Some wonderful timelapse photography on Life last night. Was curious to know how they’d done a moving year long shot in a forest. Disappointed to learn in the “making of” segment at the end that they’d faked it in a shed with a blue screen.

Guido Fawkes slags off John Bercow for writing a nasty-sounding sex tip guide in the 80s. Which, fine, no problem. (Edit: Ugh, was that ambiguous? I mean that I'm fine with Fawkes slagging off Bercow, not that I'm fine with what Bercow wrote in the 80s.)

Then he implies that he once slept with Bercow’s wife. Which seems a nasty thing to say on the country’s most widely read political blog. (If he was just saying it to his mates, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.)

I’m not sure it should seem a nasty thing to say. Views?

Andrew Marr’s Making of Modern Britain — did I miss the bit where he mentioned women getting the vote, or did he leave that out?

He mentioned the suffragettes in a couple of the early episodes, but didn’t seem to mention any tangible results.

I also found it odd that he didn’t shy away from describing the concentration camps in South Africa, or the effects of bombing Dresden, but glossed over dubious British action in Ireland in the early 20s (no direct mention of the Black and Tans?).

The London Assembly have done a report on overcrowding and disruption on the tube (pdf).

Page 12 has a map showing how overcrowded different bits of the tube get during the worst bits of rush hour.

It turns out that staying up late doing emergency sysadmin, after playing in a chess match, leads to me being zonked the next afternoon+evening. Who’d have guessed?

Away -v- Crystal Palace

• board 1 — draw
• board 2 — lose
• board 3 — win
• board 4 — win

Crystal Palace 1½-2½ Streatham & Brixton

I was on board 4.

Did the Lib Dem leafleting thing this morning. Warmed up, lovely sunshine, friendly letterboxes, casually introduced to Floella Benjamin as I was heading away afterwards.

Did the Saturday afternoon following football on radio+web thing. Palace 3-0 Watford, marvellous. That’s not happened in a while.

Would like to go clubbing tonight in theory, but in practice I’m tired, have sniffles, and wasn’t quite taken with the music when I went to Vagabonds. So I shall stay in and sleep.

The Tories left Labour the dome. Labour are leaving the Tories the olympics.

I agree with the Single European Newspaper Headline.

Next time can we have these posts elected by the people? Either directly or via the EU parliament, I’m not fussed. And elect the commision too. Kthxbye.

Sometimes time twists and turns, sometimes it meanders to and fro, sometimes it crosses back on itself, sometimes it coils like a rope or a roll of thread. I wonder which of the last two it is this time?

Five years, to the week.

Not really in the mood to write lots of text, so I’ll just say — :-)

Oh god I hope not:

The current working planning assumption is that the poll will be held on 6 May — the same date as the local elections — with a long campaign designed to expose the policy frailties of the Conservatives in the way that John Major tried and failed to unnerve Tony Blair in 1997.

If this happens I may go insane. 6 weeks is too long.

Who’s going to Reptile (FB, MyS) on Saturday?

Charlie Brooker is the modern Victor Lewis Smith.

One ex. Two exes? Two exs? Two ex’s (surely wrong, but the other spellings look wrong too)? Two exen (implausible, and even if correct would leave the problem of “three —”)?

I pay far too much attention to American politics. For example, I have no idea whether gay Austrians can get married.

Fireworks, at two in the afternoon?!

Ripped CDs shouldn’t skip.

Listening to a cd that I’ve probably not listened to yet this decade. Ahem.

I still know which song comes next when the track before is ending.

Processed food and low mood

The researchers conclude that processed foods are a ‘risk factor’ for depression rather than specifically labelling them a ‘cause’. This is a balanced conclusion, considering that unmeasured factors may be contributing to this association. A healthy diet has a range of proven benefits and the suggestion from this study that there is a link with improved mental health seems plausible. Randomised controlled trials would provide more conclusive evidence for this.

I was already thinking I needed to eat less chocolate and more fruit. And if I eat less cheese and more eggs, that works too.