Manchester City wins the FA Cup final and finishes their 35-year trophy drought

Manchester City has finally ended their 35-year trophy drought as they clinched the FA Cup after beating Stoke City 1-0 in the final at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, 14^th May. It was none other than Yaya Toure who repeated his semifinal performance and scored the only goal of the game, with 15 minutes remaining on the clock.

The 28-year-old, Yaya Toure, continues to impress with his striking abilities as he did earlier in the FA Cup semifinal against Manchester United.

After winning their last trophy in 1976 in the shape of League Cup, Manchester City will cherish these moments for a long time to come.

Toure looked ecstatic over City’s victory as he said, “I just love Wembley. To score the all-important goal against a strong team like Stoke is very special. We deserved to win this game because we created a lot of chances and played so well. Our target was to go to the Champions League and win something and my dream has come true. I am so happy for the club and the fans as they have waited a long time for a trophy”.

The day became a memorable one as their neighbours, Manchester United, also created history by registering their record 19^th English Premier League title, overcoming Liverpool’s 18 League titles.

Manchester City is flying high as it has won the FA Cup and will also feature in the next UEFA Champions league for the very first time in their history. It’s been a long wait for City to hang on to the FA Cup as they won their last FA Cup way back in 1969.

The critics are giving credit to City’s manager, Roberto Mancini, who gambled and took the risk by including their most reliable player of season, Carlos Tevez. unsecured loans

Carlos Tevez’s inclusion turned out to be a decisive one, as he is currently the second leading scorer in the English Premier League charts with 19 goals to his name.

On the other hand, keeping the importance of the day, Tony Pulis also decided to include his injured players, Matthew Etherington and Robert Huth.

Roberto Mancini in his post match interview dedicated the victory to City fans, saying, “I am happy for the fans, they deserved to win this Cup. For a long time they didn't win. My feeling is good, but it's important that they feel good [too]. After many years they deserve to win this trophy”. bad credit loans

Mancini remained down-to-earth and believes there are still many areas left to improve on and winning the FA Cup is just a beginning of a new era for Manchester City.

kony 2012 - Making money

This is what sort of sparked it all which is not good. The video itself is a good piece of emotional porn but that's about it. It's honestly NOT worth the 30 minutes when you find out somethings about the organization that is doing this [Invisible Children].

First of all, the guy who made that film get's paid $90,000 a year. That's for him and his family. This does not include him paying costs for film equipment, video editting software, nor does it cover travel or accomodations whilst in anywhere else. Those are all covered under the ludicrous budgets that the Invisible Children organization actually deal with. Let's go to that now. Here are some expenses from CharityNavigator.:

Compensation of Leaders | % of Compensation relative to amount of money made by IC | Title

• $88,241 | 0.99% | Ben Keesey - CEO
• $89,669 | 1.00% | Jason Russell - Co-Founder/Filmmaker
• $84,377 | 0.94% | Laren Poole - Co-Founder/Filmmaker

Revenue

• Total Contributions: $10,334,060
• Program Service Revenue: $3,423,351
• Total Primary Revenue: $13,757,411
• Other Revenue $7,769
• TOTAL REVENUE: $13,765,180

Expenses

• Program Expenses: $7,163,384
• Administrative Expenses: $1,444,570
• Fundraising Expenses: $286,678
• TOTAL FUNCTIONAL EXPENSES: $8,894,632

Payments to Affiliates $0 Excess (Or deficit) for the year: $4,870,548

Net Assets $6,584,811

As if that isn't bad enough, they've refused to Co-operate with the Better Business Bureau, Their transparancy rating is fairly low on Charity Navigator, and allegations of fraud.

Besides, they make a fairly large point about sending money to the Ugandan Military. This is a big no no for a couple of reasons. First of all, Kony isn't even in Uganda. Funding a military that has no real authority over another country to LOOK in other countries, is a moronic idea to begin with. Secondly, the Ugandan military is already using this as an excuse to enter other countries and exploit resources from surrouding areas. The Government of Uganda is full of criminals that are worse than Kony himself. Not to mention the bloody PRESIDENT of Uganda is responsible for millions of deaths. Then you've got allegations coming out that Kony is already dead. The LRA (Konys ragtag bunch of assholes) isn't that large, or all that active.

