An interesting video

I came across this video and I thought it was worth sharing.
    The background speech is obviously from the Charlie Chaplin film "The Great Dictator." Then whoever made it added various videos and pictures.

It's pretty interesting.

Blind Great Dane looking for home (oh and it's guide dog!)

In the news is the story of a Great Dane which is currently looking for a new home. This one is special though, because she's blind. Not only is he blind, but she has her very own guide dog. Yes you heard me, a dog has a guide dog.

"Lilly, six, was barely a puppy when she was struck down by a condition that caused her eyelashes to grow into her eyeballs, damaging them beyond repair."

Apparently the pair have become inseparable over the last few years. Sadly their owner could no longer look after them.

"It was after this traumatic event that her relationship with seven-year-old Maddison developed as she took her under her wing.

The best buddies lived together until their owners decided they couldn't look after them any more.

Miss Campbell said:

'With her lack of sight, Lily's other senses have heightened so although we don't split them up often she can tell if Maddison is nearby. 'They curl up together to go to sleep and they are very vocal with each other. 'We haven't analysed their different barks but if Lily wants to go forward and Maddison is in her way, the bark will have a different pitch.

'They are very close to one another and enjoy each other's company'."

Here are some pictures of the two dogs:

I have to say it is a lovely story of friendship.

If you want to read the full story then go to this link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2051780/Blind-Great-Dane-Lily-needs-home-space-HER-guide-dog-Maddison.html


It's worth looking at and passing on!

A Small Corner of The World

Earlier this year I was invited to a music festival by a friend who had won a few tickets. The festival was "Wakefest", a mixture of live music and wakeboarding which I hadn't watched before, nor heard of.

The site was an hours drive from Bangor in Wales, deep in North Wales. The nearest town was (and is) a small picturesque town called Abersoch.

On the second day my friend and I were at the festival We took a bus to Abersoch. It was sunny and warm and the views I saw were extraordinarily beautiful. So I took some pictures and I thought I'd share them with you.

Enjoy!

We all did it for oil you know......

This is a tweet made by American billionaire Donald Trump not one hour ago:

"Why did we spend billions of our money on Libya if we are not going to get any of the country's oil? What do we get out of this?"

So did the USA seek to help the Libyan rebels for the sole purpose of strengthening ties to secure oil deals? Or maybe was it to actually help the Libyans. Even if the USA did involve itself in the Libya conflict purely to strengthen oil deals, that would not send out the best impression. It would portray said country as selfish amongst other things.
  Likewise, by asking such questions it shows a certain selfish desire to put fuel and subsequent profit over the stability and future of a country.

Right now, in the aftermath of the death of Muammar Gaddafi, neither the UK nor the USA should be asking "how much oil can we get out of this?"  We should be asking, "What is the next step for Libya and it's people?"

Another Classy Front Page from "The Sun."

      Most media outlets whether it's television, radio or newspapers probably have a degree of tact and professionalism when it comes to reporting the death of Muammar Gaddafi and the facts surrounding it. You'd think there would be controlled stories where underneath the excitable headlines lay professional, well worded reporting that didn't make it blatantly obvious that his death is a good thing and a long time coming.

Enter the tabloid newspaper "The Sun." Well it's no surprise really I mean the good folks at "The Sun" are about as tactful as a kick in the testicles with a boot that has a metal toe cap. They have shown their laughable reporting abilities with headlines such as "Gotcha" when the Argentine ship "General Belgrano" was sunk during the Falklands War and their disgusting behaviour when they accused Liverpool FC fans of stealing from the dead in the aftermath of the Hillsborough Disaster.

 So once again they show their usual over excitable lack of tact where normal decent reporting and a whole lot of common sense goes right out the window.

Ready for it?

There's so much wrong with this I'm not even sure where to begin.
   The capture and killing of Gaddafi had nothing to do with any of those events. It wasn't done purely because of those events nor in the name of those events, not even in revenge of those events. Those three events were directly involving Brits, but no Brit had anything to do with the capture and killing of Gaddafi.
  This is the typical sort of shoddy journalism people have come to expect from "The Sun." It's the equivalent of hysterical shrieking. Rather than simply reporting his death in a timely fashion they just had to report it in their usual over the top fashion.
   I realise that this is common with this particular newspaper however once in a while they exceed themselves and I just can't help passing comment. Especially when it's as absurd as this.



