Have a great 2008 everybody!

Maisie celebrating.










I've just been playing the Oxford Monopoly, six hotels does tilt the game in your favour, although my sister did manage to buy most of the board.

2007 was a weird year. Not as horrible as 2006, when one of my family was seriously ill, but one with its ups and downs.

It started with my interview at Westminster University, with Chris Horrie, marred only by a rude security guard on the way out.

I then went for interview at Brunel University, but two days a week of teaching time isn't enough.

My good friend, former teacher and mentor David Brunton killed himself in late March, with the funeral on my birthday. That was shattering.

David helped me enormously with getting onto a MA Journalism course, and was a big influence ever since I first met him when I was thirteen.

A few days after, I went for interview at Goldsmiths College in New Cross, but that course wasn't right for me.

Neither was Roehampton, which offered me a place without an interview. It wasn't vocational, just academic-so no good.

Westminster made me a 2:2 offer though, all good.

Throughout the first half of 2007 I was still an English student at Sussex University.

My marks had dipped due to my family's illness, so I needed to do serious work to raise them.

The excellent teaching of Marcus Wood, the references of Alistair Davies and the mentoring of Alison Bambridge helped, although others in the University were not as helpful.

I studied Kafka with Richard Murphy,the literature of 1740-1830 with Marcus Wood and The Ship of Fools with Adriana Bontea.

The coins of Spence and the cartoons of Cruickshank would have been enjoyed by David Brunton as well.

I completed my last exam in May.

I received an upper second from the University of Sussex, and graduated on July 17th.

Over the summer, I also worked in Next Oxford, which I did not enjoy. I felt the stockroom staff trained me poorly.

I attended a wake for David Brunton on the 15th September, and arrived at Westminster University the next day.

Since then I've learnt Teeline Shorthand, and appeared on the Wright Stuff, among other things.

Happily, the family member who was seriously ill has been getting better over the past few months.

And I've blogged more- because it improves your writing and helps you keep up with the news.

Half an hour out of each day isn't a lot, when you think how long some people spend.

And I'm having a quiet night in tonight, because I don't like crowded pubs or loud drunks.

2008 will see Westminster News Online and magazine production.

I hope everyone reading this, everyone at the Harrow Campus that I know, and those I've met at Oxford and Brighton, have a good year.

It would be nice to see some better comedy in 2008. let's hope the upcoming Ofcom probe into the Catherine Tate Show is a sign.
Here's some better comedy:

The Day Today: Alan Partridge At the Races


Onion Terror featuring.

Disputed election causes riots in Kenya

Alleged election fraud has sent Kenya into chaos.

124 people have died nationwide, forty of those in Nairobi.

President Mwai Kibaki has been reelected, but the vote has been disputed by Raila Odinga (his opponent) and the rioters.

Mr Odinga said there was no difference between Mr Kibaki and "military dictators who have seized power through the barrel of the gun"

EU election observers were barred from counting centres.

Chief EU election observer Alexander Graf Lambsdorff told the BBC that his monitors had been barred from counting centres in the Central Province.

He also said that results from one constituency had been declared by the Electoral Commission of Kenya in Nairobi, which were different from those announced in the same constituency at local level.

He said the anomalies amounted to 20,000-25,000 votes in just one constituency.

Mr Kibaki's national margin of victory was 230,000 votes.

"I myself have seen forms which have been changed and no-one could tell me who had done the changes," he said.

"Interestingly enough, all the changes favoured the same candidate."

Eyewitness account from Kisumu, in the Nyalenda district.

Comment from America

“It’s a sad day for Kenya,” said Michael E. Ranneberger, the American ambassador to Kenya. “My biggest worry now is violence, which, let’s be honest, will be along tribal lines.”

Evan Trembley hoax

An e-mail claiming to be from Sergeant Rick Williams of the Witchita Falls Police Deptartment is a hoax.

Evan Trembley is a real child who lives in Wichita Falls, Texas, but he is not missing. In fact, young Evan himself is responsible for this fake Amber Alert. The teenager created the message as a joke and passed it on to some friends.

There is no Sergeant Rick Williams.

Evan Trembley (possibly) replies to his critics.

Evan Trembley says:

yall need to learn. none of yall know me but you talk like you are god or something judging me, you DO NOT know me at all, you cant tell me im a loser or that this was stooping low.

shoot your son couldn’t pull something like this off.

im not bragging im just saying…its frustrating hearing you people talk when you have no clue.

Chain E-mails

I should point out that forwarded chain e-mails are a good way for spammers to harvest e-mails if they recieve a copy.

And hitting Reply All will clog up networls.

German crime show Tatort offends Alevi Muslims

20,000 Alevi Muslims protested in Cologne yesterday.

The protest was called by the Alevi Muslim Community (AABF), according to the Gulf Times.

They were unhappy at the depiction of an Alevi Muslim in the crime show Tatort.

A criminal complaint has also been made against NDR.

The head of programming at public broadcaster NDR, Volker Herres, called on the Alevis to respect artistic and broadcasting freedom, insisting there was no intention on the part of the broadcaster to insult them.

The "Tatort" episode, broadcast by the state-funded ARD channel on December 23, portrays murder and incest within a modern Alevi family in Germany.

Two hundred buses were rented to bring Alevi Muslims to Cologne.

This reminds me of the Jerry Springer The Opera furore, as well as the protests by Sikhs after a production of Behzti.

I have never seen Tatort, as I have never visited Germany, so am unable to comment on the recent episode.

However, I do feel that most people are intelligent to realise that one incestuous character is not intended to represent an entire group of people.

I understand that Alevli Muslims feel discriminated against in Turkey, and that there is a unfounded stereotype surrounding incest in the Ottoman Empire.

I also understand that in Germany,as in Britain, Muslims often come under criticism.

A new study by the Interior Ministry claimed six per cent of German Muslims supported violence in the name of Islam.

Some politicans used this study to have a whinge.

Reacting to the study, Christine Haderthauer, general secretary of the conservative Bavarian party the Christian Social Union, said that her party "has always warned against the dangers of parallel societies. Our fears have been confirmed in a shocking manner." She said that Germany needs "an offensive to promote religious tolerance among young Muslims."

I must say, Christine Haderthauer sounds like the German version of David Blunkett.

However, many newspapers, such as Die Tageszeitung, claimed this study showed that most Muslims were peaceful.

German converts to Islam also seem to be viewed with suspicion.

Esra Özyürek is critical of this, making the point that German converts help integration.

They serve as a bridge between immigrant Muslims and non-Muslim Germany, and by doing so they help to create a well-integrated German society.

Politicans complaining about Muslims stir up more trouble than any television show can.

Christine Haderthauer, David Blunkett, and others of their ilk should make it clear that the minority of extremist Muslims do not represtn Muslim communities in Europe as a whole.

Blanket condemnations and studies only increase tension.

Whether people like it or not, Europe is multi-cultural, and will hopefully remain so.

When the political attakcs stop, maybe Muslims and other ethnic groups will feel more confident about their depiction.

Having said that, Tatort should not back down.

A statement was made in the credits explaing it was fiction.

Even that to me seems overkill.

Tatort is not the villan here.

Politicans like Christine Haderthauer are.

Maybe she should come with a statement before she begins to speak.

Tatort:

There is very little on Youtube, but here is some Tatort from 1982.



Articles on Muslims in Europe.

Tatort translates as "Scene of the crime" into English.

History of Tatort:

It has 1670 episodes, and began in November 1970.

It started in Hamburg.

Each regional channel, such as Norddeutscher Rundfunk (North German Broadcasting) produces its own episodes.

Austrian channels such as Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian broadcasting) also produce episodes.

If you have more information on Tatort or the protest, please leave comments.

A Teaspoon of Courage

My mother wanted me to blog the book "A Teaspoon of Courage".

Reading, it, I can see why. It's the best motivational book I've seen.

It's not endorsed by a tedious presenter, and it doesn't point out the obvious in 450 pages.

Instead, it makes use of pictures of animals to motivate the reader.

The book is written by Bradley Trevor Grieve, who graduated from Australia's Royal Military College.

