A very happy 50th birthday to friend and photographer Michael Bowring, presently living and working in Belgrade. Having spent many nights on the tiles with Michael I have many good memories thanks to him, not to mention his longstanding habit of taking everyone’s photo who entered his flat and sat on his sofa. 
With a bit of tinkering I got Bob up on the blogosphere on Boxing Day. Go to http://photographics2000.blogspot.com to leave a comment or go straight to Bob Hall’s photo website at: www.photographics2000.co.uk
Having been to St Ives on holiday for the last 20 years or so you can’t help but notice a few differences, mainly how many shops are open right up until Xmas and the amount of cars continually chugging through the town. Plus the price of property –
Well I was wrong Kaka has already tied the knot before Xmas and the World Cup. So here’s the brief details borrowed from Wikipedia:
“Kaká’s wife is 18 year old (as of 2005) Caroline Celico, who he married on 23 December 2005 at the evangelical Reborn in Christ Church in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in a wedding attended by fellow players from his national team, as well as other well known international players. Guests included Ronaldo, Adriano, Cafu, Brazilian national coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, Julio Baptista., and Dida They met in 2002, and started dating soon after. The relationship survived Kaká’s 2003 move from Sao Paulo to play in Italy, while Caroline was still in school. After the planned honeymoon Kaká will rejoin AC Milan for a game in early January. It is likely that Caroline will stay in Brazil in the short-run, but the couple plan to live together in Italy very soon.”
I also have the complete set of pics from the wedding taken by getty images for your viewing pleasure.
Five other key wedding facts I’ve found:
And finally I’ve tracked down the ‘money shot’ from the wedding – plus a report on the wedding:
There will be news coming soon of his cousin’s wedding in his home town of Taguatina (I even tried to join his cousin’s gym a couple of years ago but they wouldn’t let me in!).
Plus: I’ve created free downloadable Kaka wallpaper for your computer.
My friend Meg was fired from her job as Department Chair of Communications and Composition at DeVry University in Westminster, Colorado, U.S.A. because of her blog. The administration didn’t tell her specifically what she said that they found so offensive.
There’s a brief explanation in the Blogspotting section of Business Week, including a comment from the guy fired from Google for blogging, Mark Jen. The article in the Denver Post is also worth a gander – David Harsanyi suggesting in conclusion that the students of DeVry should press the administration to reveal the offending blog post.
Or try clicking on the technorati links below to find out more:
DeVry
Dooced
And if you fancy a unique free ring tone Xmas gift for your mobile what could be better than WolframTones? The ringtones are an experiment in applying Stephen Wolfram’s discoveries to the creation of music. To explain:
“At the core of A New Kind of Science is the idea of exploring a new abstract universe: a “computational universe” of simple programs. In A New Kind of Science, Wolfram shows how remarkably simple programs in his “computational universe” capture the essence of the complexity–and beauty–of many systems in nature.
“WolframTones works by taking simple programs from Wolfram’s computational universe, and using music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them as music. Each program in effect defines a virtual world, with its own special story–and WolframTones captures it as a musical composition.”
Loved the story that London won the 2012 olympics ’cause of a button pushing error – another example of fat finger syndrome after I posted about one just ten days ago:
“A leading Olympic official has suggested that London may have won the right to stage the 2012 Games only because one of the 104 members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) pressed the wrong button in the third-round vote.
Alex Gilady, the Israeli who is one of the most influential members of the IOC, claimed that the mistake helped Paris, rather than Madrid, to reach the final round against London. Madrid had been widely regarded as the biggest threat to London in a straight fight.
It is believed that the blunder was committed by Lambis Nikolaou, of Greece, who protested publicly at the microphone after the secret ballot in Singapore on July 6 that he had not had time to register his vote. In fact, an examination of the poll showed that all the eligible IOC members had voted in that round.” (The Times, 22 Dec 05).
On the way to St Ives for Xmas spotted this steam train at Bodmin Parkway, fantastic (the steam train’s on the right, btw).
And talking of St Ives, you may have heard of the following rhyme: “As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Every wife had seven sacks, every sack had seven cats, every cat had seven kitts. Kitts, cats, sacks, wives, how many were going to St. Ives?” Upon being presented with this conundrum, most readers begin furiously adding and multiplying numbers in order to calculate the total quantity of objects mentioned. However, the problem is a trick question. Since the man and his wives, sacks, etc. were met by the narrator on the way to St. Ives, they were in fact leaving–not going to–St. Ives. The number going to St. Ives is therefore “at least one” (the narrator), but might be more since the problem doesn’t mention if the narrator is alone.” (Mathworld)
After tracking the English guy who took football to Brazil I was reminded it was Alfred Edwards, another Englishman, who set up Inter Milan in 1899 (please note my previous 1897 blog subject – you’ll be amazed how much football wise started around that time). And to add to the Italian connection I was reminded that me old Italian history teacher Paul Ginsborg used to play for the Milan cricket team – also set up by English ex-pats in 1972. Adding to the coincidences Paul Ginsborg also recently wrote about Berlusconi, who owns Kaka’s team, Inter Milan. And of course in this continued tale of ‘six degrees of separation‘ I’ve already mentioned my link to Kaka via Brasilia. But I can also close this chain by making the link to Berlusconi as my old flatmate Louis Rivera-Camino once boasted he had a friend who was mates with Berlusconi himself. I was more impressed by the fact his wife Natasha was the daughter of a Russian nuclear missle commander (retired) who controlled those targeted at London. Which takes back to K-9 the widower which is the story of a Russian sub packed with nuclear material and Chris who ended up playing in the film with Harrison Ford, but I think I’ll leave it at that. Happy Xmas!
You wait for what seems ages for the first pyramid in Europe and then two come long (thanks to Lee for flagging this up) at once..
“The Bosnia Pyramid, Visocica Hill, is the first European pyramid to be discovered and is located in the heart of Bosnia, in the town of Visoko.
“The pyramid has all the elements: four perfectly shaped slopes pointing toward the cardinal points, a flat top and an entrance complex. There are also the ruins of a Medieval walled town once the base of a Bosnian king.
“Because of its similarities to the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico, it has been named the “Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun” (‘Bosanska Piramida Sunca’). There is also a smaller pyramid on the site, the Bosnian Pyramid of the Moon (‘Bosanska Piramida Mjeseca ‘).”