The 'News of the World' is on its way out, so what will replace it?

I was quite shocked to hear that this Sunday's News of the World will be the last ever issue. However it seems beyond belief that a replacement paper will not be brought out by News International. So what will the paper be called? well domain names may give us a clue...The Sun's URL has the definite article so how about those?
Domain name: thesundaysun.co.uk
Registrant: Bridgeport Enterprises Limited
Domain name: thesunonsunday.co.uk
Registrant: Mediaspring

I wonder if one of those might be a clue. well there is no company registered at Companies House with the name Bridgeport Enterprises Limited

 We won't have long to wait. The News of the World sold in huge numbers and Rupert Murdoch will not want them to move to another organisation's paper. The problem News International will have is in convincing people that any new paper is not just The News of the world Mk2.

Doctor Who - Demons Run/A good man goes to war

An interesting episode: lots of old characters returning (a touch of The Pandorica Opens), wisecracks galore (the Sontaran, Commander Strax, was especially good at this), one nice lesbian oral sex joke and some decent acting from Matt Smith.

Amy Pond was rather too wimpy in this episode for my tastes, maybe the leather catsuit would have helped.

Referring back to my previous quick post on this episode; watch the episode on iPlayer and when The Doctor brings out the cot doesn't Amy say "What's this... River" Listen very carefully at 29:02, if you pause the video isn't there an odd smile on Amy's face; did she realise her (deliberate) mistake?

So what do we have in this episode? A touch of Star Wars, a reprise of previous episodes, the final explanation that Pond and River are not accidentally closely related and the feeling that Stephen Moffat tried to outdo Russell T Davies in cramming as much into a season ending episode as possible.

Some questions arising:
If Melody/River is part timelord then we know she cannot regenerate as The Doctor wondered in this episode, after all we saw her die in The Library.
If we know who River is then why the panic about her being a force for evil; baby Melody seems not to have become the fiercest foe of The Doctor?
Why could River tell Amy and Rory who she is now but not in previous episodes? Obviously after conception would make more sense.
And most intriguingly how will Amy and Rory feel now they know that The Doctor has had sex with their daughter?


ADDENDUM:
'Let's Kill Hitler' - the very short preview seems to show a skeleton holding onto a gently blinking sonic screwdriver... Roll on the autumn.

Live blogging The Archers...

Can you feel the tension on the New Years Day (plus 1) 60th aniversary 'special'?

My money is still on the two 'shocks' being one regarding the premature birth and death of Helen's baby and one of Nigel or Elizabeth dieing, with Nigel being slight favourite to leave our airwaves - just too nice recently...

Tea can be a deadly meal... or Tony's tractor could go wrong... No its taking the banner down from the roof!!!

Helen's looking well, but there's a midwife there!

Tony - Not much of a father, and not to be a grandfather yet?

Helen's got swollen ankles, not a good sign?

And a headache, and spots before the eyes... Go to the hospital now! Looks like one for one so far!

"They'll know what to do"

Would Tony not be faster in his MG?

Nigel being very understanding as usual, his time will come!

'Pre-eclampsia' - dangerous for both of them!

Deliver the baby six weeks early... Can you feel the tension?

'Perfectly safe'?!

It's like 'House'... No, not really!

Going up on the roof in the dark to take down the banners! Looks like my predictions were right... It's bye bye Nigel as well

Meanwhile Tony never had time to say what he wanted to Helen and now she might diw without knowing... Can you feel the despair?

Helen is alright... But what about the baby? It's a boy and he's fine! Was I wrong?

All OK, is that it? Maybe there will be developments, or is someone else for it?

Tony loves being a grandfather; will it last?

Should Nigel wipe down the surfaces or go on the roof? Which will he do?

Nigel opens 'the bubbly'; an accident with a champagne cork?

'A Happy ending'? Somehow I doubt it, unless we have all been sold a pup?

But David still wants to go up to the roof and despite Nigel's wanting to follow Lizzie's advice. Nigel will have plenty of time to deal with the champagne afterwards... I don't think so!

So how about Nigel and David both falling off the roof?

"10 tiny fingers, 10 tiny toes" - will Tony drop him?

Mrs NotaSheep thinks the baby will have a fit!

'I hadn't realised we'd be this high up... careful it's frosty... maybe Lizzie was right... I've been clamvering over these rooves since I was a child... showed me all the footholds... THIS WILL NOT END WELL ... Dear Daddy we had so much fun together... lucky to have two such fantastic women in my life... careful Nigel, I'm alright!... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

Dum de Dum de Dum de Dum!!!

So I was right about Nigel but seemingly wrong about Helen and her baby; or was I?

More Archers speculation

The Mail has more on the speculation about The Archers New Year storyline that 'will shake Ambridge to the core'.

