Who wants to be a *cough* fraudster

Tonight I’ve been watching the broadcast of the episode of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” where three people conspired to cheat and win the million pounds. In honesty, I’m amazed at how blatant the cheating was – quite stunningly unsubtle.

Also, it’s such a british way of cheating, this complete belief that no-one would ever accuse an ex-army Major, an officer and a gentleman, of cheating. It’s entirely surreal, and exceptionally funny.

But at the same time, what an incredibly contemptuous way of cheating, again, the assumption that no-one would even notice these coughs and ‘whispered’ “no”‘s. It’s a scheme that really carries all the subtlety of a swift kick in the knackers with steel-toecapped boots. The audience noticed, the stage-crew noticed – I suspect you’d have to have an IQ of about 30 to NOT notice. Yet all through the court case too, they didn’t even seem to believe they’d been cheating. They just seemed to have complete contempt for everyone else in the studio. An amazing scheme – both for it’s simplicity and sheer audacity.

May Day Project

Via Gert, news of the mayday project. On Saturday May 10th, people around the world will be taking photos throughout the day, nominally one per hour.

Having looked at the calendar, it’s actually one of my few free weekends between now and July, so I may just pootle off somewhere with the camera – you never know.

Well-balanced?

I got referred today to the Guardian’s quiz about what brain type you have. It’s based on two ratings, empathising quotient (EQ) and systemising quotient (SQ) – and then the two get plotted on a graph to reveal the type of brain you have.

It’s all a bit experimental and theoretical, and the best way for me to know it’s pretty much a load of old garbage is that I come out with a score of 34 on each test, which makes me appear to be a well balanced person. Which we all know is complete shite. *Grin*

Let’s do the timewarp again

Watching The American President on TV, it’s almost like a timewarp into the West Wing. The West Wing’s President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) is the American President’s White House Chief of Staff. The West Wing’s Defence Chief (Anna Deavere Smith) is the Press Secretary for the American President.

Of course, all this is helped by the fact they’re both written by Aaron Sorkin.

Risks of the Season

By a major error of planning, I ended up catching the first couple of minutes of BBC’s “Songs of Praise” – something I try and avoid wherever possible. Today it was being broadcast from the Butlin’s Somerwestworld in Minehead, Somerset, where there’s recently been a huge dose of “mystery” virus (since identified as “probably Norwalk”). Turns out they host Spring Harvest, the biggest Christian event in Europe.

So – 60,000 Christians in a place that has only just had a virus infecting hundreds of people?

God moves in mysterious ways. *Grin*

Domestic stuff

Flipping through various odds and sods today, I found a surreal concept – baths made of wood. Utterly lovely, sodding expensive, and already making me think “I wonder if I can have something like that when I’ve bought a house?”.

And then I also found Sottini’s roll-top baths and just drooled. I need a house with about four bathrooms in order to fulfil my bath dreams now. Oh, and about £30,000.

Watson completes marathon

No, no dodgy jokes about him being accompanied by Holmes or anything. The ex-boxer Michael Watson has completed the London Marathon course. Doesn’t sound like much? This is the man who was told he’d never walk again, never talk again, who was comatose for six weeks after his final fight with Chris Eubank in 1991, and who still has full use of only one leg.

He’s been doing approximately four miles of the course every day, and has raised somewhere between £150,000 and £250,000 for the Brain and Spine Foundation during the last week. An incredible achievement all round.