Folks

So at Starbucks a large coffee works out to amount to 0.6 litres in volume. As pure water at 5 degrees Celsius works out to weigh 1 kilogram per 1 litre of water, I'm assuming that strong coffee works out around 10% heavier, so around 1.1kg for every litre. 0.6 litres of coffee therefore weighs around 0.66kg.

I currently weigh just around 10 stone 4 pounds, which is 65.3kg. Therefore if I drink a large cup of Starbucks coffee I gain 0.66kg and so weigh a total of 66kg (rounded up to the nearest .1kg). 0.66kg amounts to 1% of my body mass.

Therefore, when I drink a large cup of coffee at Starbucks I become 1% pure black coffee.

Kids; maths is fun.


Purge

New Release Of Windows To Come In 6 Different Versions (Link)

How great an idea is this? Don't just release a new version of Windows, release 6 of them at once! Each with very slight amount of different features. It reminds me of those comics you used to get that came with 6 different covers. Except they all cost the same. And had cooler pictures. And people who could explode other people with their mind.

Last.fm is so the new flickr

Except I can't get it to work properly and it won't leave me signed in. And it looks less pretty. It does have the greatest sign up form ever though.

Ninjability

Go Ninja Go!. If it's any good it'll remind me of the all time greatest ninja game ever, N. How good is that game? Only better than everything you've done today!

The Greatest

7.30 check email, reply to phil, contact this bloke
8.00 print out sizewell stuff so far. Go downstairs and go through both talks. Fiddle with them.
9.20 drink, see dave
9.30 chat gareth eight. See if he can do job lists.
9.45 ring noise man. Get dvd sorted.
10.00 Do powerpoint first two.
10.30 Check web.
10.45 Go plan talk 3 or 4 in starbucks
12.30 Lunch!
13.00 Check everything good for eight. Bring money and video stuff to key. (gareth?)
13.15 Compile small group stuff.
13.30 Powerpoint for talk 3
13.45 Talk 3/4 in starbucks
15.30 Go home nap and pack?
17.00 go ninja go!


If I Could

This is a genuine bonafide conversation I overheard yesteday in our vicar school. Bare in mind that this is theological college in Cambridge and the two people were speaking were speaking in The Queen's English and were both wearing Marks and Spencers jumpers.

Trainee Vicar One: "Well yes, of course I believe that the Charismatic expression of faith is vital for the diversity of the Anglican Church, but I'm not sure how ready our ecclesiastical structures are in place to deal with it in the wider church"
Trainee Vicar Two: "Certainly, I agree that we simply couldn't cope with such a large change among worship styles in the church as it currently stands, retaining the parish system and without degenerating into a case of consumerist churches"
TV1: "Quite. For example what would happen to corporate worship if we all spoke in tongues at every church service?"
TV2: "I speak in tongues. Quite frequently actually, probably about once or twice a month really"
TV1: "I say"


2 Point Startup

If anyone wants a good idea for a shiny new web 2.0 business, here's a good one: e-post! Okay, so you'll need to think of a catchier name, but the idea behind it is sound.

Basically, I sometimes want to send letters. Quite frequently actually, but when it comes to the whole typing out, then printing, then putting in an envelope, then getting a stamp and then getting it to the post box bit I'm quite lazy. So lazy in fact, that I often don't get round to doing it for ages. This is what'd I like to see invented. Some web service where I type in the letter, their name and address, my name and address and select what sort of letter it is. I click 'GO', they show me a preview, I click 'POST!' and the letter is posted for me. That'd be awesome. Okay, so it wouldn't work if you wanted to send anything with the letter (which is half the fun of letters), but it would work in a lot of situations where you just need a mundane letter.

The price of all this? For my lazyness I'm willing to pay 50p. That's a 21p more than I currently pay to send letters, I estimate that once setup costs are covered you'd be making around that much a letter sent first class. Send a hundred letters and that's £21. Send a ten thousand letters and that's £2,100 quid. Aim to do that every day and WIN!

I hereby copyright this idea now, but if you want to use it let me know, I'll take .1% of all net profits, unlimited free letters for the rest of my life and 10% of the amount of money Google or Yahoo buys you out for.


Why Pint Glasses Have 2043 On Them

Apparently the reason that pretty much every pint glass ever has '2043' written on the side is that the number represents the stamp of whoever checked that they were actually one pint in size and that 2043 is the stamp number of a French company, Cristallerie D'Arques, who have pretty much monopolised the manufacture of standard glasses.

To find out more.


Born Apart

Here's a fun game to play when you're trapped in an elevator with people you don't know, it's called "What Would Your Parents Have Called You If You Had Be Born The Opposite Sex?". The game consists of you saying that question to a person and then expecting an answer. That's it. If you need any further explaining of this game then you might want to reconsider using something as complicated as an elevator.

