Remember remember the 5th of November…
I did indeed remember the 5th of November, and am very aware that today is indeed NOT the 5th of November, but I’ve only thought of this now…
Right, so celebrations in general first. Christmas is celebrated worldwide, and although its roots are in Christianity, many people who celebrate it do it not for the religious connotations, but as a ritual, something that everybody does. I myself am not religious but celebrate Christmas, and to a lesser extent Easter. Sure, these religious holidays have been completely over-ridden by the commercial ideas of today, but many people still celebrate them for the original reasons.
This is why these holidays still carry real meaning, because it is about a belief system that is active in the world today. Now, Bonfire Night… Originally conceived because of the gunpowder plot against King James and Parliament in 1605. Guy Fawkes with his fellow conspirators attempted to blow up Parliament and kill the King… it had something to do with the Catholics not liking the Protestant regime, but I can’t be bothered to read the Wikipedia page so will not go into detail.
As you should know he was captured, tortured and executed for his treason. They burnt his body, where the idea of Bonfire Night came from, ‘burning the Guy’ and all that. Fireworks came in I guess because they’re pretty spectacular, and maybe simulate what Parliament blowing up would have looked like.
Now, I understand why this date was celebrated for years after the event, maybe even a hundred… after all, we still commemorate WWI. That’s all good and well, but the burning question is, does anybody actually celebrate it for the original reason nowadays?
I’m thinking not. Unless there are some pretty die-hard Protestants out there who oppose what Fawkes was trying to do, or some lovers of the monarchy or something. But other than those extreme cases, we celebrate it without a real cause. It has become literally just a ritual without proper relevant meaning. People gather, start large fires and set off fireworks. This could be done any day of the year, but people choose November 5th, almost as an excuse.
Ask anyone why they set off fireworks and they’ll lead it back to Fawkes, but press them further and they have no actual reason to be setting off fireworks, except perhaps ‘Because it’s fun.’ But consider this; had the gunpowder plot never happened, we would not be setting off fireworks or starting large fires in the first place.
I don’t condemn the celebration whatsoever, and I’ve used the word ‘ritual’ where maybe I should have said ‘tradition’. Because after all, we choose to celebrate it, we are not forced into it. Regardless of the reasoning, it has become a part of our culture, even if the actual meaning has been lost to a story for children.
Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder treason and plot
I see no reason the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot
Song: ‘Brand New – Noro’
Working Title:
The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown’s long awaited new novel following the exploits of professor Robert Langdon… which I haven’t read yet! But I just feel like writing about something that’s been bugging me…
The DaVinci Code – Mysterious sounding, memorable, especially since referring to the famous inventor.
Angels and Demons – Powerful, simple, contrasting ideas.
The Lost Symbol – Oh, right… this is a grown up book?
Yeahh… it’s a bad title. But that is not my main point of focus. As it turns out, (actually, I’d know this for ages) the working title of the new novel was ‘The Solomon Key’… which sounds a hundred times better! Another reference to a famous historical figure, ‘Key’ could stand for another code or perhaps an artifact… it brings about intrigue.
What I think happened… at some stage somebody asked Dan Brown what the working title of his new book was, and having misheard the question (or just being stupid), he gave out the ACTUAL title!
Poor show Dan...
The Lost Symbol does genuinely sound like some sort of children’s book, and is definitely an uninspiring title for adult fiction.
I’m sure it’s a good read, but the disappointment will always linger… and in a year or two they’ll have made a cringe-worthy movie for it which will sound very juvenile and unimpressive.
*sigh*
I think I’ll stick to my graphic novels for now though!
Song: ‘Copeland – You Have My Attention’
God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs…
Now for another blog titled with a movie quote relevant to the following text. This time it’s Jurassic Park!
Dolly the sheep. The first published case of successful animal cloning. Since then many other animals have been cloned, most of them livestock, but also a dog called Snuppy. Awh 
These animals could be cloned because they have surrogate mothers to carry the embryo of the clone, but when the idea of cloning extinct species came up many scientists thought of ideas as to how this could work… after all, the embryos would have no surrogates of the same species in which to grow. However, it has been suggested that using other currently living animals of similar physiology to ones being cloned could work. And so using this basis, scientists (earlier this year) cloned cells of a Pyrenean Ibex, implanted them into another similar goat species and got a successful clone embryo growing. However it died shortly after birth, but this was still a major step forward in the field.
