New Articles on The Daily Dust today

Posted: 05 Dec 2008 08:47 AM CST

The Tottenham striker may be scoring goals, but he’s still not entirely settled on the pitch or off it. The solution? His best mate, of course.

Pavlyuchenko told the London Evening Standard about Arshavin moving to Spurs: “Yes, of course I would like that.

“I haven’t spoken to Arshavin myself, although I know there have been discussions about him moving to another club. All I know is that Arshavin wants to join another good European team.”

Suddenly remembering that he already has a rather expensive striker partner, Roman moved to counter suggestions, from his former management team no less, that the duo can’t play together:

“It is too early to judge the partnership [with Bent], but in practice matches, we pass a lot to each other, and we seem to able to find our game,” added Pavlyuchenko.

Cristiano Ronaldo not too fond of Manchester, almost joined Arsenal.

Posted: 05 Dec 2008 08:41 AM CST

Fresh off his Ballon d’Or win, Cristiano Ronaldo is all over the press spilling the beans about various topics that surprised no one.

On almost joining Arsenal:

“I was just an inch away from signing for Arsenal," the reflective Ballon d’Or winner confirmed. “I saw Arsene Wenger three times with my mother.

“It was very close to being a done deal. Really, we were within touching distance.

“Wenger remains someone that I still have immense esteem for and my mum feels the same way. After I signed for United she and I were sitting watching a Premier League game on television and she yelled out ‘I know that guy - I liked him!’”

On growing ‘accustomed’ to Manchester:

Manchester is very different from Portugal, where I miss the beaches, the sun, the sea…

I am accustomed to life here, but that does not mean that I like it.

Religious Leaders Slam Lego Terrorists

Posted: 05 Dec 2008 06:31 AM CST

Religious leaders have united to condemn a range of custom Lego figures of the Taliban and a WWII German SS soldier.

Mohammed Shaffiq, of Muslim organisation The Ramadhan Foundation, told The Sun, "It is glorifying terrorism - the makers should be ashamed. We should be coming together to unite against terrorism, but how is that possible when children are playing with toys like this?"

Edie Friedman, director of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality echoed Shaffiq's views, saying: "These distasteful toys are something we could all well do without, especially when there is so much tension around."

The toys are not official Lego products but are customisations from the BrickArms. You can see the full list of custom Lego toys (and the less controversial James Bond toy) here.

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I’ve Had My Van-Day

Posted: 05 Dec 2008 03:04 AM CST

David Van Day was finally voted out last night to ensure a final made up of “good guys”

Van Day, 52, left last night with his head held high saying “It's been a real rollercoaster for me. I've gone hoarse I chatted so much.

"But my work is finished. There are three nice guys in there and they should be left alone."

Playing the bad guy for the majority of the show, Van Day stated: “I was real, I just reacted to people.

“Nicola gave me loads of currency. When she did something I just reacted to her. I wound her up to show people what she was like. She made it easy for me and helped me stay in so long."

There are just three celebs left leading up to the final:-

Joe Swash, biggest ever favourite to win at 1/5

Martina Navratilova at 5/1

George Takei at 7/1

Watch the final live tonight at 8.30pm on ITV.

Eurovision U-turn for Norton

Posted: 05 Dec 2008 02:48 AM CST

Graham Norton confirms he is taking over the Eurovision commentary in 2009

The ink is still drying on the articles written just two days ago where Norton denied he was taking over from Terry Wogan, today we learn that he will be the new commentator of Eurovision.

Wogan, commentator for 35 years finally admitted enough was enough: “”I’ve had 35 wonderful years commentating on the Eurovision for radio and television.

“From my first, in a small musichall in Dublin, to my last, in the huge arena in Belgrade, it has been nothing but laughter and fun.

“The silly songs, the spectacle, the grandiose foolishness of it all.

“Let’s hope that between (Norton) and the musical brilliance of Lloyd Webber, Royaume Uni will gather its proper share of ‘Douze Points’ and bring the Grand Prix home to where it belongs.”

Comedian and presenter Norton described it as an “honour” saying: “I can’t wait to get to Moscow. With a combination of cheap vodka and a language barrier what could possibly go wrong?”

Teddy Bears on Space Mission

Posted: 05 Dec 2008 01:00 AM CST

MAT and KMS are the world’s first teddy bears in space. The two teddy bears have been sent 100,000 feet into the stratosphere on a weather balloon as they fought off tempuratures of minus 31F(-35C).

The experiment by Cambridge University’s Space Flight science club was designed to monitor weather conditions above the earth.

