It has been such a dire year that we may as well stick with the dark theme and ask have more celebrities died this year than normal years?
We lost some great singers such as David Bowie, Prince and George Michael. Leonard Cohen died also.
The two that stung me the most was Alan Rickman and Gene Wilder but we lost some big names such as Paul Daniels, Terry Wogan, Harper Lee, Glenn Frey, Victoria Woods, Andrew Sachs, Jimmy Young, Fidel Castro, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Rick Parfitt and Carrie Fisher.
The obvious person to ask would be the BBC's Obituaries Editor, Nick Serpell, who counted the number of BBC obituaries that ran across radio, TV and online since 2012 and found that twice as many notable people had died in 2016 compared to the same period in 2015, and five times as many as in 2012.
There is the tricky question of who even counts as a celebrity or even 'notable' 2016 seemed to be dangerous and fateful for the famous.
In 2012 there was 16 obituaries, 2013 saw 24, 2014 there was 29 obituaries, in 2015, it rose 32 and for 2016 and for 2016 it stood at 50 with the most deadly time to be famous over the Christmas period when eight more 'notable' people died within a two-week period.
So as a person who deals in the consequences of a famous death, why does he think more famous people died this year?
He thinks that the increase is because we're now half a century on from the flourishing of both TV and pop culture in the 1960s, which massively expanded the overall pool of public figures and depressingly, he thinks the trend will continue into 2017.
Seems we will have to get used to hearing more obituaries of the famous.
Saturday, 31 December 2016
Another Gone From The Cast Of MASH
To anyone over 40, M*A*S*H* was one of the most loved television series and almost always makes an appearance in the list of TV critics best ever shows.
The show may be over 40 years old but it still appears regularly on TV stations still today which is testament to the amazing writing and strength of the characters in the series.
My favourite was always Hawkeye Pierce played by the very underrated Alan Alda and Harry Morgans character Colonel Sherman Potter but all the characters, even the minor ones, were great to watch and it always amused me to see some actors cutting their acting teeth in the show who would become big names such as Patrick Swayze, Ron Howard, Leslie Nielsen and Shelley Long.
As the show was around from 1972, most of the shows actors are now in their 70s and 80s so who have we lost from the 4077?
Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) is still alive and kicking as is Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Loretta Swit), Max Klinger (Jamie Farr), Radar (Gary Burghoff), BJ Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell) and Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers).
Sadly bugged out are Col. Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan), Dr. Sidney Freedman (Allan Arbus), Trapper John McIntyre (Wayne Rogers), Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson), Frank Burns (Larry Linville) and now Father Mulcahy (William Christopher).
2016 Predictions Summary
With all that happened in 2016, it must have been a great time to be a psychic and so we can look back at what Canadian Psychic Nikki predicted and see how much she got right. ?
Fidel Castro dies
A huge crash at a Formula One race, killing many. x
Nile River overflows into Egypt. x
Earthquake in Egypt, damaging the pyramids. x
A city will turn sideways after earthquake activity x
Boat sinks in the Danube River, Hungary x
A past President will pass away in a plane crash x
Helicopter crashes into Empire State Building x
A new breed mixture of dog and cat. x
A new President's head at Mount Rushmore. x
A change in the British Monarchy x
A plane goes into Eiffel Tower in Paris x
North Korea attacking South Korea. x
Prince Charles will become King x
Hillary Clinton becomes the next US President x
David Beckham, will split from his wife, Victoria x
Justin Bieber will portray Elvis Presley in a film x
A pet parrot will kill a movie star. x
Change in the British Monarchy x
With the exception of 90 year old Fidel Castro dying, Canadian Nikki sucked and even got the 50/50 USA President one wrong.
Worst of all it was the worst ever year for celebrity deaths but not one of them went to meet their maker due to a parrot related incident.