Archers speculation

The BBC have decided in their 'wisdom' to warn people that the 2 January epsiode of The Archers will contain two shocks one of which will shock Ambridge to its core. Speculation is obviously rife, here are my ideas:
1) Will and Ed finally bury the hatchet, in each other
2) Helen and Ian finally get it on, Adam discovers them and runs amok in the village with the combine-harvester
3) Linda Snell gets a bad review in the Echo for the village panto and wreaks her revenge by getting Robert to disable the Borsetshire traffic lights causing multiple pile-ups

What ideas do you have?

Dr Who - The Big Bang

"The whole universe will never have existed"....

So how to escape from this?

1,894 years later...

Amy's garden... I sense some "timey wimey" aspects to this one, we seem to back at episode 1... but with no Doctor

No stars in the sky, there are no such things as stars... But what is the Sun if not a star?

Daleks in the museum! and the Pandorica and who else...? A post-it note for Amy? How come nobody else notices it; a psychic paper post-it?

Those daleks are going to wake up later aren't they?

Amy's touch opens it, time energy? But she hasn't travelled yet? But Amy's in the Pandorica! "OK kid, this is where it gets complicated!"

Now back the 1,894 years... Universe ended 102AD... Hold on Rory is not an Auton any more?

Even more "timey-wimey" stuff... and the sonic screwdriver

Ooh, two timelines; two Doctors?

History has collpased, echoes in time, the Universe never happened, last light to go out... Very odd! A Nestene duplicate... Not an Auton...

"She's mostly dead"

1996, two Amys

"Earth alone in the sky"

Great line - "Why do you have to be so human?" - "Because I am not"

Rory is an iconic image

Wouldn't flames have melted plastic Rory?

It's Rory the Nestene/Auton security guard

Even more timey-wimey stuff...

Excellent retracing steps stuff... Cheap and nasty time travel and now 2 Doctors - one not very well!

That wasn't good news he whispered was it.... 12 minutes

History is still collapsing, reality will never have happened... dying will be a result

One dalek still around

The sun is an exploding Tardis! So there are no stars...

RiverSong is experiencing Groundhog day, for 2000 years

"Fezs are cool"

Flying Daleks aren't

"Due to kill me" "the light"

Extrapolate the whole Universe from the light in the Pandorica, reboot the Universe

A moment of infinite power... almost completely impossible... big bang 2 and a nearly dead Dr

Do dalek's ever call for mercy?

"Rule 1, The Dr lies"

Now The Dr is in the Pandorica

Reality still collpasing, history still being erased...

BIG BANG 2

The light from the Pandorica recreating everything and the vortex manipulator to do the travelling but won't that kill The Doctor?

We all wake up where we ought to be ... don't remember ... cracks in time will close but The Doctor will never have been born! "He doesn't really know me yet, now he never will..."

Nice acting... and an explanation... Amy your house was too big... Amy is the Doctor?
"You are special..."

"... gottcha"?!

"Geronimo"

The Doctor escapes... but who is that... 2 Doctors again and the crack in the Tardis monitor disappearing...

Was that crack in the road there in The Lodger episode?

Love the flashbacks and the theories about two Doctors were correct and the clothing aspects... Very clever... "Remember what?"

Back to episode 1 again... and the conclusion/explanation for everything is...?

"Silly old Doctor"...

"A story in your head" So is the whole of this series a dream like Bobby Ewing's in Dallas? How does this affect "The Cannon"?

Why can't they close until he'd on the other side of the cracks?

"Bye bye Pond" But she's in the other Tardis wearing odd sunglasses...?

This will be the wedding day that never was/should have been/ will The Doctotr appear again?

Will there be a resolve?

RiverSong!

Happy or sad? "Why am I sad"?

Someone left it for you... a woman ... the book of The Doctor's life is blank!" OMG

Amy is remembering and there is "someone missing"... She's telling the story of "my raggedy Doctor" who was real. Can she Tinkerbell like bring the Doctor back?

Clever or dangerous?

Something old, something new, something BLUE? Brilliant!

And so well dressed for an imaginary friend...

The Doctor can dance... well we knew that.

The doctor leaves and there is RiverSong... Not more bloody "spoilers!"

A proposal! No not really? Oh so confusing! "River who are you?" "You're going to found out very soon and I'm sorry but that's when everything changes..."

Who's on the phone? And Amy stays with The Doctor - Good and Rory> Well you can't have everything!

Incredible episode and I will mull it over later... Mrs NotaSheep missed it, just got back so another viewing tomorrow after the football!


I have done a bit of mulling but have yet to watch it again. I liked the episode and it was refreshingly not the usual Russell T. Davies season ending full of explosions and battles. I preferred the more cerebral feel of The Big Bang. However there is a central question that has not been answered... Who, or what, was the voice in the Tardis in the last episode (The Pandorica Opens) intoning that "silence will fall"? Have I missed something, The Doctor was lured to Stonehenge by the alliance of the evil but who made the TARDIS explode? Surely it is the exploding Tardis that caused the cracks in time, that created the alliance, that imprisoned The Doctor in the Pandorica and so on... So at the end of the episode/series, we still don't know who or what was the cause or indeed why. Oh well that should give me something to think about until the Christmas special...

