DANIEL CRAIG'S MY WOOKIE BITCH NOW

HT: Digital spy

AVENGING THE DEFICIT

As some know I edit a mag called Financial Risks Today that has its own blog and I thought I'd share a take on the situation in the States today as the deadlock could have been in 1940:

The UK this week sees the premier of Captain America: The First Avenger.

The good Captain was the original 9 pound weakling Steve Rogers, rejected by the army but given a second chance through the use of a super-serum that German scientist Abraham Erskine developed.

Erskine was killed just after Rogers' transformation by Gestapo agent Heinz Kruger.

As the debt ceiling deadlock continues with politicians point-scoring and blaming each other as the deadline-day for default looms near, I wonder what would have happened back in 1940 with today's politicians?

Surely the Republicans would have appreciated getting someone out of 4F and into the US Army but would have baulked at the costs, complaining that this action can only happen if cuts were made elsewhere?

Meanwhile, the Democrats, although worried about the ever-increasing debt would have complained that the Republicans were playing petty-politics and that action was needed now to deal with the issue of a lack of super-soldiers. Any vote in favour of the Republicans would not deal with the threat in an instance but create problems six months down the line.

Of course, as events occured in the story, the Democrats would have won but with the killing of the creator of the Super Serum, the Republicans would go into the next elections complaining that despite the Democrats spending all that money, the country was only left with one super-soldier so how could President Roosevelt justify the costs.

The Tea Party would have questioned how a German scientist got a job ahead of a good old American boy and how the lack of immigration controls and decent security checks allowed the assassin to get into the lab in the first place.


Editor's note: Erskine was originally called Reinstein, why it was changed, I don't know

DOCTORING THE COMICS

I have been a fan of the Cartoon Museum since it opened round the corner from the British Museum.

This summer they will be looking at Doctor Who and his time in comics:

SCI-FI HIT PARADE

So SFX has done a top 50 of Sci-Fi theme tunes:
10 to four are:
Blade Runner
Back to the Future
2001 Space Odyssey
Pirates of the Caribbean
Jurassic Park
Harry Potter
Superman

(in my best fluff voice)
Coming in at number three


And at number two and a bit of a shock for pop pickers of a certain age


And steaming in at number one and proof that Tolkien fans have more time to access the computer, at the top of the hit parade is…



To be honest I am shocked that Star Wars wasn't number one and that Superman missed the top three

VAN DAMME'S NIPPLES

Ok, I may be behind the curve on this one but this is just bizarre and funny

BWAHAHAHA GROMIT

From Brave & The Bold Lost covers

DOCTOR WHO

The loverly Karen Gillan confirms she's coming back to the good Doctor:

 

ht: Bleeders

GEEK HITS

Doctor Who trailer from SDCC:


and a clip (warning clown!)


Indded:



Ahhh…



An anti-smoking message from Star Wars (?)


And no drinking - despite Han Solo was obviously over the limit going from the Cantina to the Millennium Falcon:


So I have been a huge fan of Judge Dredd for a long time and now, there's a new movie coming out, filmed in South Africa and starring Karl Urban and now, courtesy of scans of Empire magazine, more pics are out:

Urban as Dredd


Michael O'Conner:



Olivia Thirlby as Judge Anderson


HT: Bleeeders
Geeks
2000AD blog

AHHHH

HT: Geeks

SPIDEY

OK I know this has done the rounds but here's the revamped Spider-Man

BATMAN UNITED

Just too cool for words


Ht: Reddit

GEEK HITS

Phantom Menace dubbed:


What really happened at Stonehenge:


Steampunk Iron Man


Slave Leia party:

EMBED-Slave Leia PSA Starring Kaley Cuoco - Watch more free videos

New Spidey costume:


Darth Vader ballon:





HT: Geeks

TAPPING PERSPECTIVE

1679 incidents by 144 journalists



1260 incidents by 98 journalists



258 incidents by 30 journalists



103 by 4 journalists*



73 incidents by 16 journalists

*no information given for The Guardian

Source: ICO

HT: Cranmer

GEEK HITS

cats

ah:

T:


Mash:

I ref Geeks but here's the source

It is of course a pause in the space age, at least I hope so:


I am so sorry


Ht; Geeks

TINTIN

New trailer for Tintin, shame it's bloody 3d



ht: dark horizons

TIPPING THE LIZARD

Via Bleeders

SUN ON SUNDAY

So here we go then:
Company registration:
Name & Registered Office:
THE SUN ON SUNDAY LIMITED
79 SOLENT ROAD
PORTSMOUTH
ENGLAND
PO6 1HJ
Company No. 07698029

