Concept T shirts Reviews

Another Jane Austen two-hour adaption to finish the the weekend, and another rollicking blast from the start. Austen’s text is ‘helped’ to become more 21st century by Andrew Davies (Mr Darcy, etc etc) although whether this is necessary is not certain - Austen’s themes are universal and remain the same today as when she was writing.
Lightened and simplified as television generally must, the plot romps along, though always clearly marking where it is heading. Felicity Jones (previously heard on the Archers!) is if anything too pretty to play Catherine, and shows the simple sensibility of her character very well. JJ Feild makes a great Henry Tilney, not allowing himself to smoulder, but attracting Catherine with his intellect.

Another great Austen diversion from ITV - catch it if you can on repeats.

Please give your views below.

Jane Austen T shirts!

We have started a range of Jane Austen inspired T shirts.

The second surprise on TV this week was seeing Giles Coren, food critic of the Times fronting an advert for Bird’s Eye. I enjoy many of Coren’s articles and was horrified to see him as the face of a big bland food company. His columns stand for fresh, local, organic, sustainable food, small producers, knowing the name of the cow you are eating. However you cut it , advertising for Bird’s eye is a strange choice. Maybe he knows something we don’t.
Giles, let’s have an explanation! I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt, so what was your thinking?!

What has this country come to? I put on the TV and caught the end of an advert - a hand emptied a small pot on a plate and as the pot was lifted away there was a delicate pile of chicken left that looked delicious. ‘Prime chicken breast…’ said the voice over, then added that it was a cat food. A cat food! There are people in this country feeding their pets prime chicken breast? Enough that there is a such cat food made? You can almost hear our decadence notching up another level. How many pets are being fed better than people?

Intriguing new documentary broadcast on Channel 4 (UK) last night. I know that a good percentage of you regular readers don’t live in the UK so a recap: Martin Durkin analyzed the global warming argument, noting that it is taken as an orthodoxy and looking to see if there were any dissenting voices in the scientific community.

There were.

His suggestion, backed up by many scientists was that Co2(Carbon dioxide) and the earth’s temperature are correlated, but that the relationship is the opposite way round to that assumed by the global warming lobby. ie - it is the rising of the temperature of the earth that produces more Co2 emmissions.

Why is this?

Because the main producer and storer of Co2 on earth are the oceans. As the temperature drops they can absorb more Co2 and as the temperature rises they emit more Co2. And the size of the oceans and therefore the size of these amounts make man-made Co2 emmissions appear tiny.

Scientists lined up to say that if global warming was correct, temperature rises would be higher in the troposphere (ie near the roof of the greenhouse) than down on earth. Which is not backed up by results from weather balloons and satellites.

So if Co2 is not causing global warming, what is?

For centuries men have analysed the sunspots on the sun and again it is the sun that is responsible.

The film even had the Greenpeace founder explaining why he had  left the organisation because it was having to become more radical to maintain a voice when over time the mainstream had accepted its basic arguments.
Why is global warming given such credence?

It was posited that pressure came from the left and right. Thatcher wanted to increase nuclear power to reduce reliance on coal and oil and the global warming theories offered another argument for this.  Funding went up for research in these areas and the she who pays the piper calls the tune.  From the left, after the collapse of communism and Labour’s dropping of much socialist orthodoxy - activists moved to the green agenda. Green politics became a way of legitimizing anti-capitalist dogma.
Melting icecaps? Happens every year. Completely normal.  Like leaves falling off a tree in Autumn…So what do you think?! Interesting thoughts that you don’t see in the mainstream media.

Leave some comments please and let’s debate it.

Last night (9pm ITV1) was the start of Lewis, which is Morse by any other name.  The producers had to find a way to carry on after the death of the great John Thaw, and promoting lewis and giving him a lewis of his own was a good idea.  The Oxford settings remain, although the classic car has gone. To keep the pseudo-intellectual element, Lewis’s Lewis (Hathaway) has been given an erudition that Morse would have been proud of, last night demonstrating his knowledge of ancient Greek myths.

SPOILER ALERT… 

The story was an interesting blend of murder, without a murderer -  which was an intriguing twist on most detective stories. Morse fell for the ladies occasionally, and Lewis leaves the case knowing surely, that although the girl didn’t take revenge herself, she arranged the situation.  In his book she had done nothing wrong - we have a more amoral detective than Morse, but still a great modern potboiler

Jade Goody arriving in the Big Brother house, with her mother - who thought that was a good idea? Can you imagine the meeting where that was OKed?! I put the telly on one night and Jade’s grandparents were there as well! The UK obsession with celebritising anyone who has been on TV is in danger of driving half of us as insane as the other half already are.

How can anyone be interested in the life and times of Jade Goody? yet magazines sell more issues when she is on the cover.

Unless her mum is being thousands of copies, there are people in the UK who want to know about Jade’s life!

And now we hear that racist bullying is alleged.

>> Why does adding racist to bullying make it worse?