The Vatican Song and Dance Show

There were two articles in the paper today that I just had to blog about now:

The Vatican are telling bishops to report abuse to actual authorities: ie the police. First of all... DUH! Why should bishops be have to be told this? Oh right, because there's been a lot of child abuse BY bishops and priests. Phew, with out this word from the Vatican, they might not have known what to do.

But the kicker is, and the emphasis is mine: "should report clerical sex abuse to police if required by law." If? IF? IF!!??!!??!! It's not like child abuse may be considered morally wrong in our society and should be reported from any kind of conscience stand, no, it only needs to be reported if it is against the law. But, hey, does that mean 'ignorance of the law' is an out? "Sorry officer, I was thinking of saying something, considering that this is bad, but, hey, it's not like I knew it was against the law or anything!" I really hope the 'if' was slack journalistic writing. I tried looking at the Vatican website, but had no idea where to find anything.

In other news... the Vatican forgives the Beatles! I'm sure this was not at all done in any attempt to hope that Beatle-mania would overwhelm any other focus currently on the Vatican. That would be extremely cynical and manipulative and it's not like the Vatican wouldn't do that... I mean would do that... yeah, that's what I mean...

And, hey, just 40 years after the band's breakup! That's quicker that Galileo's 340 years after his death! If they keep this up, the Vatican might be known as a religion that actually considers forgiveness as one of its tenets... better tread carefully guys... [And, of course, the Vatican's forgiveness is what everyone has been waiting for, considering they have such a morality stance...]

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The rise of the supernatural

Religion may be taking a bit of a hit, but there's more than that around when it comes to the mystery beyond the known. According to a survey, feeling spirits has rising from 33% to 40%. (I am wondering about the wording of the survey, and about how much people think they have felt it because it is more prevalent in the media as opposed to any actual increase... and certainly there's no actual rise in actual spirits!).

What I recalled when reading this is a comparison to elsewhere. Europe is often cited as a less religious place... but also there was a rise in the more spiritual side as well. It seems that people need something else "out there", and if religion can't provide it, they'll look elsewhere. [I do wonder if this could be cast as moving from "the religion of the masses" to "the religion of the self"?]

The article is rather critical, which is nice to see. Marika Hill takes a financial look at psychics and mediums, and there is a lot of money to be made there. More interesting, the comments aren't exactly pleading for special treatment of those people either. Usually there's many people claiming that there are ghosts, etc., but not many here. Not exactly a properly representative sample, but I like to think there's a trend here.

Now, if we can actually bring the power of some place like the Serious Fraud Office to bear...

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DW 5.02: The Beast Below

I wanted to like this episode... however... not as strong as last week.

Anyone else reminded of The Long Game? Obviously in reverse. Although, as much as this might be painful to admit, TLG had a better plot structure that TBB. The plot seemed all over the place, little scenes happening, without any decent connection between them [and let's not talk about the continuity nightmare that is their clothes and hair after they got vomitted up, no way that works]. And what plot there is is very easily gotten. How quickly does Liz Ten turn up? How easily do they move about this huge space craft? (Which made be think 'Brit-Cit in Space'.)

The one shining moment is when Amy puts it all together. Lovely moment of snatching victory that even the Doctor doesn't see... and then we are hammered with Doctor/Space Whale comparisons every other line. We get it, move on already. [Speaking of Amy, anyone creeped out about the fact that the Doctor was staring up her nightie in the opening?]

Performance wise, Karen Gillan is still strong, although Matt Smith's seems to have toned down a little. Got a bit less of the "old man in a young man's body" feel, and what we did get was more "tell don't show". This should have been a better moment to show off how alone the Doctor is, but the focus wasn't quite there. And Sophie Okonedo has traded (up? down?) from companion to guest star, pity the role wasn't worth it.

In the end, rather weak from Stephen Moffat, who was clearly putting his energy elsewhere. Rather telling that the script needed to bring in something from next week to pad it out...


Next week: Daleks! Cos we haven't seen them before... on the other hand, flashbacks to Manhatten Daleks in Evolution.

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Of Steam, Steel and Murder

Gavin had a challenge this episode: get some passports to some people and get them out of the city. At his disposal was... one man (and another PC he hadn't met yet). And he couldn't even be there to see the plan go down. And if things went bad, he might never be seen again...

Oh yeah, no pressure...

Some skype problems, so not sure how well Game 11 turned out. We might be changing to another system in the future, and if so I probably won't be recording them.

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Those Glourious Basterds

Merely seven months late, I have now seen Quentin Taratino's latest. To be honest, I wasn't all that enthusiastic about it. The trailer seemed to suggest that it was going to be more black and white about who was good and evil. And not that subtle about it. Meh, wasn't drawn in.

I stand correctly. Brilliant movie! Although it's an odd thing to say about a movie set in a parallel universe, and done in an over the top style, it was realistic. In terms of the characters that is. I liked the bar/basement scene, that had some of the best characterisations of the people involved of the whole film. Some Americans were good, some where bad. Some Germans were good, some were bad. Nicely done.

And the whole film was entertaining in the standard Taratino way of having seemingly small pieces mixed in with more bloody extravaganzas. The movie is over two hours, but I wasn't paying any attention to time while watching it.

The plot, I don't need to tell you, is Americans vs Nazis, although there's a mix of everyone. (Although the French don't come off too well, what is it with everyone that they are down on the French?) Not an indepth plot by any means, but it is more about the characters.

Who are a wide mix from over the top (Hi Brad!) to more natural (nod to Diane) to subtle and brilliant (take a bow Melanie(*)), with lots of little cameos to amuse the sharp eyed.

You've already seen it, no doubt, but if you haven't, add my recommendations to the others you've heard.

(*) With all the people submitting trivia, you'd think someone would notice that Melanie's role and actor credit are swapped...

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Perhaps there's a course that would help...?

It's hard paying people money, it seems. I while ago I signed up for a course, and paid, as one does, over the intertubes, using my credit card.

Then, a month ago, got a phone call, on a Thursday (the day is important), saying that the charge never went through. "Sometimes digits get dropped off." So we checked the number, they had it right, and told them to re-charge it and email if there are any problems. Never heard from them, everything is all right, of course...

Then, on Thursday, I got a call on my answering machine to say the charge never went through and could I call them to make arrangements. Sigh. However, they are at the bus station, where I catch a bus, so went there on the way home on Friday (again, day is important). Even took cash.

They offered to charge my card. Which they already had done, so I had no reason to think would work again. But even if that was possible, they couldn't process it until Monday.

Thus I had cash. $80. The course was $79. They could take the money, but they couldn't process it. Not until Monday. They could take it, give me a written receipt but not an electronic one (until Monday). Moreover, they couldn't even give me a dollar change.

Really? Not even grab one out of their wallets and get it back next week when suddenly processing is possible while it isn't on Friday? Let them have the dollar.

But... some tips:

Don't call people on Thursday if you can't process anything for them on a Friday. You're just going to annoy people with the thought they could actually do something.

Have cash. If you don't have business cash, in this case, use personal cash. It's a wee thing that comes under such wacky ideas as good business practices.

Ultimately, although I'd like to, I'm not seeing me take any more courses. Not until they take a competency one...

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Actions vs Words

When we heard that Blizzard was bringing out plush toys, we all saw them, thought them cute, and said we wanted one.

But how many of us manned up and actually brought them? I bring you...


The kicker... I don't even play World of Warcraft!

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