Seriously, move it back, or at least give users th...

Redesigns happen, but the good thing about the old Google news is that it gave the top few stories in a section and if you wanted more you could click through.  All the center column is now is a long list.  That means the only useful part is the right column - which is cluttered before any categories are added.
This new formatting is incredibly atrocious—Google needs to learn to not try to fix what isn't broken. If they think that the new formatting is an improvement of any kind, they couldn't be more wrong. It looks like they simply removed any formatting that was there in the first place and didn't fix it....Bring back the old layout: one of the reasons I gravitated to Google News was because it had several top stories and then had more articles in various columns/sections as you scrolled down. I could get a decent sampling of all the news this way.

The new set up is counter-intuitive and does not allow me to simply peruse through headlines as easily as before. I would be willing to try it out, if it made more sense or made things easier, but overall, the inability to change it back makes me more irritated than anything else.

Some of the people in this post were asking for a comparison screen shotSee screen shot comparison here: New news is bad news.  Not coming back.It SUCKS! Please put it back, or give me an option to display it the old way. Who needs a news page with nothing but headlines? I like scanning the tidbits of the story before I waste time clicking through. Also, I was enjoying the quick-flip at the bottom. I didn't realize Google used production pages for experiments, but it's enough to make me find another source. Put it back, or loose a user! I hate it. I used to go more than once per hour to google news, but now I have looked into other news services. Still I haven't found one as good as google news, but I really dislike the new layout so much that now I go one or two times per day because its almost impossible to me to find the news that I like, or may like.Google is getting WAY too big for its britches.One more day, and then I am out of here - Probably to Yahoo, or someone who cares about MY choices.Amazing. Nearly all of the feedback HATES the new design.

The new design also produces a lot of junk articles.

Google's attitude? Screw the users. Google won't change the design.

Here's another Google screwup, just like Buzz.

Why not give us an option to opt out of this "experiment"?

Or is the experiment to see how long before we give up using Google altogether?

New design is horrific, what were they thinking? Makes Huffington Post look like a Nobel Prize design.

In other words, following in the great tradition of Buzz, Google should immediately roll this out to everybody. Hey, we're Google, got a problem with that?

Worst layout ever, I will never use google news if it doesn't go back to the original layout. I DID opt out.  I am back (Thank HEAVENS) to a real news page.Delete your cookies for Google.

Deleting cookies

You can delete all or some cookies in Internet Explorer.

To delete a single cookie

In Internet Explorer, click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options. On the General tab, under Browsing history, click Settings. Click the View files button. Click the Name column heading to sort all the files alphabetically, and then scroll down until you see files that begin with the prefix Cookie:. All cookies will have that prefix, and they usually contain the name of the website that created the cookie. So, look for something that says cookie:YOURNAME@Google something Right-click the cookie you want to delete, click Delete, and then click Yes. Close the window that contains the list of files, and then click OK twice to return to Internet ExplorerThe redesign is terrible. Please revert back to previous version.I was so pissed off i actually went to yahoo, somthing i swore i would never do and it is clear where google got their inspiration from since they are almost identical. The yahoo page sucks just as bad as this new bullshit layout. The first reviews and furious comments regarding this "experiment" were posted on Feb 4th, why the F*** is this not being addressed? Google is seriously the next Microsoft, fixing shit that is not broken and then pretending to actually listen to all of the sheep complain. FUCK YOU GOOGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I also do not like the new design. Deleting all the google.com cookies as described in an earlier post "fixed" the problem for me (brought back my customized news page).

As others have mentioned, I wish there had been an easier, more "visible" way to opt-out.

