Book three early 2013
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
And the best LOOKING James Bond is...
And in a recent survey, Pierce Brosnan has come out trumps by being named the best-looking James Bond ever.
The poll, by Suttons and Robertsons, sees the tall, dark Irishman beat off competition from the likes of classic Sean Connery and Skyfall heart-throb Daniel Craig, who were voted second and third most attractive Bonds.
Roger Moore came in as fourth best-looking Bond, while Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby trailed behind in a lowly fifth and sixth place.
Licenced to take the piss - go get em, Rog!
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Moore will be appearing alongside regular panelists Ian Hislop and Paul Merton
and guest panelists Marcus Brigstocke and Rachel Johnson.The 85-year-old actor enjoyed the longest ever stint as James Bond in the film
franchise which turned 50 this year. His first appearance as the British
spy, originally created by Ian Fleming, was in the film Live and Let Die in
1973 when he was 45.
He reprised the role of 007 in six more films, finishing in 1985 with A View to a Kill. Moore was 58 when he retired from playing Bond. Before taking on the role, he had appeared as suave detective Simon Templar in TV series The Saint.
It's a strange world...
In Zimbabwe two self confessed witches were ordered
to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after they were arrested for
indecent exposure – the women were found naked in a garden more than
sixty miles from their homes. Both women claimed to have fallen from
their flying basket. police spokesperson Inspector Clemence
Mabgweazara identified the suspects as Rosemary Kamanga (48) and Esnath
Maodza (56), both of Shackleton compound about 20km from Chinhoyi.
Police said the informant, Eneresi Mufunga (55), of Shackleton, was
awakened around 4am by strange noises that resembled fighting dogs. When
she went outside to investigate, she found two naked women.
A Muslim Facebook group has warned of the dangers of eating tomatoes after a woman in Palestine had a vision of the prophet Allah – apparently the prophet was crying and warned his nation against eating tomatoes. It was claimed that if you cut a tomato in half a cross was revealed in the fruit. Along with a photo of a tomato cut in half to reveal what could be viewed as a cross, the group originally posted on Facebook: “Eating tomatoes is forbidden because they are Christian. [The tomato] praises the cross instead of Allah and says that Allah is three (a reference to the Trinity).
William LaFever, a 28 year old man, who attempted to cross the Utah desert survived for three weeks by eating raw frogs before being rescued by a police helicopter.
New figures reveal that the fastest growing hobby in the UK is ghost hunting with there being an estimated1,500 paranormal investigation groups operating in the UK. There are also many independent ghost hunters who operate alone and estimates are that these people number in their thousands.
David Icke claims that the Olympic opening ceremony in London was actually a satanic ritual on a grand scale.On his website HERE the noted nutter explains that the flame had a sinister role to play in the ritual. The former Coventry City goalkeeper and snooker host shocked Britain in 1991 when he gave a press conference announcing he was the son of God and predicting that the world would end in 1997.Now he has resurfaced to insist that the Olympics was a “mass satanic ritual disguised as a celebration of Britain and sport”.
Two young girls in China committed suicide in an attempt to travel back in time.The girls, Xiao Mei and Xiao Hua (pseudonyms), were fifth-grade classmates at a primary school in Zhangpu county, Zhangzhou. They each wrote suicide notes before their death, expressing their reasons for ending their lives, which included a wish to travel back in time. They believed that dying was the only way to achieve it.
Now feminists have attacked the bible, claiming that it is sexist and that Christianity demeans women and makes them into second class citizens.
Male fruit flies that have been rejected by females drink significantly more alcohol than those that have mated freely, scientists say.In an article in Science, researchers suggest that alcohol stimulates the flies’ brains as a “reward” in a similar way to sexual conquest.
A periodic nighttime census for rats on Alcatraz Island
took an unexpected twist in February when surveyors from the National
Park Service and UC Davis discovered glowing millipedes on the island. A
recent February search turned up no evidence of rats. Instead,
surveyors were surprised to discover millipedes glowing intensely white.
To ensure that the millipedes hadn’t munched on the fluorescent rat
bait, a researcher at UC Davis cast a black light over a collection case
at the university’s Bohart Museum of Entomology. Preserved millipedes from the same scientific family fluoresced in the case as well.
A Muslim Facebook group has warned of the dangers of eating tomatoes after a woman in Palestine had a vision of the prophet Allah – apparently the prophet was crying and warned his nation against eating tomatoes. It was claimed that if you cut a tomato in half a cross was revealed in the fruit. Along with a photo of a tomato cut in half to reveal what could be viewed as a cross, the group originally posted on Facebook: “Eating tomatoes is forbidden because they are Christian. [The tomato] praises the cross instead of Allah and says that Allah is three (a reference to the Trinity).
William LaFever, a 28 year old man, who attempted to cross the Utah desert survived for three weeks by eating raw frogs before being rescued by a police helicopter.
New figures reveal that the fastest growing hobby in the UK is ghost hunting with there being an estimated1,500 paranormal investigation groups operating in the UK. There are also many independent ghost hunters who operate alone and estimates are that these people number in their thousands.
David Icke claims that the Olympic opening ceremony in London was actually a satanic ritual on a grand scale.On his website HERE the noted nutter explains that the flame had a sinister role to play in the ritual. The former Coventry City goalkeeper and snooker host shocked Britain in 1991 when he gave a press conference announcing he was the son of God and predicting that the world would end in 1997.Now he has resurfaced to insist that the Olympics was a “mass satanic ritual disguised as a celebration of Britain and sport”.
