9/11 - The Falling Man
A Channel 4 documentary about 9/11 and the controversial photographs capturing the final seconds of people who jumped to their deaths.
Harrowing and yet compulsive viewing. Not for everyone and the sort of program you might expect a warning about the content (21:00-22:30) which some may find disturbing, upsetting or offensive.
Instead, Channel 4 announce 'This program contains images and video footage featuring repetitive patterns that may cause problems for people with photosensitive epilepsy'. Bizarre. Truly bizarre.
May the 2,967 innocent people who lost their lives that day rest in peace.
unfortunate choice of words
There is a terribly sad story in the UK about clinical trials that have gone (badly) wrong leaving six people critically ill in hospital. Radio 5 carried an interview with a person who has taken part in previous trials. He was so full of praise for Parexel that I thought he was a stooge. That was, until, he uttered the unfortunate words'So, 1,000 GBP for one trial and 750 GBP for the second. For a student, that is a lot of money and can actually be life-changing'
Ciddy getting giddy
13. Years since Manchester City reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup. 30. Years since Manchester City last won a trophy. The best football banner in the world was very simple and understated - just two large digits at the Stretford End. The number was incremented on or around 28th February each year. The banner is no longer at Old Trafford (following the Glazer takeover) but can still be seen at FCUM matches apparently. Easier to get tickets too.probably the funniest TV show ever
The Armstrongs is a BBC2 fly on the wall documentary about a small, family owned double glazing company in Coventry. While this subject doesn't sound too inspiring, the program is absolutely hilarious. Last week, the husband and wife owners travelled to France in an attempt to diversify and increase dwindling sales. Amazingly, they chose to translate their business proposition using Babelfish which may be adequate for children's homework but resulted in an unfortunate translation of 'conservatory' to 'music academy'. Consequently, the subtitles revealed that couple asked their French prospects:'Are there a lot of music academies in France ?'A van driver crashed into the bosses' expensive, prized Jaguar and then wisely chose to resign on the spot. And we await with baited breath, the update on the young man who joined the company and immediately asked for time off to participate in the World Championships of Othello.
management consultants
One of the candidates on BBC2's 'The Apprentice' is a 'management consultant'. He was very keen and virtually begged to be allowed to do the sales pitch on this week's show.'Please, let me do the pitch. This is what I do. I am world class. There is no-one better.'And then, in his sharp suit and with his short haircut, he opened his stilted, stuttering, unrehearsed, nerve-ridden pitch to various hard nosed businessmen (about a charity calendar for Great Ormond Street Hospital) with the immortal words.
'Now, please, forgive me if I get a little emotional...'And all over Britain, the viewing audience cringed with the exception of management consultants everywhere, who exclaimed:
'Oh my God. This guy is simply appalling. I could do so much better. He's not even using Powerpoint. And another thing, just look at that tie.'