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Die TryingKevin Smith's Green Hornet Volume 1 HCEmpire of GoldThe Sacred Vault42 - Douglas Adams' Amazingly Accurate Answer to Life, the Universe and EverythingOn the Edge

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Review: We Can Be Heroes

January 24, 2012, 10:41 pm

We Can Be Heroes
We Can Be Heroes by Catherine Bruton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A slow burner to start with, which seems aimed at younger kids but in the last quarter it changes into something a little more mature. Told from the perspective of Ben, a young boy who doesn’t remember his father who perished in the 11/9 attacks in New York, we pass the summer with him as he tolerates his cousin and befriends an Asian girl from over the road.

The cousin, Jed, seems like a bit of a dick. Priti is a know-it-all who is sure there are conspiracies going on left, right and centre. Ben himself is struggling as his mother comes to terms with the loss of her husband and he spends the holiday with his grandparents.

Countless themes are covered, and covered well from a child’s perspective. The characters are well-rounded and complex, not the two-dimensional ones far too often used in literature, both children’s and adult.

It took a while to get into, and over the first 100 pages or so I really did wonder if I would make it all the way through. The pace accelerates as it goes through, and although the end is a little predictable I like the way it’s broken up with lists of questions the central character has about his friends and relatives.

I think if it has an issue it’s that the author doesn’t quite know who to target it at. Some young adults might be put off by the opening few chapters being a little childish. Older readers likewise. Younger readers may enjoy the banter between the characters, but the themes may be a little beyond them. Also, it’s quite a long book at over 400 pages which I think may be a little too long for the age range who I think would otherwise be drawn into it.

Worth a look if you fancy trying something different.

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The Sitter / Haywire

January 22, 2012, 12:21 pm

By إبن البيطار (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsYay for mothers-in-law. A babysat evening allowed us to cram two films in at the local Cineworld. Unfortunately, one of them wasn’t The Darkest Hour which Cineworld Parkhead had decided to shove on for a single 2D performance a day. At lunchtime. And they can get bent if they think I’ll waste money on a 3D performance.

The Sitter

“I’m more of a ‘sit on the couch, do what I say or I’ll kill you’ type of babysitter.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: College dropout is forced into babysitting three troublesome kids. A night of chaos/hilarity/adventure ensues.

See it if you like: Probably stuff like Adventures in Babysitting or Role Models.

Jonah Hill is somewhat like Seth Rogan in that he always plays the same character. He’s toned down a little for this one, probably as it’s got a young cast. Mind you, any movie with a young girl saying “fucked up” is going to score giggle points.

It’s not a new plot – there were at least two films with a similar story released in the 1980′s – but it’s still a good little story. Hill plays Noah Griffith, a college dropout whose father walked out on him when he was a youngster and who now lives with his mother. Our story opens (after some oral sex shennanigans) as Noah is convinced to baby sit so that his mother can go out and hook up with someone who might make her happy.

Of course, the kids he’s to look after turn out to be a bit of a handful. And, of course again, he has to end up in some dodgy situation that places them all in danger. Like, I don’t know, being hunted by a drug dealer and his boby-building henchmen. The usual.

Throw in a wobbly bit of romance, a ton of swearing and a little bit of “finding himself” and you have a shade over 80 minutes of fairly entertaining schmaltz.

Gillian thought it was a little slow, but I was fine with it. Not great, not bad but far better than I expected it to be.

Haywire

“You want me to be eye candy?”

Plot-in-a-nutshell – female secret agent finds herself being used as part of a dodgy bit of work, so goes rogue to try and find the culprit. I think.

See it if you like – weak thrillers with top-notch fight scenes

Steven Soderbergh is known for making high-end “classy” films, and he turns himself to the spy thriller genre for this 2-hour plodge. It’s well-filmed with some excellent fight scenes, but overall the plot doesn’t match up to the cinematography.

The cast is superb and it is well-acted. Gina Carano is both hot and tough as Mallory, the CIA contractor who finds that things weren’t quite what they seemed in her last mission. The story starts with her recalling events to … I’m not sure. Some random she seems to have met in a coffee shop. I don’t think we actually find out who he is. This takes up the first 45 minutes or so of the film and then we step into the present day.

