Anihilation

After a period of absence (Read work) I have returned, and nothing in the main world is annoying me too much so I can go back to the more enjoyable pastime of talking a load of toot about comics, SF, Games etc.Marvel have been taking a lot of flak for their current habit of bumbling form one evnt to the next (Dissasembled, House of M, Civil War and World War Hulk have all been in very quick succession) however my main gripe is that all too often these are eclipsing some really great titles.So, today I'm talking about the other big event. Anihilation. It started around civil war, marvel wanted to re-boot their cosmic characters and decided to do a mini event. We got Anihilation, the format was simple, a one shot, followed by 4 4-part series, followed by a 6 part series. The success of this lead to a Nova Ongoing and a Hearalds of Galactus 2 part series. In it Anihilus invades with a crushing shock attack. It wipes out the Nova Corps leaving only Rich Rider, now holding the worldmind as Nova Prime, the last of the Nova Corps and features many of marvels cosmic stable, from Moondragon to quasar.So why did this work for me, after all, I don't know half of thsese characters and ditched the last Nova ongoing after issue 1. Well the writing is stunning. But aside from that, its self contained. Granted the 4 LS tended to go off on tangents, but they all come back together for the main event, war against Anihilus. notably Anihilation didn't affect any ongoing titles but did shake up Marvels cosmic universe and kill off a main Marvel Character (Quasar).This is how a big event shoudl be, ignorable. I can pick it up if I'm interested, but leave it without any of the other titles I read being involved. Now its sequil series Conquest has tied in with one ongoing, Nova, and I don't blame it at all, after all I'd be more miffed if we didn't see nova in a big inter-galactic story. Also if I'd not picked up the Conquest one shot Nova caught you up enough to know what was going on for Nova's story while at the same time not focusing too much on the previous 4 issues of Nova to concern those who are just picking this up for the Conquest Tie in. Overall its clean but self contained. Compare this to World War Hulk. I was aware of it going on, but didn't pick it up, but I do read Iron man, so the current return of mandarin story gets put on hold for world war hulk (like the Mandarin was just hanging around waiting for this hulk thing to blow over) and then suddenly we're back as if world war hulk didn't happen. It was pretty jarring and not well executed at all.So, in future, I want more like Anihilation, less like Word War Hulk, Civil War et all. As does my wallet, and my soon to be wife.

Idiot Nation

This article made me thinkhttp://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0207GREETINGS# In Britain we have similar problems. In short the vast bulk of the population will trust the opinions if idiot blowhards and opinionated columnists over respected scientists provided

1. They say things that the average numbnut agrees with.
2. They have their own newspaper column/radio programme
3. They portray the world as a black and white, right and wrong affair which is far simpler than the shades of grey reality

its become quite frustrating, why the hell do people put more faith in Richard Littlejohn (As an example, a really odious example) than Scientists, behavioural experts and people who have studied or have had years of experience of the subjects he mouths off on.This would be because in idiot Britain we don't like hearing opinions that differ from our own, particularly if they can be backed up with :HORROR: FACT! (And I mean actual facts rather than saying FACT! at the end of a sentence, generally meaning, I have no evidence to support this but saying FACT! means I don't have to defend my untenable position, its fact)

Some may argue that this is what I'm doing, and I'd agree, except for the fact that I'm doing this for free (Or rather when I should be being paid to work) and in a forum that no-one actually reads bar a few oddballs I know and some poor unfortunate who decided to read a random blog. In fact I am about as qualified to comment on such matters as Law and Order, Global warming and Immigration as any of these newspaper columnists, the difference is I'm not paid to do so, and no-one will say "That pie_man70, he knows what he's talking about, unlike all those so called experts who just study the subject matter, conduct scientifically sound experiments and have firsthand experience of how these things actually work"

Take, for example, the argument of Law & order. Your litteljohns will say that the country is on a downhill spiral, and its all due to those namby-pamby and wringing liberals with their human rights act. Why can't we suspend this piece of legislation which in no way protects all our rights, so we can properly punish criminals, instead of sending them to "Holiday camp" prisons we should beat them dawn to dusk for 50 years. That’s a proper deterrent; they won't want to go back after that. Now I can argue the pros and cons of brutal prison regimes till I'm blue in the face, quoting studies that show that brutal prisons churn out more brutal criminals, that the goal of prison is to rehabilitate while keeping a danger to society out of circulation for public safety. I can ask at which point "Punishment" becomes "Revenge" but that doesn't matter a jot when you consider a statement by a great author Christopher brookmyre. Talking about how people are sure that draconian prisons would cut re-offending rates and act as a deterrent, he points out that there is no deterrent because "No b***er expects to be caught"

Simple, succinct, ignored by pundits, and that’s an author not an expert, but its common sense, its logical.But yet those who trounce off opinion as fact get paid handsomely for their role in turning the nation into a pack of rabid lynch mobs, burning paedophiles as they are accused, beating up hoodies and breaking the legs of anyone who enquires about human rights.

Take another bugbear, regarding the band of idiots that makes up most of the public of this "great" land.Next to the opinion monger is the one scientist who disagrees with the general body of science. Now, I'm all for theories being properly tested, and all for dissent showing the weakness of firmly held beliefs, hells I welcome it. The problem is when you have a massive body of evidence for one side, say that climate change not only exists (Just about 100% proven) and that man is in some way an influence (About 90%+ of studies say this is the case) there are people who will latch on to that 10% of scientists, 10% often backed by interest groups to present data in a way more beneficial to, say oil companies, or airlines, because if you believe the 10% of often disproved science saying this is all sunspots, you can drive your 4X4 and fly to Malaga every year firm in the knowledge that the tonnes of CO2 you pump out has nothing to do with climate change.

