Irrational Nonsense

This Periodic Table by Crispian Jago is brilliant.

See the full thing here: http://bit.ly/d3iTrA

Shoes

Caroline graduated today: Caroline Kovacs BA (Russian) and now BSc (Mathematics).

I saw a lady walking ahead of us wearing shoes with these bright pink soles.

146 – Wednesday 26 May 2010 : you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!

From the BBC News website (link)

Suspected robbers in Germany appear to have miscalculated the quantity of explosives needed to blow their way into a rural bank.

The building housing the bank in the northern village of Malliss was largely destroyed by an overnight explosion.

The bank’s cash machine survived intact and the suspected thieves are not thought to have made away with any money, Germany’s Welt Online reported.

No-one was injured, though the blast damaged nearby cars and buildings.

Investigators were working on the assumption that robbers had placed their explosives, possibly made from petrol or acetylene, at the entrance to the bank, German broadcaster NDR said.

The presence of a delivery van near the site of the explosion indicated that the suspected thieves may have intended to drive off with the cash dispenser, local media reported.

And it’s our 20th wedding anniversary: Caroline and I were married on 26 May 1990.

 

124 – Tuesday 4 May 2010 : stamps

This package arrived for me from China.  27 stamps!  I hope the postage was not too expensive.

______________________________________________________

It has been more than 3 weeks since I last posted here (post 101 was the last).  I will try to fill in some of the gaps.

112 – Friday 22 April 2010 – your last threatening letter

An e-mail conversation about what I have on my office wall led me take take this photo of a cartoon on my wall.

I have had this since about 1989 or 1990.  Caroline saw the cartoon in the Evening Standard.  The next day I phoned the paper, and they put me in touch with the cartoonist, Frank Dickens.  We arranged to meet in a pub near my office that lunchtime.  He was a lovely man, but a bit of a caricature of an old Fleet Street type.  We had 4 pints in next to no time (all paid for by me).  £20 later and in no real state to do an afternoon’s work, the cartoon was mine.

97 – Wednesday 7 April 2010 : in memoriam

I noticed that this photo that I took in the graveyard of St Andrews’ Church, Farnham, was of the grave of a lady who died 200 years ago.  The inscription reads:

In Memory Of

Eliz. Davies

Who died April 8 1810

aged 68 years

74 – Monday 15 March 2010 : infamy!

Yes, today is the ides of March.  The 2054th anniversary of the murder of Julius Caesar.  At least as memorable as his last words, “et tu, Brute?”,  are the words uttered by Kenneth Williams in Carry On Cleo:

Infamy, infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!

picture from asterix.co.nz

70 – Thursday 11 March 2010 : Pink Floyd v EMI

Pink Floyd have taken EMI to Court, and won, in a claim to prevent digital sales of their music in anything other than full album form.  In othger words, EMI may not sell individual tracks through online means such as iTunes or Amazon.

Back in 1967 the band’s contract with EMI contained a clause “to preserve the artistic integrity of the albums”, and this has been held to apply in the digital era.

68 – Tuesday 9 March 2010 : Aphalara Itadori

I hate Japanese knotweed. 

When we lived in West Dulwich our garden was infested with the stuff, and we had to take the most enormous care not to bring any with us when some plants accompanied us to Hampshire 12 years ago.  It spreads like wildfire, and needs only a tiny piece of root to grow.  It can grow 3 feet a month; it can grow through concrete.  It just takes over.

This is where Aphalara Itodi comes in.  It is a small japanese aphid that feeds on the sap of japanese knotweed, stunting its growth.

Aphalara is about to be introduced into the wild in the UK under controlled conditions, monitored to ensure it only attacks knotweed. This is the first time that biocontrol – the use of a “natural predator” to control a pest – has been used in the EU to fight a weed.

47 – Tuesday 16 February 2010 : Maid of Ararat?

This could be another of those urban myths.  I have not been able to find verification on the web.  Never mind, why let the search for truth get in the way of a good story?

12% of Americans think Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.