Now I’m not sure if the plot is as complex as the more upmarket reviews make out. Certainly, I didn’t go “wow” at the supposed twist at the end. Partly as I didn’t quite get it (I was tired – Friday night after a long week) and partly as I’d stopped caring. The story just didn’t grab me the way a more action-oriented film would have and I just had a feeling that I’d seen it all before.

Admittedly it is well filmed. It looks lovely and makes good use of non-famous areas of cities such as Barcelona. Alleyways and regular streets rather than landmarks. The fight scenes are superb, not just in their vicious nature but by the toning down of the sounds. Gone are the usual Hollywood smacks and bass thuds with each punch. Instead each fist lands with a dull thwack which sounds a lot more realistic.

I think we both agreed with the person behind us when the trailers started to roll. He turned to the person next to him and stated, “Well, that was crap.” Typically Soderbergh in that the film magazines trip over themselves to rate it highly when the general cinema-going public would, I feel, be more entertained watching something like RED.

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Stop SOPA

January 17, 2012, 11:29 pm

At midnight tonight, a WordPress plugin will kick in which “blacks out” this blog (and my travel blog). I know I only get a few hits a day (around 50-100, usually), but it’s my small way to take part in the STOP SOPA Wednesday.

For those who don’t know, SOPA (and also PIPA) are motions to be put through the US legal system in a bid to allow large copyright holders power to close down websites simply because they don’t like them. OK, it’s a little more complex than that but that’s what it boils down to. SOPA has, in fact, already been shelved as a result of public outcry but PIPA is still alive and threatening horrific levels of censorship.

Essentially what these laws will do is allow a copyright holder (read “rich media company”) to force any website to be taken offline if it claims said site infringes on its copyright. Forget about any discussion over “fair use”, similar content which isn’t actually copied, mistakes and the like – it’s “guilty until proven innocent, which you won’t be because the people putting in the complaint have more money than you”.

Notice, that I said “site”. Remember the case a couple of years back with a baby dancing to a Michael Jackson track on YouTube? Jackson’s record company attempted to sue the baby’s parents for breach of copyright as they dared to put a dodgy recording of part of a song by dead weirdo onto a publicly accessible website. Obviously, this would cost them a fortune in lost revenue. Tossers.

Under SOPA, the media company could force YouTube offline. An extreme and unlikely example, but under the wording of the legislation completely possible. The host is liable for the content uploaded by its members. Even if those members number potentially in their billions.

The methods used to remove sites from the internet is also flawed and involves messing about with the internet’s central servers – something which has had industry experts who actually know what they the hell they’re on about (therefore obviously not politicians, lawyers or record company execs) up in arms.

I’m glad SOPA has been shelved, but I fear it will return. Right now we have to ensure that PIPA is also put down. Although obviously focussed on the US, this will affect anyone using the internet if it goes through. It could also lead to similar legislation being put in place in other countries.

Many sites, far bigger than this little bunch of rants and reviews, are also blacking out for 24 hours. Reddit, WordPress.org, TwitPic and Wikipedia are amongst them. Imagine an internet without them – and many other sites who are not participating. Twitter. Facebook. YouTube. Blogger.

Frankly it beggars belief. Yet the ignorance and stupidity of the media companies trying to push this madness through does not.

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Spreading the love

January 14, 2012, 11:46 pm

The following post comes verbatim from Hyperham and Andy’s “Family v2.1” blog. I’m posting it as part of the point of it is to spread the names of certain hate-filled individuals who have taken it upon themselves to harass a young girl for daring to report her school for displaying a religious banner – against the rules laid down in the US. These so-called Christians (whatever happened to “forgiveness”) have been quite happy to post their names detailing what they’d like to do to her before someone pointed out how stupid that was and they’ve removes a lot of the posts from Twitter and facebook.

The joy of the internet – and a point I made to some of my classes this very week – is that what you put up there is up there forever. Even if you take it off, someone else could have grabbed a copy, even someone like Google who archive many web pages.

I gather many of the hate-filled individuals are finding themselves directly related to these comments right at the top of a Google search. I hope this remains the case when they go seeking work.