A gorilla hides above an acknowledgement that the world can be scary.

A cat playing piano accompanies "The world's greatest symphony starts with a solitary note".

A Teaspoon of Courage is a wonderful juxtaposition of animals and encouragement.

It should be read by anyone needing encouragement or feels things are too much at times.

Bilawal Bhutto takes over

Bilwal Bhutto wil now lead the Pakistan People's Party.

An Oxford student at Christ Church College, he will run it in a ceremonial role while Asif Ali Zardari, Benzair Bhutto's husband, will take charge of day-to-day- affairs.

Bilwal is too young to stand for parliment himself.

Is spam getting more rubbish?

Three or four times a week I get an e-mail from an African bank asking me to help them.

Today I got a more bizarre piece of spam

Hello,
>
> I am Mr.Xu Hui Chairman/CEO CHINA NATIONAL ARTS AND CRAFT GALLERY.
> We specialize in manufacture and sales of Arts and Craft world wide.
>
> Presently I intend to have a Consultant/Representative in
> America or Europe.
> I have gone through your country's directory and feel you are
> seemingly eligible for the position of Consultant/Representative
> in the new branch we have proposed to establish
> in your region.
>
> Endeavor to get back to me for further details.
>
> Regards
> Mr.Xu Hui
> CEO/ President
> Email: mr.xuhui@yahoo.com
>

What interests me is how little effort the spammers put in.

"Your country's directory".

Do they mean Who's Who?

Good to see they can't get beyond Yahoo addresses in Spam Land.

At least it's not using the names of people killed in crashes like much of the spam was-bbc link usually.

Don't bother spamming me if you harvest address from blogs.

I'll either ask you to meet me halfway across London wearing pink frilly knickers and carrying a copy of the Daily Sport.

Or I'll report you to Hotmail.

News from Pakistan

The Pakistan government has offered to exhume Benzair Bhutto's body.

Tariq Amiz of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) says the Pakistan elections will likely be delayed for some weeks.

Government footage and images shot by others are being shown on Pakistani TV, shot from different angles.

The BBC obtained a leaked mediacl report, which claimed there was an "open head injury...depressed skull fracture".

Forty seven people have died in rioting across Pakistan, with petrol stations in flames and nine election offices destryoed.

The PPP are meeting to decide Benzair Bhutto's sucessor.

Najam Sethi, editor of Pakistan's Daily Times, said: "Everybody in the party knows that they have to stick to the legacy of Bhutto and without that legacy, they are nobody.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross on Al Oaeda and Benzair Bhutto's murder.

Victoria Scofield's memorial to her friend in the Telegraph, whom she knew at Oxford.

Harvard friends of Benzair Bhutto also pay tribute.

Mansoor Ijaz in the Christan Science Monitor on her knowledge of Benazir Bhutto.

Mystery container found on on Poll Na Crann beach:updated

A metal container has been washed up on Poll Na Crann beach in the Western Siles of Scotland.

Poll Na Crann beach is known locally as "Stinky Bay" because of the stench of seaweed .

Storonway Coastguard are trying to find where the container came from.

You can see a picture on the BBC link.

The BBC interviewed Alisdair MacEachen,assistant director of environmental services at Comhairle nan Eilean Siar. (the council).

Mr MacEachen said they may decide to anchor the container to the beach to stop it from floating out to sea and becoming hazardous to ships, but in the meantime he advised onlookers to keep a safe distance.

"Although it looks as if it's empty and it's been ruptured, my advice would be not to go too close to it," he said. "It's a fairly light construction so you don't want it rolling on top of someone, and with that sort of thing you can never tell.

"My advice would be to just observe it from a distance.

UPDATE:
Mystery solved!

The 27m container has been identified as a beer fermentation tank belonging to the American brewery Coors.

You can see photos here (Not my flickr account)

Out Of Iraq: Lewis Alsamari's Journey

Lewis Alsamari escaped from Saddam Hussain's armed forces.

Forced to train as a solider after a poor university attendence record, Alsamari risked mutilation if he was caught.

The typicial punishment for a deserter was loss of an ear, or worse.

Due to his English skills, he was transferred by an imprssed arif (NCO) to Al-Mansour, in the Karkh side of Baghdad.

During this journey, Alsamari decided to escape with the help of his Uncle Saad.

He was taken to the Al-Shamery, a Bedouin tride who help peole travel from Iraq to Jordan.

Arriving in Amman, Lewis tried to claim political asylum, but was told to return months later.

Instead, he found work at an office and then moved on to working at a gym.

Finally arriving in England after obtaining a passport from architect Abu Firas, he learnt his family were imprisoned.

They were mentally and physically abused, locked in a room with semen-stained beds and urine-coated floors.

Able to obtain enough money to release his family, he returned to Britai and studied at LAMDA, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.

Alsamari starred in United 93, but was not granted a visa to attened the premiere.


In 2007 he published Out Of Iraq, an autobiography.

The Times: Fear and blogging on the campaign trail

Excellent article by Tom Baldwin in today's Times Magazine.

Videos on YouTube are lethal new weapons for campaigns, especially now that it has been ruled to be beyond the scope of federal election laws.
Recent hits on the website include a portrayal of Hillary Clinton as Big Brother, a model draping herself over pictures of Barack Obama and John McCain's bizarre rendition of "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann.

Tom Baldwin interviews Shekar Ramanuja Sidarth, a campaign worker for Jim Webb, who was filming George Allen.

Allen called Sidarth "Macaca" which resulted in video of this racial insult being posted on Youtube.



You can hear the cheers of the crowd as George Allen insults Sidarth.

Allen later claimed he made up the name Macaca.

Joe Anthony was a also featured.

Anthony set up a MySpace group for Obama.

When he was asked to surrender control of the page by Obama's staff for a one-off fee, he asked for $50,000.

The campaign got MySpace to lock down his access to the account.

I;m not sure how MySpace justifies this, but one poster at techPresident claims that this was justified as Joe Anthony had the official URL.


Facebook:

Tom Baldwin also mentions the use of Facebook.

You can be a fan of Barack Obama (someone on my Facebook already is), Ron Paul or any of the other candidates.

You can join Facebook Groups supporting or opposing candidates.

Which I could link to if Facebok Search wasn't showing a red box.

After interviewing Andrew Rasiej of TechPresident and Cass Sunstein, who has written a book called Republic.com 2.0, Tom Baldwin then comments on the UK political web.

The political internet in Britain is less developed, populated as often as not by self-regarding or dowdy websites run by Tories like Tim Montgomerie and Iain Dale – a function perhaps of the oppositional nature of the web.

I feel he is too negative on this aspect.

What about Guido Fawkes or Tom Watson?

Aside from this, I found the article extremely deep and interesting, with some good links to the likes of TechPresident and Real Clear Politics.


Times US Election blog

Netscape Navigator loses support

After the 1st of Februaruy 2008, Netscape Navigator will no longer be supported.

Only 0.6% of those browsing the web use it.


Tom Drapeau on the Netscape blog says:

Our recommendation for the nostalgic out there is to download Mozilla Firefox, and add on the Netscape theme and Netscape extensions"

The link to Firefox Netscape theme.

Staff working on new versions of Netscape were made redundant in 2003

Pakistan Government claims surronding Benazir Bhutto's death

The Pakistan Government claim that Benazir Bhutto was killed by hitting her head against the vehicle while trying to avoid gunfire.

Benazir Bhutto's supporters strongly disagree.

"To hear that Ms Bhutto fell from an impact from a bump on a sun roof is absolutely rubbish. It is dangerous nonsense, because it implies there was no assassination attempt," a spokeswoman for Ms Bhutto's PPP party, Sherry Rehman, told the BBC.

Zulfaer Ali Bhutto payed tribute to her, telling the BBC:

She was the fourth Bhutto to die and she is a Shahid

Shahid is the Arabic word for martyr.

The front page of the Independent today has Robert Fisk claiming

They don't blame Al' Qaeda. They blame Musharraf.

It seems the Pakistan Goverment are not believed.

