This is one obstacle that I hope I should take to!
Another dip in the water is likely although the aim is to cross the pool by means of two ropes (or one single rope if you’re feeling hardy enough). After everyone has gone around, it’s likely that the ropes will be quite slippy so ending up in the water is quite probable.
All being well, I will be going to see Spiderman 2 tonight. As it would be far too easy to go to a local cinema and spend hours in a queue on opening night, I have decided to increase the challenge by going to a cinema 200 miles away.
Just as a follow up to my post the other day about the shark attack last weekend, it would appear that the search for the Great White that killed Bradley Smith was called off by the Australian Fisheries department on Tuesday.
Additionally, vigilante shark hunters can face fines of up to about GBP3900 if they are convicted of killing a Great White Shark. Which is an endangered species as we all know, don’t we boys and girls.
All I can say is: Good.
(via Reuters)
It was perhaps a mistake to go and see Fahrenheit 9/11 on the day when the second report in the last year about Blair and the handling of events related to Iraq and more or less acquitted him with nothing more than the political equivalent of a tut, a sigh and a put-upon look. I wasn’t in the most impartial frame of mind to start with
I don’t know where to start with this review. On the one hand I want to say “Look, this is what’s going on. This is what’s happening right now. Pay attention!” On the other hand, I don’t want to be seen to fall into the camp of “Michael Moore is God” without recognising that he is not only out to inform, but also to entertain. Perhaps that’s a good place to start. You see, I recognise the fact that Michael Moore aims to provoke a reaction and sometimes may tend to oversimplify things. Just read the section on Northern Ireland in “Stupid White Men” to see proof of this. It doesn’t really do justice to the history of the conflict there. So, as with all things Moore, I am aware that sometimes what he says or does is more about effect and getting the message across than about being entirely 100% clear on all the nuances and details of the facts he’s presenting.
What I will say is that this film made me laugh and it made me cry. It horrified me and angered me. What it didn’t do is surprise me.
(more…)
On April 6th, 1938 Dr Roy Plunkett was working with gases that could be used for refridgeration. On checking a sample of tetrafluoroethylene, he discovered that it had spontaneously polymerized (i.e. had changed into another substance) into a white, waxy solid - PTFE or polytetrafluoroethylene. Like all polymers, the molecular structure of the substance is based on a chain of carbon atoms. But unlike some other fluoropolymers, polytetrafluroethelynes chain is completely surrounded by fluorine atoms. The bond between carbon and fluorine is very strong, and the fluorine atoms shield the vulnerable carbon chain. This unusual structure gives PTFE some unique properties. In addition to its extreme slipperiness (it is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the Worlds slipperiest substance), it is inert to almost every known chemical.
We know it as “Teflon”.
In the 1960’s the first Teflon cookware was put onto the market and that is still its most common use today, but Teflon fluoropolymers into the electronics, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, transportation, chemical processing, housewares, and apparel industries and is even used in the construction of astronauts space suits.
In the mid nineties, a new breakthrough was acheived and the for the first time, PTFE was successfully combined with organic matter. The result of this fusion was the genesis of a new strain of homo sapiens; homo-nonstickus. The prototype was so effective that he’s still with us today. Since 2 May 1997, Teflon Tony has been Prime Minister of the United Kingdom proving time after time that no matter what happens, the shit won’t stick.
The exact cause of muscle cramp is still a scientific mystery. There are several factors which are always involved, namely:
Okay, I may have made that last one up.
I am surprised that the cause of cramp is still unknown. I’m also a little disappointed because last night at rugby training I got the most god-awful cramp in my gastrocnemius (That’s calf to the likes of you and me). It’s nothing new. I, like Gordon, tend to get calf cramps quite a lot. I mostly blame this on the fact that I have highly developed calf muscles from my days as an international long-jumper. (Stop laughing in the back there! Is it so hard to believe? Keep it up and I’ll be forced to post a picture of said calves and then you’ll be sorry!) This was backed up by a chat with a semi-professional kickboxer who had legs like tree trunks but also claimed to suffer occasionally from incapicitating calf cramps.
My normal approach to preventing cramps was to make sure that I kept regularly stretching and to make sure that I drank 2+ litres of water a day (3 normally). This has done the job for a little over a year until last week when I noticed, after my race, that I had a little cramp in my right leg. It eased up after a while and was fine when I played touch rugby on Saturday. Last night, however, after a good hour and half of training, it came back. With reinforcements. Today I am limping around with cramped up calf that hurts like a bastard.
This is not good.