Two young girls in China committed suicide in an attempt to travel back in time.The girls, Xiao Mei and Xiao Hua (pseudonyms), were fifth-grade classmates at a primary school in Zhangpu county, Zhangzhou. They each wrote suicide notes before their death, expressing their reasons for ending their lives, which included a wish to travel back in time. They believed that dying was the only way to achieve it.
Now feminists have attacked the bible, claiming that it is sexist and that Christianity demeans women and makes them into second class citizens.
Male fruit flies that have been rejected by females drink significantly more alcohol than those that have mated freely, scientists say.In an article in Science, researchers suggest that alcohol stimulates the flies’ brains as a “reward” in a similar way to sexual conquest.
A periodic nighttime census for rats on Alcatraz Island
took an unexpected twist in February when surveyors from the National
Park Service and UC Davis discovered glowing millipedes on the island. A
recent February search turned up no evidence of rats. Instead,
surveyors were surprised to discover millipedes glowing intensely white.
To ensure that the millipedes hadn’t munched on the fluorescent rat
bait, a researcher at UC Davis cast a black light over a collection case
at the university’s Bohart Museum of Entomology. Preserved millipedes from the same scientific family fluoresced in the case as well.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Disney swallows Lucusfilm and promises new Star Wars
Disney now owns both Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and as well as the promised new Star Wars movies, upon which George Lucus will serve as a creative consultant, it is likely that Indiana will also be rebooted.
Skyfall smashing box office records
It's good new for the evergreen franchise and not only financially but critically too,with Skyfall gathering mostly positive reviews. It's a better movie that both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, and is arguably the first Daniel Craig Bond movie that actually feels like part of the long running franchise. Top marks to all concerned - we've still got that tougher edge, but instead of all that brooding we've now got a new Q and Moneypenny to provide the classic ingredients missing from the previous two Bond movies.
The franchise is now is fast forward with the next Bond adventure already being scheduled for 2014.
Bestselling Black Horse titles
Bestsellers on Amazon.co.uk - 29 October
Charts courtesy of Black Horse Express
Kindle Edition Available for download now £6.71
2. A Coffin for Santa Rosa (Black Horse Western) by Steve Hayes (30 Sep 2012)
Kindle Edition Available for download now £2.74
3. Savage's Quest (Black Horse Western) by Sydney J Bounds (30 Sep 2012)
Kindle Edition Available for download now £2.74
4. Wild Bill Williams (Black Horse Western) by Jack Martin (31 Oct 2012)
Hardcover £12.38
5. Longhorn Country (Black Horse Western) by Tyler Hatch (31 Jul 2012)
Kindle Edition Available for download now £3.43
6. The Goose Moon (Black Horse Western) by Caleb Rand (31 Jul 2012)
Kindle Edition Available for download now £3.43
7. Ghost Ranch (Black Horse Western) by C.J. Sommers (30 Sep 2011)
Hardcover £7.94
8. Beyond Redemption (Black Horse Western) by I. J. Parnham (31 Aug 2012)
Hardcover £4.99
9. All Guns Blazing by Doug Thorne (30 Dec 2011)
Kindle Edition Available for download now £3.43
10. Arkansas Smith (Black Horse Western) by Jack Martin (30 Apr 2012)
Kindle Edition Available for download now £2.74
Monday, 29 October 2012
Skyfall Review: Well well, James Bond is actually back!!!
Silva, the baddie, is excellently acted by Javier Bardem and reminded me a lot of Christopher Walken in A View to a Kill, and his ultimate demise at the climax is stunning - often the old ways are the best. Judi Dench in her last Bond movie goes out in style and newcomers Q and Miss Moneypenny are superbly brought in. Skyfall is set more firmly in the real Bond universe than any of the previous Craig Bond movies - the pre-credits sequence is the best since the boat chase in The World is not Enough, and the film that follows is tightly scripted and doesn't meander too much. The changes in location are also quite logical and it's great to see a Bond movie with so much of its action set in the UK - London comes across as a high tech metropolis and Scotland looks absolutely gorgeous. It was also nice to see Bond's boyhood home and the graves of his parents - "I always hated this place,' Bond says as his ancestral home is blown to the high heavens.
At last I feel as if I've seen a real Bond movie. I was never a fan of Casino Royale since I felt the movie didn't feel like a Bond movie at all, and I hated Quantum of Solace, but with Skyfall I have a Bond that stretches back through the entire franchise and can sit comfortably alongside all the other Bond movies.
It's been a long time but Bond is most certainly back.
WELCOME BACK 007 AND IT'S GOOD THAT YOU'VE BROUGHT Q AND MISS MONEYPENNY WITH YOU.
Hands on the UK Kindle Fire
The Fire is Amazon's answer to the iPad and at the price will likely cause Apple a lot of heartache. I've got the 7inch model, there is also a more expensive 8.9 inch HD version and both models are well prices - the 7inch goes for £107 while the HD model is priced at £159 which puts both versions at the cheaper end of the tablet market. Though cheap in price only and Amazon have taken a loss to ensure that the Fire's do not feel cheap, nor to they operate like a cheap and tacky device.
For the technical minded here are the specs:
- New 1.2GHz processor and 1GB RAM for 40% faster performance than the original Kindle Fire
- Vibrant 7" colour touchscreen for browsing, watching, playing, and reading
- Perfect portability - thin, light, and durable
- Over 22 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, and magazines, plus tens of thousands of popular apps and games such as Angry Birds Space, Skyscanner, Jamie's 20 Minute Meals and Auto Trader
- One-month free trial of LOVEFiLM Instant video streaming for unlimited access to thousands of movies and TV series
- Ultra-fast web browsing and e-mail over built-in Wi-Fi, with integrated support for Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and more, as well as Microsoft Exchange calendar, contacts, and email
- Free unlimited cloud storage for all your Amazon content
The Fire is first and foremost an entertainment machine, and because of its small amount of internal storage Amazon are wise to push it as a cloud based device - and it works well with what it is intended to do. I ve used mine to stream movies form both Lovefilm and Netflix but also found it simple to sideload my own video content onto the device. If you buy a blu-ray that includes a digital copy along with your film then you'll have no problem porting it over to the Fire. I've also tried reading comics on the device which was a great experience, with complex artwork being displayed wonderfully on the vibrant screen. Children's books also look great and there are many enhanced children's books available for the device,with video and audio embedded into the book.
