Spooks, surprises, and silly funny jokes. A great way to adapt Inside No 9 to the stage. Reece & Steve have nailed both the British humour and the brutish horror, happily hammering a way into your skull and breathing new life to their work.
A must-see even if you're remotely a fan of their work, theatre and drama, or a little grisly gore.
I've never really been into musicals or theatre at all, but this blew away my fears and expectations. Wicked is compelling, satirical, clever, and a welcome prequel and wrapper to the original Oz. There are many poignant moments that perfectly capture complex feelings where I was completely drawn in. There are some genuine dark moments too that shocked me. The story of Elphaba is instantly relatable.
There is a story of female empowerment here. Four women in this show have magical powers, while the Wizard, who claims to be all powerful, has none. With Idina Menzel being on the original cast, I feel like this is an obvious precursor to Frozen.
The story in this show is deeper and more impactful than I imagined, and changed my view on theatre and musicals. Wicked is a near-masterpiece that sets the example for all others, imo. The sets, design and costumes are impressive and faithful. The talent, dedication and voices are so strong and powerful. Massive appreciation for everyone involved.
Full throttle non-stop action a la Promare, relatable family movie, and an honest jab at big tech wrt privacy and addiction. Exploring another possible AI future.
Plot copies beats just a little too much from other Lord & Miller works like Cloudy and Lego, but this movie is clearly meant to be a bit of insane fun, than a profound or emotionally intelligent saga.
His new arachnid powers are symbolic of flow state - having practised something so often that you your body autonomously takes over.
Him being immune to Jean Grey's mind control is not because of his Peter tingle or astral projection in No Way Home - it's because he's spent so long saving others and distanced himself from having friends that he's missing key parts of being human - connection, joy, rest.
I lost my mum to cancer like Peter. I was a key worker in lockdown and had to sacrifice friendship and partners and my physical and mental health for it - Peter had to give up his best friend and the live of his life so that he could keep being Spider Man, keep saving people. By the end he's all scratched up, physically and mentally.
Music - opening: Sufjan Stevens - With My Whole Heart
Music - closing: Julie Elven - Survive
Attire: Blue, no black
Method: Enzyme
Ashes: Plant with sycamore seeds
Someone on Instagram said: "Heartstopper has the same authenticity of the gay experience as lesbian porn made by straight men does. Odds are that if you are not a tween girl, you’ll just find Heartstopper absolutely cringe."
My response:
I'm a bi 36yo guy and I love Heartstopper, it's not cringe at all. I think anyone who finds it cringe just lacks empathy and emotional intelligence.
Heartstopper is about depicting a positive, healthy romance, not a couple where one of them dies at the end or leaves after a summer fling. That doesn't mean it's unauthentic by any means. You could say it's a bit fairytale, but that's what we need in LGBT+ media. Where's our gay Disney prince already? Gay characters in media are too often killed off or just token characters. Even Doctor Who kills off gay characters left right and centre. Heartstopper is not meant to be like Skins or Skam, it's meant to depict actually good romance stories that we can aspire to for once.
It's been in the top 10 series on Netflix for every season in over 50 countries, and 10 million books sold, and it's the most emotionally intelligent LGBT+ series I've seen - not lame by any standards.
This is in response to:
https://media.reading.gov.uk/news/further-crack-down-sees-fines-for-fly-tippers-up-more-than-tenfold
I think it is rather hypocritical and I am actively against any further spending into third party enforcement officers. As per the article, "Council[s] commitment to keep Reading tidy", I will explain out how ineffective they are.
- These contractors only operate on Broad Street & Oxford Road, whereas most of the litter and fly-tipping is actually on residential streets like Great Knollys and Russell Street. When did you last fine kids littering outside the Academy?
- Fining elderly, disabled, or blind people for accidental littering is unethical
- My bins haven't been collected at least twice every year, regardless of location, having lived here 18 consecutive years. Should I be asking for a refund for my council tax for those months?
- Some residents in the town centre like when I lived on Kings Road have zero recycling collection, it's all just general waste, with no limit on black bags.
- The plastic red/grey bins that aren't big enough even for recycling, I often have to stockpile recycling until there is enough space again. I think recycling collection should be every week.
- Uncollected street bins like on Russell Street and Baker Street. Bins are typically overflowing after 3 days since they've been emptied.
