That implies that the others have got complete maps - which I find much more surprising. Every time that I have had any dealings with any utility companies - which I do as part of my job - it becomes apparent very early on that they don’t have anything like accurate maps in whatever area I am looking at. And not just for old lines that they inherited - as seems to be the issue here - but for things like fibre optics that I saw them lay myself just 18 months earlier.
I use Rainy Days for the radar, and - since I’m in the UK - the Met Office weather app, which has a Next Rain widget.
“customers weren’t willing to pay for the added cost of cleaner fossil fuels.” says CEO of company that made $36 billion in profits last year.
This article is from 2009, of course.
A couple of high and low points rather than the full list:
Slow Horses continues to be the highlight.
Revisited an episode of Blackadder the Third - Nob and Nobility, in fact. I really enjoyed these at the time. I had trouble disentangling genuine enjoyment from the nostalgia value this time around though. Not sure which was predominant.
Such Brave Girls has had a LOT of good reviews. Only seen the first episode so far. This is properly ‘dark’ humour. Not edgy or shock value. This is humour found in the banality of depression, desperation and denial. I’ll stick with this one.
Top Hat (1933) - you don’t watch a Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers movie for the plot. I know that. I have seen a scattering of these in the past: my mum was a fan. I have not seen one recently though. There was a plot of sorts, but it was so weirdly handled that, as straightforward as it was, it was largely nonsensical. Are they all like this? I really can’t remember. Astaire’s character was smug and annoying, but at least he was given one, unlike Rogers. Obviously the dance numbers were great. The humour was… let’s just say hit and miss. Set design was functional, camera work merely ok. This is apparently one the best for Fred and Ginger. Presumably for the dance routines and Berlin’s music alone, though, since there really is nothing else of interest here.
Yes, Krampus is American - with a few subtitles for a German speaking character in one early scene.
The character of Krampus seems to have captured a much wider, more international, imagination in recent years. I would like to see a German film version - or appearance in some media - that sticks to the root of the story from that perspective. However, the US version does a pretty good job.
TV
Film
I’m a pagan, so it is all about the solstice for my SO and I.
We will typically go somewhere for the sunrise that morning. I have been to Stonehenge and a couple of other stone circles in the past, camping out overnight beforehand - and more recently have watched the live stream from Newgrange. For the last few years we have also celebrated Brumalia - a Roman and Byzantine winter festival that started (in its later period) on Nov 24th. So we progressively decorate the house with lights or holly, ivy, pine cones etc each day from then until the start of Saturnalia on Dec 17th. I have also made an advent-style calendar with chocolates in matchboxes that runs throughout Brumalia - Nov 24th to Dec 25th.
On Dec 5th, which is Krampusnacht and also a Faunalia festival, we will hang a Krampus figure up and have taken to watching the 2015 movie for the last few years.
During Saturnalia itself we will have at least one meal or party with friends - which usually has some element of mis-rule. On the solstice itself, as well as watching the sun rise somewhere or another (probably a local beach this year, as we are on the east coast), there is a local Mummers’ play that we usually go along to in the evening. The solstice is also when we do our gift-giving.
On the 26th, there is a Cutty Wren ceremony locally that we will go along to and then there is some morris dancing at another location on new year’s day.
Whilst I am sympathetic to the overall aim of this, things like this:
She would have expected people to name figures such as Quintus Lollius Urbicus, who became governor of Roman Britain
…do stand out as being a a bit unrealisitic. I mean, how many governors of Roman Britain of any race or nationality can the typical Briton actually name? I’d be surprised if it was more than 1 and probably less than that.
And if the expectation is that anyone would know of this guy only because his chief contribution to history is “being black” then I am not sure what we are gaining here.
I watched three films last week:
Barbie (2023) - pleasingly intelligent satire.
Colette (2018) - lavish fin de siecle biopic.
Alice in the Cities (1974) - existentialist road movie prefiguring Wenders’ later Paris, Texas.
Which was best? Well, the first, US, section of AitC had more intensity to offer than the European conclusion. Wenders was still developing here. Colette looked beautiful and had a story to tell, but did not seem to get to the root of what kept the protagonist with Willy so long. Barbie also looked good, Gerwig knew what she wanted to say and articulated it pretty well and entertainingly, if a little schmaltzy - inevitably - towards the end.
Overall, I would say that Barbie wins.
Although I am required to use windows machines for work normally and, since we dont have access to firefox, i normally use edge there, there are occasions on which I find it convenient to hop into a similar setup on my home linux machine to get to my work account. I will use edge for that - as well as outlook online etc.
For a work browser, I find it pretty useful. There is no way that I would want to use if for general purposes though.
The tories have been incumbent for 116 years in my neck of the woods (the previous one was a whig). The surveys say that is likely to end this time. I am sooo looking forward to that.