I was blown away by this CGI reimagining of Zero X from Captain Scarlet. So I thought I'd start a general purpose thread for all things GA.

This is pretty special, must have been a real labour of love.

Zero X is of course the vehicle which first takes Spectrum agents to Mars, where they carelessly start an interplanetary war with the Mysterons.

Mark's just had a rather large payday. A quarter of the proceeds are going to charity, but 3/4 of a lot is still a lot.

The iconic red Schecter alone went for £415,000.. one of the Les Pauls went for £693,000

Rather than continue the conversation in a general thread, I thought a dedicated topic was in order - that way folks who aren't really keen on following the news can easily avoid it.

Harry turning up in London makes me wonder if it's actually life-threatening, though the PM's comments this morning that it's been "caught early" suggest otherwise.

Apparently on the Today programme this morning someone claimed that "everyone who has cancer will feel the King has thrown his arm around them", what absolute bollocks. I'd be more likely to feel kicked in the teeth given the attention he's getting and the speed with which he's managed to get treated.

By the way I saw my first conspiracy theory on the subject just now: https://twitter.com/MattersInformed/status/1754880869964083242

"If Charles really had cancer, Harry would have been told weeks before the press".

Anyway I have to wonder why we're not being told what sort of cancer it is. Just "a form of cancer". That seems odd.

Sad news. Oddly, two weeks ago over Sunday dinner the other half and I were talking about Dad's Army. She commented that all of the cast are dead now. I corrected her, but I think that's true now.

I read a review of a new film featuring Andrew Scott and was really intrigued by the idea, that of a middle-aged man who has a dialogue, as an adult, with his parents who died when he was twelve. Actually I think my interest was piqued because I do something similar myself, not with my parents, but as a way of confronting a different irreducible contusion from my past.

So I told Mrs G about it, just as a conversation point. And before I knew it, I'd been railroaded into going to see it at a cinema in Loughborough, which I did tonight.

This was actually the first time I'd been to a cinema in at least 15 years, and the occasion didn't get off to a fantastic start. We took our seats to find ourselves behind two improbably sweaty, remarkably obese gentlemen in grubby clothing, filling their faces with chocolate. One or both of them stank like a pig farm in a heat wave. Twenty minutes of overloud adverts didn't help either and we were far too close to the screen. Despite this there were about eight rows in front of us - how you'd watch a film from the front row in this place I have no idea.

Anyway we relocated to the back just before the film started where conditions were thoroughly agreeable and I really enjoyed this film. It's low key, it's affecting and it's very human. There are only four characters and everyone puts in a good shift but Andrew Scott and Claire Foy (his mum) are really, really brilliant. Incredibly natural performances.

I'd only actually seen Andrew Scott in two things before this, a Fleabag episode and Spectre.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68035314

If you go nosing around, you can often find old webpages from the previous century still online - and they give a flavour of what the technology was like back then.

This page from the BBC site from 1999 is a case in point. The images are tiny, and compressed. And the width of the page as formatted takes up a small fraction of a modern-day web browser on a 4K screen, but it was of course intended to be viewed on a monitor that would typically have a resolution of 800x600, or perhaps 1024x768.

The screenshot is actual size. Notice that there's a "low graphics" option!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/431705.stm

This was shown on Channel 4 forty years ago last night; the first single from the band's debut album SWOON which was released a couple of months later. Annie Nightingale had played it on her R1 Sunday show a couple of days earlier.

It's not an exaggeration to say that this changed my life. I absolutely loved this band and SWOON was something like the soundtrack to 1984 for me.

I quite enjoyed my daily journey through The Phil Silvers Show last year and this year I've set myself an easier task - the 74 episodes of Red Dwarf.

There are twelve series and in my opinion it peaks around about the fourth or fifth, then goes badly downhill after that.

I:1 The End

I've seen this one four or five times, now. It was first shown in February 1988. Establishes the context of the series. We see the Red Dwarf in its usual mode as a highly populated mining vessel. We see Lister as a likeable, irreverent slob and Rimmer as officious, petty and small-minded.

Quite interesting to see Lister smoking in a few scenes. And I laughed at the references to modems and "speaking slide rules". Few people would have known what a modem was in 1988 when this was first shown, although I owned one myself. I used it to transfer Pascal programs to a Teesside Poly minicomputer over the telephone system.

There's also a reference to sending photos to be processed in a lab, even though this is supposed to be set in the late 21st century. Until Lister emerges from stasis, when it's set three million years in the future.

Famously, Clare Grogan is in this one. She was also in Mortimer and Whitehouse Gone Hogmanay Fishing the other night, thirty-five years older of course.

I really like this first series. It has a simple, low-budget, sitcom charm and this very first instalment is a good one.

A very late night and a few drinks didn't seem to have caused me too much debilitation by the time I dragged myself out of bed at about 11:15AM. I had a quick breakfast and set off on a Twycross Bypasser not long after midday.

