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It kills me that there's no NBA, and yes: I get that it'd be the off-season now, but there's nothing at all: no trades, no movement, nothing.  And it looks as if we might have to put up with exactly that for quite a while to come.  

Fortunately, there's still hoops to be found.  There are the various summer leagues, and of course there's the Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown.

The LA Showdown turned out to be one of the best dunk contests of all-time and the dunker that came out victorious was none other than Kenny Dobbs aka "The Dunk Inventor".
With millions of Youtube views to his name, Dobbs wanted to show that he's not a "video dunker" that needs multiple tries and video editing to showcase his skills. He pulled out some pretty wicked variations of all the past dunk contest winners - from jumping over somebody while covering his eyes to going between the legs over multiple people.  Check it out for yourself:



California is also represented by two other dunkers that won the Online Submission part of the contest.  AirDogg from LA - known for appearing in music videos and commercials like the last Sprite one with LeBron James, and the wickedly-hopping lil' guy: 5'11 Exile from Sacramentio.

Head over to the Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown to vote for your favourites... or follow them on twitter @spriteslamdunkshowdown
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Now, the human element is coming to the fore.  Before, it was just numbers, and the earthquake and ensuing tsunami were the story.  But in the aftermath, the survivor stories are begining to be told. 

On TV tonight, I watched as one elderly man told of how he and his wife hurried as fast as they could from the oncoming tsunami.  Both aged, her left leg was somewhat crippled.  He tried to carry her, then pull her along... but the tsunami ripped her from his grasp.  He told us his tale from the ruins of a town, pointing to where he last saw his wife.
Another man sat in the gymnasium of a local school with all the other survivors, and told a camera crew of how he and his wife were running, and he looked around and she just wasn't there any more.
We watched a man searching the remains of his house for signs of his son.
A woman at the base of almost a mountain of rubble and debris, screaming, sobbing the name of her child.
Evacuated people holding signs for TV cameras, hoping that their husbands, wives, sons or daughters still live.

A friend of mine is still right in the middle of all of this.  Victoria worked in Soma, Fukushima.  It was one of the worst hit by the tsunami, and is now within the 30 km warning radius of the distaster-struck Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant.  Her situation is ... well... her words (with her permission):

"...not evacuating now. we have nowhere to go. half a million ppl in evac shelters in region, not enough supplies to help them. just have to stay inside and wait wait wait.... can't go outside, Too dangerous. There are no assisted evacuations taking place from Soma. As I said before, can't get to Tokyo! Also cant get to fukushima airport. It's 3 hours away, not enough fuel... "

"Scared"

My prayers go out to her, and the others in her situation.  Would that we could actually do something...

Lastly, cannot forget the brave souls who have remained at Fukushima Daichi plant, putting themselves directly in harm's way in an effort to stave off complete ruin. 

I wish there was more I could do, but beyond donations - there's very little any of us can do. 
Below is a list for Red Cross.
International Red Cross Appeals for Earthquake/Tsunami Relief:
Australia
Canada
Ireland
New Zealand
Singapore
UK
USA


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It's late Sunday afternoon here, and southern Japan's kind of surreal at the moment.  A beautiful, early Spring day that belies the hideous events going on to the north of the country.  Even as life seems to be almost normal down here, there's still a pall of horror over the southern communities.  There's the convoys of military vehicles heading north... the charity work underway to get necessary clothes, food, daily-needs goods north - mostly organised by volunteer groups utilizing mobile phone chat services to get their message out.  There's the very deep national grief that's growing by the hour as reports come in of the dead, the destroyed, and the devastation that northern Japan has faced... and the fear that worse might be yet to come via the nuclear plants in Fukushima.
And there are even stories of criminal elements trying to cash in on the national efforts, masquerading as charity workers asking for donations.

46, a guy who sometimes writes here (mad Orlando fan), lives in Fukushima.  He's ok, and has evacuated south to a city in a safer area.

The media here in Japan's generally calm, and lacking the sensational elements that CNN and Fox have had, along with their counterparts all over the world (for me, particularly Australia).  The government have been pretty good with getting information out, if you know where to look.  Noriyuki Shikata has been excellent - distributing news via twitter.  He is the Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Public Relations, Director of Global Communications at Prime Minister's Office of Japan.  As mentioned before, Al Jazeera and BBC are pretty good too.
Rescue specialists from all over the world are starting to arrive to help with the recovery process.

There will be blackouts all over Japan, as electricity rationing is beginning.  In many prefectures on Honshu, water has been turned off, and food/necessities supplies are in short supply as panic buying has struck.  Access to the troubled areas is difficult due to the debris caused by the tsunami.

When listening to media reports just remember: the simple fact is, that no-one fully knows or understands what's going on in Fukushima at the nuclear reactors.  The best source of information on that is the Japanese govt., and at this point in time I'm not going to go with the sensationalism you'll see in various "news blogs" and "twitter experts" that the Japanese government lying or covering things up. 
In leiu of having any real information, waiting and seeing with a dose of caution is probably the most appropriate stance.