Now, ideas have been floating round for a while that scientists, using cloning technology, may be able to ressurrect the Wooly Mammoth from extinction! The birth of the extinct Ibex showed great potential for this. Of course a regular elephant would have to be used as a surrogate, which could cause issues especially since mammoths were considerably larger than our modern pachyderms. However it has not been ruled out as impossible, and in fact scientists have been working on frozen mammoth DNA for years to see what they can do about cloning it.
This looks sciencey...
An so, people set their sights on an even greater feat… Cloning The Dinosaurs!
Now, initially there was a major issue with this in that there was no dinosaur flesh or organic material from which to take DNA samples. However, correct me if I’m wrong, I believe that samples HAVE actually been found of (somehow) preserved dinosaur skin which could potentially contain their ancient genetic code.
But even if scientists managed to sample dino DNA, there is the major issue being that there is nothing alive today that could act as a surrogate for dinosaurs! Especially since the only successful cloning we’ve done with modern animals was with mammals. Dinosaurs hatched from eggs, so bringing up a massive problem for researchers.
Anyway… one day it MIGHT just be possible for this to happen, but i’m bored of serious science now, time for the ethical side of things. And by ethics, I mean how AWESOME it would be to have dinosaurs alive today!
I’m sure that if dinosaurs were cloned, a setup like Jurassic Park could actually work if done properly (i.e. not in secret on an island on which there are very few safe places if the dinosaurs did escape and rampage everywhere). It would be a massive leap in the field of genetics, and help us learn a lot more about life millions of years ago, from where our modern birds/reptiles came from as well as how they worked on the inside, how internal systems have evolved. Not to mention it would be totally AWESOME to be face to face with a real life dinosaur!
'I beg to differ...'
Of course there would be real ethics involved… for instance they would be cloned and bred only to be kept in captivity, because they could never be released into the wild. This seems like a cruel destiny… but take modern zoos for example, they have great conditions for the animals! I’m sure a suitable habitat for dinosaurs could be recreated. It would probably need to be on a vast plain of land, but that’s definitely do-able!
And if we could tame the dinosaurs… think of the possibilities! No seriously, think of the possibilities, I’m completely stuck for ideas now.
I’m personally skeptical about bringing back the dinosaurs, I don’t think we’ll ever have the technology to do so, but mammoths are a real possibility! And they could actually be allowed to roam free in the wild eventually, not just be kept in captivity.
Who knows, I plan on doing a bioloy degree of some description, I could always specialise in genetics and help the cause!
Until next time…
Song: ‘Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells’
Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!
Hovercars.
Hover technology in general. It sounds like a a great idea, a really typical veision of the future where everything is flying around. But also very mechanically/economically/environmentally a bad idea.
You’d think that having a hover car would be great… because it’s hovering! But when driving along, surely it’s the same as any normal car anyway, so there is seemingly little point in the technology. The main reason that hovering vehicles are unnecessary is a little thing called ‘roads’!
We have roads designed for wheeled automobiles to drive on! If the land was without roads and untraversible in a regular vehicle, then sure hovering cars aren’t too bad an idea… but the idea of using hover cars on normal roads is idiotic.
I have determined 3 main ways that hover technology could work;
1) Jets of air underneath the car propelling it upwards (not dissimilar to hovercraft technology). This idea doesn’t strike me as sensible, as there would have to be constant streams of concentrated powerful air blasting out underneath the car. This would (probably) require a complex pneumatic system, and would take up lots of energy. Not to mention the noise… It would be unbelievably loud! So this is not a workable concept with respect to hover technology.
