North Korean 'dear leader' Kim Jong Il dies.

The news came as North Korea prepared for a hereditary succession. Kim Jong Il inherited power after his father, revered North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994.

In September 2010, Kim Jong Il unveiled his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un, as his successor, putting him in high-ranking posts.


The official title for North Korea is :


The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

British Library's early newspaper archive goes online

From today’s Guardian newspaper:

British Library's early newspaper archive goes online

More than 4m pages, drawn mainly from 19th-century regional newspapers, previously kept in decent obscurity at the library's newspaper archive in Colindale, north London, will now be available for historians and family researchers to browse for a small fee, or free if they visit the central library in King's Cross. All human life, not to say all the news fit to print, is certainly there, albeit written up in florid Victorian prose – great events, horrible murders reported in exhaustive detail, celebrity gossip, as well as the occasional intrusion into private grief.

For example:

Following the death of Grace Darling, the lighthouse keeper's daughter who had become a heroine for rescuing shipwrecked passengers off the coast of Northumberland, the editor of the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette sneered in the sort of tone to be heard any day now on blogsites: "We wonder our contemporaries do not know better than to suppose the public are generally interested in the health of this peasant."

And as for scandals, the British Chronicle in September 1790 had a ripe one about an unnamed peer who fancied his valet's wife and sent the servant off on an errand which would take him away overnight. The valet was suspicious, hid near his wife's apartment and locked the couple in when he heard his employer enter, before heading off to the peer's wife's chamber on a similar mission. "In the morning gentle readers you may picture to yourselves the confusion of the whole family: his lordship was found locked in the arms of Mrs Anne and her ladyship was discovered in the same situation with Mr Thomas."

Here is the link

http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/

When I worked for British Telecom  the Newspaper Library was in my ‘area’ and I was fortunate enough to work there on several occasions and it was a fascinating place and of course in those days there were no ‘soft’ copies of the newspapers, just the actual newspapers.

Golf and racism, it’s just not cricket.

I don’t know if you follow golf but the big story of the last couple of weeks is the racist remark made by Tiger Woods former caddie Steve Williams at the recent "caddie of the year" ceremony

The caddie described his new employer's triumph at the time as the "greatest victory of my career". When asked to explain why he had made such an obvious exaggeration given that he had caddied Woods to 13 major championship wins, Williams said: "I wanted to shove it up that black arsehole."

Williams conceded in a public apology that his remarks, which were made in front of 200 players, caddies and officials at a "caddie of the year" ceremony, "could be construed as racist" and added: "However, that was not my intent."

Despite this admission, a statement issued jointly by the US PGA and European Tours on Sunday made it clear that Williams will not be punished: "[We feel] strongly there is no place for any form of racism in ours or any other sport. We consider the remarks of Steve Williams, as reported, entirely unacceptable in whatever context. We are aware that he has apologised and we trust we will not hear such remarks again. Based on this, we consider the matter closed."

Racism is without a doubt vile, obnoxious and incredibly stupid. I have lived in many countries and the population of each is made up of roughly the same proportion of the good, the bad and the ugly. Anyone who has any knowledge of the history of mankind with it’s continuous migrations across continents realises, that despite outward appearances we are all basically the same and to claim that people from one particular place are somehow intrinsically superior to the rest of humanity is insane.

Back to the golf.

Steve Williams made a great deal of money whilst caddying for Tiger Woods, well in excess of ten million dollars and his remarks at the very least smell of ingratitude.

Steve Williams is from New Zealand, whose idea of culture is The Haka.

With regards to the remark itself.

"I wanted to shove it up that black arsehole."

I thought that Steve Williams was referring anatomically to what he wanted to do with the trophy that his golfer had just won.

Unlike a great number of ‘ladies’, (if you believe the press) I am not familiar with the colour of Tiger Woods nether regions but I do suspect judging by the parts normally visible to the public, they are probably quite dark, so in that area alone Steve Williams was making an accurate statement.

