Tottenham Hotspur, Title Contenders?

So far so good for Tottenham this year, after the highs of last year’s Champions League were followed by the lows of failure to qualify it looked like our progress of late may have run aground, this season however has seen Tottenham seriously mentioned as a title contender for the first time since I can remember (I Started to support them in 1991) and it is definitely the first time I can remember them being level with points with Man Utd the business side of Christmas.

Unfortunately I have still been a spurs team throughout the 90’s and the 00’s so I am still slightly reluctant to believe that it isn’t all going to go wrong (Just too many false dawns.) this may all change however in the next six weeks as we enter our “Hell” period:

22nd January Man City (A)
31st January Wigan (H)
6th February Liverpool (A)
11th February Newcastle (H)
26th February Arsenal (A)
3rd March Man Utd (H)

Yes in 6 weeks will meet 5 of the top seven including trips to the City of Manchester, Anfield and the Emirates, this next 6 weeks should tell us if we are title challengers or just a footnote on a future sky sports premier league years programme. If we can arrive at the evening of the 3rd March in the top four then I will feel quite confidant of a top 4 finish (as I think we have a very easy run in) If we can actually win 3 or 4 of those encounters then I see no reason why we should not be considered title contenders. Personally I will happy with a draw against Manchester City and Arsenal. Think we should be able to beat Man Utd and Newcastle at the lane and would hope we can get a result from Anfield, but no matter how good we have been this year part of me will still be suspecting that we may lose all of them and be faced at the start of March with a tough road to re-qualify for the Europa League, either way these next few weeks will decide our season.

New Phone Review - Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Well I finally managed to get my hands on my new handset 6 months after first looking around, The new handset is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus which at the time of writing is the only phone to be featuring Android 4.0 (AKA Ice Cream Sandwich)


Initially I did not think I would be able to have this phone as it is not on sale with T-Mobile in the UK and I did not want to lose my unlimited internet so I had started to resign myself to the release of the two new HTC Quad Core Devices due for release Q2 of this year however after being offered the Nexus on Three with unlimited internet for £41 a month I decided it may well be time to switch from
the network I had been with since I got my first mobile back in the 90’s. I called T-Mobile to ask for a PAC-Code and instead they told me I could actually get the handset from Carphone Warehouse, not just that but they would give me a £20 a month reduction (to £25 a month) and I could keep my unlimited internet. So I picked up my phone Saturday morning at 10am and it took until about 10:35 until I was hooked.

Looks wise when I first saw the handset in the shop my first thought was “Massive” but strangely enough as soon as I got it in my hand it didn’t occur to me, If I place it next to my old Desire again I am shocked by how big it is but whenever it is back in my hand it just seems to fit, perhaps this is just that I have big hands, but it feels a good size. The Shape of the phone also helps with a very thin top side 6mm with a much wider base (11mm) this has the effect of the phone feeling light but with a substantial weight where you are holding it which gives it a good feeling of quality. The most noticeable thing on first glance is that there is a complete lack of any buttons on the front (In fact there are only two buttons on the phone (On and Volume)) this is likely to become the Ice Cream Sandwich standard as the new Android features on screen standard buttons (Home, Back and Multi-tasking)

Ice Cream Sandwich features a few interesting features many of which are more fun than reliable but show the way things are going to go:

Face Lock: Alongside the standard Android unlock options (Pin or Pattern) ICS features a face unlock option, simply look at the screen and it opens, now whilst this is a fun feature it can be slightly temperamental in less than perfect light and makes people think you are using your phone as a mirror, so you may seem a little vain, you can always bypass the face lock to access a pattern or pin
unlock instead.