Sources:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/oct/21/muammar-gaddafi-national-newspapers?newsfeed=true#

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3884974/Thats-for-Lockerbie-Gaddafi.html

Morning Sunrise

As I was on my way to work this morning I saw in the distance an incredible sunrise. One upside to the mornings in winter (to counter the fact that it's dark when you get out of bed) is that you sometimes see the most incredible sunrises, and of coures sunsets too.
I have posted them on twitter (SoulStealer2011, follow me if you like) however I am, of course posting them here too because they are worth sharing. So here goes:

So there you go. I hope you enjoy them!

Eamonn Holmes apologises after he uses the "R word."

 Eamonn Holmes has apologised after he used the word "retard" to describe or just directly at a guest presenter.
  I find it baffling sometimes that a person who is intelligent or claims to be intelligent chooses to use that word to describe someone who they think is either stupid or being stupid or daft.
   The word "retard" is now defined as:

"A mentally handicapped person (often used as a general term of abuse)."

Actually what it should only be is a description for a mentally handicapped person, however the use of it has become so common that it is now deemed acceptable as a term of abuse. The English language is vast, there are so many words that could be used but instead Mr Holmes, like many others have chosen to use "the R word."

  I would say that to use such a word in such a context is inappropriate to say the least, and that an apology is necessary in cases like this. Furthermore I think it's absurd that people think it is acceptable to use such a word in such a way. It shouldn't be deemed acceptable socially.
  A great campaigner on this issue is the actor John C. McGinley, star of the show "Scrubs." His son has down syndrome and because of the frequent misuse of the word "retard" he has become an avid campaigner to stop the word being used in such a way.
  

   

  He said it a lot better than I ever could. Here is another one:

 If someone wants to avoid controversy and if they generally want to avoid coming across as an insensitive tool that is unable to be use words that aren't insulting and disrespectful, they should probably try to avoid using words like "retard" or "retarded" when describing something they think is stupid.
   
   Don't you think?

Sources:

http://www.metro.co.uk/tv/877980-eamonn-holmes-apologises-after-calling-jonathan-wilkes-retarded

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2046718/Eamonn-Holmes-apologises-calling-Jonathan-Wilkes-retarded-This-Morning.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Woman charged with murder for cutting fetus out of woman's body

A chilling story from the United States of America. A woman for whom the term "disturbed" isn't nearly enough is unable to have children.
   A quote from the news article:

"Morales-Rodriguez told detectives her boyfriend wanted a baby boy but she was unable to get pregnant, then feigned a pregnancy and panicked when it was time to have the baby, authorities said.
She drove around her neighborhood, locating the victim outside a public agency frequented by pregnant women, and offered her a ride to a local drug store, according to the complaint.
Morales-Rodriguez then told the pregnant woman she needed to stop at home to change her shoes. While the victim was inside using the bathroom, Morales-Rodriguez struck her in the head several times with a baseball bat, the complaint said.
Court documents said she then strangled her and taped her mouth, hands and feet with duct tape before trying to cut out the fetus.
"She cut at the bikini line attempting to duplicate the process she had seen on the Discovery Channel, depicting a caesarean section birth," the district attorney wrote in the complaint.
Morales-Rodriguez then called the paramedics to report that she had just given stillbirth to a child in the shower, the complaint said.
"She said that she had just given birth and the baby was not breathing," Police Chief Ed Flynn said during a news conference over the weekend.
The baby was pronounced dead at the scene and Morales-Rodriguez was taken to the hospital by paramedics.
Police later learned that the woman was not the mother of the child. Investigators returned to Morales-Rodriguez' home where they discovered the mother's body in the basement by the hot water heater."

Chilling, disturbed, disgusting, none of these do the story justice. To take not just one life but two and in such a gruesome and inhumane act is beyond belief.
  This goes beyond simply wanting a child, it's a psycotic unbalanced determination that is dangerous. There is of course a chance that she will simply plead insanity and be shipped off to a place that has padded cells. If so then it would be unlikely she will ever truly face consequences for those gruesome actions.

  I personally hope she is made to answer for the horrific crime. It would be somewhat of an injustice if she isn't.



Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/11/us-crime-wisconsin-fetus-idUSTRE79A0CR20111011

Idiots of the week

Sometimes there are few things sweeter than the mixture of idiocy and irony.
   The Westboro Baptist Church, those fine upstanding community who picket the funerals of soldiers and who look like they have been inbreeding for three generations, have decided that they wish to picket the funeral of Steve Jobs.
  The best thing about this is the way they announced it. They announced it via Twitter using an application....on an iphone. There is a thin line between ignorance and stupidity (although they do sometimes overlap) and to say that the people of the Westboro Baptist Church are flirting with it would be a great understatement.

