and it knows it now.
Let me when and if Yahoo ever manage to come up with something that isn't either a copy of some other company's idea:
Yahoo search = google
yahoo mail = hotmail
Yahoo Auctions = ebay
Yahoo 360 = myspace/facebook/blogger.
premium music = itunes or napster or whatever.
or else something they've bought up and made a lot worse like Yahoo groups.
It's always creeped me out that it's been trying so hard to BE the whole internet - instead of trying to do one or a small range of things very well - it's set on trying to do a bit of everything but being very mediocre at it all.
Cloverfield - a sort of spoiler-ish run down
Mmmmm - this isn't the version of the movie I saw [thanks for that link Rakka]... But it's similar enough to make me wonder if it's a whole alternative edit. Or more likely it's someone making up their own film from the trailer and on-line bits and pieces. In which case there are a few ideas in there that are better than the film...
Here's a proper spoiler from the Chicago Tribute.
Here's another.
A negative - but very sensible review.
JJ Abrams "Cloverfield" -- A String of Tired Movie Cliches Looking For A Place To Land.
Some Thing Has Found Us
JJ's viral diary.
Here's a proper spoiler from the Chicago Tribute.
Here's another.
A negative - but very sensible review.
JJ Abrams "Cloverfield" -- A String of Tired Movie Cliches Looking For A Place To Land.
Some Thing Has Found Us
JJ's viral diary.
Insurance: Hospital Was Filmed Dumping Homeless Paraplegic On Street, Driving Off
I'm sure America likes to pride it's self that it's not at all like Nazi Germany.
Insurance: Hospital Was Filmed Dumping Homeless Paraplegic On Street, Driving Off
Insurance: Hospital Was Filmed Dumping Homeless Paraplegic On Street, Driving Off
The 5 most annoying programs on your PC - Download Squad
I've hated Acrobat Reader for years. Might give this foxit a try.
'Big climate impact' on UK coasts - yeah, tell me about it
The last few days here in my high rise flat have been really bad.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Big climate impact' on UK coasts
(oooh you can upload videos now... how cool is blogger these days? I remember back when you couldn't have comments - let alone pictures - which was two of the main reasons I didn't use it much.)
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Big climate impact' on UK coasts
(oooh you can upload videos now... how cool is blogger these days? I remember back when you couldn't have comments - let alone pictures - which was two of the main reasons I didn't use it much.)
I am one of those 1 in 6
I haven't been to the dentist in ...decades now. It doesn't help that I'm living in a area with a high elderly population who have a stranglehold on what few (and constantly gradually diminishing) NHS places that there are.
BBC NEWS | Health | Dentist shortage hits 'millions'
But I see it all as part of a larger picture - we're living in a weird world these days - a 'all fur coat and no knickers' society. Things on the surface are looking great - ask any Labour politician and they can run off a ream of statistics saying how absolutely great everything is. I know I just caught a bit of Prime Minister's Question Time and see Gordon Brown do it. But it's a thin pretty veneer covering over a deep rot.
Oh look - at the unintentional dental puns there.
BBC NEWS | Health | Dentist shortage hits 'millions'
But I see it all as part of a larger picture - we're living in a weird world these days - a 'all fur coat and no knickers' society. Things on the surface are looking great - ask any Labour politician and they can run off a ream of statistics saying how absolutely great everything is. I know I just caught a bit of Prime Minister's Question Time and see Gordon Brown do it. But it's a thin pretty veneer covering over a deep rot.
Oh look - at the unintentional dental puns there.
more on chipping prisoners
You know - I'll bet MPs are exactly the sort of gullible goons that reply to spam - "oooh penny stocks I'll get my broker on that, ooooh herbal penis enlargement pills - some of them, ooooh I'll just update this exec. this website wants to install, oooh this tech company promises to solve immigration, benefit fraud cheats and terrorism with a database and ID card, ooooh lets tag prisoners, oooh, this lady wants to send me pictures of herself, oooh a NH computer will be fantastic..."
Tag-a-lag: Chip implants mooted for UK prisoners | The Register
Tag-a-lag: Chip implants mooted for UK prisoners | The Register
Is anyone watching...
