In a little video he just posted tonight, Peter Jackson disses Steven Moffatt... and, er, someone else....

Very funny, worth a look:

Comic-Con clamps down on sexual harassment

Women make up nearly half of Comic-Con attendees, but 'creeping at a Con' is still so rife that ticketholders have to be reminded of good conduct

By Alice Vincent, Entertainment Writer
25 Jul 2014, Daily Telegraph, London

Some of Comic-Con's attendees have such difficulty understanding the notion of consent that protest groups and would-be speakers have taken a stand against the convention's sexual harrassment policy.

Even though women now comprise more than 40 per cent of attendees at the convention – which celebrates comics, film and TV – groping, unwarranted attention and inappropriate "upskirt" photography still occurs to the extent that the organisers had to send attendees its anti-harassment policy via email two days before the event started on Thursday.

It was the first time Comic-Con has taken such a step. Spokesperson David Glanzer told the LA Times: "it seemed like a good idea to add to that with the email distribution”.
( Read more...Collapse )

NZ items off Australian shelves


New Zealand food exporters have accused Australian supermarkets of taking New Zealand products off their shelves in an effort to appear more patriotic.

They claim the move goes against the spirit of trade agreements between the two countries.

According to NZ's Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, New Zealand and Australia have the most comprehensive bilateral free-trade agreement in the world.

But NZ Food and Grocery Council chief executive Katherine Rich said that is not stopping Coles and Woolworths from stripping New Zealand food from their supermarket shelves as part of a Buy Australia campaign.

She said exporters were scared to talk about the problem publicly in case they were blacklisted by the supermarkets.

Labour's economic development spokesperson Shane Jones said several exporters had raised the problem with him.

Prime Minister John Key said he would put the issue on the table when he meets Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Friday.

Neither Coles nor Woolworths were immediately available to give a response.

(Courtesy Radio New Zealand news website)

An entry at Tea Leaves and Dog Ears blog, posted Nov 27, 2013


There’s a popular joke I’ve seen floating around on Tumblr for a while now. It goes like this:

“Joss Whedon, Steven Moffat and George R.R. Martin walk into a bar and everyone you’ve ever loved dies.”

Here’s the problem, though: George R. R. Martin and Joss Whedon are, of course, infamous for killing off the characters that they know are almost universally beloved by fans for precisely the reason that they are beloved and Martin and Whedon know it’ll have huge emotional impact. They pick the harmless bunny of the group and then give them some brutal offing — Tara onBuffy, Wash on Serenity, Ned Stark in A Game of Thrones being an easy handful of examples. But who has Steven Moffat actually killed off?( Read more...Collapse )

I have to say that paying my way past The Times's paywall online is worth it, for Caitlin Moran's TV reviews alone:

by Caitlin Moran
The Times, September 15 2012
Paralympics Closing Ceremony (Channel 4)

And, so, the Paralympics — Use Your Illusion II to the Olympics’ Use Your Illusion I; Superman 2 to their Superman. We loved the first one so much, there just had to be another one. Let’s face it — if, halfway through, they’d announced a third global sporting event — Childlympics, maybe; or Nanlympics. Even Catlympics — we’d have been all over that, too. We’re in the rhythm of the whole thing now. Sag off work as much as possible, ignore all world news in favour of sporting glory, spend a lot of time on YouTube going, “Christ, look at Oscar Pistorius’s thighs. Look at them! They’re like two BEASTS in Lycra. Like two leg LIONS, pumping in tandem. Gngngnk. Imagine him coming at you. Holy moly, I’ve come over all previous.”

Although there was some culture shock switching from the BBC’s imperial coverage to
Channel 4’s — adverts! What? How uncouth. People shilling in the middle of a
sporting tournament? It’s little better than having some chugger coming at you in a
church, waving an empty bucket, screaming “GIVE US A POUND!” — the presence of Clare Balding soon smoothed it away again.( Read more...Collapse )

Talking in Bed

Talking in bed ought to be easiest,
Lying together there goes back so far,
An emblem of two people being honest.

Yet more and more time passes silently.
Outside, the wind's incomplete unrest
Builds and disperses clouds about the sky,

And dark towns heap up on the horizon.
None of this cares for us. Nothing shows why
At this unique distance from isolation

It becomes still more difficult to find
Words at once true and kind,
Or not untrue and not unkind.

– Philip Larkin, The Whitsun Weddings

This is funny enough, even though I don't recognise all of the US pols. I especially love "always going on about climate change".

And as for Hodor and the Shrub, well, remember the useful thing Hodor does... he carries the visionary... ;-)