I keep forgetting to mention it
but was I the only person in the world to catch that sneaky little gay joke thrown out in 'Time Crash'?:
"Does he still have that rubbish beard?"
"No, no beard this time - oh well, ---a wife."
Beard - wife - mwha-ha-ha-ha.
"Does he still have that rubbish beard?"
"No, no beard this time - oh well, ---a wife."
Beard - wife - mwha-ha-ha-ha.
'Voyage of the Damned' -notes
Here's some of my rough notes on 'The Voyage of the Damned'. Please be aware there'd be no point in reading this if you haven't watched this episode first.
--- --- ---
I did have a mini rant all prepared about the Tardis repairing it's self – saying if it could do that – why then where any of the doctors ever seen endlessly tinkering with it. Then on the second viewing I realised that the doctor had just rewound time by a few minutes and then just simply re-materialised inside the Titanic. D'oh.
--- --- ---
That Tux again heh? 'This suit is really unlucky'. OK so when do the rumours that Tennant is being considered as the next James Bond start?
--- --- ---
Same old same old.
There is one big problem whenever you do any series - and that's the ideas start to dry up and you unconsciously start repeating yourself.
In this case -after not very much thought I came to realise how many elements there were where RTD had directly recycled from the first Season's 2nd episode 'the End of the Earth'.
Consider the similarities between the villains, in 'the End of the Earth'. Cassandra was a character who was reduced through hundreds of years of plastic surgery to being nothing more than a head and all her skin stretched flat onto a trampoline frame. She was attended by robots - 'the Adherents of the Repeated Meme' - and her Surgeon Moisturisers - (who may just as well have been robots, maybe they were - I'm not sure) - oh and those cute little spider things.
Her motive was to sabotage the Platform and create a hostage situation. Using this to manipulate the markets and trade in the stocks and shares of her own and of her rivals to make herself even richer.
In 'the Voyage' the villain Max Capricorn - is just a head in a massive life support machine attended by his robots - the hosts. His motive being to fatally sabotage his own ship and consequently make a killing (excuse the lame pun) by deals in the stocks and shares in his and other companies.
There were also a few elements of all this in Season 2's 'Age of Steel' John Lumic of Cybus Industries here too. What with his total dependency on his life support machine at first only to be finally be reduced to being only his brain transplanted into the Cyber controller body.
Two is a coincidence, but three – three is a theme. What is RTD telling us about what he thinks about the very rich, very corrupt heads of gigantic corporations?
--- --- ---
Have you noticed how all the doors and walls and shields and whatever in all these episodes spread out over all the different seasons speak. All in the same kind of female voice too.
--- --- ---
What is it with all the kissing? I'm sure that RTD saw the McGann Doctor kissing his companion for the first time ever in the TV Movie and ever since can't resist getting his companions to kiss his Doctors at every opportunity. It's a worrying trend and I do wish he'd give it a rest now. Or maybe he's softening us up to the idea that at some point the Doctor is going to settle down and have himself a family. But maybe the shock idea there is that the Timelords turn out to be biologically polygamous and can't actually even mate until they have a whole bevy of women around them. That's why there are going to be all his recent female companions returning at the end of this series all so that he can have his harem – they'll all go away for 2009 - and after he returns he'll have dozens of little baby timelords running about the place... and they can extend the Doctor Who franchise that way. They could even make the show more like a sitcom - a sort of Timelord Brady Bunch... Wouldn't that be fun?
OK I'm getting carried away now.
--- --- ---
Not nuclear fission - not nuclear fusion - but Nuclear Storm Drives. OK.
--- --- ---
Very sick and tired of hearing the phrase 'Dead Lock Seal' now. Please give this a rest.
Russell really loves his religious iconography doesn't he. It should be pretty obvious that his Doctor is a but a continuation of his version of Jesus as written in his mini drama 'the Second Coming'. Down to even having the same lead actor. But from his literal miraculous rebirth and walking on air godlike-ness in 'the Last of the Timelords' to this business being held by the angels and ascending -if not exactly into heaven but at least the control deck of the ship in this episode.
Well, it's all a bit of a worry.
Wonder if Martha will end up setting up her own 'Church of the Last Time Lord'? She's a year long practise of doing that after all.
[update: turns out I not been the only one to notice this - the rather silly Stephen Green - (a successor to Mary Whitehouse) has been making a fuss about it.
--- --- ---
What was that business with the Queen all about? That was just all out silly. From the commentary they had considered crashing the Titanic into the Palace. But they bottled out on that idea at the last minute. Which was a pity, it could have been a nice recurring theme that the Doctor should end up pissing off all the British Queens all throughout history. Second point - however did she know it was the Doctor piloting the ship?
--- --- ---
I did have a mini rant all prepared about the Tardis repairing it's self – saying if it could do that – why then where any of the doctors ever seen endlessly tinkering with it. Then on the second viewing I realised that the doctor had just rewound time by a few minutes and then just simply re-materialised inside the Titanic. D'oh.
--- --- ---
That Tux again heh? 'This suit is really unlucky'. OK so when do the rumours that Tennant is being considered as the next James Bond start?
--- --- ---
Same old same old.
There is one big problem whenever you do any series - and that's the ideas start to dry up and you unconsciously start repeating yourself.
In this case -after not very much thought I came to realise how many elements there were where RTD had directly recycled from the first Season's 2nd episode 'the End of the Earth'.
Consider the similarities between the villains, in 'the End of the Earth'. Cassandra was a character who was reduced through hundreds of years of plastic surgery to being nothing more than a head and all her skin stretched flat onto a trampoline frame. She was attended by robots - 'the Adherents of the Repeated Meme' - and her Surgeon Moisturisers - (who may just as well have been robots, maybe they were - I'm not sure) - oh and those cute little spider things.
Her motive was to sabotage the Platform and create a hostage situation. Using this to manipulate the markets and trade in the stocks and shares of her own and of her rivals to make herself even richer.
In 'the Voyage' the villain Max Capricorn - is just a head in a massive life support machine attended by his robots - the hosts. His motive being to fatally sabotage his own ship and consequently make a killing (excuse the lame pun) by deals in the stocks and shares in his and other companies.
There were also a few elements of all this in Season 2's 'Age of Steel' John Lumic of Cybus Industries here too. What with his total dependency on his life support machine at first only to be finally be reduced to being only his brain transplanted into the Cyber controller body.
Two is a coincidence, but three – three is a theme. What is RTD telling us about what he thinks about the very rich, very corrupt heads of gigantic corporations?
--- --- ---
Have you noticed how all the doors and walls and shields and whatever in all these episodes spread out over all the different seasons speak. All in the same kind of female voice too.
--- --- ---
What is it with all the kissing? I'm sure that RTD saw the McGann Doctor kissing his companion for the first time ever in the TV Movie and ever since can't resist getting his companions to kiss his Doctors at every opportunity. It's a worrying trend and I do wish he'd give it a rest now. Or maybe he's softening us up to the idea that at some point the Doctor is going to settle down and have himself a family. But maybe the shock idea there is that the Timelords turn out to be biologically polygamous and can't actually even mate until they have a whole bevy of women around them. That's why there are going to be all his recent female companions returning at the end of this series all so that he can have his harem – they'll all go away for 2009 - and after he returns he'll have dozens of little baby timelords running about the place... and they can extend the Doctor Who franchise that way. They could even make the show more like a sitcom - a sort of Timelord Brady Bunch... Wouldn't that be fun?
OK I'm getting carried away now.
--- --- ---
Not nuclear fission - not nuclear fusion - but Nuclear Storm Drives. OK.
--- --- ---
Very sick and tired of hearing the phrase 'Dead Lock Seal' now. Please give this a rest.
Russell really loves his religious iconography doesn't he. It should be pretty obvious that his Doctor is a but a continuation of his version of Jesus as written in his mini drama 'the Second Coming'. Down to even having the same lead actor. But from his literal miraculous rebirth and walking on air godlike-ness in 'the Last of the Timelords' to this business being held by the angels and ascending -if not exactly into heaven but at least the control deck of the ship in this episode.
Well, it's all a bit of a worry.
Wonder if Martha will end up setting up her own 'Church of the Last Time Lord'? She's a year long practise of doing that after all.
[update: turns out I not been the only one to notice this - the rather silly Stephen Green - (a successor to Mary Whitehouse) has been making a fuss about it.
--- --- ---
What was that business with the Queen all about? That was just all out silly. From the commentary they had considered crashing the Titanic into the Palace. But they bottled out on that idea at the last minute. Which was a pity, it could have been a nice recurring theme that the Doctor should end up pissing off all the British Queens all throughout history. Second point - however did she know it was the Doctor piloting the ship?
Cancelled TV shows and resolution... [Archive] - RPGnet Forums
I'm watching the occasional episode of Odyssey 5 which currently being run on the UK Sci-fi channel. (Which is pretty much THE home for many a short lived TV series.)
It is scary how many tv series that there has been with unresolved story arcs. There needs to be a magazine or a book or a website where creators would be obligated to tell us how the story arcs where going to be given proper closure.
If I was able to do it - I'd call it - 'Raiders of the Lost Story Arc'.
Cancelled TV shows and resolution... [Archive] - RPGnet Forums
It is scary how many tv series that there has been with unresolved story arcs. There needs to be a magazine or a book or a website where creators would be obligated to tell us how the story arcs where going to be given proper closure.
If I was able to do it - I'd call it - 'Raiders of the Lost Story Arc'.
Cancelled TV shows and resolution... [Archive] - RPGnet Forums
Step Away From The Credit Card: Is Consumerism Killing Democracy?
"It's what I call push capitalism. It's supply side. They've got to sell all this stuff, and they have to figure out how to get us to want it. So they take adults and they infantilize them. They dumb them down. They get us to want things."
Political scientist Benjamin Barber thinks mindless spending is killing America.
Car advertising
So there's been this prize winning tv commercial on for a while now - where bakers make a life-size replica cake car. Which y'know is all kinda cute n'all But part of me is thinking "oh,so as well as killing people in accidents, air pollution, global warming, oil wars, oil pollution, etc. Now they want to link cars with obesity and diabetes. Bizarre."
Apparently they were going to give the cake car to local schools and charities and hospitals and the like to eat. But it ended up being composted instead. What a terrible waste.
Apparently they were going to give the cake car to local schools and charities and hospitals and the like to eat. But it ended up being composted instead. What a terrible waste.
Nu Who preview series 4 trailer
What have we got here then?
Sontarans . Ooooh, lots of Sontarans.
[not one of my favourite villains I have to confess. Although maybe the nu who will change my mind.]
Very many soldiers in red berets running around. A black soldier guy screaming or shouting (is he Martha's dad – or something? I've seen that face/actor before somewhere.)
An eeeeeevil businesswoman welding a (or is that *the*) sonic screwdriver and a red and white pill.
Ancient Rome.
A giant bee crashing through a window. No one has mentioned giant bees before. (Bet that's from the first episode of the new series. Maybe.)
Agatha Christie -lots of her. They obviously like her.
3 women in red robes – one of whom goes all Skeletor on us. (Are they in Pompeii still? Is this the 'Shakespeare Code' revisited?)
Ood.
Quick shot of Martha being held back by soldiers or guards ... (reminds me of the end of Season 3 with Saxon's henchmen taking away Martha's family.)
A hi-tech coffin or freezer or something opening.
The brief return of Bernard Cribbins. That's interesting, isn't he too big a star to just be used as a cameo part? Mmmmm.
A ginger vicar... 'this has certainly been a most entertaining evening'.
