The bluray I am reviewing is Kylie X 2008 which is Kylie Minogue in concert at the 02 Arena in London. It’s a fantastic concert & I think Kylie is as good live as anybody. It was quite a cheap bluray I bought from Amazon but you get your moneys worth as it goes on for over 2 hours. Also the concert must have cost a small fortune to stage. In Britain Kylie is a huge star & has had more No1 singles than any female soloist apart from Madonna. The best song is In Your Eyes. Many peoples favourite is Can’t Get You Out Of My Head but I’ve listened to that too many times. At the time of this concert Kylie was 39 & looks great for her age.

The book I read to research this post was A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. The universe is 13.7 billion years old. Most stars are in pairs, the sun is unusual in that respect. Probably the most famous pairing of stars is polaris the pole star. The core of the earth is thought to be as hot as the sun and shows no sign of cooling. Not all planets have internal molten rock but it enables the earth to have land. If the earth was smooth there would be a continous ocean that would be 4 kilometres deep. 60% of the earth contains ocean that is at least 1.6 kilometres deep. The deepest point of the ocean is the marianas trench which is 11.2 kilometres deep. In the past when the dinosaurs died out it took about a million years for huge mammals to appear. There were raccoons with the size and temperament of bears. There were guinea pigs the size of rhinos & rhinos the size of a 2 storey house. There was even a flightless bird 3.5 metres tall in america. Nowadays of course the animals tend to be a more sensible size.

The book I read to research this post was Red For Danger by RLT Rolt which is an excellent book. This book is a history of train accidents in the UK. These kinds of accidents rarely happen and when they do happen even if there is only a small loss of life they’re big news. In the 19th century one accident happened on the Chester to Shrewsbury. It happened when a train went over a bridge and one of the girders gave way. The train barely made it to the other side but the fireman who was on the footplate fell to his death. On another occasion there was a flood which derailled a train and the driver got out to go and report it. He survived. Meanwhile a big flood was sweeping his way carrying 2 ton boulders and swept the bridge the train was on away. A lot of people died. On a lot of routes they have double track which at least in theory means trains use each track for different directions. Where there are single tracks obviously there can be problems. One way around this is drivers collecting a token from a signal box to indicate they are the only one on that stretch of line. There can be problems when a driver fails to collect the token and goes through anyway.

The book I read to research this post was Brains: How They Seem to Work by Dale Purves which is a very good book. This book has an ambiguous title in that it’s about prominent figures in the neuroscience field not how the brain works. I have a hopeless memory for names so I might not be able to put names to the stories. At one time it was rare to find a neuroscience faculty at a university & even rarer to find a course on the subject. Instead you did neuroscience as a part of another subject like anatomy or psychology. Nowadays of course that has changed. One experiment some neuroscientists did was to inject a patients brain with a special dye & watch the growth of connections each day which obviously wouldn’t be dyed. In the 30′s there was an eminent neuroscientist in germany who emigrated to england after he turned down a post that a jew had been forced to resign from. In the 60′s there was a man who would become an eminent neuroscientist. He had trained as a doctor & done some training as a psychiatrist but dropped out. It was in america during the vietnam war so he was conscripted as a doctor in the army. He had mild depression because he didn’t know what direction his life was taking. In the army however there were more opportunities to specialize in something than even university. He joined the peace corp & became a neuroscience specialist. I think that’s a nice story because you often associate bad things with conscription & it’s a bit different.

I am reviewing the movie sequel Taken 2 which is very good. It stars Liam Neeson, Famke Jansson & Maggie Grace. I think fans of Taken will be satisfied with this. Liam plays an exspecial forces bodyguard & this time they are in Istanbul when Liam & Famke are kidnapped and Maggie must evade capture. She rescues Liam & they have to go back for Famke. It contains lots of great ploys like how to use your mobile phone whilst your hands are chained to a pipe over your head. Tip use your feet. Also it’s amazing how Maggie finds them via setting off hand grenades and him telling her where they are in relation to the explosion with the mobile phone. It does have a happy ending & also has some brilliant car chases and some tense scenes.

