The other BP spill

Hamas

Satire can be very close to the truth.

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 a load of rubbish!

I don't know why I bother watching England play football. No imagination, no flair, no belief, hardly any skill. We seem to have a bunch of overpaid, over-hyped players, managed by an overpaid, over-hyped, unimaginative manager. The players give the ball away with great regularity and the manager seemingly can't think outside of the 4-4-2 box.

In the long history of dreadful England performances this one rates very high. Why do we bother watching the team, they really don't deserve our time or our support?

And in reply to Wayne Rooney's whining "It's nice to get booed by your own fans. Very loyal" as he walked off the pitch. What do you expect when people who earn less in a year than you do in a week and have paid large sums of money to watch you and your over-paid mates supposedly bring the World Cup home, have to watch a performance as dire as that which you turned out tonight?

Freedom of Speech Pakistani style

News reaches me that steps are afoot in Pakistan to have Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg investigated by Pakistani police under a section of the Pakistani penal code that rewards blasphemy against Muhammad with death. Looks like Facebook's hosting of a "Draw Muhammad" contest on its site last month may backfire.

Top Deer!

Hyundai's Top Gear spoof...

Posted to make people aware that there are some women who do cry rape without any foundation and that men suffer as a result

The Mail reports:

'A man jailed when a woman falsely cried rape told of his fury yesterday after learning that police knew the woman was 'unreliable'.

Warren Blackwell, 40, spent three years in jail as a convicted sex attacker until his 'victim' was unmasked as a fantasist who had accused other blameless men.

The woman - named under Parliamentary privilege as Shannon Taylor - said he indecently assaulted her outside a social club in the early hours of January 1, 1999, after a New Year's Eve party.

A report revealed yesterday that officers were told Taylor was 'unreliable', ' unstable' and craved attention - but they failed to disclose it at his trial.

The mistake led to an appalling miscarriage of justice which saw father-of-two Mr Blackwell jailed in October 1999 for three years, which was later increased to five, despite no forensic evidence to back up the claims.

His conviction was quashed in September 2006 when it became clear that not only did Mr Blackwell not commit the crime, it never took place.

In 2006, Lord Campbell-Savours used Parliamentary privilege to name the woman.

Taylor, who is said to have made seven other false sex attack allegations, including one against her father, would otherwise have kept her identity secret for life.

But she was not prosecuted for perjury, because prosecutors decided she was too ill.'

Read the whole story and remember it the next time Harriet Harman starts wittering on about the appallingly low conviction rates for rape in the UK. The police also have a lot to answer for with regard to this case, but as the article makes clear no policeman will pay any sort of penalty.

Odd website of the week

Bompas & Parr - Jellymongers, not a fetish site but one for the foodies.

'Bompas & Parr designs spectacular food experiences often working on an architectural scale with cutting edge technology. Projects explore how the taste of food is altered through synaesthesia, performance and setting. Bompas & Parr also designs and manufacturers bespoke jelly moulds and kitchenalia; makes fine English jellies; provides full catering services; and provides food and design consultancy.

Bompas & Parr has worked with architects including Lord Foster and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners designing jellies for a 2000 person Jelly Banquet at UCL, provided expertise for Heston Blumenthals recent series Feast and worked with the ICA to transform Peter Greenaways The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover for a scratch n sniff event introduced by the director.

Recent projects include a vast glowing jelly installation for San Francisco MOMA; Alcoholic Architecture, a walk in cloud of breathable G&T and the Architectural Punchbowl where we flooded a Robert Adam building with 4 tonnes of Courvoisier Punch.'

BBC coy over MPs party allegiance; why?

The BBC report on Eric Illsley's court proceedings without once mentioning what political party he is an MP for. The headline is 'Barnsley MP Eric Illsley bailed over expenses claims' and the BBC report runs thus:

'An MP has appeared in court accused of dishonestly claiming more than £25,000 in expenses.

Eric Illsley faces three charges of false accounting relating to three years of expenses claimed on his second home in London.

The Barnsley Central MP, who sits as an independent, gave a not guilty plea indication at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

He was granted bail and the case was committed to Southwark Crown Court.

A plea and case management hearing will be held at the court on 22 July.

Mr Illsley is accused of dishonestly claiming expenses for council tax, service and maintenance, repairs and insurance, utilities and communications at his second home in Renfrew Road, Kennington, south London, between May 2005 and April 2008. '

Why no mention of the Labour party, I am sure that a Conservative MP then the headline would include the word 'Conservative' or 'Tory' and their party allegiance would also be prominently mentioned in the article as well. The BBC are regularly guilty of this partticular type of bias. It must be stopped.

School Answerphone - If only

Shhh something else that the left wing media will not report

'A nationwide alert has been issued for 17 members of the Afghan military who have gone AWOL from a Texas Air Force base where foreign military officers who are training to become pilots are taught English, FoxNews.com has learned.