---no hint of any Daleks? mmmmmmm? But as before there's never any hint of the big bad this early in the game. In fact they'll be still putting in the final touches to the CGI effects around now.
Sontarans . Ooooh, lots of Sontarans.
[not one of my favourite villains I have to confess. Although maybe the nu who will change my mind.]
Very many soldiers in red berets running around. A black soldier guy screaming or shouting (is he Martha's dad – or something? I've seen that face/actor before somewhere.)
An eeeeeevil businesswoman welding a (or is that *the*) sonic screwdriver and a red and white pill.
Ancient Rome.
A giant bee crashing through a window. No one has mentioned giant bees before. (Bet that's from the first episode of the new series. Maybe.)
Agatha Christie -lots of her. They obviously like her.
3 women in red robes – one of whom goes all Skeletor on us. (Are they in Pompeii still? Is this the 'Shakespeare Code' revisited?)
Ood.
Quick shot of Martha being held back by soldiers or guards ... (reminds me of the end of Season 3 with Saxon's henchmen taking away Martha's family.)
A hi-tech coffin or freezer or something opening.
The brief return of Bernard Cribbins. That's interesting, isn't he too big a star to just be used as a cameo part? Mmmmm.
A ginger vicar... 'this has certainly been a most entertaining evening'.
---no hint of any Daleks? mmmmmmm? But as before there's never any hint of the big bad this early in the game. In fact they'll be still putting in the final touches to the CGI effects around now.
Titanic Survivor raps Doctor Who
Jaded tired tabloid Hack - totally desperate for a few column inches to fill a really slow news day takes it upon them self to ring up the last remaining survivor of the Titanic for a quick soundbite. Everyone involved ends up looking rather foolish. But never mind eh.
Doctor Who | Xmas special | Who Titanic survivor rap | The Sun
Doctor Who | Xmas special | Who Titanic survivor rap | The Sun
Speculation Who
Every year since the new series - I've kept a notebook about Doctor Who – this year I thought I might as well put some of my current notes online. Well, I have started doing a Media course. So this reviewy - newsy, gossipy stuff is all good practice for me. Or so I can tell myself.
So even before the new series starts- the speculation has already been stacking up and up.
Fitting together what we know for certain with details that have been already confirmed is...
They'll be the usual 13 episodes this year – but the year after that there'll only be four specials.
The first episode of the new season is going to see the re-introduction of Donna as the season's new regular companion. [I am so worried about this. Please don't ruin it Catherine – oh, please don't ruin it.] It's likely to be called "Partners In Crime" and it's been written by RTD.
Ex-Coronation Street actress Sarah Lancashire will be in it playing a powerful businesswoman, very probably an eeeeeevil businesswoman - and at some point she will hold up a red and white pill and proclaim "This is the spark of life".
They're going to visit ancient Pompeii on volcano day. (Wonder if they'll cross paths with a young Captain Jack wandering around in the background back when he was a conman and long before he met the Doctor? Because I like the idea of that continuity being played out. But it's unlikely to happen I guess.)
This year the writer they're going to meet is Agatha Christie. No doubt this story line will feature that part of her life where she mysteriously vanished for a few days in 1929.
[The Doctor has now met on-screen Shakespeare, Dickens, and H G Wells, and I don't know who else in other media or spoken lines. I'll have to start a list.]
They're going to visit the planet of the Ood.
There's going to be a two-parter featuring the return of the Sontarians. One of whom is going to be played by that short actor bloke that used to be in 'the Young Ones'. Which strikes me as being -ood, sorry, odd. It's going to be called "The Sontaran Strategem" - and Helen Raynor is the writer.
[source.]
There's been heavy speculation that Davros will be the 'big bad' this season. Whether or not he'll be played by Ben Kingsley remains to be seen – I can easily see him in the part as a young Davros. And Kingsley certainly needs to redeem himself a bit after that dreadful Thunderbirds movie. I'm speculating that Dalek Caan has decided to have a quick temporal shift to visit the creator of the Daleks to help recreate the race – perhaps give Davros a few pointers on how to improve overall the traveling machine design. Something like that.
[another source.]
The finale is going to be a very big thing with four companions Donna, Martha, Sarah Jane, and Rose having to help or rescue the doctor or something. Will that be over two – or – three – or even four episodes? Will it spill over into next year somehow?
Extra links:
Helen Raynor interview.
So even before the new series starts- the speculation has already been stacking up and up.
Fitting together what we know for certain with details that have been already confirmed is...
They'll be the usual 13 episodes this year – but the year after that there'll only be four specials.
The first episode of the new season is going to see the re-introduction of Donna as the season's new regular companion. [I am so worried about this. Please don't ruin it Catherine – oh, please don't ruin it.] It's likely to be called "Partners In Crime" and it's been written by RTD.
Ex-Coronation Street actress Sarah Lancashire will be in it playing a powerful businesswoman, very probably an eeeeeevil businesswoman - and at some point she will hold up a red and white pill and proclaim "This is the spark of life".
They're going to visit ancient Pompeii on volcano day. (Wonder if they'll cross paths with a young Captain Jack wandering around in the background back when he was a conman and long before he met the Doctor? Because I like the idea of that continuity being played out. But it's unlikely to happen I guess.)
This year the writer they're going to meet is Agatha Christie. No doubt this story line will feature that part of her life where she mysteriously vanished for a few days in 1929.
[The Doctor has now met on-screen Shakespeare, Dickens, and H G Wells, and I don't know who else in other media or spoken lines. I'll have to start a list.]
They're going to visit the planet of the Ood.
There's going to be a two-parter featuring the return of the Sontarians. One of whom is going to be played by that short actor bloke that used to be in 'the Young Ones'. Which strikes me as being -ood, sorry, odd. It's going to be called "The Sontaran Strategem" - and Helen Raynor is the writer.
[source.]
There's been heavy speculation that Davros will be the 'big bad' this season. Whether or not he'll be played by Ben Kingsley remains to be seen – I can easily see him in the part as a young Davros. And Kingsley certainly needs to redeem himself a bit after that dreadful Thunderbirds movie. I'm speculating that Dalek Caan has decided to have a quick temporal shift to visit the creator of the Daleks to help recreate the race – perhaps give Davros a few pointers on how to improve overall the traveling machine design. Something like that.
[another source.]
The finale is going to be a very big thing with four companions Donna, Martha, Sarah Jane, and Rose having to help or rescue the doctor or something. Will that be over two – or – three – or even four episodes? Will it spill over into next year somehow?
Extra links:
Helen Raynor interview.
this is freaky
Only the other day I was on the phone to a friend trying to explain the idea behind Alan Moore's 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' especially the second volume that hasn't been made into a film (yet) -and in passing I mentioned John Carter (I might have misnamed him Adam - I can't remember that well) but then I read today that's someone's going to make a film....
John Carter of Mars (film)
I need to get a job working in stocks and shares 'futures' - I'd clean up. I really would.
(Having said that - the film will probably turn out to be a massive flop just to spite me.
John Carter of Mars (film)
I need to get a job working in stocks and shares 'futures' - I'd clean up. I really would.
(Having said that - the film will probably turn out to be a massive flop just to spite me.
WALL-E : Official Site
Oh my. I've only seen the trailers - but already it's pushing all the right buttons...
A cute robot. The Brazil tune. Spaceships. Junk heaps... the future... Pixar. Oooooh can't wait.
WALL-E : Official Site
A cute robot. The Brazil tune. Spaceships. Junk heaps... the future... Pixar. Oooooh can't wait.
WALL-E : Official Site
Twister
(It's a pre-New Year's resolution that I'm going to start regularly writing about the TV shows I watch. So, that in mind, here's the first of them...)
As a rule I normally avoid all those 'worthy' costume dramas that the BBC has been churning out on a regular basis ever since ---forever. But today not able to find anything else better to watch (oh where oh where is that 'Paint Drying' digital channel they've been promising us for so long?) I let the new Oliver Twist drama play on ambiently in the background... and oh, it was crap. Really, really oh so, very crap. Pretty much as I'd expected really. It was chocful of big name star acting talent, (these things always are) – not actually doing very much. Despite the big names - I didn't get any sense of drama or of any good characterisation – just people with faces I know from the Telly in period clothes saying their lines and not falling over the furniture -unless actually required to. (There was a scene where someone was repeatedly kicked in the arse by a nasty woman until he fell over knocking furniture over as he did so.) So – it being a classic novel – this is what passes as quality entertainment does it? Um OK. Thanks – but if you don't mind I'll stick to the absolutely magnificent musical 'Oliver!'. Because that was real entertainment. I certainly can watch that again and again.
Of course it being Dickens and the BBC -there are all these class issues playing away on multiple levels – and don't we British absolutely love to steep ourselves in obsessing over issues about class. We're never ever interested in moving towards fairer equality or anything even remotely like that. Oh no. Just the unending painstaking mind-numbing, soul-crushing obsession. It's a sickness deep in the heart of our culture and has been holding us back from making any sort of real advancements in -well, anything much for the past hundred years or so. But never mind. Just so long as we all know our place. (*eyeroll*)
So here's the BBC is in it's old fundamental patronage (that's interchangeable with patronising) remit of bringing 'quality drama' to the masses (so that's usually just Shakespeare, Dickens, Bronte, and Austin then) and here having the tortured tale of the underclasses and the upper middle class all doing their thing. Oh please give me a break.
As a rule I normally avoid all those 'worthy' costume dramas that the BBC has been churning out on a regular basis ever since ---forever. But today not able to find anything else better to watch (oh where oh where is that 'Paint Drying' digital channel they've been promising us for so long?) I let the new Oliver Twist drama play on ambiently in the background... and oh, it was crap. Really, really oh so, very crap. Pretty much as I'd expected really. It was chocful of big name star acting talent, (these things always are) – not actually doing very much. Despite the big names - I didn't get any sense of drama or of any good characterisation – just people with faces I know from the Telly in period clothes saying their lines and not falling over the furniture -unless actually required to. (There was a scene where someone was repeatedly kicked in the arse by a nasty woman until he fell over knocking furniture over as he did so.) So – it being a classic novel – this is what passes as quality entertainment does it? Um OK. Thanks – but if you don't mind I'll stick to the absolutely magnificent musical 'Oliver!'. Because that was real entertainment. I certainly can watch that again and again.
Of course it being Dickens and the BBC -there are all these class issues playing away on multiple levels – and don't we British absolutely love to steep ourselves in obsessing over issues about class. We're never ever interested in moving towards fairer equality or anything even remotely like that. Oh no. Just the unending painstaking mind-numbing, soul-crushing obsession. It's a sickness deep in the heart of our culture and has been holding us back from making any sort of real advancements in -well, anything much for the past hundred years or so. But never mind. Just so long as we all know our place. (*eyeroll*)
So here's the BBC is in it's old fundamental patronage (that's interchangeable with patronising) remit of bringing 'quality drama' to the masses (so that's usually just Shakespeare, Dickens, Bronte, and Austin then) and here having the tortured tale of the underclasses and the upper middle class all doing their thing. Oh please give me a break.
Article Recounts Sony's Rootkit Debacle In Detail
The Retardo World of Crippleware.
Seriously what were Sony thinking?
Copyright: Article Recounts Sony's Rootkit Debacle In Detail
Seriously what were Sony thinking?
Copyright: Article Recounts Sony's Rootkit Debacle In Detail
David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars
interesting stuff.
but how is the RIAA going to carry on picking people's pockets to maintain it's own bloated greedy existence?
but how is the RIAA going to carry on picking people's pockets to maintain it's own bloated greedy existence?
never a truer word...
