Friday, September 30, 2011

Snoop D-O double G

Snoop in a Cardiff City jersey. Now I've seen everything.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Catch a Fire



The new kindle fire has been announced.
Forget about memory - Kindle Fire gives you free storage for all your Amazon digital content in the Amazon Cloud. Your books, movies, music and apps are available instantly to stream or download for free, at a touch of your finger.
That might not mean a lot to you, but I've bought the first four series of the Big Bang Theory from Amazon on DVD and managed to mislay the third without seeing it. Absurdly, I've got the cardboard dust cover but not the plastic case. What I wouldn't have given last night to have had it served up from the cloud so I didn't have to segue from series two to four.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The Boy Looked at Johnny


Glancing through facebook this morning, I noticed that Johnny Boon has changed his profile photo to a shot of him and the Bomber giving a demonstration at Greenwich in 2008 - see Icons passim.

I didn't know it was possible to be sentimental about the Muay Thai elbow chop (Cherng Sork) but it seems it is as I am strangely moved.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Putting the bite on me

I've been in the dentist's chair all morning.

She's rebalancing my bite to stop me cracking my public facing upper teeth by clenching my bottom jaw over and in front of them.

It should only take about eight months.

Next time we meet I will be wearing a red carnation in case you don't recognize me.

Monday, September 26, 2011

I swear I use no art at all


Here are Ben and Halex at paintballing on Saturday.

Who would it have been do you think that dropped his gun on purpose, gathered the relic in has arms in Tomb Raider and raced home under hostile fire cradling it in his arms? Could it have been the same cool customer who delivered the bomb from the bus in Terrorist Attack into the heart of the enemy camp (admittedly aided by Rayburn and his riot shield)?

I cannot tell a lie, it was the same person, and it was me.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Lord of the Flies

Whether you need to top up your energy levels and refuel for an afternoon of adventure or you want a refreshing drink after a hard-fought battle, make sure you visit the Delta Force shop located in the basecamp. Drinks, crisps, sweets, chocolates, paintballs and armoured gloves are available for purchase from the shop, as are pyrotechnics.
Pyrotechnics? The Bomber, Rayburn and I plus assorted feral ten and eleven year olds are facing off against Jonnie, his father Andy and their gang of savages at Homewood paintball centre all day today.

Prodnose: What's your prediction for the fight?
Clubber Lang: My prediction?
Prodnose: Yes, your prediction.
[Clubber looks into camera]
Clubber Lang: Pain!

Friday, September 23, 2011

R.E.M. R.I.P.



I always rather liked Michael Stipe & Co.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

The Latest Findings

Tall people have less trouble retrieving objects from high shelves than those who are shorter, British researchers have found.

"When feeling out of sight for the the ends of being and ideal grace," the report's authors say, "subjects who were able to grasp items found it easier to collect them than those whose fingers merely brushed their objectives."

The key variable appears to be the distance from the balls of the feet to the end of an extended arm. Ratios of arm to leg length were found to be statistically insignificant.

Interventions such as standing on a chair, however, might also invalidate what are still preliminary conclusions according Dr Charles Suet at the University of How's Your Father in Croydon.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

I think I'm in love

I contacted Amazon yesterday about breaking my kindle. I just pressed the magic button on this page and they phoned me straightaway.

Even though I broke the reader by my own stupid fault, they are going to send me what they call an out-of-warranty replacement for fifty quid rather than the £152 a new 3G model usually costs.

All I have to do is send back the old cracked model at their expense.

I am hugely impressed.

(Kudos to the burglar who had read about this scheme on some bulletin board or other.)

PS While I'm sharing the love, Tefal sent me a free replacement lid for my Actifry in double quick time, so good for them also.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Buns of Steel

I sat down on a bench at Balham train station on Saturday and broke the screen on the kindle that was sitting in the back pocket of my jeans. This is the payback I get for developing my glutes to a level of solidity that has to be measured on the Rockwell scale, I suppose.

Interesting I really have no choice other than to get a replacement straight away what with the reading I'm doing at the moment and the various books (the new Murakami, Matt Polly's latest etc.) I have set up to be conjured to my account by the magic of whispernet as they are published over the next month or so.

My next kindle is also coming with a steampunk themed gelaskin. I think this is because I am a ponce. I can't really come up with any other explanation that covers the bases.

Monday, September 19, 2011

they come not single spies

Man who dedicated his life to helping vulnerable in Africa dies. That's Tom Quinn who was in primary school with me. We called him Russian for reasons that elude me, and I recall having a punch up with him at the bus stop.

He seems to have had his revenge by growing up to be a better man than I will ever be.

Rest in peace with the victims of Gleision.

Today will be sombre.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Evolution



My, what interesting statistics.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

African American Indian

The U.S. government is at odds with the Cherokee Nation over its decision to expel the descendants of black slaves from its ranks.

