Probability

It's a funny old world, and one of the most profound challenges we (few?) sentient beings face, is making sense of it. Of the many constructs we use to help us with that task, probability is perhaps one of the most ubiquitous. From the likelihood of our death (1 in 5 for heart disease, 1 in 246 for falling down, 1 in 60,000 by tornado) to our understanding of the elementary particles that make up the universe (quantum mechanics predicts only the likelihood of a given particle's position or velocity) probability seems to be everywhere.

By knowing the risks, our reasoning goes, we can make decisions that avoid certain fates, and the estimation of risk is the essence of that highly profitable industry, insurance. And yet, we are constantly confronted with the occurrence of what - seem to us at least - to be highly unlikely events. So how do we reconcile our experience with the seemingly all powerful 'gods of odds'?

Einstein famously remarked, "I am convinced that God does not play dice". Perhaps Einstein was missing the point though - maybe life is just God's hobby. According to Oxford professor Nick Bostrom, the likelihood that we - all human life on earth - are simply part of a big computer simulation stand at around 1 in 5. Returning to dice, that's just better odds than rolling a six on your first try. For more on this fascinating, if slightly disconcerting, idea read on here.

- Mr. Ed

Image: JM http://www.logodesignweb.com/stockphoto

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Stiffrook, Via No 1 Fan.

Ridiculous Behaviour

This is probably one of the silliest nay ballsiest feats of man vs mother nature. N'er before has anyone been so totally focussed....and the whole thing is fucking roaring man! Stoked? I should say so. Gnarly aint da word.





-Scout

Cling-on luggage

In another resounding success for airport security, a man travelled from Lima, Peru to New York City, with a small monkey under his hat.

"During the flight, people around the man noticed that the marmoset, which normally lives in forests and eats fruit and insects, had emerged from underneath his hat, Russell said.

“Other passengers asked the man if he knew he had a monkey on him,” she said.

The monkey spent the remainder of the flight in the man's seat and behaved well..."

More from the AP.

- Mr. Ed

Dog Days

It's rather hot here. Here's what I woke up to at 7:30am:


And here's the forecast:


This week, I will be mostly sweating.

- Mr. Ed

Really, really, really...

High. This instant classic has been doing the rounds for a while now, but I couldn't resist.


- Mr. Ed

Europony

Yes fellow show-ponies, the time has come for roaming. The pastures of youth are drying and the stable girls have all but grown out of any signs they once had of purity (sigh/neh). My saddlebags are a-packed now and I leave these fields for more foreign oats. My road leads to Europe where I will endeavor to post back to you stories of each country's musical past or present. I write to you now from France where back in the 60s and 70s Serge Gainsbourg reigned. Although known most famously for 'Je T'aime.....Mais non plus' he actually penned some of the finest grooves of the time and can now mostly be heard as samples used in must french hip-hop or Beck songs. Here he is in a state of the art video singing 'Ballade de Melode Nelson'



.....known also for horsing around with Brigette Bardot for a while even recording in one of her more sexual excited states and using in one of his records. Here he is with her in a video of 'Bonnie and Clyde'



...and finally in one of his finest moments showing that all those Gaulloise don't help you mime.



That's all for now, next stop Luxembourg.

Colin

The sky is beginning to bruise.............

A posting on behalf of our very own Prague Pony.



but also this, now with full stereo german adaptation of.....................
yup, you guessed it equineates, Billy Joel's horsey hit - We didn't start the fire.



Why thanks Otto

Colin

Musical Handbag vol.6

Chives has been playing the Youtube name association game. Round 1 then - searching "O'Hare". Well box a dog, its Mulligan & O'Hare's 'Tittybiscuits'......



Play me.

- Chives

Magic helmet, magic helmet, magic helmet!!!

I've been wanting to post this for absolutely horsing ages, but finally, here it is in its full Wagnerian glory...



-Bluecupboard

Do you have a flag?

The age of empires is long gone, but try telling that to the Russians. They've just tried to claim the north pole by putting a flag on the seabed beneath it. Now that's just silly, and besides, haven't we heard that somewhere before...


- Mr. Ed

Moody goods

So is it just me, or did Guy Richie copy (lock, stock, and barrel you might say) the opening of this episode of Only Fools and Horses? Have a little look, and see what you reckon...


Lovely jubbly,
- Mr. Ed

A double dose of the Handbag

A twice as nice slice of Chives' musical reportage marks this first ponypost in, well, donkeys years. But as we ponies know; life's a 10 furlong + steeplechase, not a sprint. So to business.

Iiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnn One
It's Pharoahe Monch's 'Push':



Iiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnn Twwooooooo
Another reminder of the the wonder that is Giant Sand. This track, 'Yer Ropes', is from the discontinued 1994 album, Glum. Hooray then that the album can now be found as an official bootleg entitled 'Unsungglum'. Also, Howe Gelb's diary passes the time nicely before the paddock....



- Chives Eclair

Phar Lap: Australia's wonder horse

He triumphed during the Great Depression of the early 1930s, when a
hero was most needed by the people of Australia.

He conquered the local racing scene—36 wins from his last 41
starts—and then won North America's richest race, the Agua Caliente
Handicap, in 1932.

