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Anyone following the disappearance closely may find this rather interesting: http://keithledgerwood.tumblr.com/post/79838944823/did-malaysian-airlines-370-disappear-using-sia68-sq68 It's the only theory I have heard that makes any sense. That's if you believe that the military in this area are even half competent. Some really good planning capped off with a bit of luck that another 777 was in more or less exactly the right place at the right time. Maybe this couldn't have been pulled-off before ADS-B? Doesn't explain who and why of course, but if it's even half the truth we are sure going to find out!

Sad news, but he'd been seriously ill for quite some time. He visited Bedlington many times in his long career, and will likely be seen in several pictures in the Gallery. Although many of his views were totally wrong-headed he was a great asset to - the Tory Party; a fact no more readily appreciated than by his Labour Party colleagues! Though - like a stopped clock - he was spot-on once in a while. An idealist, a true socialist, and an eccentric. No one ever doubted that he believed what he was saying though, and that's where the present lot part company with Tony's generation. Often wrong, but still very worthy of respect, you are a sad loss Tony!

And... hardly a month later (4 March 1974) the appallingly incompetent Edward Heath (the second worst Prime Minister in UK history) was booted out, and pipe-smoking Harold was back. Like many other thoroughly bad things that were foisted on us undemocratically (the EU included) Ted the Incompetent was right behind The Local Government Act 1972. Mind you it was also backed by Labour, though like many things they really didn't know if they were for or against it, or indeed what day of the week Tuesday was! The irony of all this was that Heath was the first leader the Tories ever elected "democratically". Sort of suggesting that a bunch of time-served old codgers in a smoke-filled room was a vastly better system of choosing a national leader than electing the ex-public school twit who (at the time) had offended the least number of Tory Party members!

Not the kind of illustration the author intended methinks! More an illustration of why pinning your hopes on any mega-project (particularly one that is government/EU funded) is a chimera. Put away the begging bowl you local politicos, and start doing things that are actually business friendly! Particularly things that are friendly to local entrepreneurs! They are the ones that have strong ties and base loyalty to the area. All you've been saying for decades is that we resent your enterprise, so b-off - so they do!

Even simpler! Thatcher era: 5% of UK population lives in the North East - 5% of all UK high earners live in the North East. Post Blair/Brown/CamClegg (& "Things, can only get better!"): 5% of UK population lives in the North East - 2% of all UK high earners live in the North East. Longhirst Hall closes.

Put them on the town calendar - it's easy, and help is always available (just PM Malc )! BTW I've seen the future of the calendar (spanking new software in test), but my lips are sealed!

I'm not talking about the cosmopolitan elites, and even if I were there's the argument that any sane person legally minimises their tax liability (unlike some of our own legislators - mainly Labour - who illegally minimise theirs!). It's the game everyone plays, including the champaign socialists, and has its good side too, because it tempers greedy politico's power. Look at how French high-earners have raised two fingers to Hollande's loony stuff, and have forced him to backtrack. He has now imposed those taxes on the employers instead, so they are now relocating across the channel in droves! No, what I'm talking about is the people who earn more than average from UK based jobs. There are far more of them than the elites, and these are the very people that create jobs, and create wealth. Constantly trotting out the tax cuts for millionaires party line says we don't value you; we regard you as a plain cash cow; in fact we despise you! The plain fact is that this is purely for the audience; essentially the usual socialist ploy of buying votes with other people's money, and without regard to the true consequences. The collateral damage from this kind of anti-business rhetoric is immense. It's the usual: talk ourselves into poverty because it makes us all feel better about things and about "the evil system". Lets live life as it should be, not as it is! Let's impoverish everyone because we have b-all enterprise or ability ourselves! Selling jealousy and envy to people who can't see past the next state-handout can be very profitable in itself, and is self-sustaining! It's actually contemptuous on their abilities, and any aspirations they may have.

Where do I offer support to the good riddance campaign? It would be the best thing that ever happened to the North East! Well... maybe second best, after local people starting to use their brains, and not allowing us to be taken for granted by the Westminster champaign socialists!

Oh dear! This is what happens when you don't give those "tax cuts for [Morpeth] millionaires" Mr Miliband. Jobs go, and/or those people do, and everyone becomes impoverished. The sad fact is that we are already tax top earners more than any other country in the world except Italy and India. And.. I can tell you first hand what this has done for the Italian economy! So, next time you hear the standard "tax cuts for millionaires" trotted out by your local Jealousy and Envy Party candidate, remember that UK governments of all political persuasions appropriate half of all top earner's income. Everyone benefits from this, and it's only because we present a favourable climate to business, and a reasonably equitable legal system that they bother to patronise us and create jobs. So many times in our history has Labour greed, and socialist dogma, caused a loss for everyone that we simply can't afford the likes of Red-Ed Miliband to provide the last straw that breaks the camel's back - again! There you are - rant over - but it makes my blood boil when a couple of minutes into any debate on anything Labourite drones trot out the party-line stock phrase to attempt to rubbish anyone's pro-business initiative! Just heard it yet again on the radio! Oh, and here's what the same dumb vote-buying logic is doing for the Indian economy: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26385545

We could do a Mount Rushmore! Umm... I strongly suspect that Michael Longridge was a "Thatcherite" too!