Yes, we, as a nation will believe the bad, disproven science, particularly if it has a big name supporter (Michael Crichton, I'm looking at you) because, well frankly we're lazy (I know lazy, I can smell my own) we don't want to recycle, its hard. We don't want to switch everything off standby because when we get in from work it’s nice to turn the telly on by remote control, and we don't want to take public transport because it’s filled with all the idiots I posted about in my previous public transport rant. The worst example of this was while listening to TalkSport, some guy regarding the protests for Heathrow’s 3rd runway. He started by saying that the science on global warming was 50-50, specifically that you get some reports saying it is man made followed by some saying it isn't. As previously stated it’s closer to 90-10. The second statement was the worst, he said, if flying, and driving 4X4 cars was so harmful to the environment was so bad, surely it would be banned.Now really, taking the very large, well funded Oil lobby, the vehicle manufacturers and the airlines, not to mention all companies involved in aviation and the jobs produced, if I were to stand for power saying I was banning any car journey that couldn't be either walked in 20mins or covered by public transport, and that I was banning all short haul air travel, it would be election suicide, because the great British public is unwilling to give up these luxuries. And no know it all experts will tell them otherwise.

Change for changes sake

Bit of a diversion from my usual rants about commuting and topical news or things that happened near me.

Was reading an article in SFX regarding this new Star Trek remake that JJ Abrahams is doing (Still a dubious idea in my book but I hope to be proven wrong). Anyway the article itself, as there were not shots from the film available what with it being in the casting stage, was illustrated with some beautiful renders of the original pre-refit Enterprise. One of the captions however made me think; it asked would it appear in the new film. This will be a reference to the suspicion that the film will be a "Starfleet Academy" concept bandied around since the 1970s. However it made me think, would a studio re-design the Enterprise perhaps calling its design dated. It’s a worry because there will be a definite drive to make it look modern and relevant, and some might find the look of the old enterprise too 60s. I disagree, if you look at the renders you can see its a timeless design, I hope they really do focus on keeping the look consistent with how classic trek looked, not wobbly sets and velour uniforms, but the look and feel but with a higher budget. Above all Abrahams should be very careful of change for changes sake.

What People Believe

A report has recently been published regarding the shooting of Charles de Menezes. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6927140.stm One of many but this one addressed the point I was most interested in. It deals with how the information relating to the shooting was handled. This is due to the massive discrepancy between what the Met reported as De Menezes movements before the shooting and what actually happened.For those living in a cave (Or indeed a large section of the British Public, which is where I'm going with this) here are the two events, and it reads like a comedy sketch of bad policework.Police Version: On suspicion that terrorists were living at his address Police folowed de Menezes from his flat on to a bus. He was wearing a large bulky jackect, an unusual garment for such a mild day. On leaving teh bus they follwed him into the underground where he broke into a run, police chased him into the station, shouting stop, Menezes vaulted the ticket barrier and boarded the train where police shot him after he had not acknowlaged their calls to stop.WHat actually Happened: On suspicion that terrorists were living at his address Police folowed de Menezes from his flat on to a bus. He was wearing a denim jacket, not a bulky coat, something that was perfectly normal for the weather. They then follwed him from the bus into the tube station where de Menezes walkedthrough the barrier, picked up a copy of metro and walked on to teh train where he sat down. Police rushed on to the train, wrestled him to the ground and shot him 9 times in the head.There is a fair discrepancy between teh two, not one that could be made by say a casual mistake or a fddly detail. The police report was not an error, it was a lie. A Bare faced lie that, in the most forgiving light, was told to cover up a huge cock up, from intelligence to the very literal execution, that lead to the death of an innocent man. Indeed to further try and cover themselves for woeful intelligence and dangerously trigger happy men they even tried to start rumours that he was an illegal immegrant. WHiel teh report does not accuse commissionar Ian Blair it does point out taht the handling of information was hugely flawed. However this is not my biggest gripe.My biggest problem is with the great brittish public, and their idiotic ability not to be bale to update facts after the first run. Look at any discussuins on the shooting and you'll always see some Daily Mail reading numbnut saying "Well he shouldn't have run away, he was wearing a big puffy jacket" etc worse you get some amature bomb squad numpty who'll add "The police have to shoot first on suspicion, what with the super fast triggers these terrorist have access to" I'll address this second one before my main and final rant. Super fast triggers. Lets forget the fact that we're talking about home made explosives for a moment, and so the chances of having some form of high tech trigger are fairly remote. Second, there are 2 ways of detonating a bomb you are wearing. The big red button (possibly what they are refering to if its wired into a hand) but in essence you press a button and go boom, not "Super Fast" and the hand linking is unlikely (Longer wires mean more chance of the trigger becoming disconnected by tugging, think of your walkman headpohones and how they seem to snag on anything) the other is the dead man switch, popular in films release a button and boom. Only this never happens outside hollywood, and if it did, then killing someone is probably unwise. Either way giving police carte blanch to shoot anyone who looks a bit shifty without warning is a hugely dangerous thing to do.On to my final point, a cynic may think that the Police version of events was rushed out first, before any other sequence of events, to deliberately exploit this feature in the dim masses of not updating facts. They know that the vast majority of teh bovine public will take their story and then repeat it parrot (A half bovine parrot) fashion during any debate. The series of events taht makes them look less like gun happy loons and the intelegence side less like bumbling idiots keeps circulating as fact despite the truth being public knowlege. In short if you want to cover youself, tell your lie first, before anyone elses gets out there.

