Geroge Bernard Shaw

Further reading of the Giga Quotes site reveals the pages dedicated to one of history's most quotable men, George Bernard Shaw.

Among his famous quotes - such as "A family is a tyranny ruled over by its weakest member" and "Great Britain and the United States are nations separated by a common language" - lie a few worthy gemstones I hadn't heard before:

"Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it"

"Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve"

"Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of a splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations"

And my favourite:

"How can what an Englishman believes be heresy? It is a contradiction in terms"

The Soldier

I was wandering around the Giga Quotes site when I found the opening stanza to The Soldier by Rupert Brooke, a poem that I, as an Englishman, have heard many times since early childhood.

So, for no reason other than I like the poem, here it is:

The Soldier, Rupert Brooke, 1914.

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

22nd Praetorian Update

Another day of creatively glueing bitz together has produced two more characters for my Praetorian Command HQ, to join the standard bearer I assembled in April. Yes, it is still unpainted.

Shown l-r are:

Mastervox operator; Regimental standard bearer; medic.

Also, some experimenting with my camera has yielded results that are a little, but not much, better than I'd previously been able to take.

X-Men: The Last Stand

This movie is like the previous installments, but more. The story, as anyone who hasn't been in a cave for the last few months will know, revolves around a company which has developed a "cure" for mutation, which delights some mutants, but annoys the hell out of others.

One nagging absence is Nightcrawler, introduced in X2, who fails to make even a single appearance, and no explanation is offered. Wolverine fans will, however, be delighted. Strangely tamed for the first two movies (at least compared to the comics), he's on full form for the third, ripping his way through a series of brutal fight scenes in typically bestial fashion.

Speaking of all things bestial, Kelsey Grammer as Beast seemed an odd choice, but given the character's witty, urbane nature when not fighting, Grammer fits well, and doesn't damage the role for the fight scenes, where he proves he can be just as violent as his beclawed compatriot.

And if there's any casting choice that seems odder than Grammer as Beast, it's ex-footballer bad-boy turned actor Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut. But, again, the decision is vindicated when Jones shows he can pull this one off, too.

Ellen Page, who starred in that horrific waste of time, Hard Candy, actually manages to put in a decent performance as Kitty Pryde (the girl who can walk through walls).

This third (and possibly final) installment in the X-Men series pulls no punches. As the geeky guy in Scream 3 put it: Nobody is safe. Don't expect the cast to walk away from this one intact.

Doombreed rating: ****1/2

P.s.:

The other piece of news from this movie is a kind of good news/not so good news affair.

The good news: The next Marvel release is Ghost Rider, the story of a carnival stuntman possessed by Zarathos, a demon of vengeance, bound by his nature to avenge stuff. Like Anya from Buffy, just without the whole ditzy-blonde-cuteness.

The not so good news: Nicholas Cage is playing Johnny Blaze, the lead.

Okay, so I didn't believe Hugh Jackman would be any good at Wolverine, so maybe it'll work out. Ghost Rider was my favourite comic as a kid, narrowly squeezing out Iron Man (which, rumours suggest, is also in the works), so this movie is going to have to work hard to live up to my expectations.

Here's the official site.

Jimmigration...

Much, (oh, so much, oh, way, way too much) has been said already on the issue of immigration here in the US, and I have tried to stay silent on this contentious topic.

I'm an immigrant myself, albeit legally (and if you didn't know that, you probably fall down way more than is healthy), so people have asked me for "my perspective" on the issue.

I have refused to get involved until now. Now, there is a perspective I can get behind, a man with a vision, a man who promises a brighter future for the world. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to present..

..Jimmigration...

irrepressible.info

Irrepressible.info is a new campaign from Amnesty International, which aims to fight censorship of the Internet.

You can sign the pledge on Internet freedom, and you can put a text box on your site which reproduces passages that some governments have banned their citizens from seeing. I have placed such a box on the right sidebar.

Scroll down and click on the text to find out where it came from, and who banned it.

Freedom of thought is a human right - one might say that it's the human right - and the Internet is an important tool in winning and maintaining that freedom.

Support the campaign. It'll take two minutes.

Dan Bown's Deception Point

Dan Brown's latest novel is, it has to be said, a little bit of a disappointment. Many of the literary conventions and set-pieces used in either Angels & Demons or The Da Vinci Code make an appearance, leading to a rather unfair impression that one has "read it all before".

