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Archive for News
February 27, 2009 at 16:32 · Filed under News
The Point Cardiff Bay Limited, trading as The Point have today filed for voluntary insolvency.
The popular live music venue and club night host has been open since 2004 and has been largely successful, despite being located away from the city centre.
Since opening The Point has played host to many popular artists and bands including the Stereophonics, Cerys Matthews and Feeder. The venue also played host to the popular fortnightly rock night Bogiez, which moved there from The Engine Rooms.
The venue closed in late 2008 to undergo soundproofing after complaints from neighbouring residential buildings.
The bill for this work, in addition to factors owing to the current economic climate have made it necessary for the directors to file for insolvency.
This is not the first time that this venue has been hit with problems. It was previously known as MS1 until 2003 when insolvency brought about a buyout by a partnership that was to become the Point Cardiff Bay Limited.
Future gigs and events have been cancelled and ticket holders have been advised to contact their credit card companies for refunds, this unfortunately will not cover customers who have paid for tickets using debit card or cash who will unfortunately lose the money that they have spent on tickets.
There is currently no news on whether scheduled gigs and club nights will be moved to other venues.
Popularity: 27% [?]
February 19, 2009 at 20:40 · Filed under News
This is Filesharer.org, launched in protest of the Pirate Bay trial by the Norwegian political party Rødt(Red), it allows visitors to upload a photo of themselves to be displayed on the website, outing themselves as filesharers and thus criminals, making the point that these so-called criminals are normal everyday people.
Starting a war against the Pirate Bay is probably the most stupid course of action to have been taken yet by the recording and motion picture industry. The website has already once been attempted to be taken down but Swedish law has prevented this, why try again when the law hasn’t changed?
Closing down this one particular website, albeit one of the most popular, will not show any significant decrease in the number of files being downloaded using the BitTorrent protocol. With other large directories, such as Mininova or BtMon still to be disposed of (this Pirate Bay trial has taken 2 years to come to court) it will be a long time before BitTorrent sites are gone. And if they do all miraculously disappear, they will just go underground.
Digital files can be copied and transferred an infinite number of times, so as long as they exist, someone will engineer a way to continue this chain of copying and transferring.
If there were an infinite stockpile of food somewhere which we all knew existed but were being told ‘There is no way to get to it’, somebody would spend night and day trying to find a way. When you consider the sheer number of people that have share this interest, it is inevitable that they would succeed. The same theory would apply to file sharing.
Popularity: 28% [?]
February 3, 2009 at 23:29 · Filed under Anything Else?, News
As I am writing this, actor, presenter, geek, conservationist and comedian extraordinaire Stephen Fry is stuck in a lift in London’s Centre Point. How do I know this? Well, he sent me a picture of course.
That he sent this very same picture to 107,923 other people is neither here nor there.
This image was distributed by Stephen Fry using his iPhone and Twitter.
I have been following Stephen Fry using Twitter for around 4 months now, since he started in October.
By January he had 50,000 followers. Since he mentioned Twitter on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on January 23rd of this year the number of subscribers to his tweets has more than doubled, now standing at the figure quoted above and rising by literally thousands every day. It seems that Mr Fry has kicked off a tweeting craze here in the UK. People who did not know the difference between a retweet and a twat last week now have accounts and are posting their every move.
Stephen Fry being stuck in a lift for 30 minutes has, at the last count, spawned over 2,100 tweets tagged @stephenfry, #frylift or similar. Twitter brings celebrity closer than ever before and Fry is working it very well. He almost seems like a real friend of mine. He posts where he is going, what he is doing, how he is feeling, what he is eating, all in under 140 characters.
The other morning I opened up Twibble (the Twitter application I use for my Nokia N95) and immediately knew that Stephen was out for a walk because he felt that he had eaten too much cheese the previous night, further proof to the fact that Twitter is bringing us closer to our idols than we have ever been.
Other Twitterers include Jonathan Ross, John Cleese and newbie Russell Brand.
How long will it last though? I have been tweeting for over a year now and have a few followers, perhaps now will be my time too? One can only hope.
Don’t forget to follow me!
Update: Stephen and his new lift friends were released at 23:33. 35 minutes after becoming stranded and causing an internet storm.
Popularity: 23% [?]
January 23, 2009 at 14:58 · Filed under News
Now that the UK is officially in a recession, what is interesting to see is how news organisations want us to visualise economic slowdown.
When the Great Depression is mentioned, a lot of us would picture people walking around, in sepia, with mouth and brows arced downwards, like a sad clown. But where did this image come from? Television, most likely.
Though this isn’t a new piece of imagery, call me crazy, but this is how I’ve always pictured it. An episode of the Simpsons is one example that I can remember where this has been brought to screen, in the scene an ancestor of Moe Syzlack comments “Oh, jeez, there’s always a line”, when attempting to commit suicide from the top of a skyscraper in 1929 and is greeted by a long line of other jumpers, obviously a very popular pastime when Wall Street crashed.