The Amazon UK AP store is not yet as varied as the US version, which is a pain since without a little tinkering the device won't let you download APs from the Android marketplace, however with a small settings change the wealth of Android APs become available. Though I have no doubt that the Amazon AP store will soon equal the US version - the UK Fire has, after all, only been available since last week.
If the device suffers at all it is perhaps with the weakness of he onboard speakers, but with a set of headphones there is no problem at all. I watched Kevin Smiths' Copland while laying in bed last night and I found the viewing experience, if not the film, to be quite excellent. I think I'll be using my Fire for movie watching a lot, especially when out and about. Of course it will never replace my beloved Kindle for reading novels, but then it's not intended to do that.
A great device.
Homeland season 1 box set
The plot, courtesy of the Wiki - "The series follows Carrie Mathison, a Central Intelligence Agency operations officer who, after conducting an unauthorized operation in Iraq, is put on probation and reassigned to the CIA's Counterterrorism Center in Langley, Virginia. In Iraq, Carrie was warned by an asset that an American prisoner of war had been turned by al-Qaeda. Carrie's job grows complicated when her boss, Director of the Counterterrorism Center David Estes, calls Carrie and her colleagues in for an emergency briefing. Carrie learns that Nicholas Brody, a U.S. Marine Sergeant who had been reported as missing in action since 2003, has been rescued during a Delta Force raid on a compound belonging to terrorist Abu Nazir. Carrie comes to believe that Brody is the American prisoner of war that her asset in Iraq was talking about.However, the federal government and her superiors at the CIA consider Brody a war hero. Realizing it would be nearly impossible to convince her boss to place Brody under surveillance, Carrie approaches the only other person she can trust, Saul Berenson. The two must now work together to investigate Brody and prevent another terrorist attack on American soil."
The season wrapped up nicely leaving viewers eager for the second season which is now screening in both the UK and US - I'll wait for the DVD though as I don't want to come into this mid season. The writing is excellent, the acting flawless and the pacing just right for an episodic TV series - One word - excellent.
Tainted Archive
Weekly Stats Report: 22 Oct - 28 Oct 2012
Project: THE TAINTED ARCHIVE
URL: http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/
Summary
Project: THE TAINTED ARCHIVE
URL: http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/
Summary
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thur | Fri | Sat | Sun | Total | Avg | |
| Pageloads | 749 | 628 | 617 | 575 | 490 | 696 | 699 | 4,454 | 636 |
| Unique Visits | 540 | 482 | 478 | 484 | 393 | 472 | 529 | 3,378 | 483 |
| First Time Visits | 512 | 453 | 461 | 455 | 372 | 453 | 509 | 3,215 | 459 |
| Returning Visits | 28 | 29 | 17 | 29 | 21 | 19 | 20 | 163 | 23 |
Sunday, 28 October 2012
Wild West Humour
A woman from New York was
driving through a remote part of Arizona when her car broke down. An American Indian on horseback came along and offered her a ride to a nearby town.
She climbed up behind him on the horse and they
rode off. The ride was uneventful, except that every
few minutes the Indian would
let out a Ye-e-e-e-h-a-a-a-a' so loud that it echoed from the
surrounding hills and canyon walls.
When they arrived in town, he
let her off at the local service station, yelled one final
'Ye-e-e-e-h-a-a-a-a!' and rode off.
"What did you do to get that Indian so excited?" asked the service-station attendant.
"Nothing," the woman answered
"I merely sat behind him on the horse, put my arms around his waist, and held onto the saddle horn so I wouldn't fall off."
"Lady," the attendant said,
"Indians don't use saddles."
driving through a remote part of Arizona when her car broke down. An American Indian on horseback came along and offered her a ride to a nearby town.
She climbed up behind him on the horse and they
rode off. The ride was uneventful, except that every
few minutes the Indian would
let out a Ye-e-e-e-h-a-a-a-a' so loud that it echoed from the
surrounding hills and canyon walls.
When they arrived in town, he
let her off at the local service station, yelled one final
'Ye-e-e-e-h-a-a-a-a!' and rode off.
"What did you do to get that Indian so excited?" asked the service-station attendant.
"Nothing," the woman answered
"I merely sat behind him on the horse, put my arms around his waist, and held onto the saddle horn so I wouldn't fall off."
"Lady," the attendant said,
"Indians don't use saddles."
Friday, 26 October 2012
Conan the geriatric
Arnold will once again put on the loin cloth and, with the help of CGI, will look as threatening as ever in the role of Conan. The geniuses at Industrial Light and Magic will replace Arnold’s saggy man-boobs with rippling biceps and will speed up most of the action scenes so it will not appear as if it’s taking too long for Conan to decapitate someone. In this non-stop action ride, Conan will do battle all across the land of Hyboria in search of the magic crystal that will restore his youth (and career).
Countdown to Skyfall - Bond fans left cold
James Bond should be a smooth, Vodka/Martni drinking, womanising semi-superman and not the beer drinking, unshaven lout with a penchant for cock that he seems to have become. What next? Will the next movie see a Mr Moneypenny? Will the gun-barrel opening be re-shot so we see Bond walking down the shaft of a penis?
