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Have to admit i dodge 99% of all news these days Mark for reasons i don't have to explain to you.Just wanted to say i watched a program tonight called "The Diamond Queen".Never been much of a monarchist but found this program quite compelling so if you can catch up on it on BBC iplayer or whatever then please do.It touched on the Queen's visit to Ireland and have to admit it was very touching.As closest neighbours we have had a disgusting past but the last 5 years have blown that away imho and long may it continue,

As for Lizzy,she didn't exactly ask to be born Queen but how she handled her job has to be applauded.Not sure what your stance is regards monarchs etc. but things are the way they are and us mortals have to go along with it.Would like to discuss the possible European changes in the constitution etc. but i know there are easier ways to depress myself these days.I take it you understand.And no,that doesn't mean watching an AV v Lpool game

Anti Monarchist mate, I do not have any time for any of them. The colonial/imperialist past of my country of birth, is something I'm deeply ashamed of.

RE: European changes in the constitution, the EU will never admit that a 'one size fits all' style of governance/fiscal policy does not and will not work. Its a self serving, corrupt institution, with only the interests of the established elite at heart. Hence the current situation in Greece. Only my opinion, of course.

However, due to the current form of our respective football teams there is plenty to depress us without bringing up the EU cartel!

On a brighter note: Kim Kardashian in a Bikini.

Thursday 12th of April.

The human cost of UK's £300m addiction to lap-dancing:

Amy stopped working in lap- dancing clubs six months ago. For a while she enjoyed the work: it brought in much- needed cash at a time when money was short, the rent was due and immediate job options were limited. But eventually she knew it was time to quit. "I wasn't a lap dancer for very long, but from what I gather, the industry has become much tougher to work in since the recession," she says.

"Men still come to the clubs but fewer are buying private dances, which is where the real money is made. A girl won't make any money at all if she doesn't do any private dances, so it's become tough." Like any industry, the stripping trade has had to weather the economic difficulties of the past four years. "There are fewer customers during the week," the 22-year-old, who worked the London club circuit, explains.

"The weekdays used to be fairly busy with mad weekends, but now it's only the weekends that are busy. You can feel that the industry is being squeezed by the recession, but it's not desperate." Many commentators have expressed surprise that the industry hasn't taken a more noticeable hit amid Britain's continuing financial gloom.

6 Glasses With Integrated Displays That You Can Buy Today:

While Google’s augmented-reality glasses are receiving immense attention — and scrutiny — they’re certainly not the first pieces of eyewear to include an integrated display.

A company called Vuzix released its first pair of augmented-reality glasses, the iWear VR920, in 2009. The glasses contain two LCD displays that mimic a 62-inch screen sitting nine feet away. An add-on camera routes real-time footage of the real world to the LCDs, overlaying augmented-reality elements powered by LinceoVR software.

The Vuzix glasses were perhaps the first low-cost integrated-display glasses on the market that didn’t outright suck. Nonetheless, that distinction hasn’t translated into mass-market appeal and sales.

The same can be said for the Sony Glasstron personal video headset that was released in 1997. And even the 3-D monochromatic Virtual Boy with its powerhouse Nintendo pedigree couldn’t entice gamers to shove over-sized glasses onto their faces for a more immersive experience.

Muslims 'must embrace democracy' says David Cameron:

Speaking in Indonesia, the world’s largest Islamic country, the Prime Minister will urge young Muslims to abandon “the dead-end choice of dictatorship and extremism” by forcing their countries to hold elections.

He will claim it would be “the greatest defeat that Al Qaeda could ever suffer,” if more rebel and follow the lead of the young Muslims who sparked the Arab Spring.

Mr Cameron will express his concern for the rights of millions of Christians, especially in Egypt, where the Coptic minority say they are facing increasing persecution. In a strong rebuke to Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood party, Mr Cameron will demand it does not “deny the rights of religious minorities who do not share their specific religious views”.

Egypt’s Coptic community, which accounts for 10 per cent of the country’s 80 million population, has been subjected to a continuous campaign of sectarian attacks since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak last February. Thirteen were killed last May and another 10 two months before in attacks by suspected Islamists.

