Savage Popcorn

Giant squid ‘taking over world’

GIANT squid are taking over the world, well at least the oceans, and they are getting bigger.

According to scientists, squid have overtaken humans in terms of total bio-mass.

That means they take up more space on the planet than us.

The reason has been put down to overfishing of other species and climate change

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

(via Where Worlds Collide)

I’ve been watching The Power of Nightmares over the past couple of weeks. The documentary attempts to describe the roots of both the American neo-conservative ideology and radical Islam.

Both, it argues, were born out of the percieved failure of the liberal dream of building a bettter world and both have contributed to a world in which politicians now try to scare us into voting for them by promising to protect us from illlusionary fears rather than offfering any hope of a bettter life.

Against that background, this article in The Orlando Weekly News (link via Blue Glow) provides an interesting counterpoint by discussing the essentially positive values - tolerance, generosity, family, and so on - that underlie Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

[T]he show’s prime ethical directive: Humans are flawed and therefore don’t own the right to judge – to say nothing of kill – one another. The ideology holds no matter the profit potential involved

…

The far right occludes our sense of decency by turning “foreigners” into abstracted nonhumans it’s OK to slaughter; Whedon’s crew seeks to humanize even the apparently nonhuman as long as they’re willing to work for redemption.

If the neo-cons want a myth to unite their country, maybe they’d be better off looking to the positive and essentially human values espoused by Bufffy rather than constantly looking for an outsider to demonise.

[N]ow is the season of the remake

- John Carpenter, who has signed up to produce a remake of his classic 80s film The Fog.

(Via The Movie Blog)

I like food. A lot.

And, as such, it’s crossed my mind on several occaions to mention some of the better restaurants I’ve been to over the past few years. Admittedly, Dutch food is hardly the most varied in the world - which goes a long way to explaining the bizarre popularity of Febo - fast food at its fastest. But the multicultural nature of many of the Netherlands’ cities means that there is an incredibly diverse range of international menus to choose from.

Of course, once I’m back from a dinner out, switching on my PC is the last thing on my mind, so I have never gotten around to mentioning any of these places.

Until now…

I’m not a restaurant critic and I’m not even going to try. Instead, here is a list of links. All of them are recommended…

Indian Kebab Lounge - Indian, original, great food. Curries, of course, but so much more.
Royal Mandarin - Chinese.
De Jonghe Graef van Buuren - Dutch, but the spare ribs are fantastic. And you get unlimited refills.
Las Tapas - Tapas, surprisingly enough. Always full, but if you can find a table it’s well worth it.
Flint-Stone’s - Stone Grilled. You cook your own food, but the over the top Flintstones theme is superb.
Chiang Mai - Thai
Sensei - Japanese. Go for the teppan-yaki - you won’t regret it.
Taverna De Griek - Greek - very friendly.
Kalinka - Russian
Shanthy - Indian

There is also a fantastically friendly Turkish restaurant not far from the station. But I can’t remember the name of it and can’t find it on Iens. I’ll try to remember to check the name and update this post sometime over the weekend.

Kilroy is silenced after split from UKIP’s MEPs

The former daytime television host Robert Kilroy-Silk said yesterday he will have no more to do with his fellow UK Independence Party MEPs during a day of histrionics at the European Parliament.

Mr Kilroy-Silk, whose fame helped propel UKIP to success in June’s Euro-elections, said he was quitting before UKIP MEPs withdrew the parliamentary whip from him over his push to lead the party. He said he will remain in the national party and refused to abandon the leadership bid.

Mr Kilroy-Silk made a determined effort to grab the limelight by earlier demanding the right to address fellow MEPs as the leaders of political groups were asked to speak. Banging on his desk and shouting “oi”, Mr Kilroy-Silk was refused the floor by the Parliament’s president, Josep Borrell, who, despite several minutes of interruption, did not order him to be removed.

But my favourite bit from this story is this:

Mr Kilroy-Silk, a former Labour MP, added: “I used to belong to a proper party…”

The poor dear seems to be getting nostalgic for when he was an adult,

According to Hunter S Thompson, bush is going to lose the election in November because he’s a loser.

The full story is entertaining if nothing else. You can read it here

Kerry’s Instant Polling Results

With advice from Bill Clinton, John Kerry adapts his stump speech as a focus group gives him instant feedback.

Watch the results here.

Europeans have no vote in next week’s presidential election. But we can at least vote on today’s constitution, and if the US result goes wrong, it will be all the more important that we affirm our right to different European values.

- Robin Cook

Cinema Eye have laid their hands on this pic from the upcoming Elektra movie of Elektra and Typhoid Mary - the film’s villain.

Apparently, this scene took two days to shoot. I can’t think why.