Monthly Archives: February 2008

Premier league: Fulham 2-1 Aston Villa | Football | The Guardian

http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Report/0,,2252035,00.html

From the page: “Jimmy Bullard took a moment at full-time. Hands on knees, bent at the waist, the Fulham midfielder exhaled deeply and recalled the challenge with Scott Parker at Newcastle United, the knee in tatters, the operations, the 16 months out of the game. Then he drew himself up and savoured the acclaim.

Bullard had dreamed of kicking a ball again but he did not dare stretch his imagination to match-winning heroics which might prove decisive in the final relegation reckoning. He got them yesterday, though, in glorious technicolor, with a delirious crowd bellowing his name.”

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Limit foreign footballers say MPs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_politics/7225110.stm

“A group of MPs has called on football clubs to cut the number of foreign players in the English game.

They want the government and football authorities to discourage clubs from recruiting so many overseas players. ”

The problem here though is that the English leagues have over priced the players. You can buy someone with a proven record for a top flight European club at the same price as an unproven English striker from a second (or third) tier English club.

I still think that having a minimum number of British players would be good for the national game of the home nations, but it’s just not going to happen unless the EU make exceptional allowances for football.

Lasers Make Other Metals Look Like Gold – New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/science/31metal.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

In a feat of optical alchemy, Dr. Guo, a professor of optics at the University of Rochester, and Anatoliy Y. Vorobyev, a postdoctoral researcher, use ultrashort laser bursts to pockmark the surface of a metal in a way that is not perceptible to the touch — it still feels smooth to the finger — but that alters how the metal absorbs and reflects light.

The result is that pure aluminum looks like gold, and the appearance is literally skin deep.

http://www.arianapagerussell.com/skin_two/skintwo_13.html





Each body becomes an index of passing time. Bones shift, muscles loosen, freckles and wrinkles form, bruises appear; skin is the forum for these transitions. It may also evidence sensitivity, embarrassment, discomfort, fear, excitement, infection, health, attraction, and energy expended–reflecting vulnerability and conditions we’ve inhabited.

My own skin frequently blushes and swells. I have dermatographia, a condition in which one’s immune system exhibits hypersensitivity, via skin, that releases excessive amounts of histamine, causing capillaries to dilate and welts to appear (lasting about thirty minutes) when the skin’s surface is lightly scratched. This allows me to painlessly draw patterns and words on my skin, which I then photograph.

Technology killed the radio star – Times Online

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article3287726.ece

“The days of turning on the radio to hear inane DJs rambling, or the same irritating adverts being repeated hour after hour, could almost be over.

New gadgets capable of learning your musical tastes and piping relevant songs to you via the internet have arrived. ”

Since Last.fm have released their latest player I listen to that a fair bit, just randomly getting tunes related to things I like.