Dinosaurs

Recently the music industry has been getting uppity about free CD's givenaway with newspapers, particulalry following Prince giving away his entire New Album in a deal with a national newspaper. Indeed for this particular album teh only way to get it it through the paper or by attending one of his live concerts, where its free with each ticket.This complaining is yet another sign that the large record companies have absolutely no idea on how to run a buisiness model based on anything aside from the sale of physical singles and albums, and indeed no particular desire to develop a new buisiness model, prefering to shut down, lobby and stop any new way for as long as possible. Thing is, it won't work. The mass lawsuits of those who illegally downloaded music has not stemmed the tide of peer to peer sharing, nor has it moved people on to more legitimate download sites. The best DRM is usually only 2 hrs away from being hacked and rendered inert and many consumers refuse to buy music legitemately online until they can be guaranteed complete freedom to use the tracks as they see fit (be it mix CDs or transfer to any music player they own) plus a free backup should a catastrophic failiure occur. At the moment the record companies are caught seriously wanting. Combine thsi with the alterations in how the carts are measured, now including all downloads. with Internet and DAB radio catering for more refined and specific music tastes its becoming much harder to invent a pop act (bovine and obedient) and find a similarly bovine and obedient crowd to buy them en-masse. Hell we've not had a new boyband since westlife, and the bigger events ahev been the reforming of old acts from the 90s, winning nostalgia and novelty value in the same way black lace doesn't for the 80s.In short the record companies are loosing control of their indusrty, their content and with artist now able to generate their own hype through social networking, they may have to accept loss of control of any new acts.I heard an interesting idea, that in the future an album may be used more as a shopfront to try and persuade people to buy tickets for a tour, in short Artists (and companies) may in essence give away and album in order to generate fans to buy tickets for a tour. WHile I don't see this happening any time soon I do think that if artists can make most of their money from touring and the all important royalties gained form radio play (WHich is constantly moving away from playlists and more to public demand) then there may be more artists willing to give away the Album for free.

Censored

Its not recent news but it’s been on my mind for a while. Recently the BBFC banned a game, Manhunt 2. While this doesn't initially bother me (Wasn't a big fan of the 1st manhunt) it does make me think that we really should start considering what role we want the BBFC to have. There was an idea in a Christopher Brookmyre novel (Country of the Blind) of an EU bill to standardise ratings across Europe, basically meaning if a film received its rating in France, all the BBFC could do was give it a rating, not ask for cuts or ban. While fictitious this is the role I would prefer the BBFC to have, to award ratings not ban, as adults we should be allowed to decide what stimuli we are exposed to in our private lives. Obviously certain things would still be illegal, Torture, Snuff, child pornography and things of that ilk, in short anything that would be illegal to do in your own home which isn't simulated (so no real murder or torture, but lets not go banning 24)Obviously in backing this heavier enforcement must come for the actual age ratings, including a possible 21 rating, to prevent those deemed by the new advisory BBFC as too young for some content from seeing it, particularly when it comes to computer games. There are far too many parents who still believe that games are for kids, and that there is no real way a game should have an 18 rating. After all, it’s only a game. Both parents and retailers should be penalised for allowing kids to play/watch things outside of their advised rating.The actual issue of parents allowing kids 18 rated games I feel may heavily reduce with my generation having children. Many of us grew up through the 1980s and we are the first generation where games grew up with us. There were very few 18 rated games out before I was 18 (Some of the old CDi, 3DO etc titles used titillating FMV) and as a result I am now aware of the level of realism and interactivity in today’s titles, something a parent currently in their mid to late 30s may not.Overall as adults we should be able to judge what we can cope with, and I think as a nation we are grown up enough not to have need of a board of "Experts" deciding what we can and can't watch.

Back on the Air

I'm back, well on air at any rate, never really was away sadly.It occurred to me that I haven't said much about what I actually do for a living. This is deliberate, as I have read too many horror stories about people being sacked for mouthing off in their blogs. So keeping it vague I am a civil engineer (in training) and I was out these last few weeks digging holes.

When I say digging holes I of course don't mean myself personally. I had people to do that, I just had to look in them and describe what I saw (Mud) and take a photo (Of Mud). All peppered by discussions on how deep the holes should actually be. While this was compounded by the specification having 3 different figures it also wasn't helped by older supervisors arguing in inches while I'm arguing in millimetres, and this leads me in a roundabout way to my point.

In short, why the hells do we still use imperial measurements. I've never heard a convincing argument beyond "Its what we're used to" well newsflash old timer, in school since at least the early 80s imperial hasn't been taught, there is an entire generation, now in their late 20s/early 30s who have been taught metric and have to learn imperial when old fools who refuse to move on won't change.

An argument someone once tried to make was that all the imperial measurements were based on real things, that why people liked them, a foot was the length of a foot for example, well, who'd foot, my Size 11 or my mum's size 4? An inch is a thumb width, again whose thumb, my pudgy digit or my beloved's elegant slender thumb? And some are worse, chains, for example, are 22yards, as this was the standard length of surveyors chains, an antique piece of surveying equipment used before someone came up with the revolutionary idea of cloth tape with numbers at regular intervals.

SO, imperial uses vague measurements based on such things as the length of someone’s foot (We still don't know who this foot belongs to) the temperature of the inside of a cow and the length of an obsolete piece of equipment. These also make for some interesting calculation if they need to be added to anything like a spreadsheet for calculation and tabulation. 1760 yards to the mile. Nice easy figure there, so much less confusing than 1000 millimetres to a metre, or indeed 1000 millilitres to a litre, gods forbid we work everything in base 10 for easy calculation.

And it’s not just this standard calculation based in easy to work with 10s that helps the metric system. Oh no, While some measurements are based on odd things (the metre is based on the distance travelled by light in an absolute vacuum during 1/299,792,458 of a second) ok not something I can measure in my living room but its not something that changes person to person. The original basis however were to use basic relationships between volumes of water, weights of water and the size of meridians. So for example a metric tonne of water is equal to 1000 litres or 1 cubic metre of water. 1 kilogram is the same weight as 1 litre of water.So why hasn't the world adapted to this wonder system. America claims it too confusing. Proving that no one there has actually considered it seeing as its more intuitive and logical than the old imperial system (and what the hell is a quart anyway)

The UK is arguably worse, in that we have a bunch of sentimental oldsters combined with some rabid petty little Englanders who insist that our entire culture and way of life would be destroyed if you couldn't buy oranges by the pound and that the metric system is "Soulless" well, That’s fair, we should indeed stick with a complex and confusing system because it has "Soul" as for the first point, our culture is far more about personal behaviour, attitudes etc than whether we use pounds or Kilograms, or pay in Euros, Pounds or Trigantic Ningis.

