Is the world crazy or am I?

Do ISIS and the newly adorned Caliph Ibrahim (formerly Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) speak for you? If not you are probably feeling about one tenth of the horror and confusion that a British Muslim is probably feeling right now. What has been happening in Iraq these past few weeks is nothing short of a tragedy and goes to highlight just how much bloodlust, the thirst for revenge and religion make for a strange partnership. What’s strange is just how these discourses inspire such romance in people. Now Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS (the militia organisation fighting to create an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), has declared himself the new Caliph and has urged his fellow Muslims (Sunni Muslims mainly rather than the majority Shia in the region) to come and fight with him to establish a new Caliphate in the Middle East. To give a little context a Caliphate is a type of Islamic kingdom, with the head or Caliph (interpreted as ‘successor to Mohammed’) leading his people.  Th...

Since I left England last year I noticed a lot of change in life, such as new friends, job, city, language, living spaces etc. However since I left and have been able to watch my own culture from the outside I’ve noticed that three things that keep coming up (based on my own experience checks). 1. Work This was one of the things that made me leave the UK in the first place. Now, whilst many of my friends rode out the recession with fairly good jobs (which have naturally progressed to better jobs) and the fact that my job isn't perfect; it isn't a subject I share much about on social media. Other people however seem to talk endlessly about how unhappy they are with their jobs, (especially in high pressure legal and financial careers which London has in droves) or how long they are putting in at the office. The worst thing about the latter case is there seems to almost be a Calvinist element of pride in that toil they put in. Perhaps it’s a way to justify the awful existence ...

Viral videos have always been a mixed blessing. After all, remember the bad old days of the Crazy Frog which was (sort-of) funny at first but was ruined by reposting and overhyping until it disappeared completely up it’s own arse. Not a tear was shed after the frog passed into ignoble oblivion with a feeble “rnng dngg croooak”. The same may one day be said of Social Networking beheamoth Facebook, which is rapidly approaching a similar fate due to the explosion of viral sharing videos, campaigns and articles. If I was to hazard a guess at Facebooks proximity to it’s own anus, I would say it’s precariously skirting around the sphincter.  Now, no one can take away the amazing achievements Facebook has achieved. Let’s look at stats such as over a billion subscribers (as of 1/1/2014 ) and a steady growth. No social network has ever achieved such highs and the rivals Facebook has seen off such as Twitter, Myspace, Bebo and Google+ is admirable. However such saturation doesn’t com...

You are tearing me apart conventional movie expectations! The Room, written, directed and starring Tommy Wiseau is a bit of an enigma. Is it an earnest attempt to make a decent movie ruined by serendipitously hilarious incompetence? Is it a winking self-conscious parody of the film making art? For that matter who or what is Tommy Wiseau and what planet is he from (a question asked in the film itself)? It’s a little hard to put one’s finger on. Despite the contrived and repetitive plot, terrible acting and poorly realized characters; The Room has become a cult hit with bad-good movie fans spawning lively midnight screenings and even a fairly faithful flash tribute game . Screenings of the film have been compared to those of the Rocky Horror Picture Show - albeit with less tongue-in-cheek humour and dressing up – given the energy and anarchic experience that you get when you see The Room on the big screen. I was lucky enough to visit one such screening in London's Leicester Squ...

To me - a British person - the USA is a funny place, on one side very proud of its freedom and liberty and on the other frighteningly conservative whilst still aping the former. However in a society full of terrorists, pro-choice views and Barack Obama how does the concerned conservative of today make sure his/her future Ronald or Nancy Reagan is being fed the right messages? Luckily the ever enterprising publishing sector in the Land of the Free has answered these prayers with children’s books that put the fun back into fundamental conservatism. Each of these books are 100 per cent real, have been created without any hint of irony, and can be bought with your good ol’ freedom dollars (freedom isn’t free after all) today. Enjoy: 1. The Tea Party Colouring book America’s favourite band of wacky, politically motivated historical enactors, are back with a book full of laughs, giggles and Tea Party doctrine. In this children’s garden of colouring (notice it’s ‘colouring’ a...

Dating sites are no longer the preserve for the weird and dateless. Now everyone is giving them a try and getting their hands dirty in the world of online dating. There’s a lot of choice too now and of course dating sites and app producers have decided to get involved with the mobile market. Unsurprisingly there’s a huge range of free to download apps you can find on the Google Play Store where you can find Mr or Miss right. Remember however in some cases a lot of the functionality can only be accessed with a premium subscription or a micro purchase, so it’s questionable just how “free” they actually are but here goes nothing! Here is one man’s view of the Android dating app landscape and some of the choicest apps on offer. Tinder Tinder is one of the hottest apps on the market right now allowing you to simply choose a partner based on a profile image. If you both like each other’s photo then you can chat. However, it doesn’t work for my Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini despite several ap...

