The iconic stuntman that brought many a jaw dropping in the 1970’s, died today at 69 years old. Evel Knievel had suffered from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis for many years, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

As a small boy I loved watching him hurl himself at a ridiculously long and towering ramp, and see him fly over 20 Greyhound buses and land unscathed on the other side. I even had the Evel Knievel SUPER Stunt Cycle Set with Gyro Launcher toy given as a Christmas gift when I was a kid - loved playing with that.

He’ll be missed by many, his stunts are still awe inspiring to watch on youtube. What a way to earn a living, by hurtling yourself through the air on nothing but a wish and a prayer, only to hope you land in a stright line.

RIP you crazy bastard.

A burning car hurtled into Glasgow Airport this morning, and 2 men were arrested on scene in connection with terrorism, and they believe to be connected with the car bomb they found in London 2 days ago.

The UK has been placed on its highest level of terrorism alert after an attack on Glasgow Airport was linked to two car bombs found in London.

Two men were arrested after ramming a burning car into the airport’s main terminal, a day after police thwarted two attempted bombings in the capital.

Police said the incident was being treated as terror related.

Later, two more arrests were made on the M6 in Cheshire in connection with the two incidents.

Anti-terror police from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command assisted by officers from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit made the arrests, Scotland Yard said.

Threat imminent? Very bothersome, and to think the attacks are happening outside of London too makes it even harder to determine where to concentrate the emergency services’ strengths.

July 14th, 7:30pm, Def Leppard LIVE in concert, and I’m going to be there. Me and S have seats in the front section, smack back in the middle of the stage, and I am as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve!

Since I was a boy I’ve been a fan of the Sheffield boys, and have semi-followed their career, more so since I came to the States.

I know Bruce and Andy are going to be very jealous :)

Almost 3 weeks and nothing from the Brit Blogger. I feel like such a bloody loser. To say it’s been busy at the office is quite the understatement. Well, my Mum and Dad are ere in the U.S., coming to the end of a 12-day road trip. I got to spend Mother’s Day with her, which was very cool - I actually enjoyed spoiling the heck out of her.

Work is work - but my god is it going well… I’ve billed in more in 5 months than I did in the whole of 2006. 2007 is going to be a great year financially.

Love life is good - beyond good.

Memorial Day weekend this weekend, so 3 days off - can’t say I’m not happy…

I’ll find the link to the news story, and post it here in an update, but I just had to write about this now. Sat here watching Channel 7 News (ABC), a news alert about a couple driving through various boroughs of the state of New Jersey, and trying to entice young children into their car…

…the borough in question…

…you guessed it… Metuchen.

Say it with me… Metuchen! It’s pronounced “Ma-touchin’”

Kiddie perverts trying to pick up children off the streets of the town of Metuchen.

[laughing til it hurts]

You couldn’t make this shit up.

[update - 5/3/2007]
here’s the news link

So David Beckham’s done with Real Madrid, and moving to the US to play for Los Angeles Galaxy, in a deal that’s topping $250 million in salary and endoresements.

This is a great move for American soccer - the hype over Freddie Adu died down pretty quickly - so this should inject some spark into the “football fever” over this side of the pond.

Good to see some real talent over here.

On every level, this is just plain wrong. Seinfeld’s Michael “Kramer” Richards recently lost his shit on stage, and has plopped himself in some less-than-tepid water.C’mon, what was he thinking?

An article at msnbc.com announced today that Saddam Hussein is going to be hung after being found guilty of the 1982 killing of 148 Shiites in the city of Dujail. No word of the thousands of Kurds he killed by way of poison gas though… curious.

Whatever.

Hang the prick by his bollocks.

My question is this: why on earth did it take 24 years to sentence him?

Police got the heads-up early Thursday: An anonymous caller warned that Jeb Ray Corliss IV was going to parachute off the world-famous Empire State Building.Sure enough, at 4:40 p.m., Corliss, 30, a renowned daredevil from Malibu, Calif., made a beeline toward the 86th-floor observation deck. But a building security officer put the grab on him and thwarted his attempt at a rush-hour spectacle.

Authorities were decidedly unamused, noting that innocent pedestrians could have been killed.

“I don’t know about parachuting,” said Timothy Donohue, a security official for the Empire State Building. “But it’s New York City. It’s rush hour. It’s not the time to be jumping off buildings.”

Corliss, once secured, faced charges of assault, reckless endangerment and criminal trespassing.

Awesome - and he almost got away with it. I’ve heard all kinds of comments from people regarding this… the guys over at Z100 (the radio station I listen to every morning) were commenting on how Jeb Corliss must be a nut for doing shit like this. You know what I think? I think Jeb has to be severely pissed off… you can see in the picture above, the guy was hanging on the railings ON THE OTHER SIDE! He was moments away from jumping.

I feel he’ll be back - just as soon as he’s released from Riker’s Island.

More tests are being run on the home and workspace of a Manhattan man in the city’s first known case of anthrax exposure since shortly after the September 11th terror attacks. Unlike those incidents, health officials believe 44-year-old Vado Diomande contracted the disease from animal skins he brought back from Africa to use to make drums. Diomande remains hospitalized in Pennsylvania Thursday morning where he had traveled to perform with a dance troupe.

City officials stress there is no cause for alarm, but they aren’t taking any chances.

Police, fire and emergency crews are testing his Brooklyn workspace and his West Village apartment for any signs of the bacteria. They believe the skins were kept in the warehouse in DUMBO.

Well, I’m perturbed by this, I’ll be honest. Weird that I was playing a freaking djambe drum last night at the Sugar Lounge in Brooklyn… I think I’ll go and wash my hands.

The British tabloid, The Daily Mirror reported recently that Iraqi rebels are rumored to be taking methamphetamine, which “is given to insurgents so they have no fear of taking on heavily-armed Coalition forces.”

A DRUG which makes users feel superhuman is being taken by rebel fanatics before they launch attacks against UK troops in Iraq.Now senior British officers fear the courage drug, which is known as a “pinky”, is flooding Basra where it could help fuel a second armed uprising.

Last night a senior Army source, who returned from Iraq two months ago, said there was a ” big drugs trade” in Basra and feared leaders of different terrorists groups would hand out the pills to their followers.

Quite the troublesome news…

[idea]

Allow our British lads and lasses over there to sup about 6 pints of Yorkshire’s best, and then tell them that the Iraqi combatants just slept with their mothers… stand back watch the shit hit the fan.

According to an article posted online at PCWorld.com, Reasearch In Motion (RIM), the company that brought us the widely-used Blackberry, could be facing a shutdown of their entire Blackberry service, rendering millions of users shit out of luck.

The article reads:

A federal judge won’t hold up court proceedings in NTP’s patent lawsuit against Research In Motion, opening the door to a possible injunction that would stop sales of BlackBerry mobile e-mail devices, and shut down BlackBerry service, in the U.S. RIM had filed two motions, one to enforce an agreement with NTP to settle the case and another to stop the court proceedings while the Patent and Trademark Office re-examines NTP’s patents. Judge James Spencer of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Wednesday denied both motions. He ruled that the parties don’t have a valid settlement agreement and said the district court could not hold up the case during a patent re-examination that could take years.

It looks like whatever the Judge rules, Blackberry are knee deep in crap - and whether it’s a billion dollar fine, or the complete shutdown of their service, the end-user will suffer… if they are slammed with the fine, how do you think they’ll recoup that cost? More than likely by raising their monthly charges to their consumers. You don’t honestly think they’ll foot the bill do you?