Since the end of the World Cup, Fabio Capello has heard one thing over and over again, "Give the youngsters a go!"
Slowly but surely Capello has been including some of the up and coming talent that English football has to offer in his England Squads, but the recent friendly against France saw him really push the boat out!
He gave debuts to the likes of Andy Carroll of Newcastle and Jordan Henderson of Sunderland. There were also places for the youngsters Kieran Gibbs and Theo Walcott.
However, since the embarrassing defeat, Capello has come under incredible criticism from the media for his decision to start the prodigies!
I asked a keen footballer and fan about what he thought of Capello's squad and also the criticism he has come under.
Wednesday 24 November 2010
Monday 15 November 2010
Images Skills Test
The following is my submission for my Images Skills Test. The task was to take a picture of either the Lancashire County Council building, the Preston City Council building, The Flag Market, Preston North End football club or The University of Central Lancashire.
We then had to crop this image to 3 different sizes. 400x300, 200x500 and 100x100. Here are my results.
Original Image
400x300 Crop
200x500 Crop
100x100 Thumbnail
Overall I think my crops are useful in identifying the main focus of the pictures, the UCLAN logo.
We then had to crop this image to 3 different sizes. 400x300, 200x500 and 100x100. Here are my results.
Original Image
400x300 Crop
200x500 Crop
100x100 Thumbnail
Overall I think my crops are useful in identifying the main focus of the pictures, the UCLAN logo.
Monday 25 October 2010
Data Skills Test
View Data Skills Test Chart in full size.
This chart displays the average life expectancies of the good folk that make up our British Isles. A quick look at the graph show’s that people in England, and specifically London, are living longer than our closest neighbours. The question to ask now then would be, why?!
It isn’t to do with our NHS spending more money. Scotland’s own independent NHS spends much more than we do, but this is down to the number and range of small locations up in the Highlands.
The next place to look would be lifestyle. A lot of Scotland’s mortality rates look to be down to specific health issues. For example, the average Scot drinks on average more units of alcohol per day than the average Englishman. (That was a very average sentence!) Scotland also produces more smokers and less of the people are getting their 5 a day!
Wealth can also play a part. A look at London’s boroughs (the link to the full set of data can be found at the bottom of the page) proves this.
See also:-
UK life expectancy figures show the difference money makes by SA Mathieson - http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/20/uk-life-expectancy-estimates
Full set of data of life expectancies for all regions - https://spreadsheets2.google.com/ccc?key=t2lN0i-WRspvFSVLq40aHeQ&hl=en#gid=0
Scottish health survey from August 2010 - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2010/08/30141002
Government statistics of life expencancy in years 2007-2009 - http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/SearchRes.asp?term=life+expectancy
Government statistics showing a comparison of life expectancies in different decades - http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1850
Maps Skills Test
View Map Skills Test in a larger map
The following is a Google Map, displaying four news stories from Monday 25th October's edition of the Lancashire Evening Post.
Each icon not only shows where the story took place, but also gives a small amount of information about the story and links to the full story on the LEP's website.
Tuesday 5 October 2010
Mandatory Blog Post
View Deepdale in a larger map
Workshop 2 of "The Digital Newsroom" required a blog post with a self created Google Map embedded inside. This is said blog post with embedded Google Map.
Sunday 21 March 2010
iPhone makes iAngry!
Let's start with a little history shall we. Before my iPhone I had a Sony Ericsson W800i. Wonderful little phone. It did everything you could ever want a phone to do, and more. I had this phone for close to 3 years, and loved it. It never did me wrong.
However, like most thing, the poor little guy got old and tired, and eventually stopped working as well as he once had, so I decided to get a new phone.
I didn't want just any old phone though. I want a decent phone. A respectable phone. A posh phone. Of course the iPhone was one that attracted my attention straight away. Everyone raved about this fantastic Apple creation. I decided I would see my contract out with T Mobile, and then see if I could blag myself a decent deal, otherwise it would be bye bye T Mobile, hello respectability.
So, my contract came to a close, and T Mobile decided they didn't value my continued loyalty anymore, and offered me what can only be described as a dog turd of a new contract. I wished them farewell and headed to the O2 store.
I had a look at the iPhone deals on offer and they were, well, appalling. I decided to try and use my "legendary" charm on the saleswoman to try and snag a better deal, but that failed and I signed an 18 month contract, paying £35 a month for 600 minutes and 500 texts.
So that's how I came to own my iPhone. But where did it all start to go wrong I hear you cry? I'll start with the beginning. Trying to get the sim card into the phone.
Prior to me getting the phone, I hadn't known anyone else who had one, so I had never seen anyone remove or insert a sim card. I had a quick glance at the phone after taking it out the box, and couldn't see any noticeable home for my sim. I decided to consult the manual!
