Ports Thoughts

OK - so I'm posting this a little bit early, but knowing that quite a few people are off work over the holidays and could do with some diverting reading, this is a great list of new, often trivial but always interesting facts that were learned in 2006 as compiled by the BBC Magazine. For example; 1. In a fight between a Polar Bear and a Lion - the Polar Bear would win 2. Goths are likely to become doctors, lawyers and architects 3. The age limit for marriage in France was 15 for girls, but 18 for boys 4. A domestic cat can frighten a black bear to climb a tree. 5. Forty-one percent of English women have punched their partners 6. Cows can have regional accents 7. One third of all the cod fished in the world is consumed in the UK. 8. The egg came first The one that particularly caught my eye was " Pele has always hated his nickname ", perhaps I like it because of this quote "Being referred to by a single name - even if it is a nickname - sets him apart," he says....

It doesn't seem that long ago that Petrol (or Gas) was the dominant fuel for motor vehicles whilst Diesel was considered the inferior, dirtier and more importantly cheaper cousin. After all, Diesel is just distilled oil whilst Petrol is a much more complex chemical mix. But when I stopped to fill up the car yesterday I noticed that standard unleaded petrol is romping in at 92.4 pence per litre whilst diesel was 98.4p. What surprised me even more was that the 3rd pump which has traditionally been for Super Unleaded has now changed to Ultimate Diesel. I knew that sales of diesel vehicles has rocketed since changes in the UK Company Car taxation system and environmental concerns kicked in, I have been driving a diesel myself for the last few years and many of the old perceptions (slow, smelly, noisy) simply don't apply any more. So what I don't understand is why this increased popularity has resulted in an increase in price. Surely with a larger set of customers then competi...

The first computer game I ever got was an early version of Pong . The version I got on my 14th birthday featured both pong tennis and squash. Squash had smaller bats. I loved that game and me and my Dad whiled many an hour away pretending we were at Wimbledon. Sadly my appreciation of games went down from there. I had an Oric1 and an Oric Atmos but neither machine were particularly good for games. I saw friends get Commodore Amiga, Sinclair Spectrum and BBC Model B computers which were all better at games but I wasn't bothered. By the time we had serious games for the PC and later the Playstation, Gamecube and Xbox I kind of saw gaming as a busman's holiday since I was sitting in front of a computer all day anyway. Later generations like the PS2, Xbox360 and PS3 have not changed my mind in any way since they just seem to be the same games with better graphics at the expense of involvement and playability. However, I am so tempted by the Nintendo Wii . Despite the well docum...

I'm down with the kids. I know what teenage language they use. " Ah rite. Dem is bangin' beats is it.. " etc. Some of the music these little tykes listen to now is pretty sweet. I love Kaiser Chiefs , Kasabian and the Arctic Monkeys . However, every now and then one has to go back to the originals and by that of course I mean The Beatles . A new album has just been released called Love. Initially it could be viewed as the sound track for a new Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas , but after a single listen you realise that it is far more than background music for the Canadian Trampoline Monkeys. It is "fifth Beatle" George Martin revisiting some of the fab fours greatest music. Across it's 26 tracks there is the occasional disappointment, why would you take the guitar solo off "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"? but mainly it is a revelation. With his son Giles, Beatles producer Martin using only the original recording has produced an astonishing...