How We See The World

Football player crashes into home A Norfolk couple were woken in the night after a car driven by Newcastle United defender Titus Bramble crashed into the wall outside their house. It happened on the A140 in the village of Newton Flotman on Saturday night. A Norfolk Police spokesman said five or six people were travelling in the BMW but no-one was injured. Mr Bramble was given a breath test which was negative. Eddie Sargent, 55, who lives in the house, said he and wife Linda, 54, were concerned for the people in the car. The couple were looking after their grandchildren at the time of the crash. 'Good looking' Mr Sargent said: "We just heard an incredibl…

Gerrard was unhappy at Ronaldo's gamesmanship Steven Gerrard has branded Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo "a disgrace" for his part in Wayne Rooney's sending-off at the World Cup. Gerrard was furious when Ronaldo got involved after Rooney appeared to stamp on Portugal defender Ricardo Carvalho. "Sadly a dark side stains Cristiano Ronaldo's game," writes Gerrard in his autobiography, which is being serialised in the News of the World. "His part in Wayne Rooney's dismissal was a disgrace." The Liverpool midfielder, who was appointed vice-captain of England this week, expressed particular dissatisfaction wit…

A grades 'not given like sweets' Ministers and exam officials have been trying to head off criticism of A-levels, ahead of this week's annual release of the results. Schools Minister Jim Knight said it was a myth that A grades were "handed out like sweets". Students will learn on Thursday how well they have done in this year's exams. The national figures are likely to show that almost all passed, with about 23% of entries being awarded the top grade. Mr Knight said those who equated rising pass rates with "dumbing down" were not only doing young people a disservice, they were taking a simplistic view of the system. "There is a general misconception that …

Hi guys! Last week I got a RAZR V3 from my dad. I'm having a lot of fun making ringtones and setting Coldplay pictures as my wallpaper (thanks Geek Squad!) and, of course, taking pics. However, I would like to take longer video clips. As of now, the maximum recording time for my video clips is 5 seconds. This distresses me greatly, as it is said the max recording time is 15 minutes. The manual says to change MMS settings but I can't find that in the videos menu. I may have to take said phone in to get it figured out, but before I do that, I was wondering if maybe any of you knew how I could change the settings to increase video recording time. Anything helps. Tha…

Are we ready for the new season :D There are a few members here supporting lower league sides, including me. Come on Burnley! Latest online scores: http://home.skysports.com/livescores/football/ First week fixtures: The Coca-Cola Football League Championship Barnsley v Cardiff, 15:00 Birmingham v Colchester, 15:00 Burnley v QPR, 15:00 Ipswich v Crystal Palace, 15:00 Leeds v Norwich, 15:00 Luton v Leicester, 12:30 Plymouth v Wolverhampton, 15:00 Preston v Sheff Wed, 15:00 Southend v Stoke, 15:00 West Brom v Hull, 15:00 Coca-Cola Football League One Bournemouth v Chesterfield, 15:00 Brentford v Blackpool, 15:00 Bristol City v Scnuthorpe, 15:00 C…

HE is about to play an Australian icon to a packed Entertainment Centre, but Hugh Jackman's most nerve-racking performance to date was the intimate show he put on for his friend Nicole Kidman's wedding. Singing the favourite song of Kidman's new husband Keith Urban, the Peter Allen classic Tenterfield Saddler, was a pressure-filled experience. "Nicole rang me and asked me to sing Keith's favourite song," Jackman said yesterday. "I said, 'This is breaking one of my golden rules, never to sing a singer's favourite song'." It obviously went well, and Jackman, who is due to star in Baz Luhrmann's epic with the actress, described her wedding as "beautiful, very roma…

Random drugs testing should be extended across UK schools and regarded as a matter of "responsible behaviour", a leading US official has said. John Walters, director of drug control policy at the White House, said it was important to tell children substance abuse was not a "fashion statement". He added that searches did not constitute an "invasion of privacy", according to the Guardian. Mr Walters has met Schools Minister Jim Knight to discuss drugs policy. Pilot scheme Random testing has been introduced in some schools in Kent. The former education secretary, Ruth Kelly, has spoken of its benefits. In the Guardian, Mr Walters is quoted as saying…