Or I would have, had the phone come with one. I was stuck. With a phone and a sim card, still living in separate houses. After 5-10 minutes of detective like investigation and "f**cking hell's" I decided to admit defeat, and looked to the Internet for help.
I found it. The way to access the slot for your sim card is to push a paper clip (or similar) into a small hole at the top of the phone. This pushes out a sim shaped compartment to house your beloved sim. I put this down to a newly wed spat over where the plates should be kept, and began to search my phone.
The first two weeks with my iPhone were like something from a sit-com. It was a whirlwind romance. I downloaded apps left, right and center. (Free ones obviously. Don't forget I'm paying £35 a month for this thing!) It's safe to say, I was smitten. The iPhone could do no wrong in my eyes. But, alas, that two weeks soon ended, and the latest addition to my life was starting to test my patience.
The first thing to go wrong, was my charger. This thing decided it would just stop working. For no reason at all. A bit like a bus driver. This meant I had to charge my phone using the computer. I connected my phone, and it asked if I wanted to sync it with my computer.
"Why the hell not?!"
Famous last words. The sync failed, and the 5 pages of apps I had downloaded were gone. More "f**king hell's". To add to this, the battery life that you receive from charging your iPhone through a computer, compared to if your mains charger is working, is incomparable. I basically looked at my iPhone for too long and the battery was gone. Thanks.
Here's another one. Do you often find yourself a bit peed off with someone? Or just not in the mood to speak to someone when they ring? Well usually you would hang up on them right? Not with an iPhone you don't! When it's locked, it's actually an impossibility to hang up on someone. Sigh.
What else annoys me? That's it! My case! Obviously when you have a decent phone, you want to keep it looking good. I thought this, and baught a case. However, my case is special. If you have your phone on silent, and you then slide the phone into the case, it nudges the silent button forward ever so slightly, TAKING IT OFF SILENT! The amount of times my phone goes off in lectures and other inappropriate moment because of this is unreal. "Just buy a new case Lee". Have you seen the price of cases? Poo off then!
Texting. On a particularly long text, most phones will tell you when you have started a new text message. The iPhone doesn't. I found this out the hard way when I got a text off O2 telling me I had gone £30 over my allowance, and if I was aware of this. "NO I AM NOT AWARE OF THIS!" (I cleaned that up slightly for you all.) This is probably more down to O2 than the iPhone, but if the iPhone had told me how many texts I was sending at once, this mess would have been avoided.
So, these are just a few of the main reasons why I hate the iPhone. Sure it does have some good points. The phone is actually very good. It's clear and loud. The loud speaker is also very decent.
Also, one of the reasons I bought the phone was to make people go "oooo, he's got an iPhone. He's a bit good," and credit where credit's due, it does do that.
Overall then, I realised soon after I got my iPhone that it is a novelty. Sure it comes with an iPod built in, and the ability to download an app to tell you what your best sex position would be. But I have an iPod. And I don't have sex.
Therefore, if you were thinking of getting an iPhone, then I would say don't. You would be much happier with a simple phone, that does what a phone is supposed to do, and won't cost you a million pounds a second for a handful of texts and a courtesy call to your mother.
I know I would be.
However, like most thing, the poor little guy got old and tired, and eventually stopped working as well as he once had, so I decided to get a new phone.
I didn't want just any old phone though. I want a decent phone. A respectable phone. A posh phone. Of course the iPhone was one that attracted my attention straight away. Everyone raved about this fantastic Apple creation. I decided I would see my contract out with T Mobile, and then see if I could blag myself a decent deal, otherwise it would be bye bye T Mobile, hello respectability.
So, my contract came to a close, and T Mobile decided they didn't value my continued loyalty anymore, and offered me what can only be described as a dog turd of a new contract. I wished them farewell and headed to the O2 store.
I had a look at the iPhone deals on offer and they were, well, appalling. I decided to try and use my "legendary" charm on the saleswoman to try and snag a better deal, but that failed and I signed an 18 month contract, paying £35 a month for 600 minutes and 500 texts.
So that's how I came to own my iPhone. But where did it all start to go wrong I hear you cry? I'll start with the beginning. Trying to get the sim card into the phone.
Prior to me getting the phone, I hadn't known anyone else who had one, so I had never seen anyone remove or insert a sim card. I had a quick glance at the phone after taking it out the box, and couldn't see any noticeable home for my sim. I decided to consult the manual!
Or I would have, had the phone come with one. I was stuck. With a phone and a sim card, still living in separate houses. After 5-10 minutes of detective like investigation and "f**cking hell's" I decided to admit defeat, and looked to the Internet for help.
I found it. The way to access the slot for your sim card is to push a paper clip (or similar) into a small hole at the top of the phone. This pushes out a sim shaped compartment to house your beloved sim. I put this down to a newly wed spat over where the plates should be kept, and began to search my phone.
