Briefly, Britain's Got Talent.

I haven't watched this series of Britain's Got Talent because I not find it boring. It used to be okay for a laugh of some light entertainment but it has just gone on too long. I did however catch some of the final.

The highlight for me was the egg thrower. I won't go into detail but the way she stood there lobbing eggs at Simon Cowell, with a huge grin across her face, as though she was showering him with rose petals was hilarious. As for the act going on behind her, well it was mediocre at best. They weren't bad singers but they weren't that great. The comedian wasn't very funny, but for a 14 year old I suppose he is pretty good and much braver than me. Especially when you consider that he has cerebral palsy, although if he wasn't disabled then I'm not entirely sure he would've got so far in the competition.

The puzzling thing for me though is that the winners were Hungarian. I thought it was Britain's Got Talent? Don't get me wrong, I think we should celebrate our cultural diversity, but surely by them winning it it proves that Britain hasn't got talent.

Ah well, I wonder when Hungary's Got Talent starts?

BBC Question Time.

I occasionally watch Question Time on BBC One, but every time I do I think that it is a complete waste of money and is very boring. This isn't because I find politics completely dull or think that there isn't a need for political debate, because there is.

The problem I have is that there is no political debate on Question Time. For me a debate is a useful argument. In a debate if somebody makes a statement that you disagree with then you should deconstruct what the person has said and explain why you think they are wrong and what in your view is the correct way of doing something. Instead on Question Time each person on the panel simply offers a contradictory statement to the other. They don't debate at all. The Tory politician will just stick to the the Tory rhetoric, the Labour politician will stick to the Labour rhetoric, the Lib-Dem politician will stick to the Lib-Dem Tory rhetoric and so on. None of the panellists are willing to change their opinions or points of view. Therefore no matter how long the show goes on for, no progress will be made.

Another issue with the show I have, aside from all of the aforementioned making it very dull, is the audience. The typical audience seems to consist of a bigot, an angry person, a posh person, a moron, a bumbling person and only one person who can actually articulate a reasonable question or statement that reflects most normal people's views.

On the whole, it isn't just Question Time that fails to provide any political debate, this is just the mainstream example. In fact if you watch almost any political show or even BBC Parliament, there is no debate at all. The whole political attitude is wrong. In the House of Commons all they ever do is shout and jeer. Is it any wonder hardly anyone votes any more?

Complex things.

As a general rule, people are idiots. That is why whenever people are confronted with something so complex that they can't comprehend, they make things up. I'm pretty sure this is why there is religion. Religions have arisen to explain the enormously complex planet that we live on and what happens once we stop living on it. For example, try and imagine being dead. It is impossible, we simply can't comprehend it. You'd have no feeling, no sensations, no memory and no thoughts. We just can't imagine what it would be like. This scares some people, because let's be honest, unknown things can be scary. That is why people have invented the afterlife, so they can imagine what it is like to be dead, even if it isn't true, it is comforting. There are other aspects of religion that have been invented, because the scientific answer or reasoning is too complex for people to comprehend. Evolution is pretty complicated so for convenience people have invented creationism.

Religion isn't the only example of people making things up when things become complex. There are many superstitions and habits that people do, just because something good happened the last time they did it, or something bad happened when they didn't do it. There is a fine line between superstition and doing something for a reason. For example, washing your hands before performing surgery is something that every surgeon does, but not through superstition. Finding a four leaf clover is considered lucky, but it isn't, they are just uncommon, so this is clearly superstition. However if you do something superstitious often enough so it becomes a habit, it can actually have a positive effect on you. For example if you are getting kitted up for a sports match and get dressed in an order unusual to you then you might feel uncomfortable and not play as well. It is really just what your brain associates with said superstition.

Most superstitions come about because of coincidence. There are so many things going on at the same time across this vast planet that there are bound to be coincidences. Often these coincidences are mistaken as something mystical and become superstition.

So sorry, but those lucky pants you have aren't really lucky, it was just a coincidence.

Mammoths.

In the vast frozen lands of Siberia, the remains of Mammoths have been discovered. For paleontologists these are fantastic finds, especially the recent find of a Mammoth with flowing blood (still dead, the blood just hadn't dried). Scientists can use these discoveries to find out more about these magnificent creatures as well as the ice age habitat they lived and ultimately died in. There is even talk of cloning these giants and maybe in the not too distant future we will see Mammoths in zoos.

What I want to know however, is what they taste like. Everyone knows that early man hunted and ate Mammoths and now they are quite clearly extinct. So, were Mammoths delicious? We have wiped out entire species just for food before; the flightless (and evidently scrumptious) Dodo being the most obvious example. If we clone large animals with ease in the future then maybe that will ease food stresses across the world. I would really like to try a Mammoth steak. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should clone one Mammoth, eat it and say 'job done', we should try and clone enough for a breeding, captive population, if we can. If I'm totally honest I'm curious as to what Panda tastes like, but I'm not going to try and eat one, they're far too endangered.

Call me a monster, but it is just a healthy curiosity. Also at the time of writing I'm really rather hungry. Anyway, I hope we clone Mammoths and I won't eat one unless they become plentiful. Provided we don't run out a sausages any time soon.

If.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling

Live by these words.

Australia with Simon Reeve.

I am incredibly jealous of Simon Reeve. He has a fantastic job; travelling the world and getting paid for it. Granted he does have to write and present television shows, but that is a pretty small price to pay for seeing some amazing places. I have nothing against Simon Reeve, I actually quite like him, I just wish I had a job like his. His latest series, Australia with Simon Reeve was excellent, as were the other series he presented. If you have some spare time I urge you to watch them (they should be on BBC iPlayer or YouTube somewhere).

Now moving on to Australia itself, it seems like the country is going through an important period. Australia is going through a resources boom which will, inevitably, end at some point. Once this does end what will the impacts be? If Australia can get it right and not pollute too much or become too dependant on natural resources then surely the rest of the world can learn how to be more sustainable in the future. Australia could be a good barometer for the entire planet. We might be doomed in so many ways, but if we can fix things in Australia then maybe there is hope for the rest of us. Good luck Aussies.

Busy day.

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, but I've been quite busy. Not only that, but the sun has been shining and it is the weekend, so we all have better things to do. Enjoy your Sunday everyone.