He is one of my favourite artists, and first performed in the 1920s. But his career only really took off in the 1940s, and in 1949, his partnership with singer Keely Smith, later to become his second wife, gave him a popularity that would eventually take him to Vegas.

For most people, he’ll probably be remembered mostly for “Sing, Sing, Sing”, which he wrote, but its popularity would be mostly credited to Benny Goodman’s classic version of the track. However, he did have his own legacy, providing the voice for King Louis in Disney’s Jungle Book and singing “I Wanna Be Like You”, one of the more memorable tracks in the film. Some videos for you to enjoy are below.

For now, I’ll save some more of my favourites from Louis for another time.

In the meantime, a very happy 100th birthday to Louis Prima, and hope he’s laughing and smiling looking down on us in his unique style!

Best that the ONS takes some advice to improve the results:

• Make sure not to ask questions to the following people:
  • students;
  • public sector workers;
  • Gordon Brown;
  • bankers;
  • anyone else the coalition has unfortunately upset recently;
  • Gillian McKeith…
• Give the £2m out first to your interviewees, then ask them if they’re happy.
• Alternatively, happiness is a cigar called “H******”, so spend your £2m on these first, give them out and ask your questions.

Mind you, a cheaper way of doing a Happiness Index is to ask everyone if they’re happy and know it and watch them clap their hands.

Those were jokes by the way, in case some hadn’t realised (cf. the Twitter joke trial). Mind you, not sure if any of them increased your happiness after reading them.

It’s almost a year since I last wrote on here and if I were to leave this page too long, it wouldn’t be achieving its purpose, so I’ll try to write a few tidbits once in a while. Meanwhile, I have longer term plans for a feature to this site, but it will take me a while to get there.

In the meantime, here are a few thoughts for you:

1. The Nobel Prizes were awarded this month and while some of the prizes (such as the Prize for Chemistry) were very much worthwhile, I can’t help but think that the Peace Prize is much of a joke. To award prizes to Barack Obama in 2009 and Liu Xiaobo , a civil rights campaigner in China, in 2010 doesn’t seem right. Not to belittle their achievements so far, but neither has actually brought about change as yet, and there are plenty of others who have achieved much more but have not been recognised. I can’t help but feel that the Nobel panel is trying to send a political message about its vision of change, and less about rewarding those who have created good for the wider public. Shame really…
2. Meanwhile, the IgNobel prizes were a little more interesting. Held every year as a humorous award ceremony for research that “makes us laugh and then think”, there were the usual crop of amusing wins. Since the prizes are awarded by real Nobel laureates, so the prizes are coveted by some as much as a real Nobel prize. For full details of the ceremony, see here. And then you can find out, amongst other things, that it’s been scientifically proven that bats also perform fellatio.
3. Finally, I’m sad to hear of the passing of Benoit Mandelbrot. Many of us of my age will remember his fractals being adorned on almost every maths teachers’ classrooms, next to the Eschers and the 3D stereograms. But the art of his most famous fractal was only one side of his influence. His work had more serious impact in the world of digital compression, which is the base of most of the digital imagery and information that is transmitted in our technological world today. Thank you Benoit.

Seriously, though, it’s a bit of a pain and I’ve had to do a lot of updates to file permissions which have been very painful. I’m trying to get it delisted but it might still take some time. So advice to you all, make sure your site is looked after.

But while I was doing the cleaning up, I thought I’d look for a new theme and found this one. I kinda like, so I’ll stick with this for a while. I’ll fine tune this over the next few days.

In the meantime, I hope you like it and I’ll try to post some new content on here soon.

Now the benefits of anti-bacteral gels have been touted for quite some time, given the spread of the H1N1 virus. But what we didn’t know is that they apparently are a good ingredient in cocktails.

The BBC reports of a prison who have banned the alcoholic gels following the discovery of an intoxicated inmate. Supposedly a hospital has had the same problem of people drinking the gels.

Clearly some people really will do anything for a drink, but this isn’t recommended.

Full article here.

Pixar has had some of that to contend with, as its head man, a certain Steve Jobs, who is also CEO of Apple, has recently revealed that he had a liver transplant after suffering from pancreatic cancer.

And so, it’s nice to see that Pixar is also able to touch other peoples’ lives in their own special way, as OCregister.com reports.

Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old with a rare form of cancer, was staying alive for one thing – a movie.

From the minute Colby saw the previews to the Disney-Pixar movie Up, she was desperate to see it. Colby had been diagnosed with vascular cancer about three years ago, said her mother, Lisa Curtin, and at the beginning of this month it became apparent that she would die soon and was too ill to be moved to a theater to see the film.

After a family friend made frantic calls to Pixar to help grant Colby her dying wish, Pixar came to the rescue.

