Quantum Physics to the Masses.

Such a charmer 

Meet Doctor Brian Cox. I'm pretty sure that you must at least be partially acquainted with him via your silver screens? If not, then I'll sum him up in brief for you. He's the Physics teacher you never had. Instead of going grey at the age of 27 and developing a bad temperament by the age of 30, he was in a rock band. True, he may be grey, but not in the grey, balding and thinning look associated with most physicists his age. True, he may be as old as my mum, but he's preserved himself better than most other teachers/lecturers of science. He's the science teacher that's down with the kids but doesn't look sad and old doing so.

Fission? Fusion? Gah.

It's really brave, this thing that he's doing. He is actually trying to teach us something through our television sets, and trying to teach something that not quite everybody grasped when they were at school. Mainly because physics involves maths. But look here now! Here's the man giving us a second chance at education and is going to blow our little minds through our tv sets! Won't everyone look smart when they chat about it in the staffroom over coffee?

However, you can tell that Brian Cox actually wants to teach you something. The only thing is that the poor bloke doesn't have a clue what's going on with trying to engage the right kind of audience. Of course everyone will switch it on because it's interesting, but some of the things that he tries to explain on there are so oversimplified that they're wrong. For example, in his first three or four-part series about the universe, I swear that he said that fusion in the Sun wouldn't go past Helium. I mean, you know, squeezing two particles together under immense heat and pressure to form a larger particle and releasing heat as a result of this is quite a difficult concept past two. However, he is forgiven, because in the last thing I saw with him on, he got fusion right.

These are all the different types of P orbital

He was actually on some show the other night about the Universe (he was giving an oversimplified talk again... but I guess I have to give the man a break. He is a professor after all and it's been a while since he's been at general-numpty level). I only caught the second half of it, where he explained to the audience generally how electrons were arranged in orbitals inside their little shells. I would've been surprised if my sister hadn't given me the heads up that electrons are crazy. Well, more crazy than I was originally led to believe, but I've accepted that now. However, he explained it very well for a physicist and then went on to wow the audience with Heisenberg's principle of uncertainty.

 I'd never quite understood it before, because I think that the book that I read it in dressed it up in flimsy analogies, when all I really needed was someone to draw the equation on a black board and watch Johnathan Ross suffer miserably at mental arithmetic. Of course, I think that was the only equation that I saw (probably too much maths might scare the public), but I was impressed by the fact that he'd actually used maths on prime time tv and people were still interested!

After the show it had a couple of close-ups of some of the celebrities in the audience stating that it was "eye-opening" and "mind-blowing" and they struggled to grasp some of the concepts. Hold on. He's defining quantum physics in baby terms and making a hash of it for you. Why doesn't he do a fast-track calculus show in order to get the nation up to the level of maths required to actually understand quantum physics thoroughly? I'd be up for it. But I don't know. That might just be me and everyone else who has a slight grasp on the science world. Of course I know many people who just refuse to watch him outright, oversimplifying and selling out the particle physics community.

When I watch his shows it always turns out that I know/at least grasp the concept of the concept that he's trying to put across. However, it's something in his delivery that makes him easy to watch and understand. Just one day, could you put something slightly more challenging on TV please?

Not again.

I don't think that I can take the torture much longer.

Kill it with Fire. I do not want to witness this again next year

I don't understand how anyone could possibly like Mr Paul (or is he a Sir? He certainly doesn't deserve it after what he's done to society over the years...) McCartney's age-old Christmas hit "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time". I could not ever have imagined a song so bland and dull becoming a time-weathering hit that could be considered a "classic". Well, a "classic" by someone whose opinion is so ridiculously outlandish that it is automatically classed as void. Or they're well and truly two tokens short of a toaster. More like trying to obtain this toaster by trading in bottle tops instead.

"Simply.. Having.."
"FUCK OFF DICK'ED"

I guess I wouldn't hate it so much if I hadn't heard this song about 15 times in the past 2 days. Actually yes, I would. All they seem to say is "Simply .. Having.. A wonderful christmas time" ad infinitum. They might say that there are some verses in there, but they're lying. If you listen to the "verses" backwards they sound exactly the same as the chorus. The worst thing is that it doesn't really explore Mr McCartney's vocal range either, and leads us all to hang around the same three notes all throughout the song. Yes, it would be great for those that are vocally challenged to have a little go at a sing-song, but can't they keep it in their own homes? Paul sounds flat on the record as well.

HOW BLOODY REPETITIVE IS THAT RECORD AS WELL?! It sounds like he isn't having the most wonderful christmas time if he's having to constantly reassure himself and his party that they are having a wonderful time every five seconds. I personally think that it's the song that most murders are committed to in the retail sector from the period of October to January. There must be some hidden meaning in it setting shop staff against each other in the stressful busy festive period.

Not long left to go now though. Just one working day left. I really really really need to burn that CD the second we shut on Christmas Eve. Actually, every copy of it that exists needs to be destroyed. It has tainted the world for too long. And also the sad thing about getting older is that you get more and more sick of hearing the same songs every year.

He's not still got it.

2011... A bad year for the Greats.