Fidel Castro dies
A huge crash at a Formula One race, killing many. x
Nile River overflows into Egypt. x
Earthquake in Egypt, damaging the pyramids. x
A city will turn sideways after earthquake activity x
Boat sinks in the Danube River, Hungary x
A past President will pass away in a plane crash x
Helicopter crashes into Empire State Building x
A new breed mixture of dog and cat. x
A new President's head at Mount Rushmore. x
A change in the British Monarchy x
A plane goes into Eiffel Tower in Paris x
North Korea attacking South Korea. x
Prince Charles will become King x
Hillary Clinton becomes the next US President x
David Beckham, will split from his wife, Victoria x
Justin Bieber will portray Elvis Presley in a film x
A pet parrot will kill a movie star. x
Change in the British Monarchy x
With the exception of 90 year old Fidel Castro dying, Canadian Nikki sucked and even got the 50/50 USA President one wrong.
Worst of all it was the worst ever year for celebrity deaths but not one of them went to meet their maker due to a parrot related incident.
A Plan To Fill British Coffers
What with the bankers royally doing us over to the tune of a couple of hundred billion a few years ago, the country has been on its uppers ever since and after almost a decade of austerity, the Government are still having to make large cuts and now thanks to 52% of Brits, we also have Brexit to deal with and the economic fallout from that so Britain is having to find new ways to raise funds.
As nobody seems to be charging around making a record for us, we are forced into more extreme measures but thankfully i have hit upon a solution.
Britain was once a hotbed of inventiveness, back in the Victorian era it was us Brits who came up with most of the things we use today and as far as i am aware, we never copyrighted any of it so now is the time to charge the people of other nations for using the things that we invented.
Anyone with a light bulb cough up, is that a telephone i hear ringing? Another British invention so make out the cheque and don't even think about flushing that toilet before paying and how much toilet paper did you just use, we are charging per square for that particular invention.
Vacuum cleaner in the hallway cupboard? Just allow five working days for that cheque to clear before using it again thanks.
All this causing a bit of a headache? Try an aspirin, after paying Britain for it of course.
Need a holiday? Going by train? That train going over a bridge? Reading a comic on the journey? Britain says kerching!!
Maybe you can watch some TV to take your mind off how much you owe us Brits. American Express will do nicely Sir what with us inventing the TV and everything.
Problem solved, austerity over and as you are reading this you must be on that other British invention the World Wide Web so you will be automatically billed, thank you and it has been nice doing business with you.
As nobody seems to be charging around making a record for us, we are forced into more extreme measures but thankfully i have hit upon a solution.
Britain was once a hotbed of inventiveness, back in the Victorian era it was us Brits who came up with most of the things we use today and as far as i am aware, we never copyrighted any of it so now is the time to charge the people of other nations for using the things that we invented.
Anyone with a light bulb cough up, is that a telephone i hear ringing? Another British invention so make out the cheque and don't even think about flushing that toilet before paying and how much toilet paper did you just use, we are charging per square for that particular invention.
Vacuum cleaner in the hallway cupboard? Just allow five working days for that cheque to clear before using it again thanks.
All this causing a bit of a headache? Try an aspirin, after paying Britain for it of course.
Need a holiday? Going by train? That train going over a bridge? Reading a comic on the journey? Britain says kerching!!
Maybe you can watch some TV to take your mind off how much you owe us Brits. American Express will do nicely Sir what with us inventing the TV and everything.
Problem solved, austerity over and as you are reading this you must be on that other British invention the World Wide Web so you will be automatically billed, thank you and it has been nice doing business with you.
Friday, 30 December 2016
Gonna Need A New Calendar
As if this year hasn't been bad enough, scientists are making us wait even longer to see the back of it as they adjust the clocks to compensate for a slowdown in the Earth's rotation.
Waving goodbye and good riddance to 2016 will be delayed by a second as clocks will change from 23:59:59 to 23:59:60 instead of 00:00:00 as they slip in the extra second.
The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service in Paris decide when leap seconds are needed and this is the 27th time a leap second has been introduced since 1972.
My question would be if the Earth's rotation is so erratic that we have to keep slipping in seconds here and there, and we have had to add almost half a minute over the last 44 years, what about the 4.5 billion years if every 100 years we are out of sync approximately by a minute?
