Another blunder on the prestigious UK quiz show University Challenge yesterday, as Birmingham took on Magdalen College, Oxford in a very close contest. The question went something like this:
Jeremy Paxman: “Which hydrated ferrous salt used to be known as green vitriol?”
Answer: “Iron sulphate.”
Jeremy Paxman: “No, just sulphate.”
That’s akin to asking who composed Eine kleine Nachtmusik, [...]
There are some pretty banal programmes on television at times, such is the role it plays, but Animal Park - Wild on the West Coast really caught my eye today. It served up the job of a nature programme from California, but it was a real eye opener to some of the ludicrous crap that [...]
» Read the rest of this entry ...I recently caught a TV screening of The Boys from Brazil, a film adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel, concerning the nefarious actions of Dr. Josef Mengele in South America, and his pursuit by a Nazi-hunter presumably modelled on Simon Wiesenthal. Certainly a rather motley cast, with Laurence Olivier showing why he is so often cited [...]
» Read the rest of this entry ...Global warming has become something of a fashion. To gainsay it is a political cyanide pill akin to older variants of the likes of ‘abolitionism’ or ‘free trade’. The climate is changing, and it’s all our fault. One need only look at the success of a film like Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth to see [...]
» Read the rest of this entry ...A programme on the beeb yesterday dealing with Britain’s economy, entitled What’s Britain Worth? and hosted by Peter Snow and his son, featured a short interview with one of the nation’s wealthiest men, Felix Dennis. Aside from the rather astute observation he made about the wealthiest members of society (”They’re all shits!”), Dennis talked about [...]
» Read the rest of this entry ...Although its development has been in no small part prompted by the awful rampancy of HIV in Africa, the product exhibited in this cheeky little advert could soon be found on sale in chemists worldwide if the makers get the right offers. If this company floats, you know where to put your boats.
And for you [...]
» Read the rest of this entry ...This cute little programme appeared on Channel 4 television on Saturday evening, featuring Benn posing a short number of questions to TV and radio noteables John Humphrys, Jon Snow, Nick Robinson and Jeremy Paxman. Whilst it probably didn’t receive the kind of attention it deserved, and no doubt was shorter than Tony Benn would have [...]
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A Turn in the South by V.S. Naipaul
War and Peace by L.N. Tolstoy
The Complete Illustrated History of China by J.A.G. Roberts
And thanks for pointing out the... Incidentally, I...
