The ever fascinating Andy brings news of a marvelous story about the Iraqi Dwarves Association in Kurdistan which has 3,800 members: The association helps us very much psychologically and socially. We visit and console one another. In 2000, the association played football against dwarfs from Erbil as a way of helping to relieve the tension between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the two main political parties in Kurdistan. »
Ross Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering and Cambridge University, once more tells it how it is with Chip and Spin a quite detailed look into why your new Chip and PIN cards are fairly useless, a topic all too close to my heart since my card got cloned the other day. And for something completely different, when I was quite small I had an obsessive attraction to combine harvesters, tractors and other such large machinery so you’ll be unsurprised to see my heart gladdened today by the Combine Harvester demolition derby. »
With no apologies to Lady Sovereign, Everybody get random! Finance and trade under Edward III - The London lay subsidy of 1332 Tea Buddy settle those “I’m *always* making you tea” arguments once and for all. (via wy-erd) The headphones theory: “That’s why English youth so unanimously took to techno. Even the “bangin’” sounds of the Prodigy could easily be developed with the volume set low—or better yet, on headphones. »
I love the design of Sasha Frere-Jones’ weblog almost as much as I like the content; he writes about good music for the New Yorker you see. If you follow that link you’ll see a great article about the ‘Got That Purp’ mix-cd which is widely available for some five english pounds and is a very worthwhile investment if you like a bit of hip hop. As I do. In unconnected news the Election coverage continues with David Aaronovitch in Watford: »
A sign in one of the lifts at work. »
The most surprising thing about running the marathon was just how many competitors were using their mobiles on the route as they were running. I didn’t see all that many runners at all actually (probably a thousand at most) as we were all pretty well segregated by time but of those that I saw I’d say about 100 or so had mobile phones on them and in active use at some point. »
Further to previous dispatches on Linus’ feud with the Dyson vaccum cleaner he seems to have worked out a new strategy. Combine his current favourite game of ‘Attack The Electrical Wire’ with another attempt to cripple the aformentioned StartleNoiseMachineOfDeath and you have, ‘try to see what’s hidden behind the plug’. I think he is mightily enjoying the springtime, perkiness is ++; or he might just be reveling in my newly cleared desk, now leaving enough space for one cat to sprawl next to the keyboard, occasionally hitting escape with his chin. »
Yet again, I am a winner. Results for: NICHOLAS. RICHARDS Position (Overall): 16157 Position (Gender): 12990 Position (Age group): 2421 Splits: KM10: 0:55:57 KM20: 1:51:59 HALF: 1:58:18 KM30: 2:54:01 KM40: 4:10:07 FINISH: 4:25:58 As you can see right up until 30K I was well placed to run what I was expecting (9 minute miles, pretty much throughout) but for a host of reasons I won’t bore you with it wasn’t to be. »
Ben sent this over just as I was adding the final touches to my vest. We are different, in essence, from other men. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon. - Emil Zatopek »
As you may have noted there’s going to be a general election here in the UK within the next few weeks. As such I’ve been having a think about who I should vote for. I live in South West Herts which looks to be intriguingly poised so it seems my vote is more likely to actually count this time. The long term MP (and fine individual for helping me out with my Geography coursework) Richard Page is retiring after some 20 years or so and as with the end of all long term MPs there’s now a bit of excitement as to whether the Tories might lose. »