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On the morning and early afternoon of Wednesday June 2nd 2010 a local taxi driver, Derrick Bird, killed 12 people before taking his own life. No doubt everybody has either seen the TV footage, heard about it on the radio, read about it in the newspapers or seen the reports on the variety of news websites that have covered the story. I don't know why he did it or the reason for targetting the people he did. And, I'm not going to speculate on either.

I was pretty oblivious to the events that unfolded until early afternoon. With it being half-term and the main hall at work being used that day I had arranged to take that day off and run the Junior Club on Friday instead. As a result, I had got up, got washed etc, grabbed some breakfast and came back upstairs to play on the XBox. It wasn't until about 1:45pm that I knocked the XBox off and switched over to wacth some TV. I had planned to watch 'Going Postal'; the latest Terry Pratchett adaption from Sky, which I am going to finally get around to watching this evening.

It was rather surreal watching the events unfold in the local area. West Cumbria isn't one of those places that you associate with any kind of major crime; let alone a murderous rampage which ending up leaving 12 people dead.

I had some concern with the safety of a friend of mine who lives in one of the flats just above the Duke Street taxi-rank where the killings appeared to begin; although we later learnt that they had started much earlier and quite some distance away in Lamplugh. High Trees, Lamplugh was a place I had spent a considerable number of weekends at whilst growing up. A schoolfriend lived out there and we used to play tabletop games such as Car Wars and Illuminati there. I'm not totally sure but I think his parents may still live out there. Thankfully, he posted on Facebook that they were safe. And I recived a texted reply from my friend who lives on Duke Street to say that he was at college and was nowhere near the danger.

Whilst it's true to say that people in the local area tend to know each other; for example, one of the people I work with knew 3 or 4 of the victims and the gunman too, I realised that I didn't know any of the victims; or so I thought! As Wednesday ended I saw a post by one of my cousin's kids that people were saying her Grandad was one of the victims. Unfortunately, by the time I got home from work on Thursday it had been confirmed that one of the victims was indeed my cousin's former father-in-law, and her kids' Grandad.

It also transpires that one of my neighbours from a few doors away was also shot. Bird had apparently beckoned him over to ask for directions or something. He'd seen the gun at the last second and turned away but was shot in the back. He's now out of hospital but will need to go back a couple of times.

I know people would normally say that their thoughts and prayers go out to all the people affected by this. However, being an atheist all I can do is offer my condolences to all the people who have lost loved ones and offer my wishes of speedy recovery to the surviving victims.

Finally, I would hope that this awful incident doesn't end up stopping people holidaying/visiting here; West Cumbria is a beautiful place to visit and a nice, quiet place to live.

My family and I have managed to escape the recent Cumbrian floods unscathed. We've had some bad weather locally but my two sisters, my brother, my Dad and I all live in locations where flooding is extremely unlikely. About the only disruption we've had at home is a loss of telephone and internet service on Friday as a result of Northside Bridge collapsing.

I was due to attend BTCV in Workington on Friday morning and then pop into Northside Community Centre in the afternoon. It took well over an hour to get from Lillyhall into Workington town centre; a distance of less than 3 miles. This was due to the police stopping all motorists entering Workington to ascertain where they were going. I was told that getting to BTCV would be no problem but that to get to Northside I would need to go out via Cockermouth and Maryport.

Anyway, I reached BTCV only to discover that they were closed and rather than attempt to get to Northside I returned home. I texted my boss to say as much and he advised me not to bother coming in on Monday either until he knew for definite how things were going to pan out.

I've been keeping close tabs on the road and bridge closures and whilst getting in and out of West Cumbria via the A66 is still possible. The A595 is closed at Papcastle which is just north of Cockermouth. It's looking likely that to get to work at the moment I will need to head along the A5086 toward Cokermouth and then head east; away from Workington, towards Keswick. Then it depends whether the B5291 is open or not. If it is I could then go along that, to the north of Bassenthwaite Lake and then north on the A591 to Bothel. If the B5291 is closed then I would need to go south to Keswick before then heading north on the A591 towards Bothel. I could then head south on the A595 to the Papcastle roundabout. West on the A594 to Maryport and then finally south on the A596 to Northside. Thus turning a 13 mile journey into somewhere betwwen a 43 to 55 mile journey. Hopefully, inspections will go well and the road up to Papcastle can be reopened. This will mean the route to work becomes only 27 miles.

Convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, has been freed to return home to Libya.

The government said it had consulted widely before Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill made his decision on applications for Megrahi's compassionate release or his transfer to a Libyan jail. He told a media conference on Thursday that he had rejected the application for a prisoner transfer.

However, after taking medical advice it was expected that three months was a "reasonable estimate" of the time Megrahi had left to live.

I agree with US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, that Megrahi should not have been released on compassionate grounds; after all how much compassion was shown to the victims of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103? However, I have to say that I applaud Mr MacAskill, for not bowing to overwhelming pressure and instead dealing with the case just as he would any other case. I think he made the wrong decision, but he stood firm and after considering all pertinent information he made the decision he did. He even gave the UK government an opportunity to make representations but they declined; "They saw no legal barrier to transfer and that they gave no assurances to the US government at the time."

I find it extremely distasteful that a man convicted of killing 270 innocent people is shown compassion and released so that he may go home and die a free man. Especially, considering the almost heroic welcome he was afforded upon his arrival in Tripoli.

I have no problem with the idea of showing compassion to convicted criminals but I think that somebody who has been convicted of maliciously setting out, and succeeding, to kill others should not be afforded compassion.

A government that is supposedly tough on crime allows a man sentenced to life imprisonment; with a recommended minimum term of 27 years, to go free after only 8 years because he is dying. A number of countries around the world consider the term 'life' to mean just that.

I attended the local county council election count last Friday and the local european election count last night. Both counts seemed to go on for an interminably long time although I must admit the counting staff did an excellent job under difficult circumstances. Neither event were particulalrly good news for the party I support, the Liberal Democrats. And, no doubt everybody in the UK must be aware by now that the BNP has managed to grab two seats at yesterday's european election counts. One in Humberside and one in the Northwest.

I heard a commentator on BBC Radio Five Live last night state that this was "a dark day for British democracy." Whilst I don't agree with the BNP I feel that the commentator is extremely wide of the mark. The electorate in those two regions elected the BNP in fair and democratic elections. Whilst people may argue about the fact that the seats were won under a proportional representation system, the fact is that that is the system in place. As much as I, or anybody else, may dislike the BNP and what their mandate is, the fact remains that they have as much right to be on the ballot paper as any other political organisation.

It may be a dark day for British politics, note I said politics and not democracy, and a sorry indictment of the British electorate but it is the end result of a wholly democratic process. I may be extremely disheartened that the BNP have won 2 seats in the European Parliament but I recognise the fact that the democratic process remains intact.

When Big Ben chimes midnight tonight to mark the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 it will herald the world-famous clock's 150th anniversary. However, there will have been a fair bit of sweating going on in the background. The engineers that look after the famous clock and bell are having to introduce an extra second just before midnight due to the introduction of a leap second by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS).

There have been 23 leap seconds added since they were first introduced in 1972. Peter Whibberley of the National Physical Laboratory - known to his colleagues as "the Time Lord", represents the UK on the IERS. He explains "Ultimately, over many hundreds of years if leap seconds were scrapped, the time of night and day would drift away from the time shown by our clocks," adding "So if nothing was done to bring them back into line, night would be happening at midday as shown by the clocks."

So, feel free to look forward to your extra second of either revellry or sleep tonight.

View a related video.

Discworld novellist Terry Pratchett is to be knighted in the New Year' Honours List. Sir Terry, 60, who has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, said: "I am of course delighted and honoured and, needless to say, flabbergasted."

Olympic cyclist Chris Hoy, who won 3 gold medals in Beijing, and was named BBC Sports Personality of the year for 2008, is also knighted. "To become a knight from riding your bike, it's mad," he said. "But it is, genuinely, just an amazing honour."

Lewis Hamilton becomes an MBE after becoming Formula One's youngest world champion in only his second season and double gold-winning swimmer Rebecca Adlington becomes the youngest ever recipient of an OBE. Finally, Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant becomes a CBE.

Whilst the name of Oliver Postgate might not be well known, his creations certainly are. Mr Postgate, who created Ivor The Engine, The Clangers, Noggin The Nog and Bagpuss along with Pingwings, The Pogles and Pogles' Wood, has died at the age of 83. Bagpuss, of which only 13 episodes were ever made, was voted best children's programme ever in a 1998 poll and was voted the best TV animal of all time earlier this year. Apparently, plans are afoot, via a company called Coolbai, for a Bagpuss revival.

