearly there is something in Haider that functional teams should like: a little fight, a little heart, something that equates to more than just the parts. But a significant part of me looks at how energetically he hunts for media attention and how much of it he has attracted in a short career; then to this episode, with real suspicion. Another part can't work out why he would give up a budding career as an international cricketer if not because of something serious.

That is the real frustration of the last week - the lack of any real resolution between those parts.

Stephen M. Marz MA ’94, history, is the new director of the Delaware Public Archives. A certified archivist, Stephen earned his undergraduate degree from Monmouth University, and later an MSW from the University of Maryland. He has served as Deputy Director of the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs for Delaware for the last five years.

Read the full story here.

The fifteen contestants of the Hot Wing Eating Contest that took place on Thursday, November 4^th waited eagerly for the signal to dig into their pile of spiciness. The award of $50 in Food Funds was waiting for the carnivore that could eat the most wings in five minutes. True Grit’s staff prepared to refill plates as they were emptied.

The air was tense, or maybe that was just the spicy aroma floating in and out of everyone’s lungs. With five minutes on the clock, Darryl Wolod (Director of Resident Dining), shouted, “Go!” and sauce started flying everywhere!

For some, the intensity drove them to rely on milk or water to help dilute the sauce.

As meatless bones started hitting the plates, one of the contestants seemed to be pulling ahead of the others.

Chris Krasias was his name. And with a determined look on his face, he kept calling for more wings from the staff. Right behind him was Ziang Lin.

Some thought he had outwinged Chris. The clock was still ticking and bones started to pile up on the plates. Who would be the victor?

Then the countdown started. The group of spectators counted along from ten down to zero. Time was up! And it was time to count the cleaned bones from the devastated trough of meat.

First, Ziang was counted. He managed to get 25 wings down in just five minutes!

Then, all eyes were on Chris. Everyone watched carefully as his bones were counted, “23, 24, 25, …” It was clear that he would surpass Ziang’s number. In the end, he finished off 29 wings! But it was all worth it. The free plate of wings and $50 to spend on food put a smile on Chris’s face as he accepted his award.

But there really were no losers in this contest; everyone got to enjoy some free wings!

Stay tuned for more eating contests from Chartwell’s in the future. There is talk of a watermelon or falafel event next semester!

Photos: Mark Tarkanick