RIP michael jackson

i suppose i should make some sort of comment about the death of MJ. i wasn't a big fan of jackson and certainly didn't like anything he released in the past 20 years but could still recognise his huge talent as a musician and performer and the massive influence he's had over the music world. his life had such a sad feel to it and he always seemed to be so alone. i guess being a household name from the time you're 5 years old is a pretty good way to ensure a normal life is impossible. hopefully he'll be remembered for the music he made rather than the other rubbish and lies that people made up about him.

the moving earth

i've just been watching a programme i taped off sbs called 'the moving earth'. it traces the astronomical discoveries by people such as copernicus, brahe, keppler, gallileo and newton and has really blown my mind. their findings of a heliocentric universe and how the forces of gravity and inertia dictate the planetary orbits are just accepted as common knowledge now but at the time of their discoveries were not only unknown, but considered heretical by the church. copernicus' book was added to the church's list of banned books and gallileo was put under house arrest.

how unbelievably intelligent were these men that they could have grown up in a world in which the earth was believed to be the centre of the universe and yet they were able to come up with the theories they did. to be able to observe what is occurring around oneself and understand that what is seen proves accepted knowledge wrong is stunning to me. for newton to start from a base of observing the fall of a cannon ball and an apple and from there develop a theory of gravity is incredible enough, but to then relate that to the gravitational pull on planets in their orbit is mind-blowing.

these men are inspirational and true heroes. many were attacked by the powers of the day for their discoveries and yet continued their work. they placed the advancement of science, knowledge and understanding above their own safety. bruno was burnt at the stake by the catholic church for his claim that the universe is infinite. it must have been incredible to have worked alongside people such as this.

JJJ hottest 100 of all time

it's been a while since JJJ did their last hottest 100 of all time. from memory i think we could only vote for one song at that time. my vote went to 'smells like teen spirit' and it came in at number one. needless to say i was a happy camper. it's come time again to vote for our favourite songs and this time we're able to vote for ten songs whilst nominating one of them as the best. obviously narrowing all of the songs ever written down to the ten best is impossible: i find it hard enough choosing a top ten for each year. still, i've done my best and i've no doubt there will be plenty of people who'll disagree with me:

The Church - Almost With You

Depeche Mode - Blasphemous Rumours

The Hummingbirds - Blush

The Killers - Mr Brightside

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

The Rolling Stones - Sympathy For The Devil

Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen

Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone

Billy Bragg - Levi Stubbs' Tears

Showbag - Perish Union

i had to nominate one of the songs as my favourite so that went to 'smells like teen spirit'. i should also note that it was very hard cutting 'that joke isn't funny anymore' by the smiths out of the final ten so that was a very unlucky number eleven. we'll soon see how few of my choices make the final cut.

oops...

NEWS ARTICLE

obviously this poor old israeli woman hasn't been seeing muz for financial advice as she'd kept her life savings in her mattress. the ravages of inflation on her savings would've been bad enough but when her daughter thought she'd give her a nice surprise by buying her a new mattress and throwing the old one out things turned really ugly. it turned out that the woman had saved over a million dollars and had hidden it all in her mattress. it's now sitting in a landfill site somewhere with no one yet able to locate it. bugger!