Ahh well, look out for my own review this coming Monday night when I will have seen Skyfall.
Now
Official records show that some 80,000 Welshmen made their home in the
place now known as the Wild West, though the true figure is likely to
have been much higher. This is the story of one of those men. William
Williams, otherwise known as Wild Bill Williams, is no stranger to
trouble. It seems to follow him like a shadow. But even as a survivor of
the Little Big Horn, as he claims, he has never before had to face the
kind of trouble that he finds in the town of Stanton. When the bullets
start to fly and the blood begins to run, Wild Bill is never far behin
Thursday, 25 October 2012
Amazon tax loophole closed
Amazon is to be stripped of its tax advantage on the sales of electronic books after the European commission ordered Luxembourg to close a VAT loophole.
Amazon is registered as a Luxembourg company and pays that country's VAT charge of 3% when it sells an ebook to a British reader, rather than the 20% it would have to charge if it were UK-based.
The Guardian claimed this week that Amazon is forcing British publishers to cover the cost of a 20% VAT charge on ebook sales even though the true VAT cost to the online retailer is a fraction of that.
The European commission – which oversees European Union law as the EU's executive arm – on Wednesday gave Luxembourg 30 days to increase its VAT rate on digital services from 3% to 15%. This will close a tax loophole that has encouraged companies such as Amazon, Skype and Netflix to be based in Luxembourg to benefit from the 3% rate when selling throughout the EU. Luxembourg must agree to change its VAT rate before the end of November, or face being referred to the European court of justice and risk fines. France has also been issued with a similar warning over its 7% rate for digital services.
Amazon is registered as a Luxembourg company and pays that country's VAT charge of 3% when it sells an ebook to a British reader, rather than the 20% it would have to charge if it were UK-based.
The Guardian claimed this week that Amazon is forcing British publishers to cover the cost of a 20% VAT charge on ebook sales even though the true VAT cost to the online retailer is a fraction of that.
The European commission – which oversees European Union law as the EU's executive arm – on Wednesday gave Luxembourg 30 days to increase its VAT rate on digital services from 3% to 15%. This will close a tax loophole that has encouraged companies such as Amazon, Skype and Netflix to be based in Luxembourg to benefit from the 3% rate when selling throughout the EU. Luxembourg must agree to change its VAT rate before the end of November, or face being referred to the European court of justice and risk fines. France has also been issued with a similar warning over its 7% rate for digital services.
You really couldn't make this up - The blind tazering the blind!
However a row has broken out after cops Tazered a 62 year old blind man after mistaking his white stick for a Samurai sword -what the fuck!
Apparently reports that the blind man was dressed all in black and waving his stick about while chanting, "Cowabunga!" have proven unfounded.
Colin Farmer, 62, was stunned by a policeman who was looking for a man walking through Chorley with a samurai sword on 12 October.
The officer is said to have mistaken Mr Farmer's white stick for the sword. It's the latest in a string of mistaken identities and follows PC Simon (Judge Dredd) Harwood last year mistaking a man returning home from work for a protester at the G20 and killing him. Of course those of us who remember the miner's strike of the 80's know that the police are best avoided at all costs.
A police spokesman has said that the officer's Tazered has been taken from him and locked in a cupboard where he can't get at it.
FULL STORY
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Amazon face media fury
From Forbes
When Norwegian Linn Nygaard complained to her friend Martin Bekkelund that Amazon had closed her account and denied her access to her ebook library, she surely wasn’t expecting the furore that has unfolded over the last 24 hours. Luckily for Nygaard, however, posts from BoingBoing, The Guardian, GigaOm, Computer World and others put enough pressure on Amazon for them to fix at least part of the problem.
Computer World’s Simon Phipps explains that Nygaard bought a Kindle in the UK which she used for a while then gave to her mum. She replaced it with a second Kindle bought from a Danish classifieds site and bought ebooks using her Norwegian address and credit card. When the device developed a fault, “she called Amazon customer service, and they agreed to replace it if she returned it, although they insisted on shipping the replacement to a UK address rather to her in Norway.” FULL STORY
When Norwegian Linn Nygaard complained to her friend Martin Bekkelund that Amazon had closed her account and denied her access to her ebook library, she surely wasn’t expecting the furore that has unfolded over the last 24 hours. Luckily for Nygaard, however, posts from BoingBoing, The Guardian, GigaOm, Computer World and others put enough pressure on Amazon for them to fix at least part of the problem.
Computer World’s Simon Phipps explains that Nygaard bought a Kindle in the UK which she used for a while then gave to her mum. She replaced it with a second Kindle bought from a Danish classifieds site and bought ebooks using her Norwegian address and credit card. When the device developed a fault, “she called Amazon customer service, and they agreed to replace it if she returned it, although they insisted on shipping the replacement to a UK address rather to her in Norway.” FULL STORY
The BBC left reeling over Savile abuse case
It's a crisis for the BBC and from what I'm reading and seeing I will be very surprised if the current BBC boss, George Entwistle is still in his job come Christmas. It all started off as an unbelievable story but it quickly became apparent that something did indeed go on, and that the BBC covered things up on several occasions. And now detectives investigating the case are looking at three doctors who were said to be part of Savile's sex ring and abused patients at the hospital where the shamed TV personality prayed on vulnerable young girls. It coldn't really get more sordid, but it likely will and there are reports of other high profile celebrities, some of them still living, being involved. And not only that but there are now claims that Savile was also a necrophiliac.
This is a terrible story - Savile was a huge personality when I was growing up and his Saturday evening show, Jim'll Fix It was essential viewing. He was seen as something of a saint for all his charity work and yet it's now become clear that Savile was a vile sexual predator.
