The Indy Looks Ahead. 10 Years Ahead.

UK newspaper, The Independent, stumbles slightly tackily into the next decade with a twee but nonetheless interesting vision of how far things will have changed for us all by 2020...
(Part 2 tomorrow apparently).

What A Fanbloodytastic Day

Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be enough good news around at Christmastimes... Don’t know why - (maybe it's because we tend to try and happy ourselves up for the occasion and the world doesn't stand a chance of living up to that), but there just doesn’t. And that’s broadly been so this year too - ongoing whitewashy shambles of an Iraq inquiry, total cop-out and big finger to the planet from Copenhagen - but at least today has flagged up two stories that have really genuinely made me incredibly happy.

The first is pretty obvious - Rage Against The Machine taking the Xmas number 1 slot from some vanilla X-Factor prettyboy singing some crappy banality at the order of his master.
Thank Fuck, quite frankly. Brilliant news.
The X-Factor may be enjoyed by millions but that doesn’t make it good of course (and it isn't good - it's fucking evil) - and contrary to the bafflingly poor thinking of some absurdly biased BBC newsreader/interviewers over the past days, it does NOT set up winners in long and glittering and important careers; so far they’ve been largely shortlived. For which one can only be thankful given the tripe, pap and worthless formulaic shite they put out. The BBC people actually were pretty annoying - completely glossing over the Rage profits going to homeless charity Shelter, having been corrected on a point about making money from the single, and also accusing the song of not being about Christmas.... er, like the X-Factor song then... Muppets.

Anyway - they did it. WE did it. Brilliant. It’s not a cynical act (as described by the cynical Simon Cowell in an act of breathtaking cynicism even by his own magnificent standards) - it’s a genuine authentic act of championing authenticity over cynicism. And I hope it’s only the beginning.

I also hope it’s only the beginning for more coming out and acceptance of gay sports stars following the announcement by the Welsh rugby star - Cardiff Blues player and the most capped player for Wales and former British and Irish Lions captain, Gareth Thomas. Sport can be a macho and misogynistic animal, and of course homophobic too. Yet statistically, it’s blindingly obvious that there should be quite a few gay sportsmen out there - who knows, maybe great ones - great role models. And that one of them has had the guts to come out is great news...
"It has been really tough for me," he told the papers, "hiding who I really am, and I don't want it to be like that for the next young person who wants to play rugby, or some frightened young kid. I don't know if my life is going to be easier because I'm out, but if it helps someone else, if it makes one young lad pick up the phone to Childline, then it will have been worth it."

Let’s hope this might just be a moment of genuine shift like the Rage Xmas number 1. Today has definitely been a good day. Hopefully the reasons why it’s been a great day can lead to more great days to come.
Good on you Gareth Thomas, good on you Rage Against the machine - and good on you all who bought the single :-)

REFERENCES:
Rage Against The Machine article
Gareth Thomas article

Groovy Magazine Concept - Mag+

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Fascinating mag (and also 'tablet experience' in general) by Bonnier, and Berg.
If Apple's tablet device ever appears I hope it's content could work something like this...

Green Apple Turns Greener

Not only has Apple been putting more and more effort into improving its green credentials, showcasing its credentials with a dedicated section of its website - but it has now also given up its membership in the the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the Chamber's stance on climate change legislation.
In a letter to Thomas J. Donohue, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Apple's Vice President of Worldwide Government Affairs, Catherine A. Novelli, stated Apple's position and submitted Apple's resignation...

Apple is committeed to protecting the environment and the communities in which we operate around the world. We strongly object to the Chamber's recent comments opposing the EPA's effort to limit greenhouse gases.
Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the Chamber at odds with us in this effort. We would prefer that the Chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a construtive role in addressing the climate crisis. However, because the Chamber's position differs so sharply with Apple's, we have decided to resign our membership effective immediately.

I never need new reasons to love Apple. But what the hell... Awesome.
I'm not naive enough to believe there's no whiff of marketing about something like this - but kudos to Apple for doing it anyway. There's a definite momentum with the company's various efforts that suggests that positive spin and profile is simply part of a virtuous circle of doing the right thing. Will be interesting to see if others follow suit or what waves are made.

