redfiona99

Film Industry:

Is it still a man's world behind the camera? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39040666

Miscellaneous:

Where in Europe a man and woman can get a civil partnership - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39039954

Jack Barsky: The KGB spy who lived the American dream - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38846022

London's inner city riding school - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-38333098

I Was a Muslim in Trump's White House - When President Obama left, I stayed on at the National Security Council in order to serve my country. I lasted eight days. - https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/rumana-ahmed-trump/517521/?utm_source=twb

'How my mother's organ donations brought new friendships' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-39053938

The ex-trader turning disabilities into profits - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-39026809

Sci-Fi:

Actor Taking Over Chewbacca Role for Peter Mayhew Shares Touching Letter About His Predecessor - https://www.themarysue.com/new-chewbacca-letter-to-mayhew/

Sport:

Rugby Union:

Six Nations 2017: Jonny Gray - Scotland's unassuming hero - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39057852

The 76-year-old rugby player who tackles trees - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/get-inspired/39041276

Owen Farrell on Jonny Wilkinson's advice and winning his 50th England cap - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39056466

Technology:

A guided tour of the cybercrime underground - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38755584

Miscellaneous:

The Australian Muslim MP fighting the trolls - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-38676799

Lagos living: Solving Nigeria's megacity housing crisis - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-38688796

Why a Bollywood memoir has kicked up a storm about being gay in India - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-38687051

Saroo Brierley: The real-life search behind the film Lion - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-38645840

'I'm a transgender woman - ask me your invasive questions' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38637837

News:

2016: The Year in Photos, January-April - https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016/12/2016-the-year-in-photos-january-april/509519/

2016: The Year in Photos, May-August - https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016/12/2016-the-year-in-photos-may-august/509522/

2016: The Year in Photos, September–December - https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016/12/2016-the-year-in-photos-september-december/509525/

Top 25 News Photos of 2016 - https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016/12/top-25-news-photos-of-2016/509516/

Hopeful Images From 2016 - https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016/12/hopeful-images-from-2016/510155/

Politics:

UK-EU trade deal: Another WTO issue - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38658025 From January 2017

‘American Carnage’: The Trump Era Begins - https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/american-carnage-the-trump-era-begins/513971/ From January 2017

Science Fiction

What Can We Learn from Star Trek’s Jake Sisko, Writer? - https://www.tor.com/2017/01/23/what-can-we-learn-from-jake-sisko-writer/

Sport:
Football:
When The Beautiful Game Turns Ugly - http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/9338962/when-beautiful-game-turns-ugly?utm_content=bufferf7842&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Archaeology:

Mayan 'nesting doll pyramid' discovered in Mexico - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-38008546

Architecture:

Stevenage: The town that aimed for Utopia - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-37826783

Films:

The 21 Documentaries from the 21st Century Everyone Should See - https://www.gq.com/story/21-best-documentaries

Law and Order:

The Dutch prison crisis: A shortage of prisoners - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37904263

Medicine:

The Man Who Fixed His Own Heart - http://digg.com/2016/marfans-heart-aortic-sleeve

Miscellaneous:

Why The Heck Do Animals Live In Our Houses? - http://www.popsci.com/why-do-we-have-animals-in-our-houses

11 times 'The Simpsons' accurately predicted the future - http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-simpsons-is-good-at-predicting-the-future-2016-11

My father's double life as a British spy - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-37892878

Israel's Arab soldiers who fight for the Jewish state - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-37895021

The slot machines that changed bingo - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37872831

Is it right to train babies to sleep? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37765001

Politics:

Untangling Trump's Conflicts of Interest - https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/trump-conflict-of-interest/508583/?utm_source=twb

The Lessons of Henry Kissinger - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/12/the-lessons-of-henry-kissinger/505868/

'Crazy' to say Facebook helped Trump win - Zuckerberg - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37946713

US election 2016: The Trump-Brexit voter revolt - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2016-37943072