Big Brother Celebrity Hijack this year? No? No - me neither. But then I'd already come to the conclusion that this generation of 20 year olds just aren't very interesting. Being so young they've nothing to talk about - except for their future plans, dreams and schemes (yawn).
WTF?
For a while now I've had this starter idea for a sci-fi story - where in the 'day-after-tomorrow' future - the country will be so over-crowded there would be state-imposed limits have been put on who can be out and about and who can't, and even how much time they're allowed outside. So every time someone wants to go out - they have to swipe their id card in a reader inside their front door - to be granted permission to go out - once outside their ID card starts a whole automatic process where their every last movement is tracked and recorded by CCTV and card readers etc.
This is based on already existing proposals for cars - so it's only a short hop from there to monitoring people.
Then I read this:
So now I'll have to update my idea and replace ID cards with chip implants.
Of course if they do get away with this for prisoners - next off they'll probably go on to the next step - the 'Fortress' concept - where the RFID chip will come with an explosive device and if any 'prisoner' strays anywhere they shouldn't. BOOM!
This'll all probably happen too - y'know, to keep us all safe from crime and terrorists and paedophiles and bird flu and global warming etc.
This is based on already existing proposals for cars - so it's only a short hop from there to monitoring people.
Then I read this:
Ministers are planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails.
So now I'll have to update my idea and replace ID cards with chip implants.
Of course if they do get away with this for prisoners - next off they'll probably go on to the next step - the 'Fortress' concept - where the RFID chip will come with an explosive device and if any 'prisoner' strays anywhere they shouldn't. BOOM!
This'll all probably happen too - y'know, to keep us all safe from crime and terrorists and paedophiles and bird flu and global warming etc.
iriver handwriting-friendly e-book / tablet?
Errrr... but why does it have to have lines on it? I never understood why they have lines on the palm memos program. I can't stand lined writing paper myself.
iriver prepping handwriting-friendly e-book / tablet? - Engadget
iriver prepping handwriting-friendly e-book / tablet? - Engadget
JJ Abrams mystery box
Ah, so now I get it. (Why 'Lost' is so infuriating. Why the end of 'Alias' was so bad. Why 'Cloverfield' has so much viral marketing.)
I was having myself a quick trawl around the internets looking for more Cloverfield gubbings and found a link to this TED lecture from J J Abrams.
Go and watch it before you read the rest of this...
Now, I have a big problem with JJ and his blessed mystery box. Because his whole theory only works by supposing that the mystery of the story is always far greater than the end solution. Which is fine – up to a point. Certainly if you're a writer – who can never stop writing. But in his case - it's a form of laziness, a lame excuse – he's certainly got the goods as far as creating mysteries go but he just can't manage to go that extra mile to provide a good satisfying conclusions to his work. (Have you seen the finale to Alias?) He's in far too much of a hurry to get on to his next mystery box. I'll bet he never finishes any script or any treatment he does. I get the impression he couldn't even be bothered – I think he probably leaves that stuff for his janitor, or his cleaning lady, or the pizza delivery boy – just any passing stranger to write the last pages for him. Which could explain why they're usually so painfully rubbish.
'Cloverfield' Release Will Be Test of Online Hype
Now the mystery box as part of on-line marketing tool, as inter-active game, etc. Which is all very fascinating - it's a really nice idea and I can see how this approach might be fine for providing grist to the obsessive fanboy's mill – as they trawl the internet trying to find various clues... but the problem there is at the end of it all - there is emphatically NO worthwhile end solution to be had. It is bound to always end in some disappointment, the over-teasing and the over-hyping makes sure of that.
I remember a wildlife documentary that was all about grey squirrels and featured how intelligent and agile they were. Showing them grabbing food from a bird table in a garden which the experimenters made increasingly difficult to get to - with ever more complicated obstacles. The thrill was seeing how the squirrel managed to negotiate everything. But there always came a point where the squirrel just stopped coming. The effort required to get to the peanuts just wasn't worth it any more. And that's what I feel about watching 'Lost'. I know a lot of the audience stopped coming to the table a long time back. And if people do totally get the whole mystery box concept completely - they're gong to realise their own ideas, theories, storylines are going to be far superior than whatever J J can come up with -and he's going to be out of a job.
