Category: Uncategorisable

AC/DC Live Wire

Prince’s 1999 song was rarely played on December 31st 1998 yet a year later was used extensively on various radio stations/disco 2000s to welcome in the millennium. We partied 364 days and whatever minute it was too late. One of these anomalies we have in life. I didn’t party. I was Doctor Whoming behind the sofa, with my whimpering K9, awaiting Armageddon. Something wicked this way comes.

The millennium bug was the end of days. Looking back now I don’t know why I was so worried. I did not possess a computer at the time (Y2K). The worst that could have happened to me would be that the toaster wouldn’t work. And this would have nothing to do with broadband issues or other related online jargon. The trouble would be dodgy wiring in the plug; when you’ve chubby fingers it’s hard to put that little wire in the right place; Major Tom to earth etc. Still, like the glorious Gaynor, I survived.

And you thought Battleships was bad

Possibly only Christopher and Bravo will have heard of wei qi. It was while reading Henry Kissinger’s excellent book On China (hands up all those that thought TR/JW only read Spider-Man and stuff like that) that the diplomat described the game that originated in China 2,500 years ago. Continue reading “And you thought Battleships was bad”

Rural Humour

Living in the wilderness has some compensations. True we have no services that those in urban settings take for granted, trash collection, cable TV, municipal water or sewer systems to name a few.  But we do have “Honey Wagons”, these are driven by the folks who empty septic tanks every few years, not the world’s most desirable occupation but improved by a sense of Humour.
image006

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Copacabana Dreams

The left footers really should know better. Don’t they read the good book? Graven images aren’t allowed. God is not happy. After trying to hold his temper and count to, I don’t know, a virgintillion and one his patience ran out and he rained down on the Rio statue of Christ the Redeemer some very, very frightening tautological thunderbolts and lightning.

Aiming this year to travel more, Brazil is one of the countries on my goto list. My goal is not to help fix the statue or swim in the Amazon river or look at the rock paintings in the Parque Nacional da Serra da Capivara. Would you believe I’m not even going there to watch the skimpily clad carnival girls rocococoing in the flesh. My mission is to make the natives better at football. Coming from where I come from I’m sure my ministry will be helpful in this godforsaken land of no-hopers. After all, my five-a-side team have won their last few matches.

Not Physics, but Fun.

I was leafing through the October edition of Physics World this morning (well we do don’t we?).  I get it here about a week after it is mailed in the UK.

Neat puzzle in this months edition in partial celebration of 25 years in print (for a hundred years before that it was called “The Physics Bulletin”).  Anyhow I thought the puzzle was fun and the answer was a treat.  Here it is.

Can you crack the code?

TNVERI SMH EG ZSMRNPMUD: M SLRN PYMP VERRNVPT M ZSMRNP PE PYN TQR THNNZT EQP NXQMS MUNMT LR NXQMS PLKNT

There is a word missing from the above.  Please provide the word in encrypted form as the answer.

The Charioteer in the clown’s house was right

A bunch of us held a gathering at the local McDonald’s where a wide range of topics was discussed. After we had exhausted the serious issues of our time -and polished off a burger or six- we started to talk about television shows and the Emmy awards. I was congratulated on predicting two of the winners long before the short list was announced. Furthermore, these were my only two predictions and both long shots; every man and his dog could have picked Breaking Bad.
https://charioteers.org/2012/09/10/emmy-award-prediction/
https://charioteers.org/2013/07/27/he-got-a-gun-he-got-a-gun-everybodys-got-guns/

One of the members asked if I had insider knowledge. I said I was not at liberty to answer that. A few extra McFlurries were used as a bribe but I stuck to my guns and kept schtum. They’re now convinced I’m in the screenwriter’s guild because I didn’t break the unwritten code of conduct and spill the ketchup, I mean beans.

Radio Blah

In this digital age it remains a mystery how the “before its time” digital watch never took over the world. A useful invention for people who didn’t understand the Roman numerals on their dial or the intricacies of hour and minute hands, the digital version had in some versions red neon numbers. A special button also illuminated the watch in the dark. And the stopwatch, wow, this was ground breaking stuff. Now obsolete at least we have digital radio to amuse us. So many stations, so much choice. I like the soap operas on Radio Blah. These everyday gothic soap stories might not be to everyone’s taste as yarns ain’t like they used to be.

    The laptop with the faulty battery

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‘course it’s true, I read it on the internet

There’s a group of us from all walks of life that have decided we can do it without the help of Google. Well, to a certain extent anyway. We will allow ourselves to type in the full address of the respected site we want to read e.g. bbc.co.uk, wikipedia.org, mytelegraph.co.uk where the content is unimpeachably precise and enthralling. But search terms are a no-no. The reasoning for this is that there are too many lies on the unofficial domains. It’s reputed that 25% of the facts issued on the internet are false. But by checking other sources and polls it can be 55%, 72%, 9%, 18.72%. This was a simple search and was inconclusive, proving our point. Continue reading “‘course it’s true, I read it on the internet”