That's about 10 mins every 1000 years, 100 mins every 10,000 years 1000 mins every 100,000 years 10,000 mins every 1,000,000 years...and then my maths fail me but a million years throws us out by 694 days.
If a British billion is a million million then 1 billion x 694 days means up until 1972 we had lost 69,400,000,000,000 days every billion years so over 4.5 billion years that's...whatever, the bottom line is the Earth is more than 4.5 billion years old if you add on the minute every year for 4.5 billion years that have been missed up until 1972.
If this is the case then all the timings we have for the big bang, creation of the stars and planets, the Earth forming, how long the dinosaurs ruled the earth etc are out of whack.
I have emailed the National Physical Laboratory and the International Earth Rotation and Reference Service so will see what comes back from them but until then the calendar makers should be told to hold fire because saying next year is 2017 could be very, very wrong.
Waving goodbye and good riddance to 2016 will be delayed by a second as clocks will change from 23:59:59 to 23:59:60 instead of 00:00:00 as they slip in the extra second.
The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service in Paris decide when leap seconds are needed and this is the 27th time a leap second has been introduced since 1972.
My question would be if the Earth's rotation is so erratic that we have to keep slipping in seconds here and there, and we have had to add almost half a minute over the last 44 years, what about the 4.5 billion years if every 100 years we are out of sync approximately by a minute?
That's about 10 mins every 1000 years, 100 mins every 10,000 years 1000 mins every 100,000 years 10,000 mins every 1,000,000 years...and then my maths fail me but a million years throws us out by 694 days.
If a British billion is a million million then 1 billion x 694 days means up until 1972 we had lost 69,400,000,000,000 days every billion years so over 4.5 billion years that's...whatever, the bottom line is the Earth is more than 4.5 billion years old if you add on the minute every year for 4.5 billion years that have been missed up until 1972.
If this is the case then all the timings we have for the big bang, creation of the stars and planets, the Earth forming, how long the dinosaurs ruled the earth etc are out of whack.
I have emailed the National Physical Laboratory and the International Earth Rotation and Reference Service so will see what comes back from them but until then the calendar makers should be told to hold fire because saying next year is 2017 could be very, very wrong.
Thursday, 29 December 2016
Wiggins Retires Under Cloud Of Suspicion
Farewell to cyclist Bradley Wiggins who has announced his retirement from cycling although it wont stop the investigation continuing into the 'medical package' he received just before the 2011 Tour De France.
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee which is leading the investigation have said that British Cycling have been able to provide a paper trail of how the package delivered to Wiggins but does not give details of what was inside the package.
A decongestant called Fluimucil say Team Sky who Wiggins was cycling for although they are unable to answer the question why it cost £600 in travel costs and a four day journey to send something that according to the committee was 'readily available in France and could easily be obtained at any chemist' concluding that 'a lot of people looking at this say it just looks odd'.
Wiggins and Team Sky are under scrutiny for his use of therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) which Wiggins, an asthma sufferer, sought to 'put himself back on a level playing field'.
Wiggins was granted a TUE before the 2011 Tour de France, his 2012 Tour win and the 2013 Giro d'Italia.
The committee have previously said that: 'It seems difficult to get precise records about what was in this package, why it was ordered - the detail you would want to know'.
It may be that Team Sky was just very sloppy in keeping records but it really doesn't look good and Wiggins retires under a cloud of suspicion in a sport where performance enhancing drug seem to be rife.
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee which is leading the investigation have said that British Cycling have been able to provide a paper trail of how the package delivered to Wiggins but does not give details of what was inside the package.
A decongestant called Fluimucil say Team Sky who Wiggins was cycling for although they are unable to answer the question why it cost £600 in travel costs and a four day journey to send something that according to the committee was 'readily available in France and could easily be obtained at any chemist' concluding that 'a lot of people looking at this say it just looks odd'.
Wiggins and Team Sky are under scrutiny for his use of therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) which Wiggins, an asthma sufferer, sought to 'put himself back on a level playing field'.
