How We See The World

There is no evidence of links between former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq prior to the 2003 war, a US Senate report has said. The revelation comes from a 2005 CIA report released by the Senate's Intelligence Committee on Friday. US President George W Bush has said that the presence of late al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq before the war was evidence of a link. Opposition Democrats say the report has harmed Mr Bush's case for going to war. bb.co.uk/news Senate report: No Saddam, al-Qaida link Long-awaited analysis also finds that anti-Saddam group misled U.S. The Senate Intelligence Committee, which released …

French author slams 'vulgar, aggressive, unprincipled, consumerist' Britons Britain has been branded a nation of "vulgar, aggressive, unprincipled, consumerist zombies" in a scathing new book by a French academic. In a savage tirade of abuse that rips the 'entente cordiale' to shreds, author Agnes Poirier unleashes a savage attack on our culture, lifestyle and politics. Even by French standards of Brit-bashing, the stream of insults is impressive. But it is made all the more extraordinary considering Miss Poirier has a British boyfriend and has lived in Britain for a decade. But despite claiming to 'love' the British people, she gives no clue as to what it is…

Sainsbury's gives Jamie Oliver a ticking off over school lunches Jamie Oliver, the public face of Sainsbury's, has been slapped down by the supermarket's boss for his attack on the standards of packed lunches offered by parents. The chef and food guru, who has achieved huge success in improving school meals, is angry his work is being undone by parents who provide "junk" packed lunches. He let rip last week, saying those adults who put crisps, chocolate and sugary fizzy drinks into packed lunches are "idiots", coupled with a host of colourful expletives. However, the attack has not pleased the heirarchy at Sainsbury's, who make millions of pounds sel…

Working 'makes us happy' Working 'makes us happy', an expert has claimed. He found being unemployed could be as dangerous as smoking 400 cigarettes a day. Unemployed young adult males are 40 times more likely to commit suicide than their working counterparts and are also more likely to suffer depression, illness or even die, it was claimed. Statistically, the health risks of being out of work for six months or more are equivalent to smoking 20 packet of cigarettes a day, said a professor at Cardiff University. Prof Mansel Aylward advised us to wander to work with a spring in our step and a smile on our face, happy to avoid the depression of unemployment. He s…

Men are more intelligent than women, claims new study Battle of the sexes: Are men more intelligent than women? It is research that is guaranteed to delight men - and infuriate the women in their lives. A controversial new study has claimed that men really are more intelligent than women. The study - carried out by a man - concluded that men's IQs are almost four points higher than women's. British-born researcher John Philippe Rushton, who previously created a furore by suggesting intelligence is influenced by race, says the finding could explain why so few women make it to the top in the workplace. He claims the 'glass ceiling' phenomenon is prob…

Many Australians are mourning the popular naturalist A public memorial service for Australian naturalist Steve Irwin will be held at Australia Zoo in Queensland next Wednesday. Irwin's widow, Terri, said the ceremony would be held in the zoo's "Crocoseum". The TV personality known as the Crocodile Hunter was killed when a stingray's barb stabbed Irwin in the chest while he was diving. Since then, 10 stingrays have been found mutilated on Queensland beaches in apparent revenge attacks. While it is not certain that the incidents were connected to Irwin's death, Michael Hornby, a friend of the late naturalist, said such killings would be "the l…

Stingrays killed in revenge attacks for 'Crocodile Hunter' Irwin At least 10 stingrays have been found dead and mutilated on Australia's eastern coast since "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin was killed by one of the animals last week. An official said the developments prompted concerns of revenge attacks on the normally docile fish. The popular television star was killed last week when a stingray barb pierced his chest as he filmed a TV show off Australia's Great Barrier Reef, prompting an outpouring of grief in Australia and among his fans worldwide. The dead stingrays have been discovered on two beaches in Queensland state, including two that were found…