I was having myself a quick trawl around the internets looking for more Cloverfield gubbings and found a link to this TED lecture from J J Abrams.
Go and watch it before you read the rest of this...
Now, I have a big problem with JJ and his blessed mystery box. Because his whole theory only works by supposing that the mystery of the story is always far greater than the end solution. Which is fine – up to a point. Certainly if you're a writer – who can never stop writing. But in his case - it's a form of laziness, a lame excuse – he's certainly got the goods as far as creating mysteries go but he just can't manage to go that extra mile to provide a good satisfying conclusions to his work. (Have you seen the finale to Alias?) He's in far too much of a hurry to get on to his next mystery box. I'll bet he never finishes any script or any treatment he does. I get the impression he couldn't even be bothered – I think he probably leaves that stuff for his janitor, or his cleaning lady, or the pizza delivery boy – just any passing stranger to write the last pages for him. Which could explain why they're usually so painfully rubbish.
'Cloverfield' Release Will Be Test of Online Hype
Now the mystery box as part of on-line marketing tool, as inter-active game, etc. Which is all very fascinating - it's a really nice idea and I can see how this approach might be fine for providing grist to the obsessive fanboy's mill – as they trawl the internet trying to find various clues... but the problem there is at the end of it all - there is emphatically NO worthwhile end solution to be had. It is bound to always end in some disappointment, the over-teasing and the over-hyping makes sure of that.
I remember a wildlife documentary that was all about grey squirrels and featured how intelligent and agile they were. Showing them grabbing food from a bird table in a garden which the experimenters made increasingly difficult to get to - with ever more complicated obstacles. The thrill was seeing how the squirrel managed to negotiate everything. But there always came a point where the squirrel just stopped coming. The effort required to get to the peanuts just wasn't worth it any more. And that's what I feel about watching 'Lost'. I know a lot of the audience stopped coming to the table a long time back. And if people do totally get the whole mystery box concept completely - they're gong to realise their own ideas, theories, storylines are going to be far superior than whatever J J can come up with -and he's going to be out of a job.
Cloverfield - a preview
Cloverfield - preview
If anyone in the US sees this film (it opens on the 18th) can they email me spoilers and a synopsis immediately afterwards please?
Because - well, I've come to a point where I'm getting over-tired of all teasers and the trailers and the 'never-being-given-a-straight-answer-ness of it all. They've started to overdo it a bit now. There's all sorts of stuff on the web, a soft-drink site -Slusho (and they even had a whole 'product' placement thing going on in the last few episodes of 'Heroes'. All the main characters have their own Myspace profiles... and it would be great (maybe) if it wasn't all so ultimately shallow. Because it's there to do the one simple job after the movie is out -it comes to an abrupt halt. It ends because no one is making money out of it anymore. [Maybe that's where 'fanfic' takes over I guess.]
Mmmmm I'm pondering now - Cloverfield has spent a lot of effort in their viral marketing but it's really only for their home market... trying to generate a 'must-see' vibe. But once the films out on release - the cat's out of the bag. The film won't be out in the UK for months afterward (because we're in 'Europe' they have to translate the movie and put subtitles on... oh wait - they don't have to do any of that for us... they just release films later over here because... because... they can.) are they going to carry on with the viral marketing for here? Or will they just not bother - figuring that if lots of Americans saw it - we'll just flock to see it too? Being the good little sheep that we are.
If anyone in the US sees this film (it opens on the 18th) can they email me spoilers and a synopsis immediately afterwards please?
Because - well, I've come to a point where I'm getting over-tired of all teasers and the trailers and the 'never-being-given-a-straight-answer-ness of it all. They've started to overdo it a bit now. There's all sorts of stuff on the web, a soft-drink site -Slusho (and they even had a whole 'product' placement thing going on in the last few episodes of 'Heroes'. All the main characters have their own Myspace profiles... and it would be great (maybe) if it wasn't all so ultimately shallow. Because it's there to do the one simple job after the movie is out -it comes to an abrupt halt. It ends because no one is making money out of it anymore. [Maybe that's where 'fanfic' takes over I guess.]