Russian musicians returning from London after the Bolshoi Theatre's season face an overland journey because of the new UK cabin baggage ban on planes. They are under contract to keep their instruments with them and cannot check them in as hold baggage, chief conductor Alexander Vedernikov said. They will probably have to travel by rail via Paris, he added. A German musician flying from London told the BBC about the stress of having to put her cello in the hold. Mr Vedernikov made his remark after noticing violins checked in as hold baggage on his own flight to Moscow. The Bolshoi's ballet and opera season at London's Royal Opera House tour is not due to …

Saw this opening weekend. I thought it was pretty awesome. I wanna watch it again soon. A lot of people hated it for reasons unknown though. What did you think?

The number of UK-based pupils entered for a maths GCSE aimed at the overseas market trebled in 2006, figures show. The Edexcel exam board said 7,500 in the UK sat the International GCSE (IGCSE) in maths this summer, compared with 2,500 the previous year. For the first time, the number of entries from the UK exceeded those from abroad, which stood at 3,800 this year. The exam-based IGCSEs were designed for overseas centres where coursework could not be externally moderated. Now they are being taken up increasingly by schools in the independent sector, which tend to regard them as more stretching. These schools are also reported to prefer the fact that cou…

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-08-09-gore-green_x.htm exerpt: "Gore has held these apocalyptic views about the environment for some time. So why, then, didn't Gore dump his family's large stock holdings in Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum? As executor of his family's trust, over the years Gore has controlled hundreds of thousands of dollars in Oxy stock. Oxy has been mired in controversy over oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas. Living carbon-neutral apparently doesn't mean living oil-stock free. Nor does it necessarily mean giving up a mining royalty either." :laugh3:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4778575.stm A terror plot to blow up planes from the UK mid-flight has been disrupted, Scotland Yard says. Heightened security is causing severe delays at airports and the threat level has been raised to "critical".

Rock band Korn have appealed for information after a fan died following a fight at their concert in Atlanta, according to music magazine Billboard. Andy Richardson, 30, died in hospital after being attacked by two men in the mosh pit at the HiFi Buys Amphitheatre. The band are headlining the 30-city Family Values Tour in North America. The group said they were "appalled at the actions of these men" and encouraged witnesses to contact the local authorities, Billboard reported. In a statement, they said they were "imploring anyone who witnessed this senseless act or has any information about the attack to please immediately come forward". Mother's plea …

Two authors who lost a copyright battle over best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code earlier this year will have three days to appeal once the case resumes. A preliminary hearing at London's Law Courts also agreed the Court of Appeal judges presiding over the case would have two days of "pre-reading" time. Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh claim Brown took his central theme from their book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. No date has yet been set for the appeal, but it is expected in January. Central theme Baigent and Leigh lost their legal action against publishers Random House for breach of copyright. They argued that Brown had copied their theory t…

Wal-Mart is to allow workers at all of its Chinese stores to become members of trade unions. The US retailer said it would work with the state-sanctioned All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) on representation for its 28,000 staff. The move came after workers at five stores chose to set up union branches. All unions must be affiliated to the ACFTU, which is not independent and which critics say does not campaign for better pay and working conditions. The government-approved body is regarded more as an intermediary and channel of communication between managers and workers. Under pressure Wal-Mart maintains that it is not opposed to unionisation…

Does anyone know a good free program to do this? And no, not gonna post converted lossless shows, just for private use.

Memo to Hillary: Democrats eat their own too Last week, this column posited, "What's wrong with the Republican Party?" and provided a case study on the difficulty of getting a conservative Senate candidate into the general election, especially when a more liberal primary contender has accumulated a personal fortune of a few hundred million bucks, some of which he dumps into his own campaign. As it turns out, the Democrats are having the same problem. Case in point: Three-term incumbent Joe Lieberman and Edward "Ned" Lamont will vie for the title of Connecticut's Democrat Senatorial Candidate in that state's primary next Tuesday. The integrity of Senator Joe Li…

http://news.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/08/09/girls-gone-wild-creator-joe-francis-sexual-predator-with-a-waiver-form/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogcritics.org%2Farchives%2F2006%2F08%2F09%2F115116.php&frame=true Girls Gone Wild creator and celebrity-glommer Joe Francis has apparently let his extended 15 minutes of fame go straight from his head to his groin. Francis has amassed a multi-million dollar fortune making low-budget films featuring barely-legal age drunk women performing tawdry acts on camera for cheap trinkets. But now, via court records and a blockbuster new report, Francis, 33, is revealed as not just a smut-pushing profiteer, but also an opportunistic sex…

