Hi there! Welcome to the first WWLTW of the year 2014 and I swear it was meant to be much better than this but you know, the procrastinating heart wants what the procrastinating heart wants. Anyways, no “new year new me” for me, WWLTW isn’t going to change much, it’s still going to be me pretending to be a journalist and you pretending to be an adept reader of WordPress blogs. In my opinion, the first week of the year was pretty dull, except Jan 1st (you’ll know why later) and I’m not covering CES yet, so maybe next week when I understand WTF they are doing. Enough chit chat, let’s see what PoP learnt this week:
1. January 1st on a Wednesday, thanks but no thanks.
I love public holidays; they give me something to look forward to. There’s a pleasure that comes with an early week ending or an extended weekend rest with a holiday on Monday, but a holiday on Wednesday? That’s not right. It was a totally useless day and the worst part was that I then had to carry myself up to class the following day…and the next. There should be no holidays in the middle of the week any more; let’s pass that as a law, because it just doesn’t make sense. If I want to escape one day of work at the middle of the week, all I have to do is call in sick. New Years celebration on a Wednesday is LAME, I could tell from the faces of the people I saw on Thursday.
2. Sherlock is back from the dead and is as arrogant as ever- we love it!
Remember when I said January 1st was great, this was most definitely why. The real time adaptation of Mark Gatiss and Steve Moffat returned on BBC One last Wednesday with an episode from the actual story “the Adventure of the Empty House” titled “The Empty Hearse” and Sherlock Holmes is back with a bang, but still the same; a practical genius in many areas, but awkwardly stupid in fundamentals. He thought he’d be dead for 2 years and life would still revolve around him? That’s a sociopath right there! But not to worry, I’m not giving any spoilers, as the show is yet to hit US television screens (although I’m sure they’ve pirated it and watched it anyways). Sherlock’s return is definitely why I smiled on January 2nd and it’s why I’m smiling now, because episode 2 is out. Spoiler alert! They used a swear word in the episode, it’s “F-Cough”. Sherlock is a TV series for the great minds and it’s a great way to understand the character if you don’t usually grok Arthur Conan Doyle’s lingo (PS: I think ACD was a angel sent from God, to teach us the science of deduction so that we can deduce that God is real and pledge our lives to him for as long as we live). Sherlock is a must-see for everyone and if you haven’t seen it, I urge you go look for it; it would change your life.
3. Scientists find where all your emotions go.
Finnish researchers have been able to find out where all your emotions go in our bodies with a little study they showed up with in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, called ‘Body Atlas’. How did they arrive at this? Well, they asked 773 people who participated in the study to highlight the areas of their body where they felt more activity, or less activity after they were shown stories, movies, words, etc. that have specific influences. Where sensations were high, they would color red, then yellow while blue colored areas signified lowered sensation. Pretty impressive stuff, there is obviously a sharp difference between depression and sadness (people tend to confuse those two), anger shows high activity in the arms also (which explains why you almost always want to punch someone in the face when you’re angry), happiness looks pretty widespread, love shows some serious abdominal activity, finally explaining the “butterflies in your stomach feeling”, envy and contempt are all in your head, and shame looks like Spider Man. Oh! Yea, in case you were wondering, the study was made on Finnish and Taiwanese people, I’m pretty sure Africans are configured differently.
4. Transfer window buzz begins.
The January transfer window opens once again and with it, speculation. Bertrand Traore, the Burkina Faso international moved to Chelsea, only for him to be loaned to Vitesse Arnhem. Clint Dempsey is with Fulham (again) for 2 months though, and some other non-note worthy signings…yet and Atletico Madrid and Chelsea are said to be working out a deal that keeps Thibaut Courtois and renders Koke or Diego Costa as leverage (What a rip-off! For Atletico that is; Costa and Koke would flop in the BPL, I can bet on it). The January transfer window is however best known for its biggest flop, Fernando Torres but there have been some good signings from January too e.g. Luis Suarez, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra. Although the Luis Suarez thing is debatable, he has caused a lot of catastrophe since he arrived at Anfield, only fair he made himself useful at some point. In other news, Torres scored on New Year’s Day, he effectively has more goals this year than Leo Messi- Torres is back! January holds some stiff promise with managers looking for that mid-season fresh blood and here’s a list of players who might be moving this month: Xabi Alonso, Salomon Kalou (to God knows where), Mario Balotelli (to Chelsea), Dimitar Berbatov, Edin Dzeko (to Valencia), Iker Casillas (all things are possible with the World Cup coming), Juan Mata (anywhere really, he’s that desperate), Wayne Rooney (common Wayne, are we still on this bus?) and lots more. Be sure to keep tabs on Manchester United, they may sign in a flop or two to add to their clueless manager and Marouane Fellaini.
5. FIFA World Cup 2014 may begin with a mind-control kick.
Thanks to “The Walk Again Project”, a paralyzed teenager, using mind-controlled prostheses would kick-off the FIFA World Cup in Brazil this summer. According to CNET’s Bonnie Burton “The exoskeleton will support the lower part of the body and enable the paralyzed wearer to walk using wireless electrodes attached to the head that collect brainwaves, which then signal the suit to move.” As for me, I think its going to take more than a magical kick to get Spain to retain their title as Champions of the World #teamNigeria.
Photo Credits: CNET, Google and Bunch of other places I can’t remember. Thanks!
The Pursuit of Perfection 