Youtube: Life on Mars' parody of Camberwick Green

I'm far too young to remember Camberwick Green (I was born in the late Eighties) but I still love this parody.

The best bit is Gene Hunt's wave to the camera while he beats up the sex offender.

The Life On Mars soundtrack is also on Youtube.

Visual Editors on Benazir Bhutto/Online Mapping

David Dunkley Gyimah at Viewmagazine blogs on Visual Editors and their Flickr slideshow of newspaper coverage of the Benzair Bhutto assassination.

Students could use a Flickr slideshow to display photography work, for example.

Why don't more people do this?

Meanwhile Martin Stabe blogs on Holdthefrontpage's mention of the Manchester Evening News' plans to use interactive mapping technology to solve traffic congestion.

The Manchester Evening News has a Web 2.0 friendly web site.

Video, blogs, polls, RSS, Have Your Say. "Most read" box.

And it looks nice as well.

My favourite Christmas presents

This year I received Private Eye's Dumb Britain and Harry Hill's "The Further Adventures of the Queen Mum".

Compiled by Marcus Berkmann from readers' submissions to the fortnightly satire magazine and the website, Dumb Britain is divided into academic categories of just plain wrong.

Contestant : You step in it and it takes you up and down to different floors.

Richard Madeley: Dog poo?

Dale Winton: What type of weapon was a claymore? Was it (a) a mace, (b) a sword, or (c) a dagger?

Contestant: Well I know it can't be mace, as the police have only just started using that.

Sara Cox: What's was Bram Stoker's most famous creator?

Contestant: Was it Branston Pickle, Sara?

Notwithstanding Harry Hill's unpleasant attack on Charles Kennedy in Tv Burp, I still feel his book is worth mentioning.

Illustrated and written by him, the book depicts the Queen Mother after death.

After meeting George VI in heaven, she listens to John Lennon and Arthur Askey, while spying Tommy Cooper and Marilyn Monroe dancing.

God then sends the Queen Mother to fight crime.

She is so good at the job she receives angel's wings, and celebrates playing games with Henry VIII.

A quick scuffle with Mother Theresa and she commits the US President to reconsidering his global warming stnace.

Saved from death by Mother Theresa, our gin-drinking protagonist then has lunch with her.



Despite an Oxford Bus Company driver managing to trap my arm in the doors of his bus because he wasn't watching what he was doing, I managed to have a good day in town yesterday and found a Doonesbury book "Doonesbury Dossier".

It covers 1981-3, when Ronald Regan was in the White House and Thatcher was ripping Britain apart.

Doonesbury is highly recommended.

Update: Benazir Bhutto

Twenty people were also killed in the explosion, not fifteen as was reported yesterday.

Benazir Bhutto has been buried in Sindh after today's funeral in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh.

Meanwhile Pakistan is suffering violent protests.

Sixteen people have been killed in Sidh, while four more were killed in Swat valley after a remote control bomb exploded.

Anyone engaged in "disturbances" will be shot on sight, according to government orders.

Pakistan analyst Hussain Haqqani also criticised the loss of forensic evidence.

Al-Qaeda have been blamed by Pakistan intelligence and Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz .

Reporters' logs from around Pakistan.

Reactions of Pakistanis in the UK.

Patrick Thornton on how newspapers need talented Web employees

The Journalism Iconclast is one of the journalism blogs in my Google Reader.

Google Reader offers the reader a chance to subscribe to dozens of blogs and web sites and receive updates on them on a single page.

You can use Google Reader to subscribe to this blog.

Today Thornton bemoans the current state of Web talent in newsrooms

An online editor who doesn’t already know (X)HTML?!?

I wouldn’t hire an online editor who doesn’t know the difference between XHTML and HTML.

I wouldn’t hire an online editor who didn’t know some CSS at least (I’d prefer a strong grasp of CSS layouts).

This is the sad state of affairs we find ourselves in.

Papers are spending money to hire random people to repurpose print content online, instead of hiring top-notch Web talent to create engaging online content and applications.

XHTML, of course, allows the use of XML tools and, unlike HTML, requires proper nesting and must be in lower case.

XHTML documents also need a root element, which encloses all other elements.

BBC News technology team members pick their favourite technology of 2007

Jane Wakefield chooses Facebook, as does the beautifuly named Rory Cellan-Jones.

Mark Ward selects Enum, while Jonathan Fildes plumps for Witricity and Darren Waters regards web applications as the best 2007 technology.

Article is linked here.

You can click on any of the names at the top of the BBC article to see their selection at the top of your screen.

Some interesting information on Enum and Witricity (developed by MIT researchers) is contained within the text.

UK sold arms to Saddam Hussain in the 1970's

What happenend in 1976?

The greatest heat wave in Britain.

The Cod War ended.

And Jim Callaghan's Labour Government sold £70 million worth of defence supplies to the Baathist government.

The vice-president was Saddam Hussain. Remember him?

Pulled from a hole in 2003. Hung in 2006. Brutal ruler of Iraq from 1979 to 2003.

President of Iraq at the time was Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.

While al-Bakr was still President, a year after the 1977 training of six Iraiq soliders at Sandhurst, all political activity outside the Baathisty party was punishable by death.

Al-Bakr was elderly and weak- Saddam Hussain was pulling the strings before he became President.

Saddam Hussain's Iraq saw Kurds bombed with chemical weapons, people tortured in acid baths and widespread brutality, including "falaqa" and eye gouging.


What did Britain sell to Saddam Hussain?

The documents show that, in 1976 and 1977, a variety of equipment was sold to Iraq, including 20 Cymbeline mortar-locating radar - at a cost of £11m - combat support boats, and £7.4m of weapons effects simulators.

Big contracts for Dennis fire fighting-vehicles and fuel tankers were also secured.

And incredibly, Iraq paid Britain £500,000 to train Iraqi pilots.

The papers also suggest that, in 1977, six Iraqi soldiers were trained at Sandhurst, where Princes William and Harry subsequently underwent their military training.

Even then, Britain had its reservations.

A letter to the UK government - dated 14 February 1977 - from Archie Lamb, the British ambassador in neighbouring Kuwait, notes that "the Kuwaitis regard the present regime in Baghdad as nasty and brutish".

"Not an opinion from which I imagine many of us would dissent," Mr Lamb's letter adds.

Today's arms buyer often becomes tommorow's case for regime change.

Mark Curtis' book Unpeople shows the cost of arms sales by Britain throughout the years.

This century, an investigation into dealings between Saudi Arabia and BAE was quashed by the Serious Fraud Office.

I wonder what Saudi Arabia will use its military equipment for in the future.

England's not the mythical land of Madame George and roses.

Uncle Jimmy and David Owen bear some responsibility for every death in the two Gulf Wars and the Kurds murdered in between.

Under the 30 year rule, the media could not know this information until this year.

You can see more formerly classified documents at the National Archives site.

Extras Special: Is self-parody toothless?

Last night I watched the Extras Special with my family, who enjoyed it.

However, I was concerned by the "safe" parodies the featured celebrities created.

Gordon Ramsey, for example, only added to his bullying persona, picking a fight with Andy Millman.

The next time a comedian tries to laugh at a celeb, people will shout "Leave him alone! He's a good sport! He was on that Ricky Gervais show and took the micky out of himself!".

George Michael appeared in an ATF cap, adding to the annoying fashion for people to wear American police logos, like those FBI coats you can buy in Redbridge near Goodmays train station.

I've never heard of a British tourist walking about Roxbury or West Baltimore in one of these coats, and let's hope it says that way.

I digress though.

Spitting Image and Mitchell and Webb both provided brilliant takedowns of pompous celebs, the latter with their send-up of The Weakest Link.

But people will never mock themselves if they think there is any real bite to the mockery.

And that's what we need in satire, bite.

I didn't see much bite in Extras.

To be honest, I only watched it for the lovely Maggie (Ashely Jensen) a kind-hearted muddler who needs a big hug.

Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) wasn't in hug mood for much of the show.

Like some kind of media Scrooge, he dumped his useless agent (Stephen Merchant) and hired Tre Cooper, who also failed to find him work.