And finally:

Tiger Woods ethnic background is, and in no particular order. Chinese, Thai, Native American, African American and Dutch. So if  anyone wanted to racially insult Tiger Woods, why pick on the African American part? Why can't they be a little more imaganitive and feel free to indulge their own petty brand of xenophobia in a more creative way.

Syria and the Arab League

The Arab League has sent an "urgent message" to the Syrian government, denouncing "the continued killings of civilians" taking part in protests.

The league's ministerial committee on the Syrian crisis also urged Damascus to "take the necessary measures" to protect civilians.

The ministers also said that they had held "frank and friendly" talks with President Assad on Wednesday.

This is the same tone used by a parent in a supermarket to their small child as they slide down a shopping aisle on their stomach.

“Don’t do that Tarquin, otherwise mummy will get cross in a minute.”

If the videos just beginning to surface of Gaddafi’s capture, showing him being beaten, repeatedly stabbed in the arse with a knife and then finally being shot in the head don’t persuade Assad to go, somehow I don’t think that a ‘frank and friendly’ chat with the Arab League will do it.

Gaddafi, what, no exit plan?

Now, I’m not a dictator, mad or otherwise but if I was running a country I’d make bloody sure that I had an exit plan in place for when the people turned on me.

You know what fickle ungrateful bastards the people can be, just ask that nice Mr Mubarak who was running Egypt for 30 years.

Hussein’s exit plan was to hide in a hole covered by a sheet of polystyrene; Gaddafi’s to hide in a drainage pipe and then hope that the person who finds you has a sense of humour. But these pale into insignificance when compared to Hitler’s exit plan. Which was to wait in a cellar in Berlin until the Russians surround it and then marry your long-standing significant other, poison the dog and then commit suicide. Me, I’d have a private jet fuelled up and ready to go at the slightest whiff of popular unrest, a villa in the Caymans and a Swiss bank account.

Bob Buckman’s obituary

Extract from Bob Buckman’s obituary in today’s Independent.

Robert Alexander Amiel Buckman, doctor, writer, presenter and performer: born London 22 August 1948; Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto; married 1977 Joan-Ida van den Ende (two daughters), secondly Patricia Shaw (two sons); died 9 October 2011.

Buckman was born in London, where his father was an import-export trader and his mother a barrister. He gained a love of acting while attending University College School and, at the age of 13, even appeared in the West End as the Midshipmite in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera HMS Pinafore (Savoy Theatre, 1961).

After graduating in medicine from St John's College, Cambridge, Buckman became a junior doctor at University College Hospital, London. Alongside his work and stage appearances with Beetles, he contributed scripts to the television sitcom Doctor on the Go (1977) and the satirical radio series Week Ending. He and Beetles also appeared in The Secret Policeman's Ball, the 1979 Amnesty International fund-raising comedy gala at Her Majesty's Theatre.

During his early years in Canada, he continued to be seen occasionally in Where There's Life, contributing reports from across the Atlantic. He also presented two ITV series of The Buckman Treatment (1986, 1989), surveying "the American way of health".

Later, he wrote and fronted the What You Really Need to Know About... series of films (1993-2000) aimed at patients and made by Video Arts, John Cleese's production company. Then, they launched the Videos for Patients series, whose releases in 2000 covered illnesses such as Parkinson's disease. Each would begin with a doctor-patient scenario acted out by Cleese and Buckman, before the humorous doctor explained the medical facts.

As well as being the author of more than a dozen books – includingNot Dead Yet: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Robert Buckman (1999) – Buckman contributed to Punch magazine and the Toronto newspapers The Globe & Mail and the Star. In 1999, five years after winning the Canadian Humanist of the Year award, he became president of the Humanist Association of Canada.

Buckman never fulfilled his greatest ambition, which he once revealed to be to meet his first great-great-great-grandchild. He died in his sleep on a transatlantic flight from London to Toronto after a week spent making a series of short films titled Top Ten Tips for Health.

I am always amazed when I read an obituary like this, how on earth do people find the time and talent to achieve so much?

I remember watching Bob Buckman in a TV series in the 1970’s called the The Pink Medicine Show and for some obscure reason one sketch has stuck in my mind.

