Eurovision Flash Mob
Eurovision was last night. Germany took it seriously and won. In fairness, it was a good song. Especially her cute accent…
And the UK‘s dreadful entry came last. *sigh*
But! By FAR the best bit of the show (for me anyway) was that awesome flash mob across Europe! Seriously, fantastic. Even though it was pre-recorded.
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
– Winston Churchill
In Praise of… the Radio
Flickr / Katchooo
I love radio. It’s so understated. It’s been around since 1922 and according to the latest Rajar figures, it’s popularity is at one of the highest points it’s ever been at. Yet people never really talk about it. You nearly always hear people going on about who has been kicked off Over the Rainbow, or what happened last night on Eastenders, but never anything about the radio.
There’s something much more personal about the radio, something I don’t seem to get from watching television. I wake up in the mornings to the Today Show and it’s almost like they’re talking to me. Just me. It’s much less about appearances, obviously, and so conversations and interviews sound so much more frank, more direct, more honest. I’m sure that’s not the case, yet it seems so comforting.
Paradoxically, my radio listening has increased much more because of the internet, and more specifically, podcasts. Podcasts allow me to listen to radio shows that previously geography would have prevented me from doing. Cases in point, some of the wonderful content produced by National Public Radio in the US, such as RadioLab, and Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me.
Finally, the power of radio to elicit emotion and response from me is much greater than that of television or film. When I can’t sleep at night, I’ll often put in my earphone and listen to an hour of some of the finest radio broadcasting I’ve ever come across: This American Life. A typical episode of This American Life consists of a mixture of essay, field recordings, memoirs or short fiction based around a single theme. The quality of this show is second to none, from the moment I put my earphones in and hit play I’m enthralled for an hour and yearn for a new episodes to appear in my iTunes every Monday.
Long live the radio.
Happenings
Hello blog! I haven’t written a proper update in a while, so I thought I’d come back and see if anyone is still reading this. So, what’s been happening I hear you cry. Well, truth be told, not a lot. Which is mainly why I’ve not been blogging. The last few weeks have been coming up to the end of this year, which meant that I had a heckuva lot of work to do. Firstly, I had to finish off my thesis. Luckily, the bulk of it was the actual research, which I’ve been in doing in the lab since September so writing it all up wasn’t too much of a pain. The trickiest part was trying to write it all in science lingo, which I’ve never had to do. It was easy enough once I was in the mindset of it though. After submitting that a few weeks ago, I’ve been mainly concentrating on exams. I’ve got 2 exams at the end of the month, and then at the beginning of June I’ve got my viva for my thesis. I’m hoping that should be straightforward enough – a 10 minute presentation on my results followed by a 5 minute grilling by a panel.
Anyway, enough of that. Some exciting stuff has happened in the last few months. I got accepted onto a PhD at Queen’s so, provided I get a 2.1, I’m in Belfast for another 3 years. I’m really excited as it’s in the same group as I did my research project in, and I loved every minute of it. I’ve also been accepted to do a placement in Korea this summer. I’m going in less than 2 months, and it hasn’t really sunk in yet. I’ve no idea what to expect. I know very little about Korea, very little about the customs and what’s expected of me, and I certainly can’t speak any Korean. From what I’ve read, English isn’t particularly widely spoken there. Could be a steep learning curve! I did learn how to write my name though (릴리 조엘) and I’m getting to grips with learning the alphabet. When I’m out there I’ll be living in Daejeon and working for the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology.
So, yeh… Korea should give me some interesting stuff to blog about – something there’s been a distinct lack of in the past few months. Sorry about that…
#imnotvotingconservative
…is trending on Twitter. Which makes me hopeful.
Vote Lib Dem :)
Woo, Election!
Ah, election time.
For the first time this year, I get to vote in a general election. The Voter Power Index let’s you put in your postcode, and by working out the possible swing in your constituency, tells you how much your vote is worth. My home constituency is Maidstone and the Weald, a big Conservative stronghold, and my vote here is worth 0.044 votes, i.e., it’s ultra safe for the Conservatives. However, I spend about 49 weeks of the year in Belfast South, and my vote here is worth 1.077 votes, giving me 4.26 times more voting power than the rest of the UK. It’s actually ranked 4th out of all 650 seats in the index. The SDLP currently hold this seat, but the area is very marginal.
So, armed with that, I decided to change my vote to Belfast South. However, I really don’t know who to vote for…
Politics in Northern Ireland, as I’m sure you’re aware is *very* different to the rest of the UK. The main political parties don’t usually contest seats here (this year being an exception, with the Conservatives and the UUP getting together to form the Conservatives and Unionist Party). The Liberal Democrats have a de facto agreement with the Alliance Party. The current SDLP MP for Belfast South takes the Labour whip, albeit under very loose terms.
My choices this year in Belfast South are:
- Conservatives and Unionists (Paula Bradshaw)
- Alliance (Anna Lo)
- Social Democrat and Labour Party (Alasdair McDonnell)
- Green (NI) (Adam McGibbon)
- Sinn Fein (Alex Maskey)
- Democratic Unionist (Jimmy Spratt)
Now, for me, this causes a dilemma. Despite being politically more inclined towards the Alliance Party or the Greens, I’m frankly reluctant to vote for them. Of the remaining parties, the most socially liberal are the SDLP and Sinn Fein, whereas the more conservative are the Conservatives and Unionist and the Democratic Unionists. However, the SDLP and Sinn Fein, are, of course, nationalist parties, and the Unionist parties are, obviously, Unionist.
I do not consider myself aligned to either the Unionists or Nationalists, indeed, I’d rather stay out of it completely, but I do have some reservations about voting for a nationalist party at the minute, especially since Ireland’s economy has suffered so badly from the global economic downturn.
Hmm… I dunno. At least I have another few weeks to make up my mind…
Remember When
I love this song…
(And if you think it sound’s familiar, you probably recognise it from this ad at the cinema)