Brown once again takes the notion of the "flawed hero" a little too far, but whereas Robert Landgon suffered from claustrophobia, Rachel Sexton suffers from hydrophobia, and as sure as you knew Langdon was going to end up stuffed into confined spaces, you just know Sexton's going into the water.

Brown weaves a good tale, with suspense and shock along the way. It's an engrossing story about politics, backstabbing and a cloak-and-dagger military unit, but it falls down in some aspects.

Brown repeats a few urban myths as if they are fact, including the utterly debunked theory that the head of the eagle on the US Presidential Seal faces the other way during wartime, and gives the US special forces group known as "Delta Force" a rather rough write-up. Brown sometimes goes to ridiculous lengths to preserve the suspense, leading to some cases of characters acting in ways that are just a touch unbelievable because they're trying not to give the twist away a few chapters early.

Other than those, though, the book is fun, fast, and fascinating. Just, as always, bear in mind that it's fiction.

Hoax email!

Yay! Fishing email! I've highlighted some bits that struck me as funny, especially that last bit about obeying instructions "religiously".

Yeah, right.

Bank of China (Hong Kong) is a real bank, but as far as I can tell, they don't have a Wan Chai branch, and, even if they did, I doubt they'd be involved in anything like this. Still, 30% of $17 million? I would have been tempted if I had the IQ of a glass of water.

FROM: MR.CHEN GUANGYUAN

Bank of China (Hong Kong)
Eastern Commercial Centre,
393-407 Hennessy Road,
Wan Chai,
Hong Kong.
(ch_07guang@yahoo.com.hk)

Good Day,

It is understandable that you might be a little bit apprehensive because you do not know me but I have a lucrative business proposal of mutual interest to share with you.

Let me start by introducing myself. I am Mr. Chen Guangyuan operations manager of the Bank of China (Hong Kong), Eastern Commercial Centre, Wan Chai Branch. I have an obscured business suggestion for you. Before the U.S and Iraqi war our client

Mr. Hamadi Hashem who was with the Iraqi forces and also business man made a numbered fixed deposit for 24 calendar months, with a value of Seventeen million three Hundred Thousand United State Dollars (US$17,300,000.00) only in my branch. Upon maturity several notices was sent to him, even during the war early last year. Again after the war another notification was sent and still no response came from him. We later find out that Mr. Hamadi Hashem and his family had been killed during the war in a bomb blast that hit their home at Mukaradeeb where his personal oil well was.

http://www.iraqmemorialwall.org/iraqicasualties.html

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/names.htm

After further investigation it was also discovered that Mr. Hamadi Hashem did not declare any next of kin in his official papers including the paper work of his bank deposit. And he also confided in me the last time he was at my office that no one except me knew of his deposit in my bank. So, Seventeen million three Hundred Thousand United State Dollars is still lying in my bank and no one will ever come forward to claim it. What bothers me most is that according to the laws of my country at the expiration six {6} years the funds will revert to the ownership of the Hong Kong Government if nobody applies to claim the funds. Against this backdrop, my suggestion to you is that I will like you as a foreigner to stand as the next of kin to Mr. Hamadi Hashem so that you will be able to receive his funds.

MODALITIES:

I want you to know that I have had everything planned out so that we shall come out successful. I have an attorney that will prepare the necessary document that will back you up as the next of kin to Mr. Hamadi Hashem, all that is required from you is to provide me with your Full Names and Address so that the attorney can commence his job. After you have been made the next of kin, the attorney will also fill in for claims on your behalf and secure the necessary approval and letter of probate in your favor for the movement of the funds to an account that will be provided by you. We are going adopt a legalized method and the attorney will prepare all the necessary documents in your favour.

There is a reward for this project and it is a task well worth undertaking. There is no risk involved at all in this matter, I have evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is for you refusing to work with me and alerting my bank. I am the only one who knows of this situation, good fortune has blessed you with a name that has planted you into the center of relevance in my life. Please endeavor to observe utmost discretion in all matters concerning this issue. Once the funds have been transferred to your nominated bank account we shall share in the ratio of 70% for me, 30% for you but this can be subjected to further negotiations. I send you this mail not without a measure of fear as to what the consequences, but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. Please observe this instruction religiously.

Should you be interested please send me your,

1, Full names,

2, private phone number,

3, current residential address,

And I will prefer you reach me on my private email address below:

(ch_07guang@yahoo.com.hk) and finally after that I shall furnish you with more information’s about this operation.

Your earliest response to this letter will be appreciated.

Kind Regards ,

Mr.Chen Guangyuan.

- Guangyuan Chen

Friday Rodent Blogging

Can't you almost hear the Chariots Of Fire theme music?