On Tuesday 30th September, the High Court ruled that the treatment that the Gurkhas have been receiving in terms of the right to live in the UK if they retired before 1997 has been unlawful. Please help and try to force the Government to change the law on how it treats Gurkhas. Please sign this petition. More information on the High Court ruling can be found here.

Millvina Dean, 96, is the last remaining survivor of the Titanic and is now having to sell mementoes from the ship to pay her nursing home fees. She was nine weeks old when the liner sank in the North Atlantic in 1912.

The auction in Wiltshire will include a suitcase full of clothes given to her by the people of New York after her rescue, several rare prints of the Titanic - including one of it leaving the White Star dock in Southampton and compensation letters sent to her mother by the Titanic Relief Fund. She hopes to raise £3,000.

Miss Dean moved into a private nursing home in Ashurst, Hampshire, two years ago after breaking her hip, but developed an infection and has been unable to return to her own home.

The European Commission has agreed to grant Protected Geographical Indicator (PGI) status to Melton Mowbray Pork Pies. This will mean that only pork pies made in the traditional manner and in and around Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire will be allowed to use the town's name.

It comes after a 10-year-campaign lead by local county councillor Matthew O'Callaghan, chairman of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association. He said: "Friday was the final deadline for the other countries to object to Melton Mowbray getting protected status.

"We heard ... that no objections had been lodged.

"It has been a long campaign and it has inspired others. You now have Cumberland Sausage and Jersey Butter following what we did."

He went on to say: "The Melton Mowbray market is worth £50million a year. That is a lot of pies.

"There are three things that make them distinctive, firstly the meat is grey because we use fresh pork. Secondly, they are bow-shaped rather than straight sided and this goes back to when they were made at home by farmhands rather than professional bakers. Bakers use hoops that make pies circular and straight sided.

"And thirdly, of course, they are made in the Melton Mowbray area."

The decision will now be published by the European Commission in its official journal and will then become law.

The Old Age Pension was introduced by the British government 100 years ago today.

In 1898, the national pensions committee was formed, holding meetings across the country and organising petitions to government with the demand for a universal pension for all men and women over the age of 65. It took 10 years of campaigning by the likes of leading trade unionist Margaret Bondfield, philanthropist Charles Booth and businessman Edward Cadbury.

David Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Liberal government, a staunch opponent of the Poor Law was determined to "lift the shadow of the workhouse from the homes of the poor". The Old Age Pensions Act was passed on 1 August 1908 and payments began on 1 January 1909.

The act provided that all men and women over the age of 70 received between one and five shillings a week, paid at the post office. Married couples received seven shillings and six pence. The act was Means Tested and only paid to people that could meet certain standards of character. Anybody that had been found guilty of a crime or were likely to squander the allowance away was disqualified from receiving the pension.

Many Labour and Liberal politicians of the day welcomed the introduction of the pension but some argued that the level of benefits were far too low and that the pensions should be universal and disliked the Means Test aspect. The Conservatives, with a large House of Lords majority, objected and made it clear that they intended to block the pension. A long struggle with the House of Lords followed before the budget for the act was ratified. This lead to the Liberal Government passing the 1911 Parliament Act that restricted the power of the House of Lords to block legislation passed by the House of Commons.

A Canadian court has lifted a 12-year-old girl's grounding, overturning her father's punishment for disobeying his orders to stay off the internet, his lawyer said.

Full story here.

I'm not a parent but I think from reading the article that the father had made reasonable attempts to control the behaviour of an unruly child. It boggles the mind that a court would feel inclined to intervene in such a situation.

The merger of Vivendi Games with Activision has gained approval from the EU. Amid claims that it could prove to be anti-competitive the EU has argued that the combined company would still face stiff competition in the marketplace from the likes of EA, Sony & Nintendo amongst others.

Under the terms of the deal, Vivendi would hold a roughly 52 percent majority of the merged company by contributing Vivendi Games, valued at $8.1 billion, including Blizzard Entertainment, and $1.7 billion in cash. Activision would then be renamed Activision Blizzard and continue to operate on the Nasdaq as ATVI. Within five days of the deal closing, Activision Blizzard would launch a $4 billion all-cash tender offer to purchase up to 146.5 million Activision shares at $27.50. Vivendi has agreed to purchase up to $700 million of new shares at the same price.