The tribe, the country’s second-largest, revoked the citizenship of 2,800 black members last week. The move cut them off from health care, food stipends, and other services, the Associated Press reported.

It followed a decision by the tribe’s Supreme Court that upheld a 2007 constitutional amendment limiting the Cherokee Nation to those with Cherokee blood. That excluded the descendants of slaves who had been owned by wealthy Cherokee individuals until being freed after the Civil War. In an 1866 treaty between the tribe and the U.S. government, those “freedmen” were guaranteed full tribal membership rights.
What a world. Once the brown-eyed have vanquished the blue-eyed, then purged the hazel-eyed; only then will the right-handed be free to chase the left-handed to the ends of the ruined earth.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Trader is nicked after £1.3bn loss



AP UBS shares have recouped some of the losses they suffered in the wake of its announcement that it suffered an alleged $2 billion loss due to rogue trading.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

I'm against it

Telegraph: David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy have arrived in Libya, their first visit since Col Muammar Gaddafi was ousted.

Rory Stewart a deputy governor of two provinces in southern Iraq in 2003-4, and the author of The Places In Between, about his 2002 walk across Afghanistan, is now a Conservative MP.
The last two decades of intervention suggest one thing: that interventions are intrinsically unpredictable, chaotic and uncertain. They can work: the international community played a prudent and constructive role in Bosnia, and the Bosnia of 2005 was far better than that of 1995. But in Iraq and Afghanistan, disorder and chaos seemed predestined. Guilt at lost lives, embarrassment, pride, fear of Islamists and hubris all prevented the West from acknowledging failure: instead of pulling back, they dived ever deeper. And their occupation bloated, warped and corrupted the fundamental structures – social, political and economic – of the countries they were purporting to help.

The lesson for Libya was that the West should not be dragged too far in and that it should anticipate chaos.

No one is going to come out this smelling of roses.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The World is my Oyster

This is the idea Amazon has put to me this morning:

Are you looking for something in our Watches store? If so, you might be interested in these items.

* Rolex Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master ll 116689
* Rolex Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master ll 116688
* Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner 14060M
* Rotary AGB00027/W/05 Gents Two-tone Stainless Steel Bracelet Watch

. . .

Rolex Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master ll 116689
by Rolex
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003KV0QSW/ref=pe_vfe_td1

Price: £30,308.00

. . .

Rolex Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Master ll 116688
by Rolex
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004GYXO9U/ref=pe_vfe_td2

Price: £26,967.00

. . .
They must know something neither I nor by bank manager know.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Mindfulness Day



Yesterday, September 12, was the world's first Mindfulness Day. Started by Massachusetts-based Wisdom Publications, Mindfulness Day coincides with the 20th anniversary of the book "Mindfulness In Plain English."

Perhaps you could consider sporting a fully functional smartphone brain scanner consisting of a low-cost 14-channel EEG headset with a wireless connection to a smartphone (Nokia N900), enabling minimally invasive EEG monitoring in naturalistic settings?

Chicks will dig it.

Monday, September 12, 2011

The Luminous Fish Effect

My brother Vince - like Einstein and Pauli, once on the faculty of ETH in Zurich - tells me that the equations on the boards in The Big Bang Theory are valid physics. The Bomber - currently of Azeroth - tells me that the show's World of Warcraft references are all accurate to the last ostrich.

Perhaps I shouldn't have been so astounded when I read Glow cat: fluorescent green felines could help study of HIV in the Guardian?

"The GFP gene, which has its origins in jellyfish, expresses proteins that fluoresce when illuminated with certain frequencies of light" it appears, so even Sheldon's attempt to create Luminous Fish after reading an article about Japanese scientist who inserted DNA of jellyfish into other animals wasn't just plucked out of the air.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Half Time

The Bomber started throwing up yesterday afternoon and then regurgitated anything else I tried to get him to eat for the rest of the day. He can sip water but that is about the limit at the moment.

Wales are ten six down against South Africa at half time.

Ben's better than he was last night though, and Wales are improving after a terrible start so maybe things are looking up.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

A Thousand Clowns

If things aren't funny then they're exactly what they are; and then they're like a long dental appointment.
My brother John got me the text of play (Icons passim) as a present and I've now found the films as a moody YouTube playlist. I'd still be happy to shekel out for a kosher DVD or iTunes download, but needs must.

Friday, September 09, 2011

Notes and Highlights

Kerala was probably the biblical Ophir from where King Solomon received apes, ivory and peacocks. It was at this period that pioneering Jewish traders seem to have first crossed the Red and Arabian seas to bring the pungent flavours of India to the Middle East and the Mediterranean world.
I'm reading the kindle edition of William Dalrymple's Nine Lives at the moment and I was struck by the passage above when I was passing time with it in the dentist's waiting room yesterday morning. (I actually had a little email correspondance with Dalyrmple about Kerala's St Thomas Christians before I went there over the 2003/4 New Year.)