A post by Robert Peston got me thinking yesterday. The subject was on the costs of private healthcare and how many Britons may be charged too much for their treatment. Now, the gradual privatisation of the NHS (don’t pretend it isn’t happening) is a matter that’s close to my heart, although Peston’s points have got me thinking about the wider insurance industry – which is to be fair something I don’t often dedicate much thought to - and the effect that it has on our lives. Peston claims firstly that many of the privately run hospitals face little to no competition, granting them an automatic monopoly in certain areas. As a result patients are being charged top dollar just for being ill in an area which only has a private health centre immediately available. The wider implication of this is that this system of overcharging is endemic in any private healthcare system, especially if it’s run like the American system. I’ve been lucky enough to speak with doctors both here and abroad w...

Yesterday something strange happened, as for once I’m actually moderately pleased with my government. As many of you will have read the UK Parliament yesterday voted to abstain on military action in Syria and I actually support this for the most part. If anything I’m pleased that we had a debate about this and didn't heavy handedly force a war upon ourselves, I think we've actually seen real democracy in action. I use the term moderately pleased for this as I can’t pretend that not taking action on Syria is an out and out good thing. The country is hurting, there are severe atrocities taking place and the nation is locked in a heartbreaking struggle for its future with no standout heroes and villains everywhere. That being said, I find some of the pro-intervention voices a little grating and I will explain why. Firstly, we can’t pretend that we’re so self-important to think that the world’s weight is on our shoulders. Many people are wringing their hands saying that “we’r...

Twitter has claws  It’s been hard to avoid the repeated stories of trolls on twitter threatening to rape and murder several female public figures. It’s almost as if the Twitter sewage pump has burst and now the mess is leaking everywhere with all the misdirected anger of trolls spilling out into your ears nose and mouth. Perhaps they should rename the network ‘Shitter’ given the excrement that has been spewing from it. Who are the perpetrators? Given Twitter’s anonymity I can only give an educated guess, but if my own internet experience is anything to go by it is probable that teenagers make up the larger proportion, with a smaller group of angry disenfranchised men making up the rest. Whilst the teenagers are just displaying their ignorance of acceptable norms (not excusable but slightly more understandable) it’s the angry masculinists that I find more insidious. Whilst Twitter has rightfully introduced an abuse button, which will do much to remedy the situation, what do...

There's been a lot of fuss in the gaming world these past few months as the new generation of video game consoles loomed upon us like a doom bringing wind. Naturally they've all promised much after what was probably a renaissance for the industry as Nintendo's innovative Wii, Sony's powerful but unimaginatively named PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's solid Xbox 360, hoovered up the market with few complaints from gamers - well, barring initial hardware teething problems at first. Then bang, every major manufacturer in the gaming console, ummm.... game had a shiny new box of tricks and excessive processing capability for you to drool over prior to release. The only catch is that each new announcement has been more disappointing than the last, with the tablet-console hybrid gaming device no one asked for from Nintendo to the gigantic middle finger to games consumers in the shape of the Xbox One. Oh and Sony have pretty much more of the same but with a big new graphics ...

On my travels in Latin America I've been viewing the reaction to Baroness Thatcher's death with some interest. As was to be expected opinions and thoughts about her passing have been anything but reasoned and rational; sadly this is true of both left and right sides of the debate. The dichotomy between left and right opinions in the country certainly is as gaping and narrow minded as ever. The left have seized the opportunity to see her time as Prime Minister as wholly negative without considering the possibility that anything positive happened - and attack right leaning people in general - whilst the right have jumped on their moral high horse to simultaneously attack the left and bely a slightly hipocritical reaction to this vilification. The left and right is so obsessive in it's love or hate of her Tory government between 1979 and 1990, that it's almost impossible to work out what good or bad she actually did. On the good side she certainly got the economy moving ...

It also predicts delicious creme filled biscuits Well that's another ancient apocalyptic message debunked it would seem. At 11.11am GMT on the 21st December 2012 precisely nothing happened, despite the wisdom of the sacred Oreo. The most confusing thing about the whole circus is that the news has got itself on edge and dedicated time and space to something not happening (I appreciate I too am doing this). It's amazing how you can talk so much about nothing isn't it. To be fair if there was an impending apocalypse the signs would have appeared already, unless of course the economic crisis is to do with that but somehow I don't think so.

