October 2007 – Page 2 – University & Unicorns

21 October 2007

Who The Hell Are “Family First”?

Looking around on the ‘net, I decided to go to some Australian news web sites to see what’s going on “Down Under”. Of course one issue that is taking up a lot of media coverage at the moment is the upcoming federal election on November 24th. As I was looking around the news.com.au web site, I saw the “vote-a-matic“…great name! This little questionnaire is meant to help the “swinging” or “marginal” undecided voter who to choose on election day. I decided to do it for a bit of fun, mostly in the hope that it wouldn’t show me up to be a right-leaning Neo-Nazi.

As you can see by the image, gladly the outcome was such. But it left me with the question, “Who the hell are Family First?” So here they are…Family First. Yes, I have a lot of time to kill, but it was a bit of fun, and I enjoyed seeing the result.

21 October 2007

Attack Of The Killer Ladybirds!

I was just reading a story on the BBC News web site about ladybirds (700,000 of the little blighters) being sent into Manhattan on attack to kill aphids. Well I don’t want to disappoint the recipients involved in this deployment but after watching The Nature of Britain last Wednesday night, it would appear the ladybird is not the lean (well, they are not exactly “lean” anyway), mean, aphid killing machine as initially suggested. From the depiction given on the television the other night the ladybirds usually just walk past aphids and it’s only them clumsily walking over them forcing the aphids to fall off plants and get caught in spider webs do the ladybirds actually help combat aphids.

Let’s hope it works out for the people involved. Go ladybirds!!

Read the full BBC story here.
Photo supplied by Jasmic under creative commons (some rights reserved).

21 October 2007

A Guilty Pleasure?

Yes! I admit, I watch X Factor. Do you think I’d get away with calling it a guilty pleasure? I like to think so, because it will let me off the hook for liking it. This week saw the start of the show “for real” with the final 12 acts chosen to sing live to the public. This year there are 4 categories: Males (aged 14-25), Females (aged 14-25), Groups and Over 25’s mentored by four judges: Simon Cowell (groups), Louis Walsh (+ 25’s), Dannii Minogue (males), and Sharon Osbourne (females).

This is what I thought of the final 12’s performances tonight (and what I have thought of them up til this point).

Females:
Kimberley – totally robbed tonight. Thought she gave a good performance. Not the strongest, granted, but it was high energy and she definitely has a strong voice.
Alisha – probably will end up stronger vocally than Kim so deserved to stay, but both ladies should NOT have been in the bottom two. Her performance wasn’t strong, especially the second time round (but hard as she knew she was in the bottom two at that stage) and the song choice didn’t let her show of her vocal capabilities.
Emily – tough stuff for someone who’s only 15, but she did well. It wasn’t the strongest performance, but hey, she’s 15 and she’s singing to an audience of about 7 million people so, you know…in the grand scheme of things. I’m sure she’ll get better.

Males:
Leon – he sounded fantastic, if a bit TOO much like Michael Buble`! He was totally slagged off by the judges. Yeah, it was a bit messy musically, but the bloke can sure sing.
Andy – a bit cheesy for my liking. There are strong parts to his voice. It’s unique, but a little weak to me. We’ll see what happens with him. Maybe it was just song choice letting him down.
Rhydian – OMFG! What can I say? Well, the guy is a knob as far as I am concerned. I totally agree with Sharon there. He’s WAY too OTT for me. He’s got a great theatrical voice. Great for the West End, not for X Factor.

Groups:
Hope – bleah! Pussy Cat Dolls wannabe’s. They did Rihanna’s Umbrella. It seems the only freakin’ song they can do, seeing it’s the only bloody one I’ve seen the perform! I mean, YAWN!
Futureproof – like the name, but that’s about it. Just another turgid boyband. Even more so considering they didn’t actually exist as a group at the beginning of X Factor, but were the “reject” boys that were the rejected 6 from bootcamp. And that’s also how Hope were formed.
Same Difference – OMG! Get me a gun, now! Like a brother and sister Steps – and predictably end up doing Tragedy (a Steps cover of the Bee Gee’s song). And it was as the song title suggested. I was sure they were going to be in the bottom two with Rhydian…but what do I know?

