Slightly exaggerated

Well, another dog attack and another death. The latest is a poor Australian 2 year old. The culprit? A mastiff cross.....sigh.......another stereotypical dog.

As sad as it is, typically and cliche as it is, it's usually the owners fault. Having a dog is simple. It's a basic animalistic approach that you can't apply human psychology to, yet I would suggest the majority (almost without fail involving small, shitty dogs) of people do it wrong. You have to own your dog, you have to be the pack leader, a philosophy which is empowering for the human and vital for the dog to behave.

It's funny how some people genuinely believe they have a dog that couldn't ever attack. While this may be true whilst supervised, when left alone is another thing. A dog is not simply set in stone one day and that's it, you need exercise, discipline and affection all the time. A dog is a relative of a wolf, which might give you a clue as to what it's capable of. Pure breeds have a genetic disposition for whatever they have been selected for. Pitbulls and relatives were bred for fighting, simple as. They are predisposed in a different way to say a golden retriever. 

Nevertheless, we have a gorgeous, very relaxed dog, who happens to weigh almost 50 kg, again wouldn't that give you some clues as to what he's capable of doing. I cannot sit here and say he would never hurt our son. Granted I believe he wouldn't but I also would never leave my son in the same room as the dog, especially when he's going to be a toddler, with all the grabbing and pulling etc. A small kid can't read the body language and signs of a dog. Every dog gives a warning, albeit in a split second for some, whilst more strung out for others, you just have to know what to look for. 

Dogs have very strong jaws, large teeth and relatively big mouths, they have powerful stabbing canines so what about these features would give you any sense of belief to leave them with a small child? 

However, the average comment about such tragedies is along the lines of 'ban all dogs', 'ban these breeds' etc. What needs to be done is educating people. Many dogs are status symbols for the wrong reasons, whereas many people don't know how to handle their dog. People go on dog training courses, which have absolutely nothing to do with how a dog is mentally behaving. It's psychology, it's understanding animal behaviour, which people simply don't understand, not through lack of wanting, but it's too easy to buy a dog and not have a clue. Teaching your dog tricks is not the same as teaching him to be calm. 

Ironically, some comments argue that the dog owners should be take responsibility, which I agree with, although 99% of people don't know how to greet a dog, which could be the difference between being bitten or not. That is something people have to take responsibility for. Yes there are stupid people, so should we keep the same thought process and 'ban' them? To back this up even more, data from the CDC from 1979-1998 concerning lethal dog bites has shown an average of 16 people die per year. If we compare that to the global murders from 2004, which comes in at a staggering 490,000, we can see the numbers don't quite add up. Yes, there are probably slightly more dog deaths than what is covered by the CDC (in US) and yes, there are more people than dogs on this planet, but the numbers are not even close to accounting for ideas such as 'banning all dogs'. In that case, yes, humans are far more dangerous and shouldn't be left alone with other people! Before we go around screaming for dogs to be put down, we should take a closer look at ourselves first.

Women's Euro Football

Normally, I would not be posting on women's football. Yes, I'm a chauvinistic pig and think it's tedious to watch half-paced, half-man looking, handbags football. 

However, I'll take it back and say I watched (amongst bits of other matches) Sweden against Finland yesterday. Not only this, but I was pleasantly surprised, no not because I'm watching 11 Swedish women running around in shorts. More that it was actually quite entertaining.

You see, yes, the pace is slower, yes the shooting is appalling at times, yes many of the players look like men, yes Italy especially have the ugliest team by far BUT there was something that kept me watching.

The biggest difference in my opinion about women's football is the space. The key concept in any team sport and in the men's game is about creating spaces to attack. The whole (men's) game is very compact, with the ball travelling much less distance, therefore it looks (and is) much faster. With women's football, I've noticed, much like in kids football, they spread out everywhere. This is noticeable on the wings as during any single moment both wingers tend to be on the line. This creates a natural hole in the middle of the pitch. It is also something you never see in men's football. What this does is allow easy through-balls and masses of space to run into, hence women's football is potentially much more flowing then men's (minus someone like Spain's national team who just pass the ball constantly and do nothing with it). The poor women subsequently have to run much longer distances as the ground to cover is much larger. It creates many more opportunities and thus is potentially more entertaining. 

The negative is, things take time to build and usually the finishing can be fairly terrible. The ball seems to suspend in slow-motion at times, as it can freely role half the pitch before anyone touches it. 

However, one more thing I do love about women's football, which is in complete contrast to the men's, is how hard the women are. After watching Johanna give birth, I now know why that is. These women just get battered, and not just the handbags that you see in the men's game, but truly munched and they just get back up like nothing has happened. No diving, no messing around. Actually, what football is supposed to be like. That is something I do like to watch, no nonsense, no cheating.

