It’s safe to say that Tomorrow’s World was responsible for the careers of most of this generation’s scientists in the UK and Ireland.
The show was oftentimes ridiculed for being out of touch and it was joked that having your product featured there meant it would never be seen outside of a research lab, but that half-hour on Thursday evenings gave a love of science to myself and many others over the years and is sorely missed.
Based on research into the First Earth Battalion (and various other projects involving belief in magical thinking) the book is a trip down the rabbit hole of the American military-industrial complex at its weirdest.
Based on his short film, Alive in Jo’burg, Neil Blomkamp has come up with an intelligent science-fiction action movie in District 9. Shot mostly in a mock-documentary style the movie chronicles an alternate Johannesburg twenty years after an alien ship arrived.
In a plot heavily influenced by Apartheid era South Africa, the aliens are forced into the eponymous District to keep them separate from the native Jo’bergers but this does nothing to quell unrest. We follow newly-promoted bureaucrat Wikus Van De Merwe (in an amazing breakthrough performance by Sharlito Copely who improvised most of his dialogue) as he leads a team to move the Prawn to a new camp, two-hundred miles away from any human settlement.
Despite the science fiction plot and more obviously fantastical elements, there is a gritty realism that pervades the whole movie, especially in the more mockumentary parts. The effects are flawless and fit into the dystopian background of the shanty town that has built up in the aliens’ ghetto and the aliens themselves are a far cry from the plastic and latex creations of Alien Nation. Many difficult questions are asked and few answers are given – like most good science fiction the movie is more than just an excuse for spotty teenagers to see some explosions, but serves to make us think about xenophobia, racism, and how we treat each other as a society.
The QI Elves on Twitter opened a can of worms when they mentioned that the Irish language has no words for “Yes” or “No”. Dozens of tweets later saying that there are “Tá” and “Níl” or “‘Sea” and “Ní hea”, the Elves threw their hands up in the air and decided to leave the Irish alone.
While, strictly speaking, it is true that there are no words for “Yes” and “No”, in the Irish language to answer in the affirmative or negative, one repeats the verb of the asked question. For example, if one asks “Are you going to the cinema?” (An bhfuil tú ag dul go dtí an picturlann?) the answer is either “I am” (Tá mé) or “I am not” (Níl má).
In the Crisis of Credit visualised, media design student Jonathan Jarvis takes a simple approach in showing how the US banking system has plunged the global economy into recession.
How long will it take before all the Obama supporters start calling for his resignation because he took too long to undo years of greed and short-sightedness?
A couple of nights ago we were settling down for the night when this thing on the left started dive bombing the bed. With no clue as to how an insect managed to survive this long into the winter or even that night, when the outside temperature was a couple of degrees below freezing we assumed that it came back with us from a week’s holiday in Malta. Turns out it was a Peacock Butterfly and was probably asleep in a cupboard somewhere but thought it was spring when the heating came on.
I’m nervous about what else might be lying dormant..
Here’s a great video about a bored Chinese shop worker who learns Irish before moving there, without realising that very little Irish is used in day-to-day life.
Highlights include the Taxi Driver reference and a cameo from Frank Kelly (better known as Father Jack in Father Ted) and the result is a touching short film that’s equal parts hilarious and shaming. Maybe I’ll try and find my old Inter. Cert. course books and have a refresher before I start Cognitive Psychology.
Alter Ego was a video game released by Activision in 1986. The brainchild of psychologist Dr. John Favero it allowed players to play out an entire lifetime as if it were a Choose Your Own Adventure novel by playing out events based on hundreds of interviews conducted with people about their lives.
It’s safe to say that Tomorrow’s World was responsible for the careers of most of this generation’s scientists in the UK and Ireland.