Today the image used by most major news outlets is the ‘its raining and here are some shops that have closed down, how depressing.’ scene. In this image there is usually 1, but no more than 3 people in the shot. None look interested in shopping in the least. Mostly they are shot speeding past the camera, blur lines and all, representative of an entire populous that just doesn’t have the money to buy.
The BBC think that recession is best represented by a Hasidic Jew and a poorly dressed fat woman who hasn’t had the spare money to go to a hair salon in the last 4 quarters, quite obviously representing the length of time that UK growth has been negative and subsequently how long it has taken to get the official ‘recession’ stamp.
For quite how long growth will continue to fall, I don’t think anybody knows, but what is for sure is that while we’re in this state there will be a lot more images and depictions of life as it changes significantly. The boom and bust policies of governments and corporations have once again showed us its downside and we’re left kicking ourselves for being so naïve as to think that our prosperity would never end.
Where once credit was only an online application away, giving our society the illusion that we were flush with cash to spend on luxury cars, binge-drinking and all-inclusive Carribean holidays, many are having to learn new skills in penny-pinching, seeking out deals and shopping with thought. Perhaps then not all is bad? Responsibility being given back to individuals and families for their actions and spending is a way of giving back some free and constructive thought, previously clouded by credit lines that were tantamount to being unlimited?
Popularity: 19% [?]
February 20, 2008 at 13:07 · Filed under News
To cement my position in the league of Welsh bloggers, I would like to offer a quick round-up of the news coming out of Wales in the first half of this week, flanked of course by a bit of my own banter.
Traffic ban to stay in force despite appeals
Cardiff’s St Mary Street will remain closed to private cars for at least another year – despite calls for the link to Cardiff Bay to be reopened.
With work about to start to demolish the old terminal building at Cardiff Bus station it would be foolish to re-open any part of St Mary Street to private traffic. The bus network has had to be re-jigged to move buses away from Wood Street, where demolition work is to start imminently, congestion around Westgate Street and Castle Street is eased by the fact that buses have free-run of St Mary Street. If cars are allowed back on it, buses will be held up, causing more congestion on the aforementioned streets; Castle, Westgate and Wood, making it counterproductive in the long term.
Logo aims to ditch ’sterotype’
Promoters say a new logo to market Cardiff marks a departure from the stereotype of daffodils and dragons.
Stereotypical daffodils and dragons? Are “Cardiff & Co” (who came up with this name?) worried that when people think of visiting Cardiff, they will picture it as one huge field with daffodils and roaming dragons? Instead, we get this new logo which is indistinguishable from that of a company or even web 2.0 site. Perhaps they should rename the city too, in line with current trends, CardiffR beta, perhaps? In fact, it’s also a complete rip-off of the Greek tourist board logo.
Call to limit anti-terror control orders
Terror suspects should only be placed on control orders for up to two years unless there are exceptional circumstances – and some should be given Asbos instead – the Welsh peer in charge of monitoring the Government’s terror legislation said last night.
Well, in a way he is right, terrorist plotting is anti-social, but surely Lord Carlile is not so imbecilic as to suggest that we hand out ASBO’s to vandals, drunks, abusive teens and suicide bombers?
Dilapidated shed on market at £150,000
It’s partially covered in plastic sheeting and even the estate agent trying to sell it admits it’s “dilapidated”.
And who said that Wales’ housing market was on the verge of crashing? Ideal student accomodation perhaps?
Cardiff club is bought for £700,000
A watering hole opposite the Millennium Stadium has netted four South Wales councils £700,000.
Exactly what Cardiff city centre needs, another faceless chain pub for the drunken masses to congregate.
Criminals rewarded with free rail tickets
Commuters have voiced their outrage after young offenders were given free rail travel by a train company.
Money saving tip: Spend your weekends causing criminal damage to get free rail travel to work in the week.
Assembly staff tell of workplace bullying
National Assembly staff have made an average of one complaint a month of bullying or harassment to their bosses in the last three years.
Just more fuel to fire the argument that the NAfW really is just ‘jobs for the boys’.
How can the Assembly Government be involved in promoting equality and bullying schemes to private companies when they have not even got their own staff under control?
Their next step should be to launch an initiative within the organisation and publicise this, to prove that they are taking steps to clear out the chauvanists, racists, bullies et al. Every large company that I know of has a policy and/or scheme to counter or take action in situations involving sexism and bullying, does the Assembly Government have these facilities to their staff? If so, they could deflect criticism by making light of this, they need to lead by example.
Mum may sue cinema after her daughter falls 14ft
A mum has said she is considering legal action against a cinema operator after her daughter fell 14ft from a balcony.
I’d love to get the inside info on this case, where she fell from etc.
The Vue Cinema complex is ultra-modern, only completed in 2002, and the barriers over the fantastic drops are chest height for me. So for a 14-year old girl, let’s assume she is average height, to be able to ‘fall’ over one of these, she would have to have been very stupidly climbing over it.
