*shakes head*
Digital Britain: ISPs will have to cut filesharing by 70% under new proposals
Dying dinosaur Government - led around by the nose by a dying dinosaur entertainment industry...
The 10 Least Necessary Doctor Who Figures
I've got something like four of these:
Topless Robot - The 10 Least Necessary Doctor Who Figures
Topless Robot - The 10 Least Necessary Doctor Who Figures
Why politicans can't ever be trusted
It's late - I'm tired - I haven't read this whole article BUT I've come away with one overwhelming thought... THIS is exactly why the whole country is fucked. Seriously - are these are supposed to be the people we elect to look after 'very important things'? - IE 'how the country is run' and so on, but just look at them - 'secret' webmail accounts - PAYG mobile phones - Jesus, it's so pathetic. It's naughty school children misbehaving in the playground stuff. They've proven themselves time and time again not to be trustworthy in any shape or form - the public have no reason whatsoever to take any of these people seriously.
I can't even begin to express my disgust at the whole bloody lot of them.
Why plot to oust Gordon Brown failed | Politics | The Guardian
I can't even begin to express my disgust at the whole bloody lot of them.
Why plot to oust Gordon Brown failed | Politics | The Guardian
Digital wrongs management
So what's the deal with the entertainment biz? Why are they consistently roughly 10 years behind the times?
and...
Are downloads really killing the music industry? Or is it something else?
I think the the answers partly lie in
1. They generate fantasy figures for themselves based on how much money they think they should be making - probably based on figures they had back in the 80s before the internet and computer games and DVDs and mobile phones, a time when everyone was gradually replacing their libraries of vinyl recording with CDs.
2. Their own greed - how is it the use of computers in any other industry has lead to savings in production? A recording studio used to be a ludicrously expensive thing to rent. But now everyone can get professional results on their laptops. When a track or a album is a download - with no physical CD, no cover, no transportation costs, no shelf space in a shop - why does it still cost the same as buying it on a CD?
and that's just music - I can't even go into TV shows and movies - but I am pissed at ISPs and Govts kowtowing to the Ent Biz and running around making laws and punishing home users on their behalf.
But what's the real effect of DRM? Last year, EMI began offering songs without it on iTunes. "The industry has finally been able to get some hard data about how removing DRM restrictions from legitimately purchased tracks affects piracy," says Bill Rosenplatt, DRM specialist and president of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies. "The statistics show that there's no effect on piracy."
No effect. The assertion is remarkable. If DRM does not in fact discourage piracy, then it is merely a nuisance for the user.
and...
Are downloads really killing the music industry? Or is it something else?
I think the the answers partly lie in
1. They generate fantasy figures for themselves based on how much money they think they should be making - probably based on figures they had back in the 80s before the internet and computer games and DVDs and mobile phones, a time when everyone was gradually replacing their libraries of vinyl recording with CDs.
2. Their own greed - how is it the use of computers in any other industry has lead to savings in production? A recording studio used to be a ludicrously expensive thing to rent. But now everyone can get professional results on their laptops. When a track or a album is a download - with no physical CD, no cover, no transportation costs, no shelf space in a shop - why does it still cost the same as buying it on a CD?
and that's just music - I can't even go into TV shows and movies - but I am pissed at ISPs and Govts kowtowing to the Ent Biz and running around making laws and punishing home users on their behalf.
digital photography from the 70s
I thought this was interesting - it's screen grab from an episode of 'The Tomorrow People' and this is the character Steve - and he's playing with a compact cassette - which to explain to you youngsters is something we had before mpg players. Which wouldn't be that interesting - except his cassette isn't an plain old ordinary audio cassette - it's a set of photographs... it isn't explained at all in the episode at all but rather than clutching a old fashioned photographic print he's got there what could only be a digital photograph stored on magnetic tape... because floppy discs hadn't even been invented yet... but compact cassettes had. I'm not sure, but this might have even been before they had home computers where software was loaded on from cassette players. How far ahead of it's time was this program?
I still wish I could talk to my computer (mmm, come to think of it - hasn't Vista got that built in? I haven't bothered to try it - because I know I'd only be setting myself up for a massive disappointment.)
sigh - local election time
So I'm watching the various local election results come in on the news... and i'm depressed. Not because Labour is being trounced - since I believe they are only getting everything they deserve. But because this means the Tories are gaining - and that it's looking more and more like a foregone collection that the Tories will get into power at the next general election. It depresses me profoundly that the general public have such short memories - they've now totally forgotten just how wretchedly bad the Tories were when they were last in power. What's worse, no one seems to realise that NuLabour haven't done anything differently from what the Tories would have done the past 12 years. The whole two party political system we have here in the UK is insane and no way to run a country... each party just gets a shot at coming in and wrecking everything in their own way and when they wind down - usually dissolving in disarray and miring themselves in sleaze - then the opposition (who are always great at knowing how to run things and can fix everything when they're not in power - but always suddenly manage to completely lose that ability when they do gain power... funny that) get their turn to fuck everything up in their own way.
Groans.
There has got to be a better way than this.
Why wont people give the Lib-Dems a chance?
Groans.
There has got to be a better way than this.
Why wont people give the Lib-Dems a chance?
Rye
The why of the Rye
Oh look, a BBC magazine piece on the Catcher. By coincidence I just read 'Catcher in the Rye' only a few weeks ago. It was just 50p from a charity shop - so I thought I'd give it a go. Not only that - I was thinking about it again this very morning for some reason. I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't see what the fuss is about. As I was reading it I was thinking- oh well, maybe things were so different all those years back - this was a bit of shocker then. But why it's kept on being a classic over the decades... I just don't get it.
I'd add to their neat little run down of the story that they didn't mention the death of one of Holden's class mates at the hands of bullies - and I got the sense that there was a layer of quiet post-traumatic stress syndrome going on there in among all the self-absorbed narcissistic teenage angst. I read between the lines that Caulfield might have had a nervous breakdown at the end of his New York 'adventures' - and after getting better was off to start at a new college... (I might be wrong. I might have read too much in there. But it makes sense to me - so I'm sticking by it.)
Oh look, a BBC magazine piece on the Catcher. By coincidence I just read 'Catcher in the Rye' only a few weeks ago. It was just 50p from a charity shop - so I thought I'd give it a go. Not only that - I was thinking about it again this very morning for some reason. I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't see what the fuss is about. As I was reading it I was thinking- oh well, maybe things were so different all those years back - this was a bit of shocker then. But why it's kept on being a classic over the decades... I just don't get it.
I'd add to their neat little run down of the story that they didn't mention the death of one of Holden's class mates at the hands of bullies - and I got the sense that there was a layer of quiet post-traumatic stress syndrome going on there in among all the self-absorbed narcissistic teenage angst. I read between the lines that Caulfield might have had a nervous breakdown at the end of his New York 'adventures' - and after getting better was off to start at a new college... (I might be wrong. I might have read too much in there. But it makes sense to me - so I'm sticking by it.)
fantasy world
Apparently according to research commissioned by the 'Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property' (who?) 'free downloads' is costing the British economy billions of pounds a year...
IE I'd imagine a bunch of accountants were locked in room with their laptops and some bottles of wine and told to come up with some figures that this 'Advisory Board' could bandy about - and got paid quite a bit of money for the privilege.
"Ministers privately accept the difficulty attached to criminalising millions of people who now apparently see little wrong with stealing online content."
-They could of course, build more prisons... (what are the numbers of people fined and imprisoned for not having a TV licence these days?) or as is it seems more likely - why not make the whole of the country into a prison island (ID cards, with compulsory records of our DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, Etc. CCTV surveillance, keeping records on everyone's emails, IMs, web browsing history... We're well on our way there now.)
Or how's about trying to find new ways of making money out of creative content that doesn't rely 100% on outdated, last century ideas of counting bums on seats in cinemas, or selling over-priced plastic boxes with silver discs in them?
God help us if they ever bother to factor in the sales of second hand CDs and DVDs... like the financial sector at the moment they might decide everyone owes umpteen times over the GDP of the entire planet...
Cost to British economy of free downloads is revealed | Technology | The Guardian
IE I'd imagine a bunch of accountants were locked in room with their laptops and some bottles of wine and told to come up with some figures that this 'Advisory Board' could bandy about - and got paid quite a bit of money for the privilege.
"Ministers privately accept the difficulty attached to criminalising millions of people who now apparently see little wrong with stealing online content."
-They could of course, build more prisons... (what are the numbers of people fined and imprisoned for not having a TV licence these days?) or as is it seems more likely - why not make the whole of the country into a prison island (ID cards, with compulsory records of our DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, Etc. CCTV surveillance, keeping records on everyone's emails, IMs, web browsing history... We're well on our way there now.)
Or how's about trying to find new ways of making money out of creative content that doesn't rely 100% on outdated, last century ideas of counting bums on seats in cinemas, or selling over-priced plastic boxes with silver discs in them?
God help us if they ever bother to factor in the sales of second hand CDs and DVDs... like the financial sector at the moment they might decide everyone owes umpteen times over the GDP of the entire planet...
Cost to British economy of free downloads is revealed | Technology | The Guardian
Doctor Who: new companion is 'unknown' 21-year old girl
Oh. Hum. Eeeerrrr... Is this turning into 'the Time Lord Babies' show - you know, like the Muppet babies or Puppy Scooby Doo?
I'm trying not to be worried - but I dunno what Stephen Moffat is thinking... is he trying to get down with the kids? Won't he alienate some of the older members of that Saturday night family audience?
Doctor Who: new companion is 'unknown' 21-year-old actress - Telegraph
guardian snippet (with snarky comments)
I'm trying not to be worried - but I dunno what Stephen Moffat is thinking... is he trying to get down with the kids? Won't he alienate some of the older members of that Saturday night family audience?
Doctor Who: new companion is 'unknown' 21-year-old actress - Telegraph
guardian snippet (with snarky comments)
politicians expense claims
This is just jaw-dropping.
A plague on both your houses - Times Online
Of course this is a symptom of the current generation of career politician we've now got. These are people who go straight from school - to university and then into politics. Consequently precious few of them have had much experience of real life - or even held down a real job (some of them might possibly have had a silly part time job during uni. but otherwise they probably interned for their chosen political party) or know much about how normal everyday people live their lives. This is apparent by the utter cluelessness they display when reporters confront them:
See the clip here.