Lets ditch the misplaced sentimentality and adopt the metric system, them most it will cost is changing road signs.

Just Rewards

Been out on site and really busy so the blog got left alone, which is a shame as I had something to mention. Our company gives rewards for time spent in the company, it has madated stuff for this, for example after 25 years you get a meal with collegues and friends and a free gift. There may also be a certificate. WHen you retired you also got a meal paid for by teh company with colleagues. However this has changed.

Now there are meals spaced throught the Year for retiring staff, so your meal is now with anyone else who retired in the last 3 months and the head of our area. Needless to say with some of the opinions of management from front line staff (Particularly as they're mates are no longer eating with them and the very well paid manager is getting 4 big meals extra a year) the number who will attend is very small.

This was obviously changed due to costs, however what cost morale. I remember when I was still a temp and we had one of the 25 year meals. At that time our managers could be a little more generous with company cards. well staff morale was at a bit of a low ebb as we were swamped and an unpopular department. However a meal and free booze up actually relaxed everyone and really perked up staff morale and cohesion. In fact so did most company bought drinking sessions. These were obviously stopped as the costs coudln't be justifed, but for a small bar bill I think you get better, happier and more productive staff.

Battlestar Galactica

Thought I'd cut form the innane ramblings of my general life to talk a little about Battlestar Galactica. I must warn you that spoilers will followI finished the 3rd season a couple of weeks ago, and even with a couple of slightly slow episodes (SOme of the cylon stuff as a little flat) its been cracking. We have Adama's crazy plan of allowing teh galactica to plummet though teh new caprican atmosphere to launch Vipers, we have the classic pan away with teh Galactica being pummeled by base stars right before the shots from teh pegasus fly in. and in teh last 3 parts we have the trial of Gius Baltar, plus the extra mystery of the music, a particulalry effective device where certain characters hear snaches of music, indeed at first you think its a ramdom piece of music written for teh show, until near teh end of the episode, where just as the affected cast members click, you suddenly realise the tune is "Along the watchtower" Brilliant stuff.Heroes has also been blowing just about everyting away, but I'm stuck at episode 11 as my downloads of 11 and 12 have no soudn and i'm having tod o them again. grr.Life in the Marvel universe continues to develop in the Post Civil war area, despite reservations of the series, I think most woudl be hard pressed to deny that the MU is a far more interesting place post Civil War. You can whine on about Iron Man being "evil" and how badly written Spider man is, but tehr aft of exciting new stuff like Mighty Avenegrs, The initiative, Omega FLight and Loners really offset this. Plus the cosmic side grows out of the secret massive event that was Anihilation, with teh new Nova title being top notch anc Conquest on the horizon.In real life, my social calender continues to be full.Destiny has brought me a festival of beer. The paisley beer festival is a week on friday, and fate has destined me to go, see I have a trining course on Friday, in Paisley, so as well as a lie in I'm literally accross teh road from teh festival. Now all I need is some company, as the great Shatner said "Drinking alone is alcoholism"

Happy Birthday to Me

Yes, celebrations for it is National Pie Man appreciation day. I am told that in fact this day is now so sacred that not only is the UK Government planning a national holiday on that day (They say it’s the signing of the Magna Carta but we all know)

Also, and more importantly, City of Heroes have decreed a Double XP weekend. Now all I have to do is find time between drinking and partying to actually play some CoH.

Thought I'd ramble a bit about ageing. See I know people who often make great efforts to ignore their birthdays, as if shunning cards, presents and celebration will hold back the passing of another year. Now, letting off hugely deep personal information on the off chance that anyone apart from people I know actually reads this, I'm 28. Perhaps I don't understand the feeling of death rolling every closer that is rumoured to come with 30, or perhaps I'm just that narcissistic that I really like a day where everyone is there for me, or perhaps I like presents. But I've rarely had a down birthday. 19th and 20th were at most a bit of a non event but then sitting between 18 and 21 do that, but otherwise I tend to use it as an opportunity to enjoy the fact that I've survived another year. It could be related also to the fact that I'm in not a bad place at the moment, I own a flat, have a beautiful, patient loving soon to be wife and a job that has its downs but still may actually be going somewhere.

Commuting on trains: The Unwritten Rules written

I travel daily on trains, and there is a set of unwritten rules regarding how to travel in a way that causes the least inconvenience to you and other passengers and in generally allows things to actually run. The good thing about these rules is that they're applicable on just about every mode of transport.

When boarding the train:

Wait for people to get off the train. How the hell do you think you're going to get a seat, or some choice standing area if you don't let people get off the damn train. Wait to the sides of the doors because, unless you have the power to become insubstantial, such as a ghost or The Vision, people leaving the train can't step through you.

Seating:

You do not deserve 2 seats. I have an arse that can contest many in both size and weight, I know that I don't deserve 2 seats, I know that my rucksack or my shopping has not bought a ticket and is frankly lucky it's getting a free ride at all. You can not reserve a double seat using any of the following actionsSitting in the outside seat and not moving aside when someone wants to sit at the windowPutting bags/shopping/pets on the seat next to youGlaring (Particularly if there are 2 of you on either side of a 3 seater and someone has the audacity to sit between you)If you want any control over how much space you get, space is always dictated by the person at the window, on the outside you have a walkway to occupy, they can't move any further into the wall.When sitting down, fill up empty rows before parking next to strangers, seriously we won't talk to you and will ignore any attempts at conversation regardless of how uppity you get, sit on your own.

Standing.

The door area is fine if there are a few people standing, but if its getting crowded, move into the walkway, I don't care if you're stops the next one, let the other people on and negotiate your way to the doors once the train is moving.

Leaving the train:

At a normal station, pay attention, particularly on a crowded train, you know you’ll have to get through a packed train before your stop, so make a start early, be polite and don't push, and standees, let people past, they don't want your spot, they want off which with the crowding is only a good thing.