If the case does come to court, it would be interesting to see if what the cinema company says is true, that the injured girl refused treatment. Of course, they would have the upper hand in any case, assuming they’re innocent, as the building is covered with CCTV cameras.
Popularity: 29% [?]
January 17, 2008 at 14:16 · Filed under News
This is a screenshot from the Heathrow airport website this afternoon, shortly after the incident described here. I think that the status ‘landed’ is an overstatement. They should use ‘It’s over there, somewhere’.
Popularity: 20% [?]
September 4, 2006 at 10:05 · Filed under News
Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter, has been killed in an encounter with a Stingray off the coast of Queensland, Australia whilst filming a documentary. News reports say he was stung either through his heart or through the left side of his chest causing heart failure.
Irwin is survived by his wife and colleague, Terri and their two young children, Bindi, 8 and Robert (Bob), 3.
More than just an outlandish stuntman, Steve was a true environmentalist and wildlife conservationist. Ever an ambassador for Australia, the Australian Tourism Export Council says the industry is in a state of shock.
Steve, you will be sorely missed, not just for the entertainment you provided, but also the enlightenment you gave to many thousands of people.
Popularity: 11% [?]
February 13, 2006 at 16:58 · Filed under News
So, with the news that American Vice-President Dick Cheney has now to add ’shot man in head and torso’ to his long list of debaucheries, how sure are we that he was out hunting Quail and not former Vice-President Dan Quayle?
I mean, c’mon, who hasn’t thought about shooting that smug bastard?
In his own words;
‘I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican’
Surely this is just another one for the anti-gun people to add to their list?
I mean, seriously, if your Vice-President can’t handle a shotgun, what chance has the average Joe Bloggs living in their fancy trailer park?
Popularity: 9% [?]
January 16, 2006 at 15:47 · Filed under News
A report has emerged that court summons will be delivered to Michael Barrymore, whilst he is in the Celebrity Big Brother house.
I haven’t been watching the series, simply because it doesn’t deserve any of my attention.
But, I cannot seem to go one day without something cropping up on one of my subscribed RSS feeds about it.
Since I haven’t been watching it, I haven’t felt the need to post about it. But this story has really made me sit up and shake my head in disbelief.
Stuart Lubbock was found dead in quiz show host Michael Barrymore’s swimming pool in 2001.
Not enough evidence was ever found to convict Barrymore of any involvement in his death.
In 2004, Lubbocks father, Terry, sued Barrymore for £100,000. Apparently they had come to this sum based on Stuarts earnings.
Fair enough, he did leave behind two young daughters.
Today, Terry Lubbock & his solicitor have been back to court to a private prosecution against Mr Barrymore.
Surely whilst the proposed defendant is participating in a national television program is not the best time to bring a prosecution against him?
I fail to see how this will do the Lubbocks’ case any good at all.
The channel running the programme, Channel4 will lap this up. It’ll push their ratings up, thus increasing their adverstising revenues and Barrymore will be synonymous with being ‘the guy who got endicted on live television’.
You really couldn’t make some of this stuff up. It’s getting like an episode of Eastenders.
- MP acts like cat, makes fool out of self, should resign.
- Rock star wears Gorilla hair coat, could be jailed.
- Anti-bullying ambassador bullied by housemates.
However disbelieving I am over these revalations, I still shan’t be watching the programme on television, still it is not worthy of my time.
Popularity: 11% [?]
December 20, 2005 at 11:40 · Filed under Comment, News
The Metropolitan Transit Authority has called a strike, effectively halting all bus and subway transit throughout New York and neighbouring areas (Queens, Brooklyn, etc.).
The whole system carries over 7million people a day, the city is going to be totally gridlocked.
People won’t be able to get to work, others wont be able to make appointments, tourists will find it hard getting around, it will be absolutely terrible. I could not imagine being unable to use the subway whilst I was there. Both Laura & I were totally dependent on it, the subway is the easiest and cheapest way to get around, as anyone who has been to New York, or any other city with a subway or metro system will know.
A familiar sight around NYC today
Originally uploaded by beemo.
Mayor Bloomberg had this to say,
Tonight, Roger Toussaint and the TWU have taken the illegal and morally reprehensible action of ordering a citywide strike of our mass transit system.
So it sounds as though he isn’t so pleased about it.
Reuters also points out;
As dawn approached, police set up checkpoints as part of a plan to ban cars carrying fewer than four people from midtown Manhattan. The city has contingency plans such as strict car pool rules to help avoid gridlock.
Yep. Minimum 4 persons per car in Manhattan. That’s quite a bitch, but, nonetheless necessary.
Manhattan gets pretty gridlocked on a normal day, can you imagine what is going to happen on a day where 7million people have been forced onto the streets in cars and taxis? Yeesh.
As I write this, rush hour will be preparing to start in the big apple, it’s 6:30am.
Good luck to all you New Yorkers, have a great day regardless.
Popularity: 15% [?]
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