A new era (continued)?

ITV and Irish broadcaster Setanta have secured the rights to show the FA Cup and England home internationals in a £425m (approx. $836m) four-year deal.
The Football Association confirmed the deal, beginning in August 2008, saying that it was "delighted" at the outcome.
After last year's World Cup finals and the recent England matches against Israel & Andorra (see previous post) ITV and Setanta are welcome to them.

WHAT ITV WILL SHOW

• FA Cup live coverage
• FA Cup highlights
• England home internationals
• England away friendlies
• FA Women's Cup Final

WHAT SETANTA WILL SHOW

• FA Cup live coverage
• England home friendlies
• England women's internationals
• England Under-21 matches
• Community Shield
• Youth Cup
• FA Trophy
• FA Vase

A new era (continued)?

Andorra 0-3 England

I've seen some woeful England performances - for example, San Marino scoring against Graham Taylor's team after just 8 seconds in a 1993 World Cup qualifier springs to mind (England eventually won 7-1), and let us not forget last year's World Cup finals in Germany (ok, let's DO try and forget).

But last night's first half display against the Andorran part-timers was one of THE worst performances I have ever seen from England. Steve McClaran and his England team were mercilessly booed off the pitch at half-time by fed-up England fans and the booing continued at full time, despite face-saving second-half goals by Stevie Gerrard (2) and David Nugent.

I feel sorry for McClaren, he seems a decent enough bloke trying to succeed in what is truly an impossible job (just ask Sven-Göran Eriksson, Graham Taylor, Glenn Hoddle, etc). But he looks out of his depth at the moment and he's not getting the end-product from players who are supposed to be world class.
Yes - some comments by the fans towards McClaren and the footballers was foul-mouthed. But this England team doesn't deserve blind loyalty from their fans. After last year's under-achievement at the World Cup finals and the recent turgid matches, it's apparent that the supporters have had enough - and who can blame them?

This will probably sound like heresy, but the best thing that could happen is that this England team fails to reach the European Championship finals. But instead, they'll probably just do enough to qualify for Euro 2008, and this poor display will be submerged in the usual media hype Then they'll scrape through the group phase in Austria/Switzerland before dropping out against a middling team in the quarter-finals (on penalties, natch).

PS: I disagree with the fans on one point - the clamour to bring back "Brand" Beckham.
Andorra 0-3 England

PS3?

I was excited at the opportunity of obtaining a Sony Playstation 3. I already have a PSP & PS2 (plus a Nintendo DS, GBA and Gameboy).

However....I'll be waiting until next year (at least) before I even consider buying a PS3. It looks great, but at the moment £425 (over $830) is just too steep a price (especially when you can reportedly purchase a PS3 for approximately £200 in Japan).

Also the graphics are supposedly superior if you're using an HDTV. Great - so that's at least another £600 - £700 for a decent 32" HDTV.

Then there's the issue of backwards compatibility - which PlayStation 2 games will work on the PS3?

Finally, while having a PS3 equipped with Blu-ray Disc (BD) sounds a good idea, I understand BD is in competition with HD DVD (high definition DVD) for supremacy as the next-gen, high-resolution DVD. So do I buy a PS3 and update my DVD collection by choosing BD? Or wait and see whether HD DVD is the dominating format? Or simply ignore both?

At this moment, I'm happy with what I have. Sorry PS3, but not even the new GTA game is enough of an incentive to fork out my hard-earned cash for you........

PlayStation 3 launched in Europe

Factfile: The PlayStation 3

British Summer Time starts now!

To everyone in the UK: don't forget to put your clocks forward one hour. We are officially in British Summer Time (which means longer evenings, albeit at the cost of losing one hour's sleep tonight).

Time change marks end of an era

The road to Eurovision starts here (continued)....

And the winning entry to represent the UK at this year's Eurovision Song Contest in May....reformed pop band SCOOCH (albeit after some confusion in the studio with solo act Cyndi Almouzni, who was also annouced as the winner).

Not happy with the decision though. Watching Scooch perform their entry "Flying The Flag", I kept thinking of the similarities to another novelty pop act - the Fast Food Rockers (YUCK!)
Guess I'm not a big fan of this song...
Gaffe mars Scooch Eurovision win

St Patrick's Day

By the way:

Happy St Patrick's Day!