Wiggins was granted a TUE before the 2011 Tour de France, his 2012 Tour win and the 2013 Giro d'Italia.
The committee have previously said that: 'It seems difficult to get precise records about what was in this package, why it was ordered - the detail you would want to know'.
It may be that Team Sky was just very sloppy in keeping records but it really doesn't look good and Wiggins retires under a cloud of suspicion in a sport where performance enhancing drug seem to be rife.
Wednesday, 28 December 2016
2017 Has To be An Improvement
Things can only get better so goes the 1994 D:ream song but for an optimist, i am feeling pretty pessimistic about 2017.
I have never bought the claim made by some that the media accentuates the virtually non-existent danger from terrorists, violent crime, war, disease and natural disasters by reporting all the bad news and ignoring all the good.
The media is just a mirror that reflects on things that happen, it is wrong to blame the mirror for what it is showing. If there was an audience for just good news then someone would be selling it so there is a reason that there isn't.
What the mirror has shown is that 2016 has not been a good year by any stretch of the imagination and it is hard to see how simply by changing the calendar to 2017 will help the millions struggling on Zero Hours Contracts or the disabled who have had their benefits slashed or cut the growing queues at the food banks or help the mentally ill and sick who cannot get the treatment they need because of huge austerity cuts to the NHS. We haven't even begun the Brexit disentanglement yet with the negative dividends all that brings.
Globally the world's most powerful nation has just elected a childlike, vain, irrational and dim blowhard as it's president and Climate Change will continue to ramp up the self-inflicted horrors as the globe continues to warm while the conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Palestine will not be ending anytime soon as nor will the ISIS and Al Queada branches of terrorism.
All in all 2016 has been an awful year and it will take some beating so being an optimist we could say that 2017 HAS to be an improvement on this year but the bar has been set so low that it will be like getting hit by a truck rather than a train.
I have never bought the claim made by some that the media accentuates the virtually non-existent danger from terrorists, violent crime, war, disease and natural disasters by reporting all the bad news and ignoring all the good.
The media is just a mirror that reflects on things that happen, it is wrong to blame the mirror for what it is showing. If there was an audience for just good news then someone would be selling it so there is a reason that there isn't.
What the mirror has shown is that 2016 has not been a good year by any stretch of the imagination and it is hard to see how simply by changing the calendar to 2017 will help the millions struggling on Zero Hours Contracts or the disabled who have had their benefits slashed or cut the growing queues at the food banks or help the mentally ill and sick who cannot get the treatment they need because of huge austerity cuts to the NHS. We haven't even begun the Brexit disentanglement yet with the negative dividends all that brings.
Globally the world's most powerful nation has just elected a childlike, vain, irrational and dim blowhard as it's president and Climate Change will continue to ramp up the self-inflicted horrors as the globe continues to warm while the conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Palestine will not be ending anytime soon as nor will the ISIS and Al Queada branches of terrorism.
All in all 2016 has been an awful year and it will take some beating so being an optimist we could say that 2017 HAS to be an improvement on this year but the bar has been set so low that it will be like getting hit by a truck rather than a train.
Is The World Lurching Right?
A question that i have been asked more and more recently is if the World is taking a lurch towards the ideological right?
Britain certainly has a right wing party controlling things and from the irratic musings of Donald Trump the USA has also taken a turn that way as has India, Japan and Poland. France is seeing a wave in favour of right-wing parties with Marine Le Pen being considered a serious challenger to socialist president Francois Hollande in the 2017 presidential election.
Formerly Socialist paradises of Scandinavia are leaning right-wards with right of centre parties in Sweden and Denmark doing well in opinion polls and the Netherlands, Venezuela and Hungary too are witnessing an ideological turn to the right.
Some of the reasons for the rightwards political shift in countries are a combination of economics and security due to austerity measures, the rise of ISIS and the refugee influx which has made Europe more nationalistic and insular.
A decade of austerity measures across the globe has made many people more 'selfish' and less keen to spread the wealth to those less fortunate who receive benefits, a landscape favourable to right wing policies.