At a terminus.

When all is changing, standing passengers get off first, no arguments, no whining, I don't care how short the trip was, you had a seat, they didn't, they get the clean run to the ticket barrier, you wait for them to clear then stand up. Standing up as you're pulling into the platform, or in the case of Glasgow Central, when you're crossing the river doesn't qualify you as standing. Stop barging in front of the poor blighters who have been on their feet all trip just because you don't want to be caught in the throngs of the ticket barrier.

At the ticket barriers,

both ways have your ticket ready, it speeds things up, also, if you can't find your ticket, don't stand at the barrier rummaging through your handbag/pockets there are people who thought ahead wanting to get on with their day, stand aside, get your ticket then approach the barriers. A hint, the human barriers at Glasgow central are manned by the hardiest of the Scotrail staff, like terminators they cannot be reasoned with or stopped. They don't care if your train is leaving shortly. Your assurances that you'll buy a ticket on the train will fall on deaf ears. You don't get past them without a ticket.

Escalators:

The London underground has this right, in London standing two abreast on an escalator so others can't pass is a crime punishable by 2hrs in the stocks. I have days where I just like to take things easy and see the world pass by; I also have days where I'm in a mad panicked rush. So be considerate and leave space for people to pass.

Finally some Do's and Don’ts

DON'T: Play your music through your phone speaker. What the hells are you thinking? I have this MP3 Player on for a reason Cr@pwit. I don't care if you're playing the Best of Pie Man's favourite songs of all time. I don't want to hear it and neither does anyone else. Naturally the norm is duff techno, because the mindset who thinks that this is acceptable behaviour also thinks that white Kappa tracksuits look really good.

DO: Turn your walkman down when the train is packed, its good manners to try and limit your noise output when in a cramped pressure cooker. It prevents you being beaten to death by a copy of the DaVinci Code.

DO: Fold your paper, it’s cramped, and anyway, last time I checked the Independent doesn't have centrefolds, there is no actual reason for you to have to hold your paper fully open, unless you’re a tit who wants everyone to know how much better you are than them by the choice of quality paper you're reading.

DON'T: Get snippy when the person in the seat next to you reads your absurdly open paper with you, even asking for page turns and comment, you're the one trying to occupy an entire 3 seats with arms and broadsheet.

DO: Chat quietly, I don't object to conversations, even if I'm not involved (See earlier comment regarding MP3 player and book) you can talk on your phone, to your friends its all good, just at a volume that doesn't broadcast to the entire train

DON'T: Shout. Just don't.

Follow these rules and you're much less likely to be bludgeoned to death by an aged Creative Zen MP3 player (Those things are really robust)

Super Heroes

Watched the heroes finale last night, and what a corker. I may discuss spoilers later on, but I'll do this in the discussion thread to allow those who want to keep life surprising to do so. Needless to say there is good reason why this has been the hottest new series out there.What made it so, well all the things taht go into a great series like Battlestar Galactica and even the flagging Lost, good, well roudned characters, with personalities. Not cyphers or steriotypes, no "Angry" one or "Weak but really strong" one. Instead these are people who seem like people you may meet on the street (Although usually better looking) and this is where the series gets its main appeal, take fan favorite Hiro. How many of us are office drones dreaming about not only super powers but having some sort of higher purpose, largely to distract us from the possibility that we are, and only ever will be a tiny cog in the huge machine of life. Hiro gets to live these dreams for us with all the enthusiasm we would throw into it.So, Like Galactica it has excellent scripts, fine acting and a well devised plot. Will it win any recognition beyond the SFX Robbie? Probably not. For even like its stranded cousin Lost, or the challanging, topical Galactica, its not about "Real Life" well real life with no imagination. From what I see on Eastenders real life can perfectly legitemately be a small square in London where evenryone's life is one constant humourless slog to death. It can't be good fiction because it doesn't involve a hard bitten police detective in London finding ever more innovative and warped serial killers. Why does Sci-Fi and fantasy still get bandied about as kids stuff. Galactica has not only given one of the most mature approaches to the Iraq occupation, terrorism, class and religion seen in TV drama, but does it recieve any mainstream regognition? DOn't eb stupid, its that daft thing set on a spaceship, what in the world could it have to do with stuff going on in real life, 24 is real life, its set in the present day with US presidents and things. The Fact is that TV SF is in a great place, there are some great writers, great actors, great scripts and stories on the go. However in order to win critical acclaim they apparently have to do "Real World" stuff. so apparently imagination isn't important anymore.To my mind there has been nothing produced in the Mainstream that can match the Imagination and the storytelling of Series like Heroes and Galactica, or like their departed predecessors Babylon 5 and Farscape.

Perils of getting from A to B #1 - The 40mph Man

I have been driving for around a year and a half, and have picked upa fair amount of experience with teh roads in central scotland both through worjk and general driving. I also walk to get to places often and commute daily using trains and busses. In short I see a lot of travel, just not to particularly varied places. Thsi does aloow me to identify various strange behaviours amongst fellow commuters/drivers/pedestrians though.The 40mph man is usually seen on the national speed limit A and B roads much like those all over Scotland often interrupted by villages where the speed limit will drop from 60 to 30. The 40mph man has decided to play averages, and keep his speed at 40mph, regardless of posted speed limit or terrain. He is different form the timid low speed motorist in that the low speed motorist will slow down for a populated area.Danger - Like the outside lane pootler and the elderly crawler the 40mph man is the direct cause of all frustration led mistakes by other drivers, usually through botched overtakes, however his habit of barreling through small villages at 40 means he's a danger to the residents of the village. Worse still the 40mph man thinks he's the safest driver in teh world, after all, you don't see him rushing at 60 on those backroads, no he's staying at 40 and so is everyone behind him, up until he hits the village at which point the better drivers slow down, partly because of our legal responsibilty to obey the posted speed limit, which is there for a reason, and mostly because the police like to speed trap those roads. Not 40mph man, due to the pig headed thought that he's in the absolute right in all situations, 40mph man will be an absolute pain and will always refuse to accept responsibility when he finally flattens someone or causes a crash.Annoyances - 40mph man's habit of belting through the small villages and towns means that whenever you hit the national speed limit you'll keep having to catch him up, this means opportunities to overtake safely are few and far between. It can slowly drive you mad.40mph man does not prefer one make, model or even type of car, and indeed the term man does not nececarily assign to a gender, in general though the driver will be middle aged and will be the sort of person who will not let simple facts shake a snap judgement.40mph man is very hard to deal with, be a bit bold on overtaking and don't be afraid to push the speed limit a little to get past him, he won't catch you up. Failinga ny opportunity to do this, just try to relax and hope you don't have to be anywhere soon, and hope to see him caught at the next village speed trap.