The new design looks awful!!! Please revert back to the old design as it's much easier to navigate.
Seriously, move it back, or at least give users the option to choose.  What, exactly, is the experiment?  Where was the notice, or option to opt in?  Based on the feedback that I'm seeing, you're trying to see how far you can aggravate people before they move.  Please give us the option to opt out.I am sad to report that while deleting the cookies worked for me for a period of approximately two weeks, the redesigned layout came back uninvited.  I am afraid that this means that Google is expanding the scope of this ill conceived "experiment."  What is most disheartening is that there has been no response or comment by the Google staff since Feb 4.  Almost all the feedback posted here has been negative, but Google remains silent.  Reluctantly, I've been looking for alternative news aggregators.  Perhaps not coincidentally, the Bing news page also uses an ungrouped large central column like the new Google News layout.  Among alternatives, the best I've found is reuters.com.  Because we, as users, do not pay for Google News we have no effective way to voice our dissatisfaction except to go elsewhere.  Perhaps the true experiment here is not with the page layout, but with what abuse we Google users will tolerate.Awful. Awful Awful.  How can I get my old page back? Deleting cookies did not work for me either. Very angry not to have been given a choice.  Wasted half an evening trying to "fix" page, scrolling through endless articles in which I have no interest whatsoever, unable to find the sections I want. What are you thinking?
Sigh.....    I uderstand that I don't pay for any of this, at least not in cash, so I have no "rights" in this situation, but this is so annoying.  The effects, of Google's "news experiment", that they SHOULD be evalutaing are not how users feel about the usability of the new layout, but rather user's reaction to the forced change; that no one wants these types of changes forced on them.  They don't want their home page unneccesarily turned upside down, and they don't want to feel led around by the nose (with all the bovine implications) with something as fundamental as the FIRST THING THEY SEE every time they open a browser.  Is that what the expeiment is actually about: "How important are user's home pages to them"?There are two duscussions running about Google's "news experiment".  Among approximately 80 comments, only one post wasn't actually angry, and even that commenter didn't like the changes.  Some commenters are angry, and offer comments about usability, but most commenters are just angry;  angry at having this thrust in their faces, angry at being forced to learn a new interface for which there is no apparent benefit, and, in fact seems to provide considerable detriment.In light of Google's lack of response to both of these threads, I've changed my home page to msn.com.  Another users suggested that Reuters website is customizable in a manner similar to Google's old News layout.  I may try that, but I'm done here.I REALLY don't like the "new" Google news page.  Firefox goes straight to the new news page.  IE goes to the old format.  I will be using IE until Google gets their heads out of their collective A$$ and at least gives users an option to switch between the two formats.
Finally, the experiment is over. The idiot designer got a promotion. My news page returned to its normal (and much better) layout.

If Google wants to make an improvement, get rid of the default Top Stories section at the top of the page. Let us define our own keywords for every section.

Instead of having the top stories organized by category and all categories visible at the same time, I have to click through each one at a time. I'm not seeing the improvement here, in fact it's really turning me off from Google news. Fast Flip is the greatest thing google has ever done!!! Fast Flip is the future of web surfing especially for news sites.If Fast Flip is what this debacle is called, here is a heartfelt, cumulative & collective bird flip to Google from all of us here on this site.1)  The suggestion that those of us who are displeased should flush our cookies is idiotic and patronizing.   A PROMINENT button saying "RESTORE" would have been how hard to code?
2)  You want feedback?  Don't make me jump through 4 screens to give it.
3)  Want to surprise us people with Beta "experiments"?  Don't!  I don't need goddamn surprises.
4)  Oh yeah... feedback.  If you guys need someone to tell you what a piece of shit your redesign is... you should be fired.
Terrible design, I'm totally surprised by Google. they are usually pretty good at coming up with better products not worse ones. Where did my sections go? Oh - the left panel? Now I have to make multiple clicks to see the news I had customized before in one single comprehensive page. If there was some thought as to how this new layout would be "better" I wish they would have made some note of it. Instead I got dropped onto a page that made no sense. I cleared my cookies and cache and now it's back to what is more helpful to me. If it happens again, I'm gone...To DATABONG .... thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
I really dont like this new outlook design crap.  I cant read news at google.  Please change back my layout or at least show us how to do it I am extremely unhappy with it and I would like the old layout back this is really harassing people like me who read google news everyday.  I wont be coming to google and reading news ever again if it doesnt get back to normal.Horrible design, cluttered, distracting, dumbed down and too damned "widgetized".  I don't want to (and simply won't) do a mouse-hover over every item just to see some context. The sidebars are out of hand. It's annoying as hell to see a "progress indicator" on the personalization -- Come on people, you're making it seem as if I'm morally obliged to personalize the thing. It should be an option, not a chore and an eyesore.

When I want clutter I go to "igoogle" (rarely) and to Google Reader. News should be simpler and smarter.

I can't understand why you folks in Googleville keep up with these endless, counter-productive tweaks to your products when you leave many basic, simple, commonsense improvements undone.

