Month: June 2012

Why Julian Assange is dangerous

liligans Politics, So you think you're cultured?, What Pisses me off

Yesterday, we commemorated the contribution made by Alan Turing. Born exactly a hundred years ago, Turing was a brilliant mathematician who headed the codebreaking unit in Britain during the Second World War.

It was he who was largely responsible for inventing the Enigma machine at Bletchley Park, the secret British centre for codebreaking. His team could decipher cryptic German messages and this information was used against the enemy itself.

Naturally, it was crucial that the Germans not find out about the Enigma machine and so the secret of Bletchley Park was kept until well after the War when the danger was over.

It was the secrecy around the Enigma Code which shortened the War.

Which brings me to Julian Assange and why he is dangerous. In my opinion, had amoral Assange been around during this war and had he learned about the Enigma machine, I am convinced that he would have blabbed it to the World and endangered the lives of many millions of Allies.

Le Chef- movie review

liligans Films, So you think you're cultured?

Funny thing about this film. I enjoyed it very much while I was watching it, but on thinking it over what struck me was how silly it all was.

So what did I enjoy? Well, 99% of the acting was excellent. Jean Reno is his usual consummate self as is the rest of the cast, apart from the villainous manager, Stanislaw, who is oh so evil!.

I particularly enjoyed the pomposity of chefs being satirised. It is only food, after all and chefs are not deities. Not really. So when the film makes fun of molecular cooking and those big white plates with microscopic portions on them, I feel validated for thinking that chefs have delusions of grandeur and that some cooks take themselves far too seriously.

The French are good at comedy, as are the Brits. They have finesse and they don’t go for stupid special effects etc, which bore me to tears.

So what I really enjoyed about Le Chef is that it made me laugh and nowadays I am desperate for a chuckle what with Greece and Syria and all that stuff.

On reflection, however, the film is very predictable. No surprises there and not much depth. I particularly winced at an embarrassing scene in a rival restaurant which would have been more appropriate for a Dumb and Dumber scenario.

So what? I ask myself. A bit of amusing froth is what I wanted and Le Chef is well worth it for that.