http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01cpl2l/Being_Human_Series_4_A_Spectre_Calls/
Kirby's disco dancing. Brilliant.
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Sunday, 26 February 2012
Tempers rising outside of Europe
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,817426,00.html
Nice to see the Chinese, Americans and Russians agreeing over something ... even if it is opposition to a European initiative to reduce pollution.
Nice to see the Chinese, Americans and Russians agreeing over something ... even if it is opposition to a European initiative to reduce pollution.
Saturday, 25 February 2012
Saturday Night Blogging
So, a couple of almost completely unrelated things:
I finally got round to watching a very old Dr Who episode that I'd managed to bypass- the one where David Tennett meets Martha Jones for the first time in the hospital trapped on the moon. Quite enjoyed it although the scenes meant to show how intelligent and quick witted Martha was got a bit repetitive after the third one. However, I was most concerned at the end about the implied 'Endor Holocaust' at the end of the episode.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoEndorHolocaust
In the brilliant book Babel 17, by Samuel Delany, a weapons manufacturer talks about one of his previous successes. It is a bomb that explodes at a strength sufficient to demolish a building. The idea is that a lot of ambulances, police cars and experts arrive to clean up and estimate the cause of the blast ... at which point the bomb explodes again with the force of a full nuclear bomb.
This sci-fi anecdote may seem unrelated but I imagine when the hospital disappeared it would generate a similar response. Reporters, mechanics, plumbers and police would rush to the area to see what had happened and seal off all of the now severed utility pipes. You might imagine that a fair few of them would still have been in or near the crater edge when the building fell from the skies. Grisly.
On a less tangential note, I've been playing the demo to 'Debug Formulation' after the wonderful chaps at Rock Paper Shotgun brought its existence to my attention. You should try it - it times out after a while and can get a but repetitive. However, the music and presentation is spot on and the enemy resurrection mechanic makes it a lot more clever than it initially seems.
Finally, why not check out 'How to play blog'? They've just finished a Solium Infernum report, which after stagnating for a bit has a really tense ending. Haven't really explored the rest of the site but it is very shiny and run by Sheffield Uni students which are both good credentials to have.
http://www.howtoplayblog.co.uk/
Phew!
I finally got round to watching a very old Dr Who episode that I'd managed to bypass- the one where David Tennett meets Martha Jones for the first time in the hospital trapped on the moon. Quite enjoyed it although the scenes meant to show how intelligent and quick witted Martha was got a bit repetitive after the third one. However, I was most concerned at the end about the implied 'Endor Holocaust' at the end of the episode.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoEndorHolocaust
In the brilliant book Babel 17, by Samuel Delany, a weapons manufacturer talks about one of his previous successes. It is a bomb that explodes at a strength sufficient to demolish a building. The idea is that a lot of ambulances, police cars and experts arrive to clean up and estimate the cause of the blast ... at which point the bomb explodes again with the force of a full nuclear bomb.
This sci-fi anecdote may seem unrelated but I imagine when the hospital disappeared it would generate a similar response. Reporters, mechanics, plumbers and police would rush to the area to see what had happened and seal off all of the now severed utility pipes. You might imagine that a fair few of them would still have been in or near the crater edge when the building fell from the skies. Grisly.
On a less tangential note, I've been playing the demo to 'Debug Formulation' after the wonderful chaps at Rock Paper Shotgun brought its existence to my attention. You should try it - it times out after a while and can get a but repetitive. However, the music and presentation is spot on and the enemy resurrection mechanic makes it a lot more clever than it initially seems.
Finally, why not check out 'How to play blog'? They've just finished a Solium Infernum report, which after stagnating for a bit has a really tense ending. Haven't really explored the rest of the site but it is very shiny and run by Sheffield Uni students which are both good credentials to have.
http://www.howtoplayblog.co.uk/
Phew!
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Being Human returns (much changed!)
[Spoilers ahead]
So I was unexpectedly notified that Being Human had returned for a fourth season when I saw a BBC article about the show and the drama caused by George's death in the first episode.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/16907718
All very well but couldn't they have been a little more circumspect? Sure they have to report the Entertainment news and a glossy picture will draw in the readers but opening a piece with a major spoiler is a bit irritating.
Anyway, that aside, it wasn't too bad. After Mitchell's death at the end of the last series I'm getting used to the idea that this is a very fast moving drama and that real world commitments from the show's actors will naturally lead to a high turnover of characters at the present. It's faintly ridiculous but then 'Being Human' has never been an entirely normal series. There's a vaguely Shakespearian tragedy feeling to it when I find myself thinking, 'Aha, George, killer of Mitchell and Wyndham, has been struck down by supernatural forces - but not before striking down Griffin, the slayer of Nina.'
Looking forward to the rest of the series. The new Vampire policeman gives off a very creepy vibe and sets up a few laughs through his psychopathic behaviour but Cutler is obviously being set up as the real villain of the piece. The prophecy about Nina and George's daughter will surely see a few twists and I'm liking the humorous 'Vampire Recorder' (who surely has his own ulterior motives).
So I was unexpectedly notified that Being Human had returned for a fourth season when I saw a BBC article about the show and the drama caused by George's death in the first episode.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/16907718
All very well but couldn't they have been a little more circumspect? Sure they have to report the Entertainment news and a glossy picture will draw in the readers but opening a piece with a major spoiler is a bit irritating.