Sweden put 5 passed Finland, but could have been 10-15 nil, no problem. I'd rather see some 'namby pamby' women getting bruised and battered then just getting on with it, than some overrated, overpaid, under-educated man fall over the second the wind brushes his shirt, whilst grabbing his face and rolling around on the floor for 5 mins. 

Women's football, I owe you an apology.

Scary stuff

Once again America has shown us the way of the caveman (ok, that's not fair on them either) with the ruling of George Zimmerman.

Based on this 'stand your ground' law (in at least 33 states, i.e., the majority of the US): 

'Provide that people who fear for their lives can use deadly force to defend themselves without having to flee a confrontation'

Erm, which genius came up with this law??

Mr. Zimmerman kills a 17-year old kid and gets off scot-free. Classic. Apparently then, it's fine to take a life and literally nothing happens to you (minus the fallout after, which in the US probably means someone will kill him soon).

How can you argue you killed someone in self-defence when you are carrying a gun?? Surely the kid, Trayvon Martin could have killed George Zimmerman on the grounds that he felt threatened to the point of death simply because Zimmerman had a gun?

Logically you could go around on a killing spree just because you wanted to, with the defence that 'your life felt threatened'. What absurdity! Besides the whole gun concept, which is just ridiculous, what happened with good old talking and non-violence?

What would you do at school, in some abusive fight, you could just kill the person if they threatened you with something along the lines of 'I'm going to kick your head in?' That would be just cause to kill them in the US? 

Something is very wrong and once again the US leads the way in behind the times thinking. 

Apart from twisting this into a racial derived case, despite both men (well technically all Americans are), sorry, a boy and man being 'ethnics' (or whatever the term in now), the point is, a man kills a boy, even if the boy punched the guy, so what, but nothing happens to the killer! What is wrong with that picture? I just don't understand it. Surely it's manslaughter and he should do his time, he killed an un-armed kid!! 

The classic defence strategy was to lure the jury into Martin's history, showing him smoking cannabis etc, come on, what a cheap trick.Yet it duped the jury and judge and now Zimmerman is a free man. Incredible. Live by the sword, die by the sword. 

I thought Islam-extremism was bad, but how different is this? Don't pee-off anyone in Florida, they might pull a gun on you because they can justify it by claiming you threatened their life. What a country.

Amazing stuff

After the quite tragic Boston marathon event, the world famous London marathon went ahead today. Whilst viewing on TV is about as interesting as watching paint dry, if you either a) watch it live or even better b) run it yourself, the buzz and atmosphere are quite amazing.

Although I can't vouch for the London one, I have some experience with the Stockholm one so I do know the feeling. My point was about a quite incredible lady, yes, even she admitted she was proud of her age, indeed the ripe old age of 85. 

No, this is isn't a typo, 85. The reason I chose to write about this person is mainly due to her little BBC interview before the start, as the oldest female in this years race (possibly including the men, but don't take my word for that), which obviously caught my eye.

Apparently she hadn't done a marathon for a few years (you know, like you do) but I had to look her up just now to see if she actually finished. Most people would think it's some PR campaign but oh no, not with this lady. The time was 6 hrs and 37 mins, which is quite staggering. I mean I'm genuinely impressed. 85 years old!! If ever you wanted some inspiration or you are just a lazy bugger, please take note. 

There aren't too many amazing people on this planet, but this is an amazing feat. It's easy to remember how much pain your body is in during the following days after running a marathon. I'm not yet 30 and I thought I had it bad. Imagine doing it when you are almost 3 times my age. I probably won't even be on this planet at that age.

Iva Barr, take a bow, you are an inspiration.

Brewdog

It's kind of funny if you are 'into' wine you are considered cool/interesting, right? However if you are into beer you are considered an alcoholic......

Well I'm not (an alcoholic) and I just want to say that Brewdog is an awesome brewing company! I've been a big fan for many years now and have an extensive, well bottle, collection of their beer. 

I am an IPA fan and their Punk IPA is quite amazing. They release some very unique beer and Sweden was their first (and maybe still biggest) market to tap into. In April this year they will open their first overseas bar in Stockholm (they are Scottish), so maybe I can work there after my PhD.........haha. It would probably be easier than finding a job in biology right now. Ok, I'm not bitter, back to the point......

I have no idea where you can get the stuff in the UK. I think most big retailers stock their 'core' range but some special stuff can only be found online (click here). Trust me, if you like proper beer, you won't be disappointed. If you like generic piss lager, well then your palate is screwed and you probably couldn't give two shiny shits as to what you drink........