If I was in charge of the country - I'd have all mps put on minimum wage and if they're away from their constituencies for parliamentary business - they'd be halls of residence set up for them - with constant cctv surveillance in what would no doubt prove to be a futile attempt to stop them bonking each other senseless...
Of course what they should do is pay all the money back and give everyone a tax rebate. Don't hold your breath.
A plague on both your houses - Times Online
Of course this is a symptom of the current generation of career politician we've now got. These are people who go straight from school - to university and then into politics. Consequently precious few of them have had much experience of real life - or even held down a real job (some of them might possibly have had a silly part time job during uni. but otherwise they probably interned for their chosen political party) or know much about how normal everyday people live their lives. This is apparent by the utter cluelessness they display when reporters confront them:
ANDREW SINCLAIR: And you would say, you haven’t broken any rules, this is all within the claims policy.
MARGARET MORAN: It is all within the claims policy and that’s why I’m angry about this because not only has it been very stressful for me and my family, it gives the incredibly misleading impression that somehow we’ve been dodgy, that we’ve been fraudulent or we’ve been corrupt. Nothing is further from the truth. As I say, there are – I’ve done everything by the rules. There are inaccuracies, some of which I think are probably actionable and I think that it’s deeply irresponsible and actually the evasion of privacy, not just my privacy but my partner’s privacy, the Daily Telegraph, now have and have circulated to all the media, details of my credit card, my bank statements, my mortgage statements, personal details relating to my partner, which I do not believe any responsible media should be dealing with.
ANDREW SINCLAIR: Some people are going to say you should resign over this.
MARGARET MORAN: Well I, I don’t want to resign. I want to continue to do a good job for my constituents; my Party doesn’t want me to resign. (interjection)
ANDREW SINCLAIR: Have you thought about resigning?
MARGARET MORAN: Well I, no, I haven’t because I haven’t done anything wrong. You know, if you haven’t done anything wrong, what is there to resign for.
See the clip here.
If I was in charge of the country - I'd have all mps put on minimum wage and if they're away from their constituencies for parliamentary business - they'd be halls of residence set up for them - with constant cctv surveillance in what would no doubt prove to be a futile attempt to stop them bonking each other senseless...
Of course what they should do is pay all the money back and give everyone a tax rebate. Don't hold your breath.
Art School Confidential - huh?
I've just watched this movie and am currently in the throes of 'huh? wha?'. So all this is off the top of my head.
I'm confused - I haven't read the comic book - so I can't vouch as to whether it's a good adaptation or not... so I'll have to let that slide. But broadly speaking - you can get away with a lot more in a graphic novel than you can in a movie. (Maybe that's because expectations are a lot lower? I don't know.)
But from a first viewing it seems like what could have been a really nice (all be it somewhat trite and conventional) little 'boy artist meets out-of-his-league pretty girl' romance on top of a snarky little dig at the woefully pretentious art school mores was further ruined by having a murder mystery grafted onto the top of it. Leaving me not knowing what I was watching really - much less as to what it was trying to say. (I feel it could have worked in the hands of a far more accomplished director. But here it all fell apart and became lifeless mush.)
Was it saying:
Everyone is a pretentious fraud apart from the serial killer who made his paintings from his murders? (But all he really did was make a memento of each of his victims - is that art? Do we consider what serial killers -like Dennis Nielsen and Jeffrey Dahmer or Ed Gein did with their victim's remains art? Or even the paintings of clowns by Wayne Gacy? Now, is that art appreciation or just morbid curiosity?)
That the highest accomplishment in modern life is fame even when gained through notoriety? Because that would have been a great sarcastic message - but somehow it just didn't quite work as well as it could have done.
That everyone is clueless?
If you want the girl and to be famous - then claim credit for someone else's work - even if it's homicide? Despite the fact that your own work looks nothing whatsoever like what the murderer produced. (Which should be a big giveaway surely) The problem with that was the lead actor - simply wasn't anywhere near morally ambiguous enough - Max Minghella made an ideal fresh young innocent abroad - but someone who could be mistaken for a serial killer - or even someone warped and complex and manipulative enough to be willingly allow themselves to be imprisoned as such? Oh c'mon. No. That bird wasn't ever going to fly.
The other gripe I have about the film is that the main character's art is just - so tediously bland and conventional - it's illustration not art. (You must remember Clowes for career went into comic books - which is story-telling through a series of images - a different discipline altogether from making a single image which is meant to stand alone and be looked at for a long period of time. And now I think of it - movie making - is that too. So maybe the whole film is about a cartoonist and a movie maker - people who make stories through a succession of images - just totally failing to understand what single image art is really about. Then having an axe to grind in later life about how they were so misunderstood in art school... Hey, I think I might be on to something here...)
Art School Confidential
I'm confused - I haven't read the comic book - so I can't vouch as to whether it's a good adaptation or not... so I'll have to let that slide. But broadly speaking - you can get away with a lot more in a graphic novel than you can in a movie. (Maybe that's because expectations are a lot lower? I don't know.)
But from a first viewing it seems like what could have been a really nice (all be it somewhat trite and conventional) little 'boy artist meets out-of-his-league pretty girl' romance on top of a snarky little dig at the woefully pretentious art school mores was further ruined by having a murder mystery grafted onto the top of it. Leaving me not knowing what I was watching really - much less as to what it was trying to say. (I feel it could have worked in the hands of a far more accomplished director. But here it all fell apart and became lifeless mush.)
Was it saying:
Everyone is a pretentious fraud apart from the serial killer who made his paintings from his murders? (But all he really did was make a memento of each of his victims - is that art? Do we consider what serial killers -like Dennis Nielsen and Jeffrey Dahmer or Ed Gein did with their victim's remains art? Or even the paintings of clowns by Wayne Gacy? Now, is that art appreciation or just morbid curiosity?)
That the highest accomplishment in modern life is fame even when gained through notoriety? Because that would have been a great sarcastic message - but somehow it just didn't quite work as well as it could have done.
That everyone is clueless?
If you want the girl and to be famous - then claim credit for someone else's work - even if it's homicide? Despite the fact that your own work looks nothing whatsoever like what the murderer produced. (Which should be a big giveaway surely) The problem with that was the lead actor - simply wasn't anywhere near morally ambiguous enough - Max Minghella made an ideal fresh young innocent abroad - but someone who could be mistaken for a serial killer - or even someone warped and complex and manipulative enough to be willingly allow themselves to be imprisoned as such? Oh c'mon. No. That bird wasn't ever going to fly.
The other gripe I have about the film is that the main character's art is just - so tediously bland and conventional - it's illustration not art. (You must remember Clowes for career went into comic books - which is story-telling through a series of images - a different discipline altogether from making a single image which is meant to stand alone and be looked at for a long period of time. And now I think of it - movie making - is that too. So maybe the whole film is about a cartoonist and a movie maker - people who make stories through a succession of images - just totally failing to understand what single image art is really about. Then having an axe to grind in later life about how they were so misunderstood in art school... Hey, I think I might be on to something here...)
Art School Confidential
Gordon and Sarah Brown at Auschwitz
Sarah: "So first we start by making everyone have voluntary ID cards?"
Gordon: "Then we make them compulsory... like Germany did in 1939"
Sarah: "Then we start building huge work camps?"
Gordon: "We'll claim it'll be to help the long term unemployed..."
[well - I can't help but think ol' Gordon has been taking away all the wrong ideas away from history recently. Like his full support of the Thatcherite/Reagan brand of laissez-faire capitalism - the last time that was tried in the 20s/30s - mmmm how'd that one end again?]
Gordon: "Then we make them compulsory... like Germany did in 1939"
Sarah: "Then we start building huge work camps?"
Gordon: "We'll claim it'll be to help the long term unemployed..."
[well - I can't help but think ol' Gordon has been taking away all the wrong ideas away from history recently. Like his full support of the Thatcherite/Reagan brand of laissez-faire capitalism - the last time that was tried in the 20s/30s - mmmm how'd that one end again?]
Manchester 'launch' for ID cards
"'ID cards will deliver real benefits to everyone, including increased protection against criminals, illegal immigrants and terrorists,' the home secretary will say."
And will they go on to specify how exactly this magic ID card will do that? Unless people are totally scrupulously honest and tick the 'I am a terrorist/criminal/illegal immigrant' box when they voluntarily turn up to get a card? Only to be taken off by the police as they try to leave the building?
BBC NEWS | Politics | Manchester 'launch' for ID cards
And will they go on to specify how exactly this magic ID card will do that? Unless people are totally scrupulously honest and tick the 'I am a terrorist/criminal/illegal immigrant' box when they voluntarily turn up to get a card? Only to be taken off by the police as they try to leave the building?
BBC NEWS | Politics | Manchester 'launch' for ID cards
Time to bail out of Britain? - Telegraph
Oh dear - here's the Telegraph being a bit retarded again. Incase nobody has noticed -the fact is most of the highest earners (and corporations) in the UK haven't been paying much in the way of taxes for a very long time now. Can't see that changing any time soon - because where else are the main political parties going to get their campaign fund donations for the next election from? They're NEVER going to bite the hand that feeds them are they now? (- and don't for one minute think that they think it's the taxpayer that pays them - to them that wage is just a pittance). Moreover - isn't it the case that a lot of these high earners are the very same greedy idiots who've brought about the whole global financial meltdown in the first place? So wouldn't we all be a better off if they did scram out of the country - and go off and ruin somewhere else for a change?
Mind you I'd love to go and live abroad somewhere else for a bit.
Time to bail out of Britain? - Telegraph
Mind you I'd love to go and live abroad somewhere else for a bit.
Time to bail out of Britain? - Telegraph
Rumour: Gillian Anderson to appear in Dr Who?
That rings a bell... Where have I come across this idea before?
Oh yes...
Oh yes...
Pirate Bay Judge Exposed as Member of Pro-Copyright Groups
erm.... No conflicts of interest there then, no pre-judice there - oh siree no.
Pirate Bay Judge Exposed as Member of Pro-Copyright Groups | Threat Level from Wired.com
Now the whole thing concerning the huge cost of damages get me - now if these guys were making pirated DVDs/CDs - or whatever and were selling them and making themselves millionaires then that I could understand. But these are well, wholly imaginary losses that the Entertainment Industry have guesstimated they've lost. I mean why can't we all do that? Say I imagine that a (any) company have earnt themselves X millions of pounds I've lost out on because they're doing something I could have done - but decided for whatever reason not to. Which is all this amounts to.