2) Proper propulsion jets under the car. This is even less concieveable, as the amount of energy to do this would be immense, plus there would be horrendous emissions. To keep up a constant stream of this power is simply not possible. Two down, one to go…
3) Some sort of national magnet system. Roads would be fitted with electromagnets underneath them, and cars with something of the same polarity… so when they meet the road, the magnets repel and the car is lifted upwards. Now this is probably the hardest system to work out how to achieve, but would probably be the most environmentally friendly and energy efficient. However… it would almost certainly require the entitre national road system to be dug up so that massive magnets could be put underneath. So, maybe not such a great idea.
The concept of hover technology is just not plausible as a reality and should just be left to science fiction. It is complex, would use lots of energy and is, most of all, unnecessary.
If we want to look into fast, efficient and awesomely sci-fi transport, then I think that teleportation is a much better way to go. Of course… it still needs a little work, but it has the potential to be a fantastically useful transport system were it made possible! Sure, it would encourage laziness because people wouldn’t have to walk places… also it could potentially facilitate easier bank robberies, but the fact is it would be great technology advancement as well as something totally new.
I imply that hover technology is not new. Well, there is no reason that we couldn’t develop the technology right now, but it’s the matter of uselessness. With hover technology, you still have to make the same journeys on the same roads, taking the same amount of time to reach your destination… the only difference? The massive waste of energy in doing so. I think that point has been over emphasised here… but it is one of only a few pretty major issues with the idea.
That’s about all I have to say really… except of course that regardless of what I’ve said, Back To The Future (II) is still awesome!
Song: ‘Lit – Miserable’
Extraterrestrial Life
Having seen that the film Signs was on tonight, I got thinking about aliens…
My main concerned thought is that, why would aliens come to our planet wishing to kill us all? That seems to be the scenario of every alien movie… invasion and extermination. But why? What would motivate these creatures to annihilate all life on earth?
To begin with, humans wouldn’t do that! As brutal and terrible as we can be… we, as a people, would not discover sentient life on another planet and immediately think, “I know, let’s kill them all”. That just wouldn’t happen… unless we look forward to a grim future dominated by sadistic psychopaths.
Even if, and this is an extreme situation, even if at some point a new incarnation of Hitler or Chairman Mao were to arise and somehow manage to seize control of the Earth. The world would be a huge facist or communist state run by a ruthless leader who uses any means to keep people in line. Even if this were to happen, say this generation of people discovered intelligent life on another world, and we had the capacity to reach it, I sincerely doubt the first thought Chairman Hitler has is, “I know, let’s kill them all! Why? Because we can!”
There is no motivation for the hypothetical aggressor. Even in a world of extreme regime with strong military influence, the most hostile of people would need a solid reason to wipe out existence for a complete new species. The aggressor would need a reason to be hostile towards our pathetic planet. And if they are flying around in space armed to the teeth, it would suggest that they are already in hostile interaction with someone else (because of course other cognitive species would also have divisions and disagreements with each other). In this case, it is more likely for the extraterrestrial species to try and befriend us, to gain as much support as possible for their conflict.
It seems that logical thinking would be, well… logical! Other intelligent life, if they have got to the stage of distant space travel, then surely their primary objective would be similar to ours (also Star Trek’s), exploring new planets/star systems/galaxies in search of new discoveries and possibly even life. It wouldn’t be wise to engage in conflict with an unknown species for flimsy reasoning (i.e. conquering the universe).
The only reason I could possibly think that a foreign invader would want to wipe us out is to make room so they can inhabit our planet. But of course relating back to the logic, they would need a damn good reason i.e. their species has no other hope of survival. To that I would say fair do’s. Not to being wiped out, but to the concept. If humanity gets desperate in the future, and the only hope of survival is to wipe out an alien race to inhabit their planet so we can live, then I say go for it! Sure it seems morally wrong… but who are we to say that, after all we are a rather brutal, ‘ends justify means’ race.
Off the main topic slightly is the common idea that if we were to be invaded fo’ sho’, we would be vaporised (or something equally futuristic and awesome). Why though? After all, it seems the trend that life forms are all soft and filled with guts, and put enough lead into anything it will keel over into a bloody heap. Especially nowadays with conflicts all over the place, most nations are pretty well armed and ready for war were one to break out. Maybe bullets might not do the trick against ’super armour’ or collossal robots or whatever, but I reckon missles would do a pretty good job at blowing most things to pieces. “Force fields” and “laser shields” seem rather improbable technology, and besides, hellathick metal seems to do the job just as well. But add enough explosives and even the thickest of armour can be blown the hell up.