The Afghan officers and enlisted men have security badges that give them access to secure U.S. defense installations, according to the lookout bulletin, “Afghan Military Deserters in CONUS [Continental U.S.],” issued by Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Dallas, and obtained by FoxNews.com.

The Afghans were attending the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The DLI program teaches English to military pilot candidates and other air force prospects from foreign countries allied with the U.S.

“I can confirm that 17 have gone missing from the Defense Language Institute,” said Gary Emery, Chief of Public Affairs, 37th Training Wing, at Lackland AFB. “They disappeared over the course of the last two years, and none in the last three months.”

Each Afghan was issued a Department of Defense Common Access Card, an identification card used to gain access to secure military installations, with which they “could attempt to enter DOD installations,” according to the bulletin. Base security officers were encouraged to disseminate the bulletin to their personnel.'

That's from Fox News via Creeping Sharia but I have not seen reported elsewhere.

Barack Obama cedes territory in Arizona to Mexican drug and people smugglers

Barack Obama seems to be about as keen on border control in the USA as the last Labour government was in the UK. And not a word on the BBC.

The next on the list for the IRA

With the Saville Inquiry over, the IRA Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has called for a formal inquiry into 'The Ballymurphy killings' of 1971. I am not surprised as the Sinn Féin tactic is to blame the British army for all killings and so continue to de-legitimise British rule over Northern Ireland. For the sake of completeness, here is a list (from Wikipedia) of all those killed by the IRA before 9 August 1971...

1970

* 26 June 1970: Three IRA volunteers and two young girls were killed when a bomb being assembled accidentally exploded in the Creggan, Derry.[1]
* 27 June 1970: IRA volunteers used firearms to defend Clonard monastery in west Belfast, the Short Strand in east Belfast (see Battle of St. Matthews) and other nationalist areas from attack by loyalist mobs. Six people (one Catholic IRA member and five loyalists Protestants) were killed in gun battles.[2]
* 3–5 July 1970: During the Falls Curfew the Official IRA and Provisional IRA fought a three day gun battle with 3,000 British troops who imposed a curfew on the Lower Falls area of Belfast, over 1,500 rounds were fired by British troops. Four civilians were killed.[3]
* 11 August 1970: Two RUC officers were killed by an IRA booby-trap bomb attached to an abandoned car in Crossmaglen, County Armagh. The bomb contained 20 lbs of gelignite and exploded when one of the officers attempted to open one of the car's doors.[4][5][6]
* 4 September 1970: IRA volunteer Michael Kane (35) was killed when a bomb he was placing at an electricity transformer in Belfast exploded accidentally.[4]
* 16 November 1970: The IRA shot and killed two alleged criminals in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast.[4] The men are alleged to have been involved in protection rackets, fencing stolen goods, minor racketeering, moneylending, burglary and robbery.[7]

[edit] 1971

* 6 February 1971: A British soldier on security duties, Gunner Robert Curtis, was killed by Billy Reid in a gun battle in North Belfast. Curtis was the first British soldier to die in Ireland since the 1920s. IRA volunteer James Saunders (21) was shot dead in a shoot out with the British Army in the Bone area of Belfast and one Catholic civilian was shot dead by three British soldiers. Eight British soldiers and five civilians were also injured in various gun battles around Belfast.[8][9]
* 9 February 1971: An IRA landmine killed five men near a BBC transmitter on Brougher Mountain in County Tyrone. Two of the dead were BBC engineers, the other three were construction workers. It was believed their vehicle was mistaken for a British Army landrover. British mobile patrols frequently inspected the transmitter.[10][11]
* 15 February 1971: A British soldier was shot and killed by an IRA sniper while taking part in a mobile-patrol in the Ardoyne area of Belfast. Two British Army scout cars came under sniper fire and had a bomb thrown at them. The soldier was shot in the head.[12][13]
* 26 February 1971: Two RUC officers who were attached to the forces Special Patrol Group (RUC) were killed in a gun battle with the IRA in the Ardoyne area of Belfast.[10][14]
* 8 March 1971: IRA volunteer Charles Hughes (26) was shot dead by the Official IRA in the Lower Falls area of Belfast. This was part of an ongoing dispute between the IRA and the OIRA.[12] In response the IRA shot and seriously injured a member of the OIRA.[15]
* 10 March 1971: The IRA abducted three off-duty British soldiers from Belfast and brought them to a mountain road outside the city, lined them up, and shot each of them in the head. They were the first off-duty soldiers to be killed in the conflict.[16][17]
* 15 May 1971: IRA volunteer Billy Reid (32) was killed during a gun battle between the IRA and the British Army on Academy Street, Belfast. Two British soldiers were wounded in the incident.[12][18]
* 25 May 1971: A bomb was thrown into Springfield Road British Army/RUC base in Belfast, killing army Sergeant Michael Willetts as he shielded civilians from the blast with his body. He was posthumously awarded the George Cross. Seven RUC officers, two British soldiers and eighteen civilians were injured.[12][19]
* 12 July 1971: A British soldier was shot dead by an IRA sniper at a British Observation post on Northumberland Street in Belfast. The IRA claimed his death was in retaliation for the killings of two civilians in Derry by the British Army the previous week.[12][20]
* 14 July 1971: A British soldier was shot and killed in an IRA ambush on a mobile-patrol in the Andersonstown area of Belfast. Three IRA gunmen using automatic weapons fired at least 35 shots at the patrol.[12][21]
* 8 August 1971: A British soldier was shot dead in an IRA sniper attack while on foot-patrol in the Ardoyne area of Belfast. The IRA said he was shot in retaliation for the shooting dead of a civilian by the British Army the day before on the Springfield Road.[12][22]'

