For the match against Scotland, England will be without Ryan Sidebottom, who is suffering from pains in his hip, groin and neck.
Do we really need to know the grisly details?
[Source]
Category Archives: Asides
The flowering
From a distance we thought this was an interesting tree. But it isn’t — it’s a flower which appears about once a decade. You don’t believe me? Well, see here.
The pleasures, er dangers of indolence
You know the theory that workaholics are the way they are because, deep down, they’re lazy? Well, I think it’s true. Since arriving in Provence I’ve done, well… precisely nothing except sit around, read, go to cafes and swim. True, I did tackle the cliff path yesterday, but that was mainly to get to the village without using the car. And even then I spent a few hours sitting around, people-watching and reading. And taking the odd photograph, as of this lovely little chap enjoying a fountain.
My conclusion? The worst thing that could happen to me would be winning the Lottery.
Ronnie Drew RIP
Ronnie Drew, the lead singer (and co-founder) of The Dubliners, has died at the age of 73. He was an iconic figure in my youth, with a voice that was once memorably described as “the mating call of a rusty file”. His rheumy eyes, rude lyrics and wicked expression always suggested that he was a rogue, but I have a suspicion that he was a very nice man underneath all that. He was much loved in Ireland (both the President and the Taoiseach issued tributes yesterday) and will have one hell of a funeral. I’d go if I were in Ireland.
On this day…
… in 1977, Elvis Presley died at Graceland at the ripe old age of 42.
Naturally speaking
The only reason I ever run Windows is because I sometimes use Dragon Naturally Speaking, the only dictation software I’ve used which does what it says on the tin. I was therefore touched to find this ingenious application of the software described in a message to David Pogue and reproduced in his New York Times column.
My wife and I discovered Dragon NaturallySpeaking about 8 years ago, and have been using it successfully ever since– not for dictation, but as a communication aid. My wife is deaf; her hearing loss began about 25 years ago (we are in our late 60’s) and she has become a skillful lip reader to compensate. That works pretty well in face-to-face communication, but is not helpful in many other situations, such as when we are driving; when I drive, I give her a side view, which isn’t clear enough.
I’ve made brackets to hold a laptop both in our car and motor home. I use a lapel mike to speak; NaturallySpeaking transcribes what I say. She reads what I’m saying, and then responds by voice. When we got this working, it was the first time in 15 years that we could converse on the road. We are now using version 9, having upgraded several times, and based on your report, we will watch for version 11!
Yawn
Wall-to-wall Olympics for the next three weeks. Zzzzzz…
Meanwhile Russia and Georgia are going to war while the world’s attention is focussed on these idiotic games. Bah!
Gorillapod
This just has to be the photo accessory of the decade. I think it was Michael who discovered it first, and then Quentin had one, and I was reduced to photographing theirs while grinding my teeth in envy. Now, as a belated birthday present from my lovely daughter, I have one too. Yippee!
Barack O’Bama
I knew it: he’s an Irishman, deep down! The Irish Times says so.
BARACK OBAMA had a distant Irish cousin who went on to become provost of Trinity College and later bishop of Ossory, new research shows.
It has also been revealed that an Irish ancestor opposed political corruption in Dublin.
The Democratic nominee for the US presidential election is directly descended from the Kearneys of Shinrone and Moneygall, Co Offaly, the research has revealed. His ancestry had already been traced back to a shoemaker in Moneygall on the Offaly-Tipperary border. Further research shows a Tipperary connection…
Domain name ingenuity
Using Gmail to write to someone in Oxford today when AdSense flashed up a link to www.oxfordcollege.ac. Thinking that it must have missed the “.uk” off the end, I clicked on the link and got this:
It is in fact the website of what appears to be a private establishment offering A-level and GCSE courses. It is physically located in Oxford (on “Floor 231” of an address on the Banbury Road, to be precise), but the .ac domain is in fact that of Ascension Island. Ingenious use of a domain name, don’t you think, though not quite in the del.icio.us league. The photograph, incidentally, shows the Radcliffe Camera, which is a University building.