Mmmmm I'm pondering now - Cloverfield has spent a lot of effort in their viral marketing but it's really only for their home market... trying to generate a 'must-see' vibe. But once the films out on release - the cat's out of the bag. The film won't be out in the UK for months afterward (because we're in 'Europe' they have to translate the movie and put subtitles on... oh wait - they don't have to do any of that for us... they just release films later over here because... because... they can.) are they going to carry on with the viral marketing for here? Or will they just not bother - figuring that if lots of Americans saw it - we'll just flock to see it too? Being the good little sheep that we are.
DAY WATCH
So tonight my bf was talking about how he had started reading these books that he was now all excited about - called Daywatch by Sergey Lukyanenko. And as he went through the basic plot it slowly dawned on me that I had seen the movie of Nightwatch - the first book in the trilogy on TV only the other week. It transpires the follow up movie - the second in a trilogy was only released last year in October. Damn it - I've got lots of catching up to do now. Trying to get the movie for him -sigh. Stuff like that.
DAY WATCH
DAY WATCH
linky links for new Torchwood (starts Wednesday) and new Lost (-starts - who knows - whenever)
"...Torchwood fans should notice a change in tone this week. When Davies and his team looked back on series one, they decided it was too angst-ridden. ‘I think that was us in the office, being in such a rush to make it that we were projecting our worries onto the screen,’ Davies says, laughing."
Certainly - a lot less of the crying on Torchwood would be very welcome, because it was seriously getting on my tits.
I'm-a looking forward to seeing James Marsters giving his first on-screen male-on-male kiss. Whay-hey.
Here's a brief rundown of the Torchwood characters for you:
- Captain Jack – smug, omni-sexual.
- Gwen – pouty and constantly on the edge of tears. The other characters are constantly informing us how 'special' she is. Yet the only thing she seems genuinely good at is being pouty and being constantly on the edge of tears.
- Toshiko – geeky, dull, constantly on the edge of tears.
- Owen – creepy looking, arrogant, laddishly laddish, Complete wanker. And why has he got no lips? Whatever happened to his lips? There should be a story explaining where his lips disappeared to.
- Ianto – dreary, wears a suit.
Damon Lindelof, Co-Creator and Executive Producer of Lost - explains why he writes (it's to stop him becoming a pathological liar apparently) but totally fails to explain why he can never bring any of his stories to a satisfyingly conclusion that neatly ties up all the loose ends he also constantly generates.
Also -am I the only one that finds it ironic that Lost - which has been artificially dragged out and out for so long by being vastly over-written and over-padded should have had it's already pre-planned short new season even more shortened by a writers strike?
Michael Emerson interview which gives nothing away. Is Ben evil - or is he good? and who even cares anymore?
Argh - dammit Lost writers - will you just stop teasing us and dragging the story out - everyone lost interest years ago. Just tell us how it ends - now - before you get taken off the air and we'll never get to know.
Daytime TV is strange.
For the past few years morning British TV has had an obsession with Property.
From the BBC:
Homes under the Hammer.
Here's the basic premise – the program makers find a house for sale at auction, they'll then poke a camera around for all the 'before' shots. Go on to interview the successful bidder who is always someone buying it as an investment, with the intention of either renting out or selling on for a profit. No one ever buys anything with the intention of actually living in it -ever. (Indeed, the very notion that people should buy somewhere to actually live in seems to have been totally forgotten in this country. So the 'Homes' part of the shows title is almost a complete misnomer.) The buyer invariably guts the building and then paints everything inside beige and/or cream – puts in a new white bathroom suite, and new kitchen units. Consequently all the properties end up looking completely mind-numbingly, soullessly identically boring. These are for the 'after' shots. To cap the segment they get in a creepy looking load of be-suited Estate agents to say how much money it's now worth -and surprise, surprise it's always higher than what they originally paid for it. End shots of buyer giggling, drooling and gloating.