When you consider that the entertainment industry has only grown as big and as bloated as it has through it's gross exploitation of genuine talent and funnelling that money to lawyers - the situation is even more perverse.
*Sigh* - the human race is doomed.
Pirate Bay Judge Exposed as Member of Pro-Copyright Groups | Threat Level from Wired.com
"Last Friday Norström and three lay judges found Sunde and three other men guilty of contributory copyright infringement, sentenced them to a year in prison, and ordered them to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) to entertainment companies."
Now the whole thing concerning the huge cost of damages get me - now if these guys were making pirated DVDs/CDs - or whatever and were selling them and making themselves millionaires then that I could understand. But these are well, wholly imaginary losses that the Entertainment Industry have guesstimated they've lost. I mean why can't we all do that? Say I imagine that a (any) company have earnt themselves X millions of pounds I've lost out on because they're doing something I could have done - but decided for whatever reason not to. Which is all this amounts to.
When you consider that the entertainment industry has only grown as big and as bloated as it has through it's gross exploitation of genuine talent and funnelling that money to lawyers - the situation is even more perverse.
*Sigh* - the human race is doomed.
The Planet of the Dead boring
The Doctor Who not so special.
Oh dear. Well that wasn't very good was it? And all that time and money and energy - and doing stupid things like shipping a whole red London bus off to Dubai (which alarmingly got trashed in transit - ooops!) to such poor effect. Furthermore can't say I'm a Michelle Ryan fan (wasn't that new Bionic Woman thing awful?) and I'm most definitely not a Lee Evans fan - what the hell was he doing in there? He was just irritating and annoying. There's nothing that can bring a combination of shivers up my spine and a sense of nausea than those two words: 'comedy relief'. Urgh-urgh-urgh. It was nice to see the return of UNIT Captain Erisa Magambo from 'Turn Left' - but then they completely ruined her character by having her behaving like a complete psychopath. Oh, and the naff bit shoe-horned in towards the end with the woman making predictions for the Doctor 'Your song is going to be over soon. Oooh, it's coming out of the darkness - coming to get youuuuu. He'll knock four times.' Etc. (Will that be a knock-knock-knock-knock - or four knock-knock-knock-knocks as in the beat that was in 'the sound of drums'. I'll guess the later - because we all kind of know the Master will be making a comeback to kill off the 10th Doctor at Christmas time. God knows they can't use the Daleks again) - but please, no more with the naff predictions - give it a rest. Or just be a lot more subtle about it. Especially since most of the time they're pointless and/or misleading (Rose isn't dead, and neither is Donna) (but I guess they're for our benefit - which breaks the fourth wall too much if you ask me).
[Just off the top of my head a quick list of predicting folk: The Face of Boe, Gwen the maid, The Sybilline Sisterhood and Lucius in Pompeii, The Ood, that maid (or whatever she was) in the Shadow Proclamation, mad, bad broken Dalek Caan....]
What else? Oh yes, TOO MUCH MUSIC. Oh my poor ears - all that Harry Potter style music - (which proves Doctor Who has leaned a bit too far over away from Science Fiction and into fantasy magic land - it's bad enough that sonic screwdriver = magic wand and Tardis = Narnia wardrobe... will the new Doctor have a zigzag scar on his forehead with his glasses perhaps?) all far too pompous and OTT. I'll quickly slip in here how annoying I found the Welsh voice choir bits in the finale of the last series Journey's End. Yes - we all know Doctor Who is made in Wales thank you - we don't need our noses rubbing in it every five minutes. Jeez. It doesn't help that I still associate Welsh male voice choirs with coal miners - so there I was subconsciously wondering 'what's coal mining got to do with dragging planet Earth back to it's proper place in space and time?'
So... to summarise we had a iconic red London bus - which ends up flying about all over the place, a bit of posh totty in Tom Cruise Mission Impossible drag, fly headed aliens from 'the Fly' Manta ray aliens from Stephen King's 'the Longoliers' an irritating stand up comedian, and a flimsy plot.
It's aggravating that I could have gone away for the weekend but decided to stay at home instead. Hurrrrumph. The last three episodes have a lot to make up for.
Oh dear. Well that wasn't very good was it? And all that time and money and energy - and doing stupid things like shipping a whole red London bus off to Dubai (which alarmingly got trashed in transit - ooops!) to such poor effect. Furthermore can't say I'm a Michelle Ryan fan (wasn't that new Bionic Woman thing awful?) and I'm most definitely not a Lee Evans fan - what the hell was he doing in there? He was just irritating and annoying. There's nothing that can bring a combination of shivers up my spine and a sense of nausea than those two words: 'comedy relief'. Urgh-urgh-urgh. It was nice to see the return of UNIT Captain Erisa Magambo from 'Turn Left' - but then they completely ruined her character by having her behaving like a complete psychopath. Oh, and the naff bit shoe-horned in towards the end with the woman making predictions for the Doctor 'Your song is going to be over soon. Oooh, it's coming out of the darkness - coming to get youuuuu. He'll knock four times.' Etc. (Will that be a knock-knock-knock-knock - or four knock-knock-knock-knocks as in the beat that was in 'the sound of drums'. I'll guess the later - because we all kind of know the Master will be making a comeback to kill off the 10th Doctor at Christmas time. God knows they can't use the Daleks again) - but please, no more with the naff predictions - give it a rest. Or just be a lot more subtle about it. Especially since most of the time they're pointless and/or misleading (Rose isn't dead, and neither is Donna) (but I guess they're for our benefit - which breaks the fourth wall too much if you ask me).
[Just off the top of my head a quick list of predicting folk: The Face of Boe, Gwen the maid, The Sybilline Sisterhood and Lucius in Pompeii, The Ood, that maid (or whatever she was) in the Shadow Proclamation, mad, bad broken Dalek Caan....]
What else? Oh yes, TOO MUCH MUSIC. Oh my poor ears - all that Harry Potter style music - (which proves Doctor Who has leaned a bit too far over away from Science Fiction and into fantasy magic land - it's bad enough that sonic screwdriver = magic wand and Tardis = Narnia wardrobe... will the new Doctor have a zigzag scar on his forehead with his glasses perhaps?) all far too pompous and OTT. I'll quickly slip in here how annoying I found the Welsh voice choir bits in the finale of the last series Journey's End. Yes - we all know Doctor Who is made in Wales thank you - we don't need our noses rubbing in it every five minutes. Jeez. It doesn't help that I still associate Welsh male voice choirs with coal miners - so there I was subconsciously wondering 'what's coal mining got to do with dragging planet Earth back to it's proper place in space and time?'
So... to summarise we had a iconic red London bus - which ends up flying about all over the place, a bit of posh totty in Tom Cruise Mission Impossible drag, fly headed aliens from 'the Fly' Manta ray aliens from Stephen King's 'the Longoliers' an irritating stand up comedian, and a flimsy plot.
It's aggravating that I could have gone away for the weekend but decided to stay at home instead. Hurrrrumph. The last three episodes have a lot to make up for.
advertising ruins everything
» Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles CANCELLED 04-10-2009
This doesn't surprise me...
It's interesting though that the TV networks know just enough that they have to make shows that bring in an intelligent audience - because if TV was all just cheap and flashy game and reality schlock - then only *cough* subnormals would be at the screen - [and it so happens that usually they're not the ones who have the most disposable income]. But what the networks can't fathom is when to put their product out on the air. So they consistently make massively stupid choices after which they quickly start whinging about not getting the sort of viewing figures they've pre-decided they want in order to make it viable for them to go on making the programmes they're making. Yet, ironically, the very same - richer type of people they are so desperate to lure the eyeballs of - are the very ones that can afford PVRs, DVRs, TiVo, and the broadband internets to watch things on line etc. [without the adverts] D'oh. So, talk about self-defeating. Not that it's occured to anyone within he entertainment industry that their 50s/60s/70s era business model of advertiser-funded TV is severely broken. Oh no, nope - they're still wedded to it - come what may. Erm, what's that cliché about it's only someone who is insane that will keep repeating the same exact same actions over and over but nonetheless will endlessly expect a different result?
So, it's inherently baffling - the only people who care about adverts are the advertisers and their industry and the advert pushers. The rest of us normal (sane) folk just want good stories to watch and all that commercial stuff is stupid shit that gets in the way of that. Which, if you think about it for even a moment - is a totally ridiculous state of affairs to have got into. Especially since everyone involved ends up losing every time. D'oh.
Effin' Edward Bernays has so much to answer for.
This doesn't surprise me...
It's interesting though that the TV networks know just enough that they have to make shows that bring in an intelligent audience - because if TV was all just cheap and flashy game and reality schlock - then only *cough* subnormals would be at the screen - [and it so happens that usually they're not the ones who have the most disposable income]. But what the networks can't fathom is when to put their product out on the air. So they consistently make massively stupid choices after which they quickly start whinging about not getting the sort of viewing figures they've pre-decided they want in order to make it viable for them to go on making the programmes they're making. Yet, ironically, the very same - richer type of people they are so desperate to lure the eyeballs of - are the very ones that can afford PVRs, DVRs, TiVo, and the broadband internets to watch things on line etc. [without the adverts] D'oh. So, talk about self-defeating. Not that it's occured to anyone within he entertainment industry that their 50s/60s/70s era business model of advertiser-funded TV is severely broken. Oh no, nope - they're still wedded to it - come what may. Erm, what's that cliché about it's only someone who is insane that will keep repeating the same exact same actions over and over but nonetheless will endlessly expect a different result?
So, it's inherently baffling - the only people who care about adverts are the advertisers and their industry and the advert pushers. The rest of us normal (sane) folk just want good stories to watch and all that commercial stuff is stupid shit that gets in the way of that. Which, if you think about it for even a moment - is a totally ridiculous state of affairs to have got into. Especially since everyone involved ends up losing every time. D'oh.
Effin' Edward Bernays has so much to answer for.
funny - I remembered the scar being on the other side
So am I the only one who's noticed the 'inner child' going all 'through the looking glass' at one point? What's all that about then?
