26.3.12 Horsing Around

I consider myself decidedly average at sport. That’s not to say bad – I like to think that if 10 of my friends decided to play a sport, be it football, rugby or tennis, that I would be in the middle third. That’s not bad, I think, although I do struggle with games that involve a certain amount of finesse. This average skill set, coupled with my insanely competitive nature, leads me to often accept a large number of challenges.

Even so, this time I should have known better. Netball…. Or indeed basketball…. Or in fact, any game with throwing a spherical object into a circular hoop, has never been my forte. On this occasion, whilst throwing a few shots, I found myself challenging Lucy Mogford (talented netball player and teacher) to a game of HORSE. My macho confidence was obviously riding an all time high, despite repeatedly missing the rim whilst messing around and shouting “let it rain!”.

Fortunately, we didn’t bet anything too important. The whole thing unfolded with a certain tedious air of inevitability. Despite one or two reasonable shots (including a clutch one to stay in the game), I was hopelessly outmatched as my more talented counterpart dominated me, winning HORSE to HO.

So, whilst I slunk away to coddle my wounded pride, I decided to look up some tips and pointers to improve my shooting technique and what better place to start than the BBC Sport Academy? In fact the recommend 3 steps to successfully making it rain:

Step 1 – Take a balanced position with your feet shoulder width apart. Stand as tall as possible resting the ball on the finger tips of one hand, using the other hand to steady.

Step 2 – Bend your knees and focus on making the power for the shot run through your legs and into your hands. Back straight, head up, drop your hands back – this will improve your accuracy.

Step 3 – Focus on the back of the rim, let the ball go as you straighten you legs, move your arms as little as possible and add a little spin by flicking your fingers forward.

And hey presto, you should sink your shot!

Now I’m under no illusions that I’m going to be nailing every shot anytime soon, but today I learnt a few things. I learnt the correct technique for shooting in netball, I’ve learnt that I can’t get much worse, and most of all I’ve learnt that I probably should check my ego at the door and not challenge people with actual talent.

DC

25.3.12 Inception Deception

Filming has constantly been something that amazes me. The idea of grown ups dreaming up sets and props to create the illusion of a real, tangible world is something that must require an incredible amount of effort and attention to detail. What you see on screen is something that seems so real, however, every single detail, right down to the background characters and the flowers, has been manufactured to create this world.

One of my favourite examples of this actually comes from an animated film, Finding Nemo. I heard an interview with one of the lead animators describing how they designed the characters and when discussing the way the animated fish moved I was amazed. They followed the natural first step, painstakingly animating a tank of real life fish and copying the way they move. The only problem was that, when animated, they looked completely unnatural. This, the animator claimed, was all down to the way our memory remembers the movement of fish. As a result they designed the movement from their memories of a fish tank and, hey presto, the results were much improved.

Which brings me onto today’s learning…. Natural things such as weather in movies. Now I’m not talking about rain or snow in an average episode of friends – A giant snow machine out of a window doesn’t really count. What I do find fascinating is something like rain in a Hollywood blockbuster.

It was during the extras of the film Inception (yes I fell asleep and woke up to the extras) that I learnt something fascinating about how they film the torrential downpour in the middle of a city for one of the scenes. In the scene the whole city is drenched in rain, to gain the effect they rigged huge spray heads to all of the buildings, soaking the cast, scene and even the filming crew. There was, however, just one problem. Director Christopher Nolan wanted a dark, brooding rain scene but LA is typically a very sunny place. As a result they had to come up with a way to blot out the sun!! So Nolan and one of his team, plotted out the course of the sun and then using black flags and cranes, they blocked the sun. Like Mr Burns in the Simpsons!!

Today I learnt that films and directors go to great lengths to create some cinematic effects. And it’s possible, if you really want, to shut out the sun.

DC

24.3.12 Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

There are few more fear inducing animals than the predator of the oceans, the shark. Maybe it’s my generation that grew up with Jaws and that throbbing music that we subconsciously hear whenever dive into a blue ocean. There so petrifying that when I visited Barbados with my family years ago, one of my step brother’s refused to get into the sea, claiming that there were definitely sharks in the water.

Irrespective of other predators in the ocean the shark is the one that gets the attention, but what if there was some thing worse, something more terrifying? The word hybrid gives connotations of something that has evolved or been engineered to take on the best of two skill sets. So imagine how petrifying this concept is – they’ve found Hybrid Sharks!!