In the end, Andy realised he, not his agent, was the problem,after going on Big Brother and having to play the alien Schlong .

The low point of the episode was the spell on Big Brother.

The program would never have broadcast the criticism of Andy Millman.

They'd have played birdsong during his comments while finding a way to quietly remove him.

The high point of the show was watching Andy Millman in his sitcom When The Whistle Blows, desribed as filthier than Mrs Slocombe's pussy.


In the end, Andy and Maggie were reunited, saving Maggie from a one-roomed life and dreamy jobs.

All rather twee, although others in my family disagreed.

Madeleine McCann and comedy:

British comedy is going down the toilet.

People seem to enjoy comedy based on catchphrases rather than jokes.

Look how popular Catherine Tate and Little Britain are.

Six recycled jokes per programme.

Harry Hill's Christmas TV Burp makes a lothasome joke about Charles Kennedy having alcohol problems

It's okay for Frankie Boyle to mock homosexuals but when Rory Bremner makes a joke about Madeleine McCann, outraged zombies write to the tabloids to complain.

The same kind of idiots who make YouTube vidoes about her.

1,560 results on YouTube for Madeleine McCann.

"Durrr I can see 1,559 badly written rap songs about Madeleine McCann. I'd better record another one and add some more photos from the Sun's website."

One video says

This video is in dedication to Madeleine McCann a little girl that went missing May 4, 2007 please view it will make you cry, i did and remember to rate it for Madeleine McCann Family.

When satire improves, so will the collective intelligence of this country.

Converting FLV to MPEG4 at vixy.net

Useful for converting a Flash Video to an AVI,MOV, MP3, MP4 or 3GP file.

A PayPal link is on the site for donations.

Review of the site at freewaregenius.

According to freewaregenuis, you can also use the site to create video RSS feeds.

A very useful site for online journalists and those building web pages.

One for the bookmarks!

World reacts with horror to the death of Benazir Bhutto

Gordon Brown has condemned the bombers as "cowards afraid of democracy.

Other reactions can be seen here, including Hamid Karzai and the Vatican.

Guardian article, by Mark Tran.

Benazir Bhutto murdered in bombing

Fifteen others, so far unnamed, were killed alongside, and many more were injured.

She had just addressed an election rally in Rawalpindi when gunfire and an explosion occurred.

From alarabiya

...her party’s security adviser told reporters she was shot in the neck and chest as she got into her vehicle, then the gunman blew himself up.

Her husband had earlier told reporters that she was in “serious condition” and that she was undergoing a surgery.

From the BBC story:

The explosion occurred close to an entrance gate of the park in Rawalpindi where Ms Bhutto had been speaking.

Wasif Ali Khan, a member of the PPP who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital, said she died at 1816 (1316 GMT).

Supporters at the hospital began chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog", referring to President Pervez Musharraf, the Associated Press (AP) reports.

Some broke the glass door at the main entrance to the emergency unit as others wept.

A man with a PPP flag tied around his head could be seen beating his chest, the agency adds.

And now no doubt more people will be killed in retaliation and the deadly cycle will go on.

Paul Reyonds of the BBC echos this concern, descrtibing Benazir Bhutto's death as a "severe blow to stability"

BBC obituary for the late Benazir Bhutto.

She was Prime Minister from 1988-1990 and 1993-1996.

May she rest in peace.

Tributes from Asim Bhutto and others who knew Benazir Bhutto, including Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester.

Spitting Image: Every Bomb You Make: YouTube

Also known as "Every Bomb You Drop"

Youtube of Spitting Image's excellent take on world affairs, sung by Sting.

Every bomb you make
Every job you take
Every heart you break
Every Irish wake
I'll be watching you

Every wall you build
And everyone you've killed
Every grave you've filled
All the blood you've spilled
I'll be watching you

Oh can't you see
You belong to me

Be a bill to pay
On that judgement day

For every empty plate
Every word of hate
Those who subjugate
Those who violate

Google StreetView

Google's StreetView allows anyone to view panoramas of various American cities.

Recently, eight new cities including Detroit and St Paul were included.

Just click on the first link and choose any of the cameras.


View Larger Map

A panorama of Massachusetts general hospital (keep going until you see the ambulance)on the Fruit Street side.

More news from Google LatLong, the Google Maps blog

Imperial Life in The Emerald City

One of the most damning indictments of the Coalition's plans for Iraq, Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life in the Emerald City bustles with absurdity.

The ring of safety on the left bank of the Tigris is depicted as containing officals hopelessly out of touch with the customs of Iraq.

This is increased by the difficulty of travel between the rest of Iraq and the green zone, and the luxurious way of life within the encampment.

As translate Mahmood Ahmed told Rajiv Chandrasekaran "It is not like the rest of Baghdad. It's like America".

The shortcomings of America's plans are well documented.

Traffic congestion increases after the abolition of import duty causes new cars to flood into Iraq.

Underestimation of the amount of power needed caused twelve-hour Baghdad blackouts.

Attempts to create a national television and radio network are hampered by the budget size of $15 million dollars.

That's less than alarabiya's annual $60 million budget.

The book is also full of dark humour.

Democrat workers in the Green Zone are dubbed Donkeys in the Desert and watch Fahrenheit 9/11 in the palace theatre.

An e-mail is forwarded around the Green Zone containing different responses to a chicken crossing the road, including Al-Jazerra and Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr.

One staffer relies on a 1970's tourist guide to navigate Iraq.

A CPA friend of Rajiv Chandrasekaran's tell him "If this place succeeds, it will be in spite of what we did, not because of it".

Imperial Life In The Emerald City flows like the River Tigris.

A deserving winner of BBC Four's Samuel Johnson prize, everyone who wishes to discover more about American policy in Iraq should read Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book.

It's £11 in paperback.

Happy Christmas

As John Lennon sang, so this is Christmas...

A sore throat and flu-like symptons mean I don't feel very Christmassy this year, that and the upcoming law exam, first day back.

Defamation, contempt of court, the Broadcasting Act 1990...it's a lot to take in.

I am currently reading the late Harry Thompson's Penguins Stopped Play, about an amateur cricket team.

It's excellent. I'm not really into sport, but it's got me enthralled.

(There are some sport blogs among the Westminster blogs if that floats your online boat).

I am going to try and finish watching Casino Royale on DVD this week, and hope the guinea pigs don't fart while I do so.

Tommorow I will do shorthand shadow writing in front of the backward Queen's Speech.

We Wish You A Reggae Christmas:



Have some Christmas Trojan Reggae.

Queen launces YouTube channel

The European Union already has one.

And now the Queen and her happy pampered band do as well.

It's called The Royal Channel.

So far, it has over 8,000 subscribers.

The channel has been viewed over 300,000 times-although no doubt promotion on the BBC helped.

I can't see any videos of Prince Edward walking in on Fegie in the bath or Prince Phillip saying crazy things while women in big hats guffaw quickly.

Maybe Prince Harry should upload some YouTube.

Promoting your blog

Want to increase the number of hits your blog recieves?

Start by submitting it to Technorati, the blog search engine.

As more blogs link to you, your blog will recieve more authority.

Bloggers can click on Technorati tags to find your blog as well.


Here are some good sites for you to submit your blog to:

Note: In many cases, you will need to link to the site, either using HTML or text.

Simply create a new HTML page element in "Template" and place all your links there.

Blog Catalogue:

One of my favourite submission sites, Blog Catalogue is free to join and has been responsible for a lot of my traffic.

You can donate and recieve a link on the front page.

It's quick to join and submit.

Blog Carnival

Niche submission sites:

Many sites are country-specific. BritBlog and the London Weblog Directory are two I've submitted to.



Article posting sites:

Zimbio

You can post as many as you want. Import your blog and select a wikizine.

Ringsurf also offers this faciliy.

BlogEngage is not recommend- the owner was very rude to me and told me "You obviously don't read any of your e-mails" after my blog name kept showing in the title bar whenever I triedto post. It didn't provide much traffic anyway!

Other ways to promote your blog:

Put it on your MySpace and Faebook pages.

