Friday 20 May 2011

Inside the Human Body

It is a fascinating program charting the different ways that the body deals with situations.
Some of the more fascinating people include the woman who had triplets each in their own amniotic sack and the reasons why this is so unlikely. A girl who at age 8 can speak 11 languages as her brain has been brought up that way. The girl with only half a brain who has had the other half removed due to illness and the fact that she has a "normal life".
There are also some other facts like the egg that formed you was made by your mum's body when she was inside her mothers body and the brain of a teenager gets a big kick out of risk taking.
The big controversy in the show was showing a gentleman dying and the point of death, It was done in a sensitive and compassionate manner and was incredibly moving to watch but it was so unremarkable visually you wonder if the furore of showing it was worth the hassle that has to some extent overshadowed a excellent program.

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Olympics

Still no sign of the money for Olympic tickets has disappeared. Rather than go for all really popular stuff we went for things that might not be so well attended with a couple of top things just in case. Fingers crossed.
The flame is coming to Norwich but it is the week when I am usually in Cambridge but it is coming to Cambridge the day after I am back in Norwich. Typical

Sunday 8 May 2011

The easy way out

The problem with a lot of drama is it stops when it is about to get interesting. So in Tristan and Isolde after deflowering the queen and betraying the country the rogue dies. It would be far more interesting if the character had stayed alive and there had been complex and emotional stories of power and state to resolve.

In the latest Criminal Minds the hero spy turned FBI agent could have to deal with the problematic issues of lying to her colleagues and the aftermath of the revelations about her past but no. The character is lost and we lose a potential area of plot.

In future scriptwriters please take the more complex path.

Things I learnt today

1. Vicars don't like bending over.
2. It doesn't matter if you muck up the wedding vows a bit as long as the vicar thinks you are sincere
3. You are supposed to say I will but you don't have to
4. There are very few reasons that people can object to the wedding. Age isn't one of them as this should have been brought up when the banns were announced
5. If you are going to object make sure there is evidence
6. Brides tend to giggle and grooms tend to well up.
7. It is troth to rhyme with growth not troth to rhyme with froth
8. You don't have to be confirmed to have communion in the CofE
9. There is a boat that floats around the canals of the UK selling cheese.

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Anatomy of fake quotation.

The quotation that I used in a previous post and attributed to Martin Luther King does belong to him but not all of it. A teacher posted her thoughts and then the quote. At some point the punctuation separating them got stripped out so they became indistinguishable and then it was tweeted to 1.7 million people. The speed at which information can be spread is now so fast that one accidental quote went round the world.

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Reflections on the Royal wedding

Probably just about perfect especially the more natural reactions from the people involved. key moments included the bridesmaids with her hands over her ears (I would keep an eye on her development as both the teachers in the room suspect there maybe an issue), the natural look of the trees in the abbey, the elegance of the bride which suited both the person and the occasion, attractiveness of the bridesmaid, cheekiness unkempt look of the best man to the crowds and the crowd lined streets. I particularly liked the wow moment from Princess Catherine as she stepped on the balcony and Boris Johnson offer of a tandem as a wedding present.
These were some of the more icon moments



PS I don't own these photos and I am not making any money from them. Copyright is help by other people.

The death of Osama

I was struggling to decide what to think about the death. It is true he masterminded a heinous crime and continued to preach death and hatred and while I suspect he would have struggled to be taken alive I would have liked the people involved to try a little harder. As it is his death solves nothing, changes nothing and probably only pleases those that mistake justice for vengeance. I would also be surprised if it brought any kind of release or ending to the families involved. It does not bring their loved ones back and does not erase the pain or manner of their death. I think Martin Luther King (as so often) sums it up well when he said

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy...Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that"
Martin Luther King, Jr.