Henry Rollins On ID

Watch this video

Mr Rollins, it seems, rocks on more than one level.

Over The Hedge

In a William Shatner voice:

This.. movie.. is excellent. You.. must go.. and.. see it immediately.

Seriously, it's a slow starter, but it concludes with the funniest 30 minutes in cinematic history. I laughed so hard I almost puked.

Doombreed rating: *****

Pat Robertson's magical protein shake

Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network website contains an ad for his "Age Defying Shake" and claims that he, a 76-year-old man, can leg press 2,000lbs.

2,000 lbs? Shit, I can't even think about 2,000lbs without breaking into a sweat.

Here's a wake-up call from those who know:

CBS SportsLine.com:

"There is no way on earth Robertson leg presses 2,000 pounds. That would mean a 76-year-old man broke the all-time Florida State University leg press record by 665 pounds over Dan Kendra. 665 pounds. Further, when he set the record, they had to modify the leg press machine to fit 1,335 pounds of weight. Plus, Kendra's capillaries in his eyes burst. Burst. Where in the world did Robertson even find a machine that could hold 2,000 pounds at one time? And how does he still have vision?

It's rare the ClayNation Guarantee makes an appearance, but here, it is justified. There is no way Robertson leg presses 2,000 pounds. Period. If he can, I will box a round against Andrew Golota without wearing a jockstrap."

Now, where's that bible? I'm sure there was something in there about not lying..

Edited to add:

I just looked it up: 2,000lbs is 7.8 x Jerome Bettis (the now ex-Pittsburgh Steelers player nicknamed "the bus" because of his size) or 5.4 x the legendarily huge ex-Chicago Bear William "The Refrigerator" Perry.

Am I?

This blog seems to have attracted a new commenter who goes by the name of "The Logical Truth" who has repeatedly accused me of prejudice against Christianity.

Now, I'm used to this kind of accusation. I've even, in the past, referred to it as "the martyr complex", where anyone who disagrees with something a Christian says - however mildly - is painted as hating Christianity. So I was tempted to blow it off as just another nutbar surfing the web and being obnoxious.

But, then, I paused. Am I? And what if I am?

To a certain extent the accusation has some basis in truth. If you check back through my posts there does seem to be a certain justification. Notice that whenever I've mentioned the excesses of religion it's been - with only one exception that I can remember off of the top of my head for Islam and a few for Scientology - about Christians.

But does this indicate an irrational prejudice?

I live in - and am from - a country dominated by Christians. My daily life is surrounded by them. You can count the number of Muslims I meet every day on the fingers of one head. Not only that but in both the country I live in and the country I am from, it's Christians who run the show. There are no Buddhist national holidays. Hindus have never knocked on my door to proselytise to me. I've never had a Wiccan be nasty to me because I'm an atheist. My tax contributions don't support Shintoist projects. I've never had to listen to some politician's plan to allow Zoroastrian teachings into a science class. No Sikh has ever informed me that they will pray that I see the truth of their faith. So, if my target always seems to be Christianity, it's because Christianity is the religion that targets me.

Between the two countries there is a population of 350-odd million people, most of which claim some form of Christianity (42 million people in the UK and 159 million in the US is 201 million Christians), and, like any human demographic, these 201 million people run the gamut from the reasonable to the extremist, from the nice to the nasty, from the sane to the insane. Even if only the most whacked out one half of one percent of those people espouse views that agree with - for example - former (then future) US President George H.W. Bush's comments about how atheists should neither be considered US citizens nor patriots, or pretty much anything Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell or Fred Phelps might say, we're still dealing with over a million nutbars.

Consider, also, that quite a lot of those who tend even towards the reasonable end of the spectrum look to those people, and their ilk, for guidance and enlightenment, and there's a shit load of Christians out there that believe I worship the devil and/or eat babies.

Am I defensive? You bet. Sometime a little too defensive? I'll admit to that. Prejudiced? I try not to be, but I am human, after all. Irrational? Try walking a mile in my shoes.

WTF?

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Deserter life sentences 'inhuman': "Proposals for British soldiers to get life sentences for desertion have been criticised as 'inhuman and barbaric'.

John McDonnell led Labour backbench calls to scrap the life imprisonment provision of the Armed Forces Bill.

He argued the plan was part of a crackdown on soldiers opposed to the war in Iraq, but his proposal was later rejected by MPs by 442 votes to 19."

It should have been 0 votes to 461.

Life imprisonment for a soldier who refuses to go fight in a war they have a moral objection to?

