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Channel 4 have put the first episode of their new show, ‘The IT Crowd‘ online. I’ve just watched it and I think it’s brilliant. I’m yet to enter the ‘real’ world of IT work but I get the feeling that, tragically, it will all ring ever so true. It’s about an unloved IT deparment and the poor woman who is sent down to the basement to manage them. She’s a ‘normal’ person with no interest in ‘com-pu-tes’. Personally I found it laugh out loud funny and I’ve heard that it gets better with the 2nd episode. It’s written by Graham Linehan who wrote the brilliant ‘Father Ted’ and stars a still gormless Richard Ayoade (previously seen in the brilliant (and also geeky) ‘Nathan Barley‘) and Chris Morris as a guy called Denholm, who certainly talks like you’d expect a guy called Denholm to talk. There are loads of geek references, EFF stickers, RTFM teeshirts and “She didn’t even get excited when she saw this origional ZX-81!” It starts this Friday, but you can download it now from Channel 4’s website.

> Download the first episode directly here (.wmv)

Bowie once didn’t sing; “Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, I’m evolved from a funkee monkey“. So fascinated have I been by the battles in US schools over the teaching of evolutionary theory that I never thought that we in the United Kingdom would be quite as sceptical of Mr. Darwins ideas. However, only 48% of us believe Darwins selected evolution theory to be correct and 40% of us think intelligent design should be taught in schools. If this is in Religious Education or Biology lessons the article doesn’t say. That’s the question which concerns me most.

The real cause of grief in the US isn’t; “Is the christian fundamentalists’ ideas on creationism correct”, but; “should I oppose the teaching of science in our childrens science lessons as my faith doesn’t recognise it as valid”. Fortunately this question isn’t being raised (yet!) as the division between scientific education and religion, or perhaps more importantly; the division between church and government, is perhaps a little more reasonable in the UK than it is in the US. Your thoughts, gentlemen please!

> View BBC news article

“Move this ship out of the asteroid field”

This is just damn cool. This couple are putting on a show, well… a ‘visual experience‘ and this is the promo vid for it. They took thousands of photographs (over 9,000) of this Che/Stormtrooper sticker and put ‘em together to make the video. Now for a scratch version of ‘The Imperial March’ over the top and it’s brilliant. I’d check out the show but LA is a little out of my way. *sigh* Guess I’ll just have to keep reading Wooster Collective to get a feeling of the whole street art scene.

> View the video @ heavyammunition.com

This show has been making a tour of the blogs and I feel compelled to mention it here. Zoe is only 15 and hell, she has better musical taste than most of my friends of any age! I remember when I was that age I didn’t have anything like the range of tastes that she does. Maybe thats down to the ‘mp3 generation’. Theres something here for any music fan; Kanye West, The Books and Deerhoof were all in the last show I listened too. Lets hope that she keeps the broadcasts up this year (note; there is no way I’m using the phrase ‘podcast‘.)

> Visit zoeradio.com to listen

It’s tough to find you’re locked in a cycle of porn and comics, believe me; an intervention should probably be staged at the point you lose coordination and find yourself masturbating over Garfield. I’m glad to say that this week I’ve rediscovered the thing of random beauty the web should be.

StumbleUpon is a great website with a firefox plugin, that allows you to surf to a semi-random site (based on your interests) at the click of a button. Think of it as AudioScrobbler, but for surfing. To its credit, as much as this sounds like spyware, it’s not, it’s the pure, sleepkilling stuff that int0rn3tz are made of. Wipe your keyboard off, and give it a try.

> Visit stumbleupon.com

I seem to be getting a bit of traffic from a site I’ve just signed up to: w3csites.com. It is a showcase of websites that conform to the w3c standards. To anyone who doesn’t do any sort of webdesign this probably means very little. All you need to know is that there are some webdesigners out there who unselfishly ensure that websites are made that can be viewed by anyone, no matter what computer or browser they wish to use! (or perhaps are forced into using) God bless these fine souls! If you visit the gallery of new sites, I think you’ll find quite quite a high standard of design and it is rare to find truely awful sites. Personally, i aspire to raise my abilities to that of the designers of the better sites on that page.

> View my w3csites profile here

I hope to expand it soon.

Also, for those of you who didn’t notice, it’s now 2006! I had a mediocre new years but have no one to blame but myself. Things to look forward to this year include:

• I finally graduate (hopefully)and someone gives me a job
• A new Pretty Girls Make Graves album
• I finally get that pony
• Peace in Palestine (I’m really clutching at straws here)
• A new album from The Fall (Hey, there usually is, why should this year be any different?)

I hope you all have a good one.