"What all these incidents tell us is what marine parks don't want you to know: captive killer whales are dangerous to people, even those who have worked with these animals for years and years,"... ..."In both episodes with Tillikum, the whale wasn't necessary trying to hurt the unintended victims, but his very size and behavior makes him a danger to people, even if the whale were just 'playing' with the people. Simply put, these are wild animals. Taming them is only an illusion; their natural behaviors will always pose a threat to the people foolish enough to interact with them."
'Nothing important' you say, no important business, just back from their (other) hols, no real business...well, it's 'only' Defence Questions: questions in the House of Commons to Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth and his team of ministers! FFS!
OK, admittedly this could be staff in that office that have little contact with Brown...could be."Over recent months we have had several inquiries from staff within Gordon Brown's office."
I can add only two things: (a) TATA the owners are set to make a killing in carbon credits [EU Referendum] by closing the plantThe contrast between the manic, expensive and misplaced activism to “save” the banks, subsidising bankers and their bonuses to a fault, and the hand wringing inactivity over the steelworks is stark.
...and (b) can you imagine the uproar if the Conservatives were letting this happen?That this is not a major, front-page scandal should be a source of amazement. We are paying an electricity "tax" of the order of £1.5 billion to an Indian steelmaker, for the privilege of have the production in the UK closed down and the work transferred to India.
Well, of course they're not noticably bony but you'll see what I mean: the winter Olympics is a week old and the cabinet was bare...(as expected really!) but yesterday in Vancouver Amy Williams won Britain's first solo Winter Olympics gold medal for 30 years with victory in the women's skeleton! And in fact it's the first British woman's individual gold at a Winter Games since 1952.* At the last Winter Olympics a silver in the Skeleton won by Shelley Rudman was the Great Britain's only medal and, as Ollie Williams reiterated last year, this was Great Britain's most likely Winter Olympic medal hope.
Interesting that both in the article from El Universal, and Chavez, use 'England' and not 'Britain'...Update: although in later reports, i.e. HERE they are using Reino Unido (United Kingdom)"Hasta cuándo Inglaterra pretenderá, rompiendo con todo el derecho internacional, violar los principios básicos de la geografía. Vayánse de ahí"..."A los ingleses se les agota el petróleo del Mar del Norte y están desesperados. Los yanquis también están desesperados"
[my translation] "How long does England [sic] aim - breaking all international Law - to violate the basic principles of geography. Get out of there!"... ... "North Sea Oil is running out for the English and they're desperate. The Yankees also are desperate"
Very good and very funny; WHY did it take them so long? In response to Labour supporters' joke Tory posters; remember the David Cameron ones? We have a site dedicated to Labour (click on image) and many are hilarious; my favourites are the burglar on sentencing policy and the benefits ones for instance: ENJOY.
Very presidential electionish in the US style. As Fraser goes on to write, "Prepare for plenty more of this in the campaign", indeed. As if to say 'look how nice and normal Sarah is, Gordon must be decent.' Well, that's obviously the intent and no doubt many thousands of morons will be convinced by it.It was a production featuring not just Brown, but the planet's entire inventory of people who like him... ...all the stops were being pulled out because they all see this as a campaign device. Sarah, easily Brown's no.1 weapon, was on full display. The camera kept cutting to her, as if they are a joint ticket.
I'll say it's unusual! Iain Dale writes:"It's unusual, in a democracy, to see such a favourable piece of television for a government leader - the audience were almost indecently supportive. God knows where they found them from."
And Iain goes on to say that it "clearly breaches various aspects of the OFCOM code". Well, we'll see if anything gets done..."As an interview it stank. And I say this with some regret because I actually think Piers Morgan can be a very talented interviewer. But there was no probing, no exploring, nothing. It was just an hour long party political broadcast on behalf of the Gordon Brown Party".
...but I think it is clear that this wasn't the aim at all, far from it: the politics was left out on purpose, after all, on any political question the real ogre that Brown is would reemerge and that is precisely what dear Piers was intentionally avoiding."In the end it was a lame interview and amounted to a considerable journalistic failure. After all, here was a Prime Minister 'opening up' for an hour of popular television. But out of it Morgan got no revelation, interesting insight or truly fresh perspective."
It's not only the US: according to the World Health Organization the statistics of obesity in the whole of Europe (not just the EU) are staggering, reaching epidemic proportions. In only two decades this problem has trebled, and if no action is taken there will be an estimated 150 million obese adults (20% of the population) and 15 million obese children and adolescents (10% of the population) in the region by next year (2010). In most countries today, between 30% and 80% of adults are overweight. [EOD Link]"of more than 100 obese children and teenagers found more than half were overweight by 24 months and 90% were overweight by the age of five."