More when I can I guess...
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I honestly don't know where to begin.

I guess with thanking those that sent me messages via email, facebook and twitter: I'm fine, my family's ok.  My friends are for the most part accounted for and doing ok, tho' honestly I have a few up north that I continue to worry about. 
My family and I live in Japan's south, on the island of Kyushu - the southern-most of the main islands.  This quake and ensuing tsunami occurred a bit north of Tokyo. 
And for the most part, Tokyo's ok too.  They've had... and will continue to have some hellish inconvenience, but compared to what's happening not too far north of them, they're ok.

But northern Japan is anything but 'ok'.
This quake, has been pretty devastating. It's said to be 8000 times more powerful than the one that hit Christchurch. No typo there: 8000. Just off the coast of Japan, about 300km north of Tokyo.
The ensuing tsunami has been the worst part. 1400 are confirmed dead, but the end toll will be well in excess of that, perhaps many times more.

Northern Japan's now fighting continued earthquake tremors - aftershocks that in their own right are sizable earthquakes, floods from the tsunami (water isn't receding), fires, and cold - it's snowing in most of these places.  Add to that, due to the shut down of all the power plants up there, most are without power.

Now there's also the threat of nuclear danger, as 2 plants in particular are having problems with the coolant systems (Fukushima Daichi and Fukushima Daini). Daini in particular is having difficulty with the SCRAM procedure, and there's the threat of complete meltdown.  This is a very real fear, and one that is far from being resolved... and could have dire consequences.  The government has declared a state of national emergency.

The images on local TV are almost surreal. 
I've seen rivers where hours ago there were none, full of cars bounced and thrown around like toys.  Images of houses ripped to pieces in seconds by water and debris.  Other houses with cars, shipping containers or boats smashed through them.  Fires ripping through cities.  People stranded in cars on bridges and highways, standing desolute on rooftops - waving to news helicopters, pleading for rescue.  I've watched hundreds of people crammed into small elementary schools now that their homes have gone.  Scared, terrified of what's happened and what could still be.  The number now is that almost quarter of a million people have lost their homes.

If you know someone in Japan's north, and you wish to check up on them, use Google's person finder, or the similar service from the Red Cross.

Still... some luck involved.  The time of day, the location, the time of year - this could have been worse.  Far worse.
Additionally, the reality of this is that without the excellent infrastructure of the building codes and government response, this could have been worse.  Japan's SDF has been mobilised, and relief efforts are underway.

The international commmunity has responded quickly too.  Relief teams and aid are coming in from all over the world. 
On a more personal level, if you wish to help, then making a donation to the Red Cross would be fantastic, and go a long way to helping the nation of Japan.

Lastly, I want to share some words from the BBC, where ordinary people have written in...

"We are in an historical, deep grief. Thousands are searching for their families with no luck, and can only pray or cry now. We will never lose hope. We shall get back into peaceful life with unity, wisdom and love. Please be with us."

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I am very happy to announce that With Malice is flying a NEW COMMENT SYSTEM!  And... it's fantastic.
Powered by Livefyre, this new comment system is cutting edge - easy to sign up, auto-refreshes, cleans windows too!
It's not even really a comment system - more like an integrated chat.

Some key points...
- Register with Livefyre, or sign in with twitter or facebook...
- Soon, integration with your old With Malice account/password will arrive...
- Old comments will not be lost. They aren't visible at the moment, but they will be imported into the new system soon.
- Flickr, Twitpic, tinypic, and imgur are the supported image sources, meaning you just copy and paste the URL into the comment box and the image shows up as a thumbnail!
- For videos, YouTube (look in the comments - Livefyre explanation from journchat!!!) and Vimeo work. Just paste the URL, and it works!
- This is a beta version of the system, so there are still some bugs being worked on... no comments

You might notice that the site's undergone bit of a transformation.  We've gone to a two-column layout (tho' soon I hope to change the grey background!), and hopefully in the next few days we'll be going to a new comment system (one that should make it MUCH easier to comment, update/follow).
Should be good! no comments

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As expressed by one high-ranked official within the Lakers' management, should Tracy McGrady not return to the New York Knicks next season or spurn retirement, "expect the deal to get done by the end of July."

"The Lakers just don't play the game the same way as everybody else. They don't talk about their plans, not on the record, not off the record. The "sources" within the Lakers organization just don't exist, or if they do, they are being fed the same bullshit that the gets to the rest of us, and are just as wrong."

Unfortunately, it's gotten to the point that any blog that aleges that "this piece is breaking news" without quoting a credible source (that broke the news before them), then apply liberal doses of salt.
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No Brain Activated...

Not an NBA piece, but it was basketball.  Anyway, I wrote a piece on Rick Reilly's lambasting of Yates High School's Greg Wise, and how un-wise Reilly was - Rick Reilly can shut up now... over at NBA Baseline!

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