The worst thing about Invisible Children (In my opinion) is that they lobbies for DIRECT MILITARY INTERVENTION IN AFRICA. After all of the terrorist hunts in the Middle East, and having troops stuck in Afghanistan and Iraq, don't you think that the people would have learned by now that having troops in another country to hunt one asshole isn't exactly the best idea? Especially when some of the Republicans believe that invading Iran is a fairly good idea at the moment. There are SERIOUS issues with this group, issues that people are overlooking. I will admit that at first I was already on Twitter and ready to bitch at people about the injustice that's being served in other countries and then I decided to look into the organization. The information is there, and willing, but people are fearful to even look. Fearful, lazy, or just swept up by the movement. Injustice exists in the world. It is damn stupid, and it sucks ass, but that's the nature of this planet at the moment. Humanity, since rising from the primordial ooze, has killed people over far less than anything you could imagine. Then there's the fact that if Kony is alive, and the ICC, or International Criminals Court, manages to put him on trial, what's it going to achieve? Numerous war criminals have stood trial before the ICC. This isn't a game of chess. You don't topple a pawn and move on. The pawns replicate. It's like fighting a hydra. If you slice off one head, more are going to pop up in it's place. You remove one player, and 10 others will appear. Hell, there's a case to be made that awareness driven ngos perpetuate the current state of afafairs and are an intergral part of the current system of global unfairness. They offer placebos for guilty consciences and as such, they don't change anything. If you think of large entites such as Global Corporations, conglomorates and powerful nation states that capitalize on injustice, corruption and disorganization and exploit the poor for their resources and manpower, the best thing that could happen to them are programs such as this. There's a lot of reasons why Invisible Children has a good idea of what they're doing, but FAR too much on the opposite sides of the scales to tip myself (and no doubt others) into not bothering with this group and it's practices.

Information retrieved by use of google, and a variety of different comments spread across Kony2012 post comment fields.

EDIT: A couple of things to note

1) The majority of this post is my beliefs and some facts. I made an opinion and people are saying things, and giving me 'praise' (Can't think of another word) for something that I posted to shut some people up as well as state my opinion.

2) I'm not saying do nothing, which is what half of the people who commented to this post seem to believe. I'm saying that there are many ways you can help the world be a better place rather than subscribing bad credit loans to an organization which seems a bit shady at best. Amnesty International is one, as well as Doctors Without Borders.

3) For the love of God, read the entire thing before you comment. I had my message box flooded with posts saying "You're getting mad over them paying themselves a perfectly normal, reasonable amount of money?" That is NOT THE ENTIRE PURPOSE OF THIS COMMENT. While I do not agree with getting paid $90k, which is twice the average income per year in America, that's not what I'm getting at. What I'm getting at is that Invisible Children is an organization that you should think twice about before having any dealings with. If you want to, then that unsecured loans is entirely up to you. I'm just trying to put some facts out there as well as stating my opinion that I am well within my rights to do so. Now. I'm going to bed. It's 4:30 in the morning and I've spent the better part of the past hour and a half going through comments to this comment and trying to explain myself and I'm exhausted. Good night and do whatever you believe is right.

Jeremy Kyle Nation

It emerged last night that the nation’s underpants are continuing their twenty-year Jeremy Kyle embargo, steadfastly refusing to be worn by television’s most accomplished moron-bater.

In an interview with The Guardian, Kyle told the reporter that he unsecured loans had not worn underwear for twenty years, and implied that this was of his own free will.

However, a spokesperson for the nation’s underpants claim that the decision was all theirs, and that the embargo shows no signs of abating.

The spokesperson said, “He may claim that he doesn’t wear underwear by choice, but a hundred million pairs of underpants will go to their grave swearing otherwise.”

“There is not a pair of underpants on these shores that would bad credit loans be willing to wrap that man’s arse, whether he wanted them to, or not.”

Embargo

There are rumours that the long-running underpants embargo has caused much distress among the trouser community, a situation for which the underpants are truly sorry.

“We realise that our industrial action has caused significant distress for our trouser brethren, and has forced them into a situation for which they are clearly not well prepared, but we had simply had enough.”

“Most people use their arse for simple matters of defecation and flatulence, but Jeremy Kyle insisted on using his to pitch ideas for TV shows and to interview imbeciles.  It was simply too much for any self-respecting underpants to take.”

“Skid-marks we can live with, but not the sort of depraved rantings coming from the arse of Jeremy Kyle.”

Louis Farrakhan Hate Speech

During an annual conference on Sunday, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said President Barack Obama has been criticized more than any other president because of his race -- and believes the racial hatred could lead to assassination attempts.

Farrakhan made the comments during a lecture at the United Center during his annual Saviours’ Day speech. The leader of the Chicago-based movement discussed politics, debt, foreign policy and other issues during the speech, according to the Associated Press.