The first two weeks with my iPhone were like something from a sit-com. It was a whirlwind romance. I downloaded apps left, right and center. (Free ones obviously. Don't forget I'm paying £35 a month for this thing!) It's safe to say, I was smitten. The iPhone could do no wrong in my eyes. But, alas, that two weeks soon ended, and the latest addition to my life was starting to test my patience.
The first thing to go wrong, was my charger. This thing decided it would just stop working. For no reason at all. A bit like a bus driver. This meant I had to charge my phone using the computer. I connected my phone, and it asked if I wanted to sync it with my computer.
"Why the hell not?!"
Famous last words. The sync failed, and the 5 pages of apps I had downloaded were gone. More "f**king hell's". To add to this, the battery life that you receive from charging your iPhone through a computer, compared to if your mains charger is working, is incomparable. I basically looked at my iPhone for too long and the battery was gone. Thanks.
Here's another one. Do you often find yourself a bit peed off with someone? Or just not in the mood to speak to someone when they ring? Well usually you would hang up on them right? Not with an iPhone you don't! When it's locked, it's actually an impossibility to hang up on someone. Sigh.
What else annoys me? That's it! My case! Obviously when you have a decent phone, you want to keep it looking good. I thought this, and baught a case. However, my case is special. If you have your phone on silent, and you then slide the phone into the case, it nudges the silent button forward ever so slightly, TAKING IT OFF SILENT! The amount of times my phone goes off in lectures and other inappropriate moment because of this is unreal. "Just buy a new case Lee". Have you seen the price of cases? Poo off then!
Texting. On a particularly long text, most phones will tell you when you have started a new text message. The iPhone doesn't. I found this out the hard way when I got a text off O2 telling me I had gone £30 over my allowance, and if I was aware of this. "NO I AM NOT AWARE OF THIS!" (I cleaned that up slightly for you all.) This is probably more down to O2 than the iPhone, but if the iPhone had told me how many texts I was sending at once, this mess would have been avoided.
So, these are just a few of the main reasons why I hate the iPhone. Sure it does have some good points. The phone is actually very good. It's clear and loud. The loud speaker is also very decent.
Also, one of the reasons I bought the phone was to make people go "oooo, he's got an iPhone. He's a bit good," and credit where credit's due, it does do that.
Overall then, I realised soon after I got my iPhone that it is a novelty. Sure it comes with an iPod built in, and the ability to download an app to tell you what your best sex position would be. But I have an iPod. And I don't have sex.
Therefore, if you were thinking of getting an iPhone, then I would say don't. You would be much happier with a simple phone, that does what a phone is supposed to do, and won't cost you a million pounds a second for a handful of texts and a courtesy call to your mother.
I know I would be.
Friday 26 February 2010
The future of journalism will be...
Well, I can't be sure. I can, however, make a pretty decent attempt, and have a good old intelligent guess!
The way the industry is going at the moment, it would seem that the future of journalism lies on the Internet. All newspaper's now publish their articles on the Internet, and due to the Internet's convenience, people are turning to their computers for the news.
But what is there to say that people are going to go on like this forever. I think the newspaper is a fantastic thing. I love sitting on the bus or the train and flicking through the paper. I also love catching the person sat next to me see an article that takes their fancy and try and sneak a read! I love forgetting that I've got newspaper ink all over my fingers and rubbing my face to leave a beautiful black smudge.
None of this can happen if people continue to use the Internet for their source of news. Sure it's easier to access, and it's free, but so what. It's still the same news.
People are spending more and more time sat behind computers wasting their lives. I do it. And I hate myself for it. The world is a fantastic place. I love just wandering around, looking at the different people that are pottering about, living their lives.
This, I feel, is the best way of both gaining and spreading news. At the end of the day, I put being a truly successful journalist down to whoever had the most amount of luck, and happens to be in the right place, at the right time.
So. The Internet, I feel, is the future of the industry. Sites like Facebook and Twitter mean that the process of gaining news can be done so much easier just by sitting around and waiting for things to happen. Sure, you need to know where to look, and who to ask, but it still all boils down to getting that illusive slice of luck, from the pie of life.
There is also the comedy answer to this question, which is as follows.
The future of journalism will be...well, me.
This, I feel, is the best way of both gaining and spreading news. At the end of the day, I put being a truly successful journalist down to whoever had the most amount of luck, and happens to be in the right place, at the right time.
So. The Internet, I feel, is the future of the industry. Sites like Facebook and Twitter mean that the process of gaining news can be done so much easier just by sitting around and waiting for things to happen. Sure, you need to know where to look, and who to ask, but it still all boils down to getting that illusive slice of luck, from the pie of life.
There is also the comedy answer to this question, which is as follows.
The future of journalism will be...well, me.
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