The Greek Debt Crisis:

If you want to see what a bona fide economic depression in the 21st century looks like, look at Greece:

* One out of two youth unemployed
* General unemployment in excess of 25 percent
* GDP collapsing
* Wages falling by 20-40 percent
* Pensions shrinking
* Jobs melting away at an increasing rate

Austerity is a doomed solution to a debt crisis. Austerity is a manoeuvre by bondholders and bankers to buy time, in the false hope that somehow so-called market forces will stabilize so that they won’t have to sell their bonds at a loss.

It is indeed very very very sad what is happening in Greece, people lining up for a piece of bread and some food in an European country, it is really shocking. I have limited knowledge of the crisis in Greece, but from what I have read, is that they have spent way more of what they should have, and they have also managed to hide debt with the help of Goldman Sachs and some other banks, and I have yet to read about a member of the Greek govt being prosecuted.

@ MarkQuick what do you think Greece should have done? Bankruptcy ?

Originally posted by vladnz
It is indeed very very very sad what is happening in Greece, people lining up for a piece of bread and some food in an European country, it is really shocking. I have limited knowledge of the crisis in Greece, but from what I have read, is that they have spent way more of what they should have, and they have also managed to hide debt with the help of Goldman Sachs and some other banks, and I have yet to read about a member of the Greek govt being prosecuted.

@ MarkQuick what do you think Greece should have done? Bankruptcy ?

In a word yes. The government should have defaulted on their loans, pulled out of the EU and reverted back to the Drachma. However, when you have an unelected prime minister with a track record such as *Lucas Papademo's, the best interests of the Greek people would never be put before those of Goldmans Sachs et al.

Interesting read: Greek MP's highest paid in Europe.

*Lucas Papademos, Greek Prime Minister:

Lucas Papademos has been the head of the Bank of Greece, the head of the European Central Bank, and is now the prime minister of Greece. He worked with Goldman Sachs when Greece was trying to get its debts levels down so it could swap its currency from the drachma to the euro. It transpired that cross-currency deals negotiated between Greece and Goldman helped mask Greece’s true levels of debt and contributed to the eurozone crisis.

Originally posted by MarkQuick

Originally posted by vladnz
It is indeed very very very sad what is happening in Greece, people lining up for a piece of bread and some food in an European country, it is really shocking. I have limited knowledge of the crisis in Greece, but from what I have read, is that they have spent way more of what they should have, and they have also managed to hide debt with the help of Goldman Sachs and some other banks, and I have yet to read about a member of the Greek govt being prosecuted.

@ MarkQuick what do you think Greece should have done? Bankruptcy ?

In a word yes. The government should have defaulted on their loans, pulled out of the EU and reverted back to the Drachma. However, when you have an unelected prime minister with a track record such as *Lucas Papademo's, the best interests of the Greek people would never be put before those of Goldmans Sachs et al.

Interesting read: Greek MP's highest paid in Europe.

*Lucas Papademos, Greek Prime Minister:

Lucas Papademos has been the head of the Bank of Greece, the head of the European Central Bank, and is now the prime minister of Greece. He worked with Goldman Sachs when Greece was trying to get its debts levels down so it could swap its currency from the drachma to the euro. It transpired that cross-currency deals negotiated between Greece and Goldman helped mask Greece’s true levels of debt and contributed to the eurozone crisis.

Jebus, is there any Minister that hasn't worked at Goldman Sachs? Not to mention the other banks and financial institutions. It is so sad to me, to see people being so greedy, $5 mill a year its not enough they want 50 and when they get to 50 they want 100. How can people be so greedy, and not care at all, it is truly amazing.

Like I don't mind people like Bill Gates or Steve jobs, create invent things, and when they go down they don't bankrupt the whole world, and they also don't profit from people losing their homes.

To me it is really amazing that people can be so greedy, I really have no words to describe it, how can they sleep at night.
Another funny thing is that I have yet to see a Wall St. executive face chargers.

How fair, just and ethical is the justice system, when the guy that steals 1 bread and some salami to feed his family faces prison, while the executives that bankrupt and left millions of people homeless and without jobs, get a few $ mill bonus.

Sorry for my rant, but I get really carried away about this shit.

P.s had a bit to drink.

~vladnz

Hi vladnz,

No need to apologize, I know exactly how you feel.

The more you think about it, the less sense it will make. So crack open a cold one and enjoy what you have.

The next news update should be posted tomorrow and I'll try to keep gloomy finance issues to a minimum!

Take it easy,

Mark.

Thursday the 19th of April.

