A common joke, a few weeks ago, was that Chelsea FC players are known, among Russian government, as Nashi, that is Our boys, because Abramovich, the owner of the London team, pays those huge salaries with his Siberian-originated fortune. I saw Manchester United playing yesterday and I realized that Americans have their Nashi, whom they pay straight from the federal budget, through the insurance company AIG, 80%-owned by "New Labour" US government.
Yet another use of fMRI is documented on a recent news item published by the BBC. In both the people with diagnosed OCD, and their relatives, the amount of activity (in a specific area of the brain, the orbitofrontal cortex - my note) was much lower. In an interview, the author declares What it could do is help test the effectiveness of interventions for OCD. Does it mean that this method can also measure the effectiveness of interventions against familial history of OCD?
A stupid idea which essentially makes me to reject any call from unknown phone numbers: US mobile phone customers pay for mobile phone calls, no matter whether they called or were called. A worse idea is that one has to pay for a received text message (SMS), and there’s no straightforward way to reject these messages. Armed with a plan like mine (unlimited free texts), one could send you thousands of text messages, until you go bankrupt, and there’s nothing you can do about it. EU telecom comissioner, Viviane Reding, declared for the FT that she thinks this double-charging practice is fit for European customers too. After inflating hundreds of millions of cell bills, Ms. Reding must feel very satisfied.
I am on my way to write a series of blogs from the train. A horribly hot/humid day which beats hands down all horrible weather I have witnessed in NJ/NYC in the recent years triggered power shortages which affected computers and trains alike. According to the conductor of the train that I am riding just now, no train moves between Philly and NYC. I shall be stuck somewhere midway along with some other hundreds of late commuters. NJtransit.com confirms that, Amtrak.com does not publish such information about the lines they own and operate.
Later edit: Only 40 minutes delay! That’s almost normal business. 
Even later: The other Newark - New York City train, the PATH, just announced 20 minutes delays, after cancelling its other line for the whole day. With the whole 4 dollars a gas gallon fuss keeping leisure drivers away from the wheel, it will soon be faster to drive into Manhattan.
According to Livescore.com, in a game featuring Romanian and French national teams in Zurich, “the home team have had 45% of possession compared to the away team’s 55%.” That probably meant that Swiss players were on the field too.
In a slightly uninspired article published in today’s The Guardian,
Lembit Opik gives his five reasons to support Romania at the Euro 2008. The less convincing of them is that a much inspired goalkeeper from his constituency, standing no chance to be capped in the Welsh team, might find his place in the Romanian team. Quoting: "Unfortunately a goalkeeper from Montgomery Town FC is never going to be signed in the UK, but Goodwin is certainly good enough for an audition with Romania. I think if we support Romania, the least they can do is give Steve Goodwin a chance to be one of the most impressive goalies in a former Soviet Union country."
I am afraid that he only confirms a general stereotype about the disconnection between Gabriela Irimia and her birthplace, since Romania was never part of USSR, yet the cheeky girl might not have noticed. Alternatively, may I suggest that an MP with such deficiencies on contemporary history should not be capped in a national diplomatic team - be it UK’s or the Estonian one.
As the train was making its way out of the Newark Airport station, I saw a man on leftmost rail track, just past the place where the airport-bound highway passes above the tracks. His gait look as if he was inebriated, he wasn’t wearing the bright colored work clothes of the rail workers, it was close to the peak hour. The chance of seeing him smashed by a train were so obvious, that I went straight to the first NJ Transit employee and told him. This was the guy who checked the tickets in the fourth and fifth cars in the Trenton train which reaches Newark around 7 PM. He looked at me as if he believed me, but kept checking passengers’ tickets. I repeated what I said, and he thanked me again. So all I am left to do is to blog it, live: West-bound trains out of Newark Penn Station will most likely suffer “30-60 minutes delay due to police activity”. Enjoy.
The Guardian, quoting unnamed sources, says that the Olympia was today host not only to the officials lighting the Olympic flame, but also to thousands of security personnel. According to The Guardian, the place was "crawling with Chinese undercover security". An undercover Chinese agent in Greece (or worse, a whole pack of them) reminds me of the old joke about the well-trained CIA agent caught in Moscow. After facing undeniable evidence, the agent admits he is not a Russian, and asks what gave him away. The answer: we figured something is fishy when we saw you are black.
Recently The Guardian published an article about Nick Denton, an apparently famous and controversial blogger (more…)
According to the BBC, some countries are quite alike.