Nobody Wants Ched Evans

It appears that another club is distancing themselves from footballer Ched Evans who is still searching for a club months after his release from prison where he served two and half years of a five year sentence for rape.
As i mentioned previously when i wrote about the nasty, odious piece of work, he has served his time and he does have the right to work again in his professional sphere which just happens to be football.
Doesn't mean i don't love it when he is linked with a team and the fans and sponsors throw up their arms in horror at having a convicted rapist in their side and he finds himself back on the hunt for someone who wants him.  
Of course it doesn't begin to make up for what he did to that poor girl back in 2011 but it gives me a lovely warm glow that he is quite rightly being treated as an outcast.

Avoid Dangerous LEGO

I am confident that one day someone will find that missing front page from the The Bible that says: 'All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental' but until they do we will just have to carry on being entertained by the people who consider it a real story.
People like Father Slawomir Kostrzewa who is warning parents that Lego is a 'tool of Satan' that could destroy their child's soul and 'lead them to the dark side'.
He is particularly concerned about the 'Zombie' series and cited research by New Zealand's University of Canterbury that Lego characters faces have become angrier over the years and he has an ally in the shape of Fox News who have joined in the LEGO pile-on by decrying it as anti-capitalist.
According to the Fair and Balanced Foz News, the LEGO movies antagonist is the head of a large business which forces a dangerous anti-capitalist message on America’s kids.
Damn those Commie movie makers, i'm going to boycott all movies from now on and spend more time in church so i am not scared about things coming back from the dead, as if that would ever happen.
Now Father Kostrzewa, tell me that Easter Story again, i'm a bit hazy on what happened the third day after the crucifixion?

2014 Warmest Year On record

Though the official numbers aren't in for December, it's likely that 2014 will go down as the planet's hottest year on record.
Data from according to the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Met Office and the World Meteorological Association agree that the combined land and ocean surface temperatures hit new highs last year to rewrite the global warming record books.
In Australia, for the second year in a row, Australians saw heat records topple as temperatures soared higher than 120F (49C) and into the record books.
The Global Ocean sea surface temperature was 1.13F (0.63 C) above average of 60.7 F (16.0 C), surpassing the previous record and in Siberia temperatures were 9F (5C) above average and ice on the Ob River began to break up weeks earlier than normal.
The drought in California were not aided by the regions highest temperatures since record-keeping began in 1895 and Northern Europe sweated in the warmest year spring for a century while despite the wettest winter for 250 years, England was the warmest it had been since 1659, and the warmest same period for the Netherlands since 1706.
Weather records are tumbling and we are only at the beginning of the climate changes coming our way.

Obama V Jong Un

For anyone who had too much mulled wine over the Christmas period and are only just coming around, Hollywood made a movie about the assassination of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un.
The maker of the film, Sony, was then hacked and emails with snide comments about Angelina Jolie were released and the US blamed North Korea with no proof and have imposed sanctions while most security experts disagree and blame it on a Sony insider.
It seems that imposing sanctions is the new National Sport for Obama which some would say is better than his previous one which was sending drones and blowing up mostly innocent people.
As the North Korea link has been dismissed by most of the Security experts, it seems another case of we have no proof but we will act as though we have anyway, very reminiscent of the MH17 incident with Russia where the 'proof' never materialised.
Obama's predecessor did much the same with Saddam Hussein when he and his cohorts continually put Saddam and Bin Laden in the same breath to create a previously non-existent link between the two knowing that if they repeat the lie about NK hacking Sony enough American's will end up believing it, hence, they get backing for their actions from the useful idiots.
If they had proof surely they'd be showing it to the world to embarrass North Korea and avoid looking like bullies and aggressors but after a decade of American propaganda and outright lies, the American reputation has sunk so low that in a dust-up with North Korea, it's the American leader who have come off looking worse.

