String fellow

The British Chess Championships were held at De Montfort University back in July. https://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/ Personally, I prefer chess problem solving, and somehow manage to qualify for the final every year. Not only do you have to solve conventional mates in x moves and studies, but also be able to solve unorthodox problems such as helpmates in x moves and selfmates in x moves. The Problemist is a very good (but very geeky) publication for anyone interested. https://www.theproblemist.org/wcbcsc/wcbcsc.pl?type=home The ChessVibes YouTube channel presented by Nelson Lopez is also very good for seeing how to tackle conventional problems - studies mainly. Here's one typical video of his, explaining how to force mate with just a bishop and a knight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHnz4U7qjfk

Russell Brand, thrice Britain's official Shagger of the Year and Grigori Rasputin, Russia's Greatest Love Machine, according to Boney M.

There's also the issue of some of the alleged incidents having happened in LA to complicate things. Having watched last night's programme, I got the impression that only civil proceedings would be possible against him, as the burden of proof of criminality would be difficult, especially as he himself had already given the alleged victims some of the ammunition, based on what he'd said publicly and joked about regarding running mascara. But anyone who tells the world about being nice for the first few minutes of an 'encounter' does suggest that he has (or had) a very nasty side. Whether or not that lead to criminal behaviour is something we may never know for sure.

According to the website below, Sadiq Khan's return flight, business class, from LHR to JFK will produce nearly 6 tonnes of CO2 emissions. https://www.clevel.co.uk/flight-carbon-calculator/

Carr's 'jokes' about paedophilia made some of us think that he was maybe seeming to legitimise the practice, or subconciously admitting to it. And by shocking his audiences with other 'jokes' about the holocaust, perhaps that was a way of Carr disguising the truth behind the other stuff. Many a true word hath been spoken jest, according the Bard in King Lear.

It's not often that City win by a bigger margin than County!

Brand said it was a 'rather baroque attack' on him. What does he mean by 'baroque'? I thought it was that period in history during the 17th and early 18th centuries, when very ornate architecture, art and music were in fashion in Europe.

The Drake equation provides a way of determining the probability N(c) of us communicating the extra-terrestrials. Carl Sagan mentioned it in his wonderful 'Cosmos' programmes many years ago, I seem to recall. In particular, N(c) = R(s) x f(p) x n(e) x f(l) x f(i) x f(c) x L(t) x f(e) where R(s) = rate of star formation in the Milky Way galaxy, f(p) = fraction of stars with planets, n(e) = mean number of planets that could support life per star with planets, f(l) = fraction of these planets that do develop life, f(i) = fraction of planets where developed life has intelligence, f(c) = fraction of planets with intelligent life with communication skills, L(t) = mean overall length of time during which we will be able to communicate with extra-terrestrials, f(e) = fraction of extra-terrestrials with English-speaking communication skills. (The f(e) term is my extra factor, included because most extra-terrestrials seem to speak English, judging by what happens in science fiction!) Given that we can estimate all of the factors reasonably accurately with the help of the JWT, N(c) must be vanishingly small. Maybe NASA should be beaming a non-stop radio signal across the galaxy of a dimensionless numerical constant such as pi or e, or the fine structure constant, to let other inhabitants of the Milky Way know that we're here.

North Korean leader Kim to Putin: "I hope that we will always be together in the fight against imperialism and for the construction of a sovereign state." While Putin hailed "the future strengthening of co-operation", concluding: "We act in the name of peace, stability and prosperity of our common region." Fighting against imperialism? Constructing a sovereign state? Acting in the name of peace? And here was I thinking that the Russians are the imperialists, trying to construct a puppet state, and using almost every war-like means at their disposal to achieve it! Either I've been brainwashed by western propaganda or Putin and his buddy are the ones telling porkies. (If I were an ordinary Russian, I'd be pretty alarmed at the sight of Putin cosying up to Kim.)

Fly-tippers using a natural burial ground car park really are the absolute pits, especially when there's a free recycling centre only a mile or so away. Today, there was a funeral/burial at the burial site near here, which took place only a day after some pond-life had decided that they'd dump their rubbish in its car park. Have they ever considered how they'd like it if they were saying goodbye to loved one of theirs in such circumstances?

I recently had the job of transferring some old camcorder tape recordings to DVD. The 'cameraman' had a habit of turning the camcorder sideways on, when they thought that the vertical field of view needed to be increased. Maybe they thought it was a good idea - but it's absolutely no fun having turn your head sideways to watch the recordings!

Has-beens means Hines!

Unfortunately, lists of this type always seem to favour players from the most recent decades of the club's history, which is no doubt why some of the stalwarts of City's distant past have been completely ignored. Based on goal scored alone, the list's top 10 would be Chandler, Rowley, Vardy, Hine, Hines, Arthur Lochhead, Lineker, The Mighty String, Duncan and Jimmy Walsh. Of course, everyone has a different view of what constitutes 'greatest ever', so lists such as this are really just talking points.

The Mighty String knew a thing or two about scoring goals - unlike a few of the other strikers on that list!