Amazon DVD Rental

I've been thinking of signing up for the DVD rental scheme from Amazon. For £9.99 a month you can rent 6 DVDs per month (3 at a time) keep them as long as you want and then just return the discs in the pre-paid envelope provided.

My main taste in film are the old classics, generally black and white, British from the '50s and '60s. Predating all that surround sound nonsense and in most cases even stereo they're perfect candidates for ripping to DivX and played on the new player (which has handled every file thrown at it) in my new home cinema. I could easily fit 6 films on a single disc and never face the problem of lack of choice ever again.

We're talking anything with Terry Thomas, Peter Sellers, Alastair Sim, Ian Carmichael and Norman Wisdom then there's the Alfred Hitchcock classics, all of Cary Grant's pictures, Doris Day/Rock Hudson fantastic stuff. The Lavender Hill Mob, The Ladykillers, Matter of Life and Death, Passport to Pimlico, 12 Angry Men, Stalag 17 etc. All are available to rent (the only thing I haven't found is the St. Trinians series which doesn't appear to be available on DVD).

The clincher for Lesley was the availability of Columbo box sets (though each disc in a box set counts as one which is fair enough). TV box sets of The Sopranos, 24, The West Wing etc are all available. Naturally the latest Hollywood releases are also included.

So, 72 film rentals for £120 a year, rip to DivX, burn to DVD (£1.20 per blank DVD+R) 6 films per disc, that works out at around £2 each... perfect.

Project Orange Blog

I've written about the Open Source Movie Project in tandem with Blender 3D software, "Project Orange", before. The team have now gathered and began work on the creation of the animation and have started a blog to track their progress over the next 6 months. Interestingly they've posted a couple of techniques that they plan to use which makes for interesting reading and downloadable test files and animations. If you've any interest in Open Source software and/or computer generated graphics bookmark the site now (and pre-order the DVD to help support the team).

Category: 3D

Roger Waters' Opera

The title might stick in the throat of those of us from Norn Iron but apparently it means "There is Hope" so there. Finally released on September 27th after a development period close to 15 years you can read all about it on roger-waters.com and listen to a few of the tracks.

While I'm not a complete Philistine where opera is concerned, must confess, I have a few of those Opera Greatest Hit type CDs and Lesley definitely has Madame Butterfly in her collection. Listening to the tracks on the site it all seems heavy going to me but I'll give it a go.

Now he's got this out of his system maybe he'll knuckle down and finish the rock album he's working on. His tours of 1999, 2000, 2002 and the recent triumphant reunion with his old backing band ;-) at Live8 show that the audience is ready and waiting. Which reminds me, I must get tickets for The Rolling Stones the next time they swing by before they finally shuffle off this mortal coil.

Glasgow Rangers 3:2 FC Porto

With our domestic league form pointing towards mid-table mediocrity at best and a relegation dog-fight at worst it was important that we won our first European home game. If we're to progress to the knockout stages we must beat Artmedia home and away, beat FC Porto at home and get a result away and try for at least a point against Inter at home.

The defence were woeful last night, Prso immense and Bazza "Fud" Ferguson had a great game in the midfield.

I know that all SKY's Premiership coverage is now all shot in HD and the difference is clearly visible in a much improved picture even on a normal telly. Not sure which station's camera's covered the match from Ibrox (it was on both Sky and Grampian) but the picture quality was definitely a step up from previous years. In contrast the Liverpool match on ITV2, covered by Spanish TV, was terrible. Archaic 4:3 ratio, hugely compressed with the ball represented by what at times looked like a single square pixel. I hope German TV, who will cover the World Cup, invest heavily in some decent broadcast equipment before next summer.

Tags: Rangers Football
Category: Sport

Broadband

How pissed off am I? Very! BT now report that my line is only capable of supporting a maximum of 1mbps (which is what I already have). Bastards! Their checker has consistently shown for the past 6 months that my line would support 2mbps, and now they go and change their mind. Really f*cking pissed off.

