Thunderbozz

You might have seen an advert on television recently featuring Ronan Keating's wife and daughter playing (New) Super Mario Bros. on a Nintendo DS, during which Mrs K says "I used to play this when I was a little girl, you know". It would appear that the DS is this generation's Werther's Originals. That comment got me thinking. Nowadays of course, it's possible to play the whole game on a games console of roughly the same physical size as the original version's cartridge . Kids these days would have no idea what to do with one, and they'll probably be looking back at MiniDisks, cassette tapes and VCRs in a few years time (if not already) as if they're from another planet. Technology is progressing so quickly, that cutting-edge developments can become low-tech overnight. This is a little bit frightening in itself, but perhaps more worrying is that an entire generation of practical knowledge could also be lost. As anyone who owned (or owns) an...

Bernie Ecclestone has announced his intentions to introduce a new scoring system into Formula 1 motor-racing. In response to critics (me included) who say that modern safety regulations, dull circuit configurations and restrictions on car designs have led to "processions" instead of races. In response, Ecclestone wants to introduce a medals system to encourage drivers to attempt overtaking manoeuvres: "If you're in the lead and I'm second, I'm not going to take the risk of falling off the circuit or doing something stupid to get two points. If I need a gold medal to win the championship, I will overtake. It's just not on that someone can win the championship without winning a race." Bernie Ecclestone. What he fails to realise is that rather than encouraging everyone to try and claim first place, it will create an unworkable league in which the top five or six drivers will be the only ones able to compete for the championship. After a few...

The government are a bunch of idiots, Alistair Darling is a fool, and the Prime Minister is a class-A doofus.* To paraphrase Frankie Boyle as Gordon Brown, "If you thought Tony Blair was a c***, watch this ". The reason I hate them all this week is the Pre-Budget Report. Everyone knew that very difficult decisions would have to be made in an attempt to lessen the impact of the global economic slump on Britain. Everyone knew that the numbers involved would be staggering. But no-one wanted what we got. The government want us to spend our way out of the recession. It's the most effective way of overcoming a downturn in an economy that trades on confidence. The paradox of thrift, the vicious circle of recession, the economic gloom... all these can be overcome by encouraging people to spend their money. But rather than leading Britons on with the carrot, the government have merely waved it under our noses. The stick will follow shortly. Instead of taking one brave st...

I'm giving the blog a rest for a little while. So if you'd like to keep up with me (Lord only knows why), I'd suggest you follow my Twitter feed (which is updated whenever I publish a new blog post anyway). There's lots I'd like to write about, but I haven't really had the time to devote to it recently. Consider this brief note an explanation and a half-baked apology.

As a kid, Sunday afternoons were all about the Grand Prix. Formula 1 had everything: fast cars and fast crashes, the exquisite mixture of danger and sporting excellence, the exciting combination of pure speed and tactical nous. The sport had character and characters - the battles were personal, the storylines of every season were more captivating than any TV drama. Having Brits leading the way helped too. In recent years, F1 has been a massive disappointment. The death of Ayrton Senna ruined the sport*, as tracks became safer, the performance of cars was artificially capped, and the opportunities afforded to drivers to manoeuvre and overtake drastically reduced. Years ago, if you missed the first two minutes of a race, you'd have missed the inevitable first-corner crash: now, you'd probably catch the Safety Car carefully guiding a procession of cars around a few splinters of carbon fibre. Which is why it was fantastic to see a genuinely exciting race on Sunday. The w...

I went to see the new James Bond film last night. Quantum o f S o lace is the second movie of the Daniel Craig era, in which all the titles have to have two "O"s in them so that they can be used to make up the number "007" on the poster. I thought that Casin o R o yale was a fantastic movie for several reasons. As well as being a good film in its own right, it also made a very good job of reinventing the Bond franchise. All the best bits were maintained (car chases, gadgets, puns) but the story was started afresh and the hero still looked more like Mr Bond than Mr Bean by the closing credits. Unfortunately, the makers of Quantum must also have loved Casin o R o yale , because they based 50% of the new film's storyline on it. If, like many people in the audience last night, you haven't seen it (or can't remember what happened), you will get lost at some points. It's great to have continuity between films, but the level of assumed knowledge...