ID? No Thanks, I'm famous

I've heard a rumour, that when the government brings in it's National ID Card and Database scheme, 130,000 V.I.Ps won't be registered on the database. Presumably because of security worries.

Virtual economy

Virtual economies of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game industry are beginning to have real world implications. Apart from the fact that avatars are being bought and sold on ebay, one academic believes after totting up the going rate for virtual credits in the real world that collectively they have the same economic value as Bulgaria, and that it would be even more if Everquest didn't ban sales of its 'assets' in auctions. Even more startlingly, considering the implications of this, there are currently no tax rules, so anyone earning through this technique would not necessarily be compelled to declare.

Curves

An governmental education officer told my brother (the teacher) that the line connecting the dots on a graph of grades cannot be called a "Regression curve" anymore, as it is too negative. Instead it shall be called a "Progression curve" - a much more positive name, and guaranteed to make teachers of mathematics cry into their beer.

Paedohunter General

A policeman told me that the London borough of Newham has the highest concentration of paedophiles in the U.K.

I could do That

Well, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a binman (garbage disposal operative) when I grew up as, it seemed to me, they only worked one day a week!

A 99 please, mate

When i was a kid I used to love getting a 99 from the ice-cream van. That crispy cone with the scoop of vanilla ice-cream and the 99 Flake. Yum.

By the way, the 99 Flake is called that because it's 99mm long.

Oh Homer

The debates about whether Shakespeare wrote the canon have a historic precedent. Many centuries before, people began questioning the authorship of Greek poet Homer's work. Over the years a belief has developed in some quarters that the classic Iliad and the epic Odyssey do not have a claim to single author status and that 'Homer' may instead be a blanket title to a group of creatives working over a number of years, a catch all term for a style of poetry.

Well we would ask for Jack but ...

Here is how Jack Daniels died. He arrived at work early one morning and realised he needed to open the safe in his office. When he tried to open the door, he couldn't actually remember the combination. He kicked the safe in frustration and broke his toe. An infection set in and he slowly became increasingly ill. He eventually died from blood poisoning in 1911.

The Most Depressing Day of the Year...

... is January 24th apparently.
Here's the formula

1/8W+(D-d) 3/8xTQ MxNA.
Where:
W: Weather
D: Debt
d: Money due in January pay
T: Time since Christmas
Q: Time since failed quit attempt
M: General motivational levels
NA: The need to take action

I'm safe coz my money comes in on the 21st. Phew!

Link

Penny Drop

Lucy Davies, star of Shaun of the Dead and The Office is the daughter of comedian Jasper Carrot. His real name is Robert Davies. He got the nickname Jasper at school and added his new surname Carrott when he started doing the clubs.

The red or the blue pill? Sir Sean chooses no pill.

Sir Sean Connery declined the role of Morpheus in Matrix after he failed to understand the script after reading it three times.

Where did they get a name like Lynyrd Skynyrd?

Far from being a fantasy reference, Lynyrd Skynyrd was named after their physical education teacher Leonard Skinner, said to be a great influence on the band.

'Oh Belgium'

When Douglas Adams' book Life, The Universe and Everything came to be published in the US first time around, the publishers weren't happy with the swearing. In that case the fuck word was replaced with 'Belgium' with some extra dialogue and a new guide entry included by way of explanation. The new material (which can be seen here) is arguably funnier than what went before.

Now this could be confusing

Dutch is spoken in both the Netherlands and Belgium, but for some strange reason, in the Netherlands the word for 'shit' is the same as the Belgian word for 'fuck' - poepen. In order to prevent what could be a catastrophic misunderstanding, I urge you to stick to the Anglo-Saxon instead.

Juggling History

The first recorded jugglers in history were in ancient Eygpt, evidence of which was found in the tomb of an unknown prince dating from the early 2000s B.C. The real question is how did it start? Someone was probably playing catch one day and wondered what would happen when he tried throwing two around and then he was showing off to his friends who bet him he couldn't do three.

Call and response

The correct response to the greeting "Top o' the mornin' to you!" is "And the rest of the day to yourself!". (Thanks laszlo.)

How the kangeroo got its name

European explorer: Oh heavens preserve us, can you see that big hoppy thing? (to Aborigine) What the devil is that called, good man?
Aborigine: (in his native tongue) I don't understand.
European explorer: What's that you say, my good fellow? Kangeroo?

Oooh! Déjà vu!

Apparently, déjà vu is caused by a slight delay in the transfer of data between the two hemispheres of your brain. The feeling that you've 'done this before' is because effectively you have, but one side of your brain experiences it a fraction before the other.

120-year-old tortoise adopts baby hippo

Mark Frauenfelder at Boing Boing reports: "Some people in Kenya rescued a dehydrated baby hippo that had been separated from its herd. The released it into an enclosure in a sanctuary, and it ran over to a giant tortoise, and is now "inseparable" say officials."

