Only in Britain, and only in the Daily Telegraph, would we get an apology for insinuating someone went hunting out of season, especially with the sly dig at the end as well:

APOLOGY: In Friday’s article on Liz Hurley’s wedding it was wrongly stated that the actress is holding a pheasant shoot on the Sunday after the ceremony. Game shooting is of course illegal on Sundays and the pheasant season ended on Feb 1. We apologise for the error and accept that if any shooting is to be done it will be by the paparazzi, who have no season and do not observe the Sabbath.

Via Boing Boing comes this piece by Eric Flint on DRM.

In the real world, criminals do not do everything in a criminal manner. Whatever you or I think of their morals, they are just as capable as anyone else of gauging an enterprise from the standpoint of its cost-effectiveness.

Fair enough. But what’s one example of this criminal enterprising mentality?

Pirates rob bullion ships, they don’t rob grain ships.

Don’t they? Oh yes they do.

Pirates Hijack Aid Ship Off Somali Coast

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Pirates hijacked a cargo ship delivering U.N. food aid to northeastern Somalia on Sunday - at least the second time in recent years that a vessel contracted to the United Nations has been hijacked off the country’s dangerous coast.

And they do it for economic reasons, just like those that Flint lays out - in a warzone such as Somalia where food supplies are limited, those controlling the food supply lines will be the ones with the most economic leverage. Grain becomes as attractive as gold.

It’s a pity. Flint’s central point is correct - that an expensive product of limited quality and usability, i.e. DRM, will mean people will inevitably be driven to find better quality and cheaper (to the point of being free) alternatives, and so DRM becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, crippling the product more and more with restrictions. But his message is let down by an insistence on a crappy real-world pirate analogy; rather than bandy about terrible metaphors (which is what the pro-DRM lobby are very fond of doing) he should just let the arguments sing for themselves.

Finally taken the plunge and upgraded to WordPress 2.1. And while I’m at it I’ve ditched the old theme and started with a blank canvas. A new design will gradually fall into place, bit-by-bit, wiki-style, over the coming weeks.

From today’s Graun… Surgical success linked to skill at video games:

A study has found a direct link between skill at video gaming and skill at keyhole, or laparoscopic, surgery. Young surgeons who spent at least three hours a week playing video games in the past made 37% fewer errors, were 27% faster, and scored 42% better overall than surgeons who had never played a video game at all.

Note: Not a authoritatively formal-looking study, and a small sample size, so it may feel the wrath of Ben Goldacre-types. Still, it’s a lovely case of life following art, as this cartoon appeared in last week’s xkcd:

Finally got off my arse to go see Hot Fuzz last night, and I can confirm it’s good. Really good.

Minor spoilerage follows…

Good that is, for the kind of geek who likes their films chock-full of references and homages, subtle hints and details, and totally out-of-place dialogue. Of course if you’re not the kind of person who likes the person in the cinema next to you going “Have you figured out why he’s holding that pot plant?”, “Did you spot how all the characters’ last names are named for professions?” or thinks its hilarious when mid-gun battle Angel and Butterman break off to discuss what suitable pithy payoff line to utter when dispatching the next bad guy, then you might not like it. Also, the first half of the film is admittedly quite slow but it picks up in the second half, and is well worth the payoff.

End of spoilerage

Also a big shout out to the superb Timothy Dalton, who steals the show as the oily supermarket owner Simon Skinner, and hopefully on the strength of that performance makes a decent comeback as a comic actor, because he really deserves it. Jim Broadbent is as reliable and enjoyable as ever, and some of the more minor actors such as David Threlfall and Adam Buxton also do well. And the many cameos (Bill Nighy, Steve Coogan, Bill Bailey, etc. etc.) mean Britcom buffs can squeal silly. There’s even an (alleged) very brief cameo for a (disguised) Peter Jackson, according to the internet rumours. So go see it.

My provider, 34sp.com had some of their servers hacked today. Though the site’s now been restored back to its normal running, if anyone noticed anything strange here earlier today, that was the reason why.

Well, I shouldn’t have feared as much. Tonight’s opening episode was really quite good - the first ten minutes apart, which seemed to be a gross reduction of the characters almost into parody of themselves; however, if as I suspect that was just to remind us of who they were and perhaps to sum them up for any new viewers of the show, then it’s forgiveable.

Spoilerage follows…

Interesting how the show confronted the Grandfather paradox - after all if Sam really is a time-traveller then by putting away Crane in 1973 means 2006’s Sam would never have known of him. The apparent “explanation” at the end that Crane was actually an escaped mental patient in 2006 doesn’t quite square the circle - he may have been around to have his revenge, but the original reason for Sam’s pursuit (to stop Crane murdering his wife) still no longer exists, as he spent all the intervening time incarcerated rather than building a crime empire. That, and the mysterious phonecall he gets at the end, lend more to the credence Sam really is in a coma. But in that case, explain how 2006’s reality suddenly changes. Ack, my head hurts…

Tonight Life On Mars starts its second series on television. Life On Mars was without doubt the most enjoyable British television production I saw last year (especially as Spooks is starting to sag of late), and I say that as an eighties child who thinks everything that the Seventies gave us (with the exception of punk rock, the Arsenal double-winning side and the Voyager probes) was shit.

It’s not the nostalgia factor for me, or even the novel twist on the chalk-and-cheese copper duo, or even the “Is Sam Tyler in a coma-induced fantasy world, or has he really travelled back in time and the coma thing is just his brain’s best attempt at dealing with it?” question that overhangs the entire series, but the way all of these are expertly combined. Add in a slick production values, some cheeky hints and subtle clues within (such as the inspiration for this blog post title - ten points to the first commenter to work it out), brilliant acting by John Sim, Philip Glenister and Liz White*, and a great soundtrack (although the DVD version alas couldn’t get all the rights to all of them, from what I hear).

But although I’m looking forward to tonight’s episode, I do so with a certain amount of trepidation. The promo video and the posters all seem to be plugging the Seventies nostalgia theme a lot. I really hope this is just the marketing spods in charge of the campaign just totally misunderstood the charm and complexity of the series, rather than a sign the show is just going to become a “we luv the seventies” spoof of The Sweeney. The worst thing would be if, in the hurry to produce a second series having only planned for one, the creators have run out of inspiration.

One thing that bodes well though, is that this is definitely the last series they’ll do, which suggests they know they’ve got a good thing going and don’t want to ruin it by stretching it beyond its natural bounds (take heed, producers of LOST!). Oh well. Only time will tell (Ha! Geddit? Never mind). I’ll be glued in front of the TV tonight and despite my reservations, I really recommend you do the same as well.

* Who, incidentally, just about beats Eve Myles aka Torchwood’s Gwen Cooper as my favourite actress playing a gorgeous-looking brunette police officer with a regional accent in a BBC show in 2006. But only just.