Monthly Archives: July 2008
July 2008 Round-up
Well, July seems to be over, which means it’s time for the latest in a regular series of intriguing end of month reports that you can read instead of the seemingly endless daily nonsense. Or not.
Weight
July 1: 221 pounds (15 stone 11 pounds, 100.2 kg)
July 31: 218.8 pounds (15 stone 8.8 pounds, 99.2 kg)
Difference: A fall of 2.2 pounds (1 kg), which is much better than the last few months.
Eating
Since my week off earlier in the month, I have actually been behaving at lunchtime. No sausage rolls, and no other extras – just a sandwich. Yay.
Exercise
Out of 18 working days this month, I walked to work twice, and walked home six times, which is a slight improvement on recent months. Still need more motivational thinginess in that area.
Posting
Much less crazy this month, with a total of 79 posts. Which is still quite a lot.
Still to come – more reviews, more weight reports, more photos, and anything else that comes to mind.
Antikythera Mechanism – more details
I mentioned the reconstruction of the Antikytera Mechanism some time ago. Well, research is continuing, and it seems that one of the device’s many dials records dates of the ancient Olympiads.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Olympic link to early ‘computer’
Makes me wonder what else lies at the bottom of the sea that we don’t know about…
Useful translation
For a while now, Flickr has been putting friendly greetings on its home page. They have a random selection of languages, ranging from well-known ones to the quite rare and obscure. But today, they reached a new level in linguistic usefulness:
Nice.
A cautionary tale…
More fun from the ever-brilliant xkcd. Click the picture to see the whole strip, then read the whole archive if you haven’t done it already. Come to think of it, you could read it again if you like.
Steven Moffat speaks…
Incoming Doctor Who head writer Steven Moffat has been talking about his plans for the show, which he’ll be running from the 2010 series. He’s promising fewer returns of old friends and enemies, and more new stuff. All sounds promising – while I enjoy a bit of nostalgia, it’s defintiely a good thing for the series to move forward and introduce new things.
He’s also responded to concerns that, based on some of the scary episodes he’s written so far, that the series might send millions more children behind the traditional sofa:
If people are worried that because I’m taking over Doctor Who it’s going to be just really, really frightening, if that’s your concern then… tough.
Oh, good. That’s put those concerns to rest. 
Before Steven’s first series, we have this year’s Christmas special and four specials next year, all under the control of Russell T Davies. 
Related posts
Weight Report – 29 July 2008
Hmmm. Another small drop today. Good stuff.
It was a slightly different day – I had to go to London for a flying[1] visit to see some new office premises, and have a brief meeting about this and that. I took the 7:40 train down, then walked from Kings Cross to the office, did everything I needed to do, then walked back to Kings Cross and got the 16:00 train home. Quite a good walk, really.
[1] Well, on a train, actually
Weight Report – 28 July 2008
Just a minor variation today. Nothing to be alarmed about.
Grand Pier fire, Weston-super-Mare
BBC NEWS | England | Somerset | Fire tears through seaside pier
Damn. There goes yet another remnant of my childhood. Like a lot of South Wales families in the 60s and 70s, Weston was a frequent holiday destination for us. I remember the pier, and my Dad having fun with the slot machines – never the bandits, just those odd sliding things, where you could at least pretend there was an element of skill involved.
And I remember walking down that pier what seems like many times…
And now it’s burning, and will probably be lost completely. I don’t think it’s likely that it will be rebuilt – too expensive.