People: The people app has had an update since my last Android Device (Running FroYo) particularly the ability to link in more accounts so I can link in my Googlemail contacts, Twitter Contacts, G+ Contacts and Linkedin Contacts. Now I am sure you may have noticed the obvious omission from there in that I did not include Facebook; unfortunately the ongoing disputes between Google and Facebook mean that people does not feature native support of facebook contacts. Obviously as I can not be bothered to come up with pictures of all my friends this was a bit annoying, luckily there is a way around it via a third party application, there are a few available but I personally selected HaxSync as it had been highly recommended – it set me back 62p but as soon as I had that and facebook app installed I could link my contacts to my facebook friends. Another good feature of people is the ability to “Star” your favourite contacts meaning that you can split off the people you
use most often who are displayed in a simple to use grid.

Voice Type: The voice typing feature is now a standard on all areas where you can type and seems remarkably responsive, I have dictated quite long text messages with so far no issue whatsoever.

Multitasking: One of the three buttons that exists on the bottom of the screen is for multitasking and selecting it will open up all of the open apps which you can return to with just a tap, or shut down with a quick swipe. A very similar interface is used for notifications where you can swipe to dismiss or touch to select.

There are plenty of upgraded experiences as well, such as the Apps menu which just feels nicer to navigate than a long list and contains all of your widgets as well, also the Google search bar is now a permanent feature at the top of the phone, and the long awaited arrival of the folders for your apps allowing you to better organise your apps so you can really take advantage of the 14GB of internal memory. Everything combines to make the phone feel both cutting edge and simple & intuitive.

If I was pushed for a downside I would have to say that the lack of an external memory card is a little disappointing but with 14GB internal memory I doubt it will cause me too much of an issue between now and next June when I’m next up for renewal.

Social-Capitalism

I have been thinking a lot lately about the idea of responsible capitalism personally I think from Westminster at the moment it is a lot of “Sound Biting” and an attempt to appease people with words they know but do not understand the meaning of, That said my ideal system would be what I would call the social-capitalist system where instead of kicking the free market with its size 90 boots the government could instead operate benevolent companies in the market place (For Example the BBC in Media, Northern Rock (had they not taken a massive loss to sell them) in banking, British Energy (Again had they not been sold) in the utilities) These companies which would by law have to strive to be profit making and would not be allowed to receive tax funding could then be used to provide a socialist element in a capitalist system.

This could include taking the unemployed on to provide skills and work experience (At
the same time making them work for their benefits) They could also ensure that price
fixing would be impossible as they would always look to lower end consumer prices whilst ensuring that there was still a level of profit to be made (Otherwise people would stop running businesses) and finally each company would provide a decent amount of money into the exchequer to remove a lot of the tax burden from the private sector. This way the government can manipulate the market rather than trying unsuccessfully to control it.

The important fact that seems to be lost of the protesters at St Paul’s is that unlike socialism and communism which try and control the way people behave to reach an ideological result capitalism is actually looking at things the other way as it does not try and change the way people behave but rather tries to explain the way people have behaved since society began, There is no way to abandon capitalism as it is our default setting and every attempt to move away from capitalism soon reverts to a close proximity to capitalism as people look to return to their natural behaviour, the challenge therefore is not to remove capitalism but to use it
to achieve the required aims, manipulate not devastate.

Not Been Around For A While

If I had any regular readers I am sure you would have noticed that my blog has not been active in the last few months, My mother was taken unwell with cancer back in July and to be honest I really couldn’t be bothered with much other than trying to spend as much time with her as possible. Unfortunately despite all of her efforts my Mum lost the battle two days before Christmas and so has now gone on to whatever adventure lay ahead of us all.

I would therefore like to take a few seconds of blog silence to remember my Mum a lady who was to me without equal and in life someone who touched the hearts of everyone she met.

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Good bye Mum, you will never be forgotten.

