Michael Schumacher Forever

Update - As my friend Aakanksha says: Or not.

It's been three years since one of the greatest, if not the greatest F1 driver retired from the sport, but it's now time to bring out the old refrain. Michael Schumacher Forever.

Ferrari has announced that the seven time world champion will come out of retirement to step into Filipe Massa's seat for the next race.

Massa fractured his skull at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Although doctors have said that last year's championship runner-runner up is stable, there are worries that he may not be able to race again.

I'm sure I join every racing fan in wishing Massa a quick recovery. But if there's anyone who can slip into a Ferrari, it has to be Schumi.

He may have to come back to drive a car far from the pack leader he's been used to. But whatever the results, his return under such unfortunate and unexpected circumstances will only help to maintain his previous achievements in the full glory they deserve.

He's doing everyone a favour.

On the day that BMW announced it will no longer race, and with many drivers in the job market, Massa would be pleased with the team's decision as well.

Get well soon Massa, and come back. Till then we get to see Schumi race again.

We get to see Michael Schumacher race again.

Maybe if I say it often enough I'll believe it.

Why, thank you! *blush*

I love a compliment just as much as the next girl, so when it was the national newspaper telling me what my mirror tells me an average of 19 days a month, of course I was flattered.

According to The Times,

Scientists have found that evolution is driving women to become ever more beautiful, while men remain as aesthetically unappealing as their caveman ancestors.

Of course, I knew that this is one compliment that is absolutely true. So it comes as an added bonus that the scientific acknowledgement of my beauty is accompanied by the opportunity to say I-knew-it-all-along.

(Brilliant and beautiful. Can I do human-kind any more favours?)

But honestly, I really can't take all the credit. According to the report,

...good-looking parents were far more likely to conceive daughters.

Thanks Mama, thanks Dada.

Feel free to tell me how you absolutely agree with The Times. And me.

The most read article on the Beeb at 22:56, July 15

Once in way, a story comes along that you can't read without smiling an amused smile.

But imagine how the person writing this story of a smoker's quadrillion dollar credit card crisis must have laughed. (Laughed at, not with.)

He (this smoker) thought he would be a couple of hundred dollars in the black. But his overdraft had pushed him into the red - by an amount equivalent to many times the entire US national debt.

"It is a lot of money in the negative," he said. "Something I could never, ever, afford to pay back.

"My children could not afford it, grandchildren, nothing like that.

You don't say!
(Said in the same mock serious tone the article has been written, as one hopes it has, else it's a very very dry day for news at the Beeb.)

Buffy kicks some Cullen arse

Like there was any doubt as to what would happen if Buffy the Vampire Slayer met Edward Cullen (cue contemptuous sneer) of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight.

Remix artist and self confessed pop-culture hacker Jonathan McIntosh brings together the icons of vampire fiction in this great political remix.

(To be fair, maybe we shouldn't call Twilight 'vampire fiction' and even bother comparing the two; as a racy romance, Twilight would be perfectly acceptable time pass entertainment.)

In six minutes, Jonathan McIntosh reminds us that

• Buffy's cool.
• Spike's cooler and infinitely more admirable topless, than Edward and it is preposterous to even take those two names in the same sentence.
  
• Vampire pop culture of 1997 - 2003 is way (waaaay) better than the post 2005 upstarts.

But more significantly

• Buffy was all about girl power. On the other hand, Twilight with all its sensuality (and sexuality) can fall quite easily into the "Oh-Bella!"-"Oh-Edward" Mills and Boon style of story telling that seems to portray Edward's possessiveness and creepy behaviour as Love. Jonathan says it best in this post.
• Vidding and remixes can be extremely useful in political and social commentary. Copyright is thus severely curtailing the fundamental right to expression through transformative works.

Here's the video (Creative Commons BY-NC-3.0 License): Watch and learn Bella.