Sci-Fi Doctor Who Mini site.

The SCI-FI Channel has launched its new Doctor Who mini-site featuring a brief "about" section with basic facts about the series. These include a "characters" section with biographies of the Doctor, Rose, Captain Jack, Mickey and Jackie (and the actors who play them) as well as the TARDIS, an episode guide to the first series, and a photo gallery. More will obviously be added if the show does well and continues to a second year.

Can't touch this....

MC Hammer has a Blog, check it out @ http://mchammer.blogspot.com/

Man Utd ease to Carling Cup glory

Well thank god for that....
Still celebrating the Reds Carling Cup win this morning, not a bad match all round and thankfully United played the way we all expect them to and were focused on the job in hand from the very first minute. Apart from the opening spell of pressure from Wigan in the second half, United never really looked in any danger and 3 quick fire goals killed the game off. Fair play to Wigan, who have been without doubt the team of the season and no right minded footy fan could possibly think otherwise. 10 years ago Wigan were bottom of the old football league and about to go into administration, so to now be in the Premiership and a cup final is a remarkable achievement by Paul Jewell and all the players and staff at the JJB. Sympathy must go out to Mike Pollitt in particular, the former United youngster limped out of the Cup Final after just 14 minutes with a hamstring injury. The man of the match award went to Wayne Rooney for his two goals but Wes Brown must get recognition for his stand out display in the heart of the reds defence. Hopefully this will remind United's players of the traditions of this club and galvanise us for a charge towards better things next season. Everybody knows how good Chelsea are but the gap has been created more by ours and Arsenal's dismal failures this season than the superiority of the Chelsea squad.

And i thought my maths was bad....

Vodafone in overvaluation warning

Vodafone has warned its assets are overvalued by as much as £28bn and it faces a slowdown in revenue growth. The mobile phone giant said it would take a hit of between £23bn and £28bn - mainly on its German operations after its takeover of Mannesmann in 2000. Increasing competition will also see revenue growth slow to between 5% and 6.5% in the year to March 2007, against growth forecasts of 6% to 9% for 2006. As a result margins will slip in the next financial year, Vodafone said.
Analysts said the announcement would step up the pressure on Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin. "It's another incremental worsening of management expectations," Robert Grindle, from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, told Reuters. "It will put Sarin under more pressure. The more the share price falls, the more pressure he will be under." But Mr Sarin said the write-down and revenue warning would not affect Vodafone's ability to return cash to shareholders through dividends and buying back shares.

Carling Cup Final 2006

So here it is, well tomorrow anyway....
UNITED last and only chance of silverware in what has, let's face it been a dissappointing season. Wigan Athletic stand between us and the CARLING CUP (previously known as the Worthless Cup to most fans). With Wigan due to appear in their first ever major final, i fear that the red's may have to be alert and on top form, as despite pre season prediction's of relegation, Wigan have to be the team of the season and will be up for this game even more than they have for what has been a fantastic season for them. The problem United now face is the no win situation, if we win then we are only playing Wigan and should win, if we lose however, we have lost to Wigan and will be mocked accordingly. The world and his wife will be magically transformed into Wigan Athletic fans come kick-off time, but we have come to expect this as it is the price of success, as my best mate Petshop always says "it's when people stop hating you, that you have a problem". As a lifelong red, i revel in the anomosity directed at United fans but still dismay at the out of towners and armchair brigade that give us a bad name.
So good luck to both teams tomorrow, as a northener i have nothing against Wigan whatsoever, but hopefully come the end of the match United will be left holding the silverware.

Smith ambulance attack condemned....

Manchester United and Liverpool have issued a joint statement condemning the fans who attacked the ambulance taking Alan Smith to hospital at the weekend. Smith, 25, suffered a broken leg and a dislocated ankle during United's 1-0 FA Cup defeat at Anfield. The clubs' statement read: "These people aren't real fans of football. "The actions of a few idiots should not overshadow the efforts of all involved to make sure Alan received the best treatment as soon as possible." Reports in several newspapers on Thursday claimed the ambulance was surrounded by people who threw stones and bottles at it and even tried to rock it from side to side. Once again it seems that a handful of Liverpool fan's have added to their unfortunate history of hooligan event both here and on the continent.

Woe Canada, what went wrong?

