No Use Crying Over Smashed Mugs
Leaning too far to the left I nudged my prized blue coffee mug over the edge of my sofa. If someone had been filming, it would probably have looked like those videos of cats slowly knocking items off of tables, except I did it completely by accident rather than by mischievous design.
A loud smashing sound was the only indication that something had gone wrong. That's quite a big indication, to be honest, and when I peered over the side I knew what to expect. The mug had landed on the metal base of a standing lamp and been shattered into approximately 15 pieces. This is functionally no different than it being shattered into 1000 pieces, but I was denied the poetic image of such a platonically ideal destruction.
For a moment I decried the loss of the mug, and indeed I recall being far more upset for far longer for the loss of mugs in the past. But this mug was gone. There was nought to be done, and I had, only the day before, come into possession of a new mug. One in, one out, it seems. Such is the way of things.
I bought this mug from Ikea, and it cost me about £2, but it had served me well, and I would honour its memory with a 250 word eulogy.
You Wait Ages For A Bus
Something else which cost £2 and which does deserve a longer period of anger is the £2 price cap on bus tickets, which Labour have announced will be defunct from the start of 2025.
Aside from the fact it will increase the commuting cost of a bus rider by close to £500/year, it will discourage people from using the bus system and drive people into the arms of their cars. At a time when we should be moving towards a world of universal mass transit, this is a deeply regressive move in many ways, and it makes you wonder what the point of this Labour government is.
It is also starkly irritating how governments of all stripes are unable (or unwilling) to see things in any context at all. The bus subsidy will also likely reduce car accidents (fewer cars on the road) and increase economic activity in city centres among a bunch of other potential benefits. So looking at the raw cost of the subsidy doesn't take the full picture into account, not even slightly.
But its no use crying - it only cost £2 didn't it?
Joe
Edinburgh vs Leeds
I have used the bus in both of the cities represented by the teams who faced off in this week's University Challenge, Edinburgh and Leeds.
Leeds is a historically underrepresented insitution on University Challenge. It has a student body of nearly 40,000 yet has only been on the show 5 times since 1995, with its last appearance coming in 2011.
Edinburgh meanwhile, have been on the show more than any other University, according to Rajan. Durham have been on more times in the BBC era, but Edinburgh racked up a few more appearances on ITV.
Here's your first starter for ten.
Edinburgh skipper Myles takes the opening points with mist, and they take a full set of bonuses on films with scores by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. He (that's Myles, not Jonny Greenwood) takes the second starter too, but they only managed a single bonus on the 1924 general election, which was 100 years ago.
I'm now imagining an episode of University Challenge in 2124 in which the contestants are asked about this year's election. Will someone born in the early 2100s know who Rishi Sunak was? Will they remember that Keir Starmer got rid of £2 bus tickets?
Aiton drops five points with an incorrect interruption before Myles makes it a hat-trick with nit, not, nut on the follow-up.
Edinburgh lead 55 points going into the picture round, which is on gears and it goes to Leeds' Patel for their first points of the night. One of the bonuses asks for a gearing system named after an invertebrate.
Banerjee Marvin asks her teammates what an invertebrate is, then guesses worm, which is correct. Not bad for someone who five seconds earlier didn't know what an invertebrate was.
Dadaism gives Aiton redemption and earns Edinburgh a bonus set on the League of Extraordinary Gentleman.
A guess of Dutch by Thomson gets Leeds going again, but they cannot build any momentum and general relativity hands Edinburgh the reins once more. Myles nominates Self to give Zinedine Zidane as an answer to one of the bonuses, which is a wise nomination. If one is not aware of the name Zinedine Zidane then one probably shouldn't risk trying to pronounce it.
Mellor smashes the music starter with the Eurovision winner Loreen and Edinburgh manage two of the bonuses, giving them a lead of 95 points at the halfway stage.
Is The Comeback On?
Tan starts a Leeds comeback with James II, and they maintain their impetus with strange courtesy of Thomson. Prince Edward Island gives them a third consecutive starter, and they've halved their deficit.
Self takes the second picture starter for Edinburgh, but Banerjee Marvin is quickly back on it with the Bloomsbury Group on the next question. Could Leeds complete this unlikely comeback?
Cardinals for Patel closes the gap to 25, and Swansea for Thompson makes it 15. Their work on the bonuses isn't good enough though, and Edinburgh stay ahead.
Mellor and Myles grab a couple of starters for Edinburgh, but they too struggle on the bonuses. A neg from Myles then opens the door for Leeds, but they can't go through it and end the game 50-points adrift, tied on points with two other high-scoring losers.
No, it isn't on.
Leeds 125 - 175 Edinburgh
The Scottish quartet slacked off a bit towards the end, but did enough to get over the line. Rajan tells Leeds that they have a chance of going through, but I don't think they do.
The other sides who scored 125 points lost to teams scoring 240 and 275, so surely a 175-125 loss won't be enough, regardless of what happens in the final two first-round matches.
Thanks for reading, and subscribe if you aren't already to help me defeat the algorithm and stop me crying about the price of bus tickets and/or coffee mugs.
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