I was getting a screengrab for the moleskine reporter at the time...
planet of the dead
Bernard Cribbons in the Christmas special? - awesome. Because Donna will be back!
Terrified innocent musician targeted in armed anti-terror raid
This sounds like a scene straight out of Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
WalesOnline Terrified musician targeted in armed anti-terror raid
WalesOnline Terrified musician targeted in armed anti-terror raid
Olympus AF-1
(Got myself one of these - a charity shop find - a few weeks back - haven't found a battery for it yet. So I've yet to use it.)
How British cops are criminalising peaceful protest - Boing Boing
It has ever been thus.
(But the video only showed a relatively mild attack by the riot police. They've done a lot worse in the past.)
How British cops are criminalising peaceful protest - Boing Boing
(But the video only showed a relatively mild attack by the riot police. They've done a lot worse in the past.)
How British cops are criminalising peaceful protest - Boing Boing
The rise of the sleaze-ocrats in Britain's ruling class
I've been googling Oborne after seeing on Charlie Brooker's Newswipe.
Rich men, dodgy money and the banana skin.
PETER OBORNE: The rise of the sleaze-ocrats in Britain's ruling class | Mail Online
(omigod - I'm book marking an old 2007 article in the Mail. Hell, bookmarking anything in the Mail worries me.)
Rich men, dodgy money and the banana skin.
PETER OBORNE: The rise of the sleaze-ocrats in Britain's ruling class | Mail Online
(omigod - I'm book marking an old 2007 article in the Mail. Hell, bookmarking anything in the Mail worries me.)
link dump
A couple of books:
‘CREATIVE DESTRUCTION’ – THE MADNESS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
A Brief History of Neoliberalism By David Harvey
(Just an aside - last year I vividly remember as I was watching the news programmes as the first waves of the global financial crisis started to hit and was struck how positively gleeful the reporters came across - it was as if they were happy that they had some real news to report for once. Out came the big screen graphics and there where lots of animated charts, they could take to the streets for their 'vox pops'. It was complete 'the Day Today'.)
Talking of the news: "Charlie Brooker looks at the news's obsession with the credit crunch"
‘CREATIVE DESTRUCTION’ – THE MADNESS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
A Brief History of Neoliberalism By David Harvey
(Just an aside - last year I vividly remember as I was watching the news programmes as the first waves of the global financial crisis started to hit and was struck how positively gleeful the reporters came across - it was as if they were happy that they had some real news to report for once. Out came the big screen graphics and there where lots of animated charts, they could take to the streets for their 'vox pops'. It was complete 'the Day Today'.)
Talking of the news: "Charlie Brooker looks at the news's obsession with the credit crunch"
Mmmmmphf - I'm old school
I still happen to think the whole students fees/student loans thing has been a massive mistake. IMO all education should be Government funded, dammit. It should be seen as an investment in our people and in the country's future. It makes no sense to me that if they can afford to give out dole money, child benefit, tax credits etc. [I won't mention the billions in bank bail outs] for people to do nothing (except for look for jobs that currently don't exist). Why not pay people to study? And not make it compulsory for people to start their working lives with a massive debt around their necks. Not when around the world we've seen where a over-reliance on credit and debt has got us - and the insane notion that you can rely on predictive future learnings - as any one of the million and more of the newly unemployed will tell you as they face foreclosure on their mortgages.
Recession to mean fees resistance.
Student hardship pleas 'increase'.
Recession to mean fees resistance.
Student hardship pleas 'increase'.
Dollhouse: Echoes
Where'd I seen elements of this episode before? Mmmmm? Oh yeah - Star Trek 'The Naked Time' and the Next Generation sequel 'The Naked Now' and that episode of Buffy 'Band Candy'.
But overall I'm happier with the show heading in this direction - as it seemed to turn a corner with the last episode 'the man on the street' - I was starting to find the whole 'new personality and a new mission a week' thing ala 'Joe 90' cum 'Mission Impossible' a bit wearing. Unfortunately I'm guessing there's a lot more of that to come though.
['Man on the Street' is the 'Dollhouse' episode to watch and the series creator explains why ]
But overall I'm happier with the show heading in this direction - as it seemed to turn a corner with the last episode 'the man on the street' - I was starting to find the whole 'new personality and a new mission a week' thing ala 'Joe 90' cum 'Mission Impossible' a bit wearing. Unfortunately I'm guessing there's a lot more of that to come though.
['Man on the Street' is the 'Dollhouse' episode to watch and the series creator explains why ]
Does ‘welfare reform’ work? No...
It didn't work under the Tories back in the 80s and 90s either - (and I've had first hand experience).
But what it does do is give the directors of these Private Companies (who are always cosy-cosy with those in power) - work - oh, and LOTS of tax payers money to play with. It's really another instance of corporate welfare. And the British voter seems to fall for it every time. But then as this sort of thing never gets so well covered in the press and TV news - whereas any story about 'dole scroungers' are always good for a headline or two. Not to mention the Govt. funded adverts for 'If, But' benefit cheats...
But what it does do is give the directors of these Private Companies (who are always cosy-cosy with those in power) - work - oh, and LOTS of tax payers money to play with. It's really another instance of corporate welfare. And the British voter seems to fall for it every time. But then as this sort of thing never gets so well covered in the press and TV news - whereas any story about 'dole scroungers' are always good for a headline or two. Not to mention the Govt. funded adverts for 'If, But' benefit cheats...
McNulty, hypocrisy and the Westminster bubble
One of those 'couldn't-have-put-it-better-myself' rants...
Liberal Conspiracy » McNulty, hypocrisy and the Westminster bubble
Liberal Conspiracy » McNulty, hypocrisy and the Westminster bubble
poor fred
Sir Fred Goodwin's home attacked.
Um? Why am I not surprised? and why isn't Fred forking out for his own security? It's not as if he's short of a bob or two.
Um? Why am I not surprised? and why isn't Fred forking out for his own security? It's not as if he's short of a bob or two.
but they all love a good database...
Link dumping for our Surveillance society and database mining...
10 government databases ‘will break the law’
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas warns of surveillance culture
God knows where the Govt. gets it's almost religious faith in technology from - it's either that or a breathtaking gullibility. 'Oooooh magic boxes - oooooh."
ContactPoint’s failure is a symptom of a wider disease.
"Technology moves fast. Governments do not. Those in the know are not in the least surprised that ContactPoint has been halted. The Government’s databases are in a mess."
10 government databases ‘will break the law’
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas warns of surveillance culture
God knows where the Govt. gets it's almost religious faith in technology from - it's either that or a breathtaking gullibility. 'Oooooh magic boxes - oooooh."
Tony, Tony, Tony...
It's a grim time to be an employment minister with unemployment figures at two million. When Tony McNulty went on Newsnight, he appeared moved almost to tears by the plight of Tina Owen, who described how her life had been ruined by losing her job at Woolworth's. The Employment Minister admitted that he could never live on £60.50 a week. At the time he seemed honest and endearing. This man understood these people's pain.
Here's Tina and Tony...
and then there's the Dawn Butler fiasco.
[But then I remember all the sleaze that was around at the time of the John Major Govt.]
Long hours link to dementia risk
Mmmmm. Now who do I remember who famously worked really long hours and slept only four hours a night. And made out that anyone who didn't follow her example was a wimp, oh, and on retirement is nowadays suffering from dementia? Oh yeah... that would be Margaret Thatcher.
And who constantly fought against the European Parliament's attempts to limit working hours to a maximum of 48 hours a week because it might hurt Britain's competitiveness in world markets? Why - that would be Thatcher's number one fan Tony Blair.
And who also wants to keep the opt-out? Why... Shadow business secretary Alan Duncan.
Mmmmmm. SlaveLabour UK - it's on it's way.
BBC NEWS | Health | Long hours link to dementia risk
And who constantly fought against the European Parliament's attempts to limit working hours to a maximum of 48 hours a week because it might hurt Britain's competitiveness in world markets? Why - that would be Thatcher's number one fan Tony Blair.
And who also wants to keep the opt-out? Why... Shadow business secretary Alan Duncan.
Mmmmmm. SlaveLabour UK - it's on it's way.
BBC NEWS | Health | Long hours link to dementia risk
won't someone please think of the children...
Children who spend hours in front of the TV are more likely to get asthma.
Britain’s children are unhappiest in the Western world.
"The growing numbers of children with obesity-related diabetes need more radical help from the NHS if they are to have any chance of a normal, healthy life, according to experts. A study of 73 adolescents with type 2 diabetes - unknown in children before 2002 - has found that they put on more weight over a year, rather than losing it."
Britain’s children are unhappiest in the Western world.
Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act
Mmmmm. I missed the news on this during the day it was happening. But it's all part of a very worrying trend. We've reached the point where the Government's own paranoia and fantasy-land view of reality is tipping over to a point where we're all going to be seen by it as being terrorists...
With the TV currently having a Thatcher retrospective - I'm reminded that hers was a government where a MP was murdered in a car bomb and herself and her cabinet where all nearly killed in a hotel bombing, and there where many incidents where people were killed - and as authoritarian as the Thatcher Government was - they never saw the need for all these extra new laws that are only going to prove a great threat to civil liberties of many a innocent person.
BBC NEWS | UK | Photographers angry at terror law
Photographers protest against Section 76
With the TV currently having a Thatcher retrospective - I'm reminded that hers was a government where a MP was murdered in a car bomb and herself and her cabinet where all nearly killed in a hotel bombing, and there where many incidents where people were killed - and as authoritarian as the Thatcher Government was - they never saw the need for all these extra new laws that are only going to prove a great threat to civil liberties of many a innocent person.
BBC NEWS | UK | Photographers angry at terror law
Photographers protest against Section 76
Charlie Brooker: Television has the perfect answer to credit crunch despair - full-frontal nudity
I've actually sat through a couple of these programmes now and haven't been able to believe what I was watching. It's truly baffling to me how BBC three ever came to commission this in the first place. The only sane and sensible people on the show are those that walk out - refusing to take any further part in it. There's absolutely no real reason why anyone should appear naked in public if they don't want to and having a camera crew following you around recording your distress - and these utterly bizarre 'self-help' people coaching you through it...
It's all just pervy and sick - and not in a good way.
"Television has the perfect confidence-boosting answer to credit crunch despair - full-frontal nudity" Charlie Brooker.