Sinn Fein has criticised B&Q for putting an Olympic emblem, which includes a Union Jack, on its uniforms. The DIY chain, which is sponsoring the Great Britain Olympic team, said individual workers could decide whether to wear the new work clothes or not. However, Ms Ruane claimed those who chose not to could be subjected to "sectarian intimidation". She said she had been contacted by "a number of staff members" who are unhappy about the uniforms. "This decision is short-sighted and displays an ignorance of the very divisive nature of symbols in the north," the South Down assembly member said. However, the DUP's Ian Paisley junior backed B&Q over …

A Labour MP has said inbreeding may be partly to blame for a rise in diabetes cases in his constituency in Norwich. Inter-family relationships could have led to a sharing of a gene linked to the condition, former science lecturer Dr Ian Gibson told BBC Radio Norfolk. "There may be some degree of familiarity, family relationships, in terms of brothers and other families with the same name and so on," he said. But a consultant at a local hospital said the remarks were "disgraceful". "It's an insult to people with type-1 diabetes and their families and it's an insult to people in Norfolk," said Dr Ketan Dhatariya, a diabetologist at the Norfolk and Norwich Univ…

A schoolboy who attempted to petrol bomb council buildings in his bid for Scottish separatism has been detained for six months. Jamie Hoggan, 16, tried to start a blaze at the Clackmannanshire Council offices in Alloa last August. He was sentenced at Alloa Sheriff Court to six months in a young offenders' institution after he was found guilty of wilful fire-raising. The teenager had maintained he did not take part in the attack. Last month, Sheriff David Mackie said he would defer sentence to allow Hoggan to own up to what he had done. The teenager claimed he was part of a group called the Scottish Freedom Force. Upon hearing that Hoggan would still …

An investigation is under way into the death of a woman who had undergone fertility treatment at a hospital. Officials at the Leicester Royal Infirmary confirmed a patient had lost her life on Monday after undergoing IVF treatment at the hospital. It is understood she developed complications but a cause of death has not yet been identified. A spokesperson from the hospital said the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority had been informed. The case has also been reported to the coroner and no further details about the woman have been released. A spokesperson from the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, said: "Tragically a patient undergoing…

London, UK (BANG) - A film about Britain's Princess Diana's death will compete at the Venice film festival. 'The Queen', which follows the British Monarchy's response to the public grief over Diana's death, is one of 21 films vying for the Golden Lion award next month. Dame Helen Mirren plays Queen Elizabeth II who in the film, retreats behind the walls of Balmoral Castle seemingly "unable to comprehend the public response to the tragedy". Mirren believes she has accurately portrayed the monarch and hopes the queen will approve. She said, "I'd be devastated if she feels that I've betrayed her in my portrayal of her. I find her duty and self-sacrifice incre…

A plane carrying about 200 people had to be evacuated shortly before take-off from Manchester Airport. It is believed a passenger found a threatening letter inside an in-flight magazine on the TCX 017 Thomas Cook flight to Lanzarote on Thursday. All the people on board were taken back inside the terminal and a full search of the aircraft was carried out. Thomas Cook said it was "complying with heightened security measures" in the light of the UK's terror alert. A statement said: "Thomas Cook can confirm a security alert on board a Thomas Cook airlines flight at Manchester Airport. "All passengers have been disembarked and are in the terminal." The pl…

Britain's 10 million broadband users spend an average of 23.5 hours online each week, equivalent to 50 days of the year, a survey suggests. Service comparison firm USwitch.com said the survey of 15,323 people revealed that 87% shopped online and 78% did their banking via the web. However, recent research from regulator Ofcom indicated that broadband users spent just 12 hours online a week. It said just 12% of users spent more than 25 hours a week online. The Ofcom research was based on interviews held with adults across the UK while USwitch.com's findings come from an online poll by YouGov, which may favour regular broadband users. Chris Williams, USwitch.com …