Archive for March 2003

In an attempt to compensate for their poor showing in the rugby, the Welsh film industry has decided to step up production. They plan to remake many well known films but with a Welsh flavour to them…. The following are all planned for release next year:

9 1/2 Leeks
Porthcawl of the Wild
Treforest Gump
Catatonia on a Hot [...]

Had Southwark Council’s free magazine through the door, and for once I actually bothered flicking through it before popping it in the recycle bin. Turns out the metal bollards I’d admired on Bellenden Road in Peckham recently were created by sculptor Antony Gormley, he of Angel of the North fame (think he’s got a workshop [...]

Saw this quote from Sky News on the forums at urban75 and thought it was too good not to mention:
“Umm Qasr is a city similar to Southampton,” UK defence minister Geoff Hoon said in The Commons yesterday.
“He’s either never been to Southampton, or he’s never been to Umm Qasr” says a British Squaddie patrolling Umm [...]

Jeremy Paxman made a slip of the tongue during Newsnight earlier when mentioning the Bush-Blair meeting at Camp David; he referred to the Prime Minister as ‘Tony Bush’. How very apt.
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to [...]

Arabic broadcaster al-Jazeera launched its new english-language service on Monday, at english.aljazeera.net. I’ve been trying to get to it all day, in order to read about the war from a different perspective, but without joy. Apparently they’ve been subjected to a spate of DoS attacks (no prizes for guessing which freedom of speech-loving country the [...]

Continuing on from yesterday, I’ve found some more great political cartoons, this time by David Horsey.
There’s lots of satirical news at Spin On This, including this gem:
HARDCORE WARNOGRAPHY: IRAQ LATEST
Geoff Hoon: “Good morning. I just love it when a group of men in uniform drop their payload in front of my face. Oh baby that’s [...]

Quite a few funny political Flash animations by Mark Fiore, and some similarly-themed cartoons by Clay Bennett.
First it was dolphins working for the US Navy in Iraq, and now a Moroccan publication has accused their government of offering US forces 2,000 monkeys trained in detonating land mines. We live in very strange times.
On a [...]

The other day I said that I could see that the war reporting had the makings of a good drinking game; seems I wasn’t the only one to think that: Gulf War Drinking Game.
Elsewhere, an American guy called Micah Wright has been taking old propoganda posters from the 1940s and subverting them with anti-war messages. [...]

I suspect that if there were more people like Lt Col Tim Collins in the military (and in politics for that matter), this world wouldn’t be such a mess at the moment. The Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish made this moving speech to his troops before leading them into Iraq:
“We [...]

I’ve got the Oscars on TV at the moment, just to see if anyone slips in anything controversial (ooh-er missus) during their speeches. Normally incredibly tedious affairs, but compere Steve Martin is coming out with some funny stuff: “Well it’s been a great night so far, if you don’t count Julie Andrews getting pistol-whipped by [...]

To my mind, Robert Fisk has provided far and away the best reports on Iraq lately, and his piece today ‘This is the reality of war. We bomb. They suffer’ is no exception:
Donald Rumsfeld says the American attack on Baghdad is “as targeted an air campaign as has ever existed” but he should not try [...]

First, 12 servicemen died when a US CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed in northern Kuwait. Next, seven crew members were killed when two British Sea King helicopters collided.
Then we learned that ITN reporter Terry Lloyd, cameraman Fred Nerac and local translator Hussein Othman are missing, feared dead, after coming under fire in Iraq. Cameraman Daniel [...]

Just got back from the Stop the War march in London, absolutely knackered. Fantastic turnout, especially for just 4 days notice — organisers estimate 500,000 people (police estimate: a couple of dozen, and some of them were school kids who should have been at home doing their homework). Lovely weather, great atmosphere. Will post more, [...]