I have put up with this idiotic experiment for a week now and enough is enough.How long do your experiments run before you realize that its not working and you go back to what worked fine in the first place??? Kinda reminds me of BP,they dont listen either.Oh well guess its off to Yahoo news.Bye bye.I am done with google news.  I shouldn't have to spend all this time messing with their website because of their stupidity.  There is plenty of evidence that users want the old format back and they have chosen to ignore it.  I'm voting with my web surfing ability.  Someone else will take my web news traffic.  I'm sure I'll hear about it when and if google news reverts back.PLEASE REMOVE THE IMAGE BACKGROUND ON HOME PAGE.  THIS IS HORRIBLE.  WE WANT OPTIONS.  STOP COPYING BING!!Not happy about this experiment. I tried, I really tried but the new format is too bad. Too much wasted space and not enough glancable content. The 2 column format was way more readable. So now, how do I put it back withouth nuking all of my browser's cookies?Here's how to bring back the old news format in IE 81.  Go to the Google news page in IE2.  Hit F12 to bring up IE's developer tools window3.  Select the Cache menu then select "clear domain cookies'4. Close the IE windows and re-launch Google newsThis will nuke just the Google cookies and reset the news back to the old format.Before running such huge experiments, you should try to run a focus group between your users, you can pre-test ideas without creating a major pain around the world.Big lesson today, research more about your users preferences, and as Coca-Cola learned sometime ago, even if you are Coca-Cola, do not try to change the Coke flavour!!!Even if you are Google, do not get out of the simple search engine homepage!!! That is why your users love you!!! Simplicity!!!PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE revert it back to how it was!  I used to go to news.google.com MANY MANY times a day and now I won't go back if it remains like that!  I WON'T GO BACK EVER AGAIN!  I'LL GO TO BING I SWEAR!You guys really, really screwed up.  Revert or I stop using Google, period.
PLEASE (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) give us the option to completely get rid of ALL of the following sections:* Greater New York (i.e., local news)I used to be able to customize Google News to only show the sections which *I* am interested in. Now, there is all of this extra, annoying junk which completely ruins the news page for me.It would be OK if we had a choice about whether we could see this experimental stuff, but currently, there is no way to get rid of it, and THAT IS ***TOTALLY*** UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Sorry for shouting, but this is really infuriating.If you folks at Google want to release an experimental look and feel, that's fine. But you should also provide a way for us users to disable it if we don't want to see it. It is at best amateurish and at worst condescendingly arrogant to not allow us a way to remove these new features in your experimental software.The Google employee who made the decision to not allow us to disable this experimental stuff should be summarily fired.Please *immediately* give us a way to disable all of the sections that I mentioned above.I'd also like to add that it is rather dishonest to call all of this new stuff "personalization".In the past, I could choose which items would appear or not appear on my Google News page. Now, there are all of these sections which I can't get rid of. In other words, this new, experimental stuff is much *less* personalizable than before.Or perhaps you folks at Google are arrogantly thinking that *you* know how to "personalize" things for me better than I do. I hope I'm wrong about this. I'd hate for Google to become another Apple.PS: I deleted all google-related cookies and restarted my browser, but I'm still seeing the experimental Google News page. I'm using the Google Chrome browser under Windows.Go to: Choose a category All Discussions Google News Suggestions Google News Users - Troubleshooting How to use Google News Google News Publishers - Sitemaps Google News Publishers - Troubleshooting Google Living Stories - Troubleshooting The Google News redesign Quality of Google News Sites

Ongoing tornadoes, storms kill at least 183

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The death toll from severe storms that punished five Southern states jumped to a staggering 196 Thursday after Alabama canvassed its hard-hit counties for a new tally of lives lost.

Alabama's state emergency management agency said it had confirmed 128 deaths, up from at least 61 earlier.

"We hope not, but I do expect to find more [bodies]," Gov. Robert Bentley told NBC's TODAY.

Mississippi officials reported 32 dead in that state and Tennessee raised its report to 14. Another 12 have been killed in Georgia and eight in Virginia. In Louisiana, two people drowned.

The fierce storms Wednesday spawned tornadoes and winds that wiped out homes and businesses, forced a nuclear power plant to use backup generators and prompted the evacuation of a National Weather Service office.

The weather system spread destruction from Texas to New York, where dozens of roads were flooded or washed out.

The severe weather was continuing Thursday. The National Weather Service was issuing short-lived tornado warnings — advising people to "take cover now" — as the twisters formed.

Video: Massive twister caught on camera

By early Thursday, these had been sent out for parts of New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

The NWS Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it received 137 tornado reports around the region, including 66 in Alabama and 38 in Mississippi.