This added to the fact that Demon are going through a really, really bad patch at the moment does nothing for my mood. The speeds at peak times are a complete joke. The message boards are up in arms about it but Demon refuse to acknowledge there is a widespread problem and insist the issues are at an individual customer level. Complete bullshit. Demon had a total email failure for nearly 24 hours a couple of weeks ago which for me is the sign of an ISP in trouble. No explanation for the failure has been given other than it was fixed. Piss poor. I need a tablet.

Health Update 42

Had the Liver Biopsy on Friday which went very smoothly and was painless. Got out first thing on Saturday morning but as I didn't sleep very well in the hospital I was knackered all day. Can't fault the NHS as everything went as planned, was well explained, food was OK, ward was very clean, not too warm, excellent treatment. My thanks to all the nurses and staff involved during my stay. I have an appointment with the Consultant in a couple of weeks to discuss the results. Fingers crossed everything is OK.

Went to my GP today as my "line" runs out tomorrow. He asked if I felt I was OK to go back to work and I said yes. So I'll be back in the office tomorrow but I'll probably plan to work from home as much as I can for a while. The Doctor advised to take it easy and not to overdo things at first. I won't, and now the work is aware of my illness, things should be a bit better.

The Doctor has me on a low dose of anti-depressants to give me a bit of a boost and also try and take the edge off my appetite. I've definitely noticed that my appetite has decreased which is a good thing and Lesley reports that my general mood has improved. If they continue to appear to be working then he may increase the dose to take account of my "size". Happy days.

Tags: Health

Northern Ireland 1:0 England

The glorious magnificence that is Norn Iron and The Green and White Army. Fabulous stuff. Woof! Lost my voice early on in the game but the whole street knew when David Healy hammered in the winner.

It's been nearly 24 years since I last stood on the Spion Kop at Windsor Park in Belfast cheering on, the then, heroes of Billy Bingham against Scotland in our penultimate World Cup qualifier for Spain '82. It was October '81 and the result was a tense 0:0 draw. At the time we thought it meant the end of our qualification dream but other results that night left us having to beat Israel at Windsor Park the following month. We did, and the rest is history.

But last night, last night those 15,000 Norn Iron souls made more noise than I've ever heard before from such a crowd. A credit to themselves and our country. Fantastic stuff and all the more sweeter that it was against England and broadcast, primetime around the entire country. Get it rite up ye!

As I predicted way back in September last year, if we managed to play like we did against Wales in Cardiff then England would be sh*tting themselves. They didn't heed the warning, and got well and truly gubbed.

The better team, the better fans, the better manager...won. WE EXIST!

Our Wee Country

Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis

Happened upon a story in The Sunday Times today (Scottish Edition) regarding a liver disease known as NASH. Apparently it's becoming a bit of an epidemic in Scotland down to the crap diet and being a fat b*stard. As I've now lived in Scotland, getting on for 15 years, it may be that I've also become a victim (though I've never had a deep fried Mars Bar in my chuff, but I am a fat b*stard). Story copied below as I can't link to it directly. Lots of good info on the disease can be found at the link above.

Junk food diet blamed for record cases of liver disease
Sue Leonard

SCOTLAND's junk food diet is fuelling a dramatic rise in liver disease, one of the country's leading transplant specialists has warned.

Professor Peter Hayes, head of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary's liver transplant unit, is treating 100 patients a year who are suffering from obesity related liver disease.

Since 2003 the unit has carried out four transplants on patients with cirrhosis of the liver as a direct result of their diet. The disease is normally associated with alcohol abuse and is also affecting teenagers, according to Hayes.

The rise in cases of cirrhosis and other forms of liver diseases mirrors soaring obesity rates in Scotland. Almost two-thirds of Scottish adults are overweight and more than one in five are classified as clinically obese.

