New Articles on The Daily Dust today

How To Make The Perfect Hamburger

Posted: 20 Nov 2008 04:50 AM CST

The perfect juicy hamburger

For this recipe you need:-

1kg Minced Beef

1 Tbsp Worcester Sauce

3 Cloves Garlic

1 tsp Mustard

Pack of Burger buns

Onion, Tomato, Cheese and Salad to garnish

Look out Wills, Paris Hilton is single

Posted: 20 Nov 2008 04:32 AM CST

Paris Hilton taking Prince William’s number recently at a club

Paris Hilton, who has spent a lot of time in the UK recently filming a reality TV show, has declared herself single. Splitting from boyfriend, Benji Madden, she is now free to follow up on contacts made in the UK, one of which, a certain Prince William. Paris has already stated that she has a “huge crush” on Wills and has even invited him to Vegas to “party” with her…

Hilton, famous for sex tapes such as “one night in Paris” and being a heiress to a huge family fortune, is thinking about a permanent move to London.

We can just see the expression on the Queen’s face now “..you are going out with whom??”..

Paris Hilton Set For UK Stay

Oh no…it’s Timmy Mallett!

Posted: 20 Nov 2008 04:11 AM CST

Timmy Mallett in his prime

The secret is out, the two new “celebs” joining the already at war camp in I’m a Celeb are Timmy Mallett and David Van Day from 80’s music duet Dollar. After being “trapped” on their way into the camp, the celebs had to choose whether to release the pair from jungle jail - the cost, luxury items..

Timmy Mallett, 53, (above) will be an absolute nightmare, hyperactive one minute and extremely moody the next, the celebs in the jungle will not know what has hit them. He even has he own website, facebook page and blog which can be viewed here. We are hoping at the DailyDust that he will get his Mallet out and make the celebs say blaaaaaaarrggh!

David Van Day, 51, (above - on the left) was a singer in a band called Dollar, who were famous more for their cheesy love songs than talent. Van Day also stood for the Conservative party in the 2007 election for the Brighton and Hove City Council in the East Brighton Ward. He was unsuccessful. We are expecting nothing dynamic from Van Day.

In the latest updates from the jungle adventure, there have been further revelations among the celebrities.

Esther Rantzen revealed: “I didn’t have sex with anyone until I was 23″ while Nicola McLean declared: “It’s my boobs’ first birthday today and I’m so excited.”

Robert Kilroy-Silk says he feels “victimised” after being picked for the Bush Tucker Trial for a second time, perhaps he should do a John Sergeant..

Ten Ways To Reform The BBC and the TV Licence

Posted: 20 Nov 2008 03:56 AM CST

Some really unique ways to fund the BBC.

Here at The Daily Dust we’re pretty worried about the news that every computer in the UK will shortly need a TV Licence, so we started wondering what alternatives there are in the 21st Century.

Login at Home

Every licence comes with a username and password so that you can log in and watch when you are outside the UK.

Login Abroad

If you live abroad, you can still pay and get your username.

Make Ross and Brand Pay

Start a swear box for presenters, £10 for every naughty word they say on air, £50 for every offensive phone call in the eyes of the typical Daily Mail reader, and £250 if they say something nice about the Conservative Party.

Pay as you Watch

Start a 24 hour pass, pro rated that’s only 38p per day.

The Sergeant Gambit

Allow viewers to deduct the cost of any ‘phone vote’ call or SMS from your licence fee. Why should you pay twice?

Make Us All Pay By Stealth Taxes

Scrap the licence fee altogether and have central government add 0.1% onto income tax instead. You could call it watch as you work!

Bandwidth Blues

Pay for the bandwidth you use. If the iPlayer is that crippling to BT. Virgin and the Internet Providers then people should pay a little bit extra to recompense the BBC for having the audacity to use so much of the UK’s bandwidth.

Hug a Hacker

Provide Bittorrent files on the BBC Web Site. The world already rips, converts and posts HD quality video files the second Top Gear and Doctor Who finish, why not make it official? A flat fee of £1 per series could raise millions from around the world.

The BBC is The Real Thing

Everyone at the BBC is only allowed to be paid the minimum wage from the licence fee. If they want more, then they’ll need to ask Coca-Cola nicely to sponsor all the red tinted channel idents.

Save The Public From A Fate Worse Than Death

Destroy every copy of that scene from Only Fools and Horses where Del Boy falls behind the bar and Trigger can’t find him. I’d pay good money to never see that clip again.

Have you got any ideas on what the BBC could do? Let us know.

Royal Navy given more power to tackle pirates

Posted: 20 Nov 2008 03:36 AM CST

Change in Britain’s anti-piracy laws will give the Royal Navy more power to police international waters.

The largest ever highjacking took place this week as Somali pirates took control of a Saudi supertanker carrying £67m of oil. Two Britons were on board.

There have been 7 successful hijackings in the last 12 days. A British tanker also came into attack on earlier this week, but the pirates were twarted when the German frigate karlsruhe launched a helicopter to intercept.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, yesterday announced the Royal Navy would lead an EU defence group to “tackle the scourge of piracy in the Gulf of Aden”. He said the problem was “a grave danger to the stability in the region”.

British happiness at 7.8 out of 10

Posted: 20 Nov 2008 03:00 AM CST

New survey shows that Britons rate their happiness at 7.8 out of 10. This is the same as the French and Belgians, but the Irish are even happier at 8 out of 10.

The most unhappy people in Europe are the Bulgarians at 5.8 and the Danes at 8.5 are the happiest of us all.