It’s a little over ten days until Tough Guy and I need to make sure that I’m not going to be running the risk of my legs seizing up on the day. Aside from more stretching, more salty fluid (oo-er), more fruit and veg, more bananas and remembering to take my multi-vitamins each day I’m not sure what else I can do.
Damn science and it’s inability to create a pill to get rid of cramp!
Trent Reznor has now put a timeframe on the release of the new Nine Inch Nails album and says it will be released early in 2005 and followed up with an extensive worldwide tour. I feel a woo and probably a hoo coming on.
He also says that ex Nirvana and Foo Fighters drummer Dave Grohl has played on most of the tracks that have been recorded so far. This is no bad thing that’s for sure.
To sweeten us up for the new album, there are going to be two releases this year: the first is the DVD of Closure (Halo Twelve) which is a video with documentary and some videos (including “Head Like a Hole”, “Gave Up” and “Closer”) but has only been available on NTSC video before now. There is also going to be a “deluxe” 2-cd version of “The Downward Spiral” featuring 5:1 remixes of the original album tracks. The missus is going to be happy about that!
More info at his Q&A
While in W H Smith’s earlier (shopping for an extortionately expensive blank ink cartrdige for my HP deskjet - why are ink cartridges so expensive? 28 quid for a branded cartrdige it cost me! It’s outrageous! I tried the cheaper WHS own brand ones but frankly the quality was crap so it’s back to the HP versions. Anyone got any ideas where I can get some cheap ones from? Online or offline?) I noticed a new(ish) magazine for golf enthusiasts.
I would like to stress that I do not play golf, have no intention of ever playing golf and try, when possible, not to associate with golf players (despite realising that my career maybe hindered as a result. Like I give a fuck!). Forever willing to try most things at least once so that I am not in a position of ignorance when I slander them, I did try to have a game of golf and as a result, I am in total agreement with whichever famous person stated that golf is a good way of ruining an otherwise enjoyable walk. It appears to me to be a dull, drab and otherwise tedious game and no amount of sexing up is going to make it any more appealing.
Not even by a magazine called “Golf Punk”.
Golf Punk! “Golf” and “Punk” - two words that should, by all that is unholy, never, ever be used in the same sentence (unless it’s something along the lines of “And then the punk beat the living shit out of the smarmy arsed, arrogant tosser of an investment manager with his own titanium plated golf clubs. Which was nice.”) It’s just so wrong to even try to equate the word golf with the word punk. It’s easier to get Bliar to admit that invading Iraq was perhaps not the best idea of his presidency than to try to give golf an air of excitement and anti-establishment rebelliousness that is associated with the word punk. It would be like describing the mediocre, angsty (in a “I’ve broken my fingernail” kinda way), pop blandness of Avril Lavigne as, well, punk. It just ain’t gonna happen.
According to the press release about the launch back in March, the magazine is aimed at golfers aged between 15-34 “whose needs are not currently being recognized or addressed.” Aw diddums. The only thing they need is help and the only thing that should be aimed at them is an SVD Dragunov.
Perhaps, however, there is a place for golf.
Golf fashion has been revolutionised with Prada, Burberry, Hillfiger joining established golf fashion houses such as J Lindeberg, Hugo Boss and Pringle in launching their own golf ranges
So perhaps golf will be a useful way of keeping the chavs on the golf courses and off the streets. One can only hope!
The human capability for over reaction is still remarkable. This weekend, an Austrailian surfer was tragically killed by two sharks, allegedly Great Whites, while surfing off the coast of Western Austrailia. 29 year old Bradley Smith died doing what he loved the best, according to his brother.
The headline on yesterday’s Metro read “Surfer Eaten Alive in Great White Shark Attack”. It could have simply read “Surfer killed by shark” but that would not have appealed to the primal fear we humans have of being eaten alive by a predator and would not have been as sensationalist as the editors would have liked. As written, it backs up the common perception that Great White Sharks are the vicious maneaters that popular culture has painted them as and not the endangered, solitary and rare animals that they actually are.
Don’t get me wrong - I am in no way trying to paint a picture of the fabled Carcharodon carcharis as a fluffy, gentle and playful creaure to be petted and introduced to your children. They are extremely efficient and powerful killers. But they are largely demonized by popular culture, largely thanks to a certain 1975 blockbuster film. Current research and study still suggests that Great Whites have no taste for human flesh (which is why remains are always found). They generally seem to take one bite of a human and then let it go. Unfortunately, that one bite is normally fatal owing to the size and strength of the beast.