The game may not sound like great fun, but what is interesting is the way people will reply. Around 90% of men won't know what they'd have been called if born a girl. I've yet to meet a girl who doesn't know what they would have been called if they'd been born a guy.

Explanations for this? I have two theories. The first theory is that that sort of information has no practical use and as guys generally learn through practical ways, they don't remember it. Girls however, always seem to know impractical information (for example what colours match each other, how long it's been since you tidied your desk, what exactly you're wrong with your general attitude to life) such as knowing what you'd have been called if you were a boy.

The second theory is that parents expect to have boys if if they have no preference or want a girl. So if they want a girl they still think of boys names 'just in case', whereas if they want a boy they don't bother thinking of a girls name because they think they'll have one. So either way girls always have a back up name but guys rarely do.

Obviously I have no proof of this, but it's a fun topic to debate and if you're stuck in an elevator it's not like you've got much else to talk about is it?


Rule

It's the Brit Awards! A night of showbiz parties, record label backslapping and general pop merriment. It would also be a night of good TV watching except that for some bizarre reason they broadcast the ceremony tomorrow night, so everyone watches it knowing exactly who's going to win. It kinda takes the fun out of it. Anyway, for those of you eventually watching along at home, here's a possible scoring system for some sort of bingo type game that you can make the rules up for. Enjoy!

  • Coldplay play a song involving a piano. Chris Martin has something enigmatic written on his hand (2 points). Bonus points, Chris Martin has something enigmatic written on his face (+1 point).
  • Someone comes on stage to present an award who has obviously been dared by their mates to see how long they can not speak for after saying "and the award goes to...". (3 points). Bonus points, they crack after 2 seconds and blurt it out far too hastily (+1 point).
  • The host introduces a band in a really roundabout way. "They're big in Austria, but probably because they keep on getting mistaken for a chain of roadside restaurants, it's THE KAISER CHIEFS" (4 points)
  • Kayne West makes a politically charged comment that makes the shows organisers feel slightly nervous (1 point). Bonus points, Kayne West makes a politically charged comment that includes the expression "Black People"
  • Chris Evans makes a ginger joke (0 points). Bonus points, Chris Evans makes a Dr. Who/Ex-Wife/Billie Piper joke and attempts to cover up the silence following it with another Dr. Who/Ex-Wife/Billie Piper joke which again falls flat on it's face (3 points).
  • You turn off the TV halfway through because you already know who won (0 points).

Fuming

Campaigners welcome smoking ban,
' "Simon Clark, director of smoking support group Forest, conceded that the pro-smoking lobby had "lost the battle but not necessarily the war".

"People will continue to smoke and the idea that people are all going to give up smoking simply because they can't smoke in a pub is nonsense," he told BBC News.'

Yes, but here's the important point you missed Mr. Director Of "Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco"; they won't be smoking in my face.


Things Of Note

New Mac Features

One of the awesome things about using a mac is that occasionally you'll accidentally hit a key combination and discover an entirely new feature that you never new existed. If you're using a mac now and typing in a program that using OS X's default text rendering try pressing 'apple-.' when you're halfway through writing a word, Awesome huh?

The Question I'll Be Answering

At some point this week I'll be answering Phil Brown's fascinating question: "Where Do Pirates Come From?"

This Week I'll Be Mostly...

Writing Essays!

Don't your website was hot like this one?


Musicians Who've been shot

Following on from Andy's comments in the post below, I'm curious to see just how many musicans have been shot, and how many of them have actually died from the shooting. So far the list as it stands is.


  • Tupac - nine bullets in total on two seperate occasions. Dead after the second shooting

  • 50 Cent - nine bullets over multipe occasions, alive

  • Marvin Gaye - once, died

  • Dimebag Darrell (Pantera guitarist)- five bullets on one occasion, died

  • John Lennon - four bullets on one occasion, died

  • Jam Master Jay - one bullet, died

  • Kurt Cobain - One shotgun blast, died (suicide)

Add to this list in the comments.


Packet of Sandwiches

"Tupac took five bullets and didn't die, and then he took another four bullets before he died. 50 cent has taken nine bullets and he still isn't dead. Kurt Cobain died from one shot."
"What are you trying to say, that blacks take bullets better than whites?"
"No, rappers take bullets better than rock stars."
"Dude, that's so blatantly not true."
"Yeah, prove me wrong"
"Where's Eminem and a 9mm when you need him?"


100% Extreme Makeover

I found this kicking around on my computer somewhere. It deserves to be read.

Rick,

I've just gotten the all clear from marketing, I can finally tell you about the new show! You'll love it, seriously!

