The Dell'Olio code

England's record against Sweden is pretty awful, is this due to some global conspiracy? Will Sven go all out against his home country? Will we be playing Germany in the next round? Well, like against Paraguay, I've done another simulation on Pro Evolution Soccer 5. The result? England 1, Sweden 0. Clearly that's what's destined to happen. Oh, and Owen scores.

Tags: England, football

This is what to do, Sven

Seeing Poland lose to Germany in the last minute was, well, a swift nut kick for the Poles and despite not having the heat and absence of Rooney to blame, Sven Goran Eriksson almost dished one out himself on England last thursday. At the risk of sounding like Mark Lawrenson, here's what you want to do, Sven.

Drop Crouch - The most embarrassing moment for all England fans during this World Cup must've been when Peter Crouch (at 6ft 7in) tried to do an overhead kick in the Trinidad and Tobago penalty area. It still makes me laugh now. So he's scored five goals in four games, so what? With respect, any premiership forward can score a hat-trick against Jamaica (without missing a penalty) and the most recent goal should've been disallowed as he clearly fouled his marker Sancho by pulling his dreadlocks! The style of play has now become, hit a long ball and try to hit Peter on the head into the goal. It doesn't work.
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Related: Sven, England, football

Wei Hwa's Puzzle Challenges #3

Here's a puzzle based on Erich Friedman's "Distance," from the 2003 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship. Label 14 of the circles above with different numbers from 1 to 14, such that the distance between 1 and 2 is less than the distance between 2 and 3, and so on. Four circles should remain empty.

Note that this image is not part of the solution but just an example.
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Bypass automated phone answering services

Another real world hack (in addition to the elevator one and how to shortcut to a real person in automated phone system) -- how to bypass the "please leave a message after the beep" message.

Tags: hack, elevator, phone

PetrolPrices.com

PetrolPrices.com is a website I've recently come across. There you can find the cheapest petrol station near your post code. Having just passed my driving test I thought I'd have a look at how much it costs to run a car... Answer: TOO much. If I could live in it and not have to pay rent then maybe. That's actually what this person had to do for a while. Now her blog is being made into a book!

car flags In England right now every other car is ornamented in a similar fashion to the one on the right. It's good to be proud of your country and show your support for it, but putting flags of St George on your car does sort of shout, "I'm a bit common." Of course, being a bit common, I'd do it if I had one. After all, Tessa Jowell's even put them on her ministerial car.

Related: petrol

Witness the Fitness

Very loosely related to Sport Relief, here's a link for those keen to improve their fitness -- WeEndure.com. If you think you're enough of a meathead, sign up, add me as a friend and we'll find out who's the fittest.

Wei Hwa's Puzzle Challenges #2

If a tree falls in the woods because of a wound, then what little object will not hear the sound?

A Why Me Rhyme is a pair of words that look like they should rhyme (after all, only their first letter is different), but don't really. For example, depending on the colorist, Etrigan could be considered a lemon demon. See if you can figure out these twelve Why Me Rhymes from their descriptions:
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Tags: Wei-Hwa, puzzle

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Thought it might be interesting to simulate the upcoming England vs Paraguay game on Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (yeah, soccer = football to you and me) and see what the result would be. Well, good news, it ended England 3 Paraguay 1. No surprise really. We're well above them in the FIFA World rankings... In fact we're the most highly ranked in the group.

Related: England, FIFA World Rankings

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