Apparently, a specie of ant and of bee already reproduce by cloning themselves. For more info, see New Scientist.

A great match is to be played out today at 19:45. Brazil reached the final by beating Germany 3-2, whereas 10-man Mexico held a 10-man Argentina to a penalty shoot-out. Both of the Latin powerhouses are in with a chance, although Brazil has seemed to be playing below their full capabilities, and Argentina were dormant against Mexico until the second half of extra time, when they went a goal down and came back like a swarm of angry killer bees.

She’s got a research post studying behavioural and evolutionary science at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (prestige). So McDonald’s can shove it. On a different note, if you’re in Manchester, UK, and want to spot the International Space Station, check these timings and sightings. It’s the size of a football pitch, weighs 183,667 kilos (404069 lbs), and will be visible for a good 3-7 minutes, depending on the particular time.

Old “Twice nightly” Whiteley is dead. Bless the fella. I wonder what’s going to happen to Countdown?? After more than 4000 shows!

I’ve been reading a book (yes, I do that sometimes) called ‘Experiences’ by Martin Amis, kind of autobiographical. He says that Princess Di’s favourite poem contains these lines

Life is mostly froth and bubble,
two things stand as stone.
Kindness in another’s trouble,
courage in your own.

Which his father, Kingsley Amis, parodies as

Life is mainly grief and labour
two things get you through.
Chortling when it hits your neighbour,
whingeing when it’s you.

After cutting my lengthy locks for summer, I constantly reach up behind my head to feel the ‘phantom hair’ that’s no longer there. I think it’s now a bit too short, in a style that’s best described as a ‘neither-here-nor-there’. Amongst other things, my sister’s now joined the ranks of unemployed MSc holders. I’m not sure if McDonalds is planning to expand in India. But atleast they can reat assured that the talented labour pool is now in place.

A quick cheer for Mexico, they showed Brazil on Sunday that just having (great) flair is not enough; if you come up against stiff defense, you need to be able to zing in crosses from the wings. You can’t always feed the killer pass in a crowded box, and you can’t always play narrow. I didn’t see a single useful cross coming in from the wings in open play, Ronaldinho’s corner’s mostly didn’t clear the first man, and Adriano couldn’t even get the ball past the first defender. Solid show by Mexico, and this isn’t the first time they’ve beaten Brazil either. Brazil seems to think that they can just play into the goal, and they often can. But if a few key players are not 100% like Kaka, Ronaldinho, Adriano, Roque Junior, etc. were, then this style of playing becomes difficult, and they need an alternative style to fall back on.

A rich defense lawyer (let’s call him NK) prevents celebrities from getting their just rewards for speeding on the roads in their super-charged babe-magnets. This was the latest topic of ITV’s ‘Tonight with Trevor MacDonald’ programme (I can’t link to it beacuse, unlike the BBC, ITV has a pointless website). When NK was asked if he ever had any moral difficulties in helping them get away scott-free, he said if he did, he wouldn’t be able to perform as a defense lawyer. So that’s a ‘no’ then. Funnily enough, one prosecutor for the Crown said that NK was performing a valuable role in exposing the weaknesses of their prosecuting service. But don’t we already know that the rich are not treated the same in the eyes of the law? – Disgruntled.

“Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual.” -Frank Herbert, the author of the science fiction novels called The Dune Chronicles, wrote this fact. I think this furthers the argument of connectivity between different spheres of study. (I’m arguing both sides of the debate, I know).

Another important thought from Frank Herbert, and relevant to a friend’s post, is to remember that the only true science is the science of discontent. Mankind will always be unhappy with what he’s got, and it is to this science that we owe all our progress. Therefore I believe that the only true art is restraint, in order to balance things out. Anything in excess is harmful, as Freddie Mercury tells us, even “too much love can kill you”.