Just this minute seen the BBC advertise that they'll be soon showing the big movie version of 'the Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and they ended with a sound clip from the movie of Marvin saying 'I've seen it - it's rubbish'.
He's telling the truth.
He's telling the truth.
Database Nation The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century
Something for my wishlist.
And ammunition against all those drooling idiots who go around chanting 'if you've nothing to hide - you've nothing to fear'. I always want these people to give me all their bank details, copies of their medical records and any dairies they've been keeping. If they've got nothing to hide - what harm could it do?
Amazon.co.uk: Database Nation The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century: Books: S Garfinkel
And ammunition against all those drooling idiots who go around chanting 'if you've nothing to hide - you've nothing to fear'. I always want these people to give me all their bank details, copies of their medical records and any dairies they've been keeping. If they've got nothing to hide - what harm could it do?
Amazon.co.uk: Database Nation The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century: Books: S Garfinkel
knol
Ooooh - a Googly challenge to wikipedia.
Official Google Blog: Encouraging people to contribute knowledge
Official Google Blog: Encouraging people to contribute knowledge
Basra
So I was watching this afternoon's news on the BBC and they had this piece on how – according to a a new opinion poll - over 85% of Basra residents believe UK troops have had a negative effect on the Iraqi province since the 2003 invasion. Part of the report ( watch it here ) showed how there were dire warnings painted on street walls put there by the Militia – threatening women with death if they aren't following the strict dress codes. (As far as I can gather the Koran only actually urges that women should 'dress modestly' and which other Mullahs and clerics have since interpreted as meaning that women should cover themselves from head to toe.) It's no idle threat either – as something like 40 women have been murdered in the streets in the past few months. Consequently many women there are living in fear – well, wouldn't you be if you knew that you could just be randomly shot dead by some sniper who'd taken a dislike to the way you were dressed. Think of a sort of psychotic Trinny and Susannah welding sniper rifles. The fact that killing someone in cold blood is a far bigger sin than violating dress codes in Islamic law is something conveniently forgotten/overlooked/ignored by the Militia. Odd that huh?
All this reminded me of that news piece earlier this year when there was that 24 year old teaching assistant who made such a big ridiculous fuss over insisting on to be allowed to wear her veil to work. I wonder if she's watching all this on the news and thinking "Wow, this is great. I want to live there. That's the place for me."
Because we should set up some sort of exchange program we really should.
All this reminded me of that news piece earlier this year when there was that 24 year old teaching assistant who made such a big ridiculous fuss over insisting on to be allowed to wear her veil to work. I wonder if she's watching all this on the news and thinking "Wow, this is great. I want to live there. That's the place for me."
Because we should set up some sort of exchange program we really should.
Credit card crunch time
Channel 4 prog on the oncoming credit card crunch. Boo-fucking-hoo.
A suggestion: Can the general public just possibly try to stop being so damn droolingly moronically sheepishly stupid for a moment. It's a plain fact you don't have to spend umpteen times your annual income to have a 'merry Christmas'. So just stop it. Tell the retailers to fuck off - simply stop spending money on utter crap. Only buy the things you need - not what you think you should have - and not what you think you deserve, certainly not what you think will make you happy. You'll find that Shops and manufacturers will soon start bringing their prices down once they find they can't rip off people as readily as they've been able to do recently.
Bizarre that it's only just started to start to dawn on people that buying things on credit is a dumb thing to do. All banks aren't ever your friend - they don't have your best interests at heart - you're just a cash cow to them... they want your money and they'll scheme and lie and connive to extract as much of it out of you as they can - and when they've squeezed out every last penny they can they'll throw your broken dried out husk aside (usually onto the debt collection agencies) and move onto their next victim.
My prediction for this year - there'll be report after report that the sales figures in the run up to Christmas will be the worst ever on record and retailers will be openly crying in the streets pretending they're facing ruin - but about five minutes later they'll be reports that the January sales will be the best ever... and so the retailers will be dancing for joy in the streets. Oh, and more people will have done their shopping on line than before. I make these predictions knowing that this has been the same 'news' year in year out for ...ever since I can remember. I'm only surprised that the media can manage to pass this off as news while maintaining a straight face.
A suggestion: Can the general public just possibly try to stop being so damn droolingly moronically sheepishly stupid for a moment. It's a plain fact you don't have to spend umpteen times your annual income to have a 'merry Christmas'. So just stop it. Tell the retailers to fuck off - simply stop spending money on utter crap. Only buy the things you need - not what you think you should have - and not what you think you deserve, certainly not what you think will make you happy. You'll find that Shops and manufacturers will soon start bringing their prices down once they find they can't rip off people as readily as they've been able to do recently.
Bizarre that it's only just started to start to dawn on people that buying things on credit is a dumb thing to do. All banks aren't ever your friend - they don't have your best interests at heart - you're just a cash cow to them... they want your money and they'll scheme and lie and connive to extract as much of it out of you as they can - and when they've squeezed out every last penny they can they'll throw your broken dried out husk aside (usually onto the debt collection agencies) and move onto their next victim.
My prediction for this year - there'll be report after report that the sales figures in the run up to Christmas will be the worst ever on record and retailers will be openly crying in the streets pretending they're facing ruin - but about five minutes later they'll be reports that the January sales will be the best ever... and so the retailers will be dancing for joy in the streets. Oh, and more people will have done their shopping on line than before. I make these predictions knowing that this has been the same 'news' year in year out for ...ever since I can remember. I'm only surprised that the media can manage to pass this off as news while maintaining a straight face.
Depressing: The Subprime Meltdown Is The Tip Of The Credit Iceberg
There are a few reasons why I'm fascinated by this whole debt thing...
1. I've been looking into going back into full education and the whole student loan thing that was started off by Conservative Government and just continued on by the Labour Government - as if it was ever a good idea, and it was only them blindly copying the American system without ever taking account of it's flaws - d'oh! All it means is that young educated people start their careers with a massive millstone of debt around their necks.
2. The growth and growth of Home ownership - yet another great Thatcher invention. Oh yes, let's get rid of social housing, have things like negative equity, boom and bust, and engineer it so that all the key workers that the self-interested, self-obsessed middle classes rely on can't even afford to live anywhere near where they work. Brilliant idea.
3. Letting banks have far too much power. Where does that come from? Why can't their customers bill their banks for compensation when they fuck up - and have to spend time and effort sorting out the bank's mistakes?
4. I've got a sneaking suspicion that keeping the population in debt is a neat way of keeping everyone under state control. Before we had plain and simple slavery - but ever since we had the Industrial Revolution and consumerism - we've had the working population putting themselves into deeper and deeper debt to maintain a lifestyle they automatically assume they deserve. No one's going to rock the boat when they think they've got something to lose. It's such a shame then that oil/fuel prices, environmental issues, are soon going to rock the boat for everyone. Maybe that's partly behind why Governments are trying to tag the population with ID cards and constantly trying to keep us afraid of terrorist threats... it'll be the next round of controls they're trying to put into place when the banking system starts to show signs of crumbling.
Depressing: The Subprime Meltdown Is The Tip Of The Credit Iceberg
1. I've been looking into going back into full education and the whole student loan thing that was started off by Conservative Government and just continued on by the Labour Government - as if it was ever a good idea, and it was only them blindly copying the American system without ever taking account of it's flaws - d'oh! All it means is that young educated people start their careers with a massive millstone of debt around their necks.
2. The growth and growth of Home ownership - yet another great Thatcher invention. Oh yes, let's get rid of social housing, have things like negative equity, boom and bust, and engineer it so that all the key workers that the self-interested, self-obsessed middle classes rely on can't even afford to live anywhere near where they work. Brilliant idea.
3. Letting banks have far too much power. Where does that come from? Why can't their customers bill their banks for compensation when they fuck up - and have to spend time and effort sorting out the bank's mistakes?
4. I've got a sneaking suspicion that keeping the population in debt is a neat way of keeping everyone under state control. Before we had plain and simple slavery - but ever since we had the Industrial Revolution and consumerism - we've had the working population putting themselves into deeper and deeper debt to maintain a lifestyle they automatically assume they deserve. No one's going to rock the boat when they think they've got something to lose. It's such a shame then that oil/fuel prices, environmental issues, are soon going to rock the boat for everyone. Maybe that's partly behind why Governments are trying to tag the population with ID cards and constantly trying to keep us afraid of terrorist threats... it'll be the next round of controls they're trying to put into place when the banking system starts to show signs of crumbling.
Depressing: The Subprime Meltdown Is The Tip Of The Credit Iceberg
Dan Dare: Yesterday's Hero Returns
You know - I don't think I've ever read an original Frank Hampson Dan Dare story - but I've definitely read the 2000 AD version (blergh) and I really liked the Grant Morrison/Rian Hughes POMO version in Revolver...
and wasn't there/isn't there a horrible CGI animated version shown on TV not so long ago -or am I getting that confused with the horrible CGI verion of Captain Scarlet?
But I digress --- so there's a new version out is there? Oh OK. If it ever comes my way I'll have a leaf through it - but thats quite unlikely... I certainly shan't be making a point of searching it out.
Dan Dare: Yesterday's Hero Returns
and wasn't there/isn't there a horrible CGI animated version shown on TV not so long ago -or am I getting that confused with the horrible CGI verion of Captain Scarlet?
But I digress --- so there's a new version out is there? Oh OK. If it ever comes my way I'll have a leaf through it - but thats quite unlikely... I certainly shan't be making a point of searching it out.
Dan Dare: Yesterday's Hero Returns
Reuters-Nokia Mobile Journalism Toolkit and mindset.
Reuters-Nokia Mobile Journalism Toolkit and mindset.: "Reuters-Nokia Mobile Journalism Toolkit and mindset"
the 90s = the 60s done wrong.
So here I am both downloading a documentary on Andy Warhol from the internets and ambiently watching 'Spiceworld: the movie' on uktv Gold which I've actually never seen before. And they've got to a scene where where film writer/manager types are imagining what they could do with them for a film or something - and they tout this 'Spice Force Five' idea. Each Spice girl in a skimpy silver costume impersonating a 60s or 70s or 80s figure... cuing in in turn the theme music and styles from: 'Charlie's Angels', 'the Avengers', 'Wonder Woman', 'Mission Impossible'
and then it suddenly dawned on me - the whole of the 90s was all about trying to draw inspiration from and trying to recreate the energy and vibe of the 60s - and only getting it all terribly, terribly wrong.
The Spiceworld movie is the Spice Girls trying to do their own version of the Beatle's 'Help!'
Then to add support to this theory I remembered 'the Avengers' film with Ulma Thurman and Ralph Fiennes. That was ALL about trying to recreate all what was great about the 60s TV show and then making a total mess of it.
(I'm sure I could think of other examples of this if i were to put my mind to it.)
I guess this is part of what they call 'post-modern'. Blergh.
One of the things I'm finding so unutterably annoying about the Spiceworld movie - is that it's choc full of actors most of whom are vastly more talented than the Spice Girls -and here they are being totally wasted. A text book case of short term celebrity trumping genuine talent. Making it ultimately a rather depressing little document of the times.
and then it suddenly dawned on me - the whole of the 90s was all about trying to draw inspiration from and trying to recreate the energy and vibe of the 60s - and only getting it all terribly, terribly wrong.
The Spiceworld movie is the Spice Girls trying to do their own version of the Beatle's 'Help!'