"They have called President Barack Obama a racist, an anti-Semite, a socialist, a communist, a foreigner, an alien and some have even called him a terrorist," Farrakhan said, according to the AP. "Obama has really got them upset. Republicans are looking for some white person. Anybody. Anybody. "

The Chicago Tribune has more on Farrakhan's comments about President Obama:

Farrakhan spent much of his oration decrying what he cast as Satan's influence over racist forces in politics and society before asking a pointed rhetorical bad credit loans question: "Do you think they're wicked enough to be plotting our brother's assassination as we speak?"...
While Farrakhan called out conservatives for questioning Obama's citizenship and even criticizing the figure of first lady Michelle Obama, he also attacked the president for his support of efforts to remove Middle Eastern leaders and warned him against any potential military action in Iran. The crowd roared as he called on them to be "conscientious objectors" to any strike against Iran.

“Never has a sitting president been spoken of in the manner that President Obama and his family have had to endure,” Farrakhan continued, according to WBEZ. “Not just by the unsecured loans birthers and right-wing zealots but those in high places – people with great influence have spoken against him in a manner that has never been according to even the worst of America’s white presidents.”

He went on to say that the people who want to assassinate the president would want their "patsy" to be a Muslim.

Farrakhan's speech, titled "What will 2012 bring to America, the World, Black and Oppressed People," also touched on his September 11 conspiracy theories (he believes the U.S. government orchestrated the attacks) and the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Liverpool responds to anti racist's concerns.

 The recent and on going furor surrounding Liverpool Football Club’s handling of the Luis Suarez/Patrice Evra incident continues to illustrate the depth and breadth of racism in the UK.

 

The recent public letter sent by 18 prominent black and anti racist organisations to LFC has been the catalyst for further denial of the racist nature of this miserable affair. 

 

In seeking to bring clarity to the debate I want to make a few things clear.  There is no accusation that Suarez himself is a racist. He made racially derogatory and offensive remarks that are unacceptable in the modern British game.

 

Secondly nobody accused LFC of being a racist club. What was said is that their handling of this particular affair was extremely poor and incited further racism and that they should do something about it. Liverpool has a moral responsibility to football and the country as a whole to ensure that they set the highest standards when dealing with issues of race.

 

And what is being asked of them? That Suarez should apologise to Evra. He and the club are both, I believe morally compelled to do so.

 

In addition, that LFC make a public statement alongside others committing themselves to opposing racism and finally organise a conference on racism in football. All simple things, that would go a long way to repairing some of the damage done by LFC’s lack of leadership on this issue. Hardly a life sentence is it?

 

In response and reported on by the BBC, LFC have said they are committed to tackling racism.

 

"Liverpool FC made clear its disappointment with what happened recently at Old Trafford and both Luis Suarez and Kenny Dalglish issued apologies.”

Whilst true, LFC have consistently denied the existence of any racist element in this matter

"The player did not previously appeal the FA sanction, served his suspension and apologised to anyone he had offended”.

One assumes that the reason no appeal was made was because both Suarez and LFC accepted he was guilty. The apology issued was in reference to the failed “ hand shake” and not for using racially offensive language.

"In light of recent events, the club has met with a number of key national and local stakeholders on these issues. We are also working with Sporting Equals, an independent UK-wide charity and one of the leading experts in equality and diversity in sport to develop a strategic action plan encompassing both our staff and external stakeholders."

This sounds promising and we looked at Sporting Equals website and to our surprise we found that Dr Zafar Iqbal, 1st Team Doctor at Liverpool FC is also Sporting Equals Physical Activity Ambassador. We have written to Sporting Equals for further clarification.

We will also be requesting the names of those “national and local key stakeholders” who LFC say they are working with. Preliminary enquiries by us have not been able to establish LFC is in contact with any local black organisations in Liverpool. 

LFC continued…

"We are committed to playing our part, alongside the game's authorities and other agencies, in the fight against racism and discrimination of any sort."

Whilst we welcome this preliminary statement by Liverpool in response to our letter, their initial failure to appeal the Suarez suspension speaks volumes.

 

We hope in the spirit of reconciliation, and in line with LFC stated commitment to play it’s part in the fight against racism, that a full apology is issued.

 

Black people are reporting to me that bad credit loans Suarez name is now being used as a form of racial abuse. There can be no more compelling reason for LFC to reconsider their position.

 

It is vital that LFC are seen to be absolutely unequivocal in their opposition to racism. In this instance that requires they provide an immediate apology to Evra and unsecured loans acknowledge and repair the damage done by their mishandling of the whole affair. 

