Firetop

It can get awfully hot in Somalia up to forty-five degrees Celsius at the peak of their summertime. For the Giraffes that live there it must get a bit uncomfortable, but luckily, thanks to millions of years of evolution, Giraffes can go for several days without water. Somebody please tell me why then in England, when it gets to a measly thirty-six degrees, we have zookeepers feeding ice-lollies to Giraffes to help them stay cool. Call me crazy but I’ve never seen David Attenborough interrupted on a nature documentary by a Mr Whippy van playing the tune of ‘Boys and Girls come out to play’ pulling up to feed a gaggle of meer cats anxiously awaiting their Soleros…

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With four gamers reported to have died as a result of mammoth gaming sessions over the past four years, a clinic in the Netherlands (the Flying Horses Center) has started to treat addicted video gamers. This is probably long overdue, especially with millions of gamers hooked on the virtual world instead of real life. Apparently, being addicted to gaming is a lot like being addicted to gambling, with addicts having the ‘Just one more win and then I’ll stop’ mentality. What I found worrying there was that I’ve had that thought many times whilst playing Star Wars Battlefront on Xbox Live and put off going to bed until 4am as a result. What other symptoms are there? (more…)

As a child I was a bit obsessed with ants, I used to love going into my dad’s greenhouse and lifting the paving slabs to look at the intricate nests with all the little white eggs being carried around by the workers. However, what I loved more was trashing the nest with a shovel, my feet and hot water (I must have had serious issues - that’s bullying for you!). A week later the nest would all be back as good as new requiring another demolition. I dare say that I’ve killed a good few thousand ants and will probably end up as one in a next life, or in hell with ants anyway I digress… (more…)

I quite enjoy a flutter on the dogs every once in a while, I don’t usually win much because the odds are so appalling but it’s a bit of fun and usually a good night out. On Saturday I went to Brighton and Hove stadium for the second time this year, this time not on the £10 meal, drink, entry and free bet deal but a £30 a head waited table deal. The view of the track couldn’t have been better ideal for watching the races and seeing which dog crosses the line first. (more…)

Google carried out a PageRank update during the latter part of this week, revising scores for what is judged to be popular or unpopular web content. No change for nature.com which remains at 9/10 although many of the other pages on that website have gone back to eight from zero (thanks to some revisions on outbound linking). Interestingly this blog seems to have gone from a PageRank two (calculated in April when there was no content here at all) to a PageRank zero. Presumably this means that Google thinks this blog is of less use than when there was just an htaccess log-in box preventing the Googlebot from indexing anything… Google’s algorithm as mysterious as ever! What I have found whilst looking into this issue is the NEW WordTranslator function built into the latest version of the Google Toolbar.

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Continuing with my theme of ‘nostalgia’ I revisited the days of the ZX Spectrum this week to try and recapture some of that early gaming fun to which I was so addicted as a small boy. ‘Spectaculator‘ is a ZX spectrum emulator that you can download and install on your PC to recreate the early 80’s computer game sensation. They don’t supply a rubber keypad I’m afraid… and you won’t be able to reproduce that ’scratching paint from metal’ feeling unless you take a can of gloss to your PC’s keyboard first. However, you do get a 30-day free trial with Spectaculator and pretty much all of the classic games can be found at World of Spectrum. (more…)

I don’t remember being overly enthused about the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, but I do remember that it kept my attention for the duration. This was aided by a smattering of humour from Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and the one-eyed bungling pirate (you know… ‘That guy out of the office‘). Last night’s trip to the cinema for the second instalment, despite some humour, left me confused, worn out, stressed, tired and bursting for the toilet (it’s a long film). I consider myself a fairly intelligent lad, I certainly got to grips with the Matrix 1, 2 and 3, so just why was Pirates of the Caribbean ‘Dead Man’s Chest’ harder to follow?

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Listening to the radio recently I heard about the growing demand for ‘cremation scattering services’, specifically, putting the ashes of the deceased into a bunch of fireworks so that friends and relatives can send them up to the heavens and watch them go up in a puff of smoke… one final bang. Having looked into it further, I discovered that not only can human ashes be put into your average display fireworks, they can even be sent into outer space on board real rockets carrying satellites. It doesn’t end there - lost your pet dog to old age recently?

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So the FIFA world cup is over but there really is no need to be sad, only a month to go before the new Premier League season kicks off on August 19th. One day after the wonderful Zidane treated us to his Rhino impression (what did the Italian player say to him after pinching his nipple to make him so crazy?) Budweiser fantasy football is back! I’ve already been in and picked my team twice, I dare say I’ll change it twice every day for the next 5 weeks.

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In mid 2004 I went through a process of registering some sample domain names, based upon popular search terms, to try and calculate how many people ‘guess’ domain names in their browser address bar. This led me to make several conclusions about the best format for a domain name… and in the process I became convicted as an official cybersquatter thanks to AXA and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). Two years later my accusers havent even bothered to renew the domain they challenged me for and its now held by somebody else with a page full of ads and pop-ups! Whats that all about?

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