that First Bus would do everything they could to accomodate the request of a Labour supporting bus driver not to have to drive a bus with a Conservative party advert on it. What with the “shock horror” at the “starkness” of an advert implying that the Tories are suitable for election and all.

Honestly, does no one just say “Shut up and crack on, Bollockfeatures, there’s a recession on” anymore?

One post a week is bad enough, one a quarter and I think we can safely conclude that I’m not a blogger.

Anyway, headlines -

“Reduction in town’s violent crime”

Hurrah! Some good news amidst the gloom.

“Assaults in Hinckley between 1 December and 1 January fell from 12 the previous year to 7 this year.”

Ah. Still, nearly halved it.

Spoilers, naturally.

The ending of The Dark Knight bothered me. Why, I wondered, does Batman take responsibility for the murders committed by Two Face? Surely the deaths can be written off as general criminal bastardliness, or perhaps a Joker sub-scheme? Thematic reasons be damned, as a part of the story it made no sense to me.

Huzzah then, for I have found* a satisfying explanation that deserves more airing than it will get on this blog. There’s two aspects – firstly, the copycat vigilantes near the start of the film that are getting in the way and endangering themselves. Secondly, what Sal Maroni says to Batman just after getting his shins snapped: “You got rules. The Joker, he’s got no rules. No one’s gonna cross him for you.”

By taking the blame for the murders, he achieves two things beyond protecting Dent’s reputation. Firstly, the city turns against him – who would want to be a copycat now? Secondly, those that would prefer to cross him rather than the Joker need to think again – looks like he doesn’t have rules after all. Lovely. Now if someone could explain where the horses disappear to just before the final battle in Return of the King, maybe I’ll be able to get some sleep.

* found, and lost – should I manage to track down the link again I’ll post it, but suffice to say I wasn’t smart enough to work all this out myself.

Yes, still alive. Just got back from a holiday to Lake Bled in Slovenia, and have passed into my thirties since last we spoke. My workmates got me There Will Be Blood (superb) on Blu-Ray for my birthday. Not much else to say, I’m afraid, the title of the post came long before any idea about what to write, but was too good to pass up.

Technically last year was year one, but if the gubmint can describe it as year zero (thus causing an imbalance in the Force that results in me getting my bursary payments two months late, damn their eyes), so can I.

I got 84% overall. This has made me very happy. Part of that mark was 95% for a presentation on the Cambrian explosion, probably my finest hour (6 minutes, actually) this year. Sadly none of this counts towards the final degree, but I was pleased to have made the effort when I saw a notice for 2nd years advertising work studying insect immune systems that ended – “email me if you’re interested, including your first year score.”

Anyway, that’ll do, best not to get too wanky beyond that quick summary. If the planets align correctly, I might even post more regularly over the summer.

Would you believe it? You wait over a year for cricket on the Wii and when it does turn up, it’s by this bunch of jokers and thus guaranteed to be utter bobbins. Codemasters or EA need to pull their finger out, there’s clearly a blinding Wii cricket game to be made, even more so now than when it was released – using the balance board to register front or back foot shots, anyone?

Oh god yes please.

Again – spoilers. Fairly warned be thee, says I.

Steven Spielberg only directed the first 30 minutes of the latest Indiana Jones film, that’s what I reckon. It was enjoyable enough but the plot was a mess and the dialogue forgettable, which is a bit of a killer for a series that trades on snappy exchanges almost as much as action sequences (you could take the tank and boat chases out of Last Crusade and it’d still be worth it for the father/son sniping – “How’d you know she was a Nazi?” “She talks in her sleep.”) The climax just seemed to be a game of ‘follow John Hurt as he bumbles his way through the puzzles, and if in doubt thrust the skull at whatever’s in the way’, and made no sense as far as I could tell. There was a whole ‘Indy as a suspected Red’ subplot that just popped its head round the door near the start and was resolved in the last five minutes, and the return of Marion was mostly wasted. And I just find it hard to believe that Spielberg directed that jungle chase – it’s all over the shop.

First 30 minutes though. Iconic introduction for Indy; Ark warehouse!; Spielbergian touches (you know – champagne glass shadows turning to tell you the blimp is going back to Germany) like the lamps pulling towards the crate; Indy gets the shit beat out of him; nice bit at the college and after with Jim Broadbent; decent intro for Share The Beef and a good motorbike chase. Then it all goes a bit funky, unfortunately, and the annoying thing is that you can almost see a really cracking Indiana Jones film trying to surface.

Still, Ford still does the business perfectly, and like Andrew says – Jim from Neighbours. I’m sure they only keep casting him in stuff to trigger that response in people.

Here’s what faith can do.

Leila Hussein lived her last few weeks in terror… She died in hospital after futile attempts to save her. Her death, on 17 May, is the shocking denouement to a tragedy which had its origins in an innocent friendship.

The final sucker-punch in the story of Rand Abdel-Qader, the young girl murdered by a crowd of bloodythirsty scumbags for liking a British soldier. Leila was brave enough to leave her husband and went to an organisation in Basra that campaigns against honour killings – it shut down after she was killed. One of the campaigners recently received a note that said “Death to betrayers of Islam who don’t deserve God’s forgiveness. Speaking less you will live more.” Lovely, someone tell Tony Blair.