Dr Who - genius spot

Spotted on the wall of the kitchen in The Lodger episode. An absolutely genius spot by Flick Filosopher. Take a look at MaryAnn Johanson's Dr Who related articles, as she says she 'drinks too much wine and thinks way too much about such inconsequences as movies, TV, books, and the meaning of life.' I disagree, great speculation and spots...

Dr Who - The Pandorica opens

Much speculation on the web, so before the episode tonight, here's a few links to peruse and investigate...

Doctor Who Site has found some clues as to what is to come in what has been.

Doctor Who spoilers has some scant information from filming.

Combom has some speculation and asks 'Will the season 5 cliffhanger be the Doctor is dead?'... As he says himself 'actually i am generally right :) '

tardis Wiki claims that 'Many old enemies have been confirmed to appear or be mentioned in the episode, whether there to play an enemy part is still to be confirmed. The list of enemies include the Daleks, the Cybus Cybermen, the Sontarans, the Judoon, the Slitheen, the Hoix, the Weevils, the Uvodni, the Sycorax, the Silurians, the Autons, the Roboform, the Blowfish, the Nestene, the Chelonians, the Drahvins, the Atraxi, the Zygons, the Terileptils, the Slitheen and the Draconians. '

Dr Who TV has some interesting theories but even better audience speculation, I liked these: 'Another thing I just noticed on re-watching the 11th Hour - at the end, when the Tardis dematerialises, the window immediately above the door of Amy's house (the one to the right of her actual bedroom window) is lit. And it might be nothing, but in the left-hand side of the window there is a shadow that could just be someone standing watching the Tardis go... and the sillhouette would fit the shape of the Doctor.

Also, and probably just an irrelevant coincidence, if Amy Pond is 21 in 2010, she was born in 1989 (the year the original series of Doctor Who came to an end) and was visited by the 11th Doctor at the age of seven in 1996 - the year of the Eighth Doctor movie, which was the first attempt to revive the show. His (supposedly) second visit, when she was 19 in 2008, happened in the year that Ten's final full series also came to an end - and, appropriately, the year of the first special... The Next Doctor...'

and 'Just a quick one. I heard a romour that Tom Baker was returning to the show in some way. If the series is based in an alternate universe then maybe he never regenerated. The Pandorica prisioner is Tom Bakers doctor...! That'd be so awesome....'


Digital Spy has the usual weird speculation that will help pass an hour.


Meanwhile here's the BBC trailer...

And for those who think that this episode or the next may have multiple doctors, here's the 10th & 5th Doctors from the 2008 Children In Need special...

What if the Germans leave the Euro?

Finacial Sense University(?) have a fascinating article on just this matter; take a read.

It's a March election; probably

I have been leaning towards an early general election, March or early April for a while now, as it becomes clear that Gordon Brown cannot afford to wait for the next big sets of economic data to come out in early April nor hold a budget that will not steady The City. So Iain Dales revelation that: "Gordon Brown will appear before the Chilcot Inquiry on either Thursday 4th or Friday 5th March" leads me to believe that Gordon Brown will call an election soon, maybe even at this weekend's election themes unveiling, for Late March or early April thus putting off the Budget and his appearance before the Chilcot Inquiry.

I've got 20 minutes to save the world and the Post Office is closed!

Dr Who related... More to follow...

In the meantime here's the new Dr Who logo

Is there a successor to the SR-71 Blackbird?

My recent post about the SR-71 Blackbird lead me to some speculation about a successor plane; variously known as Aurora, SR-91 and

Here are some interesting links:
BBC Newsnight
Detailed speculation
More detailed speculation

Oil prices drop

Xinhuanet report that:

"Crude futures dropped sharply Monday as fears of a conflict in the Middle East eased over the weekend.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell 3.92 U.S. dollars to settle at 141.37 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Monday that he hopes to meet Iran's top nuclear negotiator later this month. According to Iranian state media's report on Friday, EU and Iran have agreed to take a series of talks during the second half of July over Iran's nuclear program. Last week the concern about the tension in the Middle East has driven up the oil price and a record high of 145.29 dollars a barrel was reached on Thursday.

OPEC President Chakib Khelil Sunday told an energy conference in Algiers that the weak dollar should be blamed for the recent increase of oil prices. He said he believes that the series of interest rate cuts in the past year has resulted in the falling of the dollar against other major currencies.

In London, Brent crude for August delivery dropped 2.55 dollars to settle at 141.87 dollars a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange. "

Maybe the speculators' "one way ticket" is running out!