Fog on the Tyne

Well was away in newcastle this weekend, off ofr a stag weekend along with the rest of the UK. FUn was had by all but, due to the only thing resembling an ale in the stag doo quarter being Newcastle brown I had a fairly major hangover on Sun, and due to knowing that I had about 3 hours of travel ahead of me I broke one of my cardinal rules and took Ibuprofen to get through a hangover. This isn't a problem with Ibuprofen, but I'm a general believer of "Doing the Time" for my evenings trasgressions.

However I was somewhat unsurprised to learn that out Glorius leader to be has already been making marks that if anything he'll be worse than his predecessor, so he wants to try and battle through the legislation to allow 90 days holding without trial. frankly 28 days is too long, bring in the judicial review he wants and what you in fact have is existing legislation with sloppy extras that leave it rife to abuse. Under the old (pre 28 day) legislation you could hold someone indefinitely providing you could majke a convincing weekly case to a judge taht it was necesary. He's also been clearing out the records in teh hope that no one will realise the governments record in IT projects before his next push to get the unnececary ID cards pushed through, after all if we end up paying 5 billion and get anything like any other government IT system I think we may feel conned, just before our identities are plundered by teh first script-kidde to bluder into the system and we're all locked up for 90 days without charge because our ID shows us to be near where some terror was being planned, despite the fact that we have several hudnred witnesses denying this.End of the day for the past 5 years the police, with no extra powers have successfully held off all but 1 and a bit terror attacks. We shoudl be celebrating our very well trained and efficiant police force rather than introducing draconian legislation that plays into the hands of both terrorists and power mad government.

4 Wheels Driving

Well thats us back from our long weekend away. both Muasdale (on the peninsula of which campbelltown is at the end) and Bowmore (On the fair island of Islay) were lovely and remote and just the thing to get away from it all. Thanks to our hosts who were so generous in hospitality. Wood fired Barbeques are the way forward, it used an iron plate over a wood fire, the plate (as opposed to a grill) gets hot and is more flexible in what you can cook. The approach of covering the plate in olive oil and seasoning it with Garlic was also a fine addition to teh piles of cooked meat brought before us.I don't believe I've ranted about 4WD cars before on this Blog, but I'm sure I will in the future. However I have now driven one, and on Islay, where most roads are single track and many are broken dirt tracks (Although work seems to be going on to improve this). You can get around islay in a normal car but your suspension won't like some of the surfaces you may have to travel over and while I never needed the 4WD it was sunny and dry weather and I did need the ground clearence. Notably on this island there are a lot of 4WD vehicles. However the majority are mainly heavy rugged beasts with few mod cons such as Land Rover Defenders, Mitsibushis and Isuzus. What you don't see many of at all are the hulking BMW Z3 and 5 and its Ilk, you know, the ones which are so popularised by those with little taste and huge amounts of money. The ones that drink fuel like its tapwater, take up huge amounts of space, spew out tonnes of Co2 on the school run and, most notably, can't actually cope with rough roads let alone dirt tracks.Banning all 4WDs is foolish as tehre are those that need them, and those that need them should have exemptions from the heavy taxes soon to be imposed. It was good to drive one where it belonged, in the countryside, not on a school run.

Balls Amendment

I recently on a different board got wound up about not hearing anything about the proposed private members bill that will exempt MPs from the freedom of information act. This turned out because it had been in the news on Friday and I'd not been paying attention all weekend. The MP's (Both labour and tory) claim it is to protect their constituents privacy, but surely this can be protected in a bill that doesn't also conveniently allow MPs to once again drift into unaccountability? Notably both leaders have left this one to concience, and most MPs in teh two major parties clearly have none. David Cameron decided attending teh FA cup final was more important than attending teh vote and while he opposes it in the press he has done sweet FA to oppose it in teh house, where it counts, and where he was elected to wield some form of power. A close ally of Gordon brown, a Mr Ed Balls (heheheh Balls) has stated that MP's expenses will still eb public and an amendment is apparently being drafted. Thing is, I'm not just concerned about expenses (although make no mistake, they do concern me) I'm concerned about for what company's the mP worked for in the past, what companies they hold shares in, what boards the MP or their families/close friends sit on. All these are required these days in order to make sure that the petty corruption, backhanders and Jobs for the boys that have been indicative of both the previous and the current government are aired to the public so the minister in question can be suitably harrased about it in apublic forum.

Anyone who is in a publicly elected post would do well to remember, we're your boss, we're who you work for we are in charge.

A Harsh Master

Had a very quiet weekend. On saturday night My Fiance had fallen asleep, saldy trapping me with her legs, started tuning out and nearly bought a Popcorn Machine and condyfloss machine off of QVC for about £20. Fortunately i remembered that it is often quite hard to flavour home made popcorn and so it tends to be quite bland, but making your own candyfloss, how cool is that.

