Kobe Byrant

August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020

Saddened to hear of the news of his passing, and that of his daughter in a helicopter crash

A famed Basketball player, Catholic and Father

Terry Jones

Father, Writer, Historian, brewer and Python

1942-2020

``He's a very naughty boy!''''

I know people will go on about his work, with Python but I remember ripping yarns, and his series Barbarians especially his criticism of Kenneth Clark

Picard

Wow !!!!

It's nice to be excited about Star Trek again

I did not hate Star Trek Discovery. I found it frustrating, I enjoyed Captain Yeoh, Lorca and Anson Mount's Christopher Pike in particular.  This was a great pilot.

It is nice to see Trek go back to the future. Instead of endless prequels and reboots. Picard takes place after the events of Star Trek Nemesis. Indeed it fixes a problem from Nemesis. Data was not able to download his mind into B4. So Data's death has significance Data is dead. He was the last of his kind.

Orla Brady turns up as an Irish accented Romulan. My headcanon says she was taught English by the O'Brien family in Dublin

I am wondering why the Romulans needed federation aid to evacuate 900 million Romulans from Romulus. There are hundreds of inhabitable worlds in Federation

Nice, to see Bruce Maddox is back...

Thanks

For my daughter's safe return

My daughter had gotten out of her house and had ran off. She was found in the market.

The rise and fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brussati

A Christmas gift from my brother. Very well received

A very readable book, I quite enjoyed

It was bittersweet to note that one of the leading paleontologists of the day is pretty American born Sino Celt. Ahh if only one had been more diligent

The Deccan traps hypothesis is put to bed. The Cretaceous era ends with the Chixlub  collision

A good discussion about how scales became feathers

A nice primer for adults on the evolution of the  Dinosaur's 

The Two Popes

I liked this

It has its flaws. It could be described as ``Sister Act in the Vatican''. Francis being the outsider who shakes up the Vatican and gets them to change their ways. When we first see Francis in B.A in a barrio talking to a crowd.Bishop Francis talks about football. We see Francis bantering with a tobacconist and watching football matches.

He is very Argentine. This is I think an issue with Francis's Papacy. A lot of Northern Hemisphere Catholics are not familiar with how Argentine's act and talk. ``Jumping off the top of his ego''

Firstly it is beautiful. The Vatican is beautiful. The colour, the art. The bright red thread to tie the vote.

There are some flaws with the piece. For example, the Pope always eating alone, is a tradition This tradition upset John Paul the second. It is not something that can be blamed on Benedict

Secondly, it is well observed. Hopkins -Benedict is German. The Nun who serves Francis comments on the meals that Bennedict eats. The constant bottles of Fanta   You can see Benedict's mind always working. He notes Francis's jokes and comments that they are silly. You also see him tell Francis to show him the respect of being angry with him. This is one of the few debates between conservatism and reform that you will see

`` A Church that marries the spirit of it's age will be widowed in the next''


We detour to Francis's past in the dirty war in Argentina. Interestingly we did not see Benedict talk about his time in the HJ. It would have been nominal. I note, but we have other characters mention it.

The Witcher

``Throw a coin to your witcher, oh valley of plenty''

I am in two minds.

First I have to thank one of my co-workers for explaining that the story is told over several time periods.
I found Cavil as Geralt of Riveria an interesting piece of casting. I like Henry Cavil. I liked his Superman, I liked him in the Tudors. I have heard he was good in the Man from Uncle but, it took me a while to warm to his Witcher. Cavil seemed to be doing a Clint Eastwood impression. The voice being gruff being a particular bugbear.

Cavil's horse being called roach is another gripe of mine. I hate this trope. It is probably just me but I notice that Neil Gaiman does it too

The scenery is beautiful, some of the CGI is a bit ropey. This is a problem when we have CGI characters talk to the cast. Practical effects were the way to go.

Okay so the books were set in a fantastic Eastern Europe. But we have the usual mix of Brits, paddies and black people This was a mistake I would have preferred an Eastern European look. I think they did with this Freya Allan as Princess Cila But Cavil and Fringilla are obviously what you would see in an upscale cade in Hoxton. I know it is fantasy, and so people can eat potatoes and turkey. I think there is a look, an anesthetic A dark-skinned Tartar makes sense not the children of Notting Hill, and Streatham

Fire arrows. Oh Lindybeige you have so much to answer

The second lead Jenefyer is pretty. I would have preferred they kept her as a hunchback Though in-universe this makes sense. The orgy scene where she meets Cavil's Gerad for the first time is meh. She is even wearing a mask- Why? She does not need to hide her identity

Interesting that they made Yenefyer's quest to be able to have children. They did similar in Game of Thrones with Dany

The law of surprise was well done. The idea that you can be repaid for a favor or a good deed with  the first living thing the helped party encounters  Nice to see  a trope from a fairy tale used well  Nice to see Anna Louise Plowman back too

It's heavier going then game of thrones It's more straight-faced, and the universe is not as well thought out

On the other hand it's just 8 episodes. I will keep going with it...