Julian Assange's Debut on Russia Today:

Julian Assange‘s new show “The World Tomorrow” recently debuted on Russia Today (RT) and featured a roughly 30 minute discussion with Hassan Nasrallah. Considering that the reclusive leader of Hezbollah hadn’t given an interview to the Western media in almost 6 full years (i.e. several lifetimes in the media universe) it would at least appear that Assange got something of a scoop: Nasrallah is, objectively speaking, someone with a fair amount of influence in an extremely important and tumultuous part of the world and his views, for better or, far more likely, for worse, carry a lot of weight.

Nato Chiefs and Politicians at War Over 'Risky' Afghan Withdrawal Plans:

The blueprint for the West's exit strategy for the long war in Afghanistan is being set out in a critical meeting, with military officials and diplomats battling to prevent a proposed depletion of Afghan forces while the security situation remains precarious.

The conference in Brussels took place as an American newspaper published photographs yesterday of US soldiers next to the dismembered bodies of Taliban suicide bombers. The Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta, had to apologise to the Afghan delegation and fellow Nato ministers for the way the reputation of international forces had been "besmirched" by the actions apparently depicted in the pictures published in the Los Angeles Times.

Kuwaiti finance minister faces questions over deal to pay 'millions' to Tony Blair’s company:

Kuwaiti MPs are preparing to question the country’s finance minister over a controversial deal in which Tony Blair’s company was allegedly paid millions of pounds to advise its royal family. The former British prime minister’s consultancy firm was paid a reported £27million in 2009 to advise Kuwait’s rulers on “political and economic trends and governmental reform.”

A number of Kuwaiti MPs are now in the process of gathering information about the appointment, and plan to question the country’s finance minister Mustafa Jassem later this month.

Anders Breivik Prefers Execution Over 'Pathetic' Jail Term:

Anders Behring Breivik would rather be executed than receive Norway's "pathetic" maximum punishment of 21 years in jail for the bomb and gun attacks that left 77 dead last summer, he told a court on Wednesday. "There are only two just and fair outcomes in this case," he told Oslo central court: "Acquittal or capital punishment." He said he didn't want to be killed, but said he would "respect" the decision. "I consider 21 years of prison as a pathetic punishment," he said, later describing himself as a "militant Christian" who believed in the afterlife.

Amazon’s Secretive Cloud Carries 1 Percent of the Internet:

Amazon’s cloud computing infrastructure is growing so fast that it’s silently becoming a core piece of the internet. That’s according to an analysis done by DeepField Networks, a start-up that number-crunched several weeks’ worth of anonymous network traffic provided by internet service providers, mainly in North America. They found that one-third of the several million users in the study visited a website that uses Amazon’s infrastructure each day.

Most people still think of Amazon as the internet’s giant shopping mall — a purveyor of gadgets, books and movies — but it’s quietly become “a massive utility” that is either on the sending or receiving end of 1 percent of all of the internet traffic in North America, says Craig Labovitz, a well-known internet researcher and co-founder of DeepField.

@vladnz, on a lighter note....

They're Beyond the Pale! Take a Look at the World's Most Terrible Tans:

These days, it could be called the Jersey Shore effect. But Snooki and crew aren't solely to blame for the obsessively bronzed, sun-scorched bodies terrorizing America's beaches. Website; PaleIsTheNewTan.com, has dedicated its pages to lampooning the culture of sun worshippers and sun block abusers across the globe. And the results of their efforts may frighten you.

haha epic tans.

Breivik is unbelievable, i can't get my head around the shit he comes out with everyday

Originally posted by ExternalUseOnly
haha epic tans.

Breivik is unbelievable, i can't get my head around the shit he comes out with everyday

How will this abhorrent crime affect future generations? Will Norway succumb to the rhetoric of the far right? Or will an agenda of tolerance and integration, rise to the fore?

Further reading:

Europe’s Big Problem is that Breivik is Not the Alpha or Omega of Terrorism.

Anders Breivik's Trial.

Norway Debates Immigration in Wake of Breivik Killings (Jan 2012).

hahahah tanningggggg

Hey vladnz, I thought you'd enjoy that article!

Originally posted by MarkQuick
Hey vladnz, I thought you'd enjoy that article!

Thx mate, I love your articles

Originally posted by vladnz

Originally posted by MarkQuick
Hey vladnz, I thought you'd enjoy that article!

Thx mate, I love your articles

No worries, thanks for your feedback, there will more today. Watch this space!