Then to add support to this theory I remembered 'the Avengers' film with Ulma Thurman and Ralph Fiennes. That was ALL about trying to recreate all what was great about the 60s TV show and then making a total mess of it.
(I'm sure I could think of other examples of this if i were to put my mind to it.)
I guess this is part of what they call 'post-modern'. Blergh.
One of the things I'm finding so unutterably annoying about the Spiceworld movie - is that it's choc full of actors most of whom are vastly more talented than the Spice Girls -and here they are being totally wasted. A text book case of short term celebrity trumping genuine talent. Making it ultimately a rather depressing little document of the times.
How should Gordon Brown get the jobless back to work? - Telegraph
I love these comments - here you can see how the mind (I use the term loosely) of your typical Daily Telegraph reader works. I'm sorry to report that many of these thoughts don't stray too so far off from ideas first propagated by those oh - so enlightened souls (cough) in the German Nazi party...
How should Gordon Brown get the jobless back to work? - Telegraph coments
Just a couple of things I'd like to draw attention to - like how many MPs and county councilors claim quite unjustifiably high expenses*, and how many very wealthy landowners get EU subsides and UK taxpayers money for their farm land... and well, that's the just tip of the iceberg as far as tax-payers money is routinely wasted and/or mis-directed into the pockets of the already very wealthy. Yet who gets demonised the most? Oh yeah ... the poor get *all* the blame. [sarcasm] Of course it's so absolutely *their* fault by going around being poor the whole time - the bastards. They should stop being poor right this very second and then they'd be no problem - how dare they - The selfish bastards.
Aside from the warped and weird fantasy worlds the typical MP and the Daily Telegraph readers live in - when are we ever going to wake up to the plain stark fact that there are far more people in this country than there are actual jobs? And that it would help enormously if the working hours people do work were strictly curtailed, and a proper minimum wage put in place. Surely any business that can't afford to pay it's workers a decent living wage has no (cough) business being in business. Having the Government subsidize them in the form of tax credits etc. Only makes things worse.
and far more importantly - above all this - that it's actually NONE of the Governments business interfering in these matters. Especially since ALL Governments Tory or Labour - or whatever, only ever manage to mess everything up whenever they try. And why should that be? - it's because they always try to apply absurdly simplistic formulas to what are very complicated social trends. [this should come as no surprise given how breathtakingly stupid and totally clueless most MPs are - considering that they live from poll to poll, sound bite to sound bite, pandering to whatever they assume the likes of Daily Telegraph/Sun/Times reader are thinking - all for the sake of garnering a few more votes for themselves come the next election).
Links
Families due tax credit refund, say Tories.
Does an extra 17p an hour offer anything except more hardship?
* MP rents second home in London due to flashers on train.
How should Gordon Brown get the jobless back to work? - Telegraph coments
Just a couple of things I'd like to draw attention to - like how many MPs and county councilors claim quite unjustifiably high expenses*, and how many very wealthy landowners get EU subsides and UK taxpayers money for their farm land... and well, that's the just tip of the iceberg as far as tax-payers money is routinely wasted and/or mis-directed into the pockets of the already very wealthy. Yet who gets demonised the most? Oh yeah ... the poor get *all* the blame. [sarcasm] Of course it's so absolutely *their* fault by going around being poor the whole time - the bastards. They should stop being poor right this very second and then they'd be no problem - how dare they - The selfish bastards.
Aside from the warped and weird fantasy worlds the typical MP and the Daily Telegraph readers live in - when are we ever going to wake up to the plain stark fact that there are far more people in this country than there are actual jobs? And that it would help enormously if the working hours people do work were strictly curtailed, and a proper minimum wage put in place. Surely any business that can't afford to pay it's workers a decent living wage has no (cough) business being in business. Having the Government subsidize them in the form of tax credits etc. Only makes things worse.
and far more importantly - above all this - that it's actually NONE of the Governments business interfering in these matters. Especially since ALL Governments Tory or Labour - or whatever, only ever manage to mess everything up whenever they try. And why should that be? - it's because they always try to apply absurdly simplistic formulas to what are very complicated social trends. [this should come as no surprise given how breathtakingly stupid and totally clueless most MPs are - considering that they live from poll to poll, sound bite to sound bite, pandering to whatever they assume the likes of Daily Telegraph/Sun/Times reader are thinking - all for the sake of garnering a few more votes for themselves come the next election).
Links
Families due tax credit refund, say Tories.
Does an extra 17p an hour offer anything except more hardship?
* MP rents second home in London due to flashers on train.
BBC NEWS | UK | Golden Compass author hits back
The author of the book on which the new film The Golden Compass is based has hit back at critics who accuse him of peddling "candy-coated atheism".
Well - I guess if you're the sort of person who goes around believing a particular set of ancient fantasy stories are true - then it stands to reason you're going to be upset about other fantasy stories -whether new or ancient - because you might get them all confused. So of course it's a good idea as far as you're concerned to campaign against all other fantasy stories just in case you or anyone else gets them all mixed up. Certainly the very idea that anyone be allowed to think for themselves and be left to make their own minds up - is never a option.
How our Govt. treats our personal data
Oh Yes, let's trust our Govt. to put all our sensitive personal data into one giant database. It'll be safe in their hands. Oh yes. That ID card - national identity database thing - nothing can go wrong there. *Eyeroll*
BBC NEWS | UK's families put on fraud alert
Missing: 25m people's personal data.
25 million identities 'lost'
Another bad day for the database guys
BBC NEWS | UK's families put on fraud alert
Missing: 25m people's personal data.
25 million identities 'lost'
Another bad day for the database guys
Massively excellent opening titles - 1
1. Dexter.
The blood drop leitmotif. The wonderful, exquisite music - especially that final 'ting' that synchronizes perfectly with Dexter's wink. And Michael (breathtakingly - mouth-wateringly attractive) Hall in slo-mo -particularly when he pulls on his white t-shirt.
The blood drop leitmotif. The wonderful, exquisite music - especially that final 'ting' that synchronizes perfectly with Dexter's wink. And Michael (breathtakingly - mouth-wateringly attractive) Hall in slo-mo -particularly when he pulls on his white t-shirt.
Focus: Is it time to panic about the money crisis?
Rough times ahead huh? None of this comes as any surprise to me.
Stupid things humans have been doing wrong for the past 50 years or so...
1. Grew an over-reliance on oil. It's led to much of the on-going craziness going on in the middle East. If they hadn't the oil money to buy weapons with - what a nice quiet peaceful place it would be.
Ever since the first big oil crisis scare of the 1970s - you would have thought the Western world would have been putting massive investment into researching into other ways of obtaining clean, non-polluting renewal power - there's enough choices: wind, solar, wave, geo-thermal, fuel-cells - but oooooh no. Instead we'll just wait until we've extracted every last drop of oil out of the ground first... Might as well -since it's too late to do anything about global warning now.
2. Allowing the growth and growth and growth of the personal motor car. With all it's attendant pollution. The need for parking space, roads, the congestion, the insane rush hour traffic. And all of it's impact on the environment and on people's health. The stupidity of vast out-of-town shopping retail mega markets... the growth of hideous soulless suburbs - I could go on.
3. Globalisation. Getting way too much our food supplies grown over in other countries. Getting India and China to make/produce most of our material goods. Now it's only starting to prove to be not such a great idea when fuel prices are steadily getting higher and higher. Which is now neatly canceling out the advantages of cheaper raw materials and those lower labour costs... D'oh.
4. Buying houses as financial investments rather than as homes to live in.
5. Property developers insistently building poorly insulated, energy inefficient houses. Well, you've got to keep the electricity and gas companies profits coming in haven't you? Can't have their share-owners going hungry.
6. Junk jobs. Things like advertising, telemarketing, you know the sort of thing. It's as if there's a whole sub-section of the population being hired to expressly annoy everybody else.
There's so much more ...but I need a rest now.
Focus: Is it time to panic about the money crisis?
Stupid things humans have been doing wrong for the past 50 years or so...
1. Grew an over-reliance on oil. It's led to much of the on-going craziness going on in the middle East. If they hadn't the oil money to buy weapons with - what a nice quiet peaceful place it would be.
Ever since the first big oil crisis scare of the 1970s - you would have thought the Western world would have been putting massive investment into researching into other ways of obtaining clean, non-polluting renewal power - there's enough choices: wind, solar, wave, geo-thermal, fuel-cells - but oooooh no. Instead we'll just wait until we've extracted every last drop of oil out of the ground first... Might as well -since it's too late to do anything about global warning now.
2. Allowing the growth and growth and growth of the personal motor car. With all it's attendant pollution. The need for parking space, roads, the congestion, the insane rush hour traffic. And all of it's impact on the environment and on people's health. The stupidity of vast out-of-town shopping retail mega markets... the growth of hideous soulless suburbs - I could go on.
3. Globalisation. Getting way too much our food supplies grown over in other countries. Getting India and China to make/produce most of our material goods. Now it's only starting to prove to be not such a great idea when fuel prices are steadily getting higher and higher. Which is now neatly canceling out the advantages of cheaper raw materials and those lower labour costs... D'oh.
4. Buying houses as financial investments rather than as homes to live in.
5. Property developers insistently building poorly insulated, energy inefficient houses. Well, you've got to keep the electricity and gas companies profits coming in haven't you? Can't have their share-owners going hungry.
6. Junk jobs. Things like advertising, telemarketing, you know the sort of thing. It's as if there's a whole sub-section of the population being hired to expressly annoy everybody else.
There's so much more ...but I need a rest now.
Focus: Is it time to panic about the money crisis?
Michael Gartenberg - Computers in the kitchen
Jeez - look at that ugly monster - by which I mean the Apple.
Michael Gartenberg - Computers in the kitchen
Michael Gartenberg - Computers in the kitchen
Air passengers will be forced to give 53 pieces of personal information in new terror crackdown
Air passengers will be forced to give 53 pieces of personal information in new terror crackdown | the Daily Mail
Add this to the new biometric passports - with their linkage to the proposed ID cards and the National Identity database - and we're looking at a whole world of hurt. We will be chipped before long.
Add this to the new biometric passports - with their linkage to the proposed ID cards and the National Identity database - and we're looking at a whole world of hurt. We will be chipped before long.
Here comes the start of the police state
Say Bye bye to being able to traveling about freely. Bye bye to being able to go about your business without some official busybody wanting to stop and search you on a whim. Say hello to the beginnings of the Police state.
Brown announces new security measures | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics
Just to put things in perspective - I wonder how many people died in car accidents over the past few years - compared to how many people died in terrorist attacks?
And secondly - I'm wondering how much all of this is going to cost - and thirdly if we'll end up seeing a few more innocent people being shot by over-anxious police?
Brown announces new security measures | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics
Just to put things in perspective - I wonder how many people died in car accidents over the past few years - compared to how many people died in terrorist attacks?
And secondly - I'm wondering how much all of this is going to cost - and thirdly if we'll end up seeing a few more innocent people being shot by over-anxious police?
is the tide finally turning?
Let's hope so - it's long overdue.
Oregon Fights Back Against RIAA Subpoena | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Oregon Fights Back Against RIAA Subpoena | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Reality Distorton field on
The latest update to the mac OS is out (stifled yawn) - and ooooh look, some mac fanboy is STILL comparing macs to Windows 95. Pathetic.