To try something a bit different - also a gimmick can be fun every now and again- I have written this short blog entirely on a tablet. A Google Nexus 7 to be precise (There's your plug for this blog Google). This is also a bit of an experiment to see how easy the process is before I set off on a new adventure entirely - more on that later. This will involve a whole host of new blogs, hopefully using this handy tool. As far as first impressions go, using a tablet to write with is easy than it would appear. Don't get me wrong, it does feel slightly alien and I think it may yet take some getting used to but its not too time consuming during the first attempt and is aided greatly by quite intuitive predictive text. So in conclusion, writing on a tablet is possible even for a clumsy handed fool like me, but may take  few attempts before it stops feeling weird.

*Disclaimer: If you haven’t already guessed David is not a very positive person. He is not able to just sit back and enjoy things and finds ways of needling criticism out of even the nicer elements of the world. He has come to terms with this and admits this is curse and not a blessing. If the following offends you please don’t read it.* I found myself watching Surprise Surprise the other day - another sign that ITV has given up on innovation entirely and is desperately trying to turn back to more prosperous times in the early 90s (funnily enough when advertising revenues for TV had no competition from the internet). For those of you who have never sat down to watch it before, it’s very simple TV. Unsuspecting do-gooding members of the audience are taken by ‘surprise’ and rewarded for their positive work in the community. It’s got a nicey wicey tone, is presented by the cuddly auntie-like Holly Willoby (I’ve been giving her a lot of stick in the last couple of posts, it’s not inte...

This is my serious face Paedophila has become a very hot issue again, as the allegations squared at Jimmy Saville threaten to open up another Paedogeddon . In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if we were close to appointing a Paedofinder General . However, for the first time the child abuse finger pointing has now reached the government. This came to the fore today for the Prime Minister David Cameron, who during a surreal ‘gotcha’ moment on the cosy daytime TV favourite This Morning - fronted by doddering uncle-like Philip Scofield and dippy auntie-like Holly Willoby - was presented with a list of suspected Tory paedophiles. Not even Paxman pulls those kind of punches. Obviously, the PM wasn't too pleased with this sudden attempt at guerrilla journalism. He probably came on the show thinking that the worst case scenario would be that the runners wouldn't get the biscuits he liked. His response to the question was interesting given he had little time to prepare a res...

I'm just going to say this: May the Force have mercy on all our souls. The sad fact is this is the second time I've accidentally predicted a new film (which I didn't think would ACTUALLY be made) which has then subsequently been produced . First Yogi Bear and now this....

Every year I contemplate not buying the new Formula One game. Yes, I am a F1 fanboy but I always wonder if I’m slowly accumulating a collection of games with last year’s models that I won’t play once the new season edition arrives. Do you ever wish they would just release a basic definitive game and then just release updates every year with new cars, drivers et cetera?  (If anyone in the games industry is reading this then please consider it. I’m running out of room on my games shelf.) I doubt it will happen given the massive success of yearly FIFA titles but it’s a thought. So, what does F1 2012 have to offer to racing fans? To start with you are introduced to the gameplay and feel of the car with Young Driver Test mode. Now, whilst this is a nice edition to newcomers and people getting to grips with the handling changes from 2011, it does feel slightly patronizing. "You can drive a real F1 car only when you prove you are responsible!" You buy a new game with th...

You may remember I threw a bit of a hissy fit the last time a new episode of Red Dwarf hit our screens. Back to Earth was nothing less than self-indulgent meta-humour, although its greatest crime was that it really wasn’t that funny. Thankfully, the newly revived series Red Dwarf X has been a relative breath of fresh air. The boys from the Dwarf are back and, despite the odd wrinkle, it’s as if they’ve never been away. Much of the first episode Trojan felt right and on form. Rimmer is as dorky (his new life slogan is "Hey ho pip and dandy!"),  weasley and resentful as ever, to the point that he even crashes his holographic hard drive due to a huge bitterness data jam. Lister is still meandering pointlessly through life, filling it with whatever distractions he can – in this case spending a majority of the episode impatiently on hold to a phone-in shopping channel. Kryten still appears to be on 24 hour wipe alert and The Cat is still screeching around the ship and ge...

The debate surrounding abortion has again been appearing in the news. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has openly stated that he believes that abortions should no longer be carried out after 12 weeks of gestation (instead of the current 24); although the government has been quick to point out that there are no intended policy changes. Obviously this has awoken voices on both sides of the pro-life and pro-choice fence and as usual the pro-life crowd are using it to try to use it to hammer home the message that any abortion is wrong, no matter whether it was within the 24 week allocation. This argument I always find somewhat jarring and I shall explain why in detail. Let me nail my flag to the cross right now. I am pro-abortion. Don’t get me wrong it isn’t a nice way to go about birth control (nor might I add should it be anything but a last resort) but it is a necessary evil in a world where we have mastered nature and face a very worrying future of over-population. To state it bluntl...