Top Gear is Dead

Last night was a sad night. Top Gear - the much loved, ever-green, gas guzzling and downright daft beast - is dead.

Five Things I Learned Today

I'm told that you have your best ideas when you're not trying to think about something. So, for example, when you're sitting on the bus or train staring out the of window you might realise the solution to the problem you're having with an essay. Or when you're getting ready to go to bed and suddenly the plot of a film you didn't understand suddenly becomes really obvious to you. My recent idea came as I was walking to class today, with the only things on my mind being Panic! at the Disco's new album blaring in my ears and making sure I wasn't clipped by a bus as I crossed the road. Maybe that's why it's such a good idea?

The Olympic Dream

I'm one of those people that will sit down and watch pretty much any type of sport on the TV, possibly with the exception of cricket. Imagine, therefore, what I have been doing for the last two days. That's right, you got it in one, I've been watching the Olympics for the whole time. To be exact, I watched about 12 hours yesterday and I've been watching it on and off today since about 9am until now. I've taken time out of my busy schedule to write this post in fact - you lucky people! The "Olympic Dream" that titles this post is nothing to do with medals or 'taking part' but instead it is the dream that is the Olympic fortnight for sports fans such as myself. The 24 HD channels that the BBC have dedicated to the Olympics have been used to their full effect - and then some.

Tragedies and Their Futures

A week not of tragedy itself but of the memories of tragedy. In the last week we've seen the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and in the week ahead we'll see Anders Behring Breivik go on trial for the atrocity that he conducted last summer. Two events that seem are so far removed from each other but which share such a bitter common factor: the loss of lives of many innocent people. In the Titanic's case 100 years is a poignant anniversary but people seem to have missed the point. The commercialisation of the anniversary (talked about below) can only but make you cringe - not the desired response to the memories of over 1500 people. In the case of Breivik, a madman will be dumped onto the conveyor belt of justice this week and rightly so. Why, though, do I pick up on these two things in the same post? Well read on and let me explain.