Since I watched Rain Man, and learnt about this Abbott and Costello phenomenon, I haven't been able to get it out of my head. I keep bugging Mr C by saying "Who's on First?" and then getting annoyed when he doesn't know what to say. Not that either of us know any of the sketch to carry on with, but it's fun catching him off guard. It is amazing to …

Ugh, Thursdays really are awful. Here's some cuteness to cheer things up: Credit: Fiona Jones/Flickr Waiting for someone? Credit: Jodi/Flickr What is up with pandas hanging upside down from trees?

I've noticed a couple of posts recently, in my feed reader, that suggest apps that will help to keep track, and even publish your own lifestream. I sat back for a minute, and thought, how many social networks can there be? I know there are some niche ones out there, book clubs, wine groups, things like that. But how many actual social things are there? Then I discovered one of …

Don't you just hate those blogs where people analyse what they're doing to such a degree that they actually talk about little else? Well, I apologise in advance for this post, which is just a quick thought about why people blog. As far as I can tell there are three reasons, and these are quite general categories. To connect with people. You want to find people that are interested in …

And there it was, Le Mans in all its glory. Franck started the race, Bourdais finished it, and between the three drivers, they came in second. It was a race of high attrition, with the Audi's struggling, giving Peugeot their best change to break their rival's run of victories. Good for Peugeot, they managed a win, bad for Franck it was the other team. The #8 Peugeot at the hands …

Do you remember The Man Who Cycled the World? The crazy but impressive Mark Beaumont thought it would be smart to visit all the continents, travel 18,000 miles and do it in under 200 days. I wrote about it after seeing a repeat of the accompanying programme on the iPlayer, and now, Mark is back. I hadn't noticed this initially, but the Beeb have set the man up with a …

It seems like social networks are suddenly starting to realise that if people are going to put their lives on the internet, then they might want to have a proper identity. Facebook have introduced what appear to be called "vanity URLs" to your profile. It seems a bit mean to say that having your profile accessible by something with your own name rather than a bunch of random numbers is …

When it comes to getting up and about and trying to exercise, I tend to flit from one thing to another. Nothing really captures my attention, except swimming. I do not like to go to the local swimming pool because (and this is probably another of my weird traits) there is no way of seeing how busy it is before you go in, and yet I don't want there to …

It seems like every five minutes now, there is a new feature to Google, or a new search engine making it's debut. They all proclaim to be the next big innovation in searching, and some will even revolutionise the way we find information on the web. I have already taken a quick look at Wolfram Alpha, which says it is not trying to be a Google killer. Mahalo has always …

There are a plethora of Twitter apps for mobile phones, and I know the iPhone is over-run with them. As a G1 user, the Android platform has less options, but there are a few worth looking at. The one I have settled on is Loquacious, which is actually a paid for app. It's only a couple of dollars, though, so that didn't put me off. There's a 14-day fully featured …

Back in December, I discovered Picnik, an easy to use photo editing web app that pretty much made my day. Just recently, particularly with the introduction of my gardening pictures, I have returned to Picnik and love it even more than I did last time. The best thing about Picnik is that it is unbelievably easy to use. If you are editing a lot of pictures, or particularly massive ones, …

More strawberry news, as this time... I ate one! That's right, the reddened strawberry was red enough to eat, so I tried it out. It wasn't perhaps as sweet as it could have been, but it was nice and juicy, with a great texture. Must be all that water! In other news, the remaining plants are still green and growing, and not a lot else. I want to see some …

Credit: mansalio/Flickr

After the first session of qualifying, Audi were on pole, with our man Franck second. However, once the second session was complete, it was Peugeot all the way, with the #8 car on top at the hands of Stephane Sarrazin. #7 was third and #9 was fifth. Naturally, the Audi of McNish, Kristensen and Capello was second. After the shock news that Franck had broken his leg, it was even …

It's unclear exactly how this slipped through the net, but it turns out even Radio Le Mans didn't know until they asked the man himself why he was limping. That's right, Franck has only gone and injured himself. During training in the Alps, Franck made it through all the rock climbing and dangerous stuff with ease, but then stood on the ball during a game of footie, and broke his …

Remember I told you about the Zoo Borns site? They recently had a feature on a newborn Panda at Thailand's Chiang Mai Zoo. It was too much of a baby to be cute and cuddly, but I figured 'yay for the expanding panda population'. However, the site then posted an update featuring the same baby pandas just a week or so later, and boy are they cute now!