Anyway, that aside, it wasn't too bad. After Mitchell's death at the end of the last series I'm getting used to the idea that this is a very fast moving drama and that real world commitments from the show's actors will naturally lead to a high turnover of characters at the present. It's faintly ridiculous but then 'Being Human' has never been an entirely normal series. There's a vaguely Shakespearian tragedy feeling to it when I find myself thinking, 'Aha, George, killer of Mitchell and Wyndham, has been struck down by supernatural forces - but not before striking down Griffin, the slayer of Nina.'
Looking forward to the rest of the series. The new Vampire policeman gives off a very creepy vibe and sets up a few laughs through his psychopathic behaviour but Cutler is obviously being set up as the real villain of the piece. The prophecy about Nina and George's daughter will surely see a few twists and I'm liking the humorous 'Vampire Recorder' (who surely has his own ulterior motives).
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Hiroshima Memories
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2012/feb/03/hiroshima-peace-memorial-park-japan
An extremely interesting article on the memory of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. I have nothing but praise for the postwar mayors of Hiroshima - the tradition of protesting every nuclear test is a necessary reminder of the consequences of ignoring such militaristic lunacy.
An extremely interesting article on the memory of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. I have nothing but praise for the postwar mayors of Hiroshima - the tradition of protesting every nuclear test is a necessary reminder of the consequences of ignoring such militaristic lunacy.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Fred Goodwin, Ex Knight
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16821650
So, in a move completely unrelated to the furore over Stephen Hester's bonus, the Queen has decided to strip Fred Goodwin of his Knighthood on the advice of the Prime Minister and his advisers.
Ironic that they selected a Scottish banker to make an example of considering the number of titles that have been stripped from incumbents throughout British history for 'Jacobite rebellion'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revocations_of_appointments_to_orders_and_awarded_decorations_and_medals_of_the_United_Kingdom
I wonder if this is a move towards a more plebiscitary approach to honours. Since Goodwin hasn't carried out any of the traditional activities that lead to honours being stripped (fraud, rebellion, treachery, bigamy and the theft of livestock) the only reason that this can have happened is the massive popular demand for the revocation.
If we do get to select as a population who gets Titles and who doesn't then I'd like to make a few suggestions of people we could strip of their honorary Knighthoods (posthumously):
- Constantin von Neurath - for holding high office under the Nazi regime, being a member of the Party and an honorary SS officer and having been convicted at the Nuremburg trials.
- Suharto - for the massacres carried out during the invasion of East Timor, massive corruption and imposing dictatorial rule over the Indonesian people.
- King Leopold II of Belgium - for the genocide of the people of the Congo in pursuit of personal profit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_honorary_British_knights_and_dames
I mean seriously, nobody likes to see bankers get huge bonuses for running their banks into the ground but we should try and keep a sense of perspective. Blatantly political actions like this can only further devalue an already silly institution.
So, in a move completely unrelated to the furore over Stephen Hester's bonus, the Queen has decided to strip Fred Goodwin of his Knighthood on the advice of the Prime Minister and his advisers.
Ironic that they selected a Scottish banker to make an example of considering the number of titles that have been stripped from incumbents throughout British history for 'Jacobite rebellion'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revocations_of_appointments_to_orders_and_awarded_decorations_and_medals_of_the_United_Kingdom
I wonder if this is a move towards a more plebiscitary approach to honours. Since Goodwin hasn't carried out any of the traditional activities that lead to honours being stripped (fraud, rebellion, treachery, bigamy and the theft of livestock) the only reason that this can have happened is the massive popular demand for the revocation.
If we do get to select as a population who gets Titles and who doesn't then I'd like to make a few suggestions of people we could strip of their honorary Knighthoods (posthumously):
- Constantin von Neurath - for holding high office under the Nazi regime, being a member of the Party and an honorary SS officer and having been convicted at the Nuremburg trials.
- Suharto - for the massacres carried out during the invasion of East Timor, massive corruption and imposing dictatorial rule over the Indonesian people.
- King Leopold II of Belgium - for the genocide of the people of the Congo in pursuit of personal profit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_honorary_British_knights_and_dames
I mean seriously, nobody likes to see bankers get huge bonuses for running their banks into the ground but we should try and keep a sense of perspective. Blatantly political actions like this can only further devalue an already silly institution.
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Curiosity killed the .......
So I've been wondering about a couple of things this week. That's what I get for having a rare week when seminar reading is light and I don't have any deadlines hanging over me.
1) So it's a well known fact that small pox and other European diseases decimated the indigenous population of North America and other colonial locations. This is generally explained by the natives not having resistance to European disease. How come there wasn't a similar decimation of Europeans? I know that European explorers in Africa often died of Malaria but I can't think of a single other case and certainly nothing on the scale of small pox in the Americas or Australia.
2)Whenever the news sites talk about the recent French move to criminalise denial of the Armenian genocide they say that it is a move by Sarkozy to sway Armenian voters. But aren't there rather a lot of ethnic Turks in France? Surely on that logic and assuming that migrant Turks have a similar strength of feeling on the issue as migrant Armenians the end result will be minimal.
1) So it's a well known fact that small pox and other European diseases decimated the indigenous population of North America and other colonial locations. This is generally explained by the natives not having resistance to European disease. How come there wasn't a similar decimation of Europeans? I know that European explorers in Africa often died of Malaria but I can't think of a single other case and certainly nothing on the scale of small pox in the Americas or Australia.
2)Whenever the news sites talk about the recent French move to criminalise denial of the Armenian genocide they say that it is a move by Sarkozy to sway Armenian voters. But aren't there rather a lot of ethnic Turks in France? Surely on that logic and assuming that migrant Turks have a similar strength of feeling on the issue as migrant Armenians the end result will be minimal.
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