Wikileaks – you can sometimes fool all the people …!

Wikileaks, managed by its egotistical editor, Julian Assange, has been in the news a lot the past few months.  For those of you living a life devoid of any news, here is a quick summary:

Wikileaks is a site which publishes leaks of official documents.  Its latest exclusive was receiving 250,000 US embassy documents, and promising to publish them. This has lead to calls from various public figures of either support or condemnation! The latest happenings are that the Swedish Government have asked the UK government to hold Assange, due to an allegation of rape which has yet to be heard.

Actually, that last paragraph is near enough

everything that has happened – every thing else that has been written is conjecture!

Wikileaks have only actually published less that 2000 documents to date – most of which were already in the public domain, in one form or another.  At the rate they are publishing, it will take 8 years before we find out everything that has been stolen. The documents are being edited prior to publishing by a collection of professional journalists – to ensure nothing dangerous is published. In most cases, its just a case of censoring personal details.

Now, add an element of fantasy, wishful thinking, anti-government conspiracy theories, religious idolising and lazy reporting, and what do you get?

Assange, the Messiah, that the US government are planning to assassinate.

The reality is much grubbier.

Assange is quickly making sure that he is able to retire a rich man.  He has already sold his memoirs.  There has been no mention of the amount, but its in the millions.  He will need to do the book tour, which will net in a couple more quid.  This will lead to the lecture tour – which will net in a good $50k a talk.  By the time all the documents have been published (which I doubt will ever happen) he will have earned enough to retire!

However, if this information was to be leaked – it could ruin a damn fine story (did I mention the film rights?) – so let’s just say, Julian isn’t the Messiah, he’s just a very naughty boy!

🙂

Brits 2010 – The Peter and Liam Show

Did you see the Brits last night?

It was the sort of car crash TV you promise yourself you are not going to waste your time with – The highlight for me was Peter Kay and Liam Gallagher – two bigger clichés I’ve not seen on TV for a while!

Peter Kay was there doing all the same jokes he always does. The formula is quite easy. Name a few mid 80’s pop bands who were never critically acclaimed, name a few provincial towns, generally north of Birmingham and ignore stage names – add a big of northern slang and we have 80% of his act!

Then we have Liam Gallagher, the pantomime pop star of the 90’s who doesn’t realise his career was over 5 years ago!

Basically, the highlight is a quip from Peter Kay, but the run up took a while. Radio 2 listeners were asked to name the UK album of the last 30 years. While a whole bunch of great albums were missing (OK Computer anyone?) The winner was Oasis, What’s the Story, Morning Glory?
So, Liam is called on stage, and he is swaggering like all the toughest 17 year old kids do down the local shops. He takes his award, thanks the members of the band, the audio is muted, and we guess he is swearing his head off about something or other for a good 10 seconds. The sound comes back, he throws the award into the audience, and swaggers off stage having shouted, ‘Live Forever!’

So, Peter takes up the mike, and mutters, ‘What a Knobhead!’ Clearly heard by all the hundreds of people viewing across the UK!

I hope they spend a bit more time on the content of the Brits next year, but why change the habit of a lifetime?

Eastenders – Who Killed Archie? Who Cares?

Soaps are a bane of my life!  The rest of the family love them, and I don’t understand why!

They are just moralistic tales which are repeated in a constant loop.  Yes, they can be funny, well acted, and entertaining, but why devote so much of your life watching a fantasy one?

Take the latest twist in Deadenders – Archie was killed at Xmas, and now, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the show, there is going to be a live recording (how does that work?) and the prize is to find out ‘who done it?’

Personally, I think the easiest way of working out who did something in a soap is look at the contract details.  I understand that Barbra Winsor is leaving in March …  which just happens to be after we find out who did it!

I wonder if they are both connected?

Anyway, the sooner this drama is over, the sooner the stupid ads on BBC (what is it with the BBC not understanding that an advert for one of their products is still an advert?) will end!

Looking at Albert Square, if it was real, it wouldn’t have half as many white characters in it!  I understand Walford is around Hackney if it existed.  It should be full of immigrant families and lots of Turks and Jews speaking their mother tongue in the streets.

Who killed Archie?  No, it would be who killed Aydin? in the real Eastenders!

Maddie: Did the parents do it?

Having linked through to the book the tried to ban – the Truth in the Lie, yesterday, I have spent hours reading pages of conflicting information about what happened that night in 2007.

What do I think?  Does it really matter?  The facts should really speak for themselves.  However, there is something very interesting in the over view of this whole story.

Firstly, statistically, kids are usually killed by their parents.  84% to be exact.  Only 4% are killed by a stranger to the child.  So, even before anyone had even got in the police car to respond to the call, there was a damn good chance that they knew what had happened.

Secondly, the strange behaviour on the discovery that their child is missing is also very worrying.  No panic at the hotel / apartment area.  Kate McCann walks back to the bar where her friends are and announces that her child is missing using a medical term for death.  Possibly this is perfectly understandable considering that they are all medical staff.  However, not the expected actions of a mother who has just realised that one of her children is missing.

Lots of the extra information which have ended up as part of this story are difficult to accept as evidence as they don’t have collaborating evidence.  Witness statements are a good example of this.  It is when you ask questions of a witness, wait a few days, and ask the same thing again.  The story might change a little, that is human nature.  Its the amount that they change which is where police expertise is required.

The public are very bad at this, and with very little knowledge, but a great deal of passion it is possible to have a conspiracy up and running its way around the world by breakfast.

I don’t might stating that from what I’ve read, I think the baby died in Kate’s arms, having had a fatal accident.  That is just opinion, but it should be enough to ensure I never end up in a jury!! 🙂

What do you think?

Let me know your theory!

Robin Hood Tax and other fairytails!

I watched BBC Breakfast this morning, and got annoyed, again!

The Robin Hood Tax is coming, and its being supported by the innumerate of this world! You can read about the scheme here, but the point that I noticed almost instantly was the word tax!

Basically, the great and the good of the world of showbiz and all the other tax funded organisations that call themselves charities are supporting this.  While its easy to point out that adding any tax to anything means that prices change to compensate.  What these fools don’t see is that the eventual losers will be the general public.  We always do!!

Rather than go into the complex world of international banking to prove my point, lets look at a better alternative.

The Robin Hood Celebrity Tax!

Basically, anyone who earns more than £50k a year and could be described as a celebrity or a tv personality by a reasonable person would have to pay a tiny slither of a tax on every contract they or their agent makes.

What happens?

Well, celebrities would suddenly become actors and models again.  They would shun their celebrity status and the employment of photographers, make up artists, PR execs, Showbiz agents, ghost writers,  celebrity magazine editors, gossip columnists etc would be in the balance.  Their income would normally come out of the vast figures paid to these celebrities.

The common view though is that the general public wouldn’t suffer because its a victimless tax!

What would happen is that these celebrities would move out of the UK, maybe to Switzerland or maybe to Monaco.  They would pop back to the UK to carry on being seen in the right places, but it would be rare!  More importantly, their tax income would now reside in their new country of residence.

That would mean that while the initial tax will have brought in a little bit, its cost to society would be a much bigger bit – general loser?

You, Mr and Mrs Public!