[Chris O'Carroll]

No 4238
Set by Adair R Fyn
The BBC received criticism for its dumbed-down coverage of the Diamond Jubilee. We asked for excerpts from reporting on the Olympics attempting to rectify that image and aimed at intellectuals.

This week’s winners
Well done. A goodly list of hon menshes this week: Bill Greenwell, Adrian Fry, Lance Levens, Sylvia Fairley, G M Davis and Chris O’Carroll. We were indeed sorry to lose you all, but especially Mr Levens as he is a newcomer to the comp complex: “Antithesis was just one of the Barthesian figures alluded to this morning by the French analysts at the incredible men’s 100m dash, a veritable ‘S/Z’ of black-white, lean-buff, tight shorts-loose shorts . . .” The winners can have £25 each, with the Tesco vouchers going, in addition, to D A Prince.

The graphics of difference
Commentator: “We are looking, I think, at the graphics of difference between the effective and the virtual. Pace Derrida, in the men’s relay, the theme of supplementarity is one theme among many, but it is essentially an effective chain. If you observe – over in the left lane – how the Lithuanian team considers the logic of conceptual opposition, you may come, in all probability, to an understanding of its superb articulation of inevitable forward motion in the idiomatic code of the racetrack. The value of empiricism is nowhere more evident than in the “responsibility” – a term we can alter, when the surface necessities have been achieved – of one runner to the next, in the being-chain where the substance of the text is translated. And not only with the Lithuanians: this totality of coherence in the metaphor of relay can be fully achieved only in the ultimate – oh, and the French appear to have won.”
D A Prince

The five-sigma rule
Commentator: “Well, here we are at Weymouth on a breezy day reminiscent of the conditions described in the fifth book of The Aeneid. Whether the competitors will emulate the skill of Mnestheus remains to be seen. We recognise the five-sigma rule does not apply to determining a significant difference between timings, although Kullback (1964) argues that a type-three extreme value distribution is more relevant than the lognormal in such situations. As to weather conditions, we’re in Hardy country, where the likes of Bathsheba Everdene are busy moving their flocks inland, whereas the smugglers at Moonfleet might find a good opportunity for their business. We expect the Americans to be particularly strong here, although, according to Duckworth (1985), the probability of raising a champion is proportional to the square root of population size. Now it does appear that one of the boats has already crossed the line . . .”
Gavin Ross

Capturing the zeitgeist
—“Well, Gary – as Ovid put it – ‘Truly now is the golden age; the highest honour comes by means of gold’. Now there’s a meme that is capturing the zeitgeist, as Team GB exceed our best hopes.”
—“Spot on, Colin, and in the words of Shakespeare: ‘Full many a glorious morning have I seen’. But to continue that trope, ‘. . . the basest cloud to ride/With ugly rack on the celestial face’ of this morning is Usain Bolt in the 100m final.”
—“Indeed: ‘Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?’”
—“Well, ‘Nature has fixed no limits on our hopes.’”
—“Aristotle’s Ars Rhetorica, Gary?”
—“Björk’s 2007 album Volta, Colin.”
Keith Mason

The science of projectile motion
Commentator: “The parabolic arc trajectory of a projectile in motion is a thing of beauty. Nowhere is this more empirically verifiable than in the Italian and French beach volleyball teams. And how appropriate this match is: the science of projectile motion surely has its origins in the work of that father of beach volleyball, Galileo Galilei, while France gave us the Cartesian co-ordinates to describe it. Who can forget René Descartes’s x + p = √(x-p)² + y², describing the curves traced by the vertical and horizontal axes of symmetry and acceleration due to gravitational pull? Descartes’s quadratic equations present us with the indispensable formula for predicting parabolic arcs, assisting us in our efforts to gain a mental grasp of curves in the physical world around us. Just take a look as Marta Menegatti tees it up for Greta Cicolari to give Italy the lead!”
David Silverman

Hon menshes this week for Bill Greenwell, Adrian Fry, Lance Levens, and me, with a special shout-out to Lance.