Wishing Blair was in cuffs

Blair's legacy is confirmed in history nicely in a Human Rights Watch report condemning the UK for involvement/collusion in the torture of prisoners. It's been pretty obvious for a while now the terrible deeds he's authorised in our name but maybe with some momentum, and someone with a taste for justice, some prosecutions will swiftly follow but i doubt it. Sullivan gets thankz

Also from The Dish is another nice infographix courtesy of the excellent Facts are Sacred Guaridna blog, this time about the realities of our Afghan situation.

Oh dear oh dear climate boffins get caught with their dicks hanging out after someone hacks their emails. Punishing the non-orthodox is hardly new in the scientific world no matter what the nerds will say and it must be pretty embarrassing to have it aired it public, doubt they'll learn any lessons though.

Space Pron

Pair of Re-Runs

First up is THX-1138, a good friend mentioned that Lucas had gone back and touched up his early dystopian feature so thought I'd give it another go. Well it certainly looks a lot nicer now and even seemed a little pacier than before but ultimately is still has a bit more style than substance: obviously inspired by BNW it never quite manages to build an engaging narrative.

Bedazzled starring Pete & Dud, had a slightly better position in my memory than THX but this fared worse after rewatching, sure it's a nice slice of 60's British cinema but it just wasn't that funny. They both give decent enough performances, particulary Cook as The Devil but I dunno only laughed a couple of times. Maybe there was something about them that didn't translate to the big screen as the Hound of the Baskervilles was patchy too.

Amusing post on Quiet Earth bout Jagger starring Freejack set in on the date 23/11/09! Think it deserves a rewatch, must try for that and that Mark Hamil Slipstream movie I keep remembering too.

Write title of post here

Finally it looks like some criminal proceedings might be on the cards for our greedy little MP's but surprisingly (or not) just for four of them. I'm sure they could find more if only they'd look a bit harder but they clearly prefer a handful of sacrifices over wholesale slaughter, a tragic mistake if they want trust we need complete honesty.

Guido has an interesting angle on this affair with more revelations regarding the conduct of the watchdogs themselves.

Murdoch's grubby empire of unreliable, slanted news coverage plums new depths with the tawdry theft of Edgar Wright's tribute to Woodward by The Times. Frankly I'm looking to Rudd to apologise to the world and soon. from garudina via scifiwire.

Of course Murdoch's brand of shite can't be confined to a single outlet so courtesy of Wonkette here's a nice pic demonstrating the intellectual ability of the Fix news corp.

Andrew Sullivan, a right winger, is reading Chinese philosophy? Suppose it shouldn't but it strikes me as a bit odd. Two posts today about one of my favourite thinkers Zhuangzi: both tied to some conservative thinker called Oakeshott. Dunno much bout the latter but I've read my fair share of eastern thought and I'm pretty sure I'd I could dispute Sullivan's assertion about the meaning of the Duke Huan story. Better not get into that though.

Also from the Dish is a story about an imprisoned Iranian who'd been interviewed by the Daily Show's Jason Jones. Brave guy, full article here. Must confess I thought Jones' reports were weak, not very funny and, in the usual American fashion, unintentionally xenophobic.

Smatterings from the interweb

Things are looking good for Tartakovsky bringing his fantastic Samurai Jack to the big screen and maybes in 3d too.

Courtesy of Metzger's blog is a cracking little animation showing the rise and fall of empires, was kinda familiar to maybe it's been around for a while.


Some wit @ Slate has compiled a very amusing index for nutty Palin's bio.

Interesting little article on Wired today about our growing understanding about the social life of plants.

Goggleboxed

The Prisoner remake, well what to say, the original is a true classic an iconic piece of the 60's so it would seem a bit dense to try & do an update but lack of brains never stopped anyone, specially not media types. They didn't bother matching the original's bold visual style and have dropped the community into some desert oasis filled with culdesacs, the new 6 is weak and wimpish in comparison to McGoohan and though they made some effort with the plot the evident holes it generates make me yearn for simplicity of the original enigma.

What was good this week was Obourne's Dispatches episode, a interesting investigation into the Pro-Israel lobbying groups working behind British politics and media. Sure it all came from the brain of a Daily Mail writer so it was typically hysterical and filled with cant but it did bring up concerns I share about the labelling of critics of Israeli military policy as antisemitic and also the power that lobbyists have over our politicians when they regulary donate tens of thousands.

Dances with Aliens

First up in my abduction double was The Fourth Kind, a kinda Blair Witchy affair about some mysterious disappearances in an Alaskan town investigated by some psychologist with a video camera. It's split between her "real" footage and dramatised scenes, there's a couple of decent ideas hidden in the rough scripting and shaky acting but otherwise it's a fail. Maybe they should've tweaked it for a couple of years like the guy from Paranormal Activity.

Communion was better even though I've seen it once before. It's not brilliant and has dated badly but it's a great performance by Walken who's strange face and enigmatic manner really help this strange, daydreamy fantasy based on Streiber's personal story. Might see if I can find Fire In The Sky and make it a triple.

