Further to the post which gets the most hits from google of any I’ve written. The new beta of the BBC’s iplayer service now features a page specially designed for the iphone/ipod touch. It’s just a shame that at first glance it doesn’t have the radio programmes that have been added to the version you’ll see using a normal browser. Head over to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayerbeta/ to get your fix now, or wait until July 7th when it goes mainstream.
There is some research that is best left to someone else. Don’t, for example, go trying to create a cure for contagious diseases in your kitchen. There are some things which can however be attempted by people who don’t have degrees in either labcoat wearing or clipboard holding. This is the story of one such example of an average human pushing the limits of knowledge…
There was a snail on the front of my car. It was sat on my front bumper and had clearly got there by either performing a mission impossible type climb up one of the wheels or possibly from the other direction with assistance from some sort of bird. Either way, the point of discussion wasn’t it’s past, more it’s future. I wanted to use the car, and a prod from my keys failed to dislodge the mollusc from it’s precarious position, so the test was on, can a snail withstand 70mpg up a dual carriageway on the front of a car.
At the end of the journey a quick glance showed that the snail wasn’t there. It had actually ‘walked’ up onto my front headlight. Even when subjected to the same forces on the return journey, it continued it’s investigation of the front of my car by moving onto the registration plate. Now frustrated by it’s clear laughing in the face of the forces of physics (most importantly gravity) it finally succumbed to my attempts to flick it to the ground where it sulked slowly away.
So there we have it, a snail can withstand a 70mph drive attached the front of a car. Now if only someone would lend me a Bugatti Veyron and a runway, let’s try and see what the little thing can really do.
Artist: Fleet Foxes
Track: He Doesn’t Know Why
Why: Because it’s a perfect summer song.
Where: Myspace | iTunes
So, Mr Horse’s goal was apparently not offside because:
“in addition to the goalkeeper there was another Italian player in front of the goalscorer. Even though he had fallen off the pitch his position was still relevant for the purposes of the offside law.”
But considering even the Dutch players were looking for an offside flag, perhaps this ‘interpretation’ should be ignored in future. He was lying on his back for heavens sake.
I’m worried about my phone. The poor dear has started to forget things. It all started a while ago when it started to mix text messages together. It wouldn’t do this at random, but would rather take two messages from the same person, take the start from one and the end of the other and display this whenever I tried to look at either message. This meant that I had to commit messages to memory on receiving them or risk loosing what people were trying to tell me. The solution at the time appeared to be to delete every received, saved and sent message on the phone. This worked for a while, but it started happening again.
But again deleting everything solved the problem. However yesterday it started happening yet again, but worse, old messages, ones I’d deleted, started to come back. Now I’ve got no idea what sort of crazy memory corruption is occurring to cause this and I’ve no desire to change the thing (after all there’s a new phone
around that I’d like) but I’d just like to have a fall-back for when I forget what time we’re meeting in the pub that can be relied upon.
So, a report says that our lack of maths skills is costing the economy an estimated £9bn. Doesn’t the former fact not put the latter into question?
What you’re looking at may very well be one of the greatest little inventions this side of the weather toaster. The [and I'll admit at this point that I have no idea what it's actually called] came with my ikea wardrobe but this weekend proved it’s continued usefulness by allowing me to hammer nails into another manufacturers flat pack wares without smashing my fingers with the wrong end of a hammer (not that there’s a right end of a hammer to hit yourself with I might add). I am however sure that similar devices have saved the bandaging of many fingers, the unintended bending of countless small nails and kept the frustration of the world’s DIYers in check. So lets hear it for the small plastic nail holder/finger guard thing!