It's all just pervy and sick - and not in a good way.
"Television has the perfect confidence-boosting answer to credit crunch despair - full-frontal nudity" Charlie Brooker.
Just rewards?
Darling bids to stop Goodwin's £693,000-a-year pension.
(Considering the lengths the DSS and local councils go to to claw back overpayments to the unemployed for relatively minor sums of tax payers' money [as part of their state-sanctioned long-running 'let's punish the poor' campaigns] - they should pull their fingers out and get this stopped right now.)
Fred Goodwin's pension: It won't make him happier. (Although I doubt he's crying himself to sleep every night.)
The Spirit Level
Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better
(according to the website this book is not yet published.)
Wow. You don't say. Golly, but we can't stop now -not just when the 'trickle-down effect' of the past 30 years have served us so well. *cough*
(Considering the lengths the DSS and local councils go to to claw back overpayments to the unemployed for relatively minor sums of tax payers' money [as part of their state-sanctioned long-running 'let's punish the poor' campaigns] - they should pull their fingers out and get this stopped right now.)
Fred Goodwin's pension: It won't make him happier. (Although I doubt he's crying himself to sleep every night.)
The Spirit Level
Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better
(according to the website this book is not yet published.)
Wow. You don't say. Golly, but we can't stop now -not just when the 'trickle-down effect' of the past 30 years have served us so well. *cough*
US Bankers scamming the newly unemployed
Let me get this right - after a colossal screw up of the economy - the bankers still get obscenely huge bonuses even though they've brought about a global economic crisis and their banks necessitating being flooded with quite obscene amounts of taxpayers cash to keep them afloat, they've already led to the ruin of hundreds of companies and to many people losing their jobs yet after all that now they're scamming the unemployed out of a chunk of their payments.
Roll on the revolution... it's what we need right about now.
Jobless hit with bank fees on benefits.
Roll on the revolution... it's what we need right about now.
Jobless hit with bank fees on benefits.
well, well, well...
Straw vetoes Iraq minutes release.
Mmmm. Like us, the general public, don't already know that the invasion of Iraq - effectively merely supporting a whim of Prez Bush's - was all uber-dodgy. I mean, hello - it would have been as if England had invaded and bombed the shit out of Scotland because of a IRA terrorist attacks on London. The whole enterprise was clearly insane.
[I still hold to my belief that the only reason Bush invaded Iraq in the first place was because he wanted to do one better than his daddy - thinking it's all be terribly easy and he'd get a lot of kudos for winning a 'war'. Of course it all went terribly wrong. But shame upon Blair and his spinelessness that he went along with it all.]
Mmmm. Like us, the general public, don't already know that the invasion of Iraq - effectively merely supporting a whim of Prez Bush's - was all uber-dodgy. I mean, hello - it would have been as if England had invaded and bombed the shit out of Scotland because of a IRA terrorist attacks on London. The whole enterprise was clearly insane.
[I still hold to my belief that the only reason Bush invaded Iraq in the first place was because he wanted to do one better than his daddy - thinking it's all be terribly easy and he'd get a lot of kudos for winning a 'war'. Of course it all went terribly wrong. But shame upon Blair and his spinelessness that he went along with it all.]
Surveillance society
CCTV cameras on every street video-logging your every move. The Government planning to keep Records of all phone calls, emails, web pages visited, and now...
Government compiles travel records database.
I get the impression that our country is being run by a cabal of OCD afflicted bean-counters and database operators - mindlessly collecting and compiling data - but with absolutely no idea what they're going to do with it. Well, apart from putting it onto laptops or burning to CD-ROMs and leaving them on public transport etc. Oh well. At least criminals have a better idea of what they can do with all this information than the Govt. does.
[Aaaargh!]
Government compiles travel records database.
I get the impression that our country is being run by a cabal of OCD afflicted bean-counters and database operators - mindlessly collecting and compiling data - but with absolutely no idea what they're going to do with it. Well, apart from putting it onto laptops or burning to CD-ROMs and leaving them on public transport etc. Oh well. At least criminals have a better idea of what they can do with all this information than the Govt. does.
[Aaaargh!]
Mmmmm
Truthdig - Reports - Who Knew Bankers Were This Stupid?
I don't know about America - but for the life of me I don't understand why the streets haven't been filled with mobs of middle class people baying for banker's blood here. Maybe it's yet to come - as the recession bites and things get harder for everybody. After all the UK there's been a long standing disgruntlement about top executives of various companies awarding themselves massive bonuses and golden handshakes etc. when the companies they've resided over have actually fowled up and made masses of losses. Of course nothing was ever done about it. Maybe we're all just too soft and apathetic here.
Later:
Bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland bankers set for millions in bonuses.
So we can see here - even in extremis - there is STILL absolutely nothing being done about the situation. Mind you , even if the Govt. made the slightest noise about doing something -I bet if these people had a quick whip round among themselves and came up with a suitably-sized party donation out of those same bonus payments - then suddenly there still wouldn't be anything done about it... if this hasn't already happened, which could explain a lot.
[I mean - it's ever so curious that the former chief executive of RSB Frederick (Dick) Anderson Goodwin was presented with a knighthood before RSB nearly went belly up... I can't help but wonder if he made any contributions at any time? Is there any way of finding out?]
Meanwhile (as a taste of things to come - because the general population here are so pathetic and dim witted that it's pretty certain they're going to vote a Tory Govt. in next time):
The Times has learnt that the Conservative Party accepted £200,000 from a slot machine tycoon’s businesses shortly after calling for softer rules on arcade gambling.
Wow, that sounds familiar...
I don't know about America - but for the life of me I don't understand why the streets haven't been filled with mobs of middle class people baying for banker's blood here. Maybe it's yet to come - as the recession bites and things get harder for everybody. After all the UK there's been a long standing disgruntlement about top executives of various companies awarding themselves massive bonuses and golden handshakes etc. when the companies they've resided over have actually fowled up and made masses of losses. Of course nothing was ever done about it. Maybe we're all just too soft and apathetic here.
Later:
Bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland bankers set for millions in bonuses.
So we can see here - even in extremis - there is STILL absolutely nothing being done about the situation. Mind you , even if the Govt. made the slightest noise about doing something -I bet if these people had a quick whip round among themselves and came up with a suitably-sized party donation out of those same bonus payments - then suddenly there still wouldn't be anything done about it... if this hasn't already happened, which could explain a lot.
[I mean - it's ever so curious that the former chief executive of RSB Frederick (Dick) Anderson Goodwin was presented with a knighthood before RSB nearly went belly up... I can't help but wonder if he made any contributions at any time? Is there any way of finding out?]
Meanwhile (as a taste of things to come - because the general population here are so pathetic and dim witted that it's pretty certain they're going to vote a Tory Govt. in next time):
The Times has learnt that the Conservative Party accepted £200,000 from a slot machine tycoon’s businesses shortly after calling for softer rules on arcade gambling.
Wow, that sounds familiar...
So let me get this straight...
Now if memory serves - isn't the Labour Govt. recently all for bringing in new welfare plans to get the long term unemployed, lone parents and the sick back into work - and if the DSS decides they aren't trying hard enough - they'll get their benefits cut and/or be forced to do menial work for their benefits (which are considerably lower than minimum wage levels). Um. Well, OK. So how does that square with Gordon Brown now saying that Union Workers shouldn't be striking over the issue of Oil Refinery jobs going to foreign workers. Seems to me - if you're properly serious about creating jobs for the unemployed - you should well, be doing something to actually create real jobs for the unemployed and that should be for the people who need work in this country - not for those in Italy and Portugal.
[This of course should highlight another thing what's been going wrong for a long while in the UK - and that's just how much of the country's industry is now owned by foreign companies and interests. It should concern us mere mortals because these being foreign companies - the bulk of the money they're making is going abroad - and a lot of them don't pay taxes! And why do the politicians (it doesn't matter what 'side' any more - they've long become indistinguishable from each other now) let this happen? Oh, you just have to take a look at who's giving them contributions for their campaign funds etc. There's a clue or two right there.]
[This of course should highlight another thing what's been going wrong for a long while in the UK - and that's just how much of the country's industry is now owned by foreign companies and interests. It should concern us mere mortals because these being foreign companies - the bulk of the money they're making is going abroad - and a lot of them don't pay taxes! And why do the politicians (it doesn't matter what 'side' any more - they've long become indistinguishable from each other now) let this happen? Oh, you just have to take a look at who's giving them contributions for their campaign funds etc. There's a clue or two right there.]
I was just thinking...
Now that we know that with Matt Smith we're going to have the youngest ever Doctor Who (something which does worry me somewhat...*) it's now fallen to the Sarah Jane Adventures to carry on with what was the original spirit of Doctor Who where a older, wiser person takes young companions along on a series wild and exciting adventures...
(*because one of the things I liked about Doctor Who was that a older grandfather - or older uncle figure was the hero - even as a kiddie-wink I thought that it was a great role model for older folk. In fact I pretty much stopped watching the series when Davison took over the role - because I felt he was much too young - that and he was wearing beige... *shudder*. Now we're going to be given yet another youff running about - like as if, well, haven't we got enough of those in fiction already? Isn't that why the Doctor had companions to do all that sort of malarkey? Oh well... I'm just going to trust that they don't ruin it and all my vague misgivings will be proved utterly foundationless.)
(*because one of the things I liked about Doctor Who was that a older grandfather - or older uncle figure was the hero - even as a kiddie-wink I thought that it was a great role model for older folk. In fact I pretty much stopped watching the series when Davison took over the role - because I felt he was much too young - that and he was wearing beige... *shudder*. Now we're going to be given yet another youff running about - like as if, well, haven't we got enough of those in fiction already? Isn't that why the Doctor had companions to do all that sort of malarkey? Oh well... I'm just going to trust that they don't ruin it and all my vague misgivings will be proved utterly foundationless.)
Another miserable quarter for Dixons • Channel Register
Apparently:
Oh boo-hoo, boo-hoo.
You mean the punters have finally (and God knows it took long enough) twigged on that retailers put their prices UP in the run up to Christmas and then sell off whatever they can't sell at those inflated prices at a discount during the January sales to clear space for the next batch of stock. So now maybe that business model doesn't work so well for them any more. Oh boo-hoo, boo-hoo. Meh. Dixons are such a rippoff at the best of times.