Canada followed the USA out of the Olympics yesterday after a 2-0 defeat at the hands of bitter rivals Russia. The Russian's out shot the Canadian's by 33-27 and goals from Alexander Ovechkin and Alexei Kovalev condemmed the Canadian's to a shock early exit.
But what happened to the 2006 Canadian team that appeared so strong on paper? The second-guessing is well underway in the most hockey-mad nation on Earth. Hockey is so engrained in the culture that when Canada fails to win, it's taken as a blow to national pride and psyche.
Executive Director Wayne Gretzky took full responsibility for the teams failure addressing the media after the loss. He spoke slowly and thoughtfully, the stress of the past three months clearly visible. "It's been a horrible three months for me and moving forward you have to think about your health," Gretzky said.
In the middle of trying to coach the Phoenix Coyotes and select Team Canada, Gretzky's mother passed away five days before Christmas. Her mother then died three weeks later. Recently, Gretzky's name and family have been linked with scandal. While not saying that he would step down from his involvement with Team Canada, he did say that he'd take stock of his role. Such words can be expected after a loss that Gretzky deemed "devastating" several times during the course of the press conference.

Canada edge out Czech's

A late fight back from the Czech Republic could not deny TEAM CANADA a vital 3-2 win in Torino yesterday. Three first period goals looked to have put the Canadian's into a comfortable position in the final group game before Pavel Kubina (33:46) and Petr Cajanek (42:41), gave the Czech's late hope. Canada are currently playing rhe Russian Federation in the Quarter finals, while the Czech Republic meet Slovakia. Earlier the Swedish team ran out comfortable 6-2 winners against Switzerland to book themselves the first semi-final spot. Reigning silver medalists the United States were edged out by Team Finland 4-3 in the second quarter final match of the day and looked every bit impressive as they have done in the group stage, making them a strong favourite for the gold medal.

What is wrong with the NHS?

Today i tried to get a dentist for the first time since i moved from Manchester to Lincoln. After enjoying years of lovely Free NHS dentistry i now find that i cannot get a dentist unless i go for an appraisal and sign up for something called DENPLAN. This service apparantley rates your teeth in a monetary sense and bills you accordingly. Now fortunatley i think my teeth are in reasonible good condition so this shouldn't (touch wood) cost me too much a month....
I am not the only person struggling with dentist's in Lincoln as my good friend Dan also recently had problems.

Tom Baker says....

Further to my recent post on Tom Baker being the new voice of the BT text service, Ryan showed me this website where someone has used the service to create film quotes jokes and "Bakaraoke" where Tom sing's songs. Well worth checking out if you are bored @ work.

Canada lose again....

Two first period goals from Teemu Selanne and Niko Kapanen, condemmed TEAM CANADA to their second succesive 0-2 loss. After their shock defeat by SWITZERLAND on Saturday, the Canadians again failed to find the net against a very strong FINLAND team. They face the Czech Republic on Tuesday, needing a morale boosting win before the knockout stage begins.

Lots of lovely, FREE java & flash games....

Bored @ work?
Click on the link above for a bit of boredom relief....

Canadian's thrash Germany....

Wade Redden scored 4 minutes and 52 seconds into the first period to set TEAM CANADA on the way to a 5-1 thrashing of Germany in Torino yesterday. Further goals from the Av's Joe Sakic, Simon Gagne, Dany Heatley and Shane Doan capped a great display by the favourites. Team USA had better luck than their previous match with a 4-1 win over Kazakhstan.

TEAM CANADA begin well in Torino....

TEAM CANADA have gotten off to a great start in the Olympic Ice Hockey tournament in Torino. In their opening match versus the host's Italy, goals from Jerome Iginla (2), Shane Doan, Martin St Louis, Dany Heatley, Joe Thornton and Brad Richards gave the Canadian team a reasonably comfortable 7-2 win. After a slow start in the first period (1-0) the Canadians hit 5 second period goals to put the game beyond a plucky Italian team. They face Germany later on today as they look to live up to their billing as tournament favourites and progress to the next stage. Meanwhile fierce rivals TEAM USA were surprisingly held 3-3 by Latvia, who actually led the match 3-2 at the end of the second period. Only a third period strike from Jordan Leopold spared the Americans blushes. They face Kazakhstan tonight and will look to improve geatly on their last performance.