The Torment of The Children of Fallujah That is Too Awful to Describe:

The pictures flash up on a screen on an upper floor of the Fallujah General Hospital. All at once, Nadhem Shokr al-Hadidi's administration office becomes a little chamber of horrors.

A baby with a deformed mouth. A child with a defect of the spinal cord, material from the spine outside the body. A baby with a terrible, vast Cyclopean eye. Another baby with only half a head, stillborn like the rest, date of birth 17 June, 2009. Another picture flicks onto the screen: date of birth 6 July 2009, it shows a tiny child with half a right arm, no left leg, no genitalia.

Will Rupert Murdoch's Reputation Survive Leveson's Verdict?

Rupert Murdoch is in trouble. In two days as a witness at the Leveson inquiry he has blocked and blasted, smeared and smiled, and, at the end of it, this most powerful of men still has his ankle caught in the snare of scandal. He is vulnerable.

This is a man who is used to getting his way. He is not used to being confronted by people who have the power, the skill and the simple effrontery to challenge him – and to keep on challenging him. On Wednesday morning, he walked in with all the protection that his advisers could give him in the previous days of detailed briefings and endless rehearsals. By Thursday morning, there were times when he had lost the script, lost the plot and he simply sat there, with nobody to help him and no way out.

Swiss Woman Dies After Attempting to Live on Sunlight:

Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reports that a woman starved to death after embarking on a spiritual diet that required her to stop eating or drinking and live off sunlight alone. The Zurich newspaper reported Wednesday that the unnamed Swiss woman in her fifties decided to follow the radical fast in 2010 after viewing an Austrian documentary about an Indian guru who claims to have lived this way for 70 years.

Fear That the fall of Assad Would Lead to Worse For Western Interests and Israel:

Let me start with the different controversial opinions about the political character of the Syrian National Council (SNC). What’s your opinion on the composition of SNC?

The Syrian National Council is a heterogeneous combination of people, from the Muslim Brotherhood to people on the left, especially the People’s Democratic Party, with a number of figures linked to Western governments, the US or France in particular. It is basically heterogeneous, and we can see that, for instance, in the way they couldn’t agree on the replacement for Burhan Ghalioun or in the way Burhan Ghalioun himself was disavowed after signing the Cairo agreement with another faction of the opposition. The SNC is held together by the pressure of various states intervening in the Syrian situation.

French Elections: Sarkozy, the Choice of Washington:

Millions of French have cast their votes at the polling stations to determine the future of France for the next five years. But do any of the 10 candidates offer a real solution to France's actual problems?

Around 70 per cent of voters had cast their ballots by 15:00 GMT on Sunday, less than by the same time in 2007, the Interior Ministry said. France's overseas territories, including Guadeloupe, French Guiana, French Polynesia, and citizens residing in North and South America, voted the day before, on Saturday.

And on a lighter note....

'What you looking at?'

They're meant to be affectionate, loyal faces in your home, but it seems nobody told this group of surly pets. This hilarious collection of the most sour-faced domestic animals shows just how evil pets can look when the mood strikes.

Oh dear lord what was that Swiss lady thinking!

Originally posted by HollyMichelle
Oh dear lord what was that Swiss lady thinking!

Quite sure the lack of thinking is the primary cause of death..

Originally posted by fruktpuff

Originally posted by HollyMichelle
Oh dear lord what was that Swiss lady thinking!

Quite sure the lack of thinking is the primary cause of death..

LDO ♦

They should have had a "don't try this at home" disclaimer attached to the documentary.

Don't believe everything you see on TV kids!

Originally posted by HollyMichelle

Originally posted by fruktpuff

Originally posted by HollyMichelle
Oh dear lord what was that Swiss lady thinking!

Quite sure the lack of thinking is the primary cause of death..

LDO ♦

They should have had a "don't try this at home" disclaimer attached to the documentary.

Don't believe everything you see on TV kids!

Unreal. On a similar note, do you remember this guy:

Fasting Fakir Flummoxes Physicians:

Doctors and experts are baffled by an Indian hermit who claims not to have eaten or drunk anything for several decades - but is still in perfect health.

India's Man Who Lives on Sunshine:

The crimson-clad old man with the nose ring tries to tell us that he hasn't eaten or drunk anything since the goddess Ambaji touched his tongue with her finger. That must have been around the time of the outbreak of the second world war.