Put it at the bottom of each e-mail you send.

Write it in the snow each winter outside the shopping centrre*


*I haven't done this but if anyone has done, why not send me a photo?

Michael Geist on the power of Facebook

Interesting BBC News article by Michael Geist, who blogs on technology law.

On December 1st I launched the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group, with limited expectations.

This seemed like a good way to educate the public about the Canadian government's plans to introduce new copyright reform within a matter of days.

I sent invitations to a hundred or so Facebook friends and seeded the group with links to a few relevant websites.

What happened next was truly remarkable.

Within hours the group started to grow, first 50 members, then 100, and then 1000. One week later there were 10,000 members.

Two weeks later there were over 25,000 members with a new member joining the group every 30 seconds.

Facebook groups have been used by Karen Reissman, to fight her suspension along with UNISON (828 joined), Brian Paddick(467 joined), and the Wright Stuff(381 joined).

The most popular group appears to be Steve Jackson's plan to get all Facebook members to join "20 million? 3o million?"

Facebook groups are a good way of messaging like-minded people without an e-mail list and enabling them to contribute from their computers.

Queen Camilla

I've just finished Queen Camilla by Sue Townsend.

It's probably the best novel I've read this winter.

Although the Queen and I, Townsend's prequel to Queen Camilla, did end on a rather different note, just ignore the last chapter of that book.

It is thirteen years since the Royal Family were uprooted to the Flowers' Estate, and Princess Diana has mysteriously disappeared (with no road mash involved) to be replaced by Camilla.

Trapped in the Flowers Exclusion Zone by ankle tags and private security police (forced to pay £500 for their own Tazers), the Royal Family discover that Charles and Camilla have a love-child.

A love-child who hates stepladders and loves tiddlywinks, and dwells at the outer reaches of the Metropolitan Line.

Throughout, the book remains frighteningly real.

Boy English and his homely political broadcast resembles David Cameron and his naff webcameron.

The Vulcan computer seems eerily predictive of the recent multiple data mishaps, given Queen Camilla was published in 2006.

However, humour stills abounds from Queen Camilla, although the book is not quite as sharp as the Queen and I.

No Royal is safe from Townsend's lampoon.

Much better than (for me) the disappointing Number Ten, and on a par with The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole series, Queen Camilla should be on everyone's coffee table.

Or, if you live under the Cronwell Party, under the floorboards with Orwell.

David Cameron:The New Gussie Fink-Nottle?

Last week I made the mistake of sitting through half of a documentary on wallpaper-like David Cameron.

There was one section which really convinced me how unfit the man is to do anything political.

It was his infamous "Let Sunshine Win The Day" Speech, which made him sounds like P.G. Wodehouse's Gussie-Fink-Nottle.

Labour are pessimists.

They think that without their guidance people will do the wrong thing, that's why they want to regulate and control.

So let us show clearly which side we are on.

Let optimism beat pessimism, let sunshine win the day, and let everyone know that the Conservative Party is ready - ready to serve, ready to fight, ready to win.

No political party is wholly pessimistic.

For one, they are optimistic enough to believe they can rule, not rule for the better, perhaps, but rule.

Secondly, Labour trust the public enough to encourage gambling with super casinos, open pubs 24hrs (which is a good idea in quiet areas, and bad in many city centres) and of course the maxim of choice.

You can choose your hospital or school-although it may be over subscribed.

So David Cameron is talking rot, as Bertie Wooster would say.

The Tories also want to scrap the Human Rights Act-a flash of pessimism in David Cameron's Magic Roundabout World.

How much better to have Gussie Fink-Nottle running the Tory Party, and David Cameron banished to life with Madeleine Bassett.


Mr Fink-Nottle is keen on the study of newts, and so would bond well with Ken Livingstone.

He has a face like a fish, and would therefore provide material for lazy comedians for a long while, thereby pleasing the former Deputy Prime Minister.

And he is teetotal: no chance of any Alan Davies moments.

Wikisource has the complete text of Right Ho Jeeves, and I quote:

"People who say it isn't a beautiful world don't know what they are talking about.

Driving here in the car today to award the kind prizes, I was reluctantly compelled to tick off my host on this very point.

Old Tom Travers.

You will see him sitting there in the second row next to the large lady in beige."

He pointed helpfully, and the hundred or so Market Snods-buryians who craned their necks in the direction indicated were able to observe Uncle Tom blushing prettily.

"I ticked him off properly, the poor fish.

He expressed the opinion that the world was in a deplorable state. I said, 'Don't talk rot, old Tom Travers.'

'I am not accustomed to talk rot,' he said. 'Then, for a beginner,' I said, 'you do it dashed well.'

And I think you will admit, boys and ladies and gentlemen, that that was telling him."

A far better speech than David Cameron's odious efforts.

BBC embedds reporter on Greenpeace ship

Embedding is usually used with regard to the army.

A BBC reporter is currently embedded on a Greenpeace ship following the Japanses whaling fleet.

He will be keeping a diary.

Whales and Web 2.0:

The Australian Government are using YouTube to appeal to the Japanese.

Facehooked

Yesterday the Money Programme examined Facebook.

Max Flint examined the upsides and downsides of Facebook in an admirably balanced programe.

Joining the site himself in order to examine Facebook from the inside, Max Flint also spoke to a broad demographic of Facebook users.

Well, fairly broad: he didn't speak to anyone under 18.

Users:

Flint first interviewed Katie Byrne, who works in PR.

Katie uses Facebook to send virtual gifts to her friends such as a starfish.

She also thought poking was to say hi.

I thought it was for flirting.

Katie also uses the site for networking.

Max Flint also interviewed Zara Adams of Talent.

Zara has 1600 friends, and gets 30 friend requests every day.

She's at the other end of the Facebook ladder from me.

I know a girl with 911 friends, which seems a lot.

I guess Zara does a lot of Facebook networking.

Flint then went to Burnham-On-Sea and told us that "the oldies" also use Facebook.

Pat Nicholls uses Facebook to view photos of a recent wedding.

She told Max Flint "Facebook has added a different facet to my life".

Alex Burmaster of Nielsen Online claimed

A year ago, most people hadn't even heard of the site

which I disagree with. I was invited to Facebook in October 2006, and I know some who have used it since early 2005.

Facebook can reveal information you'd rather keep secret, as Alex Hill and Tom Beech both found.

Alex was fined £80 by Oxford University after she was sprayed with foam by a friend.

The picture was put up on Facebook where University staff found it.

She had breached a bylaw- no foam after exams.

Tom was sacked by Argos after he wrote about them on Facebook.

Concern over Privacy:

As I blogged in November, only one in five use privacy settings.

Neil Monroe from Equifax was concerned that people revealed their full name, address and date of birth on the site.

Don't put the year of your birth and don't put your phone number of address.

People can be sent these in a message if needs be. Don't write them on somene's wall either.

After showing how popular Facebook is with market research companies, Max Flint asked if we are Facebored.

Will we move on from Facebook.

However, I looked him up on Facebook today and he's still on it.

I can't view how many friends he has, but I can poke him.

Which I might leave for now.

Victoria Wood: Brief Encounter parody: YouTube

From the scathing and excellent Victoria Wood With All The Trimmings- get a copy now.



The other parodies in the right hand "Related videos" menu are also worth looking at.

Five million foresake newspapers over last fifteen years

One of my family showed me an interesting story in today's Times.

The number of adults who read newspapers has fallen by about five million since 1992, according to a survey conducted for the House of Lords.

Readership of most newspapers fell, with only The Times and the Daily Mail showing an increase in the past 15 years.

The Times, which had 1.02 million readers in 1992, now has 1.74 million — an increase of 69 per cent.

The figures were produced by the National Readership Survey on behalf of a Lords committee investigating media ownership.

Overall the proportion of all adults reading a newspaper fell from 59 per cent to 45.1 per cent.

In absolute terms, that equates to a loss of five million people, from 26.7 million.

The website that I have created as part of Webdesign is tied in to this-people are getting their news from alternate sources such as free newspapers or blogs.

One thing should be imparted

The figures did not take into account the readership of the papers’ online sites.