But then I'm not really surprised considering how inbred they look.

Source:

 http://www.examiner.com/top-news-in-san-francisco/westboro-baptist-to-picket-steve-jobs-funeral-says-via-iphone-photos-video

Rest in Peace Steve Jobs

Whatever you may think of Steve Jobs there is no denying the impact he has had on the world. His company has taken leaps and bounds in technology over the last three decades no less. The innovative devices developed and released by his company from the computers released in the late 70's to the Ipad in 2010 have changed the way people use technology and the way people connect with each other online.
   He was in many ways a humble man, rarely speaking about the illness which eventually made him step down from his position and which eventually claimed his life.
  I have never really owned many Apple products, in fact the only product I have owned and do own is an iphone 3GS.
  Say what you will, but I personally believe that Steve Jobs and his company has contributed a great deal over the last three decades, so I think it goes without saying that Steve Jobs will be greatly missed. That much is obvious by the tributes of him that are coming from all around the world.

May he rest in peace.

I have, for a good while, been skeptical of modern art. I honestly don't see it as creative and imaginative. People seem to look into inanimate objects and see things that aren't there. Much of modern art is created from strange objects to create "art" which doesn't look anything special and often doesn't seem to represent a great deal.
  It is a far cry from the great painters of a century or more ago, and the great sculptors.

So when a piece of art by Bob Law was revealed and when it was revealed that it was going to auction I was quite astonished. I was astonished because it is a white piece of canvas with a black border drawn around it.
   The piece is titled "Nothing To Be Afraid Of", and here it is:

Yes, that's really it. Honest! It is blank canvas with nothing on it except a border and a date. Now I'm no artist, in fact I cannot draw or paint or do anything artistic to save my life but if I knew a blank canvass with a border was all it took I would become a professional artist.
   David Law, who died in April 2004, has been referred to as a "minimalist artist" and quite frankly I can see why. The most absurd part of this whole story is that this is being auctioned for £60,000.

Astounding.



Sources:

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/877093-blank-banksy-canvas-set-to-fetch-60-000-at-auction

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043217/Bob-Laws-minimalist-painting-containing-just-artists-signature-worth-60k.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Dinosaur Egg Goes on Auction

Last week it was revealed a dinosaur egg that is 75 million years old will be going on auction.
  From the news article:

"The 75million-year-old Jurassic egg is to be auctioned at Hasons Auctioneers by its anonymous 80-year-old owner, who bought the historic artifact while visiting Asia in the 1950s.
The egg was discovered by an archaeologist and historic artifact collector who identified it as belonging to the Therizinosaur reptile, a land dinosaur that stood upright and had an extended neck.
With a weight comparable to a bag of sugar, there has been much care taken to preserve the egg's condition. Auctioneers only handle the egg with special gloves on.
The dinosaur egg will be bid for alongside the owner's other pieces of history from his timeless collection."

I find this fascinating. If I had the money spare I would be very tempted to buy this after which I would donate it to the Natural History Museum in London. An item like this does not belong in a persons personal collection where it could easily be stolen, damaged or God forbid broken.  Nor could archaeologists pour over it to study it.
   Whatever happens, I hope it eventually makes it way to a museum of some sort, and in one piece.






Source:

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/876998-75million-year-old-dinosaur-egg-makes-it-to-the-auction-house-for-200

The Death of a Legend

Last week it was with great sadness I heard David Croft had died. Croft was a script writer who was jointly behind such fantastic shows as "Dad's Army", "Allo Allo" and "Hi-De-Hi."
   I myself am a big fan of "Dad's Army." I enjoyed watching it when I was a child and now the older I have gotten the more I have come to appreciate it. The humour, the stories, and the way it was written. Those style of comedies are long gone now, replaced by slightly more obtuse and obvious humour that doesn't require as much thinking or sophistication.
    Here are some classic scenes from two of my favourite creations of his, "Dad's Army" and "Allo Allo."

It's humour like that which still makes me laugh. I am very glad they still show episodes of "Dad's Army" on Saturday nights here in the UK.
    One last video, and it's of the late David Croft himself talking about my favourite episode, his favourite episode, and Arthur Lowe's favourite episode of "Dad's Army."

Truly a great comedy legend has passed away, may he rest in peace.