UKTV History (those of you who bother to read this stuff will know it’s one of my favourite channels) is doing a Blue Planet weekend. The Blue Planet is a nature documentary by ‘Old Aunt’ BBC about the water bodies of our planet, and the life in it. Best of all, it’s narrated by Sir David Attenborough, who symbolises the genre for me. Ever since I was a child watching the Discovery channel, and setting up my 60-kilo (seemed like that) JVC video camera on its tripod in front of the telly in a room darkened with pillows stuffed around the corners of the curtains where chinks of light were prone to escaping and ruining the quality of the recording at the exact spot when the pride of lions were settling in for a spot of luncheon on a still-struggling wildebeest because there was something wrong with the video recorder that had a tape eject mechanism that could kick like a mule and was just about as reliable as one too, I associated that calm voice with good viewing. I think he deserves a knighthood for his work. What? Ok, give him another then. Today I was nestled in the comfort of my sofa (it gives in welcomingly like a familiar lover. For imagery, think about the hippie girl in the sofa in ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’) with the long-distance television-operating-gadget and my copy of Sir David’s autobiography called ‘Life on Air’. Bliss! Also a quick thanks to the BBC for all the great documentaries.

Wacko’s out, as Jessy reminds us. The story reporting leading up to the verdict was calling it a moment nobody will forget. Why? Who cares what the weird fiddler did? I’m not going to waste anymore space talking about it. So…., you think he did?

This site has loads of free e-books, I would recommend it to anybody. A top 100 list shows what people around the world have been reading, and funnily enough, the Bible is at 39 and the Quran at 40!

No, not the real one. I had put up a poster of our most-beloved comic’s humorous sayings, or by other world leaders in a similar vein, in our study room K2, where it put a smile on many a face for a long time…. until somebody came along and stole it!! Now, I’m not pointing fingers, but there ws a delegation of business people from XXXXXX next door, who were admiring it at length (I know where you live). My friends, these are the kind of people we will be dealing with once we leave the cozy world of academia. The kind who are prepared to stuff half a metre’s length of rolled up poster (I imagine that’s how it was done) down their trouser leg (I’m having difficulty imagining it done in a skirt) and limping all the way to their getaway vehicle (There has to be one. There always is. I imagine one with lots of passenger leg-room for minimum discomfort. Perhaps an off-roader, SUV-type. I can see the new Nissan Murano doing well in this role) just so they can save on the £3-odd it cost. No more “after you, Sir/Madam (whichever applies, obviously not both)”, nor indeed a “by your leave”, and certainly not a “if you could be so kind as”! Humph!! What is this world coming to, when even the P of USA isn’t safe???

I was watching a telly programme on UKHistory about Mr. Julius Caeser yesterday. Fascinating stuff! One thing that really stuck in my mind was one commentator/history professor saying “Rome never had a problem controlling her far-flung military commanders. It was when they got back to Rome that the problems began”. Haha, I love that kind of logic! Another related point I’d like to mention is that a sure sign of big-headedness is when people refer to themselves in the third person, like Caeser often did. Shakespeare conveys this beautifully many times; once just before Caeser’s assassination, when he is at his most intolerable

“Are we all ready? What is now amiss
That Caesar and his senate must redress?”

For more Julius Caeser and other Shakespeare works.

I also must add that if history were taught with computer graphics and whatnot like on BBC & UKHistory, I would’ve loved it. I was born in the wrong age

Did you guys know that all my pages are not displayed on this main page? For example, I’ve made loads of updates to my lyrics pages; there are now 8 different artists listed, with 22 of the most breath-taking lyrics, and it’s increasing everyday. Have a go!

I’m sitting in K2, feeling the pressure of having to post something here, but not quite having anything interesting to say. Reminds me of someone saying “If you can’t speak well of someone, don’t speak at all”. Have to rush home, weather’s absolutely the pits (well, it has stopped raining) and my new bicycle being a macho off-roader with tyres that would suit a Land-Rover, it doesn’t handle particularly well on smooth, city roads. So I have to be careful when it’s wet, ‘coz then the only parts of the tyres that are in contact with the road can collectively fit under the fingernail of my little finger. That’s front and back tyre both. Had a game of squash with Tracy (hence the title of the post; it all comes together, just be patient) and then a double cheeseburger from Pizza & Co. Ioannis dropped by, and they’ve gone back there for dinner!

