audentes fortuna iuvat

Heard of the the Svalbard International Seed Vault?

Well those cunning Scandanavians are up to some good trying to save biodiversity on the planet. Dubbed the "doomsday vault," it will house samples of every variety of crop seed available in every country in the world. The vault's purpose is safeguard agricultural biodiversity in the event that nuclear war, climate change, a meteor hit or another Earth-shattering event destroys all current plant life in the world or in a particular region.

Thats approaching global warming from the other direction. 

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Its 5 am and I am sitting here with my coffee (artificial sweetner) looking out into the dark outside my windows. Summers outrageously early sunshine has all but left although its still pretty warm, however I still find myself having – what the bloody hell am I doing moments.

The last few weeks have been pretty frantic with work but I recently encountered a catalyst that has kick started my hard training habits so I have also been working out a whole lot more. I got sick of standing in the shower and thinking "I need to loose some weight" so at last I am doing something substantial about it. 5 am starts – 40 minutes cardio, 20 minutes of abs then off to work – all without breakfast so I am highly fat burning through it. Its pretty grim, but its having the desired effect.

 In addition to that I have still been putting in some pretty hard workouts in the evenings, and I finally got to the Physitheripist to sort out some back problems which has meant my workouts are getting more effective. All of that combined with a much cleaner diet with some basis suppliments; like protien, creatin, wheatgrass and glucosamine; has really improved things.

I think I am looking better, and I am certainly FEELING better – although of course I am pretty tired what with the early mornings and not necessarily early nights to match. 

So I am not writing much for now, but thats not going to last forever.

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This in today from my mother -sometimes these things are worth repeating

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will.

You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time.

You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken.

You'll fight with your best friend.

You'll blame a new love for things an old one did.

You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love.

So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.

~anonymous~   

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Poisonous freshwater stingrays, bull sharks, piranhas, electric eels, five-metre anacondas, crocodiles, rapids, whirlpools, tidal waves, hostile native tribes and last but not least, the Candirú – aka The Vampire fish of Brazil.

Sound like the latest Tomb Raider game where Lara Croft fights to save the world (again) in the hostile jungles of South America? Well its not. It's February for Slovenian Martin Strel who plans to swim 3,375 miles down the world's greatest river , The Amazon.

45 people; including doctors, trainers, and armed guards; will accompany him through Peru and Brazil to the sea and into the Guinness Book of Records – either that or they will salvage whats left of his battered and dismembered corpse and lug it back to his native Slovenia; presumably in a watertight container.

For protection he has armed guards on the escort boats, a wetsuit and a special cream should protect him from some of the smaller predators (such as the Candirú). The boats will also carry buckets of fresh blood to pour in the water in case the piranhas or other fish attack.

Where they will get the blood from is not clear.

Now granted I have done a few dangerous things in my life, and swimming is not my thing, but I have to say that this seems more crazy than average, but that's the Slovenians for you.

Well Martin, good luck to you. Swim like the wind (or what ever). I sincerely hope you don't get a mad, transparent, flesh eating, blood sucking fish lodged in your penis or rectum.

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Apparently Billy Joel, arguably one of the worlds least attractive homonids, is about to release a new dance track, and it will be available on the much touted date of 20 Feb via iTunes.

And he is singing the US National Anthem at the Superbowl on Sunday 4th Feb – the very same Superbowl that Apple is (apparently) launching another of their FAAAAMOUR Ads.

Huh ha ha HAA!

Coincidence? I think not.

But Please GOD dont let there be a Billy Joel iPod – Beatles I could come at, but not the piano man. As Jobs continues to foist onto us both a hard DRM licence AND his appallingly hippy 60's musical taste, thats about all it would take to push me over the edge.

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Hot of the heals of my recent post regarding the sad unexpected tragic departure of the product manager responsable for the weird dumb ugly music player offering from Microsoft – the Zune is a titter through the rumor sites suggesting that Microsoft if continuing to desperately pursue the iPod by planning to launch a Zune Phone by the end of this year.

Good luck Goldilocks is what I say to that.

Given the woeful effort to date from Microsoft on Windows Mobile Phones and the Zune itself, combining the two would seem like a recipe for a camel, i.e. a racehorse designed by a committee that does everything, but actually fulfilling no-ones needs.

The iPhone Jobsian aura that flashed out world wide from its epicentre at the Moscone Center on January, filling the blogosphee with more news and comment about the iPhone than about the State of the Union address (apparently), is finally subsiding and people are getting their perspective back at last†. And as we do, in the distance you can hear the sound of the pocket protector brigade in Seattle puffing and panting as they try and catch up with mountain bike fit Jobs and his team in Cupertino.

Personally I suspect that a Zune phone will be as appealing as losing ones virginity in a cement mixer to and angry swarm of bees

But I could be wrong. Bees are apparently quite sensitive lovers.

†Yes the iPhone is shiny, and YES I want one too, but 5 hours battery life? HEE-LOOOO!!

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I think it would be fair to say that I have been less than particularly enthusiastic about the Zune, Microsoft's foray into the music player market.

Touted as the iPod killer its numerous flaws, not to mention its tasteless brown colour, have rapidly earned39;t it an America wide yawn – and only in America because the music marketplace it works with isn't available elsewhere yet.

Just to recap its failings

1. The Zune is incompatible with Windows Media Player, you can only use the Zune software (because we needed ANOTHER music player)
2. Only works with specific versions of Windows, not Mac OS X or Linux.
3. The supporting software won't install on many computers running Windows XP
4. and is rumoured to not be compatible with Windows Vista
5. The Zune can't be used as an external storage device
6. Wont accept or play TV shows recorded using Windows Media Center's digital video recorder
7. It only speaks English
8. The Zune Marketplace only accepts Microsoft Credits, not real money

I suggested a while ago that I would really have likes to be in the meetings where they were defining the thing, and to meet the product manager crazy brave enough to enter a battle of marketing wit with Steve Jobs apparently almost completely unarmed. Clearly some other people at MS have stopped drinking the cool aid long enough to think some of the same things.

Today its been reported that Bryan Lee, corporate vice president at Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, is going to be moving on to "pursue his own interests". I have a mental picture of all the Microsoft employees out in the car park will Bill shouting – " WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS PIECE OF SITH" and every one stepping back to leave Bryan standing there. Trapped like a geek in headlights.

Shame.

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