Eastern Europe has closed its borders to refugees, citing fears over Islamist violence carried over from Syria, Iraq and Libya while Donald Trump wants to build a wall, ban Muslims amnd keep a register or database of Muslims in the USA.
My reply is that right wing policies do seem to be holding the upper hand due to the economic crash in 2008 creating a landscape that allows right wing ideology to flourish, that of the fear of others in terms of terrorism and the undeserving receiving 'something for nothing' such as benefits and tax relief.
The right wing politicians keep their foot on the throttle, ramming home the same message that they are either coming to blow us up in our beds or clean out the national bank account by taking benefits and the electorate take it on board and vote for the side that promise to keep us and our money safe.
The left, ideologically less likely to inflict the harsh decisions on the population have no answer, hence a swing to the right.
In short, yes, the World has taken a swing to the right because due to the Great Recession of 2008, the landscape is fertile ground for right-wing parties who continue to keep the landscape exactly where they need it to be by generating fear (economy, terrorist, scroungers) among the electorate.
As with right wing parties, the ground usually shifts back when they try to drag the electorate too far to the right and impose a policy which exposes the right for what they really are, nasty.
Britain certainly has a right wing party controlling things and from the irratic musings of Donald Trump the USA has also taken a turn that way as has India, Japan and Poland. France is seeing a wave in favour of right-wing parties with Marine Le Pen being considered a serious challenger to socialist president Francois Hollande in the 2017 presidential election.
Formerly Socialist paradises of Scandinavia are leaning right-wards with right of centre parties in Sweden and Denmark doing well in opinion polls and the Netherlands, Venezuela and Hungary too are witnessing an ideological turn to the right.
Some of the reasons for the rightwards political shift in countries are a combination of economics and security due to austerity measures, the rise of ISIS and the refugee influx which has made Europe more nationalistic and insular.
A decade of austerity measures across the globe has made many people more 'selfish' and less keen to spread the wealth to those less fortunate who receive benefits, a landscape favourable to right wing policies.
Eastern Europe has closed its borders to refugees, citing fears over Islamist violence carried over from Syria, Iraq and Libya while Donald Trump wants to build a wall, ban Muslims amnd keep a register or database of Muslims in the USA.
My reply is that right wing policies do seem to be holding the upper hand due to the economic crash in 2008 creating a landscape that allows right wing ideology to flourish, that of the fear of others in terms of terrorism and the undeserving receiving 'something for nothing' such as benefits and tax relief.
The right wing politicians keep their foot on the throttle, ramming home the same message that they are either coming to blow us up in our beds or clean out the national bank account by taking benefits and the electorate take it on board and vote for the side that promise to keep us and our money safe.
The left, ideologically less likely to inflict the harsh decisions on the population have no answer, hence a swing to the right.
In short, yes, the World has taken a swing to the right because due to the Great Recession of 2008, the landscape is fertile ground for right-wing parties who continue to keep the landscape exactly where they need it to be by generating fear (economy, terrorist, scroungers) among the electorate.
As with right wing parties, the ground usually shifts back when they try to drag the electorate too far to the right and impose a policy which exposes the right for what they really are, nasty.
Tuesday, 27 December 2016
Pathetic Israel Playing The Victim
Sickening to see Israel running around acting like the victim after the passing of the UN resolution demanding an end to the building of settlements on occupied Palestinian territory.
After the pathetic and predictable squealing that the vote was due to the rampant antisemitism that infects the United Nations, Israel has called back its ambassadors in New Zealand and Senegal and summoned ambassadors from all of the countries that voted for the resolution.
It has also cancelled aid programmes in Angola and Senegal and all planned vists with Theresa May which seemed to confuse the UK Government who said the PM was unaware of any meetings planned with him.
Mr Netanyahu also took aim at Barack Obama and said the US administration had: 'not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes'.
All very dramatic but no amount of this drivel covers up the fact that Israel is the one very much in the wrong and it is about time the UN caught up with it as it has been literally getting away with murder in Palestine for the past 60 years.