Science:

Here’s What Happened the Day the Dinosaurs Died - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/what-happened-day-dinosaurs-died-chicxulub-drilling-asteroid-science/

INSIDE THE JET PROPULSION LABORATORY: NASA'S CRAZY, KOOKY, LEGENDARY RESEARCH FACILITY - http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a23666/right-kind-of-crazy-nasa-jpl/

Unknown dinosaur almost blown to oblivion - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37902583

Science Fiction:

FRESHLY REMEMBER'D: KIRK DRIFT - http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/columns/freshly-rememberd-kirk-drift/

Sport:

Rugby Union:

China's drive to become a rugby union superpower - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37836744

Oh, you thought I was joking about the number of links ;)

Data visualisation:

A Compendium of Clean Graphs in R - http://shinyapps.org/apps/RGraphCompendium/index.php?utm_content=buffer32ead&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer Really useful R graph examples.

Food and Drink:

Sneaking a taste of North Korea's finest beer - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37316967

History:

Grunwick dispute: What did the 'strikers in saris' achieve? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-37244466

Law and Order:

The terror of young offender institutions - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37291160

Miscellaneous:

The cartoonist called the 'Walt Disney of Brazil' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37284939

The man who squeezes muscles - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-6d083913-0bfb-4988-8cd8-d126fa6dcff1 Okay, so conflict of interest warning, St. Helens is one of the towns where Purple Aki used to do his muscle squeezing. I also can't help but think that if some weirdo was going round squeezing girls's muscles, the article about him would be less sympathetic.

What we know about Ri Chun-hee, the most famous woman in North Korea -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/37317041/what-we-know-about-ri-chun-hee-the-most-famous-woman-in-north-korea

Grammars debate trumps expert consensus - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-37315832

News:

7/7 bomber's former brother-in-law: 'There were no signs' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37324130

Politics:

Ail to the chief: A history of US presidential bad health - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2016-37338018

How Hillary Clinton can get that ‘presidential look’ -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2016/09/07/how-hillary-clinton-can-get-that-presidential-look/?utm_term=.059f29da2fcc From before the US election. Glorious satire.

Science:

Paolo Macchiarini: A surgeon’s downfall - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37311038

Science Fiction:

What if Star Trek Had Never Existed? - https://www.wired.com/2016/09/imagining-a-world-without-star-trek/

Amy Adams takes control in Arrival movie - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37295727

Sport:

Get Inspired: Great North Run and six inspirational stories - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/get-inspired/37305963

Football:

Sylvia Gore: England women's first goalscorer dies aged 71 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37201105

Paralympics:

Rio Paralympics 2016: Kadeena Cox aims to inspire black athletes - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/disability-sport/37331510

Rio Paralympics: 50-year-old Kazakh woman sets new swimming record - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-37317460

Technology:

Cybathlon: World's first 'bionic Olympics' gears up - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37196860

The ultra-Orthodox Jews combining tech and the Torah - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37300929

These were both actually really good. I enjoyed myself immensely. Mostly because they appeared to have hired child actors who could act, and writers who could not only write snappy plots, but also the parts for said child actors. The grown-ups aren't bad either.

I particularly liked Kelsy, even though I can see why other people didn't. She's just a wonderful example of a gobby teenager, and I'm old enough to see that as adorable rather than annoying.

( Spoilers for the Pilot )

Maria's Dad is lovely but her mother ... ach du liebe, she's horrid. A wonderfully done grotesque, but horrid nonetheless.

