Mathew Browne

Now that rant mode is switched off.

Currently watching/recently watched:
- Robot Chicken :: excellent call Barney
- The X Files :: bought the complete DVD box set, feels like its 1994 again
- Dark Angel :: not bad, though Jessica Alba’s character way overdoes the pretend-black-speak. Did James Cameron forget his lead character was white along the way or something?
- Creep :: Not the greatest film, but still enjoyable to see Lola running again, this time from Token Horror Monster un the tunnels next to Charing Cross tube station (factual error: Jubilee line trains don’t run through Charing Cross)
- Taken :: Was a bit slow-paced for Louise’s taste, but I found it utterly absorbing. Spielberg done good again. Dakota Fanning, however, is almost certainly Satan.
- Rugby, lots of it :: Got to watch these things while they’re on BBC and not nicked by Rupert Murdoch. Last weekend of it coming up, and my boys are taking on the All Blacks. By ‘taking on’ I mean ‘trying, probably unsuccessfully, to stop’. I’ve had a moderately successful run of bets on the games too, thanks in no small part to my good friend Tom who is now offically my personal rugby pundit and tipster.
- Random people videoblogging on Youtube :: I don’t give a damn about these people or their videos in the slightest, but it’s quite comforting to have in the background when you’re working. (I’m one of those people that works best when there’s background noise)

What I haven’t been watching
- Lost :: Sky have now got the rights to show it in what is a genius business move (let Channel 4 build up the fan base and shell out on promotion, then outbid them when the contracts up for renewal). On a personal level, however, I’m gutted. I’m sure there must be *some* way I can watch it…

I found a cracking website (albeit not bookmarked on this computer) which has all of my old MS-DOS favourites: Commander Keen, Jill of the Jungle, Wizkid, Captain Comic, The Incredible Machine etc. They have not aged well.

At this rate it will cost £14billion

At the risk of sounding like an “Outraged in Oxbridge” letter to the editor of a broadsheet…

As if we weren’t a big enough target already, the country is spending billions on attracting people from all over the world to the Olympic games. The fact that the London tube system was bombed less than 24 hours after we secured the Games might prove to be an omen.

As usual, the price they’ve quoted is hugely underestimated (see the Millennium Dome, a hive of tourist activity and profit-making grand public events…)
As usual, the timescales they’ve quoted are slipping back (see the Wembley building site, sorry, “stadium”)

If the bookies would accept my bet, I’d gladly put a grand on the much-lauded Channel Tunnel - Olympic rail link not being completed on time. Sadly, the bookies learnt their lesson when a bunch of guys in hard hats in the Wembley area placed large sums of cash against Wembley opening on time.

I live in East London (the nice part not the grubby part, obviously) yet even I fail to see the long term benefit to anyone other than the contruction firms who will secure sizable chunks of the billions to build the various arenas and Olympic village, then afterwards convert the lot into “luxury Olympic apartments” and make a fortune selling or letting them out to the ever-increasing Canary Wharf workforce. (There’s another rant about Canary Wharf-types, but I’ll save that for another day)

All this heavy investment in an area which - if you’re a New Scientist reader - stands a good chance of being underwater in 50 years. Leave NuHackney and NuStratford drown and run to the hills!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ICoDFooBXpU

An enterprising gentleman in The Republic of Ireland ran an advert in the classified ads of a magazine, reading “Giant 12″ Dildos - Only £5″ then stating a post box address. The money came flooding in. Having no such devices, and no intention of getting any, he wrote a refund cheque for each customer (and this is the clever bit) with the words “Giant 12″ Dildo Refund” stamped across them in very large letters. None of the refund cheques were ever cashed.

I understand that a variation of this now urban legend appeared in Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, but that doesn’t make it any less genius