The survey also shows a decline among the young, with no drop in the 55-64 age group.

Iain Dale's Top 500 Political Blogs

Slightly misleading title to this post, as Dale only lists 300 of them.

News from the dreaming spires

Having returned to Oxford this week from Harrow, I might give a round-up of local broadsheet newspaper The Oxford Times' news.

*A £200,000 flood defence barrier will be built across Osney Island.

*County councillor Olive McIntosh-Stedman has been expelled from the Labour Party.

* Hitler's child may have been born in Wigginton acording to a documentary.

*A manhunt for a Didcot gunman has failed to catch him.

Det Sgt Alan Clements, of South Oxfordshire CID, said; We believe he is a member of the criminal fraternity

*There has been another riot at the Campsfeld Detention Centre in Kidlington (about a mile from me).

Newspaper branding

One of the most interesting aspects of national newspapers that I have noticed over the ten or so years that I've been reading them is their determination to make themselves part of the story.

The Sun is a master at this.

Take the recent announcement by New Labour that a prison ship will be built.

It was headlined "Sun's prison ship victory"

A PRISON ship is set to ease overcrowding in Britain’s jails in the New Year in a victory for The Sun...

Mr Straw’s decision follows The Sun’s campaign for ministers to use prison ships to create extra space in Britain’s jails.

Without spending a penny on PR or advertising, the Sun is now associated with law and order by its 3 million or so readers.

It is not known if the Sun's campaign convinced Jack Straw to order a prison ship (why not just build one on land?)

Perhaps the next Sun campaign will be to sink the ship with all the prisoners in it!

Readers' Lives:

Another important trick is to make the readers feel empowered.

This story on Ba's cross ban starts:

SUN readers brought British Airways down to earth with a bang yesterday in their barmy Battle of the Cross.

Thousands responded to our petition demanding that Nadia Eweida ? banned from wearing a religious cross over her uniform ? be given her job back.

Firstly, Sun readers are empowered through the paper.

Secondly, the Sun itself (and by extension, News International) are empoweredas they have an army of readers-though thousands isn't a huge amount!

"Our Boys"

The Sun also intentifes itself with the army.

"Our Boys" can infer Britain's Army but another meaning could be that The Sun looks after the concerns of the British Army.

Other papers aren't slow to catch up.

The Express has a Respect For The Elderly Crusade.

That is why the Daily Express now commits itself to crusade for this forgotten generation.

Over the coming days and weeks, we will highlight why decades of miserly government have decimated specialist wards and care homes and how shocking cases of abuse have been covered up.

More importantly, we’ll show how you can help change things for the better and the measures you can take to improve the lives of your own family and friends.

Together, we can perhaps, at last, give the elderly of Britain the dignity and respect they deserve.

Again, the reader needs the paper to be empowered.

Are newspapers using their perceived social role in life to increase sales? I think so.

I can't think of a single paper- bar the Daily Sport-which haven't used this technique.

I predict that the broadsheets will increase this tactic while the Sun will remain ahead.

BBC Three: Born Survivors Growing Up Skint

One in three children in the UK live below the poverty line.

BBC 3's Born Survivors:Growing Up Skint showed us the lives of four of these children.

What came across last night was how important social facilities were.

For example, Moonisha Parvin's life was brightened up by homework club, which took place in a local church hall, run by teachers who volunteered their time.

The local youth club, which only opens once a week due to lack of funds, was important to Matthew from the Possilpark area of Glasgow.

More should be done in affluent areas to raise money for social havens in deprived areas.

You can donate to Hackeny's Albion Kids Show or the Child Poverty Action Group.

Every child should be able to access an after-school facility such as a youth club every day of the week.

The Olympics and Child Poverty:

The vast sums of public money going into the 2012 Olympics should, in my view, gone towards repairing the social fabric of Britain.

I strongly believe that we should never have bid for the Olympic Games.

We can awaken childrens' interest in sport without putting on costly international events.

We can encourage sporting stars to visit every school across Britain, and perhaps even donate some of their vast wealth to new sports equipment.

Instead, grassroots sports cuts will fund the Olympics.

I wonder how many of the children initiated into gangs across London would have turned away from turf wars and random muggings if they had been able to take up a sport at school.

And Lottery funding will be cut.

Estimated costs for the Games have risen from an initial £3.3 billion to £9.3 billion.

To pay for it, ministers are set to raid the lottery good causes for £675m - on top of the £1.5 billion already coming from the lottery, the Tories claim.

Tessa Jowell and Sebastian Coe are leading us, in my view, down a dangerous road. A road where glitz and glamour will sit just miles from shootings and bored children with nothing to do.


We should be spending more money on the police force, increasing pay and improving efficiency, so children don't have to wear body armour.

We should be pouring funds into after school clubs and leafleting parents to encourage them to get involved.

We should also improve the pay of teachers so they can afford housing.

The most important issues for Gordon Brown, David Cameron and new kid in town Nick Clegg have nothing to do with terrorism or Northern Rock.

They involve the sickness of the state and the terror of politic ans to change this.

As the Grumpy guide to Politics said, "Politicians don't tell us they are going to spend, they say they will invest."

If New Labour improved the funding of society, I would vote for them.

I am reminded of Neil Kinnock's speech in 1983, where he warned us of Tory values and their effect.

I fear that Tory values are among us, in our culture and in the "Westminster Village".

When MP's can vote for £10,000 a year for themselves to spend on websites, isn't it time we removed the financial rewards from those we elect?

I hope that Gordon Brown begins to realise this, but I fear he never will.

I'd like to close with Neil Kinnock's speech from 1983, when Thatcher was running rampant.

I pray that the values of Nye Bevan and Tony Benn will one day superseed the values of Thatcher, Tony Blair and David Cameron.

If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as prime minister on Thursday, I warn you.

I warn you that you will have pain— when healing and relief depend upon payment.

I warn you that you will have ignorance— when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right.

I warn you that you will have poverty— when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won’t pay in an economy that can’t pay.

I warn you that you will be cold— when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don’t notice and the poor can’t afford.

I warn you that you must not expect work— when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don’t earn, they don’t spend. When they don’t spend, work dies.

I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light.

I warn you that you will be quiet— when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient.

I warn you that you will have defence of a sort— with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding.

I warn you that you will be home-bound— when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up.

I warn you that you will borrow less— when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.

If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday—

— I warn you not to be ordinary

— I warn you not to be young

— I warn you not to fall ill

— I warn you not to get old.

Vladimir Putin: Time's Person Of The Year

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has won TIME's Person Of The Year.

TIME claim:

TIME's Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement.

It is not a popularity contest.

At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse.

It is ultimately about leadership—bold, earth-changing leadership.

Putin is not a boy scout.

He is not a democrat in any way that the West would define it.

He is not a paragon of free speech.

He stands, above all, for stability—stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years.

Last year, you were the person of the year.

TIME placed a piece of reflective plastic on their cover so anyone could see themselves on the magazine.


My hero Jon Stewart lampoons TIME in December 2006.

News from Harrow

Having subscribed to Harrow Council's news feed in Google Reader, as I've been reporting on the Mecca of reportage that is Harrow Town Centre, I thought I'd ignore my sore throat and give a rundown.

1. A man has been sentenced to 200 hours of community service for claiming benefits while earning £80,000 a year.

2. Drawings of teenagers will be part of a new road safety campaign.

3. Travel operators received a bus tour around the borough's attractions, in order to promote sights within Harrow.

The day was rounded off with a tour of the newly re-opened Wembley Stadium and a visit to Neasden Temple - voted by Reader's Digest as the "eighth wonder of the world".

Council press releases, while obviously not forming a story on their own, are a useful information source.

Brighton: Kensington Street photo

Brighton: Kensington Street
Originally uploaded by richardbrennanmajournalism

A photo I took while visiting Brighton.

You can see the rest of the photos here.

Nick Clegg E-mail and the Liberal Democrat One-Day Manifesto Conference

I have just recieved this e-mail from Nick Clegg.

I have respaced it in accordance with Jakob Nielsen.