Repeat for the next property.
From the BBC:
Homes under the Hammer.
Here's the basic premise – the program makers find a house for sale at auction, they'll then poke a camera around for all the 'before' shots. Go on to interview the successful bidder who is always someone buying it as an investment, with the intention of either renting out or selling on for a profit. No one ever buys anything with the intention of actually living in it -ever. (Indeed, the very notion that people should buy somewhere to actually live in seems to have been totally forgotten in this country. So the 'Homes' part of the shows title is almost a complete misnomer.) The buyer invariably guts the building and then paints everything inside beige and/or cream – puts in a new white bathroom suite, and new kitchen units. Consequently all the properties end up looking completely mind-numbingly, soullessly identically boring. These are for the 'after' shots. To cap the segment they get in a creepy looking load of be-suited Estate agents to say how much money it's now worth -and surprise, surprise it's always higher than what they originally paid for it. End shots of buyer giggling, drooling and gloating.
Repeat for the next property.
Soldiers bulldoze Naples rubbish
This is bizarre. Is this is foretaste of things to come in the near future when the rest of the World starts running out of space to put it's rubbish? Over there it's supposedly been the mob that has blocked 'them' building incinerators - but here in the UK it's environmentalists that have been blocking councils building them - because they're not particularly safe. mmmmm, yes let's put those dangerous poisonous toxins into the air. It'll give it some flavour.
This will be the tail end of the vast consumerist society we've all been living for the past few decades then.
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Soldiers bulldoze Naples rubbish
This will be the tail end of the vast consumerist society we've all been living for the past few decades then.
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Soldiers bulldoze Naples rubbish
Marketing: Ads For Gays Focus On Exactly What You'd Expect
Holy honking crap.
I suppose there may well be a few dinosaur pouves out there being suckered in by this sort of excrement but... no. Seriously - Madison Avenue - Stop this now. Stop it now or you will be hurt. Badly hurt. Like missing kneecaps and 'made to watch your own entrails extracted and burnt in front of your very own eyes' sort of hurt. This is just too, too insulting.
Marketing: Ads For Gays Focus On Exactly What You'd Expect
The original Gay for pay link.
I suppose there may well be a few dinosaur pouves out there being suckered in by this sort of excrement but... no. Seriously - Madison Avenue - Stop this now. Stop it now or you will be hurt. Badly hurt. Like missing kneecaps and 'made to watch your own entrails extracted and burnt in front of your very own eyes' sort of hurt. This is just too, too insulting.
Marketing: Ads For Gays Focus On Exactly What You'd Expect
The original Gay for pay link.
Star Trek's Gary Seven moves over into comicbook form.
Which would be great if I could get hold of comics easily. Hummmphf. There isn't a comic book shop where I live. But then comic book shops have always creeped me out a bit.
Talking Star Trek with John Byrne
Talking Star Trek with John Byrne
VERY annoying advert::
Opens with jangly piano music...
Female narrator: "When you had diarrhea this morning... you had a choice..."
My responsive: "I didn't have diarrhea this morning - so fu*k off!!!"
Female narrator: "When you had diarrhea this morning... you had a choice..."
My responsive: "I didn't have diarrhea this morning - so fu*k off!!!"
Blimey.
Not Mark Speight.
CBBC star 'distraught' over death
Then there's the story of Britney going off the rails -again...
CBBC star 'distraught' over death
Then there's the story of Britney going off the rails -again...
Annoying adverts: The pornography of crying.
It used to be that the British were world famous for their lack of public displays of emotion - remember the 'stiff upper lip'? – but that seems to have quietly become extinct over time. Over the past few years – the UK has fallen in love with public displays of crying. I blame the American TV imports such as Oprah, Springer, etc. This led us to our own home grown chat shows and with the explosion of multiple channel TV which in turn led to a search for cheap ways to fill all that air time -and so was invented the 'reality show'. You can be almost certain that these days if the show involves a member of the public and it might be a show about dieting, clothes, their pet dog, their treasured processions, their untidy house, their career – whatever,– at some point it will feature a scene where that person is made to cry. That's the money shot right there. Then later came celebrity crying.... but I start to digress.
