Rampant Imperialism
On Saturday, I drank some beer.
Pie chart misuse reaches new level of awfulness
I've seen some terrible graphs in my time, but this is just ridiculous.
( Cut to protect delicate eyes from graphic scene of misuse )
From![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
andlosers, via rhodri's twitter.
( Cut to protect delicate eyes from graphic scene of misuse )
From
andlosers, via rhodri's twitter.
What next? Smallpox blankets available at the multiplex?
"Peckham is the land of the free. It’s like a blank canvas," said Hannah Barry, an enterprising 26-year-old
I suppose you could make a case for this being an unusual outbreak of honesty regarding urban colonisation, but I strongly suspect that she doesn't even realise what she's saying.
(Thanks to alexmacpherson for the link.)
Fashion mistake of the decade
Spotted in Dalston on Friday: a man wearing two pairs of pants, both visible over the (very low) waistband of his jeans.
Look at his face!
This picture is providing me with far more entertainment than is strictly necessary. I've never had a problem with other Australian test captains over the years, despite the routine hammerings they gave us. Border, Taylor and S.Waugh always seemed like decent blokes who just happened to be awesome cricketers with excellent tactical brains. But Ponting's attitude has always rubbed me up the wrong way, and seeing him upset like this fills me with glee.
Adam Smith on potatoes
"The common people in Scotland, who are fed with oatmeal, are in general neither so strong, nor so handsome as the same rank of people in England who are fed with wheaten bread. They neither work so well, nor look so well; and as there is not the same difference between the people of fashion in the two countries, experience would seem to show that the food of the common people in Scotland is not so suitable to the human constitution as that of their neighbors of the same rank in England. But it seems to be otherwise with potatoes. The chairmen, porters, and coalheavers in London, and those unfortunate women who live by prostitution, the strongest men and the most beautiful women perhaps in the British dominions, are said to be the greater part of them from the lowest rank of people in Ireland, who are generally fed with this root. No food can afford a more decisive proof of its nourishing quality, or of its being peculiarly suitable to the health of the human constitution."From The Wealth Of Nations (Of The Rent Of Land Part I: Of The Produce Of Land That Always Affords Rent)
Whoop-de-fvcking-do
Nine year old writes iPhone app.
This is kind of depressing. 25 years ago, thousands of nine-year olds were writing stuff like this as a matter of course. Now, a single kid doing it merits a news story.
This is kind of depressing. 25 years ago, thousands of nine-year olds were writing stuff like this as a matter of course. Now, a single kid doing it merits a news story.
DFW RIP
From the LA Times:
David Foster Wallace, the novelist, essayist and humorist best known for his 1996 novel "Infinite Jest," was found dead Friday night at his home in Claremont, according to the Claremont Police Department. He was 46.
Jackie Morales, a records clerk at the department, said Wallace's wife called police at 9:30 p.m. Friday saying she had returned home to find that her husband had hanged himself.
David Foster Wallace, the novelist, essayist and humorist best known for his 1996 novel "Infinite Jest," was found dead Friday night at his home in Claremont, according to the Claremont Police Department. He was 46.
Jackie Morales, a records clerk at the department, said Wallace's wife called police at 9:30 p.m. Friday saying she had returned home to find that her husband had hanged himself.
Nnnng
Who let Mark Pougatch into the TMS studio? His over-excited intonation is really harshening my test match buzz.
All software is quite useless according to Tim Berners-Lee
Who the hell thought it was a good idea to make backspace a keyboard shortcut for back in web browsers?
Being boring
mrs_leroy_brown asked me to explain seven of my interests. Comment below if you'd like me to ask you about seven of yours.experimental horse music
This is an ancient ILX meme. Somebody mistyped 'experimental house music' and it got taken up as an all-purpose obscure faux genre.
jellybaby?
