Sunday, Sept. 24, 2017 - 22:41

Morgan Hamm and Paul Hamm. Twin brothers and both Olympic medal winners in gymnastics. But yes, Paul is somewhat more successful - he is the most successful American male gymnast, and the only male American gymnast to win all-around at World's and the Olympics. That's got to be hard for Morgan, though admittedly *he* has completed qualifications in phamacology since retirement, whereas his more successful brother has been arrested for assault and criminal damage, then threatened the arresting officers. Doing his own pharmacological study into the effects of alcohol on inhibitions, was he?

I didn't do a massive amount today - a little grocery shopping and a little domestic shit (ahead of my Dad visiting on Wednesday, but it turns out he'll be here at lunchtime so I have plenty time to finish tidying up then) and generally playing on FM16 and watching and listening to the telly/radio. My football management game was quite frustrating - bankrupt Dungannon Swifts failing to perform to the level of their capabilities, which I suppose reflects my being a crap manager. No money to improve, all pretty gloomy and mid-table. Then after I resigned, no bastard teams wanted me 'cause my status was pretty low. In the end I had muck about with the set-up and add some lower-league teams to the playable, as all I was being offered was Northern Ireland third tier part-time shit. After this I eventually accepted a role at Cheltenham in the Vanarama Conference.

Today is apparently 'Banned Books Day' - I was hence having a look at which books banned at some point by governments I had read. It's a surprisingly high number, moreso due to the fact I read a lot and there are a large number of books of that description (lots of different reasons for various states to take offence) as opposed to me having a particular desire to read controversial books. Alice In Wonderland, American Psycho, Animal Farm, The Da Vinci Code, Frankenstein, Lolita, Schindler's Ark.. plus some others I may have read in my teens but can't recall. Dingle dangle doo.

I probably should start buying more expensive coffee. I was thinking about the fact I drink a fair amount of coffee but wouldn't say I get particularly large amounts of pleasure from the taste, or chemical awakeness effects from the caffiene. Just as compared to the odd proper coffee that I have, it's a poor relation. I guess I have to balance my studenty northern mindset of always thinking 'Oh, I can get supermarket own brand for half the price of the expensive stuff' against actually having enjoyable drinks. Especially now I am more often drinking nice tea these days. Not that I am going to go as far as buying a stupid pod nespresso machine type thing. Not that it's worth me buying a percolator to make jugs of coffee as I live on my own.

An October 2013 report in the British online magazine The Kernel had revealed that Amazon.com was selling books that defend Holocaust denial, and shipped them even to customers in countries where Holocaust denial is prohibited by the law. That month, the World Jewish Congress called on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to remove from its offer books that deny the Holocaust and promote anti-Semitism or white supremacy. "No one should profit from the sale of such vile and offensive hate literature. Many Holocaust survivors are deeply offended by the fact that the world’s largest online retailer is making money from selling such material," WJC Executive Vice President Robert Singer wrote in a letter to Bezos. On March 9, 2017, the World Jewish Congress announced Amazon's compliance with the requests it and other Jewish organizations had submitted by removing from sale the Holocaust denial works complained of in the requests. The WJC offered ongoing assistance in identifying Holocaust denial works among Amazon's offerings in the future.

It proper rained it down this evening - I'd took the washing in ten minutes earlier (not realising consciously that it was about to rain - the main reason was that I'd spotted from the bathroom window that the washing was still out but looked dry) so that was lucky. It was such a heavy shower that it set off at least two different car alarms on neighbouring streets.

The statistically improbable phrases of Darwin's On the Origin of Species are: temperate productions, genera descended, transitional gradations, unknown progenitor, fossiliferous formations, our domestic breeds, modified offspring, doubtful forms, closely allied forms, profitable variations, enormously remote, transitional grades, very distinct species and mongrel offspring.

The third ODI (after the second was washed out) opened with England batting and (with the exception of Morgan, in a poor run of form and falling for a duck) making a lot of hay when the sun was shining (was it?) in Bristol. Then Root and Stokes, both closing in on a hundred, lost their wickets with a bit of a lack of concentration, and suddenly England were 217/6 and likely to struggle to reach three hundred. Then Moeen Ali came in and settled himself before hitting out (six sixes in eight balls), reaching 107 off fiftysomething balls, including sixty-one from fourteen balls - he helped England to 369/9. With rain predicted, WI set about bashing to get above the rate by twenty overs. Whilst Gayle was in, it looks possible (even likely) till he was run out in the nervous nineties and the tourists then started to look like they'd given up. They reached 245 all out with more than ten overs remaining and England won by 124..

The football ended Brighton & Hole Albion 1-0 Newcastle United. An entertaining match, despite just the one goal (Hemed, five minutes after the break) with both sides creating plenty and having a proper go at the fucker. The visitors were unlucky, more shots in total and more on target, but they held the fuck on. Brighton start to climb the table with this, their second win of the season.