Looking Up In January

Tonight is the peak of the first meteor shower of 2015, the Quadrantid's, but as it is drizzling and an almost full moon fills the night sky, i won't be going to sit in a field this time but the January night sky is a wonder at the moment and worthy of grabbing the telescope or binoculars for a tour of our Solar System. 
In the Southwestern sky we can see the Planet Mars and turn your gaze downwards towards the horizon and slightly to the West and huddled together is Venus and Mercury and as the month progresses, Venus will edge towards Mars.
In the Eastern sky hangs Jupiter and turn your gaze towards the Southeast and you can see Saturn to complete the tour of the 5 planets visible this month. 
Orion is one of the most recognisable constellations in the Winter sky and a great launching point for other sites as just above Orion's head to the left is the constellation of Gemini while Orion is pointing its bow at the base of the V shaped Taurus.
Carry on from the bow past Taurus and that's the Pleiades or Seven Sisters sat there.
Orion's top left shoulder is the star Betelgeuse (don't say it 3 times just in case) which is 500 times larger than our Sun while his right foot is Rigel which is 62,000 times brighter than our own star. Follow a line from Rigel across to Orion's left foot and continue West and you can't help but notice Sirius, the dog star, the brightest star in the whole sky.
Even if the Quadrantid's Meteor Shower doesn't live up to the 40 per hour meteor rate promised, there are still some magnificent views and all you need is a pair of working eyes, a compass to find out which way you are facing and be able to find Orion and you can name what has been above our heads for the past 4.6 billion years.

Prince Andrew Named In Court Case

Prince Andrew used to revel in his newspaper nickname of 'Randy Andy' but i doubt he is feeling quite so chuffed with it today as a woman claims that she was repeatedly forced to have sexual relations with Prince Andrew when she was a minor. 
The accusation against the Duke of York comes in a document handed to a Florida court this week in connection with a suit brought by women who say they were exploited by Jeffrey Epstein, a multi-millionaire and close friend of Prince Andrew who spent 13 months in jail after admitting sex with a 14-year-old.  
The document alleges that the woman, 17 at the time, 'was forced to have sexual relations with this prince when she was a minor in London, New York and on a private Caribbean island owned by Epstein'.
Buckingham Palace has issued a statement which states: 'For the avoidance of doubt, any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue'.
The woman’s lawyers allege in their motion that, in addition to facilitating her alleged encounters with Prince Andrew, from 1999 to 2002, Epstein trafficked her to 'many other powerful men, including numerous prominent American politicians,
powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister, and other world leaders'.
Prince Andrew's friendship with Epstein is well-documented and when rumours began circulating in 2011 when the Prince was a frequent visitor to Epstein after his release from prison, denying any sexual contact with any of the young women connected to the multi-millionaire banker.
Could be some interesting times ahead for the Queens second eldest son.

Zelalem Becomes American

As Americans are finally picking up the pace of the game of Football, there has been some interest from people that side of the Atlantic regarding an Arsenal player who has gained American citizenship and is now eligible to don the garish stars and stars football kit.
Midfielder Gedion Zelalem was born in Germany to two Ethiopian parents and made appearances for Germany at junior level and emigrated to the United States with his father in 2006 where he played for Olney Rangers before Arsenal snapped him up in 2013.
As he has now gained his US citizenship, he can choose between Ethiopia, Germany and the United States when it comes to which country he will represent and it seems that he will be joining with Jurgen Klinnsman's team.
One American fan has asked me if he is better than Altidore of which i reply i bloody hope so but apart from a few minutes at the end of a dead leg against Galatasary, i haven't seen him. 
Of course it is his choice but i am not a fan of players choosing to represent a country they don't really belong to.
When there were rumours that Belgian midfielder, Adnan Januzaj, was considering playing for England as he had been here for five years, Jack Wilshire said that: 'Only English people should play football for England, if you live in England for five years it doesn't make you English'.     
I am in complete agreement with that, if your passport says you are Swedish you play for Sweden, if it says English then you play for England and if it says German you play for Germany, it should be as simple as that.
International football is becoming littered with players representing countries that they were not born in but it appears this is the way it is going although Lennox Lewis and Greg Rusedki found out, their new passport may say one thing but it doesn't necessarily mean that they will be as accepted as someone born and bred in that country.
Zelalem is considered a good prospect playing out on the wing and there are hopes that he can be made into a striker but along with passports, football is also littered with former prospects who for one reason or another fall short and Arsenal have taken on and sold more than their fair share of them over the years so how good Zelalem is we will have to wait and see but if he turns out to be another Altidore, then Tottenham can have him.

