The Hall of Fire

Today I read an idle speculation that a female Who might be Olivia Coleman. I suppose there are scores of speculations that are worth nothing but were they to pick her, I would die of joy.

The Conservatives won because the Left was split as it has been since the 1920's. That's what happens with three parties in a first past the post system. In 1983 13,012,316 people voted for the Conservatives: 16,237,883 for the two main left of centre parties. In 1987 13,760,935 voted for the Conser...

Just to cheer everyone up; from New Zealand:

http://commonwealthcommentary.blogspot. ... -with.html

As background, some school had a childrens book about a child with same sex parents. After an organised campaign of shock and horror by the usual homophobic right wing newspapers and commentators (oh how they thrived at that time!), Thatcher's government brought in a law which made it illegal for an...

If I'm reading ax right, he is simply saying once a trivial decision is made it often becomes hard to undo, due to inertia. And we do many things according to such obscure precedents that we don't even realise we are doing. Decisions have consequences. Irrelevant portions of the Constitution are suc...

Wot yov sed.

This link is humorous but have been told is fairly accurate. I just read it and leave you to judge. There is a tiny bit of saltiness in the language:

http://courtneymilan.tumblr.com/post/46 ... s-argument

The Thatcher era made us a worse people than we were. That's what can't be forgiven. It was a war against our spirit and we lost it. One has to live in the UK to understand the level and breadth of bitterness even now. The economic arguments are a different matter and can be argued on utilitarian gr...

I tease Pandora (B77) that she is moonlighting as Clara. She is not an exact facial match but they talk in a very similar manner.

I saw it just over a week ago. I've known of the popularity of the stage musical for years but it hadn't really sunk in. I had optimistic hopes to go one day. I knew a bit of the background to the novel and the politics of the time but that was all. So I didn't really know what to expect and feared ...

Oh I forgot; they cut out the tra la lally!
I'm gutted I tell you!

Hmmmmm, I remember the discussions when we were trying to hammer out our own version of The Hobbit. I remember the argument that someone (me?) made that having a dwarf back story at the start would turn the narrative into one about the dwarves rather than the hobbit. I think AUJ may have proven this...

I think seeing figures in the middle distance the size of mountains sparring together would still have an impact - but not in the Jackson universe. It doesn't rule out some closer shots. But really I didn't mind the conception of the giants I saw apart from the predictable overplayed threats of crus...

Was I the only one who thought the Rock 'em Sock 'em Robot scene in the Misty Mountains was, frankly, ridiculous? Transformers: the Stone Age Years. I didn't mind them too much apart from the predictable PJ placing of the party in the crevices of the giants constantly and unbelievably threatened wi...

To save myself rewriting my reactions over again, I am copying my thoughts from TORC I saw it yesterday lunchtime in 3D. I believe it was at 24 fps but I'm not sure. Overall I was not impressed by the 3D. Often I couldn't tell if an object was foreground or background. Things sometimes were fuzzy an...

I have gathered that on the day of Obama's inauguration the Republicans in Congress met and vowed to oppose every single thing from his administration regardless of merit or compromise. Their aim was to portray him as a failure. The last time I looked the POTUS does not have the powers of a dictator...

The technique of bombarding a debating opponent with multiple facts of dubious truthfulness was pioneered by creationists debating evolutionists. However many the scientist refutes there will always be another one and in the meantime the scientist is dancing to the others tune. It has been named the...

Just an anecdote from the socialist health gulags of the UK. A friend turned 60 at the same time as the Oxford moot in mid August so I couldn't go to his party. Shortly afterwards he got the standard postal bowel cancer check that everyone gets automatically at that age. I have had several already. ...