The casualty list will be high profile - the editor of Newsnight, Peter Rippon stepped out of his high payed job over the scandal, and it looks likely that Savile's Knighthood will be posthumously revoked.
Elementary new episodes ordered
“Ready or not, here we come!” tweeted the show’s jubilant writers (via @ELEMENTARYStaff) the same evening, following the announcement.
The American Sherlock Holmes update, starring British actor Jonny Lee Miller, was initially commissioned as a 13-part series but outstanding ratings in the US made it an easy decision for the network to extend the run. Elementary is the number two-rated series of the season so far, with the most recent ratings figures showing an average audience of over 14 million in its Thursday 10pm slot.
Controversial due to its arrival hot on the heels of Sherlock, the BBC’s own modern-day take on the great detective, Elementary sees Miller's Holmes, a recovering addict, move to New York where he teams up with Lucy Liu’s female companion Dr Joan Watson.
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Doctor Who become Doctor Feelgood
Apparently it feels bigger on the inside!
The original dildo was made by Kristen for her Toymaker Project blog, but a leading sex toy manufacturer have taken on the design for part of their new Autumn collection - as long as they don't use the words TARDIS or Doctor Who on the product there is little the BBC can do, since the police box design comes from actual vintage British Police boxes and is not copyrighted.
The Tardis Tickler will be on sale soon.
Top Ten richest fictional characters
The full top ten list:
| Rank | Name | Net Worth ($billion) | Residence | Source | Comparison with Previous Year | |
| 1 | Smaug | 62.0 | The Lonely Mountain | Marauding | +$53.4billion | |
| 2 | Flintheart Glomgold | 51.9 | Johannesburg, South Africa | Mining, Theft | ||
| 3 | Carlisle Cullen | 36.3 | Forks, Wash. | Compound interest, Investments | +$0.1billion | |
| 4 | Jed Clampett | 9.8 | Beverly Hills, Calif. | Oil & Gas. | +$0.3billion | |
| 5 | Tony Stark | 9.3 | Malibu, Calif. | Defense | +$2.9billion | |
| 6 | Richie Rich | 8.9 | Richville, U.S. | Inheritance, Conglomerates | -$0.8billion | |
| 7 | Charles Foster Kane | 8.3 | Xanadu, Fla. | Media | +$7.3billion (over ten years) | |
| 8 | Bruce Wayne | 6.9 | Gotham City | Inheritance, Defense | -$0.1billion | |
| 9 | Forrest Gump | 5.7 | Greenbow, Ala. | Apple Inc. | ||
| 10 | Lisbeth Salander | 2.4 | Stockholm, Sweden | Theft |
Monday, 22 October 2012
Star Wars XXX
Check out the safe to view trailer (all the rude bits removed) below to see the high quality of the production values, but only check out the movie if you're broad minded. As Yoda says - "Rude, it is."
Rest Well Russell Means
Means was born in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, a community located in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, to Theodora Feather and Harold "Hank" Means. Means participated—together with his father—in the 1964 Alcatraz occupation. In 1968 at age 29, Means joined the American Indian Movement (AIM), where he rose to become a prominent leader.In 1970, Means was appointed AIM's first national director, and the organization began a period of increasing protests and activism.
On Thanksgiving Day 1970, Means and other AIM activists staged their first protest in Boston: they seized the Mayflower II, a replica ship of the Mayflower, to protest the Puritans' and United States' mistreatment of Native Americans. Later that year, Means was one of the leaders of AIM's takeover of Mount Rushmore, a federal monument.
In August 2011, Means was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He told the Associated Press that he was rejecting "mainstream medical treatments in favor of traditional American Indian remedies and alternative treatments away from his home on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation".In late September, Means reported that through tomotherapy, the tumor had diminished greatly.Later he said that his tumor was "95% gone." On December 5, Means stated that he "beat cancer," that he beat "the death penalty."However, his health continued to decline and he died on October 22, 2012, less than a month before his 73rd birthday.
Bestselling Black Horse Westerns on Amazon 22nd Oct 2012
1 - Wild Bill Williams by Jack Martin
2-Warrick's Battle by Terrell L Bowyers
3-Incident at Butler's Station by Richard Wyler
4-Death in the Canyon by Jim A Nelson
5-Crazy Man Cade by Amos Carr
6- Standoff at Liberty by Daniel Rockfern
7-The Grandstanders by Tex Larrigan
8-The Marshal and the Devil Man by Frank Fields
9-Rogue's Range by Clayton Nash
10-War at Wind River by Clayton Nash
Amazon.Com - courtesy of Black Horse Express
1. Two-Gun Trouble by Gillian F. Taylor (Feb 29, 2012)
Kindle Edition Auto-delivered wirelessly $4.40
2. Darrow's Badge (Black Horse Western) by Gillian F Taylor (Jul 31, 2012)
Kindle Edition Auto-delivered wirelessly $4.42
3. Gone to Texas (Black Horse Western) by J. D. Ryder (May 6, 2010)
Hardcover $3.10
4. Tennesssee Renegade (Black Horse Western) by Hank J. Kirby (Jul 31, 2012)
Kindle Edition Auto-delivered wirelessly $5.53
5. Gun Law of Phoenix Cline (Black Horse Western) by Terrell L. Bowers (Dec 1, 2011)
Hardcover $15.61
6. Blood of Iron Eyes by Rory Black (Feb 29, 2012)
Kindle Edition Auto-delivered wirelessly $5.51
7. Trail of the Burned Man (Black Horse Western) by Thomas McNulty (Feb 1, 2010)
Hardcover $7.64
8. Wind Rider (Black Horse Western) by Thomas McNulty (May 6, 2010)
Hardcover $0.02
9. Arkansas Smith (Black Horse Western) by Jack Martin (Apr 13, 2010)
Hardcover $0.01
10. The Black Mountain Dutchman (Black Horse Western) by Steve Ritchie (Jan 1, 2011)
Hardcover $14.22
Easy Reads are Go
There are four titles on sale at the moment - two in the romance genre and two in the crime genre, and the publisher are going to be releasing new titles each and every month.