But clearly my head was a bit foggy because I couldn't find my DAB personal radio, I took the wrong specs out with me and I forgot to take a phone. I took my old MW/FM personal radio with me, and it was fine. I managed OK without my varifocals. And fortunately I didn't need a phone.

I only wanted to do about 35 miles because rain was due over some time between 3 and 4pm. Bright when I set off, growing increasingly gloomy as the ride wore on, but it didn't rain.

Listened to 5 Live, mostly footy chat.

Really nice to get out there in the open. I especially enjoyed the view along Orton Hill. And although this only occurred to me when I got back, I went over the border into Warwickshire at the western end of Orton Road, so that's one of the neighbouring counties ticked off already.

I tracked the ride with a new watch, a Garmin Vivoactive 3 that I bought second hand (on a whim of course) for £30 in well-used condition. The battery meter read 64% when I set off and I got the low battery warning with about two miles to go, although confusingly since finishing the ride and switching off the GPS, the meter has crept back up to 22%. So - I'd guess it should just about handle a fondo on a full charge.

Although I like the colour screen, it's not as useful for cycling as an Instinct. But it's another toy to tinker with.

Back on 36.26 miles.

https://www.strava.com/activities/10474360779

Well, as I expected - the new Doctor Who was comically bad; it's tanked and quite rightly it's been very poorly received. It seems that a lot of reviewers are blaming the descent of the show into hysterical limp-wristed wokery on Disney, but I think we know that's the BBC's doing.

Couldn't make it up, really.

http://ravenstoneradio.uk/

.. and hit the play button

This is brilliant. I sat down to watch the first 15 minutes but watched the whole thing right through in one go. I loved the anecdotes about jamming with Hendrix and Eric Clapton persuading him to sell him his Les Paul.

Andy is actually older than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, but he got his break more than a decade later than his contemporaries.

.. there's a free AI image creator at https://www.bing.com/images/create

You need a Microsoft account to login.

This is what I got for "a cat piloting a starship"

Someone's made a one hour documentary about the old home computer game Elite. I spent hundreds of hours engrossed in this game. There was a galaxy full of places to trade, evade the police, hunt down criminals for money, blow up other ships and steal their stuff.

Watched the first ten minutes, will watch the rest over the hols.

Nice site here, which will calculate sunrise / sunset times to the second for your precise location (as pinned on the map). It gives the times for a whole year.

https://www.sunearthtools.com/solar/sunrise-sunset-calendar.php

It seems that next year's sunset times are slightly earlier than this year's.

For example sunset occurred at 15:51:20 today at my location. A year from now the sun is due to go down at 15:51:04.

A few years ago I installed a PS1 emulator on my Linux desktop. Didn't work too well.

But now it seems there are a few sites where you can play loads of the games online in a browser.

Those old games look crappy for sure compared to the sort of thing you can get these days but they're still a lot of fun. I spent many hours playing Rainbow Six and I've just cleared the Belgian embassy again this evening. Works really well and if anything, using a keyboard is easier than the old controller. Possibly.

Will see if I can find Battletanx in a bit.

https://www.ps1fun.com/play/tom-clancys-rainbow-six/982

https://www.ps1fun.com/

I hope you like Fairytale Of New York, because you'll be hearing it quite often over the next few weeks.

Fortunately, I do.

Sad news, but I'm amazed he made it to 65.

I thought I'd embark on another journey through the studio ouvre of some band or other, and - since I'd liked them since I was a teenager, but have never listened properly (or in some cases, at all) to some of their albums, I thought I'd do Can.

01: Monster Movie (August 1969)

I'd never listened to this album before, partly because it was recorded by a slightly different lineup than later records, and partly because it has a reputation of being "formative", and not in a good way. But I listened to it yesterday while out on a bike.

Very mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, it has a very experimental, avant garde feel that's genuinely exceptional for a 1960s recording. In places it's like post-punk, ten years before its time.

On the other hand - there are only four songs here, and disregarding the innovative style and attitude, none of them are any good. The last one, Yoo Doo Right is a 20-minute jam, edited down from a six hour recording. It's repetitive and interminable.

The lyrics throughout are stream-of-consciousness bollocks except for Mary Mary So Contrary which just takes its words from the nursery rhyme of the same name.

Outside my Door has a curiously dated, early '60s feel - almost like an early Who or Stones tune, except for the Hendrix-esque fuzz lead guitar and the anarchic vocal.

More of an experiment, a statement than a collection of music. Interestingly it was recorded in a very crude fashion onto two track tape. A mixing desk wasn't used, they settled for setting the levels carefully on their amps! And to be fair that does lend the whole album a certain immediate charm and character.

But I don't think I'll be revisiting this one.

There's a very striking Moonbow going on out there in NW Leics at the moment. Tried to get a pic, not very successfully.

That's Jupiter just to the right.