Spotted on the internet

As we reach the silly stage of the festive season, here are some items of potential interest to regular Rusters that I came across during my overnight tour of the newspaper websites:

SIR PETER JACKSON PROVIDES AND UPDATE ON FORTHCOMING BEATLES DOCUMENTARY

Following on from his highly-acclaimed 2018 documentary They Shall Not Grow Old in which he oversaw a painstaking enhancement and colourisation of contemporary WW1 footage, the Kiwi movie producer, director and screenwriter Sir Peter Jackson – key directing credits the Lord of The Rings and Hobbit trilogies but previously also a joint winner of an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay with his partner Fran Walsh for Heavenly Creatures (1994) – has been working upon The Beatles: Get Back, a new documentary based upon 56 hours’ worth of previously unseen footage shot around the time of the making of the Fab Four’s Let It Be album.

He has just released a 6 minutes ‘teaser’ – not a promotional clip as such – detailing where he has so far reached in his project, which seeks to destroy the myth – to a degree spread by the 1970 Let It Be documentary about the making of said album issued by the Beatles themselves – that the band were at each other’s throats by this stage of their career.

(For the record, the Let It Be album – the last the Beatles released during their career proper – was the second last they made: Abbey Road (1969) was begun and completed after Let It Be but issued before it).

Here’s a link to Jackson’s teaser, which hit the internet yesterday, courtesy of – YOUTUBE

OLD AGE

As we each personally note (or don’t) milestones or developments in our journey into old age it is occasionally rewarding to come across reports upon new scientific and/or medical research findings into the process.

It’s ironic that – at different times – I can and cannot remember instances of memory loss and/or absent-mindedness from my past. What I do know is that these days I “register” them more often – or possibly that should more properly be mentioned in the context of the frequency with which others, not least family members, point them out to me (even if I don’t or haven’t notice them).

Here’s a link to a relevant and possibly enlightening report by Jonathan Chadwick that appears today upon the website of the – DAILY MAIL

SPORTING CONCUSSIONS

Rugby – the union and league versions – are the latest physical contact sports to suffer a major health & safety crisis but they will not be the last.

Regarding concussion and brain injuries in rugby, there exists a subset of instances (lesser but ultimately just as – if not more – dangerous than those caused by big “hits” or collisions) that do not necessarily “present” in on-the-spot HIA (head injury assessment) tests but which – if suffered frequently enough by an individual over months or even the course of a playing career – can cumulatively result in serious dementia and/or similar conditions.

Here’s a link to a troubling piece on the subject by Gerard Meagher in reviewing the findings of a recently published report from Professional Injury Surveillance Project on the 2018/2019 season, including the fact that more than a fifth of elite players had suffered at least one concussion incident – see here – THE GUARDIAN