A fortnight later he went to the great equine heaven in the skies,
struck down by a mystery illness that many suspected was the work of
gangsters.

Here he is looking a little mal-nourished in his new home, the Te Anu
museum, Wellington, NZ.

For more info on the racing legend click here.


- Scout

Folksome Friday

Be good or be gone - Fionn Regan.

If you want to hear more, you can go to his myspace page.

- Mr. Ed

Couldn't resist...

A sappy, feel-good animal story. Say hello to Jessica the hippo.



Via Andrew Sullivan.

- Mr. Ed

Great moments in local journalism

If you spot any headlines worthy of the P Club don't hesitate to drop us a line at the usual address.

- Mr. Ed

No 1 Fan

Insomnia blogging

Greetings from a humid porch. My new favourite thing is waking up around 5 or 5:30 and not being able to sleep. No wait, actually it's really annoying. Neverthless, it does allow me time to surf the interweb. Lately, my web-time has been severly curtailed by the double whammy of having gargantuan amounts of work to do before my return to blighty, and the lack of a wifi at home. (My neighbours, who graciously allow me to use their signal, didn't pay their cable bill on time again.) But I digress, now it's time for...

Around the web with Mr. Ed!

LOOKING for the the perfect present (for me) in the $300 range? Of course you are. At over half a meter high, what super geek's life would be complete without a Lego model of the Death Star II.

STAYING with the geek theme - what do you get if you cross a plastic news presenter with a twelve year old spelling bee winner? According to Andrew Sullivan, it's the Most. Awkward. Interview. Ever. I agree, it's train-wreck compelling; a little ray of reality shining into the dark depths of cable news. (Note to CNN editors - kids this nerdy don't do sound bites.)

RACING to the opposite end of the clever spectrum, I've been following the misadventures of America's biggest blunt, Paris Hilton. This week, she got sent to prison, weaseled her way out under 'mansion arrest', and then got sent back to prison on Friday. Three cheers for American justice! The superficial says:

"she was crying through the entire process and, when Judge Michael Sauer gave his decision, she let out a huge cry and said, "This isn't right." She was then physically dragged out of the courtroom by a female deputy, in tears, screaming, "Mom, Mom, Mom."

Some witnesses say they saw a rainbow above the courtroom. And others say they saw a giant man in the clouds with a white beard nodding his head approvingly. And me? Well I saw Judge Michael Sauer grow to be twelve feet tall, with muscles the size of tree trunks. And when he smiled, little cartoon hearts appeared above my head and there was a strange tingling sensation in my pants.

NOTE: I officially nominate Judge Michael Sauer for President of the Entire Universe."

South Park featured Paris a while back - here's a must-watch clip.

ANOTHER blunt who's headed for chokey is Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Here's one of Eric Alterman's readers venting on James Carville and Mary Matalin's mash note long letter of support (page one, page two, page three) for Scooter:

"I should feel bad for James and Mary's kids? Why? Because one of Mommy's old work buddies is a lying swine? Because a jury said bad things about Uncle Scooter, who was only trying to alibi Mommy's old boss, that soulless, lycanthropic, face-shooting old mountebank? This is like some awful, malignant version of Mr. Rogers's Neighborhood Of Make Believe. Here's a tip, James -- you're as obvious a symbol of the corruption of our political elite as anyone who's more actively enabled the current administration. Take your coon-ass avuncularity and your book contracts and go whistle up a tree. Go be a TV star. That's pretty much all you're good for these days. Any Democratic politician who hereafter actively solicits either your advice or support should be assumed prima facie to be unworthy of serious consideration. Every single one of the people involved in this affair should have their public careers shattered into a million pieces, scattered to the four winds, and there should be salt poured upon the shards so they never rise again. If that screws up the kids' birthday parties, that's too bad."

Carville and Matalin have to be the oddest couple ever: he's 'the ragin' cajun', a former strategist for Bill Clinton, she's Dick Cheney's right hand girl. Talk about marriage of convenience - no matter which party is in power, they always get invited on CNN!

FINALLY, here's the funniest quote about a fat-dead-arsehole I've heard in weeks. Somone talked Christopher Hitchens into appearing on Hannity and Colmes to talk about Jerry Falwell's legacy. Chaos ensues as Hannity froths at the mouth and a languid (or just drunk?) Hitch easily puts him in his place. Just before they cut him off at the end of the interview, Hitchens manages to sneak in this remark:

"If you gave Falwell an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox"

Watch the whole thing here.

Time for a cuppa, I fancy.

- Mr. Ed

Do you like travel? Do you like trousers?

For years these two questions have seemed mutually exclusive*, but just the other day, whilst cantering up the dual-carriageway, like a lightning-bolt, it struck me (-actually I was overtaken by one of their fine vehicles). Trouser-traveller, Draylon-or-chino-based-holiday-maker, oh-woolen-pantwearing-business-passenger-with static-friction, Behold!**

image from www.slackscoaches.co.uk

*Or absolutely unrelated.
** Locations throughout Derbyshire.

- yours, betrouseredly, Bluecupboard...