The fourth Doctor liked to offer aggressive enemies jellybabies. They rarely accepted.
microgoth
signalling to mars
From Winter Holiday, my favourite Swallows and Amazons book. It's told from the perspective of Dick and Dorothea, two new characters who start the book enviously observing the adventures of the Walkers and Blacketts. After a couple of chapters, they decide to contact them using light flashes encoded in morse, which Dorothea calls 'signalling to Mars'. The Martians decode the message, send an answer, and joint adventuring ensues.
the uselessness of everything
The title of the book that the Muskrat is reading in Finn Family Moomintroll. The Muskrat is a glum soul who fancies himself a philosopher, and spends nearly all of his time lying in a hammock with his head in his book. At the end of the story the Hobgoblin magically transforms the book into one called 'The Usefulness Of Everything'. The Muskrat is not impressed.
unnatural languages
A poor quasi-pun on computer scientists' qualification of human languages as 'natural'. I'm interested in pretty much all languages, natural or otherwise, but given that programming is my job, I spend a lot more time thinking about the unnatural ones than the natural ones.
vhadfhaushfc
Yet another old ILXism, this time invented by Ronan, casting around for a shorthand to describe that emotional rush you feel when you first meet someone you really connect with.
Public Service Announcement
You do not need a polling card to vote in any UK election.
All the polling card does is tell you when and where to vote and helpfully list your details as they appear on the electoral register. So, if you've got one, it can make the process a little quicker but that's it. If you haven't, don't worry - if you are on the electoral register, you can still vote.
All the polling card does is tell you when and where to vote and helpfully list your details as they appear on the electoral register. So, if you've got one, it can make the process a little quicker but that's it. If you haven't, don't worry - if you are on the electoral register, you can still vote.
You are the captain
You are over 500 ahead in your second innings of the deciding test of a series. Your highest scoring batsman has just got out. There are two days left, but the scoring rate has been no more than 3.5 an over on average. You know that no one has ever made more than 418 to win in the final innings of a test. What do you do?
If you are Michael Vaughan, you decide that 513 isn't a big enough lead and wait another eight overs before declaring. Now, there is no earthly way NZ are going to win from this position, so it looks as though all he's done is shorten the length of time that they need to survive to secure a draw. I wonder if this match is weighing heavily on his mind.
If you are Michael Vaughan, you decide that 513 isn't a big enough lead and wait another eight overs before declaring. Now, there is no earthly way NZ are going to win from this position, so it looks as though all he's done is shorten the length of time that they need to survive to secure a draw. I wonder if this match is weighing heavily on his mind.
Robot Hairdresser Interrupt
Noes! I can't wait a couple of months for a haircut! My sideboards are already worryingly out of control!
For everyone who has ever tried to transfer a call on their office phone
"I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone." - Bjarne Stroustrup, inventor of C++
Adventures in baking
Note to self: in future, if cake mixture looks too runny to be put into loose bottomed tin, go with first instinct and line tin first. Do not blithely pour mixture into tin, place into oven and then panic five mins later when smell of semi-burnt cake alerts you to leaking cake hitting oven bottom.
I *think* I've manage to rescue it via addition of ad-hoc extra foil base to the bottom of the tin; there was only mild leakage and the foil should be capable of catching the drips until the cake seals itself. My only major worry is that in my panic I removed the cake from the oven for at least three or four minutes before I had the presence of mind to improvise the fix.
Edit: I've just turned the cake and it appears to be progressing well. It's risen a fair bit and the foil seems to have done the trick wrt stopping the drips.
Edit 2: 'Tis done! It may have taken almost an hour and twenty minutes since I first put it in the oven (exactly twice the time on the recipe), but I now have a respectable looking cake cooling in my kitchen, cooked right through and everything. There don't even seem to be any over-dry bits. Hurrah!
I *think* I've manage to rescue it via addition of ad-hoc extra foil base to the bottom of the tin; there was only mild leakage and the foil should be capable of catching the drips until the cake seals itself. My only major worry is that in my panic I removed the cake from the oven for at least three or four minutes before I had the presence of mind to improvise the fix.
Edit: I've just turned the cake and it appears to be progressing well. It's risen a fair bit and the foil seems to have done the trick wrt stopping the drips.
Edit 2: 'Tis done! It may have taken almost an hour and twenty minutes since I first put it in the oven (exactly twice the time on the recipe), but I now have a respectable looking cake cooling in my kitchen, cooked right through and everything. There don't even seem to be any over-dry bits. Hurrah!
Call it something I ate
I can't decide if these are incredibly cool or incredibly geeky. Whichever, I totally want one.