• Current Activision CEO Robert Kotick will be president and CEO.
• Bruce Hack, current CEO of Vivendi Games, will serve as vice-chairman and chief corporate officer.
• Mike Griffith will be president and CEO of Activision Publishing (including the Sierra Entertainment, Sierra Online and Vivendi Games Mobile divisions in addition to the Activision business).
• Mike Morhaime will continue to serve as president and CEO of Blizzard Entertainment.
• Thomas Tippl, currently CFO of Activision, will become CFO.
• Jean-François Grollemund, currently CFO of Vivendi Games, will be appointed chief accounting officer of the new company.

The new company will be the largest of the third-party games publishers ahead of the likes of EA, Ubisoft and Take Two, with an estimated value of approximately $19 billion.

Since 1991, Regulation (EEC) No 918/83 has limited the maximum value of goods imported into the EU before incurring customs charges at €22 [£17.50]. From 1st December 2008 this limit will rise to €150 [£119.50] as a result of EU Council Directive 2007/74/EC. The text of the proposal can be found here.

The Byron Review was released this morning. Dr Tanya Byron's report was even handed and it's obvious that she knows what she's talking about.

The Byron Review proposes:

• Introduce a mandatory age-rating system for all games, to be handled by the BBFC
• Ensure that retailers defying the age-rating are punished appropriately
• Make age ratings on the game boxes larger and clearer
• Ensure that in situations where there is a risk of actual harm, restrictions can be adequately enforced
• PEGI will continue to rate 3+ and 7+ titles.

The final decision of any implementation is up to the government and it isn't guaranteed that they will follow the recommendations in the report.

John Hewer, synonymous with the portrayal of the grandfatherly Captain Birdseye on British television from 1967 until 1998 has died. He was 86.

When Captain Birdseye was temporarily axed in 1971 an obituary was run in the Times; and three years later when the adverts were reinstated the newspaper ran a story reporting that news of his death had been "grossly exaggerated".

The adverts changed little over the years and would always feature the grandfatherly captain calling in a group of children to dine on fish fingers on board a boat.

He was a member of London's Players Theatre, and had also appeared in many musical productions. In the 1950s he starred opposite Julie Andrews in The Boy Friend on Broadway.

He was born on 13th January 1922 in Leyton, London and passed away on 16th March 2008 in Twickenham, London.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, arguably the greatest Science Fiction writer since H.G. Wells, died earlier today in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. He was born on 16th December 1917 and died on 19th March 2008 at the age of 90. He had been suffering from breathing problems recently and had also suffered from post-polio syndrome for the last two decades.

"Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered," Clarke said recently. "I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these I would like to be remembered as a writer."

He had also stated that he did not regret having never followed his novels into space, adding that he had arranged to have DNA from strands of his hair sent into orbit. "One day, some super civilization may encounter this relic from the vanished species and I may exist in another time," he said. "Move over, Stephen King."

With the exceptional capabilities of today's home consoles it seems that the last bastions of arcade gaming; the Japanese market, is now feeling the pinch.

Earlier this month arcade firm Namco Bandai announced plans to close at least 50 of its arcade locations across Japan and Sega Sammy likewise announced plans to close over 100 arcades. Namco Bandai cited the expanding home console market, and the Nintendo Wii in particular, as a big part of the problem. Sega Sammy also announced that it plans to offer early retirement to approximately 400 employees.

"A lot of the types of games that people played at an arcade can now be done at home," said Namco Bandai spokesman Yuji Machida. Machida went on to state that strong holiday sales for the console meant a lot of kids have spent their time at home playing, and spent their money on more Wii software and hardware, such as the popular Wii Fit package. Machida also cited rising gas prices as a concern, as families become less willing to travel back and forth from shopping malls, where arcades are normally located. The closures amount to approximately 20% of Namco Bandai's arcades in Japan.

Just a couple of years after increased profits, Sega Sammy has announced expectations of an estimated loss of 26 billion yen (approx. $230 million) for this fiscal year; compared to the previous projection of a billion yen profit for the year. The main culprit behind the downturn seems to be the pachinko side of the business, which saw a predicted 85 percent fall in profits, and arcade sales, which switched from a slight profit last year to a 11.4 billion yen loss this year.

To coincide with the Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall campaign to raise awareness of the plight of chickens, the RSPCA has challenged supermarkets to become the first to pledge to only sell 100% welfare-friendly chicken by 2010.