Google’s got maps now, check it out here. So far only UK and US though, it seems that the rest of the world just isn’t important to google.
Also, from the funny pages, this

…a can of Morrison’s toilet cleaner tells us that it “cleans, freshens and kills germs”. Edward Williams, who noticed this, is reminded of the oyster in Lewis Carroll’s The Walrus and the Carpenter: “After such kindness, that would be / A dismal thing to do!”

Tuesday evening, around six-thirty-ish, I get a callback from Ioannis saying that he’s off to Exchange Square, more precisely, the Sinclair’s Oyster Bar, for a pint with his ex-coworker and friend Rob. After ‘much persuasion’, I joined Ioannis and we went there for a couple of pints and a few laughs. Rob’s friend Riz was with us too. Then Ioannis suggests going for a curry to Rusholme, which means the only one restaurant worth considering, i.e. Sangam! After stuffing ourselves with Karahi chicken, lamb and chili paneer, we were politely asked to leave the premises at half-eleven or so, after which Ioannis headed for his bed. But the three of us still had a spark of life left in us, so we decided to hit Oxford Rd and ended up in Revolution. After being shuffled out from there at one, we had to call it a night (but not before checking on the Footage to see if they’d let us in).

I really like the Crop Circles theme by Marianne, unfortunately there’s a minor problem with the look of the site; with me having so many links, they run over the top of the contents. Plus, I think this default version has the edge over it in functionality. I’ll try to see if there’s a more appealing theme that’s practical. (I wouldn’t have this problem if my “I.T.Support dept.” had fixed it over the weekend like he promised )

(51 hours later) Problem solved, thanks to “I.T.Support dept.” and miklb. New look weblog is now yours to savour.

Here’s an idea. We need an ISOM Awards ceremony for the end of our academic year. So the main topic for discussion is, what kind of categories should people be nominated for? All suggestions welcome. I’ll start it off by suggesting a “Most Likely to Still be on the Dole in a Year” Award. Once we have a list of awards, we can go about selecting and then voting for the nominees. How about it?
P.S All other weblogs trackback to this so all ISOMers will have a chance to read about it, no matter which weblog they visit.

See, I’m growing up. This is my first trackback, with congrats to Ioannis on his weblog’s 1st birthday. I learnt about this from a link Ioannis sent me How trackback works. Although, after some more surfing it seems that trackbacks are not without their shortcomings.

I saw this t-shirt, a geek look at the popular rhyme.

Our esteemed university’s Career Service has sent me another e-mail with jobs. One of them calls for a “natural-born salesperson” to work in a “Vibrant call centre”. Despite rumours to the contrary, my mother insists that I was natural-born. But as for a vibrant call centre, I’ll believe that one when I see it!

I’m seriously considering a separate page for him and his ilk. This from New Scientist today

According to a BBC online news item on 12 May, “After the hearing, Det. Con. David Ecuyer of Kent Police said that if the bomb had gone off it would have caused an explosion”

Anybody recognise the P of the USA saying “If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure”

Hey guys (in Manchester)! How about a weekend in Munich? Let’s have your comments. In case you need reminding, there’s a certain someone who lives there now, and (against his express desires) I managed to invite ourselves to a weekend there. There might be some festivals going on that we can time our visit to coincide with, suggests Jonny.
P.S. Munich is in Germany

“Never let the big things in life distract you from focussing on the inconsequential”. Which means I should be working on my dissertation at the moment, not wasting my time here.

But is that just the info-centric view of us Information Specialists? (I’m using the term loosely here to include my humble self). Surely an accountant will differ. And I came across an article titled “What do IT specialists know about managing change” (Parc & Jutras) which is also related to the question of whether IS experts are in a position to advise managers.