Over 25’s:
The best lot…
Beverley – Fantastic, and more so ‘cos she’s a Luton girl!!! Great voice, good performance. Simon slagged her off for not being able to dance…erm, it’s a SINGING contest isn’t it?
Niki – best performance of the night. Great voice. She’ll do well.
Daniel – not the best performance, but heart-felt. He’ll do better. I’m sure I’ll have more to say on him as time goes on.

20 October 2007

Why ‘Antipodean – The Right Side Up’?

I was sitting around waiting for my turn on the Internet (yes, we are a one computer household – although I can write posts via my mobile phone) watching Em reading RSS feeds of blogs when I was noticing that most peoples blogs have “catchy” names, whereas I had the rather bland “Larelle’s Blog”. I was wondering what made these people choose a somewhat obscure name for their blog and so I thought to myself “what kind of ‘catchy’ title would I use for my blog?”. I use to stick with “Larelle’s Blog” because I was worried people who visit wouldn’t realise it was my blog, but the people who are coming to my blog from www.larelle.co.uk SHOULD know it’s me, so I thought “why not”! And so here’s what I came up with “Antipodean – The Right Side Up”. Don’t ask me why. I was just sitting there still waiting my turn, and it came into my head. I just like the word Antipodean (and that’s what us Aussies and Kiwis get called in the UK). I also thought that although I am Antipodean, I’m now (metaphorically) the right side up. I suppose I could’ve went for something inane like “Down Under Girl” or “Upside Down Girl”…but I wanted something arty-farty.

19 October 2007

Crippen Innocent of Murder?

I have just been reading a story on the BBC of how DNA testing on the relatives of Cora Crippen has shown that the decapitated body found under the house of Dr Hawley Crippen could not have been that of his wife. It’s amazing how there still is interest in this story nearly 100 years on.

This latest twist seems to still pose more questions than it answers. If the body was not that of Mrs Crippen then who’s was it? Was it still a murder that Dr Crippen was guilty of? It would suggest so considering he tried to flee the country with his mistress. He was only captured because the new wireless technology had been installed on the ship he and his mistress chose to sail in.

You can read the full story here.

19 October 2007

Our little tiny mate.

We have a new little resident in our garden. On Wednesday night I was watching TV and Chrissy our cat was asleep on the lounge next to me when we both heard a noise from outside. It wasn’t a particularly breezy night, so I knew it wasn’t a gust of wind blowing something over. My partner Em went out to have a look and there, right by the front door was a little hedgehog, helping himself to what was left of the cat food put out for Kitty (one of the neighbourhood cats). Em put some more food out for him and some fresh water as well.

Last night he returned (right outside the front door again, as if demanding food!), and I went out to see him too. He’s a little one, so I hope we can help him fatten up before hibernation. He was happily munching away last night until Em opened the door. He got a little scared, but his tactics are to stay still rather than run. At least it gave us a photo opportunity.

19 October 2007

Only Seven Years Too Late.

Well I say seven years too late, but it’s never too late to enjoy a good television series is it? I have over the last few nights been watching a re-run of Queer As Folk on More 4 and really enjoyed it. I have been watching the current run of Doctor Who and don’t usually like the Russell T Davies written episodes of “The Doctor”, but he wrote an absolute gem with QAF. I really, really liked it, and whilst looking for info on Craig Kelly (pictured left), I found out a piece of info that for me was quite a wow factor (as it usually seems so rare). We share a birthday, and not normally what I get on the odd occasion which is someone sharing the day and month with me, but Mr Kelly shares year as well! Yes, we are both old!

Anyway, just wanted to say before crawling into bed.