TOP 100 SCIENCE SITES
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| Bendigo man wins Inventor of the Year honour Bendigo man Terry Hunter has won the title of the inaugural Bendigo Inventor of the Year and a $10,000 cash prize. abc.net.au |
TV review: The Special Relationship, Stephen Hawking's Universe and Merlin Tony Blair should be happy – except for the bit where he comes across as a suppositoryWriting in the current issue of the Radio Times, Alastair Campbell is dismissive of The Special Relationship (BBC2, Saturday), Peter Morgan's drama about Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. Too much of it didn't happen, he says. And the trouble with dramatised accounts of real events, especially when mixed in with real footage, is that people start to believe they are real.I think the viewer deserves more credit than Campbell is giving us. No one's really going to believe that Blair hung up while Jacques Chirac was babbling down the phone in order to take a call from Clinton. Did Blair value his relationship with the US president more than his relationship with the French one though? I'm sure Campbell would admit that. So the joke – because that's what it is, a little moment of comedy – is justified. And later, as Clinton left Chequers, did he really look back to see Blair chatting away to his new best friend in the White House? Probably not. But following Bush's "victory" did Blair immediately transform himself into a suppository and offer himself up to the new president on a silver plate? Well, Campbell would say not, but others may disagree.He says the film gets nowhere near the truth about the Blair-Clinton relationship, that in reality they quickly formed a close bond that went beyond political to personal, and that it got difficult over Kosovo. Which is pretty much how the film has it. Campbell's beef seems to be with the details, which I suppose is understandable, given that he is one of those details, and was there for a lot of it. But if he stepped back, he might see a truth of sorts. Not that Campbell's really one for stepping back.Anyway, to be honest I can't see why he's so down on it. Because actually his old boss and his old boss's regime comes out of The Special Relationship pretty damn well. At times his motivation is suspect, but Blair is portrayed – brilliantly, again, by Michael Sheen (Dennis Quaid is a convincing Clinton too) – as someone who genuinely does want to do the right thing. It is easy to forget about Kosovo after you know what came next. In these days when people aren't exactly falling over themselves to say nice things about Blair, I'd be holding this up in the air and shouting "yes, that's exactly how it was!" Well, until the suppository part.Astonishingly I found myself understanding most of Stephen Hawking's Universe (Channel 4, Saturday). There probably is life somewhere else, the eminent scientist and Simpsons character says, because somewhere else goes on for such an awful long way. And if it can start here, in such a random way, it's probably started somewhere else too. Maybe it started somewhere else first, and came here, on an asteroid – or in an asteroid more likely - from another Goldilocks zone.The Goldilocks zone refers to somewhere which is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist. Shouldn't it really be the Baby Bear zone then? Possibly, but then it could get confused with Ursa Minor. All fairytale references gratefully received though.I like the possible aliens – snuffly things that cling to cliffs. And the way Stephen Hawking's voice morphs into Benedict Cumberbatch's (who played the young Hawking in a BBC2 drama back in 2004); the limited intonation of the simulator might have got wearing over the whole hour. See, all cosmology needs is a fairytale, a few CGI monsters and a touch of Sherlock, and suddenly it's easy.Camelot is being attacked by a vast CGI army in Merlin (BBC1, Saturday). And by CGI sword-wielding skeletons from within –that's just not fair, how can you kill something that's already dead? John Hurt, the CGI dragon, isn't around to help. And Morgana has morphed into the lady from the Scottish Widows adverts – creeping around the castle corridors, all hooded and mysterious. Yeah, she may look dead sexy but be careful – she'll put a mandrake root under your bed and before you know it you'll be tied into an evil pension scheme for ever and ever.How can Camelot survive an assault on so many fronts? Easy. Merlin does his flashy-eyes thing, and Arthur waves his sword around irritatingly, because he wants to do the right thing, fight the forces of evil and all that, and also because he's thinking about his legacy . . . oh my God, Arthur is Tony Blair! So does that make Merlin Alastair Campbell? No, too charming.TelevisionTony BlairBill ClintonAlastair CampbellStephen HawkingFantasySam Wollastonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Census shows connectedness of world's marine life By SETH BORENSTEIN 2010-10-04T12:31:13ZWASHINGTON (AP) -- The world's oceans may be vast and deep, but a decade-long count of marine animals finds sea life so interconnected that it seems to shrink the watery world.... hosted.ap.org |
Cracking the Mystery of How Sloths Got Long Necks The part of the skeleton which scientists had long believed to be part of the sloth rib cage is, in fact, analogous to the bottom of the mammal’s “neck.” feeds.nytimes.com |
Vital Signs: Diet: Good-for-You Things Come in Orange Leftover pumpkin pie? Indulge. A study reports that people with high blood levels of alpha-carotene live longer and are healthier. feeds.nytimes.com |