But enough of Arthur Scargill, can't we discuss Britain's best peacetime PM! I think you'll find that Daniel was actually one of those hateful Tories who exploited the workers, and all that deeply socialist jazz. That's the reason the local Jealousy and Envy Party has done their damnedest to write him out of our history. I'm all for seeing the past in a more balanced and truthful light. So... let's petition for a statue to the great man - a small step on the way to pulling this little town out of its entirely self-imposed impoverishment!

Oh glory - it takes the iSheep at the Beeb two whole days to break this story then they tack a tame "Apple users in security warning" headline on it. A mega-breach like this from anyone else would have rated a much more robust response. Something like "Botched security update - all Apple devices remain insecure!". Botched being a word they did recently headline about a minor problem in a Samsung update pushed to a single phone model, which was speedily fixed, and had no security implications. The actual source code error and simple fix would be clear to most novice programmers. So why has it taken Apple months to fix it, and why a fix still not available? It's not as if these are sub-premium products, or that people haven't paid an arm and a leg for essential support they haven't been getting. It seems that arty flourishes by Jony Ive are far more important than basic security.

Likely it still is!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26322239 Ultimately we'll only have one high street electrical retailer - where you pay to see the goods - before going home and ordering your choice on the Internet!

http://www.bedlington.co.uk/community/forum/23-lost-stolen-goods-reporter/

This is as bad as it gets. A stupid coding error that has gone unnoticed for quite some time leaves all Apple iOS devices open to spoofing. In other words you only think you have a secure connection, the reality is that you don't! Full details here: http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/02/extremely-critical-crypto-flaw-in-ios-may-also-affect-fully-patched-macs/ The coding error is juvenile. With open source loads of people would have noticed this straight away. Apple's super secrecy about everything means no one gets to see the source code, and so invites this sort of blunder. Visiting this link with a secure browser will show an error and warning messages. Reportedly iOS devices don't, and allow sites to pretend to be what they are not. But the problem doesn't stop there!

You too! I read this headline and wondered who was going to stand in for Freddie Mercury!

If you've got a droid (and these days who hasn't several? ) - then yes, flappy bird has been withdrawn by its author, as reportedly he couldn't cope with the celebrity. But... it has spawned a host of clones. https://play.google.com/store/search?q=flappy%20bird&c=apps

Yay! Thank you for that rapid response, Glasgow Uni! Edward Snowden elected as rector of Glasgow University

Of course we can't! But at least they are a known unknown, and aren't supposed to be trawling for commercial information to feed to the competition. And, they'd better behave themselves, because come the revolution we know where they live!

Ah, but I've already strategically geo-diversified the secure USB sticks. The computers I pack are simply misdirection!

So Angela Merkel is so p'd off with the yanks for bugging her private phone, and likely all her digital communications, that she's lobbying similarly minded eurocrats to set up new infrastructure that's totally under European (read her) control. This raises the obvious question as to whether you'd trust Fritz any more than Uncle Sam. I think the answer from the UK should be that we are staying with the devil we know - you can spend your own money on this Angela, not ours! Of course this is just something else we'll have our minds made up for us on, as the "good Europeans" we are. If there's any UK money to be spent in the wake of all this it should go on a national monument to Edward Snowden. Who, despite all the huffing an puffing from the likes of O'Barmy and Creepy Clinton, is in fact a very brave and well motivated soul. We should - at very least - be offering to pay the Ruskies his board and lodging!

@mercuryg Well, yes - you have to find something to fill the multiple 24/7 news coverage, and lets keep the whole thing within budget by getting a camera down there and sticking a mike in anyone you can find's face. All they are going to talk about is their own problems, and who they blame. In the old days this was "all them nuclear tests". But at least then the moans were face to face. We didn't have hour after hour of national news coverage, and countless low-budget discussion programs. The other problem is that science is now so highly politicised that any in-depth look at a problem is going to upset someone quite powerful, or some powerful lobby. The current politicians are also like cushions - gently mirroring the last arse that sat on them! And, of course, they need to be seen to be "doing something". Woe betide the leader that isn't seen to be right up at the coal face "leading" with perfect 20:20 hindsight! @Symptoms Ah, yes, them too! Imagine the "controversy" that would follow a truthful "well, actually, I'd just get in the way!"

Nokia just changed the colour of its FB page to Android green as a tease! This hasn't gone down terribly well with its loyal band of WP (Windows phone) users, but I don't think they need to worry as there's no way a Microsoft company is going to ditch a Microsoft operating system - this year, or next! So, real soon now...