Man: 1 Alien Scum: 0
Though that’s just wishful thinking. If aliens have good enough technology for intergalactic space travel, the I’m sure their arsenal is pretty devastating.
And now to end with some light hearted humour:
Overall I don’t reckon that aliens would ever attack us without some damn good reason, or at least fair warning. After all, ‘Do unto others as you would have done to yourself’. But then again, aliens won’t have read The Bible, tying in neatly with the idea of logic again.
Song: ‘Senses Fail – Shark Attack’
Lucifer
I’ve had a thought, but first let me briefly explain the premise (to the best of my understanding)…
Alright, so back what when, Lucifer was an angel and like God’s wingman (no pun intended). However, when man was created, God told all the angels in Heaven to bow down to man, cause it was such a great creation or something. Lucifer objects to this, and God punishes him by sending him to Hell and making him The Devil.
Now… firstly I think Lucifer has a right to be a little pissed off, after all angels are much better than pathetic humans. But God being God discounts him and sends him to Hell to collect the souls of the dead. Right, okay, he’s dealt his punishment, Lucifer has gone to Hell etc…
Now… secondly, as an angel it is probably one of your duties to be a nice guy (or girl). Kind, loving, happy. Just generally nice. But as Lucifer is banished to Hell (from being a nice, lovely angel) he becomes totally evil and from then on tortures the souls of the dead for all eternity….
Now, wait a second here! Mr. Nice guy has had a little tiff with the big man and suddenly become completely horrifically evil! It seems rather a large leap. It’s not like he wouldn’t have changed, but to suddenly desire to torture souls forever seems a bit far.
Okay, I take into account that he’s unhappy with the humans and would like them to suffer a bit for them (indirectly) being the reason that he’s now in Hell. But even so… that’s like telling me to bow down to Year 7’s. I’d naturally decline and so (in this example) would be kicked out of Castle and forced to work in MacDonald’s or something (I’ll be honest, it’s not quite the same scenario). Now, I’d feel resent at the Year 7’s for being such twats… but I don’t think I’d be driven to the level where I wanted them all to die so I could torture their immortal souls for eternity… that’s a little much.
So yeah. What’s up with that!?
WordPress/Facebook Collaboration
Turns out I can merge my blog with Facebook notes.
Nice.
Not that I’ve actually been writing here for a while… Might start again, especially now it’s Easter and I’m not going out and doing anything, being generally unsocial as per usual, oh and also because I have to be revising for exams once again.
Any reason not to revise is a good reason! Well…. maybe not ANY reason, for example rape is a bad reason not to revise… I mean sure, it’s probably better than revision (now I’m starting to sound creepy) but it’s also a criminal offence. Also rape would involve me going outside of the house and having contact with other people, horrific though it may be. So no, not any reason to not revise is good… but quite a few.
Blogging for example. Writing a blog that nobody (well… a few people) reads. I say a few people because I keep getting hits apparently. Hmm… It’s likely to be unfortunate Googlers who, when searching certain keywords, hit on the blog, perhaps take a quick look but probably don’t actually bother with it. I’d be very surprised if anybody actually read these. Which begs the question… why write them?
And here we come full circle back to not revising. It is technically full circle… but the circle wasn’t actually as great in metaphorical circumference as implied.
Anyway, it’s nearly quarter past midnight and I should probably get some sleep. Lots of blogging film watching gaming nothing time spent on Facebook not actually doing anything revision to do tomorrow… Though having said that, I often end up doing very little, watching a film, doing a bit more and then giving up completely for the day. Then I notice my folder of work and it strikes me, I actually have important exams next month! I have to revise or I’ll do badly and not get anywhere in life and be miserable and alone… even moreso than right now!!!