The NWS also issued flash flood warnings for parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas and Georgia, for Thursday morning.

And it further warned of severe thunderstorms in parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia.

Get the latest updates on the tornadoes at breakingnews.com

The states where fatalities were reported were:

Alabama, where 128 people died and officials said damage was spread over a wide area. "It looks like somebody came through with a huge ax and cut the top off of everything. Just a big blade through that whole area. That area is just total devastation," Tuscaloosa resident David Ikard was quoted as saying by Alabama Live.
Mississippi, where 32 were killed, including police officer Wade Sharp who died when a tree fell on his tent as he shielded his young daughter, a ranger with the National Park Service said. The 9-year-old was brought to a motorhome about 100 feet away where campsite volunteer Greg Maier was staying with his wife. Maier went back to check on the father and found him dead. "She wasn't hurt, just scared and soaking wet," he said.
Georgia, where NBC News reported 12 deaths; Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency in Catoosa, Floyd, Dade and Walker counties.
Louisiana, which was also hit by thunderstorms with high winds and possible tornadoes. Police said they believed two people found dead in Monroe had drowned during heavy flooding Wednesday.
Tennessee, where 14 people were killed. The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office identified one victim as 41-year-old Mai Crumley, of Chattanooga, who died Wednesday when a tree fell on her trailer.
Virginia, where the toll increased from one to eight with officials saying seven more were killed when a possible tornado hit a truck stop and several mobile homes.

The number of deaths was expected to rise with authorities still searching for missing people, NBC News said.

The Weather Channel said the deadliest known tornado outbreak happened in 1925, when 747 people were killed in the infamous Tri-State tornado. In 1974, 307 people were killed. Other notable outbreaks happened in 2008 (57 dead), 1999 (47), 1985 (76) and 1984 (57).

'Awful, terrible, disturbing'
"An awful, terrible, disturbing and deadly day of tornadoes unfolded on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 with more than 100 reported tornadoes striking several states in the South and even a few areas in the Mid-Atlantic," the Weather Channel said in an article written by three of its meteorologists.

Tuscaloosa, a city of more than 83,000 and home to the University of Alabama, was one of the hardest-hit areas.

Video: Alabama governor: More tornado fatalities expected (on this page)

The city's police and other emergency services were devastated, the mayor said, and at least 15 people were killed and about 100 were in a single hospital.

A massive tornado barreled through the city late Wednesday afternoon, leveling it.

Video taken at the university showed a massive funnel cloud (on this page) , flinging huge pieces of debris through the air.

A Tuscaloosa resident, Phil Owen, said only one store was left standing at a shopping center. "Big Lots, Full Moon Barbecue ... piles of garbage where those places were," he said. "Shell gas station across the street — all that's standing is the frame of the store."

By nightfall, the city was dark. Roads were impassable. Signs were blown down in front of restaurants, businesses were unrecognizable and sirens wailed off and on. Debris littered the streets and sidewalks.

College students in a commercial district near campus used flashlights to check out the damage.

At Stephanie's Flowers, owner Bronson Englebert used the headlights from two delivery vans to see what valuables he could remove.

He had closed early, which was a good thing. The storm blew out the front of his store, pulled down the ceiling and shattered the windows, leaving only the curtains flapping in the breeze.

"It even blew out the back wall, and I've got bricks on top of two delivery vans now," Englebert said.

'Please pray for us'
A group of students stopped to help Englebert, carrying out items like computers and printers and putting them in his van.

"They've been awfully good to me so far," Englebert said.

"Please pray for us," Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox said on The Weather Channel as crews fanned out to search for victims in the city of nearly 100,000.

Breaking news Get the latest updates on this story and others on the Web, Facebook and Twitter.

First Person What did you see? Send us photos, video or eyewitness reports.

President Barack Obama said he had spoken with Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and approved his request for emergency federal assistance, including search and rescue assets. About 1,400 National Guard soldiers were being deployed around the state.

"Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by this devastation, and we commend the heroic efforts of those who have been working tirelessly to respond to this disaster," Obama said in a statement.

Around Tuscaloosa, traffic was snarled by downed trees and power lines, and some drivers abandoned their cars in medians.

"What we faced today was massive damage on a scale we have not seen in Tuscaloosa in quite some time," Mayor Walter Maddox said.

University officials said there didn't appear to be significant damage on campus, and dozens of students and locals were staying at a 125-bed shelter in the campus recreation center.