The Seven Deadly Sins of Willy Gilligan

Apparently, characters in the 1960's CBS TV Comedy series Gilligan's Island are based on the seven deadly sins.

Lust - Ginger
Greed - Thurston Howell, III
Sloth - Mrs Howell
Envy - Maryanne
Anger - Skipper
Pride - Professor
Gluttony - Gilligan

The last two seem like stretches until you think about it (if you're still with me at all ;-) Certainly a lot of what motivated Gilligan was food - he wanted Ginger but he wanted Maryanne's Coconut cream pies more! And the Professor was so full of pride for his work (making stuff out of coconuts) he was completely oblivious to the fact he couldn't even fix a three foot hole in the Minnow!

' Should old acquaintances be forgot,?'

The true meaning of Auld Lang Syne, and the startling discovery (for me) that my ancestor Robbie Burns didn't write it. [via Metafilter]

I'd do it for you...

Although I can't imagine anyone but Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio playing Maid Marion in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves according to Kevin Reynolds on the audio commentary to the dvd the part was originally going to be filled by Robin Wright Penn, but she became pregnant and was unable to do it, so Mastrantonio stepped into the breach (so to speak). If you want to see how the Wright version might have turned out she previously played Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride. On reflection it might have been confusing to have two Robins on the set, even if one of them might have been fictional.

2005, A Year of...

According to the Wikipedia, 2005 is the World Year of Physics, the International Year of Microcredit, the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the United States' Year for Foreign Languages (which bodes well for "The House of Flying Daggers" and "The Sea Inside" at this years' Academy Awards... Ha!)

Happy International Year of Microcredit, everyone!

More Street Names

Following on from Stuart's post about Liverpool streets named after Shakespeare characters, there's also a Dickens Street crossed by Pickwick, Dombey and Dorrit. Charles Dickens visited the city 19 times, usually to give speeches and readings and twice en route to America.

There used to be a large Welsh community in the city (they don't seem too keen on the idea now), they even had their own Welsh newspaper and there's a cluster of streets with Welsh names - Geraint, Enid, Merlin, Modred, Elwy, Voelas, Rhiwlas, Gwydir and Pengwern.

Needless to say, we now have Paul MacCartney Way, John Lennon Drive, George Harrison Close and Ringo Starr Drive.

HB RLB

On his death in 1894, writer Robert Louis Stevenson bequeathed his birthday on November 13th to a little girl who had been born on Christmas Day.

Preventing hangovers - some timely advice

Better than a hangover cure is to prevent one in the first place. Easiest way to do this (other than not drinking so much) is to drink lots of water and consume food rich in fruit sugars (fructose), such as honey. Your body metabolises fruit sugars before it metabolises alcohol, so whilst it's busy chowing down on the honey, the alcohol passes through your system unmetabolised. Because it is the by-products of metabolising alcohol that gives you a hangover, not metabolising it at all means no hangover!

It's all in the blend.

An easy way to tell Scotch from Irish whiskey is in the spelling. Scotch Whisky as you can see simply has a 'y' at the end, whereas Irish Whiskey boasts an 'ey'. Oddly enough though a girl from Ireland should be spelt Kelly but if she's from the Isle of Man she'll be Kelley.

Cure for cramp

If you suffer from cramps, try eating a banana. Some cramps can be caused by a lack of potassium, a trace element that bananas are packed with. The relief can be instantaneous - this is why you see athletes and tennis players eating bananas.

Have a nice cup of tea and ...

According to this month's SFX, the word 'cookie' comes from the 18th century Dutch word kookje the diminutive of kook or cake. 'biscuit' comes from the old French word, bescuit which means twice cooked.

Rudolpha

Male reindeers shed their antlers in the midwinter. Which means that if the reindeer which pull Santa's sleigh have antlers they must be female. Which makes Rudolph and the rest of them girls.

"Edinburgh's shame"

Edinburgh's Carlton Hill features one of the world's greatest architectural anomalies. In 1816, a memorial project was initiated to commemorate those who died in the Napoleonic Wars. Of all the choices available to him, architect William Playfair designed an exact replica of the Parthenon in Athens. Unfortunately there wasn't much enthusiasm for what was a massive building project that would take decades to complete, so in the event, even though Glasgow offered to fund the remainder of the construction, only one of the facades of the building was ever completed. It stands in situ to this day, visited by thousands of tourists each year. So even though at the time it was dubbed "Edinburgh's shame", locals are extraordinarily proud of what is now a national monument.

Why T-Rex had serrated teeth

Tyrannosaurus Rex, that huge hulking beast of a dinosaur, had serrated teeth, with the serrations running longitudinally up the tooth. Not much good for chewing, you might think.

One theory for why T-Rex had these saw-like teeth is that fragments of sinew and muscle from the dinosaur's most recent meal would get stuck in the serrations and rot. The bacteria would then provide T-Rex with a poisonous bite much like the Kimodo Dragon has today, so rather than having to administer a killing bite to its prey, T-Rex just had to take a passing nibble and let the toxins do the work.

