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| Archie & Sarah wedding |
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| Sri Lanka Feb 09 |
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| Snow in London Feb 09 |
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| Benicassim 2008 |
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| Mikko |
Blackstock Road N4 gears up for Algeria vs Eygpt, complete with a localised mobile network blackout (or possibly just T-Mobile, having sold my data, can’t be arsed to give me a signal now).
This scene is repeated 4 or 5 times along the road, outside cafes and barbers. Gonna be a lot of horn honking round my way if Algeria win.
My favourite album TV ad in ages. Generally representative of the excellent way the JLS campaign has been managed.
Apparently Sylvanian Families are one of the hot toys for Christmas this year, so my local specialist shop might be due a windfall
The author, by Neato’s eldest son Alfie (aged 4).
I think he’s captured the essence of my joie de vivre; maybe overdone it slightly on the boggly eyes, and over-represented the extent to which I am receding, but all in all, bravo benjamin.
*edit* I take literally no pleasure in being 100% spot on with my game prediction (apart from there not being any time for anything contentious to happen at 0-1, since 0-2 arrived 15s later)
This is a good Guardian article about 6 classic Spurs-Arsenal games. Predictably they pick out 3 victories each (including some praise for the much overlooked Peter Shreeves); I’ve quoted some excerpts from the final one for Arsenal below though, which adds a bit more flesh to the oft-quoted story about why Spurs fans will always feel that little bit morally superior to the dirty goons. Despite Highbury being a far nicer area than Tottenham. And Arsenal having been much better than us for the last 20 years. Today’s game - as with any NL derby where we go away with realistic hopes of a result - will finish in a 0-3 defeat, with some crucial incident going against us whilst we’re 0-1 down. Basically the Chelsea game again.
After the first world war a proposal was made to increase the size of the top two divisions from 20 to 22 teams. The obvious solution was to promote the two top teams from Second Division in the last pre-war season – Derby and Preston – and either keep the two relegated sides – Chelsea and Tottenham – or promote the third- and fourth-placed teams in the second tier – Barnsley and Wolves. But somehow Arsenal managed to wrangle their way into the top flight, much to the disgust of Spurs fans now and since.
In the run-up to the league meeting it was reported that Chelsea were certain to retain their place in the top flight “because the manner in which they lost their position before war interfered with the game is generally regarded as unsatisfactory” – Manchester United had finished one place above them in 1915 after fixing a crucial encounter with Liverpool. So… that left one place to be awarded. Spurs or Barnsley were considered the most likely to get it, but behind the scenes, Arsenal’s chairman Sir Henry Norris was working like a busy little beaver. His side had finished fifth in the Second Division in 1915, but he reckoned they deserved some reward for their loyalty, having been the first southerners to join the Football League.
A tense day ensued. Only six clubs voted against the league’s extension to 22 clubs, and Chelsea’s return was passed unanimously. Then came the vote for the second bonus slot. The results were as follows: Hull City: one vote. Birmingham: two votes. Nottingham Forest: three votes. Wolves: four votes. Barnsley: five votes. Tottenham Hotspur: eight votes. Arsenal: 18 votes.
It was a glorious, if illogical, victory for The Arsenal (as they were known) and one that quite understandably enraged their local rivals, who were promoted a year later as champions [my emphasis]. Norris, an estate agent and sometime Conservative MP, was quite the character. He had also been among the founders of Fulham, and the borough’s mayor for over a decade. But it turns out MPs knew how to scam expenses even then: he was expelled from football for good in 1927 after it was discovered that he had been using club funds to pay a business called Queensborough Motor Company for his car and chauffeur. Said company turned out to be based at his house and run by him, with no employees. SB
Posted by Rob Smyth and Simon Burnton Friday 30 October 2009
I’m sure there’s more to Twitter’s algorithm for trending topics than sheer volume, but if anyone’s interested: Michael Jackson has been referenced in around 25,000 tweets per 24hrs, while he’s been trending this week.
Presumably there’s some weighting for the tweeting users’ influence, the % of retweets and so on.
Anyway, not that it matters much- as this article on hubspot explains, being a trending topic isn’t actually useful for marketing purposes; it doesn’t particularly drive followers.