Recently (Wednesday) I dug out the consoles, specifically becuase i've not had a really good run at any driving games in a while. So on the X-Box I spent a few days muckinga roudn with project Gotham Racing 2, and on the PS2 I later hit gran Tourismo 4Project gotham was fun and belting cars round city streets, doing poweslides was a laugh, but jumping from there into GT4 shows just how much of a harsh master Gran Tourismo is. Project gotham, while still valuing things like breaking and racing lines, has toned down its realism in favour of accessability. Seeing how much more punishing Gran tourismo can be is really an eye opener.

My beloved decided to treat me and bought several things from the Farm shop. We have Beef olives for tonight, which are so far superior to normal olives I now see no point in normal olives being used for anything other than oil and spread, and will now take being offered them as a very personal offence. The real treat was in the "Special Burger" that was bought. One of my life's quests has been to find the ultimate burger (By burger I mean the full, meat in a roll with trimmings experience) TGI's came close with the two patty's, cheese, bacon and onion rings, and there used to be a place that did a triple burger that was 3 quarter pounders stacked. However teh sepcial burger will be the meat patty that should be in any ultimate burger, this one was prime angus beef, mixed in with tiny chunks of smoked bacon and also mixed in was black pudding. The result was amazing, made the flat smell like a butchers too which is an added bonus. Now if some eatery or other can incorporate 1 or more of these into a creation with cheese, bacon, possibly onion rings, and the correct combination of sauces, we may have the ultimate burger.

Joy

Nothing really filling my rant box so I'll talk about comics.Had a normal sized pull this week (Around £10) the three major titles this included were Fallen Son: The death of Captain America, Mighty Avengers and Ultimates 13.The fallen SOn series has beena bit hit and miss, this issue wasn't bad, with the newly resurected Clint Barton offered a chance to be cap and running into Patriot and his namesake Hawkeye. Not a bad issue, but not great, in short it wasn't needed and added nothing aside from Tony Stark knows Clint barton is alive. Also the artist couldn't draw Iron man, he seemed square. Still not a bad issue but picking this up I'm wondering what is the point at times.Mighty Avengers has been teh better of teh 2 avengers titles around, its first major advantage is in Art as the artist on New Avengers is not to my taste and frequently I can't work out who is who and whats going on, compared to Cheesecake artist extrordinaire Frank Cho finally getting to sho that, not only does he draw great women, but he can also draw a really good comic. Add to this the story, somehow Ultron has taken over Tony Stark and made itself out of his extremis enhanced body. Now it is in teh form of a silvery naked Wasp knocking the newly formed Avengers for six. Only gripe is that I clearly missed when Hank and Jan (Yellowjacket and the Wasp) split. She's not taking his calls and he's off bonking Tigra, largely so that Frank Cho can draw Tigra, and good on him. At the moment though this is much better than New Avengers fight Ninjas again.Finally years ago, back in teh mists of time, I read Ultimates 12. I'd given up hope of ever seeing teh conclusion, passing all rumours taht it was done off as lies and worse, statistics. Suddely here it is, isue 13, with a big gatefold fight scene. A good wrap up issue where ultimately you learn 3 things.
1. Thor Kicks Ass, Verily
2. Ultimate Tony STark Rocks
3. Millar and Hitch are that good that I am drawn back in despite the delays.

Hail Xenu

Wathced the Panorama thing on Scientology last night, have to say that I give full marks to john Sweeney for not kicking the Scientologist guy in the nuts in order to get him to shut up and listen for 5 seconds. I know less tolerant people who would have more likely beaten seven shades of dianetics out of him the second he turned up at their hotel at midnight. Scientology may not now encourage Disconnections or "Fair Game" but there was no evidence of this in the doccumentary. Reading the editors comments on the programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/05/investigating_scientology_1.html it seems like the Church have shot themselves in the foot considering that they had on film long interviews of celebrities saying how much good scientology does, and indeed it was noted that they have provided aid at nearly every disaster, so why suddenly withdraw all this footage when a journalist does what he's supposed to and looks at the other side of the story.Regardless of this Tommy Davis, the top scientologist who was behind much of the intimidation, came off as at best rude, at worst beligerant. His habit of shouting at Sweeney then walking off as opposed to engaging ina ny form of discussion is the sort of behaviour I find both irritating and highly suspicious and I would suggest the church find a new spokesman.Three things make me automatically suspicious about scientology. First is that L Ron Hubbard is on record as saying that a great way to make money is start a religion, second is the "Pay as you go" style of the thing and third is their willingness to fire lawyers at anything regardless of how small.I'm leaning towards sinister and dangerous cult myself. Its up to Scientology to prove me wrong, or hound me and harass me (Go on, I could use the company on the train)My reaction will be the same as when I saw a group of them set up in Buchanan Street, I pointed and laughed. My question there woudl be, why did they not advertise themselves as Scientologists, instead all they had was a sign offering free stress tests and a big heap of Dianetics books. I'm sure one of them followed me when I said Battlefield Earth was rubbish but I got enough leverage to get away from him.

Do I not Have Anything better to Do

Don't go hanging out washing, my ankles and knees hurt which means there's bad weather afoot.Watchec the Eurovision song contest on Sat. As always there were huge accusations of block voting, but in fairness, serbia was one of teh better entries (Although I quite liked the Finnish entry again this year and even quite fancied the large armed singer, but I'll file that under I'm strange) Regardless of what peopel say, last year Finland proved that you get a good act who are already popular accross Europe and enter them in teh contest and they'll take it. Obviously I have a rock Bias but think how much more enjoyable the contest would be if the following acts went on.

