Hurt by Kermit

Nine Inch Nails by way of Johnny Cash covered by Kermit. Oddly creepy.

Freema's Dialogue

Freema Agyeman stars as The Doctor's new companion in Doctor Who this Saturday. Just in time, the Guardian has an interview with her:

There are rumours of a relationship between Martha and the Doctor.

There's a kiss in the first series but it's not what it seems. The Doctor has a plan and she's a pawn in that. The Doctor's relationship with Martha is very different to the relationship he had with Rose. I think Rose was unique in the sense that she loved him and he loved her back and it was more than just a hint, it was deeply emotional. Martha meets him at a time when she realises he is a man with a broken heart and perhaps thinks she might go some way to mend that initially but their relationship develops in a different way and takes a very interesting route to get there.

When 3-0 just Isn't Enough

It's strange that England won, not perhaps with the glut of goals expected, and won comfortably but the fans, myself included, were just not impressed. Once again it seemed to be a one-man effort to restore England's pride and, in absence of Beckham, Steven Gerrard finally decided to show his class. The overriding memory, of course, is of the first half. England looked uncertain, their passing was off and they had trouble keeping the ball against an amateur side. Compared with spirited displays from both Ireland teams England portrayed themselves as both lazy and arrogant.

The most annoying thing, however, is that nothing can really be learned from this match. Playing players in their proper positions works, Dyer adds something when brought on late on, even Championship-level strikers can score against Andorra, things we should have known already and yet are still oddly untested.

March of the Emperor

Funny stuff. Movies are, indeed, made to be seen.

Godless

3Quarks Daily link to an article about an atheist revival or something, anyway the excerpt a bit that says:

"Dawkins doesn't know a thing about religion," said Brian Malley, a lecturer in the University psychology department's culture and cognition program. The lights in his office were off, and it was dark enough that one couldn't tell if he was being entirely serious. "There's reams of research about what religion is actually like."

I've seen this attack on Dawkins before. They ask: How can Dawkins attack religion when his theology's a bit muddled? Then they go on a mention Aquinas and some other theologians and stick their bottom lip out in the name of Christianity:

I would like to see Dawkins take Christianity as seriously as he undoubtedly expects Christianity to take Darwinism. I would also like to see him spell out fully the arguments as to the incompatibility of science (Darwinism especially) and religion (Christianity especially).

I imagine Dawkins takes Christianity as seriously as he does all other religions. I'm not fully versed in his arguments, but I take it he's starting from the position that there is no god and working forward. From that perspective his being well-read in any theology has as much relevance as his fluency in Klingon. He's declaring God does not exist, I doubt he has any position, nuanced or otherwise, on how many angels you can fit on the head of a pin.

There is no need for science to be incompatible with religion (Christianity especially), but it seems to me that in the developed world the biggest attacks on science come from Christians. Science, though, is a process that is built to be compatible with the facts as we know them (and, yes, this does give it huge scope to be wrong), promoting religion as incompatible with science would therefore suggest that some religious people are incompatible with facts.

Categories of Pain

Via Robot Wisdom comes one man's experiences with pain and how he would put those pains in a scale:

A single [bee] sting hurts, but only enough to be mildly annoying. The pain last only around 20 minutes. In my limited experience of stings it's about equal to a horsefly bite, or a (non-fatal) box jellyfish sting. It's not nearly as painful as a South African fire ant bite, which I now very studiously avoid.

The story of the Doctor testing the sting of a jellyfish will have you squirming in your seat, however:

20 minutes after being stung on the beach, they began to feel the venom’s terrifying effects. Chilla Ross began screaming, "Let me die." Nick remembers vomiting "as Dad carried me upstairs, then I was lying on a bed swallowing painkillers. I felt pretty terrible"—so terrible, in fact, that he found himself "thinking that dying mightn’t be a bad idea." But he survived, as did Ross and his father.

Speaking of Wine

The New York Times says it's OK to cook with cheap wines, and in some cases preferable. It even seems to be that if you can't bring yourself to drink then perhaps cooking with it is the best solution:

Over all, wines that I would have poured down the drain rather than sip from a glass were improved by the cooking process, revealing qualities that were neutral at worst and delightful at best. On the other hand, wines of complexity and finesse were flattened by cooking — or, worse, concentrated by it, taking on big, cartoonish qualities that made them less than appetizing.

Not Just Here For The Nasty Things In Life

In a repeat of last Xmas' exercise Hugh MacLeod is advertising his clients Stormhoek wine by offering 40% discounts (on all wine) at Threshers. So, go, download, print, buy, enjoy!

It's Not The Americans Who Have The Irony Deficiency

AA Gill goes to New York and finds only himself:

The most reprehensible and disgusting of all human things; the self-made, knowing English eccentric. Eccentricity is the last resort of the expat. The petit fou excuse for rudeness, hopelessness, self-obsession, failure, and never, ever picking up the check.

The Third Gig

So, yes, St Pats went just fine. Eamon was happy but I think that had more to do with the cricket (Ireland beat Pakistan) and the rugby (Wales thrashed England) than The BluesBerries.

The band, however, were on blazing form. It was a tough room because we were the free entertainment and people were coming more to drink Guinness than watch a trio work steadily through a bunch of thirties blues styles. People enjoyed it, though, and when the hat was passed around they show a surprising amount of appreciation. I was in good voice so even some of the songs that bother me —Long Tall Mama, which I find awkward for no good reason and Canned Heat, which is at the highest of my "range"— went without a hitch. My patter was a bit hit and miss, though I was proud of the line about St Patrick forcing the snakes out of Ireland, snakes that then spread across Europe to get jobs as barmen.

The super-secret special Irish song that we had prepared was The Flogging Mollys' It's Been The Worst Day Since Yesterday. The song has always been something of an Irish pub favourite even if we did have to change it somewhat to fit my style, the Mollys fans in the audience did seem to enjoy it though.

All in all an excellent evening, hopefully I'll have some photo's to show pretty soon.