- I would rather you make it easier to volunteer e.g. Victoria Park local group's efforts in street cleaning, or incentives like paying volunteers to collect plastic bottles - this is already popular at other festivals like Latitude and in European countries like Malta.
- Multiple drains blocked on Broad Street that still remain unfixed including up to St Mary's Butts roundabout, and multiple wonky tiles on Broad Street that cause tripping - which could lead to accidental littering
- If people just pick up their litter and either take it away with them or bin it, then there is no crime.
It is a waste of resources putting more money into enforcement officers and I will not stand for my council tax being spent on this when it is clear that litter collection is not being done, incorrectly, and not where it is needed the most.
I thought I was glad that I was born in an era of human history without ritual sacrifice, burning witches, or public hanging - and instead, access to medicine to prevent an early death, glasses so I can see, an inhaler so I can breathe, etc.
Then I researched and realised:
People still blame scapegoats: when a society faces massive, inexplicable stress, someone will start pointing fingers (Said René Girard etc)
40,000 BCE: animal sacrifice for successful hunts
12,000 BCE: human sacrifice exploded with agriculture to ensure a good harvest
500 BCE: religion and philosophy start to reduce ritual sacrifice
1500: burning witches begins at the same time science develops
1800: public hanging continues despite the advent of science. Cesare Beccaria etc introduces modern justice (proportional crime for reason with rehab). the killings move more inside prisons instead
2006: Farage blames immigrants as a scapegoat, instead of the wealthy elite of capitalism.
Public shaming, cancel culture and blaming immigrants is the modern live burial, temple sacrifice, gallows, or pyre.
Farage is taking advantage of a modern societal stress. Rather than the promise of a good harvest, it's about cost of living - but it's actually caused by the wealth divide. It's just easier to point blame at outsiders than the top 1%.
Here's a full list of everything I eat because I'm fussy.
British/ American:
Salmon: fillets, smoked slices, parcels, sushi (sashimi, nigiri, hosomaki)
Mackerel
Prawns with cocktail sauce
Sausages (including vegan), frankfurters, saveloy, pigs in blankets
Sausage rolls
Beef or cheese burgers or sliders (prefer single patty) especially with cheese and caramelised onion
Impossible burger
Chicken burgers with mayo
Chicken nuggets, turkey dinosaurs
Quorn nuggets
Chicken wings like southern fried
Cereal
Tuna fish and mayo sandwich, tuna melt
Cheese and crackers with pickle
Cheese on toast with worstershire sauce
Ham and cheese toastie, Croque monsieur
Chicken Caesar salad
Sunday roast (not potatoes unless hot and crispy)
Breakfast: Sausage, Eggs, Bacon, Toast
Fries
Muller yogurts
Hot dogs
Pork pies
Dairylea lunchables, dunkers, mozzarella sticks
Steak with peppercorn sauce
BBQ ribs
Mac and cheese (though I've had many disappointing mediocre ones, M&S do the best with bcaon bits)
Italian:
Spaghetti bolognese
Spaghetti meatballs
Beef lasagne
Chicken arrabbiata
Chicken carbonara
Pizza: Hawaiian, pepperoni, ranch bbq, mini pizzas
Pasta: penne, tortellini, baked, rigatoni
Garlic bread
Mexican:
Chicken or pork tacos
Chicken fajitas (no pepper, onion)
Nachos (minus beans)
Churros
Quesadilla
Indian:
Chicken korma
Pilau rice, or plain rice
Chicken tikka masala
Paneer tikka masala
Poppadoms
Garlic naan or peshwari naan
Shakarpara
Chinese/Thai
Sweet and sour chicken Hong Kong style (without veg)
Sweet and sour ribs, honey ribs
Crispy Wonton
Satay chicken
Egg fried rice, plain rice, jasmine rice
Roast puff pork pastry
Char Siu Bao
Japanese:
Sashimi: salmon
Hosomaki: salmon, tuna
Nigiri: salmon, prawn, tuna
Chicken katsu curry
Mochi
Doriyaki
prawn crackers
Chicken bao buns but without coleslaw
Misc:
Korean chili crispy chicken
Huel ready to drink (Berry, Strawberries & Cream) / hot and savoury
Calamari
Halloumi, including as fries
Crisps including prawn crackers
Sweet popcorn
Pot noodles
Graze flapjacks
Bratwurst
Veg:
Carrots
Sweetcorn including corn on the cob - but not in or combined with any other food
Lettuce
Tomato
Red onion (especially raw)
Beetroot (pickled)
Broccoli (not the stems)
Fruit:
Strawberry
Orange
Lychee
Guava
Pineapple
Grapes
Blackberry
Raspberry
Dragonfruit
Partial like of fruits, just not always the texture:
Apple
Banana
Mango, including mango lassi
Cherries
Coconut
Peach
Things I do not eat, don't recommend anything with these or any variation of them:
Aubergine
Avocado
Beans
Brussel sprouts
Burritos (because of the meat and veg mixed together)
Cabbage
Cauliflower (unless deep fried to be like wings)
Casserole (mix of meat and veg)
Chicken Goujons (often weird gooey texture inside)
Chicken Kiev (creamy inside is a horrible texture)
Chickpeas Coffee (anything flavored like coffee)
Dark chocolate
Eel
English muffins
Fish and Chips, as breaded fish like cod or haddock or batter is usually soggy, so this also excludes fish fingers
Focaccia bread - honestly the worst bread. Tiger bread is great.
