My missus guided me to this on YouTube the other day and had to share, especially with those of you who are sceptical about religion.

Has anyone else had this problem? I'm an occasional watcher of iPlayer. Went to watch QI yesterday and found a message telling me I have to download the latest Flashplayer to watch. Followed the link and did so, tried again and got the same message. Restarted computer, made more attempts, still no luck.

Looked through iPlayer help pages and found one telling me I that if my computer isn't up to the new Flashplayer spec that's it, can't watch anything. Checked the spec against my computer and found the processing capacity isn't sufficient. So I can't watch iPlayer.

I'm trying to suppress the urge to go into a Daily Mail rant, but can't help thinking the BBC is way out of line on this. My laptop is four years old, wasn't the cheapest on the market, and while I know you get a lot more processing capacity for your money now it costs several hundred to buy a new one. Also, I should think this affects an awful lot of people who are effectively being told to buy a new computer before they can use the service again.

I still regard the BBC as one of finest institutions of this country, but it's a public service broadcaster and this goes badly against the grain. Made a complaint today, but I'm not expecting anything other than a bland reply that evades the issue.

Rant over, but not happy.

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/final_season_of_lost_promises_to

A couple of days ago I was excited to see that Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe were due to play a couple of concerts together in London. Today I'm not so excited over finding that they're charging £85 a ticket (okay, a few at £50, but that's at the back of the stalls). Decided that much as I admire the body of work from both of them, they're not getting that much out of me for a couple of hours entertainment. That's more than Premier League football!
Am I missing something, or is this more outrageous than usual? I'm not a regular gig goer these days, but noticed that even Springsteen in Hyde Park, part of an all day bash, is only £45.
I suspect that Cooder in particular wants the money but doesn't actually want to tour, just play a few odd dates every now and then and test how much money his old fans are ready to cough up. It's a shame when he seems to have recovered his mojo in the recording studio at last.

Reading the Word demographic prompted me to think about my history of listening to music, and made me wonder how many Word readers have always been rock fans?
Am I only the reader who has gone through a phase when they have lost interest? In my case it lasted for several years, beginning about the time I came out of Uni in 81 and the scene seemed to be overrun by electropop, northerners singing about miserable they were, and new romantics. I couldn't stand any of it, still can't, and found myself listening to more and more jazz. Only stayed loyal to a couple of old favourites, notably Elvis Costello, Ry Cooder and Steely Dan.
Over the next few years my taste expanded to classical music, movie soundtracks, and even musicals. Most of what happened in the 80s and early 90s passed me by. Only began to get interested again around the time of Britpop. Since then I've been listening to rock again - although I find I'm just as likely to be impressed by old rockers like Springsteen, John Fogerty and Nick Cave, as any indie bands - and picked up on plenty of country and western, folk, African and Spanish music. And still like some jazz and classical.
I reckon everyone's tastes change as they get older, but are there many who just get fed up with a style of music then come back to it years later and find they can enjoy it again?

Best British TV shows in the May magazine. You clods! How could you leave out The Prisoner and The Avengers? Also, one lower profile show I'd nominate from the early 90s, Between The Lines. Drama about the complaints and investigations department of the Met Police; first two series were superb, claustrophobic and full of moral ambiguities, although it went off the rails with series three.....
and how did this wind up with 1 January 1970 for a posting date?