Are THE STONE ROSES to reform?

Are THE STONE ROSES going to finally put their differences aside and make us all ecstatically happy by reuniting? Every now and then somebody reports that one of the members of the band have publically stated that they would be up for a reunion only for Ian to quickly dismiss it completely, but with his recent revival of Roses songs in his gigs, maybe even Ian is contemplating the idea. With the success of his solo albums, it is undeniable that Ian has proved his worth as a solo artist and surely now would be a good time for some sort of Roses colaboration. After the split John formed THE SEAHORSES, who had a reasonable success with the album "DO IT YOURSELF" before musical differences led to a their split and his subsequent solo projects have not really set the "non Roses fan" world alight. Although the two have not spoken for some ten years, surely there must still be something between the long time friends that could easily be re built. Mani has already publically stated he and Reni will work together at some point the only problem seems to be the relationship between Ian and John. A lot of bands reform many years later for money or for ego reasons and the results are often disasterous, but with the Roses it has always only ever been about the music and let's face it, when they were good they were the best. Only time will tell but we all wish that we could see and hear the magic just one more time....

What would Chuck Norris do?

This is extremely funny, random thing's about Chuck Norris.
Also includes Mr T and Vin Diesel....

Chewbacca to play Major League Baseball?

Following the end of the Star Wars movies, it would seem that one of it's characters, CHEWBACCA has opted to carve out a new career for himself playing Major League Baseball. The 7 foot tall Wookie was pictured recently, pitching in a game leading to speculation that more of the Star Wars universe will end up turning to sport for their futures, with C3-Po rumoured to be a referee at the forth coming FIFA World Cup in Germany.

Early closing thwarts bankrobber

Saw this on ANANOVA
A bankobber was left empty-handed when he turned up ten minutes late and found the branch had already closed for the day.
Staff at the Podravska Bank in Zagreb, Croatia, told police they were just getting ready to go home when they heard the doors rattling and saw a masked man holding a gun trying to get in.
Police spokesman Davor Tor said: "Most banks here open until 7pm but this robber obviously picked the wrong branch.
"Staff said even though he was wearing a mask they could tell from his movements that he was very confused to find the bank wasn't open." Police are looking for the robber and say if caught he will be charged with attempted armed robbery.

Old Trafford name change denial....

Manchester United have denied a report that Old Trafford will be re-named under a possible sponsorship deal. It comes after THE SUN comic book announced that United would offer potential sponsors the opportunity to have their names not only on the players shirts and training gear but also as the actual name of the stadium as well. Alas with everything that has happened over the last 18 months with the Glazer family, this is just the sort of thing that they as the owners would see as lucrative as opposed to insulting. It can only be hoped that this is the usual rubbish from THE SUN's fairytale department, as opposed to actual news.

Husband eats 50-year-old chicken....

Saw this on the BBC news feed and thought it was unusual....

A man celebrated his golden wedding anniversary by eating a 50-year-old tin of chicken.
Les and Beryl Lailey, of Denton, Gtr Manchester, were given the chicken in a hamper on their wedding day in 1956.
The Buxted Chicken tin remained in their kitchen cupboard until the couple marked 50 years together this month.
"We kept it safe, and I always said 'on my 50th wedding anniversary I'm going to eat that chicken' - so I did," said former soldier, Mr Lailey, aged 73.

"When we got married I'd just come out of the Army and we had very little money, so we did our own buffet.
"We got a hamper as a present and included in it was this whole chicken in a tin. We didn't use it and packed it away and kept it."
Mr Lailey, said he had not felt ill since eating the chicken.

"Sir Cliff" Caption Competition.....

Enter the Cliff Richard caption competition.
Just what is the bachelor boy pointing to?
Place your entry via the comments section below or via my e-mail link on the right.


**UPDATE**
There will be a prize for the best (funniest) caption, not decided what yet.
So far entries have been unusual to say the least so, keep trying.

Pittsburgh Steelers Win American Egg Chasing Cup

The Pittsburgh Steelers finally got one for the thumb as they defeated the Seahawks 21-10 to win the franchise's fifth Super Bowl ring. For coach Bill Cowher, it was a well-earned reward for his years of service.

Sad day for United fans.