Last year there were reports that the Department of Health was considering assessing 2yr-old's growth as part of its Quality and Outcome Framework strategy but so far it hasn't happened: the target is to "Reduce the rate of overweight and obese children to 2000 levels by 2020..." but 'for the purposes of this childhood is defined as children age 2-10 years old, and "To demonstrate a reduction from the forecast rate [...] the prevalence of child obesity in under 11s needs to be a maximum of 18.1% by 2011." [HM Gov Delivery Agreement: PDF]. If it is estimated that currently one in three under six-year olds are overtweight or obese and that under two's aren't checked, then taking into account the recent research it seems this target is another that is already doomed to failure.We want GP practices to measure children for signs of obesity at eight months and then again at two years as part of the QOF
The answer to the question: they all are! ...which helps explain why "in Washington they're not sure who's in charge". You should recognise at least two maybe three of the images and the 4th, who you may need help recognising, is Jerzy Buzek, a former Polish prime minister who is president or speaker of the European parliament (the others clockwise from top "It's a nice elegant design and I look forward to buying products carrying this logo"...no, seriously, someone actually said that: the EU commissioner for agriculture Mariann Fischer Boel! From news in The Express (hat-tip Subrosa)
"Gordon Brown really can be very annoying."...and so say So says Daniel Finkelstein in The Times Comment Central yesterday (my emphasis). Brown's constant lying is what we've known about for years and the attitude came across clearly in the Labour Party campaign poster (left) Shane Greer shows why it's so wrong. So, just as well that the Conservatives can produce their own (below; possibly equally short on truth...but so much better!)"He basically lies about the policies of other parties, then attacks the lie. He hopes that no one will be bothered to pick him up on the detail.... ...It's is a very dangerous political technique, this, because it robs political debate of any truth or objective content. It needs to be challenged relentlessly."
'Brownite politics at its worst' says Peter Hoskin (click on image). Only a couple of months left before the election! Should be fun...NOT.
Tony "will have to explain"..."when he wishes"..."what he can do. Is it just me or is that very, very strange?"I think you will find that many people in Labour who are no longer in government but who have been part of the project' for years will have a role. Tony will have to explain, when he wishes, what he can do."
Read the excellent article in full: "The global warming guerrillas" HERE. (opens in print mode to read on one page instead of six!)Yet, this time round, despite 20 years of being told they were not just factually but morally wrong, of being compared to Holocaust deniers, of being told they deserved to be tried for crimes against humanity, of being avoided at parties, climate sceptics seem to be growing in number and confidence by the day.
More bias from BBC (see P.S.) but also I didn't really mean to follow on from my post below about John Terry, it was just a laugh seeing him so heatedly involved on the pitch as off it! And I was pleased when led to THIS story in the Daily Mail (hat-tip James Forsyth in the Spectator) The DM reports that Great, I thought, a decent man, back to basics etc...remembering the days when Tory sleaze was almost entirely the petty sexual indiscretions of a few MPs (yeah yeah, brown envelopes too...) - whereas for the last decade or so it's been downright full-on New Labour corruption - however, this Terry sacking was not so simple, as James Forsyth tells us: "[his] sacking as England captain tells us something interesting about what is considered a sackable offence in today's world and what is not.". i.e. it wasn't until the money side of Terry's indiscretions came up, [that I am now reading about: FFS!...does he need the money? Why not give it to mates of his or something?] that he was sacked! Well, maybe Fabio would have demoted him anyway...maybe."It took Fabio Capello just ten minutes to strip John Terry of the England captaincy yesterday.
The Italian family man and strict disciplinarian made it clear he would not be part of the dither and hypocrisy over the disgraced star"
Groundhog Day: lots of snow and very cold; I'm sure all over the Midwest a groundhog has emerged and seen his shadow: according to legend that means six more weeks of winter. If they hadn't seen their shadows, an early spring could be expected. The day coincides with Candlemas and has the same meaning traditionally, "our ancestors predicted the weather according to the conditions on Candlemas day [Link]:So, if the sun is out the hairy guy will see his shadow but if it's cloudy he won't. And as that last link suggest both have roots in the pagan festival Imbolc which celebrated the beginning of Spring after the usually cold, dark Winter.If Candlemas day be fair and bright, Winter will have another flight; But if it be dark with clouds and rain, Winter is gone and will not come again.
I read the other day that "if it's on the BBC it's real", a comment I laughed at as the BBC's real and mine aren't always quite the same. Anyway, some people may have realised over the last few years that the BBC have some pet topics that are "more than real". The EU and man-made Climate change are at the top of their 'push' lists; you may have noticed. Well, it has come to the attention of B-BBC via an "anonymous eagle-eyed B-BBC contributor" that there could be other, not entirely right and proper, reasons why some news is given favourable treatment: Fingers in pies.Interesting to say the least!So now we really know why BBC staffers are so fanatical about 'climate change'. It's naked self-interest. In 2008, there were 18,736 contributors to the BBC pension fund; every man jack of them benefits from climate alarmism.