Status: Active
Date of Incorporation: 08/07/2011

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Website registration:

Domain name:
sunonsunday.co.uk

Registrant:
News International Newspapers Limited

Registrant type:
UK Limited Company, (Company number: 1885543)

Registrant's address:
NI Group Limited
3 Thomas More Square
London
E98 1ES
United Kingdom

Registrar:
News International Newspapers Limited [Tag = NEWSINT]
URL: http://www.newsint.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 05-Jul-2011
Renewal date: 05-Jul-2013
Last updated: 11-Jul-2011

Registration status:
Registration request being processed.

Name servers:
ns0.newsint.co.uk 143.252.80.3
ns1.newsint.co.uk 143.252.80.205

WHOIS lookup made at 13:54:10 11-Jul-2011

--
This WHOIS information is provided for free by Nominet UK the central registry
for .uk domain names. This information and the .uk WHOIS are:

Copyright Nominet UK 1996 - 2011.

And for interest, the last moments at the NoTW:
Editor Colin Myler addressing the subs:



Myler taking the staff out of Wapping:




Ht: Guido, Gordon

PRESSGATE GOES ATLANTIC

ht: Millar

GIVE ME INFORMATION 2

Speaking of journalism. Back in the day, there was a brilliant look at a future world where information is key to control - Transmetropolitan.

Written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Darick Robertson, this cutting satire saw Spider Jerusalem and his filthy assistants take on the City and in particular, the Smiler, a not too distant relative of Tony Blair.

As someone who was starting out in journalism and a politics graduate, TransMet had a relevance for me and I avidly read the story and it, and its characters have always had a special place in my heart.

Apart from the near impossibility of getting the original "Give me Information" page which illustrated the previous post (inker Rodney Ramos gave me crisp copy of it years ago), I have now got a wonderful piece by Darick.

Darick Robertson was in London yesterday - taking in the "joys" of sunny Slough where he was placed by the organisers of the London Film and Comicon.

Darick also told me that he is working on a story featuring a post-apocalypse London so he was also going to be taking loads of reference picture - I suggested South London as it wouldn't need to much "updating"!

The pic:



I am a happy bunny this morning.

BTW - someone want to tell me why I'm getting visitors from a Russian porn site?

GIVE ME INFORMATION

There has been a lot of chatter about the NoTW phone hacking scandal and the role of journalists but at the end of the day journalists work in a business. If they don't get the story, they don't get the readers and this makes them edge towards taking greater risks, ever-increasing ones in these days of blogging and "citizen journalism".

Does this make what NoTW did right? No, of course not. However, it does raise once again a very important point which I am ever saying to friends who aren't in the industry - indeed to colleagues in the industry.

What interests the public is not the same as public interest. I do not think some footballer's sex life is in the public interest, unless his profile and commercial money-raising depends on his being portrayed as a family-guy. In the same way a politician that constantly bemoans single mums and feckless dads could spend his entire career shagging secretaries and prostitutes leaving a wake of illegitimate kids around is in the public interest.

It is this, of which all readers collaborate in, that has created a situation where NoTW shuts its doors today for the last time in 168 years.

EU WHAT?

According to Reuters the EU is to come up with a support system for banks if they fail the bank stress tests which are released next week.
The deal will give banks 6 months to find the money privately before being bailed out.
Come on! No seriously, what happened to no, nope, never again? It's quite simple, if a bank fails, it fails. There is no logically reason for taxpayers once again to bail them out, it was a mistake the last time, it is a mistake now!
Of course, this has nothing to do with the perilous state German banks are in is it!?!

GEEK HITS

Texting Habits:




Batman Year One trailer

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

Iron Man and his Ironettes (seriously)

JE 2011 - Comic Con - Iron Man from cooladn on Vimeo.

Potter Chan

RUNNING OUT OF EXCUSES

OK, you're out again with your mates, the missus will be fed up with you if she knows you're in a bar.

The phone rings

It's her

What do you do?

Don't panic!

The best invention ever

UPDATE: NEWS OF THE WORLD TO (SORTA) SHUT

Aha, hear from sources, that this is apparently temporary - the rag is going to be rebranded.

I wonder what it will be called - The Sun on Sunday? The (Voice) Mail on Sunday?

