Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
New Mythbusters!!
Yay, new series of Mythbusters on Discovery!!! BBC2 showed a cut down version for a while but it never seemed to get going there, which is a shame as Beeb 2 is usually good with cult shows, but luckily it is available in the UK on Discovery. It has to be one of the best geek-friendly shows around, its fun, interesting, main presenters Jamie and Adam are a great straight guy/funny guy double act and as a bonus we get Kari Byron, the thinking geek's pinup. Everything from rude myths like does a lit match get rid of the fart smell (leading Adam to have to build a rig to capture his bottom trumpets) to refloating a sunken boat using ping pong balls or trying out Archimede's infamous 'death ray'. Brilliant stuff. The only thing that could be better is if they did a motor myths special in conjunction with Top Gear.
Yay, new series of Mythbusters on Discovery!!! BBC2 showed a cut down version for a while but it never seemed to get going there, which is a shame as Beeb 2 is usually good with cult shows, but luckily it is available in the UK on Discovery. It has to be one of the best geek-friendly shows around, its fun, interesting, main presenters Jamie and Adam are a great straight guy/funny guy double act and as a bonus we get Kari Byron, the thinking geek's pinup. Everything from rude myths like does a lit match get rid of the fart smell (leading Adam to have to build a rig to capture his bottom trumpets) to refloating a sunken boat using ping pong balls or trying out Archimede's infamous 'death ray'. Brilliant stuff. The only thing that could be better is if they did a motor myths special in conjunction with Top Gear.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Happy 50th birthday, Lego!!
Yep, today is apparently the fiftieth anniversary of the granting of the patent for one of the best toys ever invented in the entire history of the world, Lego. How great is Lego? And how unfair is it that once we grow up we're not supposed to play with it as it is an immature thing to do, leading to us buying sets for kids in the family then 'helping' them build stuff with it... From the simple bricks first patented back then to the dizzy heights of Lego Star Wars, how bloody cool is Lego? Do I care how immature that makes me sound? Nope. Lego's great and we all know it.(link via Boing Boing)
Yep, today is apparently the fiftieth anniversary of the granting of the patent for one of the best toys ever invented in the entire history of the world, Lego. How great is Lego? And how unfair is it that once we grow up we're not supposed to play with it as it is an immature thing to do, leading to us buying sets for kids in the family then 'helping' them build stuff with it... From the simple bricks first patented back then to the dizzy heights of Lego Star Wars, how bloody cool is Lego? Do I care how immature that makes me sound? Nope. Lego's great and we all know it.(link via Boing Boing)
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Accordion by the beach
Down on Portobello beach this afternoon (a dry day!!! a day with no howling gales!!! Quick everyone outside!!!), my mate's dog happily running around sniffing interesting smells (most animals walk about with their heads held up to see around them, except dogs, who trot around with their head pointing downwards so they can sniff everything) and as we walked along the beach we could hear music. Walking up onto the nearby esplanade we saw this chap playing the accordion, while nearby a wee boy was dancing happily to the music. It sounded like a little bit of France in the middle of Edinburgh's seaside and put us in happy mind of our trip to Paris coming up in a few weeks. I imagine in Paris accordion players busking must be a bit like bagpipers in Edinburgh.
Down on Portobello beach this afternoon (a dry day!!! a day with no howling gales!!! Quick everyone outside!!!), my mate's dog happily running around sniffing interesting smells (most animals walk about with their heads held up to see around them, except dogs, who trot around with their head pointing downwards so they can sniff everything) and as we walked along the beach we could hear music. Walking up onto the nearby esplanade we saw this chap playing the accordion, while nearby a wee boy was dancing happily to the music. It sounded like a little bit of France in the middle of Edinburgh's seaside and put us in happy mind of our trip to Paris coming up in a few weeks. I imagine in Paris accordion players busking must be a bit like bagpipers in Edinburgh.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Happy Burns Night
It's January the 25th when Scots at home and the many-times that number of Scots and those of Scots blood abroad celebrate the life and art of our national bard, Robert Burns. Actually more than Scots - Burns is one of that handful of writers, like Austen, Borges and Cervantes, who cross the centuries, national boundaries and language to become a writer who belongs to the world. A Makar, as we would say, an old term which implies more than a writer, but a maker of words, ideas and worlds, one who translates notions, symbols, thoughts and feelings into that magical form we call words so others can share them.
"There's nane that's blest of human kind,
But the cheerful and the gay, man,
Fal, la, la, &c.
Here's a bottle and an honest friend!
What wad ye wish for mair, man?
Wha kens, before his life may end,
What his share may be o' care, man?