Will there be an inquiry into any of these? How about those murdered by the IRA in Brighton, Omagh, Warrenpoint, Ennidkillen, Hyde Park or Aldershot, to name but six IRA terrorist attrocities?

58 days, 6 rounds of golf...

Barack Obama, man of action?

Where's the indignation? Where's the marches? Where's the denunciations? Where's the UN resolutions?

The BBC quietly report that:

'Turkish troops in pursuit of Kurdish rebels have crossed into northern Iraq and killed four militants, Turkish officials say.

The military said air strikes were also launched against rebel positions deeper inside Iraqi territory.

The offensive took place after rebels made an unsuccessful attack on border guards, Turkish officials said.

Turkey has been fighting insurgents of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) for more than a quarter of a century.

Military officials said three commando companies and one special forces battalion penetrated 3km (two miles) into Iraq in pursuit of the rebels.

The PKK is fighting for autonomy in Turkey's largely Kurdish south-east.

The group is considered a terrorist group, not just by Turkey but by the US and the EU.

More than 40,000 people are believed to have died in the conflict, on both sides. '

That's it, a small report not headline news. If an Israeli soldier so much as farts in the direction of Gaza its headline news but as Israel is not involved here it is a minor story. 40,000 deaths and how much coverage has this 'conflict' had over the years? 4 deaths this time and not a peep from James Naughtie, Jeremy Paxman or Jon Snow. Will they be interviewing a spokesman for the Turkish government and accusing them of using disproportionate force? If not, why not?

Note also that in this report the BBC report that the PKK 'is considered a terrorist group, not just by Turkey but by the US and the EU.'. No mention of Hamas's terrorist status in any stories about Israel and Hamas though.

A man with a plan - Comedian Ron White with his solution to all the problems facing the US in 2008

In fact: A man, a plan, a canal – Panama

My favourite palindrome!

The unbiased BBC?

The BBC report that: 'Coalition government axes £2bn of projects' and at the end ask 'Are you involved with one of the projects concerned? What are your views on the cuts? You can send us your comments using the form below:' Oddly the BBC seem not to want to ask the opinion of taxpayers who don't want to be milked dry for ever more.

That's the BBC for you, ever willing to push the (Labour) party line.

Hillel Neuer has some questions for Richard Falk. Richard Falk has few answers

UN Watch Intervention
Interactive Dialogue with Richard falk, UN Expert on Palestinian Territories
Delivered by Hillel Neuer, 14 June 2010

George Osborne or the World Cup?

I note that the time of the Emergency Budget has been moved forward from 15:30 to 12:30 next Tuesday. I wonder if George Osborne was worried about being overshadowed by Mexico vs. Uruguay and France vs. South Africa...

Now the BBC's budget coverage complete with ritualised shrieking about 'Tory slashing cuts' will only be able to be at full volume for less than 2 hours, so maybe a smart decision by George Osborne.

'This BBC falsehood was not inadvertent.Strenuous efforts had been made to ensure the BBC's team were made aware of the facts.These were disregarded.'

Councillor Harry Phibbs thinks that the BBC might be biased against the Conservatives, I am shocked, here's an extract:

'one small example over the last 24 hours from my own council of Hammersmith and Fulham backs the thesis. We are changing our "service provider" for providing caring for carers. After due professional rigour of tendering process a decision has been made that the service could be improved by changing those providing it. The decision was that those who have been providing it hitherto are not up to scratch. The service will continue. The budget is not being cut. Of course I can understand how an organisation who loses a contract are angry as it means a loss of job. But the point is not to provide a job creation scheme. It is to provide the most effective back up possible for the carers in our borough.

...

the BBC ran an item last night on their BBC London Tonight programme which was straightforwardly dishonest - claiming the "service was being cut."

This BBC falsehood was not inadvertent. Strenuous efforts had been made to ensure the BBC's team were made aware of the facts. These were disregarded. The viewers were lied to. They were particularly despicable lies as some vulnerable viewers in my borough will have been scared by the claim that no alternative provision was being made available. London Tonight's Political Editor Tim Donovan never makes much effort to hide his allegiances. An item praising Newham on free school meals gave the sequence the feel of a Labour Party Political Broadcast. The BBC are able to get away with this. So they do it.'

A BBC programme biased against the Conservatives, I am so shocked!