A patient is lying in bed and a doctor ask if he has any problems, only one replies the patient, my bowels. What’s wrong? Asks the doctor. Aren’t you regular? Oh no replies the patient, every morning at seven o’clock. So what’s the problem? Asks the doctor. I don’t wake up until eight o’clock. Replies the patient.

The government is to announce that the Olympic Stadium deal with West Ham and Newham Council has collapsed, sources say.
Legal challenges by Tottenham and Leyton Orient, plus an anonymous complaint to the European Commission, have led to fears that court action could drag on for years while the stadium remains empty.
A ministerial statement is expected around noon, saying that the stadium will remain in public ownership and leased out to an anchor tenant following a new tender process.
It is likely that under the new tender process any costs of transforming the stadium after the 2012 Games will be covered by the Olympic Park Legacy Company. Prospective tenants will then be asked to bid for the stadium with the running track remaining in place.
The tenants would pay an annual rent to the OPLC, which could actually prove to be less costly for the likes of West Ham.


Several points spring to mind on reading this.
Why does anyone bid for the olympics? It always results in over spending, debt burdens and stadiums that no one wants.
Prestige? 
It must be a huge comfort for the Greeks as they approach financial ruin to look back upon the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Legacy?
The Olympic village will be turned into housing. Why do you need to host an Olympics to spend money on housing and infrastructure? I'd settle for the amount of money  they spend on bidding for the Olympics to be spent on housing and infrastucture.
The east end of London will have a 60,000 seater athletic stadium that no one wants, but apparantly it will be usefull in our bid for the 2017 world athletics championships.
Finally on a footballing note. I have watched football at stadiums with running / dog tracks around them: The old Wembley, the old Stamford Bridge and the Olympic Stadium in Munich (a stadium that Bayern München couldn't get out off quickly enough) and to put it mildly from a spectator's view point they were all terrible.

I'm not psychic but.......

To follow up on a previous blog:


Sally Morgan ‘Psychic Sally’ who was accused of being a charlatan has apparently been filmed wearing what appears to be a hidden earpiece.
She launched a spirited defence after being accused of having information fed to her during performances - and has threatened legal action against anyone who repeats the claims.
A new video  on YouTube shows the entertainer walking off stage after a show in which she appeared to communicate with some of her audience's dead relatives.
She can be seen taking wires out of both her ears. The device in her right ear is a microphone but a second black earpiece is also taken out of her left ear.
During the stage show itself, a side-on close up of Sally's head appears to show something black sitting inside Sally's left ear.




Now I'm not psychic but I suspect that the last place that 'Psychic Sally' wants to appear in is a court of law.  A court of law depends on evidence and tangible proof, both of which are alien concepts to 'Psychic Sally'.  

Hellraiser Courtney Love opens up about her tragic husband Kurt Cobain in a frank interview with Vanity Fair.
The 47-year-old mother says she still carries anger that Cobain killed himself back in 1994 by shooting himself in the head.
Speaking to the publication, the Hole singer mused that she would 'kill' the Nirvana frontman if 'he came back right now'.


There's not a lot you can add to that.


Reminds me of what George Best's ex wife, Angie said when she heard of his death.
'It was the last thing I thought he'd do.'

Bahrain, Errol Flynn and Bernie Ecclestone.


From todays Guardian Newspaper:


Twenty Bahraini medics who treated activists wounded during anti-government protests were jailed for between five and 15 years in sentences that were immediately denounced by medical bodies and human rights groups around the world.
The sentences were handed down by a military court set up to handle the trials, which stemmed from an Arab spring-inspired uprising in the country in February and March. It was crushed with the help of armies from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Thirteen of the doctors and nurses received sentences of 15 years in prison, while another seven received terms of five to 10 years.
All of the accused were charged with committing crimes against the state, during an uprising they insist was peaceful and popularly inspired.
Most worked at the Salmaniya Medical Centre in Manama, which became a focal point of the uprising. Government officials claimed it had been transformed into a base for a plot to overthrow the 200-year-old monarchy.
The formal charges were for stealing medicine, possessing weapons and occupying a government hospital. The medics were also accused of "inciting hatred to the regime and insulting it, instigating hatred against another sect and obstructing the implementation of law, destroying public property and taking part in gatherings aimed at jeopardising the general security and committing crimes."
The doctors, all of whom denied the charges, were among dozens arrested for joining protests led by Bahrain's Shia majority against the government headed by the country's ruling Sunni minority.
The protests were quickly cast by Bahrain's government as a sectarian plot ordered by Iran. The crackdown that followed the demonstrations led to the imposition of martial law and the Gulf Co-operation Council sending troops to the island state.




