Anti-Semitism. Who, what and why?

There has been a significant rise in anti-semitism in the UK recently, as well is in mainland Europe.

Finally one of the main political parties had to suspend a few of their Members of Parliament due to their anti-semitic positions.

I cannot understand this hatred of another religion for no obvious reason. As someone who is very pro-Israel, I cannot understand why it gets picked on so much in the UN and on campuses across the world.

Howard Jacobson explains why. A real eye-opener and fascinating to listen to.



kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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• Islamophobia and Anti-semitism - what is, and isn't, bigotry?(stephenlaw.blogspot.com)

  ---

Whats Next?

Summer is just around the corner. Honest!

You know what that means? Films and tv shows coming back. Oh yeah!

Unless you're on Netflix of course, in which case, just watch the whole season of whatever you want in one binge session. My recommendations for Netflix are: Sherlock, Longmire, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.

Films that I'm excited about are really just this one, because, hey, Bad guys v Bad Giys - does it get any better?



Here is the Game of Thrones latest trailer, just because I can!



kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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• The First Look at Netflix's 'Voltron: Legendary Defender' Looks an Awful Lot Like Voltron(slashfilm.com)

  ---

Its Back And Bigger Than Ever - Star Wars Rogue One

Chewie as shown in Star Wars (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Star Wars - Rogue One



"This is a rebellion isn't it? I rebel!"

Yes, that klaxon did sound like Chewbacca getting 'surprised' in a prison. Well, it doesn't sound like a klaxon, anyway.











Loving this video too:



And you can go here to get some amazing Star Wars prizes.

https://www.crowdrise.com/forceforchange


kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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  ---

What Is Faster - Car or Plane?

Well, a plane, obviously. Except that we're talking about a Boeing 737 vs. a Tesla Model S.

Seriously, if the car has a setting 'ludicrous' you should look out!



Tesla doesn't stop there, According to VentureBeat, they received 300,000 solid orders in 3 days for the new Tesla 3.

With a cash deposit for each car at $1,000 Tesla just made $300,000,000.

Well done Elon Musk. A true hero of today.

thanxbai!

Jumblerant

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  ---

Awesome Music Videos of 2015

As always, this generation know nothing!

In my day we needed a pencil to rewind the cassette tape. We had to know how to clean the needle on a record player.

It isn't a lot of spend on the videos that makes them awesome - but they do know how to rock a music video.

Here are my top 5 of 2015

5. Laser-eyed robot sharks. Basketballs on fire. Some serious swearing in this one too!



4. Macklemore is always exciting and interesting. This video is no exception. A real 80's twist to a 2015 original.



3. Some awesome remaking, on a budget, of some other music vids from all time



2. Puppets. Shiny dancers. Missy Elliot and Pharell Williams - so you know its going to be crazy!



1. Sia - Elastic Heart

Choreographed to perfection. Acting is electric. Music is addictive too.

So what did I miss out or just get plain wrong?

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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  ---

Possible, Beneficial And Worth Doing

Like most people, I love the idea of getting something for nothing. It's the reason i am so into solar powered products and recycling.

So where would the first 'Zero Waste' town be? New York? LA? San Francisco? Some hippy commune in Arizona?

Actually, it looks like it might be a rural town in Japan:



So yes, it is possible, it is beneficial and it is something that we can all do!

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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  ---

Love Me Some YouTube

I Do Love Me Some YouTube!

When locked into my tiny cubicle at Work I tend to hide the aircon and peripheral noise with headphones. And what better way to listen to music and watch crazy vids than the Tube that is You?

My faves in 2015:

5. Crazy Plastic Ball PRANK!!



4. Lip Sync Battle with Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart and Jimmy Fallon.



3. Justin Bieber Carpool Karaoke - and why JB isn't as evil as we all like to say.



2. Dwayne Johnson's Shake It Off

Its another lip-sync, I know, but it's a chap called The Rock who is going to be singing a girlie-girlie-girl song.



1. The SuperBowl ads this year were rather boring, even for an advertising geek such as myself. Instead, as my pick for best video of the year, I pick a video that has made me smile, made me frown, made me think twice about life. You know, because that's what YouTube videos should be doing!

John Legend - All of Me




YouTube themselves have created a video which tries to capture the essence of the most popular 2015 YouTube clips



Personally, I think they fail. Don't get me wrong, I love Google. I live for Google! But this video just tries too hard. And thus fails. Its like they're saying all the punchlines to 101 jokes that we only know a few of.