Sunshine Cleaning, a bittersweet comedy about a couple of sisters who start a crimescene cleaning business has been much hyped and it seems justifiably so: it's a beautifully balanced dramedy with three very strong performances from Adams, Blunt and Arkin. Occasionally it wavers into faux-indie territory but this is mature, thoughtful filmmaking.

Dumb & Dumber

Ahh 2012, not sure what to say about Emmerich's latest cartoonish disaster flick but it's surely got to be his greatest and last, fingers crossed. It's basically disaster porn for eschatologists with scene after scene of beautifully rendered Super-Apocalypse throughout: from the blowing of the Yellowstone Caldera to a Himalayan Tsnumai it's got some of the most amazingly detailed catastrophising I've ever seen, the work of some very very talented and newly enriched CGI artists. Shame about the rest of the film which is utter shiite & 150mins long. FFS he could have at least trimmed some of the am-dram scripted non-cgi bits in post production to tighten it all up.

12 Rounds is probably the intellectual equivalent of 2012 but this time the stupidity has been encapsulated into a Cop/Race against Time Die Hard clone thing with a frenetic pace of explosions, gunfire & car chases only momentarily broken with some wrestler-actor, Cena gurning his way through his lines. Unlike 2012 however the action wasn't enough to lift it from is knuckle dragging roots and it only scrapes a pass.

Weird creepy kids & video games

Thanks to DailyDish for linking this amazing WTF! gallery of kids science projects.

If you're looking for some Flash game to keep you busy when you should be working & you've already played through Samorost well here's a link to a really nice low-fi maze game, courtesy of B3ta's magical mailout.

Moon water found

Great results from the LCROSS mission with water definitely present in the impact plume.

Last post ever using words Guff and/or Stuff

Fascinating article by a Venezuelan gamer faced with a new law banning "violent" games that quickly descends into a perspective on Chavez's revolution. via boingboing

Cory Doctorow, co-founder of said BoingBoing, also writes in my favourite daily the Grinuada and he's done a nice piece about Pappa Murdoch's recent Interweb thinkings.

Glasgow North East is in and it's Labour win, hardly a surprise though. A record low turnout and the Conservatives only just beat the BNP into third with 1074 votes or something, I'm not really sure what any of that means but I'm fairly sure Cameron isn't selling his juju over here but at least they beat the retarded BNP scumbucket, scuse me, I'm sure whoever you are you're a charming, loveable bigot.

Peculiar earthworm looking tool Hannity fessed up to "making a mistake" but not for deliberating trying to mislead people after Jon Stewart called him out on a bit of video-feed trickery pokery. Maybes it was me but he seems especially punchable.

Nice South Park this week aimed squarely at mega-clown Glenn Beck. Not sure if this link will play, if it's blocked get a proxy thing like Hotspot Shield or something else.

Magic Box tells me Tales

Finally finished Being Human, I got a bit bored halfway through but I'm kinda glad I went back for the final eps as it they were quite enjoyable, sure the SFX on Were-George were awful but it was nicely tied together and still managed to balance the tragedy/comedy aspects. Will probably watch 2nd series.

Don't often mention the childish cartoons I like watching but maybe I should as I just watched the 3 latest episodes of The Venture Bros and it's just one of the funniest, cleverest toons I've seen in ages and it . A spoof of 60's wholesome family spy toon Johnny Quest, it's got lots of laughs, long running story arcs and a ton of great characters.


Dollhouse has been cancelled, wasn't really surprised after the very mixed quality of series two and things aren't looking great for Fringe which would be a real shame, it's got it's problems sure but it's also got Walter one of my favourite mad scientists ever. thanx io9.

'doch confirms Bond villain pedigree & other guff

Old Man Murdoch apparently believes Obama is a racist too, he just didn't think Beck should have said it out loud. James and siblings must really love Pappy screwing up the family business.

New figures about Peak Oil, mmm I can feel the 'geddon coming, I'm hoping for a Mad Max type end, should be exciting at least and cheerier than The Road.

Oh dear it looks like the Nutt sacking fallout isn't quite over. It's maybe time for a rethink ?

Screen Stuff

Black Dynamite was decent, not as funny as it should've been but a much better homage to 70's cinema than the Grindhouse double, with loads of badly timed fighting, cheesy dialogue and bouncy ladies.

Sisters In Law, seen it before but it didn't dampen the effect, it's a powerful documentary about a couple of Cameroonian women who work in the judiciary one as a Judge and the other a Lawyer. Fascinating & heartbreaking/warming in equal measures.

Jennifer's Body, written by Juno scribe Cody, was ok I suppose, certainly not worth all the chattering. This is a basic high school horror about a satanic ritual gone bad type thing with a couple of famous faces. It's watchable enough and I guess the script is better than most of these trashy mtv-horror flicks but there's hardly any scares and even less gore so I'm thinking what was the point.

