Raquel Aparicio is a Spanish illustrator who studies in Edinburgh, and she has worked with, to name but a few The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine and Elle magazine.

The above illustration, which is actually called ‘Spring tendencies’ (and not Little robots and a wind up girl) is my favourite, but it’s worth browsing through her other other work, she has some other beauties too.

The decision to hold another General Election was not taken lightly. We recognise that there are those who strongly and genuinely believe that the outcome of this Election should be accepted as representing the definitive view of the people on the Government. However, for many reasons we do not believe that any responsible people could let the matter rest there. We made this clear in our various grumblings before the General Election. And we made this clear in our blogs. Simply put, the people cannot take risks about Irelands future.*

Surely Europe could step in or something…?

‘Alien 3′ wasn’t much of a film as far as I can remember, but ‘Se7en’ was great. ‘The Game’ was a bit crap but ‘Fight Club’ was fantastic. ‘The Panic Room’ was awful which meant surely we were due a good one from director David Fincher.

And he delivered, with Zodiac.

Based on a book about an actual serial killer who called himself Zodiac, the film follows journalists and detectives as they investigate, and report on, the Zodiac’s killings.

Zodiac is based in the 70’s and has a distinctly Seventies feel to the direction. As a fan of seventies films, this worked for me, though this will probably be a love it/hate it type film.

The film has it’s flaws, but it succeeds in conveying a certain reality that is missing from 90% of films - particularly films of this type which often ditch reality for a more ‘dramatic truth’, shall we say. Zodiac makes us feel the frustrations of a real investigation, the elusiveness of solid facts, the shifting nature of ‘truth’, the subjectiveness of things such as handwriting evidence and the general grinding reality of police work.

We also experience the senselessness of the killers actions through the character of Robert Graysmith, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Graysmith, the author of the book upon which this film is based, is a cartoonist working for a paper which reports on the killings. Graysmith becomes obsessed with Zodiac, unable to let go… “I… I Need to know who he is. I… I need to stand there, I need to look him in the eye and I need to know that it’s him.”

While the horror of the killings themselves are portrayed in the several short scenes which feature the killer himself, it is through Graysmith’s obsession that we really wonder about the senselessness of the killings. Graysmith’s obsession seems to be fuelled by that senselessness, as he hunts for meaning, firstly in the killers cyphers, and later through the mire of endless case files as he researches his book.

The film is packed with fine actors, all giving great performances. Yes, I could nit-pick that Mark Ruffalo never quite seemed the type to wear bow-ties or that Gyllenhaal didn’t quite perfect his nerdy character, or that Robert Downey Junior’s bizarrely perfect posture was oddly distracting, or that Anthony Edwards line about japanese food was thoroughly unconvincing but why nit-pick when this is one of the most entertaining ‘mainstream’ films I’ve seen in a while.

This is a film I will go to see a second time in the cinema.

“I love my country and I am deeply ambitious for it. But at this point, I have to say, with this outcome, at this stage of my career, it makes it very clear that as far as I am concerned, my period of public life as a public representative is over.” - Michael McDowell

While the general outcome of the general election is generally depressing, at least McDowell didn’t get back in.

One has to wonder though - if Bertie was arrogant enough to show his true colours, like McDowell, maybe we could have shaken him off too.

I just removed a soccer post from BifSniff. The blog police are probably thinking it’s because I have no love for soccer, but no, it wasn’t that.

Eoin, who does all the BifSniff soccer posting these days had a draft scheduled for release which he never got to finish due to his adventures abroad… so he asked me to remove it until he got back.

Yesterday i was getting sms briefings on his progress as he tried to make his way to Athens for the Champions League Final - it was exciting stuff I can tell you, but I’ll let Eoin fill you in when he gets back.

Eoin did relate his prediction for the game to me: 2-1 to Liverpool with Crouch and Gerrard scoring.

The last time Eoin shared a prediction with me it was eerily accurate. I am now on my way to the bookies…