"Dixons Store Group International saw sales fall ten per cent in the 12 weeks ended 10 January because customers delayed buying TVs and computers until after Christmas, once the sales had begun."
Oh boo-hoo, boo-hoo.
You mean the punters have finally (and God knows it took long enough) twigged on that retailers put their prices UP in the run up to Christmas and then sell off whatever they can't sell at those inflated prices at a discount during the January sales to clear space for the next batch of stock. So now maybe that business model doesn't work so well for them any more. Oh boo-hoo, boo-hoo. Meh. Dixons are such a rippoff at the best of times.
gadget lust - Cowon iAudio S9 PMP
Cowon iAudio S9 PMP • Register Hardware
or I've my eye the older A3 with it's older connectors - all ready for hooking straight up to a tv.
or I've my eye the older A3 with it's older connectors - all ready for hooking straight up to a tv.
UK e-mail law 'attack on rights'
Mmmmm. So how come the Govt. can do this - and throw out millions of pounds to pay ISPs to store all this info. but doesn't spend a penny to do something useful like oh. I don't know - make sure ISPs aren't ripping us off on broadband charges - or do something to tackle spam - ANYTHING that would be of genuine tangible benefit to the general public - rather than just self-perpetuating their own paranoia.
Bearing in mind over in America there was plenty of intelligence and warning signs over September 11th 2001 - but it all got lost among the noise of all the other shit they were diligently collecting.
Think I might start looking into old PGP systems for my mail - if they're going to be paranoid anyway...
BBC NEWS | UK | UK e-mail law 'attack on rights'
Bearing in mind over in America there was plenty of intelligence and warning signs over September 11th 2001 - but it all got lost among the noise of all the other shit they were diligently collecting.
Think I might start looking into old PGP systems for my mail - if they're going to be paranoid anyway...
BBC NEWS | UK | UK e-mail law 'attack on rights'
Technophile: Flip Mino and Kodak Zi6
Technophile: Flip Mino and Kodak Zi6 mini video cameras
Dammit - whys the Kodak had to go for quicktime movs as their format? sigh.
But still wants.
Dammit - whys the Kodak had to go for quicktime movs as their format? sigh.
But still wants.
Will Hutton
I've just been reading Will Hutton's 'The State to Come'
Which written back in 1997 (before NuLabour won the election later that year)- shows that the big mess the Global economy is currently in has roots stretching way, way back. (But since Blair and Brown have only ever been Thatcherites in disguise - it's only to be expected.)
So I've been reading the other things he's written in the Guardian.
I've also come across this:
Edward J. Dodson / Review of: Boom Bust, by Fred Harrison.
Just a thought since most economists have been proven to be completely wrong by real life events over the decades - isn't it time we stopped paying them any credence? Shouldn't we now be lumping them together with the tarot card readers and astrologers and rune-readers and only taking anything they say with massive handfuls of salt?
Which written back in 1997 (before NuLabour won the election later that year)- shows that the big mess the Global economy is currently in has roots stretching way, way back. (But since Blair and Brown have only ever been Thatcherites in disguise - it's only to be expected.)
So I've been reading the other things he's written in the Guardian.
I've also come across this:
Edward J. Dodson / Review of: Boom Bust, by Fred Harrison.
Just a thought since most economists have been proven to be completely wrong by real life events over the decades - isn't it time we stopped paying them any credence? Shouldn't we now be lumping them together with the tarot card readers and astrologers and rune-readers and only taking anything they say with massive handfuls of salt?
Proving Moleskine Is Just A Style: The Piccadilly Notebook
As far as I know - Not yet available in the UK.
It's about time someone either took away Moleskine's crown - and/or Modo and Modo brought their prices down - and brought them down a lot.
Proving Moleskine Is Just A Style: The Piccadilly Notebook
It's about time someone either took away Moleskine's crown - and/or Modo and Modo brought their prices down - and brought them down a lot.
Proving Moleskine Is Just A Style: The Piccadilly Notebook
sony ericsson pc suite
Yup - I get the annoying Capi_Worker module crashing nonsense...
here's a supposed solution - that I haven't got working yet. *sigh* Is my next phone going to have to be Nokia - simply because Sony-Ericsson are so far up their own arse they refuse to acknowledge and actually fix their dodgy software?
here's a supposed solution - that I haven't got working yet. *sigh* Is my next phone going to have to be Nokia - simply because Sony-Ericsson are so far up their own arse they refuse to acknowledge and actually fix their dodgy software?
oh no - plot recycling
The latest episode of Sanctuary - warriors was set around an illegal fight club...
like erm... Torchwood : Combat.
Angel : The Ring.
Star Trek Voyager : Tsunkatse
Star Trek OS : The Gamesters of Triskelion
...I'm sure there are many others (if you know of any others - let me know in the comments). It's my least favourite plot ever - because it's so wretchedly limited.
like erm... Torchwood : Combat.
Angel : The Ring.
Star Trek Voyager : Tsunkatse
Star Trek OS : The Gamesters of Triskelion
...I'm sure there are many others (if you know of any others - let me know in the comments). It's my least favourite plot ever - because it's so wretchedly limited.
out of this world - a set on Flickr
A nice little collection of vintage sci-fi things
out of this world - a set on Flickr
out of this world - a set on Flickr
Random bookmarking
I agree with this blog post from Mr Eugenides: Levelling the playing field
Missed this one back in November:
Bill for ID cards rises by £50m as Home Office unveils pilot scheme. Now - a couple of years or so back didn't the London School of Economics predict that the Government's costing for the scheme was wildly out of whack. Of course the Govt. pooh-poohed their warnings...
Beau Bo D'Or tag: benefits.
The brilliance of creative chaos.
Missed this one back in November:
Bill for ID cards rises by £50m as Home Office unveils pilot scheme. Now - a couple of years or so back didn't the London School of Economics predict that the Government's costing for the scheme was wildly out of whack. Of course the Govt. pooh-poohed their warnings...
Beau Bo D'Or tag: benefits.
The brilliance of creative chaos.
now macs need virus protection too
Mmmmmmm - does this mean that Apple are going to go back and re-edit all their 'I'm a pc - and I'm a mac' adverts where they're boasting how macs never ever get viruses and trojans and what-not?
Welcome to Cloud cuckoo land UK
Er... hello. Apparently - there's this global financial crisis going on - the whole world - thanks in main part to the mass idiocy of the people who work at the top levels of the financial sector - is in recession. In the UK there are already various companies shedding large numbers of their workforce - if not going out of business altogether... economic experts are predicting that unemployment figures are set to grow to at least 2 million - very possibly more very soon... (and that never takes into account the real numbers of people who are really unwaged, such as those people subsisting on low wages and/or tax credits or inadequate pensions etc.) - and we're being warned this recession could last for quite some time. So against this background - the Government thinks it's the best time ever to introduce stringent Welfare reforms. Most of which only amount to punishing the unemployed and the sick if they don't get a job. With the end goal of eventually treating them as criminals by forcing them to do community work if they don't toe the line... this Government needs to think about changing it's name to the Slave-Labour party if it carries on in this vein.
It's always interesting to consider the various things the Government hasn't even considered to help people back into work (-or even that the whole work-life concept needs to be radically rethought - because it plainly is very broken). Oh, things like providing proper training schemes (currently only those people already in full employment can afford to pay for the education to gain decent qualifications) - or bringing back the student grant system (rather than the current loan system which only forces people into high levels of debt at the beginning of their careers. We might have cottoned on by now that high levels of personal debt is NOT a good thing) - reducing working hours by law ('work to live - not live to work') and -oh yes and doing various things that mean there are the businesses and companies etc. that people can have jobs in... (Because our Govt. still fails to grasp the simple concept that before we can ever have full employment - that there needs to be more than enough actual real jobs to go around than there are people) But all those things are expensive* and difficult - and it's all so much easier and simplier to blame the unemployed for being unemployed... (and that always goes down well with the sort of angry, mean-spirited, small-minded person who reads the sort of popular newspapers in this country. The sort that live in their own little vindictive fantasy worlds. Just read any comments feed on the websites of such papers and prepare to be horrified at the vitriol and bile these people can spew out.)
Related stuff:
___
[*Although it's always amazing what Governments CAN find the money for when they put their minds to it. The illegal invasion of a country on the whim of a US president? Well, that's open cheque-book time. Bailing out a load of banks and building societies - (and making sure the managers can keep their huge multi-million pound bonuses) the sky's the limit there... But Hospitals? Care homes? Nursing staff? Welfare payments for the poor... oh no - the cupboards bare then.]
[**For the life of me I can't see what's the idea behind forcing lone parent mothers into employment when most of their wages are only going to go paying for childcare! In fact - they might as well just pay them their benefits as normal and let them claim to be self-employed child carers.]
It's always interesting to consider the various things the Government hasn't even considered to help people back into work (-or even that the whole work-life concept needs to be radically rethought - because it plainly is very broken). Oh, things like providing proper training schemes (currently only those people already in full employment can afford to pay for the education to gain decent qualifications) - or bringing back the student grant system (rather than the current loan system which only forces people into high levels of debt at the beginning of their careers. We might have cottoned on by now that high levels of personal debt is NOT a good thing) - reducing working hours by law ('work to live - not live to work') and -oh yes and doing various things that mean there are the businesses and companies etc. that people can have jobs in... (Because our Govt. still fails to grasp the simple concept that before we can ever have full employment - that there needs to be more than enough actual real jobs to go around than there are people) But all those things are expensive* and difficult - and it's all so much easier and simplier to blame the unemployed for being unemployed... (and that always goes down well with the sort of angry, mean-spirited, small-minded person who reads the sort of popular newspapers in this country. The sort that live in their own little vindictive fantasy worlds. Just read any comments feed on the websites of such papers and prepare to be horrified at the vitriol and bile these people can spew out.)
Related stuff:
...TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "This approach to welfare assumes a utopian world of unrestricted childcare and widely available jobs where only the lazy opt for life on the dole.
"The reality is very different. Thousands of people are joining the dole queue every day through no fault of their own."