Until now obesity has been linked with complications such as diabetes, heart disease and forms of cancer.

One of the commonest reasons for referral to our unit is because of abnormal liver tests due to obesity, said Hayes. We are talking about hundreds of people. They have some problem in the liver, we believe because of their obesity. I have seen somebody in their late teens.

Hayes added that because liver disease is so closely associated with alcohol abuse, it is likely that the condition is going undetected in many obese people.

We are seeing a bit of an epidemic of abnormal tests in obese people, he said. We are probably seeing the tip of the iceberg. I will quite often see two new people in the clinic weekly.

We are seeing more people having transplants because of obesity related liver disease. It is a terrible thing that people have to have a transplant because they did not keep their eye on their weight.

Abnormal liver tests in overweight patients are usually a sign of fatty liver, where fat makes up at least 10% of the organ.

Although the condition can be reversed by losing weight, it can develop into non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), an inflammation of the organ which is common in between 20% and 40% of people who are grossly overweight.

NASH can also lead to cancer or cirrhosis, scarring of the liver and the loss of liver cells that prevent the organ from working normally. Only about a third of patients with the disease survive five years after diagnosis.

NASH is preventable but not when you have cirrhosis, said Hayes. It is not well recognised and there is little research into it. Almost nobody would think that being overweight can be a sign of liver disease. I have people referred for transplant. They come in with end stage liver disease. A significant number will die.

Dr Stuart Hislop, a gastroenterologist at Royal Alexandra hospital in Paisley, said doctors had previously thought that fatty liver was not harmful to patients but there was now evidence that some older patients with diabetes were developing cirrhosis.

Phil Hanlon, professor of public health at Glasgow University, warned that people need to do more to help themselves by eating less and exercising more.

We have a rapidly escalating problem with obesity, he said. The situation is getting worse and it is getting worse rapidly. It probably needs Scottish society to decide it is a problem they want to respond to.

Obesity costs the Scottish NHS an estimated £500m a year. By 2010 it is estimated that almost 30% of Scottish adults will be clinically obese.

Meanwhile, parents and doctors are to be issued with charts enabling them to compare the weight and fat levels of children against approved standards. Previous recommendations for a healthy figure have simply set a ratio between height and weight. The new fat charts, backed by the government's Medical Research Council, will tell parents what a healthy child should weigh at any given age, distinguishing between boys and girls.

The measurements in the new charts are based on a two-year study of almost 2,000 children aged between five and 18. They have been compiled using a new technique, bio- impedance analysis which measures the amount of fat, muscle and bone in the body.

The study showed a substantial difference between the amount of fat in a healthy boy and a healthy girl. The researchers found, for example, that at the age of 11 or 12, girls are naturally 60% fatter than boys. Doctors are concerned that teenage girls resort to crash diets in an attempt to shed the extra fat that they need to bear children in future life.

For many years, charts have been available showing healthy childhood height, weight and body mass index (BMI). The BMI, a ratio between height and weight, has been heavily criticised because it does not distinguish between fat, which can lead to health problems, and lean tissue. For example, a muscular athlete with low levels of fat may register as obese under the BMI scale.

Childhood obesity is a very difficult area for doctors and nurses to work in because, for parents, it's very subjective, says Jane DeVille-Almond, an independent nurse consultant who is also a member of the National Obesity Forum.

This, however, will give us a tangible medical guideline to show parents.

Any attempt to combat child obesity can be controversial. Last month government proposals to measure and weigh primary school children annually were attacked by the Royal College of Nursing as an invasion of pupils privacy. It voiced concerns that heavier children might have their self-esteem damaged.

As I'm going in for a Liver biopsy on Friday I suspect this may be the main line of enquiry the Consultant is following. Diagnosis is by a Liver biopsy. My cholestrol is perfect, I'm not diabetic but I am obese, very tired and my liver tests show a high level of enzymes. Looks like a strict diet is on the cards for me.

Tags: Health