Then catch the moments as they fly,
And use them as ye ought, man:
Believe me, happiness is shy,
And comes not aye when sought, man."
"A bottle and friend", Robert Burns, 1787
This year the city of my birth, Glasgow, has taken this day to mark another great Scots poet as well, the bard I personally consider the greatest living Scots poet and my personal favourite, the quite wonderful Edwin Morgan. Sadly Eddie, now in his mid 80s and suffering from cancer, isn't up to taking part but nonetheless some 15, 000 free copies of one of his collections of poetry is being given out over a 24 hour period in Glasgow with poets doing readings all over the city and ordinary folks in the street being encouraged to explore a part of their culture and heritage that many of them perhaps don't think about too much.
Actually, even among many book folks I often hear the ignorant "I don't like poetry" response from people all the time. That's usually from people who never bother their arse to actually try reading some different types of poetry. Its like saying I don't like jazz, I don't like Indian food, I don't like... Well, you get the idea - dismissing a whole and very diverse area without exploring it, or rubbishing it on perhaps one or two tiny looks. Its a sign of a closed mind and that's a shame because poetry is one of the finest ways I know to open minds and expand not only the imagination but the senses and the ability to perceive more with them; good poetry reaches beyond what even the best prose can do (and some of the best prose feels poetic), it interacts with our intellect but also our spiritual side and connects us, ideas, dreams, the world and the other worlds behind the one we see with our ordinary eyes.
Still say you don't like poetry? Think about it next time you are listening to some beautiful piece of music that moves you in a way you didn't think anything could and then realise you're listening to another form of poetry, told in notes and beats. Poetry is music, its words, its rhythm, its life.
But now, if you will excuse me, my personal Burns Supper awaits - something a little different this year, vegetarian haggis samosas in chili sauce! (if you are wondering how you get a veggie haggis, you take an ordinary wild haggis and feed it on tofu) Thus combining two great Scottish traditions, the haggis and Indian food, on one meal and of course a very fine single malt to toast the Bard. Slainte!
It's January the 25th when Scots at home and the many-times that number of Scots and those of Scots blood abroad celebrate the life and art of our national bard, Robert Burns. Actually more than Scots - Burns is one of that handful of writers, like Austen, Borges and Cervantes, who cross the centuries, national boundaries and language to become a writer who belongs to the world. A Makar, as we would say, an old term which implies more than a writer, but a maker of words, ideas and worlds, one who translates notions, symbols, thoughts and feelings into that magical form we call words so others can share them.
"There's nane that's blest of human kind,
But the cheerful and the gay, man,
Fal, la, la, &c.
Here's a bottle and an honest friend!
What wad ye wish for mair, man?
Wha kens, before his life may end,
What his share may be o' care, man?
Then catch the moments as they fly,
And use them as ye ought, man:
Believe me, happiness is shy,
And comes not aye when sought, man."
"A bottle and friend", Robert Burns, 1787
This year the city of my birth, Glasgow, has taken this day to mark another great Scots poet as well, the bard I personally consider the greatest living Scots poet and my personal favourite, the quite wonderful Edwin Morgan. Sadly Eddie, now in his mid 80s and suffering from cancer, isn't up to taking part but nonetheless some 15, 000 free copies of one of his collections of poetry is being given out over a 24 hour period in Glasgow with poets doing readings all over the city and ordinary folks in the street being encouraged to explore a part of their culture and heritage that many of them perhaps don't think about too much.
Actually, even among many book folks I often hear the ignorant "I don't like poetry" response from people all the time. That's usually from people who never bother their arse to actually try reading some different types of poetry. Its like saying I don't like jazz, I don't like Indian food, I don't like... Well, you get the idea - dismissing a whole and very diverse area without exploring it, or rubbishing it on perhaps one or two tiny looks. Its a sign of a closed mind and that's a shame because poetry is one of the finest ways I know to open minds and expand not only the imagination but the senses and the ability to perceive more with them; good poetry reaches beyond what even the best prose can do (and some of the best prose feels poetic), it interacts with our intellect but also our spiritual side and connects us, ideas, dreams, the world and the other worlds behind the one we see with our ordinary eyes.
Still say you don't like poetry? Think about it next time you are listening to some beautiful piece of music that moves you in a way you didn't think anything could and then realise you're listening to another form of poetry, told in notes and beats. Poetry is music, its words, its rhythm, its life.
But now, if you will excuse me, my personal Burns Supper awaits - something a little different this year, vegetarian haggis samosas in chili sauce! (if you are wondering how you get a veggie haggis, you take an ordinary wild haggis and feed it on tofu) Thus combining two great Scottish traditions, the haggis and Indian food, on one meal and of course a very fine single malt to toast the Bard. Slainte!
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