UK threatens to raid the Ecuadorian Embassy and remove Wikileaks' founder Assange by force

The British Foreign Office has informed Ecuador that it can revoke the diplomatic status of the embassy in order to fulfil their obligation in extraditing Julian Assange to Sweden.

The threat was revealed at a press conference by Ecuadorian officials:


Ignoring the diplomatic consequences of forever bringing into question the protected status of embassies in Britain, there's clearly only one man for the job.

Bob Hoskins to retire following Parkinson's diagnosis

The Guardian reports that the actor received the diagnosis in the autumn of last year.

His 30 year career has included critical success (Mrs. Henderson Presents, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) and the occasional misstep (Super Mario Brothers) but perhaps his greatest performance was in The Long Good Friday.

Here is the finest moment from his finest movie:



How long did it take you to recognise Mr. Bond?

It's 5.3 million sales make 'Fifty Shades...' the bestselling book in British history

Online sales of the first volume of the erotic trilogy have eclipsed the combined totals of all seven Harry Potter books. Even the dual codes of 'The Highway...' and  'The Da Vinci...' have been left behind by a repackaged piece of fan-fiction.

Is this the sign that the final days of civilization or merely a cultural fad that happens to have involved poorly written erotica?

Either way, James Spader's E. Edward Grey is vastly superior to E. L. James' Christian Grey.

Why open a store in a town where the residents clearly don't want you?

Over 5,500 of the 8,000 residents of Totnes have signed a petition to prevent Costa opening a coffee shop in their town, so why are Costa going ahead with it?

With 41 independent coffee shops the beverage is big business in Totnes. Costa would be the first chain to open it's it's doors in the town, but who will be walking through them?

Disney's Cinderella did not predict the Royal Wedding!

The first time I saw the picture claiming that the wedding in Cinderella was spookily similar to the Royal Wedding I said "I bet that's been photoshopped". I was right but still see people posting the fake image to their Facebook wall each day. Please stop doing so now.

Via: reddit

The Fantastic Mr Fox

Just got done watching 'The Fantastic Mr Fox' and I'd have to say it lives up to it's name. A stop motion animation based on the book by Roald Dahl (the great children's writer), directed by Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) and with the voice talent of George Clooney (two-time People Magazine 'Sexiest Man Alive' winner) it's a fantastic piece of work. Check out the trailer:


Visually it's superb. The quality of the animation and the colour pallette used throughout the film are so beautiful. The character voicing, especially by Clooney, are also excellent. All of this is tied together by the masterful Wes Anderson at the helm and you could pick any scene from the film and within moments you would recognise his hand at work upon it.

It's not the 'Perfect Mr Fox' however. I think that children wouldn't find this film as enjoyable as I did and they must surely be the ones for whom this was being made. The style and dialogue just doesn't seem tailored for a younger audience. Another, more minor, quibble is the film's mix of US actors for the animal character's and UK actor's for the humans.

Ideally the whole thing should have been a British production but that's not how these things work. The rules are that UK actors can be stars on US TV shows but when it comes to films they want a Yank up front. I've no problem with that, just a little confused about where the film is actually being set and such. British farmers and an Opossum in the same film doesn't seem right.

Opossum - Hand not included

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend you catching Mr Fox if you can.