Volunteers and staff were providing food and water to people like 29-year-old civil engineering graduate student Kenyona Pierce.

"I really don't know if I have a home to go to," she said.

Storms also struck Birmingham, felling numerous trees that impeded emergency responders and those trying to leave hard-hit areas.

Surrounding Jefferson County reported 11 deaths; another hard-hit area was Walker County in the far northwest part of the state with at least eight deaths. The rest of the deaths were scattered around northern Alabama.

Video: Twister rips through Mississippi scrap yard

Nuke plant emergency event
The Browns Ferry nuclear power plant about 30 miles west of Huntsville lost offsite power. The Tennessee Valley Authority-owned plant had to use seven diesel generators to power the plant's three units.

The safety systems operated as needed and the emergency event was classified as the lowest of four levels, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.

In Huntsville, meteorologists found themselves in the path of severe storms and had to take shelter in a reinforced steel room, turning over monitoring duties to a sister office in Jackson, Miss.

Meteorologists saw multiple wall clouds, which sometimes spawn tornadoes, and decided to take cover, but the building wasn't damaged.

"We have to take shelter just like the rest of the people," said meteorologist Chelly Amin, who wasn't at the office at the time but spoke with colleagues about the situation.

She said the extent of the damage statewide is still unknown.

"I really think with the rising of the sun, we'll see the full extent of this," she said.

In Kemper County, Miss., in the east-central part of the state, sisters Florrie Green and Maxine McDonald, and their sister-in-law Johnnie Green, all died in a mobile home that was destroyed by a storm.

Johnnie Green's daughter-in-law said Florrie Green and McDonald owned mobile homes side-by-side, and Johnnie Green lived nearby. Johnnie Green was at one of the woman's homes at the time the storm hit.

"It's hard. It's been very difficult," Mary Green said. "They were thrown into those pines over there," she said, pointing to a wooded area. "They had to go look for their bodies."

Top stories Severe alerts Current snow coverage Airport delays Rush hour traffic

In a neighborhood south of Birmingham, Austin Ransdell and a friend had to hike out after the house where he was living was crushed by four trees. No one was hurt.

As he walked away from the wreckage, trees and power lines crisscrossed residential streets, and police cars and utility trucks blocked a main highway.

"The house was destroyed. We couldn't stay in it. Water pipes broke; it was flooding the basement," he said. "We had people coming in telling us another storm was coming in about four or five hours, so we just packed up."

Not far away, Craig Branch was stunned by the damage.

"Every street to get into our general subdivision was blocked off. Power lines are down; trees are all over the road. I've never seen anything like that before," he said.

In eastern Tennessee, a woman was killed by falling trees in her trailer in Chattanooga. Just outside the city in Tiftonia, what appeared to be a tornado also struck at the base of the tourist peak Lookout Mountain.

Tops were snapped off trees and insulation and metal roof panels littered the ground. Police officers walked down the street, spray-painting symbols on houses they had checked for people who might be inside.

Mary Ann Bowman, 42, stood watching from her driveway as huge tractors moved downed trees in the street. She had rushed home from work to find windows shattered at her house, and her grandmother's house next door shredded. The 91-year-old woman wasn't home at the time.

"When I pulled up I just started crying," Bowman said.

This article contains reporting from The Associated Press, Reuters, NBC News and msnbc.com.

www.sublimedvds.com

At least have an Opinion!!!

29 Oct 2010

by Rob in In My Opinion, Life in General, Our World Tags: Ability, Celebrity, Civilisation, Communicate, engage, Fear Factor, History, Knowhow, Opinion, Our Role in Society, Passage of Time

I don’t get the time to sit and write as often as I did these days, and while I miss putting thoughts to paper, I also find that taking the time to sit and think about things over a longer period of time before I write gives me the ability to give a more balanced and thought out spin on the stuff I write, the reason for writing it and I allow myself to give consideration to both sides of the story.

While it is easy to sit and criticise, I have learnt that it is just as easy to take no interest at all, and I find that it is more productive and beneficial to pay attention and have an opinion than to bury one’s head in the sand and pretend that nothing is happening at all. Our world is a large, complex place with many intricate and deeply involved issues going on. Many of these are interwoven into complexity through politics or religion or in many cases both. Many are caused by a complete ignorance on behalf of mankind, and a failure to give adequate respect and acknowledgement to each others traditions, culture and lifestyles.

