Misc

Having been on the hunt for a new CD player (yes some people still listen to CDs!), I did the usual browse of hi-fi magazines and websites to help guide me towards what might be an improvement over my 18 year old Rotel . That said, it is becoming increasingly difficult to trust any review when some magazines describe a £300 HDMI cable as sounding ' controlled and composed '. This is a cable that carries a digital signal - digital meaning 1's and 0's. By that logic, a more expensive ethernet cable linking your personal computer to a network should also result in a more ' controlled and composed ' internet experience. It won't. In the digital domain, the correct information is either received or it isn't. I have been unable to find any scientific evidence suggesting that a difference in picture quality can be detected between an HDMI cable costing £20 or £200. What I have found is a lot of anecdotal evidence from people who have invested in these

I recently attempted to take some exercise at my local gym and failed miserably. Not through injury or lack of motivation, but simply because I have not yet completed a gym induction programme. Prevented from using the treadmill, I was instead allowed to go for a swim (without any armbands)! The previous day I was also permitted to play squash in the same sports centre without any induction. So what carries more risk - squash or a treadmill? A quick literature search found one paper* that looked at hospital admissions relating to squash injuries in Victoria, Australia between 2000 and 2001. The authors found an overall injury rate of 35.5 injured players per 100,000. Over 90% of these patients were not admitted to the hospital and were discharged the same day. As for running on a treadmill, I couldn't find any meaningful numbers relating to hospital admissions based on running inside or outside. Using some common sense, running inside is likely to be safer than running