These thoughts soon pass as a sense of procrastination fills me with false hope. Though to be fair, I do need to revise (you can stop reading now if you want, I’m basically just thinking out loud… through typing) because there’s just so much to remember, especially for maths. I know I’m fairly good at maths, but there is just literally sooooooo much on this course!! And economics… oh god! Shearing gave us that sheet with possible 18 markers on… there are 21 of them, and that’s only for one unit! I’m definitley dropping economics next year, I don’t want that burden next summer, especially since everything else is already gonna be several times harder.
Chemistry… ugh, have to power through, stay strong! Dislike it immensly, quite crap at it… need it for any science degree at uni. Favourable to physics though I guess. I just want to revise biology all the time (not in a loserific way, like a hobby or something… I mean as opposed to all my other crappy subjects). Uni is gonna be great, just full on biology stuff… stupid biochemistry courses, why are there so many?! Doesn’t matter, I wont go on one of those anyway… human biology, anatomy, that’s the way to go!
I’m gonna leave it on this happy thought and with this fairly relaxing song I’m listening to for the first time.
Song: ‘Counting Crows – Perfect Blue Buildings’
Exaggeration
I hate you!
An example of a common exaggeration. The word hate is used so much that it has lost all true meaning. Besides with your good friends you can issuse a totally devestating insult, but it’s okay because it’s just banter!
But that is not the example I wish to dwell upon. An exaggeration I deeply dislike (but not hate), is when people comment on something as being ’shit’. Now I’m not talking about when people say something tastes like shit, but when people comment on, for example, how a television show is shit.
Not necessarily a whole show, but episodes of a popular series. Cause I guess (not in the literal sense) some shows can actually be shit. No, my example today is a quote from a good (that too is an exaggeration) friend of mine, “That episode of Heroes was shit.”
Now, it’s hard not to be slightly biased when you like something, but I find it hard to believe that episodes of Heroes, a critically acclaimed show, could actually be ’shit’. Okay, for those who don’t like the show to begin with, fair do’s, you wouldn’t like the episodes to begin with, but for someone who watches the show to describe an episode as ’shit’ is just wrong.
I mean, sure episodes can be slow, boring, cliché, dull, unimaginative etc… but as long as characters are doing totally crazy crap with weird and wonderful powers, then it’s hard to have a harsh opinion of it. True, on reflection, the episode in question was quite dull, in fact very few weird and wonderful powers were used… but some episodes have to be like that to contribute to the story, give it depth perhaps.
To move on; when popular shows keep being reissused for more series’ just to squeeze money out of the franchise, the episodes do get dull and the storyline gets weaker. Prison Break for example had an extremely good first series (the one where they actually broke out of prison), but has been declining in quality ever since. That being said, I still could not describe any of the episodes as ’shit’.
Thing is, these shows being described as ’shit’ are the critically acclaimed ones, which begs the question… If all of our greatest shows are shit, what the hell happened?!
It seems, in my opinion, that shows with very little or no underlying storyline end up being the better, more successful ones. House is a great example. Each episode is a new case, sure House may have some problems going on in the background in each episode, but if all you care about is the medical mystery, there’s always a whole bunch of that too! Shows like these are able to keep it fresh, and could always make up some lame excuse as to why the underlying story stops, cause nobody would really care! All you watch House for is the initial premise of the show (well, I do anyway), so I don’t particularly care about what else is happening. Though I must say the competition to find a new team in series 4 was pretty good.
I often find though, that shows I once regarded as mediocre (e.g. Chuck), are much better in comparison to some of the generally better shows that have declined in quality. It’s a simple lighthearted comedy with a different mission in each episode (also with some underlying storyline), but the main good thing about it is consistency! It may be a mediocre show, but it’s consistently mediocre, never getting significantly better, but never getting worse either.
I think (although they tend to be better) that American shows fall down sometimes because of the length of their series’. I mean sure, 24 episodes great! Plenty of time to have a good storyline. But where they fall short is when they don’t know how to fill the episodes and the show ends up watered down so as to stretch the story out for longer. then again, I don’t know which I prefer, long series which sometimes drag on, or short series (i.e. here in the UK) where the episodes are good, but there’re not nearly enough of them! 6 episodes is genuinely pathetic. For a comedy sketch show it can be forgiven sometimes as there’s only a certain amount of funny that can be though up. But for shows like Life On Mars, only 8 episodes in each series?! Come on! It was such a good show as well, I was left hungering for more.