Don't Visit USA If Pregnant

A British couple have been handed a £130,000 medical bill after their son was born 11 weeks earlier than expected.
Katie Amos, 30, and her fiancée Lee Johnston, 29, were not prepared for their son Dax to be born at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan during a Christmas trip to the city. The couple had planned the trip as a last holiday before their baby arrived.
All things considered, the NHS doesn't seem so bad now does it.

Go Cubs: Back To The Future 2

The BBC shows the three Back to The Future Films over the Christmas and apart from being exceptionally great films, in Part 2 Marty McFly is sent 30 years into the future from 1985 and arrived in a time when where there were hover boards zipping around, everyone wore self-lacing shoes and flying cars were the norm.
As the year he and the DeLorean turned up in was 2015, it was interesting to see just what they got right about the year we have just turned into.
Flying cars and hover boards were obviously wrong as was self lacing shoes and clothes that blow dry themselves when they get wet. We never quite made it to Jaws 19 either and Queen Diana wasn't going to be visiting Washington DC in 2015.
What they got right was video glasses which is suspiciously similar to Google Glass, voice controlled TVs with multiple screens, video games where you don't need to use your hands, video phone calls, biometric security, clothes that play sounds and scenery TV channels.  
Of course as the Doc explains the year 2015 in our reality isn't the same as the 2015 in the Back to the Future as: 'The future hasn't been written yet and every decision that is ever made effects the path of the future. One single turn or deviation would of created an alternate reality'.
So that's why there is no hover boards, flying cars, powered lace shoes or self drying clothes but the film predicts that the Chicago Cubs wins the World Series and after a bit of hunting (and finding out which sport the World Series is) the Cubs are currently 14/1 fifth favourites to take the 2015 title.
I predict there will be a few people brave enough to put their faith in Back To The Future II and back the Cubbies and if they win enough they can research self lacing shoes.
That is is nobody has deviated and created an alternative reality, i hate it when that happens.

800 Years Of Magna Carta

This year marks the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta by King John on 15 June 1215 at Runnymede on the banks of the Thames between Windsor and Staines.
All manner of celebrations are being staged to mark the event and Lincoln and Salisbury Cathedrals are expected to be swamped with visitors eager to see one of the two original copies in existence although the British Library does have two copies.
While most people can have a vague stab at what the Magna Carta is and who the King was who signed it, the relevance of it is very much overstated because for the vast majority of the country it wasn't much use at all.   
The story goes that King John of England was forced to sign The Magna Carta so he and whoever followed him onto the throne could no longer ride roughshod over their subjects.
In reality, The Magna Carta provided plenty of personal rights and freedoms if you were wealthy because it was the landowners and Barons who wrote the Magna Carta and forced King John to sign it because they were outraged that he kept putting up their tax and rents.
Not so much motivated by a sense of great injustice at King John’s acts of cruelty and murder against his subjects, more because he was trying to squeeze more money out of them.
The Magna Carta wasn't even an original piece, it was a dusted off copy of the Charter of Liberties that Henry I signed in 1100 promising to respect certain rights of the Church and the Barons.
Far from being the basis of all English law, of the original 61 clauses, only 3 remain which are the freedom of the Church of England, the continued ancient liberties of the City of London and that no freeman shall be denied Justice or Right.
There's nothing in the charter corresponding to the rights of the citizens and Oliver Cromwell dismissed it, noting that it merely: 'tied one sort of people to be slaves to another; Clergy and Gentry have got their freedom, but the common people still are, and have been left servants to work for them.'
We can expect to hear it mentioned time after time this year that the signing of the Magna Carta was when the common man gained his rights but actually, the only beneficiaries were the English nobility and the Church of England, the rest of the country continued to toil in the fields under the control of the Barons who treated the common folk with much more disdain and cruelty than King John ever treated the nobility.
Remember that when the plethora of programmes and documentaries that will appear on the television this year holding up the Magna Carta as some incredibly important event in the rights of the common man because the only beneficiaries of it were the richest people who were able to continue oppressing the common man while being freed of paying their share of taxes and from where i am sitting, 800 years on, that hasn't really changed.