Published: July 27, 2010
The buyer, Mr Azima, plans to install it in his garden in Kansas City.Waterloo revengedA lock of Napoleon Bonaparte’s hair fetched £3,680 at auction, while a lock of the Duke of Wellington’s went to the same buyer for only £598.Foot patrolAustralian police in Victoria are hunting a man who has entered 18 homes through unlocked windows or doors, has never stolen anything, but, says a police spokesperson: “sneaks in and tickles the feet of young children, mainly boys … The ban was announced following reports of pigs suffering after eating toothpick-polluted leftovers.Garden noseThe 24ft-long, 5ft-high nose from a prototype of Concorde was sold at auction for £36,700. Paul Patterson, head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music, says Sibelius 7 will advance music by enabling composers to write pieces that are impossible to play. He quoted the pianist Alfred Brendel, who once said that Ligeti’s music needed five hands.
“This, of course, cuts out a number of very good performers,” Mr Patterson noted.
Musical peesA Dutch inventor, Wim van Vugt, has produced a battery-operated nappy that plays a tune when wet.No toothpick banComplaints from the public in South Korea have led to the reversal of a ban on toothpicks in restaurants. Sibelius 7 reads music, transforming it into electrical impulses that power pistons to depress keys on a piano. Why did declarer play East, rather than West, for the diamond king? Because West had passed as dealer and had already shown up with 10 points.At the other table, West was far more with it. As before, his 10 of hearts was allowed to win the third trick but he then found the brilliant switch to the eight of diamonds – just the right card Alas, East was not on the ball. When dummy played low, he ruined everything by putting in his jack. After that, a later finesse of dummy’s nine of diamonds established declarer’s ninth trick and the contract..
Musical chips
A computer wearing a bow tie performed two piano works by the Hungarian Gyorgy Ligeti. Then he led a low diamond to the nine, end-playing East who had to discard a diamond away from his king or concede a ruff and discard. A low heart was returned and West’s 10 was allowed to win.One West woodenly played a second heart Now it was easy for South. He won, drew trumps, ruffed a heart on the table (revealing that West had started with the king) and came to hand with a trump. (Their opponents, perhaps deterred by the vulnerability, really had been rather timid for they would have had a fair play for Four Hearts.)West led the ace of clubs, on which East signalled with the queen, and continued with a low club to East’s 10. East-West game; dealer West
North4 J 9 8 6 5 3! A 9pounds Q 9 52 9 2West East4 7 4 2! K 10 7 ! Q J 6 4 2pounds 10 8 7 6 pounds K J 22 A K 7 4 3 2 Q J 10 5South4 A K Q 10 4! 8 5 3pounds A 4 32 8 6The bidding was the same at both tables: after three passes South opened One Spade, North raised to Three Spades and South made a well judged pass to end matters.