To conclude, I ask you this: are the bad episodes of shows really, truly, genuinely ’shit’? Or are you just exaggerating and being overly opinionated in order to sound like you know what’s what when it comes to critically analysing TV shows?
Think about it.
Song: ‘Over It – Dishonour, Disorder’
‘Tis The Season
Today was the switching on of the Christmas lights in Kenilworth, and I swear it gets that bit more dull every year. This year all we did was walk up and down the town a couple of times, get ripped off with pricey glowsticks and hang around outside Waitrose. Oh, and I stroked an owl… if you know what I mean!
*wink*
…But seriously, that wasn’t a euphamism, I actually did stoke an owl. Two actually! And that was the highlight of my festive misadventures.
It’s the same every year and as you grow older, you just couldn’t care less about it anymore. As a little kid, all the bright lights, loud music and glowy things are brilliant! You buy some crap you don’t need and go on some severely overpriced rides and enjoy the hell out of it. Now, it’s just cold, crowded and miserable. The lights aren’t even very spectacular. Wait, let me reiterate… They aren’t spectacular WHATSOEVER! They’re like bad Christmas Tree lights.
Anyway, I guess it’s starting to feel a bit more Christmassy in some ways. The Coca-Cola advert has sort of made a return! During some adverts they played like a small section of it, and of course cause it’s amazing, I got really worked up! However they’ve only been showing snippets of the advert which sucks… the suspense is killing me! I mean, it’s not even that great an advert, just that it’s on EVERY YEAR, so naturally it rocks!
Christmas itself will be disappointing as usual of course. Coming out of childhood, you have to accept that Christmas will never again be as good as when you were young and got loads of massive plastic presents. Now it’s just another day with extra food and some stuff that you could have bought yourself. Now I may sound like a classic ‘Scrooge’, but after all Christmas really isn’t as good as all the hype suggests it should be.
Now to finish with a fitting pun I should say ‘Bah’… but that’s too clichéd. So…
F*ck It!
Song: ‘Dashboard Confessional – Hands Down’
Hello Mr. President
He did it! Obama won!
I knew he could!
Absolutely brilliant! Hopefully the world will become a better place with him in charge to make better choices and bring change to the world. If he can do something about the economy then that will earn him a great reputation, so I hope he does.
Now, I didn’t see the acceptance speech, but I assume it went something like this:
The crowd eagerly waits for their great new leader, a bodyguard stands below the main stage. Suddenly smoke billows out from the sides and a podium rises up on the stage, a lone silhouetted figure on top. The lights behind him suddenly flash on brightly declaring his name, ‘Obama’. He stands glorious atop the podium, cape billowing, guitar in hand. He breaks into an amazing guitar solo at which the crowd go wild. Cannons fire confetti into the loving fans. When he finishes, he throws the guitar which lands in its case perfectly. He says only two words, ‘Thank You’, before several gunshots ring out. The audience goes silence in horror.
His bodyguard falls to the ground, 4 shots in his chest. Obama flips down to him, holding him as he dies uttering ‘Farewell my friend’. A terrorist comes out from the crowd pointing a rifle at Obama, he laughs and says, ‘Your first day shall also be your last. Any last words, Mr. President?’ Obama turns to face him and says, ‘Tell Allah, fuck you!’ and shoots the terrorist in the face with the guard’s gun. The crowd cheers, but one person screams… the terrorist was strapped with explosives. Obama, quick to react, shoves the terrorist into one of the confetti cannons and dramatically points at the technician who fires the terrorist up into the ceiling space of the large auditorium. He explodes, and the crowd are splattered with bits of terrorist.
Obama then says, ‘Talk about an explosive start!’
Ep1c Win
Hopefully I can catch it on YouTube cause it sounds as if it were awesome!
I think it’s great that Kenya declared today a national holiday because of Obama winning! How great is that!?
Well… the inaugration isn’t until January, so… until then!
Song: ‘Anberlin – Never Take Friendship Personal’