New El Canto Del Loco & Pere Tutusaus Websites

It's been a busy couple of days with me overhauling and relaunching a couple of my "pet project" sites. I won't call them "hobbies" as they're too important to me, and I felt that given the other rebuilds I'd done recently it'd be a great opportunity to carry on learning about Wordpress and PHP and CSS geekery by giving both sites a complete makeover and moving them from Blogger to my own domains and building them from the ground up with revised designs.

Here's how the new El Canto Del Loco website looks...



And this is how I've reworked the new Pere Tutusaus website, although I've left the branding more or less intact on this one, compared to the hefty redesign of the whole styling that I've done with the ECDL site...



I've also been working on a very cool idea that I've come up with which will also be a WP project; although it's huge by comparison, and also very secret squirrel, so I've got to try and stay excited about it for months yet while I mess around at refining and developing the idea and figuring out if there's any money in it!
Stay tuned...
And stay patient...

Steve Bell on EU President Blair

I must admit to still being close to incandescent with rage at the idea that Blair might be some kind of shoe-in as EU president. I'm certainly outraged at Glenys Kinnock proclaiming him "the UK's choice" (I sure as fuck didn't vote for him... did I miss something?) but on the bright side I'm confident of the IQs of our friends on the continent that they wouldn't possibly stand for it.
Although I would like it if they had a bit of fun by voting for him, got him over there and then ran him straight off to the Hague for trial...

Steve Bell, as usual, gets it spot on.

The News Quiz Is Back. Hurrah!

Great news - the smug, self-satisfied Now Show steps aside and in its place Radio 4's "News Quiz" returns tonight; Friday May 1st at 6.30pm (repeated Saturday at 12.30pm) - its superbly skewed weekly take on the world returning for an almost unbelievable *68th* series...
Sandi Toksvig chairs, and panellists include Andy Hamilton, Fred MacAulay and Jeremy Hardy.
There should be plenty to poke fun at...
If you don't catch it on the radio, then don't forget you can subscribe to it as a podcast on iTunes.

H2G2=10

h2g2 is ten years old...
To go see it and to find out more about Life, The Universe, and Everything, click here - or to find out more about the late great Douglas Adams click here...

Quote Of The Week: Werner Herzog

"Life on this planet has been a constant chain of cataclysms and extinctions. It is obvious that we are going to be next."
Legend Werner Herzog keeping things rosy in this excellent little piece in the New Statesman magazine, promoting his new film, Encounters at the End of the World, which opens in the UK today.

Stuff About Aliens

(*I know which one I'd rather be stuck in a lift with...)

Although I'm not anything approaching a 'Trekkie' or whatever the term is, there's no doubt I'm a bit of a geek. And to be honest I'm kind of looking forward to the new Star Trek film.
Hanging off the edge of its release are many articles and bits of feature writing - like this quite good one in the Indy about Vulcans, and how they are a superior species to us. Although of course they're not superior, since they don't actually exist; something which surely has to be considered as a drawback in any species really...
It also discusses the concept of creating fictional races in sci-fi, and how they can be very human-like, or utterly horrifying (although they fail to mention how Jar-Jar Bloody Binks strangely manages to fit into both categories...)
It's also worth the read, if only for Patrick Moore's priceless quote:
"There isn’t a planet Vulcan, of course, otherwise I would have observed it."

Cartoonists On Tomlinson

Steve Bell in The Guardian

Dave Brown in The Independent

Paxman, Pots & Kettles...

BBC presenter Jeremy Paxman has made what is taken to be a thiny veiled attack on Channel 4 in Good Housekeeping magazine, saying "I find it disappointing that there are TV channels that started with noble ideals and have become freak shows"...

Interestingly, on BBC today you can watch Bargain Hunt, Bargain Hunt's Famous Finds, Flog It, Escape To The Country, Young Mums' Mansion, Gary: Young, Psychic and Possessed, The Real Hustle, and Two Pints of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps Please.
Are we *sure* he was talking about Channel 4?