Scientists have found these beasts off the coast of Australia, and they’re a mix of the common blacktip shark and the Australian blacktip shark. This interbreeding means that the sharks are adapting to new areas and getting stronger. Scientists have noted that sharks are very physical when it comes to mating leading to this being a very rare occurrence. This development means that hybridisation could lead to sharks to adapt to survive to their surroundings making them an even more fearful predator.

Today I learnt that next time you go in the water, you had better look out for a fin.

DC

23.3.12 Everybody Poops

Babies. Half of my waking life seems to be dominated with babies. Either colleagues talking about them, people having them or them crying and distracting me from naps. My sister is even due to give birth any day now. I mean I’m happy for her, I really am, and to be honest, I do love little kids (they’re bloody adorable) but at what point is the conversation enough?

I can’t help but feel that it reached that point the other day. There i stood, in our boardroom at work, waiting on a meeting to start. Idle chat developed into conversation of a colleagues new born. I know, all very lovely so far. He then told a story of about his little girls ability to poop. He claimed that when newborn the girl had a typically poor control of her bodily functions and found himself regularly changing nappies. But as they get a little older, the child forgets how to poop and has to learn again. This has lead to his girl sitting with a concerned look on her face, unsure what to do.

Alas, being a man who has a learning blog to write this forced me down the path of finding out whether this is true. I’ve now spent around an hour, trawling through descriptions of baby poop with information ranging from colour, to consistency and content. I feel both sick and amazed that people have taken time to write these things. However, after a little searching I found www.justmommies.com. Which gave me this description:

Once your baby is about one month old, he may start having fewer bowel movements. If your baby is breastfed, he may go several days to a week without having a bowel movement. This is nothing to worry about. Exclusively breastfed babies rarely have problems with constipation. If he goes longer than a week, he seems to be in pain, or if you are concerned, call your pediatrician.

Formula-fed babies poops slow down at about a month as well. However, formula is more likely to cause constipation than breast milk. Most formula fed babies will have about one bowel movement a day. Stools should be soft. If you notice your baby’s stools are firm or hard and pellet-like, he may be constipated. If your baby goes longer than two or three days without a bowel movement and he is formula fed, you should give your pediatrician a call

So there we have it! Today I learnt that young babies don’t forget how to poop, but they do suffer from constipation if they’re breast fed. While I pass this disgusting news onto my sister, please, i beg you, think before you start a colleague’s day by making them think about your babies poop.

DC

22.3.12 What the Hell am I doing not Drinking in LA

To most, it’s known simply by two letters – LA. One of the most famous cities in the world, home of Hollywood razzle and big movie stars. It’s the 2nd most populous city in all of the United States (behind New York) is home to 3,792,621 Angelenos. Formerly a part of Mexico and as a result home still to a huge population of first, second, third and fourth generation Mexicans.

The reason for the City of Angels to come to my attention really is two fold, currently a friend is partying out there and this happened to coincide with a great fact being told to me, which I will come to shortly after this brief interlude….

So the amazing fact, well I started by telling you that obviously it is commonly known as LA, which is short for Los Angeles, right? Well sort of…. It’s actually short for “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula.” Or 55 letters and 12 words, abbreviated to just 2 letters. They’d never let you have that one in scrabble!!

Now I don’t want to short change anyone with a small but perfectly formed post, so I thought I’d share some other interesting LA facts with you (as if that one wasn’t enough – you lucky things, you):

– If the 5 county LA area were a state, it would be the fourth largest US state!

– LA’s port is the busiest in all of the US

– It averages 325 days of sunshine a year

– You can surf, ski, snowboard and drive through a desert all in the same day!

– An average of 150 productions are filmed per day

– LAX is the most filmed airport in the world.

– LA is the birthplace of Barbie, the hula hoop, the chaise lounge, and the Fender Sratocaster

So I think it’s safe to say that I learnt that LA is an amazing place of many fun facts…. And I really do wish I was drinking in LA.

DC

21.3.12 Hoard of Fords

Sometimes I’m left wondering just how much I really know. What I mean is, I claim to know a lot of things, but in reality, if someone pressed me on any of them my certainty would be severely tested and in some cases found massively wanting. Take, for example, CDs. Now I know that they store music by breaking it down into binary code ie. 1s and 0s, but what I don’t really know is how that simplistic representation can serve as storage for something as complex as a voice with tone, pitch, register et al.