What sucks about current makeover shows? First off, for the makeover to really work you've gotta start with really sucktastic people, people with no taste, life or hope. Now that's cool because we all love laughing at those sort of people but you can't really root for them can you? I mean when it's all done and they have a new face and wardrobe and car and whatever you don't really feel happy for them because they're still the same person inside you know? And no-one likes a loser winning! I mean, when was the last time you saw an underdog actor who has never had a break in his life play the part of an underdog actor who gets the break of his life in a movie? Never! It's always Tom Cruise or someone pretending to be the underdog. And that's where this idea is gonna pay big, 100% makeover yeah? Imagine this: we take the standard rubbish person, lets say some redneck mom, and take them away from their family. The 100% extreme makeover team then have a week to transform their house and bling up their motor. Then at the end of the week we bring the family together and prepare for the great unveiling of their new home climaxing in the revealling of their newly 100% extremely made over mom. They start outside the house and get shown the new garden we've done for them, then the new car, then they go inside and check out all the crazy 100% extreme interior design stuff we've done on their house and finally they head up stars to the master bedroom where the doors open to find, and this is the kicker, we've replaced their mom with Jennifer Aniston. BANG! 100% EXTREME MAKEOVER!

Greg


Ask Mark A Question

ROLL UP! ROLL UP! ASK THE AMAZING MARK A QUESTION! HE'LL ANSWER ANYTHING! DON'T TOY WITH HIS INTELLECT BY ASKING BORING QUESTIONS! HIS ANGER WILL DESTROY YOU!

The winner is the real Phil Brown and how many mickles make a muckle? with 2 votes. The poll is now over, stay tuned for the answer.


How Songs Are Written

Chris Cornell is sitting in his apartment mildly stoned*, drinking Jack Daniel's** and watching the discovery channel. Though his eyes are glazed they're transfixed by a computer generated image of a sun expanding across a solar system, engulfing planets. The sun grows till it encompasses most of the system before it starts to retreat inwards. Before long the sun is a tiny ball of cold light. Eventually the sun disappears into itself and only a patch of blackness remains. Chris sits on his couch for a bit staring into the tv, not taking anything in, his mind ticking over. Then, in a sudden rush he reaches over to grab his phone, knocking over a bottle of bourbon*** and spilling the contents over a packet of Marlboro smokes****. After a few tries at the number and a minute of listening to the sound of ringing he gets through to his good friend and bandmate Kim Thayil.
"Dude, Dude, you so have to hear this"
"Man I was in bed, this better be important"
"Dude, I was sitting in my apartment thinking and it just came to me"
"What came to you?"
"Like, Freakin' everything! I mean! Seriously"
"What came to you Chris?"
"Did you know that, like, black-holes start out their lives as suns?"
"What?"
"Yeah I know, it's awesome! They're like these huge stars and they expand and expand and expand and then BLAM, they shrink back and become these black-holes that like suck everything in ever."
"Uh-huh?"
"The sun's become black-holes man! The sun! How freakin' awesome is that?"
"Look did you ring me up just to tell me that? Because I really could do with some sleep."
"Dude! But it's like so deep, it's like real-life, like it's a whatchamacalit, you know, one of those things that are like something that's also something else. Like, y'know, like uhhh... like Aslan! Yeah..."
"What?"
"Dude, it's like modern society is like the sun and it's so bright but we'll one day go BLAM! And suck us all back in on ourselves and, woah, it'll be all crazy"
"Do you mean an analogy?"
"No, man like a black-hole! It's like so awesome"
"Look, I'm going to go to bed, we've got a rehearsal tomorrow yeah?"
"Yeah, yeah, look I've got this idea for an amazing song about it"
"Uh-huh"
"Yeah, like about a black-hole, and the sun, and y'know, like 'together', yeah. And it'll all be like this blackhole sun. Yeah"
"A song about a blackhole sun, okay great, well play it to me, tomorrow."
"Yeah, 'Blackhole sun, blackhole sun, you're so big and fun' umm yeah, hey do you know if I've got a pad of paper or a pen here or something"
"I don't know, look I've gotta go now, speak to you tomorrow"
"Oh it's okay, I've found a pen now, it's red and it's really big. Dude it's like huge! And it makes my hands look so big, DUDE MY HANDS ARE HUGE! How can I write with these things? DUDE that's like awesome! Dude?
"--click--"
"Dude, you should so see the size of the paper I'm writing on. It's like i'm in 3rd grade all over again. Man is that an Oreo over there?"

*To my knowledge Chris Cornell has never ever taken any illegal substances, including marijuana
**To my knowledge Chris Cornell has never ever drank any alcoholic substances, including Jack Daniel's
***Also including Bourbon
****To my knowledge Chris Cornell has never ever smoked any tobacco related substances, including Marlboro cigarettes

Thursday 02/02/2006 23:01


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Getting around this website can be a tad confusing. If you're looking to explore the better stuff of what I've written then this navigation should help you. If you're after a specific post then searching or looking through the archives chronologically may help.

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This site tries its best to be accessible for everyone. Atom, and RSS feeds are available. All content licensed through a creative commons licence. I may have stolen ideas off you when you weren't looking, but it was almost certainly an accident. As with all claims of originality and ownership Psalm 24 v1 applies.