The space suits were created by pupils from nearby Parkside and Colleridge community colleges. The suits were designed to stop the bears from freezing.

An aerodynamics student at Cambridge, Henry Hallam, said: “We asked the children to build the space suits for the teddy bears and we monitored the temperatures inside and outside the suits.

“It was still pretty cold for the bears but they would be frozen solid if they didn’t have their suits.

“The project was all about applying science into the real world. I think it’s taught them a lot about running a real experiment.

“It was great to involve these young people in the Space Flight club, so they can learn about physics in a different and exciting way.”

Dr Steve Hinshelwood, physics teacher at Parkside and Coleridge community colleges, said: “There has been a buzz around the school and students have been asking me questions about pressure in space and whether the teddy bears would have been freezing. They were wearing layers of foam and foil - and one of the suits was made from recycled materials.

“The balloon, which was made from latex and filled with helium, would eventually have burst as it swelled from six feet across to the size of a small house.”

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Eight Thousand Penny Parking Ticket

Posted: 05 Dec 2008 12:11 AM CST

You want me to pay the parking ticket? Fine, start counting.

Congratulations from The Daily Dust office to Maureen Gebbet, who’s just paid off her parking ticket with Bromley Council.

Even though she successfully appealed the £80 parking ticket to the Council Solicitor - who said the ticket should be cancelled, the Council still looked for payment or, we suspect, further action would be taken.

So the 63 old Mrs Gebbet paid them… in one pence pieces.

We salute you, Ma’am!
(Hat tip to Iain Dale).

The Recession Is Nearly Over, Rejoyce!

Posted: 05 Dec 2008 12:01 AM CST

Brown and Darling tell us when it’s going to be all better.

One of the little gems buried in the Pre Budget Report of last week (remember, before MP’s were arrested and ‘interesting’ statements were made in the House of Commons by The Speaker and Jacqui Smith) was that the Chancellor Alistair Darling’s projections showed the recession will be over towards the end of next year.

Step up the internet coders, and specifically the team over at The Crown, who have put together the nifty widget above to show us when all the doom and gloom is going to be over.

There, do you all feel better now?

Honda Pull Out of Formula 1

Posted: 04 Dec 2008 07:16 PM CST

Only The Power of Dreams are left

With a recession still under way, and sales of new cars dropping, Japanese company Honda have announced they are pulling out of Formula 1 Grand Prix effective immediately. The Brackley based team have all been given three months notice unless a buyer can be found.

Even with a buyer though, the $150 million budget of the team would likely drop to $50 million just to keep them on the grid, and rising to maybe $100 million to have a chance at being competitive. Any buyout will still leave the staff more than decimated. It appears the team will remain ‘operational’ for those three months to give them the best chance in 2009 if they do decide to compete, but Honda’s withdrawal will be 100% - so no Honda engines will be available, and the only realistic power plant option is Ferrari - and Honda F1 boss Ross Brawn’s connections to the Italians might prove useful.

Of the two current drivers, Rubens Barrichello was strongly tipped to be retiring, but popular Brit Jenson Button , already sidelined by the ‘We Heart Lewis Hamilton” media circus is now likely to have nowhere to drive when the new Grand Prix season starts in, well, a little over three months time.

The current Honda team has little relation to the white Japanese team from the early sixties, and can actually trace it’s lineage back to the self owned Tyrell team, run by Ken Tyrell. This was sold to British American Racing, and then on to Honda. Tyrell powered Jackie Stewart to three world championships, and Button has at least one race victory to his credit if 2008 was his swansong.

Which is one more than Martin Brundle has had.

(Hat tip to Pitpass and various other F1 sites).

Freddie can hit ‘em for six at Wolverhampton

Posted: 04 Dec 2008 12:19 PM CST

The money never came for yesterday's speculative punt, Santarctique, but he is certainly a horse to keep a note of as he again received a lenient time and will be punting material when the money finally arrives.

Friday's racing features a cracking card at Sandown where there is plenty of future talent on show, but there are some small, competitive races to crack and I'll just be watching for future reference.

The bet of the day runs at Wolverhampton in the evening where Fast Freddie (8.20) can land the sprint handicap.

This four-year-old is blessed with plenty of early toe and was last seen running a good third over tonight's five furlongs at Great Leighs a fortnight ago. The form of that event has worked out very well with several subsequent winners and Fast Freddie did well to hold on to third after sitting up with a strong pace.

He returns tonight to the track and trip he scored over penultimately and is ideally drawn on the inside to gain a handy pitch before hitting the front in the straight.

Make sure to tune at the weekend where the racing hots up and I'll be aiming for a fifth consecutive winning Saturday.