Movie Review: The Hangover Part 2

This week’s film was The Hangover Part 2, when the original Hangover film came out I was not particularly interested as it seemed to be the kind of brainless humour that I really struggle to get into so I decided not to watch it. As everyone I knew then started to watch it and constantly tell me that it was the funniest film they had ever seen I started to become curious, I tried on several occasions to rent it when it was out on DVD but it was always fully booked out which only seemed to further suggest that it really was as good as people had claimed. I was obviously very disappointed then when I finally got hold of a copy only to find out that it was exactly the film I thought it was and with the exceptions of a few scenes was the lowest form of base humour. I therefore made no plans to watch The Hangover Part 2 when I saw it was advertised however there was nothing else on this week so we went to see it.

Now before I start I should say that this film is not bad, but it is not good either, in fact The Hangover Part 2 could quite easily be a far east remake of the original, there is really nothing that would set this film apart from the original and it sticks to nearly the same structure but then as it is a widely acclaimed film it makes sense not to change it. As I left the cinema I would have said that I preferred this film to the original but on reflection I think that this was simply a difference in expectations, in the original I was expecting to laugh the entire time and didn’t – This time I was expecting not to laugh and did (a couple of times). Overall I found the expectation that I would find humour in the idiosyncrasy of two of the characters funny seemed a little too much like bullying for my liking, The main “comedy” character Alan is designed to be the but of the jokes however the fact that he clearly has a special outlook on life is not, for me, enough to laugh at.

As I say the film follows basically the same plot as the original; Alan, Phil and Stu phone Sasha to say they will not make it to the wedding, Then we see the start of the story up to the guys starting to drink before we cut to the “Next Morning” and see the three guys waking up and trying to piece their story back together. The baby from the original is now exchanged for a baby and they are also joined by Leslie Chow the oriental gangster from the original who was also out with them. The majority of the laughs are supposed to come from Zach Galifianakis (Alan) and Ken Jeong (Chow) who are extreme caricatures of their characters with Alan’s simpleness and Chow’s shock value expected to carry the film. But unfortunately for me, it doesn’t. Bradley Cooper (Phil) and Ed Helms (Stu) seem quite incidental to the scenes that are set up although as the uptight victim of a couple of the set pieces Ed Helms does force a few cringes, however the relationship between his fiance and him is beyond comprehension as I doubt there is any woman alive as forgiving. Overall this film is simply a darker more unpleasant version of the first which really didn’t add anything and made some of the characters just a little more unlikable.

Where does Personal become Racist?

A Newspaper article caught my eye yesterday, it is something I really shouldn’t be worried about writing about but I find that I have to very carefully form the sentences in my mind before typing them such is the fear of offending on such a delicate matter. The Article that took my attention is about Racism and as a White Male I am time and time again told that I have no way of being able to comment on this issue – An Irony that my race would make me ineligible to speak on racism. (In my life I have been on the receiving end of racist taunts and a few racist attacks, I attended a predominantly Asian college and calls of Gora (An Indian term meaning white skinned) were common and unfortunately often accompanied by spitting and on a few occasions violence.)

I think my views on racism are probably that which are held by most rational thinking people, That racism is wrong, not just morally but intellectually, it really doesn’t take much brain power that to group together the Hundreds of Millions/Billions of each race into one group and judge them all on that basis is clearly insane. Surely logic dictates that if you take a million Caucasians and a million Afro-Caribbeans then you will get a very wide mix of experiences and life stories and similarities will come across the groups just as surely as differences must occur within them. Therefore if you are to discount a large proportion of the worlds population on the basis of Colour, just like on sex or education or wealth or any division for that matter, you will be severely limiting your scope.

Anyway back to the actual article, this article was about a dispute with Naomi Campbell and Cadbury’s chocolate, in their latest advert Cadbury’s displayed a picture of their new chocolate bar alongside the slogan “Move over Naomi, There’s a new Diva in town.” Naomi Campbell then came straight out and attacked Cadburys for racism. When I first heard that I was not sure on what grounds but as Naomi says herself “I am shocked. It’s upsetting to be described as chocolate, not just for me but for all black people.” So her issue is with being described as chocolate which I can kind of agree with as this is a playground racial slur and if we are to ever beat racism the battle needs to start on the playground. However the advert does not compare Naomi to a chocolate but rather it compares a chocolate to Naomi which is a very important difference.

