loving the alien.....

telly is crap for months, and then i get spoilt with a great selection all on one night?

The faculty is probably the best teen-horror-sci/fi film of recent years, entertaining from start to finish, very tongue on cheek and just good solid entertainment.

Zeke (making someone take the I'm-not-an-alien-test) : "I'm about to take my chances. I leave for five minutes, and when I come back everyone's a fucking alien. Now, If I have to Men In Black your ass, you're gonna fucking take it!
"

Ravenous is maybe the darkest comedy I have ever seen and Robert Carlyle's finest moment.

"It's lonely being a cannibal. Tough making friends."

And Taxi Driver is just a great film, although it's getting more dated with time, if you know what I mean.

BBC NEWS | Business | KBR wins new Iraq contract:

"Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) has won a new US army contract to help repair Iraq's dilapidated oil industry. "

And it was never about the oil, right?

Yahoo! News - Britney Believes in 'Sanctity' of Marriage:

"'I do believe in the sanctity of marriage, I totally do,' Spears told MTV's 'Total Request Live' in a telephone interview Wednesday. '(But) I was in Vegas, and it took over me.' "

What a stupid pathetic bitch. I really really believe in the sanctity of marriage, unless I've had like a beer or two, or if Madonna is in the room, who I really really respect....

Someone do me and celebdaq a favour, off the tramp.

To the rousing tune of hundreds of protesters shouting their
objections, President Bush has laid a wreath at the tomb of
Martin Luther King Jr., to mark the 75th birthday of the murdered
civil rights leader.

The only other sound to be heard above the chants of "Go home,
Bush - go home, Bush" was the eerie, high-pitched humming sound
of Martin Luther King's body reaching 2000 revolutions per second
in his grave.

All from TFT.

On Friday 2nd January, American soldiers arrested three Iraqi
journalists who were covering the aftermath of a US helicopter
crash for Reuters. The journalists were filming a checkpoint
close to where the helicopter was shot down, near the town of
Falluja, when US soldiers opened fire on them. Then, when the
journalists - all of whom had the word 'PRESS' screaming across
their flak jackets - fled for their lives in their car, they were
arrested. 72 hours later they were released.

This week, courtesy of a formal complaint made by Reuters against
the US soldiers responsible, we have a much clearer idea of what
exactly happened during the journalists' short detention. We know
now that they were tortured. No-one seems to want to use the word
'torture', which is odd, as it really is the only word that
accurately describes what happened. Particularly when used
alongside the word 'gratuitous'.

The words used by Reuters include: 'brutalised', 'intimidated'
and 'terrified'. Semantics. Here's what the US army did to three
innocent people for no good reason:


- they arrested them

- they put bags over their heads

- they threatened them with Guantanamo Bay

- they threatened them sexually, whispering at one stage, 'let's
have sex'; at another, 'If you don't shut up we'll fuck you.'
(Granted this may not have had a sexual connotation, but it's
still not cricket.)

- they made them stand for hours with their arms raised and palms
pressed flat against the wall


Also, one of them was allegedly ordered to strip naked and then
had a shoe shoved in his mouth. According to his nephew: 'He
protested that he was a journalist but they stuck a shoe in his
mouth anyway. They also hurt his leg.'

Two US soldiers have since sworn that they were initially
reacting to being shot at by the journalists - who, naturally,
were unarmed - and General Charles Swannack, commander of the
82nd Airborne Division, has officially stood by them. 'More often
than not they are right,' he said. It's worth remembering that,
more often or not, Ian Huntley didn't murder two girls in his
bathroom, burn their remains and bury them in a ditch.

Meanwhile, Simon Walker, a spokesman for Reuters, has expressed
hope that the complaint 'will be dealt with expeditiously'. Well,
he'll get nowhere with sophisticated language like that. He would
do well to remember that he is dealing with professional thugs
here. Extremely focused thugs who know where they want to go, but
are not intelligent enough to get there. Idiots, in the end, who
fail to see how hiring children and hillbillies to create
legitimacy and harmony where there is decidedly none to be found,
will inevitably result in situations such as these.

And repeatedly covering it all up is only making things worse.
Incidentally, the only other response from the US military, at
the time of writing, has been to tell Reuters, point-blank, to
'drop it'.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Hoon resignation demands rejected:

"Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed his sympathy and condolences for Mrs Roberts and said he 'totally' understood her concerns. "

He just isn't going to do anything about them.

And I am getting pissed off with his use of the word 'totally'. This isn't 90's California, dude, and you aren't 16. OK?

BBC NEWS | Politics | Hoon resignation demands rejected:

"But Defence Minister Ivor Caplin said an inquiry was under way into the death and it was not a resignation issue."

Hmmm, maybe it's not up to him to decide? It was certainly a death issue.

"The problem was 'the odd glitch or shortcoming in our processes', he said. "

I doubt very much is his widow would call it that. A man died, hardly a 'glitch'.

Labour hide the truth again, lives put at risk:

"The Government has suppressed a rail industry document that paints an alarming picture of a ramshackle network which will fail to show any major improvement unless the industry receives billions of pounds extra from taxpayers.
With just 18 months to go before a possible election, the annual report by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), leaked to The Independent, has been 'binned'. The strategy paper, due for publication this month, confirms that the Government's 10-year plan for the network is in tatters."