So for the first time I used the kindle's highlight feature to tag the text. Actually I did it on the PC version when I got back the office, but Amazon synchronizes your annotations across all the platforms you use.

You can look at your notes on books at https://kindle.amazon.com/your_highlights.

This would be a great feature if you were studying.

Thursday, September 08, 2011

AdChoices

The other day, after I booked a flight on easyJet for a friend at the Mills who doesn't have a computer never mind the internet, I was surprised to notice easyJet adds popping up for me on various other sites.

I wonder if the culprit is AdChoices?
While Google often shows you ads based on the content of the page you are viewing, we also show some ads based on the types of websites you visit, view, or where you interact with an ad or other Google product supported by Google's advertising services. In doing this, Google doesn't know your name or any other personal information about you. Google simply recognizes the number stored in your browser on the DoubleClick cookie, and shows ads related to the interest and inferred demographic categories associated with that cookie. It's our goal to make these ads as relevant and useful as possible for you. Google doesn't create categories, or show ads, based on sensitive topics such as race, religion, sexual orientation, or health.
I just stumbled on it. I am surpised I haven't heard about it before and that it is not more controversial.

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

the kiss did not result in any formal action

Am I the only one who finds the sex claims and the 'wild ways' of Microsoft bosses rather endearingly staid? "Miss Redmond denied the short-skirt allegation although Ms Chughtai confirmed Mr Negus asked her to flutter her eyelashes." The horror, the horror.

Mr. Justice Cocklecarrot said “As it seems quite impossible to conduct in a normal manner any case in which these little gentlemen are involved, I suppose I may as well make a kind of summing-up. If the jury think that Mr. Rincewind was pushed from the ladder, they will consider his claim for damages reasonable. If, however, they are satisfied that he was not pushed but fell, as it were, of his own volition, their duty is clear. One thing that has struck me as odd about the case – apart from the interludes of lunacy which we have all deplored – is the fact that Miss Milton awaited the marauder, calmly allowing the ladder to be laid against her, as though she were a wall. She must have heard the approaching steps of this little bravo, and descried his face as it was advanced menacingly towards the goal of his unlawful whim – I refer to the perilously beautiful ear of the defendant. Now, Mrs. Webcross has assured us that ladder-gallantry is not part of the everyday life at her boarding establishment, yet Miss Milton expressed no surprise when she felt the ladder against her body, nor when she saw this little gentleman’s moon-face gazing up to her. I am puzzled; and I am bound to add that the two learned counsel have merely confused the issue by their prodigious display of idiocy and incompetence. I will end on that note. It is for the jury to make what they can of all this nonsense.”

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Making it easier?



This is facebook's idea of how to make it easier to share your location God help us. There are six Buckingam Palace's sharing the same location in the fb universe. Steven Moffat could get an episode of Dr Who out of that.

Monday, September 05, 2011

Inspector Gadget

Our police auction system got a mention on the latest episode of the Gadget Show last week. It is fourteen minutes into http://fwd.channel5.com/gadget-show/videos/full-episodes/tgs-series-16-series-16-episode-3.

Fleeting as it was, it certainly seems to have sent a lot of traffic our way.

I also notice that we are mentioned on a Dominic Littlewood page on the show's site - see http://fwd.channel5.com/adv/more-from-your-money.

It looks like 2008's One Show film (Icons passim) casts a long shadow.

Sunday, September 04, 2011

I give up

I'm just back from the Richmond to Windsor bike ride, I did Bikram yoga yesterday and my exercise log tells me I have been weight training more than five hundred times since I took up triathlons.

Now the Mail has come along to tell us Jab to end baldness 'ready in five years' using fat cells from sagging bellies.

I wish I had just stayed in bed.

Saturday, September 03, 2011

Though and I are too wise

I made my second trip to the Globe (Icons passim) last night for a hugely enjoyable romp through Much Ado About Nothing that was curiously improved by having the butler from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as Leonarto.

It was only a fiver to stand with the groundlings. Why don't I go more often? I can tube it to and from London Bridge in no time at all, and the theatre's only a few minutes from the station.

Friday, September 02, 2011

Wales and England

At the start of the season Dai Greene complained that, despite winning European and Commonwealth titles in 2010, the world’s best 400 metres hurdlers had still probably never heard of him. Well now they have.
A gold medal for an imperious Welshman in the athletics world championship is good news. I am also pleased for the delightfully monikered Hannah England

Thursday, September 01, 2011

one step forward, two back

Blogger's got a new interface. I can make neither head nor tail of it. How do I add a link for the title, for example?

Yours, confused.