Windows Machines Represented in Leopard With Blue Screen of Death
Windows Machines Represented in Leopard With Blue Screen of Death
William Gibson Hates Futurists
"How terrorism works in the broadest sense really is the inversion of the psychology of the lottery. The paradigms of asymmetrical warfare are such that one of the defining and unchanging characteristics of the terrorist is that he has very, very little in the way of stuff to work with. He can't really do much. He can kill a few people. He can knock down a few buildings in New York. But if he does it in a terroristically effective way, and if the society he does it to responds in what to the terrorist is the optimal way, everybody in society feels threatened. In spite of the fact that the odds of any given individual being done in by a terrorist's bomb are about the same odds of that individual winning the lottery.
"Terrorism is a con game. It doesn't always work. It depends on the society you are playing it on. It certainly has worked with the United States."
William Gibson Hates Futurists
Sister Sister
Ah-ah! It was driving me crazy – I knew I'd definitely seen the actress who played the sinister Sister Helen in the 'Eye of the Gorgon' story of the 'Sarah Jane adventures' somewhere before. Thanks to teh internets I now know – she's Beth Goddard and she played 'Suze' out of “Gimme Gimme Gimme”. Wowzer.
[Incidentally I notice the IMDB hasn't got this listed on her screen credits yet. Lame-o!]
[Incidentally I notice the IMDB hasn't got this listed on her screen credits yet. Lame-o!]
RIAA Hits a Sour Note
RIAA Hits a Sour Note With Its File-Sharing Witch Hunt
The RIAA, faced with plummeting CD sales and increasingly restive artists, wanted to "send a message" to all the lowlifes out there who download music for free and undercut their profit margins.
The message, apparently, is this: "We're idiots."
How to Not Feel Poor
Oh for f**ks sake. How lame is this advice? - 'How not to feel poor' - just carry a 100 dollar bill around with you that you know you're never going to spend. Er... if you can afford to carry a hundred dollar bill around just so not to feel poor - then ipso facto you're not exactly poor are you? Hey. If you can afford a car and to run - then you're *not* poor!
Sontaran!
Sontarans back for Doctor Who. Which I instantly realised when I was watching the Sarah Jane Adventures and noticed how they got a name check.
I hate all Iranians, US aide tells MPs | the Daily Mail
What? This isn't a punky drag queen?
This is a punky drag queen -surely?
I hate all Iranians, US aide tells MPs | the Daily Mail
This is a punky drag queen -surely?
I hate all Iranians, US aide tells MPs | the Daily Mail
BBC 4's Comics Britannia.
What? - no mention whatsoever of what was my favourite comic - the Sparky or one of my favourite artists John Geering who did Puss 'n' Boots. Well not yet anyway. But it always irks me that the Beano and the Dandy get all the coverage - when they weren't that good - with the exception of Leo Baxendale's work. Someone who was so under-appreciated by D C Thomson that he eventually left to help start up new comics for other publishers.
Interview with Torchwood's John Barrowman
As a sidenote: for some strange reason my DVD recorder flatly refuses to record anything with John Barrowman being interviewed. It's bizarre but every time the disk fails. I guess I should start using my VCR next time as a back up.
Interview with "Torchwood"'s John Barrowman | AfterElton.com
Interview with "Torchwood"'s John Barrowman | AfterElton.com
Assignment: Earth
I watched the Gary Seven episode again on the Sci-fi channel again today.
They made 'Andromeda' and 'Earth: Final Conflict' after Gene Roddenberry's death (as dodgy as they both were). Why doesn't someone reboot/re-imagine Gary Seven? a sci-fi James Bond spy show set in the 60s would be totally awesome. He could cross paths with David Vincent maybe.
Actually looking at it again - just how James Bond was the character. The name 007 - Gary Seven. The gadgets. He even borrowed one of James Bond's villain's signatures -Doctor No's cat.
They made 'Andromeda' and 'Earth: Final Conflict' after Gene Roddenberry's death (as dodgy as they both were). Why doesn't someone reboot/re-imagine Gary Seven? a sci-fi James Bond spy show set in the 60s would be totally awesome. He could cross paths with David Vincent maybe.
Actually looking at it again - just how James Bond was the character. The name 007 - Gary Seven. The gadgets. He even borrowed one of James Bond's villain's signatures -Doctor No's cat.
Why I Will Probably Never Buy Another Mac
This piece hits the nail on the head - it's all true. Firsthand I've waded through many a techy article's comments and seen how they denigrate into a increasingly shrill and hysterical PC vs Mac slagging match. Over and over again.
Why I Will Probably Never Buy Another Mac - OSNews.com
I remember one involving the infamous one button mouse. The pro 'arguments' ranged from 'having two buttons is confusing for new users' (then god knows how such a person would cope with a keyboard - with all it's buttons) to Mac software being 'so especially well written you didn't really need it' to 'there's nothing wrong with using the modifying key on the keyboard or clicking and holding' and when the subject of wheel mice and scrolling was introduced - it was suggested that all one had to do was buy and plug in an ordinary mouse and it would work... it wouldn't look as good of course. Not least because if any third party had made one to match the pretty Mac ones - Apple would've sued them for every last penny. A few short weeks later the 'mighty mouse' was introduced and the defensiveness over the one button mouse issue quietly went away - with no fanboy ever having to admit Apple had made a bit of a boo-boo sticking to their guns on that one.
And just before any Apple fan - starts weighing in... let me state I'd quite like to have a Mac Mini. I just need someone to buy me one. So buy me one.
Why I Will Probably Never Buy Another Mac - OSNews.com
I remember one involving the infamous one button mouse. The pro 'arguments' ranged from 'having two buttons is confusing for new users' (then god knows how such a person would cope with a keyboard - with all it's buttons) to Mac software being 'so especially well written you didn't really need it' to 'there's nothing wrong with using the modifying key on the keyboard or clicking and holding' and when the subject of wheel mice and scrolling was introduced - it was suggested that all one had to do was buy and plug in an ordinary mouse and it would work... it wouldn't look as good of course. Not least because if any third party had made one to match the pretty Mac ones - Apple would've sued them for every last penny. A few short weeks later the 'mighty mouse' was introduced and the defensiveness over the one button mouse issue quietly went away - with no fanboy ever having to admit Apple had made a bit of a boo-boo sticking to their guns on that one.
And just before any Apple fan - starts weighing in... let me state I'd quite like to have a Mac Mini. I just need someone to buy me one. So buy me one.
The Fantastic Journey TV Show
I seem to remember this show from the dim and distant past. It's one of those I wish someone like the sci-fi channel would show again. All these hundreds of extra channels showing endless repeats and yet there's only a small handful of the same old shows they put on over and over again. They could do with digging a bit deeper into the archives. No doubt they're prevented by archane copyright and other laws. That and sheer laziness.
The Fantastic Journey TV.com
The Fantastic Journey TV.com
Our oceans are turning into plastic...are we?
Omigod. I think I've mentioned before how perpetually freaked I am by having to throw out plastic bottles - for which there are never any recycling facilities. But this is truly scary. We really are all going to hell in a handbasket. The human race is doomed and it looks like we're totally determined to take the rest of the planet with us.
Our oceans are turning into plastic...are we?
An Albatross' stomach contents.
Our oceans are turning into plastic...are we?
An Albatross' stomach contents.
Big Brother 7
So here it is then - the last day of Big Brother 2007. Yawns. Oh dear and what a crushing bore it's all been. It's kind of obvious that after the intense controversies of recent years Endermol were either told or just decided to play it quiet this year. We had a few lame pointless gimmicks - the all girl housemates - the single male. then the pretense of giving away the prize money early. Then the half way house. So far so blah. But what big brother couldn't bring it's self to do was to be nice, or chose any people who had any real charm or intelligence.
So the last six whittled down to a pair of airheaded twins, a airheaded BB obsessed Basildon boy who claims not to know who Shakespeare is, a late 70s Greenham common style feminist matriarch who just spent all her time cooking and cleaning and crying if anyone either said a bad word against her or didn't do things exactly how she wanted them done, the soulless ex boyband member who's obviously spent their entire life coasting along on their good looks and never had to develop much of a genuine personality, a Georgie lad, a somewhat creepy middle-aged bloke who over compensates for his inadequacies with stuffed soft toys and a unnerving hysterical laugh over things that are completely unfunny.
I have no preference as to who should win. I don't think any of them deserve to - they're all each totally undeserving in their own way.
The other 'notable' characters - the gay Greek with just a soupcon of pretentiousness there. Overall he was ok. I quite liked him. Sort off.
The vile aggressive motormouth self-deluded Charley.
The 90s raver throw-back who could only speak in a limited set of catchphrases.
and some curly haired Irish bloke who was gay -apparently. Then there was some kilt wearing goth who looked vaguely interesting but was evicted within about five minutes.
My favourite was Leslie and she couldn't bear the house and the people and sensibly walked after the first week. When she was using phrases like 'post modern irony' you knew was wasn't going to last long amongst those other people.
There were a few other people but they were all so forgettable - I'm afraid that's what I've done. Forgotten them.
I've been saying year after year i won't watch it. But they have the unfair advantage that there's nothing else on TV to watch at this time of year - although there has been Heroes and Dexter to help this time around... that's why BB has usually been successful - it's the quiet time of year and that it must be startlingly cheap for them to make and fills up so much air time - what with the attendant satellite progs 'diary room uncut', BBLB, on the couch - actually it's truely scary how many TV hours this drivel takes up.
But it's all tired now. it's all too stage managed - the BB bullying tactics - the constant betrayal of trust (such as showing housemates diary room things and nominations etc. merely to generate tension.) They couldn't resist cheating the voting public again this year - when Carole got 42% of the public vote they engineered that Gerry would go in her stead. where he had got only got 25% of the vote. I'm not sure how BB managed to evade another public outcry on that one. I can only guess it has been because so few people have been watching it this year.
This year there hasn't been any one clear strong storyline emerging, no racist rowing, no gay boy making a fool out of himself over his unrequited lust for a straight go-go dancing pretty boy. no transsexual trying to keep her secret from the house but winning a sort of mass acceptance from the nation, no predatory bunny-boiling girl latching onto a pretty boy in order to have a story to sell to the tabloids after the show was finished, there hasn't been any change in the personalities of the people in there - they're all pretty much exactly as they were when they first entered the house. no growth, no changes, just the non-stop unendingly dreary meh-ness. They tried to make the love affair and break up of Ziggy and the Posh-a-wannabe a story - but the both of them are so shallow and wet - it just wasn't flying.
Apparently there isn't to be a Celebrity BB this year. The show does need a bit of a long rest now.
So the last six whittled down to a pair of airheaded twins, a airheaded BB obsessed Basildon boy who claims not to know who Shakespeare is, a late 70s Greenham common style feminist matriarch who just spent all her time cooking and cleaning and crying if anyone either said a bad word against her or didn't do things exactly how she wanted them done, the soulless ex boyband member who's obviously spent their entire life coasting along on their good looks and never had to develop much of a genuine personality, a Georgie lad, a somewhat creepy middle-aged bloke who over compensates for his inadequacies with stuffed soft toys and a unnerving hysterical laugh over things that are completely unfunny.
I have no preference as to who should win. I don't think any of them deserve to - they're all each totally undeserving in their own way.
The other 'notable' characters - the gay Greek with just a soupcon of pretentiousness there. Overall he was ok. I quite liked him. Sort off.
The vile aggressive motormouth self-deluded Charley.
The 90s raver throw-back who could only speak in a limited set of catchphrases.
and some curly haired Irish bloke who was gay -apparently. Then there was some kilt wearing goth who looked vaguely interesting but was evicted within about five minutes.
