toilet humour

Because I don't have a computer at home right now, I've stayed at uni late on a Friday night to watch game 5 of the Topalov-Kramnik match. But they are both behaving like children, arguing over the toilet! I can't believe this crap. The best live updates are at Susan Polgar's blog.

MOSCOW: Referees barred private toilets on Friday for the two grandmasters fighting for the world chess championship title in southern Russia after the contest was plunged into scandal over the frequency of one player's restroom breaks, ITAR-TASS news agency said.

Update 15:30h: Topalov is sitting at the board, Kramnik's clock is running. The 'game' started at 15:22h Elista time. 15:45h: Kramnik is in his rest room, and is waiting for his toilet to open.

leaving things behind

Oddur has left his mobile phone behind at home many times lately. I told him that it's his unconscious mind working - deep down, he really wants to get rid of his phone but this urge hasn't risen to his conscious mind yet.

In related news, I have gone on an ebay selling frenzy recently. Clearly, people will buy anything! Even my old computers from 1993! After living with Oddur for a while and also seeing An Inconvenient Truth my environmental consciousness has been raised. So I am thinking of trying to sell all the other old computers I have lying around. I think I will actually feel better, not owning so much junk.

things you can't find on the internet

Do you remember Icy Blu of "Pump It" (Nice n Hard) fame? Her real name is not available anywhere on the internet anymore! Fortunately, I have access to Factiva at work and retrieved it.

Reuters bias in Pope story

In the Reuters version of the story by Jonathan Wright:

In a speech in Germany on Tuesday, the Pope appeared to endorse a Christian view, contested by most Muslims, that the early Muslims spread their religion by violence.

The Times gets it right:

The Pope did not endorse the sentiment.

And so does the Washington Post:

The pope neither explicitly endorsed nor denounced the emperor's words, but rather used them as a preface to a discussion of faith and reason.

In this modern age you can just read what the Pope said for yourself. But I'm concerned by the obvious Reuters bias here. Should I complain?

I'm reading "The Media and Me" (1996) by Stuart Littlemore and it's full of interesting stories about his time at the ABC. Even then he was worried about the concentration of media ownership in Australia. It's much worse now.

tasteful wallpaper

The ARC is reviewing our centre for a possible three-year extension soon. We have to look busy when all of the famous professors come to assess the place. The director of the centre is taking it very seriously and my boss commented this morning that my tasteful Priyanka Chopra desktop background would have to go. So I've temporarily replaced it with a microarray picture (groan!). Maybe after the committee goes away I'll move to something racier (haha!).

from a to z...

Up to B.

I came across a website for BCon Korea. On the page they write "We are your believable business partner." It's Konglish and to a native speaker it sounds weird and amusing. It's hard to explain why, though. I think someone took the phrase "trustworthy business partner" and then decided to consult the thesaurus to change "trustworthy" to something else...

khatami and carter

Khatami not to meet Jimmy Carter in US.

Any sort of apology for the hostage-taking “would melt a mountain of ice in Washington” but would be political suicide back home for his reformist associates.

Political suicide? But his associates are already dead politically! Why not do the right thing?