French toast
Fried onions (all other forms of onion I like)
Fusili, Farfalle, Conchiglie, Rotini, Orzo, Linguine, Orecchiette, Fettuccine
Hot pot
Japanese fried chicken, Chicken Karaage
Kale
Kimchi
Loaded fries - any type
Melon, watermelon (soapy taste)
Mushrooms
Olives
Omelette or scrambled egg
Onion rings, again it's like tempura batter
Peas Peppers
Potato including mash or potato skins, or sweet potato fries
Prawn toast (it's nothing to do with the oil)
Prawns in any other form except for cocktail sauce or nigiri
Pulled pork burgers, though in tacos they're fine
Pumpkin
Rocket
Salt and pepper chicken, because often soggy
Salty popcorn
Sea urchin
Shepherd's Pie / Cottage Pie, because of the mixed meat and veg and potato
Soy
Spinach
Temaki
Tempura
Teriyaki
Turnip
Unagi
I think top-down, in that I consider myself to be quite chill, on the fence a lot, and in the middle. Spirit animal might be a capybara.
However many people I meet seem to be bottom-up thinkers, with a series of deep knowledge, rules and systems of their own that are complex, and take them all very seriously. Whereas there are little things I take seriously. I don't have any tattoos, or piercings (Existential Flexibility), I don't think I'm committed enough to anything like that, the most I commit is having graphic tees, plushies, and setting my background.
I think my key philosophies/tenets are:
Insecurity forces people to behave with heat over heart.
Attack or defend prematurely
Misinterpret neutral situations as threats
Instead: Accept humility, it's okay to be vulnerable
Loudly assert dominance or correctness
Covers up a fear of being inadequate
Instead: Remain calm
Build walls instead of bridges
Prioritizing self-preservation over actual relationship-building
Instead: Use empathy and open communication
People are rightly angry at things they can't control (like the cost of living crisis), and so they listen to the person (Farage) who can easily point blame at the problem (immigration) and markets themselves as an underdog rather than part of the establishment (has lots of photos taken having a beer at a pub).
People like Farage are the real problem: trillionaires, billionaires and multi-millionaires hoarding wealth, like Farage.
Writing a letter to your letting agency to terminate your contract isn't being creative. Asking AI to do it for you makes sense. But you're also wrongly treating AI as a monolith. AI has already been in your spam filters. Detecting cancer cells in an x-ray. Handling your cruise control. Flying your plane. The only difference now is LLMs are more easily accessible. So you can't say AI overall is bad.
The problem with the Seven Basic Plots defining all films is there's several popular and successful films that don't fit in those categories: Psycho, Pulp Fiction, Boyhood, Memento, Parasite, Eraserhead, Swiss Army Man, Clockwork Orange, Sorry to Bother You, Being John Malkovich, The Lobster, Her... And a lot of horror movies don't fit in any category or actually disguise their actual genre. I've also seen some art-style films that ignore it too. But regardless, even if someone made a complete list, the descriptions of these categories are so generic that I'm not sure it means you can't enjoy films. It's what is unique about films that I enjoy them the most - what makes them stand out apart from anything else. And even then, when you look at many films, they end up being multiple genres rather than strictly one overarching plot. I watch films because they are fun or interesting, not because I know what's going to happen. Same reason that I go on living despite knowing that free will doesn't exist, or that the sun will eventually boil and consume the Earth. Paraphrasing Vision in Age of Ultron, and the entire plot of Arrival: just because something isn't made to last doesn't mean it's not beautiful or not worth the time.