Vikingarännet 2013

Due to the wife having some weird alien bulge that should enter this world around the Stockholm marathon, we, or I should say I, decided not to partake in this years 42 km torture. The potential for no sleep leading up to this grueling task is not something I look forward to, let alone leaving my newborn and wife all alone. Plus the following days of probably being more helpless than the little one (you know, that crippling muscle pain feeling) wouldn't go down too well, it wouldn't be easy for Johanna to look after two babies......

This is where Vikingarännet comes into the picture. Loosely translated as 'the Viking race', it's a fairly long, 80 km race from Uppsala to Stockholm on the ice, on Sweden's third largest lake, Mälaren. The course is quite nice, for me, it's still bizarre to think that the open water can really freeze all the way to Stockholm, and still be safe to stand/skate on. There is one small blip, possibly where some fast water meets (maybe two rivers/tributaries or something) which isn't frozen, which results in a 2 km walk to get to the next ice point. 

I'm not sure of the number of participants, but I'm hazarding a guess of around 3000, mostly with sharp-tipped poles that help (apparently) with the speed and balance. I opted for good old flailing arms......

The other difference, which most non-Nordic people won't know about are the skates. They are all based at least on a Nordic skate, which normally has a separate boot (the same boots used for cross-country skiing) that clips/ties into a long blade, mine are 50 cms, meaning you can glide a lot easier than on normal ice skates. I would say the down side is the weight at the end of this long course, after many thousand repeats of pushing and lifting your legs back into position, lets say, you feel it, mostly in your lower back, arse and generally every muscle you never knew you had in your legs.

It maybe trivial to a Swede, but being on natural ice is something I'm definitely not 'used to'. For me it's a great feeling, although restricted in the sense that you follow a course that has been brushed by a car (yes on the ice) with plough, there is something quite special with being on it. No, not just the idea that if you fall through you could die within minutes (You should carry these spikes that fit around your neck, which you can  stab and grip the ice with), or avoiding some rather large cracks in places (very easily done and very messy when your 50 cm skate disappears and gets wedged, resulting in a rather comical and painful immediate halt on one foot, usually ending in a face plant of some kind). I love that 'almost' freedom feeling. Ice skating, well this Nordic skating, is not something probably anyone (or at least very few) can appreciate in England, but it's awesome. I'm by no means good at it but I did finish this race. It took me 5 hrs and 21 mins and just one quite spectacular fall, which hurt like hell and amusingly landed me at the feet of a nice old Swedish lady, who kind of laughed, asking 'Gick det bra?' (Directly translated as 'went it good?')......yes, bloody marvelous actually, I love landing on my arse and the colour of brown and blue, you know, those things called bruises.

This year the wind was also quite perfect, from the north, around 7 m/s so quite chilly on the willy but mostly a tail wind. The ice too was apparently quite magnificent, which although I have nothing really to compare to, is highly understandable. This was shown with a new course record, some 2 hrs 35 mins by some Dutch speed-skater guy. Truly remarkable, really. Especially as last years time was 30 mins slower. The conditions must have been really great.  This is probably more confounded as a couple of years ago it was cancelled (it's only been running for 10 years) because of lack of ice........believe it or not, Sweden isn't like -20 all winter......just occasionally (I practiced once on a frozen lake a few weeks ago and it was -26 before wind chill and my apparent wind.....not very pleasant).

I feel ok today (one day after), not quite as bad as the marathon, but my legs definitely know they've done something other than the typical 4 km walk to work and back. I will no doubt enter next years, now I know what I'm up against. Fingers crossed the wind, the weather and more importantly the ice is all behaving. Otherwise I'll have a battle on my hands, as it's quite staggering how much the wind can kill you. My average time per km into the wind was say 4 mins 15 secs. Downwind on smooth ice is a whole other ball game, I managed just under 2 mins 30 secs for consistent periods, which if my maths is correct is around 24 km per hour. That feels pretty fast on a bike, let alone a set of bloody ice skates........I'm amazed I'm still in one piece come to think of it.........picture Bambi on ice and you're pretty much there. 

p.s. I shall try and post a video (not mine but someone else's) so you get the picture. Or if you are really adventurous, you can youtube it, probably not many videos of this year, but last years is around.

Case Swedish Open

A top European squash tournament has started today (qualifying as we speak) and I will be venturing down to Linköping on Friday and Saturday. 

Squash is pushing all the way for a place in the 2020 Olympics, twice denied, but with the likes of the modern pentathlon verging on getting the boot (hopefully), squash has a better chance than ever before. There is a slick application video to the IOC, which I don't want to show you. 

What I do want you to see are two rallies from the last two major tournaments. The first is from the World Open, which is the biggest tournament in the squash calender, keep in mind the score and the importance of what you are about to witness. The second is a clip from Grand Central terminal in NY, from the Tournament of Champions. I don't need to say more than, this is why squash is one of the most awesome sports on this planet.......