OH KIM JONG IL. WHY YOU GO?!?!?!
THIS IS NO FAIR. YOU PROMISED ME THE MOON! D:

As a well-respected dictator who died with dignity and grace and was capable of harnessing the divine power of the sun in order to continue on to another world, it seems only fair that I pay some sort of tribute to Kim Jong Il really. We all know that his son, even though he may be able to kiss swallows and catch kingfisher's tears and decant them into a life-giving elixer for his worthy subjects, will never be able to fill Kim's shoes. Kim's shoes have been kissed by too many unearthly sprites for that. But of course, he controls these sprites...hmm..

What did Kim achieve in his lifetime? I know he did a lot, but what are the true landmarks?

Kim Jong's moon anchor technique.
Very successful and a huge hit with
his people.

DESPAIR AT THE LOSS OF THE
GREAT ONE

For one, he brought his people the moon. How fucking awesome is that. I want my true and pure supreme leader to bring me something good every once in a while, just to keep the oppressed somewhat  occupied so that we can't notice the oppression. And it's going to sit on his specially designed hand for holding the moon?!?! How frigging awesome is that! We could see it when we go on holiday or a pilgramage to see the supreme and awesome and brilliant and excellent One! Science? What is that? Some hocus pocus make belief saying that the leader can't do what he wants to? Fuck you, we don't get taught about this by the leader so it must not be right! Of course we can have a moon in our back garden, it looks very pretty. It's against Physics? Well our leader is against Physics so fuck that! I'm going to cry I'm so happy bawwwww

EVERYONE LOVES THE GREAT ONE. He can make rainbow
fairies impale small unicorns

He was also a magician when it came to economics or feeding the country. Everyone had a job because the statistics said so, and pretty much everyone could read, write, recite the owl and the pussycat went to see and remember the Fibonacci sequence and was taught its relevance in nature. No one could possibly go hungry in this marvellous country. There's the moon here, for fuck's sake! Why would they have a moon if they couldn't feed themselves? That's ridiculous. It was only old traditionalists who refused to move from the middle of the countryside and enjoyed subsisting off bread and rice and water who actually did that. Everyone else feasted like kings on quince and figs and sea bass and chihuahua puppies and baby dolphins and ran free with the snow leopards.

North Korea = much nicer climate

You know why there aren't any pandas and siberian tigers and snow leopards anymore? It's because they thought that North Korea was just so much more awesome than the rest of the world and their old homes, so they moved in with good old Kim. They really hated the rest of the world so they didn't let them know where they went, and Kim let them move into his summer house with a spectacular view. The snow leopards liked scaling the rocky summits whilst the pandas enjoyed chowing down whilst sunbathing on a lilo in the pool. They were going to come back but Kim Jong was so nice and awesome that he permitted them to stay, as long as they would perform at his Moon-greeting ceremony.

Lots of kumquats to appease great one

Whilst the rest of the world thinks that Kim Jong Il is no more, they could not be more wrong. What they do not realise is that Kim Jong is merely taking a break from the human realm and is chilling with a giant hookah and Buddah up on a cloud not too far from Kim's Mum's house. Except that Kim is of course, omnivident so he can see if his son is leaving the throne room a mess again (for goodness' sake, the incense must be left on the third shelf, not the second, as it just doesn't look right there!)and if his people are in danger. And of course, if his people are in trouble, he has every intention of seeing to them, seeing as he is omnipotent as well as omnipresent, and giving them many pearls of advice through desperate times. Starving children due to a swarm of locusts destroying the crops? Have no fear, the former Kim Jong Il is still watching over you. Make him an offering of a thumb and he shall watch over you with a keen eye until next Wednesday at 11.00am. After that he will require a kumquat and a small golf club in order to guarantee your protection.

Western human no funny.

Of course, the rest of the world didn't quite "get" Kim Jong Il. That's because he was too ahead of his time, too in touch with the spiritual forces that governed the world and had too much control on them to allow the other world leaders to understand. I mean, they couldn't even BEGIN to comprehend how awesome and powerful Kim Jong Il was so what could they do? They're all stupid, and the only thing that they know how to do is laugh. They're not clever enough to learn from Kim and too worthless to bother teaching, so they can have their little joke. But one day Kim's power will rule and reign true.

For it predicts, the sacred scripts describe (the sacred scripts written by the blood of a bear that Kim Jong Il killed when he was 3 and he realised that he was truly on a path to greatness)that the great one will rise again and rule all. He will shit on Jesus Christ when Jesus tries to steal the limelight, and will then punish all the Christians for not believing in Kim Jong. They shall be punished by being chased around a mulberry bush for eternity, with cramp in their left toe whilst being taunted by a giant pufferfish. And two gay men. Yes. All who have not been true to Kim will be punished.

IT'S SO CLOSE? OM NOM NOM

Kim hadn't stopped at the moon though. No. Soon after his death (really his recuperation period for when he has to rise again at his worst) it was discovered that he had been concocting plans to bring Mars to his people so that they could feast on Mars bars and solve the problem of world hunger. Everyone knows that Mars well and truly has a gooey and caramely centre, and there isn't enough food on earth for everyone. Kim Jong was a genius to start thinking of this sort of thing. It really shows his compassion for the world, which sometimes didn't come out to well. He was sometimes a 'me me me me me' person, but truly, at heart, he too had a deep soft, gooey, caramely centre. May he reign true when he returns,.

There are also rumours that he may be coming back with his best buddy Gaddafi  once Gaddafi stops sulking into the pile of silk pillows about his demise.