___
"Urge lone parents into jobs. Just put away the big stick
Getting people employed is vital, but in a recession current welfare-to-work targets are impossible - and compulsion is crazy"**
[*Although it's always amazing what Governments CAN find the money for when they put their minds to it. The illegal invasion of a country on the whim of a US president? Well, that's open cheque-book time. Bailing out a load of banks and building societies - (and making sure the managers can keep their huge multi-million pound bonuses) the sky's the limit there... But Hospitals? Care homes? Nursing staff? Welfare payments for the poor... oh no - the cupboards bare then.]
[**For the life of me I can't see what's the idea behind forcing lone parent mothers into employment when most of their wages are only going to go paying for childcare! In fact - they might as well just pay them their benefits as normal and let them claim to be self-employed child carers.]
Pictured: The robot that can pull faces just like a human being
Working towards making ourselves redundant one step at a time...
Pictured: The robot that can pull faces just like a human being | Mail Online
(pity the video doesn't work any more.)
Pictured: The robot that can pull faces just like a human being | Mail Online
(pity the video doesn't work any more.)
The essential Firefox extentions I can't live without...
(and this is all a right pain - having to find and put them all back - especially as nearly all of them call for a re-start of flickr - everytime.)
Greasemonkey.
Better flickr.
Better youtube.
Adblock plus
Video Download helper.
and the Googlebar
More to come...
Greasemonkey.
Better flickr.
Better youtube.
Adblock plus
Video Download helper.
and the Googlebar
More to come...
firefox 3
sighs.
Yay! I got a new 'puter for my birthday. Yay!
So there I was with my spanking new computer - and am slowly adding all the programs I need and what not - and here's the really annoying thing... After loading on my preferred browser Firefox 3 - got a few of my favourite extensions loaded on etc. All was happy and going along swimmingly - then I thought I'd load on google's chrome... chrome wanted to add all the bookmarks and stuff from firefox... despite there being hardly anything there I let it. Boom.
Firefox 3 refuses to load - at all.
Tried launching with it's profile manager. Tried running it as an administer...
Nothing.
I've un-installed it - I re-installed it. Rolled back to a previous restore point in Vista. I've un-installed chrome. I've ccleaned everything. Hoping to remove all traces of it all from the registry. Re-installed and always the same - nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Anybody out there any ideas?
It's really aggravating me not being able to use Firefox - I live for it's extension and plug-ins - there's nothing else like it for those things...
[update - now fixed - thanks Leff.]
Yay! I got a new 'puter for my birthday. Yay!
So there I was with my spanking new computer - and am slowly adding all the programs I need and what not - and here's the really annoying thing... After loading on my preferred browser Firefox 3 - got a few of my favourite extensions loaded on etc. All was happy and going along swimmingly - then I thought I'd load on google's chrome... chrome wanted to add all the bookmarks and stuff from firefox... despite there being hardly anything there I let it. Boom.
Firefox 3 refuses to load - at all.
Tried launching with it's profile manager. Tried running it as an administer...
Nothing.
I've un-installed it - I re-installed it. Rolled back to a previous restore point in Vista. I've un-installed chrome. I've ccleaned everything. Hoping to remove all traces of it all from the registry. Re-installed and always the same - nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Anybody out there any ideas?
It's really aggravating me not being able to use Firefox - I live for it's extension and plug-ins - there's nothing else like it for those things...
[update - now fixed - thanks Leff.]
Tomorrow Peeps
I got a disc set of the last series as a birthday present. Oh my. Cheap and tacky doesn't begin to cover it.
Here's a big link dump:
Wiki entry.
international hero.
Tomorrow People dot com.
Clive Banks.
Meanwhile - let's admire Mike Holoway's packet shall we?
Nice.
Book Designer Chip Kidd - new manga Batman book
Book Designer Chip Kidd - TIME:
"What's the story behind this crazy Batman/Japanese comic book you're putting out?
I've published several books on the lore and the toys and the this and the that of Batman. When the Batman TV show came out in 1966, it was a global hit. But Japan was the only country in the world that contacted DC Comics and said, "We want to license the right to write and draw our own Batman and Robin stories." These stories appeared for exactly a year, from April '66 to May '67. And they kind of came and went. They were never collected, never translated. They just appeared and then vanished.
How was it different than the American version? I noticed one comic where Batman was fighting a man who could change into a praying mantis, a drill bit, a pterodactyl...
They took it back to the '40s, where there wasn't any deep psychological exploration, just a slam-bang fun thing. There's this one villain called Lord Death Man, and his ability is basically to die. But much more importantly, he comes back to life and starts to haunt Batman's dreams. All kinds of wonderful weird things happen that don't get explained."
Tube Talk - Russell Tovey talks 'Doctor Who' - Digital Spy
Oooooh - can't wait for the new series of 'Being Human'. But I'm in the camp that thinks -as much as I like him - he's a bit too young to play the Doctor.
Doctor Who - Tube Talk - Russell Tovey talks 'Doctor Who' - Digital Spy: "Russell Tovey talks 'Doctorjavascript:void(0) Who'"
Doctor Who - Tube Talk - Russell Tovey talks 'Doctor Who' - Digital Spy: "Russell Tovey talks 'Doctorjavascript:void(0) Who'"
I might be looking forward to Win 7
There are quite a few things I've always wanted Windows XP to do..
1. Drastically cut down all the bloat....
Stop the constant race to use up all the resources of new faster chipsets and RAM it can... (IE games machines, Linux, Mac OS were perfectly capable of fancy-schamanzy effects without having to use masses of RAM and graphics cards.) The OS should be using as little as of a 'puters hardware as it can - and get out of the way of the programmes the user needs to use.
This should be true of all programmes - not just windows - but everyone seems intent on cramming in as many bells and whistles and bloat as they can with every new version - without ever addressing old bugs and stability and reliability. This has been bugging me for years... Adding endless patches and updates just add to the bloat... but add to the bloat is what they all love to do. *sigh*
3. Be able to move around the open programs tabs on the task bar - like you can the tabs on firefox.
4. I've always wanted to be able add my own bits and progs and rearrange stuff to the explorer window thingy. (I'm sure there are official names for these things but I have no idea what they are.)
5. Control exactly what gets added to my start up. God - I want to kill Quicktime - Adobe Reader - RealPlayer - even Open Office - for adding their shit there without ever asking if I want them there. The arrogant resource hogs.
I want my 'puter to boot up as fast as possible so I can do my things - not have other people pre-decide what they think I'll be doing for me.
6. I hope Windows 7 is as easy to network as they claim - I've never be able to get anything working with XP or Win 98 - it was all nightmareishly stupid and complicated to set up. I've failed to get a win 95 to connect to a win 98 box or a XP box using a parallel cable - I've failed trying to get a laptop to connect to a XP box using a cross ethernet cable... All the 'easy to set up' built-in Windows help screens were worse than useless. You want it to work like you plug in a USB thumb drive works. Bing-bing - you're connected. It should only be difficult if you're at work and security is a concern. But at home... jeez give me a break. You shouldn't need an advanced computer degree to link up a couple of computers and external hard drives and printers etc.
PDC 2008 - Webmonkey
1. Drastically cut down all the bloat....
Stop the constant race to use up all the resources of new faster chipsets and RAM it can... (IE games machines, Linux, Mac OS were perfectly capable of fancy-schamanzy effects without having to use masses of RAM and graphics cards.) The OS should be using as little as of a 'puters hardware as it can - and get out of the way of the programmes the user needs to use.
This should be true of all programmes - not just windows - but everyone seems intent on cramming in as many bells and whistles and bloat as they can with every new version - without ever addressing old bugs and stability and reliability. This has been bugging me for years... Adding endless patches and updates just add to the bloat... but add to the bloat is what they all love to do. *sigh*
3. Be able to move around the open programs tabs on the task bar - like you can the tabs on firefox.
4. I've always wanted to be able add my own bits and progs and rearrange stuff to the explorer window thingy. (I'm sure there are official names for these things but I have no idea what they are.)
5. Control exactly what gets added to my start up. God - I want to kill Quicktime - Adobe Reader - RealPlayer - even Open Office - for adding their shit there without ever asking if I want them there. The arrogant resource hogs.
I want my 'puter to boot up as fast as possible so I can do my things - not have other people pre-decide what they think I'll be doing for me.
6. I hope Windows 7 is as easy to network as they claim - I've never be able to get anything working with XP or Win 98 - it was all nightmareishly stupid and complicated to set up. I've failed to get a win 95 to connect to a win 98 box or a XP box using a parallel cable - I've failed trying to get a laptop to connect to a XP box using a cross ethernet cable... All the 'easy to set up' built-in Windows help screens were worse than useless. You want it to work like you plug in a USB thumb drive works. Bing-bing - you're connected. It should only be difficult if you're at work and security is a concern. But at home... jeez give me a break. You shouldn't need an advanced computer degree to link up a couple of computers and external hard drives and printers etc.
PDC 2008 - Webmonkey
Noooooooo! Don't gooooo!
Grumble grumble grumble.
They'd better bring back Doctor-Donna for a spell too just to make up for this bad news...
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | David Tennant quits as Doctor Who
They'd better bring back Doctor-Donna for a spell too just to make up for this bad news...
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | David Tennant quits as Doctor Who
Brainy Robots To Lead To Longer Unemployment Lines?
I read this short piece in Wired - and all I can think is - 'what the hell is wrong with Americans'. When I was growing up as a kid - this is the sort of thing we were promised would be happening in the future. That machines and automation would be doing a lot of the more tedious work - that we'd be only working a few days a week - yadda yadda yadda. So feel my horror that when I grow up I found myself in a world were - despite computers now being everywhere - people are actually working longer hours than before - for relatively a lot less pay. That's those who do work - because no one has managed to figure out yet that if those in jobs did have a shorter working week - then we would have less unemployed people.
Anyhow - the bit that really got me in the article was 'sounds a lot like socialism doesn't it?' God, the majority of Americans are so totally brainwashed by their masters (their media, their politicians, their bosses, their lecturers, their school teacher, their parents -etc.) that they can barely think of any other way of organising their lives. There's this knee-jerk reflex remark. It's really deeply pathetic.
(I heard the 'we've afraid of socialism' remark uttered quite a few more times by republicans in the run up to the US presidential election on the news.)
And anyway - we don't seem anywhere that close to robots and AI yet. Or are we?
