The Maths We Should Have Been Taught
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Monthly Archives: March 2008
Proactive Policing in Manchester
Drugs are undoubtedly one of biggest social problems facing teenagers and young adults in the UK. Mixed messages sent from the government over drugs and in particular cannabis have left people thinking they are able to posses and use illegal substances without threat of prosecution.
I was therefore extremely please to see Greater Manchester Police accompanied by sniffer dogs monitoring Victoria Station when returning home last Friday. I would have been completely unaware of their presence if it wasn’t for the sniffer dog getting excited when someone ahead of me walked past. Two burley police men took the young gentleman aside for questioning.
While living in Manchester over the past four years I have in general felt extremely safe. Even during the series of high profile attacks in Fallowfield in 2006, the police appeared to quickly respond with high visibility tactics and again took a proactive approach, warning unaccompanied women of the dangers and even escorting them home.
Keep up the good work GMP!
The Bank Job – Film Review
[imdb the bank job]The Bank Job is a gritty film with a mostly British cast lead by
Jason Statham. The film is based on a series of true stories creating an intricate and relatively believable story which indeed sounds like something straight out of Hollywood. Of course that is for a good reason, because it is!
Some elements of the film which are ture are that there was a bank robbery on Baker Street in 1971, that Princess Margaret allegedly* had revealing pictures of a sexual nature taken which were concealed under a “D Notice” and that there was a crazy crime boss called Michael X.
It does however takes some leap of the imagination to string all these stories together which unfortunately shows in the film as it swings wildly from the believable to the unbelievable.
I was pleased to see Jason Statham attempting something other than the action fueled acting he is so famous for, however at times he did appear somewhat rigid. Even so he remains one of my favorite actors, in particular for his role in Snatch and the Transporter films. It did make me sit up somewhat when he turned kung-fu master in the final scenes with some typical Stratham-esq action.
Altogether The Bank Job was entertaining, slow in parts and confusing in others but still worth watching!
*not by me – please don’t sue me
I’m Turning Green!
This week I started cycling to the station and getting the train to work instead of driving!
I work in Bradford and live in Manchester so commuting is an everyday part of life. When I started working in Bradford, I worked out it was cheaper to travel via car than by train, however I forgot to factor in the cost of servicing and depreciation to my car! So now I pay around about the same price for the train (thanks to inflation of fuel prices), and my car is having a rest in the garage.
Train prices in my opinion are ridiculously high giving people very little incentive to switch from less carbon efficient forms of travel such as driving. If one other person shared the cost of commuting to Bradford by car, the cost would be utterly incomparable to the cost of both traveling by train. Furthermore I think it is disgusting that Alasdair Darling is considering increasing the duty on fuel which will undoubtedly only serve as a tax on low income households.
Vantage Point – Film Review
[imdb vantage point]“Vantage Point” was unexpectedly disappointing. The concept behind the film was to show an event from the perspective of several different onlookers. Only with all those perspectives could the event be fully understood.
I had been looking forward to this film for a while because it sounded innovative, original and had the potential to be brilliant, however in reality it was repetitive, tiresome and began to feel like the 1993 film; “Groundhog Day”.
It wasn’t all bad however; there were some good action scenes, some beautiful cinematography and of course some great acting from Dennis Quaid.
Interestingly, the tag line to this film is “8 Strangers. 8 Points of View. 1 Truth”. Unfortunately the one truth is that replaying the same event 8 times from 8 only slightly different points makes for a rather disappointing film!
Patriot Missiles Recommended by The Times
I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw the above image on the Times Online front page.
‘Times Recommends’ are particularly interesting stories highlighted to readers, however I think the may have not though this one through thoroughly enough.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find the actual story as amusing as the link.