My favourite was Leslie and she couldn't bear the house and the people and sensibly walked after the first week. When she was using phrases like 'post modern irony' you knew was wasn't going to last long amongst those other people.
There were a few other people but they were all so forgettable - I'm afraid that's what I've done. Forgotten them.
I've been saying year after year i won't watch it. But they have the unfair advantage that there's nothing else on TV to watch at this time of year - although there has been Heroes and Dexter to help this time around... that's why BB has usually been successful - it's the quiet time of year and that it must be startlingly cheap for them to make and fills up so much air time - what with the attendant satellite progs 'diary room uncut', BBLB, on the couch - actually it's truely scary how many TV hours this drivel takes up.
But it's all tired now. it's all too stage managed - the BB bullying tactics - the constant betrayal of trust (such as showing housemates diary room things and nominations etc. merely to generate tension.) They couldn't resist cheating the voting public again this year - when Carole got 42% of the public vote they engineered that Gerry would go in her stead. where he had got only got 25% of the vote. I'm not sure how BB managed to evade another public outcry on that one. I can only guess it has been because so few people have been watching it this year.
This year there hasn't been any one clear strong storyline emerging, no racist rowing, no gay boy making a fool out of himself over his unrequited lust for a straight go-go dancing pretty boy. no transsexual trying to keep her secret from the house but winning a sort of mass acceptance from the nation, no predatory bunny-boiling girl latching onto a pretty boy in order to have a story to sell to the tabloids after the show was finished, there hasn't been any change in the personalities of the people in there - they're all pretty much exactly as they were when they first entered the house. no growth, no changes, just the non-stop unendingly dreary meh-ness. They tried to make the love affair and break up of Ziggy and the Posh-a-wannabe a story - but the both of them are so shallow and wet - it just wasn't flying.
Apparently there isn't to be a Celebrity BB this year. The show does need a bit of a long rest now.
Curiouser and curiouser
A fictitious company using the name of a character from an Ayn Rand novel is undertaking the dangerous demolition work on the Twin Towers site.
Makes me want to dust off all those conspiracy theories and take another look.
Links:
Warren Ellis' Sunday Hangover.
NY Times.
Makes me want to dust off all those conspiracy theories and take another look.
Links:
Warren Ellis' Sunday Hangover.
NY Times.
Guest starring Ann Chou
Homer's missing arm matched with Marge's missing boob and a headless Maggie - is all very disturbing.
Civil liberities
Are so precious - the State is now taking them away from us for safe keeping.
Award winning essay looks at the authoritarian state.
Award winning essay looks at the authoritarian state.
more Seagull news
Granny get your gun!
Cheeky.
The comments in these news article sections makes for some scary reading. There are so many nasty mean-spirited people out there.
Where seagulls don't dare. (Because cars are far more important than wildlife.)
Cheeky.
The comments in these news article sections makes for some scary reading. There are so many nasty mean-spirited people out there.
Where seagulls don't dare. (Because cars are far more important than wildlife.)
"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."
St. Francis of Assisi
Doctor Who to meet Agatha Christie
Oh hello. The Doctor meeting another famous writer for the next season. This after meeting Charles Dickens, then Shakespeare. This makes me wonder if this is going to turn out to be a series - if so he's got to meet Arthur Conan Doyle at some point. Then who else? William Blake maybe? Mary Shelley? Bram Stoker? Jules Verne? I seem to dimly remember he's already met a young H. G. Wells - in a rather rubbishy story (and it seems wrong that they should have written that H G Wells was inspired to write the Time Machine story after meeting the Doctor - when in real life it was the Doctor Who character which was *so* inspired by that novel. Hurmmphf.)
I'm still worrying about Catherine Tate being a full time companion - I re-watched the Christmas special when it was repeated not so long ago and wasn't so impressed by her acting really. When I originally saw the whole Xmas show for the first time I treated it as a piece of fun over-the-top pantomime and just let it all wash over me and enjoyed it immensely as a piece of light hearted fluff. (Especially the spectacle of seeing the TARDIS spinning down the highway in *that* high speed car chase - that was utterly marvelous.) The trouble is - it doesn't bear too much scrutiny - because it quickly starts falling apart. (Like hello? Who wears spats in this day and age? Can you even buy spats?) Tate is so famous now for her various comedy personas I'm fretting whether she's going to be able to show as much depth as the show now demands. Seriously, there's been so much variety shown in the various episodes over the past three seasons which will be massively spoilt if Catherine isn't up to the task. Fingers are crossed. (Please be good. Please be good. Oh please be very, very good. Oh Catherine - please confound my expectations with your unseen talents.)
I'm having to trust the creative staff on this one. sort of. Maybe. Um. Speaking as someone who was never as taken with Martha as the rest of the on-line outspoken Doctor Who fans seemed to be. (Stupid Billie Piper for not wanting to stay for just one more season. Gah. But then - that did mean we were spared the sight of Rose traveling the face of the planet Earth telling everyone she met about the Doctor. Or then - just maybe that would've been totally awesome?)
Who am I kidding though? I can't wait until next year - and this might prove to be a *big one* - in that it might be the last year of Russell T Davis producing the show. If that's true - it's also very likely to see Tennant handing in his key to the TARDIS and a brand new Doctor taking over...
Oh I can't wait. I can't wait.
BBC - Doctor Who - News - Whodunnit?
I'm still worrying about Catherine Tate being a full time companion - I re-watched the Christmas special when it was repeated not so long ago and wasn't so impressed by her acting really. When I originally saw the whole Xmas show for the first time I treated it as a piece of fun over-the-top pantomime and just let it all wash over me and enjoyed it immensely as a piece of light hearted fluff. (Especially the spectacle of seeing the TARDIS spinning down the highway in *that* high speed car chase - that was utterly marvelous.) The trouble is - it doesn't bear too much scrutiny - because it quickly starts falling apart. (Like hello? Who wears spats in this day and age? Can you even buy spats?) Tate is so famous now for her various comedy personas I'm fretting whether she's going to be able to show as much depth as the show now demands. Seriously, there's been so much variety shown in the various episodes over the past three seasons which will be massively spoilt if Catherine isn't up to the task. Fingers are crossed. (Please be good. Please be good. Oh please be very, very good. Oh Catherine - please confound my expectations with your unseen talents.)
I'm having to trust the creative staff on this one. sort of. Maybe. Um. Speaking as someone who was never as taken with Martha as the rest of the on-line outspoken Doctor Who fans seemed to be. (Stupid Billie Piper for not wanting to stay for just one more season. Gah. But then - that did mean we were spared the sight of Rose traveling the face of the planet Earth telling everyone she met about the Doctor. Or then - just maybe that would've been totally awesome?)
Who am I kidding though? I can't wait until next year - and this might prove to be a *big one* - in that it might be the last year of Russell T Davis producing the show. If that's true - it's also very likely to see Tennant handing in his key to the TARDIS and a brand new Doctor taking over...
Oh I can't wait. I can't wait.
BBC - Doctor Who - News - Whodunnit?
Ben Kingsley to star in Doctor Who?
hmmm? I know the rights to use the Dalek characters ran out last year - are they being re-negotiated? Will he be the end of season big bad? Is this a way of bringing back the entire Dalek race? Having the Doctor face off again Caan time after time would get tired really quickly. Wouldn't it be unfair to bring back the daleks and not the time lords?
Isn't it odd that the Doctor Who thing has been going for all these years and yet - there are so relatively few good recurring villains? Of course we haven't had a re-match with this universe's cybermen yet...
TV Scoop: Ben Kingsley to star in Doctor Who?
Isn't it odd that the Doctor Who thing has been going for all these years and yet - there are so relatively few good recurring villains? Of course we haven't had a re-match with this universe's cybermen yet...
TV Scoop: Ben Kingsley to star in Doctor Who?
[adult swim] | Shows - Saul of the Mole Men
After seeing the pilot on Adult Swim - I ended up looking up stuff about Sid and Marty Krofft (I dimly recollect HR Puf-n-stuff. I have warm fuzzy nostalgic feelings about it. That might have been the only show of theirs that got shown in the UK.)
then a few online snippets of Elektra-woman and Dyno girl. Then an episode of the Andy Milonakis show...
I'm worn out now.
[adult swim] | Shows - Saul of the Mole Men
Saul
then a few online snippets of Elektra-woman and Dyno girl. Then an episode of the Andy Milonakis show...
I'm worn out now.
[adult swim] | Shows - Saul of the Mole Men
Saul
Movio makes mockery of mobile TV
Oh hum.
Has DRM heh? It cripples everything.
Crave Talk: Movio makes mockery of mobile TV - Crave at CNET.co.uk
I've been having vague notions floating around my head recently about how the 'power of the people' on the internets is providing -for free -what people really want. For example - the bit torrents providing access to old nearly forgotten tv programs that the entertainment industry can't be asked to put out on tv, or finds too expensive to put out on DVD, or else when it does vastly over-charges for it. Then wonders why so few people end up buying it and then wrongly conclude it isn't worth their while because they're not selling enough.
(Here's an idea: when it comes to old tv programs and old ancient films why not team up with the newspapers and magazines and give them away as cover discs? That could be quite cool.)
The same for obscure music and ooh yeah - time shifting to catchup on those TV programmes you can manage to miss when you haven't got TiVo or Sky+
I know 4OD and the forthcoming BBCi player is a step in the right direction but still... th DRM and the wanting money for every last little thing.
I've have to revisit this idea later. I'm too tired to write any more at the moment...
Has DRM heh? It cripples everything.
Crave Talk: Movio makes mockery of mobile TV - Crave at CNET.co.uk
I've been having vague notions floating around my head recently about how the 'power of the people' on the internets is providing -for free -what people really want. For example - the bit torrents providing access to old nearly forgotten tv programs that the entertainment industry can't be asked to put out on tv, or finds too expensive to put out on DVD, or else when it does vastly over-charges for it. Then wonders why so few people end up buying it and then wrongly conclude it isn't worth their while because they're not selling enough.
(Here's an idea: when it comes to old tv programs and old ancient films why not team up with the newspapers and magazines and give them away as cover discs? That could be quite cool.)
The same for obscure music and ooh yeah - time shifting to catchup on those TV programmes you can manage to miss when you haven't got TiVo or Sky+
I know 4OD and the forthcoming BBCi player is a step in the right direction but still... th DRM and the wanting money for every last little thing.
I've have to revisit this idea later. I'm too tired to write any more at the moment...
Television is a turnoff for mobile users
I still really like the idea of teeny tiny mobile teevee - it's like one of the things they promised we'd have in the future (and it's supposed to be the future now dammit). But paying a subscription fee for postage stamp-sized teevee you're only going to bear to watch a few minutes at a time? No thank you.
Television is a turnoff for mobile users
Television is a turnoff for mobile users
Gulls in the news
Cruelty to a gull. £1,000 reward.
Isle of Man seagull sculpture.
Another seagull has to be rescued in Worthing - this happens every year. Can't help thinking they'd be better off taking the stupid netting down. But nah, apparently it's far better to bring the fire brigade out every year instead.
Sandwich stealing gulls.
Shoplifting gull nicks crisps! With video. They're not stupid.
Isle of Man seagull sculpture.
Another seagull has to be rescued in Worthing - this happens every year. Can't help thinking they'd be better off taking the stupid netting down. But nah, apparently it's far better to bring the fire brigade out every year instead.
Sandwich stealing gulls.
Shoplifting gull nicks crisps! With video. They're not stupid.
Who's afraid of…patio heaters?
