Wow, I think I can almost understand the Banach-Tarski Paradox, or, seeing as I’m being a part-time mathematician, I can more accurately understand the Banach-Tarski Paradox as it is set out in the linked article. Subtly different perhaps, but there’s an entire branch of science devoted to that kind of thing. The paradox isn’t, in that it’s quite easy to split up one sphere and rearrange the pieces into two spheres identical to the first - easy, that is, if you are talking about infinitely dense spheres. If you did that with two spheres of lead, you would end up with two spheres the same size, but each with half the density that you started with (and I’ll not go into the chemistry or energetics of said spheres), but if the density was infinite to start with, it’ll still be infinite when you divide it by two. The mathematical spheres are infinitely divisable, but it still results in the same kind of thing. Read the explanation of splitting N into odds and evens if you’re still struggling (and, at the same time, wonder what kind of a ‘Layman’ reads these kuro5hin articles!)

Well, it might well be a bank holiday today, but this Monday is indistinguishable from almost every other Monday I can remember - the treat of doing some work looms close. This lies in contrast to the previous two days, which have been much more cool than most weekends I can remember. Saturday morning saw me up and about at a ridiculously early time (for me, anyway), thanks in part to the continuation of the 24-watching marathon going on in the lounge, with the Rumble-Box of Doom. I then proceeded along to South Ken, to start a pub crawl that wound it’s way through Hammersmith along the riverside to Putney, got bogged down in Wandsworth (for a few pubs and a gorgeous barmaid), and then lots of mini-rugbyballness along the road to Clapham, with Ant, having failed to get intimate with aforementioned barmaid, deciding to get intimate with a lamp-post instead. After polishing of the ninth and final pint of the evening, I had the worst kebab I’ve ever had, and can’t really account for all of the one hour forty between time being called and catching the train (since the kebab shop was across the road from the pub, and crossing back leads to the station entrance). Rumbling down the train tracks led to Crawley, where I once again borrowed Burly’s sofa-bed.

Sunday started with another of Burly’s fry-ups, and then it was off to watch England vs The Barbarians at Twickenham, for free (sweet); the first time I’ve watched a proper rugby match, and a good one to see with 85 points between them and the Baa-baas coming out on top. The England try scored from the penalty bouncing off the posts (after being boo’d be the entire crowd for kicking a penalty awarded just four metres out) came second only to the three match officials all being Scottish - and all wearing Scotland tops while they were reffing. Hee Hee. After four pints in the second half, and another at a rather packed pub beside the station, it was off to Putney again, this time for a barbeque, some more beer, and another DramSoc-inspired gathering. We all really do appreciate ‘the other half’ (which to non-techies out there, has nothing to do with gender), what with them singing in the kitchen whilst we supped margaritas and played console games in the lounge. A good weekend - I wish there were more like it.

Although I realise that loads of people (well, some) read this website, I’m usually content with the fact that most of my visitors are robots, and most of the rest come from search engines. Yet it’s kind of spooky when I find that real people that I don’t know are reading my website and not just clicking back to their search results - Linda from Klamath Design (May 1st 2003 entry) appears to be the latest to have gone as far as mentioning it on her site. She might well learn something from reading this, but I’m not convinced that learning from me is good for your health!

In related news, ‘phlegm’, ’strange people’, ‘road safety campaigns’, being ‘unloved’ and ‘London demographics’ are some of the top search phrases that have lead here. There’s still an awful lot of questions being asked about rainbows - the last I saw, someone was round here looking for a ‘database of rainbows’. Well, here’s a start - Nia told me there was one outside my flat (being in London) on Monday, but we both have to take Gary’s word on it, since we didn’t see it. I’ll let everyone know the next bona fide rainbow I see, but someone else can make the database…

Continuing in my quest of trying to ruin my degree at the last possible stages (thereby maximising wasted time and effort), I’ve been playing around with my website. You may have noticed one or two minor changes, but these will have been overshadowed somewhat by the complete redesign that happened at the same time. You win some, you lose some. I would go into a ramble about the improvements I have made, but I’ve had a different idea. Instead, I’m going to openly invite criticism and complaints (and maybe even comments, good or bad) about the new style - and if you don’t have a website to air your views, then email me and I’ll put them here. Now there’s an offer you can easily refuse.

I’m going to leave off the rest of the things I have planned for here (including putting some of this site under a liberal license of some sort), since I really should be doing my project. Hopefully I’ve done enough of the changes that I had planned that my need to fiddle has been satisfied.

"…And there will be some patchy rain across the country today, with widespread showers expected. But the very nature of showers means that there will be some dry patches in between, although don’t expect these to last very long…" or, How To Talk About The Weather When There’s Nothing To Say. Brought to you with help from the BBC.

When I got back from the laundrette this afternoon, I found that I had gained a sock at somepoint - I now own one holey, diamond patterned dark-blue sports sock. That’s me one up on Adam then. Hehe.