Potheads & Politics

Nice post on DailyDish bout out media's obsession with potheads, originally from the Guardina it seems.

Also from the Dish some interesting rightwing conspiracizing, there's an article by Massie & one of the sources, a piece by some hack Philips also publised in the Spectator, she also writes in the Mail though which explains a fair bit, Griffin must love that particular paper. Read the comments too on both, very revealing indeed.

Looks like Miliband has wisely chosen against the fancy Europe job and is presumably thinking of picking up the pieces of his post-election party.

Space Stuff and Nonsense

A series of 35 f*cking amazing HD images of the Martian landscape, these are really worth your time, they give me a proper space-nerd semi-on. Thanks DM for the link.

Haha someone else has decided it's a good time to kick Scientology in their Thetan infested balls.
And here's some babbling from the progenitor idiot Hubbard himself.

Shiny Screen Sunday

Invention of Lying was good, not great but kinda and certainly better than Ghost Town. It's a great idea it's just a shame it didn't manage to make the most/best out of it, after about half an hour or so I was expecting it to get really going but it settled down into a modestly amusing rom-com instead. Gervais' directing was perfunctory but competent, I think he gets better results when in over all charge of the work so I hope he makes a better fist of his next project.

The Blackout is hardly worth mentioning seeing as I've only managed to watch 30 mins or so, it's a massive pile of shiet, so massive it makes that High Plains Drifter look accomplished. Avoid.

I'd like to recommend Food Inc as it's a brilliant examination of our current farming/animal cruelty/supermarket food/illness nexus, but it just sent me spinning into a nice dirty fug of depression. Sure, little of it is new - apart from the narrator's claim that there's only 13 slaughterhouses in the States, er wtf, that can't be right - and it's quick to use our emotions (but that's a fair rhetorical device) but well it's just that it's a frankly, stunningly well put together argument about our greed, multitude, government policies and our hopefully-soon-to-be-destroyed multinational corporations. Great effort, though I doubt it'll make any difference.

Guff just more guff

Hats off to Metzger's blog, not only does it include a little heads up to Brooker but he also includes this clip in some article about some new crazed military tazer with a 200ft range. I like watching their cop riverdance legs.

Weird, Wiki list Metzger as British but he's got an Merican accent I'm sure, he presented those DisinfoTV things, anyways maybe he is a small islander like the rest of us as he's also posting on Bonfire night. Here's a nice clip of Metzger interviewing R.A.W.

unnhh science thinky stuff

Panspermia & Space Elevators, two of my favourite Space ruminations, are gaining more traction in a couple of nice articles from the New Scientist. There's a horrible low quality vid on youtube if interested.

And an interesting bit from Wired about unusual lightning phenom.

Tversity and TV

Pandorum was not as bad as I'd read, sure it was plenty stupid but I love a generational starship story and this one certainly ticked plenty of boxes. Basically a couple of flight crew wake from space hibernation to find a degraded ship filled with alienish critters roaming about doing no good, they fight to regain control of the systems and not fall prey to space-madness, never fully explained. Quite enjoyable though.

I found The Terror on my PC, must have recorded it ages ago, anyways it's Corman production on the poor side so I wouldn't bother with this unless you're keen on seeing a young Jack Nicholson and Boris Karloff flounce about in period costume.

Urr spacey iplayer links: last night's Horizon's Black Hole 'Travaganza was pretty cool & the space-minded can catch Moore rambling about lunar impacts.

Lil' bit of 'olitics

Cameron's new European post-ratification policy has already riled up some continental politician, probably not the last, which is presumably the Garudain's front page tomorrow.

And some great coverage of today's Iranian protests from the G's website

These days I'm thinking hung parliament or narrow Con majority, dissary down south and then the inevitable win for independance here in Scotland and a whole hearted embrace rightly or wrongly of the European project. And people like Dan Hannan only confirm my prejudices, just read his latest peice on the Torygraph site or not anyways it's looking like Cameron should be concerned about who else he's riling up.

Jazz, Wine & Blasphemy

Wes Montgomery Live in '65, a real gem, great sound and nicely shot including plenty of talking among the musicians giving it a real charm.


Bottle Shock, a very slight comedy about French wine tasters picking Californian wines over their own in a blind tasting in the 1970's. Mediocre fluff with a reasonable Rickman performance.

The Day of The Beast, a crazed Spanish satanic satire was a lot more fun: some Priest deciphers Revelations and uncovers the date of the Apocalypse but not the location so decides to ask the Devil & starts sinning in a big way.

Sllight spattering

Ronson has taken over part of the Guardian site to promote the Clooney film based on his book, there's a nice little article from Pilkington of Strange Attractor fame.

Suppose should link this poll result about filesharers, not that Mandy will pay the slightest attention, the three-strikes wagon will rumble on.

Superman helps beat the KKK for real? weird but wonderful. Via I09.

Even Guido seems to see the stupidity of our current drug policies and the sacking of Nutt.