Fucking it Off

Not sure how bothered I am about updating this blog any more, so I'm semi-retiring it.

Football-based thoughts will appear at Fire Andy Townsend and I will post any interesting links I find on my delicious page. As fans of my flickr will have noticed, I don't hold with all this tagging business. I consider it beneath me.

I ate children's hearts says General Butt Naked

The story is horrific, but you can't help but laugh.

Unexpected

69% Rudy Giuliani
59% John McCain
57% Chris Dodd
57% Mitt Romney
53% Hillary Clinton
53% Dennis Kucinich
52% Bill Richardson
51% Mike Gravel
51% Ron Paul
50% Barack Obama
50% Mike Huckabee
48% Joe Biden
47% John Edwards
45% Fred Thompson
38% Tom Tancredo

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

The Pink Windmill least inessential tracks of 2007

[As hinted at here]

10. Kanye West
"Stronger"

9. Justice
"D.A.N.C.E."

8. Foals
"Mathletics"

7. Patrick Wolf
"The Magic Position"

6. Broken Family Band
"Leaps"

5. The Twilight Sad
"Cold Days From the Birdhouse"

4. Tunng
"Bullets"

3. LCD Soundsystem
"Someone Great"

2. Okkervil River
"Our Life Is Not a Movie Or Maybe"

1. Kleerup featuring Robyn
"With Every Heartbeat"

What tunes did YOU like?

The meme they couldn't hang

Lolcats is an internet phenomenon that shows no sign of abating any time yet. I am a little concerned at the correct spelling and punctuation of recent variants, however - seems like some people are missing the point.

Anyway, the spin offs keep coming. First there was LOLCODE, then LolVogue and now Lolsheviks.

I present my own concept, LolArt:



Can you do better?

UPDATE: Bollocks. Someone else had the same idea.

Towards a new nemesis

As you know, my nemesis is Lembit Öpik who is a frightful arse.

However, I might trade him in for professional friend of Ewan MacGregor, Charley Boorman who is an egregious cunt of the highest order.



Argh! Just fuck off! I hate you Boorman!

Quote of the day

It is difficult to speak adequately or justly of London. It is not a pleasant place; it is not agreeable, or cheerful, or easy, or exempt from reproach. It is only magnificent. - Henry James

Mad Thought #1

What if socks were chiral like shoes and it's only through sheer luck that I've been putting the correct sock on the correct foot all these years?

Bayes, House and Lupus

It's NEVER Lupus!



But why is it never Lupus?

Bayes helps us here. The test for Lupus has a false positive rate of 5% and has a prevalence of 1 in 1000. If you test positive in a random assay, what are the odds that you actually have the disease?

If you said 95%, congratulations! You have now been struck off by the GMC!

Think of it this way, If you test 1,000 people for Lupus, 1 of them will correctly test positive and 50 of them will falsely test positive. The chances are only 1 in 51, less than 2%, that you actually have the disease even though you have tested positive!

In summary then, if you're a corrupt, drug abusing doctor, a textbook on Lupus is the best place to hide your Vicodin.

Allium

This news story reminded me a lot of this.

My solution? Make your NI contributions based on your BMI and therefore your subsequent risk of needing medical treatment. Simple.