OK. Tim's set me off. Clare Short MP is someone I have often disagreed with and represents a political party I have pften disagreed with. However, she at least attempts to carry herself with some dignity. Recently she made soem comments regarding the tradition of page 3 of the Sun. You know, soime bird gets her knockers out and lads can go "hmmm". Well, to be honest, I've got an internet connection, as have you, and over 35% of the internet is p0rn (source: New IBM webtrend software). I make that over 1,000,000,000 pages with p0rnographic content.

I don't need page 3. I couldn't care less if it continues or stops or features ducks or whatever. I don't buy the Sun. Not for politcal reasons, but because it does not report news. However, the owner of the sun, one Rupert Murdoch, has decided to attack Clare Short. Not becasue she has made comments about his newspaper, but because she is being seen as an enemy of Tony. It is without a doubt the most pathetic and tawdry example of journojism i have ever, ever seen. It is tantamount to victimisation and assault. If anyone of your tried to print the things the Sun has been printing or tried to do the things they have been doing you would be arrested.

I'm not really sure where this is going but:

Boycott The Sun.
Send Clare Short a message of support. Even if you don't agree with what she says/does, I would hope you at least believe in political system which should be fair and untainted by the press.
Write to the Press Complaints Commission.

This really is the bottom of the barrel. Its disgraceful, and what's worse is that the British public is just stupid enough that most of them will believe it's about page 3.

Just who is doing what online? Probably the most comprehensive and professional report on internet usage.

Requires Adobe acrobat.

Report is here.

"I need more storage!!!!

(Anyone working in big business will beat the punchline I bet).

A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Prada suit, Gucci shoes, Dior sunglasses and D+G tie, leans out the window and asks the shepherd: "If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"

The shepherd looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answers: "Sure. Why not?" The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his AT&T cell phone, surfs to a NASA page on the internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complexformulae.

He uploads all of this data via an email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-colour, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturised HP LaserJet printer, turns to the shepherd and says: "You have exactly 1,586 sheep".

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my sheep," says the shepherd.
He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the boot of his car. Then the shepherd says to the young man: "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says: "Okay, why not?".
"You're a consultant," says the shepherd.
"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie. "But how did you guess that?"
"No guessing required," answers the shepherd. "You showed up here even
though nobody called you, you want to get paid for an answer I already
knew to a question I never asked, and you know eff-all about my
business.

"Now give me back my dog."

BBC NEWS | UK | Airport probe after terror arrest:

"Security at Dulles is particularly tight, with extensive checks performed on passengers and hand luggage before they are allowed anywhere near boarding areas. "

Well, obviously not. I mean, the guy walked onto the plane with bullets in his pocket for God's sake. If he got on with bullets he could have got on with a gun, both metallic, both show up on x-ray extremely well, both set off metal detectors pretty much instantly (which I guess means he didn't have to walk through one then?), but he basically waltzes through the airport and onto the plane.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Bush to unveil $1bn space plans:

"The president's father proposed sending men to Mars when he was in office in 1989, but did not mention a moon base.
The project went nowhere after its cost was estimated at up to $500bn. "

And that was in 1989, so I imagine we could comfortably double that estimate now.

BTW, the article also features probably the worst graphic depicting distance I have ever seen. I thought I had stumbled onto The Sun's website for a second.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Bush to unveil $1bn space plans:

"In a speech on Wednesday, he is expected to announce a $1bn boost to Nasa's budget to pay for the programme.
But critics say such plans will cost a great deal more and that America cannot afford it. "

Er, $1bn will buy you NOTHING in terms of a space program. They will spend that much just doing feasability studies.
I wouild love to see a renewed space exploration program, which geek wouldn't? But this isn't it. This is electioneering, that's all. If he had said $100bn I might have believed him, but he's just talking up the fight, in exactly the same way his daddy did all those years ago.

BBC
Sick baby 'given soap' by mistake:

"A six-week-old girl was given liquid soap instead of medicine by her grandmother after a nurse at an Oxfordshire hospital handed her the wrong substance. "

Just read that again. Now think about how badly the NHS is performing under Labour. Now go and look into going private, although that's actually what they want you to do.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Blair says speeding levy not definite:

"No decision has been taken on the idea of making speeding motorists pay ?5 to a fund to compensate victims of crime, Prime Minister Tony Blair has said.
On a phone-in on LBC radio, Mr Blair promised to listen to people's views about the controversial new proposal.
But he argued a way had to be found to compensate victims of crime whose perpetrators were never found. "

Perhaps we could start by concentrating on actually catching them, perhaps by putting more effort into criminal offences policing rather than road traffic act policing?

Of course he came out with this today, David Blunkett got a roasting on just about every current affaris and news program yesterday. Especially funny to see that the Home Office spokesperson for Labour is a Baroness.

Herald.com - Your Miami Everything Guide:

"Finally a sheriff's deputy was called to the scene of the dispute; after listening to the two sides, he shot both guys in the head, to improve the gene pool."