Tainted Stats
Weekly Stats Report: 15 Oct - 21 Oct 2012
Project: THE TAINTED ARCHIVE
URL: http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/
Summary
Project: THE TAINTED ARCHIVE
URL: http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/
Summary
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thur | Fri | Sat | Sun | Total | Avg | |
| Pageloads | 675 | 724 | 610 | 745 | 708 | 530 | 532 | 4,524 | 646 |
| Unique Visits | 481 | 529 | 442 | 579 | 519 | 390 | 423 | 3,363 | 480 |
| First Time Visits | 450 | 489 | 411 | 544 | 481 | 362 | 403 | 3,140 | 449 |
| Returning Visits | 31 | 40 | 31 | 35 | 38 | 28 | 20 | 223 | 32 |
Sunday, 21 October 2012
Elementary episode three
The storyline this week was a strong one - it starts out with a child abduction in 2005.The assailant leaves behind a bouquet of balloons for his parents exclaiming “thank you” on each and every one of them.
Fast forward to the present and yet another girl has been abducted, sending Holmes into a sleepless frenzy, as we witness a race against time to save this latest child.There are a couple of twists in this episode, which I won't reveal here as many people may still be waiting to catch up with the show, but I will say that out of the three episodes so far I think this is my favourite.
I'm starting to warm to the show and although I think the BBC's Sherlock is better, I do think that with Miller's excellent performance they may eventually surpass it. Though the weak point is bound to be the fact that Watson is female. I've got this feeling that the show will eventually concentrate on a romance between the two characters and the deducing may be pushed aside in favour of seducing.
Ahh well, only time can tell and for now, at least, I'm happy to go with the show.
Archive's Sunday Comics- M A C H 1
Retro Cool - M.A.C.H 1
puncture
- the strip ran in boy's comic 2000AD and ran for 64 issues. The strip
was created by Pat Mills and was initially the most popular strip in the
comic - bigger even than Judge Dredd during the early years of the
comic.The strip was heavily influenced by TV's The Six Million Dollar man which was huge at the time - the character of M.A.C.H 1, agent John Probe even looked like Steve Austin as played by Lee Majors. In the intr
oduction
to the Extreme M.A.C.H 1 magazine, editor Alan Barnes said John Probe
was not so much Steve Austin as an Austin Allegro and he confirms that
during the comic's early days the character was more popular than Dan
Dare and Judge Dredd combined.The earliest strips saw John Probe battling terrorists, enemy agents and killers but as 2000ad found its legs and became more subversive, Probe found himself battling against his own government. Probe's boss Sharpe was revealed to have insisted a piece of code be written into the computer inside Probe that would self destruct, killing the agent if he disobeyed orders. This added much depth to the character and made Probe less Steve Austin and more a tortured man forced to work for a shadowy government organisation.
The first truly epic story for the character was M.A.C.H 0 in which Probe discovered that he wasn't the first man to be turned into a secret agent (again a plot that had been used in The Six Million Dollar
Man)
but this earlier experiment had gone wrong. Of course Probe saved the
day. In the final strips of M.A.C.H 1 we saw John Probe turn on his boss
and kill him . He then sacrificed his own life to save the world from
alien invasion. This was a massive shock to the readership. This was not
Marvel of DC and when a character was killed he usually remained dead.M.A.C.H Zero would return to the comic for his own short lived series, but this was more Frankenstein retold than anything else.
Stories from M.A.C.H 1 have been reprinted in several versions - Reprinted? 2000 AD Extreme Edition #6 (12/04) reprinted 9 of the first 10 episodes (all but #3), along with "Airship," "The Planet Killers," "Everest" and "MACH Woman." 19 episodes in one handy package, with a great cover by John Burns. A second batch of 20 episodes were reprinted in Extreme Edition #9 (6/05). These included "UFO" and the final 16 instalments. Many other episodes had previously been collected by Quality Comics in a series that ran nine issues
.The character was so fondly remembered that a spoof, entitled B.L.A.I.R. 1, a satire on Tony Blair appeared in 2000 AD in the late 1990s, and gained considerable media attention at the time. The story was not popular with readers, however, and was soon killed off.
Countdown to Skyfall - The Blofeld that never was
"He looked more like a benevolent Santa Claus rather than Bond's arch enemy.'Lewis Gilbert.
After several week of filming it was decided to replace Werich and Donald Pleasence was brought in to take over the role.The rest, as they say, is history.
Saturday, 20 October 2012
Haynes bypass Amazon and go indie with their eBook line
The 50 year old publisher, much loved for its car manuals and now offering a wide list of non-fiction, enthusiasts’ titles – including a manual on the Starship Enterprise – has become one of the first UK publishers to publish its eBooks independently.
Find Haynes HERE
Friday, 19 October 2012
Not so Happy Days
Looks like Joanie's all out of love and down on her luck.
Erin Moran, who rose to prominence as spunky Joanie Cunningham on hit 70s show "Happy Days," has fallen on tough times, having been evicted from the trailer park where she and her husband had been living with her mother-in-law, the National Enquirer reports.
According to the tabloid, Moran, 51, and husband Steve Fleischman were previously taking up residence in the Indiana trailer park after their California home reportedly faced foreclosure.
The "YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP" news - Travolta hoping to put the willies up as Gay Ghost, Bieber's Illness solved and Jim'll f**k it!