In the investigation of the last Gaza incursion, the United Nations found the Israeli Defence Force guilty of using Palestinian children as human shields, deliberate bombing of civilian houses and UN buildings and targeting innocent civilians in the war which was 'a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorise a civilian population'.
It is Israel who throw the spanners into the works whenever the chance of peace talks is raised so it can continue with the status quo while it mops up Palestinian land.
Israel is the occupier, illegally seizing and building settlements on Palestinian land, defying UN resolutions, killing innocent Palestinians, holding over 9000 Palestinians in its prisons, destroys farms, bulldozes homes and businesses and builds a monstrous wall deemed illegal by the international court of justice and turns Gaza into an outdoor prison.
Israel is becoming more and more isolated Internationally and the latest attempt to try and shield itself from condemnation and presented itself as the wronged party would be laughable if it was not actively carrying out a genocide against its smaller neighbour, a genocide that America has been funding and until last week gave approval to.
Israel needs to be bought to heel and hopefully this will be the start of the process and the real victim, the people of Palestine, will finally get justice.
After the pathetic and predictable squealing that the vote was due to the rampant antisemitism that infects the United Nations, Israel has called back its ambassadors in New Zealand and Senegal and summoned ambassadors from all of the countries that voted for the resolution.
It has also cancelled aid programmes in Angola and Senegal and all planned vists with Theresa May which seemed to confuse the UK Government who said the PM was unaware of any meetings planned with him.
Mr Netanyahu also took aim at Barack Obama and said the US administration had: 'not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes'.
All very dramatic but no amount of this drivel covers up the fact that Israel is the one very much in the wrong and it is about time the UN caught up with it as it has been literally getting away with murder in Palestine for the past 60 years.
In the investigation of the last Gaza incursion, the United Nations found the Israeli Defence Force guilty of using Palestinian children as human shields, deliberate bombing of civilian houses and UN buildings and targeting innocent civilians in the war which was 'a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorise a civilian population'.
It is Israel who throw the spanners into the works whenever the chance of peace talks is raised so it can continue with the status quo while it mops up Palestinian land.
Israel is the occupier, illegally seizing and building settlements on Palestinian land, defying UN resolutions, killing innocent Palestinians, holding over 9000 Palestinians in its prisons, destroys farms, bulldozes homes and businesses and builds a monstrous wall deemed illegal by the international court of justice and turns Gaza into an outdoor prison.
Israel is becoming more and more isolated Internationally and the latest attempt to try and shield itself from condemnation and presented itself as the wronged party would be laughable if it was not actively carrying out a genocide against its smaller neighbour, a genocide that America has been funding and until last week gave approval to.
Israel needs to be bought to heel and hopefully this will be the start of the process and the real victim, the people of Palestine, will finally get justice.
Monday, 26 December 2016
Rick And George: 2016 Not Finished Yet
I saw Status Quo in their pomp in the 80s, they were part of a radio roadshow and after the live event ended they came back on the stage and rattled through the best of their back catalogue while the roadies waited to take down the set.
While true they only seemed to play three chords and the songs all sounded similar but the duo held their hands up to that and as Parfitt said himself: 'We're Status Quo so whose songs are they supposed to sound like?'
George Michael i was not so much a fan of but like Quo, he was an ever present from my teenage years and i count 'Last Christmas' as one of my favourite Christmas Songs while 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' and 'Careless Whispers' takes me back to carefree, teenage years of youth clubs, concerts and school discos.
Michael's best years were a long way behind him and he had gone off the rails over the last decade or so, the drugs and the pressure of fame sending him into a spiral culminating in his arrest on Hampstead Heath after which he shut himself away from the public eye.
'Rocking All Over The World' seems to be the popular choice on the radio to commiserate Parfitt and Quo while 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' has been the most heard song today for George Michael and though both musicians were background music for me at the time, they are a link back to long forgotten, fond memories of people i have not thought about for over 25 years which makes music such a powerful tool.
Hopefully, 2016 has finally finished with it's spiteful harvesting.
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