Chindie

Just received an email from Facebook telling me that someone accessed my account from a device I don't normally use and from a location from I don't normally access from. Which of course has me scrambling round trying to access to gmail and change every password I ever use, just in case. So of course Gmail seems to be very slow which only serves to worry me more.

Kris Akabusi was asked in the build up to the Olympics on 5Live if a Bolt double would cement him, in his opinion, as a legend of the sport. And he said no, you can only be a legend in his view if you dominate for a decade. I can only assume that Kris Akabusi walks through life constantly disappointed in everything. ...Awooga.

Every 'major' win at the Olympics in the stadium has seen, at some point, as the camera men chase the champion round the track and they celebrate with the fans, some prat in the stands taking pictures with an iPad. It looks absurd and it really **** me off for some reason.

A lot comes down to if you actually like the Halo experience. I personally don't but, ODST asides, I've played all the 360 iterations. I don't think you're going to miss much as far as story goes if thats all that is making you think you want to play them, 4 is effectively Halo starting over whilst also maintaining the existing canon. If you do want to play them, imo none of them really beat the original but Reach isn't bad, a prequel to the whole shebang it was more or less the last hurrah for Bungie and it shows, very polished Halo experience. 3 isn't great. Anniversary is alright, the original game shows its age even under the new clothes.

Probably, but do you think they will continue to dominate? Personally I do, because now the kids over there have new heroes. I guess they all want to be Bolt or Blake rather than Courtney Walsh so we will see more talent coming through than ever and Jamaica clearly now has the infrastructure and expertise to nurture that talent. As for tonight? Bolt (OR) Blake Spearmon I think so, they're developing a culture for it. Being dominant at something is quite the catalyst to maintain that standing. They clearly have the inherent talent, they're only going to gain more from the world of cutting edge training trickling down from the big, big boys... they could dominate for a very long time imo. After Bolt there won't be such an obvious advantage however of course. He's a complete freak occurance.

I've literally only just turned on the TV for the final so I had no idea what Michael Johnson said, but if he did say the same then greats minds and all that. Interestingly the other night he kinda brushed off suggestions that genetic advantage matters that much, when asked about how Britain can compete with these seemingly superiorly gifted athletes from the West Indies and parts of Africa. He reckoned then that training and endeavour is far more important.

He is miles ahead of the competition but still nowhere near Jonathan Edwards' world record (18:29). Makes you realise just how brilliant Edwards was. And how do Jamaica produce so many great sprinters? Population wise it's smaller than the West Midlands and they produce so much talent, both male and female. The female team almost **** the baton changes up and didnt win their semi final but they clearly had the fastest runners in the race. What is their secret? Complete stab in the dark guess... Jamaican population has a considerable percentage that has it's ancestry in West Africa, which has a notable population with a genetic advantage to sprinting (being blessed with more than normal amounts of fast twitch muscle). Jamaica having such a population so tightly packed into such a small area has given them a pool of potential talent for sprinting. Being somewhat under US influence, they've also had the opportunity to invest in a higher standard of training than many nations might, particularly given their size. So - a combination of a concentrated population of genetically advantaged people, and the influence of top standard training, leads to an immensely talented field of athletes. NB - I have absolutely no idea how accurate that is, but at least some of it is true (West African genetics and the potential to concentrate them in a small population in particular).

In science-y news, that further undermines the holy books, we've confirmed that our ancestors were running around with at least 2 other human-like species now. Homo rudolfensis was sharing the planet with homo erectus and homo habilis. And probably others too. I'm sure the Bible explains it all, of course. Perhaps God was doing some very un-God like scientific experimenting with different designs and chose to only publish the one that worked...

I don't feel the need to be a member of such an organisation.

The Curiosity rover could shoot HD footage of Martians running around and, as far as a large swathe of humanity would be concerned, the god(s) in their holy books would still be in existance. Mike is bang on that some would either outright reject it or spend 20 seconds rifling through the internet (or their holy books if we're 'lucky') to find the line that proves it's all part of god's plan. And the wishy washy go with the flow types will just accept it and carry on believing the same old shit. Because these people are mad.

The velodrome action has left me really wanting to give it a try, which is stupid as its not like there's a velodrome on every corner and I can barely ride a bike.

I'm really unsure about voice commands. It's one of those things that in a few scenarios is useful, but the first time you use it and it doesn't work/makes a mistake, you never use it again. At this moment in time in particular (and I believe for a while yet, in all honesty), it's just easier and more convenient to use buttons for whatever task you require.

