Jumblerant

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The Blacklist - So Good And Yet, So Bad

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity" - thus begins Charles Dickens' historical novel A Tale of Two Cities.

I enjoy a good criminal drama as much as the next guy.

The Blacklist - Panel (Photo credit: titi-)

I enjoy all the "Initial" TV shows such as NYPD Blue, CSI, NCIS and so on and so I was happy to see that the marvelous actor James Spader was playing the lead role in a new show "The Blacklist".

I watched the season premiere with Her Indoors and we were thrilled to see some fun action, plot twists and even some funny one liners. Sadly, as we watched episodes 2 and 3 we realsied that in fact it was, as I quote above, the best of time and the worst of times.

James Spader is simply amazing at this role. He effuses 'criminal mastermind' who is not thinking a mere two steps ahead, but more likely, 4 steps ahead - and around the corner. It is a shame to see that the actors around him are somewhat wooden. It wouldn't surprise me if the main FBI character played by Diego Klattenhoff was in fact made of oak.

The Blacklist - Panel (Photo credit: titi-)

The leading lady of the show is one Megan Boone who has the delivery of a clown tripping over a banana skin whilst carrying a cream pie. It gets there, eventually, but what an adventure whilst its happening!

Admittedly neither Mr Klattenhoff or Ms Boone are well known faces on our screens and I am sure that things will sort them selves out over time but really, this is an embarrassment to everyone involved.

Watch the show and tell me what you think in the comments. Comem on, make me change my mind.

But before you comment, please let me know, what the hickory is oging on with Ms. Boone's hair / wig in the show? It is appalling!

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Monday, October 21, 2013

The Ocean is Broken

I learnt about acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer in school back in London in the 1990's. Since then we have had genetically modified grain, BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), Avian Flu and of course, Justin Bieber.

Now we have something even more serious that we just don't know about.

As a yachtsman explained after crossing yet another ocean:

Exactly 10 years before, when Newcastle yachtsman Ivan Macfadyen had sailed exactly the same course from Melbourne to Osaka, all he'd had to do to catch a fish from the ocean between Brisbane and Japan was throw out a baited line.

"There was not one of the 28 days on that portion of the trip when we didn't catch a good-sized fish to cook up and eat with some rice," Macfadyen recalled.

But this time, on that whole long leg of sea journey, the total catch was two.No fish. No birds. Hardly a sign of life at all.

So where did the fish go? As the article goes on to say, a mixture of pollution, over-fishing and even more pollution. We're not talking about beer can plastic getting stuck around the necks of penguins or big fish getting caught in illegal nets, this is much worse, this appears to be the systematic rape of the oceans. And no-one seems to be doing anything about it.

Read more about it at the article The Ocean is Broken.

How the hell are we going to fix this one?

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Friday, October 18, 2013

Shatter Proof iPhone - Is It Waterproof Too?

I'm an Apple fan. Admittedly I do not have a Mac computer but we do have an iPad 2, Mini-iPad and 2 iPhone 4's in the house - between the 4 of us. 1 of whom is 2 years old.

We also have all the cables and wires and chargers that we can possibly have, both upstairs and downstairs.

And in the car.

Many times our kitchen table looks like this

As of yet, we have not broken any Apple device to the point of needing to replace it completely. That is mainly due top the fact that we make sure to not hit it with hammers, electric drills or anything similar.

If we were to do that, then we would buy this product, as tested by the good folks over at Business Insider:

And no guys, the upgrade to iOS 7 did not make your phone waterproof. A ziploc bag can do the job quite nicely though...

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Female Rising

I am in a weird kind of awe of the gall, cheek and really exceptionally bad manners of this woman:

And a different kind of awe for this lady: (watch this one until the end)

And a whole bucket load of respect for these girls:

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Funnies From Around The Internets

Just a few funnies from around the internets.

kthanxbai! Jumblerant

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Miley Cirus, Growing Up Can Be Painful

Recently Ms. Cyrus has hit headlines with her twerking at the MTV TVAs. I was surprised to see her plastering her nether regions all over the place as she has in fact got an exceptional voice and a veritable bag full of talent.

Unless, of course, this was all part of the publicity machine. My inner skeptic believes that this just might be the case. Why is that? Quite simply, I believe that she had reached the zenith of her talent, heck, she sang with The Queen of Country herself, Dolly Parton, and saw little or no increase in sales because of it.

About a year ago Miley did a series of back-to-basics 'Backyard Sessions' which were very well received by critics and the public alike, but again, sales were not good and she just came across as someone from another era.

So what is a young girl to do? She needs to sell albums - which is probably harder than ever now that everyone (ahem) downloads music, especially singles, off the interwebz. She has to make a name for herself, and quick so sadly, a-twerking she must go!

We can look at Miley's latest work 'wrecking ball' and see just how amazing her talent is, and once she calms down in her videos, stops being naked and licking sledgehammers, she'll have yet another middle aged, overweight geek following her (from a distance, not stalking her!~)

To add to all the publicity, Skinhead O'Connor has written Miley a letter asking her to stop prostituting herself for the sake of 'The Man'. So that'll give her something to think about.

Sinead O'Connor pens open letter to Miley Cyrus: 'Don't let the music business make a prostitute of you'

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The US Government in Shutdown

I was a bit confused when I first heard that the US Government was shutting down because Congress had an issue getting their job done.

It turns out that certain arms of the government are not going to receive their funding so they started their quickest way of saving money - sending the employees off on unpaid leave or furlough.

According to my calculations, based on an article in the New York Times, 784,710 of the just under 2 million employees affected will go on furlough.

784710/2000000 = 0.392355

So 39%.

Not much really.

So why all the furore? Maybe because Washington's trash won't be picked up.

Or is it because Al Gore might just turn off the internet as he walks out of his office?