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The Joys of Online Streaming Sports
Picture the scene. You’re travelling and Twitter tells you that the final rugby World Cup quarter final is a tight affair. There are just minutes left, and a single score could send the match either way. The final “northern hemisphere” side are fighting to stay in the competition. You fire up ITV Player on your…
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The Martian and Sicario
There seems to be a spate of pretty decent films coming all of a sudden at the moment, so after a bit of a barren period when endless super-hero films haven’t inspired me to go to the cinema, I’m suddenly going a little more. The Martian is Ridley Scott’s new film, based on the book…
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Not Predicting the Mercury Music Prize
Here’s an oddity. Music Week has published a list of albums that Google Play Music says represent the volume of streams that albums eligible for the Mercury Music Prize have achieved. So they’ve looked at acts that released albums between September, 9 2014 and September 25, 2015. The official shortlist is published in a couple…
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From Darkness and Unforgotten
In the last week or so, two new dramas have started on BBC One and ITV with on the face of it similar themes. Both are essentially crime dramas, and both deal with dead bodies from years earlier being dug up. Who are the bodies, and how did they get there. We get brief flashbacks…
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Come on News TV – Use a Satellite!
A couple of years ago, I moaned on this blog about the growth of streaming video in place of satellite links in news programmes. In short, as services like Skype have grown, news desks are getting their correspondents to utilise broadband or 4G and smartphones instead of sending camera crews and satellite trucks. Now this…
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Chromecast Audio – Initial Thoughts
At Google’s recent devices launch, they announced a new version of the Google Chromecast – a £30/$35 device that plugs into an HDMI socket and lets you stream video via WiFi, using a phone/tablet/laptop as controller. It’s a neat device. They also announced Chromecast Audio – essentially doing the same for audio for your existing…
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The NFL in London
This Sunday sees the first of this year’s International Series NFL games at Wembley – the New York Jets play the Miami Dolphins. This year there are once again three games, all regular season fixtures, meaning they’re not friendlies, and they count for the teams involved who want to reach the playoffs. I went to…
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Lunar Eclipse
I saw a Tweet yesterday that essentially blamed a continuous stream of “once-in-a-lifetime” astronomical events as all being Brian Cox’s fault. An amusing conceit. I suspect it’s really that we’re a little more aware of our surroundings in the solar system these days. Anyway, last night was a lunar eclipse that coincided with a so-called…
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Channel Scheduling
In a couple of weeks’ time BBC Three is going to be showing the new third season of Orphan Black. The programme comes from BBC America, and although not a massive ratings hit, garners a lot of critical acclaim, particularly for its star Tatiana Maslany. The show actually aired in the US between April and…
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Tour of Britain 2015 – Stage 8
The Tour of Britain ended this year as it usually does, with a circuit race around central London. But there was a new circuit this year, with the race heading more into the West End than it has previously. The crowds looked good, and although it was hard to follow the race, I later learned…
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Tour of Britain 2015 – Stage 7
This year’s Tour of Britain is spread out quite a lot compared to some recent editions. It started north Wales, heading into Lancashire, then Cumbria, Scotland, Northumberland and the Peak District. Today’s stage started in Fakenham, Norfolk and would end in Ipswich in Suffolk. The profile showed the route to be effectively pan flat, and…
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Hunted
When I heard that Channel 4 had commissioned a new series where people attempt to go “on the run” and outwit a crack team of trained hunters, I knew I’d have to watch. I’ve always been a sucker for these shows. Although not all quite the same, this follows in the footsteps of programmes such…
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Yellowface/All The Lovers In The Night
Yellowface by R F Kuang I first came across R F Kuang with last year’s very enjoyable Babel, an alternate history of the British Empire told in a world where magic exists and is controlled by an elite group of individuals. Yellowface is very different, but no less enjoyable. It’s a book about books, and…
Hadrian’s Wall
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