UK - Iron Maiden
Germany - Rammestein
Finland - Nightwish

Ok, so the chances of a stage surviving Rammestein's liev act is minimal but woudl be great fun, and come on, to have Eddie stalking around the green room after would be worth tuning in on its own.Never thought Morrisy would give us a winner, he's always had a bit of a British niche in his popularity and you don't find teh germans or otehr european nations raving on about him as much as they rave about Iron Maiden, Black sabbath or Status Quo.Actually that would be cool, Status Quo doing our entry.In comics my standout issue of the week was Nova #2 the fact that they refrained from having him and Iron man fight, prefering to have a discussion on the merits of registration. I do feel that Bendis is partly to blame for the depiction of SHIELD bursting in on Luke Cage in his flat. Nova made me think, however that Anihilation should be how events are done, mainly contained but with impact later. Anihilation started as 4 4 part stories focusing on 4 characters during the initial attack of the Anihilation wave. These were Nova, The Silver Surfer, Super Skrul and Ronan. that then led to a 6 part series showing the Anihilation war. all great but most importantly for me, for 4 months I was picking up 4 extra issues, but then that dropped to 1 and what it means long term is taht I picked up Nova and teh Anihilation: Heralds 2 parter and will be picking up Anihilation, Conquest. For DC with countdown I hope it is just the 52 issue weekly comic tied with events taht occur in the DC universe but make sure you don't have to read Countodwn to understant the events in Batman and vice versa.

The Creeping Hand of Evil

The metro this morning printed a failry misleading headline, which had I not been watching teh news. Picture of Tony Blair and "the King is dead" well he isn't. There has been a lot about Blair's legacy, for my part I think his legacy is of a man who was concerned with cememnting his place in history above all others. Grand gestures and huge money pits (millenuim dome, London Olympics) from day one were designed to leave a big stamp saying "Blair was here" on the UK. I personally hope he will be remembered for his real legacy. Heavy spin and corruption in government, cash for honours, artificially boosting a climate of fear to bring through huge violations of our civil liberties and our parliamentary procedure, joining us in a costly and illegal war and of course ultimately doing what the hell he liked and damn the people. Blair seemed throught his term that we needed him more than he needed us, a very dangerous trait for a politician.Goodbye Tony, you won't be missed, hope the next chap isn't as bad as you.

Long Weekend

Hard to believe its already tuesday. Visited my wedding venu and started allcoating who we're going to offer rooms to. Seems like we're being nice, and we are, all these people we want to see in the morning after. At the same time for the most part we're really saying "Hello, We've picked you from everyone to pay for a room at the Venue." Also saw SPider-man 3 and my only gripe is I'd really like to see what Raimi coudl ahev done with no studio interfearence and a guarantee that McGuire and Dunst would be available for Spider-Man 4.On Sundya had a day to myself, and since there's a free badge for any character who logs on during May, I made an effort to complete 1 mission with all of my alts on both servers. Nice to play a bit of CoV and to have outings with some lesser used alts like Sergent Jackson and Frozen Bolt.Had to call the police on our Neighbours again on sat. I think I do the woman living tehre a disservice as when she's in with just her friends we don't have noise troubles, they don't pester Mr. Dog and make him bark and when she takes aformentioend dog on a walk she at least knows that due to inadequate trining he can't be let off a leash, the bloke however is very lucky a situation wher ethe dog was harassing a small child didn't escalate or he would have found himself, quite correctly with a dead dog and hopefully would never be allowed to own another animal or have children (Well come on, you can't keep a dog under control how the hell can you cope with a human) and it is him and his friends who play the loud music.Will have to call the council again now.

Elected

Well, another election passes and I barely resisted the temptation to spoil my ballot, we have the SNP, who run a friendly campaign but sling mud in any debate, plus I still don't trust them to run the referendum fairly, or indeed for the scottish public to vote with any thought. Labour are slaves to westminister and have done 1 useful thing in 8 years. The tories are naturlaly out of teh running and the Lib Dems will ditch any policy, no matter how important for a whiff of tabel scraps from the winner. Please someone, pass a law that spoiled ballot papers are counted, at least to make it a legitimate form of protest. I think someone hauling their ass down to a polling station to write insults to the candidates deserves more than his vote being binned.Once again a government run IT project goes wring as well. I'm not really surprised, and peopel wonder why I worry about a national ID database.Not maanged to get through all my comics yet, but so far the initiative is a must buy, as well as having War Machine in it its introducing a new range of characters.Spider-Man 3 this weekend. Whoot or something. This and Transformers this year, Iron man next.

What Burns my Toast

Is indeed our often malfunctioning toaster which seems to either warm up bread or turn it to carbonised remains.However I got bugged by something last week and its taken literally days of making guttaral sounds and fist shaking, not to mention being distracted by shiny objects and falling asleep, to properly articulate it.A recent survey foudn that Denmark was the place which had teh happyest residents. The Danes site a well maintained, intergated and reliable public transport, a very good national health service, a good welfare state, clean streets and politicians who are apparently free from corruption and seem to have the interests of the people be the reasons. Naturally this was recieved by those in other countries looking at what denmark does well, such as high taxation but with tangiable, visible results as opposed to politicians trying to make "Legacys" like the dome and the london Olympics. Well actually they didn't. Instead they decided that Danes have Lower expectations of life.This sort of thing is a real bugbear for me. From where I'm sitting (in an office, sometimes on a chair at home, on select occasions sitting on my balcony sipping an expresso) we shoudl be taking most of our policy and lifesyle queues from Europe, particulalry scandinavian countries, and not from the US. Take drinking, there are talks to stop underage drinking by increasing the drinking age to 21 as it is in the US. Lets compare, we do have a drinking culture, but if the 12 and unders can get alcohol with a leagal age of 18 I fail to see how an increase to 21 will improve matters. Also, take france, the legal age is 12 and wine is generally served to all ages at meals. France has very few alcohol related health problems and low rates of alcoholism and alcohol related violence. The US has a legal age of 21 and has high rates of all three. So who do we emulate, the US. The same for sex education (Just take whatever they do in scandinavian countries and o it here because it works) and forign policy.In personal matters, due to my university graduate skils being once again called on to set up a projector and press the "Next" button on powerPoint, and with our weekly meeting becoming a vast gargantuan all day affair, college and a friday in a meeting looking at holes, I have 1 usable day of work this week. My approach to this, work is already late, it can't get later.Oh.