The book I read to research this post was Depression & How to Survive it by Spike Milligan & Anthony Clare which is an excellent which I borrowed from a friend. Spike Milligan was a member of the goon show which was a classic tv & radio show from the 60′s. He also suffers with depression. Anthony Clare is a professor of psychiatry & is sometimes on television in an advisory capacity. Apparently the most likely people to commit suicide are men over 60 & the most likely to harm themselves as a cry for help are women under 30. A lot of this book is Spike being interviewed by Anthony. One interesting is that although Spike was married & had children he also had a child by a previous relationship. He sent her money and kept in touch with them. He also didn’t mind when she sold her story to the newspaper. Apparently most antidepressants aren’t addictive despite popular belief although if you come off them your underlying symptoms might come back. Also ECT despite being controversial is more effective than medication on its own. I’m not a sufferer but the person who leant me this book is. He’s elderly like a lot of people with depression. Many people with depression never get treatment & many people don’t realise that depression is an illness that in many cases is caused by a chemical imbalance. Often the first sign that someone has depression is when they either commit suicide or parasuicide. Parasuicide is when someone is harming their self as a cry for help.

The book I am reviewing in this post is Carte Blanche by Jeffrey deaver which is the latest bond novel & is excellent. Basically the plot is a person has come up with a revolutionary cure for cancer. That person is murdered. Apparently a drug company that would have become bankrupt hired a megalomaniac to murder him. His name is Hildt & he owns lots of companies including a recycling company that is indulging in dodgy practises. Apparently there is 4 times as much plastic in the pacific as plankton. Also there is a huge garbage pile in the pacific between Japan & the USA that is definitely bigger than Texas & maybe a lot larger. These are facts. Anyway James joins a new organisation that is more secret than Mi5 or Mi6. He is given carte blanche to solve the case by any means necessary. He travels to various places en route to solving & there is a beautiful black girl he meets in South Africa who is the love interest. I think this is a good addition to the James Bond series that hasn’t been made into a film yet. Incidently Deaver likes fast cars and skiing just like Bond.

You might be interested to know I recently did a post on Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria which is on this site. The book I read to research this post was AA Essential Bulgaria which is a very good book which I bought from a secondhand bookstore. A famous tourist attraction is the petrified forest which is a fossilized forest along with stalactites & stalagmites. I think there’s also the fossilized remains of various prehistoric animals. It’s near the Black Sea coast. Bulgaria is reputed to be the oldest nation in Europe. The original people who settled here were the Thraceans from Northern Greece. The Romans invaded to extend their empire to the Black Sea. Later Bulgaria had an empire and much land that would later become Hungary & Yugoslavia. In World Wars 1 & 2 Bulgaria started out neutral but later joined in both on the side of the axis nations. After World War 2 the Russians invaded. Nowadays Bulgaria is becoming a popular tourist destination but doesn’t have the problems with lager louts that many Southern European destinations have.

I am reviewing the excellent film The Sweeney which stars Ray Winstone & Ben Drew. It’s based on the old tv series of the same name about an experienced although a bit corrupt police officer showing a newbie the ropes. It’s also about the flying squad which have fast cars and pursue people like bank robbers. This is quite a violent film. Regan played by Ray is having an affair with the wife of someone who is leading an investigation into the flying squads methods. Regan steals some gold from a crime scene and sells it on the black market. Needless to say suspicion falls on him. Also a gang who are armed are going around robbing shops and banks. This is a gritty kind of thriller. At one point Regan is sent to prison for intimidating a witness but Carter stands by him and gets him out. There is quite a happy ending. I think Ray gives a fantastic performance. The original series starred John Thaw & Dennis Waterman. A couple of Sweeney films were made in the early 80′s but I think this film is better.

I am reviewing the film Santa Paws 2 which is an excellent family film. Of course it’s a christmas themed film partly set at santa’s headquarters at the north pole. Santa sends his wife played by Cheryl Ladd as an ambassador to a small town in the USA where the christmas spirit is particularly strong. Unknown to her 4 puppies have stowed a ride on the sleigh intent on proving they can grant xmas wishes via a special crystal which is magic. Somebody wishes there was no xmas spirit which they grant. This has a huge effect on xmas spirit worldwide as ripples kind of emanate out. Some people are immune to the spell but not many. The puppies are taken to the dog pound but escape. Mrs Claus is arrested for illegally parking her sleigh. She too escapes. The puppies incidently are animatronic & are wonderful to watch. Santa sends his 2 senior elves to sort things out & of course there is a happy ending.