Kthanxbai!

I Don't Know Bryan "Pink Lightning" Warnecke

And neither do you. He lives with a disease that affects everything he does, but his story and hopes for the future give us a new look at OneRepublic's hit 'I lived'.

'Don't give up' and 'live every day like its your last' are phrases we've all heard from teachers, gurus and parents.

'Hope when the water rises / You've built a wall' - strong words from a parent to a child, but even more resounding when they talk to a young man with Cystic Fibrosis.

OneRepublic's album of 2014 had a hit single with "I Lived". Their video for that song was rewritten to highlight the fight and struggle that Cystic Fibrosis sufferers go through.



The song, above, follows Bryan's life and the differences between it and a 'normal' childhood.

The message of both "I Lived" and Bryan's life can be summed up with his statement: "I want to make the most out of my life and have as most fun as I possibly can. My biggest fear is not being able to do that."



kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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  ---

Social Media Helps 14 Year Old Muslim Get Released

In the last few weeks there have been quite a few stories about social media in the news. I'm not even going to touch on the different police-based viral campaigns from the summer!

Yesterday was unofficially 'arrest a teen for carrying a clock day' in Texas, so they did just that. A kid called Ahmed said that he had made a clock at home and brought it to school to show his engineering teacher.

He said his engineering teacher had congratulated him but advised him "not to show any other teachers".

I guess he did.

Here is the clock:

Not much to it, and I guess I can see where the police were coming from. But taking him away in handcuffs? Really?

It wasn't only me who though that the local PD had gone a bit 'over the top' in their following of the law:

So @POTUS got in on the act. 

and so did many ordinary people

Mr Zuckerberg himself got in on the act too.

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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  ---

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  ---

James Cordon, Bringing It

So James Cordon has been doing a marvellous job as the host of The Late, Late Show. I even mentioned the hesitancy I had about claiming he was the next best host in my blog post 'There's a New Kid In Town'.



Proof of his awesomeness?





and of course:



Go on, you know you want to!

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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  ---

Longmire Is Back

The long awaited Season 4 of the critically acclaimed Longmire is coming soon on Netflix.

Here is the trailer:



So whats it about? Its a cowboy story, a Western if you will. But its more than that.

There's drama, there's comedy, there's romance - a little bit of everything.

Watch it. Honest. it's great.

Oh, and thanks, Netflix - you rock!

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

p.s. - the soundtrack to the trailer is pretty neat too - recognise it?

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  ---

Allergic Reaction to this Video

There must be some dust in the air as my eyes are welling up!

Thank you. Welcome home.
Posted by 9NEWS (KUSA) on Wednesday, 31 December 2014

kthanxbai! Jumblerant

Bonding With Bond

Recently I have had a lot of time on my hands in the evenings. After crowdsourcing for data there were quite a few movies to watch.

The Hobbit trilogy was visually stunning, but plot-wise boring. Guardians of the Galaxy was fun, as was Spy. Glorious Basterds was odd, as was Edge of Tomorrow. Surprisingly for me, as they are such behemoths, were Bond films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, specifically.

And now there is another in the pipeline:



With 5 million views in the last 2 days I think there might be a few others out there who are looking forward to it as well!


kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Comes in From The Cold!

Being a child of the '70's I remember the original Man From UNCLE. It was a bit staid after watching my real uncle in 'The Spy Who Came In From The Cold' but the truth is, that era really was very interesting, and chilling.

When there really was an obvious threat of nuclear attack the world's superpowers were definitely professional, determined and capable and that is what made UNCLE such a believable story. Today? I don't think the urgency or desperation can be understood as well.

Fast cars, loud guns and action sequences are always going to be hits at the box offices so I guess we'll hear good things about the film.

Personally? I like the chic aspect to the chaps from UNCLE - very James Bond...



Oh, and the original had Ducky from NCIS in it - always a crowd pleaser!

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Furry Parodies of TV Shows

The Children's Television Workshop are really on the cutting edge of popular shows. Sit down, call the kids in to watch - and enjoy:

Game of Thrones



House of Cards



Star Wars



kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Whilst The Cats Away

The family is out of town for a few weeks, so I get to watch what I want on TV.

I've finished the Hobbit trilogy, this season of Deadliest Catch and Gold Rush and am now going to Netflix to watch a few documentaries.