Anyway – the post:

In addition to being a multiracial family, we are also a multi-faith family. Baby was christened in a Lutheran ceremony, but still says goodnight to the household gods before bed. We (Monkey and I) are both very open and accepting of others’ faiths (or lack of), and so this works for us. It works so well that when I am presented with people not like us (eg, nutters), it is a bit of a shock.

In Cranston, Rhode Island, a 16 year old atheist took exception to the wall hanging in her school which had a prayer. Now, anyone with an 8th grade understanding of civics knows why this is unconstitutional, and it was eventually taken down. However, some ‘Christians’ of the school and community took offense, and decided to ruin her life. Here is the link to most of the screengrabs before the little cowards went private. Below, in plain text, are the words that these feral little monsters used in describing 16 year old Jessica Ahlquist and the case. (And of course, all spelling, punctuation, and syntax mistakes are theirs, not mine).

Jenn Gould: I hope people start complaining about this one particular person and how ugly they are, maybe they can get them removed.

Matt Starchild: May that little, evil, atheist teenage girl and that judge BURN IN HELL!

Donna Higgins: Well, I want the immediate removal of all atheist from the school, how about that?

Amanda Aldridge: she just destroyed a piece of cranston west’s history. hope you’re happy #stupidbitch

@MichaelRebl_ (Michael Martin Jr): to the girl who had the prayer taken off at cranston west – why the fuck does it matter? its basically history. just don’t look at it. #bitch

Elijah Kilbane: If this banner comes down, hell I hope the school burns down with it!

Wes Wyatt: I HOPE SOMEDAY YOU, WILL NEED GOD IN YOUR LIFE.

@Margaret538: U little brainless idiot, hope u will be punished, you have not win sh..t! Stupid little brainless skunk!

@Crotchsnot (Mike Oxbig): How does it feel to be the most hated person in RI right now? Your a puke and disgrace to the human race.

Destiny Marcello: This girl must be so unloved to get negative attention from everyone. Yeah everyone talks about you because you’re psycho @Ry_Simoneau: “But for real somebody should jump this girl” lmao let’s do it! hmm jess is in my bio class, she’s gonna get some shit thrown at her.

@Ry_Simoneau (Ryan A Simoneau): But for real somebody should jump this girl I want to punch the girl in the face that made west take down the school prayer… #Honestly

Joseph Vezina: I hope there’s lots of banners in hell when your rotting in there you atheist fuck #TeamJesus (this tweet was also promoted by @REK Rachel Knight)

Sydney Magner: Honestly I think the juniors are most mad about the banner thing because all of us actually know the psycho bitch. literally that girl is insane. and the best part is she already transferred schools because shes knows someone will jump her #ahaha

Taylor Crocker: shes not human shes garbage (to jessica) youre wrong the state had no choice like i hope you go to hell i honestly do youre a shitty person omg she almost as bad as blacks everyone is going to beat you up now prob gods going to fuck your ass with that banner scumbag

@xxx_carys (C. Morgan): When I take over the world I’m going to do a holocaust on all the atheists

@Gab_Zacccaria (Gabriella Zaccaria): I think everyone should just fight this girl

@zachthedogg: Fuck Jessica alquist I’ll drop anchor on her face

Caleb McDevitt: definelty laying it down on this athiest tommorow anyone else? im sabotaging her site on fb lets just say its going to be nuts you need in on dat dawg?

Alyssa Pingitore: Jessica Ahlquist may have won her case, but she is going straight to hell. #Godoveranything

AJ St.Angelo: Let’s all jump the girl who did that banner #fuckthatho lol what a little bitch I wanna snuff her lol I wanna stick that bitch lol brb ima go drown that atheist in holy water We can make so many jokes about this dumb bitch, but who cares #thatbitchisgoingtohell and Satan is gonna rape her.