Dear Mr Brennan

Under my leadership the Liberal Democrats will be ambitious.

Ambitious for ourselves and ambitious for Britain.

I want to thank you for giving me the chance to lead our great party.

It is a privilege to follow in the footsteps of Paddy Ashdown, Charles Kennedy and Ming Campbell, who have all contributed so much to our party.

I look forward to working with them all during my leadership.

I would also like to pay tribute to both Vince Cable and Chris Huhne.

Vince has been an inspiration as stand-in leader with both his forensic questioning and his memorable put downs.

Chris and I saw a lot of each other during the leadership contest.

Now we will be working together as close colleagues to ensure that our party goes on to further electoral success.

I am delighted that both Vince and Chris are going to be part of my top team over the coming years.

We have a golden opportunity for our party.

Gordon Brown presides over an increasingly stale, incompetent, and desperate government.

David Cameron and the Tories don’t know what they stand for anymore.

We know what we stand for – a more Liberal Britain.

I am confident that with hard work and dedication we can turn our beliefs into reality and change our country for the better.

Under my leadership our party will be a self-confident, radical, and energetic party.

Together we can break the stifling two-party system and change Britain for good.

That is my aim. I hope you will join me in making it a reality.

Best Wishes,

Nick Clegg MP
Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Nick will also be at the Manifesto Conference on the 12th of January.

It takes place at the London School of Economics.

Here is a Guardian profile of Nick Clegg.

Nick Clegg wins Liberal Democrat leadership

The BBC have been told that Nick Clegg has won the Liberal Democrat Leadership.

I was one of those who voted for Clegg, although Huhne would have been a good leader as well

The Harrow Connection:
On the 22nd November,Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne debated at the Harrow Campus of the University of Westminster.

You can read a report by one of my collegues on the day here, complete with rather good photographs.

Panorama: Basra The Legacy

Last night's Panorama was sharply critical of the current state of Basra.

The handover of control from the UK to Iraqi forces was completed on Monday.

Jane Corbin's report revealed deep concern over the rise of militias throughout Iraq's second city.

Graffiti from the "Organisation ordering an end to Abomination" can be seen on walls, warning women not to wear bright or revealing clothes.

Black-flak jacketed, Jane Corbin told us it was unsafe for journalists to report from Basra, but local people had contacted her with diaries and e-mails.

One e-mail told Corbin "Every morning they find bodies in the rubble".

Sheik Abdul Saltar Al-Bahadi denied the claims and claimed that women should be kept in a "case made of cloth".

General Mohn Al-Firaiji blamed Britain for the rise of the militas, claiming they "appeared at the collapse of Saddam's regime".

Tarout Al-Ainacha told of how her husband's plans "to make Basra the Venice of the MiddleEast" came to nothing after he was gunned down, soon after being threatned with a grenade for refusing to take part in corruption.

2 million Iraqis have been internally displaced.

Syria:

Many Iraqis have fled to Syria.

1.3 million Iraqis, including many Sunni/Shia couples, now live there, causing parts of Syria to be called "Little Iraq".

Hope:

Jane Corbin reported some hope. The work of Major General Abdul Jalil Khalaf has caused the murder rate to halve since June.

Maybe the UN need to do more to help Iraq.

New Threats To Media Freedom: Conference.

The National Union of Journalists and the Campaign For Press And Broadcasting Freedom are holding a conference on January 26th.

It will take place at the National Union of Journalists, at 308 Gray’s Inn Road. The union can be reached from Kings Cross Underground Station.

From the form, speakers include:

Alan Johnston, former BBC correspondent in Gaza,

Martin Bright, New Statesman political editor

Peter Wilby, former editor, Independent on Sunday

Granville Williams, media commentator & CPBF

Victoria Brittain, freelance journalist and author

Jo Glanville, editor, Index on Censorship

Heather Brooke, freelance journalist and author

Joy Francis, managing director

David Crouch, Media Workers Against the War

Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, Exiled Journalists Network

Mark Stephens, Finers, Stephens, Innocent

Jeremy Dear, NUJ general secretary

Chris Frost, NUJ ethics council

Tony Lennon, BECTU president

Paul Mason, Newsnight correspondent

Aidan White, general secretary, International Federation of Journalists

You can find out more at the NUJ link.

You can register on the day, but registration in advance is advised.

Lunch is included.

In memory of David Brunton: Last Chance

A song in memory of my friend David Brunton is now at ITunes or at Apple Recording.

It is released by Oxford band The Vale.

The song is also on Matchbox Recordings' Stay In The Box Volume 2

All profits go to support Equilibrium, a charity helping to understand bi-polar disorder.

Why not buy a copy for 79p.

In memory of David Brunton: RIP.

Carol Ann Duffy: My favourite poet.

One of my treasured memories of school involves the late David Brunton booting a chair across the classroom.

He was reciting Carol Ann Duffy’s poem “The Snowman” to us.

When he came to

I took a run
and booted him. Again. Again. My breath ripped out
in rags.

His voice raised and he booted the chair into the wall near the whiteboard.

Not for David the expressionless readings that some teachers seem to favour.

Now, when I look back on Carol Ann Duffy’s poems, I hear them in a Liverpool accent.

Carol Ann Duffy is my favourite poet.

The first time I experienced her was when she was featured in my GCSE anthology, back in the city of dreaming spires, Colin Dexter and Blackbird Leys.

I remember the haunting tones of “War Photographer”, the alienated subject remembering foreign wars, and his critique of the effect his work has.

The true love of Valentine, with the personal wiping out the commercial.

Before You Were Mine stands out as well, Carol’s glimpse into her mother’s past.

in the ballrooms with the thousand eyes, the fizzy, movie tomorrows
the right walk home could bring.

All of Carol’s poems cause words to throb round your mouth when you read them.
This is my favourite poem.

Prayer:
Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child’s name as though they named their loss.

Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer -
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finistère

Isn't that beautiful?

Carol Ann Duffy also wrote poems from the point of view of the wives of historical characters, e.g. Mrs Midas in The World's Wife.

She was profiled this summer by the Guardian

A Facebook fan group "Carol Ann Duffy is the High Priestess" sadly spoilt by homophobic comments.

She has also written plays such as The Oldest Girl in the World , and used to edit Ambit.

Ipod news

Broken Ipod?

Did you fling it into the fishtank during a waltz, or did the dog chew it while Songs of Praise was distracting you?

Well, Brett Moseley of BuyMyTronics offers $2.40 and up for iphones and ipods.

The site is worldwide.

Another site is Beyond The Pod.


You can also use ifixit to repair your ipod.

Hacking Ipods:

You can convert your old ipod to an encyclopedia, jukebox, console or a Linux system


This information was from the Times' Microtrends.

YouTube:Armando Iannucci: Scottish Heaven

I love the Armando Iannucci shows, and here is Armando's take on scheduling in the UK.

Changing Media Summit 2008

Today's MediaGuardian advertises the Changing Media Summit 2008.

It examines the impact of the "digital revolution".

It's on the 12th March at Victoria Park Plaza Hotel in London.



Speakers advertised are:

Jim Buckmaster of Craigslist

Marian Salzman of JMT.

Peter Fleischer of Google

Traviz Katz of My Space

Gordon mcLeod of the Wall Street Journal

Dawn Airey of ITV

Tim Brooks, Guardian News And Media. (managing director)

I don't know if it costs money or when it starts, but I've e-mailed to find out.

E-mail conferences (@) guardian dot co dot uk to book a place.

Postal Grinch Steals Christmas

Canada's National Post and CTV
report on someone sending obsence and sometimes hateful messages to children who wrote to Santa.

One letter alleges that "Santa is bad, he hates kids and even hates David Beckham".

Canada Post are keen to stress that "We firmly believe there is just one rogue elf out there."

So many good things in the world have been destroyed by commerce and spite.

Let's hope Canada Post catch this person so the letters can resume.

BookMooch

Today the Observer's digest of the New York Times had an article on BookMooch.

Joanne Kaufman reports on the creation of BookMooch by John Buckman.

