Monday, 10 September 2012

Olympic Gold: Ark of the scrap yard: There’s a HuayuNavi app for that: Sexy pie: and A Plank and a door.


Masses of mini moisture molecules, more than a lot of lack of cold, not a glimmer of solar activity and oodles of atmospheric movement at the Castle this morn.
More than a modicum of tardiness due to oversleeping, going dahn  Tesco on the stale bread, gruel and his Maj’s food run and lacking the inclination to give a toss this mournful Monday morn.

Think it may have something to do with the marathon Red Dwarf session on channel 19 yesterday.

 
And now that the two big sporty things are over-apart from the endless recapping and a larger than big “parade”, according to the Guardian each of the big round metal things acquired by ‘Team GB’ has cost just over £4.5 million-ish or less.
And that Boxing was the most cost-effective sport in terms of funding per medal, with hockey the least.
Figures obtained from UK Sport, the strategic body overseeing performance sport in the UK, detail the amount of money invested in each Olympic sport since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. We have compared this data with the amount of medals won by Team GB at London 2012.
The largest amounts of UK Sport money were spent on rowing (£27m), cycling (£26m) and athletics (£25m). The high overall costs of cycling - particularly in its the track form - lie in the need for the latest technology in bikes, helmets and clothing; such as the 'hot pants' used to keep Team GB cyclists' muscles warm before their race.
British cyclists won 12 medals in London, including 7 golds in the velodrome, with technological superiority no doubt playing an important part in their successes. This puts spending on cycling in perspective - the average spend per cycling medal was £2.2m, compared with £8.4m of spending for each Olympic swimming medal (overall spend £25m).
The rowers also provided value for money. Their nine medals, four of which were gold, meant the average expense per medal was £3m. British boxing proved the most cost effective of all, as Team GB's five medals put the average cost of a boxing medal at £1.9m.
Total UK Sport funding for the London 2012 Olympics was £264,143,753, up from £235,103,000 spent on the Beijing Games. For London 2012, money from UK Sport was supplemented by a private sponsorship scheme known as 'Team 2012'.
Since 2008, a total of around £100m per year has been invested in 1,200 athletes competing across 47 different sports in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
 

Interesting numbers; which don’t even mention the thousands of homes, hundreds of hospitals, more than that many schools and massive amounts of investment into other infrastructure which could have been used to provide jobs using the £9 billion or so sportingly spent on the two big sporty thing up in the Smoke and other parts of Double Dip Blighty...
 

I am not knocking the Olympics but in these austere times couldn’t the Piss Poor Policies Millionaire’s Club Coalition have used the dosh to improve the lives of millions rather than pander to the egos of a few thousand people who consider running, jumping and throwing things the most important thing in the world-to them...

 


Aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is being sold for £3m for scrap metal by the Ministry of Defence to help tackle a multi-billion pound defence deficit.
The removal of the Royal Navy's former flagship from service in 2011, five years early, was a "difficult but necessary decision", the MoD has said.
Its sale follows bids to turn the ship into a London heliport, a dive site off Devon or other overseas facilities.
An announcement on its future will be made in the leaning tower of Westminster today.
 

Maybe it could be used to house the homeless from London....

 
 
Translating complicated-looking Chinese characters is now made convenient with Funwish’s iPhone application: the HuayuNavi.
It was released in March 2011, and ever since has been used by travellers in Chinese-speaking countries and to those who are just starting to learn the language.
Translating Chinese text into the language of your choice is now possible just by taking a picture of what is to be translated, waiting a while for the app to process, and Ta-Da!
 

Rubbery, jubbery....

 

According to “experts” the most bewitching scent to lure a man isn't Chanel No. 5. It's the sweet, spicy aroma of a traditional Thanksgiving dessert.
"Throw away the perfume and go get some pumpkin pie," said Dr. Alan Hirsch, Director of Chicago's Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Centre, told WBPF in West Palm Beach.
The smell drives men wild with desire, the researchers say. Combine with the scent of lavender and you might have to reach for a bucket of cold water.
 

Nah...It’s a bacon butty for me....

 
And finally:
 


A Pennsylvania bank's front door is being hailed a hero after it stopped a robber from leaving Thursday morning.
The unidentified, 27-year-old suspect entered a Pittsburgh Citizens Bank at about 9 a.m. and demanded money from tellers, WTAE reports. He was handed an undisclosed amount of cash.
The bank's security system -- which was prominently advertised outside -- includes a set of double doors that lock in would-be robbers. Much to the robber's illiterate surprise, the system worked. Witnesses said the suspect was flailing around, screaming and banging his arms and head on his bulletproof prison.
Apparently the suspect has a huge bump on his head and a few lacerations that he'll be dealing with in jail.
The door sustained minor injuries, but should make a full recovery.

 
What a pane....

 
 

And today’s thought:
This is the way to do it.



 

Angus

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