Dante Smith: hail Mary full of grace jessica is gonna get punched in the face

@zombiecamera: your home address posted online i cant wait to hear about you getting curb stomped you fucking worthless cunt

Eric Rosa: wen the atheist dies, they believe they will become a tree. so we shld chop her down, turn her into paper then PRINT THE BIBLE ON HER. nail her to a cross

Gabriella Cimarelli: yeah well she’s definitely got it coming to her

Alexandra Vachon: if I wasn’t 18 and wouldn’t go to jail I’d beat the shit out of her idk how she got away with not being beat up yet this girl honestly needs to be punched in the face #justsaying whoever the bitch is that is continuing to fight for the school prayer at west to come down deserves to be punched in the mouth #tobadim18

Chris Lawton: i’ve decided that i’m going to eat her family

Kam Sadiq: LMAO everyone’s harassing her, but then again whose she gonna report it too? West? Lmao the administrators probably hate her haha

(Editor’s note: If you have any screengrabs, please feel free to put them on dropbox, flickr, etc, and send me a link, and I’ll add them on this wall of shame.)

So, to Kam Sadiq, Chris Lawton, Alexandra Vachon, Gabriella Cimarelli, Eric Rosa, Dante Smith, AJ St.Angelo, Alyssa Pingitore, Caleb McDevitt, Gabriella Zaccaria, Carys Morgan, Taylor Crocker, Sydney Magner, Joseph Vezina, Ryan A Simoneau, Destiny Marcello, Mike Oxbig, Wes Wyatt, Elijah Kilbane, Michael Martin Jr, Amanda Aldridge, Donna Higgins, Matt Starchild, and Jenn Gould:

For those of you who hate Jessica because her belief system is different that yours – I’m unsure if your priest/pastor/vicar/rabbi/holyman/etc ever filled you in on what Jesus said about those with different beliefs, but he was actually fine with different faiths. So, while you think you may be standing up for Christianity, you are actually a blight on the very concept of love and acceptance. Frankly, if losing a 50 year old banner (while ignoring the 250 year old document that forbids it in the first place) somehow ruins your faith, might I suggest your faith is pretty damned weak.

And for those of you who hate that your school has lost part of its charm from a banner coming down – based on your massive spelling mistakes, I would recommend you spend a little more time in your wonderful institution learning English and the 1st Amendment, and less tweeting and facebooking. In either case, your parents obviously failed spectacularly in raising you to be decent human beings, so now the Internet will have to take over. Your names and words will be indexed on search engines, and the next time a job recruiter or admissions officer from your dream college Googles you, they will find your hatred and vitriol. They will see exactly how much of a feral animal you are, and they will (God willing) run in the other direction. Because society didn’t teach you to be a decent human being, the rest of us will show you that your actions have consequences.

And a special slow clap for the parents of these creatures: I’m not sure where you were when your kids were raising themselves “Lord of the Flies” style, but WELL DONE on raising your little sociopaths. Truly. Fantastic job.

Our son may grow up and decide to become Protestant, the faith I was raised in. He may decide to follow the path of his father’s ancestors. He may become pagan. He may become an atheist. As long as he doesn’t use his belief system as an excuse to bully, belittle, threaten, or harm another person, have at it.

Until then, we’ll always have Google.

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Asian Raspberry Pi

January 11, 2012, 5:51 pm

English: Extract from Raspberry Pi board at Tr...

Raspberry Pi - almost actual size. Image via Wikipedia

For those not aware, Raspberry Pi is an initiative to supply incredibly low-cost, tiny little computers for school children to use. They retail at $25 for a standalone model and $35 for one with a network port soldered on. They’re also being distributed by a non-profit charity. A wonderful idea and I’ll be buying one once they go into full production.

Even better – from a pride point of view – is that it’s a British company doing this. The aim was to make it as British as possible including the manufacture. Sadly, this hasn’t been possible.

To keep the price point low, the actual building of the board has had to be done in the Far East. Partly this is down to manufacturing costs and availability of plants wherein the work could be done. What really stinks, though, is that even the closest British plants in price ended up being non-viable due to a ridiculous policy on import duty.

You see, if you have something like this manufactured abroad and imported in then the finished product incurs zero tax. However, if you import in the individual components these themselves do attract duty. Hence importing the bits to have the system built in the UK is more expensive than paying a factory in China (or wherever) to build them and then just shipping in the finished products.

And we wonder why we have no sizeable electronics industry in this country any more.

Full marks to the Raspberry Pi people for their openness and honesty. Minus several million to the idiots at the Inland Revenue for a somewhat inexplicable policy.

[BBC article which prompted this post]

UPDATE: Someone’s started a government-targeted e-petition regarding the issue.

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