The best versioning system is one that works seamlessly:
Systems like Git and Subversion are a massive overhead. They distract from real work.
So much time is spent on and put into resolving conflicts when it comes to collaborative coding.
But what if systems like Git and SVN could also be seamless? No need to save. Conflicts automatically resolved in most cases, or at least made so much easier to resolve. Goodbye fast forward.
Seamless versioning systems make themselves available to control only when you need them. When you want to go back, you'll look at a list of older versions and start comparing them, often manually, often side-by-side. So there's improvements to make there too.
But Git? It's a massive overhead.
It's honestly a complete barrier and nightmare. Developers should be worrying about the best ways to code, not the intricacies of a frankly obtuse and batty feature-mad glorified diff.
Imagine if every time you wanted to start your car, you had to manually plug in every wire. And if you want to indicate you're going left, you have to also plug in the indicator to the stalk, on top of actually checking if it's safe to turn left or not.
We need, and could do SO much better.
Code should be auto-saved, signed and pushed.
No commands at any time.
You're only prompted to resolve genuine non-trivial conflicts in a way that is extremely simple to compare, everything else is automatically handled.
Git/Subversion must and should be abstracted away.
AI could easily help with this too. Rather than reviewing lines of + and -, instead just "You refactored the database connection while Sarah optimized the payload parsing."
Coding should feel like solving a Rubik's cube and painting some art. Not like you need to run to the shops because you're out of red acrylic, and while you head out, there's a marathon in town today, you realise there's a hole in your shoe, and your peace lily is being a drama queen again.
Just like we don't write machine code anymore because we have compilers, developers shouldn't write Git commands, because the IDE should compile our actions into version history.
The best interface is no interface.
You should just code, and the history should just exist.
How I resolve the problem philosophically is how it's handled in the Frictional Games masterpiece SOMA, when Mark Sarang says: "How do we remain the same? A continuous flow of thought and perception keeps an unbroken chain of continuity that we know as our self. Our conscious mind is not the pattern of our brain, but a continuous emergent entity based on that pattern."
And if you take into the fact that our bodies are constantly replacing and renewing our cells, and consider that most of the matter in you is not human, it is mostly a mix of good bacteria.
And if you take in the morality from The Good Place: "What matters isn't if people are good or bad. What matters is if they're trying to be better today than they were yesterday", then in all senses, you are an emergent entity from moment to moment.
Every second your cells are dying and dividing. Every day you try to be a better person than you were yesterday. And over time you might have metal stuck in you holding you together, have a root canal with a crown, or have a pacemaker, and even that may be replaced again. You may change friends, move house, move countries, change partners, and every year get older and put more skills on your CV.
'You' is a constantly changing entity, stretched across time and space, starting from the explosions of a supernova millions of lightyears away and creating stardust that coalesced together in the Earth and eventually created you as you are now. You are stardust, holding itself together with memories, bacteria, titanium screws, and a desire to do a little better tomorrow. So worry less about what you're made of, and more about what you want to become.
Fact checking this leaflet from Thames Water received today:
"Improvements" -> EPA Rating is 1/4 stars
"£20b investment" -> £104m fine by Ofwat for underreported sewage spills
"No dividends since 2017" -> £88.4b siphoned by water companies paid to international investors like Macquarie and paying off court cases to avoid blame
"8p per £1 on financing" -> paying the £15b debt interest to corporate bonds and parent companies
"37p on service" -> paying the £104m fine and fixing leaks (600m litres leak per day)
"Tideway Tunnel progress" -> does nothing for the rest of Thames Water's massive 140,000km network
"Climate change and population growth are to blame" -> these have been predictable and heavily modelled for 30 years since privatisation.
No mention of the children killed by swimming in illegally spilled sewage in our waters.
Your bills are going up to fix 30 years of deliberate under-investment, which has left it more broken than ever. You're paying for Thames Water's negligence.
The trade-in deals on the Google Store usually make it worth upgrading.
Since they brought out the Pixel line, they've done the excellent trade in deals, with a gift of some kind worth at least £150. Last couple years the gift was the £250 extra on trade in, plus the subscription for Google One. In the past they gave away Bose wireless headphones, or their own in ear pods. I did skip upgrading a couple years cos either the gift wasn't as good or I didn't like the model. The below is from end of last year.