Eight-hundred and sixty million chickens are reared for their meat in the UK each year. The majority of these chickens are reared to standards the RSPCA believe are unacceptably low.

Please visit the RSPCA for more information and also please sign the petition.

Hollywood could be back on its feet as early as Monday.

The major studios and the Writers Guild of America are putting the finishing touches on a deal that could bring an end to the costly walkout. Today the two sides are expected to finalize a three-year contract that guild leaders plan to present to thousands of writers in Los Angeles and New York on Saturday. The guild board could approve the contract Sunday and encourage writers to return to work the next day, according to people close to the negotiations.

Studio executives and TV producers have been preparing for that day for the last two weeks, hoping to salvage the remainder of the television season by quickly revving up production to bring back some popular TV shows that have been languishing in repeats or were taken off the air.

"Everyone is motivated to get back to work as quickly as possible," said Jonathan Littman, president of Jerry Bruckheimer Television, which produces "CSI" and "The Amazing Race," among other shows, for CBS. "They want to begin producing as many original episodes as they can."

Movies that were derailed by the strike also could lurch back, including high-profile projects such as Columbia Pictures' "Da Vinci Code" prequel "Angels & Demons" and Warner Bros.' "Shantaram," starring Johnny Depp.

Films are blessed with long lead times, and last summer studio executives accelerated development and production schedules in anticipation of a strike. As a result, the movie industry was not as hard hit by the Nov. 5 work stoppage as broadcast TV.

Production shut down in December and January, after the supply of TV scripts had been depleted. That compromised the season, which officially ends May 21.

It will take four to six weeks and tens of millions of dollars to ramp up TV production, and not every prime-time series will immediately return to the air.

"It's not just flipping a switch and having everything come right back on," said Barry Jossen, executive vice president of production for ABC Studios. "There are a lot of factors and considerations that go into these decisions. We are trying to determine the amount of material that was finished before the strike started, the creative status of the show and the broadcast schedule needs."

Only about 10 to 20 prime-time network programs are likely to return this spring with fresh episodes, including some of TV's biggest hits, such as "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC and "CSI" on CBS. Some viewers might not see new episodes of their favorites until fall -- at the earliest. Shows with complex plots, large casts and complicated production elements, such as NBC's "Heroes" and Fox's "24," are expected to roll over to next season.

Studio executives say they can't justify the increased costs of ramping up production for every program halted by the strike. It would cost the studios millions of dollars extra -- an average $200,000 more an episode, according to one estimate -- to produce an abbreviated run for each series. Crews must be rehired, sets need to be rebuilt, and the costs of production would be spread over a smaller number of episodes.

Some struggling shows might not be worth saving. Shelling out millions more for marketing campaigns to try to relaunch an iffy drama could spell sudden death for such programs as NBC's "Bionic Woman" and CBS' "Cane," industry executives predicted.

Television executives are vowing to use the disrupted TV season as an opportunity to do what they have talked about for years: change their decades-old rituals in an effort to contain costs in an era when audiences have declined and technologies such as the Internet and digital video recorders have changed the way people consume media.

"TV executives haven't been sitting around thumbing their fingers during the strike; they have been giving a lot of thought to how they run their business," Littman said. "We're seeing some industrial Darwinism as the business changes."

TV comedies would be the first to go back into production. Multi-camera shows such as "Two and a Half Men" on CBS and are likely to resume production within the next two weeks. Single-camera comedies, such as NBC's "The Office," also are expected to quickly shift back into gear.

The creator of NBC's "My Name Is Earl," Greg Garcia, said he would like to get his writing staff back together Monday. Production should begin within two weeks after the strike ends, Garcia said, because the writers had left two completed scripts that were not shot and had outlined several other episodes.

"We're kind of ahead of the game, so we can mobilize quickly," Garcia said. "But it all remains to be seen."

Source: Zap2it.com

I would like to urge everybody to please read this article and then sign the petition to try and help prevent the death of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, a young student of journalism in Afghanistan who has been sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet.

The burlesque performer and former Mrs Marilyn Manson is the new face of Wonderbra. The "Queen of Burlesque" will also design her own 1940s inspired limited edition collection for the lingerie firm. She follows in the footsteps of Eva Herzigova, Maja Latinović, Adriana Sklenaříková and Sophie Anderton.