It was this uncertainty that I felt wash over me when for no apparent reason, whilst driving, I started contemplating cars. I know it’s a little abstract but sometimes I’m fascinated by the things I take for granted in life. I started thinking about the mass production of the motor car and how, related to the post on the industrial revolution, it was impressive that it was done by Henry Ford, a British guy. The nagging doubt in my mind, however, is that I actually didn’t know if Mr Ford was actually the one who invented the motor car. Iknow, right? Hard to believe. So I put it upon myself to fill the gap in my memory bank.

Although the first steam powered vehicle was thought to be created by the inventor Ferdinand Verbiest, but it was in fact Karl Benz (yes as in Mercedes Benz) that is widely accredited to have invented the first working automobile. In 1885, in Mannheim, Germany, Benz exhibited the first four-stroke cycle gasoline engine and by 1889 he produced them for consumers. He knew this invention as the motorwagner around 25 of them were sold between 1888 and 1893. Benz’s car producing lead to him creating and patenting the first internal combustion flat engine, making Benz & Cie the largest motor company in the world.

So that takes care of who invented the car (0 for 1 on guesses so far), but obviously Henry ford invented the mass production of them? Ummm…. Make that 0 for 2!! The production line for mass manufacturing of automobiles was actually invented by Ransom Olds in 1902 based on assembly line techniques. What Henry Ford actually did was create a way of dramatically increasing the efficiency of production lines. Ford’s methods increased productivity 8 fold and improved aspects such as health and safety. It was these moves that lead to the automobile being a mass consumer item as it became more affordable.

So today I learnt that the gaps in my memory are vast and the sooner I look into them the easier those hard questions are. I also learnt a lot about cars including who created them, who invented mass production of them, and incidentally, that neither of them are Henry Ford!!

DC

20.3.12 Meat Market

I’m fortunate, very fortunate in fact, that in both my personal life as well as my working life, I have managed to eat at some pretty nice restaurants. Be they reasonably expensive restaurants or cheaper eateries, from Mexican to French and all in between, I would say I’m incredibly lucky. But for all of my enjoyment of thai food or Italian dishes, there are few things finer than a nice juicy steak.

We were sat at dinner at the Mal Maison in Aberdeen, 3 out of 4 of us had ordered a nice steak as we all sat and chatted. Due to all of our home locations being down south in and around London, conversation turned to good places to find a fine rib eye. Various Gauchos where thrown around as well as some others, my personal suggest was Battersea’s Santa Maria de la Sur which anyone who knows me knows I’m in love with. The one thing all of these places have in common? They’re Argentinian steak houses.

Argentina is renowned for its beef and takes great pride in it. They’re so proud, they are the second highest consumers of beef in the world, consuming 55kg per head, per year. As a result of this beef love, the government have imposed export restrictions to keep the price of beef internally down. The high quality of their beef is chalked up to rainfall and climate creating wonderful pastures for the cattle to graze on. They produce 2.8 million tons per year which is responsible for $5bn of total revenue and 7.36% of worldwide beef exports.

So given all of this, you would have thought, would make Argentina the leading export of beef globally? Well actually, no they’re not. Analyst reports show that in terms of global export they actually rank 9th behind/em> Uruguay – this was the statistic a colleague at dinner told me that started my intrigue. The leading producers are actually Australia 1st, Brazil 2nd and India 3rd. If I’m honest, Australia’s ranking is a massive surprise!

So there you have it, today I learnt that one of my favourite meals can be sourced deliciously from Argentina but they aren’t the biggest exporter by any stretch.

DC

19.3.12 When I Was a Youngster

Regular readers of scaremongering papers such as the Daily Mail will be all to aware of the supposedly spiralling rates of teenage pregnancies. However, at the beginning of this year the BBC reported that this was in fact completely untrue and that actually, teenage pregnancy rates are the lowest they’ve been since 1969. The Office of National Statistics reports that figures of conception in under-18s has fallen from 38,259 in 2009 to 34,633 in 2010 (it takes a while to compile!).

Recognition of this, however, does not change the fact that under aged girls are still getting pregnant and in some cases the stories are alarming. It was reported this week that a girl in China had given birth to a new born, the catch? She was just 9 years old!! The baby was born completely healthy, a 6lb boy by Caesarian. The girl is from Songyuam and her family are refusing to discuss the birth but have reported it to the police. In Somgyuam, sex with an under 14 is deemed rape and comes with a large jail sentence.

Now is seems remarkable, but even this isn’t a world record, which currently stands at 5 years old. Linda Medina of Peru gave birth to a 6lb son by Caesarian. In this instance the father was suspected, but never convicted, of rape.

