Internet Amusement

Sponsored by a burger chain these shorts come from the creator of Family Guy Seth MacFarlane. In this one Super Mario rescues the princess.



This clip features Bob Marley and this one is a promo clip for the series, looks like they should be worth watching.

The Return of Rocket Man

Back in June I wrote about the Swiss guy who threw himself out of a plane in a wing suit powered by model aircraft engines, today he was at it again.

Slightly higher today at 8,200 feet but then he was planning to cross the English Channel from Calais to Dover a distance of 22 miles. He made it in one piece in less than 10 minutes and landed safely and you can watch an extract here, he is back to the day job next week flying aircraft for Swiss Air.

News Digest

These Swedish ladies qualify for a Darwin award, though I suspect that a long stay in a psychiatric ward would be more appropriate, have to feel really sorry for the police who had to deal with this insanity and the drivers who were involved.

It turns out that back in the day “big tobacco” were paying Hollywood studios and actors big bucks to promote their brands in films. Part of me wishes that this policy was still being applied to certain “celebrities” in 2008.

Now here is one very very smart 12 year old, he has worked out a way of improving on the design of 3D solar cells, almost gives you hope for an end to energy problems in the future. Thanks to the Dilbert dude Scott Adams for bringing this to my attention.

Ricardo Patrese Scares Wife

Retired Formula One driver takes his wife for a lap of the Jerez racing circuit in a Honda Civic Type-R and she is scared witless. While I do not speak Italian her body language and demeanour leaves little doubt in what she is telling him.

The icing on the cake comes when she realises that there is a camera on the dashboard as they are slowing down entering the pit lane, his calmness while subject to the tirade is also quite impressive.

Billy Connolly

These days people tend to forget that when The Big Yin first started out in showbiz it was as a folk musician, then he became a folk musician who introduced his songs with humorous introductions before becoming a comedian who played the odd song.

I was lucky enough to see him in a small venue before he became famous across the country after his appearance on a tv chat show – very charismatic and more songs than on subsequent appearances. Here is his UK Number One hit from 1975, a spoof on Tammy Wynette's DIVORCE.

Session

Folk music here and in Ireland has a long tradition of the session, where a bunch of musicians would gather in a private house or pub and play together. One musician will start a tune and be joined by those others who know it, those that don't will sit it out and make a start on learning it for a later date.

It is a long established way of preserving (and enhancing) traditional tunes and songs, the informal setting allows less experienced musicians to participate and develop their skills. All of the great Irish folk groups are filled with people who will have started out playing in sessions, and most of them will continue to play in them when they get the chance.

In the late nineties myself and a group of family and friends spent the new year in Westport (County Mayo), a grand wee town and home of the famous Matt Molloy's pub. He is a well known folk flute player and was in The Bothy Band before going on to play with The Chieftains, if at home it is not unusual to find him playing in a session.



We were not lucky enough to witness that, but on the Sunday night we did catch a fine session from some talented musicians, one of the highlights of the trip.

This clip gives you a flavour of what you might be lucky enough to stumble across in an Irish pub, note the careful ingestion of stout by some of the musicians while taking time outs.

Question Answered

Back in April I was wondering why Australian wines purchased in Indonesia had labels warning of “Produced with egg and fish products as a processing aid. Some traces may remain”, and why I had not seen the terms on the same wines purchased in the UK.

The answer is that these allergy warnings were introduced by legislation in 2002 for the Australian/NZ markets, what has been harder to track down is why they are still not being used over here.

My suspicion is that it is down to some EU regulation, after an hour or so of googling I was able to confirm this thought.

This summary opinion (from 2005) appears to suggest that there is no evidence of allergic reactions to these products in wine and that without a scientific study there is no reason to add a warning to labels. The only “allergenic” warning required in the EU is for sulphites or SO2 which is found in most wines.

Still, it does seem strange that they have to put on different labels depending on where the wine is being sold.

Gordon Brown Downfall – The Prequel

Came across this last week (unfortunately I cannot remember where I first saw it) and is ROFL funny, warning the subtitles do contain strong language.

Some background for non UK readers, at a by-election in July of this year the standing Labour candidate managed to turn a 13,000 majority into a 1,000 vote deficit to the SNP candidate, the election was in Glasgow East.

Valentino Rossi

Is a five times winner of the premier motorcycle racing series (known as MotoGP since 2002) and the way that things are going this year it looks like he will make it six. He also has a 125cc and a 250cc World Championship title.

Watched my recording of Sunday's race at a very windy and rainy Indianapolis Speedway the other night where having started from pole he ended the first lap in fourth place. By lap 14 he had taken the lead and when the race got red flagged at lap 20 he was over 5 seconds ahead of the second place man. This was not the most exciting race to watch but under the atrocious weather conditions they were all doing really well just to stay upright let alone do any overtaking.

This win was the 69th of his career taking him past the record of 68 wins previously held by Giacomo Agostini and means that he only has to gain another 13 points from the last 4 races to become champion once more.

This clip is from Laguna Seca 2008, it shows Rossi duelling with Stoner (last years champion), this sort of overtaking action is what I enjoy about MotoGP. These guys are nutters, exceptionally skillful but nutters nonetheless; shame about the music it would have been better with just the noise of the engines.

News

Amid all the global economic crisis stuff there is some more cheering news to be found, check out the new planet found, only 500 light years from here.

Elsewhere, scientists discover that London taxi driver's brains have in-built sat nav.

Bad news for the criminal underclass who eat processed foods, their high in salt sweat can leave recognisable corrosion marks on metal surfaces, high temperatures can enhance the marks on shell casings.

Was sad to read that Richard Wright of Pink Floyd died yesterday of cancer.

From the 1994 Division Bell tour, third and last time I saw them perform live, here is one that Rick wrote The Great Gig In The Sky, seems appropriate.