A solemn day for United fans everywhere today with the anniversary of the Munich air disaster where so many talented people lost their lives. After refuelling in Munich on 6 February 1958, the United aeroplane crashed, killing twenty-two people including 8 players – Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor, Geoff Bent, Liam Whelan and Duncan Edwards. The city and most of the footballing world, mourned the loss of possibly one of the most talented group of players the game had ever seen. Remembered every season with a period of silence and the traditional wearing of black armbands, the "Busby Babes" will never be forgotten.

AVALANCHE Vs RED WINGS Part 3

After losing the first two meetings with fierce rivals the DETROIT RED WINGS, the COLORADO AVALANCHE went into tonights third encounter of the season hungry for a bit of payback. After two periods the teams still could not be separated, despite the AV'S having 4 powerplay chances. Then 5:40 into the third period the RED WINGS took the lead with a goal from Dan Cleary, assisted by Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen. Unusually the AV'S could not make the most of their powerplay opportunities and shortly after failing on their 7th chance of the match, DETROIT added to their lead with a goal from Mikael Sammuelsson assisted by Tomas Holstrom. The RED WINGS then rubbed more salt into the AVALANCHE'S wounds with their 3rd goal of the evening from Robert Lang on 18:29 the assists coming from Jason Williams and Chris Chelios. Outshot at home by the RED WINGS (32 - 28), the AVALANCHE must improve if they are to make any impression on the remainder of the regular season.

Team changes for this weeks fixtures

*Fantasy Premier League Update*
Due to his sending off against BLIPBURN ROVERS on Wednesday nite, Rio's place has gone to younger brother Anton this week. Hopefully he will have better luck than Rio and bring the mighty FC FELGERCARB some much needed points as they bid to regain top spot in the league. Their recent scoring runs have been great for the team and the Ferdinand versus Ferdinand scoring battle makes for an interesting sideline.
As for the rest of the team, no other changes to report apart from the captains armband, which passes from Frank Lampard to Ruud Van Nistelrooy for this weeks fixtures.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA T-Shirts added

A new range of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA themed t-shirts are now available to buy from the shop. Featuring various slogans from the classic 70's Sci-fi series. E-mail me requests and I can put whatever you would like to say (within reason) 0n a shirt in the instantly recognizable Battlestar font.

Just WHERE is SOL CAMPBELL....?

Just where is Sol Campbell?
Campbell, 31, left Highbury before the end of the 3-2 defeat to the Hammmers after he was substituted at half-time. The centre-back was taken off after a torrid first-half display. Wenger gave Campbell time off training and revealed he would not feature against Birmingham on Saturday.
"Am I worried? No, not really. He is in a difficult period at the moment. And you can only help people if they are in touch," added Wenger.
"I haven't seen him since Wednesday night and I have no news from him at the moment. It is not a big concern for me because I feel he just needs a break.
Rumours are circulating that one of the Sunday papers may be about to leak something and it is thought that this could have prompted the early exit and subsequent dissapearance.

Tough at the top....FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE

After two weeks at the top of my company's Fantasy Premier League, my team FC FELGERCARB have been knocked from top spot. Bad results for my playes (including Rio Ferdinand's sending off.) mean't i was overhauled by FLYING START. The current gap is only one point and i fully expect my boys to reclaim the lead by close of play on Sunday.

Starting 11....

1. Paul Robinson
2. Jamie Carragher
3. Ledley King
4. Rio Ferdinand
5. Frank Lampard (C)
6. Morten Gamst Pedersen
7. Stelios Giannakopoulos
8. Michael Carrick
9. Ruud Van Nistelrooy
10. Shefki Kuqi
11. Marlon Harewood

TOM BAKER.... the voice of BT text

I know this story is a couple of days old but last nite i actually tried out the service with a random test message to my home number. The results were superb, there were some slightly dodgy pauses and breaks in words but this is to be expected. The thought then occured to me that maybe i could have TOM B's Dulcet tones as the voice of my Vodafone voicemail account. After a few test attemps and some tweaking of the initial message (adding spaces and punctuation) i had a pretty fantastic answer phone message. All i have to do now is get it onto my phone and i will be good to go.

Learning to drive....PART ONE

I have recently re-started my driving lessons after a gap of some 8 months, with a view to passing b4 my birthday in June. After the initial "getting used to driving" period, things seem to be okay and i am hoping to be able to put in for a test quite soon.
More to follow....