Cycling

A bad case

A truck passed me twice this morning (due to it getting held up in traffic), it was a learner driver and each time he pulled out and passed cleanly with a good spacing that left me feeling safe. What a pity the goon immediately behind him in a 4×4 didn’t learn from the example in […]

Science! Wonderful World

Tardigrades  – new insights into their legendary toughness

These things fascinate me, they’re unbelievably tough: Tardigrades — also known as “water bears” — are microscopic animals that can live through almost anything: 30 years in a freezer, rapid dehydration, boiling and freezing temperatures, massive doses of radiation, baths in organic solvents, and a trip to open space. Today, scientists sequencing their genome have […]

People

Prince Buster, dead at 78

Prince Buster, Jamaican ska pioneer, died yesterday. Hugely influential in the Jamaican ska and rocksteady scenes, I knew of him due to his inspiration of a small North London band that later became Madness. His influence did, however, resurface in the late 1970s, when his music was the key inspiration for the ska revival in […]

Cycling

Bike Parking

With the depressing news recently that funding has been apparently cut by the NTA for pretty much anything cycle related in Dublin, including the expansion of bike parking in the Drury St. facility, it struck me that there’s no commercial bike parking in town. Of course, the first question has to be, is there any […]

Sport

The Unloved Soccer Manager

Brendan Rodgers and the Plight of the English Soccer Manager By accepting help with player recruitment or in data analysis, managers might be able to get back to what Aidy Boothroyd called “the football stuff.” He, like most of the figures interviewed by Calvin throughout Living on the Volcano, seems to strongly echo the words […]