I've had the Pixel 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10. Wasn't a fan of the 3, 4, or 7 so skipped those.
The trade in as well, it doesn't have to be a Google phone, they also take iPhones and Samsung and others, and they sometimes pay out more for those than Google's own phones
The compression algorithm that the Collective absorbed in Rick & Morty, I think is related to a real life type of malware called a logic bomb/zip bomb: a very small zip file that contains recursive, self-referential, or 99.9999% compressed dud files and directories.
Meaning it would run forever and fill up all your resources very quickly. Which is why sandboxing and heuristic analysis are invaluable in virus detection, because it's so easy to obfuscate.
A similar idea is used by Superman in the third film, he takes a liquid that is inert when contained, but when exposed to oxygen, heat and iron, turns into violent acid, which probably isn't true to real life but not far off reality.
1. portable air con. buy it now while it's out of season! no more sleepless nights because it's too hot
2. air purifier for the bedroom. I don't wake up with blocked sinuses every day anymore
3. ear wax microsuction removal. thought I was going deaf, eardrops stopped working, NHS refused to do anything.
4. 23andme DNA test with health analysis. I found out about things I need to be aware of if I have children, and what diseases I particularly need to look out for later in life so I can plan ahead.
5. a mini toolbox. the number of times I've needed a tiny or regular screwdriver, pliers, etc.
6. wireless headphones. perfect for helping me handle noisy environments
7. label printer for switches and plugs
8. 100W usb charger and 3m USB-C cable
9. Google Pixel series of phones, because they've come with preorder discounts, free subscriptions, decent trade-in special offers, and latest android features and monthly security patches
10. not a purchase, but has saved me ££££s: using Topcashback, Rewards Gateway and Quidco, using Money Saving Expert to earn the best savings, and Compare The Meerkat for the best energy and insurance deals, HotUKDeals for plenty of good deals and free stuff including cheap SIM card plans, and Mobiles.co.uk for super discounted Vodafone SIM
Reform want to:
- Replace the NHS with insurance-based healthcare model like the US
- Remove women's right to abortion, equal pay for women, sack women if they're pregnant, make it harder for women to get divorced, and tax women who don't or can't have children
- Cut taxes for wealthy multi millionaires and billionaires like Farage
- Lower minimum wage for younger people
- Allow sacking and rehiring people with a lower salary, and have more zero hour contracts
- Bomb primary schools in Iran
- Cut infrastructure spending by £150bn and use it to buy tanks
- Remove your right to protest and a fair trial
They've already lied to you:
- Raised council tax, said they would cut it
- Immigration actually costs the taxpayer less than 1%, we actually get a net tax gain from migrants (cost £10bn/yr, raise £23/bn year). If we taxed the billionaires 2% more, that would fund migrants entirely
- Said they would cut waste, but spent £600k on a car park with 8 spaces for their senior employees and making council workers pay for their parking
- Promised to put up Christmas lights but didn't put up any because the union jack flags would be a fire hazard
The problem is the wealthy in their yachts, not asylum seekers desperately fleeing war. Class war not culture war. If you care about this, only Greens and Lib Dems want to introduce taxes on the top 1%.
"I don't mind the government watching everything I'm doing, I have nothing to hide"
You're confusing privacy with secrecy.
Your privacy is no one else's business, leaks can harm you.
Secrets and lies hide the truth, they can harm others.
What might be harmless today might be used against you in the future. If everyone knew you were the #1 person buying the most Coca Cola in your local store, when it turns out Coca Cola support Trump, people may come after you too.
If you knew the government were tracking your every moment, wouldn't you act differently?
If your data is sold off, a third party or an AI might misinterpret your innocent intentions.
Just because you think there's nothing to hide, doesn't mean you're immune to scrutiny.
How does a tree know to grow its leaves in spring, and shed them in autumn? Does it keep a calendar? How sunny and cloudy it is? Does it remember the previous seasons?
You imagine there might be one instruction that says "grow" and another that says "drop off". As if it were two separate discrete conditions.
But it's even simpler than that. It is actually one system with two ends. It is bimodal.
The tree is monitoring the temperature and sunlight. As it gets warmer and brighter, a chemical says grow. As the weather cools and gets darker, the chemical auxin stops saying grow. It is a temperature-dependent instruction. And other chemical comes in to cut off the leaves and seal it.
It is akin to a sympathetic and parasympathetic pathway in the human body.