James Murdoch's statement in full:

You do not need to be told that The News of the World is 168 years old. That it is read by more people than any other English language newspaper. That it has enjoyed support from Britain’s largest advertisers. And that it has a proud history of fighting crime, exposing wrong-doing and regularly setting the news agenda for the nation.

When I tell people why I am proud to be part of News Corporation, I say that our commitment to journalism and a free press is one of the things that sets us apart. Your work is a credit to this.

The good things the News of the World does, however, have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong. Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our Company.

The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself.

This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World. Colin Myler will edit the final edition of the paper.

In addition, I have decided that all of the News of the World’s revenue this weekend will go to good causes.

While we may never be able to make up for distress that has been caused, the right thing to do is for every penny of the circulation revenue we receive this weekend to go to organisations – many of whom are long-term friends and partners – that improve life in Britain and are devoted to treating others with dignity.


168 years down the pan

CALL OF STAR WARS

As you may realise I am a big fan of Star Wars and I absolutely loved Battlefront(s) 1&2.

In addition I really love Medal of Honour and Call of Duty.

These brilliant people have helped all us Battlefront people mourning our time of need.

Absolutely brilliant!



Ht: Geeks

THE SUN WOT DONE IT

According to Guido, the wife of Glenn Mulcaire, the phone hacker at the centre of the phone tap scandal has asked for the press to respect her privacy.

And I have a large degree of sympathy for her and her family.

As ironic as it may be, what did she actually know about what her husband does day-in-day-out?

I have spent my career in the relatively boring world of finance - yes I have received tip-offs, leaked memos etc but at the end of the day nothing that would excite the world.

But what if I was on the general desk at the Sun or News of the World? I very much doubt I would tell my wife all that I was working on.

So yes, I do feel sympathy but I has to admit the irony of the story does make me go ahahhahhahhaaahahahaa!

Oh, and on Rebekah Brook - Either she knew what was going on, so she should be sacked, or, she didn't know what was going on in her patch so she should be sacked for incompetence.

TECHNOLOGY

When I first started out in journalism, you went along to conferences with a lump of plastic that purported to be a laptop but in all reality was likely to break your pelvis.

After firing up the steam engine, waited ten minutes for the boot-up and had a fight with other journalists over the last telephone line, you then had to make sure the right telephone number and access codes were correct - and that was before you went into the main auditorium to write down on a note pad (the paper kind) what a speaker said.

Last week I was at a conference and in the speakers' hall was full of journalists, with their note pads (electronic) already plugged into their page layouts and writing in real time what speakers were saying and publishing direct online.

How things have changed from this (computers throughout history)

ht: Geeks

GEEKS HITS

Couple of videos this time:

Plot Device from Red Giant on Vimeo.

Robots of Brixton from Kibwe Tavares on Vimeo.

ht: Geeks

WHAT'S MY JUDOON

OK probably far too late on this one but we stumbled across it tonight on Youtube from what looks like a sadly inactive blogger Dr Gaz



Ps: For those who've wondered over from the Telegraph, hi (I presume) Stink, Hi Morningstar, I don't just rail against political idiocy here!)

SMOKING

Is it just me or are the powers that be using Judge Dredd as a how to guide?

We've had mass surveillance, riot foam is being developed, there are many more pseudo officals acting as judge and jury (if not executioner) with on-the-spot fines and now they want to ban smoking from public places!!!

It's only a matter of time before the smokatorium arrives



Pic tip: cover browser

DEFENCE

With Fox threatening all unsundry with lapels over at the MoD, I was reminded of a post I did last October...


DEFENCE
One of the cuts is of course defence. Leaks, Liam being angry etc etc.

But...

Has anyone actually looked at defence in terms of national expenditure?


With Liam threatening all unsundry at the MoD. I was reminded of this blog I wrote a year ago…



In terms of National Expenditure it doesn't even warrent it's own segment!

The breakdown:
Total Spending by Function
Values in £ billion

2008 2009 2010 2011
Total Spending 576 631 661 681
Pensions 100 110 117 123
Health Care 204 221 239 244
Education 76 80 86 84
Defence 38 42 44 46
Welfare 88 94 105 109

For all the debate, Defence is nothing on the national budget in comparison to social expenditure.

I honestly am in shock that a government - even a coalition government that has to appease yogurt weavers- would consider such a miniscule section of national cost to be worthy of a 10% minimum cut when health can continue spending its merry way.

Note: if they get rid of the desk pilots and civil servants rather than making sure troops are under-equipped and die unnecessarily then the cut will be fine - unfortunately as I have posted in the past, the last people to be cut are those that aren't on the front line!