If this theory is true, it does explain why T-Rex is so badly designed for a carnivore. Some studies have concluded that it was incapable of running at all and therefore must have been a scavenger, but if it had a toxic bite then speed would not be so important in order for it to be a successful hunter.

The Scottish Play Street

The town planning department in Liverpool must have been literature buffs at some time in their history. In the L20 area, we find a slew of street named after characters from Shakespeare's plays. As well Macbeth Street, there is Viola Street, Bianca Street, Orlando Street, Beatrice Street, Benedict Street, Olivia Street and Rosalind Way. Arguably Exeter Road could also be included because of the connection with the history plays.

Frankly, my dear - it hurts like a sonuvabitch

When Clark Gable developed an infection in his gums, MGM's Louis B Mayer paid to have all his teeth extracted and he wore a false set of teeth for the rest of his career. Apparently 1930s dental appliances caused terribly bad breath. Poor Rhett and Scarlett - as if they didn't have enough to overcome with the burning of Atlanta! Halitosis will kill any relationship.

"Yossarian, did the bombs hit the target?"

Catch 22 novelist Joseph Heller, apart from doing an uncredited re-write on James Bond spoof Casino Royale in 1967 (but who didn't), wrote an episode of the sitcom McHale's Navy. Weird. [Thanks Keith!]

Run away! Run away!

When Weta Digital, the special effects house who worked on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings were putting together the fight sequences for the Helms Deep sequence of The Two Towers using a system called Massive to simulate the fight sequences, they inadvertantly created far too few human characters to orcs. They were amazed to find as they watched the sequence being generated that when the little fake humans reached the little fake orcs and the monsters turned to attack, the solidiers were taken by surprised and ran away in great numbers with only a few standing their ground. Luckily they appear to be a bit braver in the finished film.

Free Nelson Mandela

When the concert Nelson Mandela -- An International Tribute for a Free South Africa appeared on BBC Radio One, a memo was passed around to the team broadcasting the event that on-air it should be refered to under a series of names such as 'a tribute to Nelson Mandela', 'the Nelson Mandela concert' and 'a musical celebration for Nelson Mandela' so that there wouldn't be any confusion between some political message and what was a rock festival. They were also banned from mention how long Mandela had been in prison for, that he was free and what that meant for the new South Africa.

Another solitary subject shop

There is a travel agent on East End Road in East Finchley London which only sells holidays in Barbados. [via]

Close Encounters of the Franglais Kind

In Steven Spielberg's film Close Encounters of the Third Kind renowned French New Wave film director Francois Truffaut plays a scientist who believes in UFO phenomina and Bob Balaban is his interpretor. It all seems very convincing, but in fact Truffaut himself had a very limited grasp of English and had his own real life interpretor with him through the rehearsal process. Before his audition Balaban knew hardly any French but got the job because Spielberg thought he sounded convincing enough. After that he took some refresher lessons which is why he sounds so convincing in the film.

An early shock

The following is so astonishing I'm going to quote it verbatum:

"On an April day in 1746 at the grand convent of the Carthusians in Paris, about 200 monks arranged themselves in a long, snaking line. Each monk held one end of a 25-foot iron wire in each hand, connecting him to his neighbour on either side. Together, the monks and their connecting wires formed a line over a mile long.

Once the line was complete, the Abbe Jean-Antoine Nollet, a noted French scientist, took a primitive electrical battery and, without warning, connected it to the line of monks - giving all of them a powerful electric shock. Nollet did not go around zapping monks with static electricity for fun; his experiment had a serious scientific objective. Like many scientists of the time, he was measuring the properties of electricity to find out how far it could be transmitted along wires, and how fast it travelled. The simultaneous exclamations and contortions of a mile-long line of monks revealed that electricity could be transmitted over a great distance; and as far as Nollet could tell, it covered that distance instantly.

This was a big deal.

It suggested that, in theory, it ought to be possible to harness electricity to build a signalling device capable of sending messages over great distances incomparably faster than a human messenger could carry them."

This is from The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage, a remarkable and often brilliant examination of the telegraph service suggesting all of its similarities with the modern world wide web. It's also a perfect demonstration that the medium we're all using to communicate may yet be superceded.

More fun with names

From this week's B3TA: "It's been pointing about that Otis Lifts have their HQ in Berkshire, so that when you ring them up they answer thusly: 'Hello, Otis Reading.' "

If you hated puberty ...

Pigeons skip the juvenile stage in their life (unlike seagulls, for example). According to someone in The Guardian's Notes and Queries column today: "A pigeon develops an adult plumage straight away. When fully fledged, the fly straight from the nest, perhaps a little shakily at first, but they are able to fly as well as an adult pigeon within seconds of making their first attempt." You can tell which have only recently been born by small tufts of white feathers around their neck feathers. Once they've gone, the birds are interchangable by site, which is why you don't see any obviously child-like pigeons around.