So now I've given you a bit of history – I want to draw your attention to one particular commercial that's been driving me crazy for the past couple of years. It has irritating jangly guitar music – and an indie-band boy doing a worbly 'soulful' vocal (which is already more than enough to set my teeth on edge and make me queasy) – and a blue sofa and a chair a weirdo overly-friendly man and most important of all - a box of famous brand paper tissues – all out in the open air on various street locations. Yes, out on the street. The premise being that random members of the general public are invited to sit on the sofa and talk to a sympathetic professional actor – until they are eventually driven to tears and so get to use the famous brand tissue and will notice it's wonderful tear and snot absorbing properties. Which is no doubt far superior to any other paper tissue and also great value for money. Of course this really is all a bit disturbing and it is pandering to the UK's newly-found love/spectator sport of watching people cry in public. Gross. Except of course the makers of this commercial have noticed that well, yes, it is a bit creepy and disturbing actually – so they've backtracked on themselves a bit and have since added in a few people being happy smiley happy laughy, and even some people having a group hug, and well, generally altogether having a good time that doesn't feature using paper handkerchiefs. Of course here the paper tissue manufacturers have missed a golden opportunity of showing people having themselves such a good time that they have the definite need for a clean up afterwards with tissues. Only -please let's not show that happening on a sofa in the open streets OK?
So now I've given you a bit of history – I want to draw your attention to one particular commercial that's been driving me crazy for the past couple of years. It has irritating jangly guitar music – and an indie-band boy doing a worbly 'soulful' vocal (which is already more than enough to set my teeth on edge and make me queasy) – and a blue sofa and a chair a weirdo overly-friendly man and most important of all - a box of famous brand paper tissues – all out in the open air on various street locations. Yes, out on the street. The premise being that random members of the general public are invited to sit on the sofa and talk to a sympathetic professional actor – until they are eventually driven to tears and so get to use the famous brand tissue and will notice it's wonderful tear and snot absorbing properties. Which is no doubt far superior to any other paper tissue and also great value for money. Of course this really is all a bit disturbing and it is pandering to the UK's newly-found love/spectator sport of watching people cry in public. Gross. Except of course the makers of this commercial have noticed that well, yes, it is a bit creepy and disturbing actually – so they've backtracked on themselves a bit and have since added in a few people being happy smiley happy laughy, and even some people having a group hug, and well, generally altogether having a good time that doesn't feature using paper handkerchiefs. Of course here the paper tissue manufacturers have missed a golden opportunity of showing people having themselves such a good time that they have the definite need for a clean up afterwards with tissues. Only -please let's not show that happening on a sofa in the open streets OK?
Street legend will be one of most evil enemies of Doctor Who
Nothing that much new here though. Must be yet another slow news day.
But Torchwood's second series is set to be shown on the 16th on BBC2. (How many 's'es where there in that last sentence?)
Sarah Lancashire | Coronation Street | Doctor Who | Street legend will be one of most evil enemies | The Sun
But Torchwood's second series is set to be shown on the 16th on BBC2. (How many 's'es where there in that last sentence?)
Sarah Lancashire | Coronation Street | Doctor Who | Street legend will be one of most evil enemies | The Sun
a thought
When I was young I remember my mother explaining too me how the notion of the 'comedy vicar' came to be... it went along the lines that in big rich families - the least brightest member of them - the one that would probably mess up the most if they went into the family business - would instead be encouraged to go into the church. This morning I was thinking - that these days in America at least they make that sort of person - the President.
[the comedy vicar has been a staple of British comedy since -oh, I have no idea, the Victorian probably. There's Dick Emery, and er... Derek Nimmo, and more -I have to let my mind let long dormant memories percolate to the surface for a while now.]
[the comedy vicar has been a staple of British comedy since -oh, I have no idea, the Victorian probably. There's Dick Emery, and er... Derek Nimmo, and more -I have to let my mind let long dormant memories percolate to the surface for a while now.]
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
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