Live Performances Of "Music From The Worm Farm"

As the "Music From The Worm Farm" project I did the website for nears its end, I should point out the forthcoming live performance of the project's output.
The performance is at 7 pm on Thursday the 19th of March at the Science Museum's Dana Centre in South Kensington, London. Tickets are free, and a free CD  of work from the residency will be given away.
Click here for full information on the evet...
And click here for the 'Performance" info page on the Worm Music website.
Ongoing notes form composer Keith Johnson can be found here on the Worm Music blog.

Tyrant, Rock Star, Diva, King... & Don't Forget Human Being

There's an excellent piece on Cult of Mac at the moment, reflecting on Steve Jobs' decision to step back from Apple till the summer on account of health issues being "more complex" than previously thought.
I wanted to share it as it's a pared down, non-hysterical look at the present and the future and - without getting ghoulish or mawkish - also attempts to understand the nature of Jobs' legacy, whenever his time may come.
Most chatter on the various Mac forums is a mix of hysteria and cynicism, and some utterly unreal trolling from sickeningly greedy and self-obsessed shareholders (apparently), who deserve nothing short of the mightiest punch in the gob.

There's not really much to do except hope that the stepping back / treatment etc is not a gentle euphemism for the long goodbye but a genuine assessment (and in no way loaded) of what's going on; to wish Steve Jobs all the best, and to hope he's back doing more "insanely great" things when he's good and ready.

Click here for the article...

Not So Much Who As Why?

(*Above - the new Doctor: like the current one... only more so...)

In what cynics might regard as a marketing rather than a genuinely creative decision, the 11th Doctor appears to be a younger and probably more fey version of the current one.
Matt Smith, who will take over from David Tennant in 2010, does seem to tick a lot of "demographic" boxes and will probably lead to a lot of grumbling over the youngness, whiteness and maleness of the choice until he hits the screens and we can all make a proper judgement. Let's be honest, about the only surprise in the choice is not the aesthetics of it all, but the fact that the guy is largely unknown.

Got to admit that I'm very fond of Tennant (although I'm aware he winds some people up something chronic...) and I'm also one of the very very few people I know who actually rated Eccleston too.
The only shame is that they're clealry fixated on the young and the pretty and have forgotten that John Pertwee - the spooky, be-cuffed & collared powder-wigged incarnation - was surely the "best" Doctor (whatever I may actually mean by that...)

I'd have to admit I'd rather have seen a braver, more imaginative choice - my friend and companion in red wine Madame Arcati has always championed the idea of Sandi Toksvig, which I must admit would be brill. But I can't help but feel I detect a certain cowardice / play-safery in the Smith decision.
Only time - and timelord - will tell.

In the meantime, the Beeb can probably go ahead and renew their product-placement contract with Converse for another few years.

Podcast Of The Year :: Philosophy Bites

It's little wonder that Philosophy Bites has made it into iTunes Best Podcasts of 2008...
This has to be my top podcast of the year. Week after week of simply conducted yet wonderfully enlightening discussions with contemporary philosophers and academics on a vast array of subjects, from the most abstract concepts to utterly relevant and applied questions such as the meaning of 'tolerance' and the ethics of bombing civilians.
It's been some time since I studied Philosophy at Uni (and had a blast actually...) so it's a serious pleasure to keep the old noggin ticking over with this thought-provoking and totally engaging series.

Absolutely top stuff. Keep up the good work guys :-)

To subscribe to Philosophy Bites you can either visit their website here or if you prefer to go directly via iTunes then you should click here...
It's impossible to recommend it highly enough.

Daily Mail in 'Talking Complete Bollocks' Shocker

It's not for nothing that the excellent Charlie Brooker refers to the Daily Mail as a 'How-To Guide For Idiots, published in daily instalments'... It's almost a pleasure to see it spontaneously combusting about the Euro, Europe in general, foreigners, muslims, gays, single mothers, video games, and pretty much most things that make up our world.

So it's great fun to come across a sports editorial blurb in today's copy, berating F1's environmental credentials...
"The truth is Formula One is as environmentally friendly as a flatulent Jeremy Clarkson burning a fridge full of plastic bags in the Sizewell B nuclear reactor."

