Tech stuff and randomness
I liked this story about a human Cannonball being shot over the Mexican border. The whole family seem to be into it.
his son, two daughters and a cousin are all regularly fired from one of five cannons they own
It might be art, but it’s still pretty silly.
The news that
Martin Jol has signed a three year extension to his Spurs contract is very good, I reckon. He seems well suited to the club and they’ve made a good start to the season. To be honest, there’s still not a great deal of hope for getting much of a result against Chelsea tomorrow but hopefully they can make a good show. Chelsea always beat Spurs at White Hart Lane, even when they’re not on form, so a draw would be an excellent result.
Jol signs new contract with Spurs
Preview of Tottenham v Chelsea, Saturday, 27 August 2005
Out of all the joke images sent around following the July 7th bombs these two are my favourites
This photo was apparently taken at Tower Hill tube station today and gives some good advice about how not to get yourself shot on the tube:
Got to love this story about Ancient phallus unearthed in cave on the BBC site. One of the best things about it is the fact that they didn’t know what it was until they found the last piece. ‘…it was only with the discovery of a 14th fragment last year that they were able finally to work out the “jigsaw”.’ I have this image of a load of scientists standing around and putting the last piece of the “jigsaw” in and suddenly realising “oooohhhh…. it’s a stone penis!”.
The antidote to the ‘we’re not afraid‘ site: I am fucking terrified. Mostly just a collection of images with amusing captions expressing various degrees of terror. I like the ‘why’ section:
Terrorists cause terror. That’s why they’re called terrorists. If they didn’t cause terror, they’d be called something else – like ‘annoyingists’.
So, we have more disruption resulting from a (luckily) failed attempt to blow up more parts of the tube. It did seem fairly inevitable that there would be a second attempt, as much as it was inevitable that someone or other would eventually manage to pull off the first one (whatever cause they claimed it was in aid of). For me, living with the possibility of a terrorist attack is just something that comes part and parcel with being in London, and I’ve made the choice to stay here that the realisation of that possibility isn’t going to change. After all, statistically the risks are still very small. For some people I can imagine this might tip the balance the other way, though, and I’ve yet to say whether I might find myself cycling in Central London slightly more often. (You never know – there might be more lives saved through people actually getting some exercise!)
If they’re going to keep blowing things up, though, it’s going to start getting really annoying. Hopefully there isn’t an endless supply of idiots who are prepared to strap bombs to their backs, or at least the idiots will carry on being stupid enough to not be able to work their bombs.
This letter to the terrorists from London pretty much sums up the way most people feel about the tube and bus bombings yesterday.
Luckily my travelling today didn’t overlap with any of the explosions, as my office is about half a mile outside of Liverpool Street, but it’s certainly causing a lot of disruption. No-one I know seems to be that badly affected either except for having to walk home.
It will be interesting to see how the country reacts in view of other terror attacks around the world. Terrorists attacking New York prompted America to invade half of the middle east, bombs in Madrid changed the result of the Spanish election and caused withdrawals from Iraq, so I wonder how much of a difference it will make here. My personal view is that in terms of general public opinion it won’t make much of a difference. As a nation we may easily roll over in the face of America’s warmongering but a positive quality is that we are not generally prone to reactionism, either to become more agressive or to change the way we do things just to placate these people. London is generally multicultural enough to know that the actions of a small group of extremists does not represent how larger groups think in general, and really I can’t see how carrying out these attacks is going to do anybody’s cause any good whatsoever.
London rocked by terror attacks
Travel chaos after London blasts
London has won the contest to host the 2012 Olympics, which is great news for all of us who live in East London and have been waiting for some infrastructure investment to give the area a lift for years.
Victory is particularly good given that it was the French that lost, of course, given Chirac’s recent behaviour over food and EU subsidies. This BBC article particularly rubs it in.
Some of my favourite quotes from news articles include:
But raindrops began falling on disapointed Parisians outside the Hotel de Ville in the French capital shortly after the result.
Chirac spoke passionately to the IOC, saying, “The heart of Paris and the heart of France are beating in unison in the hope of becoming Olympic host in 2012,” The Associated Press reported. “You can put your trust and faith in France, you can trust the French, you can trust us.”
To those who see the French president as out of step with the pace of modern Europe, Jacques Chirac’s jibe about British food is perhaps a case in point.
They’ve got a slick rail network, a home-grown car industry and magnificent stretches of Napoleonic architecture that escaped the German Luftwaffe’s mighty payloads.
We, on the other-hand, have half their unemployment, a global language and, for the next six months at least, the EU presidency. Oh, and the 2012 Olympics.
Appropriately, the celebration party is being held in Trafalgar Square, a week after celebrations marking Nelson’s famous victory over the joint French / Spanish fleet 200 years ago.
This decision will exacerbate that general sense of malaise, especially as the winner is Paris’ greatest rival, London. President Jacques Chirac had wanted to arrive for the G8 summit a winner. Instead he comes as a three-time loser whose nation was pipped at the post by a victorious Britain.
My heart bleeds.
The Olympic bid voting results
London beats Paris to 2012 Games
More disappointed French comments