Geoff Coupe's Blog

Torchwood Again

OK, so I’ve now seen episode 3 of Torchwood. And I’m still not sure whether I like it. The scene at the shooting range, in particular, I found hard to take. I mean, what the F… was going on there? Satan corrupting Innocence, aka Jack putting the moves on Gwen? I dunno, but it left a somewhat nasty taste. Literally a whiff of cordite. To be honest, apart from the Gwen character, the Torchwood team seem to have totally lost their moral compass, and she seems as though she will go through the series having temptation spread liberally before her.

It’s strange, Doctor Who had a mixture of innocence and world-weariness that worked very well. Torchwood gives off a stench of moral decay. I hope I’m wrong, and that the better parts of humanity will win through in the end.

More views from Actually Existing…

October 31, 2006

One response to “Torchwood Again”

Storms In Teacups | Geoff Coupe's Blog

June 28, 2011

[…] see that Torchwood is returning to our haunted fishtanks next month. While I’ve been pretty disparaging about the series in the past, I have to say that I thought that it redeemed itself with the […]

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Rabbit

It’s an animated film by Run Wrake. It illustrates the importance of karma. It is bizarre. It is worth watching. It is for Chris and Ed.

October 31, 2006

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The Ant Man

Seed Magazine has a good portrait of E. O. Wilson. It’s worth reading.

October 31, 2006

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The Power of Art

BBC TV is broadcasting a series called The Power of Art at the moment. It’s been written, and is fronted by, the historian Simon Schama. There have been two episodes so far, the first on Caravaggio and the second on Bernini. I have found both to be riveting. Not because of the tiresome dramatised reconstructions, but because of the power of Schama’s words. I get quite irritated at watching hammy actors acting out something that Schama has just said; it’s a trend in today’s historical doumentaries that should have been drowned at birth. The series is at its best either with Schama speaking direct to camera, or showing the art, with Schama’s voiceover giving his view of the work.

The series has had mixed reviews from the critics, and Schama replies in typical fashion with Bugger the Brickbats… Quite right, too. I’ll be there watching Schama deliver the rest of the series. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing his Rothko, since I’ve never thought much of that artist. I’m intrigued as to whether Schama can persuade me otherwise.

October 31, 2006

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The God Conundrum

Sean Carroll takes on Terry Eagleton’s review of Dawkins’ The God Delusion, and holes it below the waterline. An excellent article that shows up Eagleton’s hand-waving for the nonsense it it.

October 31, 2006

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Searching Spaces

One of the apparent limitations of Windows Live Spaces is the difficulty of tracking down topics that I’ve written about in my blog. You know the sort of thing: I remember writing about the BBC’s series of The Apprentice, but I can’t for the life of me remember when… Using Google or Windows Live Search returns millions of results, so how to narrow it down?

Well, of course, it turns out that it’s relatively straightforward, if you know how.

Google does have a blog search, and using the Advanced settings, it’s possible to narrow down the search to just my blog entries. That screen will build the search query for you using Google’s query syntax. So, the Advanced settings screen builds the query: "apprentice" blogurl:gcoupe.spaces.live.com.

Windows Live Search has a similar capability, in fact their Advanced settings screen has more options to tune the search than Google does. Once again, using the Advanced Settings screen will build the query: apprentice site:gcoupe.spaces.live.com. You’ll notice that Microsoft’s query syntax is not the same as Google. Standards, doncha just love them? Rob has more about the Microsoft query syntax over at The Space Craft.

One interesting thing about searching for the word "apprentice" in my blog: Windows Live Search finds all three instances; Google only finds two…

October 31, 2006

2 responses to “Searching Spaces”

Michael

October 31, 2006

Note Google’s advanced search options (http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/help/operators.html), which include the site: keywork. Apparently the blogurl: keyword is unique to their blog search itself, which I suspect is based off of their RSS reader engine rather than the proper search engine – interesting to see if they integrate the two.

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Geoff

October 31, 2006

Thanks, Mike. But interestingly, I then used the site: operator to construct my search query apprentice site:gcoupe.spaces.live.com. This turns out to be the same search string that I used with Windows Live Search. And this time, Google returns no results at all… Dunno what’s going on, but it proves that you shouldn’t trust technology…

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A Portrait of Pervasive Pachyderm Dysfunction

Charles Siebert authors a fascinating article in the New York Times about the evidence that elephant society is breaking down. The parallels with our own are uncomfortable.

(hat tip to Apophenia for the link)

October 30, 2006

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Say My Name…

Coboró visits Ypres, and pens a typically powerful piece about both the futility of war, and its insidious way of breeding future conflicts. Read it.

October 29, 2006

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Torchwood: Thumbs-up or Thumbs-down?

Well, there’s a spectrum of reactions to Torchwood. Ranging from Nicholas’ positive review to Justin’s burial. While I think that Justin was unnecessarily harsh, I can see what he means. I watched the two opening episodes with a feeling that I wanted it to succeed, rather than being bowled over by it. Oh well, episode 3 tonight, we’ll see whether it starts to get its pterodactyl claws into me or not.