And sticking with all things masculine - Justin Bieber, who recently vomited on stage during a live show, while the track he had been miming to continued to play yesterday revealed what the problem was. Apparently he heard his own music and started to hurl chunks. The Archive is sympathetic as Justin's music also causes extreme nausea here.
Jaden Smith AKA privileged little runt is rapping about being super rich and how chicks dig it in his latest song.
Jaden’s flash tune comes amid the crippling economic crisis enveloping much of the world’s population.
Jimmy Saville who died in 2011 is still taking up pages and pages in the newspapers over the allegations that throughout his career he was banging young girls, and now a leaked email printed in the Times seems to suggest the real reasons that the Newsnight investigation into Saville's randy rampage was really cancelled. The email from a press officer to BBC executives appears to contradict the corporation’s official statements about why the BBC Two programme was cancelled just before Christmas.
The Saville story is shocking the nation - I used to watch his show Jim'll Fix it every week as a child, and he was always my favourite host on Top of the Pops, but now other celebrities are being dragged into the scandal and not only is Gary Glitter (predictable) and Freddie Star (say it's not true) implicated, but now they are saying that Jeremy Beadle may have had a small hand in it, and that TV legend and Antenna repair man Rod Hull had been fisting a young bird throughout the Seventies.
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Pimping my book again - well, someone's got to
"WILD BILL WILLIAMS, the new novel from Gary Dobbs writing as Jack Martin, delivers to us a marvelous new character. Had a fine time with this one, reading it in a single setting." Not the Baseball Pitcher reviewFranchise Fallout - Dirty Harry Part Two
Right away, before the film properly starts, we get a version of the famous line -
"This is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?"
This time the line plays out over the opening of the film with a deep red screen and a close up of the real star of the movie - The Magnum 44 - held in Clint's hand. Least we assume it's Clint's hand and this is the only movie in the franchise that does not open with the credits playing over shots of San Fransisco. The particular model of Magnum had become incredibly popular since the first movie and gun shops all over the country repeatedly sold out of 44's. Writer, John Milius reveals in the DVD commentary that most of the crew ended up with the weapons that were used in the movie.
Eastwood was stung by the criticism of the first movie and he was determined to show that there were worse cops than Harry. One of the story-lines rejected for the first movie concerned a group of cops who had formed a death squad. This idea was dusted off developed because it allowed for Harry to be depicted in an almost liberal light but still remain true to his origins. David Soul, Tim Matheson, Robert Urich and Kip Niven were cast as the young vigilante cops who come up against Eastwood's character. Though by the time of the final shoot out they have wiped out a good deal of the major criminals in the city.
The film opens with a traffic cop pulling over a mobster who has been acquitted of a murder charge on a technicality, and then shooting him and the men with him. And then we cut to Eastwood and his new partner, Early Smith - a black actor was cast as Harry's wingman because the first film was criticized for using black actors in criminal roles - and we learn that Harry is now working stakeout rather than homicide which immediately sets him up for conflict with Lt. Briggs (Hal Holbrook). Immediately following this Harry fancies a burger and decides they should visit the burger joint at the airport. Useful that Harry know of the burger joint at the airport because there are terrorists on a plane.
In the Dirty Harry universe every time Harry gets a hamburger we are in for a shootout. This time he ends up getting on a plane, dressed as a pilot, because a couple of terrorists have hijacked the plane, demanding to be flown to safety. In another attempt to soften up the tone of the first movie there is much more comedy brought into the otherwise grim scenes. Here the co-pilot, thinking Harry is an actual pilot asks:
'Excuse me, Captain. This may seem like a silly question but can you fly?'
To which Harry replies, 'Nope never had a lesson.'
Needless to say it ends up in a shoot out on the plane in which Harry takes out the two terrorists. As the movie moves on much is made of the rights and wrongs of the vigilante killers, and there are moments when the audience feels that Harry may join the rogue cops, but in the end Harry knows that although the system sometimes fails to serve justice there is no real alternative. The system may be flawed but it's all we have, Harry remarks in one key scene.
The film was once again a massive success ensuring that we would get more Dirty Harry movies. The film grossed $58.1 million in the United States alone, a new record for Eastwood, but it received a mixed critical response - Pauline Kael, a harsh critic of Eastwood for many years mocked his performance as Dirty Harry, commenting that, "He isn't an actor, so one could hardly call him a bad actor. He'd have to do something before we could consider him bad at it. And acting isn't required of him in Magnum Force. In fact Kael would constantly remain a thorn in Eastwood's side and it is no coincidence that the female film critic who is slaughtered in The Dead Pool, the fifth and final Harry movie, closely resembles Kael.
The film also received much criticism after a scene in which a prostitute was killed by having drain cleaner down her throat influenced the infamous Hi-fi murders. The Hi-Fi murders were the brutal killings of three people during an armed robbery at a home audio store called the Hi-Fi Shop in Ogden, Utah, on April 22, 1974. Five people had been held hostage and tortured, but two survived with severe injuries. All were bound and forced to drink Drano (a corrosive drain cleaner). One victim had a pen stomped into his ear, and a teenage girl was repeatedly raped before being flung face-down on the floor and shot in the head. The crime became notorious for the violence inflicted against the victims and accusations of racial bias in the Utah judiciary.
Police believed that six men were involved in the crime but only had enough evidence to convict three enlisted United States Air Force airmen, named Dale Selby Pierre, William Andrews, and Keith Roberts. During the trial, it was revealed that Pierre and Andrews, two of the men guilty of the robbery, had robbed the store with the intention of killing anyone they came across, and in the months prior to the robbery had been looking for a way to commit the murders quietly and cleanly. The two then repeatedly watched the film Magnum Force, in which a prostitute (played by Margaret Avery) is forced to drink Drano and is then shown immediately dropping dead. Pierre and Andrews decided that this would be an efficient method of murder and decided to use it in their crime.
Magnum Force was however the seventh highest grossing film of 1973,and although not quite as good as Dirty Harry was a worthy follow up.
Next the Enforcer- check out the trailer below and be here for part three of our Dirty Harry franchise fallout.
Sylvia Kristel joins the brown bread list
Dutch actress Sylvia Kristel, who starred in the 1974 erotic French film Emmanuelle, has died aged 60.
"She died during the night during her sleep," her agent Marieke Verharen told the AFP news agency.
The actress, who had cancer, was admitted to hospital in July after suffering a stroke.
Emmanuelle, which told the story of a sexually promiscuous housewife, spawned numerous sequels and played in a cinema on the Champs-Elysees for 11 years.
Released in 1974, the soft-focus French film was one of the first erotic movies to be shown in mainstream cinemas.
Kristel herself attributed its success to the changing censorship laws of the era.
"In a lot of countries the light went on, and that contributed very much to the success," she said.
In the UK, however, the film was given the restricted X-rating, and suffered heavy cuts.
Kristel went on to star in several Emmanuelle sequels, as well as more mainstream films - many of which, like Lady Chatterly's Lover and Mata Hari, played on her reputation as an erotic film star.
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Franchise Fallout - Dirty Harry Part One
Yeah, we're firmly in the 1970's complete with all the racial slurs of the era - and all we have between us and the freaks who rule the streets is the toughest cop of them all, Inspector Harry Callaghan played by the great Clint Eastwood.
"For the last quarter of an hour I've been sitting on my arse in your outer office," Harry tells the mayor when he's asked what they are doing to stop the maniac sniper.
Eastwood is of course excellent in the role - in one early scene he enters a shoot out with a group of bank robbers while eating his hamburger, ending the scene with the famous line - "Did he fire six shots, or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I’ve kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well do ya, punk?"
The movie was to be originally titled Dead Right and after the role was offered to Frank Sinatra who turned it down, John Wayne was approached but the Duke didn't want the role.
“They offered it to Frank Sinatra first, but he'd hurt his hand and couldn't do it. I don't like being offered Sinatra's rejections. Put that one down to pride. The second reason I refused the role is that I thought Harry was a rogue cop. Put that down to narrow-mindedness because when I saw the picture I realized that Harry was the kind of part I'd played often enough: a guy who lives within the law but breaks the rules when he really has to in order to save others. The third reason is that I was too busy making other pictures." John Wayne.
The rest of course is movie history and so good was Eastwood that it's hard to imagine anyone else in the iconic role - let's hope the rumors of a re-make starring Hugh Jackman are unfounded. The film may play a little slow in places, but it's a damn good movie and Eastwood and Andrew Robinson (as Scorpio) are absolutely brilliant. There's enough humour in the tightly written script to drag the viewer from set piece to set piece, and there are several crackers in this movie. The cinematography is also exceptional and we get some great shots of San Francisco which make the city as much a character in the movie as any of the actors - the film uses the lanscapes in much the way a western movie would, and in many ways Dirty Harry is something of a urban western.
The violence in the movie is still shocking all these years later - though the scene where Eastwood brutalizes the Scorpio killer which has been much criticized is a real crowd pleaser - Andrew Robinson plays the Scorpio killer with such gusto that we're cheering as Harry stomps on the man's leg after stabbing him in the said limb. Harry does this for a reason - Scorpio has recently kidnapped a young girl and the cop figures torture is the only way to get her whereabouts out of the maniac. And besides Scorpio has already kicked the shit out of Eastwood in an earlier scene so it's justified violence in this movie world. And speaking of the scene where Eastwood stabs Scorpio in the foot - the scream Scorpio utters is likely the most bizarre scream in movie history.
You've got to give it up for that scream. Check out the video below.
Harry's arrest of Scorpio is deemed illegal and soon our psycho is back on the streets where he steals a school bus full of children in another attempt to extort a ransom from the city. Harry though jumps onto the roof of the bus and we are given a stunning sequence with some incredible work by the stunt team. It all ends in a rock quarry with a true western-gunfighter shoot out before Eastwood drops the Scorpio killer with a shot to the arm before,once again uttering that line - "Did he fire six shots, or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I’ve kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well do ya, punk?"
The final scene, in which Harry throws his badge into the water, is an homage to a similar scene from 1952's High Noon.
Dirty Harry was well received by critics and is regarded as one of the best films of 1971.The film holds a 95% approval rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.It was nominated at the Edgar Allan Poe Awards for Best Motion Picture.The film caused controversy when it was released, sparking debate over issues ranging from police brutality to victims' rights and the nature of law enforcement. Feminists in particular were outraged by the film and at the Oscars for 1971 protested outside holding up banners which read messages such as "Dirty Harry is a Rotten Pig".
Many critics expressed concern with what they saw as bigotry, with Newsweek describing the film as "a right-wing fantasy", Variety as "a specious, phony glorification of the police and police brutality with a superhero whose antics become almost satire" and a raging review by Pauline Kael of The New Yorker who accused Eastwood of a "single-minded attack against liberal values".Several people accused him of racism in the decision to cast four African-Americans as the bank robbers. Eastwood dismissed the political outrage, claiming that Callahan was just obeying a higher moral authority.
"Some people are so politically oriented, when they see cornflakes in a bowl, they get some complex interpretation out of it" Clint Eastwood.
Next up came Magnum Force - check out the original cinema trailer below and be back for part two of the Dirty Harry Franchise Fallout
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