Free Practice ran for six hours last night, with teams getting a feel for the circuit both in daylight hours, and during the night. The requirements were for new drivers to run at least ten laps, and all drivers to complete three in the darkness. I watched some of the live timing screens but couldn't dedicate six hours to it (sadly). Instead, I've scoured the web for news regarding our …

Apparently, the Sims 3 is breaking all kinds of records, and I don't own it yet. Grr. According to this CNET story, EA are reporting that the game sold 1.4 million copies in the first week, is topping the PC gaming chart, and the iPhone app chart, plus it has been EA's best game launch ever. Now, CNET suggest that whilst this is something of a surprise, it does fly …

The Le Mans site has confirmed that all the cars got through the second day of scrutineering successfully, with the following words of wisdom: None of the cars had any problems today and will all be expected to appear in the first free practice sessions tomorrow (Wednesday) from 18:00. The forecast is for yet more rain, but it will get warmer and dryer for the weekend and the legendary 24 …

If you are not already subscribed to The Boston Globe's Big Picture blog then you should go there right now and do so. Bookmark it, copy and paste the RSS feed, do whatever you have to do so that you don't miss an entry. And when you've done that, go back through the archives and enjoy what you have already missed. The Big Picture is a collection of photographs around …

Although the race isn't until the weekend, preparations for Le Mans have been taking place for a long time, and the action really begins this week. Yesterday, Monday, the cars began to face scrutineering, with Audi going first. Peugeot are due to be inspected today. Scrutineering isn't just a chance for the regulators to check all regulations are being met, but it's also a time for the fans to get …

Last week, I was reading about this Youth Centre in the US that has bought up some podcasting equipment to offer kids the chance to try their hand at recording themselves. It seems to be a summer holiday and half term kind of thing, a place to send your children - for a fee - to mingle, socialise, and learn things. According to the story from The Detroit News, the …

Only my second update and I am already running a few days behind schedule, however I come to you with good news! My strawberries are not only surviving, but gradually turning red. In the end, I had to call the experts in, and my parents came to save the day. It turns out I really wasn't watering the plants enough, and they needed a lot more than I provided. I …

We're listening to Last.fm of a Saturday night, with the 80s tag plugged into the radio station option. Don't Stop Believing by Journey comes on and we get about two seconds into it before Mr C says: "That's the 4 chords." We had to pause it, drop everything, and watch the video again, because there is nothing more amazing than this. I think I may have blogged it already, but …

Credit: Eugene Moore/Flickr

I was not having a particularly good day, and I left my desk for just a couple of minutes only to return and find the world had ended. Newly installed in my office, I discovered... a clock! I have two issues with this: I already have a clock on the phone, on my mobile, on my iPod, on my PC, and on the air con. There is a reason I …

Time for some moving pictures, with YouTube videos (this time vetted for screaming women). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51CnDa-Cu2w Don't worry panda, I can't work out what the football thing is all about either. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJI3BYCAOIA Baby panda wrestling.

I was browsing the Peugeot Sport site, as you do, and discovered that Franck is helping to promote some of the items in their merchandise store. With the Frenchman not having any goodies of his own, it's as close as we'll get to FKM merch. This is the category he takes centre stage on - t-shirts - but have a browse around, because he turns up in a few of …

I was reading this post from Alex about a giant sweet shop, and it made me think about all those old time confectionaries that are so delicious, but you just don't eat anymore. When the market visits, there's a rather large pick 'n' mix stall that has many, many varieties to choose from, but I never stop and look or buy. These days, it's all about the bar of chocolate, …

Now that I no longer keep up the BBC blog, I've found myself drowning in interesting tidbits that I want to share. So, this is that post, collecting together some of the latest things I have been enjoying from the vast collection of BBC blogs. Moderation: Let's Talk it Over I know a lot of people get upset when their comments are moderated on a particular portion of the site. …

I found this article on The Guardian very interesting. It talks about some of the elements that have been lost in advertising nowadays, compared to some of the classic adverts from yester-year. Although some of the points are contentious - like cigarette advertising, and seemingly promoting sexism - it does seem very true that adverts of the moment do not capture the imagination in the same way. I quickly browsed …

I was digging around the internet and uncovered some entries from my earliest foray into blogging. I was there as blogging was becoming big, not one of the early adopters, but definitely before it became mainstream to own a domain and a site. My blogging instrument of choice was Blurty.com, which, now I look at it, is awful. Sadly, I was one of those early bloggers who didn't try and …

My only knowledge of Robin Hood comes from three places: that film with Kevin Costner, the film by Mel Brooks, and the current BBC TV series. I know that all three are a pile of tosh, there for pure entertainment value rather than anything historical or mythical. Therefore, I've started looking into the legend of Robin Hood and would like to share some of my findings with you. Naturally, no …

