Dan Markham Brain Dump

Dahl, Roald Dahl

I re-watched Trainspotting last night. The Trainspotting: Collector’s Edition DVD has deleted scenes. One has Renton (Ewan McGregor) and Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) sitting in an apartment, pre park-gun-dog incident, with Sick Boy, as usual, spouting James Bond trivia. Sick Boy is grilling Renton on bits of info related to the James Bond film, You Only Live Twice. One bit stuck out:

                    SICK BOY
       Screenwriter?
                    RENTON
       Eh - Ian Fleming?

                    SICK BOY
       Fuck off! He never wrote any of
       them.

… a bit of banter, and then …

                    RENTON
       Who wrote it?

                    SICK BOY
       Roald Dahl.

                    RENTON
       Roald Dahl. Fuck me.

… and, damn, if it isn’t the case.

This is the same Roald Dahl that wrote such children’s classics as Matilda, James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Interesting fellow, really. From the mini-bio on his IMDB page:

When his then wife actress Patricia Neal suffered a series of devastating strokes in 1965, he was appalled at the lack of effective rehabilitation. He subsequently designed techniques that restored his wife to full function after the doctors had told them she’d never recover. His techniques are now standard procedure throughout the world for the treatment of stroke victims.

In Full Posts on 4 August 2008 tagged Ewan Mcgregor, film, James Bond, Roald Dahl, Trainspotting with no comments

New Toy

New Toy

My first point ‘n’ shoot – the Canon Powershot SD100 – bit the dust long ago. It was the victim of careless treatment on my part and ended up with a cracked screen that, although pretty looking in a sort-of lava lamp 60s trip-out type of way, prevented one from seeing anything on the screen.

My second – a hand-me-down from my mother in the form of a Canon PowerShot S400 – did not last long before a terrible pink tinge overcame every photo it took. It was used after all. No complaints here.

In fact, no complaints on either camera. The first was a flippin’ stalwart little guy that was small enough to take almost anywhere. The second, a tad larger, due it’s using a larger memory card format, was equally transportable. Canon has been good to me.

So, naturally, I switched brands.

To be honest, as good as Canon is, I think it has gone to their heads as their cameras are a good $50 more expensive, at the least, as other brands. I did a fair bit of research and, so, this is what I decided upon (the link is to the FS3, not the FS5 as, even though I have pics uploaded using my camera, there seems to be no reference to them via flickr’s camera finder function). TIme will tell if the decision was a sound one but, damn, if it isn’t nice to have a camera again.

In Full Posts on 30 July 2008 with 2 comments

Peak Oil

In fact, no unbiased expert claims that exploiting the fields in the Alaskan wilderness would cause more than a bump in world supply or prices in the U.S.

Oil executives know that they haven’t explored 80 percent of their existing leases in the continental U.S., according to Barlett.

As followers of the “the peak-oil theory”, big oil believes that, by 2010, their industry will have hit a maximum level of output. After that, weather because of competing energy sources, depleted sources of oil or the increasing amount of money it takes to produce it, oil output will begin to permanently decline.

In “Crude Reporting: Ask the Tough Questions About Oil” Howell Raines of Portfolio.com looks at the myths of supply and demand oil companies have perpetuated in order to gain monumental profits before their tap begins to run dry.

In Full Posts on 21 July 2008 tagged alaskan wilderness, energy, Howell Raines, industry, money, oil companies, peak oil theory, supply and demand, U.S. with no comments