The Lair of the SlowFox

Late weekend update

2009-06-21T21:42:15Z

Reasonably busy weekend, all told. Aside from the usual library and dog-walking stuff, instead of kayaking at the swimming pool yesterday afternoon, P got to paddle around Princes' Quay in town instead.

The weather wasn't being very co-operative, what with the especially timed downpours and all, but I think the main reason the boy ended up getting soaked was his paddling through the fountain multiple times :-P

I had thought that the 18:50 showing of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen would be relatively OK, but it turns out it's a loooooooooooooong film. And, truth be told, not a very good one either - the first was much better. But P liked it lots, which was, of course, the point.

Bookwise, have just finished Subsmash by Alan Gallop, which is all about the loss of the Royal Navy submarine HMS Affray in 1951. First half of the book, dealing with the circumstances surrounding her loss, the subsequent search mission and the corresponding press reaction was good. The second part of the book, mainly conjecture as to possible reasons for the loss of the boat was less compelling. Tremendously sad tale, all told: 75 people lost their lives :-(

Have now moved on to Deer Hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant, which is subtitled Guns, Votes, Debt and Delusion in Redneck America, and is very good. In fact, it seems to be addressing much the same issues as Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason, but from almost exactly the opposite end of the spectrum - looking at life for the American working class, rather than surveying the landscape from the confines of the ivory tower.

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Sunday of sloth

2009-06-14T21:24:15Z

Aside from walking Mali (and he has had some extra walks today), I've really done staggeringly little today. I had meant to get out on the bike for another long(ish, for me) ride, but decided against it and cleaned the bathroom instead.

Yay for priorities ;-P

I also finished The Tiger That Isn't, a book on statistics, and their representation in the media, by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot, creators of Radio 4's statistics programme More or Less. An illuminating read, that concentrated more on making statistics relevant and, to use their phrase, 'person-sized'... the most technical part of it was a worked example of understanding false positives and false negatives when it came to medical screening. Good stuff, and eminently readable.

I then moved on to Water: the final resource by William Houston and Robin Griffiths, but didn't make it beyond the first chapter. Reading the closing recommendations suggested that these guys' politics are so far removed from mine that I doubt that I'd have made it through to the end via the traditional route.

So now I'm on Who Won the Oil Wars by Andy Stern, a tome that does itself no favours, in credibility terms, by being published under the category of 'conspiracy books', and where the opening chapter's thread seems to unravel in strange directions. It's not that it doesn't make sense, per se, more than the author's phraseology strikes me as odd. Anyway, ploughing on with that one atm.

Or I would be, if I hadn't been fully sucked into Prison Break S2 :-)

And finally, major fridge stock misunderestimation meant that I only discovered that I didn't have any food in the house once the main shops had closed. Pot Noodle FTW!

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Three Day Weekend Approaching

2009-05-22T06:34:20Z

Monday being a Bank Holiday, we have another three day weekend coming up ('cos May always gets two). So that is definitely for the good - I'm feeling pretty tired at the moment.

Sunday sees Hull City attempting to stay in the Premiership. If they win, they're safe. If they draw, and Newcastle don't win, they're safe. If they lose... at this point, we bring in Middlesbrough.

It is mathematically possible for Middlesbrough to escape the drop (even though they currently reside in 19th place), leapfrogging Hull in the process, or, if results go in another direction, it's not impossible that Sunderland will find themselves in that third relegation spot...

Pos	Team	Goal Diff	Points
16	Sunderland	-19	36
17	Hull City	-24	35
18	Newcastle United	-18	34
19	Middlesbrough	-28	32
20	West Bromwich Albion	-31	31

3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw. West Brom already relegated. Teams on equal points are ordered by goal difference

So, with the threat of relegation hanging over you on the final game of the season, the last team you want to play would probably be... Manchester United. And that, of course, is who Hull've got...

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