Full report: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/pixar-up-movie-2468059-home-show

The event that didn’t happen (according to China)

Today, China tries its best not to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests. Over here, we’re all familiar with the video footage of a the lone protestor in front of the tank (reproduced by Balakov below).

Tiananmen Square protestor in Lego

(Photo by Balakov on Flickr,  reproduced under Creative Commons licence)

China’s attempt to place a blanket ban on coverage of this event (it’s even blocked Twitter) is somewhat understandable. It simply wants to avoid what it sees as an unfortunate incident in history. And to an extent it has succeeded. I was surprised this morning during breakfast with my fiancée, when the video footage of the man in front of the tank came up on the news, she said that she had never seen it before. She was even quite shocked by it. But, she also mentioned that Chinese TV had presented some much more gruesome pictures of students injuring soldiers in the event, which I don’t recollect ever seeing. Just goes to show what different media like to show.

Anyway, today, China is doing its best not to mark the event. And some of the CCP supporters are putting in their own efforts to prevent western media from covering it in an umbrella censorship. No, literally! They’re sticking umbrellas in the way of TV cameras as Shanghaiist reports.

But in all seriousness, it’s true to say that everyone has their own point of view on the incident. Personally, I’m of the opinion that this needs to be let go by most people. What happened twenty years ago was a defining point of history, which did change the face of Chinese politics, even if no one will ever publicly admit it.

European Elections

But China isn’t the only political system that has something to contend with today. In the UK, we are holding elections for the European Parliament.

The European Parliament is made up elected members from across Europe. The UK has about 10% of the seats, and MEPs are selected by way of an election using proportional representation. This means that unlike the UK parliament, MEPs are selected on the basis of the proportion of votes their party gets. In domestic elections, MPs are selected by whoever wins in their own constituency in a “first-past-the-post” style election. The net effect is that the European elections mean that smaller parties have a higher chance of representation.

But the real issue here is voter apathy. Few people, especially those supporting larger parties, are less likely to vote. This means smaller parties are likely to get a larger representation in Europe, and the fear is that the likes of the far right British National Party have a higher chance of getting seats.

There is a campaign going on to get voters on their feet, but if this fails, a big question will re-arise: will we ever get the majority people to vote ever again.

And taking into account both the Chinese and European systems, is there really a political system that really represents the views of the people?

But there are good reasons why I haven’t written so much in the last few months, and that’s because I’ve been way to busy.

And recently, that culminated in getting married!

Yes, I married my beautiful bride at the end of April in a quiet ceremony in London. And I’m thrilled to bits.

So, that’s why I’ve been a little quiet recently. But I’ll try to write a little more soon, in the meantime, my twitter feed should provide you with a little idea of what I’m up to!

Catch you soon!

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, do the list and tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.) If you don’t see the Tag people in the upper right hand corner you are in the wrong place.)

I’m tagging a few but please tag me back if you do this so I can see your lists

Things you have done during your lifetime:
(X) Gone on a blind date
(X) Skipped school
(X) Watched someone die
() Been to Canada
() Been to Mexico
() Been to Florida
() Been to Hawaii
(X) Been on a plane
() Been on a helicopter
(X) Been lost
() Gone to Washington, DC
(X) Swam in the ocean
(X) Cried yourself to sleep
() Played cops and robbers
() Recently colored with crayons
(X) Sang Karaoke
(X) Paid for a meal with coins only
() Been to the top of the St. Louis Arch
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn’t.
(X) Made prank phone calls
(X) Been down Bourbon Street in New Orleans
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
() Danced in the rain-naked
() Written a letter to Santa Claus
() Been kissed under the mistletoe
(X) Watched the sunrise with someone
(X) Blown bubbles
(X) Gone ice-skating
(X) Gone to the movies
() Been deep sea fishing
() Driven across the United States
() Been in a hot air balloon
() Been sky diving
() Gone snowmobiling
() Lived in more than one country
(X) Lay down outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets
(X) Seen a falling star and made a wish
() Enjoyed the beauty of Old Faithful Geyser
(X) Seen the Statue of Liberty
() Gone to the top of Seattle Space Needle
() Been on a cruise
(X) Traveled by train
(X) Traveled by motorcycle
(X) Been horse back riding
() Ridden on a San Francisco CABLE CAR
() Been to Disneyland OR Disney World
() Truly believe in the power of prayer
() Been in a rain forest
() Seen whales in the ocean
(X) Been to Niagara Falls
() Ridden on an elephant
() Swam with dolphins
() Been to the Olympics
(X) Walked on the Great Wall of China
() Saw and heard a glacier calf
() Been spinnaker flying
() Been water-skiing
(X) Been snow-skiing
(X) Been to Westminster Abbey
(X) Been to the Louvre
(X) Swam in the Mediterranean
() Been to a Major League Baseball game
() Been to a National Football League game