It's always a giggle to see the Daily Mail launch into a tirade that begins with the phrase "the truth is..." - mostly as it's as sure a sign of a lie as someone who habitually starts sentences with "I'm not a racist but..."
The Mail and the truth inhabit very different worlds; one very real (and indeed truthful), the other a bit rabid and angry and mad.

Anyway - back to the point of this... the Mail is either very dumb or deliberately misleading readers here. (Or probably both - that appears to be their strong point...)
The Formula One circus has been carbon-neutral since around 1997; a fact revealed qiute modestly and unexpectedly by Max Mosley in 2006 - and something he clearly should have been shouting about to help shut up ignorant twats like the Mail who are never happier than when they're furious about something. And I haven't seen much environmental campaigning from them by the way. Gits.

Anyhoo - just wanted to set the record straight.
Daily Mail, sod off.

R.I.P Oliver Postgate

"When Bagpuss goes to sleep..."

Goodbye to a genius who shaped so many millions of childhoods, and filled them with gentle, beautiful, fabulous, imaginative stuff.
Read about him on Wikipedia...

Max Mosley Sticks It To Paul Dacre

(*Above: Max Mosley - Respect!)

Whilst I deplore Max Mosley for squandering many opportunities to save the sport that I loved for so long, I can't help but rejoice at him sticking it to the contemptible Paul Dacre in this Comment Is Free piece.
"Squalid" is a perfect word for the way the Mail - and the rest of the gutter press behave over their seamy exposures in 'the public interest' - as should be transparently obvious to anyone with half a brain, and Dacre's hypocritical cant is given a prefect "Sod Off" by Max in this article - encouragingly supported by many of the comment posters below it.
Mosley's setting aside of what is surely considerable embarrassment to stand his ground on serious questions of *genuine* rights and morality (as opposed to Dacre's grotty little excuses to sell more of his rags) is wonderful.

Good on you Max :)
(Shame about F1 being crap though....)

Apple responds to M$ "I'm a PC" Advert

I just thought it'd be worth posting this as I noticed Microsoft have started running their "I'm a PC" ad on British TV. It's worth shedding some light on where it came from, and Apple's response.

Here's the story...
Fro some reason that's genuinely beyond me, Microsoft felt sufficiently threatened by Apple's ongoing "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads where John Hodgman and Justin Long take on the personalities of said hardware, that they decided they needed to spend some $300 million on a big-guns response.

I'll just say that again... $300 million.

First thing they did was they decided to make this response about three years after Apple's ads started running. D'oh!

Second thing they did was run two ads of Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld in shopping malls and foisting themselves on a small family home. This was one of the most baffling and creepy things on TV since Twin Peaks quite frankly. Oh and it contained less humour than Twin Peaks.

Third thing they did was do a "direct" response to the "I'm a Mac" ads - with one tiny flaw... Instead of people pretending to be PCs (and explaining their network problems, rebooting problems etc) they paraded a vast number of ethnically diverse people from all over the globe who appeared to believe that they were in fact actually PCs. ("I'm a PC and I have a beard", "I'm a PC and I catch fish"...) This was clearly intended to be a big smiley touchy feely "We are the world" moment for M$ but again it ended up being kind of - well... bloody peculiar. Honestly - just watch it through. These people need sectioning.

In short M$ flung an obscene amount of money at a campaign that fundamentally misunderstands what it's supposed to be countering, and in the case of the Seinfeld/Gates home invaders just doesn't attempt to really do anything connected to any kind of reality.
All this while they could have actually been fixing the PR disaster that is Vista.
Apple's response - you can't call it a 'rebuttal' as there was nothing of any substance to genuinely rebutt - is short and sweet; typically mischievous and very funny.



Sadly - we don't get these over here in the UK. We only got the Mitchell & Webb versions, which - much as it pains me to say it - really just didn't work. They seemed to get quietly discontinued. Probably for the best...
You don't want to run an ad campaign that's not really that good, do you.
Unless you're M$ perhaps...