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I watched the news broadcasts today about the press conference – if that is what you could call it – where RSA President Thabo Mbeki during a meeting with Mr Mugabe said that there was “no crisis” in Zimbabwe!

I wonder what Mr. Mbeki thinks is going on in Zimbabwe? Can it be possible that Mr. Mbeki is suffering from selective understanding of the situation? Surely he cannot expect us to believe that he really thinks that all is well in that desperately run down country!

I am sure that Mr. Mbeki would like to be thought off as an honest and upright politician and that he is respected around the world.

Well clearly he is no Nelson Mandela, but come on Mr. Mbeki, if you think that there nothing wrong in Zimbabwe then all of the stories that I read about South Africa [1], [2], [3] can’t be true either.

You’re loosing respect Mr. Mbeki and you had better do something about Robert Mugabe before the world starts thinking of you in the same light!

Just downloaded some pictures from my Digital Camera, what a great thing the British Weather is!

Here are two shot from the ‘Snow’ bound weekend last weekend and the day after. It is is spring isn’t it?

                       A snowy day.                                                       A better day.

                

Technorati Tags: Weather, Snowy, Sunny

Let me see, Northern Rock lost some £160 million in its fall from the top! It now turns out that the guy who headed it up has received a payoff of over of £760,000!

Makes you wonder what sort of contract he had, it’s a pity he wasn’t responsible for a bigger loss, say £320 million. If so, then maybe he’d have received a double size bonus as well!

As the Olympic torch continued its journey around Europe, the farce moved to Paris today.

I thought it looked completely stupid yesterday in London when the Blue crowd of security personnel drowned out most of the carriers of the torch. But today some 3,000 security personnel help move the torch along some of its Parisian route, however in the end it did not reach its final destination as planned having been retreated to a bus as part of its protection!

It’s sad to see what should have been a celebration of the next Olympics (leaving aside that it is now somewhat tainted) and I am sure that the IOC must now be regretting their decision to award the games to China, albeit by just two votes.

Where next for the torch and what other demonstrations will it face, more of the same I fear as it moves on  to the rest of the world.

I fear that we may be seeing last of this type of celebration, as I can’t believe that there will be less to demonstrate about when London hosts the 2012 extravaganza and tries to run a host country only torch parade.

What a sad end to a great ideal!

I am always interested in reading feedback when News Media companies change their corporate page designs.

The heated discussions continue about the recent change that the BBC incorporated into their home and news pages. Initially they caused over 1700 people to write in with comments, which is good, as it shows that the BBC have a very active and interested audience. The number of comment have now tailed off as the web designers have made a few changes – my gripe was about vertical line spacing which has now been adjusted.

Quite few people say that they have abandoned the BBC as there news page in favour of Sky or some newspaper home pages. This last point seems a bit strange, as I can’t see how you can compare the BBC news page with a newspaper home page, there not the same beast!

With regards to comparisons made with Sky, take this story about British Airways pilots concerns about their employer.

Here’s the SKY news page…

and here’s the BBC page…

Now, I’m no professional web designer, but I’m sure, as a visitor, I think I prefer the BBC page – no I don’t work for the BBC either! The BBC page seems to me, to be clearer, less cluttered and yes, with no adverts.

I do wonder sometimes what some people want to complain about, yes there are some things that still need to be corrected and adjusted on the BBC web site and through the constructive comments they receive, I am sure that these this will be accomplished over the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I think the improvements are a step in the right direction.

We lost another great actor this weekend with the passing of Charlton Heston. You may not have agreed with his politics, but what an actor!

He made some great films and some rather poor one’s, but overall he made a great contribution to the film industry and will surely be remembered as one of the greats, along with likes of John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Lee Marvin and Gary Cooper to name a few.

It seems to me that we don’t have too many of his sort still making films today, though I suppose you could put Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Bruce Willis and Sean Connery in the same class.

Yes that is the latest excuse for yet more cancelled planes at Heathrow airport today. I am not sure how many days it has been forecast for, but I think I first heard about the impending snow this weekend over 5 days ago. Clearly not enough time for the planners at BAA!

To think that one of the largest airports in Europe can run out of De-Icer is incredible. I can only think that the managers concerned must be rejects that did not make it on to the latest BBC Apprentice show. If what is on the Apprentice show are the best, then the rejects must really be bad and clearly are running parts of BAA and BA!

I know that you should separate sport from politics, but surely one of the guiding principals of the Olympics is that it symbolises freedom to assemble and enjoy sport as and when you want to and to assemble every four years to freely support a celebration of sport.

Clearly the ethnic (as opposed to the many Chinese nationals moved to Tibet) people of Tibet will not have that freedom given to them either now or during the Olympics.

Again this Labour government as have many other western governments allowed their quest for Job and Investment to over shadow their ability to choose right from wrong.

Clearly the Olympic torch should not have gone within a million miles of Downing Street – Gordon didn’t touch it though – it has now become a bit tarnished. If the scenes today in London are anything to go by then I think the torch will be in for a  bit or a rough ride over the next few weeks as it makes its way to China.

I wonder if Brown will have the guts to side with Sarkozy and not go to the opening ceremony? I doubt it, as there  is no backbone in that politician!

Another example of government short-sightedness has come to light through the announcement by UK Science Minister Ian Pearson that the operating budgets for the UK’s ALICE project maybe withdrawn. This is even before the £25 million project has finished being commissioned.

Designed to investigate and demonstrate Particle Accelerator technologies ALICE (Accelerators and Lasers in Combined Experiments) would be the first such device in the UK. If the operating funding is cut UK scientists would then have to rely on and travel to research facilities in the USA or Russia!

How much money are talking about here, just $3 million!

It seems very strange to me that as the UK’s traditional manufacturing continues shrink and with the volatility of the financial markets, surely Science is one area that we have to invest in to make sure that the UK has a serious place in the future of world Science.

Surely the UK government must be able to find £3 million to keep ALICE running? We seem to waste so much money on other less important projects!

With rough hand tactics starting to be used to intimidate the MDC in Zimbabwe, it seems the country hangs on a knife edge.

I hope we will not witness the same problems that occurred in Kenya – a very stable country when compared to Zimbabwe when the political party that apparently won the election were denied their rightful outcome.

Zimbabwe does not need any further strife.