Run Tigers Run

A double-header of entertainment today, with a trip to Moore Park to watch the Wests vs St George NRL game; the first round of the season. Went with Sallie and Wayne for that one, then just Sallie after for dinner and a movie -- the Simon Pegg comedy "Run Fatboy Run", which was pretty damn funny, with a lot of highlights with Pegg and costar Dylan Moran.

The football went mostly well, with Wests taking in a solid 24-16 win the start the season. Started badly, with Benji Marshall going down injured again in five minutes, but Wests ended up blowing out to a 24-4 lead anyway -- didn't really see that coming. Then naturally they had to almost blow it with St George back before losing 24-16. Ultimately, Wests were solid but not brilliant, with the usual guys like Hodgson (who's kicking goals well again) and Farah playing very well. Good start to the season, and better they get used to being without Marshall now I guess.

Run Fatboy Run is a damn funny movie, which is what we expected with Simon Pegg and Dylan Moran (both of whom Sallie probably likes way more than I do!) funny as always, and good performances from Thandie Newtown and Hank Azaria, along with various fun British comedy cameos. It evokes some of that Richard Curtis British comedy vibe, but is so much better than that stuff in so many ways. Example -- in Fatboy, the characters are not all white! It's a little thing, but it makes this far more real, with a greater setup of the humour as well. And the story was more believable as well, with some great funny beats, but a more realistic conclusion.

So Fatboy, tops, Tigers pretty good, good day overall. Quite expensive, so I'm glad the day was a gift from the parents for my birthday. Fun, fun, fun!

Review: Jekyll or Split personalities really aren't much fun at all

Whenever I see something by Steven Moffat I watch it. You may never even have heard of the name, but for me, it's that simple. For nearly 20 years now, he's been one of the best British TV writers, from Press Gang through Coupling, his various Doctor Who episodes and now Jekyll. He's the must watch writer, rivalled only by someone like Joss Whedon I guess.

As a sort of self-conscious followup to the classic Robert Louis Stevenson tale of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, Jekyll is modern, high tech and full of surprises. Tom Jackman (James Nesbitt) has two sides to himself -- a rather extreme form of split personality disorder. Literally.

There's mysteries everywhere -- an American group that wants to track and then capture him, an assistant who doesn't really seem to work for him at all, and an estranged family that has no idea what is happening, and are increasingly scared.

Nesbitt is excellent -- he has the charm to switch between nice guy and psycho and make it believable. Michelle Ryan (Bionic Woman) is his assistant, and she is gorgeous, mysterious and somehow unbalanced with her ease at Mr Hyde's more extreme behaviour. And Gina Bellman (Coupling) is effective as his wife (she comes into it more next week) -- and hot in her always offbeat way (especially at 40ish).

It has Steve Moffat's fingerprints all over it -- diverging timelines, a mystery based on personal perspective and memory, and a twisting tale that is guaranteed to leave you guessing until the end.

Definitely worth watching -- Jekyll is a slick, modern and clever take on a classic tale.

What I said about dumb Americans ...

... can of course easily be applied to, well, everyone basically.

I found this Gallup poll (via Scalzi) that shows various response numbers to several different scientific and general knowledge questions.

The fact that one subheading says "Four out of Five Americans Know Earth Revolves Around Sun" is actually a funny way of glossing over the fact that 20% don't know that fact! There's also the usual remarkable lack of knowledge that some Americans have of their own history (only 76% of the Americans surveyed could name that their country obtained independence from Britain!)

But it goes all ways -- for that question about the earth revolving around the sun, Brits and Germans were even worse ... only 74% of Germans and 67% of Brits surveyed got that question right. So Americans were smarter ... or I just hope the surveys are targeting really dumb people.

Honestly, I think many of us would be surprised just how low the general level of education is in the supposedly sophisticated western world. People just don't know that much beyond the basics they need to get by. Makes me feel good about cultivating such a wide range of general knowledge, that's for sure.

And while there were no figures available for Australia in such as survey, I'm quite certain we'd get similar figures here ...

TV: Life on Mars

... was the best new drama last year, and to my great surprise, ABC has put on the second season already.

A good start, with Sam Tyler (John Simm) seemingly in a very bad way, and almost off the deep end, but recovering very nicely. Keeps the same great things about the first season, but throws in some nice new twists. Mean Gene going by the book?!? Great to see Annie elevated to detective.

And that phone call at the end is a magnificent twist, really makes you want to know where things are going now.

And I love that line from next week already -- "Nobody move! There's armed bastards here!"

Can't help it ... have to mention this one ...

I know the methodology is dubious, and I know it doesn't say much except how stupid the viewers of a certain UK TV channel are, but ... damn ... this one is funny, and worth mentioning:

Nearly quarter of Brits think Churchill a myth: poll

Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll which shows nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth, while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.

Read the whole thing -- I dare you to.

While I know the headline is the worst, conflating a guaranteed-not-very-scientific poll with a national trend for their whole country, but seriously, who could possibly be under the impression that Winston Churchill and Gandhi were fictional? It's just nuts ...

The article also mentions Florence Nightingale and Richard the Lionheart as other figures believed "fictional" by a large percentage, and while I think they're slightly different and slightly more forgivable examples, it still reaks of extraordinary stupidity. Florence and Richard are both very real of course, but both people that are imbued with plenty of popular myth to go with their reality -- not to mention lacking obvious film of them a la Churchill and Gandhi.

But still, where are these people that were polled and what can we do about them?!?!