I was in Barcelona recently and saw an apparently unofficial femicide memorial, just there, by the side of the street. We need more of this. Especially in the UK. Our politicians have got everyone frothed up about migrants they’ll likely never see or meet, and the biggest crime is literally right nextdoor.
Author Archives: Phil
Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction… but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.
Just had a classic LLM loop: “How do I do this?/You could use this setting/I can’t find that setting/that’s because it doesn’t exist”
Fifty years into the future, the sun is dying, and Earth is threatened by arctic temperatures. A team of astronauts is sent to revive the Sun — but the mission fails. Seven years later, a new team is sent to finish the mission as mankind’s last hope.
Loved this from my first watch. The only thing I didn’t like about it was how much I identified with Mace, who is an absolute prick about everything. Then I got diagnosed with ASD in 2018 and now it alllll makes sense 😂
While Mace IS a prick, he’s also not wrong 90% of the time and people hate that combination, especially when it’s not coming from a place of ego or self-promotion. As Mark Twain (probably) said: “Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.”
I think Chris Evans plays it brilliantly. I think he once complained about being “typecast” as Cap… but really, I think he’s in more danger of being typecast as a prick.
On this watch through: I don’t get why Mark Strong is cast as a South African in such a minor role. Just cast Strong and make him British, or cast a SA 🤷♀️ And why can’t we have a better look at what Pinbacker’s done to himself? Less is not more.
★★★★
After hundreds of years doing what he was built for, WALL•E— a robot designed to clean up the earth—discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL•E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report to the humans. Meanwhile, WALL•E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most imaginative adventures ever brought to the big screen.
Nearly 20 years and I feel like we’re even more firmly locked into this future. First we had the mindless consumption, then the sedentary lifestyles, followed by endless screen time. Now we’re just perfecting the robots and planning our escape.
★★★★★
Mycroft needs Sherlock's help, but a remorseless criminal mastermind puts Sherlock on a distracting crime-solving spree via a series of hostage human bombs through which he speaks.
It would be harsh to dismiss the previous two episodes as set-up for this one and yet…
This is fantastic TV. This one takes more pleasure in the solving than in the outcome and it’s all the better for it. Not least because we know what the outcome is going to be anyway.
If I had to pick a low point, though, it’d be some of the music. Yep, violins, I get it, but it’s just a bit one dimensional.
★★★★½
A string of apparent suicides has Scotland Yard baffled in London 2010, and officials turn to their consultant, Sherlock Holmes, for assistance.
I love this for the introduction of (this version of) Holmes and Watson. Especially Watson, who is far more interesting than he’s ever been.
Don’t love the case, though. The “headology” explanation is not very satisfying. Not a patch on developing a tolerance to iocaine powder.
★★★½
PhilHumans are terrible at sustained vigilance for rare events in high-volume streams. – https://mastodon.online/@pseudonym/116135917950981989
See also https://electrek.co/2026/03/17/former-uber-self-driving-chief-tesla-fsd-crash-supervision-problem/:
Tesla is asking humans to supervise a system that is specifically designed to make supervision feel pointless. As he puts it, an unreliable machine keeps you alert, and a perfect machine needs no oversight, but one that works almost perfectly creates a trap where drivers trust it just enough to stop paying attention.
The 33-year-old Columbia University protester had been held in an immigration detention centre for a year.
It’s ludicrous, but I genuinely hope the law eventually catches up. Assuming it is allowed to…
In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer; a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine.
It’s well made but, although the story seems clever, I’m not sure it makes any sense. Like, at all.
★★★