Posh Spice: A fashion liability Allow me to let you in on a well-kept fashion secret. Victoria Beckham no longer gets freebies from a significant number of the major fashion designers. She might, I don't know, no longer even get a discount at any of these cool labels: Burberry, Prada, Chloe, Stella. The simple fact is that the big brands no longer want her child-sized hips in their clothes. If Mulberry has any sense, it will wrestle its new black Manor bag from her bony fingers. Because the moment VB is spotted out and about in a certain look - be it black Superfine skinny jeans, a Hermes bag, or an off-the-shoulder T-shirt worn as a dress - she kil…

article on music videos and how they have changed the music scene for the better and for the worse. mentions coldplay and radiohead as the exceptions in relation to the "erosion of live music"

The death of British humour Killed off by the forces of political correctness and bureaucrats who are beyond parody... Shock values: Lucy Montgomery in sketch show TittyBangBang The famous British sense of humour has long been our most cherished national characteristic. We have valued it above historic military victories and great works of literature, above our rich scenic landscape and our talent for invention. Comedians, not generals or sports stars or scientists or politicians, are the truly loved public figures of Britain. We sneer at other countries, especially Germany, which we believe lack our gift for humour. "He's a good laugh," is the w…

I have heard comments from people who thought Fjordman was from Sweden, because I write at least as much about Sweden as I do about my own country, Norway. There are several reasons for this. The most important one is that Sweden is probably one of the worst, if not the worst, country in the Western world when it comes to Political Correctness. Norway is pretty bad, Sweden is absolutely insane. Which makes it fun to write about. The other reason is that Sweden is the largest and best known of the Scandinavian countries. When people in Canada or the USA discuss the Scandinavian welfare state, they usually talk about the “Swedish model,” not the “Norwegian model.” The Sw…

Whenever I open iTunes and try to update my iPod I get the following message: "The file or directory or folder iPod_control\iTunes\iTunesPrefs is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility." What the hell is this supposed to mean? iTunes open and I can add music to my library and play it, but whenever I try to drag a file to my iPod it's like nothing happens :\ THIS IS BAD!

This is speech from the Israeli Knesset 1977 In the name of God, Mr. Speaker of the Knesset, ladies and gentlemen, allow me first to thank deeply the Speaker of the Knesset for affording me this opportunity to address you.... I come to you today on solid ground to shape a new life and to establish peace. We all love this land, the land of God, we all, Moslems, Christians and Jews, all worship God.... I do not blame all those who received my decision when I announced it to the entire world before the Egyptian People's Assembly. I do not blame all those who received my decision with surprise and even with amazement, some gripped even by violent surprise. Still ot…

Apple targets TV and film market Computer firm Apple has announced plans it hopes will put it at the heart of consumers' home entertainment systems. On Tuesday it unveiled a device which will stream music and video wirelessly between televisons and computers. The plug-in hardware is due to be released early next year and has been given the temporary name of iTV. As well as announcing updates of its best-selling iPod music players, Apple also launched a new service allowing users to download films. The move into movies was widely predicted by observers, and follows a similar launch by online retailer Amazon. Deals have been done with Pixar, Touchstone…

Michael Schumacher will head into retirement at the end of this season as the most successful Grand Prix driver of all time, but whether he will be regarded as the greatest is another matter altogether. On pure talent and accomplishments alone, Schumacher belongs in the same bracket as the very best in the history of the sport - the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Gilles Villeneuve, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. Schumacher's talent is widely admired, less so his morals But greatness is about more than ability and trophies. It is also about character an…

Man vows to fight garden gnome arrest threat Last updated at 15:33pm on 9th September 2006 Reader comments (19) The offending police garden gnome A man vowed to keep a glowing garden gnome on display today in defiance of a police notice. Gordon MacKillop even faces possible prosecution over the offending ornament. He was woken in the night by two police officers who warned him that the solar-powered gnome, dressed in full police uniform, was offensive to his neighbours. They served him with a notice under the Protection From Harassment Act 1997 for "placing a garden gnome with intent to cause harassment to Mr John McLean". The notice, issued o…