The Quality of Life poll reveals interesting data, where the highest earners and those with the highest level of education not scoring the highest.

“The differences in terms of life satisfaction and attitudes towards the future underline the significant inequalities in living conditions and in the experience of daily life for Europeans,” said Eurofound director Jorma Karppinen.

“In particular, well-being in the former socialist countries varies greatly between social and demographic groups. There are marked disadvantages associated with low income, and older people are more likely to report dissatisfaction with their situation.”

What do you think? Do you feel 7.8 out of 10? Let us know in the comments below.

Got a Computer? You’ll Need To Buy a £139.50 Licence

Posted: 20 Nov 2008 12:00 AM CST

Live streaming of BBC1 and BBC 2 over the internet forces every PC owner to buy a TV licence.

The apparent good news that BBC1 and BBC2 are going to be streamed over the internet to people in the UK should be something to celebrate (see this report on BBC News). But there’s the small matter of the TV Licence fee, the yearly ‘Telly Tax’ of £139.50 that has to be paid by:

“You need a TV Licence to use any television receiving equipment such as a TV set, digital box, DVD or video recorder, PC, laptop or mobile phone to watch or record television programmes as they’re being shown on TV”

Take careful note. That’s not ‘if you use your PC’, that’s ‘if your PC could be used to watch live TV.’ Given the BBC will probably use the technology to use the iPlayer through a web page, that means every computer in the UK is now liable for the TV licence, even if they never watch the BBC live streaming service.

This is going to be a logistical nightmare - when shops sell a TV receiver they have to send the address details to the authorities. Will the same happen for every PC sold? £139.50 please. How about students, and those that don’t watch TV but use a computer for email, coursework, or talking to relatives in New Zealand? £139.50 please. Buying a new Nokia smart phone with the iPlayer pre-installed by your operator? £139.50 please.

Of course there is no national database of computer users in the UK. But there is a database that tracks all TV licence payees (and refuseniks). It won’t be long until everyone with a computer has to register with a government agency, and that’s a rather scary prospect.

Those of you with long memories may remember the Labour Government in 2005 exploring options to put in place a ‘compulsory levy on all households or even on ownership of PCs as well as TVs.’ Looks like they just got their wish by the back door.

Ten Ways To Reform The BBC and the TV Licence

Clowns abound as England down Germany

Posted: 19 Nov 2008 10:12 PM CST

With Tottenham’s Gomes ensuring that calamitous keeping is again at the top of the football consiousness, England’s incredibly boring friendly against Germany at least delivered plenty of hilarious blunders.

Rene Adler first got his arm caught in Jermaine Defoe’s armpit while attempting to claim a cross, allowing Matthew Upson to score. Then John Terry then decided to attempt to shepherd the ball 20 odd yards back to Scott Carson, thoroughly confusing the keeper and Patrick Helmes snuck in between them to poke home.

Terry made amends with just under 10 minutes to go with an admittedly remarkable lunging header.

England looked energetic and pacey at times, and if Capello is worth his salt then we should see a few new faces in the first XI of more than a few England matches this year.

Wales win, everyone else loses.

Posted: 19 Nov 2008 10:00 PM CST

Craig Bellamy fired Wales to a 1-0 win over Denmark, who admittedly have been pretty awful since Peter Schmeichel was keeping goal. But a win is a win, although Gareth Bale going off with a back injury won’t be the best news for Welsh or Spurs fans.

Scotland fell 1-0 to Argentina in Diego Maradona’s first match in charge. Banners thanking Diego for his ‘Hand of God’ goal were everywhere as expected, and it was a match that was pretty dire. Maxi Rodriguez scored he only goal from a typically precise passing move, and then it was all down hill from there until Terry Butcher refused to shake Maradona’s hand after the final whistle. Ouch.

Northern Ireland fell 2-0 to Hungary while Ireland were edged out 3-2 by Poland in a more thrilling encounter that saw both sides score in the dying minutes.

Maradona riles up the masses

Thursday’s bookie-bashing tips

Posted: 19 Nov 2008 03:22 PM CST

There is plenty of jump racing on Thursday's menu where Wincanton stage a useful card, and punters can get the day of to a flyer with Definity (1.30) in the opener.

Followers of trainer's records in specific races will be looking to pile on this five-year-old as he hails from the Paul Nicholls yard that has farmed this novices' hurdle in the last 10 years -winning it six times - and this ex-pointer is the sort that Nicholls does so well with.

Hereford provides the baulk of the action from a betting perspective where three horses jump off the card, starting with Pangbourne (2.20).

Trainer Alan King continues to knock in the winners at present and it is significant that he has chose this venue for Pamgbourne's debut over fences, as the handler boasts an impressive six winners from 11 runners in this sphere during the last five years. Pangbourne was the winner of a class 4 hurdle last season and can strike in the same class over the larger obstacles.

The following race at Hereford sees Buailteoir (2.50) carrying top-weight in a handicap chase over just short of three miles-and-a-quarter, and the way he finished into third over two-and-a-half-miles on his debut for his new yard at Lingfield last time suggests the return to fences over this longer trip will suit.

The third bet in a row at Hereford is Ring Bo Ree (3.20), who can gain compensation for an unlucky reappearance effort at Ludlow last week.

This lightly raced hurdler really caught the eye travelling well throughout the race here before falling upon landing at the last. The sweet way in which went before going down was impressive and a clear round here should be good enough.

(Wednesday’s tip, Sarah’s Art, was a non-runner).