Suarez shake

Liverpool's Luis Suarez competes with Manchester United's Patrice Evra during the Barclays Premier League match at Anfield on October 15, 2011 in Liverpool, England. (FILE)

England’s Football Association (FA) on Wednesday started a disciplinary hearing into claims Liverpool striker Luis Suarez racially abused Manchester United’s Patrice Evra in a match in October. unsecured loans
Uruguay’s Suarez, following a month-long investigation, has been charged with abusing Evra, and referring to his “ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race” by the FA.
The hearing is set to last for two days, with a verdict expected by the end of this week.
Both players are due to give evidence at the hearing.
Suarez has repeatedly denied accusations of racism and Liverpool bad credit loans have insisted they remain “fully supportive” of their player.
The charge confronting Suarez relates to the 1-1 Premier League draw between Liverpool and United at Anfield on October 15.
Evra, speaking to French television station Canal Plus immediately after the match, said Suarez had racially abused him “more than 10 times” during the game.
“I was very upset,” Evra told Canal Plus. “In 2011 you can’t say things like this. He knows what he said, the ref knows it, it will come out.
“I won’t repeat what he said, but it was a racist word, and he said it more than ten times.
“He tried to wind me up. I won’t make a huge deal out of it, but it’s very upsetting and disappointing.”
But Suarez, quoted by Uruguayan media earlier this month, said: “There is no evidence I said anything racist to him. I said nothing of the sort.”
Evra voiced his complaint to referee Andre Marriner, in charge at Anfield, who included it in his match report and the FA announced the charge against Suarez last month.
Liverpool said after the charge: “Luis remains determined to clear his name of the allegation made against him by Patrice Evra.
“The club remain fully supportive of Luis in this matter.”
And only last week Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish insisted: “The staff, players and supporters will stand by him because they know what the truth is.
“We’ll stand by him. It’s only in other people’s interests that if they cannot stop him on the pitch, they have to try some other ways and means to stop him,” the Anfield great added.
Suarez, who joined Liverpool from Dutch club Ajax for £22 million in January, is no stranger to controversy, having often been accused of diving.
He earned global condemnation at last year’s World Cup by handling a goalbound effort by Ghana in the final moments of the quarter-final, then celebrating when the resulting penalty was missed and Uruguay went through in a penalty shoot-out.

Houston was underwater in tub

How did Whitney Houston die? A combination of prescription drug Xanax and other medication mixed with alcohol are being reported as the cause of death, according to a report.
TMZ reported that Los Angeles unsecured loans County Coroner officials told Whitney Houston's family that the singer didn't die from drowning. Instead, it appears that Whitney Houston died from what seems to be a combination of prescription drugs mixed with alcohol, family sources told the celebrity news Web site.

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Whitney Houston's cause of death is said to be prescription drug and alcohol combination, family sources tell TMZ.

Houston's body was found in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Saturday afternoon. Beverly Hills Police Department Lt. Mark Rosen said the singer was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. in her room. Houston was 48 years old.
"No obvious signs of foul play and no obvious signs of a cause of death," Rosen said.
Whitney Houston was found face down in the bathtub in her hotel room and prescription drugs were said to be present because the singer allegedly took them for depression and anxiety. Reports were that the singer either drowned or died of a drug overdose, but authorities said they wouldn't comment on the cause of death on Saturday, because it was still being investigated

"We're told Coroner's officials informed the family there was not enough water in Whitney's lungs to lead to the conclusion that she drowned," TMZ's report read.
The family sources also told TMZ that bad credit loans Whitney Houston may have died before her head was submerged.
When news of the six-time Grammy winner's death hit the media, reports were that singer and rumored ex-boyfriend Ray J found her body in her hotel room. However, TMZ reported that Whitney Houston's body was found in the bathtub by her aunt, Mary Jones. Ray J reportedly got the call informing him about Whitney Houston's death while he was at home and rushed to the hotel but was turned away by authorities.
Bobbi Kristina, Houston's only daughter with ex-husband Bobby Brown, was also prevented from identifying Whitney Houston's dead body. The 18 year old was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital on Sunday morning and treated for stress and anxiety following her mother's death, The Associated Press reported. She has since been released.
Getting ready for the evening
Houston was supposed to appear at her friend and mentor Clive Davis' pre-Grammy gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Saturday.
Jones had laid out the singer's dress for the evening on the bed and left for about a half hour, TMZ reported. But when the singer didn't leave the bathroom Jones pulled Whitney Houston from the bathtub and began performing CPR, according to TMZ.
TMZ said that Whitney's mother Cissy has made arrangements for the singer's body to be flown to Atlanta, perhaps as early as Tuesday.
"The family was told the Coroner has no problem releasing the body because there is no evidence of foul play -- and unless cops put a hold on the body, it can be flown back East," TMZ reported.
Investigating Houston's behavior before death
Detectives investigating the cause of Whitney Houston's death will be looking into the singer's behavior hours and days before her death. Her family, friends and staff have already been questioned, according to Good Morning America.
The Los Angeles Coroner on Sunday, said that toxicology reports on Houston will not be available until about six to eight weeks.
Houston struggled with drugs and alcohol for years and entered rehab last year. Reports are that she was at a bar Friday night at the Beverly Hilton hotel with a group of friends.
TMZ reported that the singer was at the bar drinking and being very loud.

