Sky Knows What?

Martin Brunt proves once again that he knows no more about what is going on in the Madeline McCann mystery, than he does about what people are really thinking. The McCann’s have been smeared by the British Media almost as much as they have by the Portuguese Newspapers, they have been subjected to what appears to be the most incompetent police investigation since Inspector Clouseau retired from the Surete, the only way it could have been less effectively investigated would have been to have the Keystone Cops involved as well.

Bluetongue Spreads

Apparently Bluetongue has now officially spread, according to DEFRA it is now a real problem. According to the BBC it means that farmers now have a real problem, first flooding destroying crops, foot and mouth now bluetongue. Excuse me BBC, but actually most farmers who grow crops don’t tend to have cows, so arable farming, which was initially hit, now is in the process of recovery, the farmers that breed cattle, sheep and the such are the ones with the problems now.

Typical Tabloids

Typical of the useless tabloid press of this country, the biggest news story, the Burmese monks protesting against the Military Junta in charge, is ignored and they decide to run some bollox story of the McCann’s or else some wank about the Labour Party Conference, (which finished today, with some bint, singing “the red flag” but needing a crib sheet).

Japanese photographer Kenji Nagai was killed by the Burmese as police and military officials fired upon and then charged at protesters in Rangoon’s city centre. The have all week run images and copy from the area, made big front pages splashes with phone camera pictures, yet when a real news story breaks they ignore it. The UK tabloid press are contemptible.’

Culture Secretary in Fake Picture

Culture Minister James Purnell was held up in traffic whilst three other local MPs and key staff from a hospital in Manchester visited a new development and posed for photographs. He was so late that the others had left by the time that he arrived. So he agreed to have his photograph taken in the same spot and have it inserted into the original. This is the minister who preached to the broadcast media about trust and standards.

Typical Double standards as usual from the Labour Party. On the recent crisis that has gripped broadcasters in the wake of premium-rate phone-in scandals and high-profile fakery rows, he said:

“You need to put your house in order, and if you don’t there will be a clamour for Ofcom and the BBC Trust to take further action.”

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Technology Is great

CF cards are incredibly robust, they seldom fail, in the last few years I have never had to replace a CF card because of failure. I usually replace them because they are too small for the next generation of digital cameras. However, a couple of days ago a CF card failed, and catastrophically. Even Rescue Pro couldn’t help recover the lost images. So before everyone gets too comfortable and goes out buying 16Gb cards, remember they can and do fail, better not to have all your eggs in one basket.’

Survival of the Shittest

Wow, fuck me what a revelation!!

Ethnic minorities and those from poorer backgrounds face a “glass door” trying to get into London’s film and television industry, a report has said. The report from the TUC found the sector tended to recruit a workforce largely drawn from white people and those with high-income backgrounds.

Hmmm “glass door”? I have heard of the expression “glass ceiling”, but every business that I have dealt with over the last 20 years has a glass door, it is an ingenious invention, you can see through it, and if you give a little push it opens.

But most surprisingly

The report said such recruits suffered by not having contacts in the industry.

Which is strange because when I left college having wasted three years, I was handed an address book with every name and address of each person I would ever need to contact in the pursuit of my career. Christ! I don’t know of a single course that would include these sorts of contacts. Contacts are what you develop over years of working, networking and generally passing through life.
It is yet another example of liberal bleeding hearts, expecting that everything should just be given to everyone, nothing should be earned, just given. Bollox. According to a report, by Bectu (the broadcasting workers Union)

“Too many black and ethnic minority workers meet a glass door when it comes to accessing opportunities for employment, commissions and progression in our industry. “As a result, employers are recruiting from a pool of talent that is an increasingly small share of what’s actually available.” Research also found many young people felt media training courses left them ill-prepared for the industry.

Why does the last statement surprise anyone? Universities and Colleges as well as schools have never prepared anyone for the real-world and never will, because the academics that teach in them have no experience of the real-world
When I left college the parting words of the lecturers were to the effect that “You are now a fully qualified photographer, now go out and make your mark on the world”
However, the course didn’t offer any advice on setting up a business, cash flow and tax issues, contract law or employment law. I didn’t really learn about being a photographer until after I finished college.

Too Little Sleep Harmful?

According to a recent report a lack of sleep can be deadly, probably not in the way that you’d expect. Press Snappers regularly working long hours and travelling long distances you’d expect the risk to come from dozing off at the wheel.
But according to Francesco Cappuccio (which I thought was a caffeine rich drink), professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Warwick’s medical school, told the annual conference of the British Sleep Society in Cambridge. “People who do not get enough sleep are more than twice as likely to die of heart disease, according to a study released on Monday. Although the reasons are unclear, researchers said lack of sleep appeared to be linked to increased blood pressure, which is known to raise the risk of heart attacks and stroke.”

“A third of the population of the UK and over 40 percent in the U.S. regularly sleep less than five hours a night, so it is not a trivial problem,” he said in a telephone interview. “The current pressures in society to cut out sleep, in order to squeeze in more, may not be a good idea — particularly if you go below five hours.” ‘