And what an appropriate name. Mr Buckman managed to sell Lyris Technology (which he co-founded) for $29.5 million.

How BookMooch works:

After joining (for free), you then create a list of books you wish to give away.

Members are also notified by e-mail when a book is listed that is on their wish list.

The more books you give away, the more points you receive.

You can use these books to recieve books from others.

A forum adds to the interactivity, enabling members to recomend their inventory to check other.

The site also has links to Amazon, enabling members to buy from there if the book cannot be found.

According to Mr Buckman, the site generates $30,000 for Amazon yearly.

BookMoocn has arond 750,000 titles and is global.

Sorry for the lack of posts yesterday.

Things have gone a little off.

Hopefully my flurry of posting makes up for it.

Visions of 2000: Villemard: Utopie

Here are some illustrations from 1910 of how life might be in 2000.

They are currently in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which in English means the National Library of France.

Enrique Marty's McCann Pictures

Artist Enrique Marty has painted five pictures of Madeleine McCann and its showing them in Barcelona.

The Sun are furious.

BBC redesigns its homepage

As pointed out by Cookd and Bombd and The Register, the BBC has redesigned its homepage.

It's only in beta at the moment.

Richard Titus says.

From a conceptual point of view, the widgetization adopted by Facebook, iGoogle and netvibes weighed strongly on our initial thinking.

We wanted to build the foundation and DNA of the new site in line with the ongoing trend and evolution of the Internet towards dynamically generated and syndicable content through technologies like RSS, atom and xml.

This trend essentially abstracts the content from its presentation and distribution, atomizing content into a feed-based universe.

Browsers, devices, etc therefore become lenses through which this content can be collected, tailored and consumed by the audience.

Viewfinder Magazine

I picked up Viewfinder Magazine last week from the Harrow Learning Resources Centre.

Viewfinder is the magazine of the British Universities Film and Video Council.

Notable news in Viewfinder:

* The BBC Motion Gallery (in association with JISC) is launching a website offering access to BBC clips for use in education.

* The Open University have launched a new DVD service. For £35, you can create a DVD online and have it posted within seven days.

The DVD creation interface resembles a older version of Windows Media Player.

Feature articles in the magazine include Dr Chris Wilmott on bioethics, Roger Geenhalgh on time-lapse video and a review of "Shut Up and Shoot", a guide to making documentaries.

AthenaWeb:

The feature that caught my eye was by Kathleen Van Damme of AthenaWeb, who discusses how she gave the site a Web 2.0 overhaul.

This was done by placing scientific films on the net under copyleft agreement.

Although Kathleen Van Damme does not mention it in the article, the site also has an RSS feed and an e-mail newsletter.

The public can view the films online. Broadcasters, scientists and academics can register on the site and thereby upload and trade films, for free.

AthenaWeb has had 25,000 unique visitors since the Web 2.0 conversion.

The World Congress of Science Factual Producers also asked them to host their online cinema feature last month.

Recommended links:

My pick of the links selected from the Moving Image Gateway are EU Tube, a YouTube channel launched by the European Commission, and Videography for Educators, tips on creating quality video.

I've only touched on a small selection of the content here.

You can see how useful the magazine is.

Carnival of Journalism

A new blog carnival has been created that is dedicated to journalism.

Bloggers such as Yoni Greenbaum and Ryan Sholin are now gathered together on one web page.

If you are a journalist, you can submit your blog at the ScribbleSheet page. Simply click on the orange "join now" link.

A complete list of submissions.

The Online Journalism Atlas

The Online Journalism Blog has created a Online Journalism Atlas

Even though my head still aches from last night's drinking session, I'm still kicking myself for not noticing the atlas before.

It's a wiki.

This means users can add content and edit articles, it works just like Wikipedia.

I will link to the post on Germany's media as a teaser.

The post discusses Der Spiegel's (which I highly recommend as a Google Reader subscription) pioneering methods and the online magazine Telepolis, among other media.

It's very well written and detailed.

The Online Journalism Blog is written by Paul Bradshaw and "virtual interns".

So far only Germany, Brazil and Switzerland have been featured.

Why not add your own country today?

Artboo needs bands for a TV show

Artboo is looking for twelve bands for a show in January.

The channel redtv is offering the website, which exhibits artists and musicians, a half-hour weekly show.

redtv will launch next Monday on Sky Channel 186.

How to take part:

1. Register your band on artboo.com

2. Upload music to the site

3. Get your fans to vote.

You could create a Facebook group, a mailing list, a blog or even put some posters up.

Loose Change had a lot of success with their Brighton marketing-which was simply to write "Google Loose Change" in chalk around the city.

To be honest I wouldn't obey an instruction like that if I wasn't given more information, but many did.

I think it's still written on the wall near the corner of Viaduct Road and London Road.

Don't go down there based on this post though- I may be wrong.

(Richard Brennan accepts no responsibility for people not being able to find chalked words on the London Road corner).

Your change to be live on Sky's redtv:

If you are the headlining band, you'll be able to play two songs and take part in a three minute interview

The other bands will be interviewed for a minute and get to play one song.

Obviously it's hard for me to predict how big redtv's audience will be- but artboo's mission statement should be a draw

The Guardian linked to my blog!

In an article by John Keenan, the second link down links to my blog post on Have I Got News For You.

As Alan Partridge would say, back of the net!

John Keenan is the editor of Meetings and Incentive Travel

I've had a stressful week-so it's nice to be linked on Guardian Online.

If John Keenan or anyone else is interested in a job offer or work experience, my e-mail is richard-brennan (@) hotmail.co.uk Remove the brackets round the ampersand.

My thoughts on Hunter S.Thompson

Some of my thoughts on Hunter S.Thompson

Kentucky Derby Analysis:

Hunter S. Thompson’s feature focuses not on the story, but on Thompson’s ability (or inability) to get his story.

Though there is some reporting on the Derby, this consists of a single paragraph.

Thompson emphasises the short nature of the race and gains all his information on the Derby from a rerun on television.

He even admits that his assignment does not interest him as much as the chance to observe, and does not mention the Derby until the middle of the second sentence.

As Thompson says however, nobody cares.

His features are intensely descriptive and feature his encounters with others. Thompson always paints himself as never in the wrong.

Even when describing an unfortunate dinner party, Thompson tries to make his illustrator Steadman the villain. However, Thompson does give Steadman’s side of the argument.

Thompson isn’t afraid of revealing the deception he uses to find a story, nor is he ashamed about carrying Mace.

Thompson paints his surroundings in the worst possible light.

In one monologue to his illustrator, he describes the Kentucky Derby before they visit it “The aisles will be slick with vomit; people falling down and grabbing on your legs to keep from being stopped”.

A simple assignment to cover a race becomes an epic trip. Everywhere Thompson goes turns into a miniature hell. It is possible that, as with his novel Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, he may have been on hallucinogenic drugs.

At the very end of the piece, Thompson describes himself in the third person as “the journalist”. He relates the localised chaos around him to the political chaos in the world.

An example of this is his mentioning of the murders at Kent State in the sentence before the description of Steadman and Thompson.

Many of Thompson’s sentences are long and chaotic, like a staggering addict.

The piece is laced with (inventive) profanity. At the end, Thompson calls his illustrator a “pigfucker”. Elsewhere in the piece, he uses the words “pissing” and “bastard”.

This is unusual for a feature article.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Review

Whitefish in a sandwich is guaranteed to bring pampered and uptight Larry David out in his usual mixture of confusion and anger “Give me tounge”.

Throughout the show Larry is a repeat offender; he repeats his actions, he offends again, while wondering “What’s the big deal”.

The fifth series of Curb Your Enthusiasm is far more polished than the first series, which for me only had two funny episodes.

Here, Larry alternates between being the whiny victim and the whiny villain.

I felt for him when a small boy with that oh-so-misleading pageboy haircut barged into him, yet I felt like reaching into Larry’s world and shaking him when he complained about his sandwich.


For £25, you can have over five hours of Larry’s unique desire to ignore the feelings of others “O sacred intercourse cannot be interrupted”. Neither can your viewing of this boxset-it’s that funny.