the believer review

As we read of the rapid rise of anti-Semitic incidents throughout the world, it may be helpful to ponder the psychic toll this news takes on Jews and intermarried families.

Do we internalize the hatred, discovering within ourselves the stereotypes others see in us? Do we become fearful, or do we respond with courage and strength?

A profoundly disturbing film, The Believer, written and directed by Henry Bean, an observant Jew, explores the emotional damage anti-Semitism has done to one brilliant, independent-minded Jew, Danny Balint.

Although the film was made before Sept. 11, well before the dramatic international upsurge in anti-Semitic incidents, its release--on May 17 in New York and Los Angeles--is timely.

The film begins with a quote from Catallus, "I love and I hate. Who can tell me why?"

We then observe a yeshiva (Jewish school), with young boys and a teacher discussing the meaning of the biblical story in which Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. The young Danny interprets the story not as a test of faith, but as a demonstration of power: that God is unsecured loans proving his power in contrast to the powerlessness of Abraham.

Obviously obsessed with the issue of power, and repulsed by those who are powerless, 22-year-old Danny (Ryan Gosling) chooses to identify with Nazis as opposed to Jews.

On a New York subway one day, Danny, looking like a skinhead not a Jew, harasses a yeshiva student, and then, when the boy suddenly darts off the subway, follows and attacks him.

Given that the film is being released during a time of greatly increased anti-Semitism, I watched this scene with great discomfort, afraid that it would encourage copycat attacks.

After attacking the yeshiva student, Danny joins a neo-Nazi group, where he proposes killing Jews. When the others ask why, he spews out a ream of negative stereotypes of Jews, including "The modern world is a Jewish disease." Finally, he says, "Not for any rational reason, but because we know we hate them, because we want them gone."

Again, although the other Jews in the film are portrayed positively and its ultimate point is to disagree with the anti-Semitism exhibited, I feared that the suggestion--to kill Jews--might be taken up by some film viewers. The film even names specific, well-known Jews bad credit loans as possible targets.

After getting involved with the neo-Nazi group, Danny's obsession with Jews propels him to organize an attack on a synagogue. In one distressing scene, in which one of his fellow neo-Nazis urinates from the bimah (podium), another one discovers the ark and pulls out a Torah.

Suddenly, Danny's years of yeshiva education restrain him: He may despise Jews, but he still reveres the Torah. Although he does his best to prevent any desecration of the Torah, it is nonetheless ripped. Danny lovingly scoops the Torah up and brings it home, wrapped in a tallit (prayer shawl), where he begins to carefully repair it. He also starts wearing the tallit underneath his shirt.

Danny has meanwhile become involved with Carla (Summer Phoenix), who is the daughter of Lina (Theresa Russell), the leader of the neo-Nazi group. A rebel herself, Carla finds Judaism fascinating. At her request, Danny teaches her Hebrew and they start lighting Shabbat (Sabbath), candles together.

As the film progresses, Danny reconnects with Judaism and with former classmates, but is unable to relinquish his neo-Nazism. He now identifies as both a Nazi and a Jew, as seen by his images of a horrifying story told to him by a survivor. Earlier in the film, when he recalled the story, he had identified with the Nazi in it, but at this point in his life he identifies with both the Nazi and the Jew.

In one startling scene, Danny uses Nazi-like gestures while chanting a Jewish prayer. His double life ultimately becomes impossible to maintain, and the film concludes with the inevitable final scene.

Ryan Gosling, a relatively unknown actor, is superb as Danny, showing both his initial heartlessness, his vulnerability around Carla, and his ultimate torment. Summer Phoenix's Carla is a complex, equally brilliant and self-hating young adult. On the whole, I find The Believer a worthwhile film for interfaith couples to see in order to become more aware of the ways anti-Semitism can be internalized, but I fear the consequences if it is seen by anti-Semites.