In essence the Advert takes one element of her personality and assigns it to the chocolate bar in this case her reputation as a diva. Now you could argue if this is bordering on an attack on her by accusing her of being a diva (Even if it does then it would clearly be personal and not racially motivated.) however by her own admission their reflection on her personality must be correct, After all the advert does not say “Move over Naomi Campbell” it only says Naomi it is the usage of Naomi and diva in the same sentence that she has taken as being a clear indication that it is her, if it said “Move over Naomi – there’s a new astrophysicist in town.” It is unlikely anyone would be thinking of Naomi Campbell.

So as she is clearly being mentioned in this advert due to her personality trait and not her race then clearly the only think that is holding up her claims of racism is that chocolate is brown, following this complaint through to it’s natural conclusion therefore would basically be stating that no Afro-Caribbean people could advertise chocolate or for that matter anything that is brown – Assumingly this would be a real headache for Hagen-Daz who would have to carefully monitor that they don’t have the wrong people advertising their chocolate ice cream or heaven forbid a white woman selling vanilla. So in Naomi Campbell’s ideal world the jobs people could do would be dictated to by their colour – Thank god she is fighting against racism!

Quite unbelievably when looking up a few facts for this post (I know it is hard to believe but I do occasionally check the facts I am writing about.) I came across calls from “Black Civil Rights Groups” calling for a boycott of all Kraft goods and a quote from Lee Jasper (Controversial Former equalities aide to Ken Livingstone when he was mayor) who has said “Part of the problem is that [These companies] don’t see it as offensive.” Perhaps the problem is that this isn’t offensive unless you look for it, perhaps the fact is that Naomi’s race didn’t come into the equation at all they simply asked who was the biggest Diva they could mention and Naomi’s name was at the top, so in fact it is just possible that despite Mr. Jasper’s claims this incident is a symptom of a less racist world, but for that to happen we must all leave behind the hang ups of the past.

Movie Review: On Stranger Tides

Next trip to the moving picture house was to see the latest in the Pirates of the Caribbean Movie, On Stranger Tides. The movie is a bit of a step back for the franchise returning to the more compact stand alone format rather than the connected stories of Dead Man’s Chest and At Worlds End. The original trilogy has always put me in mind of the Matrix trilogy (A good first film followed by two linked pieces of pap) so I was glad that they decided to go back to a simpler plot line. The plot is based on the book by Tim Powers simply updated to fit into the Pirates of the Caribbean universe to enable Jack Sparrow to be the hero. The Director is now Rob Marshall who has a background in dance and musical numbers (including winning an Oscar for Chicago) and this is quite evident in some of the fight scenes. So Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom are out and Penelope Cruz is in as Depp’s love interest. Ian “Lovejoy” McShane comes in as the infamous pirate Blackbeard, for those of us who grew up with 90’s BBC programming it is very difficult to think of him as anything else than the antiques dealer but for American audiences he is probably better known for his role in Deadwood which paints an altogether less PG interpretation.

The film itself has Jack Sparrow searching for the fountain of youth and being pressed into service of the supernatural Blackbeard, at the same time Geoffory Rush returns as Captain Barbosa (Hasn’t he been killed several times now?) who has crossed the legality divide to claim the fountain for the British Government whilst trying to stay ahead of the Spanish party. (Basically the story is three groups trying to get to the fountain.) Along the way there are mermaids to capture, treasures to uncover and all of the usual pirates fare. Overall the cast give a good performance and with the exception of one particularly frivolous sword fight (It is a Pirates movie after all) the plot clips along with a decent tempo. Depp is always very committed to the role he clearly enjoys and McShane and Cruz work very well alongside him to make this movie, whilst not a classic, a couple of hours of harmless fun and a welcome change from the last two films in the franchise.