Today I learnt that it is possible to get pregnant and give birth as young as 5 years old and that, although teenage pregnancy is down, there are still some unbelievable circumstances in the world.

DC

18.3.12 Matters of the Heart

The FA Cup is normally an occasion for magic, from giant killing cup upsets, to big teams playing out nail biting semi finals. I remember watching Manchester United vs Arsenal in 1999 and staring in disbelief as Peter Schmiechel saved a Dennis Bergkamp penalty in the 90th minute – that’s what normally makes the cup special. This Saturday, things didn’t go quite to script….

Shortly before halftime of the Tottenham vs Bolton Wanderers FA Cup Quarter Final, Bolton Wanderer’s midfielder Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the pitch, in what has later been diagnosed as a cardiac arrest. Attempts were made to revive Muamba, who is just 23, but he was eventually taken to a local hospital for treatment and the game was rightfully called off. At 23 and in peak physical fitness, it is an incredible thing to have happened and serves as a stark reminder that football is just a game, that we all too often forget.

The interesting thing about the coverage of the incident was the medical insistence that Muamba had suffered from a cardiac arrest, drawing a distinction from a heart attack. Now, in my mind they are both one and the same so this peaked my interest to find out just what the difference is. The two terms often seem so interchangeably used by both regular people and the media but there is a clear distinction.

A Heart Attack occurs when a coronary artery is suddenly blocked. This blockage stops the part of the heart from receiving the blood that it needs, and as a result, part of the heart dies. This is usually caused by a rupture of a plaque in the artery. If blood flow can be restored quickly then the situation is possible to rectify.

A Cardiac Arrest on the other hand, is caused by ventricular fibrillation (a sudden heart arrhythmia). This is where the hearts electrical signals become suddenly chaotic, and as they control the heartbeats timing and regularity, the heart can fail and stop beating – this often leads to sudden death. The usual immediate treatment is CPR and/or using a defibrillator. Cardiac arrests are usually cause by hereditary heart conditions.

From looking through some research on this, it appears Fabrice Muamba is incredibly fortunate that he avoided an unthinkable early death for such a young man. Recent reports indicated that he is now able to move his arms and legs so hopefully he can recover and I certainly hope that he will make a full recovery from this horrific moment.

So today I learnt that no matter how fit you are, you are still at risk of medical problems. I learnt the difference between a heart attack and a cardiac arrest and most significantly I remembered (as i always should) that football is just a game and we should never lose sight of the more important things.

DC

17.3.12 Who’s Patrick?

Another year, another horrific hangover. St Patrick’s day is a bizarre mix of people pretending that they’re Irish and going out and drinking until there urine is black from a drink that none of us touch the rest of the year. This year, following a trip to Twickenham for England vs Ireland and a visit to a local O’Neills pub, I felt a little worse for wear. As I lay there regretting the late night and, more specifically, the huge volume of vodka I had imbibed, I found myself contemplating, who the hell is St Patrick and what on earth did he do?

Now I know St George supposedly defeated a dragon (what a dreamy hero) but I have no idea the back story of St Patrick. Yet I go out every year for Paddy’s day and do nothing for St George’s, it seems somewhat backward. The only thing I can currently imagine him being famous for is an excessive amount of drinking and possibly some dancing. So of course I am aware that the tale of St George slaying the dragon is a myth and that really is what I’m interested in regarding St Patrick, the mythology, because it’s a damn sight more interesting than the historical derivation of a day based on a nominal figure. It turns out there are a few myths around the man:

Snakes on a Shamrock – it is claimed that St Patrick undertook a 40 day fast, and during that period, as he rested on top a hill, he was attacked by snakes. However, St Patrick chased them away to the sea and banished them from Ireland.

Shamrock Schooling mythology credits St Patrick with using the three leafed clover to illustrate the message of the Holy Trinity. He used the leafs to represent the father, the son and the holy spirit existing as one and as a result the shamrock is still central to Ireland and St Patricks Day.

Mourning Wood – it is claimed that whilst journeying home, he used an ash wood walking stick and he would stick it in the ground whilst he evangelised. Once, his message took so long that the dead wood is said to have taken root.

Brilliantly, today I learnt that St Patricks day, much like a lot of other saints day, has some tall tails behind it. But the important thing is that it serves as a time of unity for the Irish people, and a time for the rest of us to get drunk beyond all recognition.

DC