Whilst on Netflix I'll be watching my beloved Longmire. It truly is an epic TV show. Epic scenery, epic storylines and just blinking epic!

So epic is Longmire that after it was cancelled by A&E that Netflix picked it up. Thats a whole other story though!

Another TV show I will be looking out for is new, and is Heroes Reborn, here's a sneak peek;



It looks very 'interesting' to say the least.

The future looks good - for my tv viewing at least!

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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  ---

Nothing New Under The Sun

You know how you always wanted to play chess with really, really big pieces? Well the Russians got there first.

Yes, they used real soldiers too.

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Thanks to Vintage Everyday

Latest Star Wars Clip

I'll just leave this here for you...



kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

New Tech & Hi-Tech

There is a lot of new technology out there, and a few awesome ways of being part of the new hi-tech wave.

Personally I am proud to wear my Kickstarter based Pebble Watch, and at home I have a Sensibo set Ruche Shelving and AllBe1 tags for my kids' school bags (and my car keys!).

Some projects I find very interesting are AllBe1, Sensibo and Zolo on Indiegogo.

AllBe1 - RFID tags that look like keywing fobs so you can surreptitiously track different items.

Sensibo - start your air con remotely. 20 minutes from home my kids tell me to start the air con. And yes, it is the peak of summer here so it is awesome.

Zolo - tough cases for the phone. Simple, sleek and effective.




And theres more!

On Kickstarter there seems to be a much wider range of products, from board games to 3D Printing printers. Persoanlly? I find Phree, Pebble Watch (mark II) and the utterly awesome Ruche Shelving to be ones to follow.

<

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Newcomers in Music

Much has been made of the new music scene emerging in the USA today; there is too much pornography in the videos, too much swearing in the lyrics and,basically, 'kids today...'.

Personally I think it is awesome that no-one pays attention to what the old fuddy-duddys say! On the other hand, I like my swearing to be limited and based on thumbs and hammers meeting, not an every day occurrence!

Here is Kaya Stewart's single, Try It Out:



Greg Holden's Boys In The Street




Awesome, eh?

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

Dario Franchitti - Why I Quit Racing

I'm a big racing fan. Any sport where there is serious risk every time you go out there, that's what I love. IndyCar is dangerous, in the same way as Formula 1, MotoGP and other sports where you reach speeds over 100 km/h on the warm-up lap!

One of the biggest stars in the motorsports world has definitely been Dario Franchitti. The IndyCar Series Champion in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011 he also won the Indianapolis 500 in 2007, 2010 and 2012. This guy knows how to race. This guy knows how to win too.

So why did he quit getting into a car back in 2013? After a massive crash he was told by doctors that he should just walk away from it.

As he says himself:

It wasn’t some big dramatic scene. I wasn’t devastated or anything. Besides, my sole focus was on getting better. I just wanted to be able to live my life normally again.

An awesome chap. Not too many people can be that cold and calculating. He'd been racing since the early 80's and, as he states in a recent interview, his parents remortgaged the house to get him through his first year in karting.

Jackie Stewart was key in helping him further his career, and Dario recollects his first meeting with Jackie:

"He was brilliant though. He put me at ease completely. We were doing a Christmas quiz, all the team, and one of the questions was about Stirling Moss. Jackie opened his suit pocket, pulled out his phone, flipped it down [and called Stirling] to double-check the answer. I thought to myself: 'Wow. This is the big time. Holy smokes.'" 

I can only hope that future drivers can be as magnanimous and gentlemanly as Dario.

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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  ---

An Eclectic Music Mix

I'm not some 'gangsta' who wears his baseball cap back-to-front, nor do I know the different hand signals that the 'youf of today' show each other.

I do, however, know what music I like, and to complicate matters, not only do I like Elvis, Jonny Cash, Pomplamoose and Robbie Williams, but also Katy Perry, The Streets and One Republic.

An eclectic mix to say the least!

I recently heard again a great artist who is not as well known as those listed above;

Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip.

No, I do not know why he is called that. I do know that he is a talented young man who has the ability to go far, and change many lives.

This is one of his hits from 2009;



Then there's this little beauty from 2008:



So, whats the difference in his music to all others? He seems to be honest, he seems to know what he is talking about, he seems to be talking to the world as a whole - and that's where he got me.

Oh, and YouTube in it's brilliance guided me to also watch this video, which I also liked a lot;




kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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