(I'll be having a few drops of the black stuff later!!)
Parades to mark St Patrick's Day

The road to Eurovision starts here....

Ex-Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins, former East 17 star Brian Harvey, R&B act Big Brovaz, ex Atomic Kitten Liz McClarnon, pop act Scooch and French singer Cyndi Almouzni will be hoping to represent the UK for this year's Eurovision Song Contest finals in Helsinki, Finland, on 12 May.
The acts will battle it out on BBC-TV tonight for the chance to represent the UK.
Meet the UK's Eurovision hopefuls

PS: whatever became of last year's UK representative, Daz Sampson?

"Wem-ber-ley!"

More than a year after it was originally scheduled to open, keys to the new Wembley stadium was finally handed to the Football Association.
The total construction cost was put at £326.5m back in 2000; by the time the bid had been signed, it had risen to £445m. by May 2006 the price of the stadium had risen to £757m. A year later, and in time for the 2007 FA Cup final, the final figure is estimated at £798m.
Is it worth it? Regardless of opinions about the length of time to build and the cost, the previous Wembley was in poor condition and a new national stadium was necessary. Having once visited the stadium while under construction, I'd say people are going to be impressed.
FA takes control of Wembley keys

Big Bother (continued)......

It appears that no "Celebrity Big Brother" contestants will face criminal charges over allegations of racial abuse towards Indian actress Shilpa Shetty on the reality TV show, according to Hertforshire police.
Prosecutors have concluded that Shilpa’s treatment was “offensive ... not criminal”.
Police said they interviewed four former housemates. Two others, who were not named, would not speak to them. Channel 4 and producer Endemol also declined to hand over unedited footage.

The inquiry had centred on a series of clashes between Shilpa and three other "housemates" - Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara and Danielle Lloyd.
Tens of thousands of viewers complained about the way Shilpa was treated. Goody was seen calling the Bollywood star "Shilpa Poppadom" while former model Danielle Lloyd declared the actress should "go home". O'Meara imitated Shetty's accent and said Indians were thin because they undercooked chicken.

All three contestants have since denied racism and have apologised for their actions.

In the meantime, Carphone Warehouse has dropped its £3 million sponsorship of the show. The firm had temporarily suspended its sponsorship in January, but stated said the "huge publicity" had prompted it to look for alternative sponsorship opportunities.
Channel 4, which had been hopeful Carphone Warehouse would sponsor this summer's Big Brother series, said it is now in talks with other companies to find a new sponsor
(NOTE: since publishing this post, Virgin Media has been announced as the sponsor of the forthcoming summer series).
No charges over Big Brother row
THE BIG BROTHER COVER-UP

07/07/07

After all the "666" mania surrounding 6th of June last year (see previous blog entries), I'm glad that the 7th July 2007 (aka 07/07/07) will be remembered for a more happier purpose.

The New 7 Wonders of the World will be announced during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, July 7, 2007.

As a youngster I was taught the original 7 ancient wonders of the world:

• The statue of Zeus at Olympia, where the first Olympic games had been held in 776BC


• The Colossus of Rhodes


• The Mausoleum in Halicarnassus


• The Lighthouse of Alexandria


• The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (destroyed in 401AD, with parts of its 12-metre marble columns reused in a later architectural wonder, the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople)


• The Hanging Gardens of Babylon


• The Great Pyramid of Giza (the only one of the seven ancient wonders still standing)

The new seven wonders will be voted for by millions of people around the globe. The list of potential wonders include all three pyramids of Giza, the Great Wall of China, Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal, Sydney Opera House, the Kremlin and Timbuktu.

Obviously in London the 7th July this year will be remembered for a more sombre reason - the second anniversary of the bombings across the capital in July 2005.
Still 07/07/07 is desired by couples desperate to book their weddings on a date some say is the luckiest of the century.
New 7 wonders
Stonehenge '7 Wonders' finalist

Picking up the pieces....