Now, I’ve always been under the impression that doctors swore (or at least, paid lip service to) The Hippocratic Oath, which basicaly means that they treat anyone that requires medical attention regardless of colour, creed, politics or religion but soley on the persons need for medical attention.


(In America recently a doctor saved the life of a murderer on death row who had suffered a heart attack, the fact that he was over seventy years old and in a wheelchair didn’t deter the doctor from performing his duties. And so the man was in a fit state when the following week they executed him.)


So that’s the Bahrain part of the title of the Blog taken care of, so on to Bernie.
Bernie Ecclestone as the man in charge of  Formula One should step up and take a morale decision not to run one of his races in this poor, in everyway, apart from financialy, excuse for a country.


And now before you ask; where does Errol Flynn come into this? Well in 1935 he made a movie called, Captain Blood, based on a novel by Rafael Sabatini.
The film starts as follows:
In seventeenth century England,  Doctor Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) is convicted of treason against the King for aiding a wounded friend who had participated in the Monmouth Rebellion in accordance with his professional duties. He is sentenced to death, but by the whim of King James II, Peter Blood is sold into slavery in the English colony of Port Royal in the West Indies.


Which brings us right back to the medics in Bahrain.


For those of you who are interseted, the rest of the film goes something like this:
Peter Blood is bought by Olivia De Havilland, treats the Governer’s foot, escapes, becomes a pirate, kills Basil Rathbone in a duel, returns to Port Royal just in time to save it, is rewarded by being appointed Governer & then gets to shag Olivia De Havilland. And all in under two hours.

No happy medium as Psychic Sally 'sidekick' prompts outrage.

An extract from the Irish Independent Tuesday September 13 2011 by By Ken Sweeney and Kevin Keane.

They were 'hearing voices' but not the ones they had been hoping for.

Dublin's Grand Canal Theatre last night denied allegations that a spiritual medium was being fed lines while on stage on Sunday night.

More than 2,000 people watched TV star Sally Morgan, alias 'Psychic Sally, seeming to make contact with the spiritual world at the sell-out performance.

However, callers to RTE's 'Liveline' yesterday allege a voice at the back of the auditorium was relaying information to the 58-year-old while she was on stage.

"The first half of the show went really well but when the second half started we could clearly hear a man's voice coming from the window behind us," caller 'Sue' told 'Liveline' yesterday.

"Everything he said, the psychic would say 10 seconds later. It was as if she was having the information relayed to her."

The audience member said a number of people in her row heard the man speaking, but when an usher heard him, the window closed and the voice disappeared.

There are several explanations for this story.

1. The people who claimed to hear someone relaying information to Sally Morgan were lying.

2. The man in the room at the back of the hall was psychic and knew what Sally Morgan was going to say ten seconds before she said it.

3. Sally Morgan isn't really psychic and it's all just a con.

My money's on number 3.

Anyone that follows my blog will have noticed that there’s been a bit of a gap between postings.

Unfortunately at the beginning of 2010, my wife was taken suddenly and extremely ill, a condition from which she is making a slow recovery, so writing blogs has not been too high on my personal agenda.

Fortunately I now have more free time on my hands because a couple of months ago, my company made me redundant. My boss explained to me that in order to safeguard the future of the company. (A company which has a net income in the region of 1.5 billion dollars and has just increased the CEO’s, ‘compensation’ to almost 20 million dollars.)It was vital to move 6 jobs, including mine, from Germany to the Czech Republic.

Just to explain to those that might not have read my blog before, if I see an article in the popular press that I find interseting I comment on it and hopefully start a meaningful debate.