October 29, 2006

One response to “Torchwood: Thumbs-up or Thumbs-down?”

Michael

October 29, 2006

Funny enough, I saw this while in Holland. I watched the first episode and the early bits of the second. I had much the same reaction – it seemed to me that if it lives long enough to settle down a bit, it’ll actually be quite good. If.

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Religion Explained

PZ Myers over at Pharyngula has posted this link to Lewis Black explaining judaeo-christianity. Dunno who this bloke Lewis Black is, but he hits the nail on the head a number of times for me…

October 29, 2006

One response to “Religion Explained”

Michael

October 29, 2006

Outstanding American comedian – did a stint as a reporter on The Daily Show for quite a while. I think you’d really appreciate a lot of his humor. That said, I can’t lay hands on any of it at the moment, making this a rather useless comment – ah, well.

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The Blind Watchmaker

And sticking with the theme of 1980s TV, here’s a link that will lead you to a TV special from that time starring a younger Richard Dawkins, talking about the Blind Watchmaker… Terrific stuff!

And I can’t help but note that this programme was made by the BBC’s Horizon team. That was then, when programme makers were not afraid to have experts, such as Dawkins, address the camera directly to put across complex ideas without the need for flashy graphics, bizarre camera angles and loud music. Today’s Horizon, by comparison, seems to embody the very worst of bad ideas from generations of meeja-studies graduates. Damn them all to hell.

October 29, 2006

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Max Headroom

Thanks to Alun, over at Archaeoastronomy, I’ve just seen the backstory to the 1980s TV character known as Max Headroom. The pilot episode actually holds up pretty well, even today.

October 29, 2006

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Plus Ça Change…

Tim Adams has an interesting article in today’s Observer about Second Life – the online virtual world where a million people have gone to escape from their real lives – and ended up doing exactly the same things as people do in the real world. Wetware or software – it’s all the same, it seems to me. The attraction of Second Life continues to baffle me.

October 29, 2006

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Lipstick on the Pig

Steven Poole, over at Unspeak, draws our attention to some of the wilder shores of Dubya’s rhetoric. As if we needed to be reminded that there is a buffoon in the White House.

October 28, 2006

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The Power Of Divs

Stewart Lee has a good video exploring the inanity of religion-driven prejudice. What’s wrong with blasphemy? Absolutely nothing, Stewart. But where’s the rest of your polemic? I’d like to see it…

Update: oh, here are the various parts, chopped up to fit on YouTube. Well done, Mr. Lee. what you said was worth saying.

October 27, 2006

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I’m Not A Victim

While this is something that’s playing out in America’s backyard, and hence something that I probably shouldn’t comment on directly… still, I thought this response from Michael J. Fox to the vomit known as Rush Limbaugh was worth noting.

October 27, 2006

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Whose Brain Is Missing?

While it doesn’t come as a complete surprise to me that Cheney doesn’t believe that waterboarding is not torture, and is a technique that is a "no-brainer" to use, I still have to draw a breath at the fact that people such as he hold power in the current administration of the US. How are the mighty fallen…

October 27, 2006

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Before And After…

Last month, I mentioned that work had begun on the new kitchen. While there are still a few finishing touches to be done, the bulk of the work is over, and we have a new working kitchen that both of us are very pleased with.

Before:

After (with the new, raised ceiling!):

October 27, 2006

4 responses to “Before And After…”

Michael

October 29, 2006

Bravo. For the record, I am completely in love with the cooktop and oven. Followed shortly by the deep sinks. Congratulations on surviving a remodel!

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Geoff

October 30, 2006

Yup, I wanted a decent-sized oven, and that was the excuse to have the five gas rings on the top. They’ve become quite popular since we last chose a kitchen, so there’s plenty of choice these days. Unfortunately, most of them are total ergonomic disasters. Most of them either have the wok burner in the middle – which means that then you can’t fit any pans on the other burners, or the pan supports are so streamlined and dinky that you can’t slide a pan to the side while you’re working. This ATAG unit, thankfully, doesn’t suffer from either of those problems.

The sinks were an indulgence. Probably stainless steel would have been more practical, but we liked the traditional look of white ceramic. And that’s reinforced by the choice of the granito worktops.

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Brian

November 1, 2006

Lovely, let me in! I’ll be your sous-chef.

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Geoff

November 1, 2006

Coboró, if you ever find yourself in the Achterhoek, then let us know!

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Time Lapse Art Revisited

You may recall I blogged about the strangely haunting video of Noah Kalina – the man who has been taking a picture of himself every day, and then making the series into a video.

It was only a matter of time, I suppose, before the idea was spoofed. Here’s Ben takes a photo of himself every day. It raises a smile or two.

October 27, 2006

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Comet Swan

There’s a new comet in the night skies. Comet Swan. I’m hoping for a clear night in order to try and glimpse it. It looks as though it will be passing between the constellations of Boötes and Hercules at the moment.

October 27, 2006

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