I am often mystified at how the world has changed so in the history of time. I often chuckle to think that at one time it was the African Nations that were the leaders of the First World. Their abilities and technological knowhow to this day still baffles scholars and educated men alike. The Aztec’s possibly knew more about building the perfect structure than modern day architects and engineers with all their computing power and fancy education learnt after many years with heads buried in books as thick as my arm. So has mankind really advanced?

The power of nations and the ability to use fear as a method of control and enslavement is possibly the true reality of mans progress in later centuries. It was the nation that could control the scholars to work for them, and forced whole communities to work under their demand that has lead to great wealth and ability. I don’t really think that mankind on his own has really progressed that much. Civilisations that have been literally irradiated from the face of our planet knew more about the balance of nature, and ecology than we do now. The Indian and the Aborigines’ understood that to hurt the planet was counter productive and hurt us as mankind in the long run. They knew this fact as long back as the discovery of the West and the colonisation of Australia. So how is it that this fact has slipped from the forefront of our mind?

Greed! Modern powers ignore proven fact, founded knowledge, and literal understanding in an insane craving for power at any cost. From the likes of Alexander the Great to modern day dictator’s human nature has trained itself to become selfish and crave recognition. The whole idea of celebrity and the people worship that we pander to in our modern society is something that I really don’t understand.

Granted it would seem that through out history mankind has always put people on a pedestal and given them an unadulterated level of attention in some form of warped hero worship, but more often than not in historical times this was a great leader, a leader who forced themselves on society or someone who truly was heroic in some way or other. Today it is wealth and style, arrogance and class, or some other worldly possession that elevates someone to iconic celebrity status.

Our epic desire to “Keep up with the Jones” see’s many of us wrapped up and absorbed in fantasy worlds of celebrity gossip, all of which is untrue on some level. Pearce Morgan the once Editor in Chief of the Mirror Rag now sitting across from many of the world’s celebrities of which I am talking admits that much of what is reported is not true. News is hyped up to sell papers, and exaggeration, tweaking and manipulation of the truth is encouraged rather than frowned on in this industry. Cheryl Cole possibly highlights this more than anyone at this point in time in Celebrity Status Worship. According to Peace Morgan’s Life Stories, Cheryl has to endure in excess of 25 different stories in the press about her life every single day. It would be impossible for anyone, no matter how interesting their lifestyle to create enough news worthy information to warrant that number of stories across the media, regardless of how accurate they were.

The general public lap it up though in a surprising desperation for what we digest as written truth. It is impossible to have a true understanding, image or impression of a person based on a multitude of contradictions, many of which I truly believe are the cause and element that leads to the ultimate result which makes such sensational headlines. I can equate this over and over with a multitude of examples. Wayne Rooney is a perfect example, as the press love to break stories that must make the football players life a misery. Yes granted he wishes to live the lifestyle of a celebrity and therefore has to accept that his life will be played out in a public arena, and I accept this point acutely. However, I also realise the man is a human being, and must hurt over the stories that question his morality, and sensibility.

How many people have been made and then broken by the power of the media. Jade Goodie is another quick example. Even our own Royal Family are constantly fall prey to the power of the media. Brands are made and trashed over night by the words of peers. Yes think about it, it is not a mighty conglomeration that puts pen to paper in its attack on an individual. It’s a simple man or woman like you or me, who uses the mighty sword of the written word to cut limbs from their prey as they hack and slash mercilessly at their victim.

It is as if we are sitting in the Coliseum of the early Roman Empire, watching a poor helpless man try to take on a pride of lions, starved and experts in the art of killing. This is our modern version of the Bull Fight, where a single person hiding behind the might of a skilfully operated blind manages to snipe at the bull, slowly wearing him down, till he is foolish enough to expose himself to the full impact of a skilfully delivered killing blow that brings the beast to its knees, and we all lap it up in our endless need for pain and suffering, so we can forget our own dismal lifestyles and hide behind the pretence that as long as others have it worse than us, we can survive.

It is important to have an opinion, but it is even more important to be able to read between the lines and not be brain washed. We are not sheep. We are educated people who have responsibilities, we are humans with the ability to consider, ponder and digest a statement. We can empathise, we can emote, we can engage and communicate, we can show compassion, and we can draw a conclusion. Being led as a sheep to the slaughter, is as productive as allowing mankind to convince us we have no worth or use on this earth. Don’t let the press manipulate you into thinking the way the want to modulate you into thinking. You are individual and have the ability to read, digest and interpret what they tell you.

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