The disturbing yet riveting film leaves viewers full of questions, eager to discuss it. Just in time to answer many of these questions, the Sundance Channel will air, on May 19 at 7:30 p.m., and on May 26 at 11 p.m., a fascinating documentary, Anatomy of a Scene: The Believer, in which writer/director Henry Bean discusses many of the thought processes that went into making the film, specific choices he made in the pivotal scene in which Danny repairs the Torah, why he chose Ryan Gosling to portray Danny, and aesthetic issues such as the use of a hand-held camera and the choice of a grainy-looking type of film.

Anatomy of a Scene: The Believer was edited by Jenny Raskin, Lisa M. Jones and Bill Shaw.

The Believer, which was inspired by a real story Bean read in the New York Times, won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize in 2001.

computers and the Olympics.

The London Olympics organisation committee kicked off 200,000 hours of testing today in its 2,000m² testing lab in Canary Wharf.

Led by London Olympics CIO Gerry Pennell, a team of up to 70 people will test all the software in the laboratory. The lab is split into over 50 individual cells that each focus on the software underpinning a different testing job. For instance, there are 35 cells testing the software for different Olympic sports.

When the lab has finished testing, the team will transfer all the software and the hardware to the Olympic venues for onsite testing.

The technology runs everything, from the timing of track events to the logistics of getting athletes around.

Gerry Pennell has experience of major sporting events and was previously director of technology for the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

It is not possible to prepare for every eventuality in an event of the size of the Olympics. Former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe, who chairs the London Olympics planning committee, said the test team had to attempt to prepare for the worst. "We know things will happen that we cannot plan for, so we have to get our teams ready."

The security of data is a top priority. According to supplier Atos Origin, when it ran the IT at the last Olympic Games in Beijing, there were between 12 and 14 million data security events that needed to be checked-out every day.

The testing phase comes after two years' work has been completed. The Olympic IT team completed the software designs in 2009 and produced the software in 2010. This year will see the testing phase with the operation phase next year.

Some of the software, such as the volunteer portal, are already up and running.

By the time of the Olympic Games in summer 2012, over 5,000 people would have been involved in the creation and implementation of the technology that underpins the sporting event.

The Olympics IT is being delivered by multiple suppliers. As a result, Pennell's task is managing and integrating the contribution of multiple suppliers, with support from the Olympics main IT partner Atos Origin. He said he is used to managing multiple outsourced service providers, because that is the model that his previous employer, CFS, uses.

Atos Origin first became involved in Olympic IT in 1992 and by bad credit loans the 2004 Olympic Games it was the main partner. It is already planning for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016.

Because Atos has been working on the Olympics for nearly 20 years it has been able to innovate. For example next year's games will see the Olympic data feed data in a standard format for the first time. Athletes, the media and officials will have a mobile application with bespoke content and a system that feeds information to commentators in real-time will be introduced.

Planning and implementing IT in any major unsecured loans project is challenging to say the least. Problems and delays can cost millions of pounds. The Olympic IT team cannot afford any delays and the reputation of an entire nation rests on its success in 2012. But Pennell, who was at the IT helm of Cooperative Financial Services (CFS) during the recent banking crisis, says: "Being a CIO at a bank during the credit crunch was good preparation for a project like this."

Team America World popo

After serving as director of photography on a series of large-scale, effects-laden action films (The Matrix trilogy and Spider-Man 2), Bill Pope, ASC instructed his agents to look for something “completely different.” Little did the cinematographer know that he’d get what he asked for — in spades. “I certainly never saw a puppet movie coming up on my horizon,” Pope says with a chuckle. “However, when [directors] Matt Stone and Trey Parker sent me the script, I literally laughed out loud as I read it. At the time, I didn’t unsecured loans know they wanted to make the film entirely with puppets. When I finally met with Matt and Trey and they told me they wanted to do the whole film with marionettes — all in camera, with no CGI — I told them I was their man. CG allows you to do things onscreen that you shouldn’t be able to, but many times those kinds of effects can take you out of the story. For me, the organic quality of doing things in camera is usually much more charming.”

Stone and Parker have earned considerable notoriety for their raw and controversial animated television series South Park. In 1999, the eccentric duo released an even racier feature-film installment: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Their other collaborations include the features BASEketball and Orgazmo, as well as the TV series That’s My Bush! “Bill was suggested to us by our producer, Scott Rudin, who had worked with him on Clueless,” says Stone. “From the outset, we felt we should find a cinematographer who had shot these kinds of action movies. In fact, the entire precept of Team America is based on the idea of doing a huge, overwrought, Bruckheimer-esque action/event movie, only with puppets. When we wrote the script, however, we didn’t write it with puppets in mind. We just wrote it like any big action film — a guy jumps his motorcycle over 16 cars and there’s a big explosion — and handled the script without any thoughts about how we would actually do it!”

