www.paulnixon.org

Lance...

... has finally confirmed that he is to ride the Tour de France in 2009.

Which I think is fantastic news. He does rather divide opinion amongst cyclists, but anyone who has read this would surely not deny he's an extraordinary character and athlete.

28dayslater

When you haven’t got your cycle shorts on I know some of you boys like to look at photography. This is one of my favourite sites.

Science

I had the pleasure to watch Horizon on Tuesday night and it was a pleasant surprise. I thought the days of decent science programming had long gone. Great presenter too, Professor Brian Cox, despite the offensive surname.

It also struck me that the nut jobs haven't got to physics yet which is surprising as, for me, physics does much more to undermine religious belief than biology.

For sure, the beautifully simple and elegant theory of evolution makes the talking snakes of Genesis look a bit daft and somewhat fanciful. But physics rips the heart out of biblical teaching and leaves it nowhere to hide.

It can only be a matter of time though I fear, before physicists have to start defending their beliefs in the age of the universe for example. Their estimate of 13.7 billion years is very different to the biblical estimate of 6,000 years - originally calculated to be a few generations old by some chaps in a desert.

Honda

I don't really follow F1 any longer, but that doesn't mean that I'm not able to delight in Jenson Button's misfortunes.

Honda have quit F1. Yes, as you ask, that's the same team that Jenson button paid millions of his own cash to join so that he would, definitely, be world champion. In the process showing the same loyalty and respect to Frank Williams and co that he did his childhood sweetheart who, despite promises, dropped as soon as he became famous.

Still, at least he's always known that "he's better than Michael Schumacher" - at least in his own opinion.

Photography with depth

Some olden, all golden

Lefty Parents

Spotted whilst browsing for Christmas presents...

No matter how it's dressed up, surely no kid's gonna want a solar panel for Christmas?

Legend

8 years for a drink-driver who killed a father and son in a motorway crash was performing a sex act on himself before the collision

Jailed for sex with a horse

"I had a few beers, I went to the stable and interfered with the horse."

Thomas Larvie's creative use of a household product

Spring 2007, a mystery vandal visited businesses at night, pressing his naked behind - sometimes his groin, sometimes both - on windows. The marks were made with petroleum jelly.

Google Zeitgeist 2008

Another year, another google zeitgeist.

Here are the top 10 searches for the UK

1. facebook

2. bbc

3. youtube

4. ebay

5. games

6. news

7. hotmail

8. bebo

9. yahoo

10. jobs

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but are we a bunch of retards or something? Surely, with the exception of 'news', 'games' and 'jobs', nobody should need help finding the others should they?

Daily Mash

Always worth checking and so often right on the satirical money.

An amusing take on the German Finance Minister's pissing all over Gordon Brown's ridiculous economic bonfire.

A little background (from the BBC): "Mr Steinbrueck said the UK government's switch to a "crass Keynesianism" to try to spend its way out of the economic crisis after years of preaching fiscal rectitude was "breathtaking"."

I am so relieved that at last someone has succeeded where Cameron has singularly failed, in humiliating Brown and mercifully bringing an end to his embarrassingly misplaced international showboating.

Funny but sadly very close to the mark:

Dr Tom Logan, an economist at the German-owned University of Reading, said: "If I was a confused recession-hit country looking for advice, I'd probably go with Germany, given that they still have an actual economy based on making stuff that people want to buy.

"Meanwhile, the British 'economy' seems to be based on selling each other money so that we can buy high quality German goods."

Tony Blair

In some ways I've already got a rather romantic view of Tony Blair after what has followed. Don't get me wrong - Tony Blair is a right wanker for all kinds of reasons; but my dislike of Gordon Brown seems to be driven by a deeper instinct rather than just a reaction to his words and actions.

Anyway, the old Blairster has "launched a faith foundation to unite world religions" - a sort of joining of the fairy tales. I generally couldn't give a shit what the religious believe to be frank, as I think we can be safe in the knowledge that they are wrong in a catastrophic manner - if Blair wants to merge Jack and the Beanstalk with the Three Bears then good luck to him.

Do they know it's nixmas time at all?

Time lapse erection of the nixmas tree this year.

Common Misconceptions

Great article on Wikipedia.

Including one or two that I believed...

"It is not true that paper can be folded in half a maximum of seven ... times"

and

"It is not true that air takes the same time to travel above and below an aircraft's wing."

Though I'm more than aware of this

"The number of megapixels in a digital camera is not a good measure of image quality."

I find it hard to stop my eyes rolling when I hear how many megapixels mobile phone cameras have.

Woolworths

I, for one, to not feel any sadness at the passing of Woolworths. As the Daily Mash accurately says

"BRITAIN'S sentimental attachment to Woolworths evaporated rapidly yesterday as millions of bargain hunters discovered it really is a brightly lit warehouse filled with cack."

I've been lured in a couple of times over the last few years, it being the only high street store likely to sell basic household goods. Naturally I've almost invariably left empty-handed but always feeling distinctly poorer and grubbier than when I went in.

Christ

This chap's a bit calm under pressure. I think rather than instantly try to take pictures I'd have been thinking JESUS FUCKING CHRIST for quite some time.

AC Grayling

A little Christmas cheer from AC Grayling. Rarely not right on the mark; here's the last paragraph from his article in the Guardian...

"Secularists in the west say to the apologists of the religions: your beliefs are your choice, so take your place in the queue. They also say: you've had it your own way for a very long time - and committed a lot of crimes in the process - and you still fancy yourself entitled, but you aren't. You don't smell too good at times, so don't try to tell me what I can read, see on TV, do in my private time, think or say. In fact, keep your sticky fingers off my life. Believe what you like but don't expect me to admire or excuse you because of it: rather the contrary, given the fairy-stories in question. And when you are a danger to the lives and liberties of others, which alas is too frequently the wont of your ilk, we will speak out against you as loudly, persistently, and uncompromisingly as we can."

Religion jumps the shark

Well, if only. Religion seems to me to be perpetually hovering mid-air over a metaphorical shark.

Anyway the pope has had a pop at the gays. From the BBC, so it must be true...

"Pope Benedict XVI has said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction."

A clear absurdity from a man with the intellectual credibility of David Icke. The only mystery to me is how anyone believes in all this religious bullshit and the downright cheek that, given the clearly outlandish and ludicrous beliefs, we still have to listen to their chief proponents telling us how to live our lives.

I rather like this - "If you could reason wth religious people there would be no religious people"

Atheist Complaint Box

From something awful, a little bit of Xmas cheer.

And another one

I hope this is a spoof - either way it is very funny.