We used to call countries that did that kind of thing nasty names like "fascist" and "dictatorial".

Now we're supposed to call them "home"?

Ten Things I Hate About Commandments

This is hilarious:

Ten Things I Hate About Commandments

Hat-tip to 3vil g3nius for the link.

Millions flock to Da Vinci Code

Y'know, Dan Brown owes a lot to the Catholic church. If they hadn't made such a stink about The Da Vinci Code, he would still be a relatively unknown author and his book would have never made it to film. Then, had they not made such a fuss about the movie, it wouldn't have grossed $224 million at the box office on its opening weekend.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Millions flock to Da Vinci Code: "The Da Vinci Code movie took $224m (£119m) at box offices around the world at the weekend despite controversy and bad reviews, its distributor has said.

That is the second most successful film opening in history, Columbia said."

It seems like, in this, the church is its own worst enemy. Seriously, just ignore it and it wouldn't have been a problem.

And, of course, they're still at it.

More TV documentaries, more books, more magazine articles, more crap and wind, keep appearing, all seeking to "refute" the book and movie.

(BTW, most make the mistake of trying to refute the book because it, and Holy Blood, Holy Grail, do not agree with established views of history. Which, of course, completely misses the point of both the movie and the two books, which is that established history is a fiction created in part by the Catholic church to consolidate their grip on power, and in part by the group The Priory Of Sion in order to conceal their true agenda.

It's like using The Da Vinci Code to refute all the refuting because the refuters don't agree with the book. Stupid.)

There's even some blowhard here urging Christians to take "legal action" against the movie.

Sort of a "who would Jesus sue?" kind of thing.

Again, I'm forced to wonder why Catholics are taking such pains to refute a book and movie that they are so anxious to remind us is fictional.

I don't recall this much fuss over the historical licence taken with U-571 or Braveheart, not to mention The Passion Of The Christ (there always seems to be one too many "the" in that title) or, when you get down to it, Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

Maybe this one hits a little too close to home?

I would urge anyone who wants to know more about the background to the story to actually sit down and read Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

At least then you'll know why many of the charges brought against Dan Brown are simply so much guff.

Poseidon

Mrs Doombreed and I went to see Poseidon today.

Those of you who have see The Poseidon Adventure will already know the plot. But here it is in a nutshell:

The world's biggest, fanciest, most expensive ocean liner has stupidly been named after Poseidon, the god of the sea. Presumably pissed at the blasphemy, the sea sends a big wave which capsizes it, trapping our heroes in an upside-down and sinking ship. Cue a romp through the bowels of the liner as they try to escape.

This movie is not earth-shaking.

There, I said it. It's not going to feature on the Oscar lists. It doesn't eclipse the original. But it's fun. It's okay. It's gripping, in its own way.

Best of all, it makes no excuses. This is 99 mins of over-the-top action, CGI explosions, death (and logic) defying escapes and sheer entertainment, take it or leave it.

Doombreed rating: ****

The Da Vinci Code, the movie

Mrs Doombreed and I went to see The Da Vinci Code today. It's pretty good. Not as good as the book, but then, it never was going to be. Hanks as Langdon is almost convincing, but Ian McKellen as Teabing was not how I'd imagined him (I saw Teabing as more like Freddie Jones' "Kenneth Aubrey" from Firefox, for those with long memories).

Jean Reno was smooth and incredible, but then, when is he not?

The movie does take a slightly different direction than the book did - Langdon and Teabing being more confrontational over their interpretations of the Priory "myth", and Langdon being slightly less "militant atheist with an axe to grind" - but the same message is there.

Mrs Doombreed - she who is the Christian yin to my atheist yang - thoroughly enjoyed it, and came out of the theatre with her faith completely unshaken, scoffing at all the Catholics who have their panties in a bunch.

Worth a watch. Especially if, like us, the projector breaks halfway through, providing a much-needed restroom break and apologetic management handing out free movie passes as we left at the end.

Doombreed rating: ****1/2

Friday Rodent Blogging

Today, being that time, being that day, and being that day when I was not at work, became the day when the contents of Selene's home was freshened for the purposes of not stinking.

Translation: I changed Selene's cage today.

Oh boy. Was she pissed..

This is Selene who is Not Talking To Us. Just like Imo used to...

Darth Vader Soundboard

I know I posted a link from DevilDucky last night, but here's another, which is even more awesome:

The Darth Vader Soundboard.

And, because I believe in recognising genius:

Madness Combat 4: Apotheosis.