Category Archives: In the news

Hammond may have brain damage

Richard Hammond, one of the presenters on BBC’s Top Gear, crashed in a jet powered dragster while trying to break the British land speed record of 300.3mph. He had reached 300mph on his first go, and was doing a final run when, “one of the parachutes had deployed but it went on to the grass and spun over and over before coming to a rest about 100 yards from us.”

Sky news updated their news story about the accident a few minutes ago. Richard Hammond suffered a “significant brain injury” but they’re hopeful he will make a good recovery. Watching them do crazy things on Top Gear from time to time it’s easy to forget that they’re actually taking risks. Unfortunately this time something went wrong.

Hope you recover soon Richard!

Much later.. News is getting better.

Clarkson revealed he had made Hammond smile during the visit by calling him “a crap driver”.

He told The Sun: “He was lying peacefully with a black eye but didn’t react so I tried something else.

“I said, ‘The reason you’re here is because you’re a crap driver’. He then smiled at me. It was an amazing moment, very moving.”

Later.. I just watched the final episode of the last series of Top Gear. That’s the one with the white vans. In a final race against Stig in a police car, Richard tipped over the small van he was driving when he tried to take a corner too fast. The van skidded a few feet before coming to a stop and he climbed out safely. I wonder did what Jeremy and James say come back to haunt them when they joked, “Richard might be dead. If you want a job in Top Gear send your application to I’m better than Richard Hammond..”

The Wikipedia page on Richard Hammond has a summary of events including the good news,

In the early hours of 22 September, Hammond took his first steps, just 30 hours after the crash, according to Jeremy Clarkson, and was moved to a general ward on 23 September.

Jeremy Clarkson responds in his usual way, making fun of and light of what happened. I don’t doubt that they did as much as they could to make his land speed attempt safe but reading Jeremy’s quote below, one has to wonder how many children does it take to force a man to consider his fate? Obviously not two, maybe three? No, probably four children.

I have too many children these days to put myself voluntarily in harm’s way. Hammond, however, isn’t there yet.

Top Gear is a great show but when Jeremy Clarkson’s flippant attitude strays towards serious matters it really irks me. Thank God, Richard Hammond is well on his way to recovery.

TCAL has photos taken from Sky News of the crash. Looks bad. Lucky man to walk away from that!

Richard Hammond Crash

Muhammad vs. the Holocaust

This morning, like a lot of people, I heard that an Iranian newspaper is looking for cartoons about the Holocaust. Reaction from Israel was expected, but where are the riots and demonstrations in Europe? Maybe later when people have had their breakfast.

Haven’t seen the comics yet? face of muhammed has ’em and a quick look at technorati returns many interesting posts:

Then there’s the hipocrisy of a peaceful religion acting violently against anyone who criticises them.

Later… Andrew Sullivan writes that it’s your taboo, not mine and, “Freedom means learning to deal with being offended.” (via)

Be careful, it’s a crazy ol’ world out there.

Carole Coleman: "I wanted to slap him"

Carole Coleman made headlines when she interviewed George Bush last year in the White House. Here was a reported who didn’t want to hear the same regurgated speel again and again.
In this extract, she tells why, I wanted to slap him, and recalls the aftermath of her intereview with “the leader of the free world” too.
(Side note.. nowhere is Carole COleman quoted as saying “I Wanted to slap him”, did the Times take creative license with the title of their lead story?)

Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan takes Bush on over his nomination of Harriet Miers to, “be one of only nice justices on the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Unicef bombs the Smurfs in fund-raising campaign for ex-child soldiers

Unicef bombed the Smurf village in a new ad campaign to raise money. This has been doing the rounds for a few days and as one Metafilter userpointed out, “what’s sadder, bombed smurfs…or the fact that people are so unfased by bombed people that we have to resort to bombed smurfs…news at 11”.
Says something about our “caring” society.

Sunday Times – stories and articles

From last week’s Sunday Times:

  • Sig Hansen – fisherman and skipper on the Berring Sea, one of the deadliest jobs in the world.
  • The pen is mightier – how a pen saved the astronauts of Apollo 11 on the Moon!
  • Sin cities – Britains’s inner city streets are awash with guns. Here’s the story how one minor incident ended up with the deaths of many and cost the police £5m to resolve.
  • American royalty – What was it like to grow up surrounded by the Kennedy family? Christopher Keddy Lawford tell us. Part 2 was published this week.

"Young People of Ireland, I Love You"

Pope John Paul II has just been laid to rest in the Vatican. It’s strange how emotional that makes me feel.
You can follow further coverage on or The Pope blog and elsewhere.
You can read more about the Pope’s visit to Ireland at crookedtimber.org. (also look at Ditching Constantine which explores the idea of Church as Empire)

Ken Bigley Executed

Despite all that his family did to publicize his plight, how others others protested and tried to get help for him, and the fact that the Irish Government issued him with an Irish passport, Ken Bigley was executed yesterday afternoon.
The same on Aljazeera.com.

Commenting on the new report, Paul Bigley said: “I have heard nothing at all.

“I have been optimistic and remain optimistic.”

Paul said he was praying the news turn out to be untrue.