In true South Park fashion, no individual, religion or political bad credit loans affiliation is safe from being roasted in this election-season satire. To focus their gibes, the filmmakers dreamed up “Team America,” an elite group of world freedom fighters who battle to save democracy against tyrannical oppression and terrorist intimidation. “They’re sort of like the A-Team and James Bond fused together,” notes Pope. “We don’t know if they’re government-sponsored or whatever, but they basically go around solving various problems and fighting terrorism. Of course, they manage to screw things up in as many ways as possible. Along the way, Matt and Trey send up everything and everyone; as in the South Park movie, nobody is safe, and anybody can be made fun of. If you’re going to have satire, you might as well make it all-encompassing.

“The conflict of the film,” he continues, “is that [North Korean dictator] Kim Jong Il is trying to take over the world with weapons of mass destruction, and he’s using the Chechens and Al-Qaeda as his pawns. His other ‘lackeys’ are liberal film actors who don’t believe in ever fighting battles and in keeping peace at any cost. So on one hand, Matt and Trey are mocking all of the high-profile, left-wing liberals; on the other hand, they simultaneously make fun of the right-wing American convention of going in and saving the day. In the end, we hope to come down someplace in the middle.”

Stone and Parker took inspiration for the film from the 1960s British marionette series Thunderbirds, created by Gerry Anderson and photographed by John Read. “Team America was certainly inspired by the work that Gerry Anderson did,” Stone explains. “He created an entire niche with all of his different marionette shows, the most popular of which was Thunderbirds. But while those shows gave us some ideas, we were not fans of them at all. In fact, we thought they were pretty boring, which inspired us to parody the shows as well.”

Pope admits he wasn’t a follower of the original puppet series either. “In fact, I had never even seen Thunderbirds,” he confesses. “My generation sort of missed it, and when I did come across it, I was at an age where camp didn’t appeal to me. However, what we learned from those shows was to treat the genre seriously and not make fun of the puppets. We’d just design a scene as you would with any action ‘actor’ and then let the puppets do it. The problem is that marionettes can never quite stand up straight or move gracefully — they’re inherently stupid things, so we didn’t need to enhance that factor. In fact, we tried to downplay it as much as possible.”

Devising a plan of attack for the low-budgeted shoot demanded considerable R&D. Since the puppets were being created at 1⁄3 scale, all sorts of issues had to be addressed, including set design, dressing and construction, miniature props, the scaling-down of lighting instruments and the use of camera-moving platforms. “Matt and Trey had been working on this in their heads for quite a while before I was hired; they even took some Barbie dolls and a crew out last October to shoot a day of tests, just to find out how hard it was going to be. Of course, they quickly discovered it was quite difficult. Then, after I was hired, the original plan was to shoot for three weeks in the spring and then shut down while they went back to work on South Park; after that, we would start up again for another four weeks in the summer to finish the movie. They figured it would take about seven weeks to shoot the entire film.

“In preparing the film, we started with a small three-day test shoot in February of this year. As we got ready for the tests, we started to realize just how long things were going to take. The variables became more and more solid, and we realized that to control the marionettes, we were going to have to fly eight to 10 puppeteers around the set all the time. To do that, we would have to build bridges above the sets and fly Condors overhead. We also realized we would have to use some rod puppets from underneath; in those instances, holes would have to be drilled and grooves made in the floors on a per-shot basis. Still, even with storyboards, it was difficult to anticipate everything that was needed to execute a particular shot. After just three days of prep, we realized it was going to be even harder and more time-consuming than we thought. Seven weeks was a ridiculously short amount of time in which to do this type of film.”

Kim jon il. Keep saying king...

Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader who died on Saturday, will enter the history books as one of the world’s cruellest tyrants, following a reign of terror during which he developed nuclear weapons while his compatriots unsecured loans starved.

The reclusive Kim, who was either 69 or 70 years of age, was often portrayed in the west as a caricature of a mad dictator: a gluttonous playboy who compensated for his short stature with a bouffant hairdo and platform shoes; an internet addict who had more than 20,000 DVDs, and at one point was Hennessy cognac’s best customer.

But contrary to the popular impression of bad credit loans Kim as a madman, he “was not delusional”, according to Madeleine Albright, who met him in Pyongyang in 2000 while she was US secretary of state. In her memoir, Madam Secretary, she said: “I found him very much on top of his brief.”

