Phlegmatic

David Cameron mourns the death of fascist historian

Say what you like about Robert Mugabe, but at least inflation has come down.

"We are luckier than we realise to have had Labour as our Left-of-Centre party".

Major League Baseball's triple crown

I like this US Democrat…

...but this one might be the most pathetic US Senate candidate in the whole country.

Life imitates South Park.

This year's Nobel economics prize winners.

I'm getting really fed up with all these ridiculous "Corporation X doesn't pay enough tax" stories. The ebay one is a particularly silly example.

RIP Ceefax.

The difference between a free trade area and a customs union, and why that is important.

Andrew Neill pretty much does to Ed Balls what Jeremy Paxman did to Michael Howard.

So, you're a developer of very dry, very nerdy train simulators for the PC. You want to earn some easy money for Halloween. What do you do...?

Lance Armstrong's seven TdF wins will not be given to anyone else.

Looking at the BBC culture that allowed the Jimmy Savile situation to develop. (Thanks to parrot_knight for the link.)

What the French think of Bradley Wiggins

Olympic tax breaks

How to get around Olympic merchandising rules with bad spelling and bad geometry.

Whose idea was it to let Rod Liddle and James Delingpole design the opening ceremony?

Just in case you haven't seen this: divers gurning in mid-dive.

Pedants please note: it is perfectly acceptable to refer to our flag as 'the Union Jack'.

Almost every Olympic sport in ZX Spectrum form (and special bonus: British gold medal winners as screen$)

Interesting graphic showing every men's 100M medallist and how they compare.

(As an aside, Olympic trivia especially for fans of LibDem sprinting: when Alan Wells won Scotland’s last 100m gold in 1980, his time was actually slower than Menzies Campbell’s former British record.)

Five science lessons from the Olympic cycling.

45-year-old salesman apologies for closing ceremony.

Game theory and track sprint cycling.

[Poll #1859129]

The real first page of "The War of the Worlds"

The single coolest thing you can do with a touchscreen tablet or smartphone. (Well, it is if you play Traveller.)

"Guardian holiday offers page strangely omits name of one tiny little country"

Contador banned for two years; stripped of 2010 Tour and 2011 Giro

This is how to do packaging.

Smashing dogs' skulls in considered worse than shagging blonde waitresses by American public

Which recent 'academic' study is "a textbook example of confused data, unrecognised bias, and ignorance of statistics", according to this Ivy League statistics professor?

...but guess which journalist believed it uncritically?

Cool fluid dynamics effect on website. You'll like this, trust me.

Royal helicopter top trumps

'Buildings' only hope against cold

Space...is big. Really, really big.

OK, I'm not a parent. But this guy comes across as a right redneck nutjob. I feel sorry for his daughter.

What the hell is wrong with defence procurement in this country, and why will no government fix it?

Robotic hand in Lego.

Rangers FC signals intent to go into administration. Cripes. If Rangers goes under, there would be no point playing football in Scotland. Celtic would win everything, every year.

I reckon this year's Tour has been the most thrilling since the Roche / Delgado / Bernard duel of 1987.

The last two days' stages in the Alps have been fantastic. Thomas Voeckler survived the first, but not the second. Andy Schleck answered those critics (like me) who complained he was too defensive and reactive a rider by attacking on Thursday's giant stage, gaining several minutes on most riders, breaking reigning champion Alberto Contador and taking a brilliant stage victory on top of the Col du Galibier. Then yesterday, Contador attacked just a few kilometres into the stage, Schleck went with him, as did Cadel Evans and Voeckler. But Evans had to drop back to the peloton after a mechanical problem, and Voeckler couldn't stay with Contador and Schleck. But the two leaders were gradually caught as the race crossed the Galibier again (this time going up the difficult side and coming down the easier side) and most of the leaders were together at the foot of the race's most famous climb, L'Alpe d'Huez.

Voeckler cracked on that climb as Contador attacked again. Schleck couldn't stay with Contador or Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez, but made sure that Cadel Evans didn't attack as well. With Voeckler having blown, his chief sidekick Pierre Rolland was freed to look after himself and not his team leader. He rode with Sanchez up to Contador and was then able to leave both of them in the final few kilometres to delirious cheers from the French fans. The French won't win this Tour with Voeckler, but the performance of the young Rolland gives them another great French hope. He is the first Frenchman to win on L'Alpe d'Huez since Bernard Hinault, the dark-haired gentleman in my userpic. This was also the only French stage win in this year's Tour. The Isle of Man has four, as does Norway!

We'll know who the overall winner of the Tour is in a couple of hours after the final time trial. (Tomorrow's stage to Paris is a lap of honour for the Yellow Jersey wearer, albeit a hotly contested stage for the sprinters, like Mark Cavendish.) Andy Schleck leads his big brother Frank by 53 seconds, with Cadel Evans a further 4 seconds back. Evans is the best time triallist of the three. He's definitely four seconds better than Frank, but is he 53 seconds better than Andy? We'll see...

This year's Tour de France has just started, with more genuine British jersey contenders than usual. Who will win?


[Poll #1758157]

Philmophlegm is annoyed today.

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