If you are a Facebook user, you may be interested in the Franck Montagny page. It's something you can subscribe to as a fan, and there are news updates, videos and pictures added all the time. It was brought to my attention recently, because some pictures were posted of young Franck as he and his fellow Peugeot colleagues trained for the upcoming Le Mans. On that subject,we have more information …

The strawberries do not like their new home! The other plants are all doing okay. I hesitate to say thriving, but they at least still look green rather than a sickly yellow. My text message gardening advice service (my mother) said that assuming they are bedded in correctly, and I am keeping them well watered, there is little else one can do. I intend to give them some more attention, …

Credit: Kenneth Barton/Flickr

Whilst I was searching Flickr for some cute baby panda photos, I came across this project called One Thousand Portraits. Naturally, the premise is to take 1,000 pictures and it's a very simple idea. Our project is a true portrait of Britain created by photographing 1,000 people. We stopped everyone who crossed our path on the streets of London, excluding nobody, asking the same question more than fifteen hundred times. …

Two Pandas Credit: Brittainy Barnes/Flickr Bored Panda Credit: Patty926/Flickr Hungry Panda Credit: Stephanie Schwob/Flickr

Just a couple of days ago, Franck climbed back behind the wheel of the Peugeot 908, reminding us all that Le Mans is rapidly approaching. On Monday, at Magny-Cours, Franck put his recent training to good use by lapping the French track and getting some good testing miles under his belt. He got plenty of good running in, which will be good practice for what comes next. The entire Peugeot …

Remember the competition Franck introduced to design his helmet? Well, it's over and done with and a winner has been selected. From what I can tell there were 30 entries submitted, which is nothing compared to Jenson Button's helmet competition, but perfectly reasonable for a driver who only seems to emerge a couple of times a year. The winner is Adrien and he gets some gloves as worn by Mr …

Following on from my post about being a little bit more green, I decided to try my hand at growing some plants. As I pointed out previously: I don’t have a garden, I live in a flat, and I can’t grow things. This can only end well. I am shopping for seeds and… whatever else one needs to garden this week, so I will report back on my progress. I …

Over the past couple of days, Mr C and I have found ourselves at a loose end whilst waiting for a call on Skype. This is new territory for us, we're normally in a constant state of disarray rather than relaxed anticipation. Mr C, who has experience of such things, says that a lot of working in the media industry is like this. You wait for hours for your small …

I don't know why people complain about wind farms, I think they're beautiful. They're the kind of thing I could watch all day. Hypnotising. Like driving through falling snow. However, this news story is rather worrying. A farmer in Taiwan believes that 400 of his 750 goats have died due to exhaustion - a lack of sleep caused by the vibrations and noise of a nearby wind farm. There's no …

The first time I saw the MagSafe idea in action, I was impressed. The magnet is fun to play around with, and heaven knows I can be clumsy, so having a safeguard in place can only be a good thing. Mr C has the MacBook with the funky power lead, but unfortunately, the laptop is on the way out. First it needed a new battery. The existing one didn't work. …

No words, just pandas. Credit: panda baby/Flickr Credit: Patty926/Flickr Credit: Joseph Trotz/Flickr Credit: Amy/Flickr Credit: Cindy May/Flickr

The main thing they should teach you in podcasting school is that sitting on a gym ball is very good practice. Firstly, it helps with your posture and, you know, it's better than hunching over a microphone all day. Secondly, it doesn't squeak or creek, as most chairs are known to do. I can't stand sitting on ours for more than about ten minutes at a time, but my podcasting …

A couple of days ago, I talked about Wolfram|Alpha, which is making its way in the knowledge search universe. On a different search engine note, I found yesterday that Google wouldn't load for me, and for a good few seconds, I was completely stumped as to where else to go. Google is so integrated into my online experience and the little box in the top right of my browser makes …

Earth Day was about a month ago, and I misssed it. I didn't feel particularly guilty at the time because it seems to be a US holiday, but everything since then has been telling me how green I should be. Firstly, Boston.com's Big Picture - which features sets of brilliant photos around a certain theme, if you're not subscribed to this already, do so now - had some shots of …

The Wolfram|Alpha search engine went live today, and it's really, really cool. It's not meant to be any kind of competition to Google, and in fact, links off to the Goog if you want to find web links related to your search term. Wolfram's mission is to collate knowledge and give you hard facts about a given subject. For example: Searching for my own name gives me information on how …

When I first discovered Last.fm it was a revolutionary thing - all that music, available to listen to for free? It was a turning point for my listening habits. Most of the time, I would select a radio station - pop or indie or 80s - and listen away, occasionally skipping the tracks that weren't to my taste. Being able to heart the best songs, track what I'd listened to …