Luke was v. well done.

~~~~

Revenge of the Slitheen

I found it very hard to dislike the Slitheen. I mean, I know they're evil, but they're such a warm cuddly evil.

( Spoilers for the Revenge of the Slitheen )

I really liked Clyde, not as much as Kelsy, but he will do as a replacement. Also, Luke and Sarah-Jane are adorable together.

I can see why people say it is the better of the spin-offs, and it certainly gives some of the episodes of the main show a good run for their money.

Seriously, there was a random from on the path through Vicky Park. I think it was suicidal because it didn't try and move out of the way. I missed it thankfully.

Other than that I saw The Peacekeeper Wars. Same reaction as last time, much squeaking about the coolness of Scorpious, Aeryn and Chrichton, the wonderfulness of D'Argo.

Other things noticed this time - Stark and Granny, mad though they are, are deeply cool.

Was very annoyed that Channel 5 cut a couple of scenes ( Spoilers )

Not spoilery, well I don't think they are

1) At the end someone who looks so much like a young Peter Cushing that it's not funny shows up and is obviously supposed to be Grand Moff Tarkin. Guess who plays him?

Scorpius. Or rather the actor that plays Scorpius.

2) Reason I love Obi-Wan, he hits two of my 'character archetypes I love' - he's a loyal sidekick and a wise old warrior. The worrying thing for him is that he's done the wise, old thing since TPM.

3) Bail Organa rocks, but since he's played by Jimmy Smits I don't think anyone is surprised. Guess who was brought up on NYPD Blue.

It's a Tarantino icon, with lots of thanks to twistingflame for the picture.

Well last night I could have either been going out getting drunk or I could have stayed at home overanalysing a fictional character. Guess which I did.

I'd done my bit being sociable anyway, I went to see the fencing competition, Warwick beat us, I think (sorry, I got a little lost with the rules) and then I went to the Amnesty meeting.

I went out Tuesday night anyway, to the same bloody nightclub they always go out to. I came home early, partly because the smoke machine was making me choke and partly because everyone else was drunk and I was sober, and there's this one particular girl who is a nutcase when she drinks and I didn't want to be around for that.

Anyway, so guess who had hangovers. And guess who was the least sympathetic person ever. Sorry, it's beyond me to be overly sympathetic to people who bring it on themselves. Because yeah, I drink, but I know when to stop. People are idiots.

Discussing drinking and idiots - dear Jindrak, I would like to see your shiny ass on TV once a week so do you mind not getting into fights with Randy Orton. Because it's not good for you.

Yeah the fictional character I was overanalysing was Snape. Actually, I finally figured out who I see as Snape - Paul Darrow who played Avon in Blake's 7. Truth be told I see Avon as Snape but since he was the actor in question, I thought I'd better put him. Because Avon is sooooooo like Snape.

I heartily recommend Blake's 7 for anybody who likes good television and or sci-fi, because if you ignore the abysmal standard of the sets and the SFX (they were made for even less than Dr. Who) the characters were fantastic.

First you have Blake, the titular hero, except he isn't. He's all brave and derrerdoing and all that but the programme does make it plainly obvious that he's a nutty fanatic who cares more about the cause than about people.

His chief foil is Avon. Who is the least pleasent person ever to grace the television screen, but like a certain S. Snape is actually a good guy in deep disguise. Except that if it came down to you, him and survival, he'd kill you.

Then there's Jenna, who is a better pilot than any of the boys and is in fact pretty kick ass. She tends to take Blake's side in any argument.

After her there's Vila who is the stereotypical friendly crook and coward. Which is all he does but he does it with such style. His other main job is to be the butt of Avon's jokes and general helpmate. He's the Neville of the crew, except he's a fantastic crook.

And then there's Gan, Cally and a couple of others. And the best part is how they interact. Because Blake and Avon have this whole hate/hate, respect, anger, ideological problem. As in they can last two sentances without an argument.

And as for Snape ( OOTP spoilers within )

One friend thinks that Snape will actually turn out to be a bad guy, and be conducting the world's greatest triple cross. Either that or that will be part of the world's craziest quadruple cross.

And from what Mynx said, I really, really must see the POA trailer. Actually thinking of going to the cinema anyway but this'll just be extra reason. What I've decided to convert to being a 5 year old and get excited about everything.