OK - I'm still gloomy about Arsenal's exit in the Champions League against PSV this week. Add on our recent departure from the FA Cup and losing in the Carling Cup Final, and things look a bit depressing for the Arse.

But it's no good dwelling in the past. The team needs to put recent setbacks behind them, and finish the season well, as a springboard for future glory (hopefully).

Manager Arsène Wenger has got quite a challenging job to do at the moment. The preparation for the next season begins next Wednesday (March 14th) at Villa Park....

COME ON YOU GOONERS!!!!

Wenger rues 'horrendous' results

A small diversion

Saw this game on another Blogger site (Fizzle & Pop, if you're interested) - it's easy to pick up and rather different, as games go...my high score is 871 (note: as of 11th March, my high score is now 2177).

Chain Reaction

The surveillance society?

I'm still more or less undecided on ID cards, but that doesn't mean I'm not worried about them.
I already carry other forms of identification, so I shouldn't have any issues whatsoever carrying an ID card, since I have nothing to hide. Also several European Union countries now have some form of ID card (even if they are not compulsory).
However, I strongly resent having to pay between £100 - £300 for this card. When I decide to travel abroad, then I pay for a passport. Should I decide to take up driving a car, then I'll willingly pay for a driving licence. Because I decide to watch TV, I pay for a TV license.
So why should I be forced to give this government my hard earned money on something that's their idea? If ID cards will help combat terrorism, fine - but don't insult the intelligence of the British public by asking us to to pay.
Also what guarantee is there that the information held on our ID cards, wouldn't be abused by future governments? For example:

There has been reports that some primary schools have stored children's thumb prints for computerised class registers and libraries without parental consent (under the Data Protection Act, schools do not have to seek parental consent to take and store children's fingerprints). This government is considering proposals to fingerprint children aged 11 to 15 as part of the new passport and ID card plans.

And a report released last year by a group of academics called the Surveillance Studies Network predicts that by 2016 shoppers could be scanned as they enter stores, schools could bring in cards allowing parents to monitor what their children eat, and jobs may be refused to applicants who are seen as a health risk.

Already Westminster Council (in central London) has piloted a scheme installing microphones on lampposts to augment CCTV coverage with audio snooping.
Q&A: Identity card plans
How we are being watched
Britain is 'surveillance society'
Child fingerprint plan considered

Cash for peerages (continued)

And the "cash for honours" scandal rumbles on.....

Story so far: the Police launches an investigation about a year ago into claims that honours were granted in exchange for loans to the Labour party.
However this has now expanded into another investigation concerning allegations of attempts to pervert the course of justice. Last Friday (2nd March) an 11th hour injunction by Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, prevented the BBC from broadcasting certain new information relating to the police enquiry into the cash for honours:
Attorney general halts BBC probe

Said information allegedly relates to an email involving two members of Tony Blair's inner circle. However the Sunday Telegraph newspaper was able to publish more details on this:
Cash for honours 'cover-up' email sparked Goldsmith gag

Those in power should remember Watergate - it isn't the crime, it's the cover-up that gets you....

HRH vs Maccy D....

Heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles recently suggested banning fast food chain McDonald's in order to improving people's health - a suggestion that will fuel the debate about obesity in Britain.
"Have you got anywhere with McDonald's? Have you tried getting it banned? That's the key," Charles was quoted while speaking to Nadine Tayara, a nutritionist during a visit to the Imperial College London Diabetes Center in Abu Dhabi this week.
Health campaigners and nutritionists said a ban on McDonald's was "certainly not the answer" to Britain's obesity epidemic, and that a generation of youngsters better-educated about the benefits of a balanced diet should be free to choose whether to indulge in a Big Mac and fries.

Memo to Charles:
Great Britain is supposed to be a democracy - not an absolute Monarchy. While your views might appear to be well-meaning, they are also frightening.
We - the people - have the final say on what we eat and where we eat. I'm no fan of Ronald McDonald, but I don't need HRH Prince Charles making choices for me either.
In any case, a McDonald's Big Mac contains fewer calories than a Cornish Pasty from Prince Charles's Duchy Originals range.
People in glass palaces.....
Royal rebuke over McDonald's food
So why does Charles think McDonald's is the root of all food evil?