2005: That Was The Year That Was

Well, everyone is doing it, so here's what I think are my top posts of 2005:

• The Dilemma of Gladys Hammond
• The Lion's First Roar - And the Lion Roars Again.
• Jug Ears to Marry Horse
• Kennedy targets 'desperate' Prescott
• Monster Raving Looney Interview
• Make Byers History
• Passport Control
• No Shit Sherlock
• Spark gets frozen

Picture Jokes:

• Man Made of Leather Returns to Work
• Cheap Shot
• Advanced Maths
• Looks a bit tasteless now

As for worst posts of 2005, decide for yourself.

And lastly...

Today my membership of the Liberal Democrats lapses and I don't know if I'll renew it or not.
Should I stay with the first party I joined or move on to a new one that better represents my views, or should I just save my money and concentrate on my studies for a few years.

Little Britain Three: I told you so

See, I told you so, didn't I.

Cloak and Daggers

In case you are really interested, I'm willing to bet that the MI6 Chief alleged to have been involved in torture against Pakistanis by the Greek magazine Proto Thema, as reported on the BBC, Independent and Telegraph, is Maurice Kendwrick-Piercey.
Was it really neccessary for the Government to issue a D-Notice to prevent this from coming out?

Update:

Thanks to Anonymous for pointing out that European Tribune is saying it's another guy called "Nicholas John Andrew Langman", as does Wikipedia

Obscure Rules

Go In Search of Mornington Crescent

The Producers 2005

"Under the right circumstances, a producer could make more money with a flop than he could with a hit"

Two Broadway producers, old lady lover Max Bialystock and cowardly accountant Leo Bloom, set out to make the biggest flop the stage has ever seen, in order to net themselves a fortune, in this remake of Mel Brooks' 1968 masterpiece of the same name.

Unlike the original, this film is a musical, spun off from the Broadway show, but it's still as good as the 1968 film, albeit in a different (slightly camper) way, and both films centrepieces remain "Springtime for Hitler", a fantastically satirical musical take on the Third Reich - but one which almost certainly had more bite in the 1960's and now seems a little dated.


Matthew Broderick as Leo Bloom, a role played to perfection by Gene Wilder in the original film, is a disappointment and he should've been recast as throughout the film, Broderick looks like he is somewhere else, turning in a vacant performance that detracted from the excellence of Nathan Lane, Uma Thurman (hot as hell in the role of Ulla) and Will Ferrell.
Go out, see it, but also book tickets for the West End/Broadway version (short review), because nothing beats live performing.

Other Reviews:

Ain't It Cool News
BBC

PS. And unfortunately, in this version, there is no "Little Old Lady Land", a major disappointment.

Nokia N70 Review

Without doubt, the most gorgeous piece of machinery I have ever possessed, the Nokia N70 phone was my Christmas gift to me, and it was free with an 02 contract.
The screen and camera quality is amazing (2 megapixels, no less), it has some very useful pre-installed apps (including ones which can read Adobe PDFs, Word documents and spreadsheets) and the price (free) appeals to my wallet. The 3d games on offer (an updated version of the classic Snake and a new one called Snowboarding) appeal to the geek in me, as does the five card games.
The phone is not without its niggles I'll admit, for example the top row of number keys are difficult to get at when trying to text fast and there's no catch for the main camera cover, but with a phone as good as this, it's easy to find forgiveness in your heart.
A couple of other nice points about this phone:

• There's a "to-do" app seperate from the calender, something all my previous phones wouldn't do so I was forced to put items on the calender and hope I didn't forget about them;
• It comes with a 64mb memory card and over 20mb of on-phone memory. Praise Nokia!
  

For a free phone, this Nokia N70 is definitely good value.

Technical Specifications

Other Reviews:

Mobiles.co.uk
Reviewcentre.com
3G.co.uk

Disallowing Google

Via Digg.com, turns out the Whitehouse doesn't want Google to see certain items.

London and Cologne

Via Boing Boing, London and Cologne in glorious cartoon form.

London

Surprise Visit

What's David Cameron doing in Iraq?

King Kong

My arse is sore.
Not because I've been engaging in certain practices with another male, but because I've just been to see Peter Jackson's King Kong and like the legendary ape's first dump of the day, this is a meaty film, coming in at 3 hours and 7 minutes. Be warned, those with circulation problems might want to bring someone who can massage their buttocks to prevent unslightly bedsores.

Insert your own quip about John Prescott here

The film itself is great, not the best and by no means another Lord of the Rings, but fun, sometimes silly fantasy to indulge in.
The CGI/model work is fantastic, especially on Kong himself, and I was impressed that Jack Black could act without gurning. As you might expect from Peter Jackson, this film has some brilliant set-pieces, particularly the Dino fight (three dinos vs one Kong, the guys a legend) and Kong's final fight, but also some quite tender moments, between both Ann and the beast and Ann and Jack.
I definitely recommend you go see this film if you haven't already, but don't drink beforehand.

BBC Review
Ain't It Cool News Review
Penny Arcade Spoiler

I want to make love to Google

... Because they've introduced Blogger Web Comments for Firefox.

The box appears in the bottom
right of your browser

It shows Blog Search results for the page you are looking at. For example, when looking at this page I can see that Stephen Sharkey, Cool Nina and Lynne Babi are commenting on the page via their blogs.
For those wishing to avoid work by reading the thoughts of the terminally dull, this is a godsend.

Bush Defends Phone Tapping

"As President and Commander-in-Chief, I have the constitutional responsibility and the constitutional authority to protect our country. Article II of the Constitution gives me that responsibility and the authority necessary to fulfill it."
Not quite.

Article II confers on the President the position of Commander-in-Chief, but gives him no authority to act outside the law.
Will Bush be impeached? Look's like US Senator Boxer wants him to be.

George Bush's statement of 19/12/2005 in full.

Man Made of Leather Returns to Work

Gross Hypocrisy Part 845

The Sun has accused Newsnight of staging a "show trial".

Now, You The Jury decide whether Newsnight staged a show trial
Call 0906 507 901 for Yes
or
Call 0906 507 901 for Yes

Another meaning

It's not making us any money.

Man Has Opinion Shock

MPs on the Public Administration Committee have been "shocked" that a man should have an opinion. The publication of ex-ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer's memoirs, in which he expresses several of his own "points of view" has left both politicians and civil servants stunned.
Said one MP: "This kind of behaviour is absolutely despicable, civil servants have long accepted the tradition that they do not have their own mind. That this man should now be the Chair of Press Complaints Commission just makes the situation worse.
In other news, it's been discovered that a heavy drinker is not the man to lead a political party. Senior members of the party have been found knife-sharpening "for practise".

American asks for gun

Gun-ho

Surprise, surprise, a Texan police officer asks to be armed in the UK.

Politician resigns on principal shocker

In a case surely to cause flying pigs to drop out of the sky and land on a pair of the devil's ice skates, Martin Salter MP has resigned from the Government on a matter of principal. A spokeperson for politicians everywhere, ever said: "This has never happened before, I've really no idea why he has done this".