Brainy Robots To Lead To Longer Unemployment Lines? | Gadget Lab from Wired.com
Anyhow - the bit that really got me in the article was 'sounds a lot like socialism doesn't it?' God, the majority of Americans are so totally brainwashed by their masters (their media, their politicians, their bosses, their lecturers, their school teacher, their parents -etc.) that they can barely think of any other way of organising their lives. There's this knee-jerk reflex remark. It's really deeply pathetic.
(I heard the 'we've afraid of socialism' remark uttered quite a few more times by republicans in the run up to the US presidential election on the news.)
And anyway - we don't seem anywhere that close to robots and AI yet. Or are we?
Brainy Robots To Lead To Longer Unemployment Lines? | Gadget Lab from Wired.com
Oily
"How Big Oil's Lobbyists Contributed to Big Finance's Crash"
So I'm watching the news this morning... apparently - after going up and up and up- and Mr Bush asking the OPEC countries to increase production to bring prices down... Now because prices have been coming down because of the economic slow down, they're cutting production by 1.5 million barrels to - er... keep prices high. Well, they'd say at a level that's profitable for them. Those diamond-encrusted ipods oil sheiks buy for their daughters don't pay for themselves.
It's funny how monopolies work isn't it? No sign of any greed there then.
Meanwhile in this part of the country bus fares are set to go up - because of the high fuel costs... why? when fuel prices have gone down... oh because they buy stocks ahead of time and they bought it when it was more expensive... *sigh*. Isn't anyone looking into bringing horse-drawn carriages back yet?
So I'm watching the news this morning... apparently - after going up and up and up- and Mr Bush asking the OPEC countries to increase production to bring prices down... Now because prices have been coming down because of the economic slow down, they're cutting production by 1.5 million barrels to - er... keep prices high. Well, they'd say at a level that's profitable for them. Those diamond-encrusted ipods oil sheiks buy for their daughters don't pay for themselves.
It's funny how monopolies work isn't it? No sign of any greed there then.
Meanwhile in this part of the country bus fares are set to go up - because of the high fuel costs... why? when fuel prices have gone down... oh because they buy stocks ahead of time and they bought it when it was more expensive... *sigh*. Isn't anyone looking into bringing horse-drawn carriages back yet?
teh suck
If it wasn't for all my bad luck - I'd have no luck at all...
A camera died.
Another of my cameras -an Olympus UZ550 is very ill.
A gadget I bought didn't work and I haven't got around to returning it yet...
the laptop died:
and an attempt to install the drivers for a printer/scanner ended up killing my main already ailing old 'puter for good...
A camera died.
Another of my cameras -an Olympus UZ550 is very ill.
A gadget I bought didn't work and I haven't got around to returning it yet...
the laptop died:
and an attempt to install the drivers for a printer/scanner ended up killing my main already ailing old 'puter for good...
Special report: How our economy is killing the Earth
After the Berlin wall came down and Soviet Russia shortly afterward... I remember thinking at the time - "well, Capitalism is next." Of course everyone else in the world - went along thinking "Whoooo - capitalism has won - whooooo. Greed is good. Therefore the best form of capitalism is unfettered free market laissez faire Capitalism. Full steam ahead!". Ending with the utterly
bizarre belief that a country's best interests are served by allowing a very small handful of individuals to become super-rich (-and get away with paying less and less in any taxes) while the number of poor grow and grow...
It's taken a few years for the cracks to show - Capitalism is nothing but adaptable - but we're all now reaping the folly of the last 20 years.
I wouldn't care so much if the writing wasn't on the wall for all the world to see for decades. One of the glaring examples being the Energy Oil crisis of the 70s. There was a brief blip when America had to endure sudden sky high oil prices - and they endured a few power cuts. It should have been then when masses of research and development should have been poured into alternative cleaner energy production. But the OPEC countries brought the price of oil down again and the world breathed a sigh of relief and went on it's wasteful gas-guzzling ways... Ending with such things as the popularity of the 4x4 SUV as fashion accessory and now shortly after China and India wanting to copy everything it's seen happening in America and Europe for the past 40 years. (IE. Everyone there having their own motor car.) Just at the time when we in the West should maybe copying what China used to do and replacing a lot of it's cars with bicycles!
Anyway - my point is we're about 20 years behind were we should be with greener technologies. Too busy partying I guess.
Special report: How our economy is killing the Earth - opinion - 16 October 2008 - New Scientist
bizarre belief that a country's best interests are served by allowing a very small handful of individuals to become super-rich (-and get away with paying less and less in any taxes) while the number of poor grow and grow...
It's taken a few years for the cracks to show - Capitalism is nothing but adaptable - but we're all now reaping the folly of the last 20 years.
I wouldn't care so much if the writing wasn't on the wall for all the world to see for decades. One of the glaring examples being the Energy Oil crisis of the 70s. There was a brief blip when America had to endure sudden sky high oil prices - and they endured a few power cuts. It should have been then when masses of research and development should have been poured into alternative cleaner energy production. But the OPEC countries brought the price of oil down again and the world breathed a sigh of relief and went on it's wasteful gas-guzzling ways... Ending with such things as the popularity of the 4x4 SUV as fashion accessory and now shortly after China and India wanting to copy everything it's seen happening in America and Europe for the past 40 years. (IE. Everyone there having their own motor car.) Just at the time when we in the West should maybe copying what China used to do and replacing a lot of it's cars with bicycles!
Anyway - my point is we're about 20 years behind were we should be with greener technologies. Too busy partying I guess.
Special report: How our economy is killing the Earth - opinion - 16 October 2008 - New Scientist
Make-Believe Maverick : Rolling Stone
What the hell is wrong with Republicans - and why do people keep voting for them?
Make-Believe Maverick : Rolling Stone
Make-Believe Maverick : Rolling Stone
pointless outside broadcasts
It's 6.35 in the morning. I'm watching the GMTV news - having a change from the BBC news. They - the pair of newscasters sat on the sofa in the studio are, over a link, talking about the Global financial crisis with a female newscaster stood outside Number 10 Downing street. But why? It's early in the morning all the politicians will either be at home still in bed or just getting up. Other to provide a backdrop for her there is no reason for that woman to be out there whatsoever.
This little quirk that ALL news shows have fallen into the habit of has been annoying me for years now. It's just so pointless and stupid.
This little quirk that ALL news shows have fallen into the habit of has been annoying me for years now. It's just so pointless and stupid.
Jamie Jamie Jamie
TV scoop Review.
Felicity Lawrence in the Guardian review.
Just the premise of 'The ministry of Food' in the trailer adverts for the show had my mind firing off woeful connections:
Jamie the mockney chef being all swearingly patronising and condescending diving in and blaming the victims for their ignorance and unwillingness to do something about bettering themselves.
The whole notion of the chattering middle-classes who already have a niche career for themselves running around telling the classes under them how they should running their lives. Which has been a big drive behind all of the Blair years. Without ever doing anything concrete that helps makes a lasting difference for the better.
The idea that if only people would learn to cook from fresh ingredients that alone would change a local community... oh, how naive.
Anyone with half a brain knows that it's very expensive to eat properly - ask any university student - (but obviously not a catering University student).
There's an anecdote I remember from a TV chat show I saw years ago (Wogan I think)...
A woman asked a TV chef person (I can't remember who) why health food cost twice as much as supermarket fare - the chef said well, you live twice as long - so it's worth it. But the chat show host (Wogan?) said - 'but that means you're paying four times as much for your food as the rest of us.'
Felicity Lawrence in the Guardian review.
Just the premise of 'The ministry of Food' in the trailer adverts for the show had my mind firing off woeful connections:
Jamie the mockney chef being all swearingly patronising and condescending diving in and blaming the victims for their ignorance and unwillingness to do something about bettering themselves.
The whole notion of the chattering middle-classes who already have a niche career for themselves running around telling the classes under them how they should running their lives. Which has been a big drive behind all of the Blair years. Without ever doing anything concrete that helps makes a lasting difference for the better.
The idea that if only people would learn to cook from fresh ingredients that alone would change a local community... oh, how naive.
Anyone with half a brain knows that it's very expensive to eat properly - ask any university student - (but obviously not a catering University student).
There's an anecdote I remember from a TV chat show I saw years ago (Wogan I think)...
A woman asked a TV chef person (I can't remember who) why health food cost twice as much as supermarket fare - the chef said well, you live twice as long - so it's worth it. But the chat show host (Wogan?) said - 'but that means you're paying four times as much for your food as the rest of us.'
9/11 Was Big. This Is Bigger.
"The current economic debacle is far more likely to be seen by historians as a true global watershed: the end of one period and the beginning of another. The financial chaos has brought down the curtain on a wide range of basic and enduring tenets also closely linked with the Reagan era, those associated with neoliberal economics, the system that the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has called "that grab-bag of ideas based on the fundamentalist notion that markets are self-correcting, allocate resources efficiently and serve the public interest well." Already this crisis has seen not just our enemies but even some of our closest allies wondering whether we are at the beginning of the end of both American-style capitalism and of American supremacy."
9/11 Was Big. This Is Bigger. - washingtonpost.com
Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server,
"Hey suckers! Did you buy DRM music from Wal*Mart instead of downloading MP3s for free from the P2P networks? Well, they're repaying your honesty by taking away your music."
Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection -- only people who pay for music risk losing it to DRM shenanigans - Boing Boing
Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection -- only people who pay for music risk losing it to DRM shenanigans - Boing Boing
undoing Thatcherism - years later
Why'd I say this? Well, guess who was behind the idea of abolishing school meals in the first place? Forcing schools to bring in outside cheap catering firms...
A mean-spirited cost-cutting exercise that's led to a bad diet for kids and part of the reasons behind the rise in childhood obesity.
BBC NEWS | Scotland | Free meal plan for Scots pupils
[While I'm at it should I mention that the current credit crunch/banking crisis/house price meltdown also have their roots way back in the 80s free market economy that Thatcherism kick-started? Looks like everyone's being forced into having a big re-think on all that too. Albeit all way, way too late...]
A mean-spirited cost-cutting exercise that's led to a bad diet for kids and part of the reasons behind the rise in childhood obesity.
BBC NEWS | Scotland | Free meal plan for Scots pupils
[While I'm at it should I mention that the current credit crunch/banking crisis/house price meltdown also have their roots way back in the 80s free market economy that Thatcherism kick-started? Looks like everyone's being forced into having a big re-think on all that too. Albeit all way, way too late...]
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