Greg Rutherford appears to be an enormous tosser.

EDIT: bloody phone.

EDIT: bloody phone

Pah, geeks these days are buying these. If they can afford them... The days of the collectible kids toy are largely over.

Wouldn't the argument for horse based endeavours be that along the same lines of any other 'equipment' based event - it challenges the human skill to control the horse to the human's ends? (A devils advocate position being honest as I don't like the horsey events either, and of course such an argument also opens up 'Well why not have Olympic go-carting', but bleh)

It doesn't have an overarching plot in the truest sense. Its a collection of small narratives that revolve around humanity's encounters with strange objects called monoliths. The film opens with the ancestors of humankind scratching a living in Africa, fighting between tribes and being preyed on by leopards. Then they encounter the monolith, and the film heavily suggests that the encounter kick starts their evolution, showing the tribe learning to eat meat, use tools... And kill. It then cuts to the near future and another narrative, this time an executive heading to a moon base following a top secret discovery, a monolith on the moon. Following that brief narrative, a connected and most standalone narrative starts that follows a mission to chase a signal from a monolith to the depths of the solar system, with a ship headed by an AI, 2 crew members awakened and many still in cyrosleep, and what happens when a problem occurs onboard. That then leads to the most bizarre and slightly open to interpretation part of the film, known as the stargate and then a final brief scene of what happens to one crew member of the space mission. The stargate is still a fairly visually profound sequence. So there's not really a plot, just a sort of prologue and 2/3 slightly connected narratives largely revolving around the influence and even just existence of the monoliths. Its a great film but can be dull and demands attention.

If my next phone is an Android phone, I'll probably move away from Samsung to a Nexus device. As much as I like the S2, the amount of rubbish on it is astounding and Samsung's skin has a very tangible feeling of being a confounding layer of complexity/rubbish over the core of a good system. I'm not really interested in installing roms so I'm somewhat stuck with what it came with and I always feel like I'd be happier if it was stock. It's quite a hard... feeling... to put across, but it constantly nags at me. Kies is also a travesty. It seems to just get worse as time goes on - it's not like I've used it much, or added much to the phone via Kies, but it becomes a bloated, slow, broken mess it seems. I think I will definitely move to a Nexus device when the time comes.

Do you think euthanasia is morally right if the patient is senile/comatose, Chindie? Only if the sufferer gave express considered permission that they would like to die rather than linger on in such a condition. If they hadn't, I believe the morally right decision would be to maintain their life, such that it is. If by comatose you actually mean on life support with no hope of recovery, living only because machines keep them alive and completely unaware of anything (the question therefore being would you endorse switching the machine off), then yes, I would see that as morally acceptable.

MUA is absolutely riddled with bugs. I don't think I've had a character unlock without some kind of issue - I unlocked Daredevil and he's not available to pick, but earned the achievement and got the change the game makes when he is unlocked. I unlocked Ghost Rider in the course of the story and every time I reload a save he's not there anymore (which is particularly annoying as he appears to be absurdly overpowered for my play style), to the point that on reloading a save this evening the game replaced him in my party with Ms Marvel, a character I've never used. I just unlocked Black Panther - got the achievement, the game tells me he's open for us, go to change party and he's unpickable. Amongst other niggles. Hmm.

The Hobbit (and associated extensions and appendices) being stretched into 3 films is absurd, and a particularly crass endeavour in milking a franchise dry. You could knock the Hobbit out as a perfectly workable film in 1 (admittedly fairly long) film. Seeking to please fans and rake in a bit more, I'm ok with it being 2 films. 3 it doesn't require. And there's simply not enough other stuff that you really need to tie in with LOTR to justify a third film. I can't even imagine how you chop it up, I can just about think of how you cut the Hobbit in 2 ending both films on a audience pleasing moment, but 3, even with added in nonsense... Nah.

Lotus Notes. **** Lotus Notes.

I'd be happy with Fletcher here, at the right money. Which is fair bit less than £10m imo.

I actually quite like Lineker but it's clear that his style, that works pretty well week on week with the MOTD regulars, just doesn't work with people he has no relationship/rapport with and it's a painful watch. As for Thorpe... I like the guy, I appreciate the fact that he was an incredible swimmer and knows what he's on about... but he really has a weird personality, he's the ind of guy you just wouldn't joke around with because he's going to take offence. Has he come out yet by the way?