The EST’s figures might sound shocking: patio heaters use the same amount of energy as driving for 167million miles. But then, when you consider that cars in Britain drive a total of 250 billion miles a year, you can see that patio heaters would represent just 0.07 per cent of the energy used by the cars, never mind all the other energy we use throughout the year.
Funny that. We're being told to not buy patio heaters (aren't they just a slightly more high tech and less dangerous version of old fashioned braziers anyway?) - turn off items on standby - use those expensive florescent light bulbs - but aside from the evil 4x4 owners - no one's mentioning motorcars. Oh, we still *need* them. Need them to get to and from work everyday - drive out to the giant out of town superstores - whatever. But drastically cutting down on our reliance on cars is pretty much the one thing would have the most beneficial impact - it might even help to get the obesity levels of a lot of people down. Heck - less cars would mean not having to have all these dodgy wars in the Middle East to ensure the oil keeps flowing. But it barely gets a mention. It's probably seen as too difficult and expensive to do the wholesale restructuring of just about everything that would entail. Despite the grim fact the oil is going to start running out very soon anyway and that we might as well get a head start on re-organizing things while we've still got the resources to do. But - nah, that's never gonna happen. The human race is wedded to the process of just lurching from one crisis after another -while reacting blindly...
Well locally - we even get the opposite where Stagecoach (my local homophobic and geriatric-disdaining bus company) has decided that the free bus pass system for the elderly is just too popular and is losing them money so they're cutting bus routes. (Thus proving my theory that greedy profiteering private companies are not the best thing to be providing what should be seen as a vital public service, and that we have a singularly rather gormless central government). Way to go to put even more cars on what are already overcrowded roads guys.
trot trot trot
Oh, what a pity, Charley has gone. (Blows snotty tears into cardigan sleeve.) Oh, how I shall miss her! How I long to hear her clacking football-rattle gob again. And watch her gurn at mirrors, beholding her own ferrety reflection.
But alas, she is gone! Off she did trot in her little cavewoman's outfit. Trot trot trot - blow kiss - trot trot trot - gurn for cameras - pull cavewoman skirt over ass cheeks - rearrange weave - trot trot trot - into Davina's arms. Her best mate Davina, who says she is unique.
This year's Big Brother might be the most boring ever (Endermol giving themselves a little rest after all those year on year scandals no doubt) but Grace Dent still delivers the goods.
Joss Whedon: Ripper BBC TV Film Coming
I was just wondering what had happened to the Ripper spin off the other week. I'd bought season 5 on dvd and was watching the specials and the episodes with commentary when I was reminded of it. Looks like it might be happening finally.
I do so miss the Buffy-verse.
Bits of News - Joss Whedon: Ripper BBC TV Film Coming
I do so miss the Buffy-verse.
Bits of News - Joss Whedon: Ripper BBC TV Film Coming
Mark Steel: Well, if the Romans built on flood plains...
The Government accepts that global warming is the likely cause, but seems incapable of doing anything to curb it. For example, one billion pounds is being removed from subsidies to the privatised train companies which sum will be made up in increased fares, which therefore must increase the use of cars.
Similarly, the private water companies were discouraged from building larger drains and sewage systems, because this would have increased water charges. And no one dare suggest decreased water or rail company profits. And the same profit-driven logic will apply to the building of new houses.
Mark Steel: Well, if the Romans built on flood plains...
President Winters
I've just re-watched 'The Sound of Drums' and I'm wondering if I'm the only one who's noticed the full name of the President being given as Arthur Conan Winters. I'm guessing that's a little nod to that more famous Arthur Conan - the Doyle one. Why's that? Well because the Master was invented as the Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes.
"Star Maidens" (1976)
Ah-ah. I vaguely remember seeing this back in the day. I seem to remember on the planet they had precognitive reports on TV - much like the weather report. Except that's about all I can remember. This is the sort of thing I wish they'd show in the afternoons or wee small hours on the sci-fi channel.
"Star Maidens" (1976)
"Star Maidens" (1976)
Profiler
So I'm sort of half watching this 'Profiler' show on the Sci Fi channel - and all I can think is - why are doing everything in the dark? Seriously - they're in offices - and everything is so dimly lit. How can they work? Where's the windows? They can't all be working late at night can they? Is there a power cut? Are they trying to save money on their electric bills? Why is everything so damn dark?
They did that a lot in the 90s. So many shows shot in near-darkness to add a spooky atmosphere. I remember watching some episodes of the X-files and not being able to follow what was supposed to be going on because everything was so dark. They must have saved a packet in special effects.
They did that a lot in the 90s. So many shows shot in near-darkness to add a spooky atmosphere. I remember watching some episodes of the X-files and not being able to follow what was supposed to be going on because everything was so dark. They must have saved a packet in special effects.
Torchwood to air on BBC Two
Dear Torchwood creatives,
Please, please, please go easy on the crying this next series. M'kay? No more crying. No more tedious infighting. M'kay?
BBC - Press Office - Torchwood to air on BBC Two
Please, please, please go easy on the crying this next series. M'kay? No more crying. No more tedious infighting. M'kay?
BBC - Press Office - Torchwood to air on BBC Two
Which Who are you?
I came out as the fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) which is fine by me.
So gutted that I forgot there was this Doctor Who weekend on - well, no, I was somehow expecting it was going to be on UK Gold - since they usually show the Doctor Who omnibuses when they can be bothered. S'annoying though - there were a few episodes I'd've enjoyed seeing again.
Which Who are you?
So gutted that I forgot there was this Doctor Who weekend on - well, no, I was somehow expecting it was going to be on UK Gold - since they usually show the Doctor Who omnibuses when they can be bothered. S'annoying though - there were a few episodes I'd've enjoyed seeing again.
Which Who are you?
iPhone vs smart phone
"The Unfinished iPhone: iPhone vs. Windows Mobile".
(Not that I can afford either. But at the moment I really would like a Nokia N95. Which I also can't afford.)
(Not that I can afford either. But at the moment I really would like a Nokia N95. Which I also can't afford.)
Plastic Recycling
It's one of the things which I've been quietly freaking out about for years now - is empty plastic bottles. I hate having to just throw them away, and so many things come in plastic bottles these days -milk, drinks, shampoos, bath gels, etc. etc. Yet we're told that oil is starting to run out. Sooner or later there won't be any petroleum left to make any plastics from at all. What will the human race do then? Actually I'm sure we'll survive - we did well enough before plastics (wooden/metal mobile phones anyone?). But there's not enough companies out there recycling plastics. As far as i know what little plastic that does get recycled - is just shipped off to China to be made into linings for fleecey jackets and sold back to us in the West. Shouldn't more be done with it than that?
Reason Magazine - The Horrible Truth about Super-Science
Reason Magazine - The Horrible Truth about Super-Science: "An interview with Jackson Publick of The Venture Brothers"
Organic food 'better' for heart
Organic food 'better' for heart - which you would think would stand to common sense. But haven't there been other studies which haven't found any difference?
The real difference lies in the price - can I afford to buy organic? No.
The real difference lies in the price - can I afford to buy organic? No.
Labour shortage hitting UK fruit
---And this is what wrong with capitalism.
(Well, one of the things at least.)
I don't where to start on dissecting what's wrong with this article. From the UK's hypocrisy over immigrant workers, to various issues over local food production and it's distribution, to supermarkets preferring to import Spanish strawberries over English... and so on and on...
We're so screwed up as a country now - I don't know if we'll ever be able to get out of this mess.
Labour shortage hitting UK fruit
(Well, one of the things at least.)
I don't where to start on dissecting what's wrong with this article. From the UK's hypocrisy over immigrant workers, to various issues over local food production and it's distribution, to supermarkets preferring to import Spanish strawberries over English... and so on and on...
We're so screwed up as a country now - I don't know if we'll ever be able to get out of this mess.
Labour shortage hitting UK fruit
Aaah I had wondered
why there hadn't been any Tardisodes this year...
Basically - greedy phone companies. Some of them charging up to £2 to download a free tiny 30 second long movie clip.
Basically - greedy phone companies. Some of them charging up to £2 to download a free tiny 30 second long movie clip.
Stingy AT&T spoiled the iPhone party
I kinda knew the US mobile phone network was a bit backward - but I didn't know it was this behind...
Stingy AT&T spoiled the iPhone party
...and how much is a contract with AT&T again?
iSheep lining up to be fleeced again. Who'd thunk it?
Stingy AT&T spoiled the iPhone party
...and how much is a contract with AT&T again?
iSheep lining up to be fleeced again. Who'd thunk it?
"Am I Buvvered?"
I dunno about this, me not being as in love with her as much as the rest of the UK is. She is a comedienne after all... and what with the programme occasionally dipping into the dark side this last season -won't that prove to be as distraction? (Maybe that's why they want Martha to come back for when that happens?) Oh, and I was really hoping for a male companion for a bit of a change...
I look forward to being totally proven wrong....
BBC - Doctor Who - News - Donna says "I do!"
I look forward to being totally proven wrong....
BBC - Doctor Who - News - Donna says "I do!"
The IT Crowd - UK Comedy Series
I've just read at the offical Channel 4 site there has been a second series made. But where is it? Have I missed it? They've been showing series One on the More 4 channel. Is that a lead in to them showing on Channel 4 later?
I love this show.
Incidentally the show's creator keeps himself one of those blog thingies
[update: After clicking a few 'older news' links - it looks like they've only just finished filming the 2nd series. So it should be on our screens soon. Yay!]
The IT Crowd - UK Comedy Series
I love this show.
Incidentally the show's creator keeps himself one of those blog thingies
[update: After clicking a few 'older news' links - it looks like they've only just finished filming the 2nd series. So it should be on our screens soon. Yay!]
The IT Crowd - UK Comedy Series
BB Lovers Split
Oh noes! Not the gorgeous Preston and the delightful Chantelle -divorcing. But theirs was true love and so genuine. You could tell. It must be down to the pressures of all that relentless fame. Those damn reporters never leaving them alone for a single minute.
But seriously - why is this news?
Why aren't people bored of these manufactured famous-for-being-famous "celebs" yet? Isn't the market already over-saturated with them?
Do they (the media) persist with it because that's every talentless little nobody's dream now?
Blah.
BB LOVERS SPLIT
But seriously - why is this news?
Why aren't people bored of these manufactured famous-for-being-famous "celebs" yet? Isn't the market already over-saturated with them?
Do they (the media) persist with it because that's every talentless little nobody's dream now?
Blah.
BB LOVERS SPLIT
Look To The Stars
I used to have one of these doll... sorry, action figures as a kiddy. It was one of my favourites. He came with this great jet back pack thing. He got dangerous though - his arms had wire inside and that eventually broke through. Pokey sharp scratchy.
Mmmm - I'd like a replacement now. (I am sad.)
Mmmm - I'd like a replacement now. (I am sad.)
The Record Industry's Decline
Stupidity, greediness, Bullying, artists exploitation, is what's really killing the music industry.
The Record Industry's Decline
The Record Industry's Decline
Is social mobility a realistic prospect?
A couple of weeks or so ago - I found myself thinking how much I'd like to live abroad for a bit. I wonder if things like this:
have had an unconscious bearing on that thought.
Britain has "the lowest social mobility of any country you can measure”.
have had an unconscious bearing on that thought.
Ponderings on the Toclafane
With only three days to go now until the Doctor Who finale I've been driving myself near crazy with trying to second guess what the Toclafane could possibly be.
So far all we know as definite facts are:
The Toclafane is a Gallifreyian name for a fictional fairy tale creature much like the 'bogey man'.
