Codeine and crunchy shoulder

Yet another tumble on the bike. Wouldn't you know it...

This is my affliction, and I've been given a bucket full of painkillers to help me rest it.

As a result typing is a very long and laborious process - it's my right shoulder, see? - so it's taken me, oh, 6 hours to write this.

Also in the news: Wikileaks helps give Carter Ruck and Trafigura a bit of a media beating. Nobody likes to see that.

"I pinch..."

Another well-worn path, featuring a delicious crustacean.

This one's a 50-year old lobster, weighing 3.7kg and 75cm long. Holy crap, you wouldn't want to mess with one of these without help. Or rubber bands.

And the picture? It's not the Big Lobster in New Zealand I don't think. I've seen the real one, and had a photo taken of me with it, but I can't find the pic. Yeah, yeah. I know, pics or STFU.

"We were just talking about that..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/oct/07/saturn-ring-nasa

So where the hell did THAT one come from? How did we not see it before? I mean, it's blimmin' massive!

WTF is that? Part 2

Lunch is a jolly affair normally... plenty of banter with colleagues, the odd food fight, complaints about the canteen... But usually pretty harmless.

So today I was asked to peel an orange by one colleague (the duty normally falls to someone else but he's away in Manchester today, obviously 'avin' it large) and I grudgingly acquiesced. Taking the aforementioned fruit I dug my well-bitten nails in and got peeling.

I noted that it was a bit squishy, had it been lying around for a while? Yes indeed, for a couple of weeks, no less. OK, sayeth I, just be aware that it might not be all that nice.

I became aware that the little ball of citrussy delight was coming apart in my hands. I looked down and saw...

WTF is that?????? SERIOUSLY?

I'm guessing it's a kind of tumour. There were no signs of any insects or anything, although a fungal infection could be possible. I don't have access to microbial culture facilities but whatever it is, it's VERRRYY INNNTERRRESSSSTING!!!!

WTF is that? Part 1

I meant to post this rather interesting thing about geckos and the incredible detaching tail some time ago but never got around to it. Reminded me of snakes, in that if you decapitate one the head retains a biting reflex for a while, and the main body can still lunge. A former colleague of mine and I used to joke about getting hit by a bloody stump... Instead, today my attention was drawn to this rather jolly article on Wikipedia: WTF is that? Seriously?

Seems like the sort of thing you'd find from the stories of HP Lovecraft. If you find a match with any of those creatures, let me know!

Oops

Fell of my bike again yesterday. This time I have nobody else but myself to blame for rolling around in the gutter shrieking like a girl...

I've come a cropper about 4 or 5 times now, been hit by a couple of cars, slid on ice... but this time I just clipped the curb, locked my brakes and landed in a pile of horsesh!t. That's London for you.

Anyway, I really should read more of this. Full of top tips on how to survive on 2 wheels, apparently.

Ringpiece!

A cheap joke for a rather interesting story. Wired.com has a piece about the rings of Saturn (see what I did there...), in that the 30-foot thick bands of rock and ice that girdle the planet are not entirely uniform.

In a nutshell, every fifteen years or so Saturn reaches its equinox, which results in some very different light angles, reflections and suchlike, and the latest one has allowed folks in Colorado to study the rings in some detail. In so doing, they've found some areas to be thicker than others, caused by the gravitational pull exerted by Saturn's moons. Pretty cool stuff.

From one ring to another: Ever wondered what makes gold and copper so different to the other shiny metals? Why one is yellow, another orange? As it turns out it's all to do with electrons; yes, that old chestnut again. See for yourself: these folks explain it all far better than I ever could.

Of course, ever since people began rummaging in the dirt we've always had a fascination for a bit of bling. I suppose with gold being so unusual a metal it became more than an object of fascination, it became currency. Copper, too, would once upon a time have been a prized material: copper ingots were used for trading a heck of a lot, as was lead of course. And yet, my Grandmother remembers when Aluminium was considered rare and precious: we now know it's probably the most abundant metal in the earth's crust. I reckon that's a result of all the takeaways we eat.

I thank you ladies and gentlemen, I'm here all week.