It also needs to be pointed out that the chances of being killed by a shark are fairly remote - in Austrailia it amounts to about one a year which, when you consider how many surfers, swimmers, scuba divers and other people take to the water, is not very much. The last person known to have been killed by a shark attack in Victoria, for example, was in 1955. Consider also that we kill about a million sharks a year and suddenly the odds don’t seem to favour the sharks very much at all.
But, despite the fact that 32 times more Austrailians were killed in May this year in road traffic accidents than were killed in the last four years by shark attacks and that there were more deaths in Oz due to bee stings than sharks attacks between 1980 and 1990, government officials in Australia launched a hunt for the two animals responsible for Bradley Smith’s death with intention of tracking down and killing the endangered species. Simply because of the tragic fact that they were in their own habitat, the ocean, following their natural predatory instincts.
Fortunately there is one voice of reason in the wilderness and that comes from Bradley Smith’s brother, Stephen, who is calling for the authorities not to embark on a mission of revenge on his brothers account. I commend him for his sensible and considerate appeal in what must be a terrible, terrible time for him. I only hope that the fisheries department reconsiders it’s rash course of action.
Peter Benchley and Steven Spielberg have a lot to answer for.
Because I haven’t got around to telling you about my fantastic weekend, here, for your edification, is perhaps more personal detail about me than I’ve shared before.
The me meme (with my corrected, non-text-spelling version), via BF/housse,Fluffy, Billy and others:
LAST:
CLUB YOU WENT TO: Apart from the Rugby Club? The FAB Cafe, Leeds
PERSON YOU SPOKE TO: My manager (and managed yet another notch on my “days passed and not called my manager a total and utter prick to his face”)
MOVIE YOU WATCHED: Hulk (on DVD) but The Punisher at the movies
TV SHOW YOU WATCHED: Waking The Dead
THEATRE PRODUCTION YOU SAW: Probably Bill Bailey “Part Troll” tour.
BOOK YOU READ: The Last Family In England by Matt Haig
TIME YOU CRIED: Last week while watching the news and witnessing again how truly awful people can be to each other.
FAVOURITE:
EYE COLOUR: Ocean Blue/Grey
HAIR COLOR: Don’t care
FOOD: Good.
SPORT: Being sarcastic to the amazingly earnest Americans I work with. Or scuba diving. Or adventure racing. Or rugby.
WEATHER: Diving weather (fine, calm, warm)
MOVIE: Today it are mostly being Blade Runner. Tomorrow it might not be.
CLOTHES: PVC/Leather (on women). But on a day to day basis for me to wear - jeans/t-shirt (in black).
CAREER: Are you kidding? A favourite career? Ummm - film maker?
BAND: One of Nine Inch Nails, Einsturzende Neubauten or Foetus.
PERSON: I’d be in trouble if I didn’t say my wife.
TATTOO: I only have one so that’s my favourite. What’s it of? Three guesses!
YOU:
WEIGHT: 90Kg / 14st 2lbs
HEIGHT: 188cm / 6′2″
HAIR COLOR: Brown (what there is of it)
EYE COLOR: Blue
WEARING: Shirt, chinos
LISTENING TO: Corruption by Front Line Assembly
LAST FOUR DIGITS OF PHONE NO: No idea!
WHAT IS:
MOST OVERUSED PHRASE ON AIM: Do you have a moment?
FIRST THOUGHTS WAKIN UP: Fuuuuuuuucccckkkkkkk!!!!
YOUR BEDTIME: When I go to bed.
YOUR GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Making it this far through life without killing or seriously maiming anyone.
MOST MISSED MEMORY: Standing on the winners podium at national athletics championships. Hey ho.
YOU PREFER:
BURGER KING OR MCDONALDS: Neither, but I’d choose BK over Maccy D’s.
ADIDAS OR NIKE: Nike, because Adidas never made Long Jump spikes in my size.
LIPTON ICE TEA OR NESTEA: I’d rather die!
BOXERS OR BRIEFS: Boxers.
CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA: Vanilla.
PEPSI OR COKE: Coke.
MARRIAGE OR SINGLE: Which would I prefer? Are you trying to get me in trouble?
KIDS OR NOT: Depends on the kids.
IN PAST 24 HOURS:
DRANK? Yes.
HAD SEX? Don’t be stupid - I’m married. I don’t have sex. Except in my head sometimes.
EATEN? Constantly.
STOLEN ANYTHING? Time?
FLASHED ANYONE? Erm, no.
LAUGHED? Yes.
DONE DRUGS? Does caffeine count?