Whimsy

There was nothing of note in the news today particularly so I figured I'd share with the assembled masses what has been occupying my time today.

Avril Lavigne got fit... and grown up! What's that all about? - http://www.hollywoodtuna.com/?p=875 - I bought her first album when it came out like 5/6 years ago and must admit I enjoyed it for a summer, haven't listened to it since, and I did have a bit of a crush on, she was cute skater girl and there weren't many of them around at the time... leave me alone. But here we are a few years later and despite the fact that if I'm honest she still looks a little bit like rat she's looking pretty darn good. Maybe its the hair. It might also be because she's Canadian (I have a bit of a thing).

Evangeline Lilly has been accused of looking at little like a man, and OK she's quite broad of shoulder, but she's still really really hot. Ok maybe these pictures from Egotastic! don't do her justice - http://www.egotastic.com/entertainment/celebrities/evangeline-lilly/evangeline-lilly-bikini-tutu-ridiculous-000967#more - in that the bikini looks like something you see on a badly dressed four-year-old and she's pulling a funny face but these older ones - http://www.egotastic.com/entertainment/celebrities/evangeline-lilly/evangeline-lilly-bikini-tutu-ridiculous-000967#more - she looks bloody fantastic, like lean mean sex killign machine. I've had conversations in the past about how if one woman had to shag you death which woman would it be... well Evangeline Lilly looks capable and well I think I could enjoy... can you imagine how hard she would ride!

Over on I Watch Stuff! they posted a image from Spidey 3 a few days ago -http://www.iwatchstuff.com/archives/2006/02/spidermans_new_costume_unveile.html - the buzz seems to be that this is a black costume and therefore we're looking at Venom. I don't mean to pee on the fire of fanbiy buzz... but its the hue of the picture, is grey/blue/blck picture, to give mood... to make it look depressing. Venom would not be sitting like that plus he doesn't wear a costume that's what he looks like! Oh and someone is claiming you can see hobgoblin in the reflection in the eye piece... but luckily not even fanboys are takign this seriously. In other film news there is widespread derision at the idea of Misha Barton playing Supergirl. I don't see why, she's got that doe-eyed charm that you associate with the character, plus I think she could be be ballsy... I've never read Supergirl, but from what I understand its not like she's Wonder Woman... anyway here's the story - http://www.iwatchstuff.com/archives/2006/02/mischa_barton_as_supergirl.html

Finally, again its been around a while but no-ones really commenting on it. The teaser for MArie Antoinette the new Sophia Coppola with Kirsten Dunst is online - http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/marieantoinette/ -I'm not convinced personally. Although despite her being a 'snaggled toothed whore' (thanks The Superficial) I rate Kirsten as an actress and Sophia has been outstanding so far so I'm guessing it'll be good. Looks a lot more kinetic than Coppola's previous efforts and as usual the music is fantastic, I guess there just doesn't seem to be a plot there - to me it has a faint whiff of Plunkett & Macleane about it and that aint a good thing.

Power to the People

How ridiculous is that as a title for a serious and much needed report?

A report is today being published, and going largely unnoticed, that says that we need a major shake-up in the way that government is elected and operates. No kidding. After travesty that was the last election, Labour getting about 20% of the popular vote and nearly 60% of the seats etc. The report, the result of a commission led by Baroness Kennedy and containing a genuinely broad representation of society - witness a Radio 1 DJ, a sports coach and a former director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts - was designed presumeably to tell us that the younger generation (ie people like myself) are apathetic about the political process, are entirely apolitical and are content to let the party's bicker because after all one party is pretty much like the other right? Well that's not what they found. They found a swell of politcal opinion, a massive and I would say angry dissolutionment with the current political climate and desire to do something to change it all.

"The disenchantment cuts across all sections of society, but the political class just do not get it. They do not realise how deep the alienation runs. A bit of reinvention by the political parties will not be the answer. More fundamental reform is needed if we are to re-establish a democracy fit for a 21st-century People."

Says Kennedy in a fantastic rabble-rousing editorial in today's Independent - http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article347992.ece - All of which leads to the fact that what people want is a real input into the way their country is run.

There's also a fantastic opinion piece in The Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/02/27/do2701.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/02/27/ixportal.html - which raises again the idea of reform to the second house and that Gordon Brown may well advocate an elected second house. To be honest its never been something I’ve had strong views on, ok when I was younger I hated the Lord because they seemed to represent to kind of stuffy past-it generation that I so detested, but recently I’ve begun to see the worth in the Lords, they seem to vote with their conscience, they debate along idealogical rather political lines and I like that, a Platonic ideal of the philosophical ruler. The system, with hereditariness and the selection by the governing party etc, does seem to create a stayed and conservative bias. So perhaps the way forward is to play it like the US supreme court, life members nominated by the ruling party and voted on by the entire house. It does then create that sense of a lofty philosophical group debating the moral and practical consequences of any legislation. Of course life-peers are open to corruption one ruling party can stack the house with their own cronies and dictate the political climate of a generation, so maybe you limit terms, but that to me seems a little wishy-washy.

Who knows, I just hope this new report and a new batch of leaders can finally effect the change that the public clearly want so we can dispel the idea that people (younger people in particular) just don't care about the world they live in anymore.

Blair's ridiculous short-sightedness

I've recently started getting involved in my local Friends of the Earth group. They asked me to do a leaflet drop protesting against a new waste incinerator in Newhaven on the south coast. Initially when I was told about it I thought it was probably one of those short-sighted tree hugging things that FOE tend to do, the sort of wooly, not in our backyard stuff that put me off them for years. Turns out however that this thing will be taking waste from all over the south-east, transporting it via polluting road links and burning it at this huge incinerator that will create massive amounts of pollutants and reduce the amount of recycling that occurs. My favourite part of all this is that the company that is building and running the thing abviously needs some kind of reassurance that it'll be able to make some money out of the whole thing. Thus the local council will ensure that certain levels of waste will reach them each year. This utter ridiculousness means that instead of having an incentive to reduce waste they will have an incentive to keep it the same levels its currently at.

The reason our beloved Government likes these incinerators is because they reduce the amount of waste going into landfill. A good thing, I hear you say, well yes but only if it means that we are polluting less and recycling more. Which this doesn't do.

It's all part of Blair and the like's short term, short-sighted response to climate change. It goes hand in hand with their idea of building new nuclear power stations. It's stop gap, it'll reduce pollution in the short term but what happens to all that waste, who's gonna prove that these damn power stations are safe and it's not even liek its cheaper that renewable and micro-generation.

I'm not overly au fait with all the science of it but the arguments that FOE make are compelling even to someone with little knowledge like myself.

Check out the protest against the Newhaven incinerator - http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/local_groups_and_campaigns/se.htm - and send off a letter of protest. Also read up on why they oppose nuclear - http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/resource/general_readers.html#nuclear_power

And then have a look at the Goverment's reasoning for it all - http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/review/index.shtml