They're very pally with the Master. Very happy to do his bidding and follow his slightest whims.
He calls them his children and as some of them talk with child-like voices. (One of the voices is by the very same actress who played the Gelth way back in series one – now is that a clue too, or just lazy casting?)
They're psychopathic, have absolutely no moral compass whatsoever. (The Gelth were about killing people so they could inhabit their bodies).
There's an awful lot of them.
That they're desperate to escape the darkness and the cold and having to run, and run, and run... might be a clue. (The Gelth wanted to escape their own impending devastation. Clue or recycled plot device? Are the Toclafane talking about the end of the Universe?)
To know what they are would break the poor Doctor's hearts. Obviously a very big clue.
From the preview:
Martha and two other people have captured one of the Toclafane and are taking a look inside. (This makes me presume that whatever they see in there has to be easily recognisable. A tiny human perhaps, or a brain, or a Dalek, or a chocolate orange...)
That there's an awful lot of -spaceships or rocket missiles or something out in the middle of somewhere and it looks like the Toclafane are guarding them. The write up for this episode talks about the Master setting up a Time Lord Empire. So basically he's building himself an invasion fleet. Oooooh.
[[[He's nothing but ambitious that Master. His 'to do' list must read: 1. Defeat Doctor. (Check.) 2. Take over Britain. (Check.) 3. Take over Planet Earth. (Check) 4. Build invasion fleet. 5. Take over solar system. 6. Take over galaxy. 7. Take a little nap. 8. Take over universe.
He was absurdly high-achieving in his last 18 months. But then he did have the Tardis – maybe he did a bit of naughty criss-crossing of his own timeline to get more things done.]]]
Other things that may or may not be relevant:
During the Time War the Master met the Dalek emperor and said he was so scared he ran away and disguised himself as a human. (Although it's important to bear in mind – he is a liar and a sneak.) But like the Doctor in 'Human Nature' -throughout his human life he must have had subconscious memories of his former lives and was working away long term at something. I very much doubt it was to save the human race – maybe the main reason he couldn't get the spaceship working because deep down he didn't really want the thing to work. He was unknowingly self-sabotaging. After he regained his full memories and pulling out the little bit of circuitry from the computer and sneeringly proclaiming 'Utopia' before legging it to the Tardis may well have something to do with something. Otherwise that was way too big a loose thread to leave dangling...
What was Utopia about exactly? Merely a long distance signal that lies beyond reality calling out to humanity saying 'hey there, come here'. Sounds more likely to be a trap. Could the present day Master have been sending out a signal into the far flung future to lure the last of humanity into a trap. Sounds like a Paradox machine would come in handy there. Although that begs how the question of how the last of humankind got put into those floaty little spheres?
So. Speculation time:
We know that Cybermen are all about taking out brains and putting them into robot bodies. Maybe they're ultra-futuristic cybermen? Except cybermen were never that hot on emotions. And cybermen were so last year. Or maybe the Gelth managed to take over their brains after the fact? Nah. That's too far fetched. Why would they follow the Master? Cybermen or the Gelth. Gratitude for being rescued from the darkness? Seems unlikely. Also the Gelth wouldn't break the Doctor's hearts particularly.
What would break the Doctor's hearts?
Well that really only leaves us with Time Lords or Humans -or even a mix of ...both
That the Toclafane could be all that remains of the Time Lords -that would definitely be heartbreaking.
And say, talking as in literally - the remains – possibly of those that fell in battle/or got captured by the Daleks in the Time War and the Dalek Emperor did to them what he told the 9th Doctor he did to the humans in 'The Parting of the Ways' -dicing and slicing and pulping them to put them into shiny new housings to act as slave soldiers? That would certainly put the shits up the Master and make him want to run away just to escape a similar fate. It would also suit his purposes in the wake of the Dalek's total defeat to make use of this new slave race of Dalek-ised Time Lords to create his new Empire. That would be pretty upsetting to the Doctor. But then they aren't very Dalek like. Why would the Dalek emperor want childlike slaves – when loyal Dalek-like slaves would be of more use to him.
Ahh, Empire. Now that reminds me. The Empire state building. Now didn't the Doctor leave all that Dalek genetics lab equipment hanging around at the end of that episode? Along with big chunks of Dalektainium metal at the very top there. Not to mention an awful lot of bodies – human-pig hybrids, Dalek-human-time lord hybrids lying around (The Doctor never cleans up after himself – have you noticed that? He defeats the baddy and just leaps into the Tardis and he's off. That's what got him into trouble in the first series. After 'the Long Game' if only he'd hung around long enough to help explain things – all those hundred years of chaos that led to Satellite 5 becoming the Game Station need never have happened. All those loose ends Doctor, you've gotta learn to finish a job properly.)
I digress anyway -if the Master could've gone back to the Thirties he could have had a lot of fun with all what was left over, but we know the Tardis was crippled so he couldn't go back to that time. But then maybe he didn't even need to go back at all – maybe he met up with Dalek Caan, who after his quick emergency temporal shift and who had meanwhile had a change of mind over the whole 'racial purity of the Dalek race' thing, and come around to the thought that maybe Dalek-human-time lord hybrids were a good enough idea after all. But say, even better remade in a nice compact squishy Dalek form and especially placed as the chewy centre in a new improved crisp outer shell? Deliberately genetically engineered to be kept at a retarded level of development in order to make them easier to manipulate? Who better to team up with to achieve that aim than a evil timelord rather than the annoying goody-two shoes one? Such creatures would be certainly be inclined to follow a timelord as their master.
Although that doesn't explain why these particular Toclafane should be afraid of the dark and the cold... and what the drift thing was that the Master had to generate to bring them through?
Argh. See what i mean about driving myself crazy...
Oh well, only two and a half days to go now....
So far all we know as definite facts are:
The Toclafane is a Gallifreyian name for a fictional fairy tale creature much like the 'bogey man'.
They're very pally with the Master. Very happy to do his bidding and follow his slightest whims.
He calls them his children and as some of them talk with child-like voices. (One of the voices is by the very same actress who played the Gelth way back in series one – now is that a clue too, or just lazy casting?)
They're psychopathic, have absolutely no moral compass whatsoever. (The Gelth were about killing people so they could inhabit their bodies).
There's an awful lot of them.
That they're desperate to escape the darkness and the cold and having to run, and run, and run... might be a clue. (The Gelth wanted to escape their own impending devastation. Clue or recycled plot device? Are the Toclafane talking about the end of the Universe?)
To know what they are would break the poor Doctor's hearts. Obviously a very big clue.
From the preview:
Martha and two other people have captured one of the Toclafane and are taking a look inside. (This makes me presume that whatever they see in there has to be easily recognisable. A tiny human perhaps, or a brain, or a Dalek, or a chocolate orange...)
That there's an awful lot of -spaceships or rocket missiles or something out in the middle of somewhere and it looks like the Toclafane are guarding them. The write up for this episode talks about the Master setting up a Time Lord Empire. So basically he's building himself an invasion fleet. Oooooh.
[[[He's nothing but ambitious that Master. His 'to do' list must read: 1. Defeat Doctor. (Check.) 2. Take over Britain. (Check.) 3. Take over Planet Earth. (Check) 4. Build invasion fleet. 5. Take over solar system. 6. Take over galaxy. 7. Take a little nap. 8. Take over universe.
He was absurdly high-achieving in his last 18 months. But then he did have the Tardis – maybe he did a bit of naughty criss-crossing of his own timeline to get more things done.]]]
Other things that may or may not be relevant:
During the Time War the Master met the Dalek emperor and said he was so scared he ran away and disguised himself as a human. (Although it's important to bear in mind – he is a liar and a sneak.) But like the Doctor in 'Human Nature' -throughout his human life he must have had subconscious memories of his former lives and was working away long term at something. I very much doubt it was to save the human race – maybe the main reason he couldn't get the spaceship working because deep down he didn't really want the thing to work. He was unknowingly self-sabotaging. After he regained his full memories and pulling out the little bit of circuitry from the computer and sneeringly proclaiming 'Utopia' before legging it to the Tardis may well have something to do with something. Otherwise that was way too big a loose thread to leave dangling...
What was Utopia about exactly? Merely a long distance signal that lies beyond reality calling out to humanity saying 'hey there, come here'. Sounds more likely to be a trap. Could the present day Master have been sending out a signal into the far flung future to lure the last of humanity into a trap. Sounds like a Paradox machine would come in handy there. Although that begs how the question of how the last of humankind got put into those floaty little spheres?
So. Speculation time:
We know that Cybermen are all about taking out brains and putting them into robot bodies. Maybe they're ultra-futuristic cybermen? Except cybermen were never that hot on emotions. And cybermen were so last year. Or maybe the Gelth managed to take over their brains after the fact? Nah. That's too far fetched. Why would they follow the Master? Cybermen or the Gelth. Gratitude for being rescued from the darkness? Seems unlikely. Also the Gelth wouldn't break the Doctor's hearts particularly.
What would break the Doctor's hearts?
Well that really only leaves us with Time Lords or Humans -or even a mix of ...both
That the Toclafane could be all that remains of the Time Lords -that would definitely be heartbreaking.
And say, talking as in literally - the remains – possibly of those that fell in battle/or got captured by the Daleks in the Time War and the Dalek Emperor did to them what he told the 9th Doctor he did to the humans in 'The Parting of the Ways' -dicing and slicing and pulping them to put them into shiny new housings to act as slave soldiers? That would certainly put the shits up the Master and make him want to run away just to escape a similar fate. It would also suit his purposes in the wake of the Dalek's total defeat to make use of this new slave race of Dalek-ised Time Lords to create his new Empire. That would be pretty upsetting to the Doctor. But then they aren't very Dalek like. Why would the Dalek emperor want childlike slaves – when loyal Dalek-like slaves would be of more use to him.
Ahh, Empire. Now that reminds me. The Empire state building. Now didn't the Doctor leave all that Dalek genetics lab equipment hanging around at the end of that episode? Along with big chunks of Dalektainium metal at the very top there. Not to mention an awful lot of bodies – human-pig hybrids, Dalek-human-time lord hybrids lying around (The Doctor never cleans up after himself – have you noticed that? He defeats the baddy and just leaps into the Tardis and he's off. That's what got him into trouble in the first series. After 'the Long Game' if only he'd hung around long enough to help explain things – all those hundred years of chaos that led to Satellite 5 becoming the Game Station need never have happened. All those loose ends Doctor, you've gotta learn to finish a job properly.)
I digress anyway -if the Master could've gone back to the Thirties he could have had a lot of fun with all what was left over, but we know the Tardis was crippled so he couldn't go back to that time. But then maybe he didn't even need to go back at all – maybe he met up with Dalek Caan, who after his quick emergency temporal shift and who had meanwhile had a change of mind over the whole 'racial purity of the Dalek race' thing, and come around to the thought that maybe Dalek-human-time lord hybrids were a good enough idea after all. But say, even better remade in a nice compact squishy Dalek form and especially placed as the chewy centre in a new improved crisp outer shell? Deliberately genetically engineered to be kept at a retarded level of development in order to make them easier to manipulate? Who better to team up with to achieve that aim than a evil timelord rather than the annoying goody-two shoes one? Such creatures would be certainly be inclined to follow a timelord as their master.
Although that doesn't explain why these particular Toclafane should be afraid of the dark and the cold... and what the drift thing was that the Master had to generate to bring them through?
Argh. See what i mean about driving myself crazy...
Oh well, only two and a half days to go now....
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