Yearly Archives: 2013
Richard Briers: A Good Life Well-Loved
It was with profound sadness that I learned of the death of Richard Briers recently.
Born in Raynes Park, Surrey in 1934, he was the second cousin of actor Terry Thomas (with the famed gap in his front teeth). Richard’s mother was a music / drama teacher and pianist.
Leaving school at 16 with no qualifications, Richard first took a job as a clerk, and briefly dabbled in electrical engineering; before being called up for National Service at age 18.
+38Sandhill Crane: Nebraska’s Majestic Migration
Something is happening in Nebraska on the Platte River, that is heralded as one of the greatest natural spectacles in the US.
Every year around Valentine’s day, culminating in March and on through to April, hundreds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes congregate on the Platte River (South Central Nebraska), forming huge flocks and using the sandbars as a nighttime roost.
+37The passing of Paul Holmes
The death of well-known NZ broadcaster Paul Holmes today marks the end of an era in what passes for in-depth news / current affairs interviewing in New Zealand
Personally, I was never a big fan of Holmes’ as a current affairs interviewer; he didn’t have the best diction, he ‘um’ed and ‘arr’ed and in the early days at least had a slight, but noticable lisp. It made listening to a Holmes interview rather irritating.
Holmes may not have been a Jeremy Paxman or John Suchet, but he did manage to cut a number of people down to size; in an interview with Margaret Thatcher, he suggested that her management style resembled a Nuremburg rally. And America’s cup arsehole Dennis Connor walked out of the studio after Holmes suggested that now he was in New Zealand (we had beaten Conner’s arse and taken the cup) he should apologise for insulting comments he had made about members of the Kiwi crew/support team.
+38Joke of the week
A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables when a voice in the dark said, ‘Jesus knows you’re here.’
He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze. When he heard nothing more, he shook his head and continued.
+74Declaration of Equality
Help make this happen – sign the Declaration of Equality
“We the undersigned are calling on Government Members of the House of Representatives to show true leadership by representing the views of the majority of New Zealanders – who believe that all people should be equal in the eyes of the law – by implementing the Declaration of Equality…”
- New Zealand Centre for Political Research
+55Rant: Assassins Freed
A couple of years ago, I was browsing around my local branch of JB Hi-Fi and in the discount bin, I came across a cut-price copy of the original Assassins Creed.
It proved to be a reasonably entertaining game, with an intriguing storyline; the chief protaganist, Desmond Miles is kidnapped by members of a sinister organisation called Abstergo, a corporate front for the Knights Templar. Desmond’s captors explain that human DNA is actually a complex set of ancestral memories, which can be viewed by placing the subject in a device called an Animus. The Animus allows a subject to “re-live” the memories of his/her ancestor(s) in a sort of Virtual Reality environment and in doing so, “unlock” memories which are then recorded by the Animus. It’s a sort of Medieval-Arabic-Ninja-meets-The-Matrix
+40A new year begins
Well…another year passes and a new one begins.
2012 was a fairly tough year, but at least we all survived the Mayan calendar doomsday predictions 
Here’s hoping that 13 will be a lucky number for us all…
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