POSTED: 6:18 p.m. EDT, September 11, 2006 NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) -- The 20-year-old son of Anna Nicole Smith died while visiting his mother in the hospital where the reality TV star and former Playboy playmate had given birth last week, a Bahamas police official said Monday. Daniel Wayne Smith was visiting his mother in her room at Doctors Hospital in Nassau when he died Sunday, Reginald Ferguson, assistant commissioner of the Royal Bahamian Police Force, told The Associated Press. He said an autopsy was under way. Smith arrived Saturday night in the Bahamas, and apparently went directly to the hospital where he spent the night in his mother's room, Ferguson said. …

Bid to reintroduce lynx and wolf to countryside Animals such as lynx are being reintroduced into the British countryside. If you go down to the woods beware of a big surprise, as walkers may soon have a preying wolf or lynx stalking their path. An animal group calling themselves the Wild Beasts Trust are preparing to release dozens of dangerous predatory animals into the countryside, putting humans and livestock at risk, police fear. Packs of wolves and Britain's extinct hunting cat, the lynx, which once freely roamed the hills and forests across Britain, could be illegally reintroduced to parts of Northumberland, West Scotland and the borders. Police ar…

Junk food, TV and the internet 'are poisoning childhood' Video games blamed for turning children into 'mini-adults' Children are being deprived of the right to grow up at their own pace by a combination of advertising, junk food, pressures at school and TV and video games, experts have warned. Youngsters are being turned into nothing more than "mini-adults" and are increasingly susceptible to depression and developmental problems as a result, they claim. The group of renowned psychologists, academics, teachers' leaders and authors say that action is needed now in order to prevent the death of childhood. The 110-strong lobby group wrote a letter to…

Mother 'doped rival horses' to help son win Starry-eyed showjumpers in the pony world have long had something of a competitive streak. But competitors in a national championship were stunned when the equestrian event was hit with a drugs scandal - and even more so when they discovered a mother-of-two was at the centre of allegations. Kim Baudains was accused of doping her rivals' ponies with sedatives shortly before they took to the course in a bid to help her 11-year-old son Josh win. Witnesses claimed they spotted her feeding what looked like mints to a number of the 30 ponies in the junior championships of the British Show Jumping Association e…

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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/10092006/80-132/italian-recluse-taken-apartment-26-years.html MILAN (Reuters) - When Italian health officials came to remove a woman from the apartment she has not left in more than two decades they had to don respirators against the stench, newspapers reported on Sunday. The woman, named only as "Carmela", was in her late 50s, weighed about 30 kg (66 pounds) and had hair two metres (seven feet) long when officials came to take her to hospital, La Repubblica, Il Giorno and La Stampa newspapers reported. Firefighters and health officials in Macerata, a city about 200 km (120 miles) northeast of Rome, found the apartment's windows sealed …

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/08092006/323/sex-toys-contain-dangerous-chemicals-says-greenpeace.html THE HAGUE (AFP) - Environmental group Greenpeace called on the European Union to ban the use of chemical plastic softeners in sex toys because they contained dangerous substances known as phthalates. "Adult sex toys contain the same toxic substances that the European Union banned from use in children's toys," Greenpeace said in a press release from its international headquarters here. The environmental group said it was shocked to find that seven of the eight sex toys it had tested contained between 24 and 51 percent of phthalates. "It is unbelievable that such toxi…

Is Katie Holmes suffering from post-natal depression? Baby blues: Katie Holmes looks run down and tired Bags under her eyes and looking dazed, even Hollywood superstars cannot avoid the harsh realities of first time motherhood. So as Katie Holmes made her way to a Los Angeles hotel for a relaxing, full-body massage, she looked to have the weight of the world on her hunched shoulders. Struggling out of a chauffeur-driven car, and into the exclusive Beverly Hills Hotel, the stress of the past five months was evident for all to see. Despite doing her utmost to hide her bleary-eyed face behind an oversize designer handbag, the 27-year-old actress, who …

So the first episode was last night...it was not that good. mostly a whole new group of kids and all. it seems over produced.