Others who met him describe being surprised by his bearing. Isao Iijima, a top aide to former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi who met him twice, described Kim as having “gentle eyes, like those of an elephant. He did not have vicious eyes”.

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Kim used calculated brinkmanship to keep the world at bay while at home he wreaked havoc. He promoted a pervasive personality cult that saw him and his father, the state’s founder Kim Il-sung, revered as gods, and used an unimaginable level of fear to keep the populace under control.

Any misstep, such as watching a South Korean film, could land not just the perpetrator but his or her entire family in a political prison.

Kang Cholhwan, who defected to South Korea in the 1990s, described being kept in Yodok, one of the most notorious camps, for a decade from the age of nine after his grandfather esp­oused capitalist ideals. He witnessed 15 executions and was so hungry he trapped and ate snakes and mice.

In one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the 20th century, Kim allowed as many as 3m people to starve to death during the mid-1990s in a famine resulting from decades of economic and agricultural mismanagement.

All the while he was leading a lavish life. Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian official who accompanied Kim on a train journey to Moscow (Kim was terrified of flying), described how live lobsters and roasted donkey were flown in to supply the train each day. “I am the object of criticism around the world,” Mr Pulikovsky quoted Kim as saying. “But I think that since I am being discussed, then I am on the right track.”

According to state propaganda, Kim was born on Mount Paekdu, the spiritual home of the Korean people, underneath a bright star. In reality, he was believed to have been born in 1941 in a Soviet Army camp near Khabarovsk, in the Russian far east, where his father was exiled.

In his childhood, he was nicknamed Yura and, even following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the countries’ close ideological ties, still gravitated to Russians, spending hours in the sauna with Russian diplomats in Pyongyang.

The Kim family returned to Pyongyang when Japan lost control of Korea at the end of the second world war, with Stalin anointing Kim Il-sung as the leader of the communist half of the peninsula, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

He spent parts of his childhood in China after his father invaded US-backed South Korea, sparking in 1950 the three-year Korean war, but later attended Kim Il-sung University, majoring in political science. He rose quickly through the Workers’ party ranks, taking charge of organisation and propaganda in 1973, before his father officially designated him as his successor in 1980.

It was from this time that his portrait was compulsorily hung beside his father’s in buildings – public and private – around the country, and that he begun being called the Dear Leader, styled after his father’s Great Leader.

Kim was believed to be behind the 1983 bomb attack in Rangoon, Burma, that killed 17 members of the South Korean cabinet, as well as the bombing of a South Korean airliner in 1987.

In 1991, Kim was put in charge of the military, despite never having served, until his father died in 1994. Three years of official mourning followed, before Kim took over the leadership of the Workers’ party.

However, he named his father Eternal President and never took on the top title himself, instead calling himself the chairman of the National Defence Commission and general secretary of the Workers’ party.

In the decade since he took formal control, North Korea has suffered repeated humanitarian crises, including the 1994-97 famine, during which the leadership kept the international community at arm’s length.

With the collapse of the Soviet bartering system, North Korea’s economy fell into ruin and it became reliant on China, now its closest ideological ally, for economic and political support.

In 2002 Kim allowed some price and wage liberalisation, but the reforms were halfhearted and led to even greater economic problems as necessities such as rice spiralled beyond the reach of the common people.

Kim captured the world’s attention when he responded to accusations he was running a secret uranium-based nuclear programme – in addition to the known plutonium plants – by withdrawing from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. This sparked a nuclear crisis, which came to a head with his test of a nuclear device in October 2006. Although a technical failure, the test catapulted the rust-bucket country into the league of nuclear states. It prompted a diplomatic process with the US, marked by Kim’s habit of making deals, breaking them, extracting greater concessions, before eventually carrying out his end of the original deal.

It is this pattern that has led some analysts to comment on Kim’s ability to play a weak hand of cards exceptionally skilfully. Still, he pushed the peninsula perilously close to war last year with the of killing 50 South Koreans in a submarine attack against a warship and the bombardment of a South Korean island.

Kim married four times – first to a woman chosen by his father, with whom he had a daughter. With his second wife he had a son, Kim Jong-nam, now about 40, who was considered the obvious heir until he was caught sneaking into Japan using a false Dominican passport.

He had two more sons, Kim Jong-chul and Kim Jong-eun, with Ko Young-hee, a dancer who was called his favourite wife but is believed to have died from cancer in 